We will do a little review since it's been a couple of weeks since we've been in First John. Some of the verses we've looked at basically from verse 18 of the end of the chapter. I'm not going to read all of it. I'm just going to kind of skip down through it to review and then we'll basically be looking this morning at verses 24 to 25 in more detail and 28 and 29. Now, it may seem like a strange section to take, skipping verses in there, but if you recall, a few weeks ago, I kind of treated some of this thematically and organized it by topic and theme, and so I jumped down ahead to some verses. brought them up to cover the issue of being taught by the Holy Spirit and the anointing we have from Him. So having already covered that, I will skip verses 26 and 27 and finish up the chapter 28 and 29 and do 24 and 25 before that. So my way of review, starting in verse 18, there's speaking of the Antichrist and that it is the last hour. when John wrote the book. The Antichrist is defined in the book of 1 John as the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. In the first century, that was the Gnosics. denied that Jesus was actually a human being. They say he was a spirit, he was not a human being. Flesh is evil, and Jesus therefore could not have had real flesh. He just appeared to have it. So that's what they denied, and they therefore denied the gospel, and they therefore shut themselves out of the kingdom of God. And this is the anti-Christ, the one who denies the nature of Jesus Christ. They deny the humanity of Jesus today. Most of the errors are on the other end of the spectrum, denying the deity of Jesus Christ, which you see in the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, and in Jews who are not Christian Jews, and in Muslims, and in pretty much everyone. There were many antichrists, false teachers, roaming around in the first century. There's not just one antichrist, there are many. They are basically the false teachers. And they also run around in ours. Second point, by way of review, false Christians don't remain in the true church. Verse 19. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us. So one way or another, false Christians leave the true church. Now that can happen in a number of different ways. In that day it happened by them leaving bodily from the gathering of the real Christians. So they depart from the truth first and then they essentially depart from those who are holding to the truth. Another way of doing this is departing from the truth while remaining bodily present for a time or for until the end, until you die. That happens quite often too. It's also possible to depart from the truth, and have many others depart from the truth, and you get so many numbers of people that depart from the truth, that those who hold to the truth have to leave. Because they're either forced out, or pressured out, or they're just... the pulpit has been taken over by an antichrist, a false prophet, who does not preach the truth. And so, the believers are the ones who end up leaving. But don't be mistaken. When believers leave because the truth has departed from the pulpit, they did not leave the church. They left the building. The church left the building. The people still sitting there listening to that garbage and laughing at it are not the church. Now, there can sometimes be believers who remain, for whatever reason, listing to garbage. But, for the most part, the Church is not there anymore. The Church has left. It's not that they left the Church. The Church left the building. This is the case of many liberal churches today. The truth has departed from the pulpit. False Christians are in the majority, and so they have no need to leave. The building, that is. The true Christians have oftentimes already left. Point three, by way of review. True Christians don't leave the truth and don't leave the true Church because they have an anointing from the Holy Spirit. See this in verse 20 and in verse 27. You have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. Verse 27, As for you, the anointing which you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. So that's why they remain, because the Holy Spirit is in them, teaching them, instructing them, anointing them with the truth. Very much like John chapter 16, verses 13 through 15, when Jesus says about the Holy Spirit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative. Whenever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. So you see there that he's the spirit of truth, and he guides believers into all truth. That's why they remain. Because he's in them, but he is not in false Christians. And that's why they don't remain to the truth, even if they temporarily embrace it. Last point, by way of review, the gospel is not merely the gateway to Christianity, it is the pathway. It is not something that just gets you in the door, it is something that if you walk in the Christian life, in deeper and deeper understanding of the gospel and its ramifications for your life, and how you should live, and redemption. Yes, I'm free from the penalty of sin, and then you grow in more and more understanding of what it means to be free from sin. Reconciliation. Yes, you enter the door of new reconciliation and the peace of God. But since I'm now at peace with God, what ramifications does that have now for me and the rest of my life? What difference does that make in the way I do my job at work? What difference does it make in the way I interact with my in-laws? What difference does it make for this and this and this? All kinds of things. So the Gospel continues to have its ramifications. And that's what we see here in this passage about abiding. Abiding in that which you heard from the beginning. So then we get into verses 24-25. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. Which I understand to be the Gospel, or the broad truth of God. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. Now, for you grammarians out there who just love grammar, you'll like this part. There's a difference in Scripture, just as there is in any language, between the indicative and the imperative. The indicative is a mood in language that describes a statement of being, reality. What is the case? Imperative describes to you what you should do. If I give you an imperative, I give you a command. If I give you an indicative, I merely describe what you are. It's like the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. It's not saying husband, be the head of the wife. It's not telling you what you should do. It's telling you what you are. That's the difference. That's an indicative, not an imperative. So, in verse 20, in verse 21, in verse 27, we have indicatives. Look at verse 20. You have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you all know. That's not telling you what you need to do, it's telling you what is the taste about you. You have an anointing. Verse 21. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it. He's not saying, know the truth. He's saying, you do know it. He's describing the reality. Then you look at verse, what did I say, 27? Verse 27. As for you, the anointing which you receive from Him abides in you. You have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and it is true, it is not a lie, and justice has taught you, you abide in Him. There, you're not being told to abide, you're being told that you do abide. You do abide in Him. It's a description of reality. Then we move on to the imperative. Look at verse 24. As for you, let that abide in you. Now this is something you're commanded to do, something you're supposed to do. Let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning. Look now at verse 28. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, you may have confidence and not shrink away from him as shame at his coming. Again, you're now being commanded and exhorted by an imperative to abide. So you do abide, now abide. He's describing that you abide, now abide. You'll see this all over the place in the scriptures. The point is, the indicative doesn't eliminate the imperative or the need for it. Descriptions of who you are and what is the case about you never eliminate the need for exhortations in being told what you should then do. And unfortunately, many people, because of an addiction to human logic, try to eliminate one or the other. Let me give you some examples of this. For instance, repentance is described in scripture as something that is granted. 2 Timothy 2, if God perhaps grants them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. On the other hand, people are told everywhere to repent. You see, the description of who people are, what they need, what the reality is, doesn't eliminate the need to be told to repent. Faith is described in Ephesians 2.89 as a gift, not of yourself, so that no one should boast. Nevertheless, people are told all over the place to believe, command to believe and put their faith in Jesus Christ. So the one does not eliminate the other. We can't set up these things in competition with one another. Another example, Proverbs 21.1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like a water horse wherever he pleases. Oh, well, then we'll say, I guess it doesn't, I guess there's no sense in praying for leaders since God directs the heart of the king wherever he pleases. Why pray? No. 1 Timothy chapter 2, pray for leaders and kings and all those who are in authority. You see, human logic would cause us to conclude, oh, well, since that's the case, I'll dismiss the other. Since God is in control, therefore human responsibility is eliminated. Since God is sovereign, I don't have to do this. That's exactly wrong. Away with human logic, and into the spotlight with divine logic. Let us embrace what he says is the case and what we should do, not what we're trying to figure out systematically according to human logic in our own minds. The biggest mistake is always to dismiss one of these sides of the truth in favor of the other. To dismiss sovereignty because of the focus on human responsibility, or to dismiss human responsibility because of the focus on sovereignty. Consider another example, John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Romans 10. How can they believe unless someone preaches to them? How can they hear unless someone is sent? And so the fact that God is sovereign in that issue does not eliminate the need for evangelism. And to go, because how can they hear unless someone is sent? How can they hear of him of whom they have not heard? And so here in this passage again, you do abide in Him. You have received an anointing, now abide in Him. We can't say, oh, well, I abide in Him. I'm in the door. I've made it. I'm a Christian. I got through the door. Now I don't have to do anything. Now I can just coast and sit back and relax. That's not the way it works. All over the place, these two things are combined together. Let me give you some examples. Philippians 2, 12-13, this is a great example. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. What? Work out my salvation? For it is God who works in me? To will? My will is even... He's working in me to will? So why should I be told to work it out? Because... Because God fed you. Because God understands the situation better than we do. He understands us, as human beings, better than we understand ourselves. And He fit the issues side by side. One person was often asked, how do you reconcile God's sovereignty with human responsibility? And his response was, I don't have a reconcilable trance. They were never in infancy. They don't need to be reconciled. Think of another example, Colossians 3, 12 and 13. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever hath a complaint against another, anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 2 Timothy 2.10, for this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who were chosen, that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with an eternal glory. And I said, well, if they're chosen, why does he need to endure all things for them? Because God said to. The two truths always go together. The biblical teaching, likewise, on the perseverance of the saints or preservation of the saints, some people call it eternal security, I don't really care for that term, but whatever term you're familiar with to describe the belief, not everybody holds this belief, I understand that, but the belief that once a person is converted, born again, they will forever remain converted and will not turn away from that, that Real converts don't do that. That teaching is based upon this very premise of the indicative and the imperative. The fact that just because you are saved doesn't mean that you can say, oh, now let's just toast. Now let's just sit back and go live according to the flesh. Because I'm saved, I'm in the door. Never, you can never draw that conclusion from the scriptures. You can never say, well, I'm saved, therefore I won't be vigilant, I won't be on the alert, I won't worry about fighting sin, I won't worry about growing in my knowledge of God through the Word, I won't worry about my prayer life, I won't worry about believing the devil and putting on the arms of God. The person who said that is not saved. There was no real work of conversion in the beginning. You just can't save that. It does not lead to fatalism. If you're reading Scripture and you're getting this teaching from scripture itself. But see, the problem is that many people today who teach so-called eternal security teach it that way. They separate Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord. They separate what you do as a believer from what you do as a disciple. They separate the offices of Christ, the prophet, priest, and king, and they teach a one-dimensional salvation whereby you can be saved from hell but not from sin. And so, yes, if that's the sort of thing that you're getting, please reject it wholesale, because that does inevitably lead to people who are so-called carnal Christians, people who claim to be followers of Christ, but do not have anything of a life like Christ. They, as Titus says, they profess to know God, but by their deeds deny Him. And as 1 John says everywhere, all over the place, if you say you have fellowship with me and yet walk in the darkness, you lie. If you hate your brother and you say you're a Christian, you're a liar. The Scripture doesn't allow you to do that. It doesn't allow you to do what most modern people, when they teach eternal security, teach. So the real doctrine of Perseverance, or preservation, or internal security, or one thing, it always is, or whatever you want to call it, has to be taught, if it's going to be taught, in such a way that human responsibility and the need to continue abiding is emphasized. A person doesn't continue abiding if they can never conclude that they were saved in the first place. Two things always go together. Looking down now, verse 28, And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, I'm sorry, verse 25, we're not ready for 28. Verse 25, this is the promise which he himself made to us, eternal life. Now think about for a minute the word promise. Is this a promise that's supposed to give you comfort? I would assume that it is. The book is written in 1 John 5, verse, 13. These things I have written to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know you have eternal life. So this promise, this is the promise he promised to us, eternal life. Surely, that's supposed to give you comfort. And so, let's think about why it is that so many people don't have comfort today, in spite of the fact that there's a promise. My promise is made, if you make a promise to someone, you say, I'll be there at six o'clock. Aren't you merely saying that you, as much as it is in your power to do, you will be there. This is not dependent upon them. This is what you are going to do. Not what they're going to do. You will be there at six o'clock. Or, I will pay you back. You're not telling them what they're going to do or making any conditions whatsoever upon them. You're saying what you are going to do. Well, the promise of eternal life is not saying what they're going to do. God is saying what He's going to do. I'm going to give you eternal life. So, is this a promise that can be nullified by us? Who is He promising this to? That's the big question. We'll get to that in a minute. The many people, I think, look at this promise much like the promise was in the Old Covenant, and therefore brings no comfort. Flip over, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 8, because if this promise is the same kind of promise made in the Old Covenant, you can't get comfort from it. The Old Covenant is essentially this. God says, I will bless you if you obey me. Well, that's fine as long as I'm obeying. But what about tomorrow? What if I'm not obeying tomorrow? What if I'm not obeying the next day? What if I don't remain? Then his blessing is essentially conditional in that sense. Picking up in verse 7, actually let's go back to verse 6. Now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant enacted upon better what? better promises. This is the promise he promised to us, eternal life. Okay, let's go on. If that first covenant had been faultless, that is, perfect and blameless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he says, behold, days are coming, he says, the Lord will also effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. That's you, by the way, Christians. Not like, not like. Notice those words? Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant. And I did not care for them, says the Lord." There's the problem. They did not continue in the covenant, therefore I did not care for them. So that's the kind of covenant it was. But what kind of a covenant is the new covenant? Verse 10 and following. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. The things that control what you do, the parts of you that control your thinking and control your affections, your mind and your heart, the laws put there, not on an external capital stone, but there and there. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the least of the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. So the difference between the new covenant and the old, the old, they didn't keep my covenant, and I did not care for them. And the new covenant, it's better, it's enacted upon better promises. The Law is written upon your minds in the New Covenant and upon your hearts, such that the conditions are not removed. The condition is, if you abide in Me, then you will have eternal life. And this is the promise that He promised us, eternal life. So, now in my background where I started from, if I abide, how will I know if I abide? How do I know if I'll abide tomorrow? How can I have assurance of eternal life if it's always dependent upon this if, which I don't know about? Because he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. The one who is the author of your faith is also the finisher of your faith. Because that's something that he undertakes to do at the new covenant. He writes his law in your mind and upon your heart. He changes you so thoroughly and so radically that you become a covenant keeper. You're not like the old covenant of Israel that breaks it. This is not, the analogy of a marriage won't work here in some sense. There is an analogy of marriage even in the new covenant, but this is not like a promise of eternal life. Like, okay, I promise no life. I'll be faithful to her, but that has no effect necessarily on what she'll do in response to me. There's no guarantee that I can personally maintain the marriage because she might demand it. Not so in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant, He has His law in our minds and in our hearts so that His house keeps the Covenant. And so the conditions still remain, if you abide, but for the Christian, the conditions are provided by God Himself, by the very nature and very work of salvation. Because the difference between the way He works in the New Covenant is that he provides an abiding spirit in you, so that when he then says, abide in me, the real believer says, yes, I will, I love to, that's where I love to be. And yet there are times when you can lose your assurance, because you can, in a sense, temporarily go wild, cease to abide in him, and sin, and rebel, and do those sorts of things. But if you do, he will discipline you. The Father disciplines those he loves. He will get you back on that narrow road. He will not leave you out there. Their sins I will remember no more and their iniquities I will forgive. I will be merciful to them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. It's not like the covenant which they broke. The covenant that's now obsolete. This is a better covenant enacted upon better promises. So who is the us that This promise is made to, this is the promise he made to us, that he promised to us eternal life. Who is us? Well, if it's the human race, there goes your insurance. If he promised eternal life to the human race, in general, to everybody irrespective of who they are, Then you look around and say, okay, well, that person's going to hell, that member of the human race is going to hell. What makes me any better than them? If his promise failed to them, it might fail with me. And then you'll be back to zero assurance of salvation. Let's suppose it's professing Christians, merely those who say they're Christians. Well then I'm in a much better category, because I don't know about you, but as I look around, I see a lot of professing Christians that don't live any different than the world, and seem to be headed down a broad road to destruction every bit as much as worldly people do. So if it's just professing Christians, and this promise of eternal life, well then I say, well, there's other people that are seemingly broke. They're in the bargain, and the promised animal's good for them, and so am I any better than them? And so then I have no choice but to become a liar. No, the us has to mean those who are real believers, whose life are characterized by all the tests and standards John has laid out. Those who love their brother. Those who keep the commandments. Those who walk in the light. Those who do not love the world, but the things of the world. Those who are not following the tendencies of the Antichrist. And so those people, and I hope you are among those people, who you read these tests and yes, sometimes you wonder and you think, well I'm not perfect there, but in general it describes you. You can have assurance of salvation. You can believe that God has begun a good work in you and will be faithful to complete it. Looking down at verse 28, there are those who do not abide, of course, And so they shrink away in shame from Christ at His coming, when He appears. They will be like those described in Revelation 6, where it says that the kings of the earth and the great men of the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said that the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us in the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For great, the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? There will be those, like Jesus said in Matthew 10, 33, whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Deny me, and I'll deny you, Jesus says. Mark 8, 38, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, In this sinful and adulterous generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of Him when He comes in the glory of His Father with His holy angels. How do you know that people are ashamed of Jesus Christ today? Well, if they're in a society where there's persecution and they will not confess Him, then you know. But in our society, where you will get, yes, thrown in jail for saying you're a Christian, the way you know that people are ashamed is if they are ashamed of this. How do you know they're ashamed of this? They don't read it. They don't like it. They deny it. They argue with it. How do you know if a preacher is ashamed of this? He doesn't preach it. Maybe he'll read a few verses and then the rest of what he says has nothing to do with what he read. He's being ashamed of it. He's being embarrassed. You're afraid of the intellectuals when they call the Word of God. Six days created, huh? No. And then the last verse, verse 29. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. So like Father, like Son. The one who is born of God is like God. God is righteous. The one who is born of God He's righteous like God. That's pretty simple, isn't it? Not real complicated logic. Like father, like son. Chip off the old block. Who are you a product of if you are born again? You are a product of God. Who are you born of? God. God gives birth to you. He is righteous, so are you. This is why, throughout 1 John, looking at chapter 1, verses 6-7, if we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. In the blood of Jesus, His Son cleansed us from all sin. The believer walks in the light, the true believer, who is born again because he is born of a Father who is light. Looking at chapter 2, verses 3-6, by this we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I've come to know him and does not keep his commandments, is a liar. Why is it that true believers keep his commandments? Because Jesus keeps commandments, and Jesus is in them. They're born of God. God keeps his own commandments. So do his children. So do those he gives birth to. Look at verses 9 through 11, chapter 2. The one who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling through him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness is blind in his eyes. Why is it that believers love the brethren? Because God loves the brethren and God is in them. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Why do believers not love the world system and the things of the world? Because God doesn't love it. And God is in them. And God gave birth to them. Like father, like son. Like father, like daughter. Think about this for a minute. I hope this is not a crude analogy. What do dogs give birth to? Dogs. And don't the offspring of dogs act like their parents? In a certain number of undistinguishable and inevitable ways, there are certain things they do because they have a dog nature. They mark territory. They roll on dead things. They chase cars. They bark. They like little enclosed quarters. They do all these sorts of things that are unique to dog nature. Birds, same way. Birds give birth, not to dogs, but to birds. Like the parent, like the offspring. The offspring fly, they make nests, they feed their young, and they do all sorts of things like their parents do. Why? Because they are united in nature with their parents. The children of God, born of God, born again by the Spirit from above, have the nature of God. Which is why, in 2 Peter chapter 1, he says, you are partakers of the divine nature. That is, through the letters, partakers of the divine nature. You have His nature. And so what is natural to Him, is natural now to you. Now, unfortunately, you still have a sin nature living side-by-side with it, which will increasingly get subjugated by the spirits, which is why you still sin. But, it is impossible for you to just live in bondage to sin when you have a divine nature in you that does not like those things and loves the opposite of those things. That's why it's not rocket science to figure out who's a Christian and who's not. We're not infallible. Sometimes we can be deceived. Sometimes it's cloudy. Sometimes we make the mistake of looking at a person's life in a narrow slice, a single frame. You have to look at more than that. If you look at a person's life when they sin, and that's all you use as your evidence, that's not fair. You wouldn't be a believer either if they looked at your life while you were sinning. But this is not rocket science, because God reveals Himself in the Scriptures, and He says, My children will be like Me. Like Father, like Son. We are born of the will of God. We'll close with this. I just want to read a few passages that speak of the fact that our birth in the Spirit, our rebirth, that is, is by the will of God. John 1, verses 12 to 13. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. As many as received Him. But what happened before them receiving Him? Even to those who believed in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So they were born, not by the will of man, but of God. God's will. 1 Peter 3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain inheritance. which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith or salvation, ready to be revealed for the last time." If that passage doesn't give you assurance, I don't know what will. If you're a real believer, if you're not a believer, it won't give you assurance, and I would want to give you assurance, because I would just be deceiving you. Many people need to get rid of their false assurance before they can be saved at all. Many people, unfortunately, have a false assurance of salvation. They need to get unsaved before they can ever hope to be saved. Because they're so convinced they're saved for all the wrong reasons. And that has to be stripped away and removed away so that a proper foundation might be built. A proper foundation for one's faith might be laid before them so that they can rest upon it. Of course, that's Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. A few more verses here. James 1.18. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be as it were the firstfruits among His creatures. 1 Peter 1.23, You have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, that is, it dies away, but of imperishable seed, that is, to the living and abiding Word of God. 1 Corinthians 1.30, By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that just as it is written, Let not the ghost boast in the Lord. See from this passage, finishing up chapter two here today, that the indicative does not remove the imperative. Jesus is saying to real believers, you abide in him, now abide in him, now remain in him. Statements of reality do not undermine or undercut or make irrelevant the need for continued exhortation. Let that divide into what you heard from the beginning, the gospel. It's not just the gateway, it's the pathway. You receive a teaching which teaches you about all things and keeps you in the faith. Don't be among those who rest your assurance, your basis for salvation upon a rotten foundation If you do, when Jesus returns, you will be ashamed of Him at His coming. He will be ashamed of you, and it will not be pretty. And then finally, if you're born again, you'll act like Him. You'll love the things He loves, you'll hate the things He hates, and in the increasing fashion, but in unmistakable fashion, you look like your Father. Let's pray together. Father, and what a privilege it is to address you that way, and to, by poison of our rebirth, which comes from above, that we might address you as our Father, our God, our Provider, One who loves us, One who gives us of the inheritance, One who gives us Himself. I pray, Lord, that for each person here today, those, Lord, who are in Christ Jesus, that they would have a stable and sound assurance based upon your work, based upon your promise, based upon the unmistakable standards of real Christian faith laid out in this book. Lord, for anyone here who's not in the faith, Lord, may they be un... deceived, may they not think they are if they're not, may they be awakened and see their Being, and begin to see Christ and His sufficiency, and begin to rest and trust in Him. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.