Let's go to 1 John chapter 3. Now throughout 1 John, the apostle
is declaring the manifest difference. The manifest difference, the
open, It's a clear, obvious difference between the children of God and
the children of the devil. That's what its purpose is. When
something is manifest, it's open, it's clear, it's obvious, it's
unmistakable. For example, Scripture says Christ
was manifested. We're going to see that tonight
in 1 John 3. Christ was manifested. He came
openly, clearly for all to see. It was unmistakable. God was
manifest in the flesh. And John here is declaring the
manifest difference between the children of God and the children
of the devil. Look back at 1 John 2 and verse
19. He said of the children of the
devil, antichrist, they went out from us. They went out from
us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. He said in another place, the
Apostle Paul said, there must needs be heresies. that they
which are approved may be made manifest. Manifest. Look at 1 John 3 and verse 10. In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. The children of God do Righteousness. The children of God do righteousness. What does John mean by that when
he says, doeth righteousness? Well, in the context of this
epistle, John means we abide in Christ. We abide in Christ
and we love our brethren. We abide in Him and we love our
brethren. That's doing righteousness. The
child of the devil doeth not righteousness, neither loveth
his brother. The child of the devil commits
the sin. He commits what John calls the
sin unto death. It's apostasy. Turn to 1 John
5 and look at verse 16. He says, If any man see his brother
sin a sin which is not unto death, He shall ask and He shall give
Him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death. There is a sin unto death. There's
no definite article in the Greek. It really should read, there
is sin unto death. It's the sin. I do not say that
He shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin. And
there is a sin not unto death. The sin unto death is apostasy,
by which a sinner proves himself to be a child of the devil. Apostasy is renouncing the truth. It's to blaspheme the Holy Ghost,
deny the Word of God, reject the Word of God, forsake Christ,
forsake the truth of the Gospel, forsake assembling with God's
saints under the preaching of the truth. The person who willfully
forsakes Christ and continues to the end, rejecting Christ,
proves himself to be a reprobate. He proves himself to be apostate,
a reprobate. He's committed the sin unto death. Now, throughout this epistle
and in the context we're going to see tonight, John is comforting
believers. He's comforting believers. If
you read the last few verses, he says, I'm writing this to
you that know and believe the gospel so that you know and that
you believe. You continue in him. He's comforting
us by assuring every believer that because we've been born
of God through the righteousness of Christ, we will never be able
to apostatize. We'll never be able to reject
Christ and leave the gospel. We're kept by the power of God
unto salvation. He will not allow one of His
people to fall away. And that's a great comfort. And
that's what John's doing. Now I'm going to go back. We've
been away from John for a little while. I'm going to go back and
just show you a couple of places so you can see this is the context.
Go back to chapter 1 and verse 5. He talked about having seen
Christ and how Christ was manifest, the word of life, and this is
the gospel we preach. And he says in verse 5, this
then is the message which we have heard of Him. and declare
unto you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, if we say that we believe on
Christ but we don't abide in Christ, we apostatize, we reject
Christ, we leave Christ and we walk in darkness, He says we
lie and we do not the truth. We saw what Christ said doing
the truth is. It's what John is referring to
as doing righteousness. Christ said, he that does the
truth comes to the light. He comes to Christ, that all
his deeds might be made manifest, that they might be openly manifest,
that they're all worked in God. They're all worked by our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's doing truth. He says here,
if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
We walk in lies, we apostatize and we renounce the truth for
lies. We lie and we do not the truth. He says, but if we walk in the
light, if we say we have fellowship, we profess faith in Christ and
we abide in Christ, we continue in Christ to the end, As He is
in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. This is what
he opened the letter with. This is what he talks about all
the way through it. Go to 1 John chapter 2 and look
at verse 3. Hereby we do know that we know
Him if we keep His commandments. He is going to tell us in chapter
3, we have seen this. He says this is His commandment.
That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ
and love one another. That is His commandment. We believe
on Christ and we love one another. And this is how we know we know
Him. Everybody is always talking about evidences. They want evidences. This is it. We believe Christ. We believe Christ. We trust Him. We abide in Him. And when you
abide in Christ and you continue in Christ, another time we're
going to see that's really what it is to love our brethren. And
he says here, this is how we know if we keep His commandment.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments.
He does not believe on Christ. He doeth not righteousness. He
doesn't abide in Christ. Neither loves his brethren. He
says he's a liar and the truth is not in him. Now, here's our
text. Let's go to 1 John chapter 3. We looked at these verses before,
but I want to go back again and look out. This is so important.
There's so much been said on this. And I believe God has finally
given me some light on this. And it's just too good not to
go over it again. And I hope to show you a few
more things we didn't see before. But 1 John chapter 3 and verse
4. Whosoever committeth sin. Young's literal translation says,
everyone who is doing the sin. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. And you know that Christ was
manifested to take away our sins. All our sins. And in Him is no
sin. There is no sin in Christ. Now,
next he's going to be speaking here of the whole context of
this epistle. What he's been talking about
all through the epistle. So I want to do something here. I'm going
to replace the word sinneth with the word apostatized. And I want
you to see that this is what he's talking about. Look here,
verse 6. Whosoever abideth in him apostatizes
not. Whosoever apostatizes hath not
seen him, neither known him." Where he says, "...committed
sin," you could put, "...committed sin unto death." Because that's
what John, we just saw, there's a sin unto death. He's talking
about forsaking Christ. But we're just going to put apostatize
here. He says, "...little children,
let no man deceive you, he that doeth righteousness." He that
abideth in Christ is righteous even as Christ is righteous. He that apostatizes, he that
commits the sin unto death, is of the devil. For the devil is an apostate from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might
destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not apostatize. For Christ's seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot apostatize, because he is born of God. In
this the children of God are manifest, and the children of
the devil. This is the manifest difference
between the children of God and the children of the devil. Whosoever
apostatizes is not of God. neither he that loveth not his
brother." First of all, to apostatize is to sin in two ways. It's to sin in two ways. Look
in verse 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now,
John said over in chapter 5 verse 17, I just read it, he said all
unrighteousness is sin. All unrighteousness is sin. Everyone
that's taught of God knows that committing sin is transgression
of the law. Don't you know that? I know that. I know that committing sin is
transgression of the law. Paul said in Ephesians 2, the
Gentiles who never had the law, who do the things that are contained
in the law, they are a law unto themselves. They bear witness.
They have the law written on their conscience. They know sin
is a transgression of the law. They are a law unto themselves.
We all know that. We all know that. So why does
John use this word also? Look there again. He says, Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law. For sin is the
transgression of the law. Why does he say the word also?
Let's remember this context. Go back to verse 29. It's 1 John
2.29. If you know Christ is righteous,
and mark that word know right there. If you know Christ is
righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness, everybody
that abides in Christ is born of Him. Do you remember how knowing
Christ is righteous, we know that a person that believes on
Christ is born of Him? Do you remember how we know?
It's because it's through the righteousness of Christ that
the spirit of adoption is given to us and we're born again. Go
back over to Galatians 4. Let's see that again. Galatians
chapter 4 and look at verse 4. He said there, Verse 4, When
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, to purchase us out from under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Remember He said, you have an
unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. God sent
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And now we cry, Abba,
Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. So, knowing Christ is righteous,
knowing that we're given the spirit of adoption through His
righteousness, we know that everyone that abides in Christ, everybody
that believes on Him and abides in Him, continues in Him, is
born of Him. So John says now in chapter 3
and verse 1, he says, Behold, now I went back and looked that
word up. and I found something out that I didn't know. That
word, behold, is different from where the word is used in other
places. That word, behold, is translated from a word that means
knowing. It means knowing. He's saying
here, knowing what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us. It's the same word that's back
there in verse 29 when He says, if you know that He's righteous.
If you know that Christ came and redeemed us from under the
law, and that's how we're born of God, through His righteousness.
He says, then you know what manner of love the Father has bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. He's saying,
you know it took God sending His own Son. You know it took
Christ being made flesh, it took Christ being made under the law,
it took Christ being made a curse for us to redeem us from the
curse of the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And he says that we know by Christ purifying
us and by giving us this good hope, we know that when He comes
we're going to see Him as He is and we're going to be like
Him. And he says there, he says, knowing this, Christ makes the
believer purify himself. And we saw what that meant. It
means Christ makes the believer come out from darkness, and come
out from lies, and come to Christ the light, and abide in Christ
the light, and stay in Christ the light, continue in Him together
with His people. And then John says this now,
this comes next. Whosoever, whosoever, committeth
sin. And here's what, I won't be dogmatic
on this, but this is what I'm convinced he's saying. Whosoever
goes out from us back to that darkness of life. In other words,
whosoever commits the sin unto death, whoever apostatizes, He
says, He transgresseth also the law. For apostasy is the transgression
of the law. He is saying the apostate transgresses
the law two ways. Two ways. Or he transgresses
in two ways. Let me replay. He transgresses
in two ways. One, he transgresses against
Christ and against God his Father. He showed us that. Look back
at chapter 2 and verse 22. He said, who's a liar but he
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, watch
this, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth
the Son, the same hath not the Father. Go to John 5. Let's hear
what Christ had to say about that. John chapter 5. I'm not
sure if we're coming back here or not, but hold your place in
John. We might come back to it. But John 5 verse 22. He said,
ìThe Father judges no man but has committed all judgment unto
the Son, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." When we hear
Christ's Word, He said, whoever hears My Word, when we hear Christ's
Word, what do we hear Christ say? He said, this is the work
of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. He said it
in John 6, one chapter over, this is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. So when we hear Christ's
Word and we believe on Him, we believe on the Father who sent
Him. When you honor the Son, you honor
the Father. When you believe on Christ and
honor the Son, you honor the Father who sent Him. You believe
the Father who sent Him. And He says, 1 John 2, go back
there, 1 John 2, 23, So he says, whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. Look at 2 John. Go to John's
2nd epistle. Look at verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth. That's the same word as in our
text. Remember he says he transgresses
also the law. Well here he's talking about
transgressing God the Father and God the Son. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. This is what we're talking about.
The difference between the child of the devil and the child of
God. The child of God is going to abide in the doctrine. He's
going to honor the Son and thereby honor the Father. He has both
the Son and the Father. But whoever doesn't abide in
the doctrine, he dishonors the Son. And when you dishonor the
Son, you dishonor the Father. So first of all, the apostate
who rejects the Gospel, rejects Christ, he transgresses against
God the Father and against Christ His Son. And then in our text,
John adds this. 1 John 3, 4, he says, And whosoever
apostatizes transgresses also the law. See, he had just shown
us in chapter 2 that if you transgress against the Son, you're transgressing
against the Father. And then in chapter 3, now he
says, and whosoever apostatizes transgresses also the law. Now let me read Young's literal
translation to you. What Youngs did is instead of
translating it like we have it, he just translated the words
literally as they are from the original. Now let me give this
to you. This is verse 4. Everyone who
is doing the sin, the lawlessness also he doth do. And the sin
is the lawlessness. The sin. unto death. The sin of rejecting Christ is
the lawlessness. It's transgressing the law. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to whom? To everyone that believeth. To everyone that believeth. That
means to everyone that believes on Christ and abides in Christ. Abiding in Christ means you continue
trusting Christ to the end. You persevere in faith to the
end. See, through faith in Christ, we establish the whole law. Because
Christ established it for the believer. That's what Paul told
us in Romans 3. We don't abolish the law through
faith. Through faith is the only way
we establish the law. Because Christ established it
for us. So the man who rejects Christ, he has to abide under
the curse of the law. He's transgressed the whole law.
He doesn't have Christ our righteousness who established the law for him.
So he's left under the curse and he transgresses the whole
law. Isn't that what Christ said?
He that believeth on him is not condemned. He that believes on
Christ is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. The law is what's going to condemn
him. And so the man who rejects Christ, he not only transgresses
against God the Son and God the Father, he also transgresses
against the whole law. He transgresses against the whole
law. Paul said, I testify again to every man that's circumcised,
he's a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever you are that are justified
below, you have fallen from grace. Now understand what this means.
The man who professes to be in Christ, to have fellowship with
Christ, and yet he renounces the believer's rule of life,
which is faith in Christ, which works by love. That's our rule
of life. Faith in Christ, which works
not by law, but by the constraint of Christ's love for us. The
man who rejects that and trusts his own works, he goes back to
the law, and he looks to his own works, and he trusts his
own works, he condemns God's saints as being antinomians.
He calls us antinomians. But our text says here, he's
anti-Christ and also anti-law. He's anti-Christ and anti-law. He's lawless. And this goes for
all who reject Christ, for all who, if a man doesn't, if he
just walks away from religion altogether, he's guilty of transgressing
against the Father and the Son and also transgressing the whole
law of God. That's the first thing about
apostasy. Now secondly, Christ makes His
people know He makes us know that He took away our sin. He
took it all away. Look here, 1 John 3, 5. And ye
know, that's what He told us in chapter 2, you have an unction
from Christ the Holy One and you know all things. He says,
and you know that Christ was manifested to take away our sins
and in Him is no sin. Whose sins did Christ come to
take away? Read it again. Christ was manifested
to take away our sins. Who's He talking about? He's
talking about believers. He's talking about us who believe
on Christ and abide in Christ to the end. He's talking about
God's elect. He's talking about Christ's sheep.
All who have been born of God to believe on Christ and all
who shall be born of God. The unction He's given us, brethren,
has made us know Christ accomplished what He came to accomplish. He came to put away sin and He
put away sin. Christ is the one typified in
the scapegoat over in the law on the day of atonement. That
high priest put his hands on the head of that scapegoat typifying
the sins of Israel being transferred to that scapegoat. It was a picture. The Lord laid on Christ the iniquity
of all His people. And Christ took our sins away
to a land not inhabited when He died under the law for His
people, for the transgressions of His people. Isaiah 53, 6 says,
The Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Verse 8 says,
He was cut off out of the land of the living. Remember where
the scapegoat went? He went to a land not inhabited.
Christ bore the sins of His people. He was cut off out of the land
of the living, for the transgression of My people was He stricken.
That's how He took our sins away. He took the sins of His people
away. And therefore, John says here, in Christ is no sin. In Christ is no sin. Everybody hear me. I want everybody
that hears this to hear what I'm saying. No sin was in Christ
at His birth, at His conception, at His birth, no sin was in Christ.
No sin was in Christ all the days He walked this earth under
the law. No sin was in Christ when He
was tempted of the devil. No sin. No sin was in Christ
when He was charged falsely by that kangaroo court they brought
Him before. No sin was in Christ. And even
when He bore the sin of His people, so real that He owned them and
called them in the Psalms, mine iniquity, and the law looked
upon them as His sins. Even then, in Christ Himself,
was no sin. No sin. But here is what John is talking
about. What John is talking about is, since Christ took away the
sins of His people, all who are brought to abide in Christ, there
is no sin. We have no sin. There is no sin. We are without sin. Hebrews 9.28
says, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. and
unto them that look for Him, that's who we're talking about,
those who abide in Christ to the end, unto them that look
for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. There's no sin for the believer
in Christ. Now, thirdly, you who abide in
Christ, because this is so, you cannot apostatize because Christ
made us righteous and through His righteousness we're born
of Him. Look at verse 6. Whosoever abideth
in Christ sinneth not, and whosoever apostatizes hath not seen Him,
neither known Him. Whosoever apostatizes hath not
seen Him, neither known Him. Christ said, except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Meaning, you
can't see Christ. Because Nicodemus came saying,
Master, we know you are a teacher come from God. And Christ said,
except you be born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.
And until we're born again, we can't see Christ and we can't
know Christ. But he says here, whosoever abideth
in Christ. The reason we abide in Christ
is we have been born again. We have been born again. We've
seen Him and we've known Him by faith. You go through this
epistle and you count how many times John says, you know, you
know, you know. We know all things. We know this
gospel is so. We know that in Christ we have
no sin because He accomplished what He came to do. We know this.
We've seen Him by faith. We know Him by faith. And so when you see Him and you
know Him, you can't leave Him. We cannot not abide in Christ. We cannot cease abiding in Christ. We cannot apostatize from Christ. We cannot do it. Now, indeed,
In Christ we have no sin of any kind and indeed in Christ we
fulfill the law and we cannot transgress God's law because
Christ fulfilled it. But by this unction abiding in
us, we cannot apostatize from Christ. We cannot stop abiding
in Him. Go back and look at 1 John 2.27.
Look at that last part. He says, ìAs the same anointing
teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him.î You see
that? John is telling us here, heís
contrasting this with the person who apostatizes. Look at the
next thing he says there back in our text. ìWhosoever apostatizes
has not seen him, neither known him.î He's not been made righteous
by Christ. He's not been sent the Spirit
of God's Son into his heart crying Abba Father. He's not been born
of God. So he has not seen Christ and
he's not known Christ other than maybe just a head knowledge that
he got from learning some doctrine. You can learn doctrine. You can
learn doctrine just like you can learn the Ten Commandments.
And a man who comes in, a natural man comes in and he hears that
you're not under the law, we're under grace. And he says, well,
five points is a lot easier to remember than the Ten Commandments.
That's five less. Anybody in his right mind wouldn't
say, well, I'll go with that. But if he hadn't been born of
God, he don't know Christ and he hasn't seen Christ. And he
can't make himself abide. cannot. John's writing this concerning
them that seduce you. He's writing Remember in chapter
2 he said, I'm writing these things concerning them that seduce
you, that would seduce you away from Christ. And the devil uses
so many things. Paul said, I'm afraid that just
like he beguiled, tricked Eve, he's going to beguile you from
the simplicity that's in Christ, the singleness that's in Christ,
looking to Christ only. And that's what he does. He uses
a lot of different things to try to seduce people away from
Christ. So he says here again, let no
man deceive you. Look at verse 7. Little children,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness,
he that abideth in Christ is righteous even as Christ is righteous. Now, indeed, this is how this
is normally interpreted, and I'll say this because it's true.
Those who abide in Christ and those in whom Christ abides,
Romans 6 says, sin shall not have dominion over you for you're
not under the law, you're under grace. He's taken reign in our
heart and we're no longer the servants of sin. We're the servants
of righteousness. There's going to be a change
in a believer. He's not going to continue living
in sin and living in rebellion and darkness like he did before
he knew Christ. Now that's just fact. That's
just fact. But what he's talking about here
is doing righteousness, abiding in Christ, believing on Christ
and continuing in Christ. That's what he's talking about
here. And Christ called it doing truth. It's only through faith
in Christ that we are righteous as Christ is righteous. It's
not through any works we do. It's only through faith in Christ,
abiding in Christ, that we're righteous as Christ is righteous.
And he's telling us here there's a lot of deceivers. There's a
lot of deceivers declaring to sinners you have to do something
else in addition to Christ. That's not so, brethren. We don't
have to add anything to Christ. Remember they came and here was
these believers that had been brought to faith in Christ and
they came down and said, now that's fine, but except you be
circumcised and keep the law, you can't be saved. No. No. He that believes on Christ. He that abides in Christ. He that doeth righteousness.
That all means the same thing. It means staying on Christ. He that believes on Christ and
abides in Christ, he is righteous even as Christ is righteous. There is nothing to add to Christ.
Don't ever add anything to Christ. Nothing. We see in verse 8, doing
righteousness means abiding in Christ because John contrasts
it with the child of the devil. And he's like his father. Look
here, verse 8. He that apostatizes is of the
devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. What does
he mean by the devil sinneth from the beginning? It means
he's an apostate. Go to John 8. John chapter 8. I'm just going to read this and
I might just close here because I don't think I'm going to go
further. John 8 verse 44. Look at this. This is Christ speaking. He says
to the Pharisees, and you wouldn't get a people more holy acting
than the Pharisee. So if John was talking about
practicing righteousness, then he wouldn't be talking... These
people right here would have been counted in that group who
were doing righteousness, if that's what doing righteousness
means. But Christ said this to the Pharisees. Look what He said
to them. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and look at those next words, and abode not in the truth. That's what John's been talking
about. The child of God who has God for his Father, we're going
to abide in the truth. We're going to abide in Christ.
That's what doing righteousness is. But a child of the devil,
he'll do what his father did. The devil abode not in the truth. He abode not in the truth. He
says there, there's no truth in him. He speaks a lie. He speaks
of his own for he's a liar and the father of it. Look at verse
47. He that is of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them not because
you are not of God. You see that? That shows you
He's contrasting abiding in Christ with not abiding in Christ. That's
what He means. Doing righteousness is abiding
in Christ. Doing not righteousness is apostatizing,
renouncing Christ, rejecting Him for lives or for nothing,
whatever. But it's not abiding in Christ.
I think I'm just going to stop right there and we'll look at
the rest of this next time. Yeah, we'll come back and look
at this because I got too much here. I don't want to rush through
it. So brethren, here's the point.
Let me leave you with this. People want to worry about assurance
and they want to worry about evidences. And every time I've
ever heard anybody looking for some assurance from evidence.
It's everything, anything and everything except faith in Christ. It's always something they did
or not did. And what usually has people worried
and concerned that they're not Christ is some sin in their past. Listen to me. The one evidence
that we're children of God is faith in Christ. That's it. And you know, if you have this
unction, you know that it's only through the righteousness of
Christ, it's only through Christ's righteousness that we have this
unction and been born of God. And so you know, he that believes
on Christ, he's born of God and he's been made righteous by Christ.
And you that have been made righteous by Christ and born of Him, You
cannot fall away. You cannot apostatize. You cannot
sin that unpardonable sin. You can't reject Christ. I was talking to brother Adam
about this Sunday. When I look back on my life, I can't help
but say, how could I have been a child of God? How could I have
been a child of God and did that or said that or thought that?
And I don't have to go very far back. It's not like you gotta
go back years and years and years. I can go back to this morning.
How could I be a child of God? And that's all we see in ourselves. But this one thing that has been
a consistent thing since God called me. I haven't been able
to stop believing on Him. And that is the difference between
a child of God and a child of the devil. You just can't stop
believing Christ. And you're not going to. You're
just not going to. I pray that's a comfort to you. I want you to be comforted. And
I hope that's a comfort to you. We'll look at the rest of that,
Lord willing, next time. Father, we thank You for this Word. We
thank You for Your grace and Your mercy. We thank You that
in Christ is no sin. We're thankful, Lord, that You
don't see things the way we see things. How thankful we are that
You've kept us and You're going to keep us because You've made
us righteous in Your Son. You've given us the spirit of
Your Son. Lord, make us to look nowhere but to Christ only. Keep us looking to Him only. Don't let us look to our faith
even for the assurance. Keep us looking to Christ only. Lord, be with those that don't
have assurance, be with those that need this assurance, need
this comfort. Lord, if they're not here tonight,
we pray you get this message to them and cause them to hear
it, cause them to look to your Son and rest in Him. Turn us
from ourselves to Him. Let no deceiver deceive us. Make us to know, Lord, we're
righteous even as Christ is righteous. We thank you for Him. We thank
you for that righteousness. Forgive us, Lord, our doubting
and for looking in the wrong direction. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen.