This morning, we will be taking a small break
from Ecclesiastes, and we will be in the book
of 1 John, and we'll be in chapter three, 1 John
chapter three. Now, I know 1 John might seem...
to be unfit to parallel Ecclesiastes or to go
alongside Ecclesiastes, but it actually fits
with Ecclesiastes very well, because 1 John,
like Ecclesiastes, tries to encourage believers
to believe in their faith, but it also strives
to help believers in how they ought to live.
And so it will be in 1 John chapter 3, but before
I read here, we need the Lord's help in this
to understand how we are to live according to
his word. So let me pray. Our father, you are
holy and you are righteous. You are all powerful.
You are the king of kings and lord of lords.
Lord, you have given to us a great salvation
in your son, who through his blood, we can be
forgiven of our sins, but also receive your righteousness,
to receive your holiness through him. And we
thank you for your Holy Spirit that helps us
day by day to grow closer to you, to understand
who you are and how we are to walk according
to your word. Lord, we pray for your help this
morning to help us understand everything that
you have hidden in your word so that we can live
by it. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.
If you're anything like me, you grew up, playing
different sports. You maybe started with soccer
and developed a discipline for running. But it
was too much running, so you decided to change
the tempo and play baseball. But then baseball,
as a young boy, was a little too slow paced.
You got put in the outfield, and when you're
a little kid, balls don't get hit to the outfield,
so you stood there most of the time. So you asked
your parents to play a different sport, and they
moved you to basketball because that's what the
church offered. And you enjoyed basketball, but
then by middle school, everyone got their growth
spurt, but you did not get yours. And so you
didn't know what to turn to next. Well, you did,
but your parents said, maybe not yet. You're
not quite old enough. But they eventually gave
in and let you play football. And so in the eighth
grade, you got to enter football, having these
disciplines from other sports of running and
push -ups and what to do with your arms and knowing
that they're attached to your body. But you didn't
have the disciplines of a football player, the
characteristics of a football player. You didn't
know how to tackle or... where the ball is meant
to be on the field at what times. On kickoff,
you don't really know whether you tackle the
guy or you just let him run by you. You don't
really know what's going on. You don't have those
characteristics. So you spend time and you practice
and you develop until you have those characteristics.
And then you're a football player because you
can tackle. You know where you're meant to be
on the field and where other people are meant
to be. Or maybe sports was never really your
thing, but you wanted to be a baker or a chef
or a barbecue pit master. And so you learned
how to bake cakes or cook lasagna or grill a
full rack of ribs. So you could be like those
things. Or maybe neither of those, sports or
cooking, were not your hobbies, but you loved
music. And so you spent time and you developed
the characteristics of a musician. You learned
how to play guitar or how to play banjo or how
to play the piano or the flute or whatever your
heart desired so that you could be a musician.
Our faith is just like these things. There are
certain characteristics that mark us out as Christians,
just like certain characteristics mark you out
as a baker or as a football player or as a musician.
And so this is what 1 John chapter three talks
about. Let me go ahead and read. And I'm going
to begin in verse one, even though the sermon
will focus on verses four through 10, just to
give us a little bit of background. See what
kind of love the father has given to us, that
we should be called children of God. And so we
are. The reason why the world does not know us
is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are
God's children now, and what we will be has not
yet appeared. But we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him, because we shall see him
as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him
purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who
makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.
Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared
in order to take away sins, and in him there
is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on
sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either
seen him or known him. Little children, let no
one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness
is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes
a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the
devil has been sinning from the beginning. The
reason the son of God appeared was to destroy
the works of the devil. No one born of God makes
a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides
in him. He cannot keep on sinning because he
has been born of God By this it is evident who
the children of God are and who the children
of the devil and who are the children of the
devil Whoever does not practice righteousness
is not of God nor is the one who does not love
his brother So John here in chapter 3 is is really
addressing the climax of the letter He's getting
to the central point of the letter and the beginning
of the letter. He taught believers how to walk
in the love of God and taught them about the
love of God. And then he went from chapter one
and as he got into chapter two, he talked about
the forgiveness we have in Christ and the life
that we have in him. We actually saw that in
our pardoning grace passage already this morning.
And then he taught us about those who walk against
Christ, who are the antichrist. They walk in
opposition to who Christ is. Not just a specific
person, but a type of spirit. that goes against
everything Christ is. And then as we just saw
at the beginning of chapter three, he tells us
to look forward to the return of Christ, the
day when Christ will come and all sin will be
dealt with and we will be transformed when he
comes and we are being transformed as we wait.
And then in this passage here in verses four
through 10, John is going to explain what the
moral implications are and what it means to be
transformed by Christ and how it should look.
And what we'll ultimately learn is those who
belong to Christ will practice righteousness.
Now I want to say that one more time. What we'll
learn is that those who belong to Christ will
practice righteousness. Now we'll look at this
under three headings. But before we can understand
what it means to practice righteousness, to be
disciplined in righteousness, we must first understand
the practice of lawlessness in verses four through
six. Here in verse four, John begins by telling
us, whoever practices sinning also practices
lawlessness. If you have a different translation
from the ESV, like the New King James or the
King James, what you'll read is something that
seems more solid, it omits the word practice
and it just says, whoever commits sin commits
lawlessness. It ties them together, just like
the end of the verse will do. And so to understand
what John is getting at here with children in
the room, we need to define our terms. We need
to remember what sin is because sometimes as
Christians, especially us who are older in the
faith, we get used to just using these blanket
terms and we forget the true definition. And
so we'll begin with the definition of sin, and
I'll borrow it from the shorter catechism. Sin
is any want of conformity unto or the transgression
of the law of God. Now I know that is still a
bit complicated, so let's break it down a little
bit further. Sin is any thought, word, or deed
that either accidentally or willfully, purposely
violates the moral law of God that violates the
Ten Commandments. Any action, any thought, any
word. or deed that goes against the Ten Commandments.
And then we have this word lawlessness. Now if
you take lawlessness and you break it into its
two parts, lawless, you get the idea that there's
the law of God, the moral law that places commandments
on us of how we are to live. And so those who
would be lawless, without, would be people who,
without the gospel, without the law, maybe they
haven't heard it. But what John is going for
here in his letter is actually something more
than that. It's not just this idea of those who
have not heard the gospel or who have never received
the law of God. It's actually a Greek word, enomian.
And enomian is not just a general law breaking
or someone without the law. It's actually talking
about those who willfully go against the law
of God. They know the Ten Commandments. They
know that they are to worship God and God alone.
They know that they are not meant to covet, that
they are to give everything to the Lord, that
they are to love. They're not meant to steal
from their neighbor or lie to their neighbor.
It is those who know these truths, but who refuse
to obey them. They have zero regard for who God
is and His righteousness. They have zero fear
for God, and they choose to live against Him
and against His authority. And so when we bring
this idea together, sin is lawlessness, as John
says here in his letter, we learn that sin is
lawlessness. Anyone who commits sin is actually
in the act of defiance of the law of God. But
this actually seems discouraging because in the
first part of chapter three, and even in chapter
one of John, we're told we're forgiven of sins.
So is John trying to discourage? discourage us
here. No, he's not. He's trying to point out
a truth, and he's trying to warn believers against
those in the church who claim the name of Christ,
but fail to live like it. They know the law,
they know what the word commands, but day by
day they choose to go against it. And John is
really combating here what false teachers, they
were the Gnostics or the dotetics back in that
time. And that group, the Gnostics, what they
were known for is separating the body and the
flesh. So they said on one hand, the human flesh,
our body as it is, is evil and it is corrupt.
And it will always sin. And we cannot really
combat that sin. It will just be evil because
it's flesh. But then there's spirit on the other
hand, the things of God. the things that belong
to a realm outside of this earth. Those are the
things that can be holy. So they would use this
distinction to say we will always send and use
it as an excuse, not just acknowledging that
we will be sinners and saints, that as we go
through this life we must become more like Christ,
we must look more like Christ, but these are
people who put no reins, they put no fence around
their sin, they just allowed it to roam freely
and do what it pleases. saying the day will come.
And we do see this in our society today, not
necessarily under the title of Gnostic or Dotetic,
but just in general principles. We hear Christians
at times say, well, I'm just going to live how
I want, and I know before I die that God will
forgive me because I'll repent then. I even had
a dear friend that I grew up with from second
grade till college who, he had grown up in the
church. We had even taught Bible lessons together
at our public school in a little club. But as
we got to the end of high school, he began taking
this mindset of, I've had this life, I've tried
to follow the Lord, but I'm struggling to get
a girlfriend. I'm struggling to get a newer car.
I'm struggling to look like the popular kids.
So I'm going to live how I want. I'm going to
listen to the music I want. I'm going to hang
out with the people that I want. Because they
get me popularity, they do something for me.
But then towards the end of my life, or maybe
when I'm a little older, I'll come back to Christ,
and I'll repent, and I'll let those things go,
and I'll start going to church again. And I warned
this friend of mine at the time, you know better
than this. Scripture tells us we must live according
to the word of God. We're not meant to take the
grace of God for granted. Yes, what Paul will
say in Romans 7, believers will wrestle against
sin, but that doesn't mean we give permission
to it, that we make a habit of it. But he did
not listen. I still pray for his repentance to
this day. But we all know people like this, or
we've heard of people like this, or maybe we've
heard it put a little differently. You as Christians,
all you need to do is love people. And not the
type of love that pushes them towards the gospel,
not warning them from hell. but just accepting
them how they are and the lifestyle that they
want to live. It's giving them an excuse of,
well, God calls us to love, so as long as you
love them, the rest of scripture doesn't really
matter. We'll do away with that. And so we hear
of these people today. These people, though,
they're ultimately apostates. They're people
who willfully mock the God that they claim bought
them, the God that they claim salvation for from.
And it goes against the very purpose that Christ
came. Going back to the text, the reason, verse
five, you know that he appeared in order to take
away sins and in him there is no sin. The very
reason that Christ appeared was to do away with
sin. The reason he came down, just like the hymns
we sung this morning, was to purchase us, to
purchase his bride. And it was actually prophesied
all the way back in Isaiah 53 talking about the
suffering servant. He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment
that bought us peace was upon him, and by his
wounds we were healed. Christ took on a true
body, a body of flesh just like ours, and a reasonable
soul, one that knows good and evil, very similar
to ours, so that he could come down to this earth,
be humiliated, Live under the law that is the
ten commandments and keep them in our place because
we as Humans will always sin we will always go
against God and we see that all the way back
in Adam and Eve Adam and Eve were able to choose
whether or not they ate from the tree But they
chose that they chose to listen to the serpent
over the Lord We as humans will always choose
evil, but Christ came in our place to do what
we could not to keep the law perfectly, to worship
God perfectly, to love God and love neighbor
as himself. He did not break one law, and if
he did, he could not be our savior. But we know
that there was no sin in him. He kept the law.
John actually, in his gospel, tells us in John
chapter 19, talking about Jesus and Pilate, Pilate
went out again and said to him, him out to you
that you may know that I have found no guilt
in him. Pilate, who was a Roman, he worshipped
a plethora of gods, he knew nothing but sin,
looked upon Jesus and saw his sinlessness. He
saw that there was no guilt in him, there was
no transgression in him. But what we do know
is there is plenty in us. And so Jesus took our
sin on himself, and he became a curse for us.
He was placed upon that cross, and he bore the
full weight of our sin, the full weight of our
lawlessness, our active rebellion against God,
our active fight against God, so that we could
have union with him. John actually uses the word
propitiation. We saw this again in our confession
this morning. And propitiation actually points
back to the Old Testament. and the day of atonement
where a spotless sheep would be brought to the
temple and people would lay their hands on the
sheep. And they're laying on the hands of the
sheep, they would confess their sins. And then
they would let that sheep go and that was the
idea that their sins are being removed from them.
So pulling on that propitiation works off of
this idea that Christ is the perfect sacrifice.
He takes our sin on us, but unlike the lamb on
the day of atonement, he actually gives us his
righteousness. He gives us his good works and
his holiness so that we can live according to
his word and live life that is pleasing to him.
John 15, going back to the gospel to John again,
says that Christ is the true vine and that we
as believers are united to him and we grow out
of him and we should be like him. Now, Christian,
I want to stop and pause and ask you a question.
Do you still meditate on this truth, the truth
of the gospel, that the sinless savior came for
you, that he came to be among the sickness, to
be among the poor and the broken and the needy,
and to live in our place so that we could have
union with him? I know many of you grew up hearing
this truth, hearing this truth of the gospel.
But do you still meditate? Do you take time to
think on it daily? To be still and know that
God is God. Or have you forgotten the gospel?
Have you ceased stopping about it? Do you maybe
on Sundays come and think about your savior,
but then the rest of the time forget about it?
I hope that's not the case. Because the gospel
is our only hope in being free from sin. And
it's our only hope and living righteously. And
so we must be like Christ, verse six. No one
who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who
keeps on sinning has either seen him or known
him. Christ is holy. He is set apart from the
things of this world. He is righteous. He is
morally perfect in every action that he does.
And we must be holy like him. If we wish to abide
and rest in Christ, we must let go of our sin
and cling to the Savior. We cannot rest in the
arms of a spotless Savior if we still wish to
go wallow and rest in the mud with the pigs.
We cannot dirty our Savior, and He is holy so
we must be holy. And if you choose after hearing
the gospel, maybe even partaking of the Lord's
Supper, to return to your sin, it is evident
that you have neither known him, you have no
relationship with him, you have forgotten the
gospel, or maybe you never understood it in the
first place, and you have not seen him, there
is no light in your mind that helps you understand
scripture, that helps you understand the good
things that God is calling you to. Because if
you had seen the light, the darkness that is
in your mind or was in your mind would not be
all that great. The darkness would be replaced
with the majesty of Christ. So do not claim the
name of Christ if you prefer your sin over the
Savior, if you prefer the things of this world,
if you prefer taking time to go to the bar overcoming
the church, or use your free time to scroll on
your phone and go to the places of the internet
that you know you should not be going to. Or
maybe in the actions with your spouse, you choose
to rebuke them harshly. and expect them to be
perfect even though you're not. If you prefer
living that way and living in those things, do
not claim the name of Christ. Now to those who
can confidently name the name of Christ, you
follow after the Savior. John wants to give us
a warning about lawlessness. Now he will do this
in verses seven and eight. He will give us a
warning about lawlessness. And he begins this
section as he does often. in his letters. He
says little children. He does not come alongside
the church as an apostle, someone with great
authority, someone who's building the church,
who's setting up the boundaries that the church
is to work in and how they are to operate. He's
actually coming alongside of them as an elder,
someone who's meant to shepherd the church, watch
out for the church and lead the church like an
apostle, but just to be a shepherd, be like a
father to those in the church. And so he gives
them this warning, little children, do not be
deceived. It's just like a father when they see
their son or their daughter reaching for the
hot stove, knowing that they just shut that stove
off. So they warn their kid, don't touch that
stove. You are going to burn your hand. He comes
alongside them just like this. They are going
to get hurt. And he tells them, do not be deceived.
by people who claim the name of Christ but walk
opposite to it. And so he's going to give three
statements here as part of his warning. He's
first going to say that the righteous will act
like their father. This is the second part of
verse seven. Whoever practices righteousness
is righteous as he is righteous. So whoever walks
according to the word of God, who takes time
to worship God from a pure heart, who make sure
there's no idol standing in their way, who takes
time to love their neighbor, to serve them from
a heart that loves God. Those people are righteous,
just like Christ, just like God, their father.
And righteousness, if you haven't caught up to
it or if you've forgotten the definition to it,
dictionaries will say that righteousness is behavior
that is morally justifiable or right. But God's
righteousness is perfect. It's not just justifiable
or right. It's perfect actions, perfect thoughts,
perfect deeds. It really gets the core of who
God is. Now, are we righteous because we do righteous
things, because we act, talk, and walk a certain
way? No, we're not righteous by our works. This
is not work -based salvation that John is trying
to set forth here or to tell us about. No, we
are to be righteous like our Savior. We are to
be tied to our Savior going back to John 15.
And the true vine, Christ is the true vine. And
every branch that belongs to Him, He will prune.
He will shape. He will cut off that sin and cause
them to walk in the love of God and the walk
of, and then the love of neighbor. He will make
the branches that are in Him more like Him. So
those who are righteous will walk righteously
and we do so because we know Christ and we know
God the Father. But then John in this warning
talks about the lawless. The lawless actually
act like their father. John 15 also tells us
the opposite of those branches who seem to be
a part of the true vine but they have no fruit.
They will be cut off from God. God will reject
them as they have rejected them. They are children
of the devil. This is verse eight. Whoever makes
a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the
devil has been sinning from the beginning. So
the lawless children who claim Christ but walk
opposing are actually children of the devil.
We actually see this in Jesus' interaction with
the Pharisees. The Pharisees tried to push their
man -made laws on Christ to say this is how you
need to live according to our law. but they forgot
the law of God. They forgot the grace of God
and the love of God and the mercy of God. And
these people do it just like their father who
has done it from the beginning. Now, being in
1 John and you hear this word beginning, maybe
you think back to the Gospel of John, where in
the beginning of the Gospel of John, we hear
that the Word was God and the Word was with God
from the beginning. The devil is not from the
beginning like God is from the beginning. The
devil is only from the beginning of creation.
He is a created work. And that's why in scripture,
the first time we see the devil is in Genesis
three, when the serpent comes to tempt Adam and
Eve to eat of the tree. And what he actually
does is he twists the word of God. He asks Eve,
is that really what God said? Did he really say
that you couldn't look at that tree, that you
couldn't eat of that tree? Or was he just trying
to deceive you? The devil, Satan, Lucifer, was
an angel. He knew what God required. He knew
the words of God, but he twisted them to have
others follow him. And this is what false teachers
do or false Christians do when they try to tell
us that we can just live how we want to. It's
a twisting of the law of God. Oh, just love.
Don't worry about the rest. Just love and accept
and be all gracious. Forget about that God will
judge. Forget about that God is righteous and
that we need to be righteous. We must follow
our Savior, otherwise we prove ourselves to be
children of the devil. And we must watch out.
That's what John's warning here is. We must look
and we must examine. Now there are times where
believers will fall into sin and they get stuck
in it for a while. Westminster chapter five,
the confession actually tells us. that sometimes
God will allow Christians, born again believers,
to be overcome by sin so that they can remember
his mercy. So we need to give people grace in
our judgment and we must not be quick to call
them evil or to call them sons of the devil,
but we also need to call a spade a spade. And
so Jesus gives us a hope here though as we deal
with people. Who claimed Christ but walk opposing
to him he gives he ends this warning by a message
of hope in Verse 8 the second part of it He comes
back to the Son of God the reason the Son of
God appeared was to destroy the works of the
devil He goes back to why Christ Christ came.
He is the Son of God one who is united to God
He has no beginning or no end. He is eternal
with the Father and he came to destroy he came
to annihilate He actually fulfilled, he completed
Genesis 315. He came to crush the head of the
serpent, and he did just that. He conquered death,
the greatest work, or the greatest work of the
devil, the work that came upon Adam and Eve.
We hear from Christ himself in the book of Revelation
as John listens to Christ. What he hears in chapter
one is when I saw him, I fell at his feet as
though dead, but he laid his right hand on me,
saying, fear not. I am the first and the last,
the living one. I died and behold, I am alive
forevermore. I have the keys to death in Hades."
So Christ destroyed death. He has the keys to
death, and he destroyed every work that goes
against God. All acts of sexual immorality, all
impurity, all idolatry, that chasing after something
other than God, every hatred that goes against
the love of God, the pure love of God. Every
jealousy or every fit of rage, every selfish
desire and ambition, Christ has destroyed so
that we can be united to him, that there's nothing
standing in our way from being one with God.
As long as we have faith in him. Christ is victorious.
The reformer said, Christ is victor. Christ is
victor. They shortened it by one word, they thought
that was necessary. Use a little Latin in there,
sound like good theologians. That Christ is victor,
he has conquered every unclean thing, every unclean
spirit. Now I know what you're thinking. Well,
what about the fact that there's still sin? Not
just in me, but in the rest of the world. If
Christ has conquered, why is sin still ruling?
Well, God in his providence for a time has allowed
the devil to still have some power on this world.
The devil in Ephesians 2 is called the prince
in power of the air. He's still a prowling lion
that seeks to devour. He has not yet been thrown
into the pit of hell where he will be condemned
and judged once and for all. But the devil is
bound. Even though he's not reached the day of
judgment, we have not reached the day of judgment,
he is bound, he is limited. He was already limited.
We see in the book of Job, we talked about this
this morning in Sunday school with the youth,
that in the book of Job we see that the devil
is already limited. He needs the authority of
God to do anything. But in the New Testament
with Christ conquering, he is even more limited
than before. And so Calvin reflecting on Christ
as victor, talking about unclean spirits, he
says that unclean spirits will combat believers.
They will ambush them, invade their peace. beset
them in combat, and also often wary them, rout
them, terrify them, and sometimes even wound
them, yet they will never vanquish or crush them.
So as we wrestle with sin and in ourselves and
in the world, and as we think of Christ being
victor, we can have confidence that as we wrestle
against sin, and sometimes even habitual sin,
that Christ is victor, and as long as we flee
to him, he will forgive us. Believers are not
crushed by sin. They cannot be crushed by sin
or the devil or in any unclean spirit. And so
they must practice righteousness. This will be
verse nine. No one born of God makes a practice
of sinning. Now, this is the third time that
John is making the statement of making a practice
of sinning and really the fourth time where he's
talking about not sinning. In any time we see
something in scripture, that's mentioned three
times in a row, it's meant for emphasis. It's
an exclamation point of, you need to focus on
this right now. This is the most important part.
If you get nothing out of this letter, no one
born of God makes a practice of sinning. So does
this mean we need to deal with this because he
said this three times? Is John here teaching
a doctrine called perfectionism, which is this
idea that believers in this life in this world
can be made holy. They can get to a point in
their older years as they walk with Christ that
they will not sin. They will not lie. They will
not be harsh with their spouse. They will worship
from a pure heart every single time they come
into worship. That is not what John is teaching
here. That's not what scripture teaches. And
I know this because in 1 John chapter eight,
or yeah, 1 John chapter one, verse eight, John
says, if we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. So John says that
if we say we have no sin, the truth is not in
us. And then towards the end of the letter, in
1 John 5, he talks about praying for believers
who battle and wrestle against sin. And then
as I already mentioned, Romans 7, that even the
apostle knew that his sin at times made him do
things that he did not want to do. The apostle,
the one who was meant to lead the church and
establish the church, the one who I know in our
own study, we think of, that's the pinnacle.
If I could just be like the apostle Paul or the
apostle John, I would be good. Even the apostle
wrestled against his sin. So John is not making
a contradiction here, either with himself or
the rest of scripture, but the practice of sinning
actually seen in the ESV translation is the correct
way of interpreting it, of understanding it.
It's a practice. It's an action that you go after.
It's a habit. In the Greek, this is actually
a present active tense. And what that means is
it's happening now and then it's ongoing and
it keeps going. It's just like showing up day
by day to practice football or getting in the
kitchen day after day to learn how to bake or
practicing on your guitar day after day after
day to be a good musician or be a good baker
or be a good sportsman. It's this practice, it's
a habit. So no one born of God, no one who belongs
to God makes a practice of sinning. Now, why
do we not make this practice? Well, we make it,
we do not make this practice because we have
the spirit, the seed of Christ who is living
in us. It's the spirit who dwells and guides
and directs us. We do not by our own will and
our own desires and our own power have to chase
after God. We have to trust in the spirit and
he will cause us to chase after God. He will
cause us to confess our sins and seek forgiveness.
He will stir us up and praying for one another.
He will cause us to meditate on the work of Christ
and he will help us to cease chasing after sin
like a dog chases after a bone. When a dog buries
his bone in the backyard, at some point he will
decide he wants to go back to that bone and he
will dig hole after hole after hole after hole
trying to find this old nasty bone that's half
chewed and it's been in the dirt and the dirt's
not coming off of it and other animals have maybe
gotten to it. That is the chase of sin. But the
chase of righteousness, the one that believers
make, is one where we stop chasing that bone.
and we walk with the spirit. Galatians 5 tells
us, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify
the desires of the flesh. For the desires of
the flesh are against the spirit and the desires
of the spirit are against the flesh. For those
are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing
the things that you want to do. We might want
to sin at times. We might want our own ambitions,
our own pride to go above everyone else, above
everything else. but as we walk in the spirit,
he will help us not to do that. We, as we grow
into the true vine, as we grow with Christ, the
spirit will take away every weed that seeks to
choke us out. And so John brings this to a conclusion
here. And really just what is evident, and what
I've already said, it's evident that those who
belong to Christ will practice righteousness.
He gives us a marker of believers and those who
are against believers, unbelievers, the children
of the devil. By this it is evident who are the
children of God and who are the children of the
devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness
is not of God, nor is the one who does not love
his brother. Those who are children of God, we
who are children of God, we practice true religion.
James 1 tells us religion, that God our Father
accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look
after orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
We who are believers, we walk in the love of
God and as we learn to love God more and we learn
what his love means, we begin to love others
out of that. That is pure religion. That is what
marks a Christian as a Christian. that marks
a Christ follower as a Christ follower. They
won't be perfect, but when they're not perfect,
they will repent and they will seek forgiveness
and they will seek to make things right with
God and with others. But then those who do not
belong to God, even though they might claim the
name of Christ, if they do not practice true
religion, they are not of God. If they refuse
to praise God, they refuse to love God, to build
habits, to take time and daily to read scripture
and pray and to worship with their family. They're
not Christians, or they at least need a lot of
shepherding. And if you're someone here who's
walking in your sin, loving your sin more than
Christ, you're mocking God. And I want to encourage
you to cease from doing that. Whether you have
once known God and have strayed, Or maybe you
have never known the gospel. Today is the day
of repentance. The day is the day you stop chasing
after that bone of sin. That you stop returning
to the vomit that is sin. And you follow after
Christ. Because Christ has forgiveness for you.
He is the propitiation, the sacrifice. Not for
just us in the room, but for anyone who comes
to believe. Anyone in this world. And if you
ask for his forgiveness, he will forgive you.
Now believers Maybe you're saying I am trying
I'm repenting daily. I'm doing devotions daily.
It just seems like it's not working. I Still
want to return to that side online or when my
wife talks to me. I still just snap something
breaks in my brain I don't know what it is Don't
give up don't stop doing good every time you
talk with your wife or with your husband Seek
to change that interaction. Show them the love
of Christ. Show them the love that the church
shows to Christ. Put up the right parameters
on your phone. Seek repentance. Follow Christ.
Don't grow tired of growing weary. Don't grow
weary of doing good. Never grow tired. Chase
after Christ and Christ will sustain you. He
will give you life and he will forgive you of
every sin. And so we look forward to the day
when there is no more sin, when there is no more
weeping, there are no more tears, there is no
more sickness, and we can be one with Christ.
But until that day, we have hope in Christ that
he will transform us as we look forward to his
return. Let us pray.