Hold your place there, First
John, and turn with me to a couple of passages of scripture. God sees his children in Jesus
Christ, and everyone who knows what he is in nature rejoices
in that fact. And how God sees a thing is how
it is. Now, we may see it differently,
and our experience may be different, but how God declares it and how
God says it happens is how it happened. A good example of that
is found first in Exodus chapter 2. If you want to turn to Exodus
chapter 2 there just for a moment. Beginning with verse 11. Exodus
2, 11. And it came to pass in those
days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and
looked on their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting
a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that
way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second
day, behold, two of the Hebrews strove together, and he said
to them, why smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, who made
thee prince and judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as
thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely
this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing,
he sought to slay Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh
and dwelt in the land of Midian. He sat down by a well. That's
the account of Moses killing an Egyptian soldier. And then
the next day, realizing it's been found out. Now, when he
killed the Egyptian soldier, he looked this way and that,
make sure there wasn't nobody watching. And after he killed him, he buried
him out of sight. How does God record that? in
the New Testament. How did God see Moses in these
actions? In Hebrews chapter 11, this is
how God accounts that. You say, well how can this be
this way? Just understand, how God sees it is how it is. It's how it is. In Hebrews chapter
11, it says in verse 23, now remember the account that I just
read to you. This is the New Testament account or the account
of how God saw what Moses did by faith you wouldn't think Moses was
acting in faith, would you? by faith Moses when he was born
was hidden three months in his parents because they saw he was
a proper child they were not they were not afraid of the King's
commandment by faith Moses when he would come to years, remember
I said when he was grown refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for receiving, and steaming
the reproach of Christ's greater riches and the treasure of Egypt,
for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Now does that
sound like the same story? It's the same story. It's recorded
historically through the eyes of Moses. is recorded spiritually
through the eyes of God. That's what happened. That's
what happened. Moses refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter. That's God's account of what
happened back yonder. Now in John chapter three, this
passage of scripture has been used by many to teach sinless
perfection, It's been used by many to hold people down in legalism. But the thing to understand about
this passage of scripture is that this is how God sees it.
And John, as he begins to see how God sees it, stands in absolute
wonder and awe that God should love us, that God should care
for his people in such a way. He begins it in that manner.
Behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed on us what
manner of love now we talk about love this day we have a very
poor view of love most of the time we look at it from a horizontal
view we look at it as our love it somehow explains what love
is but it doesn't our love is mutable it's changeable and you
know for a fact most of you have loved people in the past who
you hate now that's not love that's simply not love. God's love never changes. Never
changes. God's love is true in all sense. It's unconditional love. So no
matter what you do, if God has loved you from all eternity,
he will love you for all eternity, no matter what you do or what
you don't do. A good example of that, the man who's after
God's own heart, David. got up on the roof one night
and saw Bathsheba bathed and he saw she was an awful good
looking woman he is the king after all and who refuses the
king and he says I'm going to have that gal and he took her
and she was already married to a fellow named Uriah but he took
her and he lay with her and got her pregnant and then he was
in kind of a fix here he was the king he was supposed to be
a real righteous guy Everybody thought he was just a cat's pajamas,
and he's done got a woman in trouble, and he don't know what
to do. So what does he do? He said, well, I'll call her
husband back from the battlefield. That's where the kings were warring
at this time. He said, I'll call her husband,
Uriah, back from the battlefield, and I'll tell him to go spend
a little furlough with his wife and go blame the kid on him. Well, Uriah came back, but Uriah
was an honorable man, and he was a soldier, a warrior. And
he said, I'm not going in with my wife and lay with my wife
while these men, my brethren, men under me are out there fighting
this battle. I'm just not going. So he laid on the doorstep and
didn't go into his wife. Well, maybe he's in another fix. What
am I gonna do? I'm gonna be found out. I know
what I'll do. I'll marry that gal, but in order
to marry her, I'm gonna have to get her husband killed. Get her husband killed. So he
gave Joab a note, said, send Uriah out to the very front line
of the battle and let him be killed. And he
was killed. The letter came back to David,
said, Uriah's dead. He said, well, stuff happens
in a war. He said, what kind of fellow
is that? That's a man whom God said is the apple of my eye,
a man after my Why could he say that? How could
he say that about David? He said that about David because
he saw David in Jesus Christ. And when God sees you in Christ,
I'm here to tell you this morning, this will clearly set this forth
before you. You're without sin in Christ. As God sees you, not as I see
you, not as you see me. You know what I am, I know what
you are. None of us want anyone to know what we are really like.
So you only see part of what I'm like, and I only see part
of what you like. But God sees you as you are.
And yet, if you're in Christ, he sees you as without sin. And
this is what this passage of scripture a great deal deals
with. Behold, what manner of love is this? That we, wretched,
unclean people, born in sin, conceived in iniquity, drink
iniquity like water. What manner of love is this that
we should be called the sons of God? Surely the sons of God
ought to be righteous folks. Sons of God ought to be people
that dress and act and talk in a certain way, that show humility,
that show righteousness, that walk in integrity. Surely that
must be God's people. Well, you know what God said
to those people? What the Lord Jesus Christ said to those people
who did everything right? He said, I didn't come for you. I didn't come for you. The whole
need not a physician. Them that are sick need a physician.
I didn't come to call the righteous, but bring sinners to repentance.
I didn't come for you. Who did he come for? Those that
nobody wanted. Those that were discounted and
despised, poor, foolish, and stupid, ignorant. That's who
he came to save. And he saved all for whom he
came to save. And this is the record. Behold,
what manner of love is this? I wish I could love like that.
Now, we come pretty close to loving our children like that. We'll put up with just about
anything our children do and never stop loving them, because that's what
our parental love is. And that's about as close as
you're going to get. In fact, our Lord said, compared the love of a
mother to a child as the greatest love on earth, he said, will
a mother forsake her child? And the answer, of course, is
no. Well, occasionally they do. But it's rare. And he used that
to describe the fact that he would never forsake his children.
But he used that as the highest example of human love. But that
love is nothing compared to what God's love is because our love
at the best, at the strongest, cannot prevent anything from
happening or cause anything to happen. It's just that way. That's the truth. Our love, for
the most part, is unrequited. Not so with God. When God loves
you, He's always loved you. He will always love you. And
let me tell you, those whom God loves, He saves. Everyone whom
He loves, He saves. Now, the world religions are
going to say, well, God loves everybody. That's not the truth.
The Bible says it's not the truth. Jacob had my love, and he said,
I hate it. but whom he loves, he says. So John is in an astonishing
state of mind. He said, behold, what manner
of love is this? The Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. He said, and the
result of that is because of what we are and what people can
see in us and see about us, they say they can't be a child of
God, not acting like that, not being like that, not thinking
that way. They can't be a child of God.
He said, so the world doesn't know us. because it didn't know him. If
they knew Him, they would understand that this is whom God has saved.
He said, beloved now. Now, this is not some future
event. It's not some place where down the line we're gonna be
written on the rose. Brother, now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. This is not the end of the story
for us. We are going to, this physical body's going to die.
We're gonna leave sin behind. We're gonna have a glorified
body like the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're gonna live forever
and ever in glory with Him. We're going to heaven someday.
The Bible doesn't say a whole lot about what hell is. It doesn't describe that a great
deal. It describes hell a lot more. What makes it heaven? Christ is there. We get to see
our Savior. And if you don't love Him now,
don't figure you're going. Because that's all heaven is
about, is worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. It don't appear
what we shall be, but this we understand. That when we are
given fully spiritualized without sin, we'll know who he is when
we see him. Because we'll be like him. We'll
be the same, conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he says, and every man that hath this hope of knowing Christ,
and I hope it's not a wish or a dream, it's an expectation,
purifies himself. He seeks to live a life that's
pure. Seeks to do what's right. Why? Because he's already pure. He
purifies himself even as he is pure. Even as he is pure. And then he says in verse four,
and this is the, it begins the wondrous part of this passage
of Scripture. And unless you understand that
this is how God sees his people, this is gonna put you in a fret.
It's gonna put you in a place where you feel like, I've got
to do this and I've got to do that, and I gotta undo this and gotta
undo that. But remember, this is how God sees you. If you're
a child of God this morning, if you're trusting in his merit,
if you're trusting the merits of Jesus Christ for your salvation
alone and nothing else, having nothing to do with you, You're
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord says this about you.
He says, whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law,
for sin is the transgression of the law. Now that's a statement. If you sin, you've transgressed
the law. That's what it says. For sin
is transgression of the law. Well, do we sin? I mean, do we? Yes, we do. Then we transgress
the law. Now the Lord said that so he
could set up what he's going to say next for us to understand. He says this, and you know that
Jesus Christ was manifested, that means openly displayed,
made an open display, to take away our sins. Now notice that word, O-U-R,
our. That's a generic term. Why is
it generic? Because our sins are too numerous
to put down. Martin Luther said one day Satan
visited him in his study and he was writing with his quill
and pen on a piece of paper and Satan showed up and said you're
a sinner. And he said, well, tell me where I sinned. And Satan
began to name his sins, and he wrote them down. He just kept
writing. He said, hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.
He wrote all these sins that Satan was telling him, and all
of them were true. Then he held the end of that
paper up to Satan, and he wrote down on the bottom, P-A-I-D, he was manifested to
take away, that word is aero, it means to bear up under, to
bear up under the weight and burden of our sin and put him
away. What does it mean, take him away? He took him away. How
far did he take him away? Well, there are no words, this
is what this says. You know, he was manifested to take away
our sins and in him, ain't no sin. So where are they gone?
They're gone, they've been taken away. Metaphorically, they're
said to be cast behind God's back. cast behind God's back,
buried at the bottom of the sea, as far as the east is from the
west. All these are metaphorical terms to say our sins before
God do not exist. They're annihilated because Jesus
Christ on that cross when he was made to be sin, bore up under
that burden and took that burden and wherever he put sin, that's
where it is. But as far as anyone who would
bring accusation against the child of God, they can't find
one sin. because they've got to talk to
God about it. God says there's no sin in Jesus Christ. And he
says, whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Wait a minute. Now
this is where these legalists get a hold of this and say, you've
got to live a life of purity. You can't sin. Well, they all
sin. We all sin. But here God sees us. He said,
you in Christ, whoso abideth in Jesus Christ, doesn't sin.
Doesn't sin. Isn't that marvelous? Behold,
what manner of love is this? What manner of love is this that
God does not see our sin? He says we don't sin. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
Him. We've seen Him. We've seen Him
by faith in the Word of God. If you sin, you don't know Him.
You say, well, I'm a sinner. Not before God. This is what
the issue is. This thing about what man can
see is of no value whatsoever in the eyes of God. God sees
men in Jesus Christ, abiding in Jesus Christ, and he said
of them, they sin not. They don't sin. They don't sin. Think of yourself. And I know
it'll be hard for you to make this application to yourself,
because it's hard for me to think about it. There are a lot of
things in scripture, as Persians said, A great deal of scripture
is so unbelievable and so wonderful that all we can do is fall down
and worship God in faith and say, how can it be? But I'm thankful that it's that
way. I'm thankful that it's that way. Whosoever abideth in Jesus
Christ, this is the word of God, this is the view of God, this
is the declaration, proclamation, a holy bull, a heavenly edict
has come down. Whosoever abideth in God, in
Christ, sinneth not. How can it be? What a wondrous
thing to behold. And whosoever sins, hadn't seen
God. don't know God. That's simple. How does God see you? In Christ?
If you're not in Christ, God sees you in wrath. God sees you
in hatred. God sees you in vengeance. Little
children, let no man deceive you. Don't be fooled. Don't be
fooled. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. Do we do righteousness? I don't
know of any case where I've done anything righteous, because everything
I've ever done has been tainted with sin. I've been part of it,
so it's already messed up. If I'm part of it, it's already
polluted. This is how God sees us. He that doeth righteousness. That's you. And it's true. Look over at John chapter 3. Hold your place there, John. John chapter three our Lord speaking
to Nicodemus and he speaks of those who do the truth the same
principle of doing the right doing righteous he said in verse twenty of chapter
three everyone that doeth evil hateth the light hateth the light
and his deeds may uh... uh... lest his deeds should be
reproved and discovered disclosed but he that doeth truth cometh
to the light why? that his deeds may be manifest
that they're wrought in God the man who does righteous is a man
who brings his works to God and if they are anything of value
he says you did it it's you and not me it's God that did it not
me don't be deceived here don't be deceived here He that doeth
righteousness is righteous, even as Christ is righteous. We don't
fear the judgment, John says in chapter four, verse 17 of
this same book. We don't fear the judgment, because
as Christ is, so are we in the world. We are righteous as Christ
is righteous, because Christ is our righteousness. He is our
righteousness. Verse eight, he that committed
sins of the devil. Well, the devil sent us from
the beginning. That's all the devil could do. That's all he's
known for. We don't know when Satan fell. We don't know when
he carried one third of the angels with him. We don't know when
that happened. In all probability, since he was wandering around
in the Garden of Eden pretty early, it probably happened pretty
early. It probably happened pretty early. The Lord said, I saw Satan
fall from heaven. He said, I saw it. So it happened
pretty early. We know that. the devil's a liar he's full of tricks, full of
guile, full of wiles but you'll notice in scripture the Lord
never mentions a whole lot of the things he does they said
he has ministers that are ministers of righteousness and angels of
light that's how they come to me and say we have the answers
we have light and understanding but he said to those who worshipped
the deeds of men who were very religious and upright men. He
says, your father's the devil. You're just like him. He was
a liar from the beginning, and so are you. He's a murderer from
the beginning, and so are you. He who committed sins of the
devil. But Lord, as you said about you, my children don't
commit sin. My children don't commit sin.
And for this purpose, the Son of God was manifest. Why? That
he might destroy the works of the devil. He was manifest for
them. Look over at Hebrews, holding
a place there. Look back at Hebrews chapter 2, I believe it is. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14 says,
for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
that's us, he also likewise partook the same. He became a man, God
and man in human flesh. Great is the controversy, without
controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in
the flesh. He also, likewise, partook the
same, that through death, through his death, through that perfect
offering to God, he might destroy him that hath the power of death,
that is, the fear of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were made lifetime subject to bondage.
That's what our Lord did. He, for this purpose, was the
Son of God manifest to destroy the works of the devil. If God
puts his hand to something, it's going to get done. Let's mark
it down. He cannot fail. He's God. He
is all-powerful. What can restrain Him? He has
all knowledge. What can confuse Him? He's everywhere. Where can you not find Him? He's
God Almighty, and He said, My Son came into this world for
this purpose. Now remember, whatever God does,
He always does on purpose. It's always his purpose shall
stand. He said, and what I say is gonna come to pass. For this
purpose Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. Did he
do it? He bruised his head on Calvary's
tree and stomped him so hard, as David said the other day,
bruised his heel. Bruised his heel. He destroyed
the works of the devil. Is called the prince of the power
of the air and he works in the children of disobedience even
now And he also ministers to you Because he's god's angel he's
god's ape and he has to do what god tells him to do he can't
touch you without god's permission He had to ask God's permission
to touch Job. He has to ask God's permission
to touch you. People say, well, I'm just worried
about him. Don't worry about him, look at Christ. But don't
try to deal with him, because he's dealt with people like us
for thousands and thousands of years. We don't want to be a
problem to him. But our Lord never discusses his wiles for
this reason. Don't give yourself to studying
the evils of Satan, because there's just too many of them. You'll
never figure him out. And when you think you got him
figured out, he's already deceived you and he's going in another
direction. How do you know it's the wiles of the devil? This book. That's how you know. Know the truth. You know the
truth and the truth shall set you free. You know the truth
and you'll be able to discover what Satan does. Now you won't
be saying, well that's what the Savior, your spirit will say
within you. I don't want nothing to do with
that. Because you've read this book, you've studied this book.
The Lord destroyed the works of Satan. He cannot do anything
to God's people without permission. His works are destroyed. And
you know what? His big deal was making people fear death and
judgment. And so he tells them all their
life, you got to do this and you got to do that. You got to make
yourself a better person. You got to improve your existence. You got to be
Adam better. You got to dress him up. You got to put lipstick
on the pig is what you got to do. You got to do all this stuff
so you'll be better and God will accept you because you've been
a good person. If you do that, you'll be a good person and God
will accept you. And he convinced me of that. Christ had destroyed
that, hadn't he? for his children. We know there's
none good, no not one. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that pleases God. There's none that doeth
good in this world. Not one. We by nature are vile
and unclean and undone. We know that. So Satan can tell
us to do good works all day long. We ain't gonna believe him. And
any man who stands in the pulpit and says you must be justified
by good works, we ain't gonna believe that clown. He's lying
to you. He's lying to you. No matter what kind of robe he's
wearing or what kind of funny hat he's wearing or whoever he is.
if he stands up and tells you that you are righteous by your
works, you're justified by your works, he's lying to you plain
and simple because his works are the works of the devil Satan's
not out here in the bars and bordellos or in the meth pits
and labs and drug houses, he's not there you know where he's
at, he's right behind these desks here standing up looking good
talking with great swelling words He's a cloud without water, but
boy, he's a fine looking cloud. And he's going to tell you what
you must do, what you must do to better your existence, to
make yourself fit for God. And people are going to believe
him who don't know the gospel. They're going to follow him right
down that road, all the way down to the perdition, the deepest
pit, where the worm dieth not and the fire snots wings. The
works of the devil. are the same works that he requires
of humanity. God's not like he says he is,
he said to Eve. Not like he says he is, he doesn't
really mean that. He knows that if you'll do these
things that he said are not good for you, he knows if you do,
you'll be like him. You'll be more like him, you'll
be kind of a free creature to do as you please. all these things
that's what he'll promise and you'll perish thinking that Christ came to destroy that and
he destroyed it that was his purpose in coming again this
wondrous statement verse 9 whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin How can that be? It's how God
sees you. It's how God sees you. Can there anything be sweeter
to the child of God who knows what he is by nature? To know
that God looks at him and says, that's my boy, that's my girl. They don't commit sin. Wait a
minute, I saw them the other day. I saw them beat their horn
at a fella. I saw them pull out in traffic in front of somebody.
I saw them cussing when they hit their thumb with a hammer. I saw all these things. My children
don't sin. My children do not sin. This
is the wonder of how God sees it. Whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin, for Christ is in him. His seed remaineth
in him. Christ is in him. So he can't
sin. And that's the word. He says
he does not, he says he cannot, he's not able to. Before God,
in the eyes of God, a child of God, one born of the Spirit,
one born of the blood, one born by the Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel, one born of God, one born again, cannot, C-A-N-N-O-T,
cannot sin. Can there be anything more wondrous
than the thought of that? You know what you are, I know
what I am. Oh, for God to look at us in such a manner, see us
purified and pure and holy and righteous and good and can't
sin, can't? I can do anything I want to you.
If you're a child of God, then God says you can't sin. Isn't that so? Ponder that for
a moment. Roll that around in the old cranium
for just a little bit and think about that. Think about that. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed, that is Christ, remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. In this, the children of God
are manifest, displayed, disclosed by God. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. neither he that loveth not his
brother." They're not of God. God's children love each other.
I mean they love each other. They'll put their life on the
line for each other. But men in nature won't. Men
without God won't. The Lord said men's gonna marvel
because you love one another. You love one another that you
won't listen to an accusation against a brother or sister without
two or three witnesses? And I've actually called people
on that. I've had people call me up and say, well, you know,
this brother's doing that. I said, all right, produce the
witnesses. I need two or three eyewitnesses. You won't accept
an accusation against a brother. Somebody tries, you'll defend
that brother of the highest. Oh, you're talking about him?
He's the finest fellow that's ever walked upon this earth.
Wish I was like him. He was born of God and loves
his brother. John said that himself over in chapter five. He said,
whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ is born of God. And everyone
that loveth Christ, or loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten
of him. This is a wondrous thing. If
you want to spend some time in scripture, You want to make something
your daily reading. I'm not big on giving people
daily Bible assignments to read. I never have been. If you don't
want to read this book, don't read it. But if you don't want
to read it, you ought to ask why you don't want to read it. It's the only
word you got from God. It's the only word you got from
God. You want to read something every
day though. Every day. It'll get your spirits going
right early in the morning. Even at 219. This is when I read this this
morning because I was going to preach from Isaiah 61. This will
do it for you. Listen. Behold what manner of
love the Father has 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. That he was manifest 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 Christ
is righteous. He that committed 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 commit 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 is he that loveth not
his brother. Father, bless this word to our
hearts. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.