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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chapter 5, which that's not going to get you to 25 verses, but then you only have, you know, I forget exactly how many there are, if there's 14 or 15 or something like that, verses, right? So then you'd have about, approximately 10 more to go. So, but you could get, boom, get that one knocked out, and then, or at least just get started on chapter 6, and then that'll get you another prize to get to finish the rest of chapter 6, so. That's a good way to do it, if you haven't done it right. Now, those of you who've already memorized part of chapter 5, that doesn't count for November. Sorry. These are new. You've got to memorize these 25 verses in November, so you might want to hold off a day or two from memorizing any more, just to get started on that Tuesday, and be like, all right, this is fresh. So, new Bible memory starts November 1st. You've got 25 verses starting November 1st to get done. Upcoming events, obviously the big ones, chili cook-off is tomorrow. Is anyone planning on having their chili cook overnight tonight? Or is anyone that's not here, does anyone know if anyone had already dropped off a chili to have, ready to go? Good. I thought there'd be more people needing to do that, but that's great, so hopefully people can make it here, and we're going to have a blast, we're going to have a lot of fun. We'll be using both buildings, but I kind of wanted to keep some of the mess over there, so we have less work to do over here for being ready for church on Wednesday, and we can kind of maximize the amount of time we're spending together on Monday without having to worry so much about getting everything super clean. So, on that note, anyone who wants to stick around and help a little bit after service tonight would be very greatly appreciated. We can move some of the equipment, some of the painting stuff, and just the other tools and things we have laying around in there, kind of clean it up, so we can have that space opened up, and then we'll bring the tables over there, and get all that set up, get the tablecloth set up, so everything's ready to go, so like, man, we could just hit the ground running with our activity, and be ready to go. So that would be really cool. Appreciate anyone that wants to stick around and help us with that. Birthdays and anniversaries down there at the bottom of the page for the month of November, and that is it for our announcements. So, I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter, and he will lead us in our next song. Oh, and there's pens everywhere now. Make sure we're loud and clear. We're making sure you've got pens. All right, we can turn into song number 86. And number 86, in the garden. And number 86. On the first I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses, And the voice I hear calling on my ear, The Son of God discloses, And he walks with me, and he talks with me, And he tells me I am his own, And the joy we share as we tarry near, The Mother and the Son alone. On the second, he speaks, and the sound of his voice, Is so sweet the birds touch their singing, And the melody that he gave to me, Within my heart he's singing, And he walks with me, and he talks with me, And he tells me I am his own, And the joy we share as we tarry near, The Mother has ever known. I stay in the garden with him, Though the night around you fall in, But he makes me go through the voice of one, His voice to me is calling, And he walks with me, and he talks with me, And he tells me I am his own, And the joy we share as we tarry near, The Mother has ever known. Amen, church. This time we'd like our Sunday evening offering. I'd like to ask the ushers to fill up the plates. Thank you. All right, church, and while the offering plates are being passed around, You can open up your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 1. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, We're going to read the entire chapter. I'm going to ask Brother Devin if he can please do that for us. That was Philippians chapter 1. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, With the bishops and deacons, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, And from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine, For you all, making your quest with joy, For your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now, Being confident of this very thing, That he which hath begun a good work in you, Will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, Because I have you in my heart, Inasmuch as both in my bonds, And in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, Ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you, All in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound Yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, That ye may approve things that are excellent, That ye may be sincere and without offense Till the day of Christ, Being filled with the fruits of righteousness Which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. But I would ye should understand, brethren, That the things which happened unto me Have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel, So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace And in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds Are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, And some also of good will. The one preached Christ of contention, Not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, But the other of love, Knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, And I therein do rejoice, Yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer And the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, That in nothing I shall be ashamed, But that with all boldness, as always, So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, Whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, This is the fruit of my labor, Yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, Which is far better, Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you, All for your furtherance and joy of faith, That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ For me by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ, That whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, That ye stand fast in one Spirit, With one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel, And in nothing terrified by your adversaries, Which is to them an evident token of perdition, But to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, Not only to believe on him, But also to suffer for his sake, Having the same conflict which he saw in me, And now here to be in me. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this time to come together again and to hear your word preached. Thank you for the soul winning efforts today and for the salvation that we had today as a church. And I pray that you would just help clear our minds of every other thing that may be going on in our lives and help us to focus on the message tonight and that you would be with pastor as he comes and fill him with your spirit. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Alright, so this evening I want to, I'm going to preach actually kind of a doctrinal sermon and I'm going to focus in on that verse, verse number 6 in Philippians 1 where the Bible says, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And I think this is a very simple concept what I'm preaching tonight or what I'm teaching tonight, but sometimes people will take verses like this, this one specifically, to teach something that I don't believe is true and just to come out with it here, what some people will teach is that after you're saved there's going to be good works that if people can't see your good works then that's going to show that you must not be saved. And I say that that is false. And one of the verses that they'll turn to is Philippians 1.6 to prove that. But what I'm going to do tonight is I'm not going to cover all the ways that you could know or we could kind of try to know if we think someone's saved or not. The bottom line is, you know, it's faith, it's what you believe in your heart that God can see your heart and God knows if you put your trust in Lord Jesus Christ or not to be saved. And what all we could really truly go off of is what comes out of a person's mouth and hopefully that's the same as what is in their heart. Now if someone is deceptive to you, you can't do anything about that anyways. But if you're looking at whether or not a person has good works to see if they're saved, you could look at any religion in a religious person and find good works that they're doing. They could be doing community outreach and helping people this way or that way or whatever. That's not going to be a proof of whether or not that person is saved. But what I want to do is kind of just go into what is this even talking about, right? So you understand. So if someone were to come at you with this verse, you have a very solid understanding of what this is even talking about. It's actually very simple. And this is taught all throughout Scripture. This is very consistent with teachings. We're going to look at multiple passages explaining this concept. Basically what they're saying, that he which has begun a good work in you, of course, is God, has begun a good work in you. What is that good work? Well, first of all, we need to understand, and this lines up perfectly with Romans 7, and you can tell me if you'd like, but we're definitely not done in Philippians 1. And I literally, this verse just popped into my mind while I was sitting here waiting to come up and preach as the Scripture's being read because, like I said, there's plenty of passages about this, and it's all over the Bible. In Romans 7, starting with approximately verse number... Oh, I don't know, somewhere near the beginning, actually, the Apostle Paul's explaining the difference between the flesh and his spirit, right? How he wants to do good, but then he's got this flesh that's not letting him do good, and there's this dichotomy being born again, being saved, that every believer has because when you're born again, there's a new creature that is inside of you that wants to do good. It's called the new man, right? It's the spiritual you that wants to walk in the Spirit of God, that wants to do the right things, but you still have your flesh that's going to draw you to do things that are sinful. And specifically, I just want you to look at verse number 18 where the Bible says, For I know that in me, and then he qualifies in me by saying that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. So he's saying in my flesh, no good thing dwells. So when we look at Philippians 1.6, the Bible says, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, he's not talking about your flesh. The good work that was begun, because in me, hey, there's nothing good. There is no good work in me that is in my flesh. But when he began a good work in you, that's that Spirit. When you were born again, that's the Spirit where he's begun a good work in you. And what this is saying is that, look, he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's not finished with the good work in you. He's started it. But what does that mean for us today after he's started? Does he continue to work? Well, yeah, he can, but that's not really what this is. This isn't talking about, then, the continuation of your spiritual growth. He's talking about the completion of that work at the day of Christ. So he says, until the day of Christ. So right now, we are saved. We have this new creature that's born again inside of us, which, in turn, if you would, keep your place in Philippians 1. We're going to come back here. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians 1. It's all real close together in Scripture. Ephesians 1. Because what he's given us is redemption, yes, salvation, yes, but it's still only in part. Now, there's no way we could lose it. We're sealed. We're secure. We're saved. It's eternal salvation, but it's not complete because we have a sinful body, because we're still walking in the flesh. We have this flesh that needs to be changed. The full salvation, the full redemption, is when we are saved, body, soul, spirit, completely sinless before God Almighty. And this sinful flesh is transformed into a new flesh, into a new man, where we are finally transfigured. Hey, the Spirit is righteous. The Spirit is there. The Spirit has already been saved. The Spirit has already been transformed. It's already this new life, this new creature, but the flesh is not. We're waiting for the day of Christ, because it's not going to happen when Christ comes back. That's what the resurrection is all about. That first resurrection, when Christ comes back, because Christ was the firstfruits, He appeared in His glorified body. He appeared unto the believers after He was transfigured, but we are waiting for that adoption to wit the redemption of our body, and we're going to get into that in a minute, too. But look at Ephesians 1, verse 9. The Bible says, ...the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, look at this, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. So the down payment, the earnest has been made when we got saved. He seals us with the Holy Spirit. That doesn't happen until you believe. He says when you trust in the Lord, when you put your faith in Him, then you're saved, then He seals you with the Holy Ghost, and that's God's down payment on you, on your body, soul, and spirit. Everything about you. God has purchased you. You belong to Him. And the earnest is saying, okay, I'm sealing my purchase with the Holy Spirit. No one can come along and disannul this transaction, this purchase that I've made. Hey, we came into this covenant where they're putting their trust in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ has already made the payment for their soul, so once they put their trust in Him, boom, sealed, locked, done. It's done. There's no one to come in and alter that transaction and change anything. The devil can't come in and go, no, no, no, done. It's sealed. But He's going to come back and redeem the entire purchased possession. So He's going to come back and say, okay, well, He's already got the spirit taken care of, but that body, that flesh, needs to be changed. He's going to fully redeem you. So some people might think of it as a process. It's not really a process other than step one is spirit saved, but then step two is going to be Jesus Christ comes back and your body is changed. In between that, we may have spiritual growth. We may try to mortify the deeds of our flesh and things like that, but that has nothing to do with this full redemption because that full redemption is going to happen whether or not you walk in the spirit. If you walk in the spirit, guess what that redemption is happening. If you don't walk in the spirit, guess what that redemption is happening. When God has performed that good work, hey, God gave you that new spirit, right? That new spirit was born of the word of God, was born of God. That's how we could even become children of God is because we're born again, born of His spirit, born of His word. But the flesh is still this physical flesh. He needs to change that for us too. Hasn't done that yet. Going back to Philippians 1, verse 6, this is what this verse is specifically talking about. This is not saying, well, since He's begun a good work in you, then you must be continuing to improve and get sin out of your life and doing this and doing that until the day of Christ. That may not happen. It's not what this verse is teaching. But people like to apply it that way to say, see, look, if you don't have the changed life, if you're not walking in the spirit, then you must not have been saved. Not true. Not true. Now, look, I've taught this before, and I teach it until my head explodes. I do believe in a changed life and a gospel that changes in the sense that you have a new man, you have a new creature. But it's not always outwardly manifested. That's the thing. That's what people need to understand. That inward transformation does not always manifest itself outwardly. And it doesn't always outwardly manifest itself when people are watching either. There are times when it may be outwardly manifesting and no one can see. Right? Like when a saved person who's living like the world, gets along with his buddies, everything else, goes home and is reading his Bible and praying. Well, I don't think that person's even saved. Because I saw him the other day. He's just doing what, you know, well, look, you don't know what's going on. You don't know. Are you with that person 24 hours a day? No. And even if you were, even if you were, why do we have so many admonitions after admonition, after admonition, being commanded, Hey, welcome to spirit that you won't fulfill the rest of the flesh and that you have to do these things. I mean, this is what the Bible says. Let's keep reading in 1st Philippians. Even in 1st Philippians, right? We kept reading. Verse 7 says, Even it is meet for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart and as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel ye are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. You see, like, I hope, I pray that your love and may abound and your knowledge and your judgment that you start to grow and just have all this great understanding and you can grow spiritually. And then he says in verse 10 that ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. He said I pray that that happens. Why would you have to pray that happens if that automatically is going to happen? It would be pretty stupid to have to put that in there if it's, I mean, hey, if you're saved it automatically is just going to be you're going to be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. No, who's without offense until the day of Christ? That's what we want to happen. Hey, when someone gets saved I wish that they could just get baptized, come to church, start going soul-winning, read the Bible, get sold out for serving the Lord, and just do everything right and just be righteous for the rest of their life. Amen. That would be great. That's ideal. Hey, I would teach people to do that. I would instruct people to do that. I would advise people to do that. But if I didn't see that I wouldn't be like, well, you just must not be saved then. Because you know what? That's what the Bible teaches is that we should be mortifying the deeds of our flesh. We should be walking in the Spirit. We should be doing all the right things and we should be working righteousness. And that's why God created us. Yes, Ephesians 2 8 and 9 and 10 talk about we're His workmanship, created under good works. Yes, we are. But we're not saved by the works, which is why you need verses 8 and 9. He did create us to do good works. But does that mean you automatically will? No. No. You don't automatically just do things. You still have the will. You had a free will before you were saved, right? Well, guess what? After you're saved, you still have a free will. You still choose whether or not you're going to serve God. The spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets, what the Bible says. God does not have puppets on a puppet string doing whatever He says no matter what. God has servants that will listen and be obedient to Him of their own choice. Again, you cannot show me different in Scripture. Go, if you would, please, to 2 Corinthians 5. So what I'm going to continue to do now is just show you some more verses that just continue to support the same exact concept. You're saved, you get the new man. You're saved, there is a good work which has begun in you. But when does that complete? The day of Christ. Because your body will also be transfigured or transformed. Verse 17, 2 Corinthians 5, the Bible says, Therefore, if a man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Amen. Like I said, I do believe in a Gospel that changes because you have a brand new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. All things are become new. Why? Because you're a brand new creature. Of course. Old things are passed away. Hey, everything's brand new, as is new birth, new life. I mean, you would say, if someone's physically born, isn't everything new to that person? They just come into this world, sight, sound, everything has become new. Well, there's a new life when that spirit is born. All things have become new. Makes sense. But what people will take this verse then is say, oh, well, see, look, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, old things are passed away, so you must be at least doing something different. Is that what the Bible says? No. Does it say anything about what you're going to be doing? Or does it just say all things have become new? Again, ideally, and I think maybe most of the time, I don't know, people will start to try to live more righteously and do things to serve God and are happy about their salvation, and even if it's somewhat briefly, we'll try to do things. I think that may be more common, right? But you don't know what that person is doing in their life. I mean, because the people who will make these comments and these statements, what they're judging by is whether or not that person even comes to church, to your church, right? So if we go out and preach the gospel to people and then they get saved and they're going, where were they in church? Well, I don't know. Maybe they went to the family's church. Maybe they went to some other church. Maybe they work on Sundays and they didn't just quit their job right and just have to go to church now. Well, God bless them. That's what they should do. Yeah, that's what they should do. But it doesn't mean that they're that strong spiritually just to make that wise decision and say, I'm going to make sure that I'm in the house of God three times a week. They just got saved. They're a babe in Christ. That's like expecting a little baby to say, oh, no, I need to care for my family and I'm going to go out and work and I'm going to pay my own way and I'm going to, you know, like, they can't do that. You can't expect that out of them. And you know what? There are people that get saved and they don't come to church for a long time, but then one day they do. Great. Well, I guess they were saved. Well, you know what? They were saved the whole time. You just didn't see it. Well, what about the person that was drunk and then he still goes out to the bar? Yeah, it's called an addiction maybe. Or ignorance and just really doesn't know much about the Bible at all because he decided not to go to church to learn a little bit more and grow a little bit more. Does that mean all things still haven't become new for that person? No. But see, the people that want to use this verse say, well, all things become new, so there must be some difference. No, then everything would have to be different. Because it's all things. If you're trying to say, well, all things have become new, so something must be different, no, all things would have to be different. If that's how you're going to use it, if all things becoming new means that you must be doing new things, like you're actively doing new things, then everything that you do must be new things. And every old thing that was bad must just be gone. You can't just apply part of it and say like, well, I mean, so there's one thing they stopped doing that was sinful and one thing that's new and that applies as no. It's all or nothing. If you're going to apply it, they're like, I don't think you apply it that way. All things becoming new is because you've got a new life. So of course everything's become new. And yes, there are a lot of great things. Hey, now you could please God. Because you have faith that He is God. And I brought that up on Wednesday night. If you didn't miss that sermon, went over that. We can't please God unless you at least believe that He is. And when someone believes and they put their trust in God, now they can actually please Him. Hey, everything's become new. A whole world's been opened up to you on what you can do to serve the Lord. Great. Amen. And all things are of God, verse 18, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. So all things have become new, and you know what? He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. So does that mean if someone's not out reconciling people unto God, they must not be saved then? That would be silly. How long did it take you after you were saved to go out and help get people reconciled to God through Jesus Christ? Well, right away, I mean, I'm like that, you know, the Ethiopian eunuch, I mean, he just started just preaching the gospel immediately, right? When he got saved, who knows what happened to that guy? He went back and served the queen. I don't know. Hopefully he started getting people saved right away. I don't know. Whether he did or didn't, does that, would that change or cast doubt on his salvation? No. Verse 19, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Turn, if you would, to 1 John 3. 1 John 3, and like I said, it's a doctrinal sermon. This is important. We understand the new man. We understand the difference, and we understand that, hey, praise God, He did start a new work in us. That's cool. He started a good work in you. That good work has started, and He's not done with it. So, where we are right now, even spiritually, there's more to come. I think that's cool. I think that's a great hope to have of the resurrection where we get a new body. I mean, think about how much the Spirit has changed your life and has transformed your life when you choose to walk in the Spirit and the love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith that you get as a result of walking in the Spirit, how transformative that is, how great that is for your life, and we're only halfway there. Cool. How great was it going to be when there is no more dichotomy, when there is no more struggle and battle and war of the flesh, but when your whole existence can be in harmony with the Lord? What a day that will be, huh? Amen. That is something exciting. These verses are great. I love them, but let's understand them properly. Let's understand them for what they're saying and for what they mean. And notice I'm not having to twist anything around here and literally using the context given in these verses because that's what it means. And think about this. Look, one more example just popped into my head right now. So, because people screw up the meaning of this passage, right? 1 Thessalonians 1 is the main passage for the sermon. If this were to mean that He which should become a good work in you will perform until the day of Christ, is that going to mean that you will, every saved person is going to just spiritually grow bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger like just greater and greater and greater and greater until the day of Christ? No. Then where's room for the backslider? Nope. He's continuing to do, you know, that can't mean that. What about King Solomon? How did he end his life? He married all these strange women that pulled his heart away from the Lord and he built altars under these idols and false gods that his wives worshiped and ended his life way worse than he started off. He started off seeking the Lord. He got, this is what I want to do. This is a big job. I trust you. Please give me the wisdom. Please help me to lead this great people. Dear Lord, I want to do what's right. Please help me to do that. He ends up getting all this wealth, getting all this money, getting all this, all these women, getting all this stuff and then he's building altars to false gods. That doesn't fit the, I mean, you're going to say that he's not saved? You know, a hard time convincing me of that. So God used some unsaved Solomon to give us the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon and all these great books. Son of David, Man After God's Own Art, all these things that just, all this stuff, right? God chose them. God anointed them. Unsaved. Okay. Weird doctrine. We're going to go down that path. So no, this, he has begun a good work and you will perform until the day of Christ. It's the promise of the redeemed body. 1 John 3, we're going to see this here as well. A very good, now this can be confusing. I understand why this can be confusing for many people. But when you have the understanding of the new man, it makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. Look at verse number 2, 1 John 3, the Bible says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. So there's still something more to come. It doesn't appear what we shall be. We know we're going to change. We know there's going to be something different. Right now we're the sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Wow, another reference to the day of Christ. Another reference to the return of Christ and then there's going to be a change and then all of a sudden we're going to understand and we're going to know and we're going to see Him like He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now he's going to talk about sin. Verse 5, And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Talking about Christ. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that comitteth sin is 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. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Now, if we were to stop there without continuing to read, this would be very difficult to comprehend and understand. Because you can say, at least the first part, you can say, okay, well, whosoever committed sin is of the devil, but Jesus came that he might destroy the works of the devil, so that's good, right? I mean, you could say, well, I've sinned, but at least Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. But then it says whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, and now all of a sudden you're going to go, oh, and you're going to remember some sin that you committed recently. Wait a minute. Does that mean I'm not born of God then? Am I not born again? I mean, I've sinned. Let's keep reading. Why is whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin? For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now, see, the key to understanding this is understanding what does whosoever mean. The who. Who does the who apply to? And we're getting a very specific distinction here referring to that which is born of the seed that remains in you. The new creature is born of the Word of God. That precious seed brings that new life. So that which is born, that new spirit is born of God. That new spirit that is inside of you, so you could refer to the whosoever as you maybe as a whole collectively, or you as the flesh like the apostle Paul said that I know that in me is no good thing, but then he had to clarify, I mean, in my flesh, because that's separate from in me, meaning Christ in me, that's separate from in me, the Spirit of God that's in me, right? They're different things when you're referring to whosoever. So whosoever can be, in this context, referring to that which is born again, that which is born of the new seed, that which is born of God. So that Spirit of God does not commit sin. In this, the children of God are manifesting the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. So it's referring to the Spirit. Now, we can prove this again in the context, this teaching in 1 John 3 comes after 1 John 1, right? I mean, John, the apostle John is writing this epistle. He's writing this letter. He's teaching these truths. So he knows by the time he gets to what we call chapter 3, he's already expressed another truth earlier that's laying a foundation to help us to get a little bit deeper. Like Hebrews says, you know, we're going on to perfection here. He's kind of putting aside the basics because the basics and the foundation was laid in chapter 1. If you want to turn to chapter 1, look at verse number 8 right there, the last few verses of the chapter say, if we say that we have no sin, if we say that we have no sin, he's including himself as a we, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. Well, it seems like you have a contradiction there. No, he's laying this foundation just so that when he goes to teach the greater truth a little bit later, you understand he's not just saying that you as a whole person will never sin. That people aren't going to be just sinlessly perfect walking around and never committing any sins ever. He's saying, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. Of course we have sin. From the standard normal sense of we as people and how you would communicate just like, yep, I'm a sinner, right? But when I say I'm a sinner, I'm not talking about my spirit that's born again. I can still say I'm a sinner and have this spirit residing in me that's not sinning, but that's a little bit more deeper, right? It's a little bit more complicated. That's something I need to kind of express a little bit differently to make sure that people understand that's what I'm talking about. Because like chapter 1 says, hey, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not even in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. I mean, you can't say that any stronger that He's getting the point across that just says, hey, look, you cannot say that you are without sin. Right? Why? Because there's people out there like the Sinless Perfection, Holiness, Pentecostals that actually believe that they could live this sinless life. And they, again, don't understand 1 John chapter 3 because they're not saved, because this is a spiritual book and the natural man receiveth not the things of God. They think they could lose their salvation. They're not trusting completely in Christ as their Savior. So, they don't get it. And they read this and it's kind of confusing to them and they say, oh, well, I guess, in their zeal to want to make sure that they're saved, they just say, well, then I must not sin then. And when you come to that conclusion, where you think that you must not sin because you think you're saved, the standard of sin goes... because now you don't want to say or admit that anything you're doing is sinful. I'm perfect. If I did this, well, I mean, that must not be a sin then because I'm saved and I can't sin. You see what I'm talking about? And then it gets crazy. And then you get full of a whole bunch of judgmental people because they think that they're so holy and righteous and perfect, but you're a sinner. No, no, no, don't say that I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. Now, thank God there's not very many of these people out there in general. I've very rarely run into them. But they are some of the most proud, hardest people to try to win over that you'll ever meet. They're right up there with the Jews. I mean, they're really hard to win over to Christ. And I'm not saying that jokingly, like seriously, like they are about that hard because you try to win over a Jew to Christ, very difficult. Very difficult. Just as it's hard with these righteousness holy roller people that they think they don't sin. I mean, that's the first step. If you can't admit you're a sinner, then what do you need a Savior for? If you think everything you're doing is perfect, good luck with that. And that's why John says, hey, if you think you're not sin, the truth's not in you. You're a liar. You're making God a liar. So he says that first, so then he could go on, hey, that's the groundwork. That's the foundation. Now he's going to explain a little bit more deeply, if you will, that no, no, no, understand this, that he, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, and the reason why is because his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. My flesh is not born of God. It's not. The flesh is not born of God. But my spirit is. So he has to be talking about the spirit because that's what's born of God. That's what's born of that perfect seed. Makes sense. Very clear. Turn to Romans chapter 8. We're almost done. Don't worry. We're almost done. I want to cover these various passages because they gel together so well as everything must in scripture. It has to. You can't have contradictions. And when you start seeing, though, these great truths, you know it's true when you see how well you could just go to all these different places in scripture and see, like, yep, same thing here, yep, same thing here, yep, same thing here. That's why you notice in these passages it keeps on bringing up the day of redemption, the day of Christ, you know, when Christ comes back. All these references, why? Because it's talking about the same thing. Because they mean the same thing. They're being expressed differently, but it's the same truth. And it fits. And you don't have to come up with a different reason why, well, this is talking about this situation, this is talking about something different. You don't have to do that. You don't have to try to explain things away because they fit so perfectly together. Romans 8, verse number 9, the Bible reads, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So this is talking about people who are saved or not saved, right? Because you either have the Spirit or you don't, and if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you are not his at all. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Body, Spirit. Talking about two different things. Again, verse 11, But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. That's the changed flesh. Quicken means make alive. This is the work that was begun and will be finished in you. You have the Spirit. You'll get the flesh changed also. You have the earnest until the day of redemption. Verse 12, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if either the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. So because we are already redeemed, because we're already going to have our flesh quickened, this is why we're debtors. We're debtors. This is why we owe it to God to not live after the flesh. Because our flesh is going to be changed. What would be the point of trying to strengthen the flesh and build up the flesh and live for the flesh when the flesh is going to go away? It's meaningless. You're wasting your time. So let's live for the Spirit. God saved the Spirit. We're going to get a new flesh. This is why we're debtors not to live after the flesh, but to live after the Spirit. The flesh is going to be done away with. So if we live after the flesh, you're going to die. It doesn't say you're going to lose your salvation, but if you as a saved being with the Spirit of God residing inside you just decide, you know what? I'm just going to live for the flesh. Good luck with that. See how long you live. Now, God is long-suffering and merciful, but man, do I not want to test. Well, how long can I live? He said if you live after the flesh, you shall die. I'm just going to believe that. Even if I don't know how many seconds, milliseconds, hours, days it takes for him to come through with that. I'll just think that it's going to be like a millisecond, right? And just try to live life that way. I don't want to die, God. All on to, like you say here, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit itself, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The Spirit is the righteous thing. The Spirit is born of God. The Spirit is what communicates with the Holy Spirit, not the flesh. Jump down to verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. So verse 15 was talking about the spirit of adoption. So we cry, Abba, Father, right? Now it's going to explain that a little bit further and get the context. You could read through this whole passage. I'm not worried about that. We're not taking anything out of context, but you can judge that for yourself. Verse 23 says, And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. Waiting for the adoption. I thought we're already adopted because spiritually. Yes, spiritually you are, but now we're talking about the redemption of the body. That's that finished work. That's the work that was begun because you've got the Spirit, and then because you have the Spirit, you're going to get the new body also. I mean, it's so consistent. And there's nothing outside of this that's saying anything any different. Jump down to verse 27. Now, after all of this groundwork is laid, then we get into predestination. Now, don't worry. I'm not going to just go deep dive into predestination, okay? But just as with this doctrine, hey, the context is important. The groundwork is important. Where are we coming from is important. Understanding the whole teaching in context of, say, the whole book that's being written, and like 1 John, for example, you've got to get to chapter 1 before you get to the deeper truths in chapter 3. Even in Hebrews, we're seeing that, right? There's more simple doctrines in the beginning, and then he's kind of getting deeper and deeper and deeper as you get into the book and explaining more and more and more and uncovering more and unwrapping more of the layers the deeper you get. Romans is the same thing, but people always like to just yank a verse out here or yank a verse out there and just teach whatever they want out of it, and people do the same thing with the predestination, but let's just take a look at this real quick. Verse 27, He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. It's another benefit of the Spirit that makes intercession for us according to the will of God, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So there, being conformed to the image of his Son, we're going to have that likeness. When we see him as he is, we're going to be transformed and have our new transfigured flesh where we're going to reflect Christ more perfectly in our bodies, because right now, we reflect Adam, but then when we get our new body, we're going to reflect the second Adam from above, Jesus Christ. And why are we predestinated? Because he foreknew us, which is what chapter 29 says. He already knew. He knew you would put your faith in Christ, so as a result, you're predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. We ought to try to grow the Spirit and to become more closely conformed to the image of Christ, but this is talking about the physical image of his Son. I mean, that's a change that's going to happen no matter how much spiritual growth you do now, you are not, your image is not more closely resembling Christ until the redemption of our body. Inwardly great in the Spirit, but you already have that new Spirit. That new Spirit already can't sin. That new Spirit, I mean, it already is matching with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, but we need to be able to choose to walk in that Spirit because we saw this flesh that draws us away. But that predestination, hey, that's the future, that's going to come up where, oh, now you've got this new body. Why? Because God already knew you're going to believe and you'd leave, so now you're going to get that body. It's really actually very simple. Is anyone here confused on this subject? And don't be ashamed to raise your hand. Maybe it's not the best time to ask that question. If you are confused about this subject, let me know. To me it just seems so straightforward, especially when you just read the Scripture and just kind of take it for what it says. It takes somebody to screw your head around and confuse you by saying things that don't really add up, that aren't very consistent in Scripture, and you're going, wait a minute, then why would this say this if this is saying this? Why is the Bible talking about all these free will offerings if I don't really have free will because I'm just doing whatever it is that God predestinated me to do. That's confusing. And you have to come up with all kinds of weird explanations for that. Well, I mean, if this says that all things have become new, then you must be doing something different. Well, but it says all things. Well, that person can't be saved because they're in this sin and that sin and this sin. Look. Yes, they can be saved already. God sees their heart. If he saw their heart, they put their trust on the Lord Jesus Christ and they're saved. Amen and amen. And I'm sorry, but this really drives me nuts, this doctrine. It's so confusing to people. It causes tons of people to doubt salvation that shouldn't be doubting their salvation. And it leads to a teaching for maybe people who aren't saved to start thinking like, well, I must need to be doing some good works for people to see that I'm saved or whatever. Maybe even in their mind thinking like, oh, I must be saved then because I'm doing good things because I've got this great, peaceful heart to go out and help people, but they might not be saved. Look, I've talked to a lot of people who do dedicate a lot of their time to helping other people out. They're not saved. And you know what? A lot of those people, it's like the people who, maybe they were drug addicts and were thieves and lived a bad life and then they've turned their life around and have gone to some AA meetings or gone to some NA meetings and now they're serving other people and they're trying to help other people and trying to do this great community service and great work, but they're not saved. They've got this great changed life testimony, but they're not even saved. Now look, praise God. God is able to help change your life and transform your life outwardly, yes, and I would that everybody who got saved had that outward manifestation and was able to overcome their flesh and walk in their spirit more and more and more and more every day. Yes, that would be great, but seeing what a person does in their flesh does not prove salvation or disprove salvation. What do they believe in their heart? Bottom line. And why does this make me so angry? Because I could've easily been one of these people that could've been looked at and they said, oh, that person can't be saved. Because if you looked at my life, I wasn't serving God at all. But you know what the fact of the matter was? I was ashamed and embarrassed to say anything about the Lord because internally, I was being chastened and convicted of what I was doing, but I did it anyways because the sinful flesh was a big draw. And I didn't need anybody telling me, well, you must not be saved then. Yeah, okay. Well, you can't see what's going on internally. And there's a reason why the Bible says quench not the spirit because it's possible to quench the spirit. It is possible to get away from God and to backslide and to start living a life and just not wanting to think about it, not deal about the things of God. You can do it. I don't recommend it, but it's possible for a saved person to go down that path. Otherwise, why do we have to say, hey, let every man that thinketh he saith and take heed lest he fall? Why? If I'm just going to continue to just get stronger and stronger and stronger every day, then who cares, right? If I'm really saved, then that's the way it's just going to be. No, no, no. As far as a word of prayer, Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for changing us by saving us and creating this new life within us. Lord, I can't wait for that redemption of our body. That is going to be awesome, Lord. We love you. We thank you so much for giving us this great free gift of salvation, with giving us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, with giving us this new spirit to walk in, dear Lord, and giving us all this truth from your word that is just so wonderfully consistent, dear God. I pray that you please help us and continue to learn and grow in our faith and our understanding every single day, Lord. We love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? Yes, sir. All right, church, if you can open up your hymnals to song number 207. One, two, zero, seven. Song 207, only a Center. Song 207. All in the first... Not have I gotten But what I've seen Praise, bless the relations High and clean Oh, space to live, wide-eyed face, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace, only sinner, saved by grace, only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story, to God be glory, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Once I was cool, they should see and rule my heart, causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus has found me, had been my case, I now am a sinner, saved by grace, only a sinner, saved by grace, only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story, to God be glory, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Tears unfailing, no mirror in an eye, mercy has saved me or else I will die. Sin fell on me, fearing God's face, but now I'm a sinner, saved by grace, only a sinner, saved by grace, only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story, to God be glory, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Shout for a sinner who's hard over fun, loving a sinner to tell what he knows, once more to tell it, would I embrace, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, saved by grace, only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story, to God be glory, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Thanks for watching!