God's Love Shapes His Children

Remind - “famine food,” siege of Leningrad, sawdust, bran, wild plants, cooked in motor oil - “bread”. “To the starving, even the poisonous tasted sweet. But hunger drove the Soviets to other desperate measures as well”

Everyone can look at the world and see that things are not the way they’re supposed to be, but we cannot satisfy our hunger & thirst for righteousness by trying really hard - we need nourishment, not external righteousness or moral self-help. “Those who truly hunger and thirst for righteousness will quickly find that there is no created thing or cause or organization or commitment to social action that truly satisfies the hunger & thirst.”

Jer 33:16 - Only way to slake your thirst is to HAVE Christ - His righteousness in us.

Illustration re: sin in believer: Mistletoe

Reintroduction to 1 John -

John wrote his Gospel

John 20:30–31 ESV

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John wrote this letter

1 John 5:13 ESV

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

This is a letter of assurance, encouragement, and exhortation. John was writing to counter the lies of false teachers who claimed to have fellowship with God, but they had abandoned the truth about Jesus, the truth about sin, and the truth about God’s Word. So, in chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, John reminds us of the message about Jesus Christ that has stayed the same since the very beginning -

that He is the Eternal Life, the only Son from the Father, in whom we have forgiveness of sins and fellowship with the Triune God and His people.

He reminds us of the truth about sin - that all people have sin, and the only salvation comes in the forgiveness of sins and cleansing from unrighteousness that Jesus provides. Jesus is our advocate and our atonement - His substitutionary, sacrificial death is God’s loving provision for forgiveness. As our propitiation, Jesus Christ the Righteous Lamb of God takes away our sins, covers our guilt, and cleanses us from unrighteousness by his blood.

Later in chapter 2, John begins to make it even clearer whose lies he is writing against. He says,

1 John 2:4 ESV

4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

The critical distinction is this: Who treasures, guards, and aims to fulfill the command, truth, and Word of Christ? And who abandons and rejects His commands?

Our series title, “The Light Already Shines,” comes from

1 John 2:8 ESV

8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

The darkness of the world, and the lies of false teachers, are no match for Jesus Christ. His light is already shining powerfully in the Gospel message, rescuing and redeeming people.

But the critical distinction between those who are walking in the light of Christ and those who are in the darkness is made even more apparent, and tragic, at the end of chapter 2. In verses 18-27, we answered, “How can we recognize and reject spiritual deception?” by noting two truths:

Antichrists abandon God’s people and God’s truth -

But Christians abide in God’s truth because they are anointed by the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 3, the distinction is pressed even further. Today’s text grapples with a troubling truth: If Jesus came to take away sins, and to make us like Him, do my present struggles against sin invalidate my salvation?

I. Present Hope and Future Glory: God calls and makes us children (2:28-3:3)

EXPLAIN:

Note that Jamie preached primarily from this portion of the text on March 7

<<READ 2:28-3:3>>

Center of this portion - call to see. Behold, consider, wonder at what God has done

That God would call us His children, make us His children, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul talks about the same thing in

Romans 5:8–11 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

But here, John’s focus is on salvation in terms of being born of God. Children of God.

You’ll remember in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, he said of Jesus, the Word made Flesh,

John 1:9–13 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The New Birth that makes us children of God is God’s work in us by His Holy Spirit. This is the first time in 1 John that he refers to being born again, but now that he’s introduced the theme, he comes back to it over and over again.

Last Sunday, we saw in John 20 that until Jesus’s death and resurrection, every human related to God either as an enemy or as a servant. But when the Son took up His life again, from that moment on, everyone who believes in Him is a son, a daughter, a child of God.

Our present hope rests in this settled truth, which we see in verses 1-3: Right now, we are children of God if we’re born of him.

And John follows this up with a promise of future glory: When Christ returns, we’ll be like Him. Verse 2 says “because we shall see him as he is.”

The veil of remaining sinfulness will be removed, we’ll no longer see as in a glass darkly. John, James, and Peter got a foretaste of this on the mount of transfiguration, but no one can see God in His full glory and live, unless their sins have been completely wiped out. And this is what is promised to us.

Verse 3 says, <<READ v3>>

This statement sets the tone for the rest of our text today. “And everyone,” John says, no one is left out, everyone who has this present hope of future glory, “purifies himself as Christ is pure.”

The anointing or outpouring of the Holy Spirit which caused you to be born again, born of God, chapter 2:27 says, that anointing abides in you.

IF you are born again, it’s because He poured out His Spirit upon you when you heard the message of salvation, and you responded in faith.

And this first section, 1 John 2:28-3:3, tell us that that new birth is not just a redo, not just a retry at this fallen sinful life. It’s a new kind of life that is incomprehensible to the world and moves in a completely opposite trajectory to the world. Instead of spiraling into ever-greater self-obsessed idolatry and sin, the Christian is purifying himself or herself as Christ is pure.

Rev 7:14 -

Look in verses 4 and following, and our second point.

II. The Nature of Sin (3:4-6)

EXPLAIN

I’m going to read verses 4-10, and notice how John uses words like “everyone,” “no one,” and “whoever” to make sure we see the absolute division he’s drawing between the children of God and those he calls the children of the devil.

<<READ vv4-10>>

Do these verses give you reassurance, or do they strike fear into your hearts? Remember that John writes so that believers would know that they have eternal life, and the centerpiece of this part of our text is in verse 7, when he says, “Little children, let no one deceive you.”

Once again, remember what the liars were saying: They were denying the identity of Jesus as the Christ, our propitiation, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. They abandoned His Word and His commands, claiming that sin and righteousness were irrelevant to fellowship with God.

So John clears the air. Look carefully at verse 4 with me. <<READ v4>>

And now compare it to chapter 2:28 <<READ v28>>

There can be no greater distinction here. The word “practicing” here and in verse 28 is a common word - it means to do, make, or produce. It’s the same word used in Jesus’s parable of the sower. <<yields = “makes”>>

Matthew 13:23 ESV

23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

And in Matthew 3:8, John the Baptist tells those coming to be baptized - "bear (make) fruit in keeping with repentance". <<below, bears = “makes”>>

Matthew 7:17–19 ESV

17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And in Matt 13:26 - right after the Parable of the Sower, in the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat: "When the plants came up and made fruit, the weeds also appeared"

The wheat's nature was revealed, not created, by the fruit it bore.

John says that everyone who makes sin also makes lawlessness. To be lawless is to be the enemy of the Law-giver, truly anti-christ, opposed at your very core to His Word and commands.

And verse 6 says that no one who abides in Him is in that category.

APPLY

John wants us to look at the nature of sin and recoil in horror. And to mark those who would try to coax us into lawlessness as peddlers of death. Like venomous snakes.

Proverbs 1:10–11 ESV

10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason;

Proverbs 1:18 ESV

18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.

Don’t let them deceive you, John says.

But in order to make the distinction even clearer, he contrasts the nature of sin with the mission of Christ, and this is our third point:

III. The Mission of Christ: God will destroy what is evil in us (3:5, 7-10)

<<READ v5>>

There’s an echo here of John the Baptist’s words in the Gospel of John, 1:29 <<RECITE>>. To take away your sins includes bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, and canceling the record of debt that stood against us, and declaring us justified before God, and cleansing us from sin, and when He returns, to destroy the sin that remains in us.

In John 15, Jesus told his disciples,

John 15:5 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

In Him there is no sin, which means that if you abide in Him, His root is your root. And it is impossible for Him to bear bad fruit.

Here, we see two major Gospel images come together. The children of God are the branches of Jesus the True Vine.

And the distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil comes into even greater focus.

1 John 3:7–8 ESV

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.

The New Birth changes you forever. Paul conveys the same thing

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

And as 1 John 2:1-2 said, our advocate and propitiation is Jesus Christ the Righteous. And 2 verse 29 says, “If you know that he is righteous, you can be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

Everyone whose root produces righteous fruit - as defined by the very character of God - must have been born of him.

No one produces true righteousness unless HIS life is flowing through them. The pretenders, if they claim to be righteous, their rejection of Christ proves them false; if they claim to know Jesus, their rejection of His Word proves them false.

Because the mission of Jesus, first prophesied in Genesis 3:15, was to destroy the works of the devil.

APPLY:

Christians, this is a part of the Good News that sometimes gets overlooked, and it’s a source of great joy, comfort, and strength in light of verses 1-3.

Consider the struggles that you have against sin. Or even more, consider the fact that you are much more sinful than you realize.

The new Christian often recognizes the huge barriers that have stood between them and their Lord, and they rejoice to discover that His blood washes them clean. For the apostle Paul, the very first sin that the LORD Jesus dealt with was a big one: Paul’s hatred and persecution of the Christians. Maybe you’re not a former persecutor; maybe you came to Christ out of witchcraft, or a violent temper, or a history of theft, or sexual sin. But Christ redeemed you and began transforming you.

But after many years walking with the LORD, He continues to root out sins, many of which you did not see until recently. But it would be a mistake to think that the theft was the really dangerous sin, but the pride or arrogance or bigotry was really minor in comparison.

Because there are people who seem decent enough on the outside, who never stole anything or hit anybody, and because they’ve never been born again, they can’t even see the fact that their arrogance or little white lies are sprouting straight out of a dead, condemned nature.

See, it’s an awesome gift of grace that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. When the Christian, who is God’s child now, who is promised to become like Him, struggles against sin, sometimes against the same sins they’ve been battling for years, we have a promise that Jesus will be the victor. <<READ vv2-3>>

I said before that this is a great source of joy. Remember that joy is when the blessing of God overwhelms something else. Verses 2-3 presuppose the battle against sin. The purifying process.

Two Sundays ago, Palm Sunday, Aaron referenced Revelation chapter 7. In verse 9, John says that he saw an innumerable multitude from every nation and tribe and people standing before the Lamb, clothed in white, holding palm branches, and crying out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” And one of the elders tells John,

Revelation 7:14 ESV

14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

At the end of their trial, they stand before the Lamb, and they have purified themselves not by their own hard work, but by His finished work, applied to them.

In your struggle against sin, rejoice that not one drop of His cleansing blood will be wasted. Not one robe dipped in that flood will retain any spot or stain when we stand before Him.

Take comfort that if you have been born of Him, as verse 9 says, His seed abides in you - His Holy Spirit and the Gospel itself remains in you, and is at work in you, and it is impossible that you would keep sinning forever.

An this is a good place to draw a couple of conclusions.

Conclusion

First of all, notice that throughout verses 4-10, the root, the origin of every blessing is being born again. If you’ve never put your faith in Jesus Christ, then none of these wonderful things are yours.

If that’s you, it probably offends you that John would call you a child of the devil. John would tell you that he was a child of the devil until Jesus saved him. And so was I. And so was every Christian. The message is not that there are some good people who do good things, so they get to be children of God, and other people do bad things, so they get called children of the devil. The message that Jesus gave to us, and John echoes, is that every single one of us must be born again, because Jesus Christ is the only one in whom there is righteousness.

And “see what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.” Every one of these blessings follows from faith in Christ as our savior and our righteousness.

On the other hand, everyone who rejects Jesus Christ and His Word is still practicing sin and lawlessness, living in enmity toward God. This is a harsh word: John says that if this is you, then you’re of the devil, living out the same lawlessness that’s been the most natural thing in the world for him since the beginning. But you can be called a child of God, if as 1 John 1:7 says, if you confess your sin; if you claim Christ as your Advocate and Atonement, the Lamb of God will take away your sins, and He will be your righteousness.

And a final word to Christians struggling with sin. Do you look at these verses and still wonder where the hope is when you’re still struggling so much?

John uses three different phrases to talk about how sin relates to the Christian or the non-Christian. Here, we saw him use the phrase “everyone who makes a practice of sinning,” and I showed you how it related to the non-Christian’s root. The Christian, because they abide in Christ, “makes a practice of righteousness” according to 2:29 and 3:7. This does not mean that you don’t ever sin. It doesn’t even mean that you hardly ever sin. It means that sin and lawlessness are no longer the natural outgrowth of who you are.

In 1 John 1:8, he uses a different phrase when he says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And in 1 John 1:10, he says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” And this same phrase comes up again in chapter 5, when John exhorts us, if we see a brother or sister sinning a sin, to pray for them.

Even John could not say he did not have sin. Even a brother or sister can sin a sin. But a Christian can never make a practice of sinning, because they have been born of God.

When I was in about 6th grade, our Boy Scout troop made a deal with a local Christmas tree farmer around Christmas time. He had a huge live oak just beyond his parking lot, I mean this tree was enormous. And beautiful.

But the branches were thick with clumps of mistletoe. Mistletoe is not a natural part of the oak. It’s a parasite. It grows on the branches, sucking nutrients out of the oak. And you might know that an oak tree produces acorns. But mistletoe produces poisonous berries.

And one afternoon, our Boy Scout troop trekked out to that farm with pruning saws and pocket knives, and we climbed that tree and cut the mistletoe out. As much as we could reach. And he let us bag it up, and then we went around the neighborhood and sold it as a decoration.

Before we were born again, as children of the devil, we pumped out poison fruit because it was the most natural thing in the world. But when you were born again, grafted into Christ; when He became your family tree and you became children of God, sin became as foreign and unnatural as mistletoe in an oak tree. It’s the parasite trying to produce poison berries.

Don’t be surprised by it. Be revolted by it.

And don’t be fooled by those who would try to tell you that the parasite is a good thing. Or that you can never get rid of it. Or that Jesus doesn’t care about the sin that’s still sucking the life out of you. He came to destroy it. And He will.

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