First John

The Two Worlds, God’s and Satan’s

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: The Two Worlds, God’s and Satan’s.

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 7 of 16

Track: #7

Year:

Dictation Name: RR308D7

[Speaker] Let us worship God. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen Thine heart, wait I say on the Lord. Let us pray.

Our most good and gracious God and heavenly Father we come before You this morning in humble gratitude for your so-great salvation that allows us to come together as fellow believers and as your children to worship you and to recognize your sons salvation this Lord’s day. We pray that You would help us to focus our hearts, our minds, and our thoughts on your words this morning. We pray that You would direct our lives and our thoughts and our attitudes towards obedience to Your word throughout this coming week. Encourage us in faithfulness this week. We pray especially this day for all those who gather together in Your name, we pray that You would encourage them in their faithfulness, we think especially of those throughout the world who are persecuted because they call upon Your name. We know that You sustain them and we pray that You would bless the efforts of all those who seek to give them assistants and comfort. We pray that You would use the time that we have in the word this morning to draw us ever closer to You, and to draw us ever more into the realm of faithfulness and righteousness. We pray that you’d use this morning’s lesson to sanctify us through Your word and Your Spirit, we ask this in Christ our Savior’s name, amen.

The scripture for this morning’s lesson is I John, chapter 3, verses 1-10. First John chapter three verses 1-10, the title of this morning’s lesson is “The Two Worlds, God’s and Satan’s.” First John chapter three, beginning at verse one.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

[Rushdoony] In our text I John 3:1-10, our subject is The Two Worlds, God’s and Satan’s. We have seen that John relies on the differing words in the Greek, Coina Greek, for law and for love and for sin. We come now in particular to sin, a very, very important point because just as to define love incorrectly is to warp the scriptures, so to define anything in the Bible incorrectly will warp the scriptures. We can say, for example, God is good; but what does that mean if our idea of goodness is something that we evolved from Humanism and the world? Which is usually the case. But if when we say “God is good” we define “good” in terms of what the Bible defines it to be, then our meaning is very different.

John begins the third chapter by saying “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” This is a remarkable statement. We really are a mystery to the world, John says, they don’t understand us. They may live next to us or with us, they may think well of us up to a point, but they don’t really understand us if they fail to see that we are the children of God, that there is a different purpose to our lives, that in terms of the word of God we define everything differently.

“2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” This is a remarkable verse because John begins by defining us as God’s children, God’s sons. Moreover he tells us we do not know, nor does the world know, what we shall be. Our life does not end here, it continues in eternity. In eternity we realize all those things that partially only we realized here. So we do not fully know ourselves. I recall when I had a church primarily of retired people, how very often they did not know themselves, nor did I know them, they retired to that community after a life-long in an occupation, and having nothing to do they sometimes developed remarkable talents. They had not known they had them, nor did anyone else. Well, how much more so is this true with regard to heaven? We shall then develop talents and abilities we do not know now. We shall see Him as He is, and we shall develop all that we are in Christ.

“3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Jesus Christ is purity incarnate, but why did John choose that word? “Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” What John is saying is that in this world we are fallen, we are sinners, if we are saved we are saved sinners, we do not fully know ourselves nor our potentialities but in Christ, in the world to come, we realize talents and abilities we cannot imagine here, and we realize them for all eternity so that for all eternity we are a new creation with new talents, new abilities, and this becomes our eternal life.

”4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” This is one of the most important verses in the Bible. The Westminster standards rely on it, they define sin in terms of it. What is sin? It is the transgression of the law, God’s law. That’s why our attempts to define God and to define good and evil are wrong, because our ideas are fallen ones, but when in Christ and in His Spirit we begin to define the world around us, we have a totally different conclusion, and so we have to treasure the law of God because sin is defined by the law, sin is the transgression, the violation of the law.

“5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” He was manifested to take away our sins, so the coming of Christ had as its purpose the reclamation of a fallen creation, beginning with us. So we who fell in Adam are redeemed in Christ, we grow in grace progressively, and in the world to come our growth is perfected. We are then able to be what we never dreamed we could be, we then serve God with abilities beyond that which we imagined we could have. “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” He is the sinless one, perfection, and He came into this world to redeem us, to make atonement for us, to save us from our sins.

So “6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” Well, we can say with justice, none of us are perfect, does this exclude us? Does this mean we are not in Christ because we sin? No. Our sins are being taken away in two ways. They are taken away forever, atonement is made for them by Christ on the cross. But meanwhile progressively we grow in grace and therefore we are not in sin but in grace. We have broken with sin because of Christ’s work

“7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” What He is, we become. In His humanity He is sinless; we therefore grow in grace and with our entrance into heaven put on sinless humanity. Christ of course is also deity, it is His humanity that we put on.

“8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Sin, rebellion against God, the desire to be one’s own God and to determine what is good and evil for yourself, this is the work of the devil and the purpose of God the Son was to deliver us from this the great temptation which is first cited in, of course, Genesis 3:5-6.

Therefore “9 whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” We cannot sin in the sense that we give ourselves now to Satan’s sin to try and be as God, that’s the great sin, to be as God. To say “I will define good and evil for myself, I know what is right and wrong, I don’t need God to tell me.” It is from this we are severed by Christ so that while we do not sin anymore in that sense, we commit sins in the sense of incidental wrongs.

“10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” Now John brings it down to the home front, if you don’t love your brother in Christ you don’t love God. You make yourself ultimate, you are God and people have to please you, not you God and people in Christ. There’s a world of different here. The world has its own definition of what is good, but our Lord tells us that our definition must come from Him, from His word. This is why the abandonment of God’s law by the church has led it so far astray. If the church says there is to be only that definition which we make and God’s law is now obsolete, it has defined itself as God and therefore we can no longer follow it in this waywardness. SO God defines what is good, and God defines it as the closing clause of this sentence says in terms of love of one’s brother. TO love them not in any humanistic sense, but in the sense that this is what God requires. God tells us this is our family for all eternity, therefore you are to love them, help them to grow in grace that you might yourself grow in grace. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee our Father that the good is what Thou hast said it is, Thy word, Thy law. Give us grace to be Godly, to be holy, to be good, to love and serve Thee with all our heart, mind, and being. In Christ name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes Mike?

[Mike] How can Christians determine if something is the works of the devil? I mean I see Christians, I’m saying something, they accept something in their life and they don’t really recognize it is really from Satan and they {?}

[Rushdoony] Mark did you hear that? Could you?

[Mark] {?} repeat it.

[Mike] How can Christians know that something in their life may be the works of the devil? I’ve seen it times where Christians accept something in their life and they think it’s from God and in reality it’s really from Satan, it’s the works of the devil, and that Christ came to destroy those things and maybe they’re not willing to let it happen.

[Rushdoony] A great many Christians think they are doing good when their idea of goodness is from the devil. You can know by knowing the word of God. If you read the Bible form cover to cover and say “this defines holiness, goodness, righteousness, for me” then you will know. But you can see why when the church has abandoned the law it has abandoned goodness, that’s why the church is so full of sin and a people who have a super piety, but it doesn’t take you long to find out that it is not true piety, nor is it good.

God’s word, God Himself, defines what is good so we cannot define it from our culture or from others, and of course that is what we are doing now. Does that help?

Are there any other questions or comments?

Well if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word, grant indeed that we know and believe Thy law, and always be mindful that sin is the transgression of the law, Thy law. Make us joyful in serving Thee, give us growth in holiness. And now Lord grant us Thy peace and grant Lord that day by day we grow in Thy grace. In Christ’s name, amen.