It is truly wonderful to know
tonight that you have a Savior to be able to sing. I'm very
sure my anchor holds and grips the solid rock. Let us turn again
tonight to 1 John chapter 3, and this evening we're looking
at verses 4 through 10. 1 John chapter 3, and we'll read
these verses tonight, beginning with verse 4. Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. 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. 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. I think it should be obvious
to everyone who reads 1 John that the situation he was dealing
with, the situation that existed in his day, is a situation that
has continued, which always exists in the church. That is, there
will always be tares among the wheat in this world. There will
always be those who profess to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and
either because of ignorance on their part of the word of God
and what the scriptures teach, or just because they've never
experienced the saving grace of God. But over the years, down
through the years, there are and there have been some very
strange teachings concerning Christians and sin. believers,
true believers, and our relationship to sin. Some have taught, of
course, that a true believer doesn't have any sin. And they
love to come to this passage of scripture to support their
doctrine that if a person is truly saved, that he has no sin. And then others have taught that
what is sin to a lost person Because a person's been saved,
it's not sin for the saved person. And then there are those that
have taught that as long as a person has a solid creed that is in
his head, as long as he knows and can profess the truth about
Christ, it doesn't matter how that person lives, it doesn't
matter whether he manifests saving grace in his life or not. You know, the Apostle Paul, it
wasn't just one church. We associate the church at Ephesus
most often with the Apostle John, but it wasn't just the church
at Ephesus. If you look back in 1 Corinthians
chapter 6, the church at Corinth, it seems, may have thought along
these same lines, and Paul had to warn them. First Corinthians
chapter six, and beginning in verse nine, he wrote, know you
not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Don't you know that? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. Don't you know that? If a person
continues living like that, if that's the way a person lives,
don't you realize that that that person is not an inheritor of
the kingdom of God. Now, God saves the worst of sinners. He does. And the apostle Paul,
I love these next few verses when he said, and such were some
of you, not all of them, and not all of them guilty of all
of those things that he had mentioned. but some were guilty of some.
But look at this wonderful truth, but you are washed. Washed. Who loved us and washed us from
our sins in his own blood. Isn't that a wonderful truth?
That yes, no matter how filthy in sin we may have been, We've
been washed, and there's nothing that can cleanse, that can wash
the sin away of any individual except the blood of Jesus Christ. But you're sanctified. You've
been set apart, but you're justified. And you know that word justified
means that you are declared before God without sin, as if you had
never sinned. and all of this in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. But make
no mistake that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Now, in our passage that we're looking
at tonight, I want to call our attention to five, I'm going
to call them arguments, five arguments or five truths which
show the inconsistency of a true child of God living in sin. The inconsistency of that kind
of walk. And I think this is always necessary
because people over the years, I've met people like this, you
have too. Maybe when they were a young
person, a teenager, or maybe even younger than that, they
walked down some church aisle and shook the preacher's hand,
and the preacher said they were sure for heaven, and they were
baptized, and they never lived as though they had experienced
the grace of God. There's no evidence whatsoever.
But they believe they're saved. They're convinced that they're
saved. You know, many times people like that, and especially children,
I believe, are made two-fold more a child of hell by the manipulations
of certain preachers who are out to get a profession of faith
by hook or crook. And they certainly can get them
from small children. But when God saves a sinner,
that sinner becomes a new creation. Therefore, the scripture says
that all things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. But let's look at these five things that John mentions
here, which I believe shows to anyone who might feel like in
that day that you could be saved and continue to live in sin.
It makes no difference because the grace of God is sufficient.
Well, first of all, in the first verse, in verse four, the Apostle
John tells us, all sin is a transgression of God's law. Whosoever committed
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. Now I'm sure that most of us,
when we read the word law in the New Testament, we automatically
think of the law that God gave through Moses to the nation of
Israel, the law from Sinai. But think about this. When Cain,
who was Adam's son, when Cain killed his brother Abel, the
law, it would be hundreds of years later before that law was
given. Was he not guilty of sin? He
murdered his brother. In other words, was murder a
sin at that time? Of course it was, as well as
any other sins which are mentioned in the law that God gave through
Moses. Yes. Murder didn't become a sin when
God gave the Ten Commandments and wrote those with his finger
on those tables of stone. That's not when murder became
a sin. There is a law of God that some
men refer to this as a natural law. But the Apostle Paul tells
us that one of the purposes of the law, the law that was given
at Sinai, now some people say, well, that codified the law,
God's law, the law that was given at Sinai. But Paul tells us that
one of the purposes of God's law is to give the knowledge
of sin. The knowledge of sin. We might say that's the first
step, if we could use that terminology, in a person coming to true salvation. A person must know that he is
a sinner. And God uses his word, he uses
his law, God the Holy Spirit, in showing a person that we are
guilty. We haven't just made a few mistakes.
We are sinful individuals and we deserve the wrath of God. Man should recognize that God,
we have a creator. All men should recognize this,
that we have a creator. and that he would give a law,
he would be the one who would determine what man should do
and what man should not do. It's not going to be left up
to man to determine what he should do and what he should not do. God, the creator of all men,
he's the one who gives the law. And he determines what is right
and what is wrong and what men are responsible to do. The Apostle
Paul, he confessed that the commandment is holy, just, and good. And John would have believers
now, I believe he's writing to believers, or those at least
who profess to be believers, he would have them recognize
that the law is expression of the will of God. and we are to
do what he commands, and when we don't, we sin. We sin. And a very literal reading
of this verse would be, he who doeth sin, doeth also transgression. Now, is a child of God to be
a transgressor? We have our transgressions, we
have transgressed against the law, against God, but... A true
child of God is not to be denominated a transgressor. Why? Because
Christ has kept the law in our stead and his righteousness is
imputed unto everyone who believes. So first of all, all sin is a
transgression of God's law. So you see how inconsistent I
say it would be for anyone who believes himself or confesses
himself to be a child of God to live in sin. Because that
means he's a transgressor. And God's children were transgressors
of his law, but no longer. The second thing, if you notice
in verse five, the Son of God was manifested to take away our
sins. Why did the eternal son of God,
why did he take unto himself that body which was prepared
him? Why did he become incarnate? Well, he was manifested, John
said, not that we might continue in sin, not that we might live
in sin, but that he was manifested to take away our sins. His purpose
in coming into the world and suffering as he did was to redeem
his people from their sins. You know that scripture in Matthew
1 verse 21, we all are familiar with it, we quote it quite often.
The angel told Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And we know that that salvation,
that deliverance that he came to bring is deliverance from
the penalty of sin. And that's all most people want
to hear about. The penalty of sin is eternal
damnation. I want to be saved from hell,
absolutely. But the salvation that the Lord
Jesus Christ gives to his people is not only salvation from the
penalty, but it is also salvation from the power of sin. And we
expect one day, this is that hope that we have, that we will
be saved from the very presence of sin. I read yesterday, I believe
it was, a short quote by George Whitefield, but he said, I'm
tired of sin, and I long to go where sin does not come. The presence of sin. Won't that
be wonderful one day? We're saved from the very presence
of sin. There'll be no temptation. There'll
be no sin in heaven. That's the salvation that Christ
brought and gives to his people from the penalty, the power,
and the presence. You know, some people refer to
that as the three tenses of salvation. Saved in the past, we're saved
in the future, in the present, and we shall be saved in the
future. Look at what Paul wrote to the
church at Galatia in chapter one. In verse four, he said, who gave
himself for our sins. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave himself as a substitute for our sins that in order that
he might deliver us from this present evil world. Gave himself for our sins that
he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. Just a few weeks ago, maybe a
couple of weeks ago, we saw what John said about the world. He said, for all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world. Christ
gave himself for us to deliver us from this present evil world. His purpose, back here in 1 John
3, his purpose in all that he suffered was to deliver his people
from this evil world. Now we see how inconsistent it
is for a person to profess to be a child of God and continue
in sin. When the Lord Jesus Christ, the
very reason He was manifested, the eternal Son of God, the very
reason He came into this world was to save His people from our
sins. And then John noticed at the
end of that verse, and in him is no sin. He just kind of added
that on, that in him, that is in Christ, in our Savior, there
is no sin. We know that he is the sinless
Son of God. He had to be sinless to be our
Savior. He had to be sinless to take
away our sins. Thank God he is. Now, here's the third. In verse
6 here, 1 John 3 and verse 6, true Christians do not practice
sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. That word abideth. Whosoever
abideth. You know, that's a favorite word
of the Apostle John. If you look up how many times
it's used in the New Testament, the Greek word, which is here
translated abided, and you look in John's gospel, the gospel
according to John and his three officials here, you find that
John used this word more than all the other New Testament books
put together. This seems to be, and no doubt
was, a favorite word of the Apostle John. And in classical Greek,
it's used of people remaining in a place as abiding there permanently. In other words, if you asked
me tonight, where do you live? I could tell you. I could tell
you the address. I could tell you exactly where
I live, and I've lived there for over 30 years. That's where
I abide. And you could do the same thing.
Maybe you haven't lived there as long as I have, but in my
place, but I abide there. That's where I abide. And John
uses this word to show the union which exists between every child
of God and the Savior. There's a vital union between
Christ and His people. One writer said, the sense seems
to be that we have some sort of relation to Him similar to
that which we have to our house, to our home. That is some fixed
and permanent attachment to him. We live in him, we remain steadfast
in our attachment to him, just as we do our home. I sleep in
the same house every day, every night, don't you? That's my home,
that's where I abide. And a believer abides in Christ. He's in union with Christ. And
the result of this union is the believer does not continue sinning. It means that a believer does
not practice sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Does not practice sin. It doesn't
mean that a true child of God never sins? Of course not. And
we know that those who would teach such a thing as sinless
perfection, they have to recognize this. They have to recognize
that if that were the case, that there are many in the Word of
God who were believers. I think about Noah. After God saved him, we know
that he ended up drunk. I think about Lot. He was guilty
of incest. And Abraham, his vacillation,
right? When he told the king, she's
my sister, you know, and we could go, David. Everybody knows about
David and Solomon, the adult, the idolatry that Solomon in. And you know, Joe, you read what
God says about him in that first chapter of perfect. an upright
man that escheweth evil? There's none like him. But what
did Job say about himself? I am thou. I am thou. If this verse was
saying that if a person is truly saved, they never sin, it wouldn't
be just a few. Now, I met a man one time, and
he believed that. And I spoke with him about this,
but it seems that those who believe that heresy, sinless perfection,
it seems that they don't believe that every child of God is sinless,
but that some can attain unto that position. But this verse
tells us that every Christian Everyone who abides, who's in
union with Christ, sinneth not. Wouldn't be just a few who have
worked their way up the ladder, so to speak, to that place of
sinless perfection. No, it'd be every child of God. And I heard this illustration,
and some of you have heard me use it before, but to me, it's
one of the best I ever heard, and I heard a preacher I give
this illustration who pastored a church in Arkansas in a town
that was on the Mississippi River. And Brother Johnson said, the
Mississippi River flows south. It does. It flows south. It's going to empty in the Gulf
of Mexico. But if you trace that river,
sometimes it flows east, sometimes west, but the trajectory of that
river is south. And a true child of God, yes,
he's going to live for the glory of God. That doesn't mean that
he's not going to be tempted or not going to fall into sin,
or not be guilty of sin. That's not what this verse is
telling us. But just like that river, the
bent, the tendency of that river is to flow south. Now sometimes
it may vary this way or that way, but just for a little while.
Those are the exceptions. But the truth is, it flows south. And the truth of a child of God
is, He wants to live for the glory of God, and sin is something
that he recognizes is not for the glory of God. It doesn't
glorify God. Here's the fourth thing. If you
notice in verse eight, those who practice sin are of the devil. That's what he says. He that
committeth sin is of the devil. And then he says, for the devil
sinneth from the beginning. And I believe this is really
a key to understanding how it is that a believer doesn't sin. The difference between the devil
and a true child of God. What do we know about the devil?
We know that he was created holy. He was an archangel, we believe. He was created holy. He sinned. And from the first time that
he sinned, he has continued to sin. That's his life. It's not like the devil sinned
once and then when he's tempted, he sins again. He falls into
a temptation and commits sin. No. The devil is a sinner. I mean, that's all he is from
top to bottom. He's not overcome by sin, he
sins. That's what is true of the devil.
He that committed sin is of the devil and he acts like the devil. He lives like the devil. A believer,
a child of God, and our Lord taught us, didn't he? He taught
his disciples to pray, lead us not into temptation. The devil
doesn't, he's not led into temptation, he just sins. That's all he is. He was a sinner from the beginning.
That's characteristic of him, practicing sin, living in sin. Not so for a child of God, how
inconsistent it would be. When we realize the Lord Jesus
Christ, as this verse tells us, He came again, we see the eternal
Son of God was manifested, that means He was made flesh to destroy
the works of the devil. That was the purpose of Him coming
into this world. And sin for one of his children,
one of those that he saves is so inconsistent when our Savior
came into this world to destroy his works. And the last thing,
the fifth thing, in verse nine, the new birth produces a new
creature in every true child of God. And that new creature
cannot sin. That's what is here referred
to as His seed. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for His seed, that new creation, that new man
that when a person is saved, we become partakers of His holiness. That new man that is created
in righteousness and true holiness cannot sin. But we know that
while we have a new man within us, we still have an old man,
don't we? We still have that old man to
deal with. And that's the reason that men
who are believers, who are children of God, do sin. We're not proud of it. And, you
know, a person certainly would be suspect if they say, well,
I know I can do this. I know I can live in this sin
or do this sin because of the grace of God. That's a misuse
of the grace of God, isn't it? God's grace is given not that
we might continue in sin, but that we might be saved from our
sins. Well, I hope that this will be
a help to us here this evening. And our desire is to live without
sin, isn't it? I remember someone told a friend
of mine, who's now gone to be with the Lord years ago. But
he said, you know what you preach? You can just live, do anything
you want to live, want to do. And my friend said, no, I wish
I could do what I want to do. Because if I could do what I
want to do, I would live without sin. I would. But I find a law. and my members, that when I would
do good, evil is present. I pray the Lord would bless his
word. Let's sing a hymn, Bill.