Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
331.
331.
471, 89415 Cry all over heaven.
You're bringing God home till you hear Him.
00:05:14
Nsnoise.
Our God and our Father, how it does thrill our hearts.
This afternoon to contemplate the manner of love and dollars bestowed upon us.
And we should be called our children.
I wonderful would be I love that would deliver us from going down to the pit.
Deliver us from eternal damnation.
But to think that my grace has brought us.
Family.
And to enjoy a place.
And die eternal home. We thank the our Father Thou hast given us to thy Son to bring home to Thee, and we look forward to that day when.
United with Walter, redeemed to sing thy praise, to worship and to adore.
He and we thank thee that we have opportunity now to open that awareness and continue.
The Epistle of John. We asked us all.
Margaret Watts that we might.
That need to give thy Son, as we often sing for a world by sin and dying.
And so this afternoon we.
I was to make Christ precious to our hearts.
And I spared him. Liberty used whomsoever bewill.
And we just thank you for the way that that was undertaken thus far this day encounter the great wonderful privilege to be gathered in this way in the presence.
By your son.
And so we admit all the D and give you our thanks.
Diablo, Precious, most worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
We didn't get very far this morning, I suppose.
Maybe if we begin with verse six, would that be all right?
I just remind ourselves that we have only this reading meeting and one more, and this one isn't that long. So maybe we could start with verse six if that's all right.
00:10:10
First John chapter 3, verse 6.
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 if he 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 manifested, that He might destroy the works.
Of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God does 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 we heard from the beginning.
That we should love one another.
Nadis Kane, who was of that wicked one, and flew his brother, and wherefore glued he him, because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous.
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you.
We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Hereby perceivedly the love of God, because he lay down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world's good and good, and see if his brother has need, and shut us up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let it not love in Word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
For if our heart condemneth, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemneth not, then have we confidence towards God.
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because he keepeth his commandments, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of the Son of his Son, Jesus Christ.
And love one another as he gave us commandments.
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and He in him, And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us.
We were mentioning this morning that John speaks generally in the abstract.
He doesn't go into the practical exhortations very much.
He simply states the character of what is.
00:15:00
And I suppose this verse in our chapter is one of those.
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.
That is the normal proper walk of a believer, isn't it? To abide in Christ and not to sin.
God never assumes that the believer will fail. We do fail.
But God never assumes that will happen.
It's not character characteristic of the believer to carry on in sin, and we might say that.
The Word of God never gives any comfort to a believer who is deliberately and willfully walking in a pathway that is contrary to the Word of God, or if we could say, living out of communion with the Lord.
We never get any comfort in Scripture in that kind of a pathway.
Yes, we know of course that, uh, God.
Recognizes the difficulties down here. The Lord Jesus, as our great High Priest, is there for our infirmities and for the difficulties we pass through. But we have everything we need in order not to go down that wrong Rd. But then what do we have here?
In the latter part of the verse.
Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him.
Neither know of it.
Strong language, isn't it? And yet very, very true. And so that is the family of the devil. They haven't seen the Lord, they haven't known him. And the natural man, the old sinful self, can't do anything but sin.
I well remember many years ago again quoting a story from my late father-in-law who?
Went around his hometown of Smiths Falls ON giving out gospel tracks, and they were a lot of people that he got to know over the years. And when he went to one home, there was no answer at the door. Well, he knew the individuals well. So he peeked in the window and there was the man of the house with his head down on the table, a bottle beside him, and he knew very well what was going on.
So, knowing the family well, the door wasn't locked, he just quietly went in and put a gospel text that had been printed up right up against the bottle. Christ died for the ungodly.
And then quietly went out and shut the door.
Half an hour later, he met the man on the street. Mr. Hayhoe, were you in my home a little while ago this afternoon?
Yes, I was. Well, he had no problem, no difficulty with Albert Hayle walking into his home. That was not the problem. The problem was that verse.
I don't like that word. Ungodly Mr.
Was he a believer? No, he wasn't, but he didn't like to be billed as being ungodly.
The world doesn't like to have it said that they don't know Christ, They haven't seen him.
But that's where the natural man is at. And I would only suggest this, maybe others would comment on it, but is that put here as a warning to us? Because John, I don't believe, wrote this primarily for the years of unbelievers or the eyes of unbelievers. He wrote it to believers because he wanted us to realize, and there are other verses here and we don't mean to get caught up in one verse, but.
He wants us to realize the tremendous difference there is between the pathway of the believer and the pathway of the world, the character of the believer and the character of the world.
Modern Christianity wants to merge the two.
And Satan has done a good job of it. But John wants us to note the tremendous contrast there is between the two.
00:20:03
Those who are bringing the evil doctrines of the Spirit of God is raising a standard up against had ungodly practices, and there really in that way that the believers have that life, they love one another, and those are the positive proofs to themselves that they were his, but those who were not that were coming in in that way.
This is what they were characterized by.
Would that be the 29th verse of the second chapter? But ye know that he is righteous. Ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. They weren't righteous so really manifest that they were not born of God.
So we don't want to give the impression from these verses that a person can reach this level of spirituality in their life where they don't sin. Because these verses have been misconstrued by many to say that you can get to a certain plateau, a certain plane in your Christian life, and sin is burnt out and you're not going to sin anymore. But it's been already said this is looked at in connection with what characterizes divine life.
And I'd just like to say too, in connection with what Bill said, that at the beginning of this epistle, there's no excuse for sin, but there's provision for it. And I was thinking of Peter. The Lord said to Peter before he denied the Lord, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.
And if Peter had only availed himself of that resource, he wouldn't have acted the way he did, uncharacteristic of of one who belonged to the Lord, if he had availed himself of that resource. And so the resource is given to us at the end of the first chapter, in the beginning of the second chapter where we have the advocate. And unlike the priesthood of Christ, he doesn't sympathize with us when we sin in our infirmities and the trials of life. He sympathizes with us, but not when it comes to sin. And so there is no excuse for sin.
But there's provision for it. And I say that because, again, we don't want to ever take these verses out of context and assume that a person can reach A level where they become sinless.
It's really practice, isn't it? It says.
Practice.
Is that so absolute in that sixth verse that it doesn't mean in a certain sense?
I'm asking us a question. Is say that again, Vern. I didn't. Well, whosoever the fourth verse says, whosoever committed it should be practiced.
So, but now it says whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Is that practice to sin or absolute? Doesn't sin at sin at all? Is he just talking about the nature? It's absolute. Later on we get expressions that are properly translated practices. Mm-hmm. But this one, he says whoso abides in him.
That takes us back to John 15 and abiding in the vine. He's the true vine and the father's, the husbandmen, and he's looking for fruit. Can that vine produce anything other than good fruit?
It absolutely cannot.
Who is the Vine?
Christ is the lie we abide in him. There's nothing else that that life can produce but what's pleasing to God, but we have an old root in us too. Despite that another scripture. So I think in this verse maybe the tendency again, I stand to be corrected, but I think it's more absolute. There's other scriptures in first John that that Mister Darby translates practices their their life is characterized all through by that.
Practicing Sense.
Oh, I agree 100% with that, Steve. I believe that is the force of it. It's because if.
If, and it it is an if, if I have a new life in Christ and I am abiding in Him.
And it is absolute that new light cannot sin. And you get that further down, which is often mistranslated in and we don't want, we're not here to throw rocks at various translations, but in not understanding the way John writes, some have translated verse 9. Whosoever is born of God should not commit sin.
00:25:16
But that isn't the force of the verse. It does not commit sin simply because that new life that you and I have cannot sin, no more than the light that Christ had could sin. It's the same light. And so that's the force of it, isn't? It? Does that. Isn't that all practical? It is practicing new translation, yes.
OK, so let let's just make this very clear. We've said it before, but just so we understand, the life that we have in Christ, the divine life, the divine nature, it cannot sin.
We but we also still have the sinful flesh and an unbeliever has the old nature. We want to make these these distinctions because they're helpful and important. And so an unbeliever who has that old nature, that old nature cannot please God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Even the best things an unsafe person does, it says all our righteousnesses are the best things we can do.
Are a filthy rag. A person may go to a place of worship, they may sing hymns, they may say prayers, they may read their listen while the word of God is read. They may do charitable works, they may give to certain organizations. If they are unregenerate people, that is a pile of filthy rags to God. And so the old nature can cannot please God.
With the believer we have that divine nature that as we said, and I want to stress this, we want to stress this, it cannot sin. It is the very life of Christ. However, we still have the sinful flesh.
And we never get real peace in our souls, brethren, until we understand it. And the man in Romans chapter seven and eight, he never began to get deliverance until he said, it is no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me.
In other words, he said, when I sin, God doesn't see me in that light. When I sin, it's not the it's the old, it's not the new Jim Highland. It's not Jim Highland in Christ. It's no more I God doesn't see me in the old, the light of the old man. I'm a new creation in Christ. Do I sin? Yes, because I have the sinful flesh. But what gives me comfort and peace is to realize that God sees me.
In all the light and perfection of Christ.
Now maybe if you'll just allow me, and again, I don't want to get away from what we have here in these verses, but I've enjoyed a little illustration of that helps us perhaps to understand this from the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. Because we find that the Tabernacle, those boards collectively were the dwelling place of God amongst his people. But individually, I suggest they speak to us of our individual standing and position before God in Christ.
I say that because there were two things that characterized those boards. They stood in two sockets of silver. That speaks of redemption. Invariably silver speaks of redemption in Scripture. But then there was something else about those boards. They were covered completely with pure gold. And when the guy and that speaks of divine righteousness. And when the eye of God looked down on those boards, what did God see? The rub cut lumber that was underneath. No, what he saw was that which spoke in tight of the righteousness of Christ.
And you and I are seen in all the light of the new man where seen in the new position. And we are the children of God. We have the divine light. And what characterizes the divine life is that we don't sin. There is no sin connected with the divine life. And if we ever lose sight of that, brethren, we're on very shaky ground, doctrinally speaking.
When we get to, uh, glory, there will be no seeing why you said it's because.
00:30:11
But also the work of Christ is dead, as he put an end, as it were to be.
I understand and known him, but what is he saying hath not seen him if he referring to seeing him with Gaiah face? Or what is John saying here?
Well, I personally think, uh, I've always looked at it, John as being the eye of faith because he does say whosoever in the first chapter we know John and referring to others like the other disciples and ones who had known the Lord on earth talked about having seen him and handled the Lord Jesus as the word of life. But I believe it's with the eye of faith here. Uh, the natural man has no desire to have anything to do.
With the claims of God, they may in countries like Canada and the United States sing about the Lord Jesus at Christmas and even pay lip service to Easter or something like that. But the natural mind is at enmity with God, isn't it? There's no desire to have anything to do with God, to see him or to know him.
He told Nicodemus.
Except the man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. He was talking about faith, although he's talking about a Jew and no Jew will see the Kingdom of God, a manifestation physically if he's not born again. But I think he's talking there about you can't see it really and.
So he comes to him and he says, Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher, come from God. He couldn't see God, He was standing before him. To manifest in flesh. The Lord says, ye must be born again. You need that new life before you're going to see the way you should see.
And it shows us in these verses, doesn't it, who is the head of that family, that natural family now in this world? We've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating that when the Lord Jesus was rejected, the Word of God began to call Satan both the God and the Prince of this world.
And in that sense, Satan for the moment.
Has it all his own way, Only, of course, in so much as God allows it. He can't do anything beyond what God allows. We know that. But once man rejected Christ, Satan becomes God. I suppose you'd say religiously in the Prince of this world, politically, and he's behind the family of this world.
Practically, let us remember that. That's why it says here.
He that committeth sin verse verse eight is of the devil, for the devil Sinner from the beginning, and so on.
Let's remember that you have the family of God and the family of Satan. Either I act in character with the family of God to which I belong. And I appreciate what Jim said. That's the way God views us.
If I sin, the Lord doesn't say well.
00:35:01
Now you're part of the family of the devil again. Some people, some believers try to teach that and you have to get saved over again. No, but I'm acting out of character. And so we need to keep that very much before us, as we said before. But as it says at the end of verse 8, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Well.
The full result of that won't be seen until the eternal state. Even after Satan has been bound for 1000 years during the Millennial day, he'll still, when he's loose for a little season, begin his works again.
But eventually, the power of Christ through what he.
Carried out on the cross destroys the works of the devil, and he never is able to introduce sin again into the new heavens and the new earth. But you and I can be delivered from it now, and we have been delivered from it.
Now God expects us to live and walk in that character, doesn't it?
As noticing in Mark's gospel chapter one.
Which I believe Mark does not give us a chronological, uh, order of the Lord's ministry during the Spirit and after his baptism in Mark chapter one.
It tells us.
Verse 11 There came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Immediately the spirit dragged him into the wilderness, and he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted of state.
And was with the wild beasts and angels ministered unto him. Well, we know the result of Satan's effort to tempt the Lord to super evil is totally.
Affiliate. We could not attempt the Lord, and the Lord used Scripture to resist the devil's temptation.
He referred to the I believe it was Deuteronomy three times and he resisted the devil with Scripture, which I believe is our resource as well. But I see how the devil immediately comes to seek to hinder the mission upon which the Lord was sent. But we see how the devil was frustrated in his attempt there, but later on the chapter in verse.
23 It says there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.
And he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, Thou Jesus? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace and come out of him.
When the unclean spirit had sworn and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. So his teeth of the Lord is undoing the worst of the devil. He is here to destroy his reverse.
00:40:08
Persons.
When Nicodemus came to the Lord, it's already been mentioned, but he said, we know thou art a teacher, come from God. But when the Lord answered Nicodemus, he showed him that what man needed was not good teaching. He had good teaching in the Old Testament.
Israel had the oracles of God, but what it showed was that man needed a new life.
And it's important to realize too, when we speak about being born of God and born again, when we speak of the divine life, it, and I want to say this very reverently and carefully, it wasn't a patch up of the old. Do men put new wine in old bottles? Do they sow a new cloth on an old garment? The Lord shows very clearly that He was going to introduce something brand new that wasn't dependent on man. Man had had good teaching all through the Old Testament.
But it had showed that man was rotten through and through, and that there was no way that there could be any betterment of that which he was naturally speaking. And so he goes on in our chapter to speak of being born of God.
And that one that is born of God does not sin. Again, confirming what we have said. And we need to stress this, that the divine life to be born of God is to have divine life, and that life is the very life of Christ.
Christ, who is our life.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. Is that a reference to the Holy Spirit that now indwells the end of the individual? Is that another assurance that once we have the Spirit of God, He will never leave us?
I think of it, uh, all the way back to the first chapter of Genesis. Just read a couple of verses there.
Genesis 1 verse 11 And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And that is the character of eternal life. It reproduces that life. And the one in whom it is implanted. That seed, I think, is that life of Christ. And it reproduces. You take a seed and you put it in the ground. It's a corn seed.
You're not gonna get anything else but corn.
An eternal life doesn't reproduce anything else but what we see in the Lord Jesus Christ and the believer. It reproduces after its kind.
So accept the corn of wheat, fall into the ground, and die abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Is that the thought?
There's a, a, uh, I guess years ago a brother told us, he said. And John's in, uh, Paul's ministry, we find that we're one body, many members united to Christ our head in heaven by the indwelling Spirit of God. And John's ministry, we're not one body with the Lord. We're one plant.
He's that cornered wheat that fell on the ground and it sprung up, and what is on that head of wheat?
All little kernels exactly identical to the one that went into the ground. But where do they have their life? They have it because they're attached to the stock that sprung up. They don't have it independently, and it's a reproduction of exactly what went into the ground. We're one plant with the Lord and John and Paul's ministry, one body and and the truth of the one body. Every member is different.
In John's ministry.
Every kernel identical.
00:45:05
Insulted David's servants. There was a a getting together of Haman's confederacy.
And the Confederates with him didn't do what Hagen did, but they were identified with him in that confederacy.
I I don't know if that would fit exactly, but of whom are you in other words?
Are you of David or are you of hate? Yes. It's not the individuals since perhaps looked at, but of whom are you connected?
And that's it here we're, we belong to the family of God. We have that new life that remains in US. And so even though the word practices is used in the Darby translation, uh, we shouldn't put too much of an emphasis on a word. I believe it is in this ninth verse, absolute, just as it is in verse.
UH-8 absolute. He that committeth or practices sin is of the devil. That is what is characteristic. What does the believer do? He does not practice sin, that is characteristic of him. He has that new life and it reproduces itself as Brother Steve has brought the force.
And we might, we might in one sense say, well, doesn't the natural man desire righteousness? Yes, in one sense he does when his own person or his own interests are involved. But when God's interests are involved, does the natural man want righteousness? No, he does not. A man may be thankful for a good justice system in the country where he lives. He may be thankful for the police. He may be thankful for.
Set of laws that govern things in a reasonable and proper way so that the normal conduct of business and commerce and everything can go on. But when there's any reference to God, man does not want righteousness. He does not want to be righteous. And I believe that's the way we have to look at it. Righteousness and being righteous in Scripture is always measured up against God himself and his claims, isn't it?
It helped me to think of it this way. What does the lawyer do? He practices law. What does the doctor do? He practices medicine. What is an unregenerate Sinner? Do he practices sin?
Use it in the same way.
Like to come back to Brother Bob's question, because this chapter has three proofs afforded to the believer that they're in the family of God. And the first one is that they practice righteousness. There's obedience to the word of God. There's a desire there.
That's in that new life in that sea. The second one is there's a love for their brother, and there's a love for the rest of the family of God, a brother. Bob mentioned the Spirit of God, and that's the third proof, the indwelling Spirit of God. Only those who are in God's family have the Spirit of God. And that's brought out at the end of the chapter. All three fruits are brought together in the very end of the chapter, verse 23. And this is His commandment that we should believe on the name.
Of His Son Jesus Christ, and loved one another as He gave us commandments. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in Him, and He and Him. And hereby we know that He abideth enough by the Spirit which He has given us. I should have included verse 22. Because we keep his commandments and do things, the things, those things that are pleasing in a sight. So the Spirit of God is indeed part of the proofs of this chapter, that we are in the family of God.
00:50:21
MMM MMM.
We might mention something also about that word righteousness and righteousness.
The believer having a new life in Christ.
He wants to see righteousness.
And some believers today are getting carried away by that and thinking that it's their job to go out there and seek to impose righteousness on this world.
We don't find that in scripture. We are to be a testimony to this world by being righteous ourselves.
That doesn't mean that we don't reach a man's conscience for.
And I called him on it. I said, Sir, when I went to school, that was called. Why?
Well, you said, yeah, you're right. You said that was kind of he, he insisted on it. But when I boxed him in, he admitted, yeah, you're right, that was kind of unprofessional of me. I said, Sir, it's not only unprofessional, it's a sin in the sight of God.
Unprofessional. That's quite a way of glossing it over, isn't it?
But this one is unrighteous, and we as believers naturally want to see righteousness.
There will come a day when, if I could say it in.
Respectfully, there will come a day when we will get our opportunity, won't there?
There come a day when Christ will manifest himself as the righteous, 1 As the rightful king, we will be with him, and there will be no question in that day as to righteousness.
But what characterizes you and me now is being righteous in our own person, what we say and do and in our actions, very, very important. Because it is, sad to say, very possible in a world where unrighteousness, very little thought of, to find ourselves be overtaken by. And maybe in little things, maybe in little things.
But we can find ourselves being overtaken by unrighteousness.
And so I believe the Spirit of God puts that word in here as a warning to us. That's what characterizes the man of the world. And that's why according to verse 12, and I know our time is nearly gone, but that's why.
We are hated because the world does not mind a believer who acts in righteousness, but it hates the man who acts righteously and references God in it.
Give us a definition of righteousness.
Well, righteousness always involves more than one person. God is like God is holy in his own person and He doesn't need anyone else there, but He's righteous in his dealings with you and me and in respect of sin.
And so righteousness is doing that which is right according to God's standard in everything we say and do. And that's where the natural man doesn't like it.
I can tell an interesting story which some maybe have heard before, where two small boys back probably in the 1880s were sent by their parents to a store to buy something. And as they went out of the store they were counting their change and noticed that the man in the store had made a mistake in their favor. So they went back into the store and called his attention to it. And of course he was very thankful and gladly took the overpayment back and patted them on the head and said they were good little boys to.
Call that to his intention and attention and so on. And when the boys came home, they told their father and mother about it.
00:55:05
And to their astonishment, their boys, their father said, Boys, you did the right thing, but in the wrong way, huh? Wrong way, yes, their father said. You boys did the right thing, but you came home with the glory.
You should have told them that you gave them the change back because you belong to Christ.
That would have probably brought reproach.
I only know that story because one of the boys was Harry Hagel. But anyway, the point is, the world likes righteousness, but not when we bring in God's claims. And that's why Cain hated his brother. That's why the world will hate you and me for being righteous.
So before we close, just a little practical word, and I'd like to read a verse in Titus because I can hear someone say, well, it's all fine to talk about practical righteousness and so on, but how are we going to survive today? This is the day when the standards are completely gone. Everybody has to tell a lie to get along in business or whatever it is. How are we going to do it today? But notice in Titus chapter 2.
He speaks of the grace of God in verse 11 and then grace is a teacher here verse 12 teaching us that is the grace of God teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly luck, we should live soberly.
Righteously godly when in this present age, that's right where we are now. In other words, there are the resources for you and for me to live to deny that which is ungodly and to live uprightly, to live righteously right here at the closing hour of the the day of the day of Grace. We can never say the day is so dark and the standard is so low.
That we cannot live righteously for God's glory. And Paul at the end of his ministry speaks of a crown of righteousness laid up for me, and not for me only, but all those that love his appearing.
The crown of righteousness has to do with the righteous reign of Christ. That is future. But I also believe in a practical way it is a reward for living righteously in an unrighteous world. Yes, there will be a reproach. Yes, we may not get that raise or that sales deal that we had hoped, but to live righteously now there is a reward at the end. There's a crown of righteousness laid up for us. And so there's no such thing as saying it's too dark a day.
It's too morally degenerate a day to live righteously. We have to compromise a little bit. No, with the grace of God enjoyed and implanted in our souls, we can live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, right where we are now.
We sing 313.
313.
Soon, righteousness.
01:00:01
Nsnoise.