Living At A New Address

Living at a New Address

Scripture Reading:

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:5-9)

“And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 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. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:5-10)

Note: All scripture is taken from the New King James Bible

Tom Lowe

4-13-03

Introduction

Being a Christian is like living at a new address.

A Christian is someone who has moved from the house of sin and death into a new home with Christ.

When you live with Christ, you want to show Him your love by doing good works and resisting sin.

You will sin again, but you will never again live with sin, because you have a new address; you are living with Jesus.

This new relationship to sin is made possible by Christ’s victory over death.

His died in your place so that you don’t have to die.

He was raised from the dead so you could be justified before God.

You not only have a new home, but you also have a new righteousness.

Your old righteousness was like “filthy rags,” but now you have been given the righteousness of Christ.

Sin is our subject today, and there are three claims which I would like to make:

First, the living Christ brings death to sin.

Second, there will be sin in a Christian’s life.

Third, we can have victory over sin.

When we are done today, I hope that we can all say that we are different from what we were before we believed.

And that we can say that we are free from the penalty and guilt of sin, since we have moved to our new address.

Let’s begin with how THE LIVING CHRIST BRINGS DEATH TO SIN.

Humankind has always sought relief from the crushing weight of sin.

Sin brings guilt, death and shame.

So, how can the sin problem be handled?

One approach is to place the blame on something or someone else.

Even Adam and Eve played this ancient game called “pass the buck.”

When God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Adam answered, “The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then God asked Eve, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Adam and Eve didn’t accept the responsibility for their actions; Adam blamed Eve, and then Eve blamed the serpent.

They “passed the buck”, but God knew they had disobeyed Him; they had sinned so they would have to die.

Oh they didn’t die until years later, but from that moment, their bodies began to die little by little.

Some people attempt to handle sin by doing good works in an attempt to balance the scale, but new sins keep upsetting the balance.

But, here’s the good news; Jesus brought a remedy for sin.

The apostle John wrote, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” (1 John3:5)

Manifested is one of John’s favorite words.

It means “to make known” or “to reveal.”

Jesus was manifested, or made known to us, so that He might reveal God to us, take away our sins, destroy the devil’s works, and disclose God’s love for sinners.