epistle of 1 John, we might call
the we know epistle. We know. Over and over and over
again in these five chapters, John says we know. I take it that John's intention
that the intention of God the Holy Spirit in giving us these
five blessed instructed chapters is to convey to every believing
sinner an assurance of his saving interest in Christ. The intention
is this. The intention of God is this.
If you believe on the Son of God, if you trust Christ, if
you If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter who you
are, no matter how you feel, no matter what you experience
day by day, if you trust Christ, do you? Do you trust the son of God?
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus? Trust Him alone as your Savior,
His blood alone to atone for your sin, His righteousness alone
to give you acceptance with God. Do you trust Christ as God, your
mediator, God on His throne? If you trust Him, you're gods. You're born of God, chosen of
God. redeemed by the blood of God's
Son, called by God's Spirit, kept and preserved in Jesus Christ. And nothing will ever change
that. Now, that's the intent of this
epistle, is to give us assurance of our saving interest in the
Son of God. I stress this because almost
everything I hear preached from this epistle by men And I don't
hear much except good preaching these days, but I'm talking about
other folks. Everything I hear preached by
men on this epistle, almost everything I read about this epistle, commentaries,
sermons, just brief comments, articles, leaves you looking
to you and seeks to destroy any concept of assurance and steadfast
hope before God. any preaching, any preaching,
any understanding of any portion of Holy Scripture, whether by
a preacher or by commentary, whether by this preacher or any
other, that leaves you looking to you, run from it as fast as
you can. Run from it as fast as you can. It is not of God. This book teaches
us to look out of ourselves to Christ Jesus for all hope before
God. You mean, Brother Don, assurance
isn't based on experience? No. You mean assurance isn't
based on my goodness? No. You mean assurance isn't
based on my evidences? No. If you get assurance from
your experience, from your emotions, from your evidences, from your
works, your assurance is a delusion. Assurance is faith in Christ. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It and it alone is the evidence
of things not seen. Now let's look here at how John
uses these two words we know, beginning in chapter 2. He says
in chapter 2 verse 3, Hereby, We do know that we know him if
we keep his commandments. Oh, there it is. There it is. You have assurance if you try
to live by the Ten Commandments, keep the Sabbath day. No, it
doesn't say we know we know him if we try to keep the commandments,
does it? It says we know him if we keep the commandments.
His commandments all summed up in this. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We keep God's commandments when
we believe God's Son and thereby offer to God all that the law
requires so that Paul says we fulfill the law by faith in Christ. Romans chapter 3 verse 31. Look at chapter 2 verse 18. Little
children, it is the last time ye have heard that Antichrist
shall come even now are there many Antichrist whereby we know
that it is the last time we know we live in the last time of this
world we know we live in the at last days we know we We live
in the last tick of the clock of the time God has appointed
for this world by one thing, by one, not the price of oil
and not the wars in the Middle East and not the Arabs and the
Jews and all the stuff men talk about. We know it's the last
time because the whole world is full of Antichrist. Because
God has sent a strong delusion that men should believe a lie
in this last time and men everywhere set man up in the house of God
and worship him as God. Making man to have power that
only God has. Giving man abilities that only
God has. And that's the grace and power
of God to salvation. Look at chapter 3, verse 2. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know, we know, we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. Paul expressed this desire that
I might know him in the fellowship of his sufferings. in the power
of his resurrection, being made conformable to his death. Here,
John says, we know, we know that when Christ comes, when we see
him, we shall be like him. Soon, I shall have what I desire. I shall be entirely, perfectly
conformed to my Redeemer. This good hope is a good hope
of grace given to me in Christ Jesus the Lord. We know. We know
that soon we shall be like him who loved us and gave himself
for us. When Christ comes again, we shall
see him like he is and we shall be like him. Perfectly so. Verse 14. We know that we pass
from death unto life. Because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. We were born
of God, taught of God, love the brethren. Faith works by love,
always does. But what is this love? What is
this love? It is not anything like what
the world considers and calls love. This love of the brethren
is the hazarding of our lives, the laying down of our lives
for the brethren, for the cause of Christ, giving ourselves entirely
to our Redeemer, which is always connected with faith in Christ. This is his commandment. That
we should believe on his son whom he has sent and that we
should love one another as he gave us commandment You see the
connection? Believing on the son of god we commit ourselves
to christ and all that are his We commit ourselves to christ
and everything concerning him so that we love one another Not
for virtues we find in each other That's wonderful. It's wonderful
to like people. It's wonderful to have friends.
And, you know, I see your smiling faces and the way you treat me.
How could I not like being around you? That's wonderful. That's
wonderful. But that's not what this is talking about. This is
talking about me loving James Jordan because he's Christ. You got that? Whether he does
me harm or does me good, intentionally or unintentionally. It's loving
one another because they're connected with the Redeemer. Loving one
another because they are one with Christ. And believers do. They lay down their lives for
the brethren. We don't. Verse 19. And hereby we know
that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before
Him. We know that we're of the truth
and we assure our hearts by the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts, causing us to perceive the love of God for us and causing
us to love our brethren. Verse 24, 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 has given us we we know
that God resides in us We know that Christ is in us by the Holy
Spirit that he's given us if any men have not the Spirit of
God He's none of his Paul says to be carnally minded is in the
tip. He said the carnal mind is cannot
serve God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God and cannot serve God or His law or do His will. But you are
not in the flesh but in the Spirit. You who are born of God have
been translated by God out of the realm of flesh into the realm
of Spirit. You live in the Spirit and the
Spirit of God lives in you. We know that we're His because
we live in the Spirit, and the Spirit of God lives in us. We're
the children of God, and we know so. We know that God's Spirit
dwells in us, for we trust His Son. Verse 15, chapter 5, And
if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions That we desired of him Hold your hands here in
chapter 5 and turn back to Matthew's gospel for a minute Matthew chapter 6 God bids us come to the throne
of grace That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need And he who is our heavenly father
hears the cries of his children in Egypt always and gives us
what we want. And I said that deliberately.
He gives us what we want. He gives us that which we desire. You often hear preachers say,
well, God promised to give us everything we need, not everything
we want. He gives us exactly what we want. Exactly what we
want, always, always. Does that mean that prayer is
like God giving you a blank check and you just fill in the amount?
Well, that's nothing but carnal, fleshly, selfish, ungodliness. No, that's that's nothing but
greed. That's nothing but greed. What
is it you're talking about, Brother Don? The Spirit of God helps
our infirmities, we're told in Romans 8, 26. Because He causes our prayers to be ordered
right before God. I never will forget, Shelby,
one day coming back from the nursing home years ago, an old
lady there, She'd gone and read scripture and had prayer with
folks for years. Everybody, when they get old,
gets religion. They're rocking chair rebels, but they're religious.
And she finally came out. She came out weeping one day
and laughing. And I couldn't tell whether she was hurt or
happy. And she sat there, and I finally met somebody who knows
God. And she'd read that passage in Romans 8, 26. This lady, she
stopped for a minute. She said, you know what I think
that means? And Shelby said, no, what do you think that means? When we pray, the spirit of God
takes out what ought not to have been there, puts in what ought
to have been there. That's a pretty good understanding of it. That's
exactly what he does. He gives us what we want. Look
at Matthew chapter six. Let me show you what we want.
Anybody here who wants something else, let me know and I'll get
down and let you preach. Matthew chapter six, verse nine. Our
Savior says, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. God, we want your name to be
honored. Sanctify your name. That's the first thing, Bobby.
Want that. Want that. I often pray for you and others,
as I just have with Donnie, Mary, Darwin, Kathy. I don't know how to pray, God.
I don't know how to pray. And if God will help me, I'm
not going to just use words to fill in time. I don't know how
to pray. But Lord, I want your name honored. And that's what they want. Hallowed
be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Save your people. That's exactly what that means.
Save your elect, build your kingdom. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Not my will, thy will be done.
Thy will be done. Give us this day our daily bread.
God, give us what we need. Sustain us both spiritually and
physically and forgive us our debts. Forgive us our sins as
we forgive our debtors. Forgive us. Lord, honor your
name, build your kingdom, do your will, sustain us day by
day, forgive us our sins, and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. And this we ask for thine is
the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. All right, back here in 1 John
5, verse 18. We know that whatsoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. We know that that which
is born of God cannot sin, and that's not all. It cannot be
harmed, not by anything or anyone. that which born of God cannot
sin is born of God. And it can't be harmed, not by
the wicked one himself, verse 19. And we know that we are of
God. We are of God. And the whole
world lieth in wickedness. I just said to the men a few
minutes ago, we were chatting a little bit as everybody is
about this world. I said, I'm so sick of
24 hour a day news, conservative and liberal, I'm sick of it.
I wish we got news 15 minutes a day at the most, that'd be
plenty. But we need to learn something. Don needs to learn
it, Shelby needs to learn it, Larry and Carol need to learn
it, and all the rest of you need to learn it. We need to learn
something. The whole world lieth in wickedness. Don't expect anything else from
it. The whole world lieth in wickedness. Don't expect anything else from
it. Not from the White House or from
your house. The whole world lieth in wickedness. We are of God. We who believe
and follow God. We who trust Christ and walk
with Christ. We who follow the Lamb with us
wherever He goes. We are of God. Nobody else and
for everybody else the whole world life in wickedness We know
That's the case So why do we foolishly? expect righteousness
To arise in the world that wallows in wickedness now look at verse
20 first John 5 and We know that the Son of God is come and that's
given us an understanding that we may know him that is true. And we are in him that is true,
even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. And eternal
life. So John's epistle, the whole
epistle is written to give us assurance. Assurance of our saving
interest in Christ assurance that we are God's assurance that
we belong to God Now with that in mind, I want us to read verses
4 through 12 of chapter 3 And here's my subject and I won't
be long wrapping this up God's children and the devil's God's
children and the devil's First John chapter 3 verse 4 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 manifest, 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. Verse 10. In this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. In this,
in this work of God, in this work of God's grace, in this
saving operation of God, 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 have heard, ye heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another. Not as Cain who was of that wicked
one and slew his brother. What a strange thing to say. God teaches us in his gospel
and he's taught us from the beginning that we're to love one another.
Now, I don't pretend to be a very smart fellow, but if I were writing
this and I were going to use an illustration, The very last
thing I would say is now when I'm saying Lindsay you love You
love Bob and you love love mark. I think it was even a minute
But don't love him like Cain loved Abel That'd be the last
thing I think about I'd say as you know, I don't mean that you
ought to love him like I love him. I Don't mean you ought to love
him like like Michael loves him. I'd make some comparison like
that, but not Cain and Abel Not Cain and Abel. What kind of love
is that? Well, Cain loved Abel. I guarantee
you he did. I guarantee you he did. He was
his brother. He loved him. He loved him. But
he got enraged one day. He became enraged one day. Not
because Abel did something to him. Not because Abel was bad
to him. Not because of some vile thing
Abel did. He became enraged with Abel because
by Abel's sacrifice, showing his faith in Christ the Lord,
Cain was cursed of God in his own conscience and he couldn't
take it. Abel's faith made Cain understand
he was lost. Abel's worship of God, being
accepted of God, made Cain understand that he was not accepted of God.
And God said, I've accepted your brother. What's wrong with him?
What's he done? And Cain was furious and killed
him. So God says here, not as Cain, who was of that wicked
one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him. because
Abel's works or his own works were evil and his brothers righteous. Go back to Genesis chapter 4
if you don't mind, not now, not now, when you get home and read
it real careful. You don't have to read three
or four verses. So just read the first three or four verses,
that's all you have to read. That's all the history you've got of
these two brothers. That's all the history you got.
Now, exactly what was it that Cain did that was so bad? What did Cain do? I'm talking
about before he killed his brother. What did he do that was evil?
What evil works are recorded? He was born of Eve. I don't reckon
we call that evil. He had Adam for a daddy. I don't
reckon you can blame him for that. Well, what did he do that
was bad? What did he do that was bad?
He came to God with his filthy works of self-righteousness. And God wouldn't have it. He
called it filthy rags, a stench in his eyes. But what did Abel
do that was good? I don't see anything in there
that Abel did something special for his mama. or his daddy, or
his brother, or his neighbors. I don't even see in there that
Abel was good to the animals. I don't see anything Abel did.
All Abel did was come to God believing his son. Merle, that's called righteousness,
perfect righteousness. Now that's the contrast. God
the Holy Spirit here tells us that God's children are distinguished
from the devil's and that the two are distinguished and made
manifest in time by God's distinguishing operations of grace upon them
and by the unchanged enmity and wickedness of the reprobate sons
of Adam. There are two groups, just two
groups of people in this world. Sitting in this building tonight,
two groups of people. In most of our homes, two groups
of people. Just two. Just two. Dividing
our sons and daughters, two groups of people. Just two. Dividing
our brothers and sisters, or dividing us from our brothers
and sisters, two groups of people. Two groups of people that shall
never cross over and change places. It's not going to happen. There
are the elect and the reprobate. The elect will never become reprobate
and the reprobate will never become elect. Jacob will never
become Esau and Esau will never become Jacob. Sheep and goats. That's all. The sheep and goats. We fit one of the two categories.
Sheep or goats? Sheep never become goats. Goats
never become sheep. Some of the sheep are lost. Some
of them are found. Some of them are strayed. Some
have been brought home. But sheep never become goats.
Goats never become sheep. Wheat and tares. The tares never
are converted to wheat. The wheat never are converted
to tares. The distinction is made from
eternity by God Almighty. Good seed and bad seed. Good seed sown in the kingdom
and bad seed sown in the kingdom. The good seed never becomes bad
seed. The bad seeds never turned into good seed. We read in Genesis
315 in the first promise of the gospel about the woman's seed
and the serpent seed. The woman's seed is Christ and
all who are in Christ. all who are Christ's seed. A
generation shall be counted to him for a seed, a seed that shall
serve him, Psalm 22. The woman's seed is Christ and
all who are in him, God's elect, the seed of him who is the woman's
seed. All others are the serpent's
seed, the children of God and the children of the devil. The
children of God never become the children of the devil, and
the children of the devil never become the children of God. People
have the idea somehow that everybody is born children of the devil
and then we, when God saves us, we become the children of God.
No. God sends forth the spirit of his son to those who are his
adopted sons from eternity in union with Christ from eternity
to make manifest that we're the sons of God. But we never were
the sons of the devil. Never were the children of the
devil, always from everlasting, the children of God. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, our Lord said, but the
tears are the children of the wicked. Between these two, between
Dives and Lazarus, between Abraham's bosom and hell, there is a great
gulf fixed. so that they which would pass
from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would
come from thence." Well, Brother Don, why do we
preach the gospel? How do we know who God's elect
are? Do we just live in a muddle?
Oh, no. No, no, no. We preach the gospel
so that God might be pleased in his grace and mercy to make
his grace manifest in the hearts and lives of chosen sinners for
their temporal and everlasting good and his glory in the saving
operations of his grace. So that we come to know who God's
elect are when they're born again by his spirit. called by his
grace, given faith in Jesus Christ. When the sinner is made by irresistible
grace to believe on the Son of God, then he's made manifest
that he is a child of God. Now that didn't change God's
purpose. That doesn't alter God's will. That doesn't change the
way God does things or what God intended. That's simply the manifestation
of the sons of God. You mean what we do doesn't alter
God's purpose? Would you want that? What we
do doesn't change God's will? Do you really want to change
God's will? You mean, Brother Donald, what
we do doesn't really determine anything? Surely, surely you
don't really want anything to wait on you to make it happen.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. Well, what do we do? We're God's
servants. And what a privilege, what an
honor to serve Him. Our Lord Jesus came down here
To save his people from their sins. He didn't come here to
save everybody He came here to save the people given to him
from eternity Not to make them his people but to save his people
And he's given us the privilege of preaching the gospel of his
grace for the calling out of his people from the four corners
of the earth Now look here at this text of scripture and let
me show you five things very very quickly first Sin is defined
in verse four. Whosoever committed sin transgresses
also the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. Sin is an infinite evil. A crime against the infinite
God that can be undone and taken away only by an infinite sacrifice,
the sacrifice of one who is himself the infinite God. Look at verse
five. Here's the second thing. John
shows us how sin, all the sin of God's elect was removed by
the sin atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you
know that he was manifested. He was revealed. In the flesh. He came in the flesh to take
away our sins. And in him is no sin. Christ Jesus came down here for
the purpose of taking away sins. And in him is no sin. He has
taken away the sins of his people. Here's the third thing. Look
at verse six. Here the Spirit of God shows us how grace reigns
through righteousness in the new birth. When God the Holy
Spirit gives chosen, redeemed sinners the gift of life in Christ,
when he regenerates and sanctifies his elect, he makes the sons
of God manifest by making us partakers of the divine nature,
by creating Christ in us the hope of glory. That is by imparting
a new, righteous, holy nature to every heaven-chosen soul.
Look at verse 6. Whosoever abideth in him. In
him is no sin, we just read. 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. Now much could be said about
this and I plan to come back to it in weeks coming, the Lord
willing. But understand this, it is by
this new creation of grace that God distinguishes his elect from
the reprobate. It is by this new creation of
grace that God makes known who his chosen are. It is by this
new creation of grace that God distinguishes the children of
God from the children of the wicked one. But this sinning
not and doing righteousness does involve believers walking
in this world. That is not what this text is
talking about. When he talked about that which
is born of God, whosoever is born of God sinneth not. There, the long and short of
that is, if you're born of God, you don't sin. That's what he
said. Now, you can hymn and hall and
jump and dance around there all you want to, that's what he said.
Whosoever is born of God sinneth not. And when he says, let no man deceive you, he that
doeth righteousness righteous even as he is righteous means
that if you do righteousness you're righteous just like Christ
is righteous yeah that all right that's what it means well whether
you whether you're puzzled by it or not that's what it says
that's what it says well how is it that I don't sin I sin in everything I do. I acknowledge
it. I was talking to a dear friend
just the other night. He said, Brother Don, I have
so much struggle with my sin. I know I'm forgiven. I know Christ
redeemed me. I know that God won't charge
me with sin, but I still carry this horrible load. I said to
him, quit looking to you. Quit looking to you. I don't
mean by that, pretend that you don't do evil. No, no, no. Oh
no. I want every one of us to be
keenly aware of the horrid evil that's in us and the evil we
do. Mary Lou, I love you to death
and I want to make you as aware of your sin as I possibly can
all the time. I want you to know there's nothing
but filth in you, filth rising up from you and filth performed
by you. And I want you to be consciously
aware of it all the time so that you may be compelled by grace
to look away from yourself and trust the Son of God. We have
said, we like to get cliches, we use little cliches, and we
say justified, that means just as if I'd never sinned. I'm not
kidding you, that is not what it means. To be justified means
I've never sinned. That's what it means. Did Christ
pretend that he took my sin away or did he take it away? Please
answer me. Did he act like he took it away
or did he take it away? He took it away. He took it away. That means... If I should live a thousand lifetimes
and each lifetime a thousand years, I'll never see it. Blessed
is the man to whom God will not impute sin. He says, I won't
remember your iniquities against you. But God never forgot anything. How can he who never forgot anything
not remember my transgressions? How can he who knows everything
not see my sins? only if he put them away. He put them away so that while
we live in a constant warfare with sin and the lust of our
flesh, the corruption that's in us. The Lord God searches
for our iniquities and our transgressions, and he says, they shall not be
found for I have pardoned you and for God to pardon me he can
only do it on the grounds of absolute justice only if there's
no reason to charge me and the believer does righteousness does
righteousness What did you ever do that was righteous? What? Well, I've never done much, but I try
to keep the commandments. Let's be honest, you don't even
try to keep the commandments. You're trying to play fool God.
You don't even try to keep the commandments. You try to do what
you think will soothe your conscience. That's all. Nothing else. Well,
I try to do good hogwash. You try to please yourself. That's
all. That's all. Well, but brother Don, I'm a
believer and I trust Christ. Would you like to offer God your
faith? As a reason for God to accept
you. Anybody? You want to offer God your faith
as a reason for God to accept you? You want to offer God your
love for your wife, let alone me, as a reason for God to accept
you? You're prepared to stand before
God now. Lord, I've never done anything
but I believe in your son. I've never done anything but
I love my brethren. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. Well, how do we do righteousness?
Only as we believe on the Son of God. Can you get that? Only as we believe on the Son
of God. Now, here's the fourth thing.
We're told that the object of our Lord in his death, in his
incarnation, in his obedience and in his death, was the destruction
of the devil's works. He came here to restore what
he took not away, to undo the works of the devil, verse 8.
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. Now, is the judgment of this
world. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. Christ Jesus came down here and
crushed the serpent's head. He crushed the serpent's head.
Not only has he destroyed Satan's power, he has destroyed Satan's
works so that when he has finished with all his creation, I don't know how to say this
adequately to make the impression I want to make. I say it and
pray God will, oh, God burn this into our hearts. God's universe shall be in no
way barred by Satan's works. The slime of the serpent shall
be eradicated from God's creation. You mean, you mean no harm done? No harm done, only positive good
for God's people and God's glory. The Son of God came here to destroy
the works of the devil. Now, The distinction then is
made manifest. Look at verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he's born of God. In this the children of God are
manifested. What? They're born of God. They
do not sin, they cannot sin, because they're born of God.
That new man in us, that new creature cannot sin. and the
children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother. Who is that that doeth not righteousness? You who refuse to believe on
the Son of God. You who go about to establish
your own righteousness and will not submit to the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. You do not righteousness and
you love not your brother because you would rob him of the only
thing that would do him good. And so there's a constant enmity,
a constant warfare between the sons of God and the sons of the
devil. between the woman's seed and
the serpent seed, between the righteous and the wicked, between
Isaac and Ishmael, the children of the wicked. God passes by
and leaves to themselves his own children he makes righteous
by the gift of his grace in the new birth. Look at verse 11. For this is the message that
you heard from the beginning. that we should love one another.
And 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 brothers were righteous. In the new birth, God makes his
people, his children, righteous, giving them a righteous nature. making each one partaker of the
divine nature, putting Christ in you. According to his promises and
his grace and his covenant mercy, he puts Christ in you, writes
his law on your heart. The wicked he leaves to himself,
exactly as he promised he would do in Genesis chapter three,
The Lord God says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
between thy seed and her seed. This enmity persist. And it will
persist until time shall be no more. I was trying to think of a good
illustration of this enmity, this horrid enmity, this hatred,
hatred. The hatred of man for God. The
hatred of man for God's Son. The hatred of man for righteousness. The hatred of man for the sacrifice
of Christ. Where can you find a suitable
illustration? Back yonder, I see a fellow named
Lazarus. He'd been sitting here for over
an hour. Hadn't said anything. Saying praises of the Redeemer. Don't know of anything he did
today or yesterday. Don't know any evil plans he
has for tomorrow. All I know about it is he'd been
raised from the dead. Now wouldn't it make good sense to want to
kill him for that? Wouldn't it make good sense? That's exactly
what happened when Lazarus was raised from the dead. He was
sitting at the table with the master and Jew said, let's kill
him. Let's kill him. Because by him,
many believed on the son of God, trusted his righteousness and
the whole world would destroy you. rather than give up their
righteousness and trust Christ's righteousness. But it shall not
be. It shall not be. When God gets
done. He who promised. That the woman
seed. Will crush the serpent's head. Promises that you who are the
seed of him who is the woman seed shall crush Satan under
your feet shortly. That's what it is to be manifest
as the children of God. It is to walk with God by faith
in Jesus Christ in the sure prospect of everlasting victory over all
evil in me and around me through Christ the Lord. Amen.