John chapter 3. First letter of John chapter
3 beginning with verse 1 and reading through verse 11. 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. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth
not his brother. For this is the message that
you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. The world at large hears today
of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. But God's people
do not think of his resurrection only on this day. We think of
his death and resurrection every time we think of him and his
gospel. And just as there is no gospel,
no good news, without his vicarious death, For without the shedding
of blood there is no remission. So there is no gospel. no good
news without his triumphant resurrection, which assures us that he paid
the sin debt of all his people. The scripture says that we are
justified. He was raised for our justification. God's justice has been satisfied
and will never seek satisfaction from those who are in Christ. Now that's just so. The Lord
Jesus Christ satisfied God's justice and God's justice will
never seek satisfaction from those of us who are in Christ
Jesus. Now, with the resurrection especially
thought of today, I want to speak to us this morning on the last
part of verse 8. The last part of verse 8 we just
read, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He
might destroy the works of the devil. Two parts to the message
this morning. First, the Son of God was manifested. That's very easy to understand,
isn't it? The Son of God was manifested. The Son of God did not begin
to exist when He was manifested. He was manifested. That is, the
Son of God was manifested. He was made known. He was revealed
when He was made flesh. Because the Son of God is the
eternal Son of God, without beginning and without end. God asked Job
this question. I thought about this as I thought
about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
that He is eternal, only begotten Son of God. God asked Job this
question in the latter part of the book. And Job certainly was
a man, a man of God who God allowed to be tried greatly. But Job
began to say some things that maybe he should not have said
as the book goes on. And God asked Job this question. Where was thou when I laid the
foundation of the earth? Where were you at, Job? When
I laid the foundation of the earth, when I created the heavens
and the earth, where were you, Job? And all Job could say was
this, behold, I am vowed. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. That's all I can say. That's
all I can say. I am Va. Where were you, Job,
when I laid the foundations of the earth? Behold, I am Va. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand on my mouth. I'm going to stop speaking. If that same question, if that
same question were asked of the Son of God, where were you When
I laid the foundations of the earth, he could have answered
with this scripture found in Proverbs chapter 8. The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of
old. Where were you? I was with you. He is one with the Father. And what a world of difference
there is from between being the Son of God and then being manifested
as the Son of God. Let me read a passage here in
Romans chapter 1, if you'd like to turn. Romans chapter 1, and
the first four verses here. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which
he, that is, God promised, the gospel which he had promised,
afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his
son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel, now look, the gospel
concerns Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel doesn't concern Jesus
plus baptism. The gospel doesn't concern Jesus
plus any church. The gospel, the good news, concerns
the person and work of Jesus Christ and him alone. That's
what the Apostle Paul here clearly says. Concerning his son Jesus
Christ our Lord, now notice, which was made The word was made
flesh, John tells us in the first chapter of the gospel, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. In other
words, he was in the lineage of David. He was a great, great,
great, great, great grandson of David according to the flesh. Mary, his mother, was of the
lineage of David. So was Joseph, his supposed father. He was made according to the
flesh of the seed of David, but now notice the next verse, and
declared, not made, oh no, not made to be the son of God. He is the son of God, has always
been the son of God, has always existed from all eternity. This is what John tells us in
our text this morning. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. And John says it
like this. For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifested. Now, He being manifested, the
Son of God being manifested to be the Son of God, by the many
prophecies which were fulfilled by his coming into this world. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bring forth a son. That prophecy was fulfilled,
wasn't it? Government shall be upon his
shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. And then His
being the Son of God was manifested not only by the prophecies, the
Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by His coming
and by His living in this world. Those prophecies, it's often
been said, they fit Him just like a glove fits the hand. No one else, no other person
could possibly have fulfilled and fed all of those Old Testament
prophecies. How many there were, I don't
know, but many of them. But also He is manifested to
be the Son of God by the power which He displayed, calling men
back who were dead four days, feeding thousands of people with
just a few fish and a few loaves of bread, and on and on and on,
all of these manifesting the fact that the Son of God, more
than a man, you know, many people will say, well, I believe Jesus
was a good man. There's people in hell who believe
that. He's more than just a good man,
and if He isn't more than just a man, He's not a good man. Because
he declared himself to be the Son of God. And if he isn't,
then he isn't a good man. He's a liar. He's a deceiver. The Son of God was manifested
by the prophecies and by the miracles which he wrought. Now
the second part of the message, let's see, why was he manifested? Well the scripture here tells
us for this purpose, here's the purpose, here's the end, for
which the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Now the works of the devil are
many. And we're going to look at a
few of them this morning that the Son of God was manifested
to destroy. But there's one work of the devil
which I would call the mother of all others. What is this one
work? It is called the devil's work,
man sinning against God, man rebelling against God, man clenching
his fist in the face of his creator and doing exactly what God commanded
that he not do." Now we must understand, while I call this
the work of the devil, we must understand that his work, the
devil's work, in man's rebellion was simply and merely to tempt
man to sin. That's all he could do. Adam's
sin came about through the devil's temptation And therefore the
Lord Jesus Christ called the devil a murderer from the beginning,
from the beginning of creation. But listen to me, hear me now,
the fault, the culpability of man becoming a sinner cannot
be cast upon the devil. This is man's work. This is man's
work in bringing sin into this world. You know Adam tried that,
didn't he? When God came and spoke to Adam,
what was the first thing he said? The woman. What is he trying
to do? The blame fell fully, completely
upon the man. Adam. What is he trying to do? He's trying to cast the blame
upon Eve, the woman which thou gavest me. And what did she do? Satan. But no, that won't wash,
that won't work, my friends. The scripture doesn't say, by
the devil sin entered into the world, but it does say, for by
one man, sin entered into the world. So, sin, it's only called
the work of the devil in the sense that he tempted our father
Adam to sin. He could not make Adam sin. He
could not cause Adam to sin. He was allowed to tempt Adam. This only, the wise man said,
this only have I found, that God made man upright, but he
has sought out many inventions. Sin then is the root The root
cause of these other things that I want to mention this morning.
These other things that we would call the works of the devil.
And sin had to be destroyed first. Before these other works could
be dealt with. This matter of sin. This is a
great matter. This is the mother of all these
other works. This has to be dealt with first
of all. For this purpose. For this reason,
He didn't come to make this world a better place, my friends. He
didn't come to give everyone a chance to be saved. Men are not saved by chance. Men are saved on purpose. God's
purpose. God's work. No, for this purpose,
John tells us, was the Son of God manifested that He might
destroy. Not try to destroy, but destroy
the works of the devil. The first thing is, the first
work of the devil, he was manifested to destroy, is to take away sin. Look back to verse 5. 1 John
chapter 3 and verse 5. The first work of the devil,
he was manifested to destroy, is to take away sin. John says, and you know that
he was manifested. Why, John? Why was the Son of
God manifested? Why did he come into this world?
You know that he was manifested to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Now, aren't you thankful? Aren't you grateful this morning
that the Son of God was manifested, first of all, to take away sin? How did He do that? How could He do that? Well, if
you look back in 1 Peter, turn back just a few pages. 1 Peter chapter 2. And verse 24, we read here, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. And we being dead
to sins should live under righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. How does he take away sin? He took away the sins of his
people, his sheep, God's people and you must say who Peter is
writing to here when he said who his own self bear our sins
now people would have us to believe that that means every single
solitary person who has ever been born in this world not so
not so my friends who does Peter include in this word our where
you've got to go back to the very beginning of the of the
epistle, don't you? Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the stranger scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, elect, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. And don't be deceived, this is
another deceit of Satan, my friends. He'll try to make you believe
that that means that God foreknew who was going to accept Jesus,
so He elected them. That's a lie. That's a lie from
the father of lies. That is Satan. No, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God simply means those upon whom He set
His love from old eternity. You look at that word foreknowledge.
It's not foreknowledge of Knowing what people would do, that people
would make a decision, his foreknowledge is of people. He lacked according
to the foreknowledge of God. For whom he did foreknow, them
he also did love. Them he also did predestinate,
rather. Those whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Those He called, then He also
justified. And those He justified, He also
glorified. Read it in Romans chapter 8.
It's ever so clear, isn't it? He bare our sin. How did He take
away sin? He took away sin by having the
sins of His people imputed or charged unto Him. Now this was
pictured in the Old Testament, all through the Old Testament,
all through the law that God gave unto Moses. In the first
chapter of Leviticus, it was given to the tribe of
Levi, to the priest, to know how to conduct the services there
in the tabernacle, everything that went on in the tabernacle.
And in that very first chapter, the fourth verse, when a man
wanted to make an atonement. What was he to do? Well, God
said this, He's to bring an animal, and he shall put his hand on
the head of the animal. Now that's very important. He
shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering. The animal
that's going to be a burnt offering. Now listen, and it, that is the
animal, the burnt offering, it shall be accepted for him to
make an atonement. It was important to see that
he put his hands upon the head of this animal that he brought
to be sacrificed and to be consumed on that altar as a burnt offering,
picturing the Lord coming to take away sin, but there had
to be a transference He laid His hands on the head showing
that His sin was transferred to the animal, to the sacrifice,
to the substitute. What does that picture to us?
It pictures to us the Lord Jesus Christ who was made to be sin
for us. He who knew no sin. The sins
of His people were transferred to Him. On the great day of atonement,
this is also given to us in Leviticus. On the great day of atonement,
you know that only day in all the year when the high priest
went into the most holy place, but not without blood, never
without blood. And when he took the blood of
that goat, which was the sacrifice for the people of Israel, and
he sprinkled that blood before the mercy seat and on the mercy
seat, when he came back out, what did he do? He came to that
other goat. And he laid his hands on the
head of that goat and confessed over it the sins, the iniquities,
the transgressions of the children of Israel. And that goat was
led away. And supposedly they would never
see that goat again. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ taking away our sins. How did he do that? by having
the sins of his people. Remember in Isaiah 53, it says,
he would lay on him the iniquity of us all. If you're here today
as a child of God, don't you know, don't you rejoice this
morning that your sins are gone. They're gone. You say, where
did they go and how did they go? That's what I'm saying. That's
the good news of the gospel, isn't it? We sang that hymn just
a moment ago. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What are we talking about when
we sing about the blood of Christ? We're talking about His death. His sacrificial death, His vicarious
death, dying in the stead and in the place of His people while
bearing our iniquities. And thank God He took them away. Hebrews chapter 9, the Apostle
said, Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared been
manifested to put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's the first work. Now if
I just stopped here, if I just, I'm not going to. But if I did,
that alone should give us cause to rejoice throughout all eternity. Our sins are gone. Every child
of God, every bully, our sins are gone. Sin cannot be in two
places, my friends. They're gone. You say, where
did they go? Well, the scripture said he cast
them behind his back. Well, where's that? There is
no behind his back. They're gone. They're obliterated.
They'll never be remembered again. That's what God said. Their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. What a blessing. But here's a second. Another
work of the devil he was manifested to destroy is death and the grave. Death and the grave. Well, how
did he do this? How did he destroy death and
the grave? Well, listen to this prophecy.
You may want to turn to it. It's in the book of Hosea chapter
13 and verse 14. I'm just going to read it here,
but this is a prophecy concerning him. I will ransom them from
the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. You know when a plague comes,
that's an awful thing, isn't it? A plague. The plague can
just destroy a population as it moves through the people. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking
to death, the King of Terrors, I will be thy plague. I'm going to plague thee. I'm
going to destroy thee. Listen to the rest of it, I will
redeem thee from death, O death, I will be thy plague, O grave,
O grave, I will be thy destruction. And then God said this, repentance
shall be hid from mine eyes." In other words, I'm not going
to change. I'm not going to turn. I'm not
going to repent. I'm saying I'm going to do this,
and I'm going to do it, and the Son of God was manifested to
destroy the works of the devil, that is, death and the grave. The Apostle Paul quotes this
prophecy in that great chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 that's all
about the resurrection And Paul quotes that prophecy there when
he said, oh death, where is thy sting? You ever been stung by
a bee? I have. Doesn't feel very good,
does it? Let me tell you something. When that stinger is taken off
the bee, he can't sting you anymore. He can't hurt you anymore. And
I'm telling you the sting of death is sin. That's what Paul
said. And sin being gone, O death,
where is thy victory? There is no victory in death
any longer. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? Let me read a verse here from
John chapter 6. I hope you'll turn and look at
this. John chapter 6 and verse 38 through 40. John chapter 6. These are the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. For I came down from heaven,
verse 38. For I came down from heaven,
the Son of God was manifested, not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which
seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life,
and I will raise him up at the last days. He came to destroy
the works of the devil, that is, death and the grave. When you read this verse of scripture,
let me ask each one of you to think for just a moment. This,
and this is the Son of God who's speaking, this is the will or
this is the Father's will which has sent me. Do you, can you even entertain
the thought that God's will will not be done? Is that the God
of the Bible? Not hardly. Is the God of the
Bible a God who wants to do, who desires to do? But here is
big man, God's creature, who's born for a few days and then
vanishes away. He's going to thwart, he's going
to determine whether God's will is accomplished or not. How foolish,
how ridiculous is such a teaching as that. This, our Lord said,
this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing. I know he's not going to lose
one. Don't you know that? You say,
why does that make you so happy, Preacher? Because it exalts my
Savior. That's why. He's not a pretend
Savior. He's not a wannabe Savior. He
is a successful Savior. He came to do the Father's will. The Father gave Him a people
to save. And He's not going to lose one
of them. Not one of them. Oh, I can already
see in my mind that scene when all of God's children, all of
His elect, all of those that Christ died for, when we're all
assembled there before the Father. And here's our blessed Savior,
the one who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And He speaks to the Father and
says, Father, here am I and the children which Thou hast given
me. There's not going to be one lost. There's not going to be
one missing. Praise God. Here's the third
work of the devil. Another work of the devil that
he was manifested to destroy is the enmity between God and
men because of sin. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse
21, the scripture said, And you, Paul's writing to believers,
could be, and you, Lincolnwood Baptist Church, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. And I could
hold up my hand and say, here I am. I know what that means. There was a time that because
of my wicked works, I was at enmity, I was enmity with God. God's holy, And I'm everything
opposite to that in myself. But now he hath reconciled. Now he hath reconciled. What
does that mean? It means peace. Now we have peace
with God. The Son of God was manifested
to destroy the works of the devil. That enmity which had to exist
between a thrice holy God and sinful man, He has destroyed. And now we have been reconciled
unto God. And for you who are here this
morning without Christ, now listen to me. God has called men like
myself and made us ambassadors of Christ and sent us out with
this message, be ye reconciled unto God. Be reconciled. You say, well, what does that
mean? It means stop fighting against God. Submit to Him as
your Lord and Savior. Be reconciled to God. Put down your arms. Stack your
arms, as they say. And raise up that white flag.
Don't try to make a deal with God. That's foolishness, and
you'll end up in hell if you continue down that road. Run
up that white flag. Total, absolute surrender to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the last thing, the
fourth thing I wanted to mention. Another work of the devil he
was manifested to destroy is that marred image of God. Let me explain what I mean by
that. Adam was created in the image of God. But look at man now. Look at
yourself. Look in the mirror. holy image of God, man created
in the holy image of God, and look at myself now. I have evil
thoughts. I have sinful thoughts, sinful
desires. That holy image in which Adam
was created, when he disobeyed God, that image was marred, to
say the least. I have a pastor friend, I read
an observation he made recently that I really liked. He said
this, he said, natural men like the teaching of evolution. Natural
men, lost men. They like the teaching of evolution
for it allows them to look at an ape and say, look how far
we've come. Look how far we've come. Look
at that ape. Look how far we've come. But
the truth is, we should look at that holy image of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and we don't say, look how far we've come. We say, look how far we've fallen. Look how far we've fallen. And
who's going to destroy, who's going to restore rather that
lost image, that marred image? Christ. He came to destroy the
works of the devil. You look above this in 1st John
chapter 3 and verse 2, remember we read this. He said, Now are
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him. Like Him, like Christ, who is
the image of the invisible God. The Apostle Paul tells us that
our resurrected bodies are going to be bodies of incorruption. incorruption. Our bodies are
going to be bodies of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. Paul tells us our bodies will
not only be bodies of incorruption, of glory, but also of power. Of power. And lastly, he says,
our bodies shall be spiritual. A spiritual body. Our Lord came
out of the grave, raised from the dead, and yet he had a body
that they could touch. They could see the prints of
the nails in his hands. He could eat. And he told them,
he said, touch me. They thought he was a spirit.
But he said, a spirit doesn't have bones and flesh. But even
so, it is a spiritual body. We'll have to wait. We'll have
to wait till that time comes, won't we? But oh, my friends,
what a glorious, glorious day that will be. when we appear
like Him, with Him and like Him forever and ever. Let's sing
a couple of verses of the hymn before we are dismissed.