Please remain standing for the reading of God's Word from 1 John 3, verses 1 through 10, 1 John 3, and you can find that in your Bibles or on the projector. Let's hear God's Word now. 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. 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. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin, whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. 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. 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. This is God's word. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this passage, a passage of warning but also of comfort and encouragement. We pray that you would open our eyes to understand your word and that you would use your word in all of our lives in the way that you wish to do. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. For those who are new to our church, you might find it a little bit confusing sometimes if you see a child off by themselves to know what family is that child part of? Who are his or her parents? What family do they belong to? Or even if you have been here for a while, you might also find it confusing. We're blessed to have many, many young children, which is a wonderful blessing from the Lord. So imagine that you, or maybe you have had this situation where there is a child and you see a child that's crying, maybe after the service, and you're trying to figure out if they've been hurt or, well, they have been hurt, but trying to figure out how do I know whose child this is? Well, in order to do that, you would have to know You're trying to figure out who the parents were. So you might ask the child their name, but if they're crying, they might not be in a place to tell you. You might be able to look and tell maybe from the resemblance, maybe. But the main thing is you have to figure out what this child's identity is, what family he belongs to or she, who are their parents. This passage in 1 John is explaining to us how we can tell identity, how we can tell what family a child belongs to. But it's talking about the spiritual realm. It's talking about how to figure out who someone's spiritual father is. There are only two families in this spiritual realm. There is God's family and there is Satan's family. And this passage is explaining how we tell the difference. How do we know if someone really is a child of God? What are the marks, the evidences? How do we know which, how would you know what family you would belong to? Well, that question is explained in this passage. This is written, these words were written by the Apostle John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the whole epistle of 1 John has the purpose of it is to assure believers, those who are in Christ, of their salvation, that they would know that. 1 John 5 explains the reason. The Apostle John is, one of the wonderful things about his writings is he's very clear about why he's writing, what his purpose is. So in 1 John 5, verse 13, he gives the purpose of the book, and he says this. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. And John in this passage is giving signs, marks, tests that distinguish those who are truly children of God from those who are not. The reason John is doing that is because when he was writing this letter, it was important to distinguish. There were people who were teaching false doctrine. They were denying that Jesus had truly become incarnate, had truly become man, had come in the flesh. These people thought that had a false view that said that the soul or the spirit is good, but the body is bad. And so to them, they couldn't believe that Jesus would actually become man, would take a human body. But John is emphasizing that that is a critically important doctrine. But these false brethren were also saying that it was not necessary to keep God's commandments. And they were also not showing love to the other members of the body. And some of them, John writes, had gone out from them, which showed that they were never truly part of them. He puts it this way. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were really of us. Scripture teaches, when we think of the church, that there is a sense in which it is visible and invisible. And in the sense the church is visible, that refers to what we can see, those who are professing faith in Christ and their children. But the church invisible is those within that larger circle who have been truly born again of God, and that's something that God knows. But what John is saying here is that people went out from the visible church, and that showed they were never part of the invisible church. They were never truly elect or regenerate. Now, the verses that I began chapter three with was where John is marveling that God has adopted us to be his children. And then he explains what that means, that the children of God will look like their heavenly father. And that's what he goes on to explain in this passage. So with that as a background, John explains distinguishing marks of the children of God And this is, he sums it up pretty simply. In verses seven and nine, he looks at and he says, God's children practice righteousness, but the Satan's children practice sin. And that word practice is very important. And I'll explain that in a little bit. So first, John is saying God's children practice righteousness. Verse seven says, little children, let no one deceive you. That term, little children, it's a term of affection and endearment. John is writing to the saints in wherever he wrote 1 John 2, we don't really know for sure, but he's writing to them as his beloved children, his spiritual children. And he doesn't want them to be deceived. Many of us are blessed to have little children, and we don't want them to be deceived either. Imagine that you had one of your children, or just even if you saw a child that was too young to be doing this, but they were playing with matches and they were Well, they were playing with matches and they were too young to do that. Well, that would be a dangerous situation. They might burn themselves or start a fire. And so what you would do is you would have to intervene and you would have to warn them. And so what John is doing in this passage, that's why he's saying, don't be deceived. He wants to warn so that the saints, those he's writing to would not be deceived. He's doing it out of love. And it's important that we not be deceived. We can be deceived spiritually, and that can harm our souls. In verse seven, John says, he who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. What is righteousness? Righteousness means what's in conformity, what's in accord with God's word, specifically God's law. And so a righteous one is one who keeps God's commandments. And God's commandments are summed up in, found all throughout scripture, summed up in the two great commandments that God gave. You shall love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And those commandments in turn sum up the 10 commandments that God revealed, and those, the 10 commandments in turn sum up the whole moral law. So a righteous person is one who is in conformity with God's moral law. But that creates a problem, doesn't it? Because the Bible also says that it is impossible for any of us, because of our sinful nature, to perfectly keep God's commandments, to be righteous because of the things we do. In fact, Romans says, there is none righteous, not one, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one can become righteous simply by doing good works. But then, so how is it possible, though, that John can say that God's children are righteous? Well, this truth is explained more clearly in other passages of scripture, but I'll just explain it briefly now. John actually gives a hint about it in verse 7 when he says, he, that is, talking about Jesus, is righteous. Jesus is the righteous one who kept God's law perfectly, who never sinned, And he graciously imputes, we heard in the Heidelberg Catechism, his righteousness to us. That imputes just means legally reckons it so that it becomes our own, that we are legally, in fact, God legally declares us righteous. It's like Christ gives us his perfect robe of righteousness to cover us. So we are declared righteous in justification. That's how we're righteous. But in addition to that, everyone who God declares righteous, he also makes righteous. Now that doesn't happen instantaneously. It's a gradual process. But he not only imputes righteousness, but he also imparts righteousness. He gives us, makes us alive, adopts us into his family, gives us the spirit to sanctify us and to make us, our lives, more and more characterized by that righteousness, by keeping God's commandments, not perfectly, but truly. And in fact, John will explain this in this passage. He gives, in fact, three reasons why God's children practice righteousness. and don't sin. First, it's because they've been regenerated. He says in verse nine, they've been born of God. That word regeneration just means being born again or born from above, and that's a work that God does to make alive those who are dead in their sins, who were dead in their sins. Ezekiel 6 gives a picture of what this looks like, and it says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. God's children also practice righteousness because of being adopted. That's what John's explained earlier. But God's children, God not only declares us righteous and regenerates us, but adopts us into his family so that we actually become the children of God. And God's children look like, we look like our heavenly father. And that's an amazing blessing. If God had only forgiven us of our sins, but had just left us as only servants, that would still be an amazing grace. But God's actually adopted us as his own sons and daughters. And then there's a third reason, and that's because of sanctification. The third reason why God's children practice righteousness. Because God puts his spirit within us, to cause us, to make us more and more holy like he is holy. Actually, we are definitively sanctified in one sense. We are made holy in one sense at the time of when we are regenerated, but then that sanctification, there's also a progressive aspect where it's worked into our lives. Now, John will explain this a little bit when he says that those who have been born of God have God's seed abiding in them. And there is a lot of debate about what that means, but I think the best way to understand this is that God's seed is referring to the Holy Spirit. When God generates us, he puts his spirit within us, and his spirit is who sanctifies us. So it's because God's seed abides in us, and he is the one who works in our lives to make us, conform us to the image of Christ so that we look more and more like him. He's the one who produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and truth, that's produced by the Spirit in our lives. One key thing to understand about all these things is that they all tie inseparably together. Regeneration, adoption, sanctification, they're part of a golden chain and you can't break one link out of it. The chain's unbreakable. So regeneration always leads to sanctification. John says this in verse nine, whoever has been born of God, in the past tense, does not sin, in the present tense. Whoever has been born of God practices righteousness. It is those who have been born of God in the past that do not presently practice sin, but rather they practice righteousness. You do not become God's child by practicing righteousness, but rather you practice righteousness because you have become God's child. And that is the identity. and everyone whom God has regenerated will practice righteousness. J.C. Ryle put it this way, where there is no holy life, there has been no holy birth. And the reverse of that is true. We could turn that around and say where there is a holy life, there has been a holy birth. And that's John's point in this passage. But what does it mean in verse nine when it says these words, 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. Is John teaching, is the Bible teaching that Christians in this life don't sin, that is they never sin, that is they're sinless and perfect? That is not what he is teaching. How do we know that? By comparing scripture with scripture. Of course, the Bible never contradicts itself, and John earlier in this very book made it very clear that Christians do continue to sin. In 1 John 1 he wrote this, he said, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins." So John is explaining that, in fact, We continue to sin and we need to confess our sins and we need Jesus continually to be our advocate and our propitiation. So he's not saying that Christians are sinless. So what is he saying? Well, in the Greek grammar here, these words are in the present tense, and not to get into too much depth on that, but they can be referring to continuous or habitual action. And so, I think that the English Standard Version actually translates this passage a little bit more clearly, and it's a very legitimate way to translate it. And so, I'll read how it translates verse nine. "'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.'" So no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. He cannot keep on sinning. That is, what John is saying is that Christians do not habitually practice sin, that that is not the mark or characteristic of their lives. It's not their lifestyle, but rather their life is characterized by righteousness, by keeping God's commandments. This was important because, and is important, because there have been all throughout all throughout history, and including in John's day and our own day, people who have said that it is not necessary to practice righteousness, that now that we have been justified, there's no place for God's law anymore. But John is making clear that that is not the case, that in fact, God's law is a blessing, that it is given to us to guide us into how we are to obey God and please him. And so what John is saying is that those who are born of God are characterized by practicing habitually, practicing righteousness, not perfectly, but truly, sincerely. So brothers and sisters, this passage is a passage both of great warning and of great comfort. Because if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. that God has adopted us who were lost and dead in sins and made us his children and given us his spirit so that we are no longer the slaves of the devil or his children, but we have been born again and have a new life and have the Holy Spirit, the seed that produces that fruit in our lives so that we don't look like the devil, but we look like our heavenly Father. And that is such a privilege. so be encouraged. But if this is convicting, and if also be warned that those who are of the devil do not resemble the children of God, that if you are a child of God, you will practice righteousness to some degree, because God not only comforts but also warns. So the question is, who do you look like? But that's also a question that we need, most of all, to ask the Lord that. And also, to ask others, who do we look like? But what this passage is teaching, most is teaching, is that God's children practice righteousness. But the second thing is that Satan's children are the ones who practice sin. And again, the practice is key. We see that Satan's children practice sin in verses 8 and 10. What is sin? Well, in verse 4 of this passage, John defined it. He said it's lawlessness. And it's not only doing what God forbids, but also not doing what he commands. James 4 said, To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. And it's on that basis that our Westminster Shorter Catechism has a very short, succinct definition of sin, and it says that sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. The word for lawlessness refers not only to breaking God's law, but to having a lawless and a rebellious attitude toward God and his authority. It's like having an attitude toward God of saying, no one can tell me what to do. And that's an attitude that the devil himself exemplified. John says in verse eight that the devil has sinned from the beginning. that he was proud and rebelled against God and His authority. And then after that, he tempted our first parents to doubt, to question God's word and God's authority and God's goodness in the garden. And because of the sin of our first parents, they fell into sin, and that's why we too are sinners. But what John says here, what makes clear, is that that attitude of lawlessness, of rebellion, is what characterizes those who are of the devil, and they're characterized by the practice of sin, meaning the habitual, that's their lifestyle, that's the way of life. In John 8, Jesus, in fact, told people who claimed to be the children of Abraham and that they were actually the children of Satan because of the way they were living, the way they were interacting with him. The devil's children do his deeds and their lives are characterized by that, so they look like him. And in verse 10, John gives two tests that would distinguish God's children from the devil's children, that he says, he says, these are marks and characteristics, though we can't infallibly know ourselves, they are tests that do distinguish. The first is about practicing righteousness. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. And we've already explained a bit what that means. But Jesus gave a warning in Matthew 7, and he said that not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, would enter the kingdom of heaven. There were people who would do many good things, but their life would be characterized by practicing lawlessness. And he said, and in fact he warned, he would say someday to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So it's possible to do many good things, to do many good deeds, and yet practice lawlessness. And if that is the mark, the characteristic of life, then that is an indication that someone is not truly the child of God. James 2 reminds us that it is not enough to say we have faith, but that faith is demonstrated by a life of good works. And that if it is not, then it is not a true faith, but a dead faith. But then the second test John gives is about loving his brother, whether we love our brothers. This refers to the brothers and sisters in Christ. God adopts us into His family, and His family or household, which is the church. And so how we treat those in the church, the brothers and sisters, that shows, that is an indication that is a mark of God's children, and a mark of God's children is that they love one another. They love their brothers and sisters. 1 John 5 says, And what does that mean to love? Well, the Bible explains that in a number of places, but probably one of the clearest places that really explains love and some of the ways it shows itself is in 1 Corinthians 13. There the Apostle Paul writes this, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails. But what John says is that those who are not God's children. Don't have that love. None of us have exempt—all of this is convicting for all of us, that we would all want to be more and more like having that perfect love that God has. But what this is saying is if that is something that we don't have at all, we don't have to any degree, that rather when we think of others that our lives are marked more by hatred and we lack this love, that that is a warning sign, but on the other hand, it is a great comfort and a great hope when we have this kind of love that the Holy Spirit really works into our lives, that he pours love into our hearts and our lives. John goes on to say in verse eight, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. In verse five, he said he was manifested to take away our sins. And that word manifested or revealed or appeared is talking about his first coming, his incarnation, when he came. And why did he come? Well, he came to take away our sins, and he did that by his death on the cross as a substitute. But he also came to destroy the works of the devil. And he also did that through his death and resurrection. Hebrews says that through death he would render him powerless, destroy the one who had the power of death, render him powerless, referring to the devil, and set free those who fear of death were subject to bondage. So if Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, what John is saying here is, if that is the case, then he is saying, One of the marks of those who are God's children is that the works of the devil are being destroyed in their lives, that their lives are not marked, characterized by the works of the devil. Not that there aren't works of the devil still remaining, but that they are being destroyed, that God is sanctifying those who are his. And that was even part of the very purpose for which Christ came. In fact, we're reminded in Ephesians that we have been predestined, chosen to be holy and blameless. And so, the question is, what family do we belong to? Whose child are we? Whose child are you? There are only two families. And so, the question is, what is true of these marks? because there is a warning here that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. But there is also hope, because even for those who are not children of God, there is a way to become a child of God, and that is through turning away from unsin and believing in Christ, entrusting to what he did, running and fleeing to him for mercy, receiving and resting on him for salvation. For those who are part of his family, there is an encouragement here to press on, to persevere in sanctification, because it is possible with the Holy Spirit working within us, with the power of God. We can stand strong in the power of his might, in the power of the Lord and his might, and resist the devil. Christ is the one who has won the victory, and he arms us for the fight. and he is the one working in us to destroy the works of the devil in our lives. And so, that is an encouragement, that he who began a good work in you will complete it, and Christ's family, his children, will be victorious. So remember that child at the beginning that was crying, You had to know who he belonged to, whose child he was, how to identify him. We had to know what family he belonged to, who his parents were. And it's even more important than that to know what spiritual family we belong to, who our spiritual father is. And in this passage, John gave us a lot of marks and characteristics and reasons by which we can tell them apart. God's children practice righteousness while the devil's children practice sin. And so that is a question that we all, God calls us all to examine ourselves. but not only to examine ourselves, but to ask the Lord to show us. Because there is a which We really need the Holy Spirit to work that in our lives because it's easy to, there is a danger that one can examine oneself and not see, think we're pretty good more than we should, but there's also the danger that we can be overwhelmed and crushed by the sin remaining in us and doubt our salvation. So we need, We really need to look most of all to Christ and what he did and ask him to do the examination. And also there's value in looking to others who really know us, who know our lives and what we're characterized by. So if you see that your life is characterized by this practice of sinning, then be warned and repent and flee to the Lord for mercy. But if your life is characterized by righteousness, then thank God for that and persevere in that—that that is a sign of the Holy Spirit's work in your life, that you are part of God's family. And so trust him to complete the work he has begun. Be what John has said earlier in this book, that confess your sins and receive Christ's cleansing and forgiveness, and also take hope in the fact that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and he will destroy the works of the devil in your life. So keep looking to him for holiness, and pursuing that and doing that in, out of the hope of, well, the hope of being like God and in the hope, the present reality of being his child. 1 John 3, the first verses that I began with really sum that up. They say that we are the, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. And then they say, beloved, we are the children of God, but 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. That is our great hope. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So look to the Lord for that purity, that holiness, that righteousness that you need, that we all need, and trust Him to keep working that way and looking forward to the day when one day we are pure as He is pure. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this passage, this passage of comfort and warning, and we do pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would use this passage to comfort those who need comfort, and to warn those who need warning, and to encourage those who need encouragement, and to do whatever purpose you have for this passage of Scripture in the lives of your people today, in the lives of those who are here today. We pray that if there are any who are not in Christ who are convicted, that they would flee, that they would run to Christ and believe on him, and that you would save them and make them your children. And we pray for those who are, that they would not be discouraged, that if there's sin convicting of, that they would repent of that, turn from that, and that we all would be continually repenting of our sins and turning to you and believing in you, that we would be hopeful and encouraged, that we would be putting off the old man and putting on the new by the power of your spirit and looking to you. Lord, we praise you for the amazing blessing of being your children and having that amazing hope of being pure as you are pure. We pray, Lord, that you would sanctify us by your spirit and that we would work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing it is you who work in us to will and to work according to your good pleasure. I pray that there are those who are in Christ that look at their sin, that they would not look at it in a way that is discouraging or despairing and despondent, and the Lord Satan would not allow that to happen, but rather that they could be assured and have greater assurance and hope in their salvation, that we all would have that that are in Christ, that we all would have more hope and more assurance and greater holiness. So we pray, Lord, that you would use your word to do all of these things, to do these things in our lives, and to do that we would be built up through your word. We pray and we pray that the mind of Christ our Savior would dwell in us from day to day, that his love and power would control all that we do and say, and that this would all be for your glory and honor. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.