Good evening. Let's be turning to 1 John. We might as well go to chapter
2. We'll begin there at the last
verse. But before we, we're really venturing
now into 1 John chapter 3. And it's clear that John is making
a case to the brethren that we would seek to have our will aligned
with the will of God our Father, our God who saved us by thee. blood and righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, our God who separated us from this world
and separated us unto himself for his own use and his own purpose
to glorify his name. Christ has faithfully come and
laid down his life as the Savior of his people. He gave himself
to redeem us, to purchase us, and to make us his own. And in doing what he did, in
putting away our sins by the death of himself and rising from
the dead, he gives us his Holy Spirit. He gives us life. He
gives us light in himself to know him, to know him. And he
makes us new creatures born again of his seed. His spirit dwells
within us. From the scriptures now, from
the gospel, we have revealed to us, we know, we're made to
know that Christ has lifted the yoke of the burden of the law
off of our shoulders. He's lifted the law off of us
which we could not keep. We're not bound by the law, to
make a righteousness for ourselves with which we try to come to
God and please God and earn God's favor. That burden is removed. That's put away. We are set at
liberty in Christ, unto him, unto his use now and his purpose. And we thank God for this, because
we know, any time that we've spent in religion, we know that
we cannot keep the law for righteousness. Now, I want to give you a few
scriptures that confirm that. Before we go on, I want to give
you a few scriptures, and I've put them together. They're from
Romans 2 and 3, and some from Galatians 3 and Galatians 5.
Let me just read these in a different order. But from Romans 2, we're
told that it's not the hearers of the law that are just before
God, but the doers of the law that shall be justified. And
when he says doers, when the scriptures say doers of the law,
that means doing it perfectly, without fault, without infraction,
without fail, without making mistakes, without sinning, without
ruining everything. And if you're going to be justified,
you're going to do that law, and you're going to do it perfectly,
or else it's not just before God. It's not acceptable to God. Therefore, Romans 3.20, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Because that's not why the law
was given. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law
makes known to us that we are sinners before God. Christ is
become of no effect unto you, Paul said to the Galatians in
chapter 5, verse 4. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace. There was people turning
to the law. There was Jews turning back to
the law. There were Gentiles being steered into the law. And
he says, Christ is of no effect to you. You've fallen from grace.
But Galatians 3, 11 and 12, but that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live
by faith. The just shall live by faith.
That's Habakkuk 2, 4. The just shall live by faith, and the
law is not of faith. It's not of faith. But the man
that doeth them shall live in them. In other words, so long
as you're doing it perfectly, you'll live. But as soon as you
fail, as soon as you come up short, as all men do, we come
short of the glory of God, all the sinners, you don't live anymore. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, Romans
3, 28. So that's the testimony of scripture. And that leads us to Christ,
to know him, because that's the blessing of God. that we've been
redeemed and justified, not by our works under the law, which
we cannot do, but by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the blessing of God. When we come to 1 John 3, we're
not talking about justification. We're not even talking about
sanctification, because those are the works of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That according as it's written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. So when we look
at 1 John chapter 3, we're talking about what John is making the
case concerning God's will for our holiness and righteousness
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by the law, but by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that we would see and behold
the love of God the grace of God, the purpose of God for us
in Christ, in grace, in love, in grace and in love, and that
we would be stirred in our hearts to have a desire in that new
man born of his spirit to desire Christ, to be conformed to the
image of Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. Now,
I want to look at a passage before we get into 1 John 3. I want
to look at 1 Peter 1, because I think 1 Peter in this first
chapter does put some verses here that show us the will and
purpose of God and make it very clear to us. 1 Peter 1.13, and
he's speaking to redeemed believers. Believers. Wherefore, gird up
the loins of your mind. That's what a soldier would do
when he's going into battle. He'd pick up his garments that
might be hanging down and get in the way of his knees and he'd
gird them up, he'd tie them up so he can move and move quickly.
gird up the loins of your minds, be sober, and hope to the end
for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ." That is putting us in mind of our promised inheritance. We have an inheritance of God
in Christ, of life, eternal life and liberty in Christ. as obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts
in your ignorance. We see the way of this world.
We know the way of this world. We know the course of this world
and what it is and what it's about. We have an understanding
that we've been delivered by Christ, by the death and resurrection
of Christ, from the dominion of sin ruling and reigning over
us. We have a knowledge of God now
and an understanding of what he's done for us. And he says, but as he which
hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. because it is written, Be ye
holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father,
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." So, this is God
revealing His will. He says, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. I can't do that. I can't make myself holy. This
is God revealing his will and purpose for us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's God's will that we be holy.
We were ignorant workers of wickedness in dead letter religion, not
knowing the true and living God, bouncing around in darkness,
feeling around, trying to please God, and just going off the cliff.
We didn't know it. Now we know it in Christ. Christ
has brought light to us. This is God's will and purpose
for us to know him, to worship God in spirit and in truth. And so Peter's telling us God's
will and purpose for us. He's never once mentioned the
law. He's not talking about the law. He's not turning us to the
law. This holiness is not accomplished
by the law. We've seen the scriptures. It's
not accomplished by the law. Rather, it is accomplished in
us by the grace of God in love, in love, by the grace of God
in love through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that
what he's declaring to us constantly in the gospel? Turning us to
Christ, declaring the grace of God and the love of God for us
in Christ, and how he's working this holiness, this understanding,
to worship God in spirit and in truth, in grace, in love. And then when Peter speaks of
our passing, the time of our sojourning here in fear, he's
not saying, cower in fear, be afraid, because you're going
to mess up, and the next thing you know, you're going to get
smacked upside the head, and we're always worried about that,
that I'm going to do something wrong, I'm going to sin, I'm
going to fail, I'm going to fall, and God's going to get me. That's
the natural man. That's how we tend to think of
it when we hear Peter speak of fear. And of course, a lot of
that is because we've been abused in religion. We've been abused
for many years in religion, being told to, you better do this right,
you better not do that wrong. And it just turns us to the flesh
and puts our eyes on us, not on Christ. And that's not what
he's saying. What he is saying is, get to
Christ. Don't play games. Don't do like
what many of the Jews were doing. They were turning back to the
law for righteousness. Don't go back to the law for
righteousness, trying to work a righteousness for yourselves.
It's not going to yield the fruit that you think it's going to
yield. Turning to the law for righteousness is not going to
yield that good, profitable, precious fruit of God, which
his trees, the planting of his righteousness, bear in their
season. Now we saw this Sunday, where
Christ himself said, I, in Luke 12, 5, I will forewarn you whom
ye shall fear, fear him. He said, fear him, which after
he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto
you, fear him. He's talking about people that
were confident and their righteousness, and didn't dare go outside of
what the church of the Pharisees was saying. You go against them,
they're gonna let you know you're coming under this curse, you're
gonna be shunned, ostracized, ruined, God's gonna get you,
you're gonna be destroyed. And he said, don't fear them,
don't fear their persecution. I'll tell you who you should
fear, is fear God. And then Christ went on to explain
to his disciples in verse six and seven, the love and care
of God for his people. Verse six and seven said, are
not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them
is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. All right, he said, I'll tell
you who should fear, and now he says, fear not, therefore,
ye are of more value than many sparrows. We need not fear God
in Christ. In coming to God, in whom the
Father said, I am well pleased. You need not fear him in Christ. Don't fear him in Christ. The
only reason to fear God is coming to him in the law, thinking that
that's your righteousness. That's when you should fear God.
Because that is bold. That is disregarding the word
of God, who said, look to Christ, get to Christ, stay under the
blood of Christ. That's your righteousness. That's
the one whom I've provided. That's believing God, and fearing
God, and coming to him, and saying, I'm listening to you. Not what
man says. I'm listening to the Father.
who's turning me to Christ, who sent Christ and brought him into
the world to do for me, to work a perfect righteousness, which
I could not work, and to lay down his life for me as my blood
sacrifice to wash away my sins. That's fearing God, believing
his word, obeying his word, which said, believe him whom I've sent.
That's the fear of God. That I don't want to come to
God, as Paul said, I don't want to be found in my own righteousness,
which is of the law. I don't want to be found in that
righteousness. That's Philippians 3. I want
to be found in the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness
of God, whom he sent to save me from my sins. So coming to
God in Christ, there's nothing to fear. because by his grace
we hear him who says, behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine
elect, and whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. And that's us,
people who didn't even know the true and living God. But he graciously
sent that gospel He sent the gospel and he drew
us to the gospel to hear it and to receive that word of Christ. If we fear God and not man, and
we would honor God and worship him, get to the refuge for sinners
that God has sent, Jesus Christ. It's Christ. He is the savior
of sinners. Don't come out from underneath
his wings where his hands are kept. and protected and provided
for. Stay in him, believe him, hear
his voice, and follow him. Follow him. And I think the concern
that we often have When we're talking about holiness and righteousness,
we just automatically think, uh-oh, he's turning me back to
the law. Uh-oh, he's going to whip and
beat my flesh. Uh-oh, I'm going to be shamed. This is it. I'm
coming to room, because I know I can't do this. And so we tense
up, and we just stop hearing, because we think, he must be
talking about the law again. But that simply can't be, because
we've already heard what the scriptures say, that we cannot
be justified by the works of the law, but the just shall live
by faith, by faith. Again, therefore by the deeds
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's why the law was given
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God, that we would receive the faith of Jesus Christ. That we would hear Him who says,
believe on me and you'll not be ashamed. Come to the Father
in Jesus Christ. You will not be confounded. You
will not be ashamed. He promises that you are righteous
in Him, and He will do all His will in you as it pleases Him.
He promises that word, and He will not fail to deliver on that
precious, precious word. We have received the promise
of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3, 14. A work has begun in us by God,
and He promises to finish that work. He promises. finished that work which he's
begun. This is a spiritual work of God
and therefore we must read And here, John's epistle with the
expectation of his spirit and his grace, helping us to hear
it, to be conformed by his grace and power to his will and purpose
for our holiness and to walk in faith in righteousness before
God. He effectually works this will
and purpose in us to the praise and glory of his name. His name's
at stake. His name's at stake. And he promises
this. So with that as our aim and understanding,
we'll begin going through this chapter. Chapter three here,
where he's encouraging us in what the Lord our God has wrought
for us in Christ. And I quote what Paul said in
Romans 7, 4. My brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ. that ye should be married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. We are married to Christ,
not to Moses. Married to Christ, and by him
we bring forth fruit unto God. And so that's what John's talking
about, the promise of God through Jesus Christ to bear fruit. So
tonight, We'll just begin looking at these verses in verse 29 in
1 John 2, 29. He says, if ye know that he is
righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of him. Now, we know this is not about
putting on a show of righteousness. This is not about putting on
a show of righteousness. We saw, we've been seeing how
the Lord deals with the Pharisees. We've seen how the Lord deals
with the Pharisees who were focusing on an outward form of religion. We saw how he dealt with them
last Sunday, actually. They were caring about what man
thought. They were focused on putting on a show, on being pleasing
to men, and receiving praise of men, to win the approval of
men. So that's not what John is talking about here. In other
words, what he's saying is, if you hear Christ, then follow
him. And everything that Christ did
was righteous. Nothing Christ did was not righteous. Everything Christ Jesus did was
righteous, and he was obedient to the Father's will in thought,
word, and deed. And those who know Christ and
love him, he gives, he works a desire in us to be like him. He gives us a desire to be like
him, to hear him, to love him, and to stir up our heart in love. He does that. He works that in
us. We should have that expectation that we love him and want to
know him and want to fellowship with him. I think it'll be helpful
in hearing how Paul worded our following of Christ. He said
it this way when he was writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians
10. At the end of that chapter, verse
32 and 33, he said, give none offense. neither to the Jews,
nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. So don't give
offense to those that are without, whether Jew or Gentile, don't
give offense to those that are within the church. He says, even as I please all
men in all things, not seeking mine own profit. When Paul was
laboring and serving Christ, he wasn't looking out for himself,
he was looking out for those that he was ministering the gospel
to. But the prophet of many, he said, that's what I'm seeking,
the prophet of many, that they may be saved. And then he says
this in verse one of the next chapter, be ye followers of me,
even as I also am of Christ. And so we follow Paul's example,
as he followed Christ. We follow the example of those
who follow Christ. We follow Christ, and that's
what Christ said. He said, my sheep, hear my voice
and follow me. That's a work of his grace. That's
not this flesh figuring it out and having power. and deciding
to follow Jesus. That's the work of His grace,
to open my ear, to hear His voice, and to be given a heart, a desire,
a new creation, a new heart, to having heard His voice, living
and following Him. He does that. We follow Him,
and He's righteous. He's righteous. We follow him.
And so we want to be like him. And that's what Paul was saying
is I'm not looking to give offense to people. I'm not looking to
just, you know, use my liberty to such a degree that I'm just
offending this person and that person and no one's hearing what
I'm saying. I want them to hear. I want many
to be profited that they may be saved by this gospel and hear
this gospel. And that's that's the desire.
All right. That that's where our hope is,
is that others would hear this truth and believe and follow
Christ, that they would hear his voice and follow Christ.
And so he's righteous and we walk in his light. We're being
led of him in paths of righteousness. If we're born of him, we'll follow
him and seek to walk as he walked in faith, in faith. And it's
a spirit and grace in you that does this. Faithful is he that
calleth you who also will do it. Not faithful are you who
are called who will do it. Faithful is he that calleth you
who will do it, who will work it in you, who will give you
that heart and give you that desire to know him. to walk in
his footsteps. We're talking about new creatures
in Christ Jesus. It cannot be a work of man's
hands. I mean, we can put on a show.
I know that we can put on a show like the Pharisees. That's not
what John is saying to us to do. He's not whipping up the
flesh. He's speaking to us according
to the promise of God. I want to quote another passage
from Ezekiel. It's probably familiar to you,
but in Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 36, in verse 26 and
27, the Lord says to his people, a new heart also will I give
you. I'll give you a new heart. and
a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh, meaning a soft heart, a heart that is pliable, moldable
by my hand, by my word, my work, my spirit, and I will put my
spirit within you, and listen to this, and cause you I will
cause you to walk in my statutes, which is in faith to Christ. That's what he's talking about.
I will cause you to walk. And the Lord, he deals with us. He corrects us as we have need
of correction. He'll remove things from you.
One brother or sister may have liberty to do something, but
for you, no. And God will deal with that.
He'll remove that from you. He'll turn your heart from it.
And you'll know the Lord said to me, no on that. Don't do that. And don't do that. Don't do it.
But he does that. I'll cause you. I'll use you
how I'm going to use you in my body to serve my body to do what's
profitable for my people. to love them, and to walk before
your God in faith. In faith, he does this. And ye
shall keep my judgments and do them. Again, I can't make this
happen, but the Lord can, and he does. I'll cause you, and
you shall. I will, you shall. God does it. He does it. Let's look at another
one. In verse 1, 1 John 3, 1, he says, He's saying, take notice of this
believer. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. In other words, we have a great
privilege. And really, so this case that
John is making for us to trust and believe the promise of God,
that we are righteous in Him and holy in Him, and He's leading
us and He's teaching us, And he's pruning us, right? Doesn't he say the father is
the husbandman and he prunes, he prunes, he trims off those
branches that we might be more fruitful. It's his work. He's
just telling us, this is what I'm doing in you. Trust me, believe
me, this is my word. I'm doing this in you as new
creatures in my grace, I'm working this in you. And he's saying,
what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. And that's the first thing.
These first three verses here, you see the case that John is
making is that we're loved of God. We're loved of God. We are in the family of God by
the Lord Jesus Christ, adopted into the family of God by Christ.
We're his children. And so that's the first case.
The first point that John's really making here is, brethren, we're
loved of God. God loves us. He set his heart,
his love upon us and brought us out of death and darkness
to be his sons. and daughters. And he's saying,
be mindful of that. Be mindful of that. When you
were younger, and you that have children, and certainly I can
remember some times when my mother said it to me, but she'd say,
now when you go out there, don't misbehave. Remember whose you
are. You mind your manners. You say,
yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Thank you. Please. Right? Our parents would put
us in that expectation. We expected it because they told
us, this is what you're going to do when you go out there.
Is it a strange thing then if the apostle here puts our minds
on the fact that we're God's children, we're his children,
we're his his family and his family were adopted by Christ.
Well, if that's so, then am I really going to be focusing on just
serving self and sin? Is he going to just allow me
just to go on serving self and doing what I will? No, it doesn't
even make sense. Of course he's going to correct
me and teach me and give me a heart to follow him. Of course he's
going to do that. He's separated us out unto himself
for his own use. And think about it. The apostle
says, therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
They're not going to know you. All they know of God is really
what we put on display. And not that we want to be holier
than thou. We don't want to come off in
that attitude at all. We just want to be just and honest
and right before others and not cheat them and seek some way
to have an opportunity to speak of the hope that we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so they're not going to certainly
applaud you for doing something in Christ's name. In fact, you
might even be mocked and ridiculed for trusting the Lord and for
being honest before others. But let us speak the truth in
love and be ready to tell others of the hope, and the hope that
maybe it would open a door for us to speak to others of Christ. Peter said it this way in 1 Peter
3, verse 14 through 16. But if ye suffer for righteousness'
sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their terror,
neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. having a good conscience that
whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, right, they
don't know God, they don't understand your love or your care or your
conscientiousness or your honesty or your faithfulness or your
diligence, they don't know, they don't understand those things
in the light of God, but they'll be ashamed that falsely accuse
your good conversation in Christ. And so the world may hate you
for not agreeing with their worldview, or that you don't approve of
their wicked works that they do. But other than that, we're
given of God a good conversation in Christ. And again, that's
our aim. We're not looking to be Pharisees.
We just want to have an honest conversation in this world before
others. John adds in verse two, beloved,
now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And again, this speaks to the
promise of God unto us, that even though when we look at ourselves,
we see our faults, we see our warts, we see our failings, how
we come up short, Maybe others even see it in us. Usually we
look at our brethren and we think very highly of our brethren,
but we know what we are and we can't hide it. When we look in
the mirror, we see our faults and weaknesses, but we've been
given the promise of God. The promise of God that we are
His, to trust Him, to cry out to Him, to call upon Him to save
us and to keep us, to turn our hearts, to give us that heart
and that fervor for the Lord, and to keep us right there. We're
His. We're His. We shall see Him as
He is. And therefore, that's a good
hope because we don't have to go and battle with this world
according to the world for worldly things. This world's pretty messed
up. And I don't want to deal with
all the things that are in this world. I just want to preach
the gospel to my brethren, because that's how the Lord's helping
you. He's keeping you. We might get whatever. This world's
messed up. And we're not fighting for this
kingdom. He told Peter, put up your sword, Peter. This isn't
our kingdom. We provide for one another. We
care for one another. We take care of one another.
But this is not our inheritance. When it all comes down to it,
this is passing away. This is all gonna go away and
get burned up one day. So we don't need to battle people
over their worldly goals and what they have. Trust the Lord,
trust the Lord. Paul said it this way in Romans
12. He said, verse 17, recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide
things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as
much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, right? We seek
to be good neighbors and helpful to our neighbors. Dearly beloved,
avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it
is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
We can trust the Lord to deal with that, because otherwise
we could get burned up. and rage when someone does us
wrong, especially when they're really wrong in doing what they
did. And it can really burn us up. But the Lord says, you don't
need to do it. Deal with that. I'll deal with
that. I'll deal with that. And the other thing is, it may
be that the wrath, which was against them, was actually taken
out on Christ. And by your love and kindness
and patience with them, perhaps they'll hear, be willing to hear
the hope that you have in Christ and be brought to that knowledge
of him who gave his life for them, if they're his. We don't
know that. So having said that, I know that
I'm going to make mistakes. I know that I'm going to offend
people. James said, brethren, be not many of you. Don't be teachers, many of you,
because we offend all in various ways. We offend people with our
words, with our actions. Not everybody's going to like
us. And we don't always know why things work out the way that
things work out. We don't even understand why
they don't work out and go a certain way when it just seems so right
that it should, but it doesn't. But our hope is in Christ, who
loved us and gave himself for us. And we see that in many ways. In many ways, his mercy, his
patience, his kindness toward us, his gentleness, his graciousness
toward us. And we have a good hope in Christ
as our savior. And our actions don't change
the will and purpose of God toward us. Yet what we do, we do in
hope, believing him. I like what one man said. He
said, my relationship with God. does, in great measure, determine
what I do. If I wasn't a Christian, I wouldn't
necessarily do the things that I do. But my relationship with
God does, in great measure, determine what I do. But what I do does
not, in any measure, determine my relationship with God. My relationship with him determines
what I do, but what I do does not determine my relationship
with God. That's settled in Christ. That's settled in Christ. And
this is his word working in us, brethren. Therefore, we have
great confidence in Christ and our God. And we may trust him
fully, all for us to do. And they who trust him wholly
find him wholly true. He is faithful. He will do what
is right to bring himself honor and glory to his name. And by
his grace and power, we're made content in that. Now verse three,
every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even
as he is pure. And so this is a walk of faith,
brethren. It's a walk of faith in Christ.
Again, we're not doing this by the law. I mean, we don't even understand
many things or know many things, but we trust God and we walk
by faith in him. And so we desire to be like Christ,
knowing that one day we shall be like him. Why wouldn't we
want to be like him now? Not that we're going to be perfect,
but why wouldn't we want to be like him now? It makes no sense
for me to say, I hope that one day I'll be like him, but I don't
want to be like him today. That doesn't make any sense.
I hope one day to have perfect fellowship with God, but I don't
want to have perfect fellowship with God now. Does that make
any sense? No. And so the way we might illustrate
this is you that have sons, you that have little boys, you fathers,
your son, when he was little, he wanted to be just like you.
He looked up to you. He wasn't as strong as you are
when he's young. He doesn't have all the skill
sets that you have when he's young. He doesn't know all the
things that you know when he's young, but he loves you. He wants
to be like that. He wants to be just like you.
And that's the heart that our Lord works in us, in his child. And we desire to be like him. Now, there's times when we grow
cold. There's times when we become hardened and indifferent. But
by his grace, he softens that heart to, again, we desire, Lord,
I don't want to offend. I don't want to turn people away
from Christ. I want people to desire him. to know him, to hear his word. And so that's what we're saying. I believe that's what John is
saying. We want to walk in his footsteps and follow him. John
and Peter rejoiced that they were beat simply for preaching
the gospel. They were beat, and they rejoiced
because they were counted worthy to suffer with Christ, for Christ. And so we're new creatures of
Christ, And he works this in us. And though we feel the lusts
and the passions of this flesh, that doesn't change. But in the
new man, we desire Christ. And we do walk by faith in him.
And I'll just close with what Paul said in Romans 12, verses
1 through 3. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through
the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to
think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure
of faith. And so I really think those first
three verses, the case that John has made there is we're loved. We're loved of God. He loves
us in Christ and provided for us richly in him. Therefore,
love him, walk by faith in him and serve him and love him and
love your brethren.