Discerning Whose We Are

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Transcript:

I read this news story this week on the websites of a couple of different British newspapers, and they’re well-respected publications, so I’m assuming it’s probably a true story. They gave names and places. But there was this gentleman in the Yunnan province of China who, when this story was written a couple years ago, he had gone on a trip to China’s southern border down where the border is Vietnam.

He had gone on this trip, and some of the stories said it was for business. Some said he was planting banana trees. Maybe that is his business.

I don’t know. But he was down there for some reason along the Vietnamese border. And while he was down there, a Vietnamese salesman approached him and offered to sell him two puppies.

And he thought, well, I can use these puppies on my farm. They were supposed to be these beautiful black puppies. The guy said they’re going to be really impressive.

They’re going to have big appetites, but you’ll be impressed by them. They’ll grow to be big, strong puppies. So he bought these and he was really excited.

He was immensely proud of these puppies. And every day that he had them for two years, he groomed them, he took care of them, he fed them. It sounded like he brushed them and checked their teeth.

I mean, he was just really proud of these two black puppies he had bought. And at first he was impressed by the healthy appetite that he’d been promised by the salesman. But eventually he became concerned as these puppies’ healthy appetite caused them to balloon up over 100 pounds each.

said something here’s not right. As they got bigger, they started to look a little bit less dog-like every day, and that concerned him. And he really became concerned when his puppy started to eat the other animals on his farm.

So he was surprised by this, and he decided to research the matter, and he found some pamphlets from China’s, whatever they call their government agency that deals with wildlife, and realized that the dogs he had bought were not actually dogs, but they were endangered Asian black bears. I can’t be the only one who thinks that’s funny. For two years, for two years, he’s raising these puppies.

He doesn’t realize they’re bears. I can kind of see it. You know, Charla has that black lab, and I call him a black bear, among other things that I call him.

We have a love-hate relationship. But he looks sort of bear-like at certain angles, so maybe it’s possible. But the farmer called these dogs, these companion animals of him, he called them dogs for two years.

But eventually their true nature showed through and it revealed them to be bears. That these, what he thought were dogs, what he called dogs, once he saw the way they acted and what they became, he eventually realized that they were really bears. And the Bible teaches that regardless of what we call ourselves, and regardless of how we portray ourselves to other people, eventually our true nature is going to win out, and it’s going to show us, and it’s going to show the world what we really are.

And that’s where we find ourselves in 1 John chapter 3 this morning, as we continue our look through the book of 1 John, and these letters that were given by the last surviving of Christ’s apostles, the last of his generation to these new two or three generations afterwards, he was the last one. And the two or three generations of Christians have come along since then. He’s the last one who actually walked with Christ. And so these letters are sort of his last advice as he’s the last one.

I’ve got to make sure they know what they’re supposed to do when we’re all gone. And so he’s written these letters to them as advice, as his attempt to make sure that the faith is solid after the last of the apostles are gone. And he writes to them in this passage we’re going to look at today about their true nature and it’s showing through who they really are.

We’re going to start in verse 4. He says, whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. So he’s saying anybody who does anything wrong, anyone who breaks God’s law is sin, or reverse that.

Anybody who sins really is committing a transgression, a violation of God’s law, because he says that’s what it is. Sin, you know, we take for granted everybody understands what sin is, but if you didn’t grow up in church, that’s one of those churchy words that, you know, we don’t use necessarily out in the culture. Sin really just means any type of disobedience towards God.

When God says do this and we don’t do it, or when God says don’t do this and we do it anyway, that’s sin. But it’s not just outwardly. Sin can be inward.

Do you realize that? And especially if you grew up in church and you grew up following the rules and doing what was expected of you, you can be full of sin and doing the right things outwardly. We have that problem of, you know, we’ll condemn all these outward things.

We’ll condemn adultery. We’ll condemn drunkenness. We’ll condemn this or that or the other.

And then it’s the bitterness inside of us. It’s the anger. It’s the gossip.

It’s the pride. We can be full of sin because sin can also be an attitude that is disobedient to God. So anytime we’re disobedient to God, whether it’s an action, whether it’s inaction, let me make that clear.

If it’s an action, whether it’s inaction or whether it’s an attitude, any kind of disobedience toward God is sin. And so he says, whoever commits sin breaks God’s law because sin is the breaking of God’s law. And he says in verse 5, And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.

He’s talking here about Jesus Christ. He was manifested. He was revealed to take away our sins. The whole reason for Jesus coming to earth was to take away our sins.

The whole reason for him living those 30 plus years and then ministering publicly for three plus years, the whole reason for him doing that was to take away our sins. The reason he died on the cross was to take away our sins. Everything he did led up to the cross where he took responsibility for our sins.

And here’s where I run into a problem with people, with Christians, who want to appear open-minded and inclusive, and who for that purpose will say, well, there might be other ways. You know, there might be. I’ve heard preachers.

I’ve heard preachers whose preaching I enjoyed on other subjects say, well, for the Jews, you know, there’s obedience, and they’re preaching another way of salvation. Folks, the bottom line is, if there was another way of salvation, then God made a horrible, horrible mistake in sending Jesus Christ to endure the cross. But the Bible teaches instead that He was manifested to take away our sins.

That was His whole purpose in coming because there was no other way. Because there was no other way for my sin and your sin to be dealt with. All the rotten things we’ve done, all the bad attitudes that I have on a daily basis, and boy, my sin nature was on display on Friday.

Tell you what, the school started back, y’all know that. Y’all remember my stories about dropping Benjamin off for the first time last year? Well, now they’re at two different schools, which means twice the parking lots, twice the parents, and twice the road rage.

So my bad attitude was on display twice as much on Friday, and I had lots to repent of, okay? Every bad thing we’ve ever done, every bad attitude I’ve ever had, every time that I have disobeyed God, every time that you have disobeyed God, the only way that that could be dealt with, the only way that that could be paid for, the only way that we could possibly be out from the weight of that sin was for Jesus to be revealed and to come and to die on the cross, taking responsibility for it. There’s no other way.

And so John reminds them that there’s sin. We all have sin. Sin is the breaking of God’s law.

Sin is disobedience. Sin is treason against the king of the universe. But Jesus was made manifest to take away that sin.

So always when the Bible presents the problem, it presents the solution as well. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Verse 6.

Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. If you’ll remember back, I believe it was last week, I talked to you about the word abide. And abiding means to get, basically to get, this is my definition, but to get somewhere and stay there.

And I gave you the example that I kind of have a wanderlust. I like to travel and explore, and I like to, you know, I’ll go and explore the back roads of some place, just because I like to go and see what’s to be seen. And Charla would never leave the house if she didn’t have to. And I might be at the house, and I might come in in the evening and sit down in my chair and spend a little time talking to her, maybe watching TV with her, that kind of thing.

But the next day, I’m up and ready to go do things again. I don’t spend every day traveling, you all understand that. I want to go do things, whether it’s coming up here and doing some work and then going and seeing somebody, and I’m constantly on the move.

I told her, if I ever retire, you’ll never see me again. I’ll just be running the streets. I don’t abide anywhere.

My wife is really good at abiding. My wife loves being at home. She loves her own surroundings.

She’s more than happy for y’all to come see her. But she doesn’t, I don’t know if it’s because she has to do her hair or makeup or what. She just, she’s happier at home.

and so she gets herself ready for the day and she’s at home and she has no plans to go anywhere unless I make plans for her. That’s what abiding is. When we abide in Jesus, we’re happy just to stay there.

When it comes to spiritual things, don’t be like me and say, oh, here’s Jesus, but now I want to move on to the next thing. Got to keep moving. When it comes to spiritual things, be like Charla and say, I’m here with Jesus and I’m going to kick off my shoes and I’m going to let my hair down and I’m going to stay a while.

I’m just going to be here with Jesus and I have no plans to move on anywhere else. And by the way, that’s not telling us to sit around and be lazy. You can be running the streets and still abide with Jesus Christ. This is a spiritual abiding.

This is saying, I’m perfectly content living my life with Jesus Christ, and I don’t need some other spiritual adventure. He’s all the adventure I need. Okay, that’s abiding in Jesus Christ. And we can be super busy about His work and still abide in Him.

So He says, whosoever abides in Him sinneth not. Whoa, now, on first glance, that sounds like not one of us is abiding in Jesus Christ. Did you sin this week? I know I did.

I’m not going to list them for you. But I know I did. And you know what?

I felt bad about them. And I dealt with God about them. And I asked Him to help me stop them.

Have you sinned this morning? Probably. I have.

Again, same thing. So there’s a problem here. Because if we read this just at surface, just at face value, it sounds like whoever has that relationship with Jesus Christ, whoever sticks with Him, they don’t sin at all.

But that would seem to contradict what John said earlier in 1 John 1. I believe it was chapter 1, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Wait a minute.

He says if you abide in Jesus, you won’t sin. But if you say you don’t sin, you’re a liar. And then he gives us the prescription too of how to deal with it.

When you sin, if you will confess your sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So this is not saying that we will never sin. If you go and you look at the Greek grammar of it all, what he’s saying here, they have different verb tenses than we do, and what this is doing is indicating an ongoing.

And the best way we could indicate this in English is to say, whosoever abides in him does not continue in sin. In other words, that’s not what our life is about. It’s not our lifestyle.

Do you sin? Yes. Will you continue to sin?

Yes. But is that really the hallmark of your lifestyle? Not if you’re abiding in Jesus Christ. When you’re abiding in Jesus Christ, the sin is the exception, not the rule.

The sin is where you fall into temptation, is where you ask God’s forgiveness, you deal with it, you get back up, and you go on with him, not I’m down and I’m going to wallow in it. And so he says, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Meaning, whoever continues on in sin has not seen him and does not know him.

That idea of continuing in sin means that we continue with the same sinful lifestyle that we had before we came to him. And writing to people who, many of them probably did not grow up in church culture like many of us did. Some of you may not have grown up in church.

When you grow up in church, you can be lost and sinful, but not involved in these outward practices. I grew up in church. I grew up with strict parents.

I told the line, but I was just as sinful as the next person. But a lot of these people not growing up in that church culture, they were saved out of something. Some of them were involved in these pagan religions.

Some of them were involved in idol worship. Some of them were involved in adultery. Some of them were involved in drunken rioting.

Some of them were involved in prostitution. They were saved out of something. They were all saved from something, but they were saved out of something.

And this idea, he’s writing to dispel for many of these believers the idea that you can still go hang out at the pagan temples and run around being involved in these drunken riots and hang out with the temple prostitutes, and you can do all of that and follow Christ. No, he says it doesn’t work that way. You’re not going to continue in that same old lifestyle. Well, for us who, as I said, grew up in church and maybe didn’t get into as much outward trouble, we still, like I’ve said already today, there are still inward problems and heart problems. And I will still have problems with pride.

I will still have problems with any of the other bitterness, any of the other things that I mentioned earlier, any of the other inward things, may still have trouble with those, but those should not characterize my life anymore. just like the person who is saved out of a life of adultery should not continue on in adultery am I going to have trouble with sin? yes I am am I going to fall into sin?

yes I am but that should not be the overall course that my life takes that should not be the overall course that your life takes if you’re abiding in Christ because he says if we make this profession if we profess that we’re abiding in him but nothing has changed he said then it’s a sign that we don’t that we have not seen him, neither known him. Verse 7 says, Little children, let no man deceive you. He that does righteousness is righteous.

Whoever does righteous things, which I told you last week, righteousness is doing the right things with the right motive. The right things for the right reasons. Whoever does righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous.

Now, none of us are righteous, right? The Bible says there’s none righteous, no, not one. But it says if we do righteousness, We’re righteous even as He is righteous.

Don’t get this backwards and think this means, oh, if I just do righteous things, then I’ll be righteous before God. If I do righteous things, then I’ll be okay with God. No, He’s saying that doing righteousness is the symptom, not the cause.

If we do righteousness, it is evidence that we have been made righteous as He is righteous. Not that, oh, I’m so good. Not that, oh, I’m so wonderful.

But that God looked at a wretched sinner like me, and on that day when I bowed the knee, either physically or metaphorically in my heart, that day I humbled myself before God and repented of my sins and trusted Christ as my Savior that God looked inside this wretched shell and He put into it the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And He clothed me in the righteousness of Christ. And the day that you trusted Christ as Savior, He clothed you in the righteousness of Christ. And that even though we are still sinners, God looks at us and because of what Jesus Christ did on our behalf, God looks at us and He sees the righteousness of Christ. That’s how it’s possible that we would be righteous as He is righteous. The Bible talks about righteousness being imputed. Imputed righteousness means I’m still not righteous.

I’m still not when it comes to my attitude or my nature. It’s not that I’ve become perfect and sinless. It means that God looks at me and He declares me righteous because of what Jesus Christ did.

That sin is no longer held against me. And he’s put in me and he’s put in you as believers the capacity now to do righteousness. See before we’re bound to sin.

We sin because that’s our job description, that’s our nature. We really have very little choice in the matter. And now we have the capacity to be obedient to him.

And to do the right thing he calls us to do for the right reason because we want to please him. So he says, he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. Even as Jesus is righteous.

It says when you see righteousness done, when you see the right thing done for the right reason, when you see this obedience to God, it is evidence of someone who has, of a sinner who has been declared righteous through the righteousness of Christ. He that commiteth sin, verse 8, is of the devil. In other words, he that continues on in this lifestyle of, excuse me, lifestyle of sin is of the devil. You can be angry at John, and you can be angry at the Holy Spirit.

They said it, okay? I’m just repeating it. That if we continue on in a lifestyle of sin, he says we’re of the devil.

Now that doesn’t mean that the people around us are demons. It doesn’t mean that they’re as evil as the devil. What it means is that they are under his authority.

They are of him. This is a little more difficult to understand in English. But in other languages, I think of French for example, because that’s the one I studied, there’s one preposition that means of and that means from.

And it’s the word de, D-E. Same in Spanish. And I could say I’m, and say this word, de Oklahoma, or de apostrophe Oklahoma.

It can mean I’m of Oklahoma, it can mean I’m from Oklahoma. Or I’m part of Oklahoma. Well, the same thing applies here.

It’s not saying that you’re just like the devil. But it’s saying that’s where you’re coming from. That’s where your spiritual nature is finding its example.

And it’s saying that those who continue in sin are still under Satan’s authority. for the devil sinneth from the beginning. The first one to rebel against God was Satan.

He was apparently an angel of light and decided that he could be as good as God and he tried to declare himself God and then he spent all of human history trying to convince us that we belong on the throne of our own hearts instead of God. So Satan’s one trick has been trying to usurp God’s authority and that’s what he’s convinced mankind to do. So that’s what the Bible means when it says thereof the devil.

It means we’re following Satan’s example. We’re following his lead when we continue in sin. For the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. He said that authority that Satan thinks he has over us. And where Satan thinks he’s going to get back at God because he can’t hurt God.

He hates God, but he can’t hurt God. So the way he gets back at God is by hurting the creations that God loves. Satan knows he’s going to be thrown into the lake of fire and he wants to take as many of us with him as he can.

That’s his job. That’s his goal. And yet it says Jesus was manifest. He was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. He’s here to throw a wrench in the devil’s plans.

The devil thought he won at the cross. He thought he’d put an end to Jesus. But what really happened is on the cross, Jesus declared it is finished, meaning the work that God had sent him to do to pay for our sins so that the door would be opened for us to spend eternity with him in heaven.

That work of the devil, that job he’s trying to accomplish of taking as many of God’s beloved creations made in his image with him into the lake of fire as he can, to take as many of us with him as he can, Jesus stepped in and put an end to that and said, here’s the way out for those who will take it. And he says in verse 9, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. In other words, whoever is born again, who is ever born of the Spirit of God, will not continue on in sin, for his seed remaineth in him.

The seed of God that we’ve been transplanted, his example to follow, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. We cannot, as believers, continue in sin. And I’ve counseled with people who’ve sinned, and they feel like, I just feel worthless, and I feel like God could never forgive this.

I feel like I can’t possibly be a Christian because I’m dealing with this sin, and why can’t I have victory over it? I think we’ve all been there at some point in our lives, and what I’ve typically told people is, look, the fact that you’re bothered by this is a very good sign. Because if you didn’t belong to Jesus Christ, you’d be going on in this sin, it wouldn’t bother you at all.

That’d just be your lifestyle. You wouldn’t care. But the fact that you’re bothered by this, the fact that you keep coming to God every time, time after time, and dealing with Him about it, and seeking His forgiveness, and seeking the power of His Holy Spirit to defeat this, is evidence of Him working in you, that this sin is an exception and not the rule of your life.

Because as a Christian, as somebody in whom the Spirit of God dwells, it should be impossible for you to go on indefinitely embracing sin and not feel bad about it and not stop and deal with God about it. And if you can do that, if you can look at that sin and embrace it and never look back at God, it’s an indication that the Spirit of God is not there. It’s an indication something is wrong.

As believers, we will sin. We will have time. Paul prayed that that thorn in his flesh would be removed, and some people think that it was a sin that he dealt with.

And even if it was a person, I’ve heard that one too, even if it was a person he dealt with and prayed for God to remove from him, There were also times that this wretched person that I am, he said the things that I would do I don’t do, and the things that I shouldn’t do I do them anyway. Paul fought with sin. We’ll continue to fight with sin.

And it doesn’t mean we’re not saved. It doesn’t mean we don’t belong to Him. If we fall into sin and we come back and we deal with Him because we’re repentant and we confess it and we seek to be reconciled to Him, if on the other hand, we grab onto that sin with both hands And never give it a second thought.

That’s an indication that something’s wrong. That should be impossible for you as a believer. To say, I don’t care what God thinks.

This is what I want to do. I’m going this way and I’m not looking back. He cannot sin because he is born of God.

He cannot continue in sin because he’s born of God. Verse 9 says, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. I’m sorry, I’ve read that one already.

In this the children of God, verse 10, in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. He said this is the way that those who belong to God and those who are still under Satan’s authority, He said this is how they’re shown. This is how they’re revealed.

This is how we know them for who they are. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. And we’ll talk some about the loving the brother next week.

But He says this is how you know them, whether or not they do righteousness. Now this is not the only test Scripture gives, but it’s the one that’s listed here. Here’s a way you’ll know who’s who.

Do they do righteousness? whose example are they following I saw we talked a few Wednesday nights ago about that verse judge not that ye be not judged the most misinterpreted and misapplied scripture I think in the whole Bible and talked about what it really means and I told you I can guarantee you if you’re paying attention you’re going to see some place this week where it’s misquoted and misapplied I walked out the next day I saw on Facebook well doesn’t the Bible say we’re not supposed to judge I saw somebody last night on Facebook call out something that a preacher, some boneheaded statement made, I think, by a well-meaning preacher. He called out the statement, and somebody said, what, are you his judge?

That’s supposed to shut down all discussion. Never mind the places where the Bible says that we’re supposed to examine the fruit, we’re supposed to examine the teaching. But you know what?

Jesus said, by their fruits you will know them. I’m not saying walk around and say, you must not be saved because I saw how you acted. You must not be saved because I saw how you acted.

I like you. You must be saved. That’s not what I’m talking about doing.

So John here is writing to these people and really encouraging them to examine themselves. And just like Jesus said, by their fruit you will know them. He says, here’s a test. Look at the fruit.

Are they producing righteousness or are they not? Are they doing the righteous works of God or are they not? Let me break it down for you just a little further.

Whose example are they following? Whose example are they following? The bottom line of this passage is that we are, sorry, excuse me, backwards.

The bottom line of this passage is that we act like who we are like. We act like who we are like. When you get down to their very nature, those two puppies that he bought, the Chinese man bought, when you get down to their nature, they were bears.

Right? And they eventually showed themselves as bears. They were like the bears that bore them.

They were like the papa bear and the mama bear. And because they were like papa bear and mama bear, they began to act like Papa Bear and Mama Bear. He could call them dogs all day long, but they acted like what they were like.

So the most basic truth of this passage I can give you is that we act like who we are like. And it’s a call for us to examine the fruit in our lives. If we belong to the devil, we’re going to follow his example.

If we’re under his authority, we’re going to follow his example. Verse 8 makes that very clear. He that committeth sin or continueth committing sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

if we’re still under his authority we’re going to follow his example on the other hand if we belong to God we’ll follow his example verse 9 says whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him in other words we can’t continue on the same old way we cannot claim to belong to God and follow the devil’s example so it’s a call for us to examine ourselves because we can’t hide our true nature and it’s also not for us to look at our fruit look at our lives and say are we doing righteousness Oh, I’m doing righteousness. I’m doing a good job. I’m better than you.

That’s not it at all. Because the only reason we’re able to live righteously, the only reason we’re able to ever do the right thing for the right reason, is because we’ve been made righteous by the righteousness of Christ. We’ve been given His righteousness. God looked at us in our filthy rags that we had to offer, and He put on us the robes of Christ’s righteousness that we could have never deserved, that we could have never earned.

And He says in verse 7, Let no man deceive you. He that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. So if we’re under the devil’s authority, we’re going to act like it.

If we’re under God’s authority, we’re going to act like it. This should not be a difficult concept. And this doesn’t mean either, again, that anybody who does nice things, anybody who behaves themselves, automatically belongs to God because you’ve got to look at the heart.

And I can’t look at your heart. You can’t look at my heart. We can’t really see the hearts of the people walking down the street.

this is a call I believe for each of us to examine our own selves and see if we’re in the faith because I could look at myself and say well I behave myself most of the time but when I look at the heart there’s sin there and I could never earn God’s forgiveness I could never earn his acceptance but I’ve been clothed in the righteousness of Christ and because of what he’s done sometimes I get it right because of what he’s done sometimes I’m able to follow his example and if I paid more attention to his Holy Spirit, I’d be able to follow his example a lot more. So the question we ask ourselves is who do we act like? Because we act like who we are like.

And if you look at your life and you look at your fruit, see your actions, see what’s happening in your heart and see no evidence of the work of Jesus Christ, see no evidence of following his example, it’s a good indication that something’s wrong. Folks, little have tails, right? Little turtles have flippers or whatever they call.

I don’t know what they’re actually called. I just see them in my office all the time in their little tanks. Little turtles have flippers because big turtles have flippers.

And so we too are going to have characteristics that indicate where we come from and who we belong to. There’s one command that he gives in this passage and it’s in verse 7 as we get ready to close. One imperative, one command in the passage when he says in verse 7, little children let no man deceive you.

He gives all this explanation about acting like who we are like, and then he gives one command, don’t let anybody deceive you. John wants to make sure, the one thing he’s telling us to do under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is to make sure we’re clear on this truth, that what we act like indicates who we belong to. And by telling us, hey, I want you to be very clear about this, he’s calling the believer, calling the one who professes to be a believer, to consider whether or not the evidence backs up that claim.

So I’ll ask you the same question this morning. I’m not asking you to answer me out loud. I’d prefer you didn’t.

But if you profess to be a believer this morning, is there evidence in your life that wo