Special Delivery
Text: 1 Jn. 3:4-9
Introduction
1. Illustration: I love to see the UPS man pull into the driveway. It’s usually an indication that something good is about to happen. Either something that I have ordered has arrived or someone has sent me a present. This is always a good thing.
2. However, even greater than the UPS guy is the special delivery that Jesus brings us. Jesus delivery does two things for us:
a. It delivers us from sin and the power of Satan.
b. It delivers to us new and eternal life.
3. Read 1 Jn. 3:4-9
Proposition: The children of God have been set free from the power of sin.
Transition: The first thing that we must see in this text is...
I. The Need for Deliverance (4-5)
A. Lawlessness
1. John begins by giving us a definition of sin and sinners. He says "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness."
a. ἀíïìίá, áò f: to behave with complete disregard for laws or regulations —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. John is talking about deliberate rebellion against God and His laws.
2. The people John was writing to seemed to think that sin was no big deal; they were indifferent to it (Marshall, NICNT: The Epistles of John, 176).
3. Few people like to be called a sinner. Some people even react to the statement that men are sinners. There is a reason for this.
a. To most people sin is thought to be the gross sins of society, the crimes that make the headlines of our newspapers and telecasts.
b. The sins committed by most people are not thought to be that serious.
4. The sins committed by most people are not thought to be that serious. Most people think that what little wrong they do could never be interpreted as sin. Therefore, to them they only commit...
a. A mistake
b. A shortcoming
c. A bad decision
5. This is not what sin is, not to God and not to the Bible. Sin is the transgression of the law. It is violating the law of God.
a. Sin is choosing to go one’s own way in life, doing one’s own thing instead of doing what God says.
b. Sin is living like one wants instead of living like God says.
c. Sin is disbelieving God instead of believing what God says.
6. Man is not only a sinner, he is sinful. The reason he is sinful is that he has transgressed God’s law.
a. If he had never transgressed the law of God, then he would have dwelt in the perfect nature of God.
b. He would have always obeyed God; therefore, he would have lived in the glory of God and never come short of God’s will and nature.
c. Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
d. Therefore, sin is transgression, disobeying God’s law, coming short of what God says.
B. Take Away Our Sin
1. Illustration: When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware that God is enough.—Maude Royden
2. We had a need to be delivered from sin, but we have a God who can deliver.
3. John reminds us that Jesus was "manifested to take away our sins..."
a. It was the reason He came.
b. It was His mission.
c. Jn. 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
4. How is this possible? How is it possible for Christ to actually remove our sins and take them away so that God can accept us? By living a sinless life.
a. Note the words of the verse: "in Him is no sin." When Jesus Christ came to earth as a Man, He lived a sinless life.
b. He was perfectly righteous, the very embodiment of righteousness.
5. Because Jesus lived a perfect life and sacrificed himself for our sins, we can be completely forgiven. We can look back to his death for us and know that we need never suffer eternal death.
a. This is the great love of God for man, the giving of His Son to die for the sins of man.
b. If a person truly loves God, then that person bows in humble adoration before God’s Son.
c. The person loves God because God sacrificed His own Son in order to save man.
d. This is the test of our love for God: Have we turned from sin to God’s Son?
Transition: This leads us to...
II. The Proof of Deliverance (6-7)
A. Whoever Abides In Him
1. The first proof that John gives us that we have been delivered is "Whoever abides in Him does not sin."
2. If we abide in Christ, we do not continue to sin.
a. If we have really accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we love Him because He died for us.
b. Christ paid such an enormous price to take away our sins that we want to please Him.
c. We dare not do anything to hurt Him or cause Him pain; therefore, we do all we can to please Him.
3. Our desire is not to walk in sin, but to turn away from sin and to break the habits of sin—all for Him, all because our hearts and lives now belong to Him who has loved us and given Himself for us.
4. John also says "Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him."
a. This does not mean that we have to be perfect to be saved from sin.
b. The Greek means this: if we continue in sin, if we go on sinning and sinning, then we do not really know Christ.
c. A true believer is still short of God’s glory; he still sins.
d. He is still human flesh; therefore, he cannot keep from sinning—not all of the time, not perfectly. But sin is not the dominant focus of his life.
5. The Amplified Bible puts it this way "No one who abides in Him [who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] commits (practices) sin."
6. Once a person sees Jesus Christ, once a person really knows Christ, that person focuses upon and gives his life to Christ.
a. He turns away from sin and turns and follows Jesus Christ. He abides in Christ.
b. He lives and moves and has his being in Christ, in all that Christ taught.
B. He Who Practices Righteousness
1. The second proof that John gives us is both a warning and a proof. He says "Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous."
2. The warning "do not let anyone lead you astray" appears to have been directed against the false teachers in the community. - Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:1 John
a. Apparently, there were those in the church who were being led to believe that you could be a Christian and still do your own thing.
b. They thought they could do whatever they wanted and God would still accept them.
3. Any person who follows Jesus Christ has to deny himself; he has to die to self.
a. He has to give all he is and has to live righteously. And righteous living does not just mean living pure and clean lives.
b. It means sacrificing all in order to carry forth the glorious message of salvation from sin, death, and the judgment to come.
4. According to John, "He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous."
a. Illustration: In the movie "Forrest Gump," which is about a young man who is a little slow, every time he is asked "What are you, stupid or something?" He always responds, "Momma always says, ’Stupid is as stupid does."
b. Well the apostle John says "righteous is as righteous does."
c. Matt. 7:16-18 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
5. The only person who is acceptable to God is the person who lives righteously, who follows after the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Transition: From this proof we see...
III. The Result of Deliverance (8-9)
A. Destroy the Works of the Devil
1. One major result of deliverance is that the works of the Devil are destroyed in us.
2. John says "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning."
a. The person who sins is of the devil. This is a shocking statement to some people, but Jesus Christ put it even more clearly:
b. Jn. 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
c. One of the things we need set free from the most is the Devil and the power he has over our lives.
3. Note the words from the beginning.
a. This means that Satan was the first person to ever sin. He began sin.
b. He was the first person who ever rebelled against God and disobeyed God. Therefore, every person who sins is akin to Satan.
c. He is following after Satan, in the footsteps of Satan. Morally and spiritually he is the offspring, the child of Satan.
4. However, look what John says next "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."
a. Destroy: to destroy or reduce something to ruin by tearing down or breaking to pieces —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. Jesus didn’t just defeat the power of the Devil, He totally destroyed it!
c. The works of Satan are destroyed by the death of Jesus Christ.
5. His power, rule, and reign over lives is now destroyed—all by the death of Jesus Christ.
a. Satan’s power to charge men with sin is now "cast out." "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
b. Satan’s power to cause death is now "cast out." Men no longer have to die. Christ died for man, became man’s substitute in death.
c. Satan’s power to cause men to be separated from God is now cast out. Men no longer have to go to hell. Christ was separated from God for man. Man can now live forever with God.
d. Satan’s power to enslave men with the habits of sin and shame is now "cast out." By His death, Christ made it possible for man to be freed from sin.
6. Illustration: When Lord Nelson reported to the British admiralty his great victory over the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile, he said that "victory" was not a large enough word to describe what had taken place. —Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations
7. Victory is not a large enough word to describe what Jesus did on the cross.
a. He didn’t just defeat Satan, He obliterated him.
b. He didn’t just defeat Satan, He put him out of business.
c. He didn’t just defeat Satan, He rendered him useless.
B. For His Seed Remains In Him
1. Another result of deliverance is God lives inside of us.
2. In verse 9, John says, "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God."
a. Once the divine seed or nature of God has been implanted within the believer, the believer cannot go on living in sin.
b. He cannot continue and continue to sin; he cannot practice sin habitually.
3. The divine nature of God will pester and provoke the believer and convict him to the point that he cannot stand it.
a. Therefore the believer loves God, loves Him with all his heart, and he wants to please God.
b. It is also this that keeps the genuine believer away from sin.
4. Another way to say the same thing is this: the seed of God within the believer is the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God Himself.
a. It is He who helps the believer to conquer sin and to keep from sinning.
b. It is the Spirit of God who stirs the believer to love and focus upon Christ and His mission instead of upon the world and its pleasures and possessions.
c. It is the Spirit of God who stirs the believer not to sin.
Transition: We have been delivered. Delivered from the Devil, and delivered from sin because of what Jesus has done. Victory in Jesus!
Conclusion
1. We needed to be delivered.
2. We have proof that we’ve been delivered.
3. We have the results of deliverance.
4. Walk in freedom!
