Verse 6, 1 John 3, 6. Whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. 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. 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. Now this passage of scripture
is one of the most clearly expressed, clearly worded, plainly set forth
passages of scripture in the Bible. Now there are parts of
scripture in Revelation and other places in the scripture where
you might, the wording could be tricky maybe and you have
to really look Have you ever read anything as plain as that?
Whosoever is born of God does not sin. Whosoever abideth in
him sinneth not. It's as clear as a bell, isn't
it? And yet that passage of scripture is avoided like the plague. Have you ever read anything any
more clear than that? It's 1 plus 1 equals 2. 2 plus
2 equals 4. Just as clear as a bell, isn't
it? Just as clear as it can be. And yet so confusing to so many
people. It's written in no uncertain
terms. Simple words and expressions are used. It's emphatic and plain. And yet it's completely confusing
to most people. Why is that? Well, because we
know that we do sin. Believers do sin. It seems to
contradict our experience, doesn't it? And also other scripture
teaching, John himself in this same context has said, if we
say we have not sinned, if we ever say that, if we ever say,
I didn't sin, we make God a liar. We're lying and we're making
God a liar and the truth is not in us. And John also reminds
us here again, in the same context, that when we sin, We have an
advocate with the father. People that don't sin don't need
an advocate. We need an advocate. We're thankful
that we have an advocate with the father. So what is John saying
here? Well, we have to notice two very
instructive phrases in this passage that make it crystal clear. And
these are not new. They're not unique to the book
of first John. They're all through the word
of God. Different places in the scripture. These are scriptural
truths well established in God's Word How can you say that we
do not sin? How can you say that believers
do not sin? We'll look at verse 6 he that
abideth in him In Christ he that abideth in
Christ does not sin You see verse 5 again in him is no sin and And if you are in Him, you have
no sin because in Him is no sin. So whoever abides in Christ does
not sin. But Chris, my heart tells me
that I do sin. I have sinned. I do sin. I will sin. I know I will. Well,
look at verse 20. What's telling you that you sin? Your heart? If our heart condemn us, and
it does, but God's greater than our heart. And knoweth all things. My heart
condemns me. But you know who doesn't condemn
you? God. Who's right? We know what we are in ourselves
as natural men, as we are born into this world, but do we, here's
the question, do you know what you are in Christ? I know what I am in myself. Do
I know what I am in Christ? Notice also that it does not
say if we are in him, it is as though we didn't see him. It
doesn't say those who abide in Christ It is as though they had
no sin. In him, there is no sin, and
whoever abides in him does not sin. It don't get plainer than
that. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
7, 18, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. No good thing. It's all bad.
When I look at my flesh, it's all bad. For to will is present
with me. I want to obey. I want to honor
the Lord. I want to serve him. I want to
not sin. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. What do you find? I find it to
be kind of like Paul did, don't you? I find not. Verse 21 of
Romans 7, I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. Even when I'm doing good, I'm
evil. Now this is our experience also,
just like it was Paul's, but it is just that. And this is
what we need to understand. It is our experience. And we tend to call our experience
the only reality there is. What I can see, what I understand,
what I know, that's all there can be. Then there's no faith. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. The substance of things hoped
for. Our experience. What God sees
and records and knows and says is something entirely different
from my experience. You remember what happened in
Numbers chapter 23? Turn over there with me. Numbers
23. We've got to look at this now. Numbers chapter 23. Hold your
place there in 1 John 3 because we're going to come back over
there. Numbers chapter 23 Now this is just if you look back
to numbers 21, you remember what happened the serpent The children
of Israel murmured again And they in God sent fiery serpents
into the camp and bid all the people and they they came and
they cried to Moses and we've seen we've seen against God and
And God told Moses what to do about it, the remedy for sin.
A serpent of brass, one made in the likeness of the problem,
one made in the likeness of sinful flesh, must be raised up between
heaven and earth. And he said, look and live. OK,
sinful people, sinful people in need of the Savior. But look
at Numbers 23, verse 11. This is. Oh, Balak said unto Balaam, what
hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse my enemies,
and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. Balak is wanting
Balaam to curse the people of God, the people of Israel. And
he answered and said, must I not take heed to speak that which
the Lord hath put in my mouth? Now, Balaam is God's spokesman
here. He said, I'm gonna say what God
says. If God says bless, I'm not gonna
say curse. And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with
me unto another place, from which thou mayest see them. Look, just
look at them. Thou shalt see but the utmost
part of them, and shalt not see them all, and curse me them from
thence. Maybe you need a different perspective
on this thing, if you can't pronounce a curse on them. And he brought
him into the field of Zophon, to the top of Pisgah, and built
seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. And
he said unto Balak, stand here by thy burnt offering while I
meet the Lord yonder. And the Lord met Balak and put
a word in his mouth and said, go again to Balak and say thus.
And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering
and the princess of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him,
what hath the Lord spoken? And he took up his parable and
said, rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken unto me, thou son of
Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son
of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold,
I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and
I can't reverse it. He hath not beheld Iniquity in
Jacob. Neither has he seen perverseness
in Israel. Balak could see it. And Balaam could see it too.
But God looked and what did he see? No sin. The Lord God is
with him and the shout of a king. Now let me ask you a question.
If I look within, like the Apostle Paul does in Romans 7, I see
nothing good, nothing good in my flesh. Nothing but sin. And when I do something, even
as limited as I am, I know that my motives are evil. I know that
even when I do good, Paul said, there's evil present. I know
that. If I know that, wouldn't God
know that? I don't see anything but sin,
but God beholds me also. And he sees no iniquity, no perverseness. And let me ask you this, who
has better eyes? You or God? Who sees the end
from the beginning? Who is able because of his infinite
wisdom, eternal perspective to declare those things that be
not as though they were. Who knows me better, me or God? Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word He gave himself for it that he might present it to
himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. But that's in the future, Chris,
is it? Really? You thought that was future that
you thought that was when we go to heaven and not before.
Let me tell you something. Myself something if there is therefore
now no condemnation as Romans 8 once said then there is therefore
now no sin And the reason given there is
the same as in our text Who doesn't sin those who abide in Christ? What did Paul say in Romans 8
1 there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
There's no condemnation because there's no sin. We walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. And let me warn us against something.
Again, as I've warned you before, this is a very serious warning. It is a tendency of ours to think
of this in a certain way, like, oh, it's only true in Christ,
as though that were some kind of a loophole or something, or
that it means less true somehow. There is nothing more true than
what is true in Christ. And let me try to put some perspective
on this. Since my Savior, was manifested
to take away my sin. That's what our text says in
the context. The Lord Jesus Christ was manifested
to take away my sin, and in him is no sin. And since those things
are true, sin is done with regard to me. Sin is finished with regard
to me. You think about this. How true
is that old and glorious prophecy of our great Redeemer? and his
victory at Calvary. In Daniel chapter nine, verse
24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins and to
make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness
and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most
holy. He has made an end of sin for
his people. And those that abide in him have
no sin and do no sin. In the eyes of God, where it
counts, they have no sin and they do no sin. That's where
it counts. They are without spot or blemish
or wrinkle or any such thing. Christ is able to keep us from
falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. Do you think he's waiting for
us to die to do that? He went and did that a long time
ago. He presented us faultless when he took his precious blood
into that holy place not made with hands. When he said, no
man cometh unto the father but by me, we came to the father
by him when he went to the father. And we are seated with him in
the heavenlies already. in Christ Jesus. And he called them he also glorified,
past tense, Romans chapter 8 also. We just don't see it yet, but
it is our view that is limited, not his. Not his. The only sense in which sin has
anything at all to do with me is in my experience, which is
but for a moment, but for a moment. It causes me now to groan. We
in these bodies, we do groan, but we don't despair. It causes
me grief, but not defeat, and not for long. What is this little
stint in the body of this death in light of eternal glory? Paul
said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, and why
do we suffer now? Because of our sin. And the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. It's not even worth talking
about. My sin is not even worth talking
about. Another phrase in this passage
makes it clear to us. In what sense are we sinless?
Verse nine. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. It's not unclear, is it? You
may yet not understand it, but it's not unclear. I may yet not
be able to get my mind around it, but it's not unclear. It's
so simple, isn't it? Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. And he can't
sin, because he's born of God. Born again, born of God, born
from above. We said to Nicodemus, you must
be born again. That means literally born from
above. born of the spirit, born of God. Some people don't like
the idea of a new nature. Some people just want to argue
about anything. And one of the things that some people argue
about is, do we have a new nature? You know what? I don't care what
you call it. I really don't. As long as it's scriptural. You
don't have to call it a nature. You can call it the new man.
You can call it a new heart in me. You can call it a new creation. created in Christ Jesus in righteousness
and true holiness. You can call it what you want
to as long as it's according to the Word of God. But this
is not just me knowing more than I used to know. God has done
a work in his people. We are born from above, born
of God, born of the Spirit, and the new man knows all things.
But that is not the flesh getting more knowledgeable. The new man
born of God, knowing God and being guided into all truth by
the Holy Spirit that bears witness with our spirit. That's a new
creation. That's somebody that didn't exist
before God birthed them. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4 verse
17. Ephesians 4 17. This I say therefore and testify
in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them because of the blindness of their heart who, being past
feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to
work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so learned Christ?
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him as
the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness." Righteousness and true... Now let me ask you
a question. Do you walk as you did before you knew God? Those
of you who know God, who have believed on Him, who have bowed
to His Son, who have laid hold of His Son as your only righteousness,
as your sin offering before God, you trust Him alone. Do you walk
the same way? I can answer that for you, because
you might say, yeah. It's hard for us to see much
in ourselves, isn't it? And that's by design. But I see
it in you. And I know from God's word that
you don't. More importantly, I know from his word that you
don't. You don't walk the same way that walk after the flesh,
do mind the things of the flesh. And they that walk after the
Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. Not that they ought
to. They do. They do. Well, if you
don't walk like you used to, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Your flesh doesn't walk better
than it used to. It's always going to be flesh.
Nothing but flesh. Corrupt and God-hating and foul. Your flesh will never walk after
the Spirit. Do you worship God? Have you ever worshipped God
in your whole life? Your flesh doesn't worship God.
Not ever going to. This is what we're talking about
now. There is a you that is born of God, if you know God. It's
the only way you can know God. If you're not born of God, you
can't even see His kingdom, much less enter into it. But those
who are born of the Spirit of God do enter in. They do see.
They do know. They do love. Do you love God?
Do you love God? If the Lord Jesus Christ was
walking on the seashore with you and asked you, looked into
your eyes and said, do you love me? What would you say? Your flesh didn't wake up one
day loving God. That's the new creation of God.
That's the new Chris. That's the new Melinda. That's
the new you. Do you serve God? It's not because
your flesh turned over a new leaf. There's a whole lot of
flesh that has turned over new leaves, but they ain't never
served God yet. That's not how it happens. It happens by God
making you all over again. You are born of God. And this doesn't mean, of course,
we know this, that now what you do, since you are born of God,
the things that you do are now meritorious before God. Why would
you even want that to be true, if Christ is your righteousness?
Why in the world would you even want to do anything that was
meritorious before God, if Christ truly is your righteousness? But here's the thing, we are
born of God, and yet still In the body of this death, as Paul
says, they're still simple. The thing is, we're not just
born of God. We're in Christ. And both of these together being
born of the spirit of God. And, you know, the best I can
tell in the word of God, God doesn't even acknowledge the
old man anymore. He don't even see, you know,
he doesn't even acknowledge him at all. We are to him the new
man, created in Christ Jesus in righteousness and true holiness. I hope that I can see you that
way. That's how I want to see you. I want to look at you as he does,
spotless and beautiful. with his comeliness. That new man is holy now according
to God. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. I commit sin because the old
man is still active and in my flesh still dwelleth no good
thing. But the new man does not sin.
And what a beautiful combination here, though. You are complete
in him. And if any man be in him, he
is a new creation. Think about this now. Therefore, if any man be in Christ. Second Corinthians 517. Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation old things Passed
away Behold all things are become new All things are new he makes
all things new What a beautiful truth And I
want you to see the context of that turn to 2nd Corinthians
5 17. I 2 Corinthians 5.17 We want to see the context of
what we just read so let's go ahead and read verse 17 again
therefore if any man be in Christ He is a new creature or his creation
new creation Old things are passed away behold all things are become
new And all things are of God these things that we're talking
about the reason old things are gone now Over done. He made an end of seeing that
He either did or he didn't he made an end of it And the reason all things are
new, that's what John said, he reveled, behold, he maketh all
things new. That's what he heard. That's of God, that's God that
did that, not you. You didn't turn over a new leaf,
you didn't turn anything, God did it. We are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus. who has reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. We have a gospel that has to
do with sinners being reconciled to God. For that to happen, for
sinners to be reconciled to God, an end has to be made of sin. To wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. And this is not just a whim.
This is not just some warm, fuzzy, feely religion. There's a reason
we say that. It's because God hath made him
to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Since God did that, we have something
to talk about. We can talk about reconciliation.
We can talk about sinners who don't sin because he made them
the very righteousness of God by becoming sin in their place.
Now you think about this. I don't understand. I've told
you this before, frankly. I do not understand how the eternally,
eternally sinless Son of God was made sin. I don't understand
that. And I don't understand how a
wretch like me can be the very righteousness of God. But by His grace, I believe it.
I believe it. And it's my great hope what he
did, him and what he did. That's my hope. And I don't know anything more
wonderful than that. And I know two things about it
from this verse we just read. He hath made him to be sent for
us. I know Whatever He did there,
He did it for me. He did it for me. And that tells me what love is,
doesn't it? He did it for me, here in His
love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation for our
sin. It tells me what love is. It
tells me something else. It tells me I didn't have anything to
do with it. He did it for me. I just gaze in wonder and awe,
and I pray and worship at Him and what He did for me. And I know this, I know that
whatever He did, whatever is true concerning my righteousness,
It's true in Him. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. God's love is in Him. Nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where? Ephesians chapter 1, in
Him. And in Him, I have no sin. I do no sin. He sees no iniquity in me. I
am spotless and holy and without blame before him in love. All
of God's promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus our Lord. Every spiritual blessing. The only thing sin has to do
with me, let me say it again, is in my experience. And that's
just for a little while. And it's not worthy to be even
talked about in light of the glory that shall be revealed
in us when we awake with His likeness. Bless God for our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's pray.