Defining & Dealing with Sin | 1 John 3:4-6

Amen. All right. Welcome everybody to this lovely Lord's Day once again, and I really appreciate

Pastor David's prayer to sanctify this day with the preaching of God's Word.

That's an that's an awesome awesome prayer So with God's grace, we'll go ahead and do that today I want to I want to also

Briefly here recap and correct a few things from last week's sermon

I mentioned that there was at the That there was a sevenfold emphasis on God's adoptive fatherly love for us

You could turn back with me on 1st John chapter 3 in verse 1 Where we'll see that that was a text that I preached on last time, but I mentioned there was a sevenfold emphasis

But I actually missed one The passage is so Incredibly overwhelming with with the emphasis on God's love for us that I actually missed one

And the reason I kind of blew right past it was because it's a single word it's one single word that I missed there and This one word carries a long rich biblical history

Stemming all the way back to Deuteronomy to the Song of Solomon Nehemiah to Samuel and all throughout all throughout the

New Testament including 1st John and It also just so happens to be one of the favorite addresses of the

Apostle John and If you if you

Turn with me to 1st John chapter 3 in verse 2 We will see that one word that I missed and it begins with Agapito I got paid toy

And those of you who know familiar with Greek and though the the words for love in Greek like arrows phylos and agape

You'll see where that comes from that word is beloved beloved

Now we are children of God so that one word I actually missed it because But but that's the the beauty of this passage is that even in that one word

Beloved means that we are loved loved by who? Loved by God our adoptive father.

And so that's just an amazing precious gospel promise there even that address that from the beloved

Apostle John Apostle himself the the Apostle whom Jesus loved He he illustrates or indicates something that we are

Beloved beloved of God and that's why he says now we are children of God Emphatically all throughout this passage and in other places as well so That's an amazing

Just amazing stuff there to really meditate on good to continue to meditate meditate on once again and I also

I Also forgot to mention something very important last week regarding what the

Puritan Richard Sibbes had said as you recall I was

Interacting with one of his quotes where he says justification brings us near But adoption brings us into his household into God's household

And I kind of disagree with that a little bit I was saying we need to be careful with how when we say things like that not to divorce one from the other because as as you all know and as I mentioned our adoption is only as good as the

Justification that it rests on amen so But The fact that we are near means that we are in So that that's another reason why this is kind of misleading because the fact that we are near to God Means that we are in already

We are in because we're accepted by him and that's the beauty of the gospel promise of justification by faith alone

God is far from the wicked. He's far from them. He doesn't listen to them.

He the Bible says he ignores their prayers But God is near the humble and contrite and broken in spirit

He is near those whom he has chosen to love and save so that's again the fact it's just so important to understand this and not lose sight of What God's Word teaches about all of these doctrines the fact that we are near means that we are in already

Because from our adoption stems from our justification our right standing with God by faith alone alone, right and By way of Enforcing this you can turn with me now to Romans chapter 5

To kind of cement this and bring this home a little bit Romans chapter 5 and we read from we're reading from the legacy standard

Bible Which is very similar to the New American Standard the 95 version

But Romans chapter 5 starting in verse 1 God's Word says therefore

Having been justified by faith already. We have peace with God We have peace with God now now

So are we near or are we in? We are both because we have peace with God.

That's the most important thing Through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith by faith

Into this grace in which we stand even now and we boast in the hope of the glory of God Therefore and not only this but we also boast in our afflictions

Knowing that affliction brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope and hope does not put to shame why because The love of God the adoptive love of God has been poured out in abundance within our hearts

Which is the true inner man if you recall Through the Holy Spirit who was given to us

For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly

For us all of us who were ungodly Amen, so this is

Again a critically important thing to understand we have to understand how The Word of God and the doctrines therein relate to each other and how to ground them properly so that we don't

Cause imbalances in our understanding now Let's let's go ahead and turn to our primary passage with that in mind.

All of this will be relevant as we continue to Work through this passage this chapter

So going back to 1st John chapter 3 and verse 4 I'll go ahead and and Read it once again and 1st

John chapter 3 verse 4 God's Word says everyone who does sin also does lawlessness and sin is lawlessness and you know that he or One rather one was manifested in order to take away sins and In him there is no sin past present future ever

Amen therefore No one who abides in him sins

No one who sins has seen him or has come to know him and I've actually

I've preached a related message before About this called confessing and confronting our sins based on 1st

John chapter 1 Verses 8 through 10. I encourage you to go back and listen to that Because I I'm gonna

I and that one I mentioned and discussed topics that I'm not going to get into here but it's it's a complimentary a

Compliments what I'm going to preach on today Now Obviously It should go without saying based on this passage and on really the whole counsel of God is

That there is no excuse for not knowing what sin is Especially as believers, right?

We have there's no excuse for not knowing what sin is and This might chafe a few itching ears but They don't they haven't read or don't believe

God's Word because that's what God's Word says as we will see shortly those who claim not to know what sin is and Again, God says otherwise to the contrary are almost certainly not saved almost certainly

Now those are strong words, right? Why would I say something so strongly well

Because you need to have some understanding of sin and Not just sin in general, but your sins in particular

We all do and This is important for evangelism as well

When we share our faith with others when we share the love of Christ and when we share the gospel We need to know what sin is in order to explain it to others

These are basic doctrines that all of us need to know well We all have a responsibility to know and God holds us accountable for them now

You know, I just ask yourself this after all why why why did Jesus die?

Why did Christ die? Now I make known to you brothers the gospel

Which I proclaimed as good news to you Which also you received in which also you stand by which also you are

Saved if you hold fast the word, which

I proclaim to you as good news unless you believe for nothing For I deliver to you as a first importance primary issue

Primary importance what I also received. What is it that Paul received that that Christ died for what?

for our sins According to the scriptures that's from 1st

Corinthians chapter 15 Christ died for our sins

That is the very first proposition of Paul's gospel proclamation proclamation here it is that Christ died for our sins not just sins in general, but for our sins and 1st

John chapter 3 verse 5 which we just read corroborates this as well Because he was manifested in order to what to take away sins

To take away our sins That is the first Proposition of this gospel proclamation

Now public service announcement, okay Understanding sin

That is knowing What sin is in general and our sins in particular is an integral?

Indispensable part of the very gospel that saves us, okay

Knowing what sin is in general and our sins in particular is an integral

Indispensable part of the very gospel by which we are being saved and Paul's words and God's words

Right, amen, so This is what the gospel is all about Christ died for our sins

Because sin is the very problem that God solves for us in the one true gospel of justification by faith alone that is how we are that that's the problem that we have that we all have and That's what the gospel solves for us

Christ on our behalf like we saying from these Awesome hymns today.

It is Christ in Christ alone That's how important the doctrine of sin is

The entire Bible and is all about the problem of sin you can't hardly go to one page in the

Bible without seeing something about sin and And you see these preachers like Joel Osteen in these happy these smiling pastors who never preach on it

They're not preaching God's Word You can't avoid sin in the Bible. You just can't if you avoid sin you're avoiding the gospel and That's the very thing that saves us so I Hope that's abundantly clear for us today now

In light of what the Word of God says the Bible defines sin for us comprehensively

Not ambiguously. It's not something that's unclear It's comprehensive.

It's explicit. It's clear and it teaches us not only what it is, but also how to deal with it comprehensively

Comprehensively and notice also notice this that This passage in 1st

John explicitly relates sin in fact defines sin according to the law of God Right, because what is sin sin is?

lawlessness Sin is lawlessness so that being said the analogies of Scripture and of faith

Give us more insight into what sin is exactly and its relation to the law of God as We know by now

The analogy of Scripture is incredibly important which our confession also states in chapter 1 is that Scripture Interprets Scripture we understand

Scripture with Scripture and Scripture should not contradict itself This is going to be a very important later on as well in this passage

But not only that it's not just what Scripture says. It's also what Scripture teaches and that's the analogy of faith the doctrine that we deduce from Scripture is the system of doctrine that We must hold to sin

God man salvation all of these doctrines we must relate biblically logically properly in order to properly understand the

Word of God So Have it bearing this in mind.

I want to read from the catechism for young children, and this is the Baptist revision

Excellent catechism. It's great for kids and even for us adults as well. Most a lot of adults don't even know this people who sit in church every week don't really

They have a they don't have a clear sense of what sin is and that's that's a tragedy But question 28 of the catechism for young children

What is sin? Sin is any want any lack of conformity unto or transgression breaking violation of what the law of God Amen Now Question 29

What is meant by want or lack of conformity? The answer is not being or doing what

God requires So what he commands us to do and be So like Jesus said be ye perfect as your

Heavenly Father is perfect That's being what God requires and when we fail to be perfect we sin

Loving your neighbor loving God that is being or doing what God requires in his law

Question 30. What is meant by transgression? The answer is doing what

God forbids Doing what God forbids in other words lawlessness

The law says don't do this and if you do it you are Breaking the law doing what

God forbids doing what God forbids such as Many of the

Ten Commandments, right now shall not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet right and It's sad, you know you if you all haven't seen

Ray Comfort's videos on evangelism in the way of the master and stuff He asked people do you know any of the

Ten Commandments a lot of people can't even name one of them It's a sad day and age that we live in there's a lot of Christians sadly that haven't memorized the

Ten Commandments and We should we should it's important for us to know this is the foundation of How we understand sin and Romans 3 19

Says Now we know that whatever the law says it speak to those it speaks to those who are in the law

Who are under the law? so that every mouth

Every single mouth may be shut in all the world

Everyone without exception may become accountable to God Answer to God without exception and without excuse

Amen This is God's Word Everyone is accountable to the law of God without exception no ifs ands or buts about it

Now turn with me to Romans 1 Romans chapter 1 Starting in verse 18.

I'm pretty excited today

Even though I stayed up kind of late for the for the sermon prep, but this is just really good stuff.

I'm very Excited to work through this with you all These these are the basics.

These are the basic. This is Christianity 101, right? We have to know this stuff and Romans chapter 1 verse 18

God's Word says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

To everyone I might add against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men not some all

Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness? Because that which is known about God is evidence within them within them

For God made it evident to them For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes both his eternal power and divine nature

Have been clearly seen known in other words being understood

Known through what has been made Through what has been made and this is referring particularly to us to mankind the image of God his workmanship

Like Ephesians 2 also says so that they all are without excuse

Unapologetus Without apology without excuse everyone

For even though they knew God already and by extension his law

They did not glorify him as God or give thanks But they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened professing to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible

God sinless God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man corruptible fallen sinful depraved man and of birds and of four -footed animals and crawling creatures

Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie willingly deliberately intentionally not innocently and Worshipped and served the creature rather than the

Creator who is blessed forever. Amen And skip over jump over to verse 32 with me to see the real nail the coffin here and Although they know the righteous requirement of God Already that is they know his law already and Those that those who practice such things are worthy of death

They not only do the same they the same sin But they also give hearty approval to those who practice them

Practice them They it's a lifestyle This is important to know and to retain for verse 6 and 1st

John 3 this is why all men all men without exception are inescapably guilty before God because of their innate knowledge of the law of God and of God that they actively suppress an unrighteousness like Romans 1 says and disobey it every single day and Which condemns their sin and marks them as guilty sinners?

Unapologetus without any excuse Innate knowledge is what all of us have of God and his law

God instills in us an innate knowledge of him and his word and that's what many

Theologians in the past also called the conscience. The conscience is Latin for with knowledge conscientia with knowledge

We all have knowledge of God The problem is that we are fallen depraved sinners who suppress the truth and therefore deny it in unrighteousness

So we've got we've got problems We are born with a problem that we ourselves cannot solve cannot answer for Everyone born in Adam therefore is guilty of sin and Is a law -breaking sinner, but thank

God for Jesus Christ. Amen now another public service announcement in order to know what sin is

In order in order to know what sin is we must know what the law is

Right because John says sin is lawlessness Okay. Well, what law is he talking about?

Is he talking about some of our laws today that we can call men women and women men? No, that's not

God's law. That's a perversion of God's law. That's sin. We need to know what the law is because the law determines and defines

What sin is? Right. The law of God determines and defines what sin is and Because by works of the law, no flesh will be justified in a sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin

Right. That's Romans. I Think that's Romans. I missed the the quote here.

I think it's Romans 3 20 3 19 And because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in a sight for through the law

Comes the knowledge of sin. It is the mirror that shows us who we really are our sin

This is known as the first use of the law

The pedagogical use of the law the teaching purpose of the law One of them is to show us our sin and to condemn us to show us that we are guilty so to take off the blinders that We have about ourselves and we think well of ourselves and we think we're so good and righteous and holy

Like Jesus said there's a generation that is seems right in its own eyes When in reality, they are broods of vipers

Viper and a diaper is what we're all born as you know the saying we're all vipers and diapers we're all evil wretched fallen sinners and Apart from God's grace.

We will remain that way so That being said where where then

Where then is the law of God? sumerily comprehended

Where is the law of God summarized and comprehended? Where do we understand it? The answer is that?

The moral law of God is summarized in the Ten Commandments the

Ten Commandments Which were delivered by the voice of God on Mount Sinai and written down by him on two stone tablets those two tablets of stone the first four commandments

Establish our obligations to God and the remaining six our obligations to man to humans to human beings

That's question 91 of the Baptist larger catechism. It's an excellent excellent

Catechism highly commend it to you all and if you want a link of it of a

PDF For it. Let me know and I will send that out to you As well highly recommend it

This is actually a modern rendering. I think his name is a Jason Delgado It's a modern rendering of the

Westminster larger catechism also an excellent document, but it is Presbyterian now

Question 92. What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?

What is the sum? What is the essence of the Ten Commandments the sum of the first four?

Commandments contain our duty to God and are To love the

Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength with all your mind

Amen The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man is to love our neighbor as ourselves and To do others and to do to others what we would have them do to us

The golden rule, right? Those are the two great commandments whereby Jesus brilliantly summarized

The whole law he says on this these two commandments hang the entire law and the prophets all of it summarized by those two great commandments

Amen that's powerful powerful stuff This is the analogy of faith.

This is why it's so important because we need to understand other scriptures and of doctrines and other parts of the

Bible to understand what John is telling us here that sin is lawlessness and To know what sin is we must know what the law of God is and in to know what the law of God is

We must know what the what the commandments are and the covenantal application of the law

Then you come the new covenant as well. So What then that being said what then is

The remedy for this sin, which we are all guilty of and we're all guilty.

We're all born sinners Even but prior to having done anything good or bad

We are all born sinners Guilty in Adam. That's what

Romans says. That's what the New Testament says. That's what the Bible says We are all guilty fallen wretched sinners like the hymn goes and We need the righteousness of another extra nose outside of us

In Christ to have Right standing with God But this violation of God's law which condemns us

You know, what's the remedy then? It is Christ. But how does that what does that look like?

How should we then deal with our sin? So we define sin now

How do we deal with it, how do we deal with it? And if you turn back with me to 1st

John once again in chapter 3 The Apostle the beloved

Apostle just so happens to answer that for us So he tells us that sin is lawlessness

That can easily lead one to despair But John the

Apostle tells us in the in the very next verse the remedy for sin and You know

You see already Compare this to the contrast in verse 6 those who don't know and don't see that he that one rather was manifested and died

By extension in order to what to take away sins

To take away sins to expiate our sin to take our sins and nail them to that tree to the cross of Christ to one who was manifested

Who was manifested and live righteously and To die as a lamb of God To take away our sin that is a twin truths the precious truths of expiation and propitiation

Expiation is to remove sin and and and by consequence to place it on a substitute which is the

Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world Christ Jesus and Propitiation is to satisfy and appease the wrath of God To satisfy the punishment that we deserve

By bearing our sins and suffering the wrath of God on the cross That is the gospel.

That is the heart of the gospel and sad to say many reject this reality today many don't

Like the notion of a God who is angry They don't like to really what they really what they're saying is they don't like a

God who is just and holy and good Because if you are just and holy and good you would hate everything that opposes you that's wicked

That's perverse and evil and that's what we all are by nature so and I want to clarify as well that I He and In the

LSB. He is better translated as one in order to avoid any confusion and The long the trails of pronouns that the

Apostle John has been using in this chapter Because a pronoun like he has to refer to something so really

John is Introducing us to us Christ here by saying one One has been manifested and we know who that one is

That one who takes away our sin is the Lamb of God Christ Jesus like the Apostle like the

Prophet John the Baptist proclaimed for us and all the whole

Council of God does now That is the answer beloved that is the answer for our our unresolvable problem ours of sin by our own means

We must first know ourselves and our sin truly

We must know God truly and What he has truly done for us

We must first know ourselves and our sin truly We must know

God truly and what he has truly done for us

We need to know God. We need to know man sin and salvation

That is what we need That is what we need These are the primary doctrines of the

Bible of first importance like Paul says and what does first importance mean? Means it's the most important thing and in the first Proposition in Paul's gospel is that Christ died for our sins beloved.

So do we need to know what sin is? Absolutely. We need to know what sin is

We need to see our sin for what it really is according to God's law and eyes

I Love what the Puritan Thomas Watson Says regarding this matter and his very fine book on the doctrine of repentance

Highly commend it to you all he says the first part of Christ's physic of Christ's remedy for sin is

Iself it's Iself It is sight of sin

And he quotes he refers to Acts 26 18 It is the great thing noted in the prodigal's repentance the prodigal son

He came to himself He came to his senses Luke 15 17

He saw himself a sinner and nothing but a sinner Before a man can come to Christ.

He must first come to him self and to his sin

Solomon King Solomon in his district is description of repentance considers considers this as the very first ingredient if They shall bethink themselves

Realize who they really are first Kings 8 47 A man must first recognize and consider what his sin is and know the plague of his heart

Before he can be duly humbled for it The first creature

God made was light So the first thing in a penitent and a repentant sinner is

Illumination it is sight. It is knowledge of Sin of self

Now ye are light in the Lord God says to us in Ephesians 5 8

The eye is made for both seeing and weeping Sin must first be seen must first be known before it can be wept for Amen, this is good stuff from that Puritan Thomas Watson now

I will make a caveat in saying that sometimes he goes a little bit overboard and Emphasizing our need for sorrowing and things like that Even though he does very wisely say that there are varying degrees of sorrow in individuals depending on your background

And your past life of sin and all of those things So we have to be careful with that even in the

Bible not everybody falls to their face before Christ in In Anguish and in repentance, but everybody must repent

Unless you repent you will all likewise perish, right? we all must have a change of mind a change of conviction about Who we really are and who

God really is and that we cannot save ourselves Right so now

However However We have to we have to rightly divide the word here

Even though the gospel deals with and resolves our sin in a complete final ultimate

Eschatological it is finished since once and for all

Amen right by by satisfying it on Christ's cross

What his life and death We also know that in a very real

Experiential not yet since our sin problems.

Don't just go away automatically Even after we are saved even after we believe the gospel

Because why? Because of our flesh Right because of our flesh our unredeemed lowly bodies

We have yet to receive our glorified resurrected bodies So sin is still a problem for us, even though in an ultimate sense.

The the the ultimate problem of sin has been resolved on Calvary at the cross

But we still have the flesh and The sin that dwells within us in dwelling sin because of our flesh our unredeemed bodies primarily so This is very important to Understand the whole counsel of God the analogy of Scripture and of faith

We must know this because I mentioned last week also how there's People like from the

Westland tradition in the Methodist tradition and in other Armenian traditions where they believe that you can be sinlessly perfect That's a denial of the flesh

That's not what what God's Word teaches and that's not what reality is that's not reality

We all fall short in many ways Like the Bible says even as believers we still fall short every single day

We ain't perfect we're not there yet Now, yes, we strive and we grow and all of those things, but we're not there yet There's a not yet that still has to be realized at the right appointed time in the resurrection right

We still sin After we are saved by God, even though Even though verse 6 and 1st

John chapter 3 says no one who abides in him sins and No one who has seen him

No one who sins has seen him or has come to know him. So there

John is presenting a mutually exclusive contrast either you sin or You know

God if you sin, you don't know God you haven't seen God So these are this

I mean like body back home says right if you can't say amen you need to say ouch Right that hurt like whoa.

That's kind of scary, right? Because we still sin now We have to be careful though remember we need to Harmonize scripture with scripture interpret scripture with scripture

We can't we can't Fall into the air of thinking. Well now we've that means we need to be perfect in order to be saved.

No Well, yes, that's true. We need to be perfect But the way we are perfect is by being reckoned legally perfect Because of the perfectness the perfection of Christ that has been placed on our behalf by faith

Right. We are not we are not personally We are not uh, how do you say it we are not perfect Experientially yet until the resurrection

But we are reckoned perfect in God's eyes Because on the other hand recall from 1st

John chapter 1 Verse 8 that if we say that we have no sin even as believers we deceive ourselves and And the truth is not in us

We don't see clearly in other words We don't see clearly if we say we have no sin anymore and I want to dive into that a little bit further next week

Lord Lord willing but We have to balance these things out We cannot

This is again. These are bookend doctrines that Causes a lot of a lot of people a lot of churches and individuals to superficially truncate scripture

Truncate the Bible because their doctrine is not comprehensive enough and systematic enough in whole counsel of God enough to grasp these doctrines

The Bible has checks and balances for us to warn us when we stray too far in one area these two passages

Do that for us they balance out our understanding so that we don't go into extremes or or impossible

Demands that we cannot satisfy by virtue of the fact that we are still in the flesh right

Not to say that's an excuse that's not an excuse but That is the apostle here is

Indicating us something those who know God Will no longer sin in that sense of practicing sin

Like we read from Romans as well But this is an indicate. He's just saying he's he's he's describing a simple reality

This is what sinners do what do sinners do they sin and they like to sin and they don't have a regret for sinning

They just keep doing it But we don't do that anymore Right. We don't do that anymore

We repent we repent now I really appreciate also what the beloved

Puritan brother Thomas Watson once again has to say in the same book in the new birth all have pangs

But some have sharper pangs and others That's the truth Depending on the life that you live and depending on the life of sin that you live

You might have more birth pains than others Right if you lived a notoriously wicked life and we're a chief of sinners like the the

Apostle Paul was You know, you're gonna have some trouble there. It's gonna take some time to deliver you out of those things

But God's grace is sufficient for all of us. Amen but we have your experience as a as a

Wretched sinner for many years will not be the same after conversion as One who was raised and brought up in the faith in Christ from a babe

Like Timothy was or Titus was or John the Baptist was

Your experience won't be the same and we have to understand that and be at peace with that because even though it's not the same

God provides us the answers regardless of Of our circumstances

Because God's love for us is such that he provides us everything that we need.

Amen now So don't panic don't panic

God can save even the wretched thief on the cross at the last minute at the deathbed confession

That's not ideal right? We don't want to wait and you know, you don't want to think like a heathen and say well

I'm just gonna wait till the very end to get Satan. Oh that you're God is not mocked right? You can't don't mock

God That's not right. But even though we still sin as believers. God has given us his spirit his spirit and His saving and sanctifying means of grace and of deliverance to deal with our sin

Now after we're saved as well beginning with the law and the gospel

Because now as believers the law becomes our friend It guides us towards what to do and what not to do and now we rejoice in God's law.

It is our friend It sanctifies us now It makes us holier because it is the

Word of God Sanctify them in thy Truth thy word is true is the law of God his word.

Yes Again, there's people with who I am balanced and say even in the reformed tradition.

They say oh we're sanctified by grace alone No, we're not We're sanctified by the

Word of God which includes law and gospel we need both and all of it all

Of God's Word and If you recall when

I preach the series on knowing your enemy The six S's God's means of deliverance, right?

God's means of deliverance scripture scripture sound doctrine

Like law and gospel the sacraments right the Lord's Supper baptism self -awareness

Note seeing your sin self -awareness and and self -denial

Five sage counsel wise counsel We all need somebody sometimes

We need a Nathan to tell us. Hey, you are the man You're the one who's in sin you hypocrite

You blind bat you need you you're sinning we don't always see it and Six spiritual warfare.

We need the full armor of God. Those are all the means that God has given I mean cry he's given us Christ our advocate our

Pericles the Spirit Christ. He's given us everything everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of his

Son Amen we also we also to to wrap up here we we avoid sin and deal with sin in Part by the light that marks true believers that the

Apostle John has been showing us in 1st John in his letter The lifestyle in other words the pedi

Patel in the Greek the walk The lifestyle that indicates who we belong to do you belong to the world of flesh and the devil or do you belong to God?

These marks also sanctify us they sanctify us and It it's the acronym that I Use to help us to understand this and memorize it.

It's coughs coughs c -a -w -f -s coughs

C is confession of sin Confessing our sins right because 1st

John 1 9 says if we confess our sins to God not to a priest Okay, not to not to a priest so that he can absolve us.

No Who can forgive sins but God alone? we confess our sins to God and also to those whom we sinned against that's also necessary, but If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive not only forgive us our sins, but to cleanse us from all

Unrighteousness. Amen. That's a beautiful promise and that's for us now Cleansing a cleat cleanses our sin now.

He sanctifies us through confessing Sin a is abstaining from sin denying our flesh

The W is walking in the light walking in the light walking in the light in obedience to God's Word and This is also paralleling what

I mentioned about sin sin is Doing what God forbids and not doing what he commands

There are either sins of omission meaning you don't do what you should do and sins of commission

You commit something that you shouldn't right, so We must

And F F is fellowship with God fellowshipping with God and with men

The church this is a vitally important aspect of our sanctification fellowshipping with God and his people

S also is striving for obedience Striving for obedience, so we don't just passively act like oh, well, you know

We just you know Don't have to do anything. No, you have to participate.

You have a role to play exercise Yourselves unto godliness that's what the

Word of God says We must exercise ourselves onto godliness by participating in his means

We must participate in his means so We must flee from abstain from every form and appearance of evil right likes 1st

Thessalonians 5 22 says and Another vitally important means to not sin is

Memorization of scripture Memorizing God's Word what a Psalm 119 11 say, right?

Thy word have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin against thee

Right. Amen. We must memorize scripture. We need to bring that back. We need to memorize scripture starting with a good a

Great place to start is the Ten Commandments, right and many of our catechisms in the reformed Tradition that's why they have the

Ten Commandments and they expound the Ten Commandments throughout throughout the end very important to know and memorize

Memorize scripture that I'm and of course knowing the law Helps us more carefully to know sin and to deal with it because the law more directly relates to what sin is

It defines it for us. So we need to know what it is In order to avoid it and to deal with it properly and confess it properly so because in the end ultimately to sum up the matter our sanctification

After being saved even though we still sin our sanctification is progressive meaning.

It's not complete yet It's a lifelong process and it's twofold It's twofold

It is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and Are enabled both more and more to die unto sin to mortify sin to put it to death actively and On the other hand live unto righteousness that's from question 38 of the

Baptist catechism and Now God's people said Amen, right Sanctification is twofold.

That's why we need both. We can't just do one. We need both and God provides us the means for both

Through his means of grace and deliverance. Amen beloved. So let's with that. Let's go ahead and bow our heads with a word of Sanctifying prayer a precious

Lord and Heavenly Loving Father, we thank you so much for Showering us with your love

Lord and loving us to the point of sending your your only begotten son to die on that Cross for our sins that cursed cross

That you have poured out your wrath on So that we could be perfectly finally forgiven

Reckon perfectly righteous before your eyes and before your courtroom Lord so that we no longer have to face

Judgment and condemnation, but we have passed from death unto life because of your beloved son

Lord We thank you so much for your law as well and help us or to understand and appreciate and love your law as you have

Spelled out for his father because your law is just and righteous and good and it is a reflection of your holy character as well and Helps us to understand and know you better Lord because you yourself are righteous.

Holy perfect just and good. Mm -hmm and any deviation from your law is sin, and we must

Not deceive ourselves father. Help us to See our sin for what it really is but to also but to also bask and Relish in your grace

Lord and approach the throne of your grace boldly your throne of grace boldly And have confidence in him and to continue to abide in him so that we no longer sin

Without repentance or without any remorse or without any As a lifestyle

Lord, but we now become Sensitive to our sin and we repent by virtue of your spirit dwelling in us and by your means being applied to us by faith

In you and in your word and your means Lord, we thank you father We ask these things in the glorious name of your son

Jesus Christ. Amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant

Baptist Church Where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life.

We strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

Christians who evangelize Stand firm in and earnestly contend for the Christian faith

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church Sermons and ministries such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and thorn crown network podcasts

Please contact us at thorn crown ministries comm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune