I'd like for you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1 John, chapter 3. 1 John, chapter 3. This evening we're here to worship
our Lord in the hearing of the Gospel, in the praising of His
name and singing of songs, and of the remembrance of our Lord
in the taking of the Lord's Supper. And I pray that the Lord bless
these services this evening. 1 John chapter 3, verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it does 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. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for
the blessed and glorious privilege to be able to come together and
to hear the preaching of the scriptures. We ask that you'd
bless the service tonight. Lord, as we hear the gospel,
may it go forth in power. Lord, as we remember you in the
taking of your supper, give us heart to remember. And these
things we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. From the Scriptures, and that's
the only way we know, from the Scriptures, we know that the
Bride of Christ was given to the Lord Jesus before the foundation
of the world. Before Almighty God ever created
this globe, before the heavens, the sun, the moon, the plants,
the animals, before anything was ever made that was made,
we were His. We were found in Him, known of
Him, in what the Scripture reveals as electing grace. God elected a people. and given to Him eternally, and
not having fallen yet, we were seen and known as God created
us. Innocent. Not in a state of rebellion.
In that state that the Scripture declares in Psalm 45, verse 13,
the King's daughter is all glorious within. But something happened
and man fell, not unknown to God. And in that former state
of glory, being innocent, we became something that we were
not. We were now guilty. We were rebels
against God. Our understanding had been darkened. We had no light. And that former
state and being brought back to it is something that we know
about in this scripture, Psalm 69, verse 4. They that hate me
without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They
that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored or I returned. that which I took not away."
The Lord gave back to us something that we formerly possessed. Now Christ is revealed to be,
in Isaiah 58, 12, the repairer. Listen to this, the repairer
of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. So he's restored something. He's put us back into a state,
but more than a state that we had before. By Adam's transgression, we lost
something. Now the Lord said, I restored
that which I took not away. What did He restore? What did we lose? Well, I can
tell you the first thing we lost. We lost life. That's the first
thing. We lost spiritual life. The day that you eat, you're
going to die. We lost happiness with God. We lost that fellowship and peace
with God. It was gone. And man, when he
rebelled against God, what was the first thing that Adam did? He tried to provide himself a
covering. He was going to cover himself
before God because he knew he was naked. He took some fig leaves
and then hid. He's going to hide from God,
because now he didn't have the image of God in his heart, and
now he's separated from God. Separated. But Christ being the
surety and the representative of God's elect, and by his obedience
to the law and his suffering at Calvary, he restored that
which he took not away. He didn't take it away. We're
guilty. We're at fault. All of us are
at fault. And we received, as I mentioned
a moment ago, something in that restoring grace, not only that
we had before, but we got more than we had before. Had we only
received that which we had, If we were brought back to the exact
same state of innocency that we had before, just back to that
position, we'd still be liable to fall. Because we fell the
first time. And I can tell you, if we were
brought only back there, we'd do it again. But the Lord Jesus
Christ did something for us. that we could never do for ourselves. He suffered the penalty of what
we had done. He bore in his own body our sin. They were his sin now. That's his sin. Mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me. They were His. He was made sin. And when He hung upon that cross,
that was His sin. You say, well that was our sin.
Yeah. But it was mysteriously, powerfully,
wonderfully, that was made His. And He's dying now, hanging on
that cross, not as a sinner. If anybody ever tells you that
Christ hung as a sinner, that's not true. You said, you're just
splitting hairs. No, I'm not. There's a big difference
in being made sin and being made a sinner. What's the difference?
A sinner is a disobedient one. By one man's disobedience, he never disobeyed God. He was
made sin. but never a sinner, never. My obedient, my faithful servant,
he is the faithful servant, made sin. And he died under the justice
and the judgment of Almighty God's wrath. And now having put
away, put away our sin, and robing God's people in his righteousness. And listen to this, and the Spirit
of God seals us. And we're sealed by the Spirit of God. And we're
kept by the power of God through faith. For God's people, now
you listen to me, you can't fall. You cannot fall. God Almighty
is going to have to fail to keep His people for you to fall again. We're kept by power, kept by
grace. The worst scenario possible happened. We rebelled against God and fell.
Fell in trespasses and separated ourselves. But the best case
scenario for a sinner was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ for
His elect when He redeemed them from the fall, saved them by
His grace, and sealed them by His Spirit. Oh my, He loved us. That's what He said, I loved
you with an everlasting love. Loved us before the fall, loved
us in the fall, and loves us still. as a loving husband, gave himself
for us. The scripture says that he might
sanctify and cleanse us with a washing of water by the word,
that he might present us to himself a glorious church, not having
spot, no wrinkle, or any such thing, but we should be holy,
without blemish, not liable to fall. not liable
to separate ourselves again, kept. Now that's security that
God Almighty would keep us. Now knowing what the scriptures
say about our state before God, knowing something of the unchangeable
love that the Lord has for his people, and seeing the effects
that sin has upon us. Listen, here's the state of a
believer. He's got an old man that's wretched. He's got a new man that sinneth
not. He's got an old man that can't
do anything but sin and a new man that can't sin because his
seed remaineth in us. and to see that state of what
we are in ourselves and who He is. And we see how far we fall
in our inability to measure up to what we know we ought to do. We say as David, Psalm 51, after
he had taken by Sheba, and Nathan the prophet came and said, you're
the man, David penned this, Scripture, I acknowledge my transgressions,
my sins ever before me. Think of how we are right now.
Here we are, we're believers. Living in this body of death. Walking around in this body and
we think things and we say things and we do things that we're so
ashamed of. And we think, how can I How can
I act? I think of that song by John
Newton. If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard His name. An unbeliever that acts so disrespectfully
and cares nothing for the things of God. and takes the things
of God and treats them so disrespectfully. And I'm thinking, I do that too. I do that too. If we say we have
no sin, we make God a liar. We are sinners. Oh my brethren,
you that have by grace truly realized that you have no hope. old self-righteous works of false
religion. You, like me, that we have those
doubts that appear to question the sincerity of our love for
Him. I think, how can I do the things
that I do? All of us that have truly seen
our righteousness to be nothing as filthy rags, I've got a word
of hope and comfort. for those that truly have cast
themselves upon His mercy. This is the first scripture right
here. Beloved, you who are truly beloved of God, you that love
one another, beloved, now are we the sons of God. Though we
carry about this body of sin and death, we possess right now
All the promises of life in Christ. Hold your finger right there
and turn to Romans 8. Romans 8.14. All these promises. Romans 8.14 to 17. We've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. But we've received the spirit
of adoption. whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together. For
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. Right now, We're being led by
God's Spirit. Those that are led by the Spirit
of God are the children of God. Now, I got to thinking about
that. Those that are led. What do you mean? Well, I tell
you what a believer is being done. First of all, he's led
away daily, constantly, hourly, momently. Led away from the love
of sin. Now, I can't do anything but
sin. That's all. I cannot escape it. I just can't escape it. And I
hate it when I recognize what I do. There's things that I do,
I don't even have sense enough to know what I'm doing. I don't
have sense enough to know the lack of respect. I think, well,
I wasn't doing anything. I was just sitting here. Well,
in that just sitting there, You weren't praising Him with the
whole heart as He's worthy to be praised. We've never done
anything but sin. That's all we do is sin. But
I can tell you this, I'm being led from the love of it. I don't love it. I do say as
Paul, I see in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good
thing. I'm being led, those that are
led by the Spirit of God, I'm being led constantly away from
trusting and depending on my own righteousness. You say, oh,
I got away from that years ago when I gave my heart to the Lord. A believer is constantly fleeing
from the love of His own self-righteousness. We never get away from being
led away from that. We're always thinking of ourselves
higher than we ought. We're always thinking, well,
I tell you what, I know I'm not perfect, but... No, you're right. In yourself, you're not perfect.
But I tell you, there's an old man that just keeps telling you,
Marvin, you ain't that bad. You just, you know, I think you're
really starting to appear to be pretty faithful. I'm constantly
desiring Spirit of God, take me from that. I'm constantly
being led to cast myself afresh on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
help me. Lord, please help me. Lord, you
said, you said if I knocked, you'd open. Lord, you said. If
I'd seek, I'd find. If I'd ask, it'd be given me. Lord, You said that. And I'm
doing all I know to do. I don't know anything else to
do but to come. Lord, I'm coming. I'm coming
in my heart. Lord, please hear me for Christ's
sake. Lord Jesus, help me. Holy Spirit, help my infirmities. I don't know what to pray. I
don't know what to say. I don't know how to ask. I don't
know how to knock. I don't know how to seek. I don't know how
to do anything. Constantly being led. Casting
ourselves upon Him. Constantly be led in fellowship
with Him through the hearing of the Gospel and the study of
His Word. I need to hear again. I'm not telling you as I've said
before, I'm not telling you anything you haven't heard before. But
don't we need to hear it again? I need to hear this again. Tell
me again. Tell me again what the Lord has
done for me. Tell me how He keeps me. Tell me how He directs me. I need to be led to pray. The Lord directs my heart to
pray. And then when I do pray, Holy
Spirit, help me with groanings that cannot be uttered. And Lord
Jesus, as I've read in Revelation, You take the prayers of the saints
and you present them to the Father in your essence, in your glory,
and in the perfume of your merit. Lord, would you present my prayer
like that? Lord, would you talk for me? Would you present my
case before the Father, before the throne of God? I mean, there's
a sweetness in just bowing. and just say, Lord, help me.
I am so weak. I'm so frail. We've received,
the Scripture said, the spirit of adoption Himself. The spirit
of adoption Himself who's taught us that we've been predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, to
God. That God who ordained us to sonship
has accepted us in the Beloved. And that's why we can, with some
assuredness, cry unto the Father as Abba, Daddy, Father. Hear my prayer. This is the assurance. It's not based on groundless
assumption. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit. He teaches us in heart, according
to the revelation of God's Word, that we are the children of God. What witness do I have? I believe
His Word. I believe it's God's Word. I
believe that I don't have any merit in myself. I believe that
my works of righteousness are filthy rags. I believe all that.
But the Spirit of God bears witness to my spirit. That I know Him. And I trust Him. And if we're
children, then we're heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. So if we suffer with Him, we'll
be also glorified together. Then he says, and it doth not
yet appear. Beloved, now we're the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. What do you
mean, John? It means that there's no image
in this world, there's no similitude in this life that we can look
at and compare or acquaint ourselves with in order to get an idea
or to explain to us what we shall be. It doth not yet appear what
we think. There's nothing that we've ever
heard or seen or considered. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. But we know that when He shall
appear Surely that refers to the second coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ when we'll no more see Him by faith, but we'll see
Him by undimmed sight when we behold the glorified Messiah
and we're caught up together with Him. We know that when He
shall appear, now listen, this is amazing, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Now, I believe that. I believe that with all my heart.
And the reason I say I believe that is because God said it.
We shall be like Him. We're going to be changed. Our
vile bodies are going to be made like unto His glorious body.
And we're going to behold Him undimmed, undimmed sight. We're
going to see Him. as He is. Not as we think He
is, not as the world says He is. We're going to see Him as
He truly is. And as much as we can comprehend
this truth, which is virtually nothing. I can't even enter in. Somebody said, would you explain
that we're going to be like Him? I can't even tell you. I won't
even try. I won't even begin. I'm just
going to let that Scripture right there majestically stand on its
own. Here's the truth. We're going
to be like Him. His image shall be perfected
in us. That's what it's saying. That
image in us that was marred in the
fall and restored in regenerating grace when He regenerated us
and we were born from heaven, born from above, born again.
And we talk about that, you know, it was just an event and I was
born again. I'm going to tell you something.
I can't even explain to you the depth of what happened. But I
can tell you this, when the veil of this old body falls off, and
we no more see through eyes of dimness, through a glass darkly
anymore, when I'm telling you, when we see Him as He is, when
we see Him, we'll be like Him. I pray that God bless our hearts
with this Scripture tonight. And as we remember the Lord,
in believers partaking of the Lord's Supper, that we might
truly be given a heart to remember something. And let us, in heart,
say unto Him right now, Lord, as you say it is, it is. That's
the way it is. As you say it will be, that's
the way it's going to be. And thinking on that, we say,
Lord, come quickly. Come quickly. Receive us according
to your everlasting purpose. Receive us unto yourself. For
Christ's sake we ask these things.