Let us turn again to God's Word,
directing you this morning to words that we find in the first
epistle general of John. John's first epistle in chapter 3, and our text is found at verse
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. In 1 John 3, 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. And the theme I want to address
is that of the believer's spiritual seed. His seed, it says, remaineth
in him. But then we see how the Apostle
goes on to say concerning this man that he cannot sin because
he is born of God. Is he speaking then of sinless
perfection? Well, the answer is quite obvious.
That cannot be the case when we turn back to the opening chapter
and take account of what John says at the end of that chapter. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, he says. and the truth is not in us. And
again, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him, we make
God a liar and his words is not in us. John then here in our
text is not speaking in any way of sinless perfection. We just
sang that verse of John Kent, sinless perfection. We deny the
chief of Satan's wiles do thou my soul to Calvary fly as after
sin defiles. We have to daily live to prove
our needs of those things that took place at the place called
Calvary, where the Lord Jesus made that great sin-atoning sacrifice. We need constantly to plead the
efficacy of that precious blood that was shed when he poured
out his soul unto death. And we feel to need more and
more the efficacy of Christ's atonement. We deny then the very
notion of sinless perfection. Look at what John is really speaking
of in this verse. He tells us something of the
nature of sin. In the context here, we see how
sin is anti the law of God. It is against the law of God. If we go back to verse 4, it
says, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for
sin is the transgression of the law. He's saying that sin is
that that is lawless. It is anti-law and so the law
itself is anti-sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, Paul tells us. Where no law is, there is no
transgression. Our law is that it exposes sin
for what it is. Again the Apostle Paul tells
us, I have not known sin but by the law for I have not known
lust except the commandment said they shall not covet. And it's not just his own particular
experience. He speaks of the ministry of
the Lord there in Romans 3.19. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped. And all the world become guilty
before God. This is what the law does. It's
so much against sin. It uncovers sin. It exposes sin. It aggravates sin. Paul says
again concerning himself, I was a lie. without the law at once. But the commandment came, and
sin revived, and I died." Well, this is the nature of sin. It
is anti, it is against the law of God. And of course, it is
also that that is anti the Gospel of God. And again, we see something
of that in the context here in this third chapter. He doesn't
just speak of sin in verse 4 as that that is a transgression
of the law. He goes on at verse 5 and says,
We know that he, that is the Lord Jesus, was manifested to
take away our sins. And in him is no sin, the sinless
one. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
what was the purpose of His coming into the world? Why was He made
of a woman? Why was He made under the law? He comes to answer all the demands
of that holy law of God. Again, here at the end of verse
8, He speaks of how Christ was manifested. For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works
of the devil. Oh, He is that One who is the
Father of lives. He is that One, of course, that
we see there in the Garden of Eden, involved in the fall of
our first parents, the great enemy of God, the author of sin,
Satan himself. And now the Lord Jesus Christ
in the Gospel has come to destroy all the works of Satan and to
deliver his people from all of the power of their sins. We sometimes sing those words
in the hymn 154, O thou hideous, monstrous sin, what a curse hast
thou brought in! All creation groaned through
the pregnant cause, of misery. Thou hast ruined wretched man.
Ever since the world began thou hast God afflicted too. Nothing
less than that would do. How the Lord Jesus is that one
then who comes and suffers as the substitute in the sinner's
place, in the sinner's state, where that sin is so much against
Christ, against his gospel. It is against God. And we see
this, it's not only anti-law and anti-gospel, it is altogether
anti-God. In the law, really, we have that
revelation of God. When Moses comes to recount to
the children of Israel that law that was given at Sinai, we have
the record there in in Exodus chapter 20, and then after the
40 years of wilderness wanderings, in Deuteronomy chapter 5, they're
on the borders now of the promised land, and there's that recounting,
retelling of the commandments all over again. And what does
Moses say, Deuteronomy 5, 24? He says, Behold, the Lord our
God has showed us His glory and His greatness. And he goes on
to speak how God showed that glory, that greatness, it was
when they heard His voice speaking out of the midst of the fire.
That, Lord, is really God revealing Himself, His holiness, His righteousness,
His justice. And God reveals Himself even
more fully when we come to the New Testament, when we come to
the Gospel. The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. Here is that one who is the image
of the invisible God. Our God who at sundry times and
in diverse manner spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, that in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. whom we have to point it out
of all things, Paul says, by whom also we made the world to
be in the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person. Or, in the Gospel then, we have
that fall, that final revealing of God. All Scripture is that
revelation of God. The Law reveals His holiness,
His righteousness, His justice. We see that and so much more
when we come to the Gospel, His mercy, His grace, His love, His
kindness, His compassion. And our sin is anti-God in every
sense. Or do we recognize that? That
when we sin, we sin against that God who has so kindly made Himself
known to us here in the page of Holy Scripture. We don't just
sin against His law, with sin against his grace, my lips with
shame my sins confess, against thy law, against thy grace, says
Isaac Watts. Your sin then and the character
of sin, this is what The Apostle John is speaking of here in the
context in the verses previous to our text. And then, in the
text, what does he say? 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. This is the believer
he is delivered. from all that dreadful curse
of sin. And as I said, I want this morning
really to consider with you something of what is being said here with
regard to the believer's spiritual seed. This is where the secret
really lies. His seed, that is God's seed,
remaineth in him. And he cannot sin because he
is born of God. Three things. as we come to look
in particular at the words of the text. First of all, the believer's
spiritual birth. Secondly, the believer's spiritual
nature. And then thirdly, the believer's
spiritual union with God. That's the threefold division
then that I want to follow as we come to the words of the text. First of all, the believer's
spiritual birth. And this is spoken of, of course,
twice here in the verse. Whosoever is born of God, it
says. And then again at the end of
the verse, he is born of God. How prominent then is this truth
of his birth. But what is the birth that is
being spoken of? It is not a man's natural birth. It is that spiritual birth, that
new birth. As we read there in the familiar
words of the third chapter of John's Gospel, Ye must be born
again. It is that birth, being born
of God, not being born of our natural mother. Again, the language
of the Lord Jesus, there in John 3, He says, Verily, verily, except
a man be born again. He cannot see the Kingdom of
God. What is it to be born again?
Well, there in that third verse, the margin as that other rendering
is to be born from above. To be born again is to be born
from above. To be born again is what we have
here in the text. It's being born of God. Oh, it
is that work of God in the soul of the sinner. A man can receive
nothing except it be given him from heaven, says the Baptist
there, towards the end of that third chapter in John's Gospel.
It's God's work, the great work of regeneration. That sinner
who is dead, dead in trespasses and in sins, born in that condition
where he is alienated from God, he's in a state of enmity, he's
far off from God, he knows not God. That man must be born again
and it is such a sovereign work of God. The sinner has no hand
at all in his new birth. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
his cross. and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit, or the mysterious
circuits of the wind. And that's the figure that the
Lord Jesus uses when He speaks of the work of the Spirit of
God in the soul of the sinner. And He comes and works in one
and not in another. as there is that strange quickening
in the soul of the sinner. He's born now not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but he's
born of God. And this is what we have here
in the text. And this is so vital if a man
is going to be delivered from his sins. Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin. He cannot sin because he is born
of God. It all has to do with that great
doctrine of regeneration. And of course, that was the great
message that was very much being proclaimed by George Whitefield
at the time of the Great Awakening in the 18th century. That seemed
to be almost the evangelist's constant cry. You must be born
again. And that awakening was very much
a visitation from on high. Or we live in a day when men
imagine that they can work up revivals. They can create revivals
themselves. It's utter nonsense. It is the
sovereign work of God. And we see it so clearly in that
message that was proclaimed by Whitfu. That constant cry in
his preaching, he must be born again. Nor are we those who know
that we have received that new life, that spiritual birth. To
prove ourselves, to know ourselves, to examine ourselves with regards
to these things, to believe a spiritual birth. And what is the consequence
of that spiritual birth? Well, in the second place we
have the believe a spiritual nature. And this is really what
we find at the very core of the text. This is the seed. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. Remember how Peter speaks of
The same truth, writing there in 1 Peter, at the end of the
opening chapter, being born again, he says, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. Not of corruptible, but of incorruptible
seed. What is that incorruptible seed
that he is speaking of? It is the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ coming into the soul of the sinner. It's that living
Word. Look at what Peter says. Not
corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God. And it's the Word Logos. It's
that word that is so often used by John. It's there at the beginning
of his Gospel, of course, in the beginning was the Word. And
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. Oh, He is
that One who is the Author, the Creator of all life, there at
the beginning. by the word of the Lord were
the heavens made, all the host of them by the breath of his
mouth. But when we think of the Lord Jesus now we think in terms
of that new life, that spiritual seed that comes into the soul
of the sinner. It's interesting to observe just
what Peter is saying there at the end of that particular chapter Born again, he says, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, the Logos of
God, which liveth and abideth forever. And then, right at the
end he says, this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached
unto you. But it's a different Word that
he uses in verse 25. It's not the Logos. It's that
word that indicates something being spoken. The word that is
spoken in the preaching of the gospel. There's a distinction
to be made in what we have in verse 23 and what we have there
in verse 25. Oh yes, the preacher is the one
who proclaims the message. There is to be that setting forth
of the gospel of the grace of God. But it is only God who can
bring that new life into the soul of the sinner. What does Paul say? That he had
planted a polish and watered, but God, but God, and only God
was the one who could give the increase. Oh, it is that sovereign
work of God. It is that implantation of new
life, spiritual life, a spiritual seed. And it all has to do with
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature, a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And this is that sweet that he's
spoken of here in the text. His sweet remaineth in him. And he cannot sin because he
is born of God. That new birth, that new life,
now a partaker of the divine nature. Oh, he has a nature now
that can never sin. but although he is a partaker
of the divine nature the believer still sins how can it be? how can it be? because there is still in the
believer that all nature that fallen nature and so there is
constantly that conflict between the old nature and the new nature. The new nature cannot sin, but
the old nature delights and loves the ways of sin. And again the
Lord Himself declares it there in John chapter 3, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. They are so distinct, so separate. The old nature, the new nature.
And of course what the Lord says is taken up and expounded in
the ministry of the apostles as a preaching and teaching as
they move by the Spirit of God. We have the language of Paul
in Galatians 5, how the flesh, he says, lost us against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
one to the other, and ye cannot do the thing that ye would. Oh,
this is the state of the believer. He has a new nature and he delights
in the things of God. And yet, he feels still the old
nature that will draw him into the ways of Satan. Go back to the Old Testament,
the language that we find there in the Song of Solomon. What
will you see in the Shulamite as it were the company of two
armies? All the Shulamites is black but
common. There's the old nature, there's
the new nature. And these so much set one against
the other. And Paul, of course, brings it
out so fully in Romans 7 as he speaks of his own experiences. This man who is raised up to
be a pattern to them which should hereafter believe. That's what
he says in the opening chapter of the first epistle to Timothy. He's the pattern believer. As
we've said before, we're not to understand that that means
that we must all have the same depths of experience as Paul
the Apostle knew. We're not called to be apostles.
But there are those principles. And he lays them out in the various
epistles. We know, we're familiar with
the content of what Paul writes. And so often we see that he'll
lay down in the first part of his epistles those great sublime
gospel truths, remarkable doctrine he set before us in the first
part of so many of his epistles. And then when we come to the
end of the epistles, he spells out the practical implications. how that these doctrines, if
we're those who are really embracing them, they will affect the manner
of our living, the way in which we conduct ourselves. There'll
be a practical outworking by their fruits, says the Lord Jesus,
ye shall know them. But then also, we've said it
before, when we read those epistles, what is woven into so many of
them is that that we might say is experimental, where Paul does
speak of himself. And he speaks of his own experiences
of the grace of God. And he's not doing that because
he wants to parade his own ego. He's writing under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God. His great concern is to exalt
Christ. But he writes in that fashion
because the Spirit moves him, he is that one. It was a pattern
to them that should hereafter believe. And do we not have to
thank God that he was ever moved to write such a chapter as Romans
7. It's a remarkable portion of
Scripture. The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. Oh, that's what he feels, you
see. He cannot do the thing that he would. He feels this conflict
going on in his soul. He has that spiritual seed. He's a partaker of the divine
nature now. He's born again by the Spirit
of God. He has that in him that cannot
see. And yet, there's that old nature
there. And when we come to the language
at the end of that chapter. See how he's all together cast
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he brings him to.
He wants to know more and more of Christ. Coming away, as it
were, from himself, coming away from the subjective, that glorious
objective before him is a greater knowledge of the Saviour. Look
at what he says at the end of the chapter. At verse 22, I delight
in the Lord of God after the inward man. Oh, that's that spiritual
state that we have in our text here in 1 John 3, 9. I delight
in the Lord of God after the inward man. But I see another
Lord in my members, warring against the Lord of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the Lord of sin, which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" This is Christ. It's as if he's carrying
about with him a great burden, a dead body. And now it's weighing
him down. how he is bent under this tremendous
load that he feels so keen. All wretched man that I am, he
says, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh you see he's growing
now in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. He feels to need more and more
the knowledge of Christ. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. And here we see quite clearly
he's not schizophrenic. No, the real Paul is that one
that he speaks of as I myself. There's an emphasis. With the
mind, I myself, the real me, serves the Lord of God, but then,
oh, there's that old fleshy nature that is still wanting to go the
ways of sin and of Satan. All that real self, you see,
is that new man of grace. And it's that that we have here
in our text. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. There is that spiritual birth,
there is the consequence of that spiritual birth, there is a spiritual
nature, a new nature. But then thirdly, to say something with regard
to the believer's spiritual union. And it is this union, what we
might say this covenantal union, that lies behind it all. It lies behind that great work
of regeneration. For there is, you see, an eternal
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that lies at the basis of
everything. How Paul speaks of it when he
writes in the opening chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians,
goes back into the councils of eternity, that great purpose
of grace, when all the persons in the Godhead entered into covenant. And what does he say? According
as he hath chosen us in him. He's speaking of Christ. Christ
is that one in whom all the election of grace are chosen. According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
himself, he says, according to the good pleasure of his will.
Or from all eternity they are chosen and they are those who
are predestinated, it says, unto the adoption of children. There's the purpose of God, but
what God's purpose in eternity must become a reality in time. And so the language of Galatians
4, when the fullness of the time was come. God sends forth his
son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law that they might receive the adoption of sons. Or they are predestinated to
be the sons of God that's the eternal union that
they have with the Lord Jesus Christ but they must in God's
time receive that adoption and it all flows from the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world the fullness of the
time God sends forth his son and he comes to stand as the
surety of those people, to be their representative in the life
that he lives, to be their surety, to die as their substitute, who
is made of a woman, he identifies with them, he's under the law
of God, he stands in their law place, and to what end? Oh, he comes to redeem them in
order that they might receive what God had purposed, and so
that that eternal union which is in the eternal covenant of
grace must become an experimental and a spiritual union. How is it realized? It's realized
in the new birth. And that's what we have here,
whosoever is born of God. He is born of God, both the beginning
And the end of this verse declares quite clearly the importance
of that spiritual birth, that new birth. And as they are born of God,
so they are those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
verse 6. It says, Whosoever abideth in
Him sinneth not. "...whosoever sinneth hath not
seen him, neither known him." How interesting are the words
that we have here back in verse 6. You see, those who are in
the Lord Jesus Christ, who have that vital, that living union
with Him because they are born again, they do not sin. But here is the other. who does
sin. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither knoweth him. Now, what we have in the second
part of that sixth verse is not speaking of a single act. Usurper
sinneth, it is in fact the present active continuous it's a continual
act of sinning that is being spoken of there at the end of
verse 6. Usurper keeps on sinning that's
the force of it. He that keeps on sinning is one
who has never seen the Lord Jesus Christ with the eye of faith.
He has not faith. He knows nothing really of the
Lord Jesus Christ because his life is one continual course
of sinning. He has not faith. And whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. All that the unbeliever does
is a constant offense to God because he is constantly in that
condition of alienation from God. He is an enemy of God. All
his actions are therefore the actions of an enemy. O but he that abideth in him
sinneth not. So only as the believer is abiding
in the Lord Jesus Christ how important this is. You see, there's
no innate spiritual strength in the believer. His life is
one of constant dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The branch,
Christ says, cannot bear fruit of itself. Remember how he uses that figure
of the vine and the branches there in John 15. The branch
cannot bear fruit of itself. Without me, he says, ye can do
nothing. Or this is the life that the
believer is living. He constantly has to draw upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we go back to the Old Testament,
Isaiah 14.8, from me is thy fruit found. or by their fruit ye shall
know them, but from whence doth that fruit come? That fruit comes
only by their union with God in Christ. Whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. O Christ is that one who is all,
and in all to the believer. The language that Paul uses at
the end of the opening chapter of 1 Corinthians, he says, "...of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." It
is the Lord Jesus Christ who is all of these things. He is
the believer's righteousness. He is the believer's sanctification.
Everything that the believer needs is found in that alone
source. All is there in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All this is the believer. His seed remaineth in him and
he cannot see. He's so different. So different to that person that
is spoken of back in verse 6. Those who have a sinneth hath
not seen him, neither known him. He has no new nature, no spiritual
seed in him, and therefore he has no faith. And as he has no
faith, All he does is sin, as we said. But this seed that is in the
believer, what is this seed ultimately? It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We go back to Galatians chapter
3 and verse 16 where Paul speaks of the seed. Christ is that seed. He is the
seed of the woman promised in Genesis chapter 3, the very chapter
that records the fall and the entrance of sin. He is that one
who is the seed of Abraham. And that's what the Apostle is
really speaking of in that third chapter of the Epistle to the
Galatians. To Abram and his seed, he says,
were the promises made. He saith, Not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one. Unto thy seed, which is Christ. Well, Christ is that one, the
seed of the woman, the seed of Abram, the seed of David, that
one who must come into the hearts of all those who know anything
of the grace of God. that union, that spiritual union
that believers have with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the
truth then that lies at the very heart of our text this morning. His seed remaineth in him, Christ
in us, the hope of glory. Whosoever is born of God, it
says, does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. and
he cannot see because he is born of God. Oh, the Lord be pleased
to bless his word to us. assist my soul, my heavenly King,
by everlasting love to sing, and joyful spread by praise abroad,
as one, through grace, that's born of God. 195.