Ep 368 | Born of God - Frank Brancato 1-24-21

It's wonderful to be here with all of you today to worship, God

in spirit. And in truth, we appreciate all

that have come to be with us. And as always is the case, I do

consider it a privilege to speak, concerning the word of

God. And I hope we have some things,

that would be both edifying and encouraging to you.

The reason for teaching on this passage in 1st, John chapter 5

John 5 · chapter mention

and verse 18 is because a question came up in a Bible

study of private Bible study that I was having about oh 10

days ago or so. And the question came up about

this verse, what is this verse talking about in first, John

John 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 and verse 18? John says we know that whoever

is born of God does not sin. But he who has been born of God

keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.

So the question came up is this verse actually saying that a

person will ever reach a point in time in their life when they

do not sin at all? In fact, this person.

I was studying with said, you know, the Bible says that

everybody said I thought everybody makes mistakes in the

only one. That's perfect.

Is Jesus, do I need to cut this part out of my Bible?

Is there a contradiction? Action.

The answer to that is no. And we're going to get to the

context of this passage in just a minute.

But first, let's notice the two things that are said to very

important important. Statements of fact about someone

who is born of God and we'll talk about what that means, also

in just a few minutes, but the one that is born of God, two

things does not sin and the wicked one does not touch him.

We're going to get to those in detail in just a few minutes.

But, you know, this passage is sometimes often misunderstood

some people have looked at this passage as to mean that there

comes a time when a person reaches a higher level of

spirituality through sanctification of the Holy

Spirit and actually gets to a point when they do not sin at

all. That is false.

That's not what John was saying here.

But what we want to do is we want to notice some foundational

passages before we get to the context of this passage and

remember this, if we think that there's a contradiction in the

Bible, but When two passages of scripture, it can only mean the

following. It only means that we don't

understand one or both of those passages because the Bible says

that the Bible is not for private interpretation and God

is not the author of confusion, but of Peace.

So, all that being said, notice with me now some foundational

passages regarding things like sin.

And first John, chapter 1 and we want to begin their inverse.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Eight, if we say that, we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and

the truth is not in us. So, here we notice, right off

the bat. If a person says that they have

no sin, they deceive themselves. And the truth is not in us.

What else do we know? Then?

John says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful.

And just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. Enos.

I love verse nine very much. You've heard me preach on this

many times over the years, but let's just notice.

If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves.

The truth is not in us, we are going to sin, then the promise,

if we confess our sins, And that is confess those sins to God.

And by the way, remember this the word confess?

Does it mean admission, does it mean?

Well, I'm caught red-handed. I got to admit it.

Oh, okay. I did, I confess confess here is

the Greek word that literally is translated to say the same.

So when you confess your sins to God, when you sin and you will,

that is confession with Godly sorrow, that his confession with

repentance when you do that. What notice?

What God does, he's faithful. And just to forgive us, our sins

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, right here.

It says, even the contamination of that sin is gone, That's

complete forgiveness. And you know, I might say this

in passing though, Sometimes we have the consequences of our sin

that continue. We're not promised that the

consequences of our sins will be removed.

All were promised is we're going to be forgiven, like they never

happened and even the stain of the contamination of X in God

takes that away too. But it's very important to

remember, though. We have sometimes and often

times the consequences of those sins and they Linger on and you

could plug in, you don't need me to give examples of that.

You can plug in whatever you would like where there are

consequences for our actions. So what do we know so far?

We sin? If we say we don't send the

truth is not in us. We need to confess those sins to

God. He'll forgive us of our sins and

then he says, in verse 10 if we say that we have not sinned, we

make him a liar. And his word is not In US.

Then first John, chapter 2 verse John chapter 2 beginning in

1 John 2 · chapter mention John 2 · chapter mention

verse 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 and he himself is the propitiation for

our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Now by this, we know that we know him if we keep his

Commandments he who says I know him and does not keep his

Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever

keeps his word. Truly, the love of God is

perfected in him by this. Know that we are in him now.

Send happens to every person. What he's saying is this, these

things I write to you that you may not sin.

What's he talking about? What he's saying in context

there? I'm writing these things to you

so that sin is not the direction of your life.

It's kind of like this. Okay, people make mistakes kids

make mistakes. Do you remember when you had

little kids and they're getting ready to go off to school and we

say behave yourself, don't misbehave.

Don't don't do those things that are wrong and they're going to

get you in trouble. Make good choices.

Do we really think for a minute that they're going to make every

decision, right? That they're going to always

behave and not misbehave at all. What we're saying is, don't let

that behavior be the direction of their activity and the

direction of their choices. That's what John is saying.

He says, I'm writing these things to you, so that sin is

not the direction of your life. And then he says, Is.

But if anyone sins, and sometimes this word, if is very

confusing. Sometimes the word if though is

translated since here Scholars, tell us the word if is better

translated as when so I'm writing these things.

So that sin is not the direction of your life.

And when you sinned though, We have an advocate with the

father, Jesus Christ, the righteous and who is Jesus.

He himself is the propitiation for our sins in that.

He paid the fine for us. He paid the price for us.

He went down that lonely road that led to Calvary and died for

the sins of the world. And that's exactly what John

says to. He is the propitiation for our

sins, but not just our sins, all those of throughout the whole

world Jesus died for the sins of the world.

The world. Now, notice this next phrase

here. Now, by this, we know that we

know him, you know, there's two different words here in this

passage and this statement and their different.

This word, no means to know for certain You can know of

assurance, you can know for certain this word.

No means to have a relationship with There's a lot of people

that think they have a relationship with God, but

notice what John says, we know for certain that we have a

relationship with him, only if we keep his Commandments, he who

says I know him and does not keep his Commandments is a liar

and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word.

Truly, the love of God is perfected in him by this.

We know that we are in him. This is a mouthful here.

So notice this in verse 4, he who says I know him and does not

keep his Commandments. Vince is a liar and the truth is

not in him. Want to give you a little

example, okay? There was a brother in Christ

and it's not the only time somebody's ever said this.

When they decided not to follow the lord anymore, not to be a

member of the church, a faithful member of the church and they

quit. I was talking to this fella and

he said, yeah, I know, but I still love God.

I still pray to God, I still have a relationship with God.

Well, not according to this passage, you can't say that you

have a relationship with God and not keep his Commandments.

And if we say that, we know him and don't keep his Commandments

were a liar and the truth is not in him.

Notice the next verse. But whoever keeps his word.

Truly, the love of God is perfected in him.

What I want to know is this is this talking about our love for

God or is it talking about God's love for us?

I think it's both. I think it's both our love for

God. and God's love for us, notice when we keep his word and

we obey him, Our love for God is perfected or it is developed

fully in our obedience. Jesus said, if you love me, keep

my Commandments. You said, if you love me, keep

my words. That's what Jesus says the word

perfected means according to mr. Vine.

To bring to an end by completing or perfecting.

It means fully developed are obedient shows the proof of our

love for God. Now also in secondarily God's

love for us. But first John chapter 5 and

1 John 5 · chapter mention

verse 3, real quick for this is the love of God, that we keep

his Commandments and his Commandments are not burdensome.

So our love for God is made manifest or fully developed or

perfect it in our obedience to him.

That's number one. Number two, secondarily, what

about God's love for us? Well, the Bible says, in John

John 3:16

3:16, very familiar passage for God.

So loved the world that he gave his His only begotten son, that

whoever believes in him, should not perish but have everlasting

life. We know that God loved the

world. When we were in sin.

God loved the world so very much that He sent Jesus to die for

the sins of the world and when it says so loved it doesn't mean

an amount of love. It means that God demonstrated

his love by sending his son. All right.

But God's love for man is only perfected or fully developed

when we obey him and receive the spiritual blessings in Christ

and receive salvation. It's by our obedience.

Our obedience shows our love for God, and it's made manifest, or

fully developed. And our obedience also is a time

when God's love for, man, for us can be fully developed in

receiving, those spiritual blessings.

Now, all right, so what have we learned so far?

What do we know about Sin? We know this for things, we know

that all have sinned We know number two, if we say that we

have not sinned, we deceive ourselves number three.

We only know him or have a relationship with him if we keep

his Commandments. And number four, when we keep

his word, the love of God is perfected or fully developed.

That's our love for God, and God's love for us.

So what about first John chapter 5 and verse 18?

1 John 5 · chapter mention

All that being said, what about first John 5:18, what does it

1 John 5:18

mean? Remember it cannot contradict

other passages of scripture and be true.

So we need to understand what the context is in doing that,

though. We have to go to First John 5

and we have to go to verses 16 and 17 first. if anyone sees his

brother sinning a sin, which does not lead to death, He will

ask and he will give him Life For Those who commit sin, not

leading to death, there is a sin leading to death, and I do not

say that he should pray about. That all unrighteousness is sin

and there is a sin not leading to death.

I don't have time to go into this in great detail.

I'm going to be very brief about this but let's just notice a

couple of things here. What he's saying is there's a

sin that does not lead to death, there is a sin.

That leads to death and all unrighteousness is sin, okay?

So everything is Under the Umbrella of sin, if it's

unrighteousness, it's in, you know what that means?

There's no degrees of sin. Sometimes there's greater

consequences for different sins but there's no degree of sin.

All unrighteousness is sin and sin is equal, okay.

But then he says though, one with these sins, there's a sin

that does not Lead to death and a sin that does lead to death

and we understand what this means.

This is this, there's a sin that does not lead to spiritual death

and there's a sin that does lead to spiritual death Now.

What's the big bad Sin? The sin that leads to death.

Spiritual death. Spiritual separation from God.

Is any sin? He will not repent of and

confess. It is the practice of Habitual

sin without the willingness to repent that leads to spiritual

death. And by the way, we got to get

this because this is the same context as we flow ended Verse

18, the same thing Now a sin that does not lead to death.

Obviously there's we all sin. We all make mistakes and just

because we sin it did not separate us.

We did not lose our relationship with God every night.

We pillar Warheads, we ask God to forgive us of our sins and

cleans that slate, we confess those sins to God with Godly

sorrow and repentance. He even takes away the

contamination of that still have a relationship with him, but

when I go, and I decide to live a life with habitual sin, and I

make that choice, Choice without the willingness to repent that

leads to spiritual death or the separation of me from God in our

relationship. All right. so, Does it mean in

verse 18? What does it mean then?

We know that whoever is born of God.

Does not sin. But he who has been born of God,

God keeps himself. And the wicked one does not

touch him. Our first of all, what does it

mean to be born of God? Born of God is better.

Translated begotten of God. It's the same word that means to

be made alive, okay? So, he who is made alive or

begotten of God does not sin. Hold that thought.

Let's go further. It's also translated as child of

God. Who's that?

Just somebody that's been baptized for the remission of

sins and nothing else. No one that is begotten of God

is a child of God, is a faithful Christian.

The statement of fact in This Promise is for the faithful

Christian only and what he's saying is the faithful

Christian. That is begotten of God Made

Alive by God is not going to practice habitual sin.

That we just talked about in the previous verses and be guilty of

practicing that without the willingness to repent.

That's all that means. Doesn't mean we can't send it

all. Bible says, all unrighteousness

is sin. So if I'm a faithful Christian,

I'm not going to practice habitual sin and have the lack

of desire to repent. When I make it, when I make

those sins in my life, that's all that means.

It means I'm not going to ruin my relationship with God.

But you have to be a faithful Christian.

A person that is a faithful Christian.

Has that promise You know, there's a whole lot.

Said. About the devil.

There's a lot said about the devil.

It's amazing. How many conversations I get in

to with people that talk about the devil.

And the devil having strongholds in life demonic possession.

The devil meeting us in our dreams.

Step that I've really never even thought about yet, people

sometimes today have that in their mind, that that actually

happens. Now remember this is a statement

of fact, there are two facts here that we want to notice and

it's for the faithful child of God.

What happens if I'm a faithful child of God?

I'm not going to be guilty of living my life in the habitual

practice of sin and be stuck in the unhappy circumstance of the

sin, that leads to spiritual death.

What else? But he who has been born of God

that's begotten child of God or faithful Christian keeps himself

and the wicked one does not touch him.

I don't know if a passage can be any clearer than that.

If I'm a faithful child of God. And by the way, not based upon

my own strength, not based upon my own wisdom or anything,

really? But with the Lord's help,

putting my faith and trust in the Lord, and all things, and

putting my life in the hands of the Lord and all things,

trusting him in both Time, and Eternity, you know, it's going

to happen. The wicked one, the horrible

devil is not going to touch me. I didn't say he's not going to

tempt you. I'm saying that the devil does

not have a stronghold in your life that you do not allow.

The Devil is a vanquished foe. And that happened at the cross.

The cross took care of the Whippet on the devil.

The devil was whipped by Jesus At The Cross.

And you know what, he's a vanquished Foe and the Lord was

Victorious and we that are in. Jesus Christ will also be

victorious in the same way. The devil does not have a

stronghold in your life. If you don't allow.

So in closing at first John, 5:18 it teaches us, this, I'll

sum it up and we'll be finished the Christian who sets his mind

to refrain from sin will not be guilty of the habitual practice

of sin without the willingness to repent.

He will set his mind to refrain from sin.

And with the Lord's help will be free from the grasp of the

devil, because Satan has no power over us.

That we do not give him. Those are great promises.

I'll just throw one more passage in James 4:7.

James 4:7

If you're having trouble, if you're struggling submit

yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will

flee from you. He's bound, we could buy them by

the word of God today to great stuff.

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