20. 1 John 3:8: "The Drama of Redemption"

Please remain standing and turn in your Bibles once again to the epistle of 1st John. 1st John chapter 3 starting in verse 1. Here now the inspired Word of God. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are.

For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.

And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness and 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 sins. No one who sins has seen him or knows him. Little children make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil for the devil sinned from the beginning.

The Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.

Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God or the one who does not love his brother. Let's pray. Father once again as we open your word and look into it we ask that you would be pleased to illuminate it to our eyes our ears and our hearts that we would see hear and understand what you have to say to us and that we would become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

It's in his name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. Well this Thursday is Ascension Day and if the calendars are correct this would be the day that Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection and interestingly enough I was recently asked if if this was a day that we should celebrate like we celebrate Resurrection Day or Christmas Day and my answer was a definitive yes and no.

What I mean by that is there's no command in Scripture that would authorize us to set aside a Ascension Day as a special holy day just as there's no command in Scripture to set aside Christmas Day as a special holy day.

But that being said both the incarnation of Christ and the ascension of Christ are important events in the ministry of Jesus Christ and therefore they should be recognized in other appropriate ways and certainly they both should be a part of the preaching and teaching of the church.

The resurrection is important because it demonstrates that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was acceptable in atoning for the sins of the people of God. Now the gospel message is simply stated by the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 15.

In fact if somebody ever asked you what is the gospel this is the place you should go because here's the gospel in very short abbreviated form. Paul says this in 1st Corinthians 15 and listen carefully to his the way he explains this.

Now I make known to you brethren the gospel which I preached to you which also you received in which also you stand by which you also are saved if you hold fast a word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.

Notice what he's saying to the Corinthians. Listen remember what I preached to you because what I preached to you is what you were saved by if in fact you believed. And then in the next few verses gives us in the simplest form answers the question what is the gospel and he says for I delivered to you of first importance what I also be what I also received and here's the gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve and after that he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time most of whom remain until now but some have fallen asleep.

In that text Paul summarizes the essence of the gospel in two parts. Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised on the day that raised from the dead on the third day. That's the gospel. If anyone asked you tell them that's the gospel.

Jesus Christ died for your sins and he was raised from the dead on the third day. But Paul offers proof for each part. First each part was foretold by the scriptures which is important. These were events that were anticipated and foretold by God.

But then he tells us he died and he offers us proof. What's the proof that he died? Well he was buried. In fact he was buried for three days and three nights. The proof of the resurrection is also given by Paul and the proof of the resurrection were the numerous appearances in the flesh to both individuals and to crowds.

So yes the gospel message was accomplished in full view of the public. It was a public event. His burial was even supervised and overseen by his enemies. Both Jewish and Roman authorities oversaw the burial.

Now the ascension is further proof of the fact that Jesus accomplished his mission of redemption. The author of Hebrews says it so well in chapter 10 verse 11 he says every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sin.

But verse 12 but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

And that brings us to our text for today in first John. We're going to be looking at first John 3 verse 8. The one who practices sin is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil.

The message today could very easily be called part 2 of last week's message. Remember our text for last week was verses 4 and 5. Everyone who practices sin also practice lawlessness and sin is lawlessness.

Now verse 5 is the important one. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. From that text we examined the nature of sin. Remember we asked and answered a couple of questions.

What is sin? And the most basic answer to that question is sin is lawlessness or sin is a lack of conformity to God's moral law. And as much as we don't like to talk about sin we also saw that sin is an essential doctrine of the church.

The very reason it was necessary for Jesus Christ to take himself upon himself human flesh come to earth suffer and die was because sin entered into the world and polluted the human race. So it's an essential doctrine and that means that we had better get it right or we'll err in the ministry and the work of Jesus Christ.

So last week we saw that Jesus came to take away sin. Today we see in verse 8, the second part of his ministry, he came to destroy the works of the devil. Our fathers of the faith used to describe a phrase to describe this work.

They called it the drama of redemption. Why did Jesus come to earth? Well let's examine that question. Why did our fathers call the gospel message the drama of redemption? Which is a part of the answer.

Now we don't we don't talk like that anymore do we? And it's a shame because our speech has lost a lot of its beauty. The gospel is debated in numerous venues today. Some people just think the gospel is well it's a point of view.

It's debated as a philosophy. But what is overlooked is the gospel is a series of historical events. In fact, interestingly enough, some of those involved in the debates don't even believe that all the events really happened in history.

Martin Lloyd-Jones said, the very essence of the gospel message is that it is not first and foremost a teaching, but a proclamation. An announcement of certain things that have happened. And that is backed up if you go through the New Testament and look at the sheer number of times the word proclaim is used.

It's pervasive. Lloyd-Jones continues on this theme. He says, we must first realize what he came primarily to do. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested. And listen carefully. Not that he might teach us.

Not that he might give us a glorious example to follow. Not that he might give us some transcendent idea which would illumine our minds and thrill us. Not at all, says Lloyd-Jones. Now, let me add, he does do those things.

But his primary purpose was twofold. First, we looked at last week to take away the sins of his people. And secondly, to destroy the works of the devil. That's what we see in verse 8. But this was the consistent theme of the Bible.

And we can see that because it's throughout the New Testament. Let me just give you one or two examples. Remember the story of Zacchaeus? Politically incorrect because it refers to him as a wee little man.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector who was defrauding his people. And when Zacchaeus repents of his sin, Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he too is the son of Abraham. And then verse 10 is very instructive.

For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus didn't come in merely to teach. He came to do something. And Paul writing to young Timothy says this in 1 Timothy 1 .15. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

That's the primary reason he came. To save sinners. So we can say with authority, all the authority of Scripture behind it, that Jesus came into the world to wage war. He came as a conquering prince to remove the guilt of sin from his people.

He did that on the cross and to destroy the works of the devil. But he wages war not like anyone else has ever waged war. He atoned and he won the battle with his own sacrifice on the cross. And he decisively destroyed the works of the devil.

Make no mistake about that fact. It was a decisive victory. Now the battle with the devil is not over. But the decisive victory was won on the cross as proven by his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.

He is seated on the throne in heaven waiting for the victory to be complete. Now what does all this mean? What are the works of the devil? If he was defeated on the cross, is he still active today? These are all important questions.

So let's answer them as we go through this. First of all, who is the devil? Well in actuality there's not a lot of information given to us in Scripture concerning his origin and his fall into sin. And that has led to all kinds of speculation in literature and movies.

Unfortunately most people get their theology of the devil from movies and Dante's Inferno and not from Scripture. Here is what we do know. He is called by many names. Lucifer, Satan, the devil, the serpent of old, described as a dragon, just to name a few.

And there are many other titles that he takes. He is a created spiritual being. A powerful one, but he is a created spiritual being. He is not, and I repeat, he is not omniscient, omnipotent, nor omnipresent.

Only God has those attributes. Therefore, though he is intelligent, he doesn't know everything. Though he is powerful, his power is limited. He can only be at one place at a time. He doesn't have the characteristic of being omnipresent.

He's not sovereign. He can only act with permission from God. Even in the Old Covenant, remember the book of Job, Satan had to ask permission to test Job. And then the words of Jesus to the Apostle Peter are also instructed for us.

In Luke chapter 22 verse 31, after Peter has demonstrated his bravado about he would never fall away, Jesus says to Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. And what does Jesus say?

Don't worry about it, I got it. He says, no. He says, I'm praying for you, Peter. In other words, you're going to go through that. And though Satan was created by God as good, at some point he changed and sinned against God, which reminds us that he's not immutable.

That is, he is changeable. Only God is immutable and not subject to change. Now we're given a smidgen of information concerning his fall in Jude, but it's not a lot. Jude verse 6, the Apostle says, and angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under the darkness for judgment of the great day.

The angels, including Lucifer, were all created good, but some did not keep their own domain. We don't have the details concerning those events, but we are given a few facts concerning his character. Jesus says in John 8, 44, speaking to the ungodly Pharisees, you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

And listen to what he says. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

You might say, well, how was he a murderer from the beginning? What did he convince Adam and Eve to do? What was the sentence for eating the fruit? Death. Satan is the first murderer. We always think of Cain as the first murderer, but technically Satan is the first murderer.

He was a murderer from the beginning. And then, of course, look at our present text, 1 John 3, 8. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. And that's why he continues, the Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

So it's fair to say, without speculation, that the devil is the author of sin, the one who brought sin to mankind. And that we do have facts on. So let's briefly examine the fall of mankind and the work of the devil.

Now remember, Adam and Eve were created good, sinless. And God had a relationship with them in a covenant of works. If they obeyed the covenant, they would live forever. But in the day that they ate of the fruit, they would die.

Now we read the account of the fall this morning, so I will skip the reading of it and get right to a commentary on the events. And like the works of the ministry of Jesus Christ are real historical events, so are the events surrounding the fall of Adam.

One of the things that people struggle with is that Satan used the body of the serpent to accomplish his objective. But we know that angels and demons, spiritual beings can possess other bodies. Jesus cast demons out of a man and they entered the herd of swine, all with the permission of Jesus.

We also know that God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. Gives me hope for preaching. If he used a donkey to teach his word, I guess, yeah, he could use me. Again, this is a fact of history. One of the works of the devil is to try to convince people that these are merely allegories.

The same is the ministry of Christ. People would have you believe that it's just a nice story that's told to give you an example to follow, the example of self-sacrifice and then teaching you how to be good.

But to do so negates the reality of sin. And it also eliminates or negates the grand remedy, which is the atonement of Jesus Christ. The primary work of the devil is manifested in the fall. His primary work is to separate man from God.

Man is the image bearer of God, the crown of his creation. And the devil knows he can't get at God directly, so what does he do? He goes after his image bearer. And he approaches him in devious and subtle ways.

The essence of his approach to Adam and Eve is, well, God's actually, when you boil it down, God's a liar. That's what Satan is saying. God has given Adam and Eve everything they needed in perfection.

But Satan says to them, God doesn't really love and care for you. Why is he withholding the fruit? See, he doesn't really love you. Look at the fruit of that tree. Doesn't that look good? If God loved you, he wouldn't say no to this fruit.

Notice the attack is on God's law and God's word in general. And that argument continues to this very day. Let's do away with God's law. God's law isn't good. It's too restrictive. Do you know that there are churches today who won't post the Ten Commandments in their buildings?

Satan continues and says, by the way, you won't really die. Fact is, the reason God's withholding this from you is you'll become like him. Notice he begins with lies, accuses God of lying. And then he appeals to Adam and Eve's pride.

You will be like him. And when they ate the fruit, they became guilty of sin under the condemnation of God and placed themselves in the domain of Satan. And the whole world was cursed as well, since Adam was the federal head of the whole human race.

And the world of mankind was enslaved under the domain of the devil. And every one of Adam's descendants remained in this condition, just as we discussed last week. Condemnation for guilt for breaking the law and a slave to sin as his nature was polluted.

You see why our fathers called this the drama of redemption? But it's based on real historical facts. Why would Satan do such a thing? Well, here's an easy answer. He's pure evil. His temptation was to remove mankind from God's care and put him under his own power and his own domain.

To keep mankind from pleasing God and to live sinful, wanton lives. Remember, Satan is everything that is anti-God. And we don't have to speculate on this point either, because remember Job? Job chapter 1 verse 8, the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?

For there is no one like him on the earth, blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. What would your comment be if you were in a situation like that? Wow, that's great, right?

What a good man. What does Satan say? Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions, have increased in the land.

But put forth your hand now and touch all that he has. He will surely curse you to your face. Now, Job wasn't a perfect man, but he was a living, living a righteous life. And Satan scoffs. He only serves you because you have protected him.

And in essence, he dares God to remove his hand and see how long Job will serve him. And of course, you know the rest of the story. But that is another part of the work of Satan. In the Book of the Revelation, he's called the accuser of the brethren.

You cannot look at the state of the world today without considering the work of Satan. All the sin, all the unhappiness, all the misery that is seen today is result of the fall in the Garden of Eden. And Satan continued to work throughout history causing mayhem wherever he went.

And the Old Testament is a history of the battle between good and evil. So then, how does the coming of Christ destroy the works of the devil? First, let's remember something. None of what has happened so far that we've described surprised God.

Satan may have thought he was working behind God's back, so to speak, but nothing is further from the truth. When God confronts Adam and Eve and the serpent in Genesis 3, he promised he was going to send a Redeemer.

The seed of the woman was to crush the serpent's head while the serpent would bruise his heel. And the whole ministry of Jesus demonstrates the crushing of the serpent's head and demonstrating that his words are lies.

He was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Look at the Incarnation to see how each of the aspects of this ministry of Jesus worked against Satan. Look at the Incarnation. Second Person of the Trinity took upon himself human flesh.

Just let that sink in for a minute. You're God. Perfect. And you take upon yourself the limitations of human flesh. He became one of us so he could die in our place. Part of Satan's lie was God didn't love Adam and Eve.

He lied to them and didn't do what was good for them. What does the Incarnation say? The Incarnation says from God to mankind, I love you in an unbelievable way. Paul would write in Philippians 2 verse 6, speaking of Jesus, he says, who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.

It wasn't something that he had to hold on to. He emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. So even in the Incarnation we see the love of God poured forth.

Then there's his sinless life. He demonstrated his love once again by living according to the law. He placed himself under law. The law that his enemies say, oh this is too restrictive. It's too harsh.

The criticism you still hear today. Sometimes even from within the church. But Jesus demonstrated that the law was good and holy. Paul says in Romans 7 12, so then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

He emphasized that the essence of the law was also good. The whole law hangs on the principle of love. First John 5 3, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

Every miracle that Jesus performed, every act of kindness and compassion demonstrated his love and his commitment to saving his people. At the same time, every one of those miracles was signifying the destruction of the kingdom of Satan.

Through the work of Satan, the law had become a ritualistic teaching which smacked of hypocrisy and Jesus obliterates that notion in the Sermon on the Mount where he teaches the true essence of the law of God.

And Jesus then of course comes to the cross of Calvary. Every time I come to this point, I have to pause and reflect. My God took on flesh that he could hang on that cross in my place. Jesus said, greater love has no man than this, that one lay down his life for a friend.

And of course those verses, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

And then it's one thing to lay down your life for a friend. We know there are soldiers and Marines and sailors and airmen, police officers who do that. But he became sin. The sins of his people were placed upon him.

He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, Paul says, so that we might become the righteousness in him. And in Romans 5 8, Paul says, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

This was no small feat. He was in agony as he was preparing to go to the cross. His sweat was like drops of blood coming off his brow. And even though he prayed for relief from his father, is there any other way?

Nevertheless, he knew he must go to the cross. He must. It was necessary. Why was it necessary? Because of sin. And he must suffer and die. Satan had been running him up for centuries, keeping most of mankind in bondage to sin.

And Jesus comes to Israel, and in this one life, the God-man destroys the works of the devil. And he says from the cross, Tetelestai. It is finished. This is all part of the drama of redemption. Don't ever miss the fact these are real, live, historical events.

They happen. These are real people. It's not just a story from a book. The sacrifice was offered for sin, and the proof that it was accepted and accomplished was the resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead on that third day.

The debt of sin was paid, and the guilt was gone, and the works of the devil destroyed. Charles Hodge, Charles Hodge, making a point in his systematic theology, wants you to really know that these are real events.

He says this, it may be safely asserted that the resurrection of Christ is at once the most important and the best authenticated fact in the history of the world. And the resurrection is what sets Christianity apart from every other system of thought or philosophy.

And that's because Christianity is not just another philosophy. It is the real-life drama of the person of Jesus Christ, and what he did to accomplish redemption. And that is why biblical teaching is not merely presenting ideas and thoughts, but it is the proclamation that Jesus Christ came and accomplished redemption in time and in history.

But I'm not finished yet. For the next hour I'm going to discuss, just kidding. I'm tempted, I'm tempted, but I'm not finished just yet. We have the ascension, which unfortunately is often reviewed as an afterthought.

But it too is very important because it is further proof of the acceptability of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And that he was received back into heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords. And he sat down at the right hand of God the Father.

He rules heaven and earth in his capacity as the God-man. There is a man on the throne in heaven. And because of his work of redemption he is waiting until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

And on the last day he will return to earth to judge the living and the dead. The last enemy to be vanquished is death. Yes, the victory on the cross was decisive. And that victory over the devil is progressive throughout history until the time on the end when the day of judgment it will be complete.

So let us not forget the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. It's an important doctrine. Yes, his work on earth is finished. But he is ruling from his throne overseeing the battles as they rage on earth.

Satan is still roaming about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But he has been bound and that he can no longer keep the gospel from going to the four corners of the world. The Christian remains confident that victory is guaranteed because the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

And we look forward to the day when the church victorious, as the hymn writer says, will be the church at rest. So happy Ascension Day. To the non-Christian, the words of Scripture are true. The fathers were right to call this a drama of redemption.

The gospel is the good news. The good news is that Christ died and rose again to accomplish salvation for all his people. You need do nothing. You just must receive what he has done. Repent of your sin and be saved.

Let's pray.