Beloved, You Are from God & Have Overcome | 1 John 4:4

Lord's Day: July 6, 2025  Preacher: Carlos Montijo  Series: First John  Topic: Assurance  Scripture: 1 John 4:2–5; Romans 1:25; 1 John 5:19; John 12:31; Ephesians 2:2; Mark 3:28–30; James 4:4; 2 Corinthians 4:2–4; Romans 8:37; John 15:17–21; Matthew 16:15–19; John 8:32; Matthew 18:18; 28:18–20; Hebrews 2:14–17; 1 John 2:19–20 4You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 Those who are not from God deny Him instead, and “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom. 1:25) — Either/Or I.  Conquerors & Overcomers 1 John 4:4 2—Law or Gospel? The apostle showers God’s people, “my little children,” with gospel indicatives What does the world mean in this passage? Unregenerate society as a whole, which is influenced by the spirit of the antichrist that “is already in the world” (1 John 4:3) and lies under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19) Who is “he who is in the world”? Satan II.  Haven’t the Antichrist and the antichrists overcome the world? John 16:33 2 Corinthians 4:2–4 There is no cosmic, dualistic struggle between God and the devil, Christ and Antichrist III. Haven’t the Antichrist and the antichrists overcome the church? Matthew 16:15–19 What is the church? taen ekklesian, the called-out ones chosen by God Roman Catholic Church-State claims to the papacy, Peter as the 1st pope IV. Amazing promise: No one and no thing—not Death, not the Devil, not any other power, nor anything else can ever prevail against us—God’s church, nor separate us from His greater love (Romans 8) 1689 LBCF 26.3: “The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error,1 [though] some have degenerated so much that they have ceased to be churches of Christ and have [instead] become 'synagogues of Satan'.2 Nevertheless, Christ has always had, and always will have to the end of time a kingdom in this world, made up of those who believe in him and profess his name.3” (1) 1Co 1:11; 5:1; 6:6; 11:17-19; 3Jo 1:9-10; Rev 2:1-3:22 (2) Rev 2:5, 1:20; 1Ti 3:14-15; Rev 18:2 (3) Mat 16:18; 24:14; 28:20; Mar 4:30-32; Psa 72:16-18; 102:28; Isa 9:6-7; Rev 12:17; 20:7-9 The churches and people who fall away and become apostate do not belong to Christ, Christ did not “lose” them We meet on Sundays for worship at 10:00am: ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church4712 Montana AveEl Paso, Texas 79903 Contact us at: web: ThornCrownCovenant.Churchcall/text: (915) 843-8088email: [email protected] Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com