This sermon focuses on the purpose of Jesus Christ coming into the world to save sinners, emphasizing the need for His righteousness to enter heaven. It highlights the power of Jesus to break the bondage of sin and the deception of Satan, who seeks to hold people captive. The message encourages surrendering to Jesus, who can set individuals free and bring about a transformation in their lives.

You may be seated. As we continue our journey through the Bible this week, we've come to 1 John chapter 3. And I wouldn't want to put a guilt trip on any of you, but you know, we're going slow enough that nobody really has any excuse for not keeping up with the reading. I have a great grandson who can keep up with the reading each week. And so, as the scripture said, therefore, thou art inexcusable, man, whosoever thou art, who doesn't keep up with the reading each week. So 1 John chapter 3 for this week, as we continue our journey through the Bible. This morning, we'd like to draw your attention to verses 5 and 8, as John speaks of the purpose of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. Verse 5, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Verse 8, he that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. And for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. It would seem that the chief purpose of Jesus Christ to come into this world was to save sinners. Before his birth, when the angel was announcing to Joseph to not be fearful to take Mary as his wife, though she was pregnant, he said that she was pregnant as the activity of the Holy Spirit, and that she was to bring forth a son that he should be called Jesus, for he would save his people from their sins. The name Jesus indicated his mission. The name Jesus is a Greek word for the Hebrew name Joshua. Joshua means Jehovah is salvation, so his name implies his mission. Call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Paul wrote to Timothy, and he said, this is a faithful saying. It's worthy of everyone accepting it, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, and that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and so all of us are really under the sentence of death. The very fact that men die testifies to the fact that we have all sinned. The word sin comes from the Greek word harmatia, which means to miss the mark. The mark is perfection, and we've all missed the mark. Some have missed it by a mile. Some have missed it by an inch, but the fact is we've all missed. None of us are perfect or have been perfect. All of us have come short of the glory of God. Let's say that they planned a big contest of swimming from Catalina Island to the mainland, and so hundreds of swimmers lined up on the beach over there at the peninsula, and at the sound of the starter's gun, they all dove into the water and began swimming toward the mainland. Oh, about a mile from Catalina, 50 percent of them decided to give up, and they climbed into the boat. Others kept paddling away until about halfway across the channel. One by one, 95 percent of the swimmers climbed into the boats and quit the contest, but you continued to swim on with a few that are left, but they also began to drop out until you came within a hundred yards of the peninsula point over there. Cramps set in. They had to drag you into the boat. All came short of hitting the mark, making the mainland, and that's basically what the Bible says. It doesn't really matter whether or not you almost made it or you just gave up in the first few hundred yards. All have come short. None of us are what God would have us to be. We've all of us sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jesus made a very interesting statement in John chapter 16. He said, I tell you the truth. It is necessary for you that I go away, for if I do not go away, the comforter cannot come to you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you, and when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe on me. Of righteousness, because he said, I go to the father and you will see me no more. The ascension of Jesus into heaven testifies that God is declaring this is the standard of righteousness that can enter into heaven. There is the witness, the ascension of Jesus, God declaring this is the standard of righteousness that is acceptable in heaven. If you want to be accepted in heaven, you must be as righteous as Jesus. John tells us in verse 5 that in him is no sin. So you might as well say, well, that excludes me, but it excludes all of us. However, God wants you in heaven. So he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to accept the guilt of our sins, to die in our place, and then to impute the righteousness of Jesus unto us. Paul said to the Philippians that his desire was to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of Christ through faith. In other words, God is making a very interesting offer to you that it would be sheer folly to pass up. God is saying, I will place all of your sins upon my son. He will die for you. And in turn, I will impute to you his righteousness. What an exchange. He takes our sins. He gives to us his righteousness, which gives us entry into heaven. When the Pharisees were murmuring against Jesus with the going to eat with this tax collector Zacchaeus, they were saying he's gone to eat with a sinful man. And Jesus more or less declares, I've come to seek and to save those who are lost. It is though Jesus is saying, don't you understand my mission? Don't you understand why I am here? I have come to save those who are lost. In another place in Mark's Gospel, Jesus said, those that are not sick don't need a physician, but those that are sick do. I've not come to call the righteous to repentance, but the sinners. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he said to the crowd, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How did he take away our sins? By taking the guilt of our sin upon himself and dying in our place and giving us his righteousness. Isaiah, in his prophecy of Jesus said, surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. For all of us like sheep, we had gone astray. We turned every one of us to our own way, and God laid on him the iniquities of us all. Further down in that 53rd chapter, Isaiah said that God cried out, for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. Why did he do it? Jesus said, because God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. It was his love for me that nailed him to the tree, to die in agony for all my sin. For my own guilt and blame, the great Redeemer came, willing to bear the shame of all my sin. Oh, what a Savior is mine! In him God's mercies combine, and his love will never decline. And he loves me. To Calvary's hill one day, my Lord was led away. None else the price could pay for all my sin. He saw my greatest need, became my friend indeed, and through him I have been freed from all my sin. In the next chapter here in 1st John, John will tell us that in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that God loves us, and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. In verse 8, John declares, he that lives in sin is of the devil. For the devil sinned from the beginning, and for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. It is interesting, Satan holds people in bondage. He has a hold on their lives, and he is determined not to let them go free. He seeks a foothold in your life today, and once he can gain a foothold, he will seek to expand it. If Satan has a grip on your life, it is impossible for you to go free, because Satan is stronger than you are. And this is the problem that so many people are facing. We see them in sin. We see them destroying themselves, and we say, can't you see what's happening? You've got to quit it, and they promise, oh, I want to quit it. I'm going to quit it, and they struggle, and they fall right back into the same pit, and Satan holds them in bondage to sin. As we see someone who is destroying their lives, we stand back in helplessness. We pity them. We just are sorry for them, and for their condition, but we try to help, but we can't help, because even though we may encourage and all, we haven't really the power to set them free. Satan's power is stronger than our power. The Bible calls Satan the destroyer, and that he is, and we see the evidence of his destruction in lives all around us. The Bible tells us that he is a liar from the beginning. He came to Adam and Eve there in the garden. God had said, don't eat of the fruit of that tree in the middle of the garden. If you do, you will surely die. Satan came, and he said, did God say you would surely die? Oh, you wouldn't really die. Lying to them, deceiving them, making them think that they could disobey God and not pay the consequences. They ate of that fruit, and they died. They discovered that they were lied to, that they were deceived by Satan, but the act was committed. Satan often comes to people today, and he is lying. He is saying, surely you will not die. He lies to you about God. He tries to make you think that God's rules are too strict, that God doesn't want you to have any fun, that God doesn't want you to enjoy life, and that God is trying to hold you back from the good life. Then know this, there is not one good, decent thing that God says you shouldn't do. The things that God has said you can do, and should do, are things that are beneficial, things that will make your life happier, things that will bring true joy to you. Those things that God has forbidden are things that ultimately will destroy you. God knows their destructive power, and thus God has said you should not do that. Satan comes along, and he lies to you, and he says, oh, you know, God's just not really fair with you. He's trying to just keep you from enjoying life, and that's a lie. Satan said, just try it once. If you don't like it, you can always quit. Lying to you, knowing that once you try, he's got you trapped. He's got the hook in your jaw, and you find that you try to quit. At first you think you can quit. I had uncles who were alcoholics, and they would say to me, I can quit anytime I want. I quit drinking five times last year. You might quit for a time, but you go back to it, because you don't have the power. Now Satan would like to make you think that you can, deceiving you, and he's trying to make you think that you can cure yourself. Anytime you wish, you can just stop. You have the power. Not so, and people ultimately, to their sorrow and dismay, find that they are held by the power of Satan under his grip, and try as they may, they can't get free. There's only one power that can set you free from the power of Satan, and that is the greater power of Jesus Christ. It is the expulsive power of the greater force. If you go into a dark room at night, you don't take a stick and try and drive the darkness out, swinging at the darkness and seeking to drive it out. What you do is go over to the wall, and you flip on the light, and the light dispels the darkness, because it is the expelling power of the more powerful force. The power of Jesus Christ is more powerful than the powers of darkness, and it will dispel the darkness in your life. You don't try and drive it out. You don't try to quit. You just turn on the light, and the light automatically dispels the darkness. Satan, in seeking to encourage you to cure yourself, he knows that you can't, and when you discover ultimately that you can't, when you finally admit, I can't do it, then you have come to the place of discouragement and think, I'm just going to have to live with this. I've tried to stop. I've done everything I could to quit. I just can't do it, and you give up, and you just surrender to his control and to his power over your life. But Jesus, John tells us, was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. That is his work in your life. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to spend much time with the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. What am I bidding, good folks, he cried. Who'll start the bidding for me? A dollar, a dollar, then two, only two, two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars once, three dollars twice, and going for three, but no. From the room far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow. Then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loosened strings, he played a melody as sweet and pure as caroling angels sing. The music ceased, and the auctioneer with a voice that was quiet and low said, what am I bid for the old violin? And he held it up with the bow. A thousand dollars, who'll make it two? Two thousand, who'll make it three? Three thousand once, three thousand twice, and going, and gone, said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, we do not quite understand. What changed its worth? Swift came the reply, the touch of the master's hand. And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred by sin, is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like that old violin. A mess of potage, a glass of wine, a game, and he travels on. He's going once, he's going twice, he's going, and he's almost gone. But the master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of the soul, and the change that is wrought by the touch of the master's hand. He wants to touch your life today. He came to set you free from the bondage to sin. He came that you might have the forgiveness of sins. He came because God loves you, and God wants you to be with Him eternally. God wants to keep you from destroying yourself with sin, and thus he has provided the means for you to be set free. I would encourage you, let the master touch your life today, and put it in tune with Him. Father, we thank you for your touch upon our lives. We thank you Lord for the power that you give to us, that we don't have within ourselves. We thank you Lord for the wonderful forgiveness of sins. The provision that you made through Jesus Christ to take our guilt, to die in our stead, that we might know the power of your Spirit working in us, living as you would have us to live, enjoying life to the fullest. Lord, we pray for those today who are being deceived, who are caught in a web, thinking that they can free themselves if they just try hard enough. Lord, help them to realize you have the power to break the chains of darkness in which we are held fast. I pray Lord that this day they might discover that power in their lives, that the light of the glorious gospel of our Jesus Christ will shine in their hearts, dispelling the darkness and setting them free. It is in His name, Lord, we ask these favors, and for His glory. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to pray for you today who might discover that you are being destroyed, your relationships are being destroyed, and you've tried to quit. You see what's going on, but you find that you're helpless, you're helpless to change things. Though you are helpless, He isn't, and if you'll just turn it over to Him, you'll find that He is able to do for you what you can't do for yourself, and wants to do for you. And so, I would encourage you to come on down to the front, and just ask these men to pray for you, that the Lord might just really enable you today to be freed from the power of Satan that is holding you in bondage and destroying you. You can go today in glorious victory in Christ. The old things can pass away, and everything becomes new to those that are in Him. I would encourage you to do that as we are dismissed. May the Lord be with you. May He go before you. May His blessings be upon your life. May you just know the joy of the Lord, walking in fellowship with Him this week, for Jesus' sake. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. God bless you.