Alright, let's consider the passage
that our brother just read in 1 John chapter 5. Now the title
of the message this morning is Real Assurance in Christ. Real Assurance in Christ. The last time that I stood up
here on Sunday morning, I preached from this passage, 1 John chapter
5. Don't you all think I've lost
my mind just by going back to it? Somebody said, well, have
you forgotten that you preached from that last time? It probably
deserves at least two sermons, maybe more than that. But what
I did in the last message, I answered this question. Can we have assurance
of salvation? Can we have assurance? And I
dealt with mainly some verses here in 1 John 5, mainly with
verses 10 through 13. And I answered the question this
way. Yes, that's the bottom line. Yes, we can. And yes, we should
have assurance. And I'm talking to believers
now. I'm talking about those who are trusting Christ for all
of salvation. But I made this, in that message,
I had these five points that we can have assurance on five
scriptural considerations. And I'm not gonna preach that
message over again, but I wanna just give them to you briefly.
Number one, consider Christ as our surety. That's one of his
offices. He's our surety. Before the foundation
of the world, he was set up in the covenant of grace to be the
surety of his people. That's why David of old, before
Christ actually came in time and did his great work on Calvary
of redeeming us from our sins, David of old could say that God
has made a covenant with him that is ordered in all things
and sure. And that was all his salvation
and all his desire. And what I'm asking and what
I'm saying, actually, on that point, consider Christ as our
surety, is this, did Jesus Christ, when he came to this earth, as
God the Son incarnate, walking this earth, fulfilling the law
and going to the cross of Calvary and dying for the sins of his
people, did he accomplish all the conditions and the requirements
and the stipulations of his suretyship? Did he get the job done? Did
he actually, as it was prophesied in the book of Daniel, chapter
9 and verse 24, did he actually finish the transgression, make
an end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness? Now, did he do
that? Or did he leave some of it undone? Or did he fail in
any way? Or did he do his part and the
rest is up to us, like most religion tells us to do? He accomplished
redemption for His people. He saved His people from their
sins. He fulfilled all the requirements,
all the conditions of the salvation of His people as our surety.
It's what the Scripture teaches. For His name shall be called
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And He's
able because His name is also Immanuel, which being interpreted,
God with us. He made an end of sin. I like
what Brother James said in one of his messages last week. He
said, if you're looking for assurance, don't look for assurance. Look
to Christ. And that's what I'm saying there.
The same thing, just in a different way. Look to Christ. Don't look
for assurance in yourself. Don't look for your assurance
from your friends or your family. Look to Christ. Consider Him. And then secondly, consider faith.
Now some people say that faith and assurance are separate or
indifferent. I don't believe that scripturally.
That's why I quoted 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12 where
Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. Now that's a definition of faith.
And that's a prayer of confidence and assurance. Christ is able. And He's all my salvation. That's
why David could say, as I quoted there from 2 Samuel 23 5, that
this covenant is ordered in all things, and sure, because it's
not conditioned on David or me or you or any other sinner, it's
conditioned on Christ, He would come and fulfill those conditions.
And here's what David said. He said, this is all my salvation.
I don't have anything else in salvation. But Christ and Him
crucified and risen again. He's all my salvation. and all
my desire. Now I would ask you, I'd ask
myself, is Christ all my salvation and all my desire? Or am I looking
somewhere else, to something else? Is it Christ plus my baptism? Christ plus my works? Even Christ
plus my faith? If it's Christ plus anything
or anyone, then my friend, it's not saving faith. He is all my
salvation. I love that passage. in the book
of Luke chapter 2 about Simeon, the old man to whom the Holy
Spirit revealed that he would not leave this world until he
actually saw the Christ child, God in human flesh. And when
Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple to perform
the ceremonies on the eighth day, They presented that child
to Simeon and he held up that child and he said, now I'm ready
to depart, Lord, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. This is my salvation, he said.
He is my salvation. That's what faith is. It's the
gift of God, but it looks to Christ. And then thirdly, consider
God's Word. Look back here at 1 John chapter
5 verse 13. Listen to what he says here.
What does God's Word say about assurance? Well, listen. He says
in verse 13, These things have I written unto you that believe
on the name of the Son of God. I'm writing these things to you
who rest in Christ, who trust Christ, who see Him as your whole
salvation, all your life, all your righteousness, all your
forgiveness, all your glory. That you may what? Know that
you have eternal life. You see, if you're trusting Christ
and Him alone for all salvation, you know what that means? That
means you have eternal life. That means you have spiritual
life. That means you've been born again by the Spirit. Because
nobody, nobody's going to trust Christ alone. I know people can
say that now, but we'll look at that in just a moment. Nobody
can trust Christ alone for all wisdom, righteousness, holiness,
and redemption, for all salvation, except they be born of God. Do
you know that? Now, you may want to find some
other things in yourself that'll prove that to you. You might
want some feelings and all that, but I'm going to tell you something,
they'll deceive you now. But I'll tell you who won't deceive
you, and that's Christ. And that's why he said, remember
he said, this is the record, life is in the son. Remember
that? Verse 11, and this is the record
that God had given to us, eternal life, and this life is in his
son. There's no life outside the son.
No life outside of Christ, only death. Only the wages of sin,
death. He that hath the Son hath life.
Do you have the Son? Do I have the Son? That's the
issue. What does that mean to have? It means to possess Him
as my surety, as my whole salvation, as my whole desire. And he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's as simple as
it is now. It's not complicated like men
and women want to make it. So he says that you may know
that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name
of the son of God. That means to continue looking
to Christ. I'm writing this to you who look
to Christ and rest in him that you may know that you have eternal
life and I want you to continue to look to him and to him alone
for all salvation. That's what the written word
of God says. That's why this was written to
us. It wasn't written to condemn us. Christ said He didn't come
into the world to condemn us. We're already condemned by nature.
Ruined by the fall, in Adam. Born dead in trespasses and sin.
Why would He have to come into the world to condemn us? Oh no!
He said, I came into the world that you might have life. And
that's why he said it. Then consider God's will, God's
revealed will. We read from Hebrews 6. You don't
have to turn there, but just mark it. In the last part of
Hebrews chapter 6, it actually says there that the presentation
of Christ before your ears and your eyes in the gospel, in the
promise that was given to Abraham and is preached to us, was given
to those who have fled for refuge to the hope that is set before
them. And when the gospel is preached, what hope is set before
you? It's the hope of eternal salvation,
the hope of eternal life in Christ. Now, if you fled to him, if you're
hidden in him, hidden in the rock Christ Jesus, standing on
the rock Christ Jesus. It is God's will, it says there
in Hebrews chapter 6, that we have strong consolation. That's assurance. That's comfort. The strongest comfort. No limit
to it. Because all the promises of God
are in Him, yea, and in Him, amen. And it's based upon two
things, God's promise and God's oath. The immutability of God's
promise and God's oath. God said it and God swore by
it, it's gonna happen. That's it. So consider God's
word. And then fifthly, consider godly
obedience. Do you know that all exhortations
to obedience in the scripture are motivated by the assurance
of salvation in Christ? Any supposed obedience that's
motivated by legal fears and doubts. In other words, a preacher
saying, now you either give or you either do this or you're
going to hell, that kind of thing, or that implication. You know,
you've heard preachers say you either give today or God will
take it out in a box tomorrow or something like that, you know,
junk like that. You see, that's not a motivation of grace and
assurance, that's a motivation of legal fear. Do this and live,
don't do it and die. That's a false gospel. But every
exhortation, every encouragement, and every command of obedience
that's given by God the Holy Spirit in the Word is motivated
by grace and gratitude and love which springs from that love
which is perfected, completed, in the fact that we know what
Christ has accomplished for us and that we're secure in him.
It's motivated by assurance. The assurance of grace. Not the
assurance that if I do that I'll gain God's favor and remove his
wrath or I'll earn his blessing. No, that's legalism. But motivated by grace. Grace. Grace. That's what it's
all about. In the rest of this chapter,
he gives us several aspects of this assurance. First of all,
he gives us the assurance of eternal life, we've just seen
that. The assurance of eternal, if you have the son, you have
life. How do I know I have life? I have the son, I believe in
Christ, I rest in him, I trust him for all salvation. Secondly,
he gives us the assurance of answered prayer. There's an assurance
here, look at verse 14. He says, and this is the confidence,
this is the assurance that we have, now where do we have it?
Look at it, in Him. You may have in your concordance
the word considering. This is the confidence we have
considering Him. Doesn't matter, that's what I
meant, consider Christ. Here's the confidence we have
in ourselves? No. Somebody said, well, You
can't pray unless you've done so much for the Lord, or you
plan to do so much for the Lord, or you've had a good day. Somebody
said, well, I had a bad day so I couldn't pray. My friend, let
me tell you something. This is the confidence that we
have in Christ. And he says that if we ask anything,
now you hear that? Ask anything, but read on. Don't
stop there. What's the next line? According
to his will He heareth us now if you ask anything according
to his way then that now this is not saying this is not presenting
God as a genie in a bottle and You just rub it and you get as
many wishes as you want anything you ask for if you ask for it
in confidence You'll get it. No, that's not what this is saying
if you just believe it hard enough If you just want it bad enough,
if you just keep badgering God and go around here and get about
20 people to pray for you, maybe you can wake Him up and get Him
to answer. No, no, no, no. That's not what this is about.
This is the confidence we have in Him. This doesn't say this
is the confidence that we're going to get what we pray for.
That's not what that says. Here's the assurance that we
have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, Now, we
don't always know His will, do we? Pretty much we know in Providence
after the fact. But He says, He heareth us. God
will hear us. How do I know God will hear me?
Well, there's two keys to prayer here that's given in this one
little verse that I know that if I pray with these two keys,
God will hear me. Number one, confidence in Christ. That's number one. Hebrews chapter
4 speaks of that in verse 14 when it talks about our high
priest. We have a great high priest who
has passed through into the heavens and therefore we can have boldness
to come unto God and to the throne of grace to find help and mercy
in time of need. What is the first key to prayer?
Confidence in Christ. Number one. If you don't have
confidence in Christ, if you don't come to God through Christ,
He won't hear your prayers. I don't care what people say.
People argue all the time, does God hear the prayer of an unbeliever?
Well, God hears it in the sense that He's omniscient. He knows
everything that goes on. But He's talking about hearing
here with communion. The communion of God. Worshipping
God. God receiving us as a child of
God. What's the key? Number one, confidence
in Christ. Here's the second key, according
to His will. That's number two. Thy will be
done. I know what I want. You know
what you want. Do we know what God wants? Not
always. I pray every day, Lord, clean
out my arteries right now. I don't want to go back in another
time. to that hospital and have a heart cath and all that. I
don't want that. I don't want that. There's no
way that I can show you the intensity of my desire not to do that again. But for some reason, for some
reason, up to this point it hasn't been God's will that I stay out.
And I might say, why me? And I might get upset. I know
this. I know this is so now. I know
this is so. It's for his glory and my good
in some way that I don't see right now. But he knows what's
best. Paul said he had that thorn in
the flesh and he approached God three times about it and he said
he wouldn't take it away. I think he said it kept him humble,
didn't he? Maybe that's what this is for, you know, for me.
But whatever reason it is, it hasn't been God's will up to
this point. I hope from now on it is. But I don't know. I'm gonna pray that way. But
I have to pray this. With confidence in Christ, I
know that what condition my physical heart is, I know that I have
a new heart because of Him. The spiritual heart, the inner
man. And I know that I'm saved. because I'm looking to Christ
who is the author and finisher of my salvation. So I know God
hears me. Verse 15, he says, And if we
know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we desired of him. He hears us, and whatever
we ask, He hears. We know that we have the petitions
that we desired of Him, if they're according to His will. That's
the key now. Confidence in Christ. Now, there's
confidence in prayer right now. It's confidence in Christ. It's not that I have a long prayer. It's not that I have some kind
of a flowery, emotional prayer. It's Christ and Him alone. Well, here's the third thing.
The next thing he talks about, the assurance of victory over
sin and Satan. Now look at verse 16. He says,
now listen to this. Now, if any man see his brother
sin a sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall
give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin
unto death. I do not say that he shall pray
for it. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not unto
death. Verse 18, we know that whosoever
is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth
himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. Now, when you
read those verses, it can be very confusing. And a lot of
people can go off on a lot of different tangents about that.
Usually the first thing that comes to mind for a lot of people
now, is what they call the unforgivable sin or the unpardonable sin. And then they'll refer back to
passages like Matthew chapter 12 where the Lord in admonishing
the Pharisees who attributed his work to the works of Satan,
When he told him, he said that all sin can be forgiven but the
sin against the Holy Ghost, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And of
course, different people have different interpretations of
what that is. But now let me put things in perspective for
you and listen to me very carefully here. Now first of all, there
are two things that John is dealing with in this first epistle, 1
John. Two main things. that he's dealing
with as far as what's wrong and what's going on with the people
to whom he's writing. The first thing is heresy. Heresy. Now, you know what heresy
is. Most of us define heresy as anyone
who disagrees with me. That's not heresy. Or if you don't define it like
I do, then you believe heresy. You know what heresy is? Heresy
is actually a choice. It's what the word actually means.
It's a choice. Heresy is really something we
choose to believe. And the thing about it is, see,
God's Word, now you think about God's Word. This Word is true
whether we believe it or not. Do you know that? Remember how
I've told you probably a thousand times about the sign I saw where
it said, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. And I said,
what that sign should read is this way, God said it, that settles
it. Because it's true, God's word
is true whether you or I or, you know, no matter if 10,000
people believe it or not, this word is still true. Okay? Now, if I choose to believe what
I want to believe rather than what God's Word says, you know
what that is? That's heresy. That's heresy. And John deals with that. Look
back over in 1 John 1. Let me show you this. He says in verse 3 of 1 John
1, He says, that which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you. I'm telling you what I'm an eyewitness
to, John says, that you also may have fellowship with us.
You'll be in fellowship with the brethren, with God. And he
said, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ, and these things write we unto you that
your joy may be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. And then he goes on, he says,
if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. You see, this is all about the
truth. This is all about the testimony. This is all about
the gospel of Christ. So now God's word says this,
that God is holy and he must punish sin. And God will not
and cannot save sinners apart from His grace in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. His law and justice must be satisfied.
There's no salvation to any sinner based on their works. Now, if
I choose to believe that my salvation is in some way conditioned on
my works or what I do for God, then you know what that is? That's
heresy. Because God's Word says differently. And I choose to
believe something different from God's Word. Look over at 1 John
chapter 4. Now the Bible tells us who Jesus
Christ is. Who He is. And it says this,
it says He is God and man in one person. God in human flesh. Now I can't really explain all
that to you. and you cannot explain it all
to me, doesn't matter. That's what God's Word says,
am I right? He is God and man in one person. That's who Jesus
Christ is. Now if I choose to believe that
He is not God, but just a man, even a perfect man or a good
man, you know what that is? That's heresy. Or if I choose
to believe He is not man, That's heresy. Look at 1 John 4.1. He
says, Beloved, believe not every spirit. He means there every
preacher, every person that comes claiming to speak by the Spirit
of God. But try or test the spirits, whether they are of God, because
many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know
ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. That he's
God in human flesh. And then he says, in every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come into the flesh
is not of God and this is that spirit of antichrist wherever
you have heard that it should come and even now already is
it in the world. Here's a group of people that
were saying that Jesus Christ is God but not man. He's not
God in human flesh. He says that's antichrist. That's
heresy. So John deals with that. The
second thing that John deals with, now listen very carefully.
Turn to 1 John chapter 2. Here's the second thing he deals
with. It's what we call apostasy. Now what is an apostasy? The
word apostasy means falling away. Apostasy means turning your back
completely, totally on Christ to the point of calling Christ
a heretic. It's a total denial, and it starts
with someone who claims at first to be a believer. You see, a
person who has never claimed to believe in Christ cannot apostatize. He cannot be an apostate because
he's never claimed to believe. He's not falling away from anything.
But a person who claims to be a believer, And then at some
later time, totally turns his back on the truth. Totally turns
his back on Christ. That's apostasy. And John deals
with that. Look at verse 18 of 1 John 2. He says, little children, it
is the last time. And as you have heard that antichrist
shall come, even now are there many antichrists whereby we know
that it is the last time. Verse 19, now listen to it. They
went out from us. In other words, they went out
from the fellowship of faith, the fellowship of believers.
They claim to be believers. They claim to be with believers.
But now they've left. Now it doesn't mean they just
stopped going to church at 13th Street Baptist Church. It means
they've totally turned their back on Christ and denied the
faith. Now why did they do that? Well,
you can go to several places in the Bible and find out why
people do that. Some do it because of pressure. Some do it because of persecution.
It could be a number of things. Some do it because of love of
the world and the things of the world. But they totally turn
their back on Christ and his people and his truth and deny
it. saying it's heresy. And he says, they went out from
us, but they were not of us. Now, do you hear that? What he
says there? Somebody says, well, they lost their salvation. No,
they never were saved. They were not of us for, listen
to verse 19, now listen to this, for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have what? Continued with us. But they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
That's apostasy. And from this point on, that's
what John's dealing with. That's what he's dealing with.
He goes on to talk about believers sinning not. What's he talking
about? Are you a believer? If you say yes, let me ask you
the next question. Are you a sinner? Now if you
say no, John said over in 1 John 1, you're a liar. And not only
that, you make God a liar. I'm a believer. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. But I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner
saved by the grace of God. And if I were to stand up here
and tell you that I'm not a sinner anymore, I know people use that
word in different contexts. To some people, a sinner means
an unbeliever. But what I'm talking about is
this. I still within myself sin. And you do too. And if I were
to say I did not sin anymore because I'm a believer, because
I'm born again, I'd be calling God a liar and I'd be a liar
myself. That's what John says in 1 John
1. You can read that. And so he goes on with this.
He's talking about apostasy. Now go back to 1 John 5. And look at it again. Verse 16. Now I, you know, I love the King
James version of the Bible. I think it's one of the best,
if not the best translation. But sometimes the King James
translators messed up. And here's what happens. Let
me show you this in verse 16. He says in 1 John 5, 16, he says,
if any man see his brother sin, a sin which is not unto death.
That would be better translated this way. If any man sees his
brother sinning sin, which is not unto death." You see, when
it says a sin, a sin, you know what people do? They go to think
about, well, there's one particular sin then that's unto death. That's
not what he's saying. My friend, the Bible teaches
this from Genesis to Revelation. All sin is unto death. All sin deserves death. You tell
me from Genesis to Revelation what sin does not deserve death
and is not unto death without Christ. You mean to tell me there's one
particular sin that's unto death and then there's a bunch of sins
that are not unto death. Now what is that all about? Listen
to it in verse 16. If any man see his brother sinning
sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give
him life for them that sin not unto death. Now, it says there
is a sin unto death. That should be simply there is
sin unto death. What sin is there unto death?
Any sin, every sin is unto death without Christ, without His blood,
without His righteousness, without His suretyship. My friend, let
me tell you something about this unpardonable sin and unforgivable
sin business. I'll tell you what, people used
to scare people with that. They have little kids running
around, have I committed the unpardonable sin? I'll never forget one time
we were on vacation and a bunch of us little boys, we were in
a swimming pool and we were playing baptism. We were baptizing each
other. And one of the fellas' father,
he was a deacon in a Baptist church down the road here, and
he come up and he said, boys, you all better be careful. You
might commit the unpardonable sin. And we didn't sleep that
night. And I thought, what is that,
you know? And they say blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Well, what is
that? What is that blaspheming the
Holy Spirit? What was that about in Matthew chapter 12 when he
talks about that? What is the Holy Spirit's work? It's to convict
us of sin and our deservedness of damnation based on our sin
and to do what? Drive us to Christ for salvation. Drive us to Christ for relief. Drive us to Christ for cleansing,
for pardon, forgiveness. Now, is there any sin that you
can think of from the Scripture now that Christ cannot forgive? Is there any sin that His blood
cannot cover? 1 John chapter 1 also says this,
that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from what? Anybody
complete that for me? All sin. Not just all sin except
one. All sin. What is the point Christ
was making in Matthew chapter 12 when He spoke to those Pharisees
about the sins that cannot be forgiven? Here's the point He
was making and this is the point that John's making. My friend,
without Christ, all sin is unto death. Period. Doesn't matter who you are. And He's talking about those
who had apostatized from the faith. They're sinning sin unto
death. They don't have a Savior. They
don't have a Redeemer. They don't have a shit. They've
rejected the only way that any and all sin can be forgiven. If you reject Christ, it's sin
unto death. That's all you've got to look
forward to. I don't care who you are, what you've done, how
many, doesn't matter. Without Christ, there is no forgiveness. But my friend, in Christ, and
that's what he says, if any man see his brother, that's one who
has not apostatized. That's one who's looking to Christ.
He says, you pray for him. He shall ask and he shall give
him life for them that sin not unto death. Who is it that sins
not unto death? Sinners who are looking to Christ
and resting in Him and pleading His blood and righteousness.
That's who that is. There is sin unto death. The
wages of sin is death, my friend. And if you don't have Christ,
that's exactly what you're going to get. The wages of sin. Death. And he says, I do not say that
he shall pray for it. Now, he's not commanding us not
to pray for certain people here. Because I'm going to tell you
something. We may not know the hearts of all people. We don't. What he's saying simply here
is this, it is useless for me to pray that somebody would be
forgiven without Christ. That's what he's saying. It's useless for me to pray for
you to be forgiven without Christ because there's no forgiveness
from God without Christ. None. And so he says in verse
17, all unrighteousness is sin. There is sin not unto death. What is that? Well, look at verse
18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. What's
he talking about? Well, look over at 1 John 3,
and I'll hurry here. Look at 1 John 3. I believe this
is so important now. Don't go around here thinking,
well, now there's a certain sin that if I commit it, that certain
sin, it's unpardonable. No, no, no, no. He's simply saying,
with Christ all sin is forgiven, without Christ no sin is forgiven. Period. My friend, there is no
pardon, there's no forgiveness, there's no hope of salvation
without Christ. For any of us. Look here at 1
John 3. He says in verse 6, now he talked
about how sin is transgression of the law and Christ was manifested
to take away our sin. How did he do that? By dying
on the cross. By shedding his blood on the
cross. And he says in verse 6 of 1 John 3, whosoever abideth in
him sinneth not. Now what's he talking about?
They will not fall away. They will not apostatize. That's
what he's talking about here. You see, Paul, listen, read Paul
in Romans chapter 7 verses 14 through 25. What's he saying
there? Even as a believer, I'm still a sinner. But as long as
I'm in Christ, before God, I have no sin. God does not charge me
with sin. He does not impute it to me.
I'm righteous in Christ. And as long as I am in Christ,
I'm forgiven of all sin and will not fall. As long as you look
to Christ, you won't fall away. You abide in him. He says in
verse six, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known
him. He's talking about those who had apostatized there. They
really never knew him. They'd never seen him. They claimed
they did, they had an outward profession, but it wasn't true
heart faith. Verse seven, little children,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. What is it to do righteousness?
It's to look to Christ. It's to abide in him. is to follow
him and rest in him. Verse 8, he that commit a sin
is of the devil. Those who fall away, they're
of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. How did he do that?
By his death on the cross. Verse 9. Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin. In other words, if you're truly
born of God, born again by the Spirit, you will not apostatize. You will not leave Christ. You
will not fall away and deny him. For his seed, now the word seed
there is not like a farmer sowing seed into the ground. The word
seed there is literally, it's the Greek word sperma, offspring. The seed there refers to the
children of God, born of God. That's the context, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. For his seed, that is the
seed of Christ, His children, His offspring, remaineth in Him,
in Christ. You see that? If you're born
of God, you remain in Him. And whosoever doeth not... In
verse 9, He says, and he cannot sin, he cannot fall away. Why? Because he's born of God. He's
been born again by the Spirit. What's the ministry of the Spirit?
To drive us to Christ. To keep us looking to Christ.
and away from that which would deny him, away from that which
would draw us away from him, then born of God. If you're born
of God, you won't fall away. You have the assurance of victory
over sin and Satan in him, in Christ. All right.