Informed Faith Comes First | 1 John 3:23-24

Lord's Day: May 25, 2025  Preacher: Carlos Montijo  Series: First John  Topic: Faith  Scripture: 1 John 3:22–24; Mark 1:14; Matthew 3:8; Acts 26:20; John 6:29, 63; 5:46–47; Hebrews 11:8–10, 17–19; 1 Corinthians 2:16; John 8:51 23And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He gave a commandment to us. 24And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave us. 1 John 3:23–24 Our prayers must be informed and guided by Scripture, just as our faith must be informed and guided by Scripture We are commanded to first and foremost understand and believe the truth (Mark 1:14) Faith always comes first, then good works follow, then we do works “in keeping” with this saving repentance and faith (Mt 3:8, Acts 26:20) Obedience does not follow faith, because believing is the first act of obedience, even though our belief is not our good work—it is the work of God (John 6:29) I.  There is no difference between believing “in the name of His Son Jesus Christ,” or believing in Christ, or believing Christ, or believing the words of Christ II. Do not be misled when people say that true faith is not believing things about Christ, but believing Christ Himself III. Take Abraham as a prime example of faith, true faith IV. Union with Christ 1 John 3:24 teaches us a universal union with Christ, but also a particular union with Him—a personal one, through faith—by His Spirit, His anointing "The New Testament does indeed teach a mutual indwelling of Christ and the believer. There is a very real sense in which minds interpenetrate. In I Corinthians 2:16 Paul asserts that 'we have the mind of Christ.' Christ dwells in us and we in him by our thinking and believing his doctrines. As John says in his Gospel 8:51, 'He who maintains my doctrine shall not see death, ever.'”[1] 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 [1] Gordon H. Clark, First John: A Commentary, Trinity Paper, No. 2, 2nd ed. (The Trinity Foundation, 1992), p. 120 <https://www.trinitylectures.org/first-john-p-85.html>