Your Bible's with me to 1 John
chapter 3, and tonight I want us to look at the first five
verses in this most instructive passage of scripture. 1 John
chapter 3. Just hold your Bibles open on
your laps, and let me go through these five verses with you, and
I pray that God the Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts by his
word. First, John speaks in verse one
and gives us a cause for great, great wonder. Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Now stop and think about who
wrote those words. If ever there was a man who understood
something of beholding wonders, if ever there was a man who had
experienced and seen wondrous things, that man was John. He
walked for three and a half years with the incarnate God. He saw
our Lord's earthly miracles, almost all of them, if not all
of them. He was a man who was with the
Lord, one of those three chosen to be with him when he was upon
the Mount of Transfiguration. It was John who with Peter and
James was present in the Garden of Gethsemane. He saw the Son
of God's sweat blood crying, my God, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. John was there. when the Lord
Jesus was nailed to the tree. The last word spoken by the Son
of God to a man on this earth was spoken to John. John saw
the risen Christ. He was eyewitness of the Lord
as he ascended up into heaven. He saw the angels receive the
glorified Christ up into the heavens out of sight. John is
that one to whom the revelation of Jesus Christ was given. And
yet when this man, John, contemplated the great love of God for his
people, he seems to have been struck with utter astonishment.
He says, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that which we too often think of as commonplace. What
a horrible fact. That which we too often look
upon with almost a callous indifference.
This man looked upon as the greatest wonder of all wonders. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Now this love was bestowed upon
us in eternity. The Lord God says, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. And this love being bestowed
upon us is, as God himself, immutable in all things. I don't know where
people get the idea that somehow there are some characteristics,
some attributes of God, some characteristics of His grace,
mercy, and love that will alter like man's alters. But God's love is immutable. God's love never changes. It
doesn't change in its objects. It doesn't change in the intensity
of it. It doesn't change in the degree
of it. It doesn't change in any way
whatsoever. God's love toward us, you see, is abundant, boundless,
free, unconditional, unqualified, unwavering, infinite love like
God himself. It is uninterrupted, unending,
persevering love. We are told of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that which is true of God in all things, having loved
his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Now this very same love, which
God has bestowed upon us is the love which He bestowed upon His
Son in eternity. Turn back to John 17 for a moment,
if you will. I want you to see this. See it
as best you can. Get hold of it best you can.
The Lord God loves us as He loves His Son. Look here in John 17,
verse 23. The Lord Jesus is praying and
he says, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and
hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Verse 24. Father I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world. Now there's one clue. Verse 25,
O righteous father, the world hath not known thee, but I have
known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I
have declared unto them thy name and will declare it. Look at
it now, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them and I in them. Now, there are a couple of things
that are obvious. The Lord God does not love us
for the same reason that he loves his son as his son. That can't
be so. Well, what is our Lord saying?
Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. You remember in
John chapter 10, our Lord Jesus speaks and says, therefore doth
my father love me because I lay down my life for the sheep. That's
talking about Him, Larry, in His mediatorial capacity as our
God-man substitute. And the Father looked on the
Son as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and
looked on us in His Son, and loved us as He loved His Son
for the perfection of His obedience. He loves us from eternity with
an everlasting love in His Son from the same time that He loved
His Son. Now that's a poor way to express
it because we can't talk about God's eternity as time. But as the Father looked on the
Son and loved Him from eternity, He looked on us in the Son and
loved Him from eternity. As the Father loved the Son as
our Mediator because of perfect righteousness and perfect satisfaction
by His obedience pledged in the covenant, so he loves us because
of perfect righteousness and perfect satisfaction which was
given us in Christ before the world began. As the Father loves
the Son, so he loves us to the same degree. As the Father loves
the Son, so he loves us forever. The love of God is eternal both
ways, everlasting both ways. He began to love us. That's a
poor way of speaking again, but God condescends to our puny understanding
of things. God set his love on us from everlasting,
and he will never change his mind unto everlasting for any
reason. Not for any reason. The love
of God is the source and cause of every blessing of grace performed
for us, given to us, and performed in us. God's love is the fountain
from which all goodness flows. The Lord God loved us, therefore
he sent his son to redeem us. He loved us, he chose us because
he loved us. He loved us and predestined us
to be conformed to Christ because he loved us. God's love for us
is the source and cause of our love for him. Turn to chapter
four. Just turn your page over to chapter
four, verse 19. Here is a true, honest confession
of every believer's heart. Do you remember when the Lord
asked Peter the third time, said, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than days? He'd already asked him twice,
said, Simon, do you love me? Simon, do you love me? And in
asking him those two times, he used what is by most thought
to be the stronger of the words, but he actually used the weaker
word. The weaker word for love, love involving a passion, love
involving emotion, love involving many, many things. And then he
used the strongest basic word possible for love. He said, Simon,
now let's get down to the brass tacks. Do you love me? Do you
love me? You don't act like it. You haven't
behaved like it. These fellows over here are sure
in doubt of it. Do you love me? And Peter said what only a believing
heart can say. He said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And the believer does. We love
Him. Every believer does this. If
any man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned, the
scripture says. We love Him. Not as we should,
not as we would, not as we shall, but we love Him. And here's the
reason. Because. Because. We love Him and our love to Him
is that which is caused by His love for us. We love Him because
He first loved us. So that we respond to His love
because our hearts have been conquered by His love, now we
love Him. The wonder of God's love is seen
in that which he's done for us. He chose us and adopted us. Our
heavenly father devised a plan for redeeming our souls and saving
us and formed a covenant with his son, which would never be
altered. The Lord God sent his son, gave him up to suffer and
die as our substitute, and in the fullness of time, that which
the Holy Spirit calls the time of love, he sends his spirit
to call us to life and faith in Christ, to spread over us
the skirt of his righteousness, to wash us experimentally in
his blood, and make us to know his love for us. And we see the
wonder of God's love in the effect it has upon those who experience
it. Look at the next line in our
text. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. The fact is the world can never
understand a child of God. They don't understand our doctrine.
They don't understand our principles. They don't understand the things
we teach. They don't understand the way
we live. They don't understand our worship, devotion, what bad
as it may appear to us, the fact his believers do worship him.
They are devoted to him. They are committed to him and
his gospel. The world doesn't understand
that. The world doesn't understand people being motivated by grace
and love and gratitude. The world thinks that everybody
is on the take. The world thinks that everybody
is mercenary at heart. The world thinks that everybody
does what they do for what they get. The believer does what he
does for what he has. All the difference in the world.
The believer does what he does not in order to get God's favor,
but because he enjoys God's favor. Not in order to get God to love
him, but because he enjoys the love of God. The world doesn't
understand our motivations, our concern for God's will and His
glory. The world doesn't know a thing
about our hopes, aspirations, and desires. The world looks
at the believer as he goes through the turmoils and troubles and
trials and difficulties of life with what the world looks at
as unruffled peace, and they can't understand it. Why? Because the world doesn't know
us. It didn't know our Savior. All
right, now look at verse two. Here's a cause for great confidence.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Before the worlds were made,
God loved us, chose us as the objects of his grace and adopted
us as his sons and daughters in Christ. And now as the result
of his matchless love and grace, we are the sons of God experimentally. Now hold your hands here and
turn over to Galatians chapter four. I want you to see this.
This business of adoption is not something that God struck
up in time. This too was done from eternity.
The scripture tells us plainly the works were finished, all
of them, before the foundation of the world. And the Lord God
adopted us into His family long before we had any experience
of it. He adopted us into His family long before He gave us
the nature of His Son. He adopted us into his family
long before he gave us faith in Christ our being the sons
of God Was the cause of him sending his son or the spirit of his
son into our hearts crying ever father let's see if that's not
what Paul says Galatians chapter 4 verse 6 and Because do you
see it? And because you are, not in order
to make us, Bobby, because you are. Because you are the sons. Because you are sons, God hath
sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir, heir
of God through Jesus Christ. Now here are several things in
this second verse that I want you to get hold of. They ought
to be things that make our hearts rejoice. We are now the sons
of God. Believing on the Son of God,
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the Spirit of God in
our hearts, causing us to lift our hearts by faith in Christ
to God Almighty sitting on his throne and call God with confidence
our Father. He's made us his sons. Number
two, our inheritance as the sons of God is altogether beyond the
scope of human thought and imagination. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. I like to think about heavenly
glory. Don't you? I like to think about
eternity. I do, I do. And I have some notions. I have some ideas of things hinted
at in this book. But the scripture tells us plainly,
I hath not seen. nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. Now God's revealed the fact of
it to us by his spirit. But when Paul ascended to the
third heaven, he said, I saw things that man's tongue can't
describe. I saw things that's not lawful
for a man to utter. So when John speaks here, he's
speaking exactly right. He says, it does not yet appear
what we shall be. We don't know what heaven will
be like. But we do rejoice to know that some things will never
be found there. Listen to this. God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. I know a little bit about that.
And there shall be no more death. I know a little bit about that.
Neither sorrow. We know something about that,
don't we? nor crying, sighing of a broken heart. Neither shall
there be any more pain. Listen now, for the former things
are passed away. Sometimes good things are best
seen in negative light. These things will never be there.
And we rejoice to know The name of that city, you can look it
up later. It's in Ezekiel 48 verse 35. The name of that city is Jehovah
Shammah. The Lord is there. That's enough. That's the glory of heaven. Nothing
else much matters. And one day soon we shall behold
our Redeemer face to face. When He shall appear, whether
He comes for us in the death of these bodies or whether He
comes at His second advent in glory, when He shall appear,
we shall see Him as He is. That is to say, we will see Christ
fully. We will see Him clearly in the
fullness of His divine glory as God and in the fullness of
His mediatorial glory as the God-man, our Redeemer, our surety,
our representative, our substitute. Then we'll know Him. Then we'll
know Him. We strive to know Him. We long
to know Him. We rejoice to know Him, but oh,
how little we know. And I'm confident that when I
say we'll see him as he is, when John says we'll see him as he
is, he is not suggesting that suddenly we're gonna know everything
about him. Oh, no, no, no. We'd have to be gods to know
everything about God. This is what he's saying. We
will see him in the perfection of his being and seeing him. We will forever enjoy the blessed
privilege of getting to know Him. Getting to know Him. Getting
to know Him. Oh, my. The most delightful, blessed,
joyous aspect of life in this world, Bob, is knowing Him. Coming to know Him and growing
in the knowledge of Him And the most joyous, delightful,
blessed aspect of life in this world now is every time I see
just a little more of Him. See Him just a little more clearly
in His divine glory, in His mediatorial glory, in His glorious God, in
His glorious man. And for eternity, we will get
to know Him. Know Him. And when we see Him,
we'll be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We'll be like Him. In all the perfection of His
manhood, we'll be like Him. We'll think like He thinks, want
what He wants, Like what he likes, love what he loves, hate what
he hates, and have what he has. Now then, look at verse three.
Here's a cause for hope. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Our hope
is not the kind of hope that people generally talk about.
When the Bible speaks of the believer's hope, it's not like,
you know, your last summer we spent, what, nine weeks without
a drop of rain and folks, everybody runs in and I show hope of the
rain. That's not what it's talking about. That's a frustrated desire
with no foundation in reality. That's not the hope of the believer.
The believer's hope is the confident expectation of all good from
God Almighty for time and eternity. It is the hope of persevering
grace. It is the hope of his preserving
mercy. It is the hope of his providential
care. It is the hope of resurrection
at last. It is the hope of everlasting
glory with Christ. You say, well, pastor, how can
a man have such a hope? Only one way. If it's built on
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only way you can have a good hope. A good hope through grace
is a hope that has its basis in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a hope that has its basis.
It's a house built on the foundation, which is the rock Christ Jesus,
laid by God Almighty himself, tried and proved. This blessed
hope has a purifying effect upon those who possess it. Every man
that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure. What does that mean? Makes himself
more pure before God? No. No. Purifies himself from
the defilements of this world? Perhaps. Perhaps. I'm certain,
in fact, it has something to do with that. But what he's talking
about is this, this hope of glory, this hope of everlasting life,
this hope of eternal life with Christ and in Christ, this hope
of seeing Him purges our hearts from the love of this world.
Sets our hearts on Him and the pursuit of Him on things above. It fills our hearts with the
anticipation of heavenly glory. Now then, look at verse four.
Here's a cause for great concern. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now Lindsay, that's a problem. Whosoever committeth sin does
any sin, transgresses the law. For sin's the transgression of
the law. Now this is obvious. God's saints, God's elect, as
long as we live in this world, in this body of flesh, are sinners
still. And we sin. Sin's mixed with
everything we do. The man says, I haven't sinned.
He deceives himself. Truth's not in him. Makes God
a liar. Sin's mixed with everything we do. Sin is with us as an unceasing,
bitter, painful fact of life. And our sins, our sins deserve
eternal damnation just as fully as Judas' sins did. Our sins
deserve the wrath of God just as fully as the Sodomites do.
Our sins deserve the wrath of God just as clearly as anyone
else's do. And we will go to hell and suffer
the wrath of God unless a suitable substitute and sacrifice is found
who can atone for sin and put away sin before God Almighty. Look at verse five. Oh, what
a cause for joy. And you know, he was manifesting
to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. That's what Christ has done.
Now I'm not going to rehash what I tried to preach to you Sunday
morning and Sunday night, but I want you to understand that
the believer in Jesus Christ is dead to sin, dead to the law. He is freed from sin. God's saints
in this world are not under the curse of the law that is due
to sin because Christ died in our room instead. God's saints
in this world are no longer under the dominion of sin. Look at
verses six through nine. In these verses, John tells us
several things. First, God's saints are not ruled,
governed, and controlled by sin. Whosoever abideth in him, whosoever
continues in Christ, whosoever holds fast the Lord Jesus Christ,
whosoever does not cease to look to Christ, whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. The word is he does not continue
in the habit of sin. Now, what does that, but preachers
just got through telling us sin's mixed with everything we do.
Yes, but the believer does not continue to live after the lust
of his flesh. He does not continue to pursue
iniquity. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
God, neither known him. Verse seven, little children,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. What's that mean? Believers are
people who just do right. That's the character of the believer. Folks tell me, well, God's children,
their character and conduct don't matter. Don't you pay any attention
to such nonsense. If Larry, Chris, Don Fortner
had been born of God, God's grace gives us a new nature. A new
nature. We're going to see it in just
a minute. The believer's life is a paradox to himself. I'm
not telling you anything you don't know. But the believer
does not live under the rule and dominion of his lust. We
have the fruit of the Spirit called temperance. It's control
by God's Spirit reigning within us. Control by Christ ruling
us so that, Sam, we're no longer what we once were. We're made
new in Jesus Christ with a new nature, a new heart, a new will,
a new mind. Indeed, we're made partakers
of the divine nature. Something happened in the new
birth. God came into you. God came into you. That's exactly
what happened. And being now made free by Christ
Jesus from the shackles and bondage of my slavery, I walk with Him. I walk with Him. All right, look
at it. Those whose lives are ruled by
the lust of their flesh are the children of the devil. Verse
8. He that committed sin is of the devil. The word, again, is
in the continual sense. He that commiteth, who continues
to live after the lust of his flesh, who continues to live
after sin, he's of the devil. He's of the devil. He's pursuing
his own will, not God's. You see, the believer is, his heart is set toward glory. And that's where it's going. and he slips and falls, and he
wanders this way and that, and he turns to this side and that,
but all the while, he's heading to glory. I fly across the Mississippi
River several times a year. I always look down, always look
down. That river runs from south, I'm
sorry, from north to south, but sometimes it runs east, and sometimes
it runs west, and sometimes it looks like it's running back
north again. It makes all kinds of bends and turns, but it's
running from north to south. And the believer sometimes looks
like he turned around and headed back to hell, but in the bent
and tenor of his life, he's running toward Christ. That's the way
they live. All right, let's look at verse
nine. Whosoever is born of God, look at this now, doth not commit
sin. for his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he's born of God. Now this is what
he's saying. Same thing Paul said in Romans
7 verse 20. The believer is a man with two diametrically opposing
natures, flesh and spirit. And when the believer sins, He
always does. But it's not him sinning, not
his true self. That's what Paul said. No more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. My old nature. Well, how
do you tell the difference? You can't. You can't. You can't. Bobby and Judy have been married
a good while, love each other. and always act like it, at least
around me. But sometimes you don't. I'm
sure of it. I'm sure of it. Well, what keeps
you together? Well, that's not him. That's not him. That's not
her. That's somebody else. That's
somebody else. And Mrs. Fortner has plenty of
occasion to say that about me. Sometimes I don't act like it. And I'm not proud of it, but
I love her. I love her. And sometimes, I
don't act much like I love my savior, but I do. You? The believer no longer lives
after the flesh. Read Romans chapter eight. If
you live after the flesh, you don't know God. It's what it says.
The believer lives after the spirit. They that are after the
flesh cannot please God. The believer walks in the Spirit.
He lives by faith in Christ. And living by faith in Christ,
he pleases God not by his actions, but by his master, the object
of his faith. You follow me? The believer then
does not live in the habit of sin. And that new man in him
cannot sin. That which sins is our old carnal
heart of flesh. Now then, in Christ, we are free
from sin. We have no sin. And God will
never charge us with sin. You know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Now, how do we respond to that? How do we respond to that? I think maybe rather than me
saying anything else, I'll let you decide that. How do we respond? to this fact, he was manifested
to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Amen. Lindsay, let's take our
Songs of Grace book and sing number 67. I think we can sing
this to the tune of the doxology, Judy. Just as Christ is, I am
in him. Number 67.