Trinity Baptist Church - We Know Victory over Sin

“What Do You Know for Sure” Series

Victory over Sin

1 John 5:18-21

We live in a world of opinions, but we live with facts. We live in a world of relative ideas, but we live on absolutes. We live in a world of uncertainty but we are fixed on certainties. We live in a world of lies, but we live by the truth. We live in a world dominated by Satan, but we live with the presence and power of God.

To put all that together, we base our lives on what God has said in Scripture as absolutely true. Divine truth revealed from God to us. The Bible then is to provide for us certainties, absolutes. In this epistle in particular the purpose of the writer is to create certainty in the minds of true Christians, to waylay those unnecessary fears and doubts and uncertainties.

That is why the word "know" is used 39 times in this letter, seven times in this last section. And in particular the verses that we've been looking at and are going to look at, verses 13 through 21 are so important.

God wants us to live in certainty of our salvation. So throughout this epistle he has given doctrinal tests and moral tests to determine the genuineness of anyone's salvation so that if we pass the tests, we know. And when we know, as he said in chapter 1 verse 4, our joy is made full. We can live with full joy knowing we are saved, living in that certainty.

So consistent with the purpose for writing, he sums up his epistle with a review of certainties. The first one we already addressed in verse 13. We know we have eternal life. The Lord wants us to be certain about that.

Secondly, we not only know we have eternal life, that is a certainty, we know we have our prayers answered so that until we get to eternal glory, in the meantime we have direct access to the throne of God.

Verse 14

We are certain that we possess eternal life and we are certain that God answers prayers prayed in His will.

Then we come to the last three certainties. And I will admit to you that I’ve struggled in dealing with them individually because they are so inter-connected. So to begin with, I want to read the remaining section as a whole. Some of what I will say to you today, we will develop further in the next two weeks. There

verses 18-20

So here we find the third certainty: We know we have eternal life. We know God answers prayer. And now John says, “We know we have victory over sin.

Reread verse 18. Now I don’t know about you, but the first two about eternal life and answered prayer seem a whole lot more obvious to me than this business about whoever is born of God not sinning.

I mean, after all, just look at you! You’re a mess!

What does that mean? Experience certainly tells us differently, does it not? But remember what I said just a few moments ago. We live with facts. We base our lives, not on opinions, or innuendos, or even experiences. We must base our theology, our doctrine, our beliefs on the unchanging, inerrant Word of God.

And God says, “No one who is born of God sins.” So how do we reconcile our behavior with our belief?

Let’s say we accept that statement. After all, God said it. So we believe it. How then do we explain this inconsistency between our belief and our behavior? I mean think just for a moment about the last few days of your life? Do you find any sin there?

Tell any lies? Lose your temper? Fail to pray as you should? Miss an opportunity to witness? Think an impure thought? Attitude all messed up?

Then you come to church and the preacher says, We know those who are born of God do not sin.

What does that mean? Well, let’s see if we can get hold of it. Now remember, John is giving us a summation of what he’s previously written in the letter. So let’s back up to 1 John 3 and take a look at what he’s previously said about this subject.

3:4-10

Catch the references to “practices righteousness” . A distinction is being made between committing sin and practicing righteousness. Therefore, verse 4, everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness.

So there are only two groups of people: those who commit sin and those who practice righteousness. Or we could simplify it even more: there are the saved and the lost.

On the one hand, no one born again, no one given a new nature, no one transformed, regenerated goes on in the same unbroken pattern of sin. Why because they are saved and with salvation comes a brand new life. Look back through the book of 1 John and you’ll hear John saying, Christians love one another, Christians tell the truth, Christians do good deeds.
We have all these assurances through practical test of our faith that we’ve been saved. Now he says, here’s another test: those who are saved practice righteous. Obviously he’s not talking about sinless perfection or never committing a sin.

Look at chapter 1:5-2:2

It’s all over this letter. Those who are of God practice righteousness. It’s who they are; it’s what they do.

The unconverted, on the other hand, do nothing but sin. They are dead in trespasses and sins. They walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience. They walk in the lusts of their flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind and are by nature children of wrath even as all the rest, everybody.

There is nothing good in them. They can't do anything good, they're of their father the devil. Not one of them is profitable. Not one of them is righteous.

There is none, righteous, no, not one according to Romans 3. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are the servants of unrighteousness. They incessantly trample God's Law, trample God's love, trample Christ's gospel. They are defiant, haters of God.

In fact, the Hebrew word for sin is rebellion. They are in constant rebellion against the Law and the love and the lordship of God. By nature then they are children of wrath, headed for wrath. They are, of course, under the direct control of the one who is designated as their father, the devil.

So in that respect, we know, verse 18, that no one who is born of God sins.

So how do you tell if someone's a believer? You look at their life. And if there is in their life a constant pattern of sin virtually unbroken, you know that that slavery has not been eliminated. The one born of God does not continue in that same pattern.

Now the subject that we’re dealing with is we can know that we have Victory Over Sin, and I think it important to make this distinction between committing a sin and practicing sin. One is an exception to a lifestyle of righteousness; the other is a way of life.

Now with that in mind, let’s spend a little time here in 1 John 3 and let me show you how you can know you have victory over sin and Satan.

Notice first of all, in verse 4, we find

1. A Lifestyle of Sin is incompatible with the Law of God.

When a person becomes a Christian, they say with Paul in Romans 7, "O how I love Your Law," what David said in Psalm 119, "Your Law is holy, just and good and there's something in me that loves the Law, that longs to obey the Law." The Christian does not, cannot habitually live in violation of God's Law. Sin is incompatible with the Law of God, that's what verse 4 is saying.

2. A Lifestyle of Sin is incompatible with the work of Christ.

Verse 5

Jesus came, died, rose again to take away sins so therefore if He's done His work in the heart of a person, then sin is to some degree taken away. Ongoing, unbroken pattern of sin no matter whether a person professed to believed, professed to be a Christian, had an experience, got baptized, or whatever, that's not how you judge someone's spiritual condition.

You look at their life and if there is an ongoing pattern of sin in their life, if that's the dominant character of their life, they have not been born of God because sin is incompatible with the Law of God, it's incompatible with the work of Christ who appeared in order to take away sin.

In fact, he goes on to say, verse 6, "No one who abides in Him sins and no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him."

Again, he's not saying you never sin. He's talking here about the pattern.

Verse 7

You look at the life. Again this isn't saying you never sin. It isn't that we never sin, it is that the unbroken pattern of sin no longer exists.

It isn't perfection, it's direction. It's presence of unrighteousness, it’s the pattern of righteousness.

Then notice verse 8

So both ways, verse 5, He appeared to take away sin; verse 8, He appeared to destroy the works of the devil which is sin. So sin is incompatible with the work of Christ.

3. A Lifestyle of Sin is incompatible with the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

verse 9

How are we born again? It is the Spirit who gives the new birth. We're born of the Spirit.

Here we discover that no one born of God's Spirit practices sin. Why? "His seed abides in him."

The new life, the righteous seed of life abides in him, he cannot practice a lifestyle of sin because he's born of God.

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God. It's that simple.

This is so important for us because if we're dealing with certainties here and we want to be certain about our spiritual condition, the question is not something like, "What did you do in the past? Did you pray a prayer? Did you do this or that?" It is look at your life now and what is the pattern? If you have truly been converted, the power of sin has been broken.

Let me illustrate that from another author’s point of view. Turn to Romans 6 for a moment and let’s hear what Paul has to say about it.

6:17

Notice how he defines it:

You had one master and all you ever did was precisely what that master dictated. You were slaves of sin. "But praise the Lord, you obeyed God when you heard the truth, and that decision has resulted in you being freed from the old master, and instead you now have a new master and you are a slave of righteousness.

And then in verse 19 he says, I'm trying to use a human analogy here about slavery to describe what has happened to you spiritually. There was a time, verse 19, when you all you did was sin, and one sin led to another sin, and lawlessness resulted in more lawlessness. It was just unbroken, uninterrupted lawlessness and impurity.

But now present you are a slave of righteousness and it will result in holiness in your life.

We now have new life characterized by slavery to righteousness, obedience to the Law. Satan no longer has hold on us. Sin no longer is our master.

And with that thought, go back to 1 John where we left in the fifth chapter there. We know, verse 18, that no one who is born of God sins in the sense of the continual pattern so described.

Then notice the next phrase:

Verse 18

If you are using KJV or NKJV, you will see the word “himself” and the implication is that we have to “keep ourselves” from the devil.

Most other translations omit the word “himself”.

The best understanding of the verse is something like this:

We know that anyone who has been born again of God does not continue to sin because the One who was born or begotten of God Himself keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them

We’ll look at the first part (we know we are of God) in more detail next week when we deal with verse 19.

But notice the last part of verse 19.

We are kept from that old lifestyle of sin by the very one born of God so that the evil one does not touch us.

John uses the word only here and in John 20:17 where He instructed Mary Magdalene to not cling to Him because He had not yet ascended.

The word means to fasten on to or lay hold of us. It is a much stronger word than a mere touch. And it means Satan has no grip, no hold on us. Because a believer belongs to God, Satan must act within the arena of the Sovereignty of God. He cannot do anything to God’s children without God’s direct approval.

He may tempt you, he may test you, he may accuse you, but we are kept by God Himself.

Therefore, we can be certain, not only that we have eternal life, not only that we have answered prayer, we are certain that we have victory over sin.

Satan can't hold us. We've died to that former bondage. We now live with a new master, a new life principle. And the one born of God keeps us and the evil one does not touch us. What a tremendous promise that is when you think about the fact that you can never fall back into that former life again.

It can't happen.

Why? Because "He who was begotten of God, God Himself keeps us." This is the work of Christ who holds on to us, who keeps us. He keeps us from ever falling back into sin's dominion, ever falling back into Satan's kingdom.

He can turn Satan loose in our lives like he did with Peter in Luke 22 and allowed Satan to go and sift Peter.

But He said when it's all over and you're converted and you come out of it, you'll be able to strengthen the brethren.

He can let Satan have at Job and know that Job's faith will not fail.

He can send to the apostle Paul a messenger from Satan, a thorn in the flesh, and know that in the midst of it all Paul will only be humbled which is good for Paul and good for the service that Paul renders to Christ and that he will find spiritual power in his own weakness.

He is the one committed to keeping us. So we know that no one who is born of God will fall back into the pattern of sin.

So of this we're certain: We know we have eternal life. We know we have answered prayer. And we know we have victory over sin.

How about you?

Let’s pray.