1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. Many times I heard my pastor
say four things that he wanted to know. And for 15-20 years,
I could enter into two of those things. And over the last couple
of years, I want to know the other two. There are some other
things I can agree with him. I can enter into that. But he
used to say he wanted to know the Gospel. I want to know the
Gospel. I don't want to have head knowledge
of the Gospel. I want to have heart knowledge
of the Gospel. I'm not married to a doctrine.
I'm not married to a denomination. I'm not married to a systematic
theology. I'm married to a person and I want to know him. I want
to know the Gospel. And I want to have assurance
that I'm saved. I want to know I'm saved. I want
to know I'm experiencing that gospel. It's not just bland to
me. I want it to be a fire in me.
I want to have passion for my Redeemer. Those things I could
always enter into. I still pray we can today. Lord,
if I haven't rested on you before, let me rest in you today. If
I haven't believed on you before, if I've never really prayed to
you before, Lord, let me pray to you today. Let me rest in
your day. Let me know you today. I had grace for yesterday. Lord,
give me grace for today. Let me see Christ. I want to
experience it. My pastor used to say, I want
to know that I'm preaching the gospel. I could kind of get a grasp of
why he would say those things. I want to preach the gospel to
you. If someone's never heard it,
woe unto me if I stand in this pulpit and I said anything else. If I didn't tell you how God
saves sinners. There's a whole lot of opinions
I have. They're correct opinions, I think. Abortion's wrong. I don't need to preach on it.
Tell them who Christ is. What our government's doing,
I don't agree with it. The Lord controls that government. Tell them the God that controls
all things. Let me preach God to you. Tell
you who man is. I was reading that, we may look
at that this evening, in Isaiah 40. The Spirit spoke to John
the Baptist and said, And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh
is grass. Man ain't nothing. Tell them
the flower that withereth in the field. And tell them, he
ends all that with, the word of the Lord remains true forever.
God's true. I want to preach the gospel to
you. I want to know that I'm preaching
the gospel. And I want you to know the gospel. It's just a
responsibility I have on me, an accounting that's laid on
my shoulders that the Lord gave me, and that's fine. I pray for
you. If you knew the Lord yesterday,
I'm thankful for that. I want you to know him today.
I want it to be fresh to you. I want us to know some things,
stand in those things, have comfort in those things. Comfort you,
comfort you, my people. I want you to know your warfare
is over. Believers that Christ died for,
they are called to know Christ. Not to an act, not to a confession
of faith, they're called to know a person. And in knowing Him,
we're also given some knowledge to know some other things too.
We're given understanding. Look here in 1 John 5 verse 18. We know that whatsoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know
that the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. In verse 18 it says, we
know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Do we have to
be born of God to not sin? Is that required? Let's look
over to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Is it necessary for us to be
born of God. John 3 verse 5, Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Accept. It says accept
several times throughout the Scriptures. Accept, you repent.
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. It's all nature's. All that it ever will be. And
that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. To enter into the
Kingdom of God, we must be born of God. A new creation must be
put in us. Is there something I need to
do to be born of God? To be dead to sin. Hey, do something. Turn back a couple pages there
to John 1. John 1 verse 10. He was in the
world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him
not. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. That's not what the world is
saying today, is it? Everybody says they know God. He came here
and the world didn't know Him. And when he went to his own people,
he went to the Jews, had this word longer than anybody else
did, they didn't receive him. Verse 12, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, colon. Who are these people? Who are
these ones that's born of God? Verse 13, which were born, not
of blood, not of the will of the flesh, I'm making a decision,
nor of the will of man. Somebody else didn't make the
decision for you, but of God. We must be born of God. God gives physical life and he
gives spiritual life. James said, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures. He chose to have a people made
just like His Son. Oh, how thankful I am. What a
blessing it is to us. How is it that I do not sin being
born again? If the Lord has come to me and
He's put a new spirit in me, how is it that I don't sin? I
don't feel like I'm holy. Do you feel like you're holy?
I hope not. We're still living in His flesh,
aren't we? Peter said, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed. By the
word of God, which liveth and bideth forever. By Christ, that
incorruptible seed put in us. He does not sin. Therefore, we
don't sin. The new man in us. John told
us there in 1 John 3, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin, for his seed remaineth in him. The seed of Christ remaineth
in us. And he cannot sin because he's
born of God. I'm back to our text there in
John 5. Any spiritual fruit that's produced by me is solely from
that new man that God created that's born in me. It's His seed
that remains in me. And that new man, that new seed,
that new birth, it cannot sin. Not even that sin unto death.
That's what John just looked at last week. Can't do it. Christ will keep His sheep forever. He will preserve His seed in
them. We know this. This ain't a theory. This ain't something that we
hope, that we wish for. This is a hope that we know.
If I throw a basketball up in the air, I hope it's going to
hit the ground. Because it's going to. God's going to preserve
His people, and that new man in you cannot sin. It's holy.
How do we know that? God said so. You want more proof? He said so. Now there in our
text, it says we know in 1 John 5, 18. We know that whatsoever is born
of God sinneth not. Now in about 75% of the hundreds
of translations we have nowadays, about 75% of them say we don't
continue to sin. Like we had a, this is our starting
spot, and now that we've been born of God, from here on, we
don't sin. Not that we continue in it, in
these transgressions. The new man in us did not sin,
does not sin, and will not sin. He sinneth not. That's an ETH
word, as Clay says. That means it happened then,
happens now, it's going to keep happening. But he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one touches him not. I felt like
this was kind of out of context for the passage we're looking
at, but it ain't because the Lord moved John to put this here.
He that is begotten of God keepeth himself." Now, erroneously, people
say, well, this here is the same word as sanctification. Well,
one, no, it's not. It's not the same Greek word.
People look to this as a work. They've got to keep themselves.
They've got to protect yourselves. You have to set yourself apart.
You have to sanctify yourself. I think the Lord gave me some
light on this. Let's look over to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. I'll begin in verse 9, 1 Peter
2, 9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What's
this royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen generation,
a peculiar people? Why did Peter say that? Remember
when Moses came out of that mountain and he went to those people and
he said, here's God's law. Here's what he requires to be
perfect, to be in his presence. You do these things and you'll
be able to kill your people. You'll be a holy nation. What
did they say? Israel said, all right, we'll
do it. In short fashion, in a short work, they didn't. They went
right back to their idols. They went right back to making
their own gods. They didn't do it. But that necessitated someone
to satisfy that law for us. We needed a substitute. And when
he came, Christ our mediator came, and he bore everything
that we couldn't. He satisfied everything we couldn't
and bore what we were. Now, you are a chosen generation,
the people he died for. You're a royal priesthood to
God himself. You're a holy You're not a nation
getting holy. You're not a nation that's got
to do some more work. It's done. It's finished in Christ. And
with that, we should show forth the praises of Him who hath called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He's made us
holy, those that believe on Him, those that are born of God. And
what do we do? We don't dust ourselves off and
walk around like a peacock. We show forth His praises. We
point everybody to Christ. Verse 10, which in time past
were not a people, but now are the people of God, which had
not attained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And then immediately,
Peter writes this. This might seem out of context
for some folks. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul. He just told us everything that
Christ did for us. He bought us. He made us clean. Gave us His righteousness. And
then Peter says, abstain from fleshly lusts. And people say,
see, you've got to quit doing stuff. Quit smoking cigarettes. Quit smoking dope. Quit drinking
beer. Stop cussing. Abstain from those things. What's
a fleshly lust? People talk about gluttony. I
love cheeseburgers. I try not to pass one up if it's
a good one. Is that war against my soul? No. My self-righteousness is a fleshly
lust. My glory is a fleshly lust."
Now that's something that's going to war against you. So, verse
12, "...having your conversations honest among the Gentiles, that,
whereas they speak against you as evildoers, that they may by
your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day
of visitation." See, we've got to have good works. What did
we learn in 1 John? We're finishing it up today.
What's our good works? What's our doing righteousness?
Believing on Christ. Loving our brethren. If you want
to set yourself apart from this world, you want to sanctify yourself,
write this down. You stand up, just like here
in verse 9, and you show forth the praises of Christ. You say,
Christ did it all. All flesh is grass, and the word
of the Lord is true and remains forever. You want to set yourself
apart? The 99.9% of the world don't
want to have nothing to do with you. We're set apart and abstain
from the works of religion, abstain from self-righteousness. When
you did something good, you did these things. No, I didn't. If
I come to church on Sunday morning, it's because the Lord brought
me here. It's his praises, not mine. I didn't have a thing to
do with it. There in the New Testament, six
times the verb sanctify is used. Stay there in 1 Peter, but I
want to read you these in cross high priestly prayer. In John
17, he says, They are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world, those born of God. His children. Sanctify them through
Thy truth, Thy word is truth. Lord, set them apart and make
them holy through Your truth. Your word, Your Son, is truth. How is sanctified? Christ. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so I also sent them into the world, and for their
sakes I sanctify myself that they may also be sanctified through
truth." How are we going to sanctify ourselves? The Lord tells us
to set yourself apart. We'll see that in a minute. Sanctify
the God in your hearts. I've told you this, I hope I
tell you this every time. Everything required of man in the moral
law, the biblical law, mosaic law, in the precepts in these
scriptures, in the observance of the ordinances of the Lord,
everything that's required of a human to enter the Lord's presence
to be holy, Christ has performed every bit of it. Sanctify yourselves. For their sakes I sanctify myself.
Christ said that. Because I have to. He's done
it all for me. Who am I going to praise? Him,
nobody else. Ephesians 5, 26 says that He,
speaking of Christ, might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the Word. 1 Thessalonians 5 says, And the
very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. If I have to do something to
preserve myself until He comes, I'm in trouble. If God sanctifies
you, if He sets you apart until His coming, you're going to be
set apart until His coming. Your whole mind, body, soul,
and everything. Hebrews 13 says, Wherefore Jesus also that He
might sanctify the people with His own blood. It takes blood set apart. You
want to get blood? People want to observe the law.
So, well, if someone don't keep the law, you've got to stone
them to death. Are you keeping that part of it? They don't keep the Sabbath.
You better pick up some rocks and throw it at them. The sacrificed
self takes blood. And Jesus suffered without the
gate. Now there, if you're still with 1 Peter, turn with 1 Peter
3, verse 15. Here's the sixth one that this
verb's used. 1 Peter 3, 16. 315, I'm sorry. But sanctify the Lord
God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every
man that asketh you a reason. You set God apart in your heart. Look into Him. And that means
don't look to yourself. Because when somebody asks you
to give a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear, Why are you hopeful? The world's collapsing all around
us. It's almost November. What are we going to do? It's
an election year. That's all right. Why are you
so hopeful? Why are you so calm? Tell them
the hope that's in you. God sanctified a people. Keep
that in the forefront of your mind and you'll remain calm and
you might be able to tell somebody who God is and how he saved sinners.
Where hope's found. Who keeps us? That's all about
sanctifying, right? Who keeps us? It says there in
our text, keepeth himself. Same one that sanctifies us.
Psalm 121 says, Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither
slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Well, if somebody kills me, What
if I'm a POW and I get tortured? That thought's weighed heavy
on my mind. I've been put in positions where
I was worried about those kinds of things. They can kill this
body, they can't kill my soul. The Lord preserves it. We just
saw it recently in Jude. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. The only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty. All the praise for all the keeping,
all the sanctified, everything goes to Him. Now there in our
text, 1 John 5, 18. We know that whatsoever is born
of God sinneth not, that he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. Who keeps Satan from
touching one of God's elect? Do you keep yourself? You ain't
no match. 6,000 years, somebody knows more
about human nature. He knows it a lot better than
we do. He knows what we're susceptible to, what we're weak in. You ain't
no match. We just saw in Psalm 121 that
the Lord keeps His people and He will preserve us from all
evil and keep our soul. We remember Job. Whenever Satan
came and reported to the Lord, he spoke when spoken to, and
the Lord said, have you considered my servant, Joe? He said, yeah,
I can't touch him. You've got a hedge about him. That wicked one toucheth him
not. If you're the Lord's, Satan ain't
going to touch you. If you ain't the Lord's, you ain't going to
know Satan's touching you. You'll think you're doing the Lord's
work. We may be stricken in our bodies. We may be covered in
diseases and plagues and everything else. We may be stricken in our
families. Have every member of your family
killed? We may lose all of our possessions, all of our nest
eggs and our fancy cars and houses. The Lord may strip everything
from us, the clothes on our back, and we may even physically die
from it. We may be allowed to be killed, be crucified. But God Almighty keeps those
born of Him from ever perishing spiritually. He keeps your soul. We that are made sons of God
will be sons of God forever. If you're His child, you'll be
His child forever. He won't lose one. Why? He said so. Ain't that enough? God in His abundant grace makes
His children know this. When He comes to you and says,
fear not, how can we listen? Because we're a child. We know
Him. We trust Him. And we know that we are of God and the whole world
lieth in wickedness. They are the fruit of that spirit.
Anything I do good, it's of God. It's perceived good. We've talked
about that before. The fruit of the tree. The tree
don't know it's making fruit. And if all that fruit fell and
stayed right there by the tree, it would rot and hurt the tree. The fruit is for something else.
People thank me for stuff I didn't know I did. And I thank people
for stuff and they say, I don't remember ever doing that. And
the whole world, we know that. Anything that we are is of God.
And the whole world lies in wickedness. What is it to lie? Lie down? You rest. Kick your feet up and
rest, don't you? This world is resting in wickedness. How do we know that? The Lord
gave us eyes to see it. To see what our wickedness is.
I've got to hurry. I'm going to keep you all here
forever. Verse 20, And we know that the Son of God is come and
hath given us an understanding. Those children born of God, those
preserved forever, the Lord gives them an understanding that we
may know Him that is true. We know God. And we are in Him
that is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. This is everlasting life. It's
eternal life. So what are we given to know,
this given understanding? We're given the understanding
of who God is. He's sovereign over all things. He's the God of heaven and earth,
the creator, the ruler, the sustainer of everything in this universe.
And we know of Him as a source of all mercy. He's the source
of all love. Every true petition for grace,
every prayer and cry for grace is to God. It's not to a person. David said, have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy loving kindness. A publican, Brother
Bob told us about this morning. What did he say? Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. He didn't go through nobody else.
He went to the Lord. He petitioned the Lord. The thief on the cross
said, Lord, remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
we petition God. How do we learn of Him? How do
we know who it is that we're talking to? Paul posed the same
question to us. He said in Romans 10, How then
shall they call on Him, on the God in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they'd be sinned?
God's going to give an understanding of himself to his children. How
are they going to learn that? By the preaching of the gospel.
Any other way is a lie because God said that's how he's going
to do it. I worry about a lot of apostles walking around nowadays.
No, they ain't. Somebody said, I've heard a hundred
people say, the Lord spoke to me. You might want to go to a
hospital. No, He didn't. He speaks through the preaching
of His Word. That's how He does it. Son of God, Christ our Lord
must send us through the preaching of His Word, knowledge of God
and belief of the God of the Bible. Not who we think God is,
who He says He is and who He is, the true God. But knowing
there's a God, knowing He's sovereign in all things, knowing that He
wants for nothing and we tremble before Him Oh man, you get some
fear in you. Tremble before a holy God. That
ain't enough to save you. Is that shocking to people? James
said, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble. They got the same product, don't
they? Same emotionalisms going on in them. But God gives us
an understanding of Himself. An understanding of who God is
and He gives us an understanding of sin. What sin is. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 6.
Isaiah 6 beginning verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple." Now remember, Isaiah,
just like Solitarsus, just like everybody else, they were religious
folks. Boy, they knew some stuff. They
knew God. They knew God was sovereign.
Didn't they? They didn't even control everything
in the earth, didn't they? Mmm, ain't enough. He goes on there
in verse 2 through 4 saying that these seraphims come down and
they cried, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is filled full of His glory. Then look in verse 5. When Isaiah
saw God, he said, Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. He's saying everything in me
Everything and everyone around me are unclean in the presence
of a holy God. It wasn't just head knowledge.
He saw Him. He was given eyes to see Him.
Being given an understanding of the God and then seeing how
unworthy we are. They go hand in hand at the same
time, don't they? It's like a mirror. You look
to Him and all you see is yourself. That ain't me. He's holy. I'm opposite. Job 42 says, I've
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth
thee, therefore I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes.
Well, wouldn't that be something if people didn't just, if those
18 inches took place and they quit hearing of God and they
saw Him. Oh, and they saw their sin. You
quit looking around everybody around you. Well, my brother
or sister ain't been doing this. I wouldn't do it that way. Oh,
this is personal, isn't it? We'll get to that in a minute.
When we truly see God's holiness, we truly see what filthy rags
we are. Paul said, because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. It's not at enmity. It is enmity
against God. It is war against God. We don't
steal and then become a thief. We steal because we're a thief.
We don't become a murderer because we killed somebody. We kill somebody
because we're a murderer. That's what we are. And our old
man and our flesh, that's a law. Paul said, I find in a law when
I do good, evil is present with me. That's a rule. That's a precedent,
isn't it? Sin's with us. Have you been
given an understanding of who God is? Of what sin is? That
mankind is nothing but sin? If you do, you'll own it. God
gives us an understanding of who He is. He gives us an understanding
of what sin is. The outward. Not just the outward. Not doing what we are. And then
there's an ownership of it. Turn over to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, verse 2. Wash me thoroughly from
mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear
when thou judgest. We not only see God's perfection,
mankind's full of sin, we personally see our sin. We understand that
the sin we commit is against that thrice holy God, and it's
only against Him. It's a personal thing. A prodigal
son, the Lord gave us a parable of, whenever he returned home,
it said, And the son said unto the father, I have sinned against
heaven and in thy sight. and I am no more worthy to be
called thy son." Boy, you talk about an apology. Boy, me and
you do. We come home and say, oh, daddy,
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you. Well, I probably
offended God too, but we come repenting to our earthly father. That child come back and said,
against heaven have I sinned. I've sinned against the Lord
and in your sight. You witnessed me do it. What
a shame. A true heart work produces an ownership of sin against God
and an honesty Truly, we can say with Paul, I'm the chief
of sinners. You talk about growing Christ is going down, isn't it?
Paul said, I'm the least of all the apostles. And he said, I'm
the least of all the saints. And he said, I'm the chief of
sinners. That's the way it grows, isn't it? And then the ownership of it.
Boy, I wish I could meet a sinner. I wish I could find somebody
that was truly in need and truly said, I'm in bad shape. I'm dying. I'm going to go to
hell. There's an old bluegrass song. People tell me what radio
station's got good Christian music on it. Well, if there was
one, I'd listen to it. But there's a lot of old bluegrass
songs. I like bluegrass. And a lot of them is gospel.
And if I could just change the words, boy, that would be a really
good song. They've got no gospel in it because they don't know
God. They think they do. They don't. But there's one that
says, Oh, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's not
my mother. It's not my father. It's me standing in need of prayer.
It's not the preacher. It's not the sinner. Me, O Lord,
standing in need of prayer. If the Lord puts you there, boy,
you're going to be helped. Like our brother read in a study
this morning. You walk out in that water and start sinking.
Lord, save me! And immediately, he reached out
and grabbed ahold of Peter. I wish He'd make us that way.
I wish He'd make me that way. He gives us an understanding of
those things, and He gives us an understanding that a just
and holy God will punish sin. We see what we are. We see that
we own that. And our blinders have been put
on everything else in this world. We see him and him alone and
see our own unworthiness. And he says, I will in no wise
clear the guilty. The wages of sin are death. There
in Hebrews 9, 22, it says, without the shedding of blood, there
will be no remissions of sins. Something's got to bleed. There's
going to be blood. There's going to be death. We
see our inability to satisfy him and we see our need of a
substitute. My blood won't satisfy. It'll
take eternity of damnation. It won't ever end. That's what
my blood is worth. It gives us an understanding
that we must have another's righteousness. If you're still there in Psalms,
turn over to Psalm 24. Psalm 24. Verse 3, Who shall ascend into
the hill of the Lord? This is what we're talking about.
Who's going to be saved? Who's going to ascend into the
hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that
hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. To everybody, I pray that if
the whole nation was listening to me, Your clean hands and your
pure heart ain't the clean hands and the pure heart that God says.
That's required to be in His place. You have to be holy, clean,
who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully
ever from conception on. And you've got to be born not
of Adam. You can't be conceived in sin. That ain't us, is it? Man, people
have the nerve to say, well, I'm going to get holier. We grow
in grace. We do. We grow in knowledge of
Christ. We grow in faith. We grow in
love to our brethren. But that's not something that
puffs up. That's something that goes down. How can I love you
more if I forsake myself more? I see how unworthy I am. That's
more I can lift my brother up. Because you truly believe. That
ain't lip service. They're greater than I am. If y'all knew inside this head,
you wouldn't eat lunch with me, I'll tell you that. Don asked
a man that one time that was up in northern Michigan, and
he was beating on him and said, you gotta get holier. And it
was in a restaurant, and he said, are you holier? More holy now
than you were two years ago. And even the waitress stopped
walking. Common man's got enough sense
to hush and pay attention. Whoa, that's a serious question. What's he gonna say? A man didn't
have a pleasing answer. Whose works will you come to
the throne of judgment with, professing, I did something,
I can't do that. I must come in the blood of Christ.
I must come on His accomplishments. Turn over Romans 5. Romans chapter 5. Christ is the
blood sacrifice that's already been accepted by the Father.
People say, well, I can't come to Christ yet. I still got some
sin in me. I got too much bad stuff going
on. I can't come and bow to Christ. I got to get a little bit better
before He'll have me. Romans 5 verse 6, For when we
were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. Why didn't I get some more spiritual
strength before I come to Christ? When you didn't have no strength,
that's when Christ died for you. Come to Him. Verse 8, But God
commendeth His love towards us in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Well, I'm going to have to quit
some things before I can come to church. That's when Christ died for you.
Come to Him. Verse 10, for if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled when we shall be saved by His life. He didn't just die for our sins.
He gave us His life and His righteousness. And when He rose, we rose with
Him. Eternal life. That's not just
the quantity, that's the quality. He gave us eternal life. And not only so, verse 11, that
ain't good enough, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom we have now received the atonement, the at-one-ment. We've been made one with Christ.
We're allowed to have this joy in earth and vessel. All of our
salvation is in Christ's person and work. That means all of our
redemption, all of our justification, all of our regeneration, and
all of our sanctification is in Christ. Why? We're one with
Him. Atonement. Made one with Him. Hebrews 2.11 says, for both He
that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified. Not the ones
who think they are, those who are. For both he that sanctifieth
Christ and those who are sanctified his people, all of one, for the
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Can you
imagine that? The God, Christ Jesus the Lord, calls his people
brethren. Hey brother, don't fear. Who's sufficient for these things?
What an amazing God. Right now, you that believe on
Christ, you are one with Christ who lives and reigns forever.
Right now. He gives us an understanding
of that. He gives us an understanding that salvation is of the Lord.
Period. And that leads to an understanding
that all glory and praise deservedly for salvation goes to Him and
Him alone. Man ain't got no part in that.
When we see the grace of God towards His people, in love,
in His love. When He's been gracious to us,
when He's been loving to us, then that's the only time we
can be gracious to others and be loving to others. Look back
in our 1 John, chapter 4, 1 John 4, verse 10. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
if He loved us in this manner, we ought, out of a debt of gratitude,
also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells
in us, and His love is perfected in us. If you truly love your
brethren, It's because God dwells in you, and you can only glory
in Him. If you're truly merciful to somebody, because God's shown
you mercy, and you give all the praise and glory to Him. Now
back in our text. We'll close. 1 John 5 and verse
18. We know that whatsoever is born
of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. You don't
have to worry about that. And we know that we are of God,
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. We're dead to this
world. And we know that the Son of God has come, and He hath
given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true,
and that we're in Him that is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. It's in
the God that people talk about, that they think grandma used
to talk about in good old wives tales. This is the true God and
eternal life. That other stuff's death. It's
lying, it's resting, and it's wickedness. This is life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Does that seem out of place?
This told you everything. This whole epistle. Believe on
Christ. Love your brethren. Be merciful
to one another. This is who God is. This is who
man is. He is life. Little children,
keep yourselves from idols. What's an idol? It's anything
between me and Christ. And that ain't something we whittle
out of wood or stone or anything else. my daily devotion of reading
of scripture every morning. I pray every time I eat dinner.
Anything that's between me and Christ is an idol. Keep yourselves from those idols.
Believe on Christ. Love you brethren. Amen.