Lord's Day: August 31, 2025 Preacher: Carlos Montijo Series: First John Topic: Faith Scripture: 1 John 4:15; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 John 4:2–3; Mark 3:11–12; Matthew 25:41; Luke 15:25–32

15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 1 John 4:15

• There are familiar words, phrases, concepts that we have encountered before:
  • True believers, confession, assurance, mutual abiding/dwelling, God, love, God is love, glorification, eschatology ("day of judgment")
• Interpretive Principle: Whenever the word God is used, without any other qualification or reference to a specific Person of the Godhead, it usually refers to God the Father

I. Believers know that they belong to God and confess that reality

• God’s love is final, immutable (never changes), never fails (1 Cor. 13:8)
• Confessing that Jesus is the Son of God means that you willingly believe, and accept, and receive everything He taught, even though we may not understand all of it perfectly, and are committed to “keep all that He has commanded you” (Matt. 28:20), without hypocrisy and without denying or rejecting the truth of God’s Word that you do understand.

II. What confession is not…

• Important to both affirm and deny, compare and contrast, for clarity and understanding
• This is not a false, hypocritical confession, or a partial confession that willfully denies other primary doctrines (like cults do), but a true confession of faith in the true gospel
• Mark 3:11-12
• The Prodigal's older brother, Luke 15:25-32

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• 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