for Thanksgiving and we have sort of a Mexican fiesta on Wednesday night and then we have regular Thanksgiving on Thursday and then on Friday we have gumbo and it's got sausage and chicken and shrimp, all kind of stuff in it. That's my favorite meal. That's the one I go there for, is the gumbo. And well, what we just had was a great big old bowl of gumbo like we have. And now for dessert, you're gonna get a rice cake. I'm just afraid this is gonna be a letdown. Brother Hugh, that was tremendous. The Lord gave you clarity. He gave you a great idea of what to do and you did it and you did. You had us in a corner, we couldn't get out. I think that was a tremendous message. And it's embarrassing to be introduced by Shane. It just shows how ignorant he is as to how many historians there are in the world. But he's not going to repent of that, I don't think, so thank you very much, Shane. The grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened. By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word for the authority of God Himself, and also apprehends an excellency therein, above all other writings and all things in the world, as it bears forth the glory of God in his attributes, the excellency of Christ in his nature and offices, and the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit in his workings and operations, and so is enabled to cast his soul upon the truth consequently believed, and also acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains, yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon Him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace. This faith, although it be in different stages and may be weak or strong, yet it is, in the least degree of it, different in the kind or nature of it, as is all other saving grace, from the faith and common grace of temporary believers. And thereby, though it may be many times assailed and weakened, yet it gets the victory. growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the times that we have had a fellowship, for the times of hearing your word, for the faithfulness of all those who have preached, for the clarity of their presentations. Your spirit has taught them to see and to embrace and to love your truth, and we have all who have heard the Word been blessed by it, been challenged by it, been led to repentance by it, been led to glory in Christ Jesus, been led indeed to see the glorious riches of your Word as it is in itself. So we pray now that as we come to this last time of the formal meeting, as we look together at this element of saving faith. We pray, Lord, that your Spirit would meet with us. We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would intercede for us. We pray, Father, that we would see His glory and sense His glory because it is in Him that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. Although no one has seen God at any time, yet this One who is the Word made flesh has appeared and He has exegeted Him for us and so we pray that we would come to a deeper grasp of the glorious riches that are in Christ and in sensing that and feeling that by your spirit that we would gain the assurance and gain the determination to persevere in these things according to your purpose, according to your power that works in us both to will and to do according to your good pleasure. So we pray that you would meet with us during these minutes that we have together now in Jesus' name, amen. The fourth element of saving faith is that saving faith does indeed persevere through trials, temptations, and doctrinal challenges. And through philosophical deceit and through theological apostasy, through those who would attack our faith or attack our credibility, because of some supposed new insight they may have had or some supposed inconsistency that they observed maybe in our own thinking or our own action and there are all kinds of reasons the world will seek to attack the assurance that we have in the gospel and the power of the gospel but it is a mark of saving faith because it is something that is introduced into our minds and our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit in which he overcomes the darkness of our hearts, in which he overcomes the deadness of our souls, in which he overcomes the captivity that we have to Satan, in which he overcomes the corrupt affections in which we walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. The Spirit has overcome all of those things to show us the truth of the gospel and the glory of Christ and has brought us into a saving relationship and those in whose heart he has made these changes and those who have been brought into this saving relationship will never finally nor totally fall away but they will persevere to the end. And this is the reason that the scripture gives us such severe warnings on the one hand in conjunction with in unimaginable and powerful glorious presentations of what awaits us because of faith. The degree of warning is directly commensurate with the power of the blessings that we have when we come into the presence of God. It is no light thing to have a future promised in which we will be in the presence of the triune God and we will see His glory and we will expand in our joy and in our comfort and in our delight throughout eternity. That is the promise. That is the hope of eternal life and a person cannot hope for that flippantly. He cannot think that this is a casual matter and so the warnings that come to us are measured in terms of the greatness of the glory that is awaiting us. So it is right that we have severe warnings. It is right that we do not take this lightly. It is right that we're constantly called upon to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. It is right to hear with great seriousness the kinds of warnings that are given us that if we deny Him, He will deny us. That if we are faithless, He indeed does remain faithful. That is to Himself, to His promises, to His glory. And those who end up being faithless will not experience the promises that go along with the hope of eternal life. And so it is in the context of affirming that saving faith indeed does persevere trials, temptations, challenges, philosophical deceit, all of these things that this particular message is presented because it is also in the light biblically of the warnings that we have about how easily it is possible for sinners to be deceived. and yet how certain it is that God will not allow His elect, His regenerated ones, those in whom He has given faith, He will not allow them to perish. The part of the confession that I'm looking at this time is this faith, although it be different in degrees and maybe weak or strong, Yet it is in the least degree of it different in the kind or nature of it, as is all other saving grace, from the faith and common grace of temporary believers. Therefore, though it may be many times assailed and weakened, yet it gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ who is both the author and finisher of our faith. We have looked periodically at the book of 1 John chapter 5 and I want to simply look back at that just briefly in order to give what I think is this summary statement that John gives about what he's been arguing in 1 John. We have talked about the reality of the necessity of cognition, of hearing what the facts of the gospel actually are, knowing that there are such things as facts of the gospel. Whether we believe them or not, those facts of the gospel must be pressed in all of their importance as coming from God himself, as cohering in the person of Jesus Christ who was the Son of God in the flesh and as explained to us in a revealed word. So in verse 20 of 1 John 5 he says, we know that the Son of God has come. So there is the fact that the Son of God has come and all that's involved in his coming is what the gospel is. All that is involved in his coming is how eventually we are brought to this saving faith. and has given us understanding." This is the point at which we begin to see that there is such coherence within this message. It is so historically rooted. It comes with the authority of a word that is consistent throughout and we become convinced in our mind that this indeed is a true thing. And then, so that we may know Him who is true. This is experiential knowledge in which we are actually brought into saving Faith. The Son of God has come, He's given us understanding and this understanding is the precursor to our knowing Him who is true. And then the statement of assurance that the Apostle has, and we are in Him who is true. This is a reality. All the promises that come from the Son of God appearing, from giving us understanding and our knowledge of Him lets us know that we indeed are in Him who is true. In His Son, Jesus Christ, He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Also, we've looked at the book of Colossians. In the book of Colossians, we have seen aspects of the gospel being preached and taught from the standpoint of cognition, the gospel being understood as to what it means, and then a spiritual understanding coming from this grasp of the gospel. We have at the end of Colossians, or not exactly at the end, but beginning with verse 21, a statement about a perseverance with a warning. you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him So this is a summary of what Paul is arguing. This is a summary, basically, of what we've been talking about, what saving faith is. We were sinners. We were alienated in mind. We were doing evil deeds. But Christ, by His coming, had a determination to turn us around, to do everything that was necessary to change our hearts, to change our mind, to change our destiny, to change our status from being under condemnation to being justified. and He did it in the body of His flesh. It is a historical work that is done once for all in time and space in the body of Christ on the cross when He bore our sins in His own body. The body of flesh by His death and the purpose of that is a certain purpose that is He will present us holy and blameless and above reproach to the Father. There can be no greater blessing, there can be no greater promise, there can be no greater person in whom this is done, there can be no more radical change in destiny and in affection than is presented to us in these verses. But then, he says in verse 23, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I Paul became a minister." So he's saying that if your faith and if your understanding goes beyond the mere natural understanding, being merely naturally convinced of the truth of these things, enjoying the benefits for a while because of certain promises. If indeed these things are genuine, then you will not fall away from them. You have a great certainty of appearing blameless before this throne. You have a great certainty that you are now reconciled. All of these blessings are yours, but That is, if you have been truly brought to faith. Because saving faith is not something that will go away. The work of the Holy Spirit and implanting us in Christ is not something that will go away. He will not change His mind about glorifying Christ in His atoning work. it will not, saving faith will not fail because Christ has died once for all, the just for the unjust, that he might lead us to God and he has borne our sins in his own body and he has been killed under the wrath of God as a propitiation and he has gone under the power of death for a season and he has been raised from the dead and he now ever lives to make intercession for us and so those for whom he dies and for whom He intercedes now and for whom He interceded during His life upon earth will not perish. They can never perish. But the catch is that and there's really no catch to that but the reality is that there are some who may profess this who really have not genuinely repented of sin and who have not genuinely placed faith in Christ as their final hope, valuing Him above everything else that is in the world." And so Paul adds this caveat, if indeed you continue in the faith. Now he mentions these two things here, he mentions faith and he mentions hope. So when he says, if you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, He is saying the faith, this is the body of knowledge, the body of proclamation, that which has been revealed. This continues to be something that you hear and that you learn and you expand in your understanding of it even as he has prayed for them. He said that they might increase in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God. If a person has faith and they believe the faith in everything that has been proclaimed to them by divine revelation will become something that is important to them, it will expand their understanding of God, it will expand their love for Him, they will continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior in this life, they will continue in the faith. Every implication that comes legitimately out of Scripture that relates to the death of Christ and the intercession of Christ and the glory of Christ will be precious to them They will continue in the faith. Everything they learned about the triune God and how the covenant of redemption has conspired for the redemption of sinners will be precious to them. They will continue in the faith. Everything they learned about the depth of sin in their heart and about how depraved they were and how hostile to God they were and how they were hated by others and they were also involved in hating others. They will embrace that and it will lead them to deeper repentance and will lead them to deeper gratitude for the grace of God. They will continue in the faith. There's no part of the Word of God that is properly exegeted, that is set before us as a a proposition that clearly comes out of the Word of God that will be offensive to us. We may be shocked by some of it at some times. We may be surprisingly educated by it because it may be something we've not thought of before but we will see it as consistent with the entire exposition of the Word of God. We will embrace that. We will continue in the faith. There's not anything about this that will eventually appear to be irrational to us. It is not anything about this that will make us feel like we lose too much credibility to the world. We will continue in the faith. If you continue in the faith, if you've been born again, if the Spirit of God has planted these things upon your soul, you need not fear that this is saying you can be saved and lost again. This is saying if you continue in the faith. That is, that faith that has been preached, everything that arises out of it, that expands your knowledge of Him, that expands your repentance, that expands your spirituality, that expands the expectation you have of the beauty of the glory of God, you will continue in that. And so saving faith is given is evidenced in our lives subsequent to that time when we profess to have it. Saving faith is evidenced by the love we have of all the truths and the persons that are set forth by these truths in our lives. We will continue in the faith and we will continue in this faith stable and steadfast. One of the things that the faith teaches us is that there is a hope. There's the hope of eternal life. This is what Paul told us in the book of Titus, in the first three verses. He is setting forth there the kind of preaching that he did in Titus of chapter one, verses one through three. It says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect. Now the juxtaposition of that language is very interesting. We can't say that if you are elect then you don't have to have faith. If God's got everything settled then you don't have to have faith, you don't have to have preaching, you don't have to have propositions set before you that you're to believe because God's going to save you anyway. The first objection that I have heard from a person who should have known better was a sermon that was preached one time at Southwestern Seminary. There was someone who was very upset about the sort of growing Calvinism on the campus there. He began to say that if a person believes in election, then he denies the incarnation. Because if you believe in election, then there are no means that are needed. It is simply an absolute decision made by God. He will save whom He will, how He will. He doesn't need any means to do it. And so if you believe in the incarnation that Christ actually came to die for sinners, then you must believe that it is possible even in the eternal scheme of things, that everyone could be saved because there cannot be such an absolute decree as election and still have the incarnation. Well, it's just a misunderstanding that this person had. That the decree is not that which eliminates the necessity of means, the decree is that which makes absolutely necessary the means. Because the decree comes in light of the character of God, the law of God, the righteousness of God. And when God decrees to save sinners, then he must do it in a way that is consistent with his own character. And so it is the decree that demands that a person come who is qualified to save and that a change take place in the minds and hearts of those who will be saved. And so the putting together of these words for the sake of the faith of God's elect. God's elect will come to faith. Saving faith will be characteristic of God's elect. They will not get into heaven without saving faith. They will not get into heaven without the death of Christ. They will not get into heaven without evangelical repentance. The elect of God will be brought to this. And so Paul is defining his ministry in terms of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth. The truth must be preached, the truth must be believed, the truth must come into our knowledge. There is a systematic presentation of the revealed Word of God so that the truth becomes believed, the knowledge of the truth is there. That becomes foundational and fundamental for saving faith. the faith of God's elect, their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness." It is not irrespective of godliness. It is not something that brings us into heaven while we still are opposing godliness. In fact, the gospel is something that highlights godliness to such a degree that it sends the Son of God to the cross to die for the very picture of what godliness is set forth in the law of God. And if we repent of sin and have faith in Christ as the only one who has true godliness and true righteousness, it is impossible for the person who has the faith of God's elect not to desire and to want to express godliness in his life, in his heart, and in all of his relationships. For the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. Well, the hope of eternal life is the persuasion in the deepest part of our soul that we are made for eternity. and that we are consistently yearning in everything that we do, even in our unregenerate state, we're learning for happiness, we're yearning for pleasure, we're yearning for joy, we're looking in all the wrong places for it. We're looking for it in accordance with our depraved affections, in accordance with the various captivities that we have in this life. But the reality of our humanity and being made in the image of God is we're wanting to experience beauty, we're wanting to experience joy, we're wanting to experience pleasure that will last. And then when we see Christ and we hear the gospel and we see forgiveness of sins and we see that this is God's own beloved Son who has given Himself for us and that He has gone to prepare a place for us, we begin to see that everything for which we have yearned, every aspect of beauty, every aspect of joy, every aspect of pleasure, Every aspect of symmetry in art, and beautiful harmony in music, and all of the things that fascinate us, all of it will come to pass in the reality of the experience of God when we are in His presence. That is the hope of eternal life. And everything that is temporal, that will pass away, is to be enjoyed for what it is, but is finally insignificant compared to the hope of eternal life. Paul is saying here, this hope of eternal life, if we can be convinced that something is actually more valuable and more to be desired than the hope of eternal life, we don't have saving faith. We have decided that something else is more beautiful. We've decided something else is more desirable. And so the hope of eternal life is an aspect of the faith of God's elect. which God who never lasts promised before the ages began." Well, to whom did He promise? When was this promise made before the ages began? Well, there was only God, the triune God, and the promise of eternal life, which was intrinsically present within the triune God. There's nothing about God that is not eternal, so this promise of eternal life before the ages began had to be made for people who were temporal and who would be brought there. And it was a promise that is made. to the one who would actually bring eternal life to them. And so we have a very pungent witness here to the reality of the eternal covenant of redemption. This promise of eternal life is made to Christ. There are people that are given to Christ. He sanctifies himself for them that they too may be sanctified, that is brought to saving faith. and so the promise in a sense is made to us but not to us individually but to us through Christ as our representative but primarily to him as the one that would gain for himself a people that would be then established for whom he would be the firstborn among many brethren. So Paul is pressing a lot of theology into this introduction and at the proper time was manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I've been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. So all of these things from eternity past to the presence where we come into the faith of God's elect, their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, all of this has been pressed into this covenant of redemption And a part of the faith of God's elect is to see the superiority of being in the place where this promise was made with those persons in the one single triune God who made the promise. And that is the hope we have to be with Him. And it transcends all other desires that we have here. And so Paul says, that not only do we abide in the faith, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from, and this is the vital element, a vital element of this faith, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard. So you see again how he's moving back to this, you've heard this fundamental foundational level. You've heard this and this hope has been explained to you and if you have saving faith then you're not going to shift from the hope of the gospel you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation and the heaven of which I Paul became a minister. So he resolves the understanding of what saving faith is as far as the persevering element in it is to these two things, that we will be presented holy and blameless above reproach before Him if you continue in the faith and if you're not shifted from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which Paul in Titus 1 calls the hope of eternal life. We see the same sort of presentation of hope. In the book of 1st John, in chapter 2, verse 28, here he is talking about the reality of perseverance but also perseverance as it relates to assurance as it is dealt with even in our confession. Growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith. So in verse 28 of 1 John 2, John says, And now, little children, abide in him. That is, since he is the gospel itself in his person and his work. As Paul said, do not be moved away from the faith of the gospel. Here John says, abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the father has given us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. The radical change that has taken place, whereas people who used to know them and know what they were like and had fellow feeling with them on all the activities in which they were involved, now John is saying the world does not know us. Your values have changed, your affections have changed, your direction of life has changed. You have a greater love for them than you ever had before, but that love is in a different direction, wanting them to experience eternal life, wanting them to return from their sin, to place faith in Christ. They do not know you anymore. The world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now. What we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure. This is involved in the hope of eternal life. We will see Christ in all of His glory. We do not know exactly what that will be. We do not know how marvelous and powerful it will be. Those of us who have the greatest hope, the greatest expectation, who love Christ the most, who see in Him a beauty that far exceeds all other beauties, who see in Him a harmony that is far beyond all other symphonies, who see in Him a righteousness that transcends any kind of holiness and righteousness that we could imagine in anything else. We who believe that, when He comes, we still will be marveled at Him We will know that we will be like Him and this is the hope we have because we have come to love righteousness, we have come to love godliness, we have come to love this exquisite spiritual beauty that is in Christ. We have a hope in Him. We desire to be like Him. we realize that when we see Him there will be such a transforming power in the vision of this holy beautiful One who comes that we will be transformed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and we will see Him and be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. And if we have that hope If that's the hope we have, if that is deeply embedded in our soul, if that truly is the objective hope, if that's what we know is going to happen, if that's the thing to which we are looking forward with such certainty in the same way that we look backward in faith to the certainty of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, we look to the glorious appearing of Christ with that same certainty and with that same kind of confidence. then that which we gained in faith and repentance from sin and receiving forgiveness and redemption and reconciliation, we desire transformation in the same way and so we are purifying ourselves even as He Himself is pure. And if we are moved away from that hope of the gospel, if we desire something else besides seeking to be conformed to His purity, then it is an indication that there might not be that transforming power of the Spirit in our lives who leads us to Christ. Now he introduces an idea here, the first time he uses this phrase in verse 29. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. Now he uses this idea of regeneration, the new birth, to follow through on the things that would be characteristic of true saving faith because faith arises only out of this operation of the Spirit. So in chapter 3 verse 9 we see this phrase used again. No one who is born of God, that is, has been born of God, makes a practice of sinning. for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. So we have an attitude toward sin. If we have repented of sin, if we have seen that Christ has died because of sin, if we see that sin leads to death, then we will not coddle ourselves in sin. We will recognize that we do sin, we'll recognize that we have indwelling sin but we will never excuse ourselves on that account, we will never excuse ourselves on the basis of any kind of circumstance. We will see sin for what it is and we will desire to move away from every transgression of the law in action and in mental commitment. He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. This is evident, by this is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. We have a different attitude toward transgression of the law, a different attitude towards sin, a desire to keep away from it. In chapter 4 verse 6, We have an indication of this. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And now as he continues to talk about what this instruction from the apostles actually means, in verse 7 he says, Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. We take very seriously the apostolic teaching, that which is revealed truth, that those who know God, those who are forgiven of sins, those who share our faith, are our brothers and our sisters in Christ and we seek to form in our affections a deep and lasting love for them because of the truth that they have believed and because the one who died for us is the same one who has died for them. If we are born of God, this has led us into a unity that we have not experienced with any group of people before. We can go to a Deep South Founders Conference and find people from Louisiana who love LSU and Mississippi who love Ole Miss and they won't even fight about it when they're talking about the gospel. And you have people from Alabama and the LSU knew Nick Saban was there and now he's at Alabama and they may get in fusses with people from Alabama, but when it is in the context of Christian fellowship and Christian love, these earthly things become very insignificant. And when we're in different cultures and we see that there are people from different cultures, whether it is an African culture or an Asian culture or whether it is a European culture, and we find people who believe the Bible and who love Jesus and who want to know more of Him, all of these differences that may be in our background fade away because we know that they're saved, we know that we love the same things, we love the same truths, and we can learn from them as to the providence of God in their lives and the power that faith in Christ gives them in their specific situations. There's a love that transcends all the possibilities of fussing and fuming and rivalry and even when it is done in just a fun way. Nevertheless, this transcending love because we have been born of God and therefore birthed into the faith in the Lord Jesus and the hope of eternal life, this gives us a love for those who have experienced the same thing. And then in verse 17, chapter four, By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. When we rise to that state of growing up to full assurance, much of it will be on the basis of an examination of love. Do we love the brethren? If I really love the brethren, if I really love God, if I really understand what His love for me is and that He sent His beloved Son, then this means that I can have confidence in the day of judgment. And we're brought into that concept of love by the new birth. Chapter 5 verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him." So this we have belief as a result of regeneration of the new birth And it presses us right back to this ideal that if we love the Father who sent the Son to be the Savior of our sins and sent the Spirit to give us the new birth, then we love all of those who have that same experience. Whoever loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. Now this is a very clear statement that we cannot have faith unless we have been born of God. We believe that Jesus is the Christ. It's a very specific kind of belief. It's not just a sense of wellbeing. It's not just thinking, well, everything's gonna work out okay. I'm just gonna have faith in life. I'm gonna have faith in my neighbors, faith in the goodness of man, and everything's gonna be all right, and we're gonna stop all this rivalry and all this bickering because we are basically all good at heart, and that's my faith. No, this is a very specific faith. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's what we believe and everything that goes along with it in this very compact, shorthand way John is speaking, Jesus is the Christ. And you can fill in all the blanks as to what that means about the incarnation and about the death, burial and resurrection and His coming again. He is the Messiah. He is the promised one. He is the one who will rule and reign forever and ever. Those who believe that who believe it in their heart have been born of God and an indication of it is that if they love the Father then they will love those who have been born of Him. Chapter 5 verse 4, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world. What a great hymn we sang right before Faith is the victory we know that overcomes. This is what we're talking about. This is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Now what is he saying? He's saying if you can just get an optimistic view of life and if you can work up faith in you, you can do anything. You can overcome the world. No, he's talking about the combination of the reality of the objective aspect of faith and the subjective aspect of it. When he calls it our faith, he's saying that same faith he's mentioned up here in 5.1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And that belief and all that is contained in it is that which overcomes the world. Because we see that Christ has overcome everything that is in the world. All that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof but he that does the will of God abides forever. This is the faith that overcomes the world. This is a faith that says we know our sins are forgiven. We have known him who is from the beginning. This is the faith that has to do with that reality of our affections being placed upon an objective reality of the revelation of God and the redemption of God, the reconciliation of God and the coming appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that is in the world, even persecution, even the threat of death, even the threat of ostracism, all the baubles and bangles put before us in the world, our faith overcomes that and that is an evidence of the new birth. Those who are born again, those who have saving faith will indeed be in the mode throughout their life of overcoming the world and every temptation and every threat that the world places upon them will become unimportant to them because they know the one who has forgiven them, they know the one who has justified them, they know the one who is coming to reign. Who is he that overcomes the world? Except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Then chapter five, verse 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. So here we tie assurance into this. Again, this is the purpose. If you believe, assurance is not of the essence of faith. Assurance is something that can come and hopefully will come to everyone. The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. That means the Spirit witnesses along with our spirit as we, in our mind and our soul, investigate what saving faith is, what the evidences of saving faith are. As we submit ourselves to the Word of God, there is a secret operation of the Spirit also that is in conjunction with the revealed Word that can shed abroad an assurance in our hearts that we are the children of God. John is saying, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You can investigate these evidences that I'm giving to you of what the new birth is and that is the thing to which the testimony that is in you, the Spirit, that testimony will confirm, that Word will confirm those evidences by His own power It is not the pure rational investigation that we have by which we conclude it but there must be this investigation of the reality of the revealed evidences and then there is the work of the Spirit in which He gives us that assurance that you may know that you have eternal life. And then in verse 18, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. He said that Already he says he practices righteousness, he does not practice sin, but now he puts a little different twist on it. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. The Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate so that he might show us what true humanity is, what true worship is, what true righteousness is in our nature. And in His ascension, He ascends back to the right hand of the throne of God and He has become the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And when He was raised from the dead, the incorruption that was manifest in His resurrection is a picture of what we will become. This corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. And the paradigm, if you will, for that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. in accordance with this eternal covenant is going to protect those who have been born of God because He is the one who is the eternally generated Son of God. He eternally is begotten of the Father and it is out of His eternal generation of the Father that He has, as it were, He is the fullness of the Godhead. It is in that that He reflects all the glory of the triune God. And the nature that he has is one that is going to be duplicated in us. We will be like him for we shall see him as he is. And so the very purpose of his prayer in John 17, that they may be with me where I am, John is saying here, John who wrote the Gospel of John, in John 17, he is saying here that this One who prayed for us in John 17 is so concerned about us even in His eternal existence as the eternally generated Son of God that we will be with Him where He is. He Himself protects us. The Spirit lives within us. The Father has decreed that we will be with Him. The Son of God Himself protects us and the evil one does not touch Him. So the nature of saving faith in its final stage is that it is a persevering faith. It perseveres in the faith. It perseveres in the hope of eternal life. It perseveres in holiness. It perseveres in its rejection of sin. It perseveres in love for God. It perseveres in love for neighbor and particularly in love for the brethren. It looks forward to the time of being with Christ because we know that is a beauty and a situation of joy that transcends anything that the world has and therefore the faith that we have is a faith that overcomes the world. Now this text also leads us to see that were we left to ourselves, we would not do this. Were we left to ourselves, we would not have a persevering faith. Were we left to ourselves, we could not even maintain the hope of eternal life. But we see that Christ has come to our aid. He who was born of God protects him. We learn this also when the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2, he says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. This means you must give everything you have to it. You must fear falling into sin. You must fear being overcome by the world. You must tremble if you forsake the gospel of Christ because there is a fearful God to face in the end. You must fear because of the tendencies of our own heart. You must fear because of what is at stake for the glory of God. We work out our salvation, that salvation that is within us, we work it out. We seek to let it be manifest, everything that is implied in it. We seek to have it become externally manifest to those around us. But we're not left to that simply to say, well, this is up to you. This is your energy. This is what you've got to do. And boy, if you don't really do it, you're bad off. We couldn't save ourselves and we can't keep ourselves. And so Paul then gives the assurance for it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Then in the book of Jude, we see all of these warnings that Jude gives about those who depart and those who tend to be led away. Jude wanted to write sort of a systematic theology. He said, I wanted to write to you about our common faith, our common salvation. But then, he says, I found it necessary to write to you appealing to you to contend for the faith that's once for all delivered to the saints because people had come in and through their moral perversity and through their doctrinal errors, they were leading people astray. Certain people have crept in unnoticed long ago, were designated for this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. So the reality of the lack of godliness and the reality of rejecting the central tenets of the faith. This is what Jude is writing against and so he warns against these things and then he tells how we must seek to treat people that we see are falling into this. And in verse 20 he says, but you beloved build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. So all these commands, this is what we must do to keep ourselves in the love of God. We wait for the mercy that is the hope of eternal life. We share with others. We have mercy on them. We snatch them out of the fire. We do everything we can to make sure that they focus their minds upon godliness, upon the hope of eternal life, upon the faith that is once for all delivered to the saints. but He doesn't leave us there. Then He says, "...now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever." The Eternal Covenant has established that which He will do for the salvation of a people in the honor of His Son. It is operating now and it will come to fruition in every point of it forever. He will do it. Let's pray.