Christ the Destroyer - Tim Conway

Okay.

The first thing that I want

to point out to you here is this:

I cut my teeth as a Christian

when I was saved back in 1990,

the greater part of the first ten years

of my life as a Christian,

I read from the King James Version.

And I just want you to know

that the King James Version

and the New King James Version

in these verses sounds a
whole lot more absolute

than what we just read in the ESV.

Now listen to these verses.

I'm going to quote to you

from the New King James

which is very similar to the King James.

But in 1 John 3:6,

the New King James reads this way:

"Whoever abides in Him does not sin."

Period.

"Whoever sins has neither seen Him

nor known Him."

Again, the New King James in 1 John 3:8.

"He who sins is of the devil."

Again, 1 John 3:9,

"Whoever 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."

Now look, we have to be honest,

and we have to admit -

let me just clarify something.

When the King James Version

and the New King James Versions

translate those verses that way,

they are not doing any sort of injustice

to the original.

They are translating that faithfully.

And I think we all have to admit,

when we take those verses

at literal face value,

honestly, it definitely sounds like

it's teaching Christian perfection.

I mean, we just have to be honest with it.

Like I say, the New King
James Version right there,

it is not doing injustice to the passages.

When it says this - listen to it again -

"Whoever has been born of God

does not sin."

It's not doing injustice,

and yet we have to admit,

we do have to admit

that if we take it,

the English words as spoken by the KJV

or the New KJV, we have to admit,

it sounds like Christian perfectionism.

It sounds like that.

Right?

And you will readily notice

if you read from the ESV

that these verses do not sound

so absolute as they do in the KJV.

Think about it again.

1 John 3:6,

"No one who abides in Him

keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning

has either seen Him or known Him."

1 John 3:8, "Whoever makes a practice..."

You see, the ESV is throwing in

"keeps on" and "makes a practice..."

1 John 3:9, "No one born of God

makes a practice of sinning.

For God's seed abides in him.

He cannot keep on sinning

because he's been born of God."

Now look, most of the old commentators

who used the King James Version

to lead us away from any idea

of Christian perfectionism,

to avoid any notion

that John was absolutely teaching us

that when you get saved,
you no longer sin.

To avoid that, they always made it a point

to emphasize that the
verbs in these verses

are in the present tense.

And here's the thing,

in Greek when you have
a present tense verb,

it implies a continuous ongoing action.

The ESV translators have simply sought

to make these verses clearer

by bringing that out,

which that as well is being faithful

to what tense verbs we find here.

And the ESV translators

have just sought to bring that clarity

that John is not saying
Christians never sin.

The idea is they don't continue

in a habitual practice of sin.

And that's very helpful for avoiding

any suggestion of perfectionism.

I mean, brethren, I don't know about you,

but reading "whoever has been
born of God does not sin,"

where does that put you all?

Taken in the literal sense, face value,

those words in English,

what does that do for all of you?

Does that excite you a whole lot?

"Oh, yeah, that gives me assurance!"

"Boy, I'm in there!"

I don't think it does.

It's pretty unsettling

if we're going to be honest.

Certainly, it's not only unsettling,

it's absolutely untrue if taken

in the strict literal sense
of these English words.

Of course, those who are born again

or are born of God can sin.

John himself says so.

I mean, if you just remember back

in 1 John 2:1, we remember, he says,

"My little children, I'm writing
these things to you."

They're little children.
They're Christians.

"I'm writing these things to you
that you may not sin,

but if anyone does sin..."

He's certainly allowing the fact

that Christians can sin.

Stressing the present, continuous action

of these verbs like the ESV does

is very helpful.

"No one born of God

makes a practice of sin."

Now, brothers and sisters,

although the way the ESV expresses this

might help us to see
that John is not saying

true Christians are perfect and don't sin.

Even though it's helpful to see that,

I think we need to be sure that we do see

what John is saying.

I mean, if there's any
portion of Scripture

that ought to seriously elevate

our ideas about what God's
salvation looks like,

it's these.

Being born of God puts
us on another plane.

I hope you see that.

We're elevated way above

and beyond the rest of mankind.

Look, some people come along

and they just dismiss their sin

assuming that what really matters

is that I'm a Christian.

What really matters is that I'm saved,

but you know, how sin
works out and all that

it really doesn't matter
because if I'm saved,

then it really doesn't matter

whether there's sin there or not.

But John tells us: beware.

That's what he's saying here.

Don't let anybody deceive you. Why?

Because this is a point that
a lot of people get deceived.

Because your sin does matter.

And your sin is every bit an evidence

of exactly whether or not

you do belong to the family of God

or whether you don't
belong to the family of God.

John tells us to beware
of heresy concerning sin

just as much as you want to

beware of heresies concerning

who the Person of Christ is.

We must submit our
views honestly to Scripture.

Brethren, if there's any
verses in Scripture

we need to come face to face with -

be honest -

I mean, these are it.

This is very defining.

We must face Scripture honestly

and examine ourselves in light of it.

So, I mean, let me ask you all.

Have you sat down with these verses

and really wrestled with them?

Have you looked them straight in the face?

Have you wrestled with
what John says here?

And if you have,

what does it say to you?

I mean, how do these verses bear on you?

How does it leave you?

You know why I ask that?

You know, as I'm reading these verses,

you know what is jumping
out at me all the time?

You know what it is I hear John
in the background saying?

See, I've read 1 John a lot of times

and I know what comes after.

And you know, one of the things

that John says as he's
finishing out this letter?

It's in 1 John 5:13.

It's not far away from where you are.

Why don't you look at 1 John 5:13.

Do you remember this?

"I write these things..." What things?

The things in this letter,

like 1 John 3:4-10.

"I write these things to you

who believe in the name
of the Son of God..."

For this reason:

"...that you may know

that you have eternal life."

John says, "No one born of God

makes a practice of sinning."

John looks at you and says,

"No one born of God..."

No one who's a true Christian

makes a practice of sinning.

Don't you feel all sorts of
wonderful assurance from that?

That's what he's saying here.

And I've thought pastorally,

verses like these mess people up.

And yet, John is looking at this

with the wisdom of God and he's saying,

oh no, no, this is meant
to give you assurance,

not to mess people up.

This is meant to give you assurance.

But is this what happens?

I mean, we need to take Scripture

and bring it down to reality

where we live,

how we think.

Is this what it does for us?

Is that what these verses do?

I mean, look, if I say to you right now,

okay, let's just stop.

Let's just stop. Put this service on hold.

I'm going to step down
from the pulpit right now

and I'm going to sit down in that chair,

and I want us all to think

and look at this straight in the face.

"He who abides in Christ..."

They practice righteousness.

"No one who abides in Christ

keeps on sinning."

"Whoever makes a practice of sinning

is of the devil."

"No one born of God makes
a practice of sinning."

No one.

And I sit down there and I say,

brethren, just meditate on this

for the next five minutes.

Reflect.

Where are you at?

Brethren, if I did that,

what would happen in this room?

I mean, I come back up to the pulpit

and I say,

okay, John gave that so that
the true Christians here

would be flooded with assurance.

Hopefully so that those

who had false professions

would just be exposed
and know it on the spot.

"Oh, I'm not saved!"

And all the saved would say,

"Oh, I know I'm saved!

And I'm more encouraged and confident

and sure of that than
I've ever been in my life."

But I would ask you,

what would happen
during that five minutes

as the truth of this
entered into our minds?

Is every true Christian going to be

full of assurance?

And is it going to destroy
the false assurance

in all the rest?

Is it going to leave the Christians

more confident than ever

and undeceive the deceived?

Is that what's going to happen?

And I would say perhaps not.

Why?

Because I've used these verses.

And here's the kind of response

that I see come from people.

For one, brethren, even the best of us,

even the holiest among us

have enough sin in our lives

that answering this is difficult.

That's one thing.

You know what else I find?

I find some people that look at this

and they just say

the standard's too high.

I mean, it's just too far out there.

And so you know what they do?
They just dismiss it.

Well, it can't really be what
it sounds like it's saying.

I just dismiss it.

Or just ignore it.

"I like Romans 7 better.

I'm going to ignore that."

"Wretched man that I am."
Yeah, I like that better.

That's what some people do.

Or, I find that some people

with overly sensitive consciences -

true children of God -

they just freeze.

This just paralyzes them.

Or you know what I find some people do?

Some people that are
these "carnal" Christians?

The people in our midst that are always

trying to justify their
Christian liberties.

You know what people like that do?

They want to know,

well, when do you cross
over practicing sin?

And so they take all their sins

and all their carnality and worldliness,

and they want to put in the scales

and somehow say, yeah, but the indicator

doesn't pass the mark.

You know, define for me,

what does it mean to practice sin?

Because they want to define it in a way

that they're safe.

See, that's the kind of stuff that happens

when you bring these verses out.

Rather than finding assurance.

You know what it seems to me?

It almost seems to me
like what John has done

is he's given the perfect recipe

for producing doubt and uncertainty

in those that are frail, that are weak,

that are faint-hearted.

Look, I'm just saying, pastorally,

that's what it seems like to me.

Do any of you agree?

I mean, you might be one
that's sitting there:

"No, I've got great encouragement
from these verses."

That's great because obviously

that's what John means for it to do.

But why it is that it seems like so often

these verses -

people have lots of trouble with them?

It seems we end up with much confusion.

Many Christians perplexed

and filled with anxiety and doubt,

rather than assurance.

But brethren, you know what?

I mean, this how I'm thinking about this

and I'm thinking,

I need light here.

How does this help us?

Brethren,

brothers and sisters,

I really believe this.

I really believe that if the Holy Spirit

is going to encourage us
and give us assurance

the way that these verses

are intended to produce in God's people,

if the Spirit of God is going
to bring this real,

solid, abiding assurance to God's people

by way of these verses,

then we need to quit approaching them

with a humanistic mindset.

What I mean is that we need to step back

from these verses

and look beyond ourselves.

One of the problems with verses like this

as it isolates us in the bathroom

looking in the mirror -

I say bathroom because
that's where mirrors are -

we're looking,

we just gaze at ourselves.

And we're just consumed by ourself,

analyzing ourself.

And I don't think that that's
what this is meant to do.

John isn't telling us in these verses

to carefully put all the remaining sin

that we can possibly dig up

and find in our lives

and take it all and put it in the scales

and weigh them

and see if the indicator

falls on the side of safety.

I don't believe that's what's
happening here at all.

Brethren, there's a place
for self-examination,

but the thing is, it's not about

just noticing where the dial is and
that's all and stop right there.

He's telling us rather

to open our eyeballs,

step back and get the big picture.

There is a monumental battle.

And what he's asking is

has this battle had anything
to do with your life?

And you say, what do
you mean, this battle?

Listen, brethren, I'll tell you what,
when you read through these verses,

so often we get caught up with:

"Nobody born of God continues in sin."

They don't practice sin

and that's all we see.

And we run around looking at the mirror

and wondering where the scale goes,

and we can totally miss verses 5 and 8

which are the meat of this.

Brethren, v. 5,

"You know that Jesus Christ appeared

in order to take away sins,

and in Him there is no sin."

To take away sins in this context

is not speaking about Christ

paying the penalty for our sins

and taking the guilt away.

That is not what's in context here.

Look, v. 5 is surrounded

by v. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8...

none of them are
speaking about this at all.

John is speaking of the practice

and purity of our lives.

When this says that Jesus Christ appeared,

He came into this world

to take away sins.

Brethren, he's not talking about

taking the guilt of it away.

He's talking about taking

the actual presence of it away.

That's clear from these verses.

All you've got to do is read the context.

Do you see the context?

John is not talking about Jesus Christ

appearing in this world

simply to pardon sin -

yes, He does that.

Absolutely, justification is
absolutely essential

in our salvation.

All I'm telling you is that is not
what he's talking about here.

You can see it.

In v. 3, it's about practical purity

that we purify ourselves

by our own efforts,

striving to be like Him.

It's the practice of sinning.

It's the practice of lawlessness.

"You know that He appeared
to take away sins."

What does that result in?

"No one who abides in
Him keeps on sinning."

Why? Because He showed
up to take them away.

And if it's not taken away,

you show that you're not abiding in Him.

That's the whole idea here.

We've got to see this for what it is.

Specifically talking about
Christ taking sins

out of our lives in a real,

in a manifest way,

in an experiential way.

He's talking about breaking us out

of this bondage and shackles and bars

of sin and the devil

that have us caged up.

Look at the second half of v. 8.

"The reason the Son of God appeared

was to destroy the works of the devil."

Do you see it?

The work of the devil is precisely

what John describes

in the first half of this same verse.

Brethren, the reason
the Son of God appeared

was to destroy the works of the devil.

That's at the end of v. 8.

At the beginning of v. 8,

"Whoever makes a practice of sinning

is of the devil."

Do you see what kind of works

that Christ appeared to destroy?

It's us sinning.

It's us being like the devil.

It's us sinning like the devil sins.

The work of the devil is precisely

what John describes as the thing

that Christ came to destroy.

It's the practice of sin.

Jesus Christ came into the world

to do battle.

That's what we have to see.

Whether or not you and I practice sin

in our lives has everything to do

with this battle.

I've called my sermon:

"Christ the Destroyer."

He came to destroy the works of the devil.

I mean, do you see what John's doing here?

He sweeps us up into
this great cosmic battle.

We need to understand.

Jesus Christ - you can see Him.

Oftentimes, we imagine this baby

lying there in the manger.

Tawfiq was telling us about this virgin

who would conceive

without the instrumentality of any man.

And there's that baby, a starlit night.

You can imagine.

All quiet.

Brethren, it ought not to surprise us

that Herod had every male child

two years of age and under

slaughtered in Bethlehem.

It ought not to surprise you

that Haman the Agagite

tried to eradicate the entire population

of the Jews.

They were pawns.

There is a darkness behind them

that is far more sinister.

They knew it had been prophesied.

They knew that One who would crush

the head of the serpent was coming.

It had been prophesied.

It had been foretold.

And the devil was seeking to keep

this God-Man warrior - here He is.

He may look like this innocent little babe

in a manger.

Innocent He is, but He is not harmless,

I'll tell you that.

He shook the ranks of hell.

He came and Satan wanted Him destroyed.

Satan wanted to do everything

to destroy Him.

This is the God-Man warrior.

He has come upon the scene.

Brethren,

Jesus comes to that Gadarene maniac,

possessed with demons.

Those demons scream:

"Ahhhh, have You come to destroy us?"

That's what they said.

Luke 4:34 -

"What have You to do
with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have You come to destroy us?"

Why would they ask that?

Because He is the destroyer.

And they know it full well.

Of course He'd come to destroy them.

You can be certain.

Brethren, you can be certain,

these demons, they're connected.

There's principalities. There's powers.

There's networks of evil.

Do you think it got readily communicated

through their ranks

when their chief, their prince,

went out there into the wilderness?

We don't see swords drawn.

Sometimes it doesn't seem
to us like combat.

Mortal combat.

But that's exactly what took
place in that wilderness.

Jesus Christ fasting for 40 days.

And He withstood the onslaught.

Satan went away defeated.

You know, it rattled through their ranks.

Our prince went down.

He met this Warrior

and he did not succeed.

We sent our best against

the best of the enemy.

And He proved champion, folks.

Brethren, Satan, he comes to Adam and Eve.

They were putty in his hands.

They just gave way right before him.

It just took nothing.

How easily they fell!

Just soundly defeated.

And now Satan has come
up against the Champion.

Brethren, we do not want to imagine

Christ simply being on the defensive.

He did not just come to ward off

Satan's attacks.

He came to take an offensive posture.

To do what?

To destroy the works of the devil.

And the thing that you have to see

is the work of the devil is in us.

The work of the devil is our sin.

The work of the devil is
our practice of sin.

Clearly, all the context
around 1 John 3:8 -

the works of the devil
that John has in mind

that Jesus Christ came to destroy,

it's not so much that He came to destroy

the devil himself,

or the sin of the devil himself

as much as He came to deliver

men and women, boys and girls

from this practice of sinning.

That is the work of the devil.

That is the work of the
devil from the beginning.

When he came into the garden,
what was his work?

Brethren, his work was to make

Adam and Eve into God-haters.

That was his work.

Brethren, that's what he's
doing in this world.

We haven't gotten to it yet,

but in 1 John 5:19,

"the whole world lies in
the power of the evil one."

This world out there

is in the power of the evil one.

They're in his control
and what does he do?

Well, this is a very important
verse back up in v. 4.

1 John 3:4.

I want to show you more particularly

what sort of things John has in mind

when he speaks of the works of the devil.

"Everyone who makes a practice of sinning

also practices lawlessness."

Sin is lawlessness.

Brethren, everyone who keeps on doing sin,

John points out to us,

it's a continuous breaking
of the law of God.

Men lightly regard their sin.

But God is there.

The thing that you have to recognize

is when we sin,

we break God's law.

We break what God has told us.

It's rebellion.

Brethren, what must our sin be like

if man and woman lost paradise over one?

What hellishness!

What rebellion! What insult!

What a crime!

(incomplete thought)

You know what the devil's work is?

It's a work of deception.

Do you know what he wants us to believe?

I can sin and do so with basic impunity.

I can sin. Nothing's going to happen.

And you know what?

Those of us in this place that are saved,

you know that's exactly how you thought

before you got saved.

And those of you who are not yet saved,

that's how you think now.

It won't be so bad.

It's all going to work out in the end.

That's the picture I had
of God when I was lost.

I'm not that bad.

In other words, no matter what I've done,

God certainly wouldn't
throw me into hell.

Impunity.

This is what the devil is
having the world believe.

The works of the devil.

It's a work of deception.

Do you recognize that?
What's the deception?

The deception is that there will not be

a price to pay for your sin.

And what else is the deception?

The deception is: "God's against you.

God doesn't like you.

God hates you.

God does not have your
best interest in mind."

That's his work to get you in a place

where you believe that you can

raise up your fist in
rebellion against God.

Do you recognize what
the work of the devil is?

It's to make warriors against God.

It's to make fighters against Him.

It's to create an army of those

who defy God,

live in defiance to Him.

That is his work.

Oh, brethren, in Revelation 12:9,

"the great dragon was thrown down,

that ancient serpent who is called

the devil and Satan..."

This is what he's called:

"the deceiver of the whole world."

You know what we find in 1 John 5?

The whole world is in his power.

And then we find this:

he's the deceiver of the whole world.

Now, you don't have to turn to this,

but listen to this verse.

I'm not wanting to get into any
kind of eschatology with this,

but I want you to hear this.

"When the thousand years are ended,

Satan will be released from his prison

and will come out

to deceive the nations

that are at the four corners of the earth,

Gog and Magog,

to gather them for battle.

Their number is like the sand of the sea

and they marched up over
the broad plain of the earth

and surrounded the camp of the saints

in the beloved city, but fire
came down from heaven

and consumed them

and the devil who had deceived them

was thrown into the lake of fire."

What I want you to hear in this

is he gathered them for battle.

How does he gather them for battle?

To fight who?

To fight God.

How does he do it?

Through deception.

This is his work.

Do you recognize

when you find the media

opposed to Christianity;

when you find the public school systems

opposed to Christianity;

when you find Hollywood
opposed to Christianity;

when you find that Islam
is opposed to Christianity;

when you find that atheists
are opposed to Christianity;

do you recognize what is happening?

Satan doesn't care what
lie it is that you believe,

as long as you rise up

in defiance against God.

And I tell you, God will
come against His enemies

and God will destroy His enemies.

Satan's power is not his own wrath.

Satan's power is not any hell he created.

Satan's power is not in his ability

to cast you away.

His power is in deceiving you

so that you fight against God.

When these people come together

to do battle against
God, you don't want to

think about them marching
over some literal plain

over in the Middle East somewhere

in Canaan.

Brethren, this happens in our own streets,

in our own hallways,

in our own city.

Satan gathers us to battle

right here, right now.

How?

In the same way he did with Adam and Eve.

In the same way.

Law-breaking God-haters.

And you know what happened.

They didn't trust God.

You see, what he does is he comes along

and he says: God isn't for you.

He has an ulterior motive here.

He knows that if you eat of this,

your eyes are going to be opened

and you're going to be like him.

See who He is?

He doesn't have your
best interests in mind.

He's trying to hold some
blessing back from you.

You know what God's laws are meant to do?

They're meant to be safety.

They're for our good.

They're meant to keep us in this protected

realm of righteousness.

But Satan comes along and he says:

"You can break those.

It won't be bad.

And plus, who is this God
to give you any rules?

Look at Him. He doesn't have
your best interests in mind."

And that's what he's trying to do today.

And brethren, don't you see what happens?

You see all this defiance against Christ.

That is Satan bringing
these hordes together

to do battle against God.

And like I said, it doesn't matter

what lie you believe.

Brethren, do you see what is happening?

They came out to do battle.

He gathered them for battle.

How do these soldiers come
together to do battle?

Because they've been deceived.

Do you recognize what men and women do?

They raise up their fist against Christ.

Christ who is their only hope.

We saw these deceivers back in chapter 2.

You know what they were trying to do?

Redefine Christ.

"Oh, He didn't really come in the flesh."

They're attacking His Person.

Why would anybody want to
attack the biblical Christ?

Don't we recognize that the
biblical Christ is our only hope?

Do you recognize what God has done?

God has sent a Savior into the world,

and men - look at the animosity

in this world towards Christ.

Have you ever just stood
back and asked why?

Where does it come from?

God sends them Somebody

who will deliver them from their bondage

and bring them into paradise

and they hate Him!

And they fight against Him!

And they kill His people!

They raise their fists in disgust.

Have you ever just stopped to say:

Why? Why? Why?

Well, it's because of this, brethren.

What deception!

What absolute deception

that we would try to redefine Christ;

that we would rise up in defiance.

This is Satan's work.

These are the works of the devil.

He appeared to take away sin.

He appeared to destroy this.

If there's anything that
ought to convince you

that God is not against us,

it's this very thing.

He sent His Son to rescue us.

I mean if there's anything that ought to

speak to us about God's
kindness towards us,

it is this.

Christ came into the
world to do something.

And He did it.

Our salvation is entirely dependent upon

the something that He came
into this world to do.

The reason the Son of God appeared

was to destroy the works of the devil.

Do you realize what madness

took place in the garden that day?

Do you recognize what crime was committed

when men rise up in defiance of God?

We don't.

But let's look at the consequence.

If you want to know the
degree to the crime.

Condemnation.

Damnation. Death.

Hell.

For the whole human race.

One sin.

Just ate a fruit.

Just did one, (incomplete thought.)

Somebody's told not to eat something.

You tell your child not to eat it

and they get in the cookie jar.

It's just little.

Do you realize what Satan did?

Do you realize the extent of his work?

We hear about what happens

in the Middle East.

Just this open defiance

against anything Christian.

What's happening in our courts?

In our political system?

In our media?

It should not surprise us.

The devil is bringing
these people together

to do battle against Christ.

And the reason they
do it is they're deceived.

Do you recognize that God is love?

And one of the greatest
expressions of that love

is that His Son actually came

into this world

to take away the sin that keeps us

in its bondage, to take it away.

Jesus is jealous for our obedience

to His Father.

And He came into this world

to undo that.

To set us free.

That's what He came to do.

Brethren, we come along,

we try to put forth an effort

to set ourselves free.

It's just like Paul in Romans 7.

Oh, I'm not supposed to covet.

Let me try to do that.

You know what happens
when you try to not covet?

Satan comes in and beats you down.

Because you can't escape him.

You don't have the power.

There's only One who can free you.

And there's only One who can deliver you

from his works.

And that's why he says

God did what the law couldn't do

in sending His Son in the likeness

of sinful flesh and for sin.

It took the Christ to come and do

what law can't do.

It took the Christ to come do

what we don't have power to do.

We are up against an enemy

who we are utterly unable
(incomplete thought)

Brethren, what I'm
bringing you all to is this.

What John's doing here

is he's saying: "Children of God,

look at the big picture.

Jesus Christ appeared.

He broke into the darkness of this world.

He broke in to this dominion

of the devil.

And He came to set people free

and it took Him to destroy."

Those demons said,
"Have You come to destroy us?"

You better believe He has come to destroy

what they've been doing,

keeping these people helpless,

just dangling them out there,

just helpless like little pawns of his.

Just keeping them his servants.

And you know what? The thing is

we don't even feel it.

We like it.

I mean, the deception runs
so deep that we like it.

We like our sin.

The Scripture talks about loving a lie.

We just loved it.

Don't you see what he's doing?

He has an army around him

that are gathered around him to fight God,

but he's not for you.

He wants to destroy you.

He wants to get you to do him service

and fight for him and in the end,

he will applaud when
you get cast into hell.

That's the kind of master
that controls this world.

That's what Jesus comes to set us free.

He rescues from the grip.

Brethren, what John is saying

is do you know something of this reality?

That's the picture here.

This is not about just sitting down,

bringing out the scales,

putting how much I still sin in there,

and seeing whether the indicator

is on the side of practicing sin

or not practicing sin.

That's not what this is all about.

He's telling us, look what Jesus Christ

came into the world to do.

Do you know something of that?

Is something of that
a reality in your life?

Do you know something
of walking through life

and you were serving the devil

and you were blind

and you were quite persuaded

that the God of Scripture
needed to be redefined?

You needed to tone Him down,

back Him off,

not make Him so severe,

redefine Him, create your own Christ?

Actually when bad things
happened in your life,

you found fault with Him.

And you were quite pleased to just think,

ah, I can sin... which I did.

I just drank it like water.

And I just thought, but it's
going to be okay in the end.

Where does that come from?

Don't you see Satan behind there?

This is his work.

You know how it's said

that Christians are the workmanship of God

unto good works.

We are the workmanship of the devil

to bad works.

And he's just crafting away.

And he doesn't care if you live -

brethren, he doesn't care if it's atheism.

He doesn't care if it's just
being a nominal Baptist.

He doesn't care what the title is.

Just as long as you
do not surrender to God

and surrender to being saved

by Jesus Christ.

Just whatever it is.

Be deceived by the
psychology of this world.

Just be deceived and
chase after your idols.

Folks, what John is asking us is do we

know something of this reality?

Do we know something of Jesus Christ

breaking into this world to destroy

the works of the devil?

And are you seeing that in your life,

it is being destroyed?

Where now you recognize

there is great consequence for sin.

There is hell to be paid for sin.

You now have your eyes open

to who the biblical God is

and who the biblical Christ is,

and that He came to do battle

and to set people free.

And you actually feel
that you've been freed.

Not only do you recognize now

that there is a great wage
to be paid for our sin,

but you recognize God is for us.

God is a friend.

God is on your side.

You see, when you sit there

and you just think: God's against me.

Look how cruel He is to me.

Look what He makes me suffer.

Look what He puts me through.

Look what He deprives me of.

And you buy into that?

You're just like Adam and Eve.

(incomplete thought)

You see, this is the devil

creating his project.

Just hard feelings against God.

Because you know what? When you have

hard feelings against God,

it's really easy to say:
Oh, He doesn't care for me anyways.

If He won't give me this,

then I'm going to go get it myself.

Isn't that how we think?

And what John is saying

is Jesus Christ broke into
the world to do this.

Little children, do you know
anything of this reality?

Do you know anything of the grip of sin

being broken in your life?

Not whether your life is perfect or not.

Not bringing out all this remaining stuff

that needs to be sanctified
out of your life

and put it in the scales

and forever be staring
at yourself in the mirror.

It's this reality:

look, do you know something

of this freeing power of
Jesus Christ in your life

where you see God now to be on your side?

You see Him as your Savior?

You see Him as doing you good?

You see all things working
together for your good?

You trust Him.
You trust Him. You see His love.

I mean, if there's anything that ought to

show us and convince us
(incomplete thought).

Brethren, Satan comes along and says

"God hates you. God is against you.

God loves to keep you down."

"No," says the incarnation!

"No," says the coming of Jesus;

the appearing of Jesus
Christ in this world.

That shouts that God loves sinners!

Satan doesn't want you to see that.

Brethren, this is the big
picture of these verses.

What Jesus Christ has done.

Can you enter in?

Brethren, I know in my own life,

I can look.

There's enough in my life

that one of the things that happens

is we think, well, if we fall short

of perfection on a daily basis,

certainly that must
be the practice of sin.

Brethren, that's not what
John's talking about here.

He's talking about the
habitual practice of the life.

Just being radically changed. Why?

Because now you're God's project,
not the devil's project.

I mean, have you seen
anything of that caliber

happen in your life?

Where your desires before
were to drink sin?

Your desires before

were to recreate the God of Scripture.

Your desire before was to think

that sin isn't a big deal

and you're not going to have to suffer

the consequences of it.

Whether your sin was out there

in the alcohol drinking,
fun-loving crowd,

or whether it was in some kind

of religious morality

that now you look at Christ,

and you're not just
doing this as a servant

under this whip

trying to do, meet a standard, rise up

and keep these commandments or whatever,

because you recognize
that there is this God

who is out there that's
scowling at you all the time

that you have to try to please,

but now you see Him as Abba, Father.

You see He sent His Son into this world,

and you recognize,

wow, I want to live for Him.

I want to be on His side now.

I don't want to fight with the devil.

I see His purity. I see
something of His holiness.

And I want to be like Him.

And I don't like the remaining sin.

It causes me grief.

I really do want to be like Him.

I really do want to do good.

I really do want to live up to Scripture.

Oh, I know I have far too many seasons

where I'm cold, where I'm dry,

but my greatest desire is to have Christ

and is to live for Him.

And I do trust Him.

Oh, help my unbelief!

But I mean, brethren,

that's what we need to
be looking for in all of this.

Has something radical
happened in your life?

Brethren, He appeared!

Our Lord did come.

He really came.

And He came with a purpose.

And He came to enter in to mortal combat

with the devil. And for what?

Is it not, brethren, because He is jealous

for our obedience and allegiance to God?

And we have to ask ourselves,

do I see the God of Scripture now

as One whom I am allegiant to?

I mean, He is my Father.

I'm accountable to Him.

You know in Pilgrim's Progress,

when Christian came up against Apollyon.

Apollyon's trying to lure him back

to the city of destruction.

And he said, you know what, Apollyon?

I like the service of my new Master.

I don't want to go back.

Because he was promising him,

whatsoever I can give you I'll give you.

Just come back.

We'll give you the full payment.

And he said no, I don't think I want that.

My new Master, His service is good.

I mean, is that where you're at?

I want to be in His ranks.

I don't like what I still am,

but I want to be in His ranks.

I see that He's transformed my life.

I see that. There's a reality there.

I want to be in the ranks of those

who live for God and love God

and glory in His Son

and want to please Him.

And I want to practice righteousness.

And I want help to do it more and more,

but I really want it.

Do I have failures? Yes.

But I am not held captive

where I was before.

Where I was just blind

and unwittingly went along

in this defiance against Him.

Just foolishly and blindly thinking

that all was going to be well.

Brethren, do you know
something of this reality?

That's the thing here.

And if you say, I do. I do.

Well, that's the assurance
it's meant to bring.

There's nothing here about

meticulously looking

at your last 24 hours performance.

I'm not saying that your
last 24 hours performance

is not going to have a direct reflection

on where you are at.

Certainly, it will.

But it's this big picture
about Jesus Christ.

He came to destroy the works of the devil.

You'd have to ask yourself this:

has something been destroyed in you

that was very much a reality

some time in the past?

Do you see Christ at work

destroying something that was ugly

and defiant?

Oh brethren,

folks, the very fact that
Jesus Christ has appeared

just blows Satan's lies away

that God is not for us.

His appearing tells us
more than anything else

that God is love

and He has good purposes

for those who will surrender.

Don't fight against Christ.

Don't fight against the
Christ of Scripture.

I mean, just the insanity of this world.

Can you imagine?

Christ comes into this world

to save sinners,

and the vast majority of the sinners

in this world hate Him.

They just hate Him.

That ought to wake us up immediately

to what's happening all around us.