002 ST Who are the Children of God (ES 6 Aug 2017)

SERMON ON “WHO ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD”

Good morning.

Our text this morning is in 1 John 2:18-3:10. But before we read the text, I would like to give a very brief introduction to 1 John.

The letter of 1 John was written to several churches by the Apostle John that were struggling with false teachers. The problem was the false teachers had advocated a form of Christianity that was different than that of the Apostle John. The crisis had reached point that the false teachers had left the church, but were still in contact with its members. This communication created confusion among the believers. The believers started to question whether they knew God, or they had eternal life or they were in the truth. The Apostle John is writing them to a careful statement of apostolic understanding of Christianity to show where the deceivers deceived and to confirm to the believers what it means to be child of God and to know you have eternal life

In 1 John, Bible commentators see three ethical tests that John is presenting to know that you have eternal life.

The first test is theological: we must believe that Jesus is the son of God, the Christ come in the flesh.

The second test is moral: we must obey the commandments of God, (which we will look at this morning)

The third test is social: we must love others.

In our passage, the apostle John addresses what it means to be a child of God. The specific error the false teachers had been proclaiming was that a Christian could know all his sins were forgiven and yet knowingly continue in sin. This is what the false teachers were offering, something that sounds too good to be true, because it isn’t true that your sins can be forgiven and you can keep sinning. This is what the Apostle John is correcting in this passage. He is going to explain who a child of God is and who is isn’t. And by knowing that, the readers of this letter can have assurance of that they belong to God and will spend eternity with him.

READ 1 JOHN 2:28 – 3:10 (ESV)

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so, we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 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.

Pray

OBSERVATION

Before we go any further, there is an observation I would like to make. As we read this passage, something becomes very apparent. There are two groups of people being described. The first group children of God (3:1, 10) and the second group are the children of the Devil (3:8, 10). The Apostle John is going to explain who’s who to his readers; who God’s people are and who the Devil’s people are. This concept of two different people groups (one for God and the other against God) appears back in Genesis 3. After the sin of Adam and Eve, God first addresses the serpent and says in Genesis 3:14-15:

The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." More literally, offspring refers to seed. Clearly, her offspring in 3:15 refers to Jesus who will crush the head of the serpent, but there could be a corporate meaning to it (meaning her offspring to include those for God, as well as those of Devil’s offspring against God). The Apostle John wants his readers to know there are two sides, God’s children and the Devil’s children.

The three main things I want us to look at this passage is:

1. How does the child of God live?

2. The test to determine who is a child of God

3. What does in English this phase “not to continue in sin”?

Our first main point: How does the child of God live?

There are four things this passage tell us on how the Child of God lives:

1 ABIDE IN CHRIST In 2:28 the child of God abides in the Son (in Christ). As children of God, Christians we are commanded to abide in Christ. This word “abide” has appeared 7 times in chapter 2 already and appears two more times in this verse. This Greek word for abide is used primarily used by the Apostle John in the NT. The word “abide” means to continue in a relationship with Jesus. This relationship characterized by 1) trust (believing that God has our best interests at heart, conforming us to the image of his son), 2)prayer (communicating with God), 3) obedience, we knows God better when we obey him) and 4 joy, joy not of ourselves any longer but our joy is Christ. The apostle John explains this abiding concept also in

John 15:4-5

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 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.”

These words “abide in me and I in you” illustrate how we are united to Christ. By being united to him we have access to grace to whereby we can bear the fruit of the spirit, love, joy peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness and self-control. Apart from Christ we can do nothing.

2. WITH CONFIDENCE Because we abide in Christ, we can have confidence and not shrink away from Christ at his coming. (2:28) I remember as a child I did something wrong that caused my mother to say, wait till your Father gets home. I knew that judgement was coming and it would not be on my side. But for Christians, we have been justified in Christ’s work and declared not guilty. Christ’s coming is good news for us and we can have confidence when he appears However, it isn’t good news for everyone. John Piper recently presented a message entitled Why the Coming Kingdom of Christ is Really Bad News. And a lot people were confused because they spent more time on the title and then on the point of the message, which was for the unbeliever, Christ’s coming is terrible news. All ungodliness will be destroyed and come to an end and the unbeliever will spend eternity in hell. But for the child of God, it is good news, and we can have confidence in our walk with Christ.

3. PRACTICES RIGHTEOUSNESS. Because Christ is righteous, the child of God will practice righteousness, or literally in the Greek “do what is right” which shows we have been born of God. (2:29) We need a little further explanation so we don’t get confused. If we practice righteousness (as the text says), it doesn’t mean we are righteous in ourselves. Again, we only become righteous by being born again (regenerated by the Holy Spirit), trusting in Christ, and having Christ’s righteousness imputed to us whereby we are declared righteous by Christ’s work. And the righteousness we do practice is only through the grace of God and this is evidence we are born of God. Any good work that we walk in as Christians (Eph 2:10), only come from being a child of God, not something we work for to attain to be become a child of God.

4. PURIFY OURSELVES Because the children of God will see Jesus he is, who himself is pure, we need to purify ourselves. God loved so much that he made us his children. And he loved us so much, that he is not going to leave us the way we are. This favor of his great love bestowed on us should compel anyone who considers himself to be one of God’s children to purify themselves. This action to purify oneself, is not beating oneself with a whip, or wearing a hair shirt. Or an aesthetic lifestyle like living on top of a pillar in the Syrian desert for 37 years. But to purify oneself is to cooperate with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Putting to death sin of the sin in our lives and becoming alive in Christ as the spirit conforms us to the image of the son.

This brings us to our second main point that starts in 3:4. which is the test the Apostle John gives to determine who a child of God is and who isn’t. Again, the Apostle John is trying to clarify to his reader who belong to the God and to the devil.

In verse 4 we read: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. The difficulty in understanding this verse is the relationship between the word sin and the word lawlessness. The Greek word for lawlessness, is anomia which means breaking the law. The issue is that the Apostle John hasn’t discussed the law and the only commandment that has been discussed is loving one another. When the Apostle Matthew in his gospel uses this word lawlessness, he uses to describe those who on the last day thought they were going into the kingdom. but Jesus turns them away depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. When the Apostle Paul uses this word lawlessness, it is used towards unbelievers, those with no faith. He also uses the towards a character who is known as the “man of lawlessness” in 2 Th 2:3which many theologians identify as the Antichrist. So, this word lawlessness probably just doesn’t mean breaking the law, but describes the spiritual reality of an unbeliever and not so much the evil he commits. This lawlessness is the actual rejection of Christ in his heart. So, the sin, (the lawlessness), the one practices in the 3:4, is to reject Christ, the Son of God, which is the sin of the antichrist. Those who make a practice of sinning are sinning without repentance, because have rejected Christ.

READ 1 JOHN 3:5-8

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.

The apostle John moves from those who practice sin to the one who takes sins away. v5. Jesus came to take away our sins and he could do that because He had no sin, thus he could be the perfect sacrifice to take way sin. Now, we want to remember the specific error the false teachers had been proclaiming was that a Christian could know all his sins were forgiven and yet knowingly continue in sin. That is why the Apostle John says don’t be deceived in 3:7:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. The point here being, if you are in Christ you can’t keep sinning. Though it appears the Apostle John is making an absolute statement, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning”, this is not the normative Christian experience and it conflicts with John’s teaching elsewhere. The verb “sin” here in Greek is in the present tense. In the Biblical Greek, the present tense isn’t as much about time, then it is aspect, which has continuous connotation. The ESV tries to capture this in its translation with the words “keeps on sinning” while the older translations used the word “sins”. If I am a Christian and abiding in Christ, I am not going to keep sinning without doing something about it. And that something would be to confess it and repent of it.

In 3:8, the Apostle John identifies those ‘who makes a practice of sinning’ they belong to, their father is the devil. There is a contrast here, “Those who make a practice of sin belong to their father, the Devil. Which implies those who don’t make a practice of sinning are children of God. This brings us to the last two verses of our text.

1 John 3:9-10

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.

Again, the point of this passage is for the readers to know who are the children of God and to have assurance of eternal life. There are two reasons why the child of God can’t keep sinning, one reason he has been born of God regenerated and come to faith. The second reason the child of God can’t keep sinning is because God’s seed is in him. This term “God’s seed” is a metaphor and its meaning isn’t readily apparent, but most scholars tend to think God’s seed is referencing the Holy Spirit. The believer cannot continue in sin because the believer has been born again. A new nature, a divine nature, has been imparted to the believer. God is the believer’s life, and a life of sin is simply no longer possible.

How does a Christian understand “cannot keep on sinning” to mean?

But what does “cannot keep on sinning” mean. In the context of what false teachers were saying, it means we don’t have permission to sin and then not call it sin. We’re not to sin like the devil is our Father. Also, “cannot keep on sinning” can’t mean sinlessness perfectionism. It isn’t what the Bible teaches, as in 1 John “if we say we have so sin, we make God a liar. Again, this verb is in the present tense so there is a continuous aspect meaning you “cannot keep on sinning continually” So how do we understand, cannot keep sinning to mean”? As Christians, our hearts have been regenerated, there still remains as the WCF puts it “some remnants of corruption in every part” which causes a continual war inside of us, our sinful desires war against the Spirit, and the Spirit war against our sinful desires. But the Christian cooperates in their sanctification by repenting of their sin, putting death their sinful desires and be made more alive by God’s sanctifying spirit. The child of God doesn’t keep on sinning without repentance, because they belong to God. If I was a Bible translator, this is how I would translate

1 John 3:9-10

in English to capture and explain what “does not keep sinning” means in the context

Everyone who has been born of God does not keep sinning without repentance, because God’s seed, that is God’s sovereign work of grace through the Holy Spirit abides in him and he can’t keep sinning without repentance because he has in the past been born of God with the result that he still is and will always be a child of God.

Is it easy living the Christian life? No, it’s not because it is a war. The Devil hates us and has a terrible plan for lives. The Devil is going to do everything he can to make the Christian’s life unfruitful. Our own souls are our greatest danger. The Devil will dredge up everything he can out of our hearts to make us sin. But God loves us and has given us his Holy Spirit to kill the sin that stills indwells us. We’re justified and made right in God’s eye, but we still have sin that can so easily entangles us, we need to lay it aside run with endurance the race God has set before us. looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Pray