I had several names added to
the prayer list. Check that out in your bulletins. Remember those
who requested prayer. One note, the water company is
going to close down the pipes on Wednesday next. And Big Cove is going to be affected
by it. They said, I think they're hooking in something with the
park or something, putting in new water lines. So we will have
service Wednesday night, but you might ought to go to the
bathroom before you get here. Just in case. and take a shower on
Tuesday because you won't have no water if you live in the big
coast. Please take a shower on Tuesday. Okay, that's all the announcement
I can think of. So let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 205, Once For All. Free from the law, O happy
condition. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission. Cursed by the law
and bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once more. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Now are we prepared. He provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, oh, hear His sweet
call. Come and He saves us once for
all. Once for all, oh, sinner, receive
it. ? To the cross the burden will
fall ? Christ hath redeemed us once for all ? Children of God,
O glorious calling ? Surely His grace will keep us from falling
? Passing from death to life at His call Blessed salvation
once for all. Once for all, oh sinner, receive
it. Once for all, oh brother, believe
it. To the close, the burden will
fall. Christ hath redeemed. After scripture, reading, and
prayer, we'll sing hymn number 186, The Church's One Foundation. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to 1 John chapter 3. We'll read verses 1 through 9,
and as we read them, consider yourself. And what you know you
are, what you know the condition of your own old nature, your
flesh, and as a child of God. 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 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 know 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, that is, the seed of Christ,
remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God." Amazing words. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we bless
You and thank You for great grace and great mercy We thank you
that you have given us faith that when we read these words,
we can believe them, though we cannot fully grasp the magnitude
of them. We stand in wonder of your grace. Where our sin abounded, your
grace did superabound. It abounded more, and it reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life to them that believe. Father, we pray for those who
are sick and those who've gone through trials and going through
trials. We ask, Lord, your help for them, for those who've been
put on the prayer list, these new names. We ask, Lord, that
you would remember them and comfort them in Jesus Christ. Pray for
their healing. Help us, Lord, to remember each
other in our prayers as we seek your face. Call out the name
of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Call out the name of
this congregation. Help us, Lord, to love you. Know our love is frail and feeble
and often does falter. We thank you for your everlasting
love, which never changes. We pray this day, Father, we
ought to be able to worship you in spirit and in truth. enable
me to declare the grace of Jesus Christ in his great sacrifice
for sinners. Give us some kind of understanding
of what is set forth in this passage, which seems too wonderful
for us to even think of. Help us, Father, now to worship
you in spirit and in truth. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. hymn number 186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. To be his holy bride With his
own blood he bought her And for her life he died Elect from every
nation Yet one for all the earth Her charter of salvation ? One
Lord, one faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes
one holy birth ? And to one hope she presses ? With every grace
in you In toil and tribulation And tumult
of her war She waits the consummation Of peace forevermore Till with
a vision glorious Her longing eyes are blessed shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, and mystic sweet communion with those Oh, happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, thou meek and lowly, on high
may dwell with thee. Stand, Steve, please. Let us pray. Father, again, we
come in the name of Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. We thank you, Father,
that you have given him freely to all your children, that he possesses them and they
possess him, and that with him you have given them freely all
things that pertain to godliness and life. We have need of nothing because
you supplied our every need. And as we return to that which
you've given us, which rightfully belongs to you, we do so with
joy in our hearts. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. The. You. your attention back to First
John Chapter 3. This is an astonishing passage
of scripture. If you were paying attention
while we were reading and you were thinking of yourself, perhaps
John the Apostle, as he wrote these things, he wrote them in
utter astonishment and amazement. He was talking about things that
are beyond believe except for God-given faith. Things that
we look at if we were to measure our life and our thoughts and
our deeds by these things and take them on a historical level,
we'd be in trouble. So much of the Word of God is
simply received by faith. In fact, I think it was Spurgeon
who says, precisely where we fail to understand God is when
we bow down in awe and worship Him. John is talking about the manner
of the love of God. He says, What manner of love?
That word manner is an interesting little adjective. It's only used
a couple times in Scripture. It actually means from another
country, a foreign thing. a foreign thing, foreign to our
understanding, foreign to our practice for sure. What manner
of love, what manner of love, what foreign thing this love
is that God bestows on us. Such a wondrous love that we
should be called the sons of God. The emphasis on the word
we knowing what we are by nature, by practice, conceived in iniquity, coming forth from the womb as
soon as we are born, speaking lies. Our heart, our carnal heart,
is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. our mind corrupted, our thoughts
not carrying God at all in any of them by nature. And John, utterly amazed, says,
We should be called sons of God. What kind of foreign love is
this? That this kind of people should
be called the sons of God. He goes on to say, that makes
us unknowable and not understandable to the world. For the world looks
at us, and what it sees is what it sees, and what it sees is
not a pleasant thing. I wouldn't want anyone to measure
what a Christian is by my life, would you? But the world doesn't know us.
because God has given his people faith to believe things that
are impossible to even grasp apart from grace and apart from
faith. What we believe and understand
is foolishness to the world. A natural man cannot receive
it. It is foolishness to him. Neither can he know them nor
understand them for they are spiritually discerned. It is a spiritual
man who discerneth all things, yet he is discerned of none.
He is discerned of none. He goes on to say, Beloved, now,
this is not some future thing, but now are we the sons of God. And he says, It does not yet
appear what we shall be. So there's something out there
in the future that's too wondrous for us to begin to understand
here. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that. When He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. which will qualify us to see
him as he is. You can't see him as he is unless
you are like him. That's what this passage says.
Oh, to be like Jesus Christ. It goes on to say about him that
there's no sin in him. So being like him must mean there
will be no sin in us. And the only way that's going
to take place is if you and I finally visit our long home, our six
foot of real estate that will be only ours as we lay down into
the cold earth and leave this flesh behind. We'll be like Him. And we'll see Him as He is. How
we'll be like Him. There'll be no sin in us. the flesh should be gone but he says now are we the sons
of God so John in this very same book in chapter 4 verse 17 says
this we don't fear the judgment for as Christ is so are we in
the world now you want to explain that What matter of love is this? What love from a foreign place
is this that we should be called the sons of God? And he says
that every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself
even as he is pure. What does that mean? What is
this hope? It is a hope. It has a definite
article there. It is a hope. It's just not hope
in general. It's not a wish. It's an expectation
of things that already are. That's what faith is. Faith is
the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things
not seen. And a man who has this of what?
That he's going to be like Christ. That he is like Christ. He'll
try his best to emulate Christ in this world. Verse 4 says this. See how you
qualify here. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. So what's he saying? If you sin,
you're a lawbreaker. Because that's what sin is. It's
the transgression of the law. That doesn't seem to give us
a lot of hope, does it? But what he's doing is setting
up a very viable argument about how God sees things rather than
how we see things. Man looks on the outward appearance,
God looks on the heart. And here's a wondrous thing,
here's the matter of this love that we who are transgressors
and have sinned against Almighty God, It says this, that Jesus
Christ was MANIFESTED. This is the manner of that law.
He was manifested. That's the same word as the REVELATION.
It's APOCALYPTO, the APOCALYPSE, the REVELATION of Jesus Christ,
the MANIFESTATION of Jesus Christ. Why did He come? Here is God
Almighty, the Creator of the universe, who is the Word of
God and was God, and nothing was made that was not made by
Him. It was He who knelt down and
picked up the dust and made Adam, our father, out of the dust and
breathed life into his nostrils. Jesus Christ, the very Son of
God, what's He going to come and do? Will He come down here
and set up some great earthly throne Will he have a golden
carriage with six white horses to pull him through the streets?
Why in the world did he come? Surely this is God's. People's
gonna know. People's gonna see. They didn't. He lived as his brothers in his
mom and dad's house, and they didn't believe he was God. They
didn't even believe him, it says in John chapter 7. Why was he
manifest? He was manifest to take away
our sin. What sin? The fact that we are transgressing
the law. That's a setup, you see. He who has committed sin
is a transgressor of the law. Jesus Christ was manifest, revealed,
with a singular purpose to take away our sin. That's why He came. He didn't come to set up an earthly
throne or become a martyr become an example or some silly expression
of God's love. He came to talk about this manner
of love, which is a foreign to all humanity. He came to die
in the room instead of His people. Why? Because we're transgressors
of the law. So He was manifested to take away our sins. And our
sins are gone evidently because there's no sin in Him. Our sins
were laid upon Him on Calvary. They were made to meet on Him
according to Isaiah chapter 53. They were made to meet on Him,
but they're not there anymore. Where are they? In the language
of Scripture, they're in a place that cannot be explained. Our
Lord explains it as saying they're as far as the east is from the
west. How far is that? They're behind God's back. All
things are before God. He is before all things. Where
is behind His back? They're buried at the bottom
of the sea. This is metaphorical language to say they ain't there.
They're annihilated. They're gone. They don't exist.
Before God, our sins do not exist. You know, He was manifested to
take away our sins and Him and no sin. And here's the wonder. Naturally, if those things are
so, if we're transgressors and Christ manifests to take away
our sin, that word take away is areo, which means to bear
up under our sins and take them off of us and take them away.
Bore up under our sins. The natural result of that must
be this, if indeed he did take away our sins. If indeed that
manifestation was met with victory and success on Calvary's tree
and an empty grave, if that was met with success, then verse
6 is not a wonder but a statement of the manner of this love. Whoso
abideth in him sinneth not. Why? Because his sins are taken
away. Because Christ Jesus was manifest
to take his sins away. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither knows him." But it already says we know him.
It already says we're the sons of God. It already says we are
subjects of this great and wondrous manner of love. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. You say, now wait a minute. Doesn't
John say something like that about that? This is where the
rubber will hit the road. This is where you will begin
to understand that our view of things is so askew that no matter
how we see it, it's not God's way of seeing it. No matter what
we think about it, it's not God's thoughts. His ways and thoughts
are higher than our ways and thoughts. So much higher that
it's compared to the earth and the sky. As far as the heavens
or above the earth. So far as His thoughts above
our thoughts and His ways above our ways. Already we've seen
the wonder that John is talking about here, this manner of love
that has taken away our sin, that has made us sons of God,
we who are sinners by nature, choice and practice. And he says
this, whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, whosoever sinneth
hath not seen him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. How you doing with that? He that doeth righteousness.
Who does righteousness? The Lord said something along
those lines in the very first part of this book. He said this,
if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all transgression and all sin walking in the light walking
in the light doing righteousness that's an odd phrase in scripture
you don't see a lot that mentioned many times in scripture someone
doing righteousness but that speaks of that speaks of your
works which are ordained of God, and you do them. In another place,
it's called doing the truth. How do you do the truth? How
do you do it? Well, look over at John's gospel. As our Lord was talking to Nicodemus,
a man who came to him by night, and that whole passage there in John chapter three beginning with verse one all
the way through verse eighteen or verse twenty-two or verse
twenty-one rather speaks of one who come to him by night and
the Lord makes a distinction about darkness and light to a
man who came to him by night Now the man knew some things.
He knew that Jesus Christ must be from God because he'd done
these miracles. But our Lord says, you can't
know that. You can't know I'm God, except you're born again. You can't know. And of course,
verses 4 through 12 or 13, Nicodemus shows that he is not born of
God. everything he says has to do
with not knowing anything about the spirit. The Lord said the spirit, like
the wind, blows where it's listed. You can't see where it's coming
from or where it's going. You just know it's there. And
so is every one of the children of God. You can't see where they're
going or where they're coming from. You just know they're there. And Nicodemus said, I don't understand
these things. And the Lord said, I know you
don't understand these things. He's still talking to a man about
darkness and light, and so he goes on to teach him some things
about that. In verse 18, he says, Believeth
on him is not condemned, if you believe on Jesus Christ. But
he that believeth not is condemned already, because he's not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, And men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. They're doing
something and it's evil. Evil. For everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be approved. That's
the nature of light, you see. When light enters into darkness,
the darkness is dispelled. I don't know whether you know,
I've got a book by John Chandler, it's on 1 John, but if you have
one, read his essay of light and what it does. Light comes
into a place, it embraces everything. If it goes into a stall where
a horse is, where it hasn't been mucked up, it embraces the horse
manure. It embraces it, but it's not
tainted by it. not touched by it. It touches
that, but it's not touched by it. It's not ruined by it. It's pure, undiluted, and it
embraces all manner of evil without being evil itself or becoming
evil. He that doeth evil hateth the
light and won't come to the light because his deeds would be reproved,
they'd be discovered. But verse 21 says, But he that
doeth truth, I think this is exactly what he's talking about
in 1 John chapter 3, doing righteousness. He that doeth truth cometh to
the light. He comes to the light. They that
walk in darkness have seen a great light, and if you walk in the
light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, and he cometh to the light for a reason, that
his deeds, his doings, his righteous doings may be manifest. How? In that they are wrought
of God. Do I do righteous things as a
child of God? Yes, you're ordained to do righteous
things. You may not want to know what they are, but you do. If
you think of them, if something happens and you happen to recognize
something that might be that, what do you do? You'll say, God
did that, I didn't do it. We come to the light. He that
doeth righteousness is righteous, the Lord said. And he says, He who committeth
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the
beginning. Now this was the accusation he laid against the Pharisees
in John chapter 8. He says, You're father of the
devil. He was a liar from the beginning and a murderer, and
you're just like him. They said, No, we're Abraham's
seed. He said, No, your father's the devil. Your father's the
devil. He's committed sins of the devil.
for the devil sinneth from the beginning, for this is the purpose
of the Son of God who is manifest, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. So, we as sinners by nature, we're serving Satan. You see, to not trust Christ
is to be demon-possessed. It's to be demon-possessed. People
think that, you know, that means you're going to fraud at the
mouth and paint pentagrams on the side of the building. Unbelief
is a demon possession. Our Lord said that over and over
again. How do we know? Our Lord said
we were in the castle and in the palace of the devil. We were his spoils. He owned
us lock, stock, and barrel. He was our king. and we loved
our king. And it took a stronger than him
to come into that palace and bind him to set us free. He that
sinneth is of the devil. But Christ came to destroy the
works of the devil. What is that? Unbelief. Unbelief. Then our Lord says this, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Is it any wonder
that John says, Behold, what manner of love this is? Because you see, this is not
how we see it. You know it's true. In fact, John even said
that. He said in verse 8 of chapter
1, he says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. Verse 10, If we say that we have
not sin, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. How can these two things
be so? How can what he said in verses
8 and 10 in chapter 1 be so? And what he says in verse 9 of
chapter 3 also be so. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. Behold what manner of love this
is. This foreign love, foreign to
us, foreign to our vision, foreign to our understanding. Save God,
give us faith. How can this be? It's how God sees it. It's how
it is. That's so. It's how God sees
it. That's how it is. I think what Scott Richard said,
if we could see things through God's eyes, we wouldn't change
a thing. We would not change a thing.
It's how God sees it. I want to give you an example
of that. Turn to Exodus chapter 2. In Exodus chapter 2, something
amazing happened to this character named Moses who had been found
in the bulrushes and raised in the king's palace and was like
the son of the daughter of Pharaoh. Very important character in person. Highly motivated, highly political. He was the man. One day something
happened to him. Now he was a Jew, born a Jew,
and he was supposed to be killed because Pharaoh had said everybody,
every child under two years of age was gonna be drowned or killed.
But he was saved, miraculously. And it came to pass in those
days in verse 11 of chapter one, or chapter two, when Moses was
grown and he went out unto his brethren, that's the Jews, and
looked on their burdens. They had been in Egypt now for
430 years, and things had not gone well for them since Joseph
had died. And he looked on their burdens,
and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. This Egyptian, who was a slave
master, was probably taking a whip to him or a stick and saying,
you need to do more work. And it says he looked this way
and that way. Why'd he do that? He saw that
guy beating up that Jew and he looked. Didn't see nobody over
here. Didn't see the police over there.
And this is what he did. He saw that there was no man
and he killed that Egyptian. Slew him. Slew him and buried
him, hid him in the sand. And that's what happened. And he went out the second day.
And behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said
to them that did wrong, why smitest thou fellow here? We have two
Jews that are fighting. He says, how come y'all fighting? And they said, who made thee
a prince and a judge over us, intending thou to kill me as
thou killed the Egyptians? Uh-oh. been discovered. Somebody DID see him do it. He
looked to the left and the right, but SOMEBODY saw him do it, and
Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. Now, when
Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses, but Moses
FLED! He was askew and he FLED! from the face of Pharaoh and
dwelt in the land of Midian and sat down by a well. Stayed there
for 40 years. That's the account. You understand
that that's the historical record of what happened. Moses surely
acted in the flesh, no doubt about that. But that's the historical account.
That's how we see it. We'd have been there, we'd have
said, here's what Moses did. He sold out a gypsy, he killed
him, he put him in the dirt. Then he found out he was discovered,
he left town in a hurry. Afraid, he fled. That's how we see it. That's
historical truth. That's the account. How does
God see it? Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 24. This is not mentioned
in Moses. By faith. Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Wait a
minute. Is that how it happened? Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ's
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward, by faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king. What did he say? He feared. He forsook. He fled. He forsook Egypt, not fearing
the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is
invisible. You see the difference? how God
sees a thing when he sees a thing in Jesus Christ. How God looks at you in Jesus
Christ and can say this about you, whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin. Behold, what manner of love is
this that we should be called the sons of God? Father, bless
us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.