INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• When you plant an apple tree, you do not hope that it produces a few oranges do you? You are not hoping for a mix of oranges and apples are you?
• When I see an apple tree, I see apple pies and apple turnovers!
• Oh, wait, I should not see that any longer!
• Last year when Robyn and I visited the grandkids we took them to a very nice apple orchard.
• I noticed that all the apple trees were producing apples? Is that not strange?
• Have you ever walked under an apple tree and see a bunch of oranges lying under it?
• All I saw was apples lying in the ground under all the trees, not an orange in sight!
• Another thing I noticed was that is was pretty easy to tell which apples on the ground came from which trees, because the apples do not fall far from the tree. T
• They do not launch themselves 50 feet away from their tree from which they came from.
• Can you imagine the baby apple telling the momma apple tree, “When I grow up I am going to get far away from here, only to eventually drop straight to the ground under the tree. What a bummer.
• As we live our lives, after a while it becomes evident which tree we fell off of.
• There are only two trees in the orchard of life, the tree of God or the tree of the devil. We can all become a part of the tree of God if we want to.
• Just claiming that we are from the tree of God does not make us a part of that tree. We can say we are an apple all we want, but if we have the look, smell, taste, and feel of an orange, we are not an apple. We are not an orange.
• Last week we finished the message by seeing that everyone who has their hope fixed on Jesus and what He will do for us will purify themselves.
• God wants to take us from being oranges to becoming apples
• When you are born again, things change.
• Today we are going to examine at three principles that will help us to grow to be more Christ-like, three principles we need to understand so that we can purify ourselves for Jesus!
• Let’s begin with 1 John 3:4-6, and 9.
• SLIDE #2
• 1 John 3:4–6,9 (HCSB) — 4 Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law. 5 You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him. 6 Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him. 9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. Oranges cannot come from apple trees.
Habitual sin and the child of God are incompatible.
• Verse four equates sin to breaking God’s Law, or in some translations it is called lawlessness.
• Sin is missing the mark. It is as though God put a target out there for us to hit, and we keep missing it.
• The “COMMITS” sin could be better translated “PRACTICES” as it is in many English translations.
• The word COMMITS is not a one-time action, but rather it is a prolonged commitment to doing something.
• We are not speaking of committing a sin or even struggling with sin, we are speaking of a lifestyle of sinning.
• It is a habitual way of life, a willful act by the guilty party.
• Breaking the Law is a purposeful disregard for God’s law.
• John is covering this ground because the Gnostics of his day were defending immoral lifestyles so they could live a life of debauchery in order to demonstrate that the spirit was not affected or touched by physical behavior.
• We do the same thing today, but for a different reason. Some people just want live under the allusion that they are free to do whatever they chose to do.
• A little girl was riding in the car with her father. She decided to stand up in the front seat. Her father commanded her to sit down and put on the seat belt, but she declined.
• He told her a second time, and again she refused. “If you don’t sit down immediately, I’ll pull over to the side of the road and spank you!” Dad finally said, and at this the little girl obeyed. But in a few minutes she said quietly, “Daddy, I’m still standing up inside.”
• Verse 5 lets us in on a secret, that is not really a secret.
• Jesus came to take away sin!
• This is another reason that a lifestyle of sin is not compatible with a child of God. Jesus came to take sin away, He came to take away the effects that sin has on us.
• SLIDE #4
• John 8:34 (HCSB) Jesus responded, “I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
• John 8:34 says when we commit a sin we are a slave to sin.
• In 1 John 3:5, John tells us that Jesus came to TAKE AWAY sin means to destroy, kill, and remove. How can we habitually willfully sin when Jesus came to destroy sin?
• Why would we want to return to what Jesus freed us from?
• In verse 5 we also see that there is no sin in Jesus!
• Sin and Jesus do not mix, it is like oil and water; they do not go together.
• Verse 6 reminds us that living a life of sin shows one has not seen and does not know God.
• Verse 6 is a logical conclusion to verse 5.
• If we abide in Jesus, we will not habitually sin, if we find ourselves habitually sinning, willfully sinning on a consistent basis, it shows we have not seen God with the eyes of our heart.
• It shows we do not have an inward spiritual knowledge. We do not really believe what Jesus has promised to us.
• The structure of verse 6 indicates the person who continues to sin has never seen or never known Jesus.
• When we drop to verse 9, we see that our new life helps us to resist the desire to habitually sin.
• Verse 9 also shows us why you will not find oranges falling out of an apple tree.
• It tells us that if we are born of God, then His seed is in us which keeps us from habitually sinning.
• The seed spoken of is most likely a combination of the Word of God which abides in us along with the new life we have in Christ, which also includes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us.
• SLIDE #5
• Psalm 119:11 (HCSB) I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.
• THIS IS HOW WE CAN PROCTECT OURSELVES!
• Sin is so opposed to what God is about; it shows us that oranges cannot come from an apple tree. A person lives in habitual sin, cannot be a child of God because they are of the wrong tree!
• Let’s look at verses 7-8,10
• SLIDE #6
• 1 John 3:7–8 (HCSB) — 7 Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works. 10 This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.
• SLIDE #7
II. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Your conduct reveals to whom you belong.
• Verse 7 reminds us that if you practice what is right, is righteous just as God is righteous!
• If it looks like an apple, smells like and apple, feels like and an apple, tastes like an apple, it is an apple!
• False teachers were aggressively going after the flock trying to convince them that how they lived did not matter.
• Righteousness is used to denote one’s standing before God, justification, declared NOT GUILTY by God.
• The other use of the word concerns one’s conduct; this is how John uses the word.
• Works of righteousness does not save us; it is a mark of one who is saved.
• Because the child is in a family that practices righteousness, the child is expected to do the same.
• Verse 8 warns us that if we practice sin, we are of the devil!
• Doesn’t it sound silly in 2015 to be talking about the Devil? That is exactly what he hopes we think!
• If is looks like an orange, smells like an orange, feels like an orange, tastes like an orange, it is an orange.
• If we live a life of sin; then we are not of God, we are a child of the devil.
• We are told that the devil has sinned from the beginning. This means from the first sin he committed that caused his downfall.
• Verse 7 and 8 give us the principle that the apple does not fall far from the tree.
• If we practice righteousness, it is obvious that we came from God’s apple tree.
• If one practices sin, it is apparent that are an orange, not an apple, or that they did not come from God’s tree.
• An apple is an apple.
• Verse ten restates what is in verse eight. John says it is obvious which tree we fell off of.
• A previous condition is now being brought to knowledge.
• The life of the one who habitually sins, is a life derived from the devil.
• John is telling us that it will be easy to tell who belongs to whom.
• What do you practice, sin or righteousness?
• Haven’t you been around people you just knew were Christians? Do people know you are a Christian?
• Let’s turn to verses 11-12.
• SLIDE #8
• 1 John 3:11–12 (HCSB) — 11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
• SLIDE #9
III. Don’t be an orange trying to impersonate an apple.
The example of Cain and Abel. The heart is revealed by actions.
• If we are an apple that falls from the apple tree, we will love one another.
• Here it is again, this loving one another. This is one of the ways we can tell if we are a part of God’s family.
• SLIDE #10
• John 13:35 (HCSB) By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
• John seems to spend a vast amount of time talking about love doesn’t he?
• I guess it must be important to God.
• The love we have must come from the depths of our soul. We cannot pretend to love someone. Our love must be real.
• When a person says they love them, it must come from the depths of their soul.
• Many people who say they love someone have NO idea what it means to love another person because in truth, they love themselves.
• Therefore they will love the other person for what they will do for them. They will love the other person CONDITIONALLY.
• In other words, as long as I get what I want from you, I will love you.
• True love puts the other person first!
• John says this is a message we have heard from the beginning! We are to keep on loving one another.
• Do you really love your brothers and sisters in Christ?
• Our true identity will eventually show itself.
• If you are faking it, at some point your true heart will show itself. USUALLY WHEN ONE’S DESIRES ARE NOT MET.
• When times get tense, your true feelings will show through. If you are having trouble loving people, YOU are the problem, not the other people.
• DO you know how much better life is when you start loving people? Give it a try, your relationship with God demands it.
• Cain was an orange impersonating an apple.
• In Genesis 4:1-8 we have the story of Cain and Abel; it is the first recorded murder in the Bible.
• You know how churches get upset over styles of worship? It began with Cain and Abel.
• Cain killed Abel over an issue involving worship of all things.
• Why did Cain kill Abel? John says it is because Cain’s deeds were evil and Abel’s were righteous.
• Here is the argument given
o Cain’s works were evil
o We know this because he murdered his brother.
o The act showed the hate hidden in his heart.
o Cain is an example of one who did not love his brother.
o Cain is an example of a person who was not doing righteous deeds.
o You actions show whose family you are truly a part of.
CONCLUSION
• The apple does not fall far from the tree.
• If we belong to God, our life should show it.
• People should see the difference Jesus is making in our lives.
• We can tell people how much we love God, but our live will really show where we are with God.
• It is so important for us to realize that SIN has no place with Jesus, sin and Jesus does not mix.
• We will all struggle, we will all sin, but there is a difference between one who habitually willfully sins and one who is struggling with sin.
• The one who sins habitually has no struggle; they just do it because they want to.
• If you have sin you are willfully engaging in, it is time to stop, it is time to pray, it is time to give it over to God.
• Don’t be an orange, be an apple from God’s tree!
