if you would, to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3, the name of
the message is love and action. Love and action. 1 John chapter
3. Now we've been looking at chapter
3 of 1 John the last couple weeks. We've been in verses 11 to 16,
where we've seen John last week, where we saw John bring forth
El. That as a result of the believer in Christ being born again, that
there have a love for fellow believers. And this, of course,
is a fruit of the Spirit. It's not something that we muster
up. It's a fruit of the Spirit. We know regeneration is a work
of God. And the love that we have for
the brethren is the Holy Spirit working in us. And he gives us
that love. He gives us that love. And it's all by his almighty
power. Just like he's given us faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, we can't do that in our natural state. And if we're born again, and
if we've been granted faith to believe, we will love the brethren. We will love the Lord's people. In contrast, John has bought
forth that those who are dead in trespasses and sins, they
have absolutely no love for Christ, and they have no love for God's
people. And last week, we looked at verse 16 of this chapter,
where it's brought forth very clearly, as Brother Chet brought
forth in his prayer, that Christ laid down his life for his people,
for his sheep. That's who he died for. I was
talking to someone today on the phone. They called me, asked
me some questions. And I was talking to them. And they said, well, you know
Christ died for everyone. And I said, well, you know, if
Christ died for everyone, everyone would be saved then. But I asked him, I said, is everyone
saved? And he said, no. I said, you
know who's saved? The ones for whom Christ died
for. That's who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. It's
a work of God. It's his work, and his work alone. And he receives all the glory,
honor, and praise So last week we looked at that
verse 16, and it brought forth again very clearly that Christ
laid down his life for his people, his sheep, those who are regenerated,
those who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. John penned
these words to them. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Remember, he's writing to believers.
He's not writing to unbelievers. He's writing to believers, those
who've been born again. Hereby perceive, And we looked
at that word in the Greek, it's know, it's gnoska, it's to know
intimately. We know this intimately. The
love of God, because he laid down his life for us. He died
for us. We have to lay down our lives
for the brethren. So the love of Christ is sacrificial love.
And our love for the brethren should be sacrificial love as
well. It's sacrificial love. And we're seeing tonight that
this is true of the love that the believer has for one another.
The scripture tells us we're to esteem each other better than
ourselves. We're to esteem each other better
than ourselves. And we're also to bear one another's
burdens, aren't we? When you hear someone going through
something, what do we do? We pray for them, don't we? Because
we love them. Now, we pray for unsafe folks, too, as well, when
they're going through things. But there's a special thing when
you're praying for one of God's people, one of your brothers
and sisters in Christ. You have a real burden for them. And we help one another when
we have the means to help, too, as well. Let's read verses 16
to 24. Hereby perceive we, or hereby
know we, the love of God, because he laid down his life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso
hath the world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if
our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth
all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we
ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and
do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His
commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment. And
he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him. and he in him,
and hereby we know that he abided in us by the spirit which he
hath given us. So notice in verse 17, let's
look at verse 17 here. And we see the love for the brethren
in action. It's in action in this verse. John is bringing forth common
duties of love for the brethren. It says this. But whosoever hath
this world's good, and seeth his brethren have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? So we see here that the love
for the brethren that the believer has is demonstrated in this verse.
If we see a brother or sister in need, we are to help them
as we can. And this is love taking action. This is love taking action. Listen
to what Brother Henry Mahan brings forth about this verse. He says,
no one truly has the love of God in him or her, a love for
the brethren, unless he or she really demonstrates that love
and cares when the occasion occurs. And this is what God's people
do, don't we? We do this. And notice John uses the negative.
He uses the negative to bring this to our attention. Let's
read the verse again. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth
his brethren have need, and shutteth up the bowels of compassion from
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? He's using the negative
to bring this to our attention. He's bringing forth the negative
in the fact that if someone knows the brethren have a need, and
they have the means to help them, and they shut up their bowels
of compassion towards them, well then he's saying, how does the
love of God dwell in them? Now, we know our love is fickle.
We know that. We know our love is fickle because
we're sinners. We know that. And we would never hold anything
and say, I love the brethren because I've done this. No, we
don't do that. We don't do that kind of stuff. No. No. John approaches this again
by the negative. And remember, this is the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God that he's bringing this forth. And
we know the scripture says faith without works is dead, right?
We know that. But you know, we don't know even when we do those
works. That's the amazing thing about it. But here we see a situation,
though. If a brother or sister's in need and we have the means
to help them, then we're to help them. In no way do our works justify
us before God. Religion says they do. Grace
says they don't. But the scriptures say faith
without works is dead. Well, the old-timer preachers
used to say that our works are just evidence of grace. I like
that, because that's the truth. They're evidence of grace. They're
evidence that a work of grace has been done in us. Because
you know why? We probably wouldn't have done that for a believer
in Christ before we were saved. unless they're like a close relative.
But even then, we might not have done it. Might not have. So this love John is bringing
forth, this brotherly love, again, is spiritual love. We know that.
It's not natural. It's not a natural love. And
it's a result of our connection with Christ, not our labors.
Always remember that, too. Because in religion, they try
to get people to muster up the love for the brother. And you
know what? You can't muster that up. Because
it's a fruit of the spirit. It's his work in us. And as we
grow in grace, our love for the gospel grows, our love for Christ
grows, and our love for the brethren grows. It really does. It's all the work of God. So
always remember that. that this brotherly love comes
as a result of our connection with Christ, not our labors.
Again, it's the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, where this
brotherly love does not exist, what can we conclude? Well, John's
bringing forth that if this is the situation, if you see a brother
or sister in need and you show up your bowels of compassion
for them, it says then, how dwells the love of God in him? So John's bringing forth that
the love of God does not exist in the person even if they're
professing in doing a situation here. And we see clearly stated
here that the brother or sister, if the brother or sister's in
need, we who profess to know God, if we have the means and
if we have the ability, then we're to help them out. Then
we're to help them out. This is just practical teaching
here for all of us. And Grace Churches do this. We
send money to help people out all the time. Not everybody knows,
but off it goes. It's not for any reward or any
for glory or anything. And I bet you each of you help
people out when you have the ability to and the means to do
that. We just do it. We just do it. So it's instruction for us. And
bring this home. That's another thing to hold
on. Another thing is, this is a very
personal address. John is writing this to specific
saints, too, that he knows. It's a personal address. It's
meant only for the one who reads it. If this portion of scripture,
the reason I say this is because religion can take this and use
it as a hammer. And that won't happen at Grace Church. Not at
all. Not at all. We don't use the
scriptures as a hammer. Now, if we get dinged through
preaching, that's God the Holy Spirit doing it to us, isn't
it? But no grace preacher will she or she, not at all. That's
just not what we're to preach Christ. But I want to bring it
home to us now. Think of the need we had. Think
of the great need we had. We had a need, a debt of sin A great debt, every
one of us who believe, we had a great debt, a sin, a mountain
of sin that we could never pay for. And Christ moved by love, moved
by eternal everlasting love. And remember, this is the love
of God manifested towards we who are his people. Christ died for us. He came to
this earth to redeem us, to purchase us with his own precious blood.
And we had a debt that we could never pay. We were in need. We
were in desperate need. And our Savior comes to redeem
us. Oh, my. What great love. What great love. He paid all our debt, beloved.
He paid all our debt at Calvary's cross, all of it How? By the shedding of his precious
blood. And oh, how the love of Christ,
oh, how the love of God was manifested right there. Because each one
of us as believers, we can look there and say, he did that for
me. His love was manifested for me. Every believer can say that.
He paid my debt. that I could never pay. And I like to say this all the
time, he did it willingly. Freely we are redeemed, saved
by his precious, precious grace, all by the substitutionary sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Now let's look at verse
18. It says, my little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in
truth. So again, we see instruction coming to us as believers. Brotherly love that John is speaking
here does not just love in word. It just doesn't love in word.
It's not just mere lip service. But it's manifested in deed and
in truth. Listen to what Brother Henry
brings forth on this verse. Let us not merely profess with
our tongues that we love one another, but prove it by deeds.
For this is the only true way of showing love. We read in scripture
of the work and labor of love. Talking about love is mere show.
Demonstrating love in meeting the physical, material, and spiritual
needs of others is love and truth. Now let's read verses 14 to 18
here to get the context of all this. We know that we have passed
from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal
life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he, being Christ, laid down his life for us, for
his sheep. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him. My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. Now again, we know that everyone
comes into this world dead in trespasses and sins. We know
that. The scriptures have taught us that. And the desperate need
of salvation. And we know that God has all
power and ability to save. And we know that Christ has loved
his people before we loved him. And we see in verse 16 there
that the believer perceives, knows in the Greek, the love
of God because Christ laid down his life for us. Do you know
that God demonstrated his love for his people and sent him to
Christ to die on the cross for us? God the Father demonstrated
his love and sent him to Christ here. And again, like I said earlier,
if God loved everyone, then everyone would be saved, wouldn't they?
Well, we know not everyone's saved, but we know that all of
God's sheep are saved. All for whom Christ died for
will be saved. There won't be one missing, not one. Turn, if
you would, to 1 John 2. We know from studying this book
that John is bringing forth how the believer can know that we
have eternal life. We're going to see that even
more as we continue our study. This book is written for the
believer to know that we have eternal life, to give us assurance. And the assurance isn't found
in us. The assurance is found in Christ and through Christ
alone. Look at chapter 2, 1 John 2,
verse 3. And hereby, we do know that we
know him if we keep his commandments. We know when we looked at that,
that's believe in his word. Keeping his commandments is just
believe in his word. Believe in what he says. And
then look at verse 5. But whoso keepeth his word, in
him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know that we
are in him. Well, there we see that we know
that we know him. And in verse 5 brings out that
we know we're in him. And then look at verse 21. I
have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it, in that no lie is of the truth. Well, the believer
in Christ knows the truth. Because we've been taught the
truth. It's been revealed to us. It's been revealed to us. Now let's go to chapter 3. Look
at verse 5. And you know, being Christ, that
He, that's Christ, was manifested to what? To take away our sins.
And in Him is no sin. We know these things, don't we?
We know Christ is the sinless, perfect, spotless Lamb of God.
And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins. And every
believer says, that's my sins. Mine. Wonder of wonders, Christ died
for me. And then look at verse 14. We
know that we pass from death unto life. We looked at that.
We looked at that a little while ago. We pass from spiritual death,
we're born dead in trespasses and sins, to life. And you know
what? We know that. We know that. We're born again.
We know that. Because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Then look at
verse 19. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. So we
saw that we know the truth. We saw that we know we're of
the truth. And that's Christ. He's the truth,
the way, the truth, and the life. And then look at verse 24. And
he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.
And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he
hath given us. Look at that. See how this book
is written for you to know and for me to know? Now let's go
to chapter 4. Look at verse 13. Hereby know
we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given
us of his spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within
us as believers. Oh, look at that. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him. He's the head, and we're the body. Now let's go over to
1 John 5. Look at chapter 2, or verse 2,
I'm sorry, chapter 2. 1 John 5, 2. By this know that
we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his
commandments. We know these things. We love
his word. We love his people. More importantly,
though, we love the Savior. We love the Savior. Then look
at verses 19 and 20. And we know that we are of God,
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that
the Son of God has come. and have given us an understanding.
We were in darkness before, weren't we? We had no idea of who God
was. We didn't understand his word.
We didn't know who the Redeemer was. We may have cooked up something
in our imagination that we thought was God, but it wasn't God. But
now we have an understanding because he's revealed himself
to us. That we may know him, that is true. Look at that. He's
given us an understanding of him. That is true, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we are in Him, that is true,
that's Christ. Even in the Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God in eternal life. And the believer in Christ
knows that we're in Him. And we rejoice. It's absolutely
wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I ran into
some JWs this week. Jehovah Witness, they call themselves.
They're not Jehovah's Witnesses. No. No, they're false. Lying
people. And right in front of me, right
in front of me, they denied, they denied that Jesus Christ
was God. They denied that the Holy Spirit
was God. And so I just told them that
I prayed God will open their eyes. He'll give them an understanding.
And I preached the gospel to them. Told them that my salvation wasn't
based upon any of my labors, and neither is yours, right?
And that we rejoice in that. But look at that last verse we
just looked at. If you deny Christ is God, look
at that. Look at verse 20, and we know
that the Son of God has come, the Word of God, and hath given
us an understanding that we may know him that is true, that's
God the Father, too, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And
we are in him that is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This
is the true God in eternal life. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit is the true God. And we know in Christ
who is God, is eternal life. Outside of Him, there's no eternal
life. You deny the Son, you're going
to hell if you die in your sins. My. Let's go back and read verses
14 to 18 again. This is a book written to God's
sheep. We know that we have passed, 1 John chapter 3, verses 14 to
18. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he, Christ, laid down his life for us, and we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath
this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him. My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Now
again, the sheep of God are those for whom Christ is loved from
eternity. He's loved his people from eternity.
They were given to him by the Father in the everlasting covenant. And so what security the believer
can draw from this portion of scripture, God the Father has
loved us for eternity, and he sent his son who was sacrificed
for our sins, who died the great substitute. Now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We
pray you in God's name, be you reconciled to God. How can a
man be reconciled to God? For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. We must be born again. You must
be granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Our sins are taken and imputed
to Christ, who is the sinless, spotless sacrifice in life and
in death. And his perfect righteousness
is given to us. Have you ever just stopped and
wondered in awe of that? That right now, right this second,
if you're a believer, that you are clothed. You can't see it,
can we? We can't see it. But that we're clothed in the
perfect spotless righteousness of Christ. Brother John, when God looks
upon you, he doesn't see John Kuhlman. He sees Christ. Isn't that wonderful, eh? Brother
Chet, when God looks upon you, he doesn't see Chet Mercer. He
sees Christ. He sees Christ. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Christ paid everything that the
law of God demanded for you, Brother Jeff, for you, Brother
John, and for all the elect of all the ages. He paid it all. Everything that God required
of us for payment for our sins, Christ did it all. Did it all. The perfect, sinless,
spotless Lamb of God. And that is where the love of
God for you and for me is manifested. Right there on Calvary's cross. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. All the love of God was manifest
to God's elect. at Calvary's Cross. Romans chapter
5, look at verse 6, and we'll read to 11, but we'll have a
little stop there at verse 8. For when we were yet without
strength, in desperate need, in desperate need, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly, that's what scripture calls us
in our natural state. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man Some would even
dare to die. Look at this though in verse
eight. But God commandeth his love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God commanded his love,
manifested his love toward us. In that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. We weren't even born yet. But it says there, well, we know,
well, first of all, we know when we're born into this world, we're
born dead in trespasses and sins, aren't we? Look at that. But
God commands his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. 2,000 years ago, the believer
in Christ could say, my savior died for me. Died for me. Well, we were yet in sin, Christ
died for us. This has reference to all who
are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. From Abel to
Paul, to you and me, to all the lost sheep who have not yet been
born again, beloved Christ loves his people. And that love was
manifested for us when he died for us on Calvary's cross. when
he redeemed us, shed his own precious blood for us. We who are sinners, the scripture
declares here, but God commandeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners. We're sinners by birth. We're
sinners by nature. We're sinners by choice. And
it says, but God commandeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Wonder of wonders. We had no love for God in our
natural state. We cannot please God in our natural
state. God is only pleased with those
who are in Christ, all because of what he's done for us. And
again, God sees his people in Christ when we say, praise his
mighty name. Look at verse 9. Much more than being now justified,
right now. Justified. Right now. Right now. Being justified by
His blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. All that wrath that should have
fallen upon us, fell upon Him. My, oh my. Look at what it says
in verse 10. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, that means
when we were dead in trespasses and sins, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. We joy, don't we, that all our
sins are forgiven. I take great joy in that. Now I know it was a great cost.
And I know it was my sins that put my Lord there. But I rejoice. Do you? You who are redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lamb, rejoice. Let it fill your heart with great
joy. All your sins are forgiven, because
God commandeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, and not only so, but we We
join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received
the atonement. A lot of the old timers break
up that word atonement, atonement. Atonement with God now. Reconciled,
peace, forgiven, freely by the grace of God and Christ. Think
of this, we were dead and he gave us life. We were unrighteous. we're made righteous in Christ
and we are fully and freely forgiven we are justified before God through
Christ and so what a great manifestation of God's love for his people
we've seen here in the scriptures look at verse 19 and hereby we
know that we are of the truth again we know we're of the truth
huh and shall assure our hearts before him take note of verse
19 here Because we love the brother and we know that we are of the
truth, the light. And by this cause and effect, by this cause
and effect, we assure our hearts before God. Look at there. It says, and hereby we know that
we are of the truth. The saints loving one another
in deed and truth, which they know is from God. Because remember,
we can't do that in our natural state. So we know that it's a
fruit of the spirit. We know that he is the cause
of this love. He is the cause of this love.
He's the one who makes it effectual. Again, it's the work of the Holy
Spirit of God. It's a fruit of the Spirit. And remember, God
cannot lie, and this is the truth proclaimed in these words. They're
authored by God, the Holy Spirit, who moved holy men to pen these
words. They were inspired by the Holy
Spirit of God. It's the Holy Spirit of God that's
the author of these words. And what comfort we can find
here as believers. The children of God are born
of him. They love those that are his. They are the body of
Christ. He's the head. He's the way,
the truth, and the life. He's the one we rest in. And
John is writing to those who belong to Christ by purchase. by purchase. And think of this,
he's writing to those who belong to Christ by choice. Now, you
get a free willer, he's going to run with that, right? Not
by our choice, but by God's choice. God's choice. We're made willing
in the day of his power. My, we're his by redemption. We're redeemed. Mine. And we're His by purchase, and
His by choice. And all these who are drawn to
writing, too, they got the Holy Spirit. And the fruit of the
Spirit appears in them. They've ceased from their labors,
haven't they? They've ceased from their labors. It's one thing
I asked those Jehovah Witness ladies. I said, well, you believe
you've got to work for your salvation, knock on so many doors and talk
to so many people? And they all said, yeah. I just
rest in Christ and what he's done. I've ceased from my labors,
and then I quoted that, come unto me all ye that labor in
our heavy laden. That's we who are sheep, isn't
it? We may have labored in religion at one time, or we may have just
labored in our own self. Now we cease from our labors,
haven't we? We're resting in the one who is the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. He's redeemed our souls. He's
the one we trust and rest in. We've ceased trying to save ourselves
and fled to the one who saves all who come to him. God's people love the gospel
of God's free grace. They love the word of God. They
love attending the church where the gospel is proclaimed. And
they love the people of God. And again, this is all a result
of the mighty work of God. The last place you would have
found me before I was saved was in the church. Is it so for you? Didn't even want to darken the
door of anywhere. And now I love being with the
Lord. How do you explain that? That's the work of God. That's
the work of God. So this is all this, the fact
that we love the gospel, the fact that we love his word, the
fact that we love Coming in here in the gospel, the fact that
we love his people is all a result of a mighty work of God done
in us. You're born again of the Holy Spirit of God. And then we who are the receivers
of that mercy and grace, we give God all the honor and glory and
praise, don't we? It all goes to him. It all goes
to him, everything. True believers in Christ are
real lovers of him. We really love the Savior. And those who are His, we also
love too. And we love not in word only,
but in deed and in truth. And then look at the latter part
of verse 19. And shall assure our hearts before Him. Let's
read that whole verse again. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure hearts before him. Now we all have a conscience.
We all have a conscience. We're all born with one, and
often time it condemns us. Often time it condemns us. It
brings forth our guilt, doesn't it? When one says, I cannot do this
or do that without a clear conscience, what they're really saying to
you is that, I can't do that without feeling guilty. That's
what they're really saying. I ask you, is there such thing
as a good conscience? Can the accuser that we are born
with be silenced? Can the conscience be silenced?
Because it constantly condemns us. Can it be silenced? Well, we know that it can't be
silenced by anything we do. We know that. It can't be silenced
by anything we do. And also not by deeds of the
law. We know that. Because such deeds only increase
the decibel level of our conscience. It only increases the condemnation
we feel. We know that religious service designed to keep the
law and render service to God is just dead works. Graveyard
dead, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. And yet guilt is
employed by religion. Guilt is often employed by religion. I saw it happen when I was in
religion, and I even said it myself when I was in religion.
Guilt is often, often employed by religion as an incentive for
religious service. It's used to motivate people
to labor for the Lord. Or it's designed to soothe one's
conscience. There's only one problem. It never works. It never soothes the conscience. It makes it worse. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 9. What does the scripture proclaim
will silence the conscience? What's the one thing that will
silence the conscience? Hebrews chapter 9. Yeah, you
know where I'm going. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter
9. We will see brought forth here
by the Holy Spirit of God, again, who is the author of the scriptures,
that only one thing will silence our conscience against ourselves.
The only one thing that will assure our hearts before God.
Only one thing. You know what that one thing
is? A perfect sacrifice. A perfect
sacrifice. And that perfect sacrifice, beloved,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed
his precious blood to redeem us from all our sins. Look at
Hebrews chapter 9. Let's read verses 6 to 15. Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. But into the second went the
high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself for the errors of the people. The Holy
Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was
not yet made manifest. Well, as the first tabernacle
was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could never
make him that did the service perfect, is pertaining to what? The conscience. Look at that. So all those animal sacrifices
could never quiet the conscience. What stood only in meats and
drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on
them until the time of Reformation. But Christ. But Christ. being common high priest of good
things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.
Oh, look at this. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. It's an accomplished
thing. He obtained eternal redemption. He did it. For if the blood of
bulls and goats, and ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? And for this cause he is the
mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Beloved, Christ is the perfect sacrifice. He is the sacrifice
that has nothing to do with my religious service or your religious
service. and yet produces true and makes
God's people acceptable to God, and makes our service acceptable
to God. Isn't that wonderful? Again,
it all goes through Christ. It's amazing. It's truly amazing
grace. Our conscience is only silence
when no grounds exist upon which it may accuse our hearts. Think
of that. Our conscience is only silence
when no ground exists upon which it may accuse our heart. It's
only assured before God, which we see in our text in verse 19,
in and through Christ. In and through Christ. who is
the perfect sacrifice. Therefore, the law of God can
never condemn us. It can never condemn us. And it will never condemn us
because Christ satisfied it in our place at Calvary's cross. Our sin, beloved, is washed clean
in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God remembers
our sin. No more. And think of this. There's no sin to record. What's he tell us? Now we know
we're sinners, don't we? We know we're still sinners while
we're on this earth. And he says, I'll remember your sin no more.
He doesn't keep a record of it. Back when I was in religion,
I used to think that That when I died, I'd stand in front of
God, there'd be a big TV screen, and all these things would go
on, what I did, and I'd receive a gift, some rewards, because
of what, what a, I won't even get into that. It was just, it
was bad. The law of God is fully satisfied. There's nothing to condemn us. There's nothing to condemn us. There's no guilt to condemn us. Because Christ paid everything
that God demanded for the redemption of our eternal souls. And he
obtained, remember, in the scripture, he obtained what? Eternal redemption
for us. This is wonderful. And remember, we've seen this
in Genesis too. Who's our reward when we get
the glory? Sister Nancy knows where I'm going. It's Christ!
He said to Abraham, I'm your exceeding reward. Just to be
in his presence. My, oh my. It's absolutely wonderful. And the reason there's no sin
to record, even though we're sinners, and no guilt to condemn
us, is all because of the sacrifice of Christ. The sovereign, successful, sweet,
substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, the believer. And because of him, the believer's
conscience is perched. It's quieted. It's silenced,
beloved. I like what one preacher said.
It's placed under a judicial gag order. He can't say anything. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those in Christ Jesus. Who can bring any charge against
God's elect? It's God that justifies. Every basis for our condemnation,
every basis for our judgment for the believer in Christ has
been removed. That's good news for sinners. That's real good news, isn't
it? That's wonderful news. Absolutely wonderful. Makes you
want to say hallelujah, doesn't it? What a Savior. What a Savior
is Jesus Christ, my Lord. All because of the sacrifice
of Christ. We have assurance before Him. We have assurance
before our great God. Just what John's bringing forth
in verse 19. Praise his mighty name. What
a Savior. What a King is Jesus Christ our
Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for allowing us to
gather together. Thank you for your goodness,
mercy, and grace. Thank you for the great pardon which we have
received, we who are your people. Fully pardoned, fully washed
clean by thy precious blood. There is therefore now no condemnation
for us who are in thee, O Lord. Oh, Lord, we glorify your name. We magnify your name for this
wonderful gift of salvation that we have in and through thee.
And oh, how your love for us was manifested at Calvary's cross.
May we think upon that this week. May we just joy in this full,
free forgiveness and pardon that we have in thee. Glory to your
name, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.