WWUTT 423 Born of the Devil?

Whoever makes a practice of sinning has been born of the devil, but whoever makes a practice of righteousness has been born again by the imperishable seed of God, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Once again, we come back to 1 John chapter 3.

We'll be looking at verses 4 through 10, the section of 1 John that we've been studying this week.

The Apostle writes, Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness, because 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 the one who does not love his brother.

Verse 7 is where I'm going to start today, where John says, Little children, let no one deceive you, and this is harkening back to what we had read in verses 1 through 3.

We are the children of God, and as God's children, 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.

So therefore, as we are of the Father, adopted by the Son, Jesus Christ, we are the children of God.

John reminding us that as His children, here is what our lives should look like.

We should be doing the things that Jesus did. We're not sinning. We're no longer sinning. We are walking in the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the

Spirit. Let's be reminded of those things, what the desires of the flesh are and what the fruit of the

Spirit is, according to what we read in Galatians 5. So Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, but I say, walk by the

Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. How is it that we stay away from? Practicing sin, by drawing near to God, through the

Spirit of God, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the

Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry.

All four of those things right there have to do with sexual sin. And what is sexual sin?

It is sex outside of marriage. God created sex for marriage between a husband and a wife.

Sex outside of marriage is sexual immorality. It's impurity, it's sensuality, it's idolatry.

It's bowing down at an altar to a false god. Also the works of the flesh, sorcery, your horoscope, a sooth saying, desiring to know the future and trying to find out from some sort of earthly or pagan ritual how you can find out the future, that's sorcery.

Also communicating with the dead, what the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox practice, talking to who they believe to be dead saints, that's also sorcery.

Enmity, division between one another over anger, and that's kind of the next sins that follow.

Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions.

Envy, desiring what somebody else has and not being thankful or grateful for what you've been given, your gifts, your opportunities, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

According to what John says in 1 John 3, they are of the devil. Whoever makes a practice of sinning, of chasing after these desires of the flesh, the works of the flesh, is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

But then, in verse 22, the fruit of the spirit, now note there, in Galatians 5, 22, that fruit is singular, it's not fruits of the spirit, you know,

I'm going to be pretty good at love and patience and gentleness, not so much on self -control or faithfulness, but at least

I'm doing some of these other things, so I'm doing pretty good, it's fruit of the spirit. If you are in the spirit of God, if Jesus Christ dwells in you by his spirit, then you will demonstrate all of this and grow in all of this, according to the instruction of Peter in 2

Peter 1, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control, against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.

As Paul said previously with the Galatians, for I have been crucified with Christ, and now it is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives within me. Verse 25, if we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit, let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying each other.

So this is what the Christian will demonstrate in his life, and notice that those things too,

I want to mention something else about that, notice that those things are all experienced, it's not just something that you believe in and you hold it in your mind and in your faith and so therefore, hey, as long as I believe it or I have a state of mind concerning those things, then we're good.

I acknowledge them as being true and therefore I'm all right, okay?

No, you experience this. Joy is not simply something that you just believe exists.

You're going to demonstrate joy. You're going to demonstrate a peace and a contentment in Christ your

Savior and knowing that, man, there is nothing in this world that is going to separate me from the love of God that I have in Christ Jesus my

Lord. I'm no longer depending upon a big paycheck for happiness or the possessions that I have or that I'm going to get a certain amount of recognition from other people or that people are going to think

I'm popular or I have the friends that I want to have and the stuff that I want to possess.

These are no longer the things that make me happy because happiness is fleeting, man.

It's cheap. One wrong comment, one bad circumstance in the day and happiness is gone, but joy is not dependent upon any of those things.

You can be joyful even in sorrow. Weeping may endure for the night. Joy comes in the morning.

Do not think it's strange when this fiery trial comes upon you, but rejoice because you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

See, joy is something that we experience even in our toughest times, in our most difficult circumstances.

And like I said, you experience it. You feel it. You will feel joy and a peace that gives rest to your bones.

It's not necessarily something that is physical, but it's something that you will know. Though you may feel anxiety in your life, there is still a sense of peace that you have in your conscience because you know that on the day of judgment, when you shed this body that is partly responsible for the anxiety that you have, the angst that you're feeling because of things that are happening to you in this life, there's chemicals that are being released in your body and causing you to feel the anxiety that you have.

It's all the way down to your core. It's a struggle. It's a very real thing. And this anxiety that you experience in the body, you know there's still a peace about your conscience and knowing that on the day of judgment, you will stand before God and you are forgiven and will receive eternal life in Jesus Christ.

So there's nothing for you to fear, even though you're going to experience stress and anxiety on this earth and in this body.

You still have just that sense of peace. There's just something there that is a reminder of the eternal life that we have in Jesus Christ, our

Lord. David felt an immense amount of anxiety in the struggles and the persecutions that he went through, and yet he still knew the loving kindness of God who had forgiven him of his sins and had given him his very great and precious promises.

So these things are not just truths that are stated that become a certain mindset that we just believe, and therefore they are.

But they are something that we will truly experience in our lives. As I said to you on Friday, what the

Bible says we will experience, we experience. This is the abundant life that Christ has promised to his followers in John 10 10.

The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Not just the eternal life we're promised in heaven, but meaning and purpose and peace and joy and righteousness that we will experience in this life now.

And so let no one deceive you, little children. For whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous, demonstrating the fruit of the

Spirit. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil's been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. We had it stated a little bit earlier than that.

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Sin is the work of Satan. If you are practicing sin, you are practicing Satanism.

Verse nine. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him.

The seed of Adam, the nature that we inherited from Adam when we were born, that's the seed of the devil.

That is the seed that came into humankind because Adam sinned and therefore all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That's the sin of Satan. But we have this new birth. Peter talks about this in 1

Peter 1 that we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but imperishable by the living and abiding word of God.

And so this is the new seed. We have God's seed abiding in us.

He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God, born again.

By this, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. You will know them by their fruit.

As Jesus said, whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.