We were blessed yesterday to
travel up to see Brother Curtis Collins and his wife Charlotte. I think most of you probably
know Curtis. At least you have met him before. I don't know if you remember
him or not. Curtis just turned 95. He still gets around pretty good,
but he's limited in some ways, of course. But his mind is still sharp and
his heart is stayed on Christ. Long Curtis for many years, and
he, along with many others, was very instrumental in helping me as a young man to come to a clearer understanding
of the gospel. the grace of God, the mercy of
God. And throughout his life, he has
demonstrated faithfulness to that which he professes. And
that's a glorious thing. We read in the scriptures over in the 11th chapter of Hebrews,
it says, these all died in the faith. In order for a man to die in
the faith, he must be living in the faith. You can't die in
the faith if you're not living in the faith. And Brother Curtis,
he expressed that he He knew that his time here on
the earth is growing very short. But he said, if you hear that
I have died, don't believe it. Because he said, I'll be more
alive then than I am now. What a blessed hope for the children
of God. We're looking in 1 John chapter
three. I did want to point out one thing
that came to mind. Of course, as Brother Al ably
presented the account of the slaying of Absalom. which was
ordained by God, and though it broke the heart of David and
grief overwhelmed him, Yet it was ordered, and though he desired
even to die for his son, he did not curse God. He did not blame
God. But he was reconciled to the
will of God. But I thought on those two men,
those two messengers, Ahimaaz, who was anxious, to go tell the
king. And Joab told him, you don't
have anything to tell him. Well, he knew what happened.
And Joab didn't mean you don't know what happened. But he knew
that Ahimaaz was not a faithful messenger. And he knew that a
him-ass might go and tell David, but he wouldn't tell David what
David needed to hear. I suspect, being an older man,
I just suspect, that doesn't really say that he was, but I
gather that because Joab had confidence in sending Cushi,
he was the one that he sent, he had probably sent him, he
was probably a faithful messenger. He'd been sent many times before.
And Joab knew that he would bring the message that needed to be
brought. And of course we read there that Ahimaaz outran Qushai. But because somebody runs fast,
doesn't mean that they run well. It doesn't mean that they're
faithful to deliver that which is true. And there are many messengers
in the day in which we live. And many of them run very fast. Many of them run with much glory
surrounding them. Many of them, you know, are very
proud of how fast they do run. Cushaw was not concerned with
how fast he ran. Yeah, I'm sure he probably saw
him ass take off. You know, he was already outran
him. I mean, he knew he was ahead
of him. But he held not back the truth
that Joab sent him with. And may the Lord give us grace
that we might be as Cushi. We might run slower than some,
but may we run faithfully and tell that which is the truth
when we get to the place where we're going to tell it, you know.
Because there's many, many men today, unfortunately, and I say
this not with any boast or in any way to try to, you know,
you know, bring glory to myself in anything, because I might
tell a lie as easy as they would, but there are many today that
they're anxious to run, and they run well, as far as men can see,
but they don't tell the truth. You know, it doesn't make any
difference how much of the truth you tell. I mean, him ass did
tell some of the truth, but he didn't tell the whole truth.
So may the Lord give us such a mind. And we're looking in
1 John 3. It says, behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Now we've talked about this,
and in some ways this is a difficult passage to understand completely. But it's only difficult to understand
if we're convinced in our mind that there's something we can
do to produce righteousness before God. Now when a man is convinced
of the fact that he has no righteousness of his own, then I believe that the message
of what John is saying here is pretty clear. We have a great blessing, as
he says here in the first verse, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God. Why
should we be called the sons of God? Now, I would dare say
that majority of people in the world believe that all men are
the sons of God. And in some measure, as far as
creation is concerned, that's a true thing. I mean, we are
the creation of God. But because we're the creation
of God doesn't mean we're the children of God. Because the
children of God are those whom the Lord has determined to be
his children. And not all men are the children
of God. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
hear of your father the devil. So we know that all men are not
the children of God. It's a privilege. Man can't earn
that. Man can't do a thing to make
himself a child of God anymore than a man can make himself the
child of another person. You know, your father is your
father. and you are made his son. And
you can't become the son of somebody else. Now it's true you could
be adopted, but I'm talking about to be an actual son of somebody,
you have to be born of them. And that's exactly what the Lord
told Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, accept a
man, be born again. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God. Man must be born into the kingdom of God by the work
of the Lord, not by his own hand. And it is a privilege. It's been
bestowed on us. You know, if somebody bestows
something on you, you can't, there's nothing you can do about
it. You can't even get rid of it. You know, you might, in this
world, somebody might bestow something to you and you might
neglect it, but in reality, if somebody gives you something,
then it becomes yours. And, you know, it's been given
to you. And you can't pay for it. You
know, if somebody, if something is free, you can't pay for it. If somebody bestows something
on you, you can't earn it. And that's exactly what's been
given to the people of God. We're called the sons of God. Not just made the sons of God. The Lord didn't just make us
sons of God and keep it a secret. But he says, I have called my
son out of darkness. You see, he is satisfied with
those whom he has called his sons. In a measure, as we say,
an earthly father's proud of his son. You know, if he sees
his son's accomplishment. Or even if he doesn't see his
son accomplish anything. And he's proud of his son. Why?
Because it's his son. He may not be always happy with
everything that his son does. but he's always his son. Think
about David. We look at David and we say,
why on earth did he have any concern at all for Absalom? Absalom
was trying to kill him. Absalom was doing everything
he could to destroy David. And yet David grieved for him,
why? because he was his son. And so
it is, dear brethren, this is the blessing that's been bestowed
on the sons of God, to be the sons of God. And the Lord is
not ashamed, the scripture says, to call us brethren. What a glorious
thing. And he says, because the world
didn't know the Lord Therefore the world knows us not. That is, we are not in concert
with the world. When the Lord came into the world,
the world hated him. The world didn't receive him.
Why? Because he was that which was
contrary to their way. The children of God are the same
way. You know, we're not conformed to this world. We're not those
who are called to be like the world, but rather to be even
as Christ, because it knew him not, and it knows us not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. See, we're
not yet what we will be. We're certainly not what we once
were by nature. If we've been born into the kingdom
of God, we've certainly been transformed by the spirit of
the living God. We've been brought from death
unto life. But it does not yet appear what
we shall be. Just like Brother Curtis said,
you know that when he dies, He'll be more alive then than he's
ever been throughout his whole existence up to that point. It
does not yet appear what we shall be. But when he shall appear,
now when shall he appear? When does the Lord appear to
his children? When they die. In other words, they don't wait
around for a while and say, I wonder where he's at. Paul said he'd
rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord. and
we do believe that to move from this world as the sons of God
as we die, as we move from this life we are in the presence of
the Lord. Now why do we believe that? Well
because one of the main reasons, or I mean of course throughout
the Word of God we read that this is true But think about
the thief on the cross, what'd the Lord say to him? Now, you
know, a lot of times I like to ask people, who preached to the
thief on the cross? Nobody ever preached the gospel
to him, did they? I mean, how did he come to call
on the name of the Lord? because the Spirit of God awakened
him, because he was a child of God. It was bestowed on him. And the Lord said to him, this
day thou shalt be with me in paradise. He was gonna die in
just a few minutes, and the Lord said it's okay. He said to his
disciples, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
rooms. He says, I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Now
we do believe that there is coming a day when the Lord shall physically
and materially come back to the earth. But we believe that he
is definitely ever present with his children. And though we live
and we draw our last breath in this world, he's with us. And
when we awaken, We awake in His presence. What
a glorious thing. There's never a time when the
people of God will not be in the presence of God. He's held
us in the palm of His hand since we were born, before we were
born. But ever since we've been born,
we've been the objects of His mercy and His kindness. We didn't
always know it. But he brought us to that place.
And he is in the same fashion. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. We didn't know what we were before
the Lord brought us out of darkness and into the light. But think
of that magnified. We don't know what we yet shall
be. But by the grace of God, we shall see him. And the scripture
says we'll see him face to face. And when we see him, we shall
know him. Because we'll see him as he is.
Now, that's a glorious thing to consider, to see Christ as
he is, because he is high and lifted up. He's in a place of
glory. And every man that hath this
hope, what is that hope? that when he shall appear, we
shall be like him. That's our hope. See, that's
not a pie in the sky by and by. That's that which holds us up
in the time of trouble. It's not just something that
our mama told us or we thought might be true or sounded good,
but it's our hope. It's that which keeps us going
day by day. and every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." Now how
do you purify yourself? Now a lot of people think that
what that means is that we go out here and we perform some
activity that causes us to be pure. Now the Spirit of God does
work in the sons of God conforming us to the image of Christ. He
is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
That's the truth. But when it says that the man
that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, how
does that occur? It says he is pure. See, my purification is as He
is pure. I'm not expecting to purify myself
before the Lord and say, well, Lord, I've accomplished this,
I've went through this, I've done this, I've obeyed this,
and now I'm pure. I'm gonna present myself pure,
no. Our purity is in Christ, even
as He is pure. whosoever committed sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is a transgression of the law." Well that takes
the wind out of our sails, doesn't it? Whosoever committed sin transgresseth
also the law. And then he goes on down here
to say that if a man sins, he's of the devil. What do we understand about that?
You have to take this whole book from beginning to end. John talks
about what sin is, what we are by nature. And he said the blood of Jesus
Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. But if any man
say he hath no sin, then the truth's not in him. Now we know
what we are by nature. whosoever committed sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Sin
is defined. It's not walking according to
that which God has ordained in our mind, in our heart. It's
that which is our personal rebellion against the Lord. But then what
does it say here? And ye know that he was manifested
to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. So if a man purifies himself
as he is pure, how is he? He's without sin. He doesn't
have any sin. Now that, you know, might seem
contradictory. If you say you have no sin, the
truth's not in us. But the truth is that our sin
is taken away in Christ. And that's the message of this
book, is that John would have us to see what we are in Christ. And that is those who have no
sin. He says this, whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. Who abides in him? His children. I mean, do you abide in him by
your ability? I mean, can you by this afternoon,
can you abide in him more than you did yesterday? Can you bring
that to pass? Can you, is there some work you
can perform that will cause you to be more abiding in him? No,
we abide in him, why? How? Because we're his children. And this is the message, dear
brethren, that we are made pure in Christ, that he is our righteousness,
and whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. That's a glorious place to stand.
Now, we can't hardly believe that, can we? But it's true. Whoever's in Christ does not
have sin. We're not transgressors of the
law in Christ. We abide in him. Little children. He said, whosoever sinneth hath
not seen him, neither known him. Now, he's saying that in the context
in which he said, if you're in Christ, you don't commit sin.
But he says, if you commit sin, in other words, if you're out
of Christ, If you're walking in transgression to the law,
if you have no regard to the law of God, you do so because
you're not in Christ. Because those that are in Christ
have no sin. I mean, this is a glorious thing.
Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. Well, who is it that doeth righteousness? Christ Christ is our righteousness
and he doeth righteousness even as he is righteous see the children
of God are righteous as he is righteous not as they are I mean
your righteousness won't get you a hot dog it wouldn't buy you anything
in the courts of heaven it's not even the proper money that
can be transmitted there. There's only one righteousness
that's of any count or good in the kingdom of heaven, and that's
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he is our righteousness.
And we abide in him, not by something we do, but because of something
he does for us. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Now, the Lord, if he has set
us free from sin, and that sin is that work of the devil, and
the Lord set us free from it, he's delivered us, Then how are
we yet under the bondage of it? He set us free. And we do righteousness even
as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil. We're not of the devil. We're
not those that walk in the light of the devil. For the devil sinneth
from the beginning. He's the father of lies. And
for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested to do what?
Destroy the works of the devil. Has he done that? I believe he
has. Is he still trying to do that?
No, he came into the world to do that, to crush Satan's head. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. pretty strong words, is it not?
If a man's born of God, he does not commit sin. Now, if we're
talking about what we do every day, then, you know, that's very
confusing, is it not? Because there's no man, the scripture
says, that sinneth not. So what's he talking about? He's
talking about the place that God's people are in Christ. We do not commit sin. We are
born of God. For why? What's it say here? Whosoever's born of God does
not commit sin. Why? Because his seed remaineth
in him. Whose seed? The seed of Christ.
He is the seed of Christ. He's those who were made the
sons of God. The sons of God are the seed. of the righteous one, and he
has a righteous seed, does he not? Why? Because of what they
did? No, because of what he did. Because
of what he's made us. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, it remaineth
in him. It won't ever go away. And he cannot sin because he's
born of God. He cannot be, he cannot be in
sin. He's in Christ. He cannot be
destroyed because he's in Christ. In this, the children of God
are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. Neither he that loveth not his
brother. Now the Lord connects those two,
does he not? Because the same work that works
in the children of God to make them righteous before Almighty
God also gives them love, one for the other. John said, if
a man doesn't love his brother, the love of God's not in him.
That doesn't mean, well, you need to go out and love your
brother. In other words, you need to go and work at this so
that the love of God will be in you. No, he says, because
the love of God is in you, you'll love your brethren. We know,
he said, we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. Not on account of us loving the
brethren, but because of that which he has given us.
See, a man who is brought from darkness to light, been shown
what he is by nature, he can't help but love those who are of
light, precious faith. You can't hate those that love
Christ, can you? I mean, we might not always know
who they are, But we can't hate somebody that loves Christ. I
mean, if somebody wants to exalt and honor the Lord Jesus Christ
and fall down and worship him and knows that he by nature is
a sinner in need of a Savior and he wants to exalt Christ
as the only Savior of sinners, how can I not love him? I mean,
he's part and parcel of the same Lord that I am. He abides in
the same one that I do. How can I not love him? This is the message that we heard
from the beginning. He said, I'm not telling you
something you never heard before. You see, this is the very thing
that I've told you from the beginning, love one another. Is that not
what the second great commandment is? Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Now that's in the natural sense,
but we as children of God, even more so, because we have been
knit together in Christ. May the Lord teach us. That what
we are, I believe that that's what the gospel is. See, the
gospel is ordained by God to bring life and immortality to
light. It doesn't say, the gospel's
not ordained to bring life, because it can't. Only the Spirit of
God can give life. But it brings life and immortality
to light. It shows us what we are. And
the preaching of the gospel is designed for the sons of God
that they might know what they are in Christ. It's the work
of God from beginning to end. And we give him all the glory
and all the praise. And we boast in nothing. Brethren, let us not boast in
anything but Christ and His righteousness. You know, when men get to talking
about the things that they do in obedience to the Lord, they
will ultimately take some glory in it. Because what they'll do
is look at somebody else that's not walking as they see, think
they should, and they'll say, well, look at him. And when they
say, well, look at him, what they really mean is, well, look
at me. I mean, isn't that the truth? I mean, when you get up
on your high horse and you say, well, look at them, well, I'd
never do that. Well, you ought to give thanks
to the Lord, but don't be looking at them, because when you look
at them and look at what they're doing, what you're really doing
is saying, look at me, what I'm doing. We don't have anything
to boast in. I mean, because tomorrow we'll
depart from the Lord and won't walk anymore with Him the rest
of the days of our life if He doesn't keep us. But the promise
of God is that He will abide with us and that we hold on to
that. I want that. I want Him to hold
on to me and I want to hold on to Him. I don't want to be cast
off. And I certainly don't want to
cast him off. I know that I will if he doesn't
hold me, but I hope and I pray, I call out to him and I believe
what he said. And he said, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. He'll never, he'll never cause
a sinner that calls on his name to be ashamed. You'll never cause
him to say, well, I hope that he was my righteousness, but
turned out he wasn't. It'll never happen. I know sometimes
these things are hard to get, and if you take just verses one
or two, you know, out of, Say a book like 1 John and you just
take that verse and you read it and you don't look at what
the thing's talking about, you can get confused pretty quick.
And there's a lot of people that promote and set forth a lot of
lies out there that seek to promote the things people are doing.
Dear brethren, we won't exalt what Christ has done. and to
recognize that He alone is our righteousness before God. May
the Lord help us.