Practice makes Righteous (1 John 3:4-10)- Mr. Dalton Vetter

This morning, we will be taking a small break

from Ecclesiastes, and we will be in the book

of 1 John, and we'll be in chapter three, 1 John

chapter three. Now, I know 1 John might seem...

to be unfit to parallel Ecclesiastes or to go

alongside Ecclesiastes, but it actually fits

with Ecclesiastes very well, because 1 John,

like Ecclesiastes, tries to encourage believers

to believe in their faith, but it also strives

to help believers in how they ought to live.

And so it will be in 1 John chapter 3, but before

1 John 3 · chapter mention

I read here, we need the Lord's help in this

to understand how we are to live according to

his word. So let me pray. Our father, you are

holy and you are righteous. You are all powerful.

You are the king of kings and lord of lords.

Lord, you have given to us a great salvation

in your son, who through his blood, we can be

forgiven of our sins, but also receive your righteousness,

to receive your holiness through him. And we

thank you for your Holy Spirit that helps us

day by day to grow closer to you, to understand

who you are and how we are to walk according

to your word. Lord, we pray for your help this

morning to help us understand everything that

you have hidden in your word so that we can live

by it. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.

If you're anything like me, you grew up, playing

different sports. You maybe started with soccer

and developed a discipline for running. But it

was too much running, so you decided to change

the tempo and play baseball. But then baseball,

as a young boy, was a little too slow paced.

You got put in the outfield, and when you're

a little kid, balls don't get hit to the outfield,

so you stood there most of the time. So you asked

your parents to play a different sport, and they

moved you to basketball because that's what the

church offered. And you enjoyed basketball, but

then by middle school, everyone got their growth

spurt, but you did not get yours. And so you

didn't know what to turn to next. Well, you did,

but your parents said, maybe not yet. You're

not quite old enough. But they eventually gave

in and let you play football. And so in the eighth

grade, you got to enter football, having these

disciplines from other sports of running and

push -ups and what to do with your arms and knowing

that they're attached to your body. But you didn't

have the disciplines of a football player, the

characteristics of a football player. You didn't

know how to tackle or... where the ball is meant

to be on the field at what times. On kickoff,

you don't really know whether you tackle the

guy or you just let him run by you. You don't

really know what's going on. You don't have those

characteristics. So you spend time and you practice

and you develop until you have those characteristics.

And then you're a football player because you

can tackle. You know where you're meant to be

on the field and where other people are meant

to be. Or maybe sports was never really your

thing, but you wanted to be a baker or a chef

or a barbecue pit master. And so you learned

how to bake cakes or cook lasagna or grill a

full rack of ribs. So you could be like those

things. Or maybe neither of those, sports or

cooking, were not your hobbies, but you loved

music. And so you spent time and you developed

the characteristics of a musician. You learned

how to play guitar or how to play banjo or how

to play the piano or the flute or whatever your

heart desired so that you could be a musician.

Our faith is just like these things. There are

certain characteristics that mark us out as Christians,

just like certain characteristics mark you out

as a baker or as a football player or as a musician.

And so this is what 1 John chapter three talks

about. Let me go ahead and read. And I'm going

to begin in verse one, even though the sermon

will focus on verses four through 10, just to

give us a little bit of background. See what

kind of love the father has given to us, that

we should be called children of God. And so we

are. The reason why the world does not know us

is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are

God's children now, and what we will be has not

yet appeared. But we know that when he appears,

we shall be like him, because we shall see him

as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him

purifies himself as he is pure. 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. He cannot keep on sinning because he

has been born of God By this it is evident who

the children of God are and who the children

of the devil 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 So John here in chapter 3 is is really

addressing the climax of the letter He's getting

to the central point of the letter and the beginning

of the letter. He taught believers how to walk

in the love of God and taught them about the

love of God. And then he went from chapter one

and as he got into chapter two, he talked about

the forgiveness we have in Christ and the life

that we have in him. We actually saw that in

our pardoning grace passage already this morning.

And then he taught us about those who walk against

Christ, who are the antichrist. They walk in

opposition to who Christ is. Not just a specific

person, but a type of spirit. that goes against

everything Christ is. And then as we just saw

at the beginning of chapter three, he tells us

to look forward to the return of Christ, the

day when Christ will come and all sin will be

dealt with and we will be transformed when he

comes and we are being transformed as we wait.

And then in this passage here in verses four

through 10, John is going to explain what the

moral implications are and what it means to be

transformed by Christ and how it should look.

And what we'll ultimately learn is those who

belong to Christ will practice righteousness.

Now I want to say that one more time. What we'll

learn is that those who belong to Christ will

practice righteousness. Now we'll look at this

under three headings. But before we can understand

what it means to practice righteousness, to be

disciplined in righteousness, we must first understand

the practice of lawlessness in verses four through

six. Here in verse four, John begins by telling

us, whoever practices sinning also practices

lawlessness. If you have a different translation

from the ESV, like the New King James or the

King James, what you'll read is something that

seems more solid, it omits the word practice

and it just says, whoever commits sin commits

lawlessness. It ties them together, just like

the end of the verse will do. And so to understand

what John is getting at here with children in

the room, we need to define our terms. We need

to remember what sin is because sometimes as

Christians, especially us who are older in the

faith, we get used to just using these blanket

terms and we forget the true definition. And

so we'll begin with the definition of sin, and

I'll borrow it from the shorter catechism. Sin

is any want of conformity unto or the transgression

of the law of God. Now I know that is still a

bit complicated, so let's break it down a little

bit further. Sin is any thought, word, or deed

that either accidentally or willfully, purposely

violates the moral law of God that violates the

Ten Commandments. Any action, any thought, any

word. or deed that goes against the Ten Commandments.

And then we have this word lawlessness. Now if

you take lawlessness and you break it into its

two parts, lawless, you get the idea that there's

the law of God, the moral law that places commandments

on us of how we are to live. And so those who

would be lawless, without, would be people who,

without the gospel, without the law, maybe they

haven't heard it. But what John is going for

here in his letter is actually something more

than that. It's not just this idea of those who

have not heard the gospel or who have never received

the law of God. It's actually a Greek word, enomian.

And enomian is not just a general law breaking

or someone without the law. It's actually talking

about those who willfully go against the law

of God. They know the Ten Commandments. They

know that they are to worship God and God alone.

They know that they are not meant to covet, that

they are to give everything to the Lord, that

they are to love. They're not meant to steal

from their neighbor or lie to their neighbor.

It is those who know these truths, but who refuse

to obey them. They have zero regard for who God

is and His righteousness. They have zero fear

for God, and they choose to live against Him

and against His authority. And so when we bring

this idea together, sin is lawlessness, as John

says here in his letter, we learn that sin is

lawlessness. Anyone who commits sin is actually

in the act of defiance of the law of God. But

this actually seems discouraging because in the

first part of chapter three, and even in chapter

one of John, we're told we're forgiven of sins.

So is John trying to discourage? discourage us

here. No, he's not. He's trying to point out

a truth, and he's trying to warn believers against

those in the church who claim the name of Christ,

but fail to live like it. They know the law,

they know what the word commands, but day by

day they choose to go against it. And John is

really combating here what false teachers, they

were the Gnostics or the dotetics back in that

time. And that group, the Gnostics, what they

were known for is separating the body and the

flesh. So they said on one hand, the human flesh,

our body as it is, is evil and it is corrupt.

And it will always sin. And we cannot really

combat that sin. It will just be evil because

it's flesh. But then there's spirit on the other

hand, the things of God. the things that belong

to a realm outside of this earth. Those are the

things that can be holy. So they would use this

distinction to say we will always send and use

it as an excuse, not just acknowledging that

we will be sinners and saints, that as we go

through this life we must become more like Christ,

we must look more like Christ, but these are

people who put no reins, they put no fence around

their sin, they just allowed it to roam freely

and do what it pleases. saying the day will come.

And we do see this in our society today, not

necessarily under the title of Gnostic or Dotetic,

but just in general principles. We hear Christians

at times say, well, I'm just going to live how

I want, and I know before I die that God will

forgive me because I'll repent then. I even had

a dear friend that I grew up with from second

grade till college who, he had grown up in the

church. We had even taught Bible lessons together

at our public school in a little club. But as

we got to the end of high school, he began taking

this mindset of, I've had this life, I've tried

to follow the Lord, but I'm struggling to get

a girlfriend. I'm struggling to get a newer car.

I'm struggling to look like the popular kids.

So I'm going to live how I want. I'm going to

listen to the music I want. I'm going to hang

out with the people that I want. Because they

get me popularity, they do something for me.

But then towards the end of my life, or maybe

when I'm a little older, I'll come back to Christ,

and I'll repent, and I'll let those things go,

and I'll start going to church again. And I warned

this friend of mine at the time, you know better

than this. Scripture tells us we must live according

to the word of God. We're not meant to take the

grace of God for granted. Yes, what Paul will

say in Romans 7, believers will wrestle against

sin, but that doesn't mean we give permission

to it, that we make a habit of it. But he did

not listen. I still pray for his repentance to

this day. But we all know people like this, or

we've heard of people like this, or maybe we've

heard it put a little differently. You as Christians,

all you need to do is love people. And not the

type of love that pushes them towards the gospel,

not warning them from hell. but just accepting

them how they are and the lifestyle that they

want to live. It's giving them an excuse of,

well, God calls us to love, so as long as you

love them, the rest of scripture doesn't really

matter. We'll do away with that. And so we hear

of these people today. These people, though,

they're ultimately apostates. They're people

who willfully mock the God that they claim bought

them, the God that they claim salvation for from.

And it goes against the very purpose that Christ

came. Going back to the text, the reason, verse

five, you know that he appeared in order to take

away sins and in him there is no sin. The very

reason that Christ appeared was to do away with

sin. The reason he came down, just like the hymns

we sung this morning, was to purchase us, to

purchase his bride. And it was actually prophesied

all the way back in Isaiah 53 talking about the

suffering servant. He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment

that bought us peace was upon him, and by his

wounds we were healed. Christ took on a true

body, a body of flesh just like ours, and a reasonable

soul, one that knows good and evil, very similar

to ours, so that he could come down to this earth,

be humiliated, Live under the law that is the

ten commandments and keep them in our place because

we as Humans will always sin we will always go

against God and we see that all the way back

in Adam and Eve Adam and Eve were able to choose

whether or not they ate from the tree But they

chose that they chose to listen to the serpent

over the Lord We as humans will always choose

evil, but Christ came in our place to do what

we could not to keep the law perfectly, to worship

God perfectly, to love God and love neighbor

as himself. He did not break one law, and if

he did, he could not be our savior. But we know

that there was no sin in him. He kept the law.

John actually, in his gospel, tells us in John

John 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19, talking about Jesus and Pilate, Pilate

went out again and said to him, him out to you

that you may know that I have found no guilt

in him. Pilate, who was a Roman, he worshipped

a plethora of gods, he knew nothing but sin,

looked upon Jesus and saw his sinlessness. He

saw that there was no guilt in him, there was

no transgression in him. But what we do know

is there is plenty in us. And so Jesus took our

sin on himself, and he became a curse for us.

He was placed upon that cross, and he bore the

full weight of our sin, the full weight of our

lawlessness, our active rebellion against God,

our active fight against God, so that we could

have union with him. John actually uses the word

propitiation. We saw this again in our confession

this morning. And propitiation actually points

back to the Old Testament. and the day of atonement

where a spotless sheep would be brought to the

temple and people would lay their hands on the

sheep. And they're laying on the hands of the

sheep, they would confess their sins. And then

they would let that sheep go and that was the

idea that their sins are being removed from them.

So pulling on that propitiation works off of

this idea that Christ is the perfect sacrifice.

He takes our sin on us, but unlike the lamb on

the day of atonement, he actually gives us his

righteousness. He gives us his good works and

his holiness so that we can live according to

his word and live life that is pleasing to him.

John 15, going back to the gospel to John again,

says that Christ is the true vine and that we

as believers are united to him and we grow out

of him and we should be like him. Now, Christian,

I want to stop and pause and ask you a question.

Do you still meditate on this truth, the truth

of the gospel, that the sinless savior came for

you, that he came to be among the sickness, to

be among the poor and the broken and the needy,

and to live in our place so that we could have

union with him? I know many of you grew up hearing

this truth, hearing this truth of the gospel.

But do you still meditate? Do you take time to

think on it daily? To be still and know that

God is God. Or have you forgotten the gospel?

Have you ceased stopping about it? Do you maybe

on Sundays come and think about your savior,

but then the rest of the time forget about it?

I hope that's not the case. Because the gospel

is our only hope in being free from sin. And

it's our only hope and living righteously. And

so we must be like Christ, verse six. No one

who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who

keeps on sinning has either seen him or known

him. Christ is holy. He is set apart from the

things of this world. He is righteous. He is

morally perfect in every action that he does.

And we must be holy like him. If we wish to abide

and rest in Christ, we must let go of our sin

and cling to the Savior. We cannot rest in the

arms of a spotless Savior if we still wish to

go wallow and rest in the mud with the pigs.

We cannot dirty our Savior, and He is holy so

we must be holy. And if you choose after hearing

the gospel, maybe even partaking of the Lord's

Supper, to return to your sin, it is evident

that you have neither known him, you have no

relationship with him, you have forgotten the

gospel, or maybe you never understood it in the

first place, and you have not seen him, there

is no light in your mind that helps you understand

scripture, that helps you understand the good

things that God is calling you to. Because if

you had seen the light, the darkness that is

in your mind or was in your mind would not be

all that great. The darkness would be replaced

with the majesty of Christ. So do not claim the

name of Christ if you prefer your sin over the

Savior, if you prefer the things of this world,

if you prefer taking time to go to the bar overcoming

the church, or use your free time to scroll on

your phone and go to the places of the internet

that you know you should not be going to. Or

maybe in the actions with your spouse, you choose

to rebuke them harshly. and expect them to be

perfect even though you're not. If you prefer

living that way and living in those things, do

not claim the name of Christ. Now to those who

can confidently name the name of Christ, you

follow after the Savior. John wants to give us

a warning about lawlessness. Now he will do this

in verses seven and eight. He will give us a

warning about lawlessness. And he begins this

section as he does often. in his letters. He

says little children. He does not come alongside

the church as an apostle, someone with great

authority, someone who's building the church,

who's setting up the boundaries that the church

is to work in and how they are to operate. He's

actually coming alongside of them as an elder,

someone who's meant to shepherd the church, watch

out for the church and lead the church like an

apostle, but just to be a shepherd, be like a

father to those in the church. And so he gives

them this warning, little children, do not be

deceived. It's just like a father when they see

their son or their daughter reaching for the

hot stove, knowing that they just shut that stove

off. So they warn their kid, don't touch that

stove. You are going to burn your hand. He comes

alongside them just like this. They are going

to get hurt. And he tells them, do not be deceived.

by people who claim the name of Christ but walk

opposite to it. And so he's going to give three

statements here as part of his warning. He's

first going to say that the righteous will act

like their father. This is the second part of

verse seven. Whoever practices righteousness

is righteous as he is righteous. So whoever walks

according to the word of God, who takes time

to worship God from a pure heart, who make sure

there's no idol standing in their way, who takes

time to love their neighbor, to serve them from

a heart that loves God. Those people are righteous,

just like Christ, just like God, their father.

And righteousness, if you haven't caught up to

it or if you've forgotten the definition to it,

dictionaries will say that righteousness is behavior

that is morally justifiable or right. But God's

righteousness is perfect. It's not just justifiable

or right. It's perfect actions, perfect thoughts,

perfect deeds. It really gets the core of who

God is. Now, are we righteous because we do righteous

things, because we act, talk, and walk a certain

way? No, we're not righteous by our works. This

is not work -based salvation that John is trying

to set forth here or to tell us about. No, we

are to be righteous like our Savior. We are to

be tied to our Savior going back to John 15.

And the true vine, Christ is the true vine. And

every branch that belongs to Him, He will prune.

He will shape. He will cut off that sin and cause

them to walk in the love of God and the walk

of, and then the love of neighbor. He will make

the branches that are in Him more like Him. So

those who are righteous will walk righteously

and we do so because we know Christ and we know

God the Father. But then John in this warning

talks about the lawless. The lawless actually

act like their father. John 15 also tells us

the opposite of those branches who seem to be

a part of the true vine but they have no fruit.

They will be cut off from God. God will reject

them as they have rejected them. They are children

of the devil. This is verse eight. Whoever makes

a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the

devil has been sinning from the beginning. So

the lawless children who claim Christ but walk

opposing are actually children of the devil.

We actually see this in Jesus' interaction with

the Pharisees. The Pharisees tried to push their

man -made laws on Christ to say this is how you

need to live according to our law. but they forgot

the law of God. They forgot the grace of God

and the love of God and the mercy of God. And

these people do it just like their father who

has done it from the beginning. Now, being in

1 John and you hear this word beginning, maybe

you think back to the Gospel of John, where in

the beginning of the Gospel of John, we hear

that the Word was God and the Word was with God

from the beginning. The devil is not from the

beginning like God is from the beginning. The

devil is only from the beginning of creation.

He is a created work. And that's why in scripture,

the first time we see the devil is in Genesis

three, when the serpent comes to tempt Adam and

Eve to eat of the tree. And what he actually

does is he twists the word of God. He asks Eve,

is that really what God said? Did he really say

that you couldn't look at that tree, that you

couldn't eat of that tree? Or was he just trying

to deceive you? The devil, Satan, Lucifer, was

an angel. He knew what God required. He knew

the words of God, but he twisted them to have

others follow him. And this is what false teachers

do or false Christians do when they try to tell

us that we can just live how we want to. It's

a twisting of the law of God. Oh, just love.

Don't worry about the rest. Just love and accept

and be all gracious. Forget about that God will

judge. Forget about that God is righteous and

that we need to be righteous. We must follow

our Savior, otherwise we prove ourselves to be

children of the devil. And we must watch out.

That's what John's warning here is. We must look

and we must examine. Now there are times where

believers will fall into sin and they get stuck

in it for a while. Westminster chapter five,

the confession actually tells us. that sometimes

God will allow Christians, born again believers,

to be overcome by sin so that they can remember

his mercy. So we need to give people grace in

our judgment and we must not be quick to call

them evil or to call them sons of the devil,

but we also need to call a spade a spade. And

so Jesus gives us a hope here though as we deal

with people. Who claimed Christ but walk opposing

to him he gives he ends this warning by a message

of hope in Verse 8 the second part of it He comes

back to the Son of God the reason the Son of

God appeared was to destroy the works of the

devil He goes back to why Christ Christ came.

He is the Son of God one who is united to God

He has no beginning or no end. He is eternal

with the Father and he came to destroy he came

to annihilate He actually fulfilled, he completed

Genesis 315. He came to crush the head of the

serpent, and he did just that. He conquered death,

the greatest work, or the greatest work of the

devil, the work that came upon Adam and Eve.

We hear from Christ himself in the book of Revelation

as John listens to Christ. What he hears in chapter

one is when I saw him, I fell at his feet as

though dead, but he laid his right hand on me,

saying, fear not. I am the first and the last,

the living one. I died and behold, I am alive

forevermore. I have the keys to death in Hades."

So Christ destroyed death. He has the keys to

death, and he destroyed every work that goes

against God. All acts of sexual immorality, all

impurity, all idolatry, that chasing after something

other than God, every hatred that goes against

the love of God, the pure love of God. Every

jealousy or every fit of rage, every selfish

desire and ambition, Christ has destroyed so

that we can be united to him, that there's nothing

standing in our way from being one with God.

As long as we have faith in him. Christ is victorious.

The reformer said, Christ is victor. Christ is

victor. They shortened it by one word, they thought

that was necessary. Use a little Latin in there,

sound like good theologians. That Christ is victor,

he has conquered every unclean thing, every unclean

spirit. Now I know what you're thinking. Well,

what about the fact that there's still sin? Not

just in me, but in the rest of the world. If

Christ has conquered, why is sin still ruling?

Well, God in his providence for a time has allowed

the devil to still have some power on this world.

The devil in Ephesians 2 is called the prince

in power of the air. He's still a prowling lion

that seeks to devour. He has not yet been thrown

into the pit of hell where he will be condemned

and judged once and for all. But the devil is

bound. Even though he's not reached the day of

judgment, we have not reached the day of judgment,

he is bound, he is limited. He was already limited.

We see in the book of Job, we talked about this

this morning in Sunday school with the youth,

that in the book of Job we see that the devil

is already limited. He needs the authority of

God to do anything. But in the New Testament

with Christ conquering, he is even more limited

than before. And so Calvin reflecting on Christ

as victor, talking about unclean spirits, he

says that unclean spirits will combat believers.

They will ambush them, invade their peace. beset

them in combat, and also often wary them, rout

them, terrify them, and sometimes even wound

them, yet they will never vanquish or crush them.

So as we wrestle with sin and in ourselves and

in the world, and as we think of Christ being

victor, we can have confidence that as we wrestle

against sin, and sometimes even habitual sin,

that Christ is victor, and as long as we flee

to him, he will forgive us. Believers are not

crushed by sin. They cannot be crushed by sin

or the devil or in any unclean spirit. And so

they must practice righteousness. This will be

verse nine. No one born of God makes a practice

of sinning. Now, this is the third time that

John is making the statement of making a practice

of sinning and really the fourth time where he's

talking about not sinning. In any time we see

something in scripture, that's mentioned three

times in a row, it's meant for emphasis. It's

an exclamation point of, you need to focus on

this right now. This is the most important part.

If you get nothing out of this letter, no one

born of God makes a practice of sinning. So does

this mean we need to deal with this because he

said this three times? Is John here teaching

a doctrine called perfectionism, which is this

idea that believers in this life in this world

can be made holy. They can get to a point in

their older years as they walk with Christ that

they will not sin. They will not lie. They will

not be harsh with their spouse. They will worship

from a pure heart every single time they come

into worship. That is not what John is teaching

here. That's not what scripture teaches. And

I know this because in 1 John chapter eight,

or yeah, 1 John chapter one, verse eight, John

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

and the truth is not in us. So John says that

if we say we have no sin, the truth is not in

us. And then towards the end of the letter, in

1 John 5, he talks about praying for believers

who battle and wrestle against sin. And then

as I already mentioned, Romans 7, that even the

apostle knew that his sin at times made him do

things that he did not want to do. The apostle,

the one who was meant to lead the church and

establish the church, the one who I know in our

own study, we think of, that's the pinnacle.

If I could just be like the apostle Paul or the

apostle John, I would be good. Even the apostle

wrestled against his sin. So John is not making

a contradiction here, either with himself or

the rest of scripture, but the practice of sinning

actually seen in the ESV translation is the correct

way of interpreting it, of understanding it.

It's a practice. It's an action that you go after.

It's a habit. In the Greek, this is actually

a present active tense. And what that means is

it's happening now and then it's ongoing and

it keeps going. It's just like showing up day

by day to practice football or getting in the

kitchen day after day to learn how to bake or

practicing on your guitar day after day after

day to be a good musician or be a good baker

or be a good sportsman. It's this practice, it's

a habit. So no one born of God, no one who belongs

to God makes a practice of sinning. Now, why

do we not make this practice? Well, we make it,

we do not make this practice because we have

the spirit, the seed of Christ who is living

in us. It's the spirit who dwells and guides

and directs us. We do not by our own will and

our own desires and our own power have to chase

after God. We have to trust in the spirit and

he will cause us to chase after God. He will

cause us to confess our sins and seek forgiveness.

He will stir us up and praying for one another.

He will cause us to meditate on the work of Christ

and he will help us to cease chasing after sin

like a dog chases after a bone. When a dog buries

his bone in the backyard, at some point he will

decide he wants to go back to that bone and he

will dig hole after hole after hole after hole

trying to find this old nasty bone that's half

chewed and it's been in the dirt and the dirt's

not coming off of it and other animals have maybe

gotten to it. That is the chase of sin. But the

chase of righteousness, the one that believers

make, is one where we stop chasing that bone.

and we walk with the spirit. Galatians 5 tells

us, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify

the desires of the flesh. For the desires of

the flesh are against the spirit and the desires

of the spirit are against the flesh. For those

are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing

the things that you want to do. We might want

to sin at times. We might want our own ambitions,

our own pride to go above everyone else, above

everything else. but as we walk in the spirit,

he will help us not to do that. We, as we grow

into the true vine, as we grow with Christ, the

spirit will take away every weed that seeks to

choke us out. And so John brings this to a conclusion

here. And really just what is evident, and what

I've already said, it's evident that those who

belong to Christ will practice righteousness.

He gives us a marker of believers and those who

are against believers, unbelievers, the children

of the devil. 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. Those who are children of God, we

who are children of God, we practice true religion.

James 1 tells us religion, that God our Father

accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look

after orphans and widows in their distress and

to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

We who are believers, we walk in the love of

God and as we learn to love God more and we learn

what his love means, we begin to love others

out of that. That is pure religion. That is what

marks a Christian as a Christian. that marks

a Christ follower as a Christ follower. They

won't be perfect, but when they're not perfect,

they will repent and they will seek forgiveness

and they will seek to make things right with

God and with others. But then those who do not

belong to God, even though they might claim the

name of Christ, if they do not practice true

religion, they are not of God. If they refuse

to praise God, they refuse to love God, to build

habits, to take time and daily to read scripture

and pray and to worship with their family. They're

not Christians, or they at least need a lot of

shepherding. And if you're someone here who's

walking in your sin, loving your sin more than

Christ, you're mocking God. And I want to encourage

you to cease from doing that. Whether you have

once known God and have strayed, Or maybe you

have never known the gospel. Today is the day

of repentance. The day is the day you stop chasing

after that bone of sin. That you stop returning

to the vomit that is sin. And you follow after

Christ. Because Christ has forgiveness for you.

He is the propitiation, the sacrifice. Not for

just us in the room, but for anyone who comes

to believe. Anyone in this world. And if you

ask for his forgiveness, he will forgive you.

Now believers Maybe you're saying I am trying

I'm repenting daily. I'm doing devotions daily.

It just seems like it's not working. I Still

want to return to that side online or when my

wife talks to me. I still just snap something

breaks in my brain I don't know what it is Don't

give up don't stop doing good every time you

talk with your wife or with your husband Seek

to change that interaction. Show them the love

of Christ. Show them the love that the church

shows to Christ. Put up the right parameters

on your phone. Seek repentance. Follow Christ.

Don't grow tired of growing weary. Don't grow

weary of doing good. Never grow tired. Chase

after Christ and Christ will sustain you. He

will give you life and he will forgive you of

every sin. And so we look forward to the day

when there is no more sin, when there is no more

weeping, there are no more tears, there is no

more sickness, and we can be one with Christ.

But until that day, we have hope in Christ that

he will transform us as we look forward to his

return. Let us pray.