Do you really love God? We need to be sure if we really love God the way God expects. And I have to ask the question “Do you consistently turn from sin or do you find that you have some little habits that are sinful and you just can’t seem to break away from them? Are you enslaved by these sinful habits?
I ask these questions because when we really love someone we want to please them. It’s the same with God. If we really love Him we want to please Him. We know that God is holy and pure. We know that there is no sin in Him at all. So the person who loves God cannot live in sin, you shouldn’t practice sinful ways.
The fact is if you are enslaved by some habit of sin, and you knowingly continue in that sin, you cannot truly love God. If you did, you would work at getting through that sinful habit. PRAYER
Read 1 John 3:4. Now let’s stop right there for a moment. Because this verse stresses the fact that man is, by nature, sinful. Man has a need and that need is to be delivered from sin. Few people like to be called a sinner. In fact, some react harshly when they are told they are a sinner.
Do you know why most of us react negatively when we are told we are a sinner? It’s because we all have a tendency to rank sin. We feel that the sins that we hear on the news or read in the newspapers are the ones that the Bible is talking about. Murder, burglary, rape, incest, adultery. Surely those sins are a lot worse than telling a lie, gossiping, looking lustfully at someone.
The fact is, in God’s eyes, a sin is a sin is a sin. To God sin is lawlessness. It is violating the law of God. Spreading a tidbit of gossip about someone is just as bad as shooting him or her through the heart and killing them. If we are going to be pure in heart, we need to know how God looks at sin. FOR INSTANCE, TO GOD:
• Sin is choosing to go your own way instead of doing what God says.
• Sin is living like YOU want instead of living as God says.
• Sin is not doing what God says to do.
• Sin is disbelieving what God says.
• Sin is ignoring God instead of following and worshipping Him as He says.
• Sin is denying that God wants you to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.
So we need to first face the fact that every one of us needs to be delivered from sin. Man comes short of God’s glory. Remember what glory means. It means to come to a perfect state of being.
And I hate to burst your bubble, but no one here is sinless. No one is righteous. We work toward that goal and we strive to be as much like God as we can but we have not reached that goal. The Bible says, “10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3: 10-12)
“For all have sinned and come short of God’s glory.” (Rom. 3:23)
Remember what we studied back in 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
Now once we finally accept the fact that we do need to be delivered from sin then we understand more fully the provision for that deliverance. We understand more clearly that Christ took away our sins. READ VERSE 5. Now let’s review for a moment.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to take away our sins. That means that when Jesus Christ died, His death was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. God accepted Jesus’ death as the perfect sacrifice for sins.
And what that means is that when we really believe in Jesus Christ, God counts Jesus’ sacrifice for us. God doesn’t require that each of us be executed for our sins. Christ paid that price for us. All we have to do now is accept Jesus Christ and our sinful ways are covered.
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”(2 Cor. 5:21)
This is the great love of God for man—the giving of His Son to die for the sins of man. If a person truly loves God, then that person will bow humbly before God’s Son in adoration. That means that if you truly love God you will NEVER:
• Be ashamed of the Gospel.
• Be embarrassed to ask the blessing on a meal in a crowded restaurant.
• Cower away when someone makes fun of how much you go to church.
• Be afraid to share your faith when the opportunity arises.
No, if you truly love God you’ll want to SHOUT IT TO THE WORLD that Jesus Christ is your Savior and you’re not ashamed to say it.
Now we’ve seen the need to be delivered and we’ve seen the provision of being delivered. Here is the proof of that deliverance. READ verses 6-7
When a person accepts Jesus Christ as his or her Savior from sin, he or she begins to live in Him. If we live in Christ we will not want to continue in sin. We won’t want to do anything to hurt Him or cause Him pain. We want to please Him.
And here’s the proof. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin? Are you living, moving and having your being in Him? Have you turned from sin, from practicing and living in sin? Are you truly working at correcting any flaws in your character that keep distance between you and God?
If we sin then we really don’t love God because we truly don’t know Him as we should. This doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect to be saved from sin. If you look at the Greek translation when the Bible says “no one who sins knows God,” you’ll see that the original Greek means “if we CONTINUE in sin, if we go on sinning and sinning, then we don’t really love Christ the way we should.”
A true believer is still short of God’s glory. He still sins. You are still human, you cannot keep from sinning all the time, not perfectly. But trying to be free from sin means that sin is not the dominant focus in your life.
We can be deceived in this matter of sin and righteousness. Many think that they are saved and acceptable to God because they have . . .Professed Christ, Been Baptized, Joined the church, Attended church, Fellowshipped with Christians, Read the Bible, Prayed. They think that if they do these things they can live like they want. And they think that God will still accept them. But verse 7 says, READ.
The only person who is acceptable to God is the person who lives righteously. And that’s what Jesus meant when He said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
And living righteously means more than living pure and clean lives. It means treating other people righteously. It means reaching out and helping all people, giving all we are and have to help them. It means not being unjust by hoarding and keeping more than we need. It means giving and living sacrificially to help those who are dying because they lack the bare necessities of life. It means sacrificing all in order to carry forth the message of salvation.
So far we have seen the need for deliverance, the provision for deliverance, the proof of deliverance, and now let’s look at the great conquest of Christ in this deliverance.
Now I want you to go back to a question I asked at the start. Is there something deep within your being that no one else knows? Some little, perhaps immoral, thing that you wish you could stop but it keeps coming back and nagging you? I can tell you right now that it is not from God. It’s from Satan.
The person who continues to sin is of the devil. READ verse 8. When you tell someone who sins that they are of the devil, it’s shocking to them. But we have to consider what Jesus said, “For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
This tells us that when we sin we are not following after the Father of love and righteousness, but after the father of sin and death. Our behavior is not of God, it is of the devil. And this is the very purpose for Jesus coming to earth, that He might destroy the devil’s work.
Satan’s power to:
• Charge men with sin is cast out.
• Cause death is cast out.
• Cause men to be separated from God is cast out.
• Enslave men with the habits of sin and shame is now cast out.
All are cast out by the death of Jesus Christ. So out of this need to be delivered, from the provision and the proof of deliverance, from Christ’s great conquest in deliverance, we see the final result of deliverance. That result is being freed from living in sin. READ verse 9.
I want you to note that this does NOT mean that a person can reach sinless perfection while on earth. Then what does it mean that “no one who is born of God will continue to sin” and “he cannot go on sinning?”
Once the divine seed or nature of God has been implanted within the believer, the believer cannot go on living in sin. He cannot continue and continue to sin. He can’t practice sin habitually. That is, not without it bothering that person. The divine nature of God will pester and provoke the believer and convict him to the point that he cannot stand it.
That divine seed that we are talking about is the seed of new birth, the seed of the new creation, the seed of the new person, the new self. That seed is the divine nature. It is the imperishable, incorruptible seed of God’s Word. That seed within the believer is the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God Himself.
And it is that Spirit that will help you as a believer to conquer those nagging little sins that only you are aware of. It’s the Spirit of God that causes the believer to focus on Christ and His mission rather than on this world and its pleasures and possessions. Let me tell you a true story that may help you realize how much God loves you.
An article in the National Geographic several years ago provided a picture of God’s love for us. After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the damage.
One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Sickened by the sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings.
The loving mother bird, aware of the impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies.
When the blaze had arrived and the heat scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. She had been willing to die, so those under the cover of her wings would live.
Being loved that much should make a difference in your life. Remember the One who loves you, the One who died for you and the One that covers you with His wings.
Remember THAT, the next time you are enticed to sin once again. Remember that the price has been paid so that you can be delivered from that sin. Then focus on Christ and you will no longer be enslaved to sin. Do all this and you pass test #2 that proves that you really LOVE God.
