Untitled Sermon (12)
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3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
Pastor Todd at Desert Valley Christian Fellowship, Pastor Lars Hammar at Lord of Grace Lutheran Church, Pastor Dale Moe at Light the Way Lutheran Church
1 John 3:3-
3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
What do we hope for?
What do we hope for?
We hope for all sorts of things.
Political Agenda’s, Money, Time with Family, Next vacation, even the weekend.
The problem arises when we replace this hope in Christ with something else.
Our hope in Christ is a hope that we will be like Him.
If we’re hoping in the final destination, than we will want to pursue that destination with everything.
And because Christ is pure, we should want to be as well!
Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself.
What is purity?
The word for purity in the Greek is “hagneia” which primarily means “freedom from moral stain.”
Remember back in chapter 2 vs 28-29 John makes it clear that for those who are in Him, they must be about practising righteousness if they do not want to be ashamed when he returns.
In a similar way, since Christ is pure , i.e “free from sins moral stain” and since we know that when He appears we shall be like Him in this purity, we should start, and continue the process NOW.
Matthew Henry puts it this way.
Those that expect communion with Christ above should study communion with him here in the utmost purity
Think of the glory, and perfection of living in the presence of God and bearing no marks from sin on your body and soul.
Get amped.
We have been given the opportunity now to draw near to this God who would wash us with blood of His son and make us like HIM.
How can I read these words and not weep with joy?
The resurrected Christ is our Great High Priest who intercedes for us before the Father.
Why NOT draw near to this God?
Why not purify ourselves in preparation for the great wedding feast that we will attend with joy!?
1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. 2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—
Psalm 119
There is peace and blessing for those who stand w
62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
John now moves into a very plain and clear treatment of sin.
He begins by defining sin, He then shows what Christ’s work towards sin was, and then makes the plain statement those who sin have not seen Him or known Him.
Everyone who practices sin:
Everyone who practices sin:
What does it mean to practice sin?
Sin is lawlessness. Anything that departs from God’s law. Which is a lot of things.
I am currently reading in Leviticus for my devotional reading. As I read about all of the things that can make you ceremonially unclean, I realize that based on Levitical law I have spent much of my life ceremonially unclean.
Now we know that we have been covered once and for all by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, but God’s law doesn’t change, and reading His law is actually a deep well of devotional material.
Talk about and the implication of David drawing that much devotion from the law.
Most of us haven’t drawn that level of devotion from Galatians!
The word for practices sin here is hodopoieo. Two examples from scripture to help us understand this.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
23 And it happened that he was going through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples began to make their way while plucking off the heads of grain.
There is strong ties here with the act of walking.
We can learn here then, that making a practice of sin would mean making the conscious, pre-meditated, unrepentant act of rebellion against God.
We know that the word for repent implies a turning around, an about face.
So practicing sin involves unrepentant sin.
I know the wickedness of my own heart, and I know that I would be listening to this sermon as you are and be tempted to be thinking about other people’s sin right now.
Have you ever walked somewhere you shouldn’t?
Tell walking story of javelina hunting
John has been approaching this idea of sin and righteousness and their distinctive traits throughout this whole letter.
Remember this is 1st Century Christianity. And remember these are people who are being influenced by the Gnostic idea that what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter.
John says it does matter!
For in the way that you carry out your actions, you display who’s child you are. God’s children walk one way, and the devil’s children walk another. And they do not run parallel.
All faiths are not created equal.
Some faith’s may lead people towards earthly prosperity, or temporary peace, but if your faith does not involve you walking towards Christ as He leads you, then it is not Christianity and it will ultimately result in you walking straight into Hell.
For your sin will not have been dealt with.
The nature of sin is lawlessness:
The nature of sin is lawlessness:
What is sin?
Sin is lawlessness. Anything that departs from God’s law. Which is a lot of things.
I am currently reading in Leviticus for my devotional reading. As I read about all of the things that can make you ceremonially unclean, I realize that based on Levitical law I have spent much of my life ceremonially unclean.
Now we know that we have been covered once and for all by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, but God’s law doesn’t change, and reading His law is actually a deep well of devotional material.
Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the lord. Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek him with all their heart.
Talk about and the implication of David drawing that much devotion from the law.
John has to remind his recipients here that to be about sinning is to be about transgressing God’s law.
Most of us haven’t drawn that level of devotion from Galatians!
They had gotten this idea all sideways because of the Gnostics.
But what the Gnostics had all wrong was the unshakeable truth that Jesus had a real body.
He appeared that he might take away our sins:
He appeared that he might take away our sins:
Jesus time on earth could in no way be categorized as lawlessness.
In fact Jesus was perfectly lawful.
Jesus brought beauty to a law that had been all but killed by legalism.
8 No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Jesus did all of these things and fulfilled the law meanwhile.
Obedience to God’s law looks like doing right, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
Jesus was the perfect example of this.
His life exalted the law and gave it meaning. No man had ever obeyed the law.
Jesus did.
And this is what gave Him the unique right to take away sin.
A perfectly spotless Passover lamb that not only covers sin, but removes it’s origin.
We are commanded by the sin nature until the Risen Son of Man plants a new nature in us.
And it is this new nature that enables us to put sin to death and live for Him.
No-one who lives in him keeps on sinning:
No-one who lives in him keeps on sinning:
John is hammering home the plain truth that sin is incompatible with knowing Christ in the Christian’s life. John Stott puts it this way.
The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary i. The Nature of Sin: Lawlessness (3:4–7)
To see and to know Christ, the sinless Saviour of sinners, is to outlaw sin; to sin is to deny Christ and to reveal that one is not living in him. Sin and Christ are irreconcilably at enmity with each other. Christ in his sinless person and saving work is fundamentally opposed to it.
Have you outlawed sin in your life?
Or is there a sin that you have given a license to?
Imagine yourself as a motorcycle cop on the side of the highway.
Every car that passes is an action in your life.
And you have leveled your radar gun at the incoming actions.
The standard that you are judging against, is not the law, it is Christ and ALL of His righteousness. Which is weightier still than the law. But the beauty of this truth is that we have already been given this righteousness.
And it is now our job to be conformed to what we already are.
So here we are on the highway of our life.
Our commanding officer has said “Be holy as I am holy”.
16 for it is written, “You will be holy, because I am holy.”
2 “Speak to all the community of the Israelites, and say to them, ‘You must be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
So we are here to take captive of every thought, and submit our actions to Christ!
Gotcha!
Gotcha!
Oh here comes that one I like...
Lower the radar gun.
We put aside Christ’s righteousness and put on our beggars clothes again.
Is there a sin that you have given license to?
A sin that doesn’t receive your citation and arrest?
It was the same John who penned the incredible upper room discourse that Jesus fed to His disciples on the night he was betrayed.
It was the same John who penned the incredible upper room discourse that Jesus fed to His disciples on the night he was betrayed.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch that does not bear fruit in me, he removes it, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it in order that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him—this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you are not able to do anything. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and dries up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you bear much fruit, and prove to be my disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have spoken these things to you in order that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be made complete.
62 But Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God!”
This passage makes me pause.
John 15:1-
Sheep and Goats
31 Now when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me as a guest, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
31 Now when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on the left.
Matthew 25:
If we are not remaining in Christ then we are not saved.
Who is in the vine?
Who are the sheep?
What must we do?
John 15:
12 This is my commandment: that you love one another just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I have heard from my Father I have revealed to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. 17 These things I command you: that you love one another.
34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me as a guest, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
How do we test if we are in Him?
Do we love others? Or do we hate them?
Be careful.
It is easy to love the lovely.
But we have been called to love our enemies.
I’m sure everyone in here has someone who they perceive to be as opposite as possible from them on the political spectrum.
Could you love that person if put in a room with them?
What if they were in jail?
Would you go visit them?
Confess about Bruce.
Ask for prayer.
This is an impossible task were it not for Christ’s love going ahead of us.
Don’t thread the needle of the law up through their main artery without pouring in the balm of the wonder of the love for them in the Lord Christ Jesus.
Family, see what sort of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, AND WE ARE.
God is faithful to finish what He starts. Rest in the knowledge that if we abide in His love then we ARE His. Don’t give sin quarter in your life. Jesus is worth more than that.
Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. - John Owen
Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death. - John Owen
Talk about killing the snake and how an indecisive maneuver would have been very bad.
We kill sin with love.
And that sounds so Disney and blah
But godly love is fierce, godly love is swift, godly love is decisive, godly love compels us to action.
We find out we’ve wronged someone within our church body?
QUICKLY!
Kill the snake!
Love that person well and be restored!
We feel the temptation to return to a long held pet sin of ours?
Be swift, kill the snake.
We must be swift, because Jesus is SO worth it.
He showed us the pattern for the mortification of sin.
Obey the Father out of love for God, and for others.
If you love God, and Love others, and have been filled with the Holy Spirit, then you have everything that is necessary for keeping God’s law and putting sin in a stranglehold along the way.