Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1728
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, July 1, 1883
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.
IN this chapter John makes a sharp and clear division of mankind into two classes—he gives not even the slightest hint that there is, or ever was, or ever can be a third class. He describes men as being the children of God or else the children of the devil and tells us how the two classes are made manifest (see verse 10). Now, this distinction would not have been drawn by John so sharply if it had not existed, for he was a man of a most loving heart and gentle spirit, and if he could, somewhere or other, have found a space for neutrals, or what I call, “betweenites,” or people who come in midway between saints and sinners, I am sure he would have done it. No one could suspect John of lack of charity and, therefore, as he was convinced that no middle position was possible, we may be quite clear upon that point and at once dismiss every theory which is meant to flatter the undecided.
There is a definite and fixed line, in the sight of God, between the living and the dead, between those who are born-again and those who abide in their fallen estate—between the spiritual and the carnal, between the believing and the unbelieving! There is a gulf fixed between the two orders of men, which, blessed be God, can be passed, but which, nevertheless, divides the whole race as though a vast chasm had opened up in the in midst of them and set them apart from each other, separating them into two camps. This important distinction ought to be observed in public prayer. And this is a point in which we are dissatisfied with most liturgies, because they are necessarily composed with the view of suiting both saints and sinners and, as a necessary result, they are not suitable for either!
The joyous notes of confidence which are becoming in the children of God are left out because the ungodly could not use such expressions of exultant faith while, on the other hand, the wailing notes which are most suitable to anxious souls are put into the mouths of men who, by the Grace of God, have long ago found their Savior. Men walking in full fellowship with the Lord are not correctly described as “miserable sinners”—neither is it theirs to pray as if they had never found pardon and life in Christ Jesus! It is impossible that public prayer should be suitable for a mixed congregation unless a portion of it is evidently for such as fear the Lord and another portion for such as do not fear Him. I suppose it would be difficult, if not impossible, to compose a liturgy for common use upon strictly truthful principles—and yet that order of public prayer which ignores the distinction between the regenerate and the unregenerate must inevitably be mischievous to the souls of men! In this matter the servant of the Lord must discern between the precious and the vile, or he cannot be as God’s mouth.
If this distinction is to be thought of in preaching and in public prayer, it should be especially considered in our personal religion. We ought to know whose we are and whom we serve. We ought to know the differences, which the Lord has made by Grace, and whether or not He has made us to differ from the unrenewed. Every man in trade wishes to be sure of his position, whether he is prospering or not. And surely we ought, each one, to know our position in that one
great enterprise of life which, if it finds us bankrupt at the last, must leave us so forever! It is of the utmost importance for a man to know whether he has been enlightened or abides in darkness; whether he is the slave of sin or the Lord’s free man. Each man should know that he is either saved or lost, pardoned or condemned—he may not sit down in peace in the deceitful hope that though he may not be a child of God, he is, nevertheless, no heir of wrath, for it cannot be—he is one thing or the other at this moment!
Everyone is under the wrath of God unless he has believed in Jesus and so has become accepted in the Beloved. There are two seeds and only two—the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent—and you, my Friend, belong to one or the other! John sums up the vital distinction when he writes, “He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son has not life. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness.” Let this stand as the preface of the sermon, for the spirit of it will run through my whole discourse. And now I come to the words of the text itself— “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
We shall speak of four things—the works of the devil. The purpose of God. The manifestation of the Son of God. And the experience within ourselves of the meaning of this text. Oh, for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that we may think aright and speak with power!