1 John 3. The last message I preached,
I titled it, The Manifest Difference. And I was going to preach in
verses 4 through 10, but we only got to verse 7. And we really
dealt with how the apostate John says transgresses the law in
addition to transgressing against God the Father and God the Son.
And he says, but you know that Christ came and put away our
sin and in Him is no sin. And whosoever abideth in Him
sinneth not. And so His people don't look
anywhere else. We continue in Him. And so he
says, so don't let anybody deceive you. That person that believes
on Christ, abides in Christ, he's righteous as Christ is righteous. You don't have to add anything
to Christ. That's what he's saying. You don't have to go back to
the law. And see, those verses would have been really good to
preach and titled it something else and then tonight then come
back and preach on verses 8 through 10 and preached on the manifest
difference. At any rate, I'm going to preach
verses 8 through 10 tonight, and I've titled it, Children
of the Devil, the Children of God. So let's read this together. Verse 8, He that commiteth sin
is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, and he might destroy
the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, He said in verse 8, he that committeth sin is
of the devil. But he said in verse 9, whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. For Christ's seed remaineth
in him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. In this the
children of God are manifest and the children of the devil.
Here's the open, unmistakable, There is a manifest difference
between a child of God and a child of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. There is a difference that the
grace of God has made between the child of God and the child
of the devil. And I've been preaching this
same message now for the past three messages, I think. I think
this is our fourth message on it. And I'm not really going
to say anything different because I really want us to get this. John's purpose here is to comfort
the Lord's people and give you some assurance and comfort you
that we're safe and secure in Christ the Lord. Most of what
I've ever heard out of this passage, not by faithful men, but by other
preachers, most of what I've ever heard out of this passage
has left me looking to me and has left me thinking, okay, I
need to be doing more works. I need to be doing more to sin
not and to do righteousness or I can't have any assurance. And
that does not give me any assurance. because a believer never sees
that in ourselves. We look at ourselves and all
we see is sin. And so we have no comfort. If
you are going to tell me and try to comfort me that the difference
between the child of God and the child of the devil is that
the child of God walks on a higher plane and that He puts down His
sin and He doesn't have sin and He does He does all these righteous
things in the law. That's not going to comfort me.
Because I'm like Paul in Romans 7. That which I would do, I don't
do. And that which I hate, I do.
So that message doesn't comfort me. But it's for that reason
that as a believer, I know that's not what John's talking about.
That's not what he's talking about. Now let's look at the
children of the devil, and then we'll look at the children of
God. Now first of all, verse 8, he says, He that commiteth
sin is of the devil. He that commiteth sin is of the
devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. Now what
does John mean by commiteth sin? What does he mean here by this?
There are Bibles that have translated this totally different from what
the word means. They've translated it into practicing
sin and things that makes it so that the only thing you could
get out of it is your works, your things you do, your obedience. But He said here, He that committeth
sins of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. And
what He's telling us here brethren is, whatever the devil's sin
is, that's the sin He's talking about. Whatever the devil's sin
is, that's the sin He's talking about. Because like begets like. If my father is the devil, I'm
going to be like the devil. If my father, if I'm born of
God, I'm going to be like by Heavenly Father. So let's see
what the devil is like. Go to John chapter 8 and this
is the best commentary because these are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ. John chapter 8 and look here
in verse 37. Our Lord Jesus here is speaking
to Pharisees. He said, I know that you are
Abraham's seed. They put all this confidence
in being natural sons of Abraham. But look what he said, but you
seek to kill me. You seek to kill me because my
word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your
father. They answered and said unto him,
Abraham's our father. Now listen to what he said. Jesus
saith unto them, if you were Abraham's children, and what
he means is if you were the spiritual sons of Abraham, if you were
the spiritual sons of Abraham, he says you would do the works
of Abraham. You'd do what Abraham did when
he heard this word. Without a doubt you would. Look
here at verse 40. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of
God. This did not Abraham. Abraham
didn't do that. Verse 41. You do the deeds of
your father. He's saying you're committing
the sin of your father. Then said they to him, We be
not born of fornication. And what they meant by that is,
you claim to be born of a virgin, you're born of a harlot. That's
what they meant by that. We be not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God. Jesus saith unto them, If God
were your Father, ye would love me. And no question about it,
He's saying, you would believe on Me, you would continue abiding
in Me, you would not be able to stop loving Me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God, neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not
understand My speech? Even because you cannot hear
My Word. Verse 44, of your father, the devil, and
the lusts, the sins of your father, ye will do. He is saying this is all you
can do and you can't do anything else. You will do the sins of
your father. Here is the sin the devil commits. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in Him. That's
the devil's sin. He was a murderer who abode not
in the truth of Christ from the beginning. Now read on. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. Isn't that amazing? He said,
if I would tell you a lie, you'd believe me. But because I tell
you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces me
of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? Two times here He said, spoken
of believing Him. Believing Him. This is the opposite
of trying to kill Him. believing Him. He says, why don't
you? He says, if I say the truth,
why do you not believe me? He that is of God, he that's
a child of God, he heareth God's words. He obeys, he believes
on Christ, he abides in Christ, he continues in Christ, he abides
in the doctrine of Christ, he that's of God. Therefore, he
says, ye therefore hear them not because you are not of God. And before it was over with,
they proved that what he was saying was true because at the
last few verses there, they picked up stones and tried to kill him.
Picked up stones and tried to kill him. The devil's sin was
he was a murderer. He was a murderer. He loved not
the brethren. He didn't love Christ and he
didn't love the brethren. He was a murderer and he abode
not in the truth. He believed not on Christ because
there's no truth in him. Christ said those who are of
their father the devil. He said the lusts of your father,
the sins your father committed, that's the sins you will do.
That's all you can do. You'll attempt to murder Christ
and murder the brethren, you won't love Christ, you won't
love your brethren, and you will not believe and abide in the
truth. Because you are of your devil and that's all you can
do. So the children of the devil, here is the sin they commit.
The sin of not believing on Christ, not abiding in Christ, not abiding
in the doctrine of Christ. They seek to kill Christ and
kill the brethren because they don't love Christ and they don't
love brethren. Here's an example in our text.
1 John 3 verse 12. He's talking about love and he
says we're to love one another and he says not as Cain. Now
look what we see about Cain who was of that wicked one. He was
a child of the devil. And what did he do? He slew his
brother. What was the sin of the devil?
He's a murderer. What did Cain do? He killed his
brother. He murdered his brother. Wherefore
slew him? Because his own works were evil
and his brother's righteous. There's only one thing we know
that Cain did other than killing his brother. There's only one
other thing we know. And this is the thing that made
him understand his works were wicked. And this is what shows
us that his works were wicked. Evil. He came to God with the
works of his own hands. That's all he did. That's all
we have that he did. That tells us he abode not in
the truth. He didn't believe the gospel.
He didn't believe on Christ. He abode not in the truth. And
because he saw that his brother's works were righteous, and the
only thing that the Bible teaches us about Abel is he came with
the blood of a lamb. Meaning, he abode in the truth. He abode in Christ. He believed
Christ. He knew he had to come to God
in the blood of a lamb. And so when Cain saw that his
own works were wicked and his brothers were righteous, that
God received Abel and he didn't receive him, when he heard that,
for that reason, he killed his brother. So there's the two things
that Cain, a child of the devil, did. He did not believe on Christ
and he killed his brother because he didn't love his brother. Well,
I don't want to get into that. We're going to look at that next
time more, but we'll look at that again. But here's what I
want you to see now. Throughout this epistle, and
if you go back now and read this epistle again, this probably
will help you. Throughout this epistle, John
says that the child of the devil is manifest in that he commits
this same sin. He doesn't believe on Christ
nor does he love his brother. But John says it in a bunch of
different phrases, a bunch of different ways. But they all
mean this same sin. They all mean he doesn't believe
Christ and he doesn't love the brethren. John calls it walking
in darkness. He calls it doing not the truth.
Keeping not his commandments. they went out from us. He calls
it denying the Father and the Son. He calls it abiding in death,
believing not God, and sinning the sin unto death. That's just
a few of the names he gives this sin of not believing Christ and
not loving the brethren. And in this text here, look down
at verse 10, he says, In this the children of God are manifest,
and the children of the devil. Here's the children of the devil.
Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother. Now, this is the fourth message.
We understand now that doing not righteousness is not believing
on Christ. That's what it is to not do righteousness,
is to not believe on Christ. Because Christ is the righteousness
of His people. God says, believe on My Son. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He sent. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me. And
you read John 13, 14, 15. He just repeatedly keeps telling
Thomas and Philip and the other apostles, believe on Me. Believe that the Father is in
me and I am in the Father. And that the works I am doing,
He sent me to do. Believe on me. Even when He said
there, He said, whatever you ask, you will receive it. I will
give it to you. And Rob just read it. Whatever
you ask, believing, you shall receive. So the sin, that he commiteth, that is, of
the devil, is the devil, is the sin of murder,
is of not loving brethren, and it's of abiding not in the truth. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. So secondly now,
let's look at the child of God, and He's manifest in that He
says now, He can't commit this sin. The child of God is manifest
in that He can't commit this sin. Look again with me at verse
8. He that committeth sin is of
the devil. He is just like his father. And
He says for this purpose the Son of God was manifested. that
he might destroy the works of the devil, and whosoever is born
of God, whoever has God for his father, doth not commit sin. And he's talking about the same
sin. He doesn't commit that sin. For
his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he's born
of God. And when you're reading through
John and you're reading all those words I just gave you that are
just different ways of saying He does not believe Christ, He
does not love the brethren, you can also read through there and
John speaks of believing Christ and loving brethren in a bunch
of different ways. He calls it walking in light.
He calls it keeping His commandments, keeping Christ's Word, abiding
in Christ, abiding in light, sinning not, doing righteousness. And all these phrases mean the
same thing. They mean what it says in verse
23. This is His commandment that we should believe on the name
of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave His commandment. That's what all these phrases
mean. All through it. So all through the book, this
epistle, the way he's comforting us is he's showing the difference
between the child of the devil and the child of God. And he's
saying that everything that the child of God does is due to the
works of Christ. Look here. The Son of God was
manifested to destroy the works of the devil. for God's particular
people. If He just came forth to destroy
the works of the devil for everybody, then nobody would commit that
sin. Nobody would. But everybody that
He came and destroyed the works of the devil for, they don't
commit this sin and they can't commit this sin. And that's His
people. That's God's elect. Go to Hebrews
2 and verse 10. I have to remember that you've
been sitting here a little longer than what my stopwatch says up
here. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10,
it became him, it was becoming to his righteousness for whom
are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. for both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren. Look down at verse 13. He said there at the end, Behold
I and the children which God hath given me. Now listen to
verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also himself likewise
took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. Our text says He
came forth, He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. He came forth that through death
He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. Now look at verse 16. Remember
how Christ said If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works
of Abraham. Watch this. Verse 16. Verily,
he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. He was made in the likeness of
Abraham's children. And that means his spiritual
seed. That's who he came to save. Verse
17. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him. It was becoming of him and his
righteousness to be made like unto his brethren in every way
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people for
that in himself has suffered being tempted he's able to succor
them that are tempted. So to make reconciliation for
his people he had to be made in all points like his brethren. So therefore, He was made of
a woman, He was made under the law, He was made sin for His
people, He was made a curse for us. In all points, He did all
this, and with all His people dwelling in Him, I'll keep this
short and simple. What we saw in Romans 6 and Romans
7, with His people dwelling in Him, By His obedience, by Him
bearing our sin and bearing the wrath of God, we were crucified
in Him and the body of our sin was destroyed so that we are
dead to sin, free from sin, justified from sin, and also we are free
from the law, we are dead to the law by the body of Christ.
So what that means is, as we've seen brethren, the devil can't
accuse us. His works was, day and night,
Scripture said he accused God's people before the Father. Now
he can't accuse us, because we have no sin for him to accuse
us with. It's gone. He can't accuse us before God's
law. So John said back there in 1
John 3 verse 5, He said, you know He was manifested to take
away our sins and in Christ there is no sin. But there was something
else that had to be done. There was a work the devil was
doing in us. whereby we saw what He does to
His children. He makes it so all they can do
is murder Christ and murder the brethren. They have no love for
Christ or the brethren and they can't believe on Christ at all
and rest in Him. And so He had to destroy that
work in me and you because we all were under the power of the
devil as Ephesians once said. And so our Lord Jesus came forth,
and through His righteousness, we saw how He sent us that spirit
of adoption, and made us to be born again. Just to review, 1
John 2.29, that's what He meant when He said, if you know that
He's righteous, if you know that it's all through His righteousness,
everything we receive is through His righteousness, that you know
He that doeth righteousness, He that believes on Christ and
loves His brethren, He does it because He's been born of God.
Now, we saw in Galatians, go to Titus 3, a couple pages back,
right before Hebrews, Titus 3, I showed you in Galatians how
that He came forth and it was through His righteousness. He
redeemed us from the curse of the law that we might receive
the spirit of adoption and be born again. Now look here, same
thing in Titus 3. And I'm going to be honest with
you, I'm a little embarrassed about this. I didn't see this until
about six months ago. I really didn't. Because I'm
always looking at this verse showing how we're regenerated.
But look what he says, verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His grace, having been justified by His grace,
if you know that He is righteous, if you know that this is done
because He is righteous, having been justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs. We should be given the spirit
of adoption and be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. So He said for that reason He sent forth the Spirit into
our hearts and we were born again. Now go with me over to Luke 11
and I'm going to show you Christ gave us an illustration of how
He does His work inside His people. Luke 11 verse 21. He says, when a strong man armed
keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. That strong man
he is talking about is the devil. And when he is armed and he is
strong, he keeps his palace and his goods are in peace. His palace
and his goods are those people he is keeping under his dominion,
under his power. And that's where you and I were
at one time. Now watch this. But when a stronger
than he shall come upon him and overcome him, that's Christ. He taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted. Christ took all the devil's power
when he took all the sins of his people away because now the
devil's got nothing to accuse us with. Nothing to accuse us
with. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Christ put away our sin. And
Christ took the reign in our hearts. Look at it. He takes
from Him all His armor wherein He trusted. He's come and put
away our sin. He's taken dominion in our heart
and He divided His spoils. A victor goes in and conquers,
he's stronger and he goes in and conquers the strong man and
he takes all the spoils, to the victor go the spoils. The spoils
are all his people, all Christ's people. So he comes upon the
devil, he put away our sins, so he comes in now and we're
born again by the new birth and he takes us from the devil. And
now Christ has dominion over us. And so since that's true,
go back to our text now. Now Christ has destroyed the
works of the devil for us on the cross. And when He does this
within us in the new birth, this is the result. Right here, verse
9. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. When He does this, we've been
born of God. We've been born of Christ, our
everlasting Father. The first time we were born,
we were born of Adam the first head. He's not our everlasting
father if we're a child of God. Because Christ is called by Isaiah
the everlasting father. And when you're born of Christ,
the last Adam, He'll be your father forever, for everlasting.
So, when he does this, we do not commit sin. We don't commit
the sin that those of the devil do, that we did when we were
held captive by the devil. We don't reject Christ. We don't
apostatize from Christ. We do righteousness until the
end. We believe on Christ, abide in
the doctrine, and we love our brethren. Look now at this next
thing. He says, Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. Here's why. For His seed remains
in him. I'll just read this to you since
we've seen it. He's talking about 1 Peter 1.21. It's just a couple
of pages over if you want to see it. 1 Peter 1.21. He says, Who by Christ do believe
in God. It's by Christ that raised Him
up from the dead and gave Him glory. that your faith, we're
talking about this is what doing righteousness is, believing on
Christ, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you've
purified your souls in obeying the truth, believing the truth
through the Spirit unto what? Unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. There's faith in love, faith
in Christ and love to our brethren. Now watch. How did it come about?
Being born again, not of corruptible seed. That's how He was born
the first time. But of incorruptible by the Word
of God. The Word of God is the incorruptible
seed. And it liveth and abideth forever. That's two important words here.
It lives forever and it abides forever. Now look, verse 25,
and at the end, this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Now Christ, when He was telling
us about the devil, He said He is a liar and He abode not in
the truth because there is no truth in Him. There is no truth
in Him. Back in 1 John 2 and verse 4,
He says, here's why a child of the devil doesn't believe on
Christ and love his brethren as God commanded. Verse 4, he
that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments. There is
a ton of people in this world that say they know Christ, but
they don't believe on Christ and they don't love Christ's
brethren. And next week we're going to see how that's brought
out a little more when we start looking at love. But look here,
but this is why He doesn't do it. He's a liar and the truth
is not in Him. But when you've been born of
the incorruptible seed, He said, now the Word's in you. Now the
truth is in you. And you know, just like that Just like the
seed by which we are born in natural generation accomplished
the work of making us the sons of our Father, well this seed,
this incorruptible seed in regeneration accomplishes the work of making
us like our everlasting Father. He says here, because of this,
1 John 3, 8, He cannot sin. I'm sorry, verse 9, He cannot
sin. Not only do we not commit that sin, not only do we not
commit the sin of unbelief and of hating our brethren, we cannot
commit it. We cannot commit it. We can never
cease believing on Christ. We can never cease loving our
brethren because Christ put away our sins and in Him is no sin. Our body of sin is dead, so we
are justified. We're dead to the law by the
body of Christ and no charge can be laid to us. That's before
the law. And men will say, well, that's
not what John's talking about. Yeah, but because that's true,
justice demands this work be done within us that he is talking
about. And this work, when it's done
within us, makes us to be born of the incorruptible seed. And
you know why Paul said, I know that in me. Now let me qualify
that. That is, in my flesh dwells no
good thing. You know why you made that qualification?
Because when you are born of God, there is something new created
in you that is of God. And you better not say it is
not good. Because it is. It is. Listen to this. Ephesians
4.24 calls it a new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Colossians 3.10 says, it's a
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ that
created him. There's a new man in every believer
that is the spitting image of Christ our everlasting Father.
Everybody used to say, Will just looked just like me. Well, he's
my son, and sadly now he acts a lot like me. But, when we're born of him, we're
created, there's a new man created in his image. And look at this,
and we cannot sin, verse 9 says, because he is born of God. Look down at verse 23. 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. You know the ETH on the end of
the word means perpetually. You never stop keeping. So he
is saying this is his commandment and he that does never stop keeping
this commandment. Here is why he does it. Because
he dwells in Christ And Christ dwells in him. He's born of God. That's why. So brethren, that's
the difference. By grace, God's made the child
of God, those born of God, so that we cannot ever cease believing
on Christ and loving our brethren. Now look at 1 John 5 and I'm
going to close. This is going to be John's ending
and this tells us what he's writing this for. Look here. Actually, let me read verse 13.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God. And here's why he wrote it. That
you might know that you have eternal life and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. That you might never
stop looking to Him. Now look down at verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself. And we're going to see this.
He that is begotten The comma of God is kept. That's what it's talking about.
Himself is kept. That's the literal translation.
And He's saying, and that wicked one touches Him not. He's saying
we're kept by the power of God. And we know that we are of God
and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we might know
Him that is true and we're in Him that is true even in His
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now here he says, here's my whole
point of this whole epistle. Little children, now you keep
yourselves from idols. Don't look anywhere but to Christ. That's what Rob was saying. Every
chastening that the Lord puts us to is to turn us back to Christ
to make us make straight paths back to Christ that we might
continue being partakers of His holiness. That's why. That's
the whole point. Alright, amen.