First John, we're in chapter
3, and we'll read this chapter. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called sons
of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And
ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in
him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. For this is the message that
ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that
wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because
his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel
not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth
his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love
of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this
world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God
in him? My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if
our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth
all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we
ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and
do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is his
commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And
he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the spirit which he hath given us. Now that's a very
interesting chapter. It is a chapter upon which many
have gone very shipwrecked, have missed the whole truth of what
the Lord is saying through John. And much false doctrine has arisen
out of this. Much confusion is in the minds
of many. And if you take this one chapter
by itself, without a consideration of the context of the whole book
of John, then it is easy that a person could go astray as to
what John is saying here. I believe probably of all the
books in the Bible, now I believe that all books in the Bible,
in fact the whole Bible itself, must be taken in its proper context. And if you miss the context of
the Bible as a whole, then you will miss the message that's
in the Bible. And you can't just take a verse
here and there and look at it and say, well, this means this,
because if you don't know from the beginning to the end what
the Bible is about, you're going to be mistaken as to the conclusions
that you arrive at. But if you understand that this
is a book given to us for the purpose of magnifying the grace
of God shown to men through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. If you miss that, then you've
missed the meaning of the Bible. Doesn't make a difference what
you might understand about it. If you don't see that to be the
central message that God would bring glory to his name in the
manifesting of Christ as the Redeemer of sinners, then you
missed the book. Christ is the Savior of sinners. He's the Savior of his people.
He has not attempted to save them. He has not partially saved
them and left the rest of it up to them. He has not made them
in such fashion that they must add something to that which he
has done. And so John, writing in this
book, has a cohesive truth from beginning
to end. He begins this way. That which
was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it. And bear witness and show unto
you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us,
and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ. Now that's how he begins this,
and that's where we must begin, and we must understand that there's
nothing in this book that he says that in any way contradicts
what he has said there. Our life is in Jesus Christ. We are alive in Christ. It's
the only place that we are alive. It's the only place life comes
from. And it's the only place we can
ever be and have life is in Jesus Christ. And so, understanding
that, We see that he has one message throughout this book,
and that is to show the sons of God what they are in Jesus
Christ. He said, I've written these things
to you for your benefit. My little children, he said,
these things write unto you that ye sin not. Now the exhortations
of the Lord from the beginning to his creation until the present
day is that we sin not. He told Adam, he said, don't
eat of this tree. Then he told him what was gonna
happen, not if he ate it. He didn't say, Adam, if you eat
this, this is what's gonna happen. He said, Adam, in the day that
you eat this tree, you are going to die. That was the purpose of God. And that was the purpose of God,
that He might manifest His glory in the redemption of that same
man which he created. Now, some men balk at that and
they think that there's got to be some kind of a situation where
God kind of winds up a toy and he sets it in motion and then
he has to set back and let it run its course and wind up how
it wants to go. And that's the way a lot of people
look at it. They say, oh, well, you know, Man, he's a free moral
agent and he can just do anything he wants to do and God can't
really do anything about it. Because it wouldn't be right
and it wouldn't be fair if God ordained every step of every
man in the world to occur according as he sees fit for it to be.
And that's the natural thinking. Man, every man's born thinking
like that. You don't ever have to teach
a man about free will. You know, a one-year-old child
knows all about free will. He says, I'm gonna do this. And
his parents says, don't do that. He says, well, I got free will.
I'll do it. Now with parents, they can't
control their children. But you see the Lord, he's in
control of all things. And there's not one decision
you've ever made in your life that has not been made in accordance
with the purpose of God. Now every decision you've made
in your life has not been good. But if you belong to Christ,
every decision that's been made in your life works together. for your benefit. Now David,
as Brother Al's been ably giving us a rundown as we've gone through
the books of Samuel, we see David as a man whom the Lord loved
with a special love. But we see David as a very sinful
man. We see David often under the
chastening hand of the Lord. But that's a good thing. Because
the scripture says, for who the Lord loves, he chastens. Now men often look at the chastening
of the Lord as though it is in response to the things men do. Oh, well don't do that because
the Lord will chasten you. Oh brother, you're gonna be in
trouble now. But see, they don't understand the thing is that
the chastening of God's people is a constant thing. It begins
from the moment they draw breath. Because the chastening of the
Lord is the leading and guiding and teaching them in the way
he would have them go. And in order for a man to know
which way he ought to go, he also often must go the wrong
way. In order for David to know the
corruption of his own heart, he had to have it demonstrated
to him. And the Lord demonstrated it
to him. And we see in the 51st Psalm the result of that. And that is the place that God
is bringing all of his people through his chasing hand. Because
you see, the chasing of David, It didn't begin after his incident
with Bathsheba. The chastening of David in the
incident of Bathsheba began when he climbed the stairs. See, it's
hard to say when the beginning of chastening is because it begins
as the Lord would lead us and teach us. and bring us, and through,
you know, it's like a child. You can tell a child, don't touch
that hot stove. And he has to find out for himself
what hot is. You can tell him all day, that'll
burn you. He doesn't know what burn is. But when he touches
that stove, he knows. And so it is that the Lord is
pleased to teach his people. You know, I learned at a relatively
early age about electricity. Now, I might have told you all
this story, but I can still remember, I don't know how old I was, I
couldn't probably have been, I was still, you know, I can remember,
you know, being around, I don't know if I was crawling or walking
or what, but anyway, there was a lamp sitting on the floor,
and I don't know why, I decided to do this, but I thought I'd
screw that. I'd seen, you know, somebody
screw the light bulb out. Well, I screwed the light bulb
out of that lamp, and I stuck my finger down in that socket.
Now, I can't tell you why I decided I needed to do that. But I can tell you one thing.
At a very early age, I learned that you don't stick your finger
in a lamp socket. And fortunately I was not grounded
very well and the current just passed really through my finger,
but for a small child it was quite a wake up. And that's the
fashion in which I learned that. The scripture says that the Lord
Jesus Christ learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
Now I don't fully, completely understand that. I have some
understanding of it. But the Lord is pleased to teach
his children through their life both those things which we might
say are good and those things which we might say are terrible
to bring us to the place he wants us to be. And so we must keep
that in mind and recognize that It's not about a man gaining
the favor of God by doing something or abstaining from something. But it's the mercy of God throughout
the lives of the people of God to bring them where he wants
them to be. Now that's a glorious thing.
Because as Paul said to the Corinthians, what have you that you have not
received? Now what is the thing you've
gained in your life that has not been the mercy of God given
to you? You never earned a thing in your
life that God has not given to you. You know, a lot of times
people talk about how smart they are and they built this company
and they did this, that, and the other, and no doubt, you
know, the Lord gives men understanding and wisdom and ways to do things,
but he's the one that gives it to them. And so the greatest
of men cannot boast of one thing that has not been given to them.
And so we as the children of God, by the grace of God, multiple
times more than the world, must say we have nothing that we have
not perceived. For why is it that we, in the
same darkness that all men are born into, we were born into,
The same darkness cast out to the loathing of our
flesh. And yet God, who's rich in mercy,
has reached down and snatched us as a brand from burning. And not one thing that we did
that brought that to pass, but simply according to his mercy.
And I'm thankful today that he is a God of great mercy and grace.
Because I tell you, I wouldn't be standing here before you if
it was not so. And so he begins this chapter.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God. that we should be called the
sons of God. Now a lot of people think, well,
we're all the children of God. And they just say that in kind
of an offhanded way. And I understand what they mean.
I mean, all men in one respect are all the creation of God. We've all been brought into the
world by his hand. But you see, not all of that
creation has been given the privilege of being called the sons of God. Now has any man ever done anything
to earn the right to be called the son of God? Not at all. That's what he says here. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. What manner of love? What
is the manner of love? Well, it's actually what love
is, is particular. Now, we've talked about this.
You know, I go over the same things over and over again, because
I don't have sense enough to know anything else, but love,
by its very design, is of a particular nature. Now, men might say, oh,
well, I love everybody. but his wife will be real mad
at him if he goes to her and he says,
I love all the women. Why? Because that's not what
love is, is it? Love's specific. Love is particular,
and it's designed that way. The Lord's love is a particular,
that's the manner of the love of Almighty God toward the people
that he chose in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of
the world. Now that's not a thing that men
by nature like to hear. Because men want to think of
the love of God as something that's owed to them. Well God
loves everybody. If somebody would show me that
in the scripture, I'd be glad to believe it. Scripture does say, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but should have everlasting life. But that love that he's speaking
of there to Nicodemus, is a particular love. Because he says to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, it's not because a man's a Jew that the Lord's love is put upon
him, but the Lord loves the world. He's not a respecter of persons.
It matters not what your lineage is. You see, the Lord loves men
of every kindred, tribe, and tongue in the face of the earth. And there, all men in that respect
shall praise him. And so it is that even in that
which he speaks of as being the whole world is a very particular
love. Behold what manner of love. What
manner of love? Complete. The Lord doesn't love
partially. Now some say, well, the Lord
loves all men, but you know the sad thing they tell us is that
some men are gonna perish and be destroyed in the pit of hell,
and yet the Lord loves them. Now think on that. Is that a
demonstration of the Lord's love for His people? Or for a people? No, dear brethren, that's no
love at all. And it's not meant to be, because
you see, the Lord hasn't designed the destruction of the wicked
because He loved them, He designed the destruction of the wicked
because He hated them. He said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Oh, that's hard doctrine. The Lord taught hard doctrine. In fact, many of his disciples,
those outward disciples that had followed him throughout his
ministry, by the time he got close to the end of his ministry,
end of his life, most of them had departed. Why? They said,
man, this guy preaching stuff is too hard for us. The Pharisees,
the Jews hated him because he taught that the Lord loved the
Gentiles. They said, wait a minute, he
only supposed to love us. But he loved the world. The manner
of the Lord's love is complete to his people. He will not forsake
those whom he loves. If he loves a man, He loved him
from the beginning and he'll love him to the end and no man
can pluck him out of the master's hand because his love is complete. His love is demonstrated. Now we're coming to a time today
when we're going to do something that the Lord commanded us to
do, which was to take the cup and the bread, and to do so in
remembrance of him. Because he said to do it. Because
he would have us to remember that his love for us is complete. That he has loved us from the
beginning to the end. Why? Because we are in him. The scripture says, he that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath
not seen life. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called. The
manner of love is of privilege. Why should we be called the sons
of God? You've been a rebel against God
your whole life. And even now, if the Lord removed
his hand from you for a moment, you'd go right back into the
same rebellion in which you were born. Because the only thing
that keeps one of us from falling is the mercy and almighty grace
of God who keeps us from falling. That's the manner of love. That's
a manner of love that will not let us go. It's a manner of love
that takes those who are sinners by nature and makes them completely
righteous. The script, John says it over
there, didn't he? It said, whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. And yet he also said in the first
chapter, he said, if a man says he has no sin, then the truth's
not in him. These are wondrous mysteries
that cannot be explained except that we understand that a man
sinneth not because he is in Jesus Christ. And Christ has
taken his sin away as far as the east is from the west. And
it's remembered no more. And though we know we are sinners,
yet we can declare we sin not. Because in Christ, we have no
sin. Because our sin, is in the shedding
of His blood and the giving of His body for our sake. And thus
we remember Him who was what? Made sin for us. He didn't just bear our sin,
though He did indeed bear our sin, but He became sin for us. Though he never committed any
sin, there was no violence that ever touched his body. But yet,
he became sin for us. Oh brethren, these things write
I unto you, that ye sin not. Oh what an exhortation given
to those who have been given the privilege to be called the
sons of God. who were not the children of
God. See, we were not by nature the sons of God. We were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, with the great love wherewith he loved us, did undertake
to become sin for us, that we, might be called the sons of God.
Behold what manner of love is his. Oh that we might be reminded
of that today as we remember his death till he comes again.