Josh's Stuff - I John 3:1-10

Good evening. As we continue our study in the Book of I John we come to the start of chapter 3. Before we get into the text lets have some discussion. Has anyone here ever seen a counterfeit bill?

How would you be able to tell if it were counterfeit or not?

Ok how would you tell the difference between a counterfeit Christian and an authentic Child of God?

Well, the United States Treasury Department has a special group of men whose job is to track down counterfeiters. These men need to know a counterfeit bill when they see one. How do they learn to identify fake bills? They are not trained by spending hours examining counterfeit money. Instead, they study the real thing. They become so familiar with authentic bills that they can spot a counterfeit by looking at it or sometimes even by just feeling it.

Our text warns us that there are counterfeit Christians in our world; but instead of listing all of their characteristics, our text describes what a real Christian looks like. I John 3:1-10 shows us what the Trinity has done and is doing in Christians. How government trains agents to recognize counterfeit money is to study the real thing. That’s the same approach that John takes here in 1 John 3. The discussion is about the children of God and about the children of the devil.

Instead of going into a long dissertation on how we might recognize the children of the devil, he tells us how to recognize the children of God.

So let’s look at our text. I John 3:1-10 says,”1”

John addresses two obvious distinctions in chapter 3 of this letter. Tonight we are going to look at the first, and that we need to live a holy life. Then next time we will look at loving others.

Tonight I have 3 reasons to live a holy life. The first one is because the father loves us. Could I get someone to read verses 1-3 again please?

From this we see three stages of our lives. First is what we are. In verses 1-2 it says that we are Children of God. Then we see what we will be. Again in verse 2 it says that we will be like Him (Jesus). Finally we see what we should be, and that is in verse 3 and tells us that we should be Pure (Holy and Godly).

Could I have someone read Romans 2:4?

Here we see that because He loves us, as children of God we need to be more like Him, and be pure and holy seeking repentance.

God loves us and we have been selected by the Father. Selection is on the basis of His love. The Father’s love is amazing to behold, and it is awesome to try to comprehend. God’s love can be described with the 3 U’s.

First, Unbelievable — It’s unbelievable that God should love lost humanity, because there is nothing in lost humanity worthy of love. Read what the Bible says about man. Man is totally, absolutely depraved, there is nothing in man that can please God. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The love of the Father is unbelievable. You know what makes you worth something? It is the fact Jesus loved you enough to die for you.

Second, God’s love is Undeserved. — It’s undeserved because of its unbelievability. Who would think that God would become man and die for the sins of men? Who would think that God would do what men could not do? That is, bring man to salvation, reconciling God to man. We don’t deserve to be Christians, but on the basis of love God chose us.

And thirdly, God’s love is Unearthly. — There is no love on the face of this earth like the love of God for man. It is a heavenly love. It is born from above and bestowed on the elect.

What a privilege it is to be loved as a father loves his own child by the creator of the world. I found this illustration this week about another father’s love. It said,

So the first reason to live a holy life is because the Father loves us. The second reason is because the Son dies for us. Could someone read verses 4-8 again for me?

When we talk about living a holy life we have to get rid of the sin in our life. There were two men in a church, both were strong Christians, and they enjoyed golfing with one another. One day one of the men hit a shot that went really bad. After hitting the shot he let a profanity come form his mouth. Feeling bad he turned to his other Christian friend and said that really isn’t in me. The other golfer turned to him and said, it wouldn’t have come out of you if it weren’t in you.

The truth is that sin is in all of us, whether we are strong Christians or not. So, Jesus came and died for us so that He could take away sin. He wanted to remove the Practice of Sin. As you study the Bible, you find the people that we call Christians. The church age is unique in that the Holy Spirit of God dwells within them. So we have the power to overcome sin. In the King James Version they use the word commit. However, it comes from the Greek word “prasso” and it would be better translated as “practice.” Jesus appeared to take away the practice of sin. We don’t have to practice sin, because the Spirit of God dwells within us.

Verse 7 says, “Do not let anyone lead you astray.” John writes to protect his readers against false teacher, teachings, and practices that we have already looked at. In Old Testament time another thing that really misled many was the practice of Idolatry, having idols.

He also came to rob Satan of Power. Destroy does not mean to annihilate. The word that is translated destroy means to take the power of the devil. Jesus appeared to take away his power. We could talk about the great power of Satan, but the Bible says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” Why should you live a righteous life? Because Jesus was came to remove the practice of sin and to rob Satan of his power. Every Christian sins, but the Christian does not sin consistently as a way of life. He is not a habitual sinner, because Jesus Christ came to remove the practice of sin.

Now we need to live a holy life because the Father loves us, and because the Son died for us. Finally, the third reason is because the Holy Spirit lives in us. Could someone read verses 9-10 for me please?

And then later in chapter 4:13 it says, “We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Man is to live right because in him there is a new nature. The seed that John is talking about is the Word of God. The Bible teaches that just as we have two parents physically we have two parents spiritually — the Word and the Spirit. There are two natures in all of us, the old nature and the new. We might compare these with the physical man, because just as the physical man has needs, the spiritual man has needs. For example:

Food. — The spiritual man has a need for food. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, It is written: man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That is our spiritual food.

I heard once of a man who was an American Indian and had been converted to Christianity. He described the old and the new nature this way, “There’s two dogs that live in me, one’s the old dog, he’s mean and vicious and hard and sinful. Then there’s the new dog, who walks after Christ. They’re constantly fighting to have control of me. Which one wins? The one I feed the most, that’s which one wins.”

These two natures within you, the old nature and the new nature, they’re fighting for dominance, which one’s going to win, the one that you feed the most.

You walk in the world. You walk in circles where they tell the world’s jokes, live by the world’s standard and the world’s rules, that man will win because you’ve fed him, you’ve made him strong, you’ve made him dominant.

You walk in the Spirit. You daily meditate on the Word of God, you feed on God’s Word, you pray, you associate yourself with other believers who talk, not about worldly things but talk about Jesus and the new man will have dominance because you’ve fed him, you’ve made him strong.

Next is Cleansing. The physical body must be cleansed. The inner man needs cleansing. You’ve got to clean up that spiritual man, by confession of sin.

Finally, Exercise. If you eat all the time and don’t exercise, you’re going to get in bad shape physically. But if you exercise all the time and you don’t eat, you’re going to die. There’s got to be the proper balance. You must feed the inner man and exercise him. How do we exercise the inner man? By witnessing. By sharing what we’ve fed upon with others. By service. By building up other believers. By the use of the gifts that God has given us. Each of us has a spiritual gift, and we exercise the inner man as we use those gifts for the glory of God.

So which dog inside of you is going to win. The old dog that is sinful or the new dog that is the Holy Spirit. The choice is yours, which one are you going to feed, cleanse, and exercise the most?

Notices that in verse 10, it says that we will know the children of the devil. Just as a child of God is someone who reflects his or her divine parentage by embodying the heavenly Father’s goodness, a child of the devil is someone who practices Satan’s deceit and ill will toward God and fellow humans. This is the person that we looked at last week as the antichrist.

So how does the Holy Spirit help us overcome temptation and sin?

I recently read a passage in Our Daily Bread that gives us the answer. Could I get someone to read John 14:15-18 please?

In Our Daily Bread it said this about that passage. “3”

So we need to live a holy live because the Fathers loves us, the Son died for us, and because the Holy Spirit lives in us.

I would like to close with this final passage. It comes from Matthew 7:115-20. Here in Matthew 7:15-20 it says, “4”

“By their fruits you will recognize them.”

A sign that we are true children of God and not just counterfeit Christians is the way that we live our life.

Let’s pray.

Invitation