Thank you, Mark. Well, it's certainly good to be back with you again. And not only are we glad to come here to see you all and to visit with you all, but we're just glad to get out of winter. We've had a tough one up there. Of course, it's getting better up there. I think it's supposed to be up in the 50s and 60s there, too. So we're just thankful to see some good sunshine and warm weather. And I'm just glad to be here. Appreciate all your prayers for us in Ashland, and I do bring you greetings from all the brethren there. We're doing fine, and I see that you're all doing fine, too, and it's just amazing how the Lord continues to get the gospel out around the world. I mean, you know, we sometimes take that for granted, but we ought not to. That's an amazing thing, isn't it? So with that in mind, I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 3. 1st John chapter 3. Now what I'm going to do this morning in a Bible study is pretty much just read through some of this passage. But let me give you a little bit of the background of what I've been trying to do. I've been preaching several messages up home about the last days. And you hear so much about that, you know, from so-called churches and television preachers about the second coming of Christ and the issues that revolve around that subject. And you hear a lot about anti-Christ, the anti-Christ, whatever he is or that is or that spirit is. And so in dealing with that subject, you know, the term Antichrist, John is the only apostle who really used that term in his epistles, 1 and 2 John, and Paul He dealt with the issue of Antichrist even though he didn't call it that, but it was the same thing. And that spirit of Antichrist is a spirit of false religion. That's what it is. False religion. that claims to be Christian, that comes in the name of Christ, but denies the truths of Christ, either some combination of the truths of his person and his finished work, what he accomplished on Calvary. to save his people from their sins, from our sins, to redeem us, to, as Daniel chapter nine and verse 24 puts it, to finish the transgression, make an end of sin, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and the prophecy, and anoint the most holy. Although that's one of the most succinct verses that comprehends Christ, who he is, and his obedience unto death and what he accomplished that you'll find in the scriptures. And so anything that opposes any one of those things but comes in the name of Christianity is anti-Christ. It's an anti-Christian spirit. John deals with that over in 1 John chapter 2. And we'll look at that in just a moment, but I want to read two verses here that really serve as a basis of my study through 1 John 3. And many of you have heard me preach on this and teach on this, and some of your preachers have dealt with it. And so a lot of this is not going to be unfamiliar to you. This will just be like a reminder. You know, as Isaiah said, precept upon precept. But look at verse 9 of 1 John 3. I told our folks up in Ashland, I said, you know, if you don't understand this verse, if you really don't understand it, it ought to scare you to death. It ought to scare you to death. Because Brother David Atkins, he used to tell me, he'd read that verse and he'd just shake his head. What in the world? Listen to it. It says, whosoever is born of God, now that's the new birth, Christ said you must be born again, doth not commit sin. That's what it says. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." And then he says in verse 10, in this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. This is how you tell the difference between a child of God, one who is truly Christian, one who follows Christ, believes in Christ, serves Christ, loves Christ, and a child of the devil, anti-Christ. That's what that is. i think about because the one who's born of god is is christian doesn't commit sin and uh... it says here he he he cannot sin we know from number one from scriptural testimony and from our own experience that it that if he's talking about some kind of sinless perfection within us Then, where does that leave us? And he goes on, he says, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now, the title of this message is Children of God Manifested. The word manifested means they're made evident, means they're made known. They come to the forefront. And that's what he's talking about. So, when you look at a verse like that, what do you see? Well, look at the context. Now, first of all, I'm not going to go back and read through the whole book of 1 John. I don't have time to do that. But here's what John is talking about in his first epistle. What he's talking about mainly is the eternal, unbreakable fellowship that exists between christ and his people and that exist between his people among themselves that is an eternal unbreakable fellowship and what he's talking about it you know there's a lot of a lot of things that we could talk about as as that pertains to that in eternal fellowship and unbreakable fellowship well right away you know uh... the old saying once saved always saved What we're talking about is the eternal security of the believer, the eternal security of the saint. Here's a fellowship that's created by God, not man, conditioned on Christ, that cannot be broken. It's eternal. and i'll say no matter what now that uh... you know you in course you know the objection that people raised against that is where you're saying that you can just go out and do this that in the other you know now let's not what we're talking about you know you don't know you they do air not knowing the scriptures and we'll see that but it's an eternal unbreakable fellowship well before we get into first john three turn back to first john two and look at first eighteen A good thing to do in your own Bible study is to just read through the whole book with this in mind. But listen to what John says here in verse 18. He says, little children, it is the last time. That's the last days. And the last days, you know, describes the time period between the first coming of Christ and his accomplishing of his work and his obedience unto death, his death, burial, and resurrection, and his ascension unto glory, where he is now seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. And incidentally, I think a lot of times that we as gospel preachers don't emphasize the intercessory work of Christ enough, because that really is the foundation of our eternal security. Christ accomplished on the cross. He put away our sin, we'll see in just a moment. He established an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God could be just and justify. And he continually pleads the merits of his obedience unto death as our mediator, our intercessor. John says in 1 John 2, 1 and 2, our advocate. It's kind of like our defense attorney. One who stands for us and pleads the evidence for our justification, which is his righteousness imputed. And so that's the intercessory work of Christ. But he says from that time that he ascended unto glory to do his intercessory work until his second coming is the last days, the last times. And the Bible teaches that as we approach the second coming of Christ, things are going to get worse and worse. Now a lot of people don't read the scripture when they talk about things getting worse and worse. You know what they read mainly? The newspaper. And that's not right. You're not going to get your information about God's plan and purpose from the newspapers or the local newscast. You know, you say, well, I need to know what's going on over in Israel and all that. No, you need to know what God says from his word. That's what you need to know. That's what I need to know. And let me tell you what's going to get worse and worse as the day of his second coming approaches. Anti-Christian religion. That's what's going to get worse and worse. There's going to be more deception in religion. There's going to be more false doctrine that comes in the name of Christ. It's going to get so bad that what is commonly considered and judged and known as Christian is not even Christian at all. It's going to be a subtly disguised, cleverly disguised system of work salvation where men claim to believe in Christ and claim to be Christian But at some stage, to some degree, at some place, they're going to introduce man's works as far as attaining or maintaining salvation. Now, that's what's gonna get worse. Somebody said, well, there's gonna be more wars. Christ told his disciples, he said, there's gonna be wars and rumors of wars. He said, but the end hasn't come yet. He said, that's just the beginning of sorrows. He called it the beginnings of sorrows. All the things that people look at in the newspaper that are going on, you know, we talk about the earthquake in Japan, you know, and we say, well, that's getting worse. No, they've always had earthquakes. That's not the sign of his second coming, even though those things will happen. There'll be wars and rumors of war. There's always been wars and rumors of war, hasn't there? Have you got any historians here? Read it. I mean, that's not gotten worse. We can say, well, it's gotten worse, but that just goes on like it's always gone on. But this anti-Christian religion, this false religion, that's gonna get worse and worse and worse and worse. That's why in the book of Revelation, it says that there's only two witnesses left. Of course, I believe that's talking about the law and the gospel. People will totally forget it. But look here, he says it's the last time And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, it's a future aspect of it. Even now are there many Antichrists, not just one person that arises on the political scene. And incidentally, when you read about Antichrist in the scriptures, he's not a political figure, he's a religious figure. It's not a political spirit, it's a religious spirit, anti-religion. Not against religion, but I'm talking about anti-Christian religion. And he says there's many Antichrists. In other words, people claiming to be Christian, but they're not. That's what that is, all right? So he says, whereby we know that it is the last time. Now look at verse 19. He says, they went out from us. Now, did you get that? They once claimed to be with us, but then they went out from us. They left us. And he says, but they were not of us. Now, when they left us, they didn't lose their salvation. That doesn't blow the doctrine of eternal security out of the water here now. When they left us, they only proved that they were never of us to begin with. For if they had been of us, if they had been in that eternal, unbreakable fellowship that we have by the grace of God in Christ and based upon His blood and righteousness alone, He said they would have no doubt continued with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest. Now, what did he say over there? In this the children of God are manifest, and in this the children of the devil are manifest. Well, John says they went out from us, that they might be made manifest. That what? That they lost their salvation? No, that they were not all of us. They had a profession, but they didn't know the truth. They didn't know the true Christ. Now that's the context that he deals with in 1 John 3, but let's read on. Look at 1 John 2 20. He says, but you, now who's the you here? That's those who are saved by the grace of God. That's those who are part of this eternal, unbreakable fellowship. These are the people whom God chose from the foundation of the world, whom he justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ, whom he gave life by the Holy Spirit in the new birth and called them out by the gospel, the good news of salvation by grace in Christ. You, he says, have an unction. That word unction is a power. It's the power of life. It's like you've got ears to hear. That's the unction. You've got eyes to see. That's the unction. You've got a heart and mind to understand and know the reality of sin and of judgment and of God's one way of salvation by the grace of God through the cross of Christ and through what he accomplished on Calvary. And you have that from the Holy One. You have it from Christ. And you know all things, he said. I don't mean you're a know-it-all. There are a lot of things we don't know. We're continually learning. But you know all things that pertain to the reality of salvation. That's what he's talking about. So there's the difference. Now, look down at verse 29 of 1 John 2. Now, let me just read through this. We're going to start at verse 29 of 1 John 2. And the first thing he gives us here is the state of grace. the state of grace, all right? If you're in a state of grace, you cannot be taken out of that state. If you're in a state of grace, you were put there by God. Look at verse 29. If you know that he is righteous, now who is the he there? That's Christ. That's who that's referring to. The context tells us that. And I didn't read the verses before that, but like I said, you go back and read it all. If you know that Christ is righteous, You know that everyone that doeth righteousness, now that's a little bit of a difficult term because people don't understand what righteousness is. What is righteousness? Well, a lot of times in the Bible, you can interchange these two terms, righteous and just, or righteousness and justice, all right? And in the Old Testament, it was kind of like a term that meant balancing things out. In other words, here's the standard over here, and you've got to make it balance out. And that's why men and women by nature think that they can work their way into God's favor, because they think they can do enough good works to balance things out. And you've heard the old saying about people who believe, well, I know I'm a sinner, but I'm gonna do enough good works to balance this thing out, and hopefully, my good works will outweigh my bad works. And of course, we know that's a person who believes that and claims to be Christian is Antichrist. That's that spirit, you know, because you can't do enough good works to balance it out. That's why it's called iniquity. It means inequity. It doesn't equal out. Alright. And so, whatever you do in trying to save yourself or make yourself righteous, establishing a righteousness of your own, it will not balance out because on the other side of the scale is the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ. Acts 17, 31, God's commanded all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day into which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained in that he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. So in other words, the other side of that scale for any of us is the righteousness of Christ. And so he says, if you know that he is righteous, if you know what's on the other side of that scale, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is what? Is born of him. They're birthed of him. They're his offspring. That's what he means. When you have a child, you have an offspring, all right? You get what he's saying there? What is it to do righteousness? Well, what is righteousness? It's perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. What is it to do righteousness? Let me tell you what doing righteousness is. It's not just the practice of what religion calls morality. Should we be moral? Yes, yes. But that's not our righteousness. Should we try to do good? Yes. Should we love and be kind and compassionate? Yes, but that's not our righteousness. See, this is where Antichrist messes up. They believe that the sinner's efforts to be good is his goodness, not so. They believe the sinner's efforts to be righteous is his righteousness. Not so. Oh, and they'll say, with the help of God. I'm gonna deal with a passage in the main message here this morning that shows that. So what is it to do righteousness? It's to live, listen to it. You gotta be born into it in this sense. It's a life lived resting in Christ and trusting him for all righteousness. That's what doing righteousness is. A life lived resting in Christ. My righteousness is not my doing. It's his doing on the cross. It's what Christ accomplished at Calvary in his obedience unto death. He is my righteousness. That's why the Bible identifies him as Jehovah Sidcanu, the Lord our righteousness. So it's living a life trusting and resting in Christ for all righteousness, for all forgiveness, for all acceptance. That's what doing righteousness is. It's not righteousness by my works or my efforts, the best of them or the worst of them, but it's looking to Christ and resting in Him, faith in Him. So anybody who does that, what does that show? They're born of God. You don't do that unless you're born again. That's why Christ told Nicodemus in John chapter three that you must be born again or you cannot enter or see, understand, save in the kingdom of heaven. That's what faith is all about. It's not about the perfection and the power of my believing. It's about the perfection and the power of the one in whom I believe. You see, this is another place where Antichrist messes up. Faith to Antichrist and being Christian is the power and the perfection of their believing. You just got to believe hard enough. You heard that? You know, it's like a genie in a bottle, you know. You just got to believe it hard enough and that power of positive thinking will get you through. Now listen, I'll be honest with you. I believe in the power of positive thinking. I don't even like to be around people who are all the time negative. How about you? But that's not my righteousness. That's not my salvation. Christ is. You see the difference? The power of faith is not in the power of believing. It's the power of Christ in whom we have faith. So if we have faith in Him and if we're trusting Him and living a life in Him, we're born of God. Now look at verse 1 of chapter 3. This is a state of grace now. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Now that love is defined over in 1 John. It's actually defined all over the scripture, but give you a specific scripture. First John chapter four in verse 10, where he says, hearing his love, not that we love God. The greatness of this love is not how much we love God, but how much he loves his children. His offspring is not the whole world without exception. Now, this is those who are born of God. And he says God proved that in that he gave his son to be the propitiation. There's love in line with justice, righteousness. That propitiation is a satisfaction. It's a sin offering that brings about satisfaction, brings about righteousness. And he says that we should be called the sons of God. And that word called there is identified as. It's not just a label. This is the right and the privilege that we have. We're children of God right now in Christ. And he says, therefore the world knoweth us not. The world doesn't judge this properly. The world doesn't know what a, the world here is the unbelieving world. And they don't even know what a Christian is. I mean, they can look at you and they can tell, well, he's a fine upstanding citizen and that's okay. But they really don't know the reality of what Christian is. And so he says, because it knew him not, didn't know our Lord. Remember Christ said in John 15, 18, marvel not if the world hates you, hated me before it hated you. And then he says in verse two, now look at this. This is a state of grace. We're children of God. We're born again into the kingdom because he's righteous and Christ worked out a righteousness. that enables God to be just and justifier, and from Him who is our righteousness comes life, and that's how we live a life resting in Him for all righteousness. We do with righteousness, you see. That's the state of grace. And so he says in verse two, beloved now are we the sons of God. That's not a future aspiration, that's a reality right now for a child of God, an offspring of Christ. And he says, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Now what we're going to be in glory, we don't really have much of an inkling. We have a little bit of information given in the scripture, but not a whole lot. We're going to be resurrected in glory with a perfect spiritual body, no tears, no pain. And he says, does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, when Christ comes again, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We'll see him with perfect eyes. We'll see him in his effulgent glory, with no hindrances of the flesh, no hindrances of the world, no hindrances of sin and contamination. Now there's a state of grace and then he says in verse three, now listen to this, and every man that had this hope in him, that's the hope of my inner being, the hope of my heart, the inner man, and that is the certainty of glory based on the righteousness of Christ. That's my hope in him, in Christ, purifies himself even as he's pure. Now what is that purification? within us. That's what he's talking about. Well, it's the cleansing of our conscience. It's not sinless perfection. It doesn't mean that now I'm pure inside so that I'm sinlessly perfect and I can do things purely imperfect without any contamination of sin. No. Read Romans 7, 14 through 25. Read Galatians chapter 5. We have a struggle within, don't we? Our conscience is cleansed because it's been purged. It's been cleansed, how? By the blood of Christ. Read that there in Mark, read Hebrews chapter 10. Read the verses before that, Hebrews 10, 19, on the way through. He talks about how the conscience is purged of guilt. Now what does it mean to have the conscience purged of guilt? Romans 8, 1, there's therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. God will not condemn me. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth, chargeth not iniquity. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, and is what? Seated at the right hand of the Lord. Remember his intercessory work. In other words, I'm a sinner, but God doesn't hold it against me. Well, how do you know that? Okay, there's a state of grace. Now go to the next one. Here's the foundation of grace. Look at it. Verse 4, it says, whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now, there's no way you can get by that or get around it or get through it. There's no loopholes. Sin is transgression of the law. Righteousness is perfect satisfaction to the law. You cannot, you cannot call anything righteous that falls short of the standard of the law. I don't care what it is. You say, well, I had a good day yesterday and I was kind to everybody. Well, sin is still transgression of the law. If there's any taint or hint of sin in anything you've done, you can't call it righteousness. You're not going to get around that. I don't care who you are, child of God or child of the devil. Sin is still transgression of the law. And the law says sin deserves death. Remember in 2nd, or in 1st Corinthians 15, where he talks about there at the end when he talks about, O death, where is thy, what is it, O death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? And he says, the strength of sin is the law. I used to wonder about that phrase. The power of sin is the law? Well, what he's talking about is the power of sin to condemn us is the law of God, because sin is transgression of the law. So you're not gonna get around that. We're still sinners, even though we can save from God's Word, we're sinners saved by grace. All right, verse five. Now here's the key, here's the foundation of grace. And you know, remember he said over there, you know all things? Well, here's what we know, listen. And you know that he, who's the he there, that's Christ, was manifested, he was made known, made evident, and came into the world to do what? To take away our sins. He was manifested to take them away. I'm a sinner, but Christ took them away. How did He do that? By shedding His blood on the cross. That's how He did it. He was made sin. Our sins were charged to Him. He became guilty and defiled in the sense of legal justice. In that sense only. He didn't become a sinner. He wasn't made a sinner. He didn't become contaminated or confused or anything like that. But he was made sin. And everything that it is to be made sin in that sense, he was our substitute. He was our propitiation. And he died under the wrath of God for the sins of his sheep. He said, I laid down my life for the sheep. He suffered and bled and died to do what? To take them away. Now what does that mean? That's a legal term. That's what that is. It means He expunged the books. In other words, it's like this. Let me just show you this. God sees no... Well, let's read the next phrase there in verse 4 or verse 5. It says, He was manifested to take away our sins and in Him is no sin. Now it's true that in Christ himself there's no sin, but that's not what that's saying there. You see 2 Corinthians 5.20 says he was made sin, Christ who knew no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Our sins imputed to him, his righteousness imputed to us. And in him personally, there was no sin. But what this is saying is that as we are children of God, in him, as we are considered in him, as he is our representative, our substitute, our sin bearer, our righteousness, there is no sin. In him is no sin. And what that means, listen to this. You'll like this. It says, God sees no sin in us as a matter of divine justice. The debt's been paid. The record books of heaven record no iniquity, no transgression, and no sin against God's elect, those for whom Christ died. God will not impute sin to his saints or require satisfaction from us because our sins were made Christ and were justly imputed or charged to him when he was made sin for us. He paid for them. Our sins have been forever expunged from the book of God's offended justice by our Savior's precious blood." No sin. In Him, I'm perfect. I can say I have a sinless perfection in heaven, Christ. Not in myself. Right now, it doesn't appear what I shall be. Now, that's the foundation of grace. And look at verse 6. And here's the result of it. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." As long as I'm in Christ, God will not charge me with sin. Because he took them away. Christ took them away. When you look at me, you see a sinner. You see a man whose body is dead because of sin. Romans, what is that Jim? Romans 6, 8, Romans 6, 18 or something. I can't remember. No, it's not 18. Somewhere around there. But the body is dead. It's Romans 8, isn't it? Yeah, it's Romans 8. The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Who's? Christ. I have life because of Christ. So as long as I'm in him, God will not impute sin to me. He will not hold it against me. The law cannot condemn me. He says, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. That's talking about an unbeliever there. That's talking about one who's not in Christ. And so he says in verse seven, little children, let no man deceive you. Now don't be deceived about this. Don't let Antichrist deceive you. And I told our folks, you know, now there's some people who believe Antichrist is this and some people who believe Antichrist is this and that and the other. Let me tell you something. Here's your key issue now. Don't be deceived by whoever or whatever Antichrist is. You say, well, how can I not be deceived? Well, what's his issue? Look at, he says, he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. He that lives a life abiding in Christ, resting in him for all righteousness, is righteous before God, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. Even as Christ is righteous, and you know how we can say we're as righteous as Christ? Because he is our righteousness. He's it. So go on now, verse eight, he says, he that commit a sin is of the devil. Now there's two applications of this, about this committing sin. He's not talking about a believer who's still a sinner saved by grace, to whom God does not impute sin. He's talking about an unbeliever here who doesn't have Christ. He's not in Christ, he doesn't abide in Christ. He's not a believer, and he's of the devil. And he says, for the devil sinneth from the beginning, goes all the way back to the beginning when Satan brought about the fall of man. And he says, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now, when did he do that? At the cross. He said it. He said, now is the prince of this world judged. Now is he cast out. And what does he mean by that? Well, what is Satan? He's the accuser of the brethren. And because of the blood of Christ shed on the cross, because of his righteousness imputed to us, whatever Satan hurls in his accusations against the children of God, they do not stick. Now why? Because in him is no sin. In Christ there's no sin. So he says in verse 9, now look at this, he says, 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. Now here's the key to this. What is it? To not commit sin? It's to be in Christ, not charged with our sin, and it's to abide in him. We don't leave him. Because he won't leave us. He won't let us go. For his seed. Now the key to understanding this, what is the seed? Read it this way. For his children remaineth in him. Those who are born of Him, His children, His offspring, they remain in Him. If you're truly the offspring of Christ, born again by the Spirit, if you have life through Him and by His righteousness alone, you'll remain in Him. You won't leave Christ. Like those who, over in 1 John 2, that we read about, who went out from us. A child of God cannot leave Christ. And it's not because the child of God is so strong and powerful and good, it's because Christ won't let him go. He holds on to us. And that's what he says here. He remained with him and he cannot sin. He cannot leave Christ. He cannot be charged with his sin because he's born of God. And in this, the children of God are manifest in the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. If you're not in Christ, you're not of God. If you're not abiding in him, neither he that loveth not his brother." Now, I haven't worked out all the messages in the rest of this chapter, and I'm running out of time, so I'm going to quit. But I think that puts it in a good perspective. Hope you enjoyed that.