Believers Do Not Make Sin Their Practice

Transcript

GR 1096
1/30/1983

1 John 3:4-10
Gil Rugh

I John in your Bibles. I John and the third chapter. We've looked through the opening verses of chapter 3 and we tied them together with the close of chapter 2 where John writes about our abiding in Christ so that we might have confidence in His presence at His coming rather than be among those who are going to be put away from Him in shame at His coming.

Verse 28. So the contrast there. "We have confidence. We will not shrink away." Note it there. It's a passive. Sane thing done to those individuals. They are put away from Him in shame at His coming. Reference to the unbeliever and when Jesus Christ comes he will be put away in shame as he is judged for his sin. Verse 29. "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. Now note a crucial point here. It's going to become the heart of our study for this evening's verses. Everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Now you note. The practicing of righteousness is the result of being born of God. I want to be clear at the beginning, that no one can be born into God's family by practicing righteousness, but rather as a result of being born into God's family, righteousness is a result. So we are born into God's family by faith in Jesus Christ. The result of being born into God's family is a transformation from the inside which results in righteousness in our practice. John opened chapter 3 with a statement on the greatness of the love of God. That we should be called the children of God. And the result is that the world doesn't recognize us even as it does not recognize Jesus Christ. It did not recognize Christ during His earthly ministry. We were talking about this at our Open Forum In a verse out of Luke where the Pharisees asked Christ regarding the kingdom. They were looking for the Messiah and He was right in their midst and they didn't recognize Him. So true with us. We are now, verse 2, the children of God, yet we are not brought to complete perfection in our practice yet. That is the process going on.

When we see Him face to face, that transformation, we will be brought to completion. We will be glorified in the presence of God. So we experience our glorified body. We looked into Romans chapter 8 which develops this in some detail. Now with this kind of hope it affects the way you live.

Verse 3. "Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure." In other words, those who truly have this hope of seeing Jesus Christ face to face, being transformed in His presence, will have their lives lived differently. We will live lives of purity because we live in anticipation of the hope that is ours. And it's this theme that is continuing now where we pick up this evening with verse 4. And what John is going to do is draw the contrast between the children of the devil and the children of God. And you can tell the children of the devil by their conduct. You can tell the children of God by their conduct. There is to be a difference. If I have been transformed on the inside and made a new creature, a new creation, that will evidence itself in the way that I live. If I have not been transformed on the inside, that also will evidence itself in the way that I live. So verse 10 will become a key. "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious." That's what John is doing. He is making obvious. We're talking about the children of the devil and what are the children of God by their conduct.

Note verse 4. "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. You note this flows right out of verse 3. Those who have their hope in Christ purify themselves. Now, everyone who practices sin, and I see it as significant. The present tense as it is used through this section, denoting the general characteristic of these individuals. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Here we have a description of sin and a definition of sin. Sin is lawlessness. Now this is the opposite of what we read in verse 29 of chapter 2. You know that He is righteous. You know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Now the opposite of those who practice righteousness are those who practice lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. It's a rebellion against God and God's law, God's standard.
A rebellion against God Himself. Now this lawlessness, this rebellion manifests itself both in what we do and what we do not do. Some people say, Well, I'm not such a bad sinner. I don't steal. I don't murder. I don't commit immorality. But the other side. You ought to jot down James 4:17. "To him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin." So sin involves both what we do and what we don't do. If we do what God says "don't do," we are rebelling against God. If we don't do what God says we must do, we are rebelling against God. So both are forms of lawlessness and rebellion against God.

For the unbeliever—he is controlled by his sin and that which is on the inside makes its way out. What Jeremiah wrote about in chapter 17 where he says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Within man is this sinful character and it manifests itself in rebellion against God.

Verse 5 moves us along. "And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins and in Him there is no sin." Now you have, in going back now to the first coming of Christ, verse 5. You know that He appeared at His first coming. Up in verse 2 He talked about His Second Coining, when He shall appear we shall be like Him. We shall see Him as He is. Now he goes back to talk about what was accomplished at His first coming. He appeared in order to take away sins and in Him there is no sin. Now at His first coming, Christ came to
deal with the issue of sin. That was the purpose of His coming. To deal with sin. The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many. That was His purpose in His coming—that He might die on the cross and pay the penalty for sin. So He appeared to take away sin.

In Hebrews 9:28 we are told that when He appears the second time it will not be with reference to sin. So at His second coming He will come to set up His kingdom and to gather in all of those who belong to Him. At His first coming, His prime purpose was to deal with the sin issue by paying the penalty Himself.
This was touched on way back in verse 2 of chapter 2. You remember also. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. The word "propitiation" meaning satisfaction. By the payment He made in His death He paid the penalty for my sin which is death so that that issue has been dealt with. He appeared to take away sin and in Him there is no sin. Now, you note, He came to take away sins. In Him there is no sin singular. Jesus Christ was a complete man as well as complete God, but He was without sin. I take it He was without a sin nature. Sin had no presence in Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:21 says that God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus Christ was without sin. There is no sin in Him. So sin is lawlessness. Jesus Christ came to take away sin. He Himself is sinless.

So the next statement. Logical progression here. Verse 6 . "No one who abides in Him sins." The other side of that is, no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Now, important, the progression that you follow this. Verse 4— sin is lawlessness and everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness.
Verse 5. Christ appeared to take away sin. There is no sin. There is no lawlessness in Him. Verse 6. No one who abides in Him sins and the present tense of sins. And the tenses are going to be important here. Going to talk about the two tenses used in this verse. No one who abides in Him sins. Now, has a life that is characterized by sin and I think that the Scripture is clear that there is a difference in the life of the believer and the life of the unbeliever. And so no one who abides in Him and all the believers we have already seen, do abide in Him, lives a life of sin. That does not mean you cannot commit an act of sin as a believer. We have seen that in the earlier part of chapter 2. But sin is not the general characteristic of a life. How can a person whose life is characterized by continual rebellion against God, that's the pervading characteristic of his life as you examine it in all its facets, claim to be a child of God when he lives a life of rebellion against God. It's just totally out of character. In fact, John says it's an impossibility. No one who sins, again, present tense, who has this habitual character of life, has seen Him or knows Him. Now important here. You may, some of you know Greek. Some of you don't. But let me just tell you something about the tense here. We have a perfect tense. When you talk about "has seen Him or knows Him." "Has seen and "knows" are in the perfect tense in Greek and the perfect tense deals with something that began in the past or happened in the past and it continues in the present. Now that's important because he says no one who lives a life of sin has seen Him in the past or seen Him now or have they known Him in the past or do they know Him now. That marks off a distinction. We are not talking about believers here who sin versus believers who don't sin. These are people who have never seen or known Christ in the past nor do they see or know Him now. In other words, they are without any experience with Jesus Christ, any knowledge of Him either in the past or in the present.

No one who sins has the habitual characteristic of their life as lawlessness who lives a life of rebellion against God. They have never seen nor have they ever known God. They are separated from Him. We would say that they are in effect unregenerate unbelievers. Now again we have dealt with the issue of individual acts of sin in our opening verses of I John 2. So I believe the Scripture makes a difference even between carnal Christians and unbelievers. The Corinthians being example. The Corinthians were carnal Christians, according to I Corinthians chapter 3. But you read the letter to the Corinthians and they are people whose lives are characterized by the work of the Spirit of God in their life even though there are glaring inconsistencies along the way. You see a marked difference in the Corinthians than you do in unbelievers. That's the point that he is making here. If there is not the character of life, then we don't belong to Him.

Look over in I Corinthians chapter 6. In I John 3:6 let me remind you, he says no one who abides in Him sins. Now note in I Corinthians chapter 6:15. Paul writes to the Corinthians. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her, for He says the two will become one flesh. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." Therefore flee immorality. You note verse 15. "Shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?" Why? Because when I abide in Christ I don't cease abiding. So someone who is a believer who commits immorality has taken that which is a part of the body of Christ and joined it to a whore. He has not ceased to be part of the body of Christ. He has not ceased to abide in Christ, nor Christ abide in Him. That's why Paul says at the end of verse 15. May it never be. Meganoito. The strongest way in the Greek language to say the thought is totally inconceivable. That I would even contemplate an immoral relationship when I am wanting a continuing relationship with Jesus Christ. I am one with Him. You know what I do? When I commit immorality, I, one who is one with Christ, become one with a whore. And the implications of that are so repulsive, Paul says the thought ought not even to be mentioned.

But you note. I don't cease to abide in Christ. Now I mentioned that section because of what he says in I John 3:6. "No one who abides in Him sins." The difference between committing an act of sin which Paul acknowledges is possible in I Corinthians 6, the act of immorality. But they do not have the habitual characteristic of life as lawlessness and sinfulness in the totality.

Verse 7 of I John 3, "little children, let no one deceive you." Don't let yourself be lead astray away from the truth. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as He, Christ, is righteous." Now, note that.
The one who practices righteous is righteous, just as He, Christ or God, is righteous. You note. Righteousness in practice flows out of the basic character of righteousness which is tied to my relationship to Him. Because God is righteous and I am His child, I have righteousness. Aren't we righteous in Christ as believers? That righteousness we have in Christ flows through and effects the way we live. That's evidenced by the fact that you're here tonight and not out on a drunk someplace. There's a difference in your life. There's a difference in what we do with our lives. Not that every unbeliever's out on a drunk, I realize that.

Okay. Let no one deceive you. Now I think the point that is being made here is that we are not obligated to listen and heed the claims of those who belong to Christ, but whose lives are totally lost, who , their lives are lived in opposition to God. We are not to be deceived by their words. A person whose life gives no evidence of the work of God in it says, oh, yes, I believe in Christ and I believe the Bible. You say, well, they must be saved. That's what John—don't let yourself be deceived. Righteousness is a characteristic of those who have the relationship with the One who Himself is righteous. Your conduct evidences who you are. That's all He is saying.

Look at verse 8 to see the contrast which even makes it more clear. The opposite is true. “The one who practices sin is of the devil." Now the line seems to be drawn clearly. Here you have one who practices righteousness in his life. He evidences the fact he is righteous in his character because of his relationship with the One who Himself is righteous. The One who is unrighteous, who is lawless, who practices sin is of the devil. Now that's a terrible judgment. How do I know? Well, the devil has sinned from the beginning. The devil has been habitual in his sin. The totality of the life of the devil is sin and lawlessness. So I take it by the very example used here of the devil as the father, you're indicating you're drawing a line between believers and unbelievers. And the devil is unrighteous. He manifests in his conduct what he is. He is the lawless one. He has sinned from the beginning. I take it the general character of the life of Satan is lawlessness, rebellion against God, no matter what he is doing, he is in rebellion against God. Even as he moves among the world and the unbelievers and uses them to do what we would call seeming good from the human perspective. He is in rebellion against God. And the children of the devil are in the same state. They are always in rebellion. Is there any such thing as an unbeliever who is not in a state of rebellion against God? There is not one single unbeliever on the face of the earth who is not in a continual state of rebellion against God. It's just like the devil. Is there any such thing as a believer in Jesus Christ who is in a continual state of rebellion against God? There is a difference. To say there is not is to say there is no difference between the devil and Michael, the archangel. There's a difference. It's manifest in the character and quality of their life. The devil has sinned from the beginning.

All the way back to Isaiah 14. Ezekiel 28, where the anointed cherub that covers the throne of God desired in pride to be above God. Sin has continued on unabated. The devil has sinned from the beginning.

Come back to John chapter 8. Passage we have been to many times but I take it it forms the background out of the discussion of Jesus that John is drawing on in what he is saying here. John chapter 8:44. Note the contrast. Verse 42. "Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father you would love Me.'" You note—there would be a change in their action and response to Him if God were their Father. "For I proceeded forth and have come from God. I have not even come on My own initiative but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My Word." You see there's a difference between a child of God and a child of the devil. The child of the devil does not understand the Word of God.

Verse 44. "You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father." Note. They want to conduct themselves just like the devil conducted himself." He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him." How could he stand in the truth?
He is a totally sinful being. There is no truth in him because there is no truth in him. Whatever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature. He speaks from his own self. Lies find their origin in him. He doesn't have to go look for someone to go tell him a good lie. He can make them up. He is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth you do not believe Me.

Verse 47. "He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason you do not hear them because you are not of God." It sounds like I John 3, doesn't it? Here is the devil and here's God. Those who are born of God hear God. Those who are born of the devil hear the devil. Those who are born of God conduct themselves as God with righteousness. Those who are of the devil conduct themselves like the devil with rebelliousness, lawlessness, sinfulness. That's the contrast. Back to I John 3. Now I want to emphasize the first part of verse 7. "Let no one deceive you." I believe you have to have two things and we see these balanced. We hit an emphasis in I John and then we come to another emphasis and another emphasis. A person must believe the truth concerning Christ and have a life that supports the testimony of his faith. That's what John says. They both go together. So a person whose life is characterized by lawlessness and says to me, Oh, Gil, yes I have trusted Christ as my Savior. I just have to tell them what John says, you're a liar.

What in your life evidences the fact you are a child of God? The fact that you have learned a certain phrase? That makes you a child of God? You know what the demons said when Christ was on earth? We know who You are. The Holy One of God. Did that make them Christians? Did that bring them salvation? No. It's evidenced by the fact they live in a state of continual rebellion against God. So saving faith results in a transformed life. The Son of God, the middle of verse 8 of I John 3, the Son of God appeared for this purpose that He might destroy the works of the devil. That's why He came. Now that's the same statement that we saw up in verse 5. "He appeared in order to take away sin."

Down in verse 8. "He appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil," the same thing. Jesus made this clear in John 8:44 that Satan's devout task of promoting sin and the children of the devil are following the desires of their father, the devil. When Christ came to destroy sin, He came to destroy the work of the devil. That's why He broke the power of Satan over us. We are no longer the slaves of Satan and sin because of the finished work of Christ and our faith in Him.

Verse 9. And you see John belabors the point a little bit. "No one who is born of God practices sin." Present tense. The habitual characteristic of their life. No one who is born of God practices sin. Why? Because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now, you'll say. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Christians do sin. Right. Remember though the present tense. I cannot live a life like I lived before I was saved. I've been changed on the inside. I've been made a new person, a new creature. I cannot live the way I was before. The seed of God abides in me. I have been born into His family, partaken of His character, if you will. I cannot be the old me. Now the change has been brought about. I cannot live the way the unbeliever lives. Now I'm capable of sin. I do sin. But I cannot live a life of complete rebellion against God. I commit acts of rebellion but I do not live a life of rebellion against God. I can't. His seed dwells within me. I am His child and His seed in our lives produces His character. We're talking about the fruit of the Spirit. So everyone who is born into God's family by faith in Jesus Christ has the seed of God indwelling them. You're God's child. You're His seed and that produces His character in your life. That's a statement on the security of the believer as clear as any. That's also a statement on the lifestyle of the believer. So I say, well what about these people that I know that claim to be Christians, claim to believe the Word, but well but. What does John say about them? No one who is born of God practices sin. I take it born of God means born of God. His seed abides in him—he cannot sin because he is born of God. He cannot sin. Again, in present tense. He cannot be practicing sin, living in sin. That's not the characteristic of his life. Verse 10. "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious."

Now he gives two tests. How will I know who are the children of God, the children of the devil? Incidentally, this verse makes clear to me and some of you are familiar with a work that's out now that I've been re-reading that argues that we're talking about believers here only—not believers and unbelievers. That's why I'm belaboring the point, I guess. Well verse 10 seems to me to be clear, the context. You're talking about the children of God and the children of the devil. The same groups Jesus talked about in John chapter 8. And they are obvious. The one who does not practice righteousness is not of God. Nor the one who does not love his brother. So here he brings two tests together that he has talked about. You have a love for fellow Christians and you're a believer. Do you practice righteousness? That's an evidence you're a child of God. Now keep in mind these are evidences of what you are. They are not causes. You do not become a child of God by practicing righteousness. You do not become a child of God by loving your brother. Some would say, Well, if you love your brother, you must be a believer because brothers are believers. But the example here is Cain. And is Cain a believer? No. And I think all would agree on that. The point is that a professing believer will manifest the reality of his faith by his love for fellow Christians. If he doesn't have that love for fellow Christians, he is not a Christian himself, not a child of God. If he doesn't practice righteousness, he is not a child of God.

Well, sift them through the Word. What is their life like? Is there any evidence of the character of God there? The fact that the seed of God abides in them. No, I don't see anything. Well, then I question it. Do they love fellow Christians? Well, no, they'd rather be anywhere than be with Christians. Well, what does John say?

You know we've implied that salvation is simply being able to mouth certain words. I believe in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Therefore I am saved. Well, I am saved if I believe in my heart. Believe in the inside. If I am relying on Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. But I am not saved because I mouthed those words. There is a difference. Many people in many churches recite some of the great creeds of the faith and they have good theology in them but they are not saved because you are not saved by mouthing certain things. You're saved by believing and true saving faith manifests itself in a transformed life. The particular emphasis in this section is the righteousness, the character of God will be seen in a believer. And again, the example I submit to you is the Corinthian church. They are carnal Christians and you go back and read the letter to the Corinthians. They are carnal Christians, Christians who have sin in their life. And you see if you can say the habitual characteristic of the Corinthian life is sin. Can't be. Paul starts out in writing to the Corinthians in saying, you have all the gifts of the Spirit manifest in your presence. You see the work of God in their life. But you see glaring inconsistencies. They have not grown as they should.

This idea that a carnal Christian is a person who claims to believe in Christ but has no evidence of the Spirit of God working in his life, that's not a carnal Christian at all, folks. That's an unbeliever. An unbeliever who's trying to perpetuate a hoax. Trying to deceive you because there's no evidence of the character of God in his life, but he's saying, oh, yes. I'm a believer. I believe the same thing you believe. I just have a little bit of problem in my life. No, not on your life. A carnal Christian is not a person who has no evidence of the character of God in his life. A carnal Christian is a Christian who has not grown as he should, who has glaring inconsistencies in his Christian life. But there is the evidence of the righteous character of God in every true child of God's life. And you examine your life. I'll examine mine. And those aren't there—you're not a child of God. You know why John's writing? He had to deal with those whom we know as the gnostics. You know what the gnostics did? They divorced what they believed from what they lived. And they said it doesn't matter what you do with your physical life. That's irrelevant. You know what John's saying? It's relevant to everything because your physical life is transformed by a right and proper relationship with God Himself.

I don't know where all of you are. These are simply the tests that God sets down. Salvation is by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. If you have believed in Christ, your life will be different. And if you think you have believed in Christ and your life is not different, I'd back up and examine myself very carefully. Something's wrong. Perhaps you've been deceived into trusting something other than Jesus Christ and His finished work.

Let's pray together