P.M. Sermon
Spring Hill, TN
2/10/07 p.m.
Series: “Discovering the Holy Spirit” (Pt. 4)
Text: 1 John 3:9
Summary: In PART 4, of this series, we explore what it means to be born of God and led by His Spirit (a helpful resource from which I gained considerable insight in this sermon was Gus Nichols Lectures on the Holy Spirit page 19-38. Much of this material is directly outlined from brother Nichols).
“Born of God—Led by the Spirit”
Introduction:
A. Series Review:
1. Continuing our series “Discovering the Holy Spirit” we are going to investigate a passage of Scripture that is a rather difficult passage that many have misunderstood.
2. The passage directly relates to the previous lesson in this series (“Born of the Spirit”).
3. We discovered in the last lesson that the Spirit works through the use of a MEDIUM in the conversion process. We are born of the spirit when we obey the message of the GOSPEL (cf. John 3:5; 1 Pt. 1:23).
4. Being BORN AGAIN by obeying the SPIRIT’S MESSAGE, we thus become children of God who are led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14).
B. “Born of God”
1. But notice carefully this passage of Scripture from the King James Version: 1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
2. John continues in the next verse to demonstrate that this is what separates the children of God from the children of the devil.
3. Every man shows what he is by the life that he lives.
I. LEAVING THE “SINNING BUSINESS”
A. Repentance and the new birth
1. Jesus purpose in coming to the world was to get us out of the “sinning business.”
2. Notice the statement of Peter, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19, NKJV).
3. What does it mean to “repent?” The word means “a change of mind for the better, heartily to amend, with abhorrence of one’s past sins” (Thayer).
4. Repentance then is a dramatic change of mind, change of heart, and change of life where one purposes in his heart to get away from sinning; to leave the willful practice and habit of sin.
5. Jesus did not simply come to provide us with “forgiveness of sins” but he came to CONVERT us to a different way of life so that we would stop sinning.
6. If this were not so, then heaven would be populated with unconverted people who love sin and revel in it; heaven would be nothing more than an elevated devil’s hell (Nichols 19).
7. Therefore, our SPIRIT’S must be RE-BORN and converted so that we are turned away from the business of sinning.
B. The soul is changed at conversion
1. Listen carefully to this next statement: Do you realize that ALL the CHANGE that your SPIRIT will ever receive must be received IN CONVERSION and in the life lived as a Christian on earth? (Nichols 20).
2. God had instructed us to become like Christ in THIS LIFE, and not wait until the resurrection.
3. Certainly the Bible teaches that we will have a miraculous change OF BODY at the resurrection (Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:50ff).
4. However, the SOUL must make its CHANGE NOW! The soul gets its change in conversion and in growing in the graces of the Christian life. We get our soul’s ready for heaven by the continual process of conversion while we live here!
5. We must continually be “transformed by the renewing of our mind” (Rom. 12:1-2).
6. As Gus Nichols once observed, “If you are expecting some great miraculous change to take place in your soul and make it fit for heaven when Jesus comes, you have been deceived” (21).
C. The gospel is the power used to convert
1. The whole reason that Jesus came to the earth was to prepare our spirits for heaven.
2. God had placed us upon this earth just long enough for us to make preparation for eternity.
3. By your life today, you are deciding where you will be billions upon billions of years from now.
4. Jesus came to save us from our sin and free us from the love of sin and break our minds from the willful practice of it.
5. He came to get us out of the sinning business.
6. What is the means that God has used to accomplish this feat? To get us out of the sinning business?
7. God is all-powerful and there is nothing beyond his ability. God has miraculous powers of creation (Gen. 1:1).
8. But there is at least one thing God cannot do, and that is go back on his word (cf. Heb. 6:18).
9. God has made clear the MEANS by which he would CONVERT and PURSUADE the hearts of men; God chose to focus his POWER in a single focused way to get men out of the sinning business—“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).
10. God chose to use his POWER in the means of a message to save mankind, and he will not go back on his word and use other means.
11. God used his POWER to communicate this message BY THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT through inspired men who penned the Scriptures (cf. 2 Pt. 1:21).
12. It is the GOSPEL, the message of the SPIRIT that is the POWER OF GOD used to CONVERT the hearts of men to a new way of living.
13. If the preaching of the word of the Spirit does not change your SPIRIT now, then it will not be changed one whit by heaven. If you don’t love to sing and pray to God now, you will not love it if you were in heaven.
II. LEAVING “WILFUL SIN”
A. Understanding a difficult text
1. To properly understand any biblical passage we must read it in light of all other revelation from God in his word (this is especially true when trying to understand difficult texts).
2. The text we are considering (1 John 3:9) says, “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.”
3. The key to understanding this verse lies in the meaning of the word “commit.”
4. The Greek tense of this verb is present indicative and it means to “practice” as it is translated in the NASB.
5. The teaching of the text is that the person who is born of God does not “practice” a sinful lifestyle.
6. A person who is truly converted must “wave goodbye” to the old world (cf. Rom. 6:6; illustration of Noah leaving the old world).
7. A person has never truly been converted until he has repenting, leaving the old world behind.
8. Brother Gus Nichols explained it well:
“Many people get nothing but a wetting when they are baptized. They go down into the water dry and come up wet. That is the only change they get. They go right on living the same old life, telling the same lies over again and again, committing adultery and stealing and defrauding and being dishonest and hating, hating God and the Bible and showing their contempt by the very lives that they willfully live and by continuing on in their willful and purposeful practices of sin itself. They’re in the sinning business and they’re not born of God and John is telling us that when he says ‘whosoever is born of God doth not practice sin.’ If you say you are born of God and are the same old sinner still, you are not born of God” (28-29).
B. Standing against sin
1. The person who is born of God will make a strong stand against sin, in all of its forms.
2. Unfortunately, some Christians say that they are against sin, that is until someone speaks out against their “pet sin.”
3. If we have “pet sins” that we harbor in our hearts then we are willful sinners and are not born of God.
4. The Bible clearly teaches that one who willfully practices even ONE sin is going to hell if he does not repent of it and leave it behind.
5. Someone no doubt will object, “You are claiming we have to be perfect!”
6. Not at all. In this same letter John addresses Christians (those born of God) and says that if “anyone says he has no sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him” (John 1:8).
7. But there is a DIFFERENCE in occasional sin and in CONTINUING in willful sin.
8. If a person’s heart says, “Lord, I’ll give up all my sins but my alcohol, I’m not going to give that up,” or “I’ll give up all my sins except adultery,” that person has not repented and is not converted and is deluded if he thinks he is a child of God (Nichols 30).
9. The person who has been converted (born of God) does not PRACTICE sin; he has turned away from the love of sin.
10. Not only did Jesus come to FORGIVE us of our past sins, but he also came to CLEANSE us from the desire to sin (1 John 1:7).
C. Leaving the purpose to sin behind
1. I am saddened when I hear men lead public prayers and ask God to forgive us of our “many, many sins;” or they confess to God that “we sin daily.”
2. Is this the way that Christians “born of God” should pray?
3. Are we such willful sinners that we are actually sinning everyday? Are we sinning between the opening and closing prayers that we need to ask God’s forgiveness again?
4. It seems that many of us have bought into the idea that we can be WILLFUL SINNERS and still be Christians born of God. This is a tragic and even blasphemous unbiblical concept.
5. Denominational preachers sometimes accuse the church of Christ of teaching the doctrine that you are saved this moment and the next moment you are lost and need to pray for forgiveness again.
6. Do we need to continually ask God in every prayer to “forgive me of my many, many sins?”
7. The person who is truly “born of God” does not continue in such willful sin!
8. The Christian is walking in the light of God, having fellowship with Jesus, and is being continually cleansed by his blood (1 John 1:7).
9. The person “born of God” is on his way to heaven because he hates sin (his own sin) and has left the continual practice of such behind and is trusting in God to continually keep him justified and saved by Jesus blood.
Conclusion:
A. Illustration: Taking Piano Lessons
1. Imagine a little child taking her first piano lessons.
2. She says to herself, “I want to play perfectly” and every time she sits before the piano she does her best.
3. While the teacher listens, she knows that the girl has made an awful mess of the musical piece she attempts to play.
4. However, the teacher gives the girl a grade of “100” because she did her best.
B. Well, Done Faithful Servant
1. At the final Judgment God is not going to say, “Well, done good and PERFECT servant. You have been PERFECT over a few things, I’ll make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joys of the Lord.”
2. Thanks be to God that our Bibles don’t read that way!
3. For the person “born of God” who has left the continual practice of willful sin behind, the mercy and forgiving grace of God keeps us saved on our way to heaven. Amen and Amen!
4. If lightening were to strike you this morning, and you had not prayed to God in the last day, what about it?
5. You would go to heaven because you hate sin and hate the sinning business and are not willfully living in sin.
6. You see, the person “born of God” is a totally changed person, a new creature.
7. It does not mean that he is sinlessly perfect, but it does mean that he hates sin and is always trying to get away from sin (even when he stumbles) and is no longer living in rebellion to God.
8. Are you truly “born of God” or are you living in willful sin?
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