927 1 Jn.2.28-3.10 Children of God & Children of the Devil
Notes
Transcript
44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Q. Do you believe that?
Q. Do you believe that Satan is a liar & wants to deceive people?
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
- We know Eve was deceived – the apostle Paul testifies to that
3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Q. Do you believe that?
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- We live in a day where, what is called “Cancel Culture”, is trying to deconstruct the past
- In other words, it is an anti-culture movement
- A movement to erase the past in order to reshape the future
- This involves removing even the truth if it stands in the way of the new future to be made
- The “story” & ideals of this new future becomes more important than facts that speak against it
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The story has been told of a woman who had acquired wealth and social prominence and decided to have a book written about her genealogy. The well-known author she engaged for the assignment discovered that one of her grandfathers was a murderer who had been electrocuted in Sing Sing. When he said this would have to be included in the book, the woman pleaded that he find a way of saying it that would hide the truth.
When the book appeared, the incident read as follows: “One of her grandfathers occupied the chair of applied electricity in one of America’s best-known institutions. He was very much attached to his position and literally died in the harness.”
Q. Was that a white lie, a bending of the truth – probably both, but more so, it was a deception – a way to deceive people from knowing the truth
- One writer says this about deception…
“Deception is often something that looks good on the outside and makes great promises, but on the inside, you find it is empty—and there is really not much to it.
Most of us at some time or other have bought into an empty deception. We put our money into a machine and pushed a button for a bag of potato chips that, judging from the appearance of the package, looked as if it were full of chips. When the bag comes out and we open it, it turns out to be mainly full of air and contains only a few chips. If we had examined the bag closely before making the purchase, we would have seen it for what it is – a deception.”
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- This is an incredibly hard sermon to preach
- It cuts right across the grain of how western society thinks
- But I would be the liar & the deceiver if I were not true to what the apostle John is saying here
1. The Need To Abide
1. The Need To Abide
- No doubt you have heard the word “disinformation”
- It’s become a catch word against people who disagree with a group’s viewpoint, or group think
- Unfortunately, the practise of the day is to shut down anyone who disagrees
- That is bad practise – the answer to disinformation is never burning books or shutting down speech – but more information – that’s the answer
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- Silencing critics has never been the endeavour of true scientific enquiry
- Nor has it been the endeavour of theological enquiry
- You don’t learn best when you are limiting opposition to your ideas
22 Without consultation, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed.
- Whilst it is uncomfortable being challenged by differing viewpoints, it is beneficial to learning
- When I study a passage, I don’t just listen to what conservative commentators say, just because I er on the side of conservatism
- I actually benefit from what liberal commentators say because they can see certain things that I don’t see & it can actually help shape what you think, even though in the end result, you judge them to be wrong
- But we have entered a world where people claim this & that & that the science is settled & you should keep quiet – no dissent allowed
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- The group that has split from the church to follow the early gnostic preachers have this same perspective – we are right & you guys are wrong
- Eternal life is only available if you come over to our viewpoint
- But John speaks truth into their claims
4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
- One can claim all they like, but in the result, the truth is revealed in the life a person lives, either modelled after Christ or modelled after the world
- To abide in Jesus, John says, is to abide in the original, apostolic Gospel that is from the beginning - we could say, the beginning of the Christmas story
2. The Need To Be Pure
2. The Need To Be Pure
- Abiding in Christ is set off here from abiding in the world
- Abiding in the world means abiding in its ways, in its thoughts & in its values
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
- This is the crux of the matter which sets the Christian off apart from the world
- The one who practises righteousness if born of Him (doing right in the sight of Jesus)
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Q. What does practise mean?
- In the Greek, it’s a very complicated word – it means “to do”
- A person fixated on doing righteousness is abiding in Christ & born of Him
- The one who is not about doing righteousness (or is for doing sin) is not abiding in Christ but, in fact, abiding in the world
17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
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- There are people so immersed in the world & its ways that they find it hard to accept into the heart what John says here
- Some people like recognition from the world & don’t like to be looked down upon by the people of the world
- This is pride because we desire a reputation with the world above that of a reputation with God
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- No matter where we are, no matter what sphere of work we below to, we live the life of Jesus – we must abide in Him – or else as Jesus said to His disciples, “apart from Me, you can do nothing”
28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
- Shame bears this definition in Microsoft’s dictionary:
“a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour”.
- When Jesus returns, we don’t want to be caught out living the way the world wants us to live
- The world lives contrary to Jesus, so to live as the world lives, means to live in a way different from Jesus
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
- Because of what we will be (not yet are) we purify ourselves (just as He is pure)
- This means that in the end, we will be like Jesus, therefore, our purpose now is to be like Jesus because we will be like Him & see Him for as He really is
- We will see Him as pure – that’s the motive for desiring purity ourselves
- Purity goes to the level of every sort of right behaviour including love one to another
William M. Dyke was a young man who became blind at the young age of ten. Despite this handicap, he grew to be a very intelligent, witty and handsome young man.
While attending graduate school in England, William met the daughter of an English admiral. The two soon became engaged. Though never having seen her, William loved her very much.
Shortly before the wedding, at the insistence of the admiral, William submitted to special treatment for his loss of sight. Hoping against hope, William wanted the gauze from his eyes removed during the ceremony. He wanted the first thing he saw to be his wife’s face.
As the bride came down the aisle, William’s father started unwinding the gauze from around his head and eyes—still not knowing if the operation would be a success. With the unwrapping of the last circumference, William looked into the face of his new bride for the first time. “You are more beautiful than I ever imagined,” he said.
- Like that young groom, though we have never seen Jesus, it will be worth the years of waiting to “see Him just as He is.
3. Jesus Came To Take Away Sins
3. Jesus Came To Take Away Sins
- Furthermore, John’s insistence that we become like Jesus in pursuing righteousness, is totally in line with the purpose of Jesus coming
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
- The purpose for Christ coming is made clear here & also here
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
- The maths should add up if we are willing to see
Q. If Jesus’ purpose in coming is to take away sin & to destroy the work of the chief sinner, the devil, then how can a follower of Jesus, in good conscience, practise or do sin?
- It’s incompatible with His purpose for coming the 1st time & it’s incompatible with His life that we will see at His second coming
- This is why John says…
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
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- Now a little context here
- The splinter groups that have become cults are teaching that all you have to do is have this special secretive knowledge that is exclusive to the cult & you are sinless – almost like waving a magic wand
Q. You know why they thought that?
- Because they figure, that they are now in the upper storey of Plato’s dualism & are untouched by the things of matter – matter didn’t matter
- So no sin now that Christ has transferred them into the upper realm
- It engendered in these “initiates” of this new religion - false as it is - a sense of pride which excluded love and a sense of sin
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- But to believe this ignores the fact that God made the world of matter & what you do in the world matters to God
- John has to say that these people are living a delusional life
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
- What happens in physical life is important
- Sin still occurs & ignoring it by believing you have been translated into a higher realm of spirituality is just crazy
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- But sin has been dealt with by Jesus Christ – He came in order to take away sin
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
4. The Reality of Deception
4. The Reality of Deception
- The MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S dictionary gives deception this meaning:
“the act of making someone believe something that is not true”
- Or we could say, “the act of making someone believe a lie”
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
- Now when an apostle says, “make sure no one deceives you”, it is a signal for us to pay special attention
- Someone could wilfully deceive & someone could innocently deceive
- But either case should be a matter of concern because whether deliberately done or innocently done, the end result is the same
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- It shouldn’t be a secret to any Christian that the goal of the Christian life is be like Jesus – we call it Christlikeness
- Many of you know that I have criticised the slogan, “Once saved, always saved” & I have lost people’s favour because I have said such things
- But in all good conscience, how can a faithful preacher of the Lord (lay person or otherwise) honestly preach this passage of Scripture & say that you can be saved even though you live a godless life?
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- The people who believe in a “once saved always saved” approach draw their slogan from God electing Christians to salvation
- From one perspective, you can be confident that if you are born of God, then you can expect to be saved
- But the ledger is not one sided & the Scriptures indicate, as this passage does, that we should strive to be like Jesus & if we aren’t then we are being deceived into believing everything will be ok when it won’t be
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Q. Well, what can you say to that?
- John is correct to say these things because when God gets hold of a person, then that person’s life is set in a particular direction
- That direction is to please God over yourself & any others
- To continue to practise or do sin by resting on a lie, proves that a person is not born of God
- These are hard words, but if they are untrue, please tell me, then, what John is saying
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- Being born of God brings with it an assurance that God will not forsake the believer
- He will not allow you to practise sin & get away with it
- In other words, you will be troubled, convicted – to the point of surrender to God’s will
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- Remember, John is not talking here about perfection – that will come at Jesus’ return
- He has already said that the person who claims to have no sin is a liar
Q. How can he say in the one breath that one born of God can’t practise sin, yet in another breath say that every person does sin & that you are a liar if you claim that you don’t
- It’s actually not contradictory if you understand his point
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- It has a lot to do with direction – which way a person is heading
- Either toward righteousness, or away from it
- Either abiding in Christ or abiding in the world
- These groups that have left the church are no longer abiding in Christ because they chose to follow the world & its ways
- They had given up the authority of God’s word for the authority of the world
- They exchanged listening to God for listening to the world
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Q. What is the world?
- It can be the world of people: men & women; it can relate to the world as our place of habitation
- But here, the apostle is referring to the world as…
The world system - the people constituting the world whose values, beliefs, and morals are in distinction and rebellion to God's.
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
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- To wrap up this morning – what’s the important take away from today?
- The takeaway is that you not be deceived
- The original apostolic Gospel can never be superseded or outdone
- The only safe place for eternal life is by abiding in the truth of Jesus
- It becomes obvious or evident who the children of God are as distinct from the children of the devil
- The difference between children of God & children of the devil is that the former abide in Christ, where the latter, have moved away from the original Gospel & become worldly minded
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- The evidence of their departure is 3 fold - I mentioned this in a previous sermon
1. Doctrinally - They have listened to the world through Plato & his dualistic view & see Jesus merely as a man & NOT as God incarnate – God in the flesh
2. Morally – Plato’s dualism has influenced them to think that the lower realm of matter doesn’t matter & only the spiritual counts – it has forced them into ignoring the realities of sin & the values of God’s material universe
3. Relationally – The things you do in the body count, especially, the command to love one another.
- We have touched on this & will touch on it again when I deal with the next passage
- John is transitioning to this in the last verse of today’s passage
10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.