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 Church
  4712 Montana Ave
  El Paso, Texas 79903

Contact us at:

• web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church
  call/text: (915) 843-8088
  email: ThornCrownCovenantBChurch@gmail.com

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