Now, would you open your Bibles
with me to 1 John chapter 3? 1 John chapter 3. We've been dealing with this
portion of Scripture for some time concerning these issues
of the great division between God's people and the world. And
that's what I've entitled this morning's message, The Great
Division. Now, if you watched the TV program this morning,
I just want you to know at the outset I have not gone crazy.
Because that was the title of this morning's message on TV
from Psalm 1. And I really didn't realize that
that was coming on today. I thought we were going to be
in Colossians on TV. But I knew I preached that sermon
out of Psalm 1. And it came on today. And I had
already decided to read Psalm 1 as an opening scripture. Because
that's what that's about, the great division that exists between
God's people and the world. And that's what I'm interested
in today. That's what I hope you're interested in. It speaks
of the blessed and the ungodly in Psalm 1. I'll refer back to
that in a moment. Over here in 1 John 3, it speaks
of those who do righteousness. Back up in chapter 2 and verse
29 is the first time you see that phrase, doeth righteousness.
He says, if you know that he, that is Christ, is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
That's speaking of a regenerate person, a person who's been born
again by the Spirit. And he says those who are born
again by the Spirit do righteousness. And you cannot do righteousness
unless you've been born again of the Spirit. And then over
here in verse 4 of chapter 3, It speaks of those who commit
sin, whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the law, for
sin is the transgression of the law. Now, those who commit sin
are those who have not been born again by the Spirit. But there
is a great division here that I want to speak of. The first
point I want us to look at, though, is this, that you see here in
1 John 3, that the great problem that is common to all men and
women by nature is this problem of sin. S-I-N. When preachers speak of salvation,
somebody may ask, well, what do I need to be saved from? A
lot of people's minds go to different things. Some say, well, we need
to be saved from hell. Well, that's true. We need to
be saved from eternal death. We need to be saved from this.
But ultimately, it all goes back to this. Salvation is from sin. When it was announced that Christ's
child was coming to Joseph, Mary was with child, the angel said,
his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. Paul wrote, this is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy that everybody should
accept it and believe it and live by it that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am chief." He didn't
come to save the righteous. They don't need salvation. The physician doesn't have to
deal with the well. He has to deal with the sick.
That's what he's talking about. So, the issue here is sin. Whosoever
committeth sin transgresses also the law. Now, we know we're all
sinners. There's only two types of people, again, on this earth.
Sinners saved by the grace of God. Sinners lost in their sins. But he says, whosoever committeth
sin transgresses also the law, when sin is the transgression
of the law. When John speaks of this subject,
those who do righteousness as opposed to those who commit sin,
he's not talking about sin in general there, he's talking about
two different standings before God, two different states of
existence. Here's a sinner saved by the
grace of God. He doeth righteousness. That
doesn't mean he's not a sinner. It doesn't mean that he still
doesn't fall short of the glory of God. But it means he's found
the remedy for sin. That's what it is. Doing righteousness
there has to do with resting in, believing in, and abiding
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the same as the blessed
man over in Psalm 1. the one who walketh not in the
counsel of the ungodly, who does not stand in the way of sinners,
who does not sit in the seat of the scornful, but he delights
in the law of God." Now, he's not talking just about the Ten
Commandments there when he said he delights in the law of God.
If you're a sinner and you can just look and delight in the
Ten Commandments alone, you're a self-righteous sinner. Because
that law was given to show you how far short you fall of righteousness. That's what the Scripture says.
Why was the law given? He said the law entered that
sin might abound. Romans chapter 5 and verse 20.
The law entered that sin might abound. In other words, the law
was given by God so that the abundance of sin that we are
and that we are in can be exposed and revealed to us so that we
can know what kind of people we really are, even at our best.
That's why the law, the whole law, the whole covenant, Which
means the Ten Commandments, as well as the ceremonial law, was
given as a schoolmaster to lead sinners not to the law, not to
the Ten Commandments, but to Christ. See, Christ is the remedy
for sin. Now look at verse 5. Now he says,
sin is the transgression of the law. Now here, Christ is the
only remedy for sin. There is no other remedy. Society
won't do it. Congress won't do it. And whoever
gets to be president in November won't do it. That's not the issue. The hospitals can't do it. Philosophy,
economics, nothing can do it but Christ and Him crucified. That's the only remedy for sin.
His blood. God is faithful and just to forgive
us all our sins by the blood of Christ. He had to die for
His people. And this is what he's talking
about. Look at verse 5. And you know that He, that is Christ,
was manifested, that is He appeared, to take away our sins. And in
him is no sin. Now, as I said, I'll give you
two applications of that. First of all, Christ, his purpose
for coming into the world, it says he'd take away our sins,
and in him is no sin. Well, we know that in Christ
personally there is no sin. He was a perfect man, the God-man. He's Jesus Christ the righteous.
If he were not the perfect man, the sinless substitute, The sinless
Lamb of God, who offered Himself without spot and without blemish
on the cross for the sins of His people, accounted to Him. If He were not sinless all through
that, then He could not be our substitute. He could not be our
Savior. He could not be our Redeemer.
A sinful man cannot die for another sinful man and take away his
sins. He may die for him to save his
life, but that's just physical. But God will not receive a sinful
lamb as a substitute for sinful men. He will not do it. And He
taught that all through the Old Testament. So there is no sin
in Christ, never was any sin in Christ, never will be any
sin in Christ. Mark it down. The sinless substitute. Now that's the kind of substitute
you need, and I need. That's the kind of Savior we
need. But another way of looking at that is this, in Him is no
sin. That is, His people, as considered
in Him, we have no sin. Now, in ourselves, we are sinners.
But in Christ, as God looks at us in Christ, what does the Scripture
say? We quote it so often from Romans
chapter 8, "...who shall lay anything to the charge or the
account of God's elect." It is God that justifies. You know
what that means? Now, hang on to this. You want
some comfort? It means God cannot charge anybody
who is in Christ, washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness,
God Almighty cannot charge that person with sin. You say, well, aren't we sinners?
Yes. Doesn't God see that? Yes, He does. Else He would not
chastise us. But he does not lay it to our
charge and hold it to our account in his law books, in his judgment. Well, our sins have already been
judged on the cross. He was manifested to take away
our sins. When Christ came and obeyed the
law perfectly unto death, he took away the sins of his sheep.
He said, it's finished. John the Baptist identified him
in John chapter 1 verse 29. He said, Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world. He bore them away
in his own body on the tree. He did away with them. We say
it so often. He drank damnation, what? Dry. He didn't leave a drop for you
to drink. Not damnation. Now his children are chastised.
That's the loving punishment and correction of a father to
a child. But you cannot be condemned.
It goes on to say, who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea
rather is risen again, who is seated at the right hand of the
Father, making an ever living to make intercession for us.
As far as God's children are concerned, in Christ they have
no sin. We're perfect in Him. Now again,
not in ourselves, not yet now. It is our goal to be made perfectly
like Him, but this old vile body has to be done away with. This
old corruptible must change, must die and perish and put on
incorruption. But in Him, I have no sin. In Him, I have perfectly fulfilled
the law, not by my works, but by what He accomplished on Calvary
in His obedience unto death. That's why we call Him the Lord,
our righteousness. I don't have any righteousness
but Him. I don't. How about you? Do you have any
but Him? So what is it to do righteousness?
It's to believe in Him. It's to rest in Him. It's to
follow Him. It's to abide in Him. It's to
delight and meditate all day long on His law, His Word in
Christ. I have nothing to fear from the
law of God because Christ kept it for me. I have nothing to
fear from the justice of God because Christ took the full
measure of God's justice for me on Calvary. That's why he
did it. He didn't try to save me. He
saved me by his work. And so that's why he was brought
into this world, it says. He was manifested to take away
our sins. Now, either he did it or he didn't.
But my friend, he did. The Scripture says he did. His
blood is enough for you and for me. His righteousness is enough
for you and for me. You say, but must we do this?
Must we do that? Not for that reason. Not to take
away sins now. Aren't believers supposed to
be obedient? Yes, they are. But not to take
away sins. Not to establish righteousness.
He already did that. You see what I'm saying? Aren't
believers supposed to be baptized? Yes. Yes, but not to be saved. If you're baptized in order to
be saved, you're not doing righteousness, you're committing sin. Did you
know that? There's the difference. You want to do righteousness?
Look to Christ. Rest in Him. Follow Him. Aren't
believers supposed to come to church, worship God publicly,
feed upon the Word of God? Yes, but not in order to be saved. but because we already are. We're
children of the Heavenly Father. We've been adopted into His family.
We've been redeemed by the blood. That's the difference between
doing righteousness here and committing sin. Aren't believers
supposed to persevere? Yes, they are. And the only way
we will do it is as God sovereignly preserves us. But our perseverance
doesn't save us. Christ already has done that.
And He is still saving us. He's keeping us. So in Him is
no sin. And as we're considered in Him,
we have no sin. He's our representative. But
now look at verse 6. Now here's the key. Mark this
down. If you want to understand this
passage of Scripture and glean the comfort and the maturity
that a believer can glean from this, look at this verse. Here
it is. He says in verse 6, Whosoever
abideth in Him, Now, what is it to sin not here? It's to abide
in Him. Right there it is. Now, are there
people who do not abide in Him? Yes. Look back over at chapter
2. Look at verse 19. There are people who claim to
believe in Christ, but they don't abide in Him. They don't continue
in Him. Verse 19, they went out from us. You see? What are they doing? They're
committing sin. They're slaves to sin. They're in bondage to
sin and to Satan and the curse of the law. But they were not
of us. Somebody said, well, did they
lose their salvation? Didn't they make it? Well, he
said they were not of us. And he says, for if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. They
would have abided in Christ. and with the people of God, that
they went out that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us." They commit sin in the sense that John is speaking
of here. But he says in verse 20, but ye, now here's the division
now, here's the great division, but ye, you have an unction from
the Holy One and you know all things. What is that unction?
That's the power of the Holy Spirit to give life. and implant
the truth indelibly upon the hearts, the minds, the affections,
the wills of a sinner who's looking to Christ, continue, and they
will abide in Him. If God saved you, I'm going to
tell you something, you will abide in Christ. Mark it down. Mark it down. But look back at
verse 6 now, chapter 3. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. To sin not, in John's language
here, in the context, is to abide in Christ. Run the race of grace.
Work hard. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And he says, Whosoever sinneth
hath not seen him, neither known him. Same thing he said over
here in verse 19, they never were of us. Whosoever leaves
Christ, whosoever does not abide in Christ, who does not continue
in Him, who does not rest in Him continually, they don't know
Him, they've never seen Him. They may have thought they had,
they may have claimed to have, but they never have. Neither
have they known. They haven't seen him with the
eye of faith. Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. That means you can't
perceive it. You can't understand it savingly. And he says neither
have they known him. They've not known him as the
Lord, their righteousness. They have not known him as the
Redeemer. Now do you understand the context
there? Christ is the only remedy for this. Christ is, listen,
the great division Between those who do with righteousness and
those who commit sin is Christ and Him crucified. I want to show you another verse.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 with me. I want to show you something
here about this division. Now, as I said, in the Old Testament,
Psalm 1, that's the way he divided them up. Blessed is the man. A man who is blessed is one who
is blessed of God, is a sinner saved by grace. It's not somebody
who has worked hard for their salvation and finally made it.
No, sir, that's not blessed of God. Blessed of God is a sinner
saved by grace. And the ungodly there, the sinners
that he speaks of, the way of sinners, the scornful, those
are unbelievers. They commit a sin. But look at
1 Corinthians chapter 4. Now, you know, we love divisions.
By nature, we just love them. We love distinctions. We love
differences. And the reason is because we
are the ones who like to make those divisions and make those
differences and make those distinctions because we think by nature that
we know how to do that. We don't, but we think we do.
People love division. And another reason we love them
is because we're so proud of who we are, what we are, and
what we've done. We're proud because of where
we were born. I was watching that game last
night. Saw this girl, now do you believe
this sign? I couldn't believe I saw this
sign in the crowd. She said, Kentuckian by birth,
gator by the grace of God. Can you believe that? Boy, that's
ignorance incarnate right there. But see, we love those divisions.
We love those distinctions because we're so proud of them, you know,
where we're from, who we are. We've got pride of race, don't
we? We've got pride of place. And
then some people even have what they call pride of grace. That's
when you get puffed up by what you think you know. And we love
to look down on other people. Well, here's believers now. Now,
this is why we still have to put up with sin in ourselves,
how we have to deal with it, why we have to fight it, why
it's there. Because if left to ourselves,
apart from the grace and the power of God, we would bite and
devour each other. That's what was happening in
Galatia. That's what was happening in Corinth here. And here they
were dividing over a lot of different things. They were dividing over
preachers. That's a very popular one. We love this preacher. Well,
we love that preacher. I told the Sunday school class
today, I was talking to them about, we have a treasure, the
Scripture says. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul speaks
of this. And that treasure is the gospel
of God's grace. It's the good news that all of
us need to hear and live by. The gospel of God's grace. It's
a treasure. It's the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. That's a treasure. And that's
what you're here for, the treasure. I hope that's what you're here
for. The treasure. I want some treasure today. Well,
that's it. But he says we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, clay pots, and I'm it. I'm the clay pot
that holds the treasure. And so you want the treasure,
so in order to get the treasure, you've got to put up with me.
Now that's it. And I'm sorry that you have to
put up with me, but that's the way it is. And sometimes you'll
come, and we'll talk about the Scriptures, or I'll listen to
a lesson that one of these teachers teaches, and they have the treasure,
and they're the clay pot, and I've got to put up with them.
Now, you might say, well, I'd rather put up with somebody else.
Well, that's okay. But it's still the treasure,
and it's the clay pot. And I'm the one whom God sent
to stand here this morning and issue out the treasure. So let's
not talk about the clay pot. Let's not lift up the clay pot.
Let's look for the treasure, you see. Well, these Corinthians,
they were dividing over preachers. One said, I'm of Peter. I like
to hear Peter preach. Some said, I'm of Paul. And some
said, I like to hear Apollos. And Paul said, you're all acting
like a bunch of dumb brats. That's what he said. Just like
a bunch of dumb brats. He said, it doesn't matter whether
Paul preaches it or Peter preaches it or Apollos preaches it, it's
Christ and Him crucified. That's the issue, you see. It's
not the man who preaches it. He said, you think you're being
spiritual. You say, well, in my spiritual maturity, I'll follow
Paul. And he said, you think you're
acting spiritually and materially, you're acting like the flesh,
he says, you're acting carnally. That's what he told them. But
we like that kind of thing. See, that's what we're drawn
to in the flesh. And that's what we've got to avoid. That's why
doing righteousness is avoiding that. That kind of thing. And
here's what he said. Now they were dividing over other
things. They were dividing over spiritual gifts. You know, God
gives spiritual gifts as he wants to give them. And they were dividing
over that. Well, look at verse 7 of 1 Corinthians
4. And listen to this now very carefully.
I want you to think about this. He says, who maketh thee to differ? And your concordant might say,
who distinguishes? That's a good question. Whether
you're up here preaching or you're sitting there in the pew listening,
whether you have a gift from God, the gift of discernment,
The gift of giving, the gift of word in season, encouragement,
teaching. Some have the gift of teaching
little children. Some have the gift of teaching
adults. The gift of knowledge, whatever gift. Who made you to
differ? Who gave you that gift? Now,
you can apply that to salvation, and that's what I want to do
in this verse because of what we're talking about in this great
division. All right, if you're saved and another person is lost,
who made you to differ? God did. Isn't that right? It's just like, you know, having
pride of place. Now, think about that. I'm proud
of where I was born. You know, that's really a dumb
thing to be proud of. where you were born, and you
don't know why? Because you didn't have anything to do with it.
Did you? I mean, did Daddy look at your
mama's stomach and say, now where do you want to be born, honey?
No. You didn't have anything to do
with that. And you didn't even really know anything about it
until you grew a little bit. So that's really dumb to be proud
of that. Well, my friend, The dumbest thing is to be proud
of salvation? Being saved by the grace of God?
Now, here it is. God, who is holy, saves wretched,
vile, rotten people who don't deserve it and did nothing to
earn it. Huh? Transgressors. That means we're
rebels. We've crossed the line. Sinners. We've missed the mark. We're
failures. What kind of people does God
save? Rebels and failures. We didn't earn it. We didn't
deserve it. We weren't even looking for it. And God saved us. Who made you to differ? God did.
God did. And then he says, look here in
verse 7, he says, And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, you know, that can apply
to everything. That can apply to things you have on this earth.
If you've got a nice home, a fine family, a good job with a good
income, and if you've got plenty to eat, you say, well, wait a
minute now, I worked hard for it. Well, I can show you some
people who worked hard and still don't have it. I can show you a man in the Bible,
there's a whole book written about him, who was a just man,
who worked hard and God took everything away from him. His
name was Job. And you may be thinking, well,
what did Job do to deserve what God did to him? Well, you're
just like, you're what God calls in that book, miserable comforters.
That's what Job's three friends were trying to figure out. They
weren't sanctifying the Lord. They weren't honoring him. But
my friend, it's especially true in salvation. Is there anything
in salvation, anything spiritual, that we have, that we possess,
that we did not receive as a free gift of God's grace. We didn't
deserve it. We didn't earn it. Think about the work of Christ
on the cross. He didn't die for the deserving. He didn't establish righteousness
for those who had come part of the way. The Bible says in Romans chapter
5 that when we were ungodly, Christ died for the ungodly when
we were enemies. He died for enemies. That's right. And he that spared
not his own son, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? What have you got that you didn't
receive? That means by grace. So how can you brag about something
that you received freely? You didn't earn it. You didn't
deserve it. In fact, you were the least deserving. That's what
we were. That's what we are. The least deserving. Paul said,
I'm the least of the apostles. Less than the least. And then
look at the third question, verse 7. Now, if thou didst not receive
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it?" If
you received it as a free gift of God's grace, why are you bragging
like you didn't receive it? The only reason to brag is you
think you deserved it. I got it. You don't. Aha! Isn't that right? I heard a preacher
say this on tape one time. He said, now this is what I'm
going to preach. He said, God's revealed it to me. I don't know
how to explain it, but I know it. And if you ever, if you ever,
if he ever gives it to you, you'll understand it too. And I thought
to myself, I said, well, that sounds like a boast. Yeah, I've
got it. And if you ever, if you ever
have it. No, no, that's not how God feeds
His sheep. It's by revelation. Don't get
me wrong. If we know anything of Christ, if we know anything
of God, if we know anything spiritually, it's by revelation. But God doesn't
just give that to the elite, whoever they think they are.
Now, He doesn't. There's not just an elite circle
of people here who have the knowledge. The discernment. The judgment. No, sir. That's bragging. That's boasting. How are you
going to break into that circle? You have to become a braggart
like them. That's right. Carry the card, I guess. But
whatever it is, we received it. Now, go back to 1 John 3 with
that in mind. Here's the great division. Now,
listen at it. Look at verse 7. Now, he says, little children. That's a good description of
all the people of God from the most mature to the newborn babe. Sometimes when it says child
or children, it's referring to newborn babes, young believers. But here, this is a word that
refers to all of God's children. He's our heavenly Father. He
loves us with an everlasting love. He sent His Son to die
for us. He adopted us into His family. We are redeemed children.
And He called us into His family by His Spirit. We're children,
little children. Let no man deceive you. Now,
that word deceive is the same word that He used in verse 26
of chapter 2. Look over there. He says, These
things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
Same word as deceive over here in verse 7, let no man deceive
you. And what he's talking about is
something that is appealing. I'll give you an example. It
would be like a person who is disguised, claiming to believe
in Christ, claiming to know and believe the grace of God, but
who is subtly seducing you into false doctrine, into false professions,
false claims. That's what he's talking about.
This seduction here, this deception, is a deception of Satan. And
Satan always disguises his lies under the guise of truth. You
see, he's a subtle devil. We'll see that in just a moment.
It's not the person who stands up and says, now, before I get
started preaching to you all day, I want you to know I'm an
atheist. That wouldn't seduce any of you all. The kind of people that want
to hear that kind of thing don't come through those doors normally,
unless they just want to fight. But see, that fellow has told
you what he is before he even gets started. It's not the person
who claims to be a Christian but who's just obviously in it
for the money or whatever, trying to deceive people that way. Listen,
I know a lot of people are deceived by stuff like that, but he's
talking about the church here. He's talking about people who
know better because the Word of God, they have an unction
from on high. And he says, let no man seduce or deceive you. And here's the point, verse 7,
he that doeth righteousness is righteous. even as he, that he
is Christ, even as Christ is righteous. Now think about that. Those who abide in Christ, those
who have been born again by the Spirit, they are righteous even
as Christ is. Now how in the world can I say
that I'm as righteous as Christ is? Only by imputation. It's only as he is my representative
and my substitute, it's only as my sins were charged to him
and his righteousness is charged to me. That's the only way. You see, and what he's saying
here is this, if you've been born again by the Spirit, if
you're a child of God, if you have the hope of eternal glory
that's found in Christ alone in your heart, And if you're
seeking to be like Him and abide in Him and resting in Him, that
is an evidence that you're as righteous as He is in the sight
of God. For He is your righteousness.
You're not being made righteous by your works. You're not being
made righteous within. No, sir. No, sir. You're looking to Christ. How
is that doing righteousness? Well, you're looking unto Him
who is righteous. You're resting in him who is righteous. Look
at verse 8. Now, look here. Here's the division
now. He that committeth sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth
from the beginning. And for this purpose the Son
of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the
devil. Now, this committed sin here
is unbelief. It's specifically referring to
those who claim to believe in Christ, but who forsook Him.
They went out from us. It's the unregenerate. It's those
who are not abiding in Christ. They're under the control of
Satan. And he takes it all the way back to the garden. He said,
the devil sinneth from the beginning. What did he do? Well, he deceived
Eve. He deceived her. He took God's
words and used them against Eve. He said, hath God said, hath
God said that thou shalt not eat? Or in the day that thou
shalt eat, thou shalt surely die. And what did Satan say?
Well, here's my word, Satan, thou shalt not surely die. God
said thou shalt. Satan said thou shalt not. And he deceived Eve. Here's the
second reason Christ was manifested to destroy the works of the devil.
Christ destroyed the condemning work of the devil on the cross.
For he took our sins and bore them on his body on the tree,
and he paid the penalty in full, so that Satan's accusations cannot
touch us anymore. When Satan accuses, how do we
fight Satan? How do we turn him back? Not
by sending off a prayer cloth, but by pleading the blood of
Christ. That's how that old devil is turned back. Revelation chapter
12. We testify the blood of Christ. We just have to declare the righteousness
of our advocate, Jesus Christ, and that's enough to take care
of him. Look at it. He says, to destroy the works
of the devil. For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifest. He says in verse 9, look at it,
whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. What does he
say? Well, he doesn't do the works
of the devil. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Let me show you how the scriptures
define the work of the devil. Now, I know what preachers say,
and they talk about all the vices and all the known sins of this
world, and they say they're all the works of the devil. They
all go back to the garden and the fall of man. But you know
all the vices of this world and all the known sins are basically
just the product of the fallen human nature. Period. Let me tell you where the devil
operates. Now look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 3. Now here's
how the devil operates. Here's the deception, the seduction. He says, But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world, that's Satan, hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. That's Satan's goal right there.
Listen to me. Satan doesn't mind when a sinner
gets religion. He doesn't care. In fact, he
jumps for joy when somebody joins a church, now listen to me, where
Christ is not glorified. Oh, if he can just get you into
a, quote, church, unquote, where they are inspiring you to works
aimed at the ground of salvation, aimed at establishing your own
righteousness. Huh? Satan would love to get a sinner
to turn over a new leaf. To stop doing this and start
doing that. Thinking all the time that that
recommends him unto God. Anything but Christ and Him crucified. Now men, am I right? You ladies too, you know it.
Anything. Anything. He loves reformation. That's right. He loves confessions. He loves religion without Christ. That's what he loves. Because
I'm going to tell you something, that will blind you to the glory
of God in Christ more than anything else. Those false refuges, false
professions, all of that without Christ. And those who are involved
in that kind of reformation, that kind of religion, I'm going
to tell you something, they commit a sin. And they're of the devil. And they don't even know it.
Look at verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 4. He says, For we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. We preach Christ. We're
not promoting ourselves. And ourselves, you're servants
for Jesus' sake. Now look at verse 6. For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." That's salvation. That's the
unction from on high. That's doing righteousness. Look
back at 1 John 3, and I'll close with this. Verse 9, he says,
"...whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, For his
seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born
of God." Now, he said, his seed remaineth. What is that seed?
That seed is the Word of God. Now, whenever you see the word
seed in Scriptures taught by our Lord, what does it refer
to? He taught in Matthew 13 the parable of the sower and the
seed. But it's not just the Word alone. This seed here, is the
seed of the Word of God that has been sown in the heart by
the Holy Spirit. There's life in this seed, you
see. It's the life-giving seed. So
in other words, here's a person that he's describing who not
only hears the Word, but he believes it. He loves it. He delights
it. His meditation is in it all day
long. Psalm 1. He loves that word. It's the word of life. It's the
word of Christ. It's the word of God. It's his
food. He has to have it. He's like
Peter when Christ asked him after the multitude went away, will
you go away also? And Peter said, we've got no
place else to go. That's what he meant. To whom
shall we go? You have the words of life. We've got no place else
to go. This is where the food is. His seed remaineth." In other
words, it's not like the stony ground here, the seed came and
then left. Not like the wayside here, the seed came and left.
Not like the thorny ground here, you see, but it remains. That
which is in Him abides, back up here in 1 John 2, he said.
It's the staying power of the Spirit who implants that seed
in the heart, and it remains. And he cannot sin. He cannot
leave Christ. That's what he cannot do. He
can do a lot of dumb things. He can do a lot of bad things.
But he cannot leave Christ. That's what he's talking about.
He abides in Christ. And he may be a child that has
to be whipped every day. But he cannot leave Christ. He may be one that you want to
choke sometimes, but he cannot leave Christ because God made
him to differ. Christ saved him by His grace,
and the Spirit has called him into the family. He cannot sin
because he is born of God. The Spirit regenerated him, implanted
that seed, converted him, brought him to Christ, and keeps him
right there. He cannot sin. That seed that
remained, God has put it there. And then he says in verse 10,
Now this is how the children of God are made known, manifest,
and the children of the devil. There's the great division. And
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, and neither he
that loveth not his brethren. We'll talk about that some more
later on, but that's the issue. Alright, we're going to sing
hymn number 269 as our closing hymn, Under His Wings. Under
His Wings.