Book of 1 John - Ch. 3, Vs. 1-13 (12/05/1999)

Prayer, the True Church, and Beginning in 1 John 3

Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we begin with his open word. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you have given this church to us and us to the church, the local church, and that we are in the true church.

We thank you for this time that we can come together and open your word. And today all that we want is the truth, just the simple pure truth for each and every ear that is here in the name of Christ. Now we're going to start in 1st John chapter 3, and before anybody can correct me, that's not where we left off.

But we're going to begin here. Now it seems strange to me that the only other time that Bill Nichols was here was when I was speaking. And here he is again, but it's just every other Sunday. Normally.

The Love of the Father and Our Status as the Sons of God

In the book of 1st John chapter 3 verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Clarence, there's enough right there to keep us busy all day. What manner of love has the Father bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God?

Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. We've passed from being known by the world into not being known by the world. Now it doesn't mean that your next-door neighbor doesn't know you.

It does mean that we do not any longer subscribe to the world philosophy or the world system, and the world system certainly does not support our theology. It considers us as being dead. And so we are to this world.

We're dead to the old nature. It was on the cross that Jesus unplugged us from the servitude of Satan. And it can never be plugged in again except momentarily. Every once in a while we pick up that cord and run over and plug it back into Satan, and we sin for a little while.

But it cannot stay there. It will not stay there. We sin perfunctually, not habitually. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Brother David, it's my belief that this is one reason he is out there, isn't it?

This is one reason that Jesus was identified as the Son of God. Because we are co-heirs with him. We are also sons of God. He is our brother. He is our mediator. He is our substitute. 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 however he is, is what we shall be. Now the scripture has given us, Steve, just one or two brief glimpses of the glorified body of Jesus.

And it is Jesus the human now that we're talking about. And he was the Messiah. He is the Messiah. He is the earthly manifestation of God. He said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Meaning if you have seen the works that I do, they are the works of the Father.

And no man has seen the Father at any time, and I do not believe that any person ever will. Our new body, and we shall all have a new body, will not require oxygen. We require it today. I wonder if there's any place, Clarence, maybe you or Bill can answer this, is there any place on the face of this globe where there is even a small area of pure air left?

Used to be there was about 10 square foot over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but I don't suppose that even exists anymore. If we, all of a sudden, could breathe the air that Adam breathed, I think it'd kill us.

And vice versa, if he could suddenly appear in our world, it'd kill him from the pollution in the air. There will come a time, and I've heard there already is in some places, vending machines where you can put in your quarter or whatever and get a measured amount of pure air.

Used to when I was commuting to Dallas every day, and I come up over a rise where I got the first view of downtown Dallas, lots of times you could not see it for the gray brown smog that was floating over it and in it.

And I would remark to myself, I'd say, myself, look at that. You're going to be in the middle of that breathing it just in just a little bit. All right, our new body will not require blood or oxygen. It'll be weightless, able to go and come as we please.

We shall reign with him. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Now, we are pure in the eyes of the Heavenly Father, are we not? Because of the blood of Christ. But it says that every man that has this hope, the hope of eternal life, the hope of reigning with him, purifies himself.

Greg, what do you think about the statement that says, now we know we're pure, but it says if we have this hope of eternal life, we purify ourself. What's that mean? Bill, how do we do that? How do we rid ourself?

But he says every man that has this hope of being like him purifies himself as he is pure. David, help us out. That's right. But let's get a little more specific. How do we do it? All right, that's where we start.

All right. Keep going. Well, that's talking about one specific sin that so easily besets us, and what do you suppose that is? Unbelief. So we lay aside that sin. We lay aside other sins. But you know, we talk so much in general terms, and we make good statements.

But let's get down to the nuts and the bolts. Seems to be a whole lot more nuts than there are bolts to go around. How do we do it? In your everyday life. All right, first of all, we have to know. We have to know who we are and where we are.

We have to know that we are in his presence. I have a question for you for two weeks from today, and it may take you that long. I want each of you to write down the very most important question that you could ever ask yourself.

The most important question that you can ask yourself. And tune in again two weeks from today, and we'll have the answer if I don't forget. All right. Everyone that is pure, not the impure, not the unsaved, but those that belong to him will continually seek out ways in which to purify themselves.

It's really very simple. I've had lots of people ask me, well, what should I do? What should I be doing? I finally come to the answer for them, and I said, well, you may not know what you're supposed to do, but you know what you're not supposed to do.

So just stop doing what you know you should not do. And by process of elimination, you'll begin to more and more do what you're supposed to do. Because you're doing something all of the time. There's never a time, David, that you can just stop doing everything.

Now, you may stop driving, you may stop eating, you may stop this and that, but you're always forever doing something. Even while you're sleeping, you're sleeping. And if you discover through the study of the Word that you should not be doing a certain thing, just stop it.

Just don't do it. You don't have to worry about what you should do. Worry, or don't worry, but just stop doing what you know you should not do. And we have a guide for that, because when we violate that rule, we have a guilty conscience.

And who gives us that guilty conscience? Right. So when we confess, how can we determine that we have truly confessed? When you don't feel guilt. He gave it, and only he can take it away. So just quit doing what you know you shouldn't.

Now, that's not hard, is it? Except when it comes to chocolate. That's exempt. All right, purify themselves. That's a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute occupation. Everything we think, everything we do, should be oriented in relation to Jesus Christ, not to our next-door neighbor.

Sin, Manifestation, and Why Christ Came to Earth

Verse 4, whosoever commit a sin transgresses 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. Greg, what's the word manifested mean?

All right. To be shown. Manifested. You get a manifest on shipment. You get a bill of lading on the shipment. Things are manifest to you. They are made visible to you, either mentally or visually, and it says that he, you know, in other words, it's common knowledge among Christians now that he was made visible to take away our sins.

Now, let me ask you something else. Jenny, why did Jesus Christ have to come to earth, or did he have to? Steve, help her out. That's good. Why did he have to? Anybody. What? All right. All right, all right.

What do you mean go back? That's right. I just want to be sure you know what you're saying. And he did that how? Why did he have to have a body? To die. He had to die. Now, are we saved because he kept the law?

Greg, why are we saved? His good life did not save us. His love does not save us. We're saved by faith, but it is not faith that saves us. It is his death that saves us. So he was manifested. He was made visible.

He came to this earth to please the Heavenly Father. As Diane pointed out, that's absolutely the first thing on every list that Jesus did. He did it to please the Heavenly Father. That's the main reason for coming, and for doing, and for returning, and dying.

He did not come just to save Otis Fisher and then go home. Otis Fisher was saved in the process, but he came to please the Heavenly Father. You understand that? That kind of puts us in the place where we belong.

We're not the center of everything. Christ takes away our practice of sin. Before we were, before we knew we belonged to him, we were a servant of Satan, and we habitually sinned. What does the word habitual mean?

Joy? Yes. That's what it becomes, but what is it? All right. Is there, Greg, is there not another English term that we can use to express that that comes from the same root that habitual comes from? That's part of it.

Yes, I know. We get our word breathing from the same root that we get our word habitual. Now, Bill, how many times do you have to remind yourself to breathe? And that's habitual. We breathe habitually.

Before salvation, we sinned habitually. You never had to think about it. You didn't have to plan it, and above all, you didn't have to go to school to learn how. So, whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.

He no longer is a habitual sinner. No longer is he a sinner. That's another point I want to be sure you get, and I'll try to emphasize it every time I'm up here, because that's a statement that's so prevalent among Baptists.

I'm just a sinner saved by grace. Did you know that's showing disrespect to our Lord, to call yourself a sinner? Because you are not a sinner. Now, you may sin once in a while, but that doesn't make you a sinner.

A sinner is one that is a habitual sinner. So, no longer can you be sinners saved by grace. You were a sinner at one time, and you were saved by grace, but you are no longer a sinner. You're a Christian that sins once in a while.

Vast difference. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him. Well, David, I haven't seen him. What's it mean, has not seen him? All right. Did you realize that after his resurrection, the world never saw him again?

It was only his people, up to 500 of them at once, it said. But it was only his people that ever saw him again. That's the same way it is today. If there was an unsaved person in here, they wouldn't know what we're talking about.

Or they might intellectually or by head knowledge, but they never could really, really see him with the spiritual eye. Little children, John liked to use that term, little children, let no man deceive you.

He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. If you let someone deceive you, that is a sin. Now pay attention to the words I use. If you let someone deceive you, you have sinned.

I didn't say that you could not be deceived. But if you let them deceive you, that's wrong. To prevent that, we're to study. Jeannie, there is absolutely no way to fulfill your obligation as a Christian without ever studying.

Very, very few people have ever graduated from any school without ever studying. I know one or two that brag that they did, but they had to tell me. He that committeth sin is of who? The devil. The devil.

Who is the devil, Greg? Satan. Who's Satan? Who's Lucifer? What do you say? All right. All right. He, he never tells the truth. What's the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie when they can say exactly the same thing?

You can make a statement and it be true or you can make the same statement to be a lie. What makes the difference? Not exactly. What? One what? All right. So you can tell the truth in such a way that you can deceive people.

That's a lie. Even though you told the truth. Satan's a master at that. Don't ever believe him. Check it out. You have an unction that we read about in the other chapter. An unction, which is the Holy Spirit.

Unction comes from the word smear. And you have been smeared with Holy Spirit. He has touched you. Now, I know some people that are touched, all right. I know some that are spiritually touched. He that committeth sin is of the devil.

For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil. Clarence, what are the works of the devil? So what's the purpose in the devil's mind?

What's his purpose in life? What is it that Satan really, really wants? He wants this whole world to worship him. And during the tribulation for about 15 minutes that'll happen. Literally. He wanted to be above the Father.

He wanted to be greater. He wanted to be not like us because he didn't know us. He wanted himself to be worshipped instead of the Father. Pride. It's got several other names, but that's what it means.

He hasn't changed. He's another one that's unchangeable. He that committeth sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil.

And did he? He did. It's already done. Completed. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Oh, I know two or three Christians that are not born of God then. It says they don't commit sin. How can we explain that, David?

Okay. Now, why can the Christian not practice habitual sin, Diane? Well, there's a... What? All right, all right, all right. Know this, that the Lord will never, never allow you to get into a position that you would send away your salvation.

He just won't allow it. There's several examples of that and maybe next time we'll go into them. Now, he says that whosoever doesn't... That's not it. Whosoever is born of God does not, does not commit sin.

Because what? Read the rest of the verse. For his sin, his seed remaineth in him. Whose seed, David? God's seed. Now, how in the world can God's seed remain in a person that's born again? Gregory, that's exactly right.

That's right. So you weren't as lost as you thought. Whosoever doth not righteousness, let's see, and he cannot sin because he is born of God, his seed remains in him. In this, the children of God are manifest, and we have the word manifest again, means to be able to be seen.

The children of God are able to be seen or detected or noticed. And the children of the devil are made manifest. You can see them. So definitely, without any arguments whatsoever, there is two seeds in this world.

A seed of Satan and a seed of God. Always has been, always will be. Has nothing to do with the bloodline, heredity, society, anything else. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

Loving the Brethren and the Example of Cain and Abel

Now, there's other places we're told to love our neighbors. Here, we're told to love each other. David, is the word love the same in both? Please say no. No. We're to love each other in a term that we would not use love.

We're to treat them correctly, politely, civilly, civil. We're to be courteous. But it's not the love that we have one for another within the brotherhood. We are to love each other with the godly love that he loves us.

Big difference. By no stretch of the imagination can he say we are to hate our neighbor. Not as Cain, who was Cain, Bill? Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one. If you ever wondered about Cain, he was a seed of Satan.

And he slew his brother. Who was his brother? Abel. I've got to ask this. How long did Cain hate Abel? As long as he was Abel. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil. Well, I thought we just studied, Clarence, that no, it wasn't you, it was Bill.

We just studied where Cain brought a sacrifice to the Lord. And Abel brought a sacrifice to the Lord. God did not accept Cain's. And he did accept Abel's. Abel brought whatever he had, fruit of his hands.

And here it plainly says that because Cain's works were evil, and his brother's was righteous, was the reason that Cain killed his righteous brother. Now, if it says that his works, including the sacrifice, were evil, that ought to erase any question and doubt we have back in Genesis when we're reading the account.

And we cannot ever see why God never did accept Cain's when he just brought what he had. Well, he didn't bring the blood. And he knew that he should, because his father had instructed him. Abel knew it.

Where did he learn it? Had to be from his father. So, don't ever try to pacify Cain. He was of the wicked one. Marvel not, my brother, if the world hates you. Now, the word marvel, David, we could use what?

Don't be surprised. Why should we not be surprised if the world hates us? Because it hates him. And it's not us he hates. It's the physical. It's the spirit. And it's not them that's doing the hating.

It's their spirit. The real battle is the spiritual battle. Steve, we're just the manifestation of it. And we fight between ourselves physically. But that's not the real battle. The real battle is spiritual.

And if the world does not like you, then it's the spirit of the world does not like your spirit. There are times that we must stop. My foot's getting tired. But marvel not, my brother, if the world hates you.

We'll stop there. Any statements or anything from anybody? What's next Sunday's date? If there is nothing for someone to say, let's stand and we'll be dismissed.