He Who Takes Away my Sin

Well, it is a wonderful time and the appropriate time to begin to turn our focus onto our preparation for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. We're going to do that today, so I invite you to open your Bibles once again, and let's turn to 1 John 3, beginning in verse 1. 1 John 3, we're going to begin in verse 1, and we're going to ask God to help us today with the power of his Holy Spirit. Today we're going to need that strength, that courage, which is going to be of a particular importance as we come to this portion of Scripture. A portion of Scripture here in 1 John 3, which is known particularly for its difficulty. And it's a difficulty not necessarily in understanding the instruction, but it is a difficulty in fulfilling or realizing the demands that it puts on our lives. Incredible demands come from this passage of Scripture that we come to today. 1 John 3 verse 1. Let's read from verse 1 to verse 9, and let's get right to it and what the Apostle John puts forth to us today. 1 John 3, beginning in verse 1, he writes, 2 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know when he is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Whoever commits sin commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Now listen to these next four verses. Verse 6, whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. Let's stop there. Well, it is a challenging passage that we come to this afternoon, and I'd like to begin by reminding us whom John is speaking to here. It's important to know the context, first and foremost, that he is writing. And what we find is that John is confronting directly the so-called spiritual leaders of his day, who had spoken about sin so as to encourage those who were following Christ to believe somehow or another that sin was really a matter of indifference.

These false teachers would put forth and encourage the followers of Jesus to believe that once you have become in Christ, then it really doesn't matter too much about sin.

And these false teachers would put forth the erroneous teaching that your sins have been dealt with—past, present, and future. This is what they would falsely teach. And again, this is to whom John is confronting and correcting. We see this confrontation in this group to whom John is writing. We actually see this at the beginning of his letter here. Let's just turn back there for a moment.

First John chapter 1 verse 5 and 6. If you'll turn back just a few chapters here and see this just for a moment, right from the beginning of this letter, John comes out and addresses this false notion, this false teaching. We see this here. 1 John 1 verse 5 and 6. John says this, this, he writes, is the message which we have heard from him, that's Jesus Christ, and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Let's stop there. So again, this is the type of thinking that John is confronting here and seeking to correct. And he writes to God's people at that time, and he says, once you've entered into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, it absolutely matters how you walk. Absolutely. And in a really, a very real sense, when you come to 1 John 3, you begin to see a lot of parallels with some of the other writings.

We won't turn there, but one of the most direct parallels you'll find, if you wanted to put this down in your notes, is Romans chapter 6, Romans 6, where we had the very familiar passage and recording that Paul is going to speak about grace and sin, and the question emerges from the group there.

Well, what shall we do then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And Paul's answer we find out? No! And he says, certainly not. Absolutely not. After we've come into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, after we've entered into that relationship with God the Father through Christ, Paul and all the other writers, and particularly John here, writes all the same.

Again, if you go back to 1 John 3, 6, simply stated, 1 John 3, 6, again, simply stated, whoever abides in Christ does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him or known him. So John's establishing this undeniably, that if Jesus Christ came and manifest himself to take away sin, that's verse 5, you know, verse 5 again, he says, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins.

And then the second part of verse 8, look at this very direct comment. Second part of verse 8 again, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Okay? This is undeniable. Once this relationship has been entered into with the very blood of Jesus Christ, from that point on, John's argument is it's inconceivable that someone in Christ would continue to tolerate or even ignore sin. Okay? This is the argument. And it's very clear, it's very logical, it's very straightforward, it's very black and white. We're going to see here today that John does not paint in gray. There is no gray on his in his palette.

It is, it's two colors, black and white. That's what John paints with. And we're going to see that there's almost a, there's really a two-fold argument here. The first half of the argument we will see is in verse three through seven. And then the second half of the argument is verse eight and nine. So first half, three through seven, second half, eight and nine.

Where he, verses eight and nine, he's going to repeat basically the same argument, but he's going to wrench it up a little bit. He's going to tighten the screws. But John begins here the basis of his first argument again here in verse three, where he says, in everyone, verse three, who has this hope in him does what? Purifies himself, just as he is pure. So this is the argument. Everyone who has this hope, what hope? What hope? Well, verse two. Verse two, everyone who has this hope of becoming and being a child of God. That's our hope.

Everyone who has that hope of one day being revealed to be like him, what John is putting forth is for those who are hoping for this return, and those who have an expectation to be like him, it's absolutely nonsensical for that individual who displays that hope to still persist in sin, sin which signifies rebellion against the one you're hoping for.

Okay? That's it. This is the argument. Again, everyone who hopes for the appearing of Jesus Christ logically and requirement to do so purifies himself, just as Jesus Christ is pure.

So, Joe or Mary, here you are, no one here, generic Joe and generic Mary, Joe and Mary who are displaying a life, a pattern of life of willful, persistent sin, at the same time maintaining their hoping for the return of Jesus Christ, John's argument is that doesn't make sense. It doesn't work that way. Why? Why does that not line up? Well, verse four and five. It's because of the absolute contrast between sin and Jesus Christ. They're total opposition to one another. Verse four, again, whoever commits sin commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. Verse five, and you know that he, Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. So this is the great contrast. This is the contrast between Jesus Christ and sin in this way. The one we're hoping for in return kept the law perfectly. He fulfilled the law in that way. He gave us that example. And he tells the Pharisees, I did not come to destroy the law. I did not come to destroy it. I came to fulfill it. I came to keep it perfectly in my existence here on earth. And he left, and he gave us the power of his Holy Spirit so that we might take on that same commission, the same responsibility, and move forward as his example.

So as verse three referred to, we got the return of Jesus Christ. This is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And with that return, there is absolutely implications for the believer. If we're hoping for that return and we know it's going to come, that changes us fundamentally today. It changes everything. You can't just simply say you're looking forward to it. How will we know, how will everyone know that your hope is in the one who's going to return? And that you're hoping for his return? I'll tell you, it's not what you say, per se. It's not that you say, I'm hoping for his return. It is what you do. Let your life tell it. Let your life tell it. If you're really looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ, let your life tell it. Don't say you're hoping for a sinless Savior, all the while living in persistent sin. They do not go together. The mission of Jesus was plainly and clearly stated here. He was manifested to take away sin. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Those two things. And that makes sense. Well, when Jesus Christ came around the corner and John the Baptist sees him, what did John the Baptist say? He says, Behold, the Lamb of God who does what? Who takes away the sin of the world. And I got to tell you, it's not merely the penalty of sin, which is death. That's a huge aspect of it. But he came to take away sin from your life to destroy the work of the devil in your life today. By the way, that scripture of John the Baptist is John 1.29. If you'd like to write that down for your notes, John 1.29. So we can't miss this. We can't, particularly with our focus on Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread, we can't say, Oh, yeah, I know that. He came to take away sins. Yeah, I get that. We have to really, really believe it. We have to believe it. And you might think that everyone believes this, but it's not the case. The fact that he came for this purpose, it is actually a great stumbling block for men and women. And in fact, it's actually foolishness for many men and women. Did you know that the fact that Jesus Christ came and manifests Himself here and died to take away the sin from the world and to destroy the works of the devil, did you know that that fact is a great stumbling block and is actually foolishness to many men and women today. It is true. And it makes sense if you think about it.

If you don't recommend it, I do it from time to time just to see what message is being preached. But if you turn on to the mainstream Christianity message that's being put forth, it is not the gospel that we see in Scripture. It is not necessarily the example of Christ that's a stumbling block. People will acknowledge, most people acknowledge, Jesus Christ was a good example. It's not the miracles that Jesus Christ performed that's a great stumbling block. People can get behind that. It is the fact that Jesus Christ died because of sin, confronting men and women in their sins. That's the great stumbling block. That's the great offense. And it's because man and women do not want to stand before Christ's crucifixion. They don't want to stand before it. It's a stumbling block and it's foolishness to them. In fact, Scripture says this very thing. If you want to keep your marker here in 1 John, we'll come right back. But let's just take a moment to turn over to 1 Corinthians 1 verses 21-23.

You see this fact repeated throughout Scripture. Here's one of the the primary places that we see it. 1 Corinthians 1 verses 21-23. It is the fact that Jesus Christ came to take away sins by his crucifixion. That fact is what men and women do not want to hear. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 21. Paul writes here, For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God through their wisdom. It pleased God though through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. So there is a foolish message that's being preached. Verse 22, verse 22, For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom.

But we, Paul says, we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, it's a stumbling block, and to the Greeks it's foolishness. Let's stop there. So again, they do not want to hear a message about Christ crucified. The Jews want to demand miraculous signs. The Greeks are looking for wisdom.

They would have been fine with Paul. You know, give us some miracles, Paul. We can get behind that. Or Paul, why don't you, you know, you're an educated, bright man. Why don't you wow us with some wise words. We'd love to hear that. But Paul says, in a sense, I could bring you those things through God's power. But forget all that. Forget that stuff. Jews demand miraculous signs. Greeks demand wisdom. But he says, what do we preach? We preach Christ crucified. And what happens? When that's preached, it's a stumbling block, and it's foolishness to many. Same today. Same today. You go out and you talk about the Passover, Christ's death for our sins. And then you go out and talk about the Days of Unleavened Bread, our response to that sacrifice, where we put our focus on eliminating sin from our lives. And people will say, that is foolish. That's quite foolishness. And they will even say, today, they'll say, that's offensive. That's offensive. You can talk about Christ's example. You can talk about his love. I don't mind all of that. But I don't want to hear that he came to take away sin. I don't want to be confronted by that fact. It's an offense. I don't want to stand before Christ crucified. You see, that convicts me. And so, with that, you will find the majority of preaching from the world's pulpits, they have diluted what sin is. They've diluted the gospel. And the gospel and sin is really an absence of self-esteem. You turn on the radio station just for a short bit. You will find this. Sin is really just an absence of self-esteem. You know, you're not going to feel good about yourself. And they will say, the false gospel, here's a way to feel good about yourself. And the gospel is simply to them, this is a way to feel good about yourself. And the world says, that's a great message. I feel good about myself. But the true gospel is not that. The true gospel is Christ crucified. It begins there.

And the true gospel is sin destroys everything. And we're going to have to turn from it before we'll ever feel good about ourselves. And that the immediate response to the Passover is the days of unleavened bread, where God commands us to come together during these seven days to get rid of all that that Jesus had to die for. And to help Him fulfill in us the reason He was manifested, which was to destroy the works of the devil. It starts with us. But again, to most of mankind, it's a stumbling block and foolishness. But this is the truth that John's expounding and all the other writers. Going back to 1 John 3 verse 5, if you'll turn back there, 1 John 3 verse 5, there's a, I believe there's a big question which emerges for us here in verse 5. I think it's a big question for you and I. 1 John 3 again, verse 5.

Again, here it is. And you know, so he's speaking to God's people, you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. So the big question which I think emerges from verse 5 for us today is if Jesus Christ came to take away sin, the question is then, has He taken away my sin? Has He taken away your sin?

You're the only one that can answer that this afternoon. Has He taken away your sin? Has He destroyed the works of the devil in your life? Do you know what it is to not be continually at the mercy of this sinful behavior and habitual behavior, continually defeated? Do you know what it is to have victory, progress, real progress, to be a reality of your life? Has He taken sin away from your life?

You might ask, how will I know? That's a good question. How will I know if this is being fulfilled in my life? Well, I think the answer comes to us here in verse 6 and 7. We have a logical deduction here in verse 6 and 7 where John writes here, whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

So to the question, has He taken sin from my life? I think it could be found in a couple of words here. First, it's found in the abiding, verse 6, and then perhaps the practicing in verse 7. In other words, the evidence will be in our daily abiding, in our daily practicing. That's what He's saying here, our daily actions and activity.

How are we abiding in righteousness? What are we practicing on a daily basis?

So the evidence that He's taken away our sin, the evidence that He's destroying the works of the devil, is in our daily habitual behavior. And in that behavior, we reveal ourselves to be in Christ or not. In that daily habitual behavior, we reveal whether we truly know Him or we truly see Him or not. It's in our daily abiding and practicing. If you continue in habitual sin, you neither have seen Him and you do not know Him. So let's take the full force of this. Let's take the full force of this message from John here. If a sinless Jesus Christ came expressly to take away my sin, how can sin be ignored by anyone who truly knows Christ? If He came to eradicate sin, how can an individual say, I'm in Christ at the same time tolerating sinful behavior? This is what John's putting forward. This is the gospel. This is Christ crucified. That's all we're reading about today. That's all we're putting forth. So there's no soft pedaling this. So we hold up these verses to ourselves and we ask ourselves, do I know Him? Have I truly seen Him? And these implications are chilling here. Again, and I'll tell you, 1 John 3.6 presents as a chilling of a challenge in our spiritual life as any verse in all the Bible. I believe that. So this is what John is putting forth here. And he summarizes there this first part of his argument there in verse 7. Simply, verse 7, he who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. It's Jesus Christ. In other words, do what is right. You will know Jesus Christ and you will truly be in Him. If you say, I am in Christ and remain in sin, you call into question that profession. That's simply the message here.

Okay, so that brings us to verse 8 here. And what we could say, I believe, is kind of a second half of his argument and where he's going to reiterate his argument, but he's now going to ratchet it up a little bit. And you're going to say, I thought he's already ratcheted it up. Well, no, just wait.

There's more. There's more, as they say. He's about to turn the screws a little bit more on his readers. This is how important it is. This is how important these days are that we're about to observe. Quite a dramatic statement here in verse 8, where he says, verse 8, He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. I stopped there. So very black and white. I told you. He's got no gray in his portrait here that he's painting. Those words, he who sins is of the devil. That's quite a statement here. Again, know how important it is that John is confronting this confusion. He's confronting this unbelief. He's confronting a society who's playing loose with God's law. And he says, listen, he who does what is sinful. Let me just state it as plainly as I can. That sinful behavior is behavior of the devil. Plain talk, you know. And I was sitting and meditating on this. You know, every time I put forth sinful behavior, the question, another question, came to my mind. Who am I pleasing? Who's rejoicing when I go back to my persistent habitual sinful behavior? Well, it's a chilling thought. But we're pleasing Satan in those moments. He's the one rejoicing when a son or daughter of God returns back to that life before they were a son or daughter.

When a child of God habitually participates in this kind of behavior, in sinful behavior, that the Savior came to destroy, who is rejoicing? So again, for the child of God, this is very heart-wrenching. It's a heart-wrenching thought that we could be participants in that which Jesus Christ died for and came to destroy. So here we are. Here we are. And we have the truth of God. And we hold our lives up to these verses. He who does what is sinful is the devil. So these are the questions. Who do I belong to in those moments? It's a dreadful question here. I told you this. There's some difficulty. There's some difficulty in this message. But you'll notice here in verse 8, John points out that this evil activity of the devil, it can be traced back to the very beginning. He says here in verse 8, "...he who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning." And we know this. The Bible, of course, lays out that the great fall of Lucifer and Satan, the devil, who turned to darkness and away from God and set war against those who would become the children of God. That's you and I. The devil was a murderer, father of all lies.

I think that's an important statement here that John brings out here, because we cannot trace the origins of our sin simply back to, or merely back to, environmental factors.

I say that because as we are journeying and focusing on putting sin out of our lives, I know I've been through this journey. And very often, as I'm thinking about my sin and thinking about my past experiences, I will just unintentionally, understandably, but unintentionally assign it to individuals who treated me poorly. I'll assign it, my assign my sin to this experience I went through. And this is why I am who I am today. And there actually is some truth in that. There was a participation in environmental participation and people participation in many ways bringing us to today. Many of our habitual sins can be traced back to childhood occurrences.

But what John is pointing out to out here is, no, I want you to go past assigning sin just to those individuals. I want you to go really back and assign it to the real sin originator. And it's Satan the devil. And it's a great exercise because what will happen is you'll begin to forgive. You'll begin to release some of this debt that you've assigned to individuals. And rather, you'll assign it to the original sin maker, Satan the devil. And it allows you to forgive all these people because you know they have been ultimately they have had their claws of Satan in them as well. And they're just passing it on. And it's our responsibility to look past the individuals, forgive them, release them from any bitterness or unforgiveness, and go back further and know this battle that we're fighting is not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities and spiritual evil forces, all beginning with Satan the devil. There's a great release in that, in these words, that this being, Satan the devil, has sinned from the beginning. He embodies sin. He's the originator of what we are practicing. Satan has been behind it all and orchestrated it all.

But as chilling and as seemingly defeating as verse 8 is, we might be feeling kind of in the depths here. Often you'll find this in Scripture. It'll bring you to what seems hopeless and then all of a sudden the Scripture just gives you all the hope in the world. And that's what's given to us in verse 9. Look at verse 9. Verse 9 introduces us to the solution, to the victory, if you will, as chilling and seemingly defeating as verse 8 is. Here's verse 9. Here's verse 9.

Whoever, here it is, has been born of God, does not sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he's been born of God. So just as verse 8 introduces us to this, the real battle, the supernatural battle that's beyond us that we're dealing with, verse 9 introduces us to the counter and a more powerful solution here. John wants us to know in verse 9 that we have access to the power of the One who's already overcome and has already had victory over the original center. And that power, that seed, the power of the Holy Spirit, is in you. If you're a baptized member into the body of the Church of God, you have the power to fulfill that which Jesus Christ came, and that is to destroy the works of the devil in your life today. Today. While we know that the ultimate birth is going to come at Jesus Christ's return, we know ultimately that's our ultimate birth when we enter into God's family. The Scripture says, and John told us earlier, you are children of God now, today, and the destroying of the devil's work begins today. Today. In fact, keep your marker here. We're just going to turn over a few chapters. John goes into this a little bit. Go to 1 John 5, verse 18 and 20. We are now the children of God, and we can have this fulfilled in our life today. Look at 1 John 5, and we're going to begin in verse 18 through 20. So today, this begins, until that culmination of the gift of eternal life, given at Christ's return. Here it is. 1 John 5, verse 18 through 20. He continues here, John does. We know, he writes, 1 John 5, 18, that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. There's the contrast. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may know him who is true, and that we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal life. Okay? So let's stop there. So we, with the power of the Holy Spirit going down into those baptism waters and coming up and having our hands laid upon us, asking for the Holy Spirit to be bestowed, we now are the children of God. And today we can know him in this way, and we can know the reality of him putting away sin and destroying the works of the devil in our life. Again, the ultimate birth will come at Christ's return, but we can have this purpose fulfilled in our life today. With the seed, the Holy Spirit, we are now the children of God. And we can be kept from the evil one.

There, the second part of verse 18 again, he who has been born of God keeps himself. God keeps himself. And the wicked one does not touch him. It's a wonderful truth, that Holy Spirit residing in us today. So we now today have the power to reject Satan and his simple influence today. We can make progress, real progress. Will we ever be sinless? No. But we can be destroying the works of the devil more and more every year. Every year. So going back to 1 John 3 9, back to 1 John 3 9, we understand why John paints this canvas in black and white. And we understand now that he can paint in black and white in this way. Because we have the power of the one who makes it possible. Again, 1 John 3 9, whoever's been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him. He cannot sin because he's been born of God. That's just, it is unequivocal. It's just black and white here. We have God's seed, his power, the Holy Spirit, the power that's already defeated the devil. We understand at his death, his crucifixion, and at his resurrection, with the power of Passover, the power of Passover, Jesus Christ came and had victory over the devil, and his seed is in us today. God's children can have victory over Satan the devil. It's a wonderful truth. You can have, you can be radically transformed away from sinful activity because God's seed remains in you. And that breaks the power of sin. And we can live in righteousness. And we can then live in all of the hope of his return, when one day it'll be revealed that we are like him forever. Well, there you have it. Simply stated, incredibly challenging, and a powerful message by John here to us. If Jesus Christ came to take away sin and destroy the works of the devil, will you believe that you have access to this power today? Bow your head to God in preparation for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Have him strengthen that spirit in you. Ask him to give you an extra measure of it, to overcome some of these things that have had a hold on us for so long. Ask him to take away that sin. Ask him to destroy the works of the devil in your life. And you will see that he does so, and it will be to all of his glory. So may this power be ever increasing in your life, and let's call upon the one today, the one who takes away sin from the world.