You Are What You Practice
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
Some years ago in Los Angeles a man was walking down the street with a sign on his shoulders.
The front of it said, ‘I’M A SLAVE FOR CHRIST.” The back of it read, “WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?”
That is a good question, because all of us are slaves to one or the other of two masters—sin or righteousness.
We have no other choices.
By the very nature of our humanity, we are made to serve and to be controlled by forces beyond our power.
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So, please turn your Bibles to 1 John.
We will be conducting our study in Chapter 3 and focus on verses 4 through 10.
Our message this morning is called, “You Are What You Practice”
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Today we will be focusing on the only two groups that all people fall under.
The ones who are a slave to sin and therefore practice sin...
And the ones who are a slave to Christ and therefore practice righteousness.
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Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
8 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.
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10 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.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Lawless Ones
1) The Lawless Ones
Verse 4: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
First let us look at the phrase the ‘practice of sinning”...
This means a habitual and constant sinning.
In fact, biblical scholar and the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Daniel Akin, says:
“The word ‘poiōn’ (pwe-on) is used frequently in this section (in verses 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10) to imply a continual practice of sin as well as a realization of sin’s completeness.
In other words, it is a willful, habitual action.”
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On top of that.
The word “lawlessness” we see in our verse...
It carries the meaning of living a life as if no laws exist or to completely ignore laws with no regard.
So, this would mean blatantly ignoring God’s laws and commands like it ment nothing and had no value whatsoever.
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Living a life of wickedness and habitual sin reveals that one has no relationship with God.
It is proof that a life of carnality this means one is currently on the highway to Hell if they do not repent and turn to God.
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You may have made a prayer one time in your past...
Maybe you responded to an invitation at VBS or Bible camp...
You may have been at a revival listening to a faithful Evangelist and responded to an alter call...
You may had done one of these things or something similar...
But that doesn’t mean you are saved or in right standing with God.
If you currently live a life of sin and wickedness...
If you live life with disregard to God’s law and commands...
If this is you...
Then you need to repent today...
You need to beg God to have mercy and grace on you...
Because if your conversion experience was real it would have real good fruit.
It would be impossible for you to live a life of sin and wickedness.
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But don’t take my word for it.
Look at the Word of God...
Look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10:
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
That is as black and white as it gets...
God does not deal with gray areas...
We are without excuse as we have been warned in His perfect Word.
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None of us are perfect and all of us sin...
John made it clear earlier in this letter that to say we do not sin is to make God out to be a liar...
But what you practice is who you are.
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I may play a game of basketball every blue moon but it it wildly inappropriate to call me a basketball player.
But someone like Micheal Jordan or Lebron James...
They practice basketball habitually...
They are basketball players.
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It is the same with sin and righteousness.
Do you make a practice of sinning?
Or do you make a practice of righteousness?
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Do not be deceived...
There is no fellowship with God if we live wicked lives.
Have you not read that God only listens to the righteous...
John 9:31 says:
31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
God listen to His children...
God listen to those who may fall short but overall walk in His statutes.
God listens to the humble and broken hearted.
God listen to the ones who practice righteousness.
For Christ’s purpose in coming down to us was to take away sin...
And He has no fellowship with sin...
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And this takes us to our next point.
2) Our Sinless Savior
2) Our Sinless Savior
Verse 5: You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
So this verse is an echo of Isaiah 53:8–9...
That means the language John uses in this verse was meant to point us to this Old Testament text
So, verses 8 and 9 of Isaiah 53 reads:
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Peter also uses similar language in his letter.
He talks about how Christ came to take away sins in 1 Peter 3:18:
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
And the only way that Christ was able to take away the sins of His sheep is by Himself being sinless.
Peter earlier clarified this in 1 Peter 2:22
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
It is important to realize that the source of righteousness is found only in Christ.
That is why John is mentioning Christ here.
That is why he is focusing on His work on the cross and His sinlessness.
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We all start of practicing sin...
We all lived wicked lives...
But for those who put their trust in Christ...
For those that surrender to Christ and their personal Lord and Savior...
They become justified in the Father's eyes..
And they become practicers of righteousness...
And abandon making a practice of sin...
In fact, this is where john takes us next in his letter.
3) Never Knowing Him
3) Never Knowing Him
Verse 6: No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
If you live a life of sin...
And you keep practicing sin...
And this sin in your life has become a habit...
If sin is a constant thing in your life and defines you...
Then despite what you think...
You have never seen God or known Him.
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Confession by mouth is not enough...
To have an head knowledge of Christ is not enough...
Even to confess the truth in the Bible are indeed true is not enough...
You must surrender to Christ...
You must surrender your will...
You must surrender your desires...
You must surrender your trust...
And really put your faith in Jesus and have a heart knowledge of Him...
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Remember outside appearances can be deceiving...
Church, we covered this weeks ago in 1 John 2:19 which says:
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
The fruit you produce does not save you...
But the fruit you produce sure does reveal what is on the inside...
The fruit you produce shows other your true colors...
How you act and carry yourself reveals to the world who your master is...
And if you are producing bad fruit them it means you never knew Him.
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You see, Beloved, once you surrender to Christ...
You have a new Master...
And this Master will never let you go...
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Jesus, our Master promised us the Holy Spirit...
And for every person who genuinely believes in Him...
They receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who seals them and guarantees they will make it to glory.
Ephesians 1:13–14 says this very truth:
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
We must understand that the Holy Spirit living within the lives of believers produces good works in them...
So, when someone make a practice of righteousness...
You can know with assurance that they are righteous just like their Master...
And this takes us to the next verse we will be examining.
4) The Righteous Ones
4) The Righteous Ones
Verse 7: Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
I want to bring to your remembrance what Christ said during the greatest sermon ever recorded...
I want to bring to your remembrance what Christ said at the Sermon on the Mount...
Jesus said in Matthew 5:6:
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
The only way to fill that void in your life...
The only way feed that hunger...
And quench that thirst...
The only way to be satisfied in this life...
Is to eagerly and passionately and vigorously purse a life of righteousness.
For it is the ones who practice righteousness that are indeed righteous...
And that righteousness does not come from ourselves...
If comes from the One who made us righteous...
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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So, as Paul wrote to Timothy in his second letter to him...
As it says is 2 Timothy 2:22:
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Purse stronger faith...
Pursue a life of peace with all men and women when possible...
Pursue a godly and biblical love of others...
Pursue a greater love for our mighty and awesome God...
Pursue having a pure and clean heart...
And pursue to live a life of continual and habitual righteousness.
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For if we are not making a practice of righteousness...
There is only one other option...
Sorry, there is no third option.
If you are not making a practice of righteousness then you are making a practice of sin...
And to practice sin is to reveal that on is of the devil as it says in our next point.
5) Children of Satan
5) Children of Satan
Verse 8: 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.
So it will help to define the word “devil.”
This is in fact a judicial term that refers to ones opponent in court...
And that opponent is an “accuser,” “calumniator,” “slanderer,” and “adversary.”
Those word perfect sum up Satan who is our arch-enemy.
Regarding this, New Testament scholar Colin Kruse says:
“From broader scriptural teaching we can say that the devil’s work is destroyed by the atoning sacrifice of Christ because that sacrifice dealt with human sins, which provide the basis for the devil to accuse them before God and demand God’s judgment.
That basis is now removed, and the devil’s accusations no longer stand; there is no condemnation for believers.”
So, the devil will try to hold anything against you.
And because he knows God is perfectly just he demands we as believers receive the wrath and condemnation we deserve.
But we as genuine Christians have Christ as our advocate who paid the penalty on our behalf and who silences the devil.
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But for those without a relationship with Christ...
They are under bondage of this accuser and slanderer.
In fact, the devil is their father.
Just look at how Jesus speaks to the Pharisees in John 8:44:
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The one who makes a practice of sinning is imitating the devil and his wickedness.
Every human is born under this slavery to the devil...
This slavery to sin...
But we do not have to remain there.
We can surrender our own will and desires to serve a new loving Master.
A Master who speak truth and not lies...
A Master who gives life and is not a murderer...
A Master who from the beginning has always been perfectly good and is without sin.
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Notice what John says here in this verse...
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
So, don’t be on the losing team...
If you are not yet born again plead to God for your heat to be softened and your ears to hear and your eyes to see Him and know Him...
A genuine prayer like that is never rejected...
By the authority of Scripture I promise you that.
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Next John will reiterate what is impossible for someone who is born of God.
And this takes us to our next verse to study.
6) Born of God
6) Born of God
Verse 9: No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
While putting together this sermon this week I came across this quote that I believe is quite beneficial for our study...
The New American Commentary on the letters of John says:
“The life of the child who has been born of God is marked by the purity and righteousness of the One whom he follows.
The child of God does not live a life of habitual sin because...
(1) the seed of God remains in him, and...
(2) he has been born of God.
Although the Christian still falls prey to sinful acts, John insists that it is impossible for sin to become a believer’s pattern of life.”
This is an important distinction to understand.
You will never be perfect or sinless on this side of eternity...
Only Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life...
All of us fall short even after the Holy Spirit lives in us...
Mainly, being born again means we have a renewed mind but we still have our old an sinful flesh.
Read Romans 7 and see Paul's transparent struggle of battling the flesh and living a righteous life.
We will not have a renewed flesh until we reach glory.
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However, with that said...
Although we will not be perfect will will not have a life that reflects a pattern of sinful behavior.
Remember, when we read in 1 Corinthians 6 and Paul mentioned a list of sinful practices...
And he said if you practice these things habitually then you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
I want to read to you the next verse which would be 1 Corinthians 6:11.
Paul says:
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
We all have a past...
For the genuine believer…
That past is in the past and stays in the past and never again rears its ugly head.
Our past is part of our testimony but it is not who we are now.
For we where washed in the blood of Christ...
And sanctified by the blood...
And Justified in the name of Jesus.
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So, the ones born of God are not living in the flesh anymore...
But they live by the Spirit as it says in Romans 8:9–10:
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
So, now the Holy Spirit abides in us and we abide in the Word of God that the Holy Spirit authored
1 Peter 1:23 says:
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
They way we live our life makes it evident whom we are the children of...
And this takes us to our final point in our message today.
7) Children of God
7) Children of God
Verse 10: 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.
We can’t claim to be children of God and live a wicked life...
We can’t look to a past event and put our faith in that if our current life is a contradiction...
Our actions do not save us but they do reveal what team we are playing for.
As Jesus said in John 14:23:
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Additionally, John points to the fact that how you love others really reveals who one’s master is.
We covered this a few weeks ago too but I will remind you what was earlier said in 1 John 2:9:
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Theologian Glenn Barker says this regarding the love of one’s brother and sister in Christ:
“The author, then, is not stressing absolute moral conformity or “sinless perfection” but the one requirement by which all other requirements are measured—love for one’s brother.
For this there is no substitute, its violation allows for no excuse, its application permits no compromise.
Here there are no gray areas, no third possibilities.
One either loves his brother and proves he is God’s child or does not love his brother and proves he belongs to the devil.”
John, the Beloved Disciple speaks with love and firmness...
He never holds back and doesn’t sugarcoat anything...
There is no gray area...
And there is no third option or alternative.
So, evaluate your life and answer this question faithfully...
Am I a child of God or a child of the devil?
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
As this message comes to a close, I want to share this:
A leading manufacturing company developed a new cake mix that required only water to be added.
Tests were run, surveys were made, and the cake mix was found to be of superior quality to the other mixes available.
It tasted good, it was easy to use, and it made a moist, tender cake.
The company spent large sums of money on an advertising campaign and then released the cake mix to the general market.
But few people bought the new cake mix.
The company then spent more money on a survey to find out why the cake mix didn’t sell.
Based on the results of this survey, the company recalled the mix, reworked the formula, and released the revised cake mix.
The new cake mix required that one add not only water, but also an egg.
It sold like hot cakes and is now a leading product in the field.
You see, the first cake mix was just too simple to be believable.
People would not accept it.
The same is true of salvation by grace.
It really is simple if you think about how grace works...
As you say with our message today...
If you surrender and believe genuinely...
Then God does not leave you alone...
He seals you with the Holy Spirit...
And He loved us so much that He came into our broken world...
And volunteerly laid down His life for wicked sinners.
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And it is now about the remembrance of that great sacrifice of our great Savior that we bring our attention to.
Communion
Communion
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As we begin our communion service I want to invite every genuinely born-again believe in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and have a relationship with Him or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church they I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
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As you came in you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and juice in a convenient package.
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If you have not recieved one of these please raise your hand and one of our deacons will get you one.
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Before we join together in communion I want to remind you of what Jesus did in His final hours...
You may have hear people ask others...
“If you had 24 hours to live what would you do?”
People give answers like spending time with a loved one...
Or watching a special movie...
Or traveling to a location on their bucket list...
Or having a meal at one’s favorite restaurant...
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Well, Jesus...
With time running out...
Knowing He was about to experience terrible physical and spiritual pain and torture...
Knowing He was about to be mocked by His own creation...
Spit at...
Beat up...
Hung naked on a cross...
Death by crucifixion.
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What did Jesus do with His remaining time...
He served...
Not only that...
He served the man that would betray him three times...
He served the man that would deny ever knowing Him...
And He would serve the man dead set to betray Him..
Betray Him with a kiss.
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But He did not just serve them...
He took the role of the lowest of servants...
A role none of the other disciples where willing to do out of embarrassment and humiliating.
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So, let us take a look at John 13:1-16:
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Remember His example, church...
He served while living a life of perfect obedience...
And He served when He gave His life...
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We are no better that our Master...
We must serve others as He did...
And His greatest service to us was what He did at Calvary...
And it that sacrifice we remember today...
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Tom will you pray before we partake in the bread:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
Adrian will you pray before we partake in the cup:
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The Word of the God says in Luke 22:20:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
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With that we conclude the communion portion of our service.
To God be all the glory.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
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