Untitled Sermon

1st John Ch 3 Vs 1-10

- In the first two chapters you guys have learned how to experience the light of God

1: Fellowshipping with one another what are we doing with one another right now ? This is a form of fellowship with one another right?

2: Testing those that know Him (keeping His commandments) being obedient to His word

How do you test someones life wether or not they claim to Know the Lord ? By the fruit in their life right ?

How many of us have seen people here at church act like christians, Talk like christians , and walk the walk like christians but then the second they step off this property they are a completely different person

now i’m not saying to go around judging people but peoples actions speak for themselves and when we see people putting on an act its weird

3: By Not loving the world ( do not love the world more than you love God ) God is eternal and the things of this world are temporary

In the world we have the Lust of the flesh

- What is the Lust of the flesh ?

Its the Gratification of our fleshly desires. So in other words when we think about it from that standpoint its literally pleasing yourself physically right. If i want an ice cream and i go and get some i’m gratifying my flesh

if i want to go get a cheese burger i’m gratifying my physical desire to want to eat that ( be careful what you feed the flesh )

remember once you fulfill the flesh it becomes easier and easier, how many of you have ever cut sugar out of your diet ? I have and it sucks right but when you get about two weeks in its not as difficult to say no

now on the contrary when you go back to having it it starts small and then grows to the point of wanting sugar every second

the whole point is don’t give in to the flesh even for a second it becomes harder to say no

Now The Lust of the eyes ; is having a strong desire for what is seen, wow this one is sketchy right i’m sure Big dave talked about this but watch your eyes right, men are visual so what we see turns into desire that can lead to bad things right

James 1:14–15 “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

what we take in can literally have serious consequences. Just like planting fruitful seeds through reading and being in Gods word and following his commandments, we can also stumble the same way, taking in too much of the world will grow our desire for the world so be careful

4: The pride of Life

what does the pride of life look like ? The Good Ol American dream right , get a good job that pays a lot of money

buy a big house

buy a nice car

have the perfect family where no one is a bad person

each one of these things I would consider the pride of life because we as humans like to brag about what we have right ? wow i look so good in this new car

check out my perfect life on instagram

boasting about what you have

Expound On this

Then it goes on to talk about Deceptions and

6: Letting truth Abide in you Vs 24-27

so not allowing the things of the world, false teachers and other distractions pull you away fro the Lord

If we remain in the Gospel which is what these verses in CH: 2 are saying then Gods promise of eternal Life is fulfilled

We are to live a life that is enlightened by God and what he did for us on the cross, be a good example, share the good news and live life the way God wants us to

Summarize

so i Just wanted to summ thus up because when we move from Ch1-2 again we are dealing with How to experience the Light of God right

putting off the things of the world

so now we are going to talk about CH 3 which deals with experiencing the LOVE OF GOD a love that is pure

Here in the beginning of chapter 3 vs 1-9 we are going to look at Gods Love for us

a Love that is pure Lets brake this down simply verse by verse

1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

Here we that John was stoked to be loved by God, he was beyond joyful, so much so that he understood that God loved us to the point of calling us children of God

But heres the flip side, because we are Gods children, the world does not know us

Do we think this is a Good thing or a bad thing ?

John 15:18 ““If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.”

So when we read this verse think of it like this, just like we talked about summarizing ch 1& 2 , we learned to experience the light of God and now again we are learning Gods love for us is pure so we are to put off the things that make us impure

God calls us His children to be set apart from the rest of the world right

so our lives have a different look

we literally do majority of things in this life different than the world

so thats why John is saying the world does not know us, its because to them we look foolish practicing the life God calls us to live

Question ? Who here has family or friends that aren’t believers and have been vibed for being “different “ ?

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

So the world isn’t going to know us and they wont know our identity

but now here in verse 2 John is saying when God comes back for his people we will be like him and then all the other people who didn’t know us as it said in vs 1 will know us now

thats pretty cool to think about,

our identity, its also important right to focus on the things that are above and not the things in this world

this goes back to chapter two where John warns us not to love the world more than we love the Lord

he says that the world is passing away but those of us who put our faith in Him will abide forever

Matthew 6:19–21 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

where we place our hearts matters!!!!

1 John 3:3 “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

in this verse its saying quite simply that when we see God we can find hope in Him

God is hope, He is Life

to know God brings purity in our life

knowing God should encourage us to want to please Him

think of it like this we all have parents right?

If your playing a sport you want to do well to please them and to make them happy.

same goes for us, we should all be developing a heart that doesn’t want to deny what God has for us

I mean look at me for example if this was a year ago, there is no way id tell you id be teaching a bible study

i was closed off, I didn’t have a heart that wanted to please God right but through Gods word, prayer and trusting in the Lord He’s helped me to step out in faith and develop a walk that doesn’t want to deny him

when we want to Please the Lord, our heart is in the right place

1 John 3:4 “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”

what do we think about sin ?

we only know sin as christians to be covered by Grace

do we think that we abuse Gods grace when it comes to sin ?

In this verse it compares sin to the law and says its lawlessness

Imagine if it was the other way around in life, if Lawlessness was sin

think about it like oh man I just ran a red light boom - sin, or i was late to work- boom sin - i just cut a lady off on accident- boom sin

we can go on right but sinning against the Lord is literally braking the Law

Sin is what separates us from God it pulls us further away from Him

think of it like this, there are two roads, one road leads to righteousness and one leads to death

each road goes further away from the other bringing you closer to the destination at the end

Where do you want to be at the end ? do you want to be closer to Heaven or Hell?

so because sin is a moral matter we know the difference between right and wrong

do whats right in Gods eyes

yes we may stumble and yes sin is sin, but at the end of the day we are covered by Gods grace

we need to pray to the Lord and ask him for forgiveness of that sin so we can be in right standing with him

sin hurts The lord and it affects everyone around us

1 John 3:5 “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

so obviously in the previous verse it talks about sin and how sin brakes the law

well back in the day before Jesus died on the cross the only way to atone for sin or to be forgiven of sin was through blood sacrifice with animals, thats what we see alot of in the old testament

But now We see here in the new testament in the Gospels that Jesus who took on flesh died on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice so that we may be forgiven of sin

He died on the cross for us so that we may be reconciled in Him

when i think of Jesus dying on the cross i think of John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Someone who truly loves you, as an act will lay down their life for you

Thats what Jesus did for us

as it says He was manifested to take away our sins, in other words he was Made to die on the cross for us

so not only was he manifested to take away our sin but he himself was perfect, he knew no sin

Why would a guy that knew no sin pay the ultimate price for us ? Because he loves us At the beginning of this section we said that Gods love is pure

here is a perfect example of why Gods love is pure, He died for us !

1 John 3:6 “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.”

John in chapter two of this knows that we all sin as christians , he knew obviously that none of us are perfect

1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

So even though we do sin as christians, the fact that we are saved and know who He is allows us to go to him and ask to be forgiven

He is our Advocate for sin

Does anyone know what the definition of the word Advocate is ?

Its a person who publicly supports a cause or policy....

What was Jesus cause ? to save us sinners from going to Hell !

what an amazing Father we have where we can pray to Him and ask for forgiveness.

God has the power to forgive and forget our sin !

Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.””

so when it says in verse 6 that whoever abides in him does not sin doesn’t literally mean we don’t sin, it means we have the ability through right standing with God to be forgiven of our sins

Now the second part to that verse who ever sins has neither seen Him nor known him

this is talking about “flagrant sin” by false believers so people who aren’t really saved and go out of there way to sin !

people can do great things in the name of the Lord but that doesn’t mean they are saved right ?

Look at mormons for example, some of you know I grew up in a mormon household

very legalistic. But look at what they do right they Hide false doctrine behind Good morals

morally they are spot on but they lean on that for the wack doctrine they teach.

that doesn’t mean they are saved

1 John 3:7 “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.”

satan loves to deceive us through his wicked ways

and John in this verse simply says He who practices righteousness is righteous !

what does your life look like ? we must side with Jesus not Satan

Some of you may have been in the study i taught in Luke a couple weeks ago, but what is a good defense ? A better offense right?

if we go on the offensive and get ahead of the enemy and his tricks than we will be in Line with God !

1 John 3:8 “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

in this verse John is talking about Habitual sin, So sin that is willfully being done over and over again this is the sin that the world is involved in

when we look at the world , what is right has become wrong and what is wrong has become right

Gods nature gives us the ability to know the difference between right and wrong and followers of the devil do not have that ability, there conscience is seared and they sin over and over again therefore they are of the devil

then it goes on to say that Jesus purpose was to destroy the works of the devil,

Whos side should we be on ? what should we be practicing ? righteousness or sin ?

1 John 3:9–10 “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”

So again we see here that John is saying that those who are born again we are regenerated by the power of God

Through Him we are forgiven of our sin and we cannot continue to live a life that is okay with sinning

when you are truly sold out to God we have conviction of our sin right

its not like we can go run around sinning and not feeling anything about it, no we hurt, we know we have hurt the Father and we know we have displeased him

we must be real about our sin and not do it !

As believers Gods seed is in us and it doesnt leave !

Then it goes on again to compare sin and righteousness between brothers

Just like we need to love our brother we need to stay away from sin

What we do in this life is an example to those around us and when we are saved we bare good fruit.

Stay Humble, Seek Jesus, Ask for repentance, stay away from satan, and pray

Have a heart for the Lord not the world and sin !!!