In the passage of scripture that
Brother Jim just read, 1 John chapter 3, this morning I want us to begin
a journey through this passage, walk through the Bible, so to
speak, so that we might be in prayer that the Lord would open
our eyes in our understanding to the great truths that he has
in this passage. We've been talking about in the
past few weeks the subjects of Christ and Antichrist. And in dealing with that subject
I hope and pray and pretty much know that you feel the same way
as I do that I want to be identified with Christ and certainly not
Antichrist. When we speak of Antichrist,
we're speaking of the deception of false Christianity. And when
I read the Bible now, you know, listening to men's one thing,
but reading the Word of God is another. And what I hope and
pray is that as you hear me speak and you listen to me, that you'll
test me. I don't mind being put on trial.
You know, a lot of preachers don't like that, but I don't
mind it. I want you to Now I want you to test me by the right standard
now, and that's the scriptures. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
8 and verse 20, if they speak not according to this word, there's
no light in them. And I want to make sure, and
as I study this word and pray over it and search and research,
I want to bring to you the word of God. I don't want to just
bring to you my opinions or my ideas. There's a lot of things
that are difficult in the Word of God. In fact, I'll tell you
this much about this passage here. Well, just read verse 9
of 1 John 3. Look at that. Whosoever is born
of God, that's the new birth, isn't it? You must be born again. If you're not born again, you're
not one of God's sheep. You're not identifying with Christ.
He's not your Savior if you're not born again. If you sometime
in your life before death, before you meet the Lord in glory at
judgment wrath, you must be born again. And so he's talking about
the new birth. Well, I believe I'm born again.
How about you? Do you believe you're born again? Now, some
of you may say, well, I don't know. Well, I hope in studying
the word of God that you can, by the grace of God and his spirit,
have some assurance to know either you're not or you are. But you
have to go by God's word. Now, don't go home and say, Mama,
am I born of God? Well, she's going to say, sure
you are. I mean, what's not to love there? You know, all that.
And I'm not just making light of that now. You understand me.
What I'm simply saying here is that the only assurances we can
have of any of these things of salvation and being aligned with
the true Christ and not anti-Christ, it must be the judgments of God's
Word. Not denominationalism, not outward
appearance, all of that. In fact, the Bible forbids us
to judge by outward appearance. Reads John 7, 24. It tells you
plainly there. He says you judge by the Word
of God. But it says in verse 9, whosoever
is born of God, now listen to this, doth not commit sin. You hear that? Doth not commit
sin. Now, in this passage, and I've
read a lot about it, I've studied it for a lot of years, discussed
it with a lot of different men, heard a lot of different ideas
on it. But I know this, I know in order
to understand the Word of God, we have to read the Word of God
and study the Word of God, but it takes the Holy Spirit to bring
out the truth and reveal it to our hearts, our minds, affections,
and will. And one of the things the Holy
Spirit does when He does that is He makes us honest before
God and ourselves. So I know this, I know this much
about this passage. If you read that, and if you
don't really understand it, it ought to scare you to death.
Really? I'm thinking about it. Look at
it. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." And you
might automatically say, well preacher, it can't mean that
we're sinlessly perfect. Is that right? And I tell you, there's all kinds
of different theories of sinless perfectionism within ourselves.
You'll hear them from Arminians, you'll hear them from Calvinists,
you'll hear it from Pentecostals, you'll hear it from every kind
of... And none of them is what this verse is teaching. There
is no sinless perfectionism in you or in me. And that's what
I mean about being honest. Look over at 1 John chapter 1.
He's talking about believers here who are in fellowship with
the Father and the Son by the power of the Spirit. And he says in verse 7, he says,
but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, that is the
light of God in Christ, the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have fellowship one with another. Now there's the essence of the
love that he's going to be talking about later on. And I'm going
to deal more with that next week on the issue of love. And he
says, in the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all
sin. We, we who are in Christ are
cleansed from all sin. That's what that scripture teaches.
But look at verse eight. Now, if we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we've not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Verse 1 of chapter
2, My little children, these things write I unto you, that
you sin not. Now, if we had sinless perfectionism
within us, why would he have to say sin not? Well, people
will say, well, we still have the flesh, and it sins. Now,
the Bible does not speak that way. Now, I'm just telling you. You
read the book. The Bible just doesn't talk to you that way,
and it doesn't talk to me that way. The Bible doesn't look at
Bill Parker and say, Bill, now there's part of you that doesn't
sin and part of you that does. When God brought his prophet
to David, he didn't say, now David, there was part of you
that sinned with Bathsheba, but part of you that didn't. He said,
you're the man. You did it. And David, when he
prayed, he said, I have done this evil in thy sight. So the Bible doesn't talk like
these theologians today. I'm telling you, be honest. And
look at what he says in verse 1. My little children, these
things are right unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin. Now the if there is a translation,
it could be translated if, but a lot of people look at that
and say, well it says there, if I sin, I may not. No, that's
not what it's saying. It could be translated since,
or it could be translated because. And it says, and since we sin,
that's what the translation really is. He says, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the propitiation
for our sins. That word propitiation comes
up several, a couple of times in the book of 1 John. And that
means a sin offering. That means a sin bearing sacrifice
that brings satisfaction. In other words, God is satisfied
with the work of Christ as our substitute, our savior, our redeemer,
and as our advocate. And so he says, but not for ours
only, but also for the whole world. And he's talking about
not just for Jewish people, but for Gentiles too, all who have
Christ as an advocate. Now who has Christ as an advocate?
All believers. Now go back to 1 John 3. So he
says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. What does
that mean? Well, as I said, you know, we're talking about Christ
and Antichrist. The Bible identifies and distinguishes
the true Christ from all counterfeits. So that we can, if we desire,
know the difference. The Bible also speaks of false
Christ. Christ himself spoke of false
Christ. He said that. We studied Mark
13, Matthew 24, and in other places, 2 Corinthians 11, Galatians
chapter 1. You can go all through and he
talks about another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. He said
people will come claiming to be Jesus, be Christ. There'll
be others who'll come and preach a false Christ. How do we know
the difference? That's what I've been trying
to put forth, set forth for myself and for you in these messages
on the last days. because there's a great deception
of false Christianity. People trying to mix grace and
works. You can't do that, Romans chapter
11 tells us. If you say you believe salvation
by grace and then you try to mix works into the scheme of
things as to attaining or maintaining salvation or bringing forth acceptance
with God or earning or deserving God's favor and blessings, you
deny grace. And it doesn't matter what you
put in that place. You know, the Jews said, well,
salvation is by grace, but you've got to be circumcised. Paul wrote
in Galatians chapter 5, if you be circumcised for that reason,
Christ will profit you nothing. You claim he's your savior, but
he'll profit you nothing because in bringing in those creature
works with or without the help of God, you deny him. I don't
want to deny him. I don't want to be up here before you every Sunday and Wednesday
proclaiming Christ and then come to the judgment and find out
that I've denied him? How about you? Now, these are
the issues we have to face now. I know, and most people don't
want to face this. You know, most people would just
say, well, you know, we don't come to church to hear that.
We come to church to get inspired to be good people throughout
the week and feel good about ourselves. But you see, I preach at funeral
Friday, but dear lady who was a member of this church, Anna
Preston, she went to meet the Lord. Last week, Brother Tommy,
his youngest son, was killed in a car wreck, 18 years old.
He went to meet the Lord. There's a young boy, 18 years
old, and then an elderly lady, 90 years old, wasn't she? Who knew? You expected our sister
Hannah to go meet the Lord soon, but that young man Adam, you
didn't. But he did. And that day's appointed
for you and for me. I'm 57. I don't know if I'll
reach 60. Don't know. We don't know. So these are issues
we need to face today, now. I don't want to appear at the
judgment like those in Matthew chapter 7 only to hear him say,
depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. I don't want to be one who just
has a profession of truth without a heart confession. So the only way we can know is
to climb into these scriptures and study them and read them
And when I preach them to you, and I'm going to tell you what
this means. What? Check me out. Test me. You see if what I'm telling you
is true. Be a noble Berean. Read about them, what, in Acts
16 or Acts 17, I think one of the two. Hear Paul and his fellow
ministers standing and preaching before the Bereans, and they
went home and they went to the word of God. I want to know what
he's telling me is true. I want to be identified with
Christ. Well, the title of this message is Children of God Manifested. Now listen to this one. Look
at verse 10. This is my main text right here. He said, In
this the children of God are manifest, and the children of
the devil. This is how you know the children
of God, true children of God, and how you know the children
of the devil. That's what God, the Holy Spirit, inspired the
Apostle John to write for me and you to read and to look at
and study in here. That word manifest, it means
made apparent. It means made evident. It means
known. This is how you know. It means
plainly recognized. And you know, most religion today
comes in the name of Christianity, wants to keep people on edge.
It's like I heard Brother Tim James talking about a message.
He was at a conference. And he heard a preacher get up
and he said this. He said, living the Christian life is like walking
on a razor's edge. And he said, on that razor's
edge, it's like walking on a razor's edge and you're holding a pole.
And on one end of the pole is the righteousness of Christ.
On the other end of the pole is the righteousness of man.
And you've got to balance them out. Now let me ask you a question
and you answer it in your mind. How would you like to live like
that? How would you like to live like
that? And I think whoever got up after the man was upset about
it and he said, the Christian life is not like walking on a
razor's edge. The Christian life is standing
on a rock. the rock Christ Jesus. How about
that one? That's what Christian life is,
standing on the rock. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. So this is the issue now. Look
over at 1 John chapter 2 and verse 18. Now let's put this
in its context and I'll just go as far as time allows me and
I hope that you will continue on with me through these passages.
1 John 2 and verse 18. Now we're talking about Christ
and Antichrist. I want to be identified with Christ, not Antichrist. Well, here's how the children
of God and the children of the devil are made manifest now.
Children of God, they identify with Christ. Children of the
devil, they identify with Antichrist. And he says in verse 18, little
children, it is the last time. Well, we've been talking about
the last days. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come,
even now are there many Antichrists, not just one man, but many, a
spirit, a lot of them, whereby we know that it is the last time.
It's false Christianity, the deception of false Christianity.
Verse 19, they went out from us. They went out from the true
children of God. They had a profession, but not
a confession. He says, and again, I've dealt
with this verse and talked about it. Somebody says, well, did
they lose their salvation like some people claim today? No,
that's false Christianity. Look at what he says. He says,
they went out from us, but they were not of us. All right? For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. So that perseverance
by the preserving grace of God, see. But they went out that they
might be made manifest. Now there's that same word. Now
you remember over in verse 10 of chapter 3, he says, in this
the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil.
So they went out that they might be made manifest, what? That
they were not all of us. In other words, they're leaving
the gospel, leaving the truth, only manifested what they really
were in reality. But he says in verse 20, But
you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.
Now, that unction is a power. Well, what power is it? It's
the power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. You've been
regenerated. You've been given spiritual life
from Christ. by the Spirit. You've been given
eyes to see things that they didn't see and you didn't see
before. You've been given ears to hear things. Things you hear
now concerning the grace of God in the Scripture, that's your
food. That's your life. Peter said, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of life. We've got no place else to go.
This is life and death to me. This is a message of salvation. This is the glory of God. And
that's what that unction is. You got it from the Holy One.
Who's the Holy One? That's Christ, who is our life,
who sends forth His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person
of the Godhead, to apply life, spiritual life, in the new birth.
You must be born again. Or you cannot see or enter the
Kingdom of Heaven. And then he says, and you know all things.
Now, think about that one. You know all things. Now, are
there anything, are there things you don't know? Well, of course
there are. The things I don't know. What's
he talking about? He's talking about a specific
thing here. He's talking about all things that pertain to salvation
and how God saves sinners. That's what he's talking about.
Those are the all things. The gospel. How God can be just
and justify the ungodly. How many preachers do you even
hear pose that question today? And do you know that's the heart
of the gospel? What are you talking about how can God be just? Well,
God's a holy God. And He must punish sin. He cannot
overlook it. He cannot deny it. He cannot
just pass over it. Without satisfaction, justice
being satisfied. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. The wages of sin is death. False preachers will quote that
too when they quote the Roman road. Romans 3.23, for all sin
that comes short of the glory of God. That's true. We've all
sinned, we've all come short, we've missed the mark. Romans
6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, if you really believe
the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord, if you really believe that, then
you have to be concerned with this issue of how God can be
both a righteous judge as well as a merciful, loving Father.
How can He be both? How can God do what's right and
deal with me, a sinner, who deserves death justly according to His
holy law and justice. How can God glorify and honor
His law and His justice, His holiness, and still save a sinner
like me? How can He do that? Does He have
to pervert justice? Well, now let me tell you something.
False Christianity basically says yes. They'll tell you in
a moment that God will save you any way He can, any way He wants
to. with or without the blood of Christ. I've heard that said
before. I heard a man say this. He said that God didn't have
to send his son here to die. If he wanted to save you with
a snap of his finger, he could have done it. Now that is a lie. And I'm going to tell you why
it's a lie. Because God is holy. Why did God have to send his
son here to die as a substitute for his people? Because his holiness,
his justice must be satisfied. He must be honored. as God. And then there are people who
say that there will be multitudes in hell for whom Christ died.
You know that's a perversion of God's justice. That's like God... that'd be
like... that'd be like you committing a crime, getting sentenced to
prison for 20 years, and when you come out, the judge coming
by and saying, now you've got to go back in for another 20.
Well, I've served my time. No, I just think you ought to
serve another 20, get on back in there. It's an injustice. The law says he can't do that.
But there are multitudes who believe that in their gospel.
No, sir. God's just. So then how can he
deal with me, a sinner, injustice, and still save me in mercy? Well,
the Bible and the gospel teaches us that there is no mercy or
grace or love from God without justice being satisfied. Without
righteousness being established. And that's why he talks about
this is an unction from the Holy One. Not just from somebody who's
trying to do what he can't do unless you let him. But it's
from the Holy One. And this is a propitiation. How
did God do it? He did it by providing. His love,
His grace, His mercy provides what His justice demands. Where? In the person and finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how He does it. That's
how He does it. Look at verse 21 of 1 John 2.
He says, I'm not written unto you because you know not the
truth. You see, when He says you know all things, you know
these things now. And he says, I've not written unto you because
you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie
is of the truth. Anything else is a lie. Who is
a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. This Jesus, this God our Savior,
he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. You deny
Jesus is the Christ, you deny the Father and the Son. You deny
the Spirit. That's Antichrist. Look down
at verse 29. Now here's where he launches
out into this. He says in verse 29, if you know
that he is righteous, if you know that Christ is righteous,
that's what he's talking about here. If you know that God is
just, if you know that, and you know all things now, you know
that. That's one thing you know. There's a lot of things you don't
know, I don't know, but you know this. If you know that God is
righteous, You know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of him. Now here's one of the keys to
this. What is it to do righteousness? Well, what is righteousness?
Righteousness, now listen to me, here's what righteousness
is. Righteousness is perfect satisfaction to God's law and
justice. That's what righteousness is.
And a lot of times in the Old Testament and the New Testament,
it's the term just, justice. This is justice. According to
law. It's a legal term. I know people
don't like to hear it. I don't understand why, but it
is. It's according to law. That's why he says over here
in verse 4 of 1 John 3 that sin is the transgression of the law.
In other words, if you have sin, You're not righteous. That's
what he's talking about. Sin is the transgression of the
law. That's what sin is. Sin is not a substance. It's
not a liquid, gas, or solid. Sin is transgression of the law.
For all have sinned and what? Come short of the glory of God.
Missed the mark. What's the mark? Righteousness.
You see that? God's law. God told Adam, he
said, Here's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In
the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. You cannot
eat of that tree, Adam. There's righteousness, you see.
Now when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, what did he do? He sinned. He broke the law. He transgressed
the law. Therefore, no righteousness.
So what is it to do righteousness? To do righteousness, my friend,
listen to me. To do righteousness, is to find
out where righteousness is and grab hold of it. Now, if you think it's in the
baptismal pool, get up here and get baptized. We'll fill it up
quick. I won't fill it up quick, Ron. No, you won't either, will
you? Because we know better. We know all things. We know that's
not righteousness. Isn't that right? But you see,
people think that's what it is. If you think it's joining the
church, join a church. That's not righteousness. You're
not doing righteousness by that. Now, it's a right thing to do
for a person to join and unite with a gospel church, but that's
not your righteousness. Are you going to present that
before God as your righteousness? This is what makes me acceptable
to you, God? This is what makes me clean?
This is what justifies me before a holy God? Is that what you're
going to do? Remember those false preachers
in Matthew 7, 21, we preached in your name? Well, it's a good
thing to preach in the name of Christ, but is that my righteousness? Is that where I find righteousness? No. And you know how I know that's
not righteousness? Because I know God is righteous.
Turn to Romans chapter 10 with me. Now remember there he said,
if you know that he is righteous, you'll know this. that anybody who doeth righteousness is born of Him. In other words,
before I can do righteousness, whatever that is, I've got to
be born of God. Because until I'm born of God,
I don't know God. I don't even know how righteous
He is. You know, a lot of people, they
know, well, I'm less than perfect and God's perfect, so how do
we get together? Well, I'll do this, I'll do that.
That's the religion of man. Religion of false Christianity
look at verse 1 of Romans 10 He says brethren my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved For
I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge now What John say about those who are born of God?
We know all things we have this knowledge this specific knowledge
where he says Israel they were religious They were on fire for
their religion. They had a zeal but not according
to knowledge Verse 3, now what was the knowledge they were missing?
He says, were they being ignorant of God's righteousness. That's
God's standard of justice. God's standard of righteousness.
They're ignorant of that. They're ignorant of how righteous
God is and what He requires. Now, you remember what John said
in 1 John 2, 29. If you know that he is righteous,
you know everyone who does righteousness, doeth righteousness, is born
of him. Well, they're ignorant of that. And how do you know
that? What's the evidence of that?
Well, look at verse 3. And going about to establish their own
righteousness. Now, that means they're trying
to work their way to be righteous before God. And what I'm telling
you is this, what the scripture tells us is this, if you know
how righteous God is, you also know that it's impossible for
you to establish one of your own. Impossible. And so, well, where am I going
to find righteousness then? Well, he said you know all things.
Well, these don't. But where are you going to find
it? Well, look here. Have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. You mean there's a righteousness
of God? Yes. Where is that? Verse 4. Look
at it. For Christ is the end of the law. That's the fulfillment,
finishing of the law. For righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Now, do you know what doeth righteousness
is? It's to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in Him
for all righteousness. for all forgiveness. It's to submit to His righteousness
as the only ground of my salvation. Now look back at 1 John 3 now.
Now, all who are born of God How do
you know they're born of God? They believe in, they rest in,
they trust Christ for all forgiveness by His blood alone, for all righteousness
by His obedience unto death. For God made Him sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. That's the imputed righteousness
of Christ charged to me. In other words, the righteousness
that I do is not a righteousness that I make. The righteousness
that I do is found and finalized and complete in Christ. And He accomplished it in His
obedience unto death, in His work on the cross. If I want
to find righteousness, the worst place I could look is within
myself. The best place and the only place
I can look is Christ and Him crucified and risen again. So
what does that tell us? Well, look at the state of grace. Look at verse 1. Let me just
read through it and I'm going to come back later and give you
more detail. Now listen to what he's saying.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
Now the love of God. What John say about the love
of God in 1 John 4.10. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. The love of God towards His people
is not based on our loving Him. But not that we love God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. There's that word propitiate,
it's 1 John 4, 10. In other words, the love of God is manifested
in sending Christ to shed his blood unto death for the forgiveness
of our sins, the payment of our debt, and to establish righteousness
by which he can be just to justify the ungodly. And he says that
we should be called the sons of God, children of God. And
he says, now think about this in this context now, what he's
saying. You see, this life that we have,
this state, this standing that we have as children of God, sons
of God, is by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ, the Lord,
our righteousness. All right? Now, what does the
world think about that? The unbelieving world. Why? It's foolishness to them. I watch
you. I see what you do every day. I watch you lose your temper,
I watch you get mad at people, I watch you trying to get your
way, doing this, doing that, all kinds... A child of God just
wouldn't act like that. Do you have children? Do you
like how they act sometimes? But they're still your children.
Isn't that right? So that's not... Here's what
he says, therefore the world knoweth us not. The world doesn't
judge by that standard, by that measure. And you know why? Because it knew Him not, didn't
know Christ. When Christ came into the world, did the world
recognize Him? No. They called Him a malefactor,
a criminal. They called Him a blasphemer. They called Him a lawbreaker.
He's the only one on earth who ever kept the law. And they called
Him a lawbreaker. We called Him a lawbreaker. Verse
2. Beloved now are we the sons of
God? This is not some future aspiration
This is a reality right now in Christ by virtue of our union
with Christ I'm washed in his blood. I'm clothed in his righteousness
I'm so I believe in him. I have listen. I have no other
hope but the Lord Jesus Christ For all salvation for all life
for all righteousness for all glory And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. I believe he's talking about
that future change in glory, when we're resurrected from the
dead. It doesn't yet appear what we
shall be. We can speculate on it, but it's useless. But, he says this, he says, but
we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. Now that's
when we'll be able to claim sinless perfection in ourselves. because
we'll be free from this flesh, free from sin. Not even the presence
or the influence or the contamination of sin, for we shall see him
as he is. And that's connected with seeing
the fullness of his glory and the reality of his person and
work. And look at verse 3, he says, "...and every man that
hath this hope in him..." What hope? "...the hope of righteousness
in Christ, the hope of forgiveness by His blood, the hope of glory
in Christ, the hope of salvation by the grace of God, full and
free and complete." That hope. You see, if your hope is in anything
else, you don't have this hope. If you hope for salvation because
you've done this, or done that, or haven't done this, or haven't
done that, or stopped doing this, or stopped doing that, you don't
have this hope. Because this hope is completely
by the grace of God in Christ. So everybody has this hope in
him, purifies himself. Now this is a purification, that
means a cleansing. Even as he is pure, even as Christ
is pure. Now, if I have this hope in myself,
in my heart, implanted there, imparted there by the Holy Spirit
in the new birth, new life, what am I doing? I'm looking to Christ,
resting in Him for all holiness, for all righteousness, for all
sanctification, for all wisdom, for all redemption. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and I'm complete in Him.
That's a cleansing of my conscience and my mind. Not because all
impure thoughts have been taken out. Let's be honest. When you were born again, were
all the impure thoughts that you would ever have taken out
then? No. No. And if you say they have, you're
just lying to yourself. You're calling God a liar mainly. But because my hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's the
cleansing there. That's the purification. It's
called faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry in
the Bible. That's the purification. I'm
not trusting in myself, but I trust Christ alone for all salvation. And then he says in verse 4,
now here's the foundation of all that. He says, whosoever
committeth sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. Well now, if doing righteousness
is looking to Christ and resting in Him alone for all of salvation,
and trying to establish, and trying to follow Him, not to
make myself righteous, but because I am in Him, then what's committing
sin here? Well, this committing sin is
trusting in anyone or anything else for salvation, for righteousness,
for life, for glory. And if you do that, anybody who
trusts anyone but Christ and Him alone for all righteousness,
for all hope, for all salvation, let me tell you what you're doing.
You're transgressing the law. You take those Jews, who were
going about trying to establish their own righteousness. Up there
in Romans chapter 9 it says they were seeking righteousness by
works of the law, but they didn't make it, it says. Why? Because
they sought it not by faith, which means they didn't seek
it in Christ and find it in Christ. They sought it by their works.
They were lawbreakers all the time they were trying to keep
the law. Because nothing we do by deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified, be made righteous, declared righteous before God.
The best you can do will not fulfill the law. The best you
can do, the best I can do... Listen, and hear me well here
now. Should we do the best that we
can do to obey the law, to obey God? Yes! But we must realize
that the best that we can do still leaves us in ourselves
to be law-breakers. Transgressors of the law. Because
sin is transgression of the law. You say, well I should try to
love you perfectly. That's right, I should do my
best to love you perfectly. But the fact that I still fall
short makes me a transgressor of the law. Because the law says
love God perfectly and love your neighbor as yourself. Well look
at this, verse four, or verse five. And you know, now he said
you know all things, here's what we know. You know that he, Christ,
was manifested, he was brought into the world and made evident
to take away our sins. To take away our sins. Now how
did he take away my sins? by the blood of His cross. That's
how He did it. Behold the Lamb of God, John
129, John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world, the sin of the world. He bore
all the sins of all his sheep on that cross. He paid the debt
in full. He died to satisfy the justice
of God. He experienced the full wrath
of a holy God against all the sins of all his people that were
imputed, charged, made to meet upon him. You know what he did? He took them away. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away.
They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away. My sins
are all taken away. How? By the blood of the cross.
Not by me trying to do better. You know, yes, we should try
to do better, but that won't take away my sins. We should be the best that we
can be in every area of honoring and glorifying God and loving
our neighbor, but that will not take away my sins. That took
the cross of Calvary. And then he says, and in him
is no sin. Now let me close with this, and
we'll pick back up here next week. In him is no sin. Now, in Christ himself, there
is no sin. Sin was laid upon him, charged
him, imputed to him. He suffered all the effects of
that sin that was charged to him, but he was not infused with,
imparted with, or contaminated with our sin. All the time, he was suffering
the full effects of sin imputed to him. He was the perfect sinless
God-man on that cross. He never had a thought of sin. He was perfect. But that's not
what this one is teaching. What this one is teaching here
is that as we are in Him, we have no sin. Now, if you want
to claim sinless perfection, here's the way to do it. In Christ. That's what he's saying. And
that's what that means down there when he says, commit sin and
do righteousness. I'll say some more about that
later on, but that's what it's talking about. In Christ, I am
sinlessly perfect. Not in myself. but in Christ. You see that? And that's the
focus of what John is saying here. That in Him, I have no
sin. Because He bore it, I'm justified.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. All right. Let's sing as our
closing hymn, hymn number 477 at Calvary. 477.