Open your Bibles with me to 1
John chapter 3. The past few weeks I have been talking
about the brotherhood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the family
of God. Is God really my Father? Am I
a member of his household, his family? Am I really his child?
Are you really my brother or my sister in Christ? Am I your
brother in Christ? That kind of issue as the scripture
teaches. Today I want to talk about brethren
abiding in Christ. Brethren abiding in Christ. When we speak of the brethren,
We're talking about brothers and sisters in the same family
who have the same father. Fatherhood of God to His people. That's a spiritual relationship
that we have in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is called
the elder brother, you might say. The firstborn among many. And what that speaks of is His
cross work When he suffered unto death, and he was buried, and
he arose the third day, and based upon the righteousness that he
established, we who are his children are justified, made right, declared
righteous, not guilty before holy God. And God who is our
heavenly Father is both a just God and a Savior to us, and from
his death, As indicated and evidenced and proven by His resurrection,
we have life from the dead. We're born spiritually dead in
the family of Satan. By nature, the scripture says,
children of wrath, even as others. Enemies of God. But God brings
us into a right relationship with Him through Christ, and
He gives us life, and that's called the new birth, born again
by the Spirit. And we're brought into the family
of God, the household of God. Brethren in Christ. Over there
in that passage that Brother Randy just read. Christ, it says
there in verse 11, He is not ashamed. The ones for whom Christ
died. And here's what the scripture
teaches. That they were chosen in God
before the foundation of the world. By grace. That's the election of grace
because we were chosen not based upon any foreseen goodness or
decision that we would make. We were chosen in Christ. That's
what the scripture teaches. Our names were written in the
Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world, the
Lamb slain. In other words, it was all based
upon His work on the cross, His redemptive work. Loved of God
with an everlasting love. Now what the scripture says,
and in time, Christ came according to the time that God had appointed
to be made of a woman, That's His humanity. We're going to
talk about His deity and His humanity. Who is Jesus Christ?
He's God in human flesh. God with us. And He was made
under the law. In other words, all of the salvation
and all of the requirements of salvation were conditioned on
Him under the law for His people. He's our surety. He's our substitute. And he went under the wrath of
his father for the sins of his people to pay that debt, and
he drank damnation dry. He satisfied the justice of God. And out of his death comes spiritual
life to we who are by nature spiritually dead. We fell in
Adam, fell into sin and death. He raises us from the dead and
brings us into his family. And it says there in Hebrews
2.11, he's not ashamed to call us brethren. Now why is he not
ashamed? to call us brethren. Because
our brotherhood, our family relationship under the fatherhood of God,
is based upon the merits of His righteousness imputed, and there's
nothing to be ashamed of there. You think about this, you know
what most people think about in the judgment. They think,
well you're going to go to judgment and then God's going to show
a movie of your life. And every bad thing you ever
did, Well, I want to tell you something. If that's the truth,
you and I both have a lot to be ashamed of. In fact, we'd
find the first place we could hide. But when we who are in
Christ stand before God, we'll have nothing to be ashamed of
because our measure, our account, our right, our title, our assurance
is in His righteousness alone. I have one plea. Christ died
for me. And that's it. Now Christ spoke of his brotherhood.
I've used this verse several times in this series of messages
on brethren, on family, on fatherhood of God. When they told him he
was ministering in a house, and they came and told him, says,
your mother's outside. She wants to talk to your brothers, meaning
his half-brothers, according to the flesh. And you remember
in Matthew 12, 50, he said, for whosoever shall do the will of
my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister
and my mother. In other words, my family are
those who do the will of the Father. Later on in another message,
I'm going to talk about that, the will of the Father. In Luke
8 and verse 21, in Luke's message on that, it says, Christ answered
and said unto them, my mother and my brethren are these which
hear the word of God and do it. Look at 1 John 3 down below our
text. My text this morning is verses
6 through 9, but look down at verse 23 of 1 John 3. It says,
and this is his commandment. Oh wait a minute, verse 22 rather.
It says, and whatever we ask we receive of him because we
keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing
in his sight. What does that mean? Does that mean I keep the
Ten Commandments now, and then I do it perfectly? No, it's not
what it means, but I'm gonna deal with that later, all right?
But look at what he says in verse 23, 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. That's what he's
talking about. And he says, and he that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby
know we that he abideth in us, and the spirit which he hath
given us. Doing the will of God. Hearing the Word of God and doing
it. Keeping His command. What's that
all about? Well, we'll get to that later on in other messages.
Do we keep His commandments? Do we hear the Word of God and
keep it? And notice he didn't say they try to keep it. Somebody
said, well, I'm trying. That's not what he says. He doesn't
say you're trying to do it. Do we hear the Word of God and
keep it? We can say this, by the power
of God, we who know Christ, we who believe in Him, we keep His
commandment to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for our whole
salvation. Where is your salvation? Look
at verse 3 of 1 John 3. He says, Every man that hath
this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. What is the
hope that is in you? What is the hope that is in me?
How can I look at myself honestly and say I'm pure? Purifieth himself,
even as he, that's Christ, is pure. What is that hope? That hope is the assurance of
salvation. The word hope has to do with
a certain expectation that I'm truly a child of God and I'll
be in glory with Him. What is your hope? Every time
I sing that song, hymn number 222, there is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath
that flood, lose all their guilty stain. I always think about the
writer of that hymn, William Cowper. They say he was a man
who was given to depression, bouts of depression, and he couldn't
help it. And there was a time when he
got in such a state of depression and sorrow that he was thinking
about taking his own life. And I can't remember what scripture
he read, but it inspired that hymn, There is a fountain filled
with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's vein. And what the point of that
is, is this. William Cowper's assurance, if
he was a believer, and from everything I've read about him, it seems
that he was, but his assurance was not in himself. That depression
comes from looking at self. His assurance came from looking
to Emmanuel, God with us. That's where our assurance, what
hope do you have? My hope is built on nothing less
than what? Jesus' blood. My hope's not built
on me. You say, well, you know, I've
made great strides spiritually. Is that your hope? There's a group of preachers
now that call that lordship salvation. If God's not lord of your life,
you're not saved. Well, what does it mean to have
him as lord of your life? That means, well, you're a do-gooder,
you're doing this, you're doing... Well, that's where your assurance
is, my friend. I hope and pray that God will
show you yourself. You'll be sorely disappointed
like Mr. Cowper was. And turn your eyes to Jesus,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about.
And how do we purify ourselves? By looking at, resting in, pleading
the blood of Jesus Christ, which does what? Washes away all my
sins. Nothing but the blood. Now look
at verse 4. He says, whosoever commit a sin
transgresses the law. The word sin there is the most
common word in the New Testament. For sin, it means to fall short.
It means to miss the mark. That word transgression, it says,
for sin is the transgression of the law, means you do not
come up to the law's standard. The most common translation of
that word transgression is the word iniquity. In other words,
you're breaking the law because you do not come up to the law's
standard. You're missing the mark. You remember when Christ
was talking about those who stood before him at judgment in Matthew
7, 21 and said, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name?
Have we not cast out demons? Have we not done many wonderful
works? He said, depart from me you that work iniquity. That's
the same word. I never knew you, he said. The
point that John is making here is that this, if our hope is
not in Christ crucified and raised from the dead. If our hope is
not in His blood alone, His righteousness imputed alone, we're not going
to make it. We're sinners. We missed the
mark. We fall short of the law. We don't have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. But here's where
our hope is. Look at verse 5. And you know,
that is believers. That He, Christ, was manifested. That means He came into this
world and made Himself known as God in human flesh. To do
what? To take away our sin. He took it away. We used to sing
that chorus, 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. Now how did He take them away?
Did He just turn His back on them? Or did He just snap His
fingers? Or did He just say, let's free?
No, He took it away by the cross that He bore. Having the sins
of His people imputed, charged to His account. The debt of our
sins. And He went under the wrath of
His Father to receive the full punishment of that wrath. for
the sins of his people charged to him. That's what it means
when it says he was made sin. And out of that death, the work
was finished, the law was honored, justice was satisfied, righteousness
was established, sin was finished, and all of his people can say
amen. Jesus Christ took away my sin.
I didn't take them away. And all my efforts to take him
away are futile. But Christ took him away. How
did he do that? In a legal sense, as my surety
and substitute, as he bore my sins in his own body on the tree. He was made a curse for me. And he took him away. And then
it says in verse 5, And in him is no sin. Now we can say that
in Christ personally, Godman, there is no sin. But I believe
this verse in the context As per Christ taking away the sins
of His people, what He's saying is that as we stand in Christ,
in Him, no sin. Does that mean I'm not a sinner?
No, I am a sinner. But God does not charge me with
the debt of my sin. It's all taken away. My debt's
paid. I stand before God righteous. In that context, look at verse
6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Now what does it mean to abide
in him? It means to continue in him. It means to stay with
Christ. Alright? As opposed to look across
the page to 1 John 2.19 Look at it. He says, they went
out from us. They left. They left the gospel. They forsook Christ. They at
one time claimed to be believers. He says, but they went out from
us, you see. He says, but they were not of
us. They weren't true believers. They weren't truly children of
God. They weren't truly in the family of God. They weren't of
us. If they had been of us, they
would have no doubt have what? Continued, abided with us. They'd have stayed with us. But
they went out. Now, going out there means apostasy. That's what he's talking about.
Somebody says, well, you know, so-and-so hadn't been to church
in a while. Well, does that mean they were a believer and totally
forsook Christ? Not necessarily. You can't make
those judgments on every case. You have to look at every case.
And somebody says, well, they just haven't come. They either
get too busy, they get sidetracked or whatever. What he's talking
about here is people who claim to believe in Christ and who
these believers thought were members of their family, but
all of a sudden, they totally fell away, totally apostatized,
and even totally turned against the gospel. Totally turned against
Christ. And he said, if they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now what's the opposite? Look
over verse six of chapter three, whosoever abideth in him. Here's one thing the Bible teaches
about true believers, truly saved people, true children of God.
They stay with Christ. Doesn't mean they're not going
to sin, doesn't mean they're not going to get sidetracked,
get diverted, but they stay. And you know why they stay? Because
they're such a good lot. No. They stay because they're
kept. They are preserved by the sovereign
grace and mercy of God. He will not let his people go. He said that in John 10. My sheep
hear my voice. I know them. They follow me.
He says no one can pluck them out of my hand. He said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will no wise cast out. And this is the will of the Father
which is sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
raise it up at the last day. Here's another thing the Bible
teaches. If salvation were conditioned on me or you in any way, at any
stage, to any degree, we could not and would not be saved. It's
all in Christ. We're preserved. We persevere.
That means abide. We continue because we are preserved
by the power and the goodness and the grace of God. Paul, the
writer of Hebrews, who I believe was Paul, but that doesn't matter,
it's God's word. He said in Hebrews chapter 10,
we are not of them who draw back unto damnation, perdition. In
other words, if we're ever saved, we will be saved to the end because
Christ is able to save to the uttermost. Paul said in 2 Timothy
1.12, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. But now look at verse six again. Now, here's what we have
here. This is the hope of the brethren. We have this hope, this assurance
of salvation because of the merits of Christ and the power of His
grace. And so, whosoever abides in Him
sinneth not. Now, in what sense can we say
we do not sin? Does that mean that we're now
perfect people in ourselves? We don't have sinful thoughts,
sinful imaginations? Do we never get angry again?
Never lose our temper again? Do we now not fall short in our
character and conduct to the measure of the law? Can we say
we love like Christ loved with a perfect love? Is that the way
he's talking about it? Well, if it is, we might as well
shut this thing down and go home right now. Because there's not
a one of us in here. Now that may be insulting to
you and I'm sorry. It's just the truth. We're sinners
saved by the grace of God. The only righteousness that I
have before God is the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now that's it. Somebody says, well, but you've
been born again. Yes. Born again by the Spirit. You
have a new heart, yes. Have a new heart. New life. Have a new mind. New thoughts. My whole world's been changed.
I tell you what, before I was saved, I looked at myself, I
looked at God, I looked at salvation, I looked at the world in a different
way than I do now. How about you? But I'm still not perfect in
any of those areas. I still have to struggle. I still
have to fight. I've got to struggle. There's
a warfare going on right in here. In my mind. In my heart. It's
called the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. So how can I
say I sin not? Look at the context. What's he
talking about? Look at it again. Verse 8. Whosoever
abideth in him. The sinning here has to do with
not abiding in Christ. That's what he's talking about.
If you abide in Him, you're not one who it says that sin is charged
to you or that you fall short of the law as you stand before
God because Christ is your righteousness. If you forsake Christ, all you
are is sin. All you do is sin. To abide in
Christ is to stand before God sinlessly perfect in Him. Not in ourselves, but in Him.
So whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not. Look at verse 6. Whosoever
sinneth, whosoever does not abide in Him, whosoever forsakes Him,
whosoever rejects Him and turns against Him, he's not seeing
Christ. He didn't see Christ with the
eye of faith. Remember Christ said, unless
you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Well,
you claim to be a believer, but if you forsake Christ, you didn't
see him, you didn't truly see him, and neither known him. You haven't known him in an intimate,
saving way. That's what he's talking about.
You may have had a claim of faith, but it was sham. It was false. How do I know that? Go back to
1 John 2, 19. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. For had they been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out so
that it might be made manifest that they were not of us. That's
it. There's your commentary right
there on this verse. Look at verse 7. He says, Little
children, let no man deceive you. Now who's trying to deceive
them? Well, look across the page again
at 1 John 2 and look at verse 26. He says, these things have I
written unto you concerning them that seduce you. Now what were
these seducers? They were false preachers who
were trying in their preaching to get these people who claim
to be Christian to get their minds somewhere other than Christ.
Get it on yourself. You know when the Bible says
examine yourself? You know what that verse really
says? Well, you know most people, they look at that and they say,
well, I've got to examine myself to see if I come up to snuff.
Am I worthy? Am I qualified? That's not what
that verse says. 2 Corinthians 13.5. It says examine
yourself to see whether you be in the faith. Faith is a noun
there. What do you believe? I need to examine myself to make
sure that I'm trusting the true Christ. Not to see whether I
come up to snuff, because I'm going to tell you something,
I don't. Even at my best. We're going to take the Lord's
Supper. Somebody says, well, you've got to be worthy to take
it. What is our worthiness to take the Lord's Supper? Well,
I had a good week this week. But I can't take it this time,
because I had a bad week. I lost my temper at work, and
you know how it goes. Said a few cuss words and that.
Does that make you? That's not what that means. You
know what your worthiness, my worthiness to take the Lord's
Supper is? Am I trusting Christ, His blood and righteousness for
my whole salvation? Examine yourself whether you
be in the faith. And that's what this is all about. In fact, I can tell you this
much. If you examine yourself and think
that you've You've made yourself worthy enough to take the Lord's
Supper. You're eating and drinking unworthily. Your hope is not in yourself.
It's in Christ. Now does that mean that you don't
have to think about or do anything towards trying to be a good person,
a better person? No. We should be our best. But
that's not where our hope is. That's not where our forgiveness
is. That's not where our righteousness is. Our righteousness is in Christ.
And if I've had the best week that I've ever had living on
God's green earth, Christ is still my hope. His grace, listen,
I'm saved by grace, I'm kept by grace, and I'll enter glory
by grace. Now, if we leave Him, if we forsake
Him, that means, number one, we did not believe Him to begin
with. We did not, we had not been born
again to begin with, and we are breakers of the law. We fall
short. We've missed it. Everything is
iniquity. So He says in verse 7, let no
man deceive. Don't let these people, these
preachers take your eyes off of Christ. He says, he that doeth
righteousness, What is that doing righteousness? Well, he's not
talking about being righteous by our doing the works of the
law. The Bible says in Romans 3 verse 20 that by works of the
law shall no man be justified, made righteous in God's sight.
The best man can do is imperfect, fall short. Sinners are only
made righteous by the righteousness of Christ imputed without works,
Romans 4 tells us. He who does righteousness is
he who is convinced of the insufficiency of his own works to make him
righteous. And he knows that Christ's righteousness
imputed alone is his only hope, his only assurance, his only
salvation, and he renounces his own and he submits to Christ.
He lays hold of Christ. He receives Christ as his justifying
righteousness. He submits to Christ as the Lord
his righteousness. And he lives his life by God-given
faith in Christ and desires, as Paul wrote, to be found in
Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. Faith does not make him
righteous, but it shows him to be so in Christ. So he says, he that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. In other words, how do I know
that I stand before God in the righteousness of Christ? Because
I believe in Him, I rest in Him, my hope is in Him, I have no
other hope. Verse 7, he says, little children,
let no man deceive you from that. Look at verse 8. He that committeth
sin is of the devil. Well, to commit sin there is
to leave Christ. It's to forsake Christ. It's
not to believe in Christ. That's what the devil works.
That's what his works are. 2 Corinthians 4, 3, If our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which what? Believe not. You know, most people don't understand
the works of Satan. Satan loves to have people in
a false refuge of religion, claiming an assurance of salvation, but
based on a wrong ground. That's what Satan desires more
than anything else. If he can get a man behind the
pulpit, preaching a false gospel, that's where he's happiest. Preaching
salvation by the works of man. So those who do not abide in
Christ, he says they're of the devil. For the devil sinneth
from the beginning. What did he do in the beginning?
He brought the word of God into question through Eve and then
Adam. And it says for this purpose
the Son of God was manifested. This is why Christ came, that
he might destroy the works of the devil. What did the devil
bring in? Sin and death. What did Christ
take away? Sin and death. What did Christ
bring in? Righteousness and life for His
people. You see that? So therefore, look
at verse 9, and we'll conclude here. He says, whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin. Now, there's a lot of different
interpretations of this, but I believe the context begs us
to understand it this way. If you're truly born again by
the Holy Spirit, you must be born again. That's regeneration
and conversion. If you're truly born of God into
His family, in what sense can it be said
that we do not commit sin? We will not leave Christ. That's what it is. Other people
say, well, that means you won't do this sin, you won't do that
sin. Let me ask you a question. If you would stick solely to
the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, what is it that a believer cannot
do? Somebody said, well, he can't
do this, he can't do that. Oh, believers wouldn't do that.
I just about guarantee you I can find an instance in the scriptures
here where a believer did just that. I'm going to tell you something,
we as believers, we can do some terrible things. We can have
some bad attitudes. I used to, when I taught school,
I'd tell kids, you've got a bad attitude. Does that excuse all that? No.
Anybody who raised them said, well, if a believer can do that,
I'm just going to go do that. Well, that's stupid. That's presuming
on the grace of God. But I'm going to tell you something.
If you read it from Genesis to Revelation and stick to the Bible,
I'll tell you there's only one thing a believer cannot do. And
that is he cannot forsake Christ. Totally. As his hope of salvation
and glory. And it's because he's born again.
There is a new spirit, a new heart. He talks about that in
1 John 2. That which is in you, the Word
of God is implanted upon his heart and he cannot leave Christ.
But here he says he cannot leave Christ, look at verse 9, for
his seed remaineth in him. Now I believe the seed there,
some people say well the seed is the word of God and there
are times in the New Testament in the context the word seed
is the word of God, the parable of the sower and the seed. But
this word seed here is a word that is often used for offspring,
children. generation. And I believe in
the context of what John is talking about here, especially like back
up in verse 1, he says, Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God, children of God. I believe the seed here is talking
about his true children. If you're born of God, you're
a true child of God. And if you're a true child of
God, you remain, you abide in Christ. That's the hymn there,
is Christ. Now we do, as true children of
God who've been born again, we do have the seed of the Word,
the work of the Spirit, the anointing, the unction, abiding in us. We do. And that's spoken of. But I believe here the emphasis
is on those who abide in Christ. Brethren abiding in Christ. If
you've been born of God, you will not leave Christ, for you
are a child of God. Christ's children remain, abide
in Him. They stay with Christ. And he
cannot sin. He cannot sin. He cannot leave
Christ. You can do a lot of other things
that are bad. I can do a lot of other things, but we can't
leave Christ. Because we're kept and preserved
by the power of God. And the reason is because we're
born of God. We do have a new heart. We do have a new spirit. Though we may be diverted. But
now look at verse 10. I'm not going to go to verse
10 now. I'm going to pick up on that next time. But look what
he says in verse 10. In this, the children of God
are manifest. This is how you know the child
of God. You say, well, I saw him out doing this the other
day, and I didn't know the child of God wouldn't do that. Huh?
You better back that up with Scripture. In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil. And he says, whosoever
doeth not righteousness, that's to leave Christ, is not of God,
neither he that loveth not his brother. And we'll pick up there
in the next time. All right?