Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching today from the book
of 1 John, chapter 3. 1 John, chapter 3. And I'm going to begin at verse
11, which speaks of the love that believers should have for
each other. And then verse 12 speaks of... I said verse 11. I'm going to
start at verse 10, actually. I'm sorry. It mentions something
here that is so important, and the title of the message is True
Children of God. True Children of God. And as
I look at these issues of what it is to be a child of God, and
on the opposite end would be a child of Satan. the adversary,
the accuser of the brethren. And that may sound strange to
you. Somebody say, well, aren't we
all children of God? Well, if you're talking about
just generally in creation, you can say that every human being
is a child of God by creation. But that's all that it is. To
be a child of God is to be a sinner saved by grace who has been brought
by the grace of God through Christ into the spiritual, eternal family
of God. Now, a person who goes through
life in unbelief and never comes to a saving knowledge of Christ,
never becomes, by the grace of God now, a believer in Christ,
that person is not a child of God. That's a child of Satan.
Now, here in 1 John 3, we've been going through this. John
has made it very clear. that if you're a true child of
God as a believer in Christ, and again, I must stress this.
I know I hammered this point home, but friends, we need to
understand that a person does not become a child of God, does
not become saved or a Christian because they make a decision.
I know people believe that today, but that's not the way it happens.
Now, one who is a child of God, one who is a believer, a Christian,
does make a decision, but their becoming saved, their becoming
a child of God, is not based upon their decision. The decision's been made before
the foundation of the world. If we were left to ourselves,
the Bible teaches, and I'll show you that, the Bible teaches that
if we were left to ourselves to make the decision, if we were
left to our own natural inclinations, we would not choose Christ. We would choose something else,
someone else, but not Christ. You see, the natural man, I quote
this verse all the time on this program because it's so important. It's 1 Corinthians 2, 14. And
it says, the natural man. Now, what is a natural man or
a woman? That's as we are born into this
world naturally, our physical birth. Remember Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. That which is born of flesh is
flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
Neither can he know them, they're spiritually discerned. What that's
telling us, and there's so many other scriptures that tell us
this, that as we are fallen in Adam, You know, everybody now,
I'm sure that you sitting out there listening to me, you'd
say, well, you're a sinner. Now, maybe some people wouldn't,
but we're all sinners, all sin and come short of the glory of
God. But as fallen in Adam, we are born naturally into a state
of spiritual death and depravity. That's us by nature. And I'm
gonna show you that in scripture. That's why in order to be saved,
we must be born again. Unless we're born again by the
Spirit, we have no heart for the gospel and for Christ and
for the glory of God. We have no desire for the things
of God, even religious people now. A person can be religious
and be lost. A person can even call themselves
a Christian and be lost. And that's why we have the Bible.
And that's why the Bible tells us, God's word tells us to examine
ourselves to whether we be in the faith. And what that involves
is basically two issues. Number one, if I claim to be
a child of God, if I claim to be one who believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ, is the Christ, the Jesus, that I claim to trust,
is he the true Christ of the Bible? Now, that's the first
issue of self-examination. I claim to be a Christian. I
claim to believe in Jesus Christ for my whole salvation. Is the
one that I'm trusting for salvation, is he truly the Christ of the
Bible? You say, well, what do you mean
by that, Pastor? If somebody says they believe
in Jesus, they believe in Jesus. The Bible teaches, and especially
in the last days that we're living in, that there will be false
Christ. Now, that doesn't always mean
somebody who comes up and claims to be the Messiah. We've had
that. And they fool some people, but not many. But people will
come preaching a false Christ. a false Jesus. Read passages
like 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 and Galatians chapter 1. False Gospels. And false Gospels can be measured
basically by two things. Number one, a false gospel will
make salvation conditioned on sinners in some way, to some
degree, at some stage. It'll be conditioned on you.
The true gospel preaches salvation conditioned all on Christ, who
by himself as the surety, substitute and redeemer of his people, fulfilled
all the conditions required and ensured their salvation. And
then secondly, a false gospel will always measure righteousness
on a sliding scale. And righteousness in the Bible
is not measured on a sliding scale. Righteousness in the Bible
is measured by Christ. How righteous do we have to be?
I've got to be as righteous as Christ. Well, I cannot do that.
I'm a sinner. I always fall short. That's what
all of sin and come short of the glory of God means. It means
we always miss the mark. So how can I be as righteous
as Christ? By the grace of God, based on Christ's righteousness
charged to me, accounted to me. given to me freely. And what
is his righteousness? It's his obedience unto death.
So this issue of who is Jesus Christ, if I'm trusting the true
Christ, that's the number one issue of self-examination. If I claim to be a Christian,
Do I really believe in the true Christ, the true gospel of God's
word? And then the second issue of
self-examination is, do I really believe in him? It's kind of
like saying, am I in him and is he in me? And how do I know
that? What does the Bible say about
a believer? Well, here in 1 John 3, Here's
what John says, he says like in verse nine, that we left off
with last time. He says, whosoever is born of
God, if I'm born again, doth not commit sin. Now, if you hadn't
listened to the other messages on this, you need to do so, but
I'm just gonna give you the short version today. What does it mean
he does not commit sin? Does that mean that when you're
born again, you no longer sin? Well, I gotta tell you something,
according to the Bible and according to the reality of our experience,
if being born again means that we no longer sin, then none of
us, including me, are born again. Because even those who are born
again are still sinners saved by grace. Only two types of people
in this world, sinners lost in their sins and sinners saved
by grace. but we're still sinners. Paul
relates that in Romans chapter seven very well. And so, but
what does he mean doth not commit sin? He's talking about something
specific here that believers won't do. A particular sin. And he says, for his seed remaineth
in him. Christ's seed. Now what is Christ's
seed? That's the ones for whom he died.
That's the ones that were given to Him by the Father before the
foundation of the world and whose names were written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, born in sin, spiritually dead in the prayer, but being
brought by God under the preaching of the gospel, they're born again
by the Holy Spirit. And they're His generation. They're
His offspring. They're His seed. They're His
children. That's what John's talking about.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 3. Children of God. So in verse nine now, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in
him. Now what that means is if you're
born again by the Spirit, you believe in Christ, you rest in
Christ, and you will not and cannot leave him. You cannot apostatize, that's
the word. What does apostatize mean? It
means to fall away unto perdition. Hebrews 10 and verse 38, I believe
it says, we are not of them who draw back unto perdition. You
see, John is dealing with a situation where there were people who claimed
to be true believers, but then they left the gospel, left the
church, left Christ and turned against him. And he says, well,
they were never saved to begin with. They didn't lose their
salvation. They were never saved to begin with. So verse nine
again, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his
seed remaineth in him. If you're his child, if you're
a child of God, you'll remain in Christ. And that's only by
the grace of God. You won't remain in him by your
own power or your own goodness, but it's by the power of God.
And he says in verse nine, remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, he
cannot leave Christ. because he's born of God. If
you've been born again, you've been given spiritual life from
Christ. That's the anointing, the unction
that he spoke of over in 1 John 2, 20. You have an unction from
the Holy One and you know all things. And listen to this, if
you're born again by the Spirit, not only do you have life, spiritual
life, a new heart, new mind, new ears and eyes to see spiritually,
you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and He will not let
you go. He will not let us go. So you
cannot leave Christ. You may stray, Now, believers
can stray, but I like what one old preacher in the past said.
He said, we may stray away, but God's got us on a leash. I love
that. The leash of his grace. We may
stray away for a little while, but he'll always bring us back.
He will not forsake us. He will not leave us. He said,
no one shall pluck them out of my father's hand. I quote John
637 and verses after that all the time, where Christ said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He says, this is the
will of him that has sent me, that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, no one, but raise him up again at
the last day. So the children of God, true
children of God, who are chosen by God, redeemed by the blood
of Christ, justified, that word justified means so much, it means
forgiven of all my sins on a just ground. And that just ground
is not my decision, not my do-gooding, it's the blood of Christ that
covers my sins. and is to be declared righteous
in God's sight, not by my works or my efforts or my law-keeping,
but justified based upon the works of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ imputed to me. And if that's the case, then
I'll be born again by the Spirit under the gospel, the true gospel,
And that's why we need to know the difference between false
gospels and the true gospel. But if all that's true of me,
I'll be born again, the Spirit will indwell me, and I'll never
leave Christ. I say these three things. If
you're born again by the Spirit, as far as the preaching of the
gospel and the worship of God, you cannot ignore it, you cannot
deny it, and you cannot leave it. And that's all by the grace
of God. Now look at verse 10. He says,
in this, the children of God are manifest. You see that, 1
John 3, 10? In this. Now, what's he talking
about? In this, what is this? They're
clinging to Christ, the true Christ of the Bible. They're
resting in Him for all salvation, all forgiveness of all their
sins. They're not looking to self.
They're not looking to the preacher. They're not looking to their
experiences. They're not looking to their denomination or their
church or their brothers and sisters. They're looking to Christ. That's what salvation is. Look
unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I'm God and there's none else. How do we run the race of grace?
Hebrews 12 and verse two. Looking unto Jesus. Now it doesn't
stop there. The real Jesus, the true Jesus,
that means salvation, looking unto Jesus, the author, that's
the one who, he's the originator of my faith, and the finisher,
the completer of my faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. How is he the author of it? Well,
I wouldn't have faith unless he gave it to me. Salvation is
by grace, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. You see, the good works are the
fruit, the evidence, not the cause, not the merit, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So Christ
is the originator of it. He's the beginning of it. And
how is he the finisher of it? He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. Paul said it in 2 Timothy 1.12,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And
what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation. And so in
this, the children of God are manifest, made known. How do
I know I'm a child of God? Well, I'm looking to Christ.
I'm resting in Him, the true Christ of the Bible. I have no
other hope. That's why one of my favorite
hymns, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, no matter how good it looks, no matter how emotional
it makes me. I don't look to it. I look to
Christ. If you're assurance of salvation,
listen to me very carefully here. If your assurance of salvation
is based upon a decision you made while you were a child or
a teenager or whenever, the fact that you walked an aisle and
you say gave your heart to Jesus, my friend, that's not biblical.
You know what my assurance is based upon? The blood of Christ,
the righteousness of Christ, the accomplishment of all that
God required of me fulfilled in Christ. That's my assurance. He's my assurance. That's what
I'm telling you. And so he says, in this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Now, how
are the children of the devil manifest? Well, they don't cling
to Christ. Those who left the gospel, left
Christ, turned against Him, they're children of the devil. A person
who goes through this life, never coming to faith in Christ, never
trusting him for all salvation, and dies in unbelief, that's
a child of the devil. Now, let me say this, and I know
people are, I don't wanna say, well, they are totally ignorant
of these things, but you need to understand something. There
is a sense that if we are true children of God, and if you're
a believer, If you know the gospel, if you're submitted to the righteousness
of God in Christ, that's what the gospel is. Remember, Paul
wrote that in Romans 1, 16 and 17. He said, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and the Greek also,
or the Gentile. And he says in verse 17 of Romans
1, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. from faith to
faith as it is written, the just or the justified shall live by
faith. So what is the righteousness
of God there? Well, that's the merit, the worthiness,
and the power of Christ's work in his obedience unto death as
the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people. That's
what it is. And so, that's the issue of righteousness
in Christ. Now in verse 10 here it says,
in this the children of God are manifest and the children of
the devil. And it says, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not
of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now I'm gonna
talk later on about love to the brethren. What is it to not do
righteousness? What does it mean to do righteousness?
Over in first John chapter two, And verse 29, look at this. It
says, if you know that he is righteous, now who's the he there?
Well, that's Christ. I know Christ is righteous. I
know he's not a sinner. He never, the Bible says in 2
Corinthians 5, 21, he was made sin, but he wasn't, that means
by imputation. The sins of his people, the debt
of his people was imputed, charged to him. And that's why he died.
That's what it means that Christ is my surety. He stood in my
place and took my debt, my sin debt, bore my sins in His body
on the tree. But I know that He's righteous.
He's the Holy One, holy, harmless, undefiled. Well, if you know
that, verse 29, if you know that He is righteous, you know that
everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. Now, what is
it to do righteousness? Over here in our text, he talks
about those who do with not righteousness. Well, righteousness, now understand,
remember what I said about false gospels? They always measure
righteousness on a sliding scale. Somebody says, well, I'm not
perfect, but I'm not as bad as I was. Well, in terms of human
morality and dedication and sincerity and charity, that may be true
of you. But that's not how God measures
righteousness. See, he doesn't measure it on
a sliding scale. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, well, I'm not perfect, but I've never done anything
that I deserve to go to hell. I'm not as bad as others. You
see, there's that sliding scale. People who believe in progressive
sanctification in the sense of getting better and better, they
believe righteousness and holiness is on a sliding scale. It's not.
The perfection of righteousness is only found in Christ. And
so, well, what is it to do righteousness then? It's to look to, rest in,
and follow Christ. That's what it is to do righteousness.
That's what it is to be a servant of righteousness. I'm not righteous
in myself. Nothing I do or say is perfect,
but I have a perfection. I have a righteousness. and it's
in Christ. It's my Savior, my Redeemer. He is, as Jeremiah said twice
in his prophecy, he is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, my righteousness. Isaiah 45 says, in the Lord have
I righteousness. Not in myself. but in Him. And so, whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. Well, whosoever doesn't cling
to Christ, submit to Him for all righteousness. Romans 10,
four, Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the finishing, the
perfection of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
And so, in this, the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. Well, how do we become children
of God? Well, turn to John chapter one. Well, legally, those who are
the children of God were chosen of God before the foundation
of the world. Ephesians one talks about that.
It's called the adoption of grace. God chose his people before the
foundation of the world and gave them to Christ made Christ to
be our surety, and Christ willingly took our sin debt upon himself,
even before the world was created. Now that's mind-boggling, I know,
but it's true. Like I said, read it in passages
like Ephesians chapter one. It's one that comes to mind quickly.
And then we fell in Adam and were born into this world in
sin. We were born in trespasses and
sins. And spiritually speaking, in
our minds, the Bible says that even though we were chosen before
the world began and adopted into his family legally, and even
though Christ redeemed us on the cross, spiritually in our
own minds, we were enemies of God. And even following the devil. And I told you to turn to John
chapter one, but I really, I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter
two. First, Ephesians chapter two and verse one. And it says,
and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Now the quickening there is the new birth. You've been born again. You've been raised from the dead
spiritually. Verse two. where you were dead, spiritually
dead in trespasses. You were physically alive, but
you were spiritually dead. Verse two says, wherein in time
past you walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. A child of disobedience is an
unbeliever. And the prince of this world,
that's Satan. So you were following Satan,
just like the Pharisees in John 8, 44. Christ said, you're of
your father, the devil. Paul was a Pharisee. But having
been chosen by God before the foundation of the world and adopted
into his family and redeemed by the blood of Christ, you will
be regenerated, born again by the Spirit. Now we'll pick up
here next week in this message. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive. Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact
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today and may the Lord be with you.