1 John 2:29-3:21 - The trans..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, brothers and sisters. As I said, I'm going to invite you to open up your Bibles to 1 John 2.

And in verse 29, brothers and sisters, we're going to start a new section on this book. And I want to speak to you about the transformational power of sonship. I want to speak to you, brother and sister, my dear friend here with us and children. I want to speak to you about the transformational power of sonship. And when I speak about sonship, I'm referring to the reality that the genuine believer, the genuine Christian, the person who by grace through faith has been united to the Lord Jesus Christ is not only forgiven, He's not only justified, he's not only regenerated, but he's also a child of God.

I want to speak to you about this glorious doctrine of sonship. You will see very carefully that I'm not using the word, adoption, because as I'm going to try to show you here, adoption, as many times theologians and many people will refer to this doctrine, is only a section of what it is, the doctrine of sonship in God through the person of Jesus Christ. So my desire and my intention is to speak to you about the transformational power of sonship. And the reason why I want to do that is, first of all, because that is what the Apostle John does in this section. From verse 29 and onwards until the end of the book, the emphasis of the Apostle John is going to change.

Up to this point, the Apostle John has been exalting their relationship that the Christian is supposed to have with the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are to walk in the light of Christ, that we are to abide in Christ, and that we are to be prepared for the second coming of the Lord by abiding in Christ. From this point onwards, verse 29 until the end of the book, the emphasis of the Apostle John is going to continue to be the exaltation of Christ, but in light of the glorious reality that the Christian is not only a Christian, is not only forgiven, is not only justified, but is also a child of God. We're going to be reading from verse 29 in chapter 2 all the way until the end of chapter 3, but let me show you The evidence from the text that the emphasis of the Apostle is precisely on that. The sonship of the Christian. When I say sonship, of course, I'm not excluding the daughters of God.

But this is the way that the Bible refers to the fact that the genuine believer is a child of God. If you pay careful attention there to verse 29, and we're going to read it. But pay attention to verse 29. It says, The Spirit of God gives now this thought of emphasis to the Apostle to emphasize the fact that we are born of God, that we are children of God. He emphasizes that in verse 1 in chapter 3 saying, See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God.

If that was not enough, in chapter 3 verse 2 it says, Beloved, we are God's children. If that was not enough, in verse 9 of the same chapter 3, it says, "...no one born of God." That is the emphasis of the Apostle. Same there in verse 10, it says, "...

by this is evident who are the children of God." And that is not something that happens only in chapter 3. If you turn your pages there, and if you go to chapter 4, verse 7, that is a very well-known verse among Christians that says, has been born of God and knows God. The emphasis of the Spirit of the Lord through the Apostle John is on this doctrine of being a child of God. If that was not sufficient in the first verse of chapter 5, the Apostle will continue to say, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

And he continues with that emphasis up to the end of the book of the letter in verse 18 of chapter 5. He says, We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. It is clear from the evidence that we have in front of us that the emphasis of the Apostle now is going to change to exalt Christ but through or under the light of this glorious doctrine of being a child of God. And hence, what I want to do today is to speak to you about the transformational power of sonship. We're going to be reading, my dear brother and sister, from verse 28 in chapter 2, going all the way until the end of chapter 3.

That is going to be the section of scriptures that we are going to be addressing every time that the Lord gives us the opportunity to preach from this pulpit. So brother and sister, paying careful attention to the words of God, not reading it in the flesh as a repetitious activity that dead people do in church, but rather guided by the Holy Spirit Let us pay careful attention to each one of the words that we have in front of us. Let us read together the Word of the Lord from 1 John 2, verse 28, all the way until the end of chapter 3. This is the Word of the Lord. And now, Little children, abide in Him so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure, or you know, and that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him. See, O behold, what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.

But we know that when He, that is Christ, appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is, and everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself, as He is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love His brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has the world's goods, and he is his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? little children let us not love in words and talk but indeed and in truth by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him for whenever our heart condemns us god is greater than our heart and he knows everything Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

Whoever keeps His commandment abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He abides in us. What is that? By the Spirit whom He has given us. Amen?

This is the reading of the words of the Lord. My dear brother, my dear sister, my dear soul within the sound of my voice, dear children, Every time that I had the opportunity to address you from this pulpit when I was speaking about the first letter of John, I wanted to emphasize the purpose that the Spirit of God had for the church through the letter that was given to the Apostle John. The purpose of this letter is to give to the Christian assurance of their salvation, The purpose of what we have in front of us, these five chapters, is that the genuine believer will come and read through these words, and that the outcome of it will be that the Christian will be assured of the salvation that they have. The apostle writes in 1 John 5, verse 13, that these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. that you may know that you have eternal life and might continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

The purpose, the intention, the goal of the Spirit of the Lord through John for your soul, for my soul, is that every time that we put ourselves through the letters and through the statements that we find in 1 John, is that we will have certainty and assurance of our belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. that those who are genuine believers will come to the powerful assurance that indeed we have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him we have eternal life. And my dear brother and my dear sister, the way that the Apostle John is going to accomplish that purpose is very different to the way that many pastors and many teachers in contemporary Christianity will try to bring assurance of salvation to Christians. There are many people that think that the only thing that we need to assure people of is that once you prayed a prayer, Five years ago, seven years ago, ten years ago, you prayed a prayer and you made the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of your heart, and you received the Lord in your heart, and now because you did that seven or ten or fifteen years ago, now that means that today you are a Christian. Many pastors, many teachers, and many Christians are fearful of bringing the power, the sharpening power, the piercing power of the words of God to be applied to the heart of believers and professing Christians so that they will be able to discern, not according to their intellect, not according to their experiences, and not according to religion, if they truly are in the faith.

if they truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. The method of this humble Apostle who is perhaps very old and who perhaps has seen many tribulations and difficulties not only of the church but himself, the method of this Apostle is to bring the piercing prophetic power of the words of the Lord with a pastoral heart and care of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, this apostle is going to tell us in 1 John 2, verse 1, that if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins. And not only ours, but not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world.

Yes, the apostle gives us the comfort that in Christ Jesus, we have an advocate that is praying for us, that is interceding for us. But the same apostle is going to tell us That if we say that we have fellowship with God, who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all, while we secretly walk in darkness, that we are liars. The same apostle that will be very careful to give us encouragement in 1 John 2, verse 12, to tell us that our sins have been forgiven for the sake of the name of the Lord, is the same apostle that is going to tell us that if we sin, and we are self-righteous, and we say that we have no sin, and that there is no sin in us, that we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This is the apostle that is going to take the sword of the words of the Lord and is going to tell us that if we say that we have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and do not keep the commandments of the Lord, that we are liars and the truth of the Lord is not in us. Because, my dear brother, my dear sister, and my dear soul, there's no more important question that a person needs to answer.

And that is, what is your position and your condition before the Lord? Not only outside of these walls in which people reject the Lord Jesus Christ, but also inside of the walls of the local church where many people sit in chairs. pleasing themselves through ways of religious activity and their hearts are empty of the power and the kinship of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing worse that find oneself on that day receiving the words from the Lord saying to us, I never knew you depart from me you workers of inequity. The local church and the universal church is only going to be strengthened and empowered when Jesus Christ is enthroned in the hearts of each one of the members of the church.

And that's why this apostle, who is so humble and so loving in pointing us always to the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, is also gracious in pointing us to discern our ways. to consider our ways, my dear brother and sister, because the sharp and piercing power of the exhortation of the word of the Lord is not for the purpose of distraction, brethren. It is a grace of the Lord that is given to us to give us insight in the condition in which we are so that we will go to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing worse than to be blind to the ways of unrighteousness in which we walk. There's nothing worse, brethren, than to have a conscience that has been seared, than to have a heart that cannot hear the voice of the Savior, than to have a soul that now is so indifferent to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's nothing worse than to be blind and to think that we see. And the only way that the person can be made aware of his or her blindness is when the Lord Jesus Christ speaks his sharp and powerful word into our hearts. And the apostle knew that that was his mission for the early church and that he was also the purpose that he had for all churches throughout generations. That we will be assured and certain that we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why in verse 28 he has called us to abide in him.

to abide, presently abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that will prepare us not to shrink in shame at His coming, but rather to have confidence at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, the apostle, after he has spoken these many things, he's going to add one important thing. And that is the condition, or that is the situation, or that is the reality that the genuine believer is a child of God. To be a Christian is to be a child of God.

If you confess that you are united to Christ, you are not only forgiven, you are not only justified, you're not only sanctified in the process of sanctification, but you are also a child of God. to say, to open your mouth, to say that you are a Christian should have the weight upon your mind and upon your soul that you are basically saying that you are a son or that you are a daughter of the Lord. And this is something that is not simply said with a mouth. These are not simply sounds that are uttered with the lips and with the mouth. But this is the result of the majestic and glorious revelation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 29 says that if you know that He is righteous, you have it there in front of you, that if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is a child of God. If you come to the realization that Jesus Christ is righteous, then the result of it is that you will understand by experience and comprehend that those who practice righteousness are the children of God who have been born of Him. Not everyone, or nobody better, is able to discern on their own that the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous. The righteousness of God is only revealed in one way, and the Apostle Paul gives the answer to that in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 when he says that he's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in the gospel, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. The condition of righteous, of a triune God, is only revealed through the gospel in the person of Jesus Christ.

And once a person is coming to that realization of the righteousness of God in the person of Jesus Christ, it's when that person can actually not only understand, but discern that those who are children of God are the ones who do righteousness. There are three important characteristics, brethren, that the Apostle is actually going to give us in this section that are going to define and characterize those who are children of God. You see, it's very easy and it's very simple to say, I'm a Christian because I come to church, and I attend every Sunday, and I do these things and those things. It is very easy to say I'm a believer because 20 years ago I prayed a prayer or something happened to me and my life changed. It's very easy to say I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ because 20 years ago I was doing these things and now I'm not doing them.

But what the Apostle John wants us to do is to prove our sonship and our belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ and our childhood or to be a child of God by putting us through three important tests. There are going to be three characteristics given to us in this portion of the text, going from verse 29 until the end of chapter 3, that are going to be characteristics of a child of God. In our duty, brethren, it is not so much to see if we understand or not what the Colombian person says, but rather, it is to put ourselves through the test of if this is what characterized my sonship and my belonging to the triune God of heaven. First one, righteousness. The one who is a son or daughter of God is one who does righteousness.

You have it there in verse 29 very clearly. It says, if you know that he is righteous, you know. From experience, you are sure, it says in ESV, that everyone, not some people, not those who are consecrated unto the Lord, not pastors and teachers, but everyone who practices righteousness has been born of God. To be a child of God, it is to practice righteousness. The Apostle will extend that in verse 7 of chapter 3.

If you pay careful attention to that, he says, The Father is righteous, then those who have been begotten of the Father are supposed to be righteous. To be a Christian is to be a child of God, and to be a child of God is to be righteous. Not only the legal righteousness that we have received upon faith, Romans chapter 5 verse 1, that we have been justified by faith and now we have peace with God, but here the apostle is referring to practical righteousness. only the legal righteousness of being forgiven, but the practical imparted righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here the Apostle puts us in the category of not giving ourselves to the practice of sin.

Verse 4, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Brethren, there's no easier test to our hearts. Is your heart slave to any practice of unrighteousness? Is your mind taken captive in practice of unrighteousness? Are your eyes, brothers and sisters, taken in unrighteous practices against the will of the Lord?

Because the child of God, who is a genuine Christian, is one who does not practice unrighteousness, but rather, because the Father is righteous, He is also going to be righteous. Not only righteousness, my dear brother and sister, but also love to the brethren. The Apostle is going to progress with these three. The first one, righteousness, but the second one, love to the brethren. Pay attention to verse 10.

Here the Apostle is going to make the connection between the first and the second. The Apostle in verse 10 of chapter 3 says, By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. That is implicitly that those who are the sons of God will love the brethren. My dear brother and sister, it is so easy for us just to get used to the doing and the pushing and the activity of Christianity.

It only takes a couple of years, sometimes less than that, sometimes more than that, for a person to get used to being Christian in the practices of religion. But it is impossible for the heart of those who profess to be Christians, who are dead in their own trespasses, to genuinely experience love for the brethren. Impossible for the heart that has not been begotten again by the mercies of the Father. Impossible for the one who is not in union with Christ. Impossible for the one who does not have the Spirit of God dwelling in them to love the brethren.

And how is love of the brethren manifested? 1 John 3, verse 16, in front of you. It says, By this we know love. that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Is it an option?

Is there a possibility for the Christian? Is there something that we can choose to do or not to do? Is it something that we can choose to experience or not to experience or to have in our heart or not to have? No! Those who have been the object of the love of God manifested in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, laying His life for them, are going to find themselves loving the brethren.

He continues in verse 17, saying, But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? The answer is, it does not. He does not abide in him. Because brethren, one thing is to say that we love one another. One thing is to say from our mouth that there's love for my brother and for my sister.

But has this thought of our mind moved us to be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren? Have you considered that position or that situation in which you give your money, in which you give your talents, in which you give your time, in which you give your efforts, in which you give your body, in which you are spent for Jesus Christ and the bride for whom He died? It is so easy to say that we are Christians when we are just simply living our lives with religious activity, just doing this and that on two particular days. It is more difficult when we examine our hearts carefully and see and try to ask what are the affections that are found there. Because when we find ourselves in a Sunday, when we find ourselves in a Tuesday, Wednesday, whenever we meet, we have come with a predisposition to be in a religious environment, to be seen by each other, and to be presented before everyone.

But what happens in the secret place of our hearts, brethren? Are we seeking our own things? Do we love ourselves? Do we love only? Our love is only extended to those who are around me, to my wife and to my children.

Or is my love genuinely extended to the souls of brothers and sisters? Do I really care that they are sanctified? Do I really care that they receive good doctrine? Do I really care that they are growing in the Lord? Do I really care that there are brothers and sisters throughout the world who don't have anything to eat?

And because they don't have anything to eat, they cannot open the scriptures to study them as they should. Do we even care that there are brothers and sisters throughout the world that do not have a Bible and we are okay to treasure up 10 different Bibles that we have not read in our bookshelf? Why are we so happy and content to have so many things not caring for the life of our brothers and sisters? Because the one who is a child of God, the one who has been genuinely begotten of God, is not only the one who does righteousness, but is the one also who loves the brethren. It is the one whose heart has been taken by the affection of love.

And now he does not care about him or herself, but he is in a constant battle to be spent for the sake of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to see the church of Christ strengthened and empowered and edified, and to see the brethren being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness and love to the brethren. And the third one, brethren, is going to be found in 1 John 3, verse 1, and also in 1 John 3, verse 13, I think it is. Hatred from the world. Hatred from the world.

The apostle is going to use rather a little bit of Confucian words, but once you understand the chapter, you understand what he means. There in verse 3, the first characteristic of the child of God, righteousness. The second one, love to the brethren. The third one is going to be hatred from the world. That's the preposition that you use, from the world, that you receive hatred from the world.

It says initially in verse 1 of chapter 3, that is not very clear, but he's going to make it clear later on. He says in verse 1 of chapter 3, See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are. That's the ESV there. And then it says, the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Who is the Him?

Christ. So the reason why the world does not know us is because it did not know Him. And this is connected to the statement, see what kind of love the Father has had with us that we are called children of God. The reason why the world does not know the children of God is because the world did not know the Son of God. Childhood, I don't know if that's the word that you use in English, but the fact that we are children of God only happens in context of the Son of God.

That is what Galatians says, Galatians chapter 3, that is, by faith that we are all sons of God. The world hated the Son. The world is going to hate the children of God because they are sons and daughters in the Son. The Apostle is going to explain this more carefully in the example that is given in chapter 3, verse 11, but more precisely in verse 14. It says there, in chapter 3, do not be surprised, brethren, that the world hates you.

The three important characteristics that define the child of God It's not coming to church. It's not entering into repetitious activities of things that we do and things that we don't do. It is not learning certain phrases and words so that I will speak the same language that they speak. It is not about buying the correct books and having a good library so that I can go and get the answer that I need and I can put myself into this theological camp so I'm not like these other Christians. To be a Christian is not just to simply do and do and do, but to be a Christian is to be a child of God.

And to be a child of God is to do righteousness, to love the brethren. And the outcome of these two brothers and sisters is going to take us to be hated by the world. Hatred of the world or by the world is not because we are just simply lining up with this political view that is not the most famous among the world, and because I'm lining up with this political view, now they are just fighting against me and they hate me, and that is persecution. My dear brother and sister, biblical persecution or biblical hatred from the world to you is when your heart has been taken so much by the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, and your life is so filled with the love of Christ that when you simply exist in the context of the darkness of this world, you become an offense. just like the Lord Jesus Christ was an offense when he came.

It was not only the things that he said, but it was the things that he did that was an offense to the religious system and to the world. And to be hated by the world, it is the result of the crowning Lord of glory in our hearts, saying the words of Christ, living the life of Christ, and having the life and everything of Christ in us. through us, so that we will become an offense to the world and will be hated by the world. And I don't know about you, my dear brother and sister, but I feel ashamed that my life can be filled with zeal and sweat and the Colombian person speaking and moving on a Sunday, but that my life is not hated by the world, that it should be because of the righteousness of Christ in me. And not that I have to go and seek persecution, and not that I have to go and seek to be stoned by the things that I say, but rather that the righteousness of Christ has to be so preeminent in the way that I speak and do and say that it's evident that this man is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How shall we know that we are the disciples of the Lord? By the love that we have one for the others, right? That's what John says. That the outsider will come and see the love that the brethren have for one another, and they will come to the conclusion that they are disciples of Jesus Christ. That their affection, that their love that they have one for the other is categorically different to any human manifestation of love, or any human manifestation of affection.

That what they have is put in a different category to the point that clearly speaks to them that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we going to achieve that, my dear brother and sister? Impossible in the flesh. How are we going to obtain or to even reach to that point in which our lives are righteous, and we love each other as we are to love, and that we are hated by the world because of Christ in us? Impossible!

There's absolutely nothing that we can do in and of ourselves that will move us and will take us to that position. But now, the question that I want us to ask is this. Why is the child of God supposed to be righteous? Why is the child of God supposed to love the brethren in the way that 1 John 3, verse 16 and onwards says that we need to love the brethren, laying down our lives? Why is that the genuine child of God is going to be hated by the world?

Why is that the apostle will bring all of these truths in this chapter? Let me just give you the answer with the title that I initiated. The reason why the Christian is supposed to be not only a child of God but righteous, the reason why the genuine believer who is a child of God is supposed to love the brethren, the reason why the child of God who is a genuine believer is going to be hated by the world, it is because of the transformational power of sonship. the transformational power of sonship. To be a son of God, to be a daughter of God, has power.

And that power, my dear brother and sister, is transformational in the category of changing the nature of the person who claims to be a son of God. The person who is a son of God, once again, is not only forgiven or is not only justified, but his nature or her nature has been transformed. And this is perhaps the main thing that I want to say to you today. So please put your eyes very carefully there in verse 29. Let me show you the transformational power of being a son of God.

Once again, when I say transformational, I'm referring to the change of nature, the change of substance, the change of being. The person that is a son of God does not remain the same. It is changed entirely. How does that change happen? Let us see there in verse 29.

Pay attention to the last four words that we have in the ESV. It says, If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. has been born of Him. In our English, it's only a simple word, the word of Him, that we have been born of Him. The apostle is going to use that word to be children of God, or to be born of God multiple times.

That preposition in English does not carry so much the power that it has in the original language that this was written. The word, of, literally means to be derived, or to come from. The source of something is providing that something, to come of something, or from something. This word is going to be clearly explained by the Apostle in verse 9. Here, the apostle is what he's trying to tell us is that those who are born of God actually come from the substance of God himself.

The word that we have there in born, in verse 29, before we go to chapter 3, is actually the same word that is used for Genesis, right? Like the Genesis, that is the beginning of something. God is the Genesis, if you want, of the child of God. God is the source from which the child of God is originated. The child of God is derived not from a legal standard that says, you are my son, and hence the limitation of the word adoption, right?

Because adoption is basically a person that legally has made the son of another person. But here, the idea is that we come from the substance of God, that we come from the life of God. One thing are my children being begotten of my flesh. Another thing is that I later on adopt a person and make that person to be my son or to be my daughter. Legally speaking, both of them are going to be my children or my child.

but one of them is coming from me, from my flesh. The idea that the apostle has in mind here is that the child of God comes from, was derived from God Himself. God is the genesis of the child of God, which is more clearly explained there in verse 9. Pay attention to verse 9 of chapter 3. I'm pretty sure that we've heard and we've read this many times in the past, but please bear with me that this is one of the main things that I want to show you.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. Why? Did you pay attention to that? Why? For whose seat, brethren?

His seat, God's seat, abides where? In Him. The seed... Actually, the word there is a very strong word. It's the word sperma.

It's that which gives life. The sperma, the substance from where the life of God is and comes from. The seed of God is what is in the Son of God. It says, No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. The transformational power of this condition of being a son or daughter of God is initiated and has to be understood in the fact that the genuine son of God has not only prayed a prayer, has not only made a profession of faith with his or her mouth, but the seed of God has come and is abiding inside of that person.

The language here is so important and so powerful that the only way that we have to understand it is in Matthew chapter 1, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Excuse me, come to Matthew chapter 1, please. Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1, brethren. Speaking of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You remember that, right? Speaking of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing that I'm trying just to show you here is the weight of the expression that the Apostle has, the Apostle John, through 1 John chapter 3, 4, 5. That we are born of Him. Once again, this is that we come, Genesis is the Lord, is God.

And that we have the seat of God in us. It says in Matthew chapter 1, verse 18, It says, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child, now pay attention there, from the Holy Spirit. or out of the Holy Spirit. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, of course, was through Mary, but it was from, out of the Holy Spirit.

It is the same expression that the Apostle uses in 1 John 3 to speak about the begottenness of the Christian from God, that we are of God. That we come from God. That we have the seed of God inside of us. And of course, this does not mean that the Christian is like Jesus Christ. And of course, that does not mean that we are God, so that we come and become like God.

But rather, that what the Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 1, remember? That we are, what? Partakers of the divine nature. And this happens, brethren, in the concept of sonship. Yes, one thing is to be justified and praise the Lord that our sins have been forgiven.

Just one thing, it is to have received the glorious, imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have the certainty that when we face the Lord, when we die, that we are going to be found guilty and the Lord is not going to count any of our sins because of Christ. Yes, it is true and it's glorious to know that we are in a process of sanctification and that we are being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. But brethren, let me tell you, my words, my mind does not suffice to tell you that all of these glorious things can be summarized in the glorious truth that we are children of God. One thing is to go to a court that you have committed a crime and then you deserve to be punished and to be sent to jail. And then someone comes and pays the fine and then you feel thankful because this person paid the fine.

but another thing is that the judge of that court does not only pay the fine for you but also adopts you and takes you home and makes you your son and your child. That takes it to a greater level because now you were the object of the punishment and you deserve to pay for what you have done but now you have become the object of the love that only the son deserves because you're united to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are as children of God, of God. And if you return please to 1 John 3, the apostle is going to give us a little bit more insight into this glorious reality of being and having the seat of God inside of us. This is going to teach us now a more biblical way of approaching the concept of being children of God.

I don't know if it happens here in Australia, but when we were in Colombia, many people said that everyone is a child of God. Have you heard that? That everyone says that we are all children of God. God created us, and because He created us, we are all children of God. And even though there is a sense, Acts chapter 17, in which we are the offspring of God, there is a sense in which that is the case.

That could be not more unbiblical. because the only children of God, I hope that you're understanding my Spanish order of words, because the only way that we can be the children of God, brethren, is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Return there, please, because now here the apostle is going to give us a little bit more insight, and I hope that I still have you with me, because I'm going to take now things a little bit deeper than this, at least two levels, or depending on how your faces progress. Verse 8. That is the verse that we were reading.

So what I have tried to say to you, brethren, brother, sister, friend, my dear children, is that to be a child of God has a transformational power. And this transformational power is not that we just simply profess with our mouth and something legal happen outside of us, but to be a child of God requires the coming, the genesis of God, given us the life and the condition of being a son to be begotten of God. In a similar way that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Spirit, then the Christian is also coming from God. God is the genesis of the Christian and the Apostle says that we have the seed or the sperm of God inside of us. The Apostle emphasizes that reality by distinguishing two types of people in the world.

There are two types of people, the children of God and the children of The devil. Did you pay attention to that there? Verse 8. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Now pay attention. Verse 9. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, that is the Son of God, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this, the practice of sinning or the practice of unrighteousness, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, hence of the devil, and nor is the one who does not love his brother, hence of the devil. There are two seats, spiritual seats in humans. The seat of the devil, the seat of Satan that does not operate outside of us, like forcing us to do something that we don't want, but rather the seat of Satan that by nature is in each one of us. And then the miraculous rescue of the soul of the redeemed when the seed of God comes and takes a boat in the person who has been saved. The Apostle makes this clear, Apostle Paul, in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians chapter 2, let us read there, so that we will have the weight of the Scriptures to clarify that. Ephesians chapter 2. There are only two types of people, those who have the seat of Satan, the seat of the devil, and those who have the seat of God by virtue of their childhood or by virtue of being children of God. Ephesians chapter two clarifies this and puts terms in a more structured way. Ephesians chapter two, verse one.

Pay careful attention to that, my dear brother and sister. And you were speaking to Christians about their past. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Brethren, who is the prince of the power of the air? The devil, Satan.

Now it says of this Satan, which is the spirit that is now at work, where? in the sons of disobedience. Is this spirit of the prince of the power of the earth? Is this spirit outside or is it inside, brethren? It's in the sense of disobedience.

It's speaking to Christians about their previous condition. This spirit that is now at work. The word work there is the same word that we use for energy. You know, something that energizes something. That when you have a toy and you put like batteries to energize the toy so that the toy will actually function.

It's that fuel, that power that makes the activities of the person to actually happen. The fuel that makes the activities actually happen in the sons of disobedience is the power of the spirit of the prince of the power of the air, Satan himself, who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Verse 3, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by choice, brethren, by nature. Children of wrath, like who? The rest of mankind.

Children of the devil, by nature. Children of wrath, by nature. Children of disobedience, by nature. And let me submit to you that the idea that the Apostle John has in 1 John chapter 3 is that from the moment of creation, the seed of Satan has been among those who hate the sons of God. Let me show you coming from 1 John once again.

Let us come to 1 John chapter 3. And I think I have to finish very soon, so please bear with me. 1 John chapter 3. The idea, or at least the thought, that the Apostle John has in mind is that this controversy, this enmity between the children of God and the children of the devil happens because of the seed that is in them, and it's something that I'm going to show you continues until the day of the Lord. I'm not sure if you pay careful attention to...

I always tell you to pay careful attention to each one of the words. But pay attention to the way that the apostle is going to speak about the way that the devil has been doing unrighteous things. In verse 8, it says, Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. Why? For the devil has been sinning from where?

From the beginning. The seat of the devil has been in operation from the beginning. The Apostle has that in beginning in mind. And let me submit to you that the word beginning for the Apostle is almost always referring to the moment in which things were created from the beginning of time. If that was not sufficient, the example that comes to the mind of the apostle when he's explaining this condition of the seat of God is the example, did you pay attention there in verse 12?

Whose example is it? Verse 12. Cain, right? It says, we should not be like Cain. Now, remember, brethren, that I show you three important characteristics that are not mine, but are from the text of the genuine child of God.

I said to you that the genuine child of God is one who practices righteousness, right? I show you verses I didn't preach. I only show you verses that the apostle says that. Second, the child of God is one who is going to love the brethren. And thirdly, the child of God is one that is going to be hated by the world.

The apostle now is going to exemplify, if that is the word that you say it, the lack of those three things in the example of Cain. Because Cain was an unrighteous person, his deeds were evil. And because he was evil, he's going to hate his brother, hate of the world to the sons of God, and he's going to murder his brother. And he's going to tell us that Cain is, once again using that word, of the devil. Pay attention there in verse 12, please.

We should not be like Cain. You remember the story of Cain, right? who was of the devil. In other words, in the words of 1 John 3, verse 9, the seed of the devil was inside Cain. Contrast to the seed of God that was in Abel.

You call it Abel, Abel? Abel. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one, and murder his brother. Instead of loving the brethren, hating the brethren. And why did he murder him?

One would say, well, because he had the seed of the devil, because he was of the devil. No, because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous. the enmity, the great controversy, the great dichotomy of this world, that the hand of the Lord in this fallen humanity is always going to be in opposition and contrary to the system of the world that is governed by the prince of the power of the air, who is not only have given dominion over the things, but is working himself in the hearts of fallen men. So there is this promise that this enmity is going to continue until the day in which the head of the serpent is fully crushed. Come, please, with me to Genesis 3, verse 15, because here we're going to see, I think, and based on the evidence that I presented, I think that this is where the apostle has his mind.

the seat of God and the seat of the devil, and the controversy that is seen between the sons of God and the sons of the devil, the enmity that is going to exist between the two, and that's why the Christian is to be righteous, to love the brethren, and as the result of it, is going to be hated by the system of the world. Now, there's something very powerful here, brethren, and please pay your attention to me for the last 5 or 10 minutes here. We know what is called the first gospel in Genesis 3, verse 15, right? Let us read this, please, together. I will put enmity between you and the woman.

I think I don't have to give so much context to that. We all know that what is happening there. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed, or between your offspring, between your descendants and her seed, and her descendants, and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, that is the seed, that is the offspring of the woman, the mother of the living Eve. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

I learned those words in English, so I don't understand the context of them as you will understand it, the word bruise, head, and heel. But I don't know, you tell me if this is the picture that you have. You have the picture of one crushing the head of the other one, and the other one at least biting or making some violence against the heel, right? Of the one that is actually crushing the head of the serpent. You see the things that way?

Okay, so he says, he shall bruise your head, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Let me tell you a couple of things about this verse there, that put together with 1 John 3 will tell us something very important. First of all, we know that the offspring of the woman is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is going to come, and that is going to crush the head of the serpent. In this case, the serpent is the evil one.

But when you go and see the doctrine of the seat of God given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, and then explained in Galatians chapter 3, you will see that there is an incredible connection between the seat of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who are in Him as being the seat of God Himself. Come to Galatians chapter 3 so that you can see it with your own eyes. Galatians chapter 3, which is the explanation of these matters, or at least some of these matters that I'm trying to explain here. Galatians chapter 3. Let us read from verse 26.

We know the context and the context is not what we need now. So let us just read from verse 26. Only the statement of truth that is made there. Verse 26, "...for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God."

How? Pay attention to that. We are sons in Christ Jesus through faith, speaking to you about the sonship. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, as you were united to Christ, have put on Christ. Now this is not that you took like a tattoo yourself the name Christ or you get yourself a t-shirt that says Christ, but it's speaking about the coming together, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, of the oneness of spirit that we become with the Lord Jesus Christ upon flesh.

The same concept that Apostle John explains when we are begotten of God through Jesus Christ. That we become partakers of God in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, because those are human categories. There is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are in Christ, or if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Now brethren, I don't have sufficient time and it's just too long, but sons and daughters by faith in Jesus Christ, and as sons we become heir of the promise that is to come. Sons, we become sons, the same with Jesus Christ, heir of the promise that is to come. The union that we have with Christ by virtue of being children of God is such that many times will the Bible see the accomplishments of Christ as the accomplishments of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and hence in Christ we receive all the spiritual blessings once again. This concept of being a child of God and have the seat of God in us is so powerful that many times the Bible will see the accomplishments of Christ as one and unique and together with the accomplishments that the church achieves, not by virtue of the efforts of the power of the church, but by virtue of this glorious union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who is the one that is going to crush the head of the serpent, brethren? Lord Jesus Christ. Are you sure? Come to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16.

The Apostle making a direct reference to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. In his personal greetings, as he is finishing the letter to the Romans, he is going to say something very important that is going to show us the glorious union that we have with God in Jesus Christ by virtue of being the same seed of God. In verse, I think it is verse 20, Romans chapter 16 verse 20, it says, The God of peace will soon crash Satan. Who is going to crash Satan? God will.

The God of peace will soon crash Satan under your feet. Under your feet, feeble church. Under your feet, people that are sometimes like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. The Lord of glory, the God of peace is going to crush the serpent under our feet, the church? Yes, my dear brother and sister, because there is a promise that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church.

And not because hell is attacking the church, but rather because the church is extending the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the victory of Christ is the victory of the church, because those who have been begotten of the Father have received the seed of God Himself in them. So we have the promise that by being children of God, we're not going to only continue to walk through this pilgrimage. We're not only going to continue to see the sufferings of this world, but there's going to be a time in which we're going to see the final victory, the consummation of all things, in which God is going to come to finally destroy the serpent under the feet of His Son, Jesus Christ, and of the Church, and the consummation of sonship is going to be established. Romans chapter 8, please, let us finish there.

Sonship is an aspect of, or better, adoption is an aspect of sonship. Sonship is so much greater and so much more beautiful. Pay attention to this last day's aspect of being a child of God. Brethren, you know what I'm taking you, right? Romans chapter 8.

Remember Assurance of Salvation, how it takes place? Romans chapter 8, verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, brethren. that we have been begotten, that the genesis of our hearts is God Himself, that we have the seed of God in us, that we are united with Christ.

It is the Spirit of God that testifies that we are united with Him. And remember what it says about in Galatians chapter 4, and if you are in Christ, you are heirs, and heirs of the promise. Remember? I said to you that you remember that, I hope you do. Verse 17, and if children, then?

heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided what? Provided we suffer with him in order that we might also be glorified with him. Enmity between the seed of God and the sons of God and the sons of the devil throughout this time until the Lord Jesus Christ comes and establishes his kingdom and rescues his people To be and to give them the redemption of the body, which is what we call actually adoption. Pay attention to verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. This is the future adoption. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Whose glory? The glory of God?

Yes, the glory of God that manifested in the children of God. In verse 22, For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly, as we wait eagerly, for what? For adoption. What is this adoption? Adoption, my sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Their redemption of our bodies, my dear brother and sister, because when He comes, He's not only going to be our God and we shall be His people, but there's going to be the consummation of the union and communion with our God. He's going to wipe our tears. Remember, the last enemy, 1 Corinthians 15, what is the last enemy that is going to... Death and death shall be no more. This is the consummation of the sonship of the Christian, that the Christian going through this pilgrimage is going to be in enmity with this world in which we see and we perceive the seed of Satan that is not only around us, but that is in the hearts of fallen men.

But there is a promise that just as Cain and Abel were in enmity, just as Isaac was also in enmity with the son of Agar, Galatians chapter 4, just as there was enmity between the two seeds, There's also the promise that the God of peace will crush the serpent under our feet. And why, my dear brother and sister? Because we are sons and daughters of God. And what did Galatians chapter 3 say? That we are sons of God only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, my dear brother, my dear sister, what a glorious truth that is! that feeble people like us have been commanded, have been given the mission, not to be strong in power, not to have answer to every single question, but rather just to one simple thing, to die to self and to be conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when Christ Jesus is the one that is enthroned in our hearts, when Christ Jesus is the one that is commanding our words, our thoughts, when Christ Jesus, who is righteous, who loved the brethren and who was hated by the world, is the example that we follow, Then the church, my dear brother and sister, is going out of this wilderness. It is going behind the Savior. It is taking the power of Christ himself.

And even though there's going to be hatred, and even though there's going to be tribulations, and even though there's going to be difficulties, we have the glorious promise that there's someone that is going to be crushed. And there's someone that is going to crush the enemy. And that is our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to make us partakers of the glorious victory of our God. Not because we deserve it, but because he loved us and he gave himself for us.

The transformational power of what it is to be a son or daughter of God. Now brother, sister, my dear friend, are you a child of God? Do you experience the glorious, powerful righteousness of Christ that is taking captive the darkness of your heart and is giving you light and light and light? Are you governed by the words of the Savior? Or are you governed by the words of your mind and the preferences of your heart?

Have your heart been taken to a place in which you love the brothers and sisters, not because there's nothing good in them, but rather because He loved them and He gave Himself for them? He came to this world to die for all of these people. He came to this world to die for the people in this country and in that country, and He loved them so much that what am I going to do other than love those people that my Savior loved? And are you ready to take the gospel of Christ, and to take the message of Christ, and the power of Christ, and to be hated by the world? Not because you line up with a certain political view, but rather because Jesus Christ is enthroned in your heart and is making you live as He lived?

Oh, may the Lord give us the grace that is needed, my dear brother and sister, to continue to set our eyes in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in the things of this world, that we may be always filled with the grace of God that is needed to do the things that he has commanded us to do. Amen.