If you have a copy of the scriptures, let me invite you once again to turn to the first epistle general to John or 1st John. And this morning we're in 1st John chapter three, as we're continuing this ongoing exposition of the book of 1st John, 1st John three. And we're gonna be looking at verses one through six, 1 John 3, verses one through six. Let me invite you as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and hearing of God's word. 1 John 3, beginning in verse one, wherein the apostle John says, 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 purifies 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 known him. May God bless today the reading and the hearing of his word. And let us join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we do stand today again before thy word written and thy word read before thy people. We seek today, oh God, the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, give us minds to comprehend the fullness of who Christ is and the fullness of thy gospel. We ask this in Christ's name, amen, and you may be seated. Well, again, we are continuing this ongoing exposition of the book we know as 1 John. And we've already seen that one of the chief concerns of this epistle is what we would call sanctification. How someone who is a Christian, how someone who is a believer attains, achieves a measure of holiness in this life. expecting full holiness in the life or the age that is to come. And so right at the end of even the last chapter, Luke chapter two, verse 29, it says, if ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. So the one who is born again is one from whom there will come the fruits of righteousness. Not the thing that says, but is an evidence or a proof that he's actually in Christ. And so we've seen this in 1 John. We also saw last time how he talked about how every believer has the anointing or the unction of the Holy Spirit. And so if you look back in verse 20 of chapter 2, but you have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things. or in verse 27 of chapter two, but the anointing which you have received with him abideth in you. And so the Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him. And part of what the Spirit is doing is sanctifying, changing us, bringing us into closer conformity to Christ. It seems though, and Paul, John is writing to an audience here that's gone through some difficulties. We've talked about that. There's probably been a schism. In this church, chapter 2, verse 19, they went out from us because they were not of us. There have been difficulties that believers had individually experienced. And so he's writing in part to encourage them. And that's certainly true, going to be true of his teaching about sanctification. On one hand, There were probably some people within this congregation who had committed a certain type of error, and that was an overconfidence in what the Christian's life will be like in this age. Once he is converted and he has faith in Christ, there's one type of error that is an overconfidence. And such persons are prone to believe in something called perfectionism. The idea that now that they are Christians, they are already fully sanctified and they can live without sin. Of course, John completely quashed this idea in the first chapter of 1 John. If you look back at 1 John 1, verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. Chapter one, verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So he's addressing there this one type of error, which is an overconfidence in what this life will be like for the person who is a believer. On the other hand, there's another type of error, sort of the polar opposite of the first one I just described. And this is the person who is what we could call him under confident, under confident regarding what life in this life will be like for the person who is converted and the person who comes to faith in Christ. Such persons are prone to think that, well, I'm a believer, but I'm really no different now than I was before I became a Christian. I'm no different than an unbeliever. Perhaps that could be the case because that person's a false professor, not really a Christian. That's one possibility. We're talking about the possibility of someone who's an actual Christian, but it still has this sense of, I don't feel as though I'm living in such a way that would distinguish me from an unbeliever. They are so aware of the remaining corruptions within them. And they are so unaware of the Holy Spirit's present within them that they are prone to defeatism, to just giving up, to not striving towards faithfulness, towards obedience, towards godliness, towards holiness. And I think it's those kinds of people that are being addressed in these opening verses of 1 John 3, whereas he had addressed the overconfident in 1 John 1, particularly in verses 8 and 10. In these verses, I think he has, in part, a view to those who are underconfident about what life should be like for a Christian in this age. And he's gonna say to those types of people, listen, If you are truly in Christ, there is actually a way that you can live a sinless life. There is a way that you can live a pure life. There is a way that you can live a fully sanctified and holy life before God. I don't know if anybody even reads the vision anymore. You just scan to the bottom to see if there's a picture in it or not. Maybe some of you actually read it. And I was hoping you might've looked at the title of this message, How to Live a Sinless Life, and thought, what's happened to Pastor Riddle? Has he become a holiness Pentecostal? Is he telling us after he's always telling us how the Christian has remaining corruptions within him now? He's gonna shift gears all of a sudden and this Sunday. He's gonna tell us how to live a sinless life. Oh Dear friends attend with me Where I think that that John the Apostle is gonna tell us how we can live a sinless life And I hope that we will uncover that So I'm sure you can see how important this passage is and why it should gain our full attention this morning, right? Well, let's turn and let's look at the passage and we can divide it into two parts. The first part, verses one and two, I would describe this as John addressing or describing the new status that believers have as sons of God or children of God. And then the second part of the passage is verses three through six, where John talks about living a pure life for Christ. And that's where we're gonna get to this question of how does one live a sinless life? Living a pure life for Christ. So let's look at these two parts of our text. We'll start off with the first part, verses one and two, which is a description of the new status that believers have as sons of God. And so this chapter famously begins, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. That's interesting, it starts with that word behold. That's a very biblical word. You go through the Old Testament and behold is what people say when they see an angel or they see a miracle or something like that. But here is the apostle using this sort of biblical type of language to say, behold, I wanna show you a wonder. And in this case, what is the wonder? The wonder is salvation through Christ. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. It was said of the apostle Paul, for example, that he never got over the fact that he was saved. And I think the same could be true for John. Behold this wonder, behold this wonder. I remember I was a missionary in Hungary and we were out in a church one time and there was a youth group gathering and the youth said, oh, Uh, Jeff, I wasn't a pastor at the time. Oh Jeff, we want to show you this amazing wonder. They kept using the Hungarian word for a Choda, a wonder. We want to show you this wonder. And we ended up just going into like the basement of the church and they turned the lights off. They had something that like glowed in the dark and that was the wonder. They were excited about that. Um, but here truly is a wonder. Behold what manner. of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Here's John glorying in the wonder. Notice of this verse, three things. First of all, there is the actor. There is secondly, the action. And then thirdly, there is the recipient of the action. The first is the actor. Who is acting? What is this wonder? Who is the one who is performing this wonder? It is God, the father. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us. In our study last Wednesday night on Islam, I shared some sections from a book by a man named Ibrahim Agh Muhammad, who is a former Muslim who had become a Christian, is now a pastor at a church in London, England. And in that book, he said that in Islam, Allah has slaves and not sons. He writes that in Islam, you can know Allah's law, and you can know his will, but you can never know his person or his character or his heart. He said, this former Muslim who's become a Christian, he said, Allah is a ruler, not a friend. He is certainly not a father. And he mentions that 16 times in the Quran, it says, God is not a father. God does not have a son. Not only is that denying the sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's also denying that Allah has sons. His followers are slaves, not sons. But for Christians, God is our heavenly father. Christ taught his disciples to pray in the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6, 9, our father, which art in heaven. In Romans 8, 15, Paul wrote, For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The God of the Bible is our Father. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. That's the actor. Secondly, notice the action. The action is the bestowal of love. And here underneath that English word is one of those Greek words that most Christians have in their Greek vocabulary, agape, the special word that describes Christian love. Behold what manner of love, divine affection that the Father has shown to us. God's love is the overflow of the eternal love between the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons in perfect harmony, communion with one another. And this overflows and that it's poured out upon us. Most famous verse in the Bible, perhaps it's John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Later on, if you turn like one page over to 1 John 4, 16, it says, and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. And then it has the famous statement, God is love. So the action that is stressed is love. The actor is God the Father. The action is his love, his affection. And then thirdly, notice in this opening verse, the recipients. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. And this is a stand in for believers. And here, the Apostle John is placing himself alongside of the persons to whom he's writing this letter. In the first generation and through the inscription of the scriptures in every generation since, to a whole host of ordinary and nameless individuals like us. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Notice the bestowal of this saving love is not aimless and directionless. God's love bestowed upon the saints is not like somebody flying an airplane over a village and dropping leaflets indiscriminately on the ground so that whoever comes by can pick it up. No, God's love bestowed upon the saints is more like a letter. that is purposely directed to a recipient, and that recipient's name is written down to the one who is addressed by the Father, to the one who is known of the Father. As Paul puts it in Ephesians 1.4, God hath chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundations of the world. You look at that, the extension of verse one, it says, to what end has this actor performed this action for these recipients? That we should be called the sons of God. That we should be called the sons of God. The word underneath the English word sons here is actually the Greek word techna, which means children. And notice throughout 1 John, he is referred to the recipient says, my little children. starting, if you look back, in chapter 2, verse 1, my little children, these things I write unto you. And so the wonder is that these recipients have been made the sons of God. The apostle John wrote about this in the prologue to the gospel that was written under his name, the gospel of John. In John 1, verse 11 and following, it says, he, meaning Christ, came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. How do we become a son of God? You believe on Christ's name. But then John adds of these sons of God in verse 13 of John one, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Who is the actor? Who is the one who is bestowing the love on particular recipients? It's God, and so our sonship in Christ doesn't come about through our physical birth, not by blood, not by our will, but by the will of God. Behind all of this, of course, we've got sort of the language here. We looked at it in chapter two, verse 29 of new birth, but we also have a language or image here, a scriptural theme here of adoption. Big theme within the scriptures to describe how one becomes a Christian. It's like being adopted into a family. And so we can look, at a number of places where there's this theme of adoption. And what happens when adoption takes place is a person's status, his familial status is changed. So, for example, the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2 could speak of believers in verse 9 and say, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. that you should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And then he says of them in first Peter two, 10, which in time past were not a people, but now are the people of God, which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. God has made a people who were not a people to be the people of God. There is a spiritual adoption that has taken place. If I can draw an analogy, when my son Joseph, I think I've probably mentioned this before as an illustration, was added to our family by adoption back in 2008, we went through all the legal processes. And while we were still in China, we went to a US consulate there. in Guangzhou and we did the legal paperwork to change his familial status and ours. And we went through the process to change his national status so that when we got on the airplane and left China and landed in the US, he automatically was recognized as our legal heir and became a US citizen. If we could draw a dim analogy, When we become believers, when a person becomes a Christian, he experiences spiritual adoption. He becomes part of the family of God. He becomes a son of God, a child of God, and he becomes a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. Once your status is changed, This has consequences. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Our status has been changed and there are consequences that then follow from that. Some of those consequences are not always easy. And it's interesting, the first thing he talks about at the end of verse one are some of the difficulties that can come about by experiencing spiritual adoption. There are great advantages. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages or the difficulties. But I like the way that John doesn't sugarcoat it. And he talks about the fact that when your status changes and you're in Christ, sometimes there are going to be difficulties. And look at the very last part of verse one. He starts to mention this. Therefore, the world knoweth us not. because it knew him not. One of the things that will happen because of this change of status is you don't always feel like you are at home in this world. In Hebrews, Paul talks about Christians being like pilgrims, aliens, and exiles. We don't always fit in. We don't always fit in with the world around us. And this causes sometimes tensions. When the Lord Jesus sent out the apostles in Matthew chapter 10, he sent them to minister in his name. In Matthew 10, verse 22, he said to them, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Christ likewise prophesied to his disciples of some of the sufferings they would endure in John chapter 16, verse one and following. He said to his disciples, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the father nor me. Later, Christ will add in John 16, verse 33, these things I have spoken unto you that in me, you might have peace in the world. You shall have tribulation. There are many difficulties in the world, but Christ said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So believers, you have your status changed. You experience spiritual adoption. And you will also have the experience of feeling sometimes like you don't fit into this life, like you don't fit into this world, that you won't always be understood by this world. But John is going to continue in verse two to speak of the blessings and the advantages of this status having been changed. And in particular, the blessings that will come in the age which is yet to be. And so look at verse two, he says, beloved, now are we the sons of God? And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. There is coming a time when Christ will come again and God will be all in all. We will experience the resurrection of our bodies. We'll experience the renewal of all things. We will be in the presence of God. And this is him now telling us, although you have to endure some of these difficulties in the present time, look toward that which is yet to come in the age that is ahead of us. And he begins with a reminder once again that you are converted, you believe in Christ, you have a new status, you've experienced spiritual adoption, beloved. Now, not sometime in the future, but already in this life. Now, are we the sons of God? Our status has been changed. Notice, by the way, also that he addresses believers as beloved. They are ones who are loved. by the Father. They are the recipients of His affection. But while addressing believers who have begun enjoying eternal life in this life, He then goes a step further and places before us the tantalizing promise of what yet awaits us. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Theologians sometimes talk about the Christian life as we live between the time of Christ's first coming and his second coming, life into here and now, Christ has come, he's down on the cross for sinners, he's been gloriously raised, he's ascended to the right hand of the father, we're awaiting his return. Living the Christian life is now in this age is already, we already know the benefits of knowing Christ, but it's not yet. It's not yet fully. manifested. It's it's already, but not yet. And so John is sort of thinking along those lines here when he says it doth not yet appear what we shall be. And it's interesting if you look through the writings of Paul, he's constantly making note of this. And one place that came to mind is in the in the book of Philippians of Philippians three. Verse 13, Paul said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. In other words, brothers and sisters, I have not yet arrived. I'm not yet in this life all that I one day will be. And then he continues, But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Similarly, in Romans 18, verses 16 and following, Paul writes, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Then Paul says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And he says something very similar in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 and 18, when he says, for our light affliction, think about any struggle you go through in this life, Paul would say, ah, light affliction. It's light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And that's what John is getting at. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. And then John continues to give this assurance to believers. He says to them in verse two, but we know that When He shall appear, we shall be like Him. Again, he's anticipating the return of Christ in glory, in power and glory. And he says, we will be like Him. Christ was the first fruits of the resurrection, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. And all we who are in Christ will one day experience the resurrection to life. In this way, we will be like Him. And then John adds, if you look at the end of verse two, for we shall see him as he is. In this life, there are limitations to our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is often very frustrating to us. I want to know more about Christ. I want to know the truth. Why can't I know it all? Why can't I see it all? Well, in this life, there are limitations. We have come to believe on Christ by means of the witness of the apostles who saw him and who testified of his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection. But there is coming a day, John says, when faith shall be sight. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, at the end of what we sometimes call the love chapter, he says, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Paul says, now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known. The way John puts it, for we shall see him as he is. Some theologians talk about something called the beatific vision, that the glory of heaven will be to be in the presence of God and to look upon Christ our Savior. And this verse, for we shall see him as he is, is a proof text for that. Looking back on these first two verses, I think we can see three things are being described. First of all, our present status as children of God. If you're a believer, a recipient of the Father's affections, your status has been changed. Secondly, we see our experience in this world It's not always pleasant, it's sometimes difficult because the world does not know or recognize us just as it did not recognize Him. But then thirdly, John is teaching, our experience in the age to come when Christ returns in glory and we are changed and we see Him as He is, that this will be This final part we could describe as the Christian hope. Paul describes it this way in Titus 2.13, when he says, we are looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ. It is this hope for the life which is to come, which allows us to live with patience, joy, and confidence in the life that now is. It holds out the promise for a life that is without ugliness, without sin, without rebellion against God's law and God's will from within or without us. And this sets the table now for us to turn to the second part of our text, which is verses three through six. And I'm getting that question. How do you live a sinless life? And I put a label over verses three through six as living a pure life for Christ. We begin in verse three. And every man that hath this hope, again, referring back to, we don't know yet what we one day will be. We will see him face to face. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. So this person who's had his status changed, who has this hope, of the age to come purifies himself in this life. He removes the impurities. He burns away the dross. This man has the hope to experience the resurrection of life, to experience seeing Christ as he is. And he holds that before him in the midst of all the challenges and the struggles and the difficulties of this life. And notice at the very end, he does this, John says, even as he is pure. And the big question is, what does the pronoun he refer to here? Is it referring to this man? This man has had his status changed, although he still has remaining corruptions within him, but he's looking with hope towards the coming of Christ? No, this is referring to Christ himself. This person purifies or sanctifies himself even as Christ is pure. You might look back at chapter two, verse one. Remember the declaration there? If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We can substitute for that, the pure one. And then John goes ahead and he talks about the problem of sin. Verse four, whosoever commit of sin transgresseth also the law. When we break God's commands, we break God's law. Verse four describes sin. Sin has been defined by some as missing the mark. Our Baptist catechism teaches that sin is any want or lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. In other words, you can sin against God in two ways. There are sins of omission, not conforming yourself fully to the righteous standards of God in this life, but there are also sins of commission, breaking God's laws. We sin when we break God's command. And ignorance of the law is no excuse. In the book of Romans chapter 2, Paul says that the law of God is written on men's hearts. It's written on the hearts of Gentiles, he says, men who had never read the Bible or heard of the Ten Commandments. Go to cultures all over the world and people know that it's wrong to kill, it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to lie or bear false witness. Why is it that people all over the world know this, even people who've never picked up a Bible or never heard the name of Jesus Christ? Because it's written in their hearts that this is the law of God. Why is it that you and I, when we do something that's wrong, our consciences bother us and wear upon us? Because we know that we may try to deny it, that we might try to suppress or hold back the righteousness of God. We know that we have sinned against Him. And so, John can add there in verse four, for sin is the transgression of the law. He then proceeds in verse five to address believers once again. He's addressing those whose status has been changed by God the Father. those who have had the love, the agape of the Father bestowed upon them in a wondrous way. And he says to them in verse five, and ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins. Again, what's the identity of the person addressed by the pronoun he? And ye know, you guys know, y'all know, that he was manifested to take away our sins. Well, it's referring back to the he in verse three. He is pure. It's referring back to the Lord Jesus Christ. That statement, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, brings to my mind 1 Timothy 3.16, which says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. As John puts it in John 1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. God was manifest in the flesh. This one who was manifest in the flesh, what did he do? According to verse five, he took away our sins. And again, he's talking to believers. How did this come about? How did How did the Lord Jesus Christ take away our sins? Well, John has talked about it throughout this letter already. If you look back at 1 John 1, verse seven, he says, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. How did Christ take away our sin? He shed his blood on the cross to cleanse us from all sin. Look at the end of verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Look at chapter two, verse two, and he, referring to Christ, In fact, he's just before that in verse one, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. Remember, we talked about that word and what it means referring to the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat. He's the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice for our sins. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, meaning the present believers being addressed by John, but also for the sins of the whole world, for believers from all nations. Jew and Gentile, slave and free, men and women. He is the one who has come to take away our sins. And so this is what John is addressing here, going back to 1 John 3 and verse 5. And then notice at the end of verse 5, he adds, and in him, again, the pronoun is referring to Christ, and in Christ is no sin. He died for our sins, although he committed no sins. As Peter will put it in 1 Peter 3, 18, the just was given for the unjust. The just one was given for the unjust. It's an offense, really. Justice should be given to those who have committed crimes and sins. Justice should be given to the unjust. The person who is innocent should not suffer. But in the case of Christ, the just was given for the unjust. It's a very important testimony, by the way, to the sinlessness of Christ. And in him is no sin. We can place alongside this testimony at least two others and probably every Christian ought to have these three verses maybe written on the fly. If your Bible somewhere is certainly hidden in your heart when you're asked, did Christ sin? You can turn to First John. chapter 3 and verse 5, and you can read, and in him is no sin. You can lay alongside of that 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For he, God, hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And then the third verse, you can lay alongside of those two. is Hebrews 4.15, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. All of this leads us to the final verse. The final verse, and this is where we get to address this question. How can a man lead a sinless life? John says, whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Let's look at the first part of this. Whosoever abideth, again, this is one of John's favorite words, the verb in Greek, meno, to abide or to remain or to continue. Whosoever abideth in him, meaning in Christ, sinneth not. Now, can a man lead a life without sin? Well, John has already told us the answer to that. Again, look back once more at 1 John 1, verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Look at chapter 1, verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And so the teaching clearly is that we cannot live a life without sin. Yet on the other hand, John has no problem with saying here in verse six of chapter three, whosoever abideth in him, in Christ, sinneth not. What point is John making? Well, we could say the point seems to be, certainly is, that the person who is a believer may not continue in perpetual or besetting sin in this life. He has not yet reached the glorified state. He will sin, but when he sins, he will experience sorrow for his sin. He will confess that to God and he will receive forgiveness. And he knows that his sins have been completely taken away by Christ. and his life is hid in the sinless life of Christ. In sum, the way to be sinless, John says, is thus not to rest in one's own actions, but to claim Christ's righteousness and Christ's sinless life as his own. How can you live a sinless life? The only way a believer who has remaining corruptions within him, who has not yet entered into the state of glory, the only way a believer can be without sin in this life is how? To be hid in Christ, the sinless one. That's how we live a sinless life. While on the other hand, the person who has not seen Christ, spiritually speaking, or known him, continues in unrepentant sin and adds to the log pile of sin that he has built up over a lifetime alongside the original sin he inherited at birth from his first parents, from his own parents, by ordinary generation. This person who had no one to take the sin away and no sinless one in whom he might hide his wretched life. That person's end is destruction, and that's described in the second half of verse six. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. And so in the end, John is telling us the story of two persons. There is the one who knows Christ, and the one who does not know Christ. There is the one who has had his status changed, the one who has by grace become a son of God, The one who has received spiritual adoption and is looking toward that day when he will be all that he is not now and will see Christ as he is. And on the other hand, there is the person who has not experienced this, who has not had his status changed, who has not received spiritual adoption. That one who is apart from Christ, That one who is apart from the family of God, that one who is not a citizen of his kingdom. Well, friends, we've worked through the passage. As we come to the applications, I hope the Holy Spirit has already made applications in your heart. But the question I think to ask when you come to the end of this passage is, what is your status? What is your standing? Has your status been changed? Are you a son of God? Do you understand that God the Father has manifested and bestowed upon you his love so that you might be a son of God? Has your status been changed? And then if you say yes to that, do you understand that through this also you have been given liberty and strength to live this life with patience, with joy and with confidence, knowing that one day you will experience something greater than you are now. And one day you will see him face to face. And does this hope in you lead you also to purify yourself by the grace of God out of gratitude living a life of holiness out of gratitude, knowing that in the end, you cannot trust in any practical holiness that will ever be achieved by you, but only in the holiness of God through Christ, because in Him, there is no sin. One more quotation from Ibrahim Agh Muhammad. I tweeted this out this week. in that book, I think I read it on Wednesday night. He said, for Christians, salvation is obtaining rather than attaining. When you attain, it's through your effort, you achieve something. He said, for the Christian, salvation is obtaining, receiving. You're a passive recipient. of the Father's actions. It's not about you attaining anything. It's what you have obtained from God through Christ. He continues, Christianity is receiving. It is not achieving. And then he said, Christianity is trusting. It is not trying. Friends, what is your construal of Christianity today? Maybe you came in today thinking that, oh man, I'm here in this church, but these people are probably still uptight, and oh man, they think they have to be so good, and they're probably hypocrites, and dah, dah, dah. But do you understand really that that's not the way we construe things. That's not the way that the Apostle John did. The person who really understands the gospel is laid in the dust in humility. as he understands the greatness of what God has done for us in Christ. Behold, what matter of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God. Let us never get over that wonder. Amen. Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we do give you thanks for thy word and for thy servant John and his ministry, including the ministry of writing this epistle that we might hear it and ponder it. And so, uh, we ask God today that thy word would achieve the ends for which thou has sent it and not returning to the void. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.