Life Inside Out

This morning, we are going to talk a lot about sin.

And often when it comes to seeing sin in our lives,

it prompts us to wonder, how can I be sure

that I'm saved. Well, what I want to do today

is to give us confidence in our salvation. I want

to give us confidence that the Holy Spirit is at

work in your heart. I want to give you confidence

that though sin may disrail you, it doesn't disqualify you.

Today we are going to be looking at how we

can be assured we have eternal life when we have

a right relationship with sin. Now you might be saying, I,

I don't think we're supposed to have a right relationship

with sin. Well, don't worry. That is something that we

will be getting to. We can be assured that we

have eternal life when we have a right relationship with sin.

And we'll see that this right relationship isn't it's not

independent of our hearts, but it actually comes out of

a changed heart, which is why I named the sermon

life inside Out. Now just to recap last week in

case you weren't here, this is part two of a

three week mini series, and so I will not cover

every verse in first John I'm just gonna pick up

a couple big themes in these three weeks. There will

be plenty that we don't actually get to this morning,

and that will be okay. But I want us to

focus in on what John says in One John five thirteen.

He says, I write these things to you who believe

in the name of the Son of God, that you

may know that you have eternal life. That is why

John wrote this letter to this church, and that is

what I want us to have in the back of

our minds as we think about what we're about to

hear him write one last note. John writes symphonically, right,

So this means he doesn't write linearly. He will even

though we're gonna read a passage this morning, we're gonna

be there, but we're also gonna be in a different place.

And then another point, we're gonna be in a different

place because John he just kind of does that. And

so please turn to First John three four to ten.

First John three four to ten. This will be a

good representative symphonic passage for us to be in this morning.

Here we will see John actually make the same argument twice.

He'll do it once in verses four to seven, and

then he'll do it again, say almost the same thing

in verses eight to ten. So instead of me preaching

an eight point sermon, Oh you guys, eyes, you all

looked up. You're like, what did he say an eight

point sermon? Don't worry, I got you. I'm gonna just

repeat the same thing. It's gonna be a four. Okay,

So it's four points. As he kind of parallels each passage,

We're gonna look at four big relationships with sin. Number one,

sin and man, number two sin and Jesus number three,

sin and the Christian life, and number four will see

sin and practicing righteousness. Would you please stand with me

as we read first John three four to ten. John

says in verse four, everyone who makes a practice of

sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that

He appeared in order to take away sins, and in

him there is no sin. No one who abides in

him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning

has either seen him or known him.

Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as He is righteous. 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. 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. 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 a one who does not love his brother. This

is God's word. You may be seated now before we

jump into the text. I know that any time sin

gets brought up, this is a huge deal. We're talking

about sin in the life of a Christian, and typically

when we wrestle with the assurance of our salvation, it's

based on this idea, something like, how can I be

sure I'm saved when I still commit ex sin? Right

when I still do this? How is it even possible

for me to know that I'm saved when this sin

is still.

In my life.

God says a whole lot about our salvation and the

assurance of it.

In fact, John.

Wrote this book so that those who remained in the

church could clearly identify those who were in Christ and

those who were not in Christ. John is seeking to

draw bright lines and make big arrows to clearly mark

the Christians from the false teachers. He doesn't want them

to have to guess or to be unsure about these

important matters. John is writing to a church. He's writing

to a group of Christians, and his attitude toward them

is one of love, of care, and of concern. He's

not concerned that they're not really saved. His concern is

that some of this teaching by the Fall teachers maybe

is starting to make its way into their hearts as

they have tried to sow seeds of doubt. He loves

these brothers, he loves these sisters, and he wants them

to be assured that those who are in Christ have

eternal life. My desire this morning is to do the

same thing. I want to preach this to a group

of Christians that I love, that I care for, that

I have concerned for. I have seen such sweet fruit

in so many of your lives, and so I want

you to have the wonderful gift of biblical assurance based

on what God's Word says. And part of that is

if you feel any conviction during the sermon. As we're

talking through this text, don't wait to act on that.

Sin wants us to just push it down, save that

for later. But repent, turn from your sin, confess it,

share it with.

Your small group.

Right, This will be a vital sign of your life

if you do these things. All right, we'll jump into

point one. Now, we'll jump into point one. Sin and man,

Sin and man. Let me tell you sin is a

death sentence for mankind.

Will be in verses four and eight A.

And we'll start in verse eight where he points to

the origin of the false teachers who he's warning them about.

In verse eight, he says, whoever makes a practice of

sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been

sinning from the beginning. John is not cutting these false

teachers any slack. In fact, he's using the same words

that Jesus used about the false teachers who he was

addressing in his day. John eight forty eight forty four.

He says, this, you are of the father of your father,

the devil, and you and your will is to do

your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning

and does not stand in the truth because there is

no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out

of his own character, for he is a liar and

the father of lies. The devil's character is not just

sometimes bad. He cannot do anything but be a liar

and a deceiver. John points back to Satan in the

garden at the very first interactions we see in the

Bible in Genesis three, when he's talking to Adam and Eve.

And now these false teachers have shown who they really are.

It's so interesting that there's no power of creation in

the devil. He can't create something new. All he can

take is the good things that God has created, and

then just distort it, just change it a little bit.

Like we talked about last week, the false teachers that

John is addressed there.

They didn't come up.

With a whole new story of creation and salvation and God.

They just took what already existed from the Bible, from

John and from the other Bible writers and just distorted it.

Just changed it.

We'll get into some of these distortions as we go,

but John starts with this phrase of practicing sinning in

verse four. We see this, everyone who makes a practice

of sinning also practices lawlessness, sin is lawlessness. As translators

have worked hard to get this phrase from Greek into English.

They're using this phrase practicing to show an ongoing, persistent,

prevailing habit or pattern. And what John is bringing us

face to face with is the reality of what practicing

sinning actually means. Right, We're talking about practice, and John

is making it a black and white that you expose

the false teachers of the ongoing, persistent, prevailing pattern or

habit of sin. This is how John used the word.

And on the false teacher side, there's there's no conviction

of sin. Uh, there's there's no repentance, just a regular,

ongoing pattern of sin in their life. So what do

you make a practice of what marks your life? If

your life was a painting, what's the dominant color?

Is it sin?

Or is it righteousness? Or let's just take my shirt

for an example. Right If I this shirt were in

my closet and I say, hey, if you could you

could really help me out, If can you please run

in my closet and grab the the what colored shirt?

Right? Mate? What? What shirt? What color? Would I say? Maybe? Blue?

Is there another option? Black? Who said red? Okay?

If I say hey, can you go grab the red

shirt out of my closet, and this is the shirt

you grab.

I've got questions. Right, Yes, there.

Is some red on it, right, the OCTOPI are red.

That is true. But if red is not the dominant

color on this shirt, it's black, it's maybe blue, it's

definitely not red. Red is definitely there, but that's not

what is dominating this shirt. What John is not asking

is is there any sin in your life?

That is a different question.

John isn't describing the false teachers by saying, hey, they

have sin in their life, or that they commit sins.

That actually describes everyone here who has a pulse. What

John is saying is that their lives, the lives of

these false teachers, are actually defined by their sin. There's

no remorse, there's no sensitivity to sin. And in fact,

we say we see that they will even deny that

they have any sin in their lives, although their actions.

Will show that they do.

Now, this is a fundamentally different position to who John

was writing to, and I think to who I'm speaking

to today.

John never holds.

Sinless perfectionism up as the way to have assurance of salvation. Right,

that would be a distortion. John is talking about what

are we practicing? What are the patterns of our lives?

Are we practicing righteousness or are we practicing sin? By birth,

every one of the over eight billion people on this planet,

we're born practicing sin.

This is called our sin nature.

And though he doesn't use the phrase here, in other

places in the Bible, we see that we are in

Adam because when Adam first sinned, he listened to the

devil and he disobeyed God. And what he did is

he actually cut himself off from a relationship with God.

He didn't know it at the time, but he had

actually joined Satan's rebellion against God and his law. This sin,

it was more than missing the mark. It was actually

him fighting against God's design and God's commands. In God's

words through John, it was lawlessness. Right, This is what

sin is. And though Adam was created with a sinless nature,

his life was forever changed when he sinned, and not

just his life, but everyone who.

Would come after him.

First Corinthians fifteen twenty two uses the phrase in Adam

all die, and Romans five to twelve explains it this

way sin into the world through one man, and death

through sin, So death spread to all men because all sinned.

So not only are we all well practiced sinners because

we sin, But being in Atom means that our nature

is one of a sinful nature that we have inherited

from Him.

The relationship that our.

Inherited nature has with sin is one of a death

sentence in our hearts, hearts of stone, dead in our sins.

By being in atom, every part of who we are

is corrupted by sin. We have no ability to live

in a way that pleases God, no hope, no way

to go from in atom to in anything else. We

are children of the devil, facing death and judgment. But

as one theologian put in, if the characteristic work of

the devil is to sin, then the characteristic work of

the Son of God is to save, which takes us

to our second point. We have seen where sin and

man gets us. Now we'll move on to this glorious

scene of sin and Jesus. This will be in verses

five and eight. B And I love that first John

hits us with so many different angles of the life

changing truth of the Gospel. Right verse five he says,

you know that he it's Jesus appeared in order to

take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

Then verse eight b the reason the Son of God

again Jesus appeared, was to.

Destroy the works of the devil.

Right point one was a problem sin and man point

two is a solution. Jesus appeared. Jesus came to take

away sin. Jesus appeared. He came to earth to destroy

the works of the devil. Praise God. And John starts

with the phrase, you know, right, and for some of

you you know, you.

Are here and you know the gospel.

This isn't news to you, but it's always good to

be reminded of the truth of who we were, of

who God made us to be, of who God remade

us to be. Truth is truth, no matter how many

times you have heard it. And so what was a

purpose in him coming to earth? Well, these verses say

to take away sin and destroy.

The works of the devil. Now were these his sins

that he hated and that he destroyed? No.

Verse five says in him there is no sin. Not

only was there no sin in him in his actions,

but he also had a different sin nature because he

wasn't born in Adam. He actually had a perfect nature.

There was no sin in his life no corruption, and

he remained perfect and holy.

So whose sins did he come to take away? First?

John one twenty nine.

John the Baptist says, this behold the lamb of God,

who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus came

for a rescue mission. He hates the sin in our lives.

He came to wreck the sin that is inside of us,

every part of us that is corrupted, every part of

us that is marred with sin. He came to free

us from that. And not only that, but also to

take our punishment for sin. He came to even destroy

the record of our past sins.

All of this.

He came to destroy the sin that was in our

lives so that we would not sin anymore. Right, He

came to just burn it all down, each and every

individual sin we can meant taken away, the work of

the devil destroyed. Yes, he's still hard at work, but

his downfall has already happened, and Jesus has already won.

If you are here today and you don't trust in

the work of Jesus Christ and his taking away your sins,

then my question for you is who is going to

take away your sins? You have sins. I think everyone

here can can verify that. Jesus offers to be the

one who removes your sin, your punishment, the record that

is against you, the power of sin in your life.

He's happy to take.

All of that, and in exchange, he'll give you his righteousness,

his perfection. He'll give you eternal life with him. And

if you don't know about that, if you don't know

about how he comes to take our sin, comes to

give us eternal life, please go to the sup one

after the service. We want everyone to know what Jesus

came to do and the life that you can live. Now,

from these verses we've seen sin and man, and sin

and Jesus. And now we'll have kind of the next

step in John's argument, which is sin and the Christian life.

Sin and the Christian life. This is point three. We

will see this in verses six and nine. For the

Christian what is our relationship with sin supposed to be? Now,

I'll just use the word incompatible. There is no compatibility

that John points to with the Christian life and a

life of sin. He just says it is not possible

to have both. In verse six, John says, no one

who abides in him, keeps on sinning. No one who

keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

And then in verse nine he continues on, no one

born of God makes a practice of sinning, for god

seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning

because he has been born of God. John goes back

to this, keeps on sinning, This is practice of sinning.

And his warning to the church is clear.

These false teachers are showing themselves by their their habitual,

continuing unbroken record of sin. From the context, it looks

like maybe they were saying, Hey, I'm so deep in

God's grace, I don't even sin anymore. The problem is

God's word right now. Again, I don't know what I

don't know what they were using. I didn't collect any

of their pamphlets, but I can tell you what they

were doing with their lives. They were sinning, and they

their actions were showing that they had no clue who

God was. That they showed themselves that they were not

truly His at all. Now, many of you just might

be asking, does this mean that Christians must be sinless?

Is that what I'm saying?

Well, good news, John has given us very clear answer.

Earlier in this book, in chapter one, verses eight and ten,

he says, he says this. In verse eight, he says,

if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,

and the truth is not in us. Verse ten, if

we say we have not sinned, we make him a

liar and his word is not in us. The false

teachers were claiming that they had no sin, either in

their lives or in their nature, and John couldn't be

clear in his condemnation of these ideas, both in the

everyday struggle and in our nature. We are sinners and

in desperate need of a savior. So what are Christians

supposed to do with sin?

Well?

Right around these verses as well, on my Way of

It verses Chapter one, verse nine, John says, if we

confess our sins, and that is if we if we

admit to God with genuine contrition and seek his forgiveness

right recognizing that all sin is actually against him. If

we confess our sins, then he is faithful. Right, he

is trustworthy, he will, he will keep his promise, and

he is just, which means he will.

Do what is right.

He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins that

what Jesus has already done on the cross for us,

he will apply that to us, taken the punishment for us,

and he will cleanse us from all on righteousness, all

of our sin no longer on us. We get Jesus's

sinless perfection. He took our sin, we get his righteousness.

And then a couple of verses later, John gives us

this truth, My little children, I'm writing these things to

you so that you may not sin. But if anyone

does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,

the Righteous. John is writing to them that there would

not be a single more sin in anyone's life, that

that Bobby would not create one more sin, that's Scott

would not would not sin just one more time. That

Julie would have no more sin in her life, that

Sarah no more sins. Would that be our prayer when

we wake up every morning? God, would I just would

you help me to hate sin so much that I

would not sin today? But he wants them to know

that even if this is not the case, and we

do sin, we have an advocate. We have someone who

is willing to plead our case, someone who is willing

to speak in our defense, and it's none other than

the one who saved us by his blood, Jesus Christ,

the Righteous. John has so many gracious words for those

who confess that they have sinned. There is no encouragement

to sin, right. He does not excuse it in any way,

shape or form. He pleads with them that they would

not sin, and he reassures them that if they do sin,

that every sin that is confessed is forgiven. So what

are Christians supposed to do with sin? Don't excuse it,

be honest about it, repent and walk in the light.

John lays out that a Christian cannot go on sinning, right.

He's saying that he is not able to sin a

bit ually, that a life defined by sin is incongruous

with the Christian. Your life can't be defined by Jesus

and be defined by sin.

That's not possible.

Persistence in unrepentant habitual life. Defining sin is utterly impossible

for a Christian. And if you are afraid today that

that is what marks your life, that your life is

defined by your sin, please talk to your small group leader,

grab a pastor or a friend, go to the step

one table. Right, We've got these books how can I

be sure I'm saved in this book?

Assured?

Maybe grab two copies, right, grab one for yourself to read,

and maybe you read it with the friends so that

they can help you walk through these questions that you have.

Let's go on to verse nine.

He continues, 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 what does this mean that God seed abides in us?

Why is it a big deal that we have been

born of God? I want you to think back to

John three, where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he says, truly, truly,

I say to you, unless one is born again, he

cannot see the Kingdom of God. When someone is saved,

they go from being dead in their sins to being

a new creation in Christ. This is why we baptize

new believers. There's nothing magical that happens in the water.

The water is not magic. What it's meant to do

is to symbolize that we are united to Christ in

his death and in his resurrection. Right, That's why you

go down into the water and you come out of

the water In sug Corinthians five seventeen. Palm makes this

crystal clear when he says, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold,

the new has come, and we are fundamentally a new creation.

Do you remember when when I said way long ago

that when we are born, we are in atom. Well,

when we get saved, we are no longer in atom.

We are moved to now being in Christ, we are

no longer alienated from God. But we are in Christ.

We are God's child now, and one hundred percent of

his children receive this new nature. You cannot be his

child and not receive this new nature. Think of it

this way.

I love legos.

Legos used to be a nice children's toy.

They used to be just little.

Bricks, and now they are They're getting out of hand, frankly,

with how intricate they are and how expensive they are.

But I digress.

My wife, Liz, the one who I falsely described last week,

she does not have a green thumb, and that is

very true.

She loves orchids, but she just cannot get them to last.

And then a few years ago she showed me this

lego orchid she's like, oh, think about it. It looks

really beautiful. It kind of looks like a real orchid,

and all of the joy of having an orchid, none

of the upkeep right, this will not die, it will

it will remain alive at least it looks like it.

And so if you were to come over to our

house now, you would see a lego orchid that is

always green.

It is beautiful now.

But what if she were to move it into some

direct sunlight. What if she were to start watering it?

Would the lego plant start growing? I need to see

more heads, yes or no? Okay, I'm getting concerned.

No, of course not.

Though it looks alive on the outside, it is made

of plastic. Right, there is nothing that is living about

this lego plant. It will never be real, it will

never grow. Right, at a fundamental level, that lego orchid

is not alive. Hot take in Adam, we are all

born lego orchids. Yes we look fine, right, we look

alive on the outside, but on the inside we're dead.

Right. We have a heart of.

Stone, and we don't even have the materials in order

to be alive. But in Christ we are made new

at the core of who we are are. God replaces

our dead hearts with a heart of flesh. We are

made alive in a way that we can now live

new lives we that we never could before. And this

also means that we can now fight sin in a

way that we never could before. Sin when we were

in at him was everything we did. Our nature and

our actions were continually against God. A friend gave me

permission to share a conversation that we had one day.

He was saying that he was he was wrestling with lust,

and he mentioned that the discouragement that he had over

the fact that he felt like he was wrestling with

it more now that he was saved.

Than before when when he wasn't saved.

Then he made the observation that before he was saved,

there was no struggle, right, there was.

No fighting in him against it.

This was just his life, right, This is this is

how he lived his life. It was persistent, ongoing, prevailing

pattern of sin.

So in that moment he was so discouraged by that struggle.

But we can praise God for our struggle because it

means that we are alive. It means that we have

the Holy Spirit living inside us. It means that the

Holy Spirit is helping convict us of sin. It's helping him,

it's helping us to repent. It's helping us to be

able to actually fight sin in a way that we

never could before.

There's one more thing.

Because of this new relationship, we have no need to

fear that we can sin ourselves out of a relationship

with God. We can never fear that we have done

too much sin for God to save us. We are

secure in Christ. When my daughter's sin against me, does

it hurt absolutely? Does it hurt me personally?

Does it hurt our relationship? Yes? To both.

Are they on the brink of being teenage girls and

so I'm praying for them every day that they would

not do this, Yes, because I fear what might happen

in the future. But would they ever fear that I'm

not gonna.

Be their dad anymore?

Would they ever fear that they could do something that

would actually change our relationship status. No, they shouldn't. My

love for them will never change. And I'm just a

regular human dad. But if the God of the universe

who sent Jesus to die on the cross for your

sins for you to be saved, do you think you're

gonna outsin that you're gonna outsin his grace. You're gonna

sin in such a way that he's gonna say, you

know what, never mind, I only loved him. I only

loved her before she sinned. No, God's word says that

is not true. While we were still sinners, Christ died

for us.

Verse nine.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning.

For God's seed abides in him. He cannot keep on

sinning because he has been born of God. The life

we live now is one that we live from the

inside out. Now that we've been made alive, everything is different.

And this takes us to our last point point four.

Sin and practicing righteousness. Sin and practicing righteousness Verses seven

and ten. John lands a plane on this section in

the most loving and pastoral way.

That he can.

Right he's seeking to make this abundantly clear to the

people he loves. He says, little children, let no one

deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is right now as he right,

as God is righteous.

Now.

John had only talked about the practice of sinning, but

for the first time we see this alternative. For those

who are born of God, we don't practice sin. We

practice righteousness Verse ten. 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 Verse ten is black and white. At the

heart level of every single person, there will be a

family resemblance. Whoever your father is, are you of God

or of the devil? And John says, we will be

able to see who is who based on their lives. Right,

are you practicing sin or are you practicing righteousness?

As one commentator put it.

Righteous character will necessarily show itself in righteous deeds. Now,

for those of us who who wrestle with assurance of

our salvation, what does it look like to practice righteousness? Well,

for us today, practicing righteousness means living in the light.

Right we see this in first John one. We see

in verses five to seven, right that God is light

and in him is no darkness. And then we see this,

if we walk in the light as He is in

the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the

blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Walking in the light means walking in obedience to God's word.

It means when we sin, we repent as soon as

we can to God and to others. It means, in

our struggle, we actually let our brothers and sisters in

on our struggle so that they can help us walk faithfully.

They can help pray for us, they can.

Check in on us, and they can help keep us,

keep us accountable. It means walking in freedom from sin

and recognizing that we are no longer slaves to sin anymore.

It means doing whatever it takes to put sin to death.

Liz and I were going to meet another couple for

a double date a while back. As the other couple

came in, they sat down across from each other, and

the two ladies immediately started talking. After some perfunctory pleasantries

with this other guy, I just said, hey, you know,

last time we talked to you kind of told me

about some sin in your life, and I just wanted

to check in and see how you were.

Doing in that area.

He quickly thanked me and then told me about a

time when he had actually recently fallen into sin in

this area and he was eager to talk about it.

But it wasn't because he was proud of his No,

he hated it, and he wanted to fight it. He

wanted to move forward from it. He wanted to live

in the light. He wanted to grow. So even when

I texted him and said, hey, man, can I kind

of use this the story, he said the most amazing

thing to me, He said, of course, there's no pretense

among forgiven sinners. That's all we are forgiven sinners. Pretense

comes from the same words as pretend. Right, So when

God has offered us forgiveness and cleansing, why.

Would we pretend like we don't need him?

Why would we pretend like we aren't forgiven sinners in

desperate need of Him, in desperate need of His grace?

We sin We need Jesus.

That's literally why we're here gathered together as Christians. So

what are you willing to put to death in your

life to walk in the light? How far are you

willing to go to walk in the light. One of

my favorite quotes from Nate, our dear friend, is this everything,

every sin that is confessed is forgiven. So is there

a sin that maybe you only partially confessed?

Right? You wanted to save face, You knew you had

to say.

Something, and so yeah, just I'll confess this little part

of the sin, but I'm going to hold back the

kind of really ugly part because then people will know

that I'm a sinner. Do you guys hear the craziness

in what that sounds like. No, there is no pretense

among forgiven sinners. Finally, what is the right relationship with

sin right now? For Christians? We hate it, we fight it,

we never live at peace with it again, and we

might become discouraged by the fight in the moment, but

that fight shows us that we are in Christ. That

fight shows us that we are alive.