I have a question for you this morning. Do you like to eat? I know there’s a small minority of people that don’t really enjoy food; they just eat because they know they need to in order to live. My mother was like that, but most people enjoy eating very much, it’s one of life’s luxuries, and some perhaps enjoy their food a little too much.

It’s about that time of year once again when we’ll be enjoying local produce, perhaps out of our own gardens, are you looking forward to it? And what I’m thinking of specifically is sweet, plump, juicy, delicious cherries and berries of various kinds, because that’s what ripens up first where I live. I don’t know about you, but I could easily be a fruitatarian. To me there’s nothing tastier than fruit that’s picked ripe and not green like you find in the grocery stores. You may even be drooling a little bit right now as you think about it, but the kind of fruit I want to talk to you about this morning includes none of these things. The best fruit you could ever taste of, is you guessed it, the fruit of the Spirit.

In Psalm 34:8 David said, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” I can testify that that is a true statement, and I hope you can too; but if not, then you better try it out. In Psalm 19:10 David also said, speaking of the laws of the Lord, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” And in Psalm 119:103 he said, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” And Jeremiah 15:6 says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Also Job 23:12, “I have esteemed the words of (God’s) mouth more than my necessary food.” And finally 1 Peter 2:2, 3 says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Friends, the word of God is a veritable smorgasbord of good things to eat, and none of us need go hungry or unsatisfied, because once we get a taste, we will continue to “Hunger and thirst after righteousness”, and if we do the promise is, “We shall be filled.” And what will be the result? We will produce all the fruit of the Spirit, not one missing. “Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; there isn’t a law anywhere in the whole world that would throw you in jail for having this kind of fruit; and yet, people have been killed because they had it, Jesus being the prime example. Why? Because light and darkness doesn’t mix. The first time someone suffered and died because they had the fruit of the Spirit was Able. And again, why did his brother kill him? Because Cain was wicked and his brother righteous. That’s all it takes. There is enmity between God’s seed and Satan’s seed, and God put it there according to Genesis 3:15, and it will continue on, and even intensify, as long as this present world exists.

When I referred a moment ago to sweet, plump, juicy, delicious, and ripe; I meant it as description of that which is desirable; that which is pleasing; or that which satisfies. Have you found the fruit of the Spirit to be all these things in your own life? Remember the time when Jesus was talking to the woman of Sumeria at Jacob’s well? When his disciples came back from town with some food, Jesus basically said, “ I’ve already eaten”, and His disciples thought maybe someone had given Him something to eat while they were gone, but it was spiritual food that Jesus had partaken of and He felt satisfied, and He said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” That’s the kind of food I’m talking about this morning, and if we eat like Jesus did, we will have His Spirit, and it’s not an option if we want to be ready to meet Jesus in peace when He comes, because Romans 8:9 says, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” If we don’t have the same Spirit Jesus had, we’re going to come up in the wrong resurrection friends, and so we need to eat that which will feed our souls.

In a general sense, the kind of fruit we physically eat is whatever the ground produces, which, if you’re following mans original diet, would include vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains as well as fruit, and even if you’re a meat eater, you still get your food from what the ground produces, you’re just getting it second hand, and getting it first hand is God’s plan for health of body and mind. And as you can imagine, all the different kinds of plants there are would include a very long list, so let’s narrow it down a bit.

If you were to ask a botanist what fruit is, he would give you a very short and precise definition. He would tell you that fruit is “The seed of a plant”, because the fruit is in the seed. Even if you can’t see the fruit, it’s there inside that tiny seed. And as we consider the fruit of the Spirit in this sense, we need to realize that even this kind of fruit begins with a planted seed. In order to have true love for one another, 1 Peter 1:23 says we have to be, “Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

This verse clearly tells us that when we are born again we are born of incorruptible seed. That means the opposite is unavoidable, we were all born of corruptible seed the first time. In other words, the corruptible seed cycle can’t be broken unless a power from outside ourselves comes to our rescue. People with fallen natures can’t produce offspring with unfallen natures, it’s utterly impossible. That would violate one of the first principles in the first chapter of Genesis where God said, “Everything must bring forth after his kind.”

Fallen flesh can only produce fallen flesh. That means there has to be a break in our genealogy somewhere along life’s journey if we’re going to leave this planet alive. What we need is to be adopted into another family and partake of a new nature, and through that new nature we can then chart a new course. We must become sons and daughters of God and not just sons and daughters of men. That’s the way it was with Jesus! Didn’t He refer to Himself as both the Son of God and the son of man? There was a reason for that. When the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the Highest overshadowed her, as it says in Luke 1:35, God planted His incorruptible seed in the womb of corruptible humanity. This was not an immaculate conception as many believe, but a combination of the divine nature and the fallen human nature. By the way, if you are an Adventist that believes Jesus had an unfallen human nature, you’re really a Catholic, you just don’t no it yet, but you will understand this sooner or later, and may it be sooner, because later will be too late. And so, Jesus was the Son of God and the son of man, and something very similar to this has to happen to us if we want to have a way of escape out of this sinful world when Jesus comes.

When we are born again, we partake of the divine nature; the Holy Spirit planting God’s incorruptible seed in our hearts. And I want to tell you something; this is the most wonderful experience that anyone can ever have! And when this happens to us, it is just as much a mystery as the incarnation of Christ. Because who can explain it? Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus? “The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but you can’t tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” [John 3:8]

Because Jesus was born of the Spirit, we can’t belong to Him unless we are born of the same Spirit, and if we have His Spirit Jesus is not ashamed to call us what? His Brethren! [Heb. 2:11] Why? Because we now have the same Father. And we also have the same mother; fallen humanity. However, today Jesus no longer bears fallen humanity, He has holy flesh! But while He was here, He had a human nature like ours. And if we grow up into Christ and reproduce His character, we will also receive holy flesh when He comes to claim us as His own, that’s what it tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55.

In fact, let’s read it, it’s beautiful and very comforting to know. 1 Corinthians 15 beginning with verse 51, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

By the way, according to what we just read, when do we receive immortality, and what are we now? We become immortal when Jesus comes, don’t we? and until that time we are what? mortal. This idea that we all have immortal souls and that we go directly to heaven or hell when we die is one of the devil’s big lies. This error is almost universally believed today, and because the devil has convinced people that it’s true, he had to invent another lie the Bible doesn’t teach, and that is an eternally burning hell. Because think about it; if we all have immortal souls then there has to be a place of eternal torment for those that don’t get to go to an eternal heaven. This is not our subject this morning, but it’s very important for us to understand, that according to 1 Timothy 6:16, God’s the only one that’s immortal and He has told us plainly that He’s going to give it to the faithful when He comes, and not before. So where are the righteous and wicked dead right now? Resting in the grave for either the first or the second resurrection. Read Revelation 20:5, 6 and you’ll find that it’s the first resurrection you want to be in, and that the first and the second are separated by a 1000 years.

But back to this idea of holy flesh for a minute. Are you looking forward to it? We may have partaken of incorruptible seed when we partook of the divine nature, but we still have the corruptible seed within, that’s the corruptible the apostle Paul spoke of, but that’s going to be a thing of the past when our change comes. That’s when there will be no more tempter and no more temptation, but until then we have to fight the good fight of faith. The incorruptible seed and the corruptible seed are at war with each other, that’s the enmity it speaks of in Genesis 3:15, and the one that’s going to win is, guess what? the one we feed. And so, we have a choice. We either feed on the word of God and produce the fruit of the Spirit, or we feed on the husks of this world and produce the works of the fallen flesh. That’s our choice, and that choice will determine where we end up, and if we end up in the wrong place, who is to blame? We are of course.

The wonderful truth that one can hardly take in is that Jesus is not only our elder brother, but he is our Creator and Redeemer! In the Lord’s prayer Jesus taught us how to pray, and the first thing He said was, “When ye pray”, say what? “Our Father” [Luke 11:2]. Jesus teaches us to call His Father our Father, and in Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17:23 He said to His Father, “Thou hast love them, as thou hast loved me.” How could He say such a thing? He could say it because we are of the same seed. Not only does the Father love us as He loves Son, but because He does, we get to inherit everything that belongs to Him. Look what it says in Rev. 21:7, “He that overcometh shall inherit (how much?) all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

Is that fair? No, but it’s love, it’s love, but there are conditions. I believe it’s true that God’s love is unconditional, but friends, salvation is not. This inheritance is a sure thing only to those who continue saying yes to God and no to temptation; isn’t that how we overcome? When we partake of the divine nature, that event gives us the power to choose between good and evil. Before that happens, we have no choice. We’re going to think and act out evil.

Oh yes, we can choose to do good if we only the fallen human nature, millions of people that haven’t been born again do good things, but it won’t be from the heart unless God is working in us, and unless the heart has been changed, it won’t do us any good, because heart obedience is what we need in order to form a righteous character, and only following the dictates of the divine nature can produce that kind of character. Mere outward obedience will never do it. We don’t get to go to heaven because we’ve done more good than bad, we get to go because we realize we’re nothing but bad without accepting the divine seed in the soil of our hearts.

Now back to our eternal inheritance. Through faith in Christ we can have the assurance of salvation, even today, but in order to have that assurance day by day, we must continue on with the relationship that was started when we first came to Christ. Notice what is says in Romans 4:16, 17, “Therefore it” (context being righteousness) is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise (of our inheritance) might be sure to (who?) all the seed (or to all those that have been born of Jesus’ incorruptible seed); not to that only which is of the law (or to those who profess to follow the law, speaking of literal Israel), but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham (that is spiritual Israel according to Galatians 3:29); who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, (and notice this) and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

And so, through faith, God is able to call that which does not yet exist as though it did exist. Do you understand what this is saying about our inheritance? It’s saying that God wants us to know that the inheritance is ours before we actually receive it. We can claim it now, but we have to patiently wait and be faithful to the end for it to be fulfilled.

Most earthly wills have stipulations, don’t they? and if those stipulations are met, then the inheritance is given, and it’s this way with our spiritual inheritance; we have to be found worthy to receive it, and that worthiness comes through faith that works by love and purifies the soul; it comes when we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to victory; it comes through hard stern battles with self; it comes by continual surrender to Jesus every moment of every day; it comes by cooperating with God in our own salvation; and it comes to those saints that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

Eternal life starts, and the inheritance is promised the day you come to Jesus, did you know that? When we are forgiven of our sins, we are justified in God’s sight. That means that I stand before God Just-If-I’d never sinned, and I receive eternal life that very moment. But here’s the problem, most Christians don’t understand the difference between eternal life and immortality; they’re not the same thing. Eternal life can be forfeited once received if we continue in disobedience after we come to Christ, but immortality is something we will never lose once we have it! Think that through. And so, it’s not once saved always saved, but once immortal always immortal. The meaning of immortality is that you are no longer subject to death. When a person receives immortality it’s because God has determined heaven will be eternally safe with them in it. During their life they will have been judged worthy because they have become so much like Jesus that sin will never again arise in their hearts. That’s why Nahum 1:9 says, “Affliction (or all the trouble our adversary has caused) shall not rise up the second time.” God’s going to put an end to sin and sinners, and sin will never again enter God’s perfect universe. That’s the kind of place I want to be, don’t you? But it’s only going to happen to those who have the incorruptible seed planted in their hearts and don’t do anything to cause that seed to wither, or dry up, or allow the devil to totally uproot it.

Let me put it another way. The only people that get their names registered in the Lamb’s book of life are those that at some point in their lives accepted Jesus as their Savior. That’s the only way we get it there! Everyone else has no chance whatsoever, unless through ignorance they lived up to all the light they had. Acts 4:12 says plainly that, “There is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Allah won’t do it; Krishna won’t do it; the pope won’t do it; Buddha won’t do it, or any other name. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” [Philippians 2:10] If people don’t do it now while probation lingers, they’ll do it later when hope is gone, and we don’t want to be among that number, believe me!

Everyone whose name is registered in heaven were given eternal life at the point of the acceptance of Christ. However, when the record books are gone over and it’s found that a person did not remain committed to Jesus, but instead went back to their old way of life, their name will be blotted out, because they have forfeited eternal life. That’s why Jesus said what He did in Revelation 3:5 when He said, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”  That’s also why, in Exodus 32:32, Moses  prayed that his name would not be blotted out of the book of life. So this idea that once you’re saved you can’t be lost, is another big lie of the devil. Do you know how to keep from getting your name blotted out? Make sure your sins are confessed and forsaken so when your name comes up in review before God, those sins will be blotted out and your name retained! That’s the only way any of us are going to finally receive immortality.

Now think of the fruit of the Spirit for a minute. If we have faith in God and believe everything is already laid out for us if we will but accept it, and if we will but cooperate with Him; if we have that kind of faith, will we have love for others? and won’t we want to share the truth with them? Sure we will.

Do you have joy? Does it make you happy to understand and know that there’s an eternity beyond this life and that we can have the assurance of it now? Yes! And don’t you think other will be happy to know these things? How about peace? Does it help a person to have peace to know these things when the whole world is in such turmoil? Does it help you to have more patience than the average person when dealing with people? And you can go right on down the list with the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. Others need to know what we know, and we shouldn’t be shy about, because some will take hold if we continually share our faith. We have not yet literally received our inheritance, but we need to act and live as though it’s a sure thing, because it is, if we are faithful.

Let’s take a look at what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:1-14, I want to read the context beginning with verse 1 so when we get to verse 14 you’ll see how important it is. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

Notice the word “In”, it’s a very important word, and as we read along you’re going to see it used several times. It’s only a little word, just two letters, but very important and very powerful.

Verse 4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”

Now, don’t let that word “predestinated” throw you. There are people in the world today who believe that we are all predestined either to be saved or to be lost, and what a terrible fix to be in to believe you’ve been predestined to be lost. I studied with a man some years ago, and he was under the mistaken idea that he was predestined to be lost, and there was nothing he could do about it, and what this man believed is what prompted me to write a little booklet called Fuel for the Fires of Hell. You can go to my website and read it there under “Publications.” It starts out with a story I heard years ago about a lady that came to a church. Why she came to church I’m not sure, because she said she believed she was predestined to be lost. After the sermon that day she confided in the pastor, and said, “Pastor, the Lord has predestined me to be lost.” And no matter what he said to her, he could not change her mind, and she left the church that day in the same condition in which she came. Wouldn’t it be terrible for a person to go through the rest of their life knowing there was nothing they could do to change their eternal destiny? It’s comforting to know the truth, isn’t it? Here’s what this lady needed to know; the word predestinate simply means “To determine before hand.” In other words, God determined before He even created this world, that everyone was predestined to be saved if they believe in Jesus Christ. That’s really what it means. God has predestined everyone to be saved, but the sad truth is, most will not be saved because they refuse to surrender to the only One who can give them eternal life, and in the end immortality.

Verse 6, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (By God’s grace, we’re all accepted into His family if we choose, but we can refuse if we want, but why would we want when we understand the reward of the wicked?)

Verse 7, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us (or lavished upon us) in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will,”

What is the mystery of God’s will? It says He has “Made known the mystery of His will.” So we ought to know what it is! The mystery of God’s will is understanding why Jesus came to this earth. When He came, that mystery was no longer a mystery for those who understand and know the truth. And this truth is that Jesus came here to live the perfect life; to be the perfect sacrifice; to be raised from the dead, and to minister in the heavenly sanctuary for us today. That’s no longer a mystery, except to those who’ve never heard, and it’s our job to tell them about it.

Verse 8, “According to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have (that’s past tense) we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were (what?) sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,”

Now, what does that mean? sounds final, doesn’t it? Sealed! Can we say we are sealed today? In a sense we can if we understand it correctly. Can we say we are saved today? We’ve been counseled not to, haven’t we? It’s misleading to say, “I am saved”, because we could be lost, couldn’t we? We could have our names blotted out of the Lamb’s book of life. Paul says, through our belief in Christ we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The word sealed means, “To stamp for security or preservation.” That means the Holy Spirit identifies us as His own and secures us until the day of redemption.

Look at Ephesians 4:30, because that’s what it says. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Being sealed unto the day of redemption is the end result of our redemption, but it’s never apart from faith and obedience. In Matthew 24:13 Jesus said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Never do we want to get the idea or leave the impression in someone’s mind that we are saved in disobedience, and that somehow the blood of Christ covers our sins even while we’re committing them. Whenever someone says you can be saved in sin, or teaches once saved always saved, sometimes referred to as “Eternal security”, or any variation of this false doctrine, you can know that they are deceived and deceiving others, and they will have a hefty price to pay.

Now flip back to Ephesians 1:14. “Which is (Speaking of the Holy Spirit of promise) the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” When someone promises you something, does that mean that you already have what’s promised, or that you will receive what’s promised? It means you will receive it, and that’s the way it is with the “Earnest of our inheritance.” In other words, God has put down the earnest money until our redemption becomes a reality.

When you purchase a house, you’re required to put down earnest money, why? Because that tells the seller you’re serious; that you are pledging part of the purchased price in advance with the idea that you are going to follow through and make good on the rest of the deal. It tells the seller you’re a committed buyer, and it helps fund your down payment. And so, the earnest of the Spirit is God’s assurance of future enjoyment and favor in His presence for all eternity, and a measure of that even now in this life. We can have that assurance now; we have that earnest through the Holy Spirit, but we have to be partakers of the incorruptible seed, and that it might remain.

Notice what it says in 2 Peter 1:3, 4. “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Partaking of the divine nature is the same as partaking of the incorruptible seed, and what’s going to happen when we do? We’re going to, “Escape the corruption that is in the world through lust”, or through the evil desires of the corrupt seed within our fallen nature, which will result in freedom from sin.

Now, let’s go to my all time favorite chapter of the Bible, 1 John 3, because it will affirm in a very clear manner what we just read in 2 Peter. There are several important points in this chapter and we should all become familiar with what’s in here, because it will answer nearly every question we may have about the true way of salvation and expose nearly every falsehood at the same time. We’ll be reading the first 10 verses; it’s very powerful. I’ll try not to comment on too much as we go along, because I don’t want to get side tracked from today’s topic.

“Behold, what manner of love (or what quality of love) the Father hath bestowed (or placed) upon us, that we should be called the sons of God (and the daughters of God): therefore (or for this reason) the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”

In other words, the world never recognizes true righteousness for what it is. The world will not accept us because it has not accepted the One who planted the incorruptible seed in our hearts. We’re told in Christ’s Object Lesson, page 69 that Jesus will come when we reflect His character fully, and you may have never thought about this before, but this is what will bring on the time of trouble and the death decree spoken of in Revelation 13:15, because when we reflect His character fully, they will want to kill us just like they killed Him.

Verse 2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him (notice: it doesn’t say we shall become like Him, but that we shall already be like Him. Jesus is not going to change our character when He comes, if that work is done at all, it will be done before that time or we’ll not be going with Him when He comes. And then it says); for we shall see him as he is.”

In all His glory, and if we’re going to see Him like that, we’ll have to be like Him or we’ll be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. This life is the fitting up time and we shall lose our souls if we wait for a future time thinking that Jesus will wave a magic wand over us and all of a sudden we’ll become holy when He gets here. It won’t happen, but that’s what the devil would like us to believe, and unfortunately the majority will be fooled by this deception.

Now I just have to stop right here for a minute and look at a word in verse 2. If you have the SDA Bible Commentaries, I would encourage you to go to Volume 7, page 649, because you’ll find something very interesting and revealing about what the leadership of the SDA denomination believes about the word “Now” at the beginning of verse 2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” This is not Ellen G White comments, but an official document of current day Adventist theology. Here’s what it says, “It is now, while we are still falling into sin that we are said to be children of God.” Is that a true statement? It is true that that is what they believe and teach, but it is false doctrine and doctrine that has been taught now for at least 60 years and has become known as the new theology that isn’t very new. It’s at least 6000 years old and the same lie the serpent told Eve in the Garden of Eden; you can disobey God, and ye shall not surely die. As we continue reading in 1 John 3 it will become very clear that the new theology is a blatant lie, but still people fall for it.

Verse 3, “And every man that hath this hope (the hope that we will perfectly reproduce the character of Christ so He can come) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (As we cooperate with God our character will be purified as Jesus is pure) Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins (not save us in them); and in him is no sin.”

And so, the key to being without sin is to be in Him. One of the apostle Paul’s favorite phrases was “In Him, or “In Christ”, he uses it over and over again. According to the dictionary, the word “In is a function word that indicates spacial inclusion.” An example of spacial inclusion is that if a person is out swimming in a lake, then they are included within the space of that lake. And so, to be in Christ is to be included within His space. We have to be in Him if we’re going to be saved, because to be in Him is to be able to live without committing sin.

Verse 6, “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not (you can’t abide in Christ and continue to sin): whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.”

In other words, the person who is right with God does what is right just as Christ did what was right. To be righteous is the opposite of being unrighteous, and according to 1 John 5:17, “All unrighteousness is sin.” And so, when the Bible says, “he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”, that means that to be in Christ is to sin not.

Verse 8, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” (Oh, you mean we’re not the children of God when we continue in sin? No! We’re children of the devil! How could it be any clearer?) “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested (or made known), that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

Where does God want to destroy the works of the devil? In your heart, and in mine. The works of the devil are to get you to transgress God’s law, and if he can make you believe you are still saved even while you do it, has he accomplished his goal? Absolutely!

Verse 9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for (what remains in him?) his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Now that doesn’t mean that we can’t sin if we so choose; it means that as long as the good seed that was planted in our hearts when we came to Christ remains in us, we will not sin, because Jesus and sin cannot occupy the same heart at the same time. If you choose not to abide, sin is going to happen, because without Christ you have no power to stop it.

Verse 10, “In this (that is, whether or not we sin) the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:” (This is how we tell who’s children we are) whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

Do you see what I mean about 1 John 3 making the true way of salvation crystal clear? It’s very difficult to put a wrong spin on what John says. The only way not to get it is to purposely misinterpret God’s holy word to suit your own carnal heart. If people would just read their Bibles and take God at His word instead of listening to their religious leaders a great work of reformation would take place and the devil’s lies would be exposed for what they are, the great deception of the last days.

Go back a few pages to 1 John chapter 1, and let’s begin reading there. We’ll start with verse 6 and read through the chapter and John will again tell us plainly how the person who is truly justified will act.

“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness (and remember, to walk in darkness is to walk in sin or in disobedience), we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light (that is to walk in obedience to the commandments), as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from (how much sin?) all sin.”  

The blood of Jesus Christ, dear friend, is very powerful, because it can cleanse us completely from sin; entirely from sin; from any amount of sin; from every degree of sin; and to any extent in sin. The only sin it can’t cleanse is the sin against the Holy Ghost, but that’s not our subject today. Suffice it to say that if you come to Jesus confessing your sin, you will find forgiveness and cleansing, period! But that cleansing isn’t so we can continue on in sin. It sets us free from the effects of sin and gives us the power to quit.

Verse 8, “If we say that we have no sin (that is while we walk in darkness, that’s the context), we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Now let me back up what I just said with an inspired statement, because there are some who take what John says here to mean we can’t stop sinning, and if we say we can, “The truth is not in us.” This is from The Review and Herald, February 22, 1881, “The epistles of John breathe a spirit of love. But when he comes in contact with that class who break the law of God and yet claim that they are living without sin, he does not hesitate to warn them of their fearful deception.” Then 1 John 1:6-10 is quoted. So we know that’s the context.

Verse 9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (Praise the Lord!) If we say that we have not sinned (in the past) we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Chapter 2:1-6, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. (does that mean we don’t have to sin just because we have a sinful nature? Yes, that’s exactly what it means.) And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of  the whole world. (Oh, if people only knew they could have freedom from guilt from past sin, psychologists would be out of business) And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. (In other words, the only ones who really know that they know Him are those that have stopped sinning) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (If we say we know Jesus in a saving relationship, but we are continuing to sin, we don’t know what we’re talking about; we’re living a lie, knowingly or unknowingly) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” (Did Jesus walk in sin? Of course not, and neither will we if we understand these things.)

1 John 5:11, 12, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is (where?) in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

John is saying the same thing here that Paul was saying when he said we must be “In Christ” if we would be without sin. If we have Jesus we have life, and if we don’t, we don’t. Skip down to verse Verse 18, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God (or he that has the good seed planted within) keepeth himself (from sin by abiding in Christ), and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

If we are in the lake, going back to our illustration of spacial inclusion, Satan is on the shore and he cannot touch you. All he can do is tempt you to come out of the lake so he can grab you and have his way with you. So it’s up to us, isn’t it? are we going to stay in the lake, or are we going to get out and place ourselves where the devil can get hold of us. That’s our challenge.

Let’s look at two more verses of Scripture in Isaiah 53:10, 11 and then we’ll close, “Yet it pleased the LORD (our Father in heaven) to bruise him (why? Because the end result will be the salvation of many); he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin (on the cross of Calvary), he shall (what?) see his seed, (those who have His incorruptible seed planted within) he shall prolong his days (by being raised from the dead), and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (It pleases the Lord to see His seed develop and bear the fruit of the Spirit) He shall see of the travail of his soul (or the results of His labor), and shall be (what?) satisfied: (and why is He going to be satisfied? Because we have developed a character like His) by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

Praise the Lord, amen? I want to be one of those “Many” who will be justified by the precious blood, don’t you? I want Jesus to be satisfied with me. I want Him to be able to look at me, even now, and say, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” The only way that can happen is if He sees the perfect life of Christ shinning through me because I have chosen to let Jesus live out His perfect life within me, and my prayer is that the good seed might remain in us so that we can live a life that is pleasing in His sight, to the honor and glory of King Jesus.

Sermon Notes available in PDF The Good Seed