Today’s Sermon Notes: 9-20-2026
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Love Made A Way
A Sermon Series on Atonement
“The Lifestyle of the Children of God”
1 John 3:1-11
The Destiny of Those Who Hope In Christ (vv. 1-3)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
“Adoption is the legal act by which our Father places us into his family; regeneration is the spiritual birth by which we receive the nature of our Father.” – Spurgeon
John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
Genesis 37:4 “But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.” Genesis 37:8 “So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.” And by v. 18 “They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.”
Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, . . .”
2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
Philippians 3:20-21 says, “. . . we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, . . .”
Everyone Who Hopes In Christ Has a Lifestyle of Being Purified of Sin.
Our Incentive to Be Holy: His Immanent Return and Our Devotion to Him.
Luke 12:35-38 is a parable Jesus told about how believers must be ready for Jesus’ return. The setting of the parable is where the master has left for a wedding, and will at some point return. But in that culture a wedding would last a week, so the servants must “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!”
The Evidence of Those Who Practice Lawlessness (vv. 4-10)
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
Sin; a willful disregard for God. A rebellious revolt against God’s will.
Being with the Devil.
Jesus appeared in order to take away sins.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil.
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Luke 12: 45 “. . . 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
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[1] Marianne Meye Thompson, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, 1-3 John (Downers Grove, Illinois; Intervarsity Press, 1992) 87.
[2] Canon A. E. Brooke, The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, The Johannine Epistles (Edinburgh, England, Morrison and Gibb Limited, 1971) 81.
[3] Brooks, 81.
[4] The “world” is defined as, those who are unbelieving in Christ. Worldly people.
[5] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Volume VI (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1933) 220.
[6] Daniel Akin, The New American Commentary, 1, 2, 3 John (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman & Holman Publishing, 2001) 135.
[7] Colin G. Kruse, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Letters of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020) 126.
[8] Brooks, 83.
[9] David Allen, 1-3 John, Fellowship in God’s Family (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2013) 144.
[10] Kruse, 138.
[11] See John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
[12] Kruse, 129.
[13] Thompson, 94.
[14] Kruse, 132.
[15] Herschel H. Hobbs, The Epistles of John (Nashville, Tennessee; Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983) 87.
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“The His-story of Those Who Believe: Part Two” Ephesians 1:12-14
