Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Last week we looked at a passage of Scripture and the holiness which comes from the children of God.

I encouraged us to examine our lives for holiness, so that we may be assured that we really are children of God.

This week though we are looking at the same passage as last week but will be unpacking it from another angle.

Since God has broken the power of sin over our lives,

we must seek to rid ourselves of the presence of sin by walking in obedience through the Spirit.

To understand how the power of sin over our lives has been broken, we need to understand the rule of Satan over this world, the once for all breaking of sin, and what is entailed within the old man.

The Power of Sin

“Bondage to Sin”

The Bible has many ways of referring to the power of sin over a person’s life.

One of those ways has been described as the Dominion of Darkness.

The Dominion of Darkness

Now to understand this dominion and it’s origins, you must go back to the beginning.

God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, it was a place of perfection, beauty and righteousness.

When Adam and Eve began to rebel against God, they did so by looking elsewhere for significance, value, and purpose.

In that moment, they not only ate some fruit, they stepped outside of Gods good design.

They looked away from the life giver and the One who created them.

They placed themselves under the rule and authority of the serpent.

We should think about it more as a rebellion against a great king than anything else.

This rebellion led them to a spiritual death.

But it was worse than just a spiritual death, they actually placed themselves under the authority of Satan.

They surrendered their God-given authority over this world to the great deceiver.

This is the status and position of every single person in this world apart from Christ.

Adam and Eve were guilty, and we have joined them in their rebellion since then.

Do you see how different this is than just believing Jesus came to clean us up?

Anyone who believes that becoming a Christian is simply just cleaning your life up, is completely incorrect.

It makes sense then for John to write,

What the Bible portrays is a war.

A war, a battle, which must take place in order for a person to be moved from kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the light.

Example from Jonathan Edwards

The faculty of the will is power of mind that is capable of choosing:

An act of the will is the same as an act of choosing or choice.

Picture with me an alcoholic.

An alcoholic can choose any beverage he would like.

He can choose beer, wine, liquor, or champagne.

But what the alcoholic CANNOT do is choose to NOT drink alcohol.

There is something within him which must begin at the desire level which must change within him.

The Kingdom of Light

This is exactly what John is describing then when he says, in verse 8

This is part of what it means to be delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

It is part of what is meant for John to say that Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil.

He has destroyed the condemnation of Satan over the lives of believers.

This is exactly what Paul has in mind in Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

None!

There is no condemnation any longer.

Paul describes it also this way...

It is this transferring from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light which shows the unbelievers from believers.

Which is why John can say over and again in the letter that everyone who practices sin is not from God.

So how are we to think about this biblically?

Definitive Sanctification

Definitive sanctification is a once-for-all event, simultaneous with effectual calling and regeneration, that transfers us from the sphere of sin to the sphere of God’s holiness, from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God

What Frame is describing here is the once-for-all break with the power of sin over our lives.

This once-for-all event does not happen a second time.

This is a one time event.

Why does it matter?

False View #1

We can call this view the “Sinless Perfection” view.

We have already seen this view debunked in John’s writings when he says that 1 John 1:8 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

But one could easily begin to think from these passages in 1 John 3, that John is advocating a sinless perfection.

But like we saw last week, he is meaning a direction of ones life.

The direction of ones life in a pattern of sin versus a pattern of righteousness.

Since God has broken the power of sin over our lives, we must seek to rid ourselves of the presence of sin by walking in obedience through the Spirit.

False View #2

The second view is called the “Let go and let God”

from a shallow life to a deeper life;

from a fruitless life to a more abundant life;

from being “carnal” to being “spiritual”;

from merely having Jesus as your Savior to making Jesus your Master.

The first is getting “saved,” and the second is getting serious.

The change is dramatic: from a defeated life to a victorious life;

They believed that the first category was Free from sin’s penalty but NOT Free from sin’s power.

Spiritual bondage but NOT for Spiritual liberty

Duty-life but NOT for Love-life

Their “testimony” sounds like this: “I was saved when I was eight years old, and I surrendered to Christ when I was seventeen.”

This view posits that there are three categories of people.

1. Natural (unregenerate), 2. Carnal (regenerate but characterized by an unregenerate lifestyle), and 3. spiritual (regenerate and Spirit-filled).

Their testimony sounds like this because they believe the following.

“I use the Holy Spirit (whom God puts at my disposal) to sanctify myself.”

In this view, the Holy Spirit is used like someone would use a hammer.

We are able to use the Holy Spirit whenever we desire to purify ourselves.

If you notice, within this view, the purifying of oneself is all a matter of choice.

We choose when we will get serious.

This view is erroneous for several reasons…

The Old Man

“Life in the Flesh”

Now Paul talked about this dynamic in the language of Old vs. New man.

Now that word for natural man has also been translated in other places..

Notice that Paul is not trying to set up a second class of Christian.

He is saying that those who do not have the Spirit cannot receive the things of the Spirit.

He is not trying to set up a third category, rather he is saying that believers may temporarily live in a fleshly way.

But believers by definition live in a righteous way.

There is no such thing as a “carnal Christian” who never bears fruit for his entire life.

Implication

And again, the fruit of a Christian is NOT he never sins.

The mark of a Christian is what he does in response to his sin.

The mark of a Christian is his response to sin in his life.

So if you’re discouraged of fighting sin in your life, be encouraged that you hate your sin.

The Presence of Sin

“The Freedom of the Will”

John is saying here that the person who has had the power of sin broken over his life is free from sin.