19. 1 John 3:4-5: "Sin"

1 John 3:1-10 and the Call to Holiness

In your Bibles, once again, to the epistle of 1st John, 1st John chapter 3, we'll be reading verses 1 to 10, focusing on verses 3 and 4 this morning. 1st John chapter 3, starting in verse 1, hear now the inspired word of God.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the 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.

It has not yet appeared 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 has 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, nor the one who does not love his brother. Let's pray. Father, once again, as we prepare to look into Your Word, especially on this important topic, we pray that You would open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, and that as the Word is preached, as Your Word goes forward, that, Father, that just as You have promised, it would accomplish every purpose for which You send it.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, this morning, the topic for the sermon is sin, and you will be relieved to hear I am against it. Now, that was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but in our society today, not everyone is against sin.

We have a city in our nation that is nicknamed Sin City. Now, that nickname is not meant to be a negative, but is meant to draw people to that city. In fact, there's a slogan that accompanies Sin City, What Happens There Stays There.

We can understand that sin is a draw to the unregenerate person, but we find that even in supposed evangelical churches today, sin is being downplayed. Preachers avoid mentioning sin for fear that they'll drive their congregants away, let alone preaching on it.

You're hard-pressed today to find a sermon like Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The attitude in most pulpits today is more like, well, you're not so bad, and God's not so bad.

So go out in the forest and hug a tree, and you'll feel a whole lot better about yourself. You're laughing, but it's true. And after all, I'm okay, and you're okay, because you are something special. Our society as a whole has neglected or whitewashed the reality of sin.

Sin as Lawlessness and the Need for a Biblical Doctrine of Sin

And that brings us to our text for this morning, 1 John chapter 3, look at just verse 4 to begin with. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Now, remember, the overriding purpose of this whole epistle of 1 John is to bring the readers of the letter to full assurance of faith.

In the first two chapters, John accomplishes that by focusing on the joy the believer has in Christ. Remember in chapter 1, verse 4, these things we write so that our joy may be made fuller, be complete.

And of the fellowship that we have with God and with one another is an important topic. In chapter 3, continuing on his purpose of assurance, John moves into describing our relationship to God as his children.

And if you remember, we spent one whole sermon just exploring that glorious truth. What does it mean to be a child of God? And we found that as Christians, as children of God, we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

And that means that everything that Christ has earned by his faithful work is ours due to our relationship to him. And then in verse 3, John picks up the theme of holiness, purity, and righteousness. And we saw last week that holiness or purity is a necessary part of the life of a Christian, not a desirable thing, but a necessary part.

And just as in our day when sin, unrighteousness, is being downgraded, the same thing was true in John's day. And so a few verses later in what we read this morning, John tells us this. Little children, make sure no one deceives you.

And he's talking about this topic. He says the one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, and the devil has sinned from the beginning.

So as we saw last week, holiness or purity is a result of working out doctrine. What you believe affects what you do. And by the way, that's true in both a negative and a positive sense. I want to quote Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones once again.

He said, holiness is a matter of working out what we believe. Therefore, failure in practice does suggest a failure to truly understand doctrine and an indication that there is something essentially and fundamentally wrong with one's view of the Christian life.

That means if you have an unbiblical or a fallacious view of sin, you can expect that to impact your view of salvation and how you live your life. One of my all-time favorite old theologians is J .C. Ryle.

He was a bishop in the Anglican Church several hundred years ago. Listen to his comments on this topic. He says there are very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views of the corruption of human nature.

Wrong views of a disease will always bring with them wrong views of a remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and the cure of that corruption.

Therefore, harmoteology, that's a fancy word for the doctrine of sin, is an essential doctrine. But before we look into how essential this doctrine is, we must first make sure we understand what is sin.

The Nature of Sin: Moral Evil, Guilt, Pollution, and the Heart

Sin, at its heart, at its root, is lawlessness. That's exactly what John says here, and look at verse 4. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. But the Bible says much more about sin.

As a basic definition to start, sin is lawlessness, is a great place to start. But there are at least seven Hebrew words in the Old Testament which are translated sin in our Bibles, and there are at least six Greek words in the New Testament that are translated as sin.

Now just the fact that there are so many words, each with a different nuance, tells us that we must tread carefully in our effort to understand this important doctrine of Scripture. The most familiar Greek word, as I mentioned, is harmoteia, which literally means to miss the mark.

Remember, there is a perfect standard of righteousness and holiness, that is God's law. Failure to live up to that standard in perfection is to miss the mark to sin. And sin must be understood in this moral framework.

Sin is a moral evil. Let me quote from Berkhoff's Systematic Theology textbook. He says, regarding sin, he says, fundamentally, it is not something passive, such as a weakness, a fault, or an imperfection for which we cannot be held responsible, but an active opposition to God and a positive transgression of the law which constitutes guilt.

And he concludes, sin is the result of a free but evil choice of man. Second point about sin is that it has an absolute character. The contrast between good and evil is absolutely absolute. There is no neutrality between the two.

Sin is not a lesser degree of goodness, but a positive evil. Jesus made this point crystal clear when he said to his disciples in Luke chapter 11 verse 23, he who is not with me is against me. There's no neutrality.

And he further described that in Matthew 6, 24 when he said, you cannot serve two masters. You will love one and hate the other, or love the other and hate the other one. So you cannot serve two masters.

Third, sin always has a relationship to God and his will, or you could say to God and his law. What is meant by that is the central demand of the law is very simple, to love God. That's undeniable. That's not open for debate because of the words of Jesus himself.

I know you're all familiar with the Pharisee who was a lawyer who questioned Jesus, and he says, which is the great commandment of the law? And Jesus unequivocally made this statement. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the great and foremost commandment. So given the absolute character of sin that we have just seen, and the fact that the essence of the law is to love God, then moral evil is the opposite of moral goodness.

So moral evil is separation from God, opposition to God. It is hatred of God, and it shows itself in violation of God's law in word, deed, and thought. The fourth concept of sin is that it has a concept of guilt.

Guilt is the state of deserving punishment for the violation of a law or a moral requirement. It includes the concept of the obligation to satisfy justice or to pay the penalty for sin. Every society has some kind of justice system.

Whether it is just or not depends on several things. First, what is the standard of law? What is considered evil in this society? Is the standard a just one? But of course we know that only God's law is perfect, so a society that does not base its standard of justice on God's law is lacking right from the outset.

But second, does the justice system dispense justice fairly and in an equitable manner? But I digress, I could really go off on a tangent there. But sin carries with it the concept of true guilt. Fifth, sin includes the idea of pollution.

The concept of pollution comes out of true guilt, and I mean real guilt, not guilt feelings. Guilt feelings can be very fickle. I can be truly guilty and not feel guilt at all. In my previous profession that happened a lot.

Most people, who, me? I didn't do that. And if I did do it, so what? So I can be truly guilty and not feel guilty, or I can feel guilty when I'm not guilty. A lot of people fall into that category. But Adam's sin brought true guilt, not only for him and Eve, but for all of their descendants as well.

And with that guilt came original pollution, which is where we get our doctrine of total depravity from. And you know that I've said this before, total depravity is my favorite doctrine. It's the only one I live up to perfectly.

Lewis Burkhoff, in his systematic theology, states, original pollution includes two things, namely the absence of original righteousness and the presence of positive evil. Sixth point about sin is it has its seat in the heart.

Of course, you know when the Bible speaks of the heart, it doesn't mean the organ in your chest that pumps blood through your body. In the scripture, the heart is the central organ of the soul. Proverbs 4 .23 says, watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

So we can see the importance. The heart is the center of thinking, according to Proverbs 3 .23 .7, where it cautions us, for as he thinks in his heart, talking about man, as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

The heart is the center of meditation, Deuteronomy 8 .5, thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God, etc., etc. The heart is the center of belief. Romans 10 .9 and 10 makes this crystal clear, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

For with the heart, man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation. We also see in scripture that the heart is the seat of courage. Psalm 27 .14, wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage.

It's the seat of the conscience. When David had cut off Saul's skirt, it says it came afterwards to pass that David's heart smote him. He had a pang of conscience. We also see it's the seat of volition or action.

It's the heart that spurs to action. It's the seat of God's law, Romans 2 .15 says, the work of the law written in their hearts. It is the seat of emotion. Psalm 4 .7, thou hast put gladness in my heart.

The heart is the center. Understanding the effect of sin on the heart is crucial then, when we see how crucial the heart is in theology. It explains why Jeremiah said this, chapter 17, verse 9, the heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? It also explains the radical imagery that God uses in Ezekiel, speaking of the new covenant, where he says in chapter 36, verse 26, he says, moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Seventh, and this is an important point, sin does not consist exclusively in overt acts. Because of the state of man that results from sin, sin is a way of life for mankind. He not only sins in actions, but also in words, in thoughts, and in omissions of things that he ought to do.

James 4 .17, therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin. One more quotation from the systematic theology of Professor Burkoff. He says, in conclusion, it may be said that sin may be defined as the lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposition, or state.

Why Sin Matters for Salvation, the Cross, and Sanctification

Which brings us to the question that I asked early. Why is sin considered an essential doctrine? Why did we spend so much time already this morning just defining what sin is? And the answer is, rather simple.

Because the wrong view of sin leads to wrong views of the remedy for sin. If sin is no big deal, if it can just very easily be wiped away by just a simple prayer or a simple, I'm sorry, then why did Christ come to earth and die?

Why didn't he simply remain in heaven and say, I forgive everybody? Jesus answers that question in his response to the disciples. We read from Luke chapter 24. I love Luke 24. By the time you get to the end of Luke 24, and they say, where's our hearts not burning within us?

As Jesus explained doctrine to them. But he explains why in chapter 24 verse 26, he says, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? That's an important word.

It wasn't just a good idea. It was necessary. Jesus didn't enter humanity on a whim. It was necessary for him to suffer and die for the sins of his people. And this was not the first time he had spoken of the necessity of his death and resurrection.

Remember when he had taken the disciples aside to Caesarea Philippi after, and then Peter confesses, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. The text continues in Matthew 16 verse 21. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the earth and die as elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

It was necessary, Jesus said. Why was this action so dread, this drastic action, why was it necessary? Because of the consequences of sin. Romans 6 .23 says the wages of sin is death. And Romans 3 .23 tells us that all have sinned.

There is no human being who is exempt from this condemnation. Let me put it this way, put it in some sort of context. Suppose you're sitting down and you're ready to eat your favorite meal, whatever that happens to be, whether it's filet mignon, surf and turf, whatever it is.

It just can't be liver. No rational person would have liver as a favorite meal, I'm sorry. I would question their sanity at this point. But you're sitting down prepared for your favorite meal. Your salivary glands are working overtime as the aroma just stimulates the excitement of eating your favorite meal.

And just as you're about to put that first forkful in your mouth, your best friends are going to yell, stop! Don't eat that, it's poisoned. What do you do? Do you stop eating because you believe your best friend is looking out for your very life?

Or perhaps you have some friends like I do that are known for their practical jokes and would pull a stunt just like that. Now you're in a quandary. What you believe to be the truth will determine what you do.

What do you believe about sin? Ask yourself that question right now. What do you believe about sin? Do you believe that sinners will be punished eternally? Do you realize how important this question is?

Another important question related to that is that doctrine must be considered. Sin must be examined in light of the justice of God. If sin is no big deal, if it doesn't offend the character of God, then he could probably simply overlook it.

There's another reason we spend that time examining what sin is. And that's simply this, because it is a big deal. Because it's a transgression of God's holy law and offense to his very character. He cannot have it in his presence.

That is why Jesus said it's necessary that I go to Jerusalem. I must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die and raise again from the dead on the third day. Let me continue examining just how essential this doctrine really is by looking at some of the aspects of the ministry and the work of Jesus Christ.

Look at the incarnation, the virgin birth. Why did Jesus come to earth as a man? Paul answers that question for us in 1 Corinthians 15. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Because of the transgression of the law by our federal head, Adam, the entire human race was subject to death. And the penalty for that sin had to be paid by a man.

But he had to be a perfect man. Hence Jesus had to be that man. No one else could fill that role. Because of sin, Jesus had to come to earth and live a sinless life in order to qualify to be the savior of the world.

So the incarnation was necessary ultimately because of the nature and the character of sin. Let's carry that thought a little further. Why the crucifixion? Why did Christ have to die? Because mankind had to transgress the law of God.

And since God is just, which means his law is just, any transgression of the law was worthy of death. Somebody had to die. Christ died in our place to satisfy the demands of the law of God. And this harkens back to the sinless life once again.

Remember, sin not only wiped away original innocence but gave man original pollution. Even with his sin forgiven, man could not enter heaven. He needed positive righteousness. That is why Christ lived a sinless life.

So his righteousness was imputed to us. So these verses can be assessed the truth of your situation. Let me read them again. 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. Sin is lawlessness. Everyone's a lawbreaker. If you fail to understand those points, you will misdiagnose the situation.

And you're setting yourself up to falling prey to one of the thousands of charlatans out there preaching a false gospel. And just as John warned in the first two chapters of the teaching of Antichrist, that is those who were teaching a false view about the person and the work of Christ, just as dangerous as that is are those who teach false views of sin.

For as we saw earlier, wrong views of sin will always lead to wrong views of the remedy. Just as a wrong view of a medical diagnosis leads to a false cure. So then the next question, what is the true remedy for sin?

And just before I begin, what I'm going to say next, these are not steps to salvation. These are just the biblical doctrines upon which our faith is built. First implication is we need to acknowledge that sin is a transgression of the law of God.

Sin is not insignificant, but undergirds the whole necessity of the ministry of Christ. That's the primary purpose I'm preaching this sermon today, to demonstrate that point. Second, sin must be paid for to satisfy the justice of God.

And the only acceptable penalty is death. There is no forgiveness without it. Hebrews 9 .22, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The Old Testament sacrificial system was designed for that reason, to put it in front of us, somebody had to die.

This shows the seriousness of sin. Third, we've seen that all of mankind are sinners, both by the inherited nature of Adam and by act of choice. Paul, quoting the Old Testament in Romans 3, puts it this way, he says, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.

There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless, there is none who does good, there is not even one. That is bad news. But John's purpose is not to leave us in despair, so he follows verse 4 with verse 5.

He says, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. The only way sin is removed is by the sinless blood of Jesus Christ. The spotless, unblemished Lamb of God gave himself up for the sins of his people.

And what he endured on that cross was unimaginable, for he not only suffered physical and the agonizing death of crucifixion, but he suffered the wrath of God for our sins. As believers, we should never take sin lightly, because it was our sin that put him on that cross.

It was necessary, the only way for us to be saved. That is what we spoke of last week. To understand holiness, you must always look at it in the context of doctrine. When you look at what it is that Christ has done for us, you can begin to understand why he says, you are to be holy, as he is holy.

Or put it in the context of this epistle, verse 3, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. And that leads to my last point from the text, that is to also understand sin in the context of your sanctification.

All too often Christians talk about salvation only in terms of being justified. Yes, I've been saved from hell and I'm bound for glory, and this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. But that is too narrow a view of what Christ has done through his work on the cross.

We know his sacrifice was acceptable because he was raised from the dead. He ascended into heaven and he took the seat at the right hand of God. That's what Hebrews 10 tells us in 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.

And then he sent forth his Holy Spirit to empower his church to accomplish its mission. And we read in Titus chapter 2, verse 13, we are looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

What Paul is saying is salvation is more than just fire insurance. You could put it this way. You're saved from the penalty of sin. It's a one-time deal. You are being saved from the power of sin. And ultimately you will be saved from the very presence of sin.

But in this life, we face trials and trouble because of sin every day. And that's where our sanctification comes in. Paul says in Romans 13, 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust.

Let me just conclude with these final thoughts. Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It's a lie. On Judgment Day, everything will be revealed. Every single sin will be accounted for. If you're a Christian whose sin was taken care of by Jesus Christ on the cross, that should spur you on to holy living.

Remember what John said. Everyone who has this hope fixed in him purifies himself just as he is pure. If you're here today and you're not a believer, if you've seen just how seriously God deals with sin, there's only one course of action for you.

Repent of your sin. Just as we read in the scripture, that if we confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation.

That is my prayer, that every non-believer would confess with their mouth, Jesus is Lord, but for every believer that we would pursue sanctification, pursue holiness, without which no one will see the kingdom of God.

Let's pray.