Open your Bibles with me to 1 John chapter 3. The past few weeks I have been talking about the brotherhood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the family of God. Is God really my Father? Am I a member of his household, his family? Am I really his child? Are you really my brother or my sister in Christ? Am I your brother in Christ? That kind of issue as the scripture teaches. Today I want to talk about brethren abiding in Christ. Brethren abiding in Christ. When we speak of the brethren, We're talking about brothers and sisters in the same family who have the same father. Fatherhood of God to His people. That's a spiritual relationship that we have in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is called the elder brother, you might say. The firstborn among many. And what that speaks of is His cross work When he suffered unto death, and he was buried, and he arose the third day, and based upon the righteousness that he established, we who are his children are justified, made right, declared righteous, not guilty before holy God. And God who is our heavenly Father is both a just God and a Savior to us, and from his death, As indicated and evidenced and proven by His resurrection, we have life from the dead. We're born spiritually dead in the family of Satan. By nature, the scripture says, children of wrath, even as others. Enemies of God. But God brings us into a right relationship with Him through Christ, and He gives us life, and that's called the new birth, born again by the Spirit. And we're brought into the family of God, the household of God. Brethren in Christ. Over there in that passage that Brother Randy just read. Christ, it says there in verse 11, He is not ashamed. The ones for whom Christ died. And here's what the scripture teaches. That they were chosen in God before the foundation of the world. By grace. That's the election of grace because we were chosen not based upon any foreseen goodness or decision that we would make. We were chosen in Christ. That's what the scripture teaches. Our names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world, the Lamb slain. In other words, it was all based upon His work on the cross, His redemptive work. Loved of God with an everlasting love. Now what the scripture says, and in time, Christ came according to the time that God had appointed to be made of a woman, That's His humanity. We're going to talk about His deity and His humanity. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh. God with us. And He was made under the law. In other words, all of the salvation and all of the requirements of salvation were conditioned on Him under the law for His people. He's our surety. He's our substitute. And he went under the wrath of his father for the sins of his people to pay that debt, and he drank damnation dry. He satisfied the justice of God. And out of his death comes spiritual life to we who are by nature spiritually dead. We fell in Adam, fell into sin and death. He raises us from the dead and brings us into his family. And it says there in Hebrews 2.11, he's not ashamed to call us brethren. Now why is he not ashamed? to call us brethren. Because our brotherhood, our family relationship under the fatherhood of God, is based upon the merits of His righteousness imputed, and there's nothing to be ashamed of there. You think about this, you know what most people think about in the judgment. They think, well you're going to go to judgment and then God's going to show a movie of your life. And every bad thing you ever did, Well, I want to tell you something. If that's the truth, you and I both have a lot to be ashamed of. In fact, we'd find the first place we could hide. But when we who are in Christ stand before God, we'll have nothing to be ashamed of because our measure, our account, our right, our title, our assurance is in His righteousness alone. I have one plea. Christ died for me. And that's it. Now Christ spoke of his brotherhood. I've used this verse several times in this series of messages on brethren, on family, on fatherhood of God. When they told him he was ministering in a house, and they came and told him, says, your mother's outside. She wants to talk to your brothers, meaning his half-brothers, according to the flesh. And you remember in Matthew 12, 50, he said, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and my mother. In other words, my family are those who do the will of the Father. Later on in another message, I'm going to talk about that, the will of the Father. In Luke 8 and verse 21, in Luke's message on that, it says, Christ answered and said unto them, my mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it. Look at 1 John 3 down below our text. My text this morning is verses 6 through 9, but look down at verse 23 of 1 John 3. It says, and this is his commandment. Oh wait a minute, verse 22 rather. It says, and whatever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. What does that mean? Does that mean I keep the Ten Commandments now, and then I do it perfectly? No, it's not what it means, but I'm gonna deal with that later, all right? But look at what he says in verse 23, and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. That's what he's talking about. And he says, and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby know we that he abideth in us, and the spirit which he hath given us. Doing the will of God. Hearing the Word of God and doing it. Keeping His command. What's that all about? Well, we'll get to that later on in other messages. Do we keep His commandments? Do we hear the Word of God and keep it? And notice he didn't say they try to keep it. Somebody said, well, I'm trying. That's not what he says. He doesn't say you're trying to do it. Do we hear the Word of God and keep it? We can say this, by the power of God, we who know Christ, we who believe in Him, we keep His commandment to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for our whole salvation. Where is your salvation? Look at verse 3 of 1 John 3. He says, Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. What is the hope that is in you? What is the hope that is in me? How can I look at myself honestly and say I'm pure? Purifieth himself, even as he, that's Christ, is pure. What is that hope? That hope is the assurance of salvation. The word hope has to do with a certain expectation that I'm truly a child of God and I'll be in glory with Him. What is your hope? Every time I sing that song, hymn number 222, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain. I always think about the writer of that hymn, William Cowper. They say he was a man who was given to depression, bouts of depression, and he couldn't help it. And there was a time when he got in such a state of depression and sorrow that he was thinking about taking his own life. And I can't remember what scripture he read, but it inspired that hymn, There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's vein. And what the point of that is, is this. William Cowper's assurance, if he was a believer, and from everything I've read about him, it seems that he was, but his assurance was not in himself. That depression comes from looking at self. His assurance came from looking to Emmanuel, God with us. That's where our assurance, what hope do you have? My hope is built on nothing less than what? Jesus' blood. My hope's not built on me. You say, well, you know, I've made great strides spiritually. Is that your hope? There's a group of preachers now that call that lordship salvation. If God's not lord of your life, you're not saved. Well, what does it mean to have him as lord of your life? That means, well, you're a do-gooder, you're doing this, you're doing... Well, that's where your assurance is, my friend. I hope and pray that God will show you yourself. You'll be sorely disappointed like Mr. Cowper was. And turn your eyes to Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about. And how do we purify ourselves? By looking at, resting in, pleading the blood of Jesus Christ, which does what? Washes away all my sins. Nothing but the blood. Now look at verse 4. He says, whosoever commit a sin transgresses the law. The word sin there is the most common word in the New Testament. For sin, it means to fall short. It means to miss the mark. That word transgression, it says, for sin is the transgression of the law, means you do not come up to the law's standard. The most common translation of that word transgression is the word iniquity. In other words, you're breaking the law because you do not come up to the law's standard. You're missing the mark. You remember when Christ was talking about those who stood before him at judgment in Matthew 7, 21 and said, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name? Have we not cast out demons? Have we not done many wonderful works? He said, depart from me you that work iniquity. That's the same word. I never knew you, he said. The point that John is making here is that this, if our hope is not in Christ crucified and raised from the dead. If our hope is not in His blood alone, His righteousness imputed alone, we're not going to make it. We're sinners. We missed the mark. We fall short of the law. We don't have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice. But here's where our hope is. Look at verse 5. And you know, that is believers. That He, Christ, was manifested. That means He came into this world and made Himself known as God in human flesh. To do what? To take away our sin. He took it away. We used to sing that chorus, Did you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away. Now how did He take them away? Did He just turn His back on them? Or did He just snap His fingers? Or did He just say, let's free? No, He took it away by the cross that He bore. Having the sins of His people imputed, charged to His account. The debt of our sins. And He went under the wrath of His Father to receive the full punishment of that wrath. for the sins of his people charged to him. That's what it means when it says he was made sin. And out of that death, the work was finished, the law was honored, justice was satisfied, righteousness was established, sin was finished, and all of his people can say amen. Jesus Christ took away my sin. I didn't take them away. And all my efforts to take him away are futile. But Christ took him away. How did he do that? In a legal sense, as my surety and substitute, as he bore my sins in his own body on the tree. He was made a curse for me. And he took him away. And then it says in verse 5, And in him is no sin. Now we can say that in Christ personally, Godman, there is no sin. But I believe this verse in the context As per Christ taking away the sins of His people, what He's saying is that as we stand in Christ, in Him, no sin. Does that mean I'm not a sinner? No, I am a sinner. But God does not charge me with the debt of my sin. It's all taken away. My debt's paid. I stand before God righteous. In that context, look at verse 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Now what does it mean to abide in him? It means to continue in him. It means to stay with Christ. Alright? As opposed to look across the page to 1 John 2.19 Look at it. He says, they went out from us. They left. They left the gospel. They forsook Christ. They at one time claimed to be believers. He says, but they went out from us, you see. He says, but they were not of us. They weren't true believers. They weren't truly children of God. They weren't truly in the family of God. They weren't of us. If they had been of us, they would have no doubt have what? Continued, abided with us. They'd have stayed with us. But they went out. Now, going out there means apostasy. That's what he's talking about. Somebody says, well, you know, so-and-so hadn't been to church in a while. Well, does that mean they were a believer and totally forsook Christ? Not necessarily. You can't make those judgments on every case. You have to look at every case. And somebody says, well, they just haven't come. They either get too busy, they get sidetracked or whatever. What he's talking about here is people who claim to believe in Christ and who these believers thought were members of their family, but all of a sudden, they totally fell away, totally apostatized, and even totally turned against the gospel. Totally turned against Christ. And he said, if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now what's the opposite? Look over verse six of chapter three, whosoever abideth in him. Here's one thing the Bible teaches about true believers, truly saved people, true children of God. They stay with Christ. Doesn't mean they're not going to sin, doesn't mean they're not going to get sidetracked, get diverted, but they stay. And you know why they stay? Because they're such a good lot. No. They stay because they're kept. They are preserved by the sovereign grace and mercy of God. He will not let his people go. He said that in John 10. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. He says no one can pluck them out of my hand. He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out. And this is the will of the Father which is sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should raise it up at the last day. Here's another thing the Bible teaches. If salvation were conditioned on me or you in any way, at any stage, to any degree, we could not and would not be saved. It's all in Christ. We're preserved. We persevere. That means abide. We continue because we are preserved by the power and the goodness and the grace of God. Paul, the writer of Hebrews, who I believe was Paul, but that doesn't matter, it's God's word. He said in Hebrews chapter 10, we are not of them who draw back unto damnation, perdition. In other words, if we're ever saved, we will be saved to the end because Christ is able to save to the uttermost. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. But now look at verse six again. Now, here's what we have here. This is the hope of the brethren. We have this hope, this assurance of salvation because of the merits of Christ and the power of His grace. And so, whosoever abides in Him sinneth not. Now, in what sense can we say we do not sin? Does that mean that we're now perfect people in ourselves? We don't have sinful thoughts, sinful imaginations? Do we never get angry again? Never lose our temper again? Do we now not fall short in our character and conduct to the measure of the law? Can we say we love like Christ loved with a perfect love? Is that the way he's talking about it? Well, if it is, we might as well shut this thing down and go home right now. Because there's not a one of us in here. Now that may be insulting to you and I'm sorry. It's just the truth. We're sinners saved by the grace of God. The only righteousness that I have before God is the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's it. Somebody says, well, but you've been born again. Yes. Born again by the Spirit. You have a new heart, yes. Have a new heart. New life. Have a new mind. New thoughts. My whole world's been changed. I tell you what, before I was saved, I looked at myself, I looked at God, I looked at salvation, I looked at the world in a different way than I do now. How about you? But I'm still not perfect in any of those areas. I still have to struggle. I still have to fight. I've got to struggle. There's a warfare going on right in here. In my mind. In my heart. It's called the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. So how can I say I sin not? Look at the context. What's he talking about? Look at it again. Verse 8. Whosoever abideth in him. The sinning here has to do with not abiding in Christ. That's what he's talking about. If you abide in Him, you're not one who it says that sin is charged to you or that you fall short of the law as you stand before God because Christ is your righteousness. If you forsake Christ, all you are is sin. All you do is sin. To abide in Christ is to stand before God sinlessly perfect in Him. Not in ourselves, but in Him. So whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not. Look at verse 6. Whosoever sinneth, whosoever does not abide in Him, whosoever forsakes Him, whosoever rejects Him and turns against Him, he's not seeing Christ. He didn't see Christ with the eye of faith. Remember Christ said, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, you claim to be a believer, but if you forsake Christ, you didn't see him, you didn't truly see him, and neither known him. You haven't known him in an intimate, saving way. That's what he's talking about. You may have had a claim of faith, but it was sham. It was false. How do I know that? Go back to 1 John 2, 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out so that it might be made manifest that they were not of us. That's it. There's your commentary right there on this verse. Look at verse 7. He says, Little children, let no man deceive you. Now who's trying to deceive them? Well, look across the page again at 1 John 2 and look at verse 26. He says, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. Now what were these seducers? They were false preachers who were trying in their preaching to get these people who claim to be Christian to get their minds somewhere other than Christ. Get it on yourself. You know when the Bible says examine yourself? You know what that verse really says? Well, you know most people, they look at that and they say, well, I've got to examine myself to see if I come up to snuff. Am I worthy? Am I qualified? That's not what that verse says. 2 Corinthians 13.5. It says examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith. Faith is a noun there. What do you believe? I need to examine myself to make sure that I'm trusting the true Christ. Not to see whether I come up to snuff, because I'm going to tell you something, I don't. Even at my best. We're going to take the Lord's Supper. Somebody says, well, you've got to be worthy to take it. What is our worthiness to take the Lord's Supper? Well, I had a good week this week. But I can't take it this time, because I had a bad week. I lost my temper at work, and you know how it goes. Said a few cuss words and that. Does that make you? That's not what that means. You know what your worthiness, my worthiness to take the Lord's Supper is? Am I trusting Christ, His blood and righteousness for my whole salvation? Examine yourself whether you be in the faith. And that's what this is all about. In fact, I can tell you this much. If you examine yourself and think that you've You've made yourself worthy enough to take the Lord's Supper. You're eating and drinking unworthily. Your hope is not in yourself. It's in Christ. Now does that mean that you don't have to think about or do anything towards trying to be a good person, a better person? No. We should be our best. But that's not where our hope is. That's not where our forgiveness is. That's not where our righteousness is. Our righteousness is in Christ. And if I've had the best week that I've ever had living on God's green earth, Christ is still my hope. His grace, listen, I'm saved by grace, I'm kept by grace, and I'll enter glory by grace. Now, if we leave Him, if we forsake Him, that means, number one, we did not believe Him to begin with. We did not, we had not been born again to begin with, and we are breakers of the law. We fall short. We've missed it. Everything is iniquity. So He says in verse 7, let no man deceive. Don't let these people, these preachers take your eyes off of Christ. He says, he that doeth righteousness, What is that doing righteousness? Well, he's not talking about being righteous by our doing the works of the law. The Bible says in Romans 3 verse 20 that by works of the law shall no man be justified, made righteous in God's sight. The best man can do is imperfect, fall short. Sinners are only made righteous by the righteousness of Christ imputed without works, Romans 4 tells us. He who does righteousness is he who is convinced of the insufficiency of his own works to make him righteous. And he knows that Christ's righteousness imputed alone is his only hope, his only assurance, his only salvation, and he renounces his own and he submits to Christ. He lays hold of Christ. He receives Christ as his justifying righteousness. He submits to Christ as the Lord his righteousness. And he lives his life by God-given faith in Christ and desires, as Paul wrote, to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. Faith does not make him righteous, but it shows him to be so in Christ. So he says, he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. In other words, how do I know that I stand before God in the righteousness of Christ? Because I believe in Him, I rest in Him, my hope is in Him, I have no other hope. Verse 7, he says, little children, let no man deceive you from that. Look at verse 8. He that committeth sin is of the devil. Well, to commit sin there is to leave Christ. It's to forsake Christ. It's not to believe in Christ. That's what the devil works. That's what his works are. 2 Corinthians 4, 3, If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which what? Believe not. You know, most people don't understand the works of Satan. Satan loves to have people in a false refuge of religion, claiming an assurance of salvation, but based on a wrong ground. That's what Satan desires more than anything else. If he can get a man behind the pulpit, preaching a false gospel, that's where he's happiest. Preaching salvation by the works of man. So those who do not abide in Christ, he says they're of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. What did he do in the beginning? He brought the word of God into question through Eve and then Adam. And it says for this purpose the Son of God was manifested. This is why Christ came, that he might destroy the works of the devil. What did the devil bring in? Sin and death. What did Christ take away? Sin and death. What did Christ bring in? Righteousness and life for His people. You see that? So therefore, look at verse 9, and we'll conclude here. He says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Now, there's a lot of different interpretations of this, but I believe the context begs us to understand it this way. If you're truly born again by the Holy Spirit, you must be born again. That's regeneration and conversion. If you're truly born of God into His family, in what sense can it be said that we do not commit sin? We will not leave Christ. That's what it is. Other people say, well, that means you won't do this sin, you won't do that sin. Let me ask you a question. If you would stick solely to the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, what is it that a believer cannot do? Somebody said, well, he can't do this, he can't do that. Oh, believers wouldn't do that. I just about guarantee you I can find an instance in the scriptures here where a believer did just that. I'm going to tell you something, we as believers, we can do some terrible things. We can have some bad attitudes. I used to, when I taught school, I'd tell kids, you've got a bad attitude. Does that excuse all that? No. Anybody who raised them said, well, if a believer can do that, I'm just going to go do that. Well, that's stupid. That's presuming on the grace of God. But I'm going to tell you something. If you read it from Genesis to Revelation and stick to the Bible, I'll tell you there's only one thing a believer cannot do. And that is he cannot forsake Christ. Totally. As his hope of salvation and glory. And it's because he's born again. There is a new spirit, a new heart. He talks about that in 1 John 2. That which is in you, the Word of God is implanted upon his heart and he cannot leave Christ. But here he says he cannot leave Christ, look at verse 9, for his seed remaineth in him. Now I believe the seed there, some people say well the seed is the word of God and there are times in the New Testament in the context the word seed is the word of God, the parable of the sower and the seed. But this word seed here is a word that is often used for offspring, children. generation. And I believe in the context of what John is talking about here, especially like back up in verse 1, he says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, children of God. I believe the seed here is talking about his true children. If you're born of God, you're a true child of God. And if you're a true child of God, you remain, you abide in Christ. That's the hymn there, is Christ. Now we do, as true children of God who've been born again, we do have the seed of the Word, the work of the Spirit, the anointing, the unction, abiding in us. We do. And that's spoken of. But I believe here the emphasis is on those who abide in Christ. Brethren abiding in Christ. If you've been born of God, you will not leave Christ, for you are a child of God. Christ's children remain, abide in Him. They stay with Christ. And he cannot sin. He cannot sin. He cannot leave Christ. You can do a lot of other things that are bad. I can do a lot of other things, but we can't leave Christ. Because we're kept and preserved by the power of God. And the reason is because we're born of God. We do have a new heart. We do have a new spirit. Though we may be diverted. But now look at verse 10. I'm not going to go to verse 10 now. I'm going to pick up on that next time. But look what he says in verse 10. In this, the children of God are manifest. This is how you know the child of God. You say, well, I saw him out doing this the other day, and I didn't know the child of God wouldn't do that. Huh? You better back that up with Scripture. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. And he says, whosoever doeth not righteousness, that's to leave Christ, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. And we'll pick up there in the next time. All right?