Real Salvation

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Would you take your Bibles, find 1 John chapter 3, as we're continuing our study, the sweetest fellowship this side of heaven. I want to speak with you on the subject of real salvation.

You know the devil's a great counterfeiter, and he had just as soon sent you to hell from the pew as from the gutter. As a matter of fact, I think he'd rather have you to have a form of religion, but not to have genuine and real salvation. And I believe the curse is that we have many churches that are filled with baptized pagans, a full church of empty people, people who've never really been saved. Oh, they have culture, but they don't have Calvary. They have ritual, but they don't have reality.

They have form, but they don't have force. They have religion, but they don't have righteousness. Now, that's what we're going to be talking about today is real salvation. Now, beginning here in chapter 3, verse 4, whosoever commiteth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he, that is Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins, and in him, that is in Jesus, is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you."

Now, just underscore that. Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he, Jesus, is righteous. He that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now, I say that many people are deceived because they have a gross misunderstanding of what true salvation is. We're going to take this passage of Scripture and break it up in three equal divisions today, and we're going to see, first of all, the rebellion, the rebellion that proves our sinfulness. Now, sometimes we sit in churches, well-dressed and with a benign smile on our face, but God looks down into our hearts and God sees the rebellion that is there.

Now, look, if you will, verse 4. And whosoever commiteth sin transgresseth the law. There are many definitions of sin in the Bible, but this is perhaps the clearest and the best. Whosoever commiteth sin transgresses the law. Sin is breaking God's law. Now, the Bible says in Romans 14, verse 23, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. That's a good definition of sin. Or the Bible says in James 4, verse 17, wherefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. And then in 1 John, chapter 5 and verse 17, all unrighteousness is sin. Those are definitions of sin, but this one is the clearest and the most concise. Sin is the transgression of the law.

Let me just put it another way. Sin is lawlessness. That's what sin is. You see, God made everything. God created the whole universe, and God built into this universe laws, physical laws and moral laws, and the whole universe works according to the fixed laws of God. Why did God give law? Because he wanted order.

We use the term today what? Law and order. Because without law, there is no order. And without law, rather than having a cosmos, you have chaos. And so God made everything. God made the stars to move in their orbits. God made the tides to ebb and flow.

God made your body to work according to certain principles. These are built into nature, and they're built into the moral system of things. Materially and morally, there are laws. Now, often we talk about the laws of nature. There are no laws of nature. They are God's laws that nature obeys. Do you understand that? You know, we have a generation of people today talking about Mother Earth. What we need to talk about is Father God.

You know, now no longer do we have Easter, we have Earth Day, so we can go out and worship dirt. Listen, the whole universe works according to law. There's the law of gravity. You get up in a 10-story building and you step out the window. You're not gonna break the law of gravity. You're gonna demonstrate it. Isn't that right?

You're gonna be broken on it. Now, you may think you're doing well. For a while, you pass each window, you say, it's okay so far, it's okay so far, it's okay so far. But, friend, there is in God's laws laws for those who transgress God's laws. And so in the physical universe, there are laws.

You don't break the law of gravity. And in the moral universe, there are laws. We have the Ten Commandments. You don't really break the Ten Commandments. You're broken on the Ten Commandments. When you transgress God's Ten Commandments, then you're a sinner. Sin is what? Sin is the transgression of the law.

It makes you an outlaw. You say, well, why did God give us these old laws? It'd be a whole lot better if we didn't have all these laws. God is some cruel, vengeful deity up there in heaven making all these rules to make us squirm like a worm in hot ashes trying to keep them.

No. No, the laws are for your welfare. If we didn't have the law of gravity here, we'd have to pull you down off the ceiling. And morally, law is for your welfare. Every time God says, thou shalt not, he's saying, don't hurt yourself. Every time God says, thou shalt, God is saying, help yourself to happiness.

He doesn't need anything, he has everything. God made these laws for us. But sin is the transgression of the law. And when we transgress, we break God's law and we break God's heart because God loves us. Now, there is a lawless spirit in all of us. Now, sometimes we can hide that lawless spirit. There's some people who, they are rebels. You look at these people and they have open defiance and crime and rape and murder and hatred and violence.

We call those kind of people outlaws. But all of us are outlaws because the Bible says sin is the transgression of the law and the Bible says all have sinned, so that means all of us have transgressed God's laws. There's not a person here who would say, I've never broken God's 10 commandments. Now, sometimes we are very smug and we're very sophisticated in the way that we live and we have sins of the spirit, but they're just as bad in God's sight. They may not have the same repercussions, but sin is sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Now, don't tell me about all the laws that you haven't broken.

We're going to talk about the ones that you have broken. Now, we've tried to do everything about this lawlessness and this rebellion that's in the world. We tried education. Do you think that you're going to change men's hearts by education?

Nazi Germany was educated. Somebody said, you take an ignorant man, he'll steal a watermelon off a boxcar. Give him an education, he'll steal the railroad.

He becomes a clever devil. Education is not the answer. We tried psychology. We think that perhaps we can train people or analyze them, but we still have a flood of lawlessness. We've tried legislation. We've tried the police force. We've tried prisons. Prisons today have just become a swamp of discontent and hatred where the mosquitoes of crime breed all the more, and when we let people out of prison, they go right back to their crime because the problem is in the heart.

You can restrain a man outwardly, but he's still a rebel in his heart. A mother had a son who was disobeying, and so she made the son go in the closet for a while. She thought that would be good punishment, so she put him in the closet and shut the closet door.

It was real quiet in there for a long time. She got a little concerned. She said, Johnny, what are you doing in there? He said, I spit on your shoes. I spit on your dress.

I spit on your coat, and I'm waiting for more spit. Lawlessness is in the heart. And what we need to do is to take the policeman off the street corner and put the policeman in the heart. So the very first thing I want you to see is the rebellion that proves our sinfulness.

Verse 4, whosoever committh sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now, you may think that this transgression is just some little innocent peccadillo, and you may think, well, yeah, I haven't sinned so much. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever taken anything ever that didn't belong to you? Whether it was a nickel off your mother's dresser, a toy out of your neighbor's yard, you stole an answer in school when you cheated on somebody else's, looked on somebody else's paper, or whether you robbed a bank.

How many of you have ever in your life, one time, taken something that didn't belong to you? All right, now I want to ask you another question. How many of you have ever told a lie at least one time?

I don't care whether it's a white lie, black lie, or Technicolor, makes no difference. We have a congregation today of liars and thieves. Now, that's funny. You know why that's funny?

Oh, yeah, took a nickel, told a fib, see. You see, what we don't realize is that what we do is not the problem. It is what we are that is the problem. A man is not a liar because he tells lies. He tells lies because he's a liar. A man is not a thief because he steals.

He steals because he's a thief. The problem is in the human heart. Now, we may be very sophisticated, very smug about it, but I want to tell you, my precious friend, if you only knew the sin that lurks in the human heart, the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Yours, madam, yours, sir. Sin is the transgression of the law, and so first of all, you see the rebellion that proves our sinfulness. Number two, I want you to see in contrast to that the righteousness that proclaims our sonship, and we know that he, Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Now, if we are in Christ, if we're saved, the Bible says we are not going to sin. That's what God's Word says. Now, we have a lot of people who say they're saved. We have a lot of people who say they're on the way to heaven, but there's been no change in their life.

None at all. That's the reason I call them baptized pagans. There's no change.

Listen to me. The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. All things have become new. If your religion has not changed your life, you better change your religion.

You do not have the Bible kind. Now, we have today sort of an easy believism where people say, oh, do you believe in Jesus? Yes. You believe he died for your sins?

Yes. Well, then you're saved. No, you're not. The devil also believes and trembles. You are saved when you bow the knee to Jesus Christ, when you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. Yes, that's an act of faith. But friend, it is a change. And again, if the religion has not changed your life, you don't have the Bible kind.

Now, I want to be very clear here. You're not saved by reforming your life. Our Lord never tells us to clean up and therefore he'll save us.

That's backward. We come to Jesus just as we are. But friend, Jesus did not come to save us in our sin. He came to save us from our sin. He came to save us from our sin. Look, if you will, in verse five, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins. In him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. What he's saying is that if we belong to him, we're going to be like him. Look, if you will, in verse seven.

Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Now, that's the righteousness that proclaims our salvation. If you're not righteous, you're not saved. You see, the very word Christian, you know what the word Christian means?

It means Christ-like. And in Christ, there's no sin. Now, you can't be Christ-like and live a life of sin.

Now, look, if you will, in verse six, and let's just slow down here. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Now, look at the word abide. The word abide means to be at home with, to dwell with.

If I were to say, come abide at my house, that would be live in my house, dwell with me, be at home right here. It speaks of union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the reason that many people are still living in sin, their names are on church rolls, is they've met creeds, but they've not met Christ. They've met codes, but they've not met Christ. They've met causes, but they've not met Christ.

They have met churches, but they've not met Christ. When we abide in him, it says we sin not. Now, that brings a real problem, because all of us know that we as Christians fail.

Look at verse six now, and I want you to slow down and pay a lot of attention with me now. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Now, this is not talking about sinless perfection.

There's nobody sinlessly perfect. If you study the Bible, and you look at the lives of the saints, you're going to find out that they sinned. Are you going to find out, for example, that Abraham lied about his wife? That Moses lost his temper? That Peter denied the Lord? That David was unfaithful? Are you going to find out that the saints in the Old Testament and the New Testament? The Bible shows their faults and their failures, and yet this passage of Scripture says that if we abide in him, we will not sin.

Now, I don't want to be too technical, but listen very carefully. This in the Greek language is the present continuous tense, the present tense, and what does it mean? It simply means this, that if you're a Christian, you do not make sin your lifestyle. That's what it means. One translation gives it this way. When a man abides in him, he does not make sin his practice. Another translation, he does not have a sinning lifestyle. The New American Standard says, Whosoever is born of God does not practice sin. All of these things mean the same thing.

I looked it up last night in a number of translations. One says, does not habitually sin. Another says, he does not live in sin. Now, it doesn't mean that you cannot slip and fall.

It does not mean that you cannot make some mistake. If it meant that, then John has lost his mind because John, who wrote this, said in 1 John 1 verse 10, if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And then he says, if we abide in him, we'll not sin.

You know that John, whatever, is a reasonable person. No, what he is saying is this, that when you give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a change, a radical, dramatic change. And now, because you're saved, because you have the nature of God in you, and we're gonna see more about that later on, your life is changed. You do not habitually practice sin. I think I can clear it up even more if you'll look in 1 John 2 verse 1 and look at it for just a moment. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not, all right?

But now watch the next verse. And if any man sin, we, believers, have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. That is, God's desire for us is that we don't sin. If we do slip and fall, Jesus Christ is there.

Advocate's just a fancy word for lawyer. We have someone who's gonna plead our case before heaven. Now look in chapter 2 verses 3 and 4, and this is really going to help us right now. And hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Do you think John had been in a testimony meeting sometime, heard somebody say, I know him, and John says, liar? I know your lifestyle.

You don't know him because you're not keeping his commandments. Now the word keep is a navigational word. It's a word that sailors use. Back in that day, they didn't have radar. They did not have global positioning satellites.

They did not have NORAD and all of these things that keep ships on track as they would cross the sea. They would steer by the stars. Those stars up there are fixed in heaven just like God's laws are fixed. And so those sailors would put their eyes upon the stars and they would steer by the stars. And you know what they call steering by the stars? Keeping the stars.

Keeping the stars. That is, this is the course that I'm keeping. I am sailing by those stars up there that are fixed in heaven. That's what I sail by.

That is my course. Now the Bible says if we know him, we are going to keep his commandments. We're going to steer by God's stars, as it were. We're going to keep his word.

That doesn't mean that a sailor could not get blown off course. That doesn't mean in a time of distraction he might mis-turn the wheel. But it does mean that he has a guide for his life.

He has a direction that he's going. He has a fixed standard that he's living by. Do you?

Do you? You see, friend, God sent me here to tell you that if you do not care for God's commandments, that if you're living your willy-nilly life doing as you please, not caring about God's commandments, not steering by God's stars, if you are habitually practicing sin, you don't know him. You are not saved.

And John says, hey, don't let anybody deceive you. The problem is today, folks, we have a lot of folks who have joined churches who have never met Jesus. I mean, they have never really been saved. And so what he is saying is there is the rebellion that proves our sinfulness. There is the righteousness that proclaims our sonship, like Father, like Son. Now, the rebellion that proves our sinfulness, the righteousness that proclaims our sonship, you say, okay, but, Pastor, I don't have what it takes to live that way.

Neither do I. So here's the third and most important thing, the redemption that provides our salvation, the redemption that provides our salvation. When God tells us how we're to live, that doesn't mean that we can automatically do it apart from him.

Now, look, if you will, here in verse 5. And you know that he was manifested, Jesus, to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. So our Lord doesn't just give us these holy commandments and say, now, if you can live by these, you'll go to heaven. What about the sins we've already committed?

Jesus is manifested to take away our sins. In the Old Testament, in, oh, I think about Leviticus 16, there was the ritual of the scapegoat. The high priest would take two goats. Both of those goats would represent us. And the high priest would lay his hand on the head of one of the goats and confess the sins of the people, that is, placing the sins of the people on the head of that goat. And then that goat would be killed. That goat pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, our sins were laid upon him, and he died on the cross, five sins. Then they would take another goat, and they would lead that goat, called the scapegoat, away into the wilderness, never to return again. That pictures Jesus taking away our sins into the grave of God's forgetfulness.

Never, never, never to be brought up against us again. So, listen, what is the redemption that provides our salvation? Number one, we are redeemed from the penalty of sin. Jesus took that away.

That's what it says. He was manifested to take away our sins. When John the Baptist saw him in John chapter 1, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. But not only did he redeem me from the penalty of my sin, I still need help. He also redeemed me from the power of Satan. Look again in verses 7 and 8.

Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. That's the second reason he came. First reason he came, to take away our sins. But the second reason that he came is to destroy the power of the devil. Now, I am redeemed from the penalty of sin. I am redeemed from the power of Satan.

John is saying, if you're still living like the devil, it's because you belong to the devil. You know, sometimes we criticize Hollywood and the liquor dealers and all of these people, what they do. We say, oh, they sin. Of course they sin. They're sinners. That's what sinners are supposed to do.

I mean, what else would they do? They're sinners. You see, he that commiteth sin is of the devil. That's the problem in so many churches. We don't teach people how to be saved. Then we get them in the church, and the church, rather than being a sheepfold, has become a zoo.

Everybody gets in and nobody gets out, and the pastor spends all of his time trying to teach billy goats not to butt. No, they're sinners. He that commiteth sin is of the devil.

That's why they do it. But now notice what he says here. Look at it. He that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now, the word destroy does not mean annihilate in the Greek language.

It means to make ineffective. We use the term today like that, just wipe me out. Jesus just wiped him out on the cross. He put him out of commission. On the cross, Jesus ruined Satan's kingdom, and Satan has no power, no authority over you. Before you were saved, you were Satan's slave. You were Satan's dirty plaything. You say, well, I was free. You thought you were free.

You're free to do what you wanted, but you were not free to do as you ought. You were Satan's slave, but Jesus has come to set you free. Jesus came to destroy the destroyer, and because I have new life in the Lord Jesus Christ, I will never, ever face the penalty of my sin, for Jesus took my sin away, and I can tell Satan to go sit on a tack.

I don't have to listen to him. I don't have to obey him because his power is broken, and Jesus has destroyed the power of Satan. If you don't understand that, folks, you're not going to live the Christian life.

I'm telling you, folks, that what we're talking about here is something real. Jesus came to destroy the destroyer, but we're still not home yet. We're talking now about the redemption that provides our salvation. Not only does he deliver us from the power of Satan, he also delivers us from the principle of self.

Now look, if you will, in verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now this tells me that I am redeemed. I am redeemed from the very principle of self. You see, if Jesus just dealt with my sin, and that's all I've still got me to deal with.

I'm my own worst enemy. But Jesus has redeemed me from the penalty of sin, Jesus has redeemed me from the power of Satan, and Jesus has redeemed me from the principle of self. Not only did he die for my sins, he died for me, what I am.

And look at it again. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. When you get saved, we're talking now about the principle of self. Number one, you get a new dynamic.

Write that down, a new dynamic. You see, he calls this born again. When I was born the first time, I had physical life. When I received Jesus Christ as my personal savior and Lord, I received spiritual life.

Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, verse 6? That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Everybody's had a fleshly birth, not everybody's had a spiritual birth. Look again in verse 9, whosoever is born of God. Now, how are you born of God?

Well, I was born of Rose and Arden because those were my physical parents. What are my spiritual parents? The Word of God and the Spirit of God. The Word of God and the Spirit of God, in the womb of grace, have made me a new person. You see, the Bible says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, sperm, but of incorruptible by the Word of God. You see, the Bible is my spiritual father, the Word of God, and you can't separate the God of that Word from the Word of that God.

And so I am born there. Also, it is the Spirit that quickens and gives life. Jesus said, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So you take the Word of God and the Spirit of God, and there is a conception in the womb of grace, and you become a new person. And when you become a new person, then, dear friend, you have a new life, you have a new dynamic.

You're not dependent upon just trying to do it. There's a new life that has come into you. When as a teen boy, I received Christ into my heart, I was born again.

I received a new dynamic, and because I have a new dynamic, listen carefully, here's the second thing, I have a new desire. Look at this verse again in verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, watch this now, for his seed remaineth in him. What does he mean, his seed remaineth in him? Well, my father's seed is in me.

I'm a Rogers. If you were to see my father, see me, you'd recognize that I am a child of Arden Duncan Rogers because his natural life is in me. And when I got saved, I am born again, not a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible by the Word of God. And there is a divine life principle that is in me.

And that principle gives me not only a new dynamic, but it gives me a new desire. One translation says God's nature abides in him. Well, what is God's nature? God's nature is holiness. Look in verse 7, little children, let no man deceive you.

He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. If Jesus Christ is in you through the new birth, not only are you gonna have a dynamic, you're gonna have a new desire. You know, I believe in eternal security, I hope you do. I believe that once you get saved, you can never again be unsaved any more than I could ever be unborn. I'm born of God. When I was born physically, that was settled as once and for all. When I was born again, that's settled as once and for all. I can't be unborn physically, I can't be unborn spiritually. But once I came to the Lord Jesus Christ and I got saved, God's nature came into me and I now have the nature of God in me and that nature of God in me says, I don't wanna sin. You know, some people say, if I believe in eternal security, I'd get saved and I'd just sin all I want to.

I sin all I want to. I don't want to. If you want to, you need to get your wanter fixed. No, you need a new wanter. You need to be born again.

You get a new dynamic, you get a new desire. From the moment I gave my heart to Jesus Christ and God is listening, there has been a desire in my heart to live for him. If you don't have that desire, you better check up on this thing you call salvation.

Don't let anybody deceive you. He that committed sin is of the devil. That's the way the devil does it. He that is righteous has the spirit of God in him. He is born of God, his seed remains in him. He has a new desire.

Does that make sense to you? Now, here's the third and final thing. Now, we're talking about we're being delivered now, not only from the penalty of sin and the power of Satan, but from the principle of self. I have a new dynamic. God's life is in me. I have a new desire. I want to be like him because he is in me and I'm in him and I'm abiding in him and I have a new deterrent.

That's the third thing. Write that down, a new deterrent. It says here in this verse, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. He cannot sin because he's born of God.

Friend, if the God that I know lives in you, and again, this is present continuous tense, you cannot habitually live in sin. You just can't do it. Friend, if Jesus Christ is in you, you cannot go on carelessly, thoughtlessly, continuously practicing a lifestyle of sin.

You just can't do it. Not if you're born again. God will carry you to the woodshed and beat the daylights out of you.

The Holy Spirit of God in you will tear you up. You will be under conviction and he, the Holy Spirit of God, will live in you and work in you and dwell in you because he is delivering you not only from the penalty of sin and the power of Satan, but from the principle of self. You are born again.

You have received a new nature and with that new nature, you have a new dynamic, a new desire, and a new deterrent. You're living for Jesus. There is the rebellion that proves our sinfulness.

Sin is the transgression of the law. There is the righteousness that proclaims our sonship. That's the way we know that we've been saved. There is the redemption that provides our salvation. That redemption redeems us from the penalty of sin, from the power of Satan, and from the principle of self.

Now, the Bible says, let a man examine himself, whether he be in the faith. Are you saved? This will be your last moment. Do you absolutely know that you'd go to heaven? And if you are not certain that you're saved, would you pray this prayer right now?

Dear God, I have broken your law. I am a sinner, and my sin deserves judgment, but I need mercy. I need to be redeemed from the penalty of my sin. I need to be redeemed from the power of Satan. I need to be redeemed from the principle of self. I need to be saved from me, O Lord Jesus. Thank you for paying for my sin with your blood on the cross. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for taking my place. Now by faith I accept you, I receive you into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Take control of my life right now and begin now to make me the person you want me to be and help me never to be ashamed of you. In your name I pray, amen. .