Tonight, our text, once again, is taken from 1 John, as we continue our study of 1 John. The text being 1 John 3, verses 7-10. We want to read a little bit of the surrounding context of that text, the same that we read last week. But also before that, I'd like you to turn with me to Genesis 3. Genesis chapter 3, as we read the familiar episode of the fall of man, the fall of Adam and Eve, in connection with the text for this evening. Genesis chapter 3, as we read together the first 19 verses. Hear now the Word of God. Now the serpent was more crafty than all of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not touch it or you will die. You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. For the Lord God called to the man, Where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing. With pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return. Then turning over to 1 John, beginning at chapter 2, verse 29, once again, reading through chapter 3, verse 10, particularly considering paying attention to verses 7 through 10 of chapter 3. Verse 29 of chapter 2, if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we continue our study of the first epistle of John, maybe you are starting to see that John repeats himself, or so it seems. And I would say yes, in a sense, he does repeat himself because he continues to tell us something from different perspectives, each time digging a little bit deeper into the truth of Scripture. John continues to hammer out the point, you see, that there is indeed a difference between the children of God and those who are not. There is a difference in who they are, in why they are who they are, and in how they live or act. And this difference, you see, is not just a subtle difference, a difference that is barely noticeable, but it is a black and white difference. It's a night and day difference. It's a no doubt about it difference. This is a difference of belonging. And this is the question that we must all ask ourselves, to whom do I belong? To whom do I belong? You see, we all belong to someone. Either it is God the Father because of Jesus Christ, or it is the devil. There's no third option. We all belong to God or to Satan. And you see, this is the nail of truth that John hammers on a little bit harder once again with this particular text. In the previous text that we considered last week, you recall that John taught what sin is and he taught about whom it is committed against. And now he teaches that to continue in a life of sin is to be identified with the devil. You see, with very good reason, John teaches throughout his epistle about the clear distinction between light and darkness and between sin and righteousness and that's because you and I cannot serve two masters. And therefore we consider this Word of God tonight. The incompatibility of faith and a life of sin. This incompatibility is realized by Christ. It is proven in practice. Now, I must confess that for the sake of doing justice to this text, as well as in the interest of time, we can only consider the first point tonight. It's difficult sometimes when you're preparing a sermon and you've got your theme and your points, you've got that road map, but you really have no idea, at least I don't, always have an idea of how long the sermon is going to be. Sometimes my wife says, well, give it to me, I'll cut some out. But I haven't tried that yet. But tonight we're going to consider basically the phrase that Christ appeared in order to destroy the devil's work. Considering this incompatibility as it is realized by Christ. Now, if you'd like two sub-points under this first point, we're going to consider the devil's work and then in response to that we're going to consider Christ's destruction of that work. But John begins by giving his readers, giving the church, a warning. Verse 7 begins, Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. Another way of saying this is do not let anyone deceive you. You see, it's a command. God's people are to be active. Actively guarding, actively watching. Don't let anyone deceive you. Now, he may be talking about the Antichrist, those who said that Jesus is not the Christ. Or he may have been talking about those who embraced Gnosticism and therefore believed that they can live like they want because the physical matter is evil and temporary and only the spiritual is good and eternal. But you see, anyone who makes sin look attractive and says that you can sin all you want and still have remission of your sins is a deceiver. Be on your guard. False doctrines ultimately cause one to compromise holy living. But then with regard to this command not to let anyone deceive you, John then goes on to give the criteria for knowing deception. Following on in verse 7, He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. Right, righteous, or sin. You see, there are only two ways. Either practicing righteousness or practicing sin. Now, of course, I trust we're not talking about the sin that we still commit here. But we're talking about the continual practice of righteousness or the continual practice of sin. They don't go together. They cannot be mixed. They are incompatible. Boys and girls, it's like oil and water. They don't mix. You can pour oil and water into the same glass. You can stir all you want, but when you're finished stirring, the oil and the water will separate. And then John goes on to tell us which one we should want to be practicing when he says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. In other words, if you take the side of the devil, you're in for destruction. And what John is saying here is that this incompatibility of faith and the life of sin is realized by Christ. I wrote it the way I did for a reason in your outline there. And what I mean is, this compatibility was made real by, or maybe a better way to say it is, it was made permanent by Christ. Now please understand, I'm not saying that faith and a life of sin were bosom buddies throughout the history of the Old Testament. These were always incompatible. But Christ's work of destroying the work of Satan signed the eternal death certificate of Satan, sin, and death. And His work, Christ's work, secures forever. Those who are in Christ Jesus and those who are in Him cannot remain in the practice of sin. And Jesus Christ Himself was a physical demonstration as He walked this earth of the incompatibility of faith and a life of sin. A demonstration that light and dark don't mix. Now what can we say about Christ's work? In some respects, it seems so simple to us because even the children know that Jesus died for the sins of His people and because of His work, Satan cannot eternally hurt us. Now, we could leave it right there. That's all that we would necessarily have to say. But it's good for us to consider all of this a little more in detail. To consider exactly what the work of Satan is and what Christ has done. Once again, that we might appreciate even more Christ's work. In verse 5, as we considered last week, John said that Christ appeared to take away our sins. And he talked about what sin is, the deadly character of sin, the hideous nature of sin, and he talked about whom it is against. God and God alone. And that fits, of course, with what verse 8 says, that he appeared to destroy the devil's work. You see, he now brings it to a deeper level. Sin is lawlessness. It is against God and His divine law and His holiness. And sin is the work of the devil. Sin puts one under the curse and condemnation of God's holy law and it also puts one under the dominion and the government of Satan and it makes that one a part of Satan's work. And that means, beloved, that the practice of sin, the life of sin, identifies one with the devil. Now there are some who don't like to talk about negative things like sin and hate and Satan. They only want to focus on the positive things like love and good works and God. But the late and great preacher Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones beautifully explained that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world because of a certain state or condition that had been produced by the devil. And he said, listen to this, the whole drama of redemption cannot be understood at all unless you accept the biblical doctrine with regard to the devil. Now that may be hard for some of us to understand that we cannot truly understand redemption unless we understand, accept, and believe what God Himself teaches about the devil. But Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is right. The beauty of Christ's accomplishment of salvation cannot be seen or understood apart from an understanding of the ugliness of that from which we have been saved. John says the devil has been sinning from the beginning. And I take that to mean from the time he fell, from the time he became God's adversary, the devil. And of course, even as we read tonight, we know well about the beginning of his work on earth in the Garden of Eden. Because of Satan, Adam and Eve and all people went against God and have been against God ever since. Now of course, we know that God is the Creator. This earth is the Lord's and everything in it. But this wicked world has become the kingdom of Satan. Paul calls him the prince of this dark world. And the results of sin in the world are the works of the devil. Remember, Satan's design and goal was to destroy and ruin God's work in the world. He set out to separate mankind from God. He couldn't stand Adam and Eve's devotion to God, but wanted them under his own control. And as we know, all of His work revolves around one thing, really. And that's the lie. Jesus said of the devil in John 8, verse 44, He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. The lie is the foundation of Satan's work. And it began with Satan's lie about God Himself. Instead of realizing and focusing on the fact that God had given the first man and woman the blessing of walking and talking with Him face to face, and giving them a perfect world over which to exercise dominion, and giving them everything they could ever need, Satan comes along and in effect says, don't think about all that. But he points out the one tree and he basically said, don't believe for a minute that God has your best interest in mind. Of course, we know that even that one tree showed that God had our best interest in mind. But Satan was saying, you see, God is trying to hold you back from being all that you can be. He doesn't really love you. He doesn't really have your best interest in mind. And that lie then led to the second lie which had to do with God's will. God said, don't eat of the fruit of that one tree. That was God's will. But Satan told Adam and Eve to question that will. After all, how could something that looks so good and surely be so good for you, how could it be so bad? Maybe God was mistaken. Maybe God was holding the truth back from them. And of course, then this led to the next lie about the consequences of sin and disobedience. Oh, come on! You won't die! You'll be like God! Don't you see? God lied to you. Well, boys and girls, you know what happened when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree. Adam and Eve sinned and found out that God is truth and the devil is a liar. And because of their sin, misery and death entered the world. And that misery includes sickness, weakness, sweat and pain in our labor. It includes fighting and hating and hurting. It includes lying, cheating and stealing. It includes murder. And most of all, it includes enmity and hatred for God and therefore eternal death. And that's the terrible end of it all. The eternal punishment in hell that awaits all those who reject God. And Satan is still at work, even though Christ has said it is finished. He's still at work. And his goal is still to get us under his control and to keep us from living holy before the face of God. Beloved, the state of this wicked world apart from Christ is that it is under Satan's dominion. It is miserable. It is unhappy. It is sinful, perverted. It is alienated from God and under God's wrath with death waiting around every corner. That's the world, you see, for which Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven. Imagine that. that's the world for which He left all that He possessed in heaven. And we're tempted to say, why? Why would He do that? But we know better, don't we? We know better than to ask a question like that. He came to wage war against the devil. Jesus said, do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He came to wage a war that He would win hands down. He came to fulfill the promise of God from the beginning that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. He came, as John said, to destroy the devil's work. And that destruction included undoing the word of Satan, proving the devil to be a liar. And this began with His very coming. His very coming began that work of destruction and undoing the lie of Satan. His incarnation, God in the flesh. His coming into this wicked world, taking on the flesh and blood, human nature of man, proves the love of God and at the same time proves the lie of Satan. Again, Satan's lie was God does not love you and want the best for you, but Christ coming into the world to a people that deserved nothing but punishment and eternal death is proof of God's love for His own, proof that God desires the best for His people. It is proof positive of what Peter says in 2 Peter 3, verse 9, talking about the elect. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Satan also lied to Adam and Eve about the will of God, causing them to question God's will and to question God's commands. But through His perfect and sinless life and His fulfilling of all righteousness, Jesus Christ demonstrated the truth that holy living, holy living which conforms to and is obedient to the righteous commands of God is the only way to go. It is the only life that is worth living. In fact, that alone is life because as we sometimes sing, to live apart from God is death. Satan's lie also included that sin looks attractive. And there is so much to be gained when you go your own way. But the very teaching, the very preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ as you read through the Gospel accounts teaches us just how ugly and perverse sin really is. What about the miracles of Christ? You see, they too destroyed the work of Satan. As our Lord ministered on this earth, He came face to face with evil spirits, sickness, physical infirmities, and physical death. All of these things are the result of the curse of sin. And He cast out demons, restoring the spirit of those who were possessed. He healed the sick, made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He gave physical life back to some who had died. And by doing all of this, He was destroying the work of the devil. He made whole that which Satan had broken. You see, truly Jesus Christ is the stronger man who has overcome the strong man of Satan. He is the One. Spoken of in Isaiah chapter 61 where we read, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. The oil of gladness instead of mourning. And a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness. A planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. Through His miracles, our Lord set the captives free. and released those bound to the effects of the devil's work. Beloved, the whole earthly life of Jesus Christ served to destroy the work of the devil and to undo the result of his lie, but it all led to the cross where the battle raged the fiercest. And it was on the cross where our iniquities were laid upon Him and where He removed our guilt of sin and took our eternal punishment for sin. It was on the cross where Jesus Christ destroyed the wages of sin for His people, namely death, eternal death. God's people, though they die to this life, yet they will live. Not because Satan said, Oh, you surely shall not die. But because Jesus Christ suffered that punishment of death in our place. And that's why Paul can say with such confidence. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we know all of this to be true? Because of the open tomb. The stone is rolled away and it is still rolled away. Our Lord lives. He rose again. He ascended into heaven. and He rules from there until He comes again to judge the living and the dead. And His resurrection, beloved, was a sign that not only had He conquered death and the grave, but that God the Father was well pleased with His work, that His work was sufficient and acceptable, and that indeed, the Father accepted that work for you and me as believers. Because of the truth of Christ's resurrection, our assurance is new life in Christ Jesus, a life which contradicts the old life of sin. And beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ continues to destroy the work of the devil as He gathers His church through the power of the Holy Spirit. As He builds His church, He continues to rescue God's elect from the lie of Satan and from the darkness of sin and bring them into the marvelous light of God, as Peter says. And through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, those who once gave themselves over to the constant practice of sin have been converted, as we consider this morning, and desire to live by faith in the Son of God who gave His life for them and saved them. And you see, because of Christ's work, Even that which we would consider to be the smallest of sins runs against the work of Christ. It is opposed to Christ's work. You see, as John says in chapter 2 of this letter, we are called to overcome the evil one, not to participate in what he is and what he has done and what he does. The work of the devil is to sin leading to death. But the work of Christ is to save, resulting in life for His people. And that's why faith and a life of sin is incompatible. Again, I trust that you recall that we're not saying that believers never sin. John has already dealt with that, and we will consider that a little bit more in our second point next week, the Lord willing. John is not teaching the perfectionism of the believer in this life that it is possible for you and I to be perfect. But as we have said before, he's talking about the continual practice of something here. A lifestyle of something. Whether that be doing what is right and walking according to the light of the truth of God, or whether that be doing what is sinful and walking in the darkness of sin. Beloved, where do you stand? To whom do you belong? Are you a work of the devil? Bound to sin and eternal death? You see, if that describes you, then you must know that Christ came to destroy you. And He is victorious. Not will be. He is victorious. Or have you been rescued from the clutches of Satan by the grace of God, and therefore you are being remade in the image of Christ who alone is the way and the truth and the life? All the glory of Christ's work for you and me. Remember, congregation, when we were still sinners, when we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Simply amazing. If that isn't love. You see, there is no gray area here. A life of sin and a life of faith in Jesus Christ are incompatible. They cannot go together. It's impossible to be on the fence. Why? Because faith includes, as we considered this morning, a genuine heartfelt sorrow for sin, a hatred for sin, and a desire to run away from sin. John says the distinction is clear. Those who do what is right give evidence that they have been born of God. Those who do what is sinful prove that they belong to the devil. To whom do you belong? May our comfort be that each one of us can confess that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, help us to know as we walk through this life and when we do fall into sin, help us to understand that the sin that we still commit is against the work of Christ. And by our sin, whether we understand it or not or whether we mean to or not, we try to undo Christ's work. But thanks be to God that His work can never be undone for His work stands secure forever and ever. Satan, sin, and death have been conquered. And one day they will be put away forever and ever as Your people enjoy the glory, the everlasting glory of heaven in Your presence. Father, we pray again that You would strengthen our faith even in this night through this word which we have heard. Help us to believe what we have heard, to be obedient to it, to live more joyful because of it and to give You the glory and the honor and the praise. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen.