Chapter 2. I think before we
can really appreciate what's said in 1 John 3, we've got to
realize, know, and understand the condition that we were in
when our Heavenly Father sent His Holy Spirit to quicken our
dead hearts and give us life and grant unto us repentance
and grant unto us faith to believe in His Son. Now, because of sin and our relationship to it, we were dead and trespassed as
I did say. And it all started here. in the
Garden of Eden. Over in this 25th verse, I want you to notice that Adam
and Eve, they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they
were not ashamed. Now, this was before the fall. This was before they yielded
to the suggestions and the temptations of the tempter. He tempted them
and they bought what he had to say. And because of their willing
agreement with what he suggested, they fell. They fell from a state
of holiness, a state of innocence. When they fell, they lost all
of the innocence and holiness that they had. But it says here
that they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were
not ashamed. They weren't ashamed of their nakedness. You see,
clothing for the body is to cover the shame of nakedness which
sin brought upon us. Prior to the fall, Man and his
wife, in the Garden of Eden, were naked, but they were not
ashamed. We wear apparel now, we wear
clothes now, to cover the shame of nakedness which sin brought
upon us. That's the reason we wear clothes.
If you see a man running around, or a woman, without clothes,
you think they're lunatics, they're crazy, or something. And immediately
we call the officials and someone gets them and puts them away
and clothes them. You see, clothing for the body
is to cover the shame of nakedness. We have no better reason to be
proud of our apparel than the criminal has of his handcuffs
or the lunatic of his straitjacket. You see what I'm saying? I'm
saying prior to the fall. Prior to the fall, a man and
his wife in one another's presence were naked, but they were not
ashamed. I'm saying because of their disobedience
to the Word of God spoken to them, they violated His command,
and there was an infusion of sin into their bloodstream, and
their eyes were opened, and they discovered their nakedness,
and they were ashamed. And immediately upon discovering
their nakedness, they tried to cover themselves. You remember
it says that they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves
an apron. But that still didn't satisfy
them. It still wasn't covering enough
to hide their shame. So they went into the garden
behind some trees and hid from the presence of God. So, you
see brethren, what I'm trying to say is that we don't have
any reason to be proud of our apparel. We don't have any reason
to be proud of our clothing. no more than the criminal has
his handcuffs, or the lunatic his straitjacket, for the straitjacket
and the handcuffs are badges or signs of wrongdoing or insanity. So the clothing that we wear
is a sign of our sin. You ever think of it that way?
Well, that's the way it is. Clothing is a sign of our sin. And every time we get all gussied
up and buy new clothes and try to look nice and all that, and
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm only saying
that these clothes that we wear is a badge and a reminder and
a sign of sin. If it had not been for our disobedience
in our first parent, Adam and Eve, we would not have any clothes
on. But since we have sinned, well
then, we must cover our shame, cover our nakedness. And every
time we look upon clothes, I hope you'll remember, hope I'll remember,
that my clothes is a badge which points to the fact that I once
was a rebel against God and rebelled against Him without reason. He said in this 1 John chapter
3 verse number 1, Beloved, behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God." Now, we are the sons of God now by
faith in Christ Jesus. But sometimes we, I think, anyhow,
what's true with my experience, for the most part, will be true
with you. Wherever you find man, you find
him the same. Wherever you find God, you find
Him the same. There's no change. We're all
the same. And so I think that what I identify
with, I think probably you to a degree can identify with. We
fail to see the seriousness of sin. And sometimes we don't even
know what sin is. For the most part, I'll bet you
if a poll was taken among people and asked them for a definition
of sin, you'd come up with 10,000 different definitions. And it'd
be rare if you'd find one out of 10,000 who knew what the definition
of sin was. Now, for the most part, we think
sin and sins are the by-product of this bad heart. That is, adultery, I'm not saying adultery
is not sin or sins, but that's what we confine our definition
to sin to, is outward acts of immorality, drunkenness, debauchery
of all shapes, forms, and fashions, theft, murder. things of that nature, we say,
well, that's sin, that's sin. Well, if that's sin, if that's
sin, Adam didn't commit any. Adam didn't go to picture show. Adam didn't get drunk. Adam didn't
commit adultery. Adam didn't violate those commands,
rules and regulations that we set up and determine whether
a man is a little sinner or a great sinner or not. What is sin? What is sin? Is it just to be
confined to these outward byproducts of this bad heart? Sin is the
transgression of the law of God. That's what sin is. is a principle. Sin is a nature that we have. We were born in sin, that is,
born with this nature, with this nature of rebellion against God.
That's what sin is. Adam sinned in that he violated
that which God commanded him not to do. He usurped authority. He said, In words that we can understand,
he said, I'll run my own life. I'll run my own business. I'll
do what I want to. In essence, that's what he said.
That's the essence of what he said. I'll do what I want to.
God said, here's a tree in the midst of the garden. It's got
some fruit on it. Everything else is yours. Don't you eat
of that fruit. But Adam and Eve, in essence,
said, I will eat of that fruit. I will, I will, and he did. Now, when he did, he took a part,
or God put in him a nature, a principle of rebellion, and he passed it
on to every one of us. That's what sin is, it's rebellion
against God. I'm not saying that these things
out here is not sin. They are sin. But this is the
sin. This is the sin that brings about
this separation from God right here. Adam, folks say, well,
a man goes to a picture show, he watches the television, and
he does this and he does that. That's what sin is. Well, if
that's what sin is, Adam didn't commit any of it. He didn't have
no television then. He didn't have no picture show.
See what I'm talking about? All right, I want you to see
that. Then look over in Romans chapter
8, I believe it is. There is a verse there I want
you to see. Just kind of help us here this morning to appreciate
what he says in 1 John chapter 3. In verse number 7, I believe
it is, of Romans chapter 8. Verse number 6, he says, "...for to be carnally
minded is death." Now, man before regeneration
is carnally minded. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. That is, when man has become
the recipient of the gift of repentance, and the gift of faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as a complete covering
for his nakedness, the end result is life and peace. Peace of mind, peace of heart.
Now, verse number 7, he says, Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. Now, this is our state. This is our state after the fall. Before the fall, we stood in
relationship to God as one innocent. But because of this violation
of God, violating God's Word, we are carnally minded. This
is our nature. This is this principle that controls
us and rules us. ever won. But the carnal mind
is enmity against God, for it is not subject, it's not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That is, when we consider,
when we consider that once man walked with God, but now it says
that man is against God. I read to you there in in Genesis
2 and 25, before the fall, man was in perfect relationship with
the God who made him. And they were both naked, and
they weren't ashamed. And they enjoyed a perfect relationship
with their Maker. But now, but after the fall,
man who walked with God is against God. That's what it says. But
the carnal mind is enmity against God. He's against God. Can you imagine that? Can you
imagine how bad, how terrible we must be in the sight of God?
I'm not talking about how we must be in one another's sight.
When I talk about you being dead in trespasses and in sin, when
I talk about me being such a terrible sinner, when I talk about When
I talk about our despising, our hating God, I'm not talking about,
in generalities, our goodness or our relationship with one
another. It hasn't got anything to do
with one another. It's against God. Our sin is against God. We're dead in trespasses and
in sin. We're against God. I may be for
you. I may think the world of you.
I may love father and mother and brother and sister and friends
and family and all that, but I'm against God. See what I'm
talking about? I'm against God. In my natural
state, I'm against God. Everybody, now listen to me,
everybody, every man, every woman, every boy and every child that
has not been reconciled to God right now is against God. He's against God. He needs to
be brought back into a relationship with God. It's enmity. It describes here
hatred and hostility of the fleshly mind. The carnal mind is the
natural mind. The carnal mind is the natural
man, the natural heart. The natural man in its natural
state is against God. against the God who made him. Not many people believe that.
Not many people know what I'm talking about this morning. Most
of you do. But outside of this little group
here this morning, there's very few in our area. And it's very few in our area
that knows what I'm talking about, that the carnal mind is enmity
against God. That man in his unregenerate
state Hates God. Actually, literally hates God. Now he doesn't. I'm not saying
that he understands that he hates God. He doesn't understand that
he hates God. As a matter of fact, he thinks
that he loves God. But God's testimony is to be
taken over and against his testimony. See? He doesn't think that he
hates God. But if God, now God must do it. That's where the work of the
Spirit of God comes in. The work of the Spirit of God
is to bring man to see and to face his true self. And if he
ever sees that, which will be the work of the Spirit of God,
then he'll cry for mercy. He'll say, Lord, I didn't realize
that. I didn't realize that. to show you what I mean by a
man in his natural state, enmity against God, his fleshly mind. Well, did you ever hear your heart
say to yourself, I wish there were no God? Do you ever remember
a time somewhere in your rebellion or in your despair, that kind
of crept out of the walls of your heart. You said, well, I
just wish there was no God. I wish there was no laws whatsoever
to restrain me. Well, you say, yes, these things
have crossed my mind. Well, this is evidence You see
what I'm saying when it says the carnal mind is inmediate
against God. These things have crossed my
mind. I wish there was no laws to restrain me. I wish I was
as free as a dog or a horse or a bird, that I could just do
what I wanted to, when I wanted to do it, and how I wanted to
do it, without having any fear whatsoever of any day of reckoning. Well, those thoughts, you see,
are the evidence of this carnal mind. You remember over here in the
Psalms, it says, The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God. That's what the fool said in
his heart. There is no God. And what he
really said was, There is no God for me. He said there is
a God. I know there's a God, but there's
no God for me. I'll go my own way. I'll mark
my own trail. I'll do what I want to. There's
no God for me. I will not subject myself to God. I will not submit myself to God. I don't want any God. I wish
there was no God. There's no God for me, that's
what he's saying. Well, this 7th verse of Romans
chapter 8, let's take another hitch at it. Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That charge there is addressed
to all persons. The charge here is laid unto
all persons by God who made us. And I don't want anyone to get
the idea this morning that you're not involved. I've been a good little old boy
or girl or this and that all my life. He doesn't mean me. He does mean you. He does mean
you. He means all men, all women,
all boys, all girls, that their mind is hostile towards God. Every carnal mind, every natural
mind in the world, whether it be Germany or the Philippines
or the United States or Alaska, every natural mind in the world
is at enmity, it is hostile against the God who they once walked
with in Adam and Eve in the garden. Well, you see, this carnal mind
is against God at all times. Someone said the wolf may sleep,
but still a wolf. The carnal mind is hostile against
God at all times, at all hours, of every day, every month and every year and
every second, every moment, the carnal mind, that is, if we have
not been brought into subjection unto God, if we have not become
the recipient of God's Son, if we have not been born again,
except a man be born again, if we haven't been born again, then
every moment of every day, of every month, of every year, Our
whole lifetime, this natural man is against the God who made
him. That's what it means. Everybody
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, not just a part of man,
not just a part of your makeup, your personality is against him,
but the whole man is against him. That is, every power and
every passion And every part of man is against God. Now, what part of man was injured
by the fall? Why, the fall crushed man entirely. All over, the whole man is defaced,
every part of him. The whole man is a traitor against
heaven. He's a traitor against God Himself. And this is the nature of sin.
This is the way we are. It's enmity against God. And this comprehends the acts
both of the understanding and of the will. It means this, that
the carnal mind, in its wisest thoughts, is in rooted hostility
and enmity against the God who made it. Now that's a terrible
and serious charge. There's not many people who pay
attention to it or even seem to care, except those of us that
have been bought with a price. We begin to study and begin to
read the Bible and find out who we are. We've got to find out
who we are. This is who we are prior to conversion. Our mind is against God. I'm
saying these things this morning in order that I might go back
over here to 1 John chapter 3 and verse number 1 and help myself
and you with me to bow down in thanksgiving and praise and thanking
that we're the sons of God, you see. were the sons of God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we might be what? Called
the sons of God." Listen, I said to Cardinal Meyer,
in its wisest thoughts, is in rooted enmity and hostility against
God. And every man whose heart is
set upon this world. There is a verse of Scripture
there in 1 John 2 that I want to read to you. 1 John 2, verse
15. Listen to this. What I'm saying
is, if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. And so, this man whose heart is set upon the world,
Hates God. Look, love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Love not the world. Be divorced
from the world. Because neither the things that
are in the world, love not the world, don't love the things
that are in the world. If a man love the world, I mean,
if he's wedded to this world, to its to its charm, to its attraction,
to its allurement, to its systems, to its entertainment. If a man
is wedded to those things, it says, if any man loved this world,
the love of the Father is not in him. It's not in him. He's in deep-rooted hostility
against the Father. He's not a Christian. He's not
saved. Men of this breed, of this caliber,
of this stripe, men and women and boys and girls, they hate
God in His entirety. These are shocking things, I
know that. I know, I don't like to say them
sometimes, but these things are true, and they shock a man. You
mean, I hate God? Well, that's right. That's right, if you're outside
of Christ, you hate God. You see, a man hates God, he
hates His holiness, he hates His wisdom, he hates His justice,
he hates His sovereignty, and I'll go farther than that. Man,
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, and even many who have made professions
of faith, hate the way that God saves sinners. They hate His
wisdom, they hate His justice, they hate his redemption, and
they even hate the way he dispenses his mercy. And to prove that,
if I was to tell this whole world this morning that salvation is
by grace, if I was to tell this whole world that man in his natural
state was against God, and if he continued on in his rebellion
against God, he would wind up in hell. And if I was to tell
him that there wasn't anything that he could do about it, it's
like if you knock a vase off of the table and it falls down
there and breaks, can that vase put itself back together again?
Can it do it? You say, certainly not. Alright,
you and I fell from the high and lofty state of innocence.
We fell in Adam. And the whole man fell. The whole
man was crushed entirely by the fall, and we are like Humpty
Dumpty. We fell down, and all the king's
horses and all the king's men can't put us back together again.
But unless God comes along and puts us back together again,
we will never be put back together. Now if I was to tell people,
that salvation depended entirely upon God taking the initiative
and doing for us what we can't do ourselves. And if He doesn't
do it, it'll never be done. People would say, well, I don't
like that. I don't like that. You mean to tell me that's the
way God dispenses mercy? I don't like that. Well, that's
the way He does it. And that's what I'm telling you.
A man outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, you see, he hates God. He hates his sovereignty. He
hates his wisdom. He hates his power. He hates
his justice. And he hates his mercy. That
is, even the way God dispenses mercy, he hates that way. He
thinks that there ought to be another way. That that way doesn't
seem fair to him. You see? Well, I said to you
now, It's not that men don't have an understanding. They have
an understanding. But they don't understand that
they hate God. Many profess to love Him. And
I told you that God's testimony is that man in his natural state
hates Him and is hostile towards Him. And the testimony of God
is to be taken against the testimony of man. And this is not to suppose
now, for a second, that men do not imagine that they love God.
They do imagine that they love God, but not the true God. Can we see that? There's hundreds
of people, thousands of people, I suppose. Well, I'd say here
in Marion County, I'd say that there's probably 3,500 to 4,000
people that's meeting on a Sunday morning
like you and I are. We've met to pray, we've met
to read the Bible, we've met to sing, and we've met to worship
through the preaching of the Word, to meditate, to thank God. There's 3,500 to 4,000 people,
and I'll admit it, one way or the other too far. They've met
to do this. But there's very few of those
3,500 to 4,000 people that really believe in the God of the Bible. They think they know God. That is, they imagine that they
love God, but not the true God. It's the God of their own making.
Let me read something to you here in the book of Hebrews,
chapter 11. Look at this verse, verse number
6 of the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. Look at what it says. It says,
"...but without faith it is impossible to please Him." You can't please God apart from faith.
Faith is a gift of God. Faith is not something that you've
got reserved down there that you can reach down and get a
little of it whenever you need it. Faith is a gift of God when
it comes to the salvation of a sinner. All right? Without
this, without this gift of faith to believe in God and God's Christ
and who God is, without faith it's impossible to please Him.
And if a man doesn't please God, well, then he is against God,
and there remaineth in him that seed of hostility. He that cometh
to God, any man that comes to God must believe that He is. Now, let me tell you what that
means. He that cometh to God must believe that He is what
He is. You say, well, I believe in God.
Well, then you must believe that God is what He is. Not what you imagine Him to be.
Not what someone told you he's like, but you must believe that
he is what he is. And to find out what he is, we
must go to the record. And that's the reason I'm saying
this morning that there's many that imagine that they love God,
but not the God of the Bible. Now, I know that I haven't got
any education, very little education that I have, very little. But
I know some things that a whole lot of educated people don't
know. Now I'm telling you that. I know some things that a whole
lot of educated people don't know. A man must believe that he is
what he is. enormity of this awful condition
and this awful guilt and this awful sin. What sin is and who
sins against? It's against God Himself who
made us. He's the ruler of providence. It's Him that keeps us from day
to day. It's Him that feeds us. It's
Him that puts the breath in our nostrils. It's Him that causes
the blood to pursue its course through our veins. He holds us
in life and He keeps us from death. And brethren, if we're
against God, if we're against God, we're fighting a losing
battle because we can't win. You can't win. If there's anybody
here this morning, and I've described you, you've never submitted to
the Mercy of God in Christ. God's not going to deal with
you any other way apart from Jesus Christ. And you haven't
submitted to the righteousness of God which is in Christ. You
haven't done that. You're still in your hostility
against God. Well, let me tell you this. You
are fighting a losing battle. And you're going to lose. You're
going to lose. You may go through this life,
sail right through this life, and it looks like you're winning.
But if you're against God, you can't win. You can't win. No
way that you can win. You just as well right now, right
now. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. Right
now, you need to put your weapons down. You need to lay your gun
down and surrender unto the Lordship of God in Jesus Christ. Because
you cannot win this battle. You cannot win it. Alright, turn
with me then back over there to 1 John, just a second. 1 John
chapter 3, verse number 1, Behold, now I
told you about our condition. That's our condition. That's
the way we were. That's the way we were. prior to being regenerated. We didn't have anything to do
with regeneration. You have anything to do with being born the first
time? Didn't have a thing to do with it? You'd have a thing
to do with it. You were passive in that birth. It all came apart from you. And you won't have anything to
do with the second birth. Not a single solitary thing.
You could cry and pray and weep and conform to rules and regulations
and read the Bible and do this and do that, but you can't make
God do anything for you. That's an impossibility to make
God do something for you. And I'm not saying that God won't
do anything. I'm not saying that if you get
down and weep and pray and all that, it may be that God might,
but you can't make Him do it. He won't do it when you come
with the motive, he's got to do it because I've done this.
You can't make God do anything for you. Well, alright, if God has done
something for us, if we've got an interest this morning in God's
Christ, if we can see this morning through the eyes of faith the
dear Lamb of God, our sin-bearer, that is, bearing our sins, bearing
the enormity of our guilt. If we can see Him in that respect
as a Lamb of God without sin, without spot, without blemish,
we can see the perfect Son of God, Man and God. If we can see Him with the enormous
load of our guilt on Himself, paying our due, if we can see
Him in that, we can rejoice We can rejoice! Someone said one
time, said, well, you tell people that when they
become Christians, that they're not to think that they're free
from trouble, that they're going to have some form of trouble,
even though they're saved. You tell people, well now, watch
out, because Don't think that because you're a Christian now,
you're going to sail through this life without trouble. Well,
I used to say that, but I've kind of reversed my position
on that. And I'm going to start saying from now on, if you're
a Christian, you haven't got no trouble. If you're a Christian,
you haven't got any trouble now, and you never will have any trouble.
The trouble, our great trouble, is found in our rebellion against
God. And if that can be alleviated,
if that can be taken away, if reconciliation can be made between
God and my poor soul, and my sins can be taken away, and I
can have the righteousness of God, that righteousness which
He requires as the satisfaction of His divine justice, if I can
have that, and I can have my divine Savior and substitute
on God's right hand, pleading my case, I've got no trouble.
I've got no trouble whatsoever. There is nothing that can befall
upon me that I ought to consider trouble. Now, if I didn't understand
that, if I didn't see that, I could have some trouble. But if I've
got... Well, the Scriptures say that all things work together
for good to them that love God. Now, if I have some trouble,
so to speak, If I have some suffering, if I have some sorrow, if I have
some disappointment, if I have some heartbreak. Now, if I didn't
understand that there was a purpose in all that, then I'd say I had
some trouble. But if God has opened my eyes
to see that whatever comes my way, whatever it is, I don't
care if my whole family dies. I do care. I don't want them
to die. I love them. But I'm saying this by illustration. You say, well, preacher, it may
happen to you. Well, it may happen to me. It may. It's happened
to many men before me, and it will after me. But if my house
burns down, and my whole family dies, and my dog dies, everything
dies. I haven't got anything. I can
see purpose in it. You see what I'm talking about?
There's purpose in it. God is too wise to make a mistake. I'm not so insignificant that
God does not care for me. He cares for me personally. It's hard for me to believe that,
but He does. And He says, Bob, He says, all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to Him. All things! Well, you see, there's purpose
then in what I consider trouble. There's a purpose in it. It's
going to work for my good and it's going to be for the glory
of God. So what I'm saying is, that if a man has been translated
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son, he hasn't got any trouble. He hasn't got any trouble. All
his troubles have been taken away. You say, well, I know,
but his family's going to die, and he's going to get sick, and
he's going to die, and someone's going to lose their job, and
that's trouble. But that's trouble with a purpose. See what I'm
talking about? Trouble with a purpose. If you didn't understand that
there was a purpose in it, it'd be trouble. See what I'm saying,
Clyde? Clyde's got a sore back, had a sore back for a year now.
Now, Clyde being a Christian, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me
saying this, Clyde being... and Daryl, Daryl's had trouble
two or three years. But being a Christian, He just
doesn't bow down and say, Lord, why me? Why me? All this suffering. Why do you put all this suffering
on me and don't put it on other people? He sees that there's
a purpose in it. I don't know what it is, but
I know this. It's for his good. That's for
Clyde's good. That's for Dale's good. You say,
well, I don't believe that. Well, you don't believe the Word
of God. All things work together for good to them that love God.
All things. I'm going to stand on that. I'm
going to stand on it. There's a purpose in it. There's
a purpose. God's got a purpose. He doesn't do anything without
purpose. There's no accidents with God.
Nothing slips up on God's blind side. Everything He does, He
decrees. He decrees. And He said, whatever
happens, whatever happens, no matter what it is, if you're
put in the penitentiary, if your character is defamed, whatever
it is, if you're mine, if your blood bought, you're mine, I
love you. I sent my son to pay the debt. Your debt is paid with the price
of the blood of my son. Certainly, God must love us. Certainly, can we doubt the love
of God if God would send? You wouldn't do that, would you?
You wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't
even give a little finger for somebody. Would you? Would you
give your love? Nah, you wouldn't give an ounce
of blood. Most of us. God gave His Son,
the Son of His love, the Son of His heart. And he said, now
all things, whatever happens to you, all things work together. So you see what I'm saying? And
then when a man has been brought into this right relationship
with God, who was, once he was against God, or once he was,
he walked with God, then he is against God, and now God's restored
him and brought him back in the right relationship. Then I'm
saying he hasn't got any trouble. He hasn't got any trouble. I
may be wrong on what I'm saying. I don't think so. But I know
I'm right on this statement. He has no troubles in light of
the glory that shall be revealed. He has no troubles in light of
that. Anything that happens to him now is to be considered just
a trivial, light, unesteemed thing in light of the glory that
shall be revealed. Well, you see, Over there in
the book of John, chapter 7, verse 37, it says that there
are many called, but few chosen. Our Lord said, if any man thirsts.
That is, when He made this statement, He says it kind of like as if
He had said, most of you do not thirst, but if any man thirsts. If any man thirsts. Do any of
you thirst? He said to this crowd. Most do
not. Only one here and there. And
that's right. Our Lord looked over that crowd
and He read their indifference and their spiritual death and
expressed His fears that none or at least very few of those
that He looked at were thirsting. They weren't thirsting. Self-content possesses the mind
of most people. They're satisfied. Don't upset
me. Don't upset me. I told you about
the fellow one time, called me to his house, and he said, well,
he said, I'm going to move my membership. I said, well, what's
your trouble? He said, you've upset me. He
said, you've upset me. I said, how have I upset you?
Well, you've said this and you've said that relative to the Word
of God. And he said, you've caused confusion. And he said, I don't
want it. I just don't want confusion.
I'm going to move. Well, I don't have to hear it. Most people
are like that. They want to be concessed. are
possessed with a form of self-contentment. And any time anything crosses
their path that challenges their preconceived ideas or thinking,
oh no, we don't want that. But listen, the truly thirsty
are very few. And I was wondering this morning,
is anybody thirsty? Listen, if you're thirsty, then
you know what thirst is. If you're thirsty, you know what
it is, because it's a self-explaining pain. A man knows whether he's
really thirsty or not. Let me just mention a few things,
then I'll quit. Are you dissatisfied with yourself?
Are you dissatisfied with yourself as you know yourself? As you
know yourself, are you dissatisfied? Are you grieved on the account
of your rebellion against God? Are you grieved because I have
this morning read to you from Genesis 2, Romans 8, and 1 John
3, and there are some things that I read to you that gives
indication that I was talking to you, that you are the whole
part of your being. Every passion, every power, every
part of you is against the God who made you. In rebellion, are
you aggrieved because of that? Is your heart heavy? Do you say,
I wish I wasn't like that? I wish I was in the right relationship
with God. I wish something would take place.
Well, listen, if that's the case, if you're thinking like that
in your heart, it may be that you're thirsty. Now, you see,
He said, if any man thirsts, you've got to be thirsty. You'll
not come to Me and drink unless you're thirsty. Are you grieved
on the account of sin? Are you anxious to be right with
God? Are you pining and yearning to
find a covering for your nakedness before God? Are you desirous
to be made pure in God's sight? Is there something in your heart
that longs for better things? You see, brethren, the sense
of your need is in your thirst. Come to the fountain. Do you
long for mercy? Do you long for forgiveness?
Do you long for a right standing before God? If you do long for
these things, it's evident that you're thirsty. Well, he said,
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God. We should be called
the sons of God. If you're thirsty, and you've
come to the fountain and have drank of that water." Well then,
he said, you're called a son of God. I'm going to call you
a son of God. You're my son. You're my son.
All right? Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Beloved, now listen to this.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, right now. I expect if
I was to walk out in the midst of 10,000 people, There wouldn't
be one of them that would say, well, there's a son of God. There
would be no badge upon my person that would somehow give evidence
of what God said about me. I'd look like everybody else,
just look like everybody else, and you would too. But listen,
this is the difference. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Right now, we're the sons of God. We've got to take
God's witness and testimony against any other witnesses. And it does
not yet appear. We don't know what we shall be.
It hasn't been completely revealed what we shall be. That is in
form. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know. We know some things. We know
this. This ought to be enough incentive
right here in the latter part of this verse to keep us going
today, bring us back tonight, and cause us to pick up our hymn
books and sing these hymns for the praise and honor and glory
of God. Right? There ought to be enough incentive. This ought
to fill your cup. This ought to overflow your little
old boat right here. Listen to what it says. And we
know that when He shall appear, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall
come back, when He appears, that we shall be like Him. We're going
to be like Him. We're going to be like the Son
of God. We're going to have the same mind, the same attitude.
We're going to be completely conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ Himself. See? For we shall see Him as
He is. And every man that hath this
hope, what hope? What hope is he talking about?
Well, I just read it to you in verse number 2. And every man
that hath this hope in him, purifies himself even as he is pure. God help us that you might this
morning kind of evaluate the situation, regard to yourself,
and see what you once were, and see what you now are, and let
this be an incentive to every one of us to right living, to
holy living, to godly living, to faithfulness, Oh, the crying
need of this hour is men and women who will be committed to
the cause and claim of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I believe,
I actually believe that when we once see what we once were,
and see, that is, by the Spirit of God, and see what we are now, by faith in Christ Jesus, the
sons of God. I don't believe we'll have any
problem serving the Lord, do you? I think the problem is that
I think people haven't seen this. I think we just assume that everyone
knows this. We assume that because someone
has said, well, I want to join the church, and I say, well,
we'd better go baptize you. We assume that they know what
I'm talking about. And there's a whole lot of cases
they don't know. They just don't know. They don't
know where they come from. They don't know where they've
been. They don't know. So in a month or so, they begin
to fall off, and you never see them around anymore. They never
give any evidence of this appreciation and thanksgiving unto God. I think that's the problem. They
really haven't seen. I think if you ever see what
we once were and what we are now, if we ever see that, we'll
be in love with Him. We'll be in love with God's Son.
I just cannot believe that a man was out there in a burning fire,
a burning fire, and he was about to be consumed. The heat was
upon him. You could smell the smoke on
his clothes. And he had someone that came
along and rescued him and reached in and snatched him as a bran
from the burning. I cannot think that that man
who was snatched as a brand from the burning would be indifferent
to the man who snatched him from it. I just can't believe that.
You can't make me believe it. Is someone here thirsty this
morning? You're thirsty? You're thirsty. You're guilty? You're ashamed? Well, that's
an evidence that you're thirsty. Why don't you come to him and
drink? Drink, drink, come to the Lord Jesus.