The Message of Jesus – Part 2
1 John 1:5-10 (7)
December 26, 2021
Last Sunday morning we started working our way through
This very important passage here at the beginning of 1 John.
John has begun his epistle by outlining the joy of fellowship.
Fellowship is that common spiritual life which we share.
It is what makes the church unique from every other organization.
• It’s NOT just that we like each other or share common interests.
• It’s NOT just that we choose to get along.
• You might be more accurate in calling that “harmony”
What we are talking about is fellowship.
It is to share in common spiritual life.
As believers in Jesus we have been granted the very life of God.
It is the same life which is in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
AND THE CHURCH HAS THIS LIFE.
And we talked about HOW ONE ENTERS this fellowship.
FIRST, JESUS CAME AND REVEALED THIS LIFE
• He came and taught life.
• He came and brought life.
• John was one of the apostles who saw that life.
• John was one of the apostles who heard about that life.
• John was one of the apostles who received that life.
SECOND, THE APOSTLES PROCLAIMED THIS LIFE TO US
1 John 1:3 “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
THIRD, WE BELIEVED THE MESSAGE OF THE APOSTLES
• When we believe we are granted fellowship with the Father.
• When we believe we are granted fellowship with the Son.
• When we believe we are granted fellowship with other believers.
Through faith we have this common spiritual life.
And since that comes through hearing and believing the message
Then that MAKES THE MESSAGE VERY IMPORTANT.
And it is the message which John is reiterating to us.
In fact he says it directly in verse 5, “This is the message…”
It is important for us to be clear about this message for a number of reasons.
One is obviously because this is the message a lost man must believe in order to enter the fellowship.
• So if you are on the outside looking in, then you should be extremely interested
in this message.
Another is because this is the message by which we evaluate other messages.
• John said there are many deceivers who are seeking to lead the church
astray.
• There are all sorts of deceptive doctrines that float around which may be
popular in the world but they are not the message of the apostles.
• John helps take us back to the basics so that we have confidence regarding
what is obvious Christianity.
And I suppose another reason is because it helps us to evaluate ourselves and the very basis of our fellowship.
• The fact remains that there have always been those who seek to join the
physical fellowship of the church, who have not joined the spiritual fellowship.
When we clarify the message of Jesus, which was given to the apostles,
And which became the foundation of the church, it helps us.
• We CLARIFY the gospel we preach
• We EXPOSE what is the false gospel
• We find the right CRITERIA for self-evaluation
John is certainly filled with love for the church.
John is also dogmatic about what is the church and what is not.
The church has always been totally open to any who will come.
But the church is always absolutely unyielding regarding how you come.
You might say that anyone is welcome to enter the pasture with the sheep,
But you can only enter through one gate.
John is helping us see then what is true and what is not
So that we may learn who is true and who is not.
This helps us spot deceivers and anti-christs
But it also is a powerful reminder for each of us to examine ourselves.
BUT YOU UNDERSTAND WHY THE MESSAGE IS IMPORTANT.
Well we started looking at it last week.
(5) “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
And to that we saw the first point of the message.
#1 GOD IS HOLY
1 John 1:5-6
That should not be shocking to you.
This has been the fact from the beginning.
• There is no darkness in God at all.
• There is no shred of wickedness or evil.
• There is no hint of immorality or depravity.
• There is not one ounce of deception or distortion.
God dwells in unapproachable light.
And from a gospel message standpoint it reiterates the fact that
GOD IS SEPARATE FROM SINNERS.
• We talked about the veil and how man was not welcome to enter.
• We looked at Uzza and how God’s anger burned against him for touching the
ark.
And we even then looked at our FIRST LITMUS TEST.
(6) “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
Fellowship is a sharing in common life.
If I live in sin I have no basis to claim that I have common life with God.
A man who is content to dwell in immorality
And yet claim that he shares the common spiritual life of God is a liar,
Because God has never been content to dwell in immorality.
God has never fellowshipped with darkness.
God has never fellowshipped with sin.
He never has and He never will.
So we get the first aspect of the message and we get the FIRST TEST.
If someone is preaching a gospel that omits the holiness of God
• Then they are not preaching the gospel because that is the message that John heard from Jesus and delivered to the church.
If someone claims to have fellowship with God but they live in willful sin
• Then that person is lying because God has never fellowshipped with darkness.
WELL THIS MORNING let’s look at the next leg of this message which the apostles heard and delivered.
#2 JESUS SAVES
1 John 1:7
Now first, we must see the counter point to what we read in verse 6.
Verse 6 reminded us that those who “walk in the darkness…do not practice the truth;”
However in verse 7 we see the difference of a true believer.
“but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
The language here is familiar.
• In the Old Testament we see the fundamental command of God: “You shall be holy as I am holy”
• Jesus said, in Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
And here from John we see that same statement again:
“if we walk in the Light AS HE Himself is in the Light”
• It is the same point.
• It is the same command.
You spot a liar by the fact that they walk in darkness (sin)
You spot a believer by the fact that they walk in Light (righteousness)
And that SHOULDN’T BE A SURPRISE to you either.
This again is basic Christianity.
• If a person claims to have the life of God in them then their life should in some
way depict the life of God.
• If we know that God has no darkness at all then it only stands to reason that a
life in darkness does not have the life of God.
• And it also stands to reason that if the life of God is in a person that the person
should demonstrate the Light or holiness of God.
THAT ISN’T COMPLICATED IS IT?
IT HAS BEEN FORGOTTEN.
I told you how the Gnostics believed a handy doctrine called DUALISM which said that there was no link between the spiritual and the physical.
• The spirit was good but the physical was evil.
• And because they were separate you could basically do whatever you wanted in the physical because it didn’t matter.
Can you hear John pointing out how Obviously Unchristian that is?
But WE NEED that same reminder today.
Do you want basic Christianity?
Christians should live like Christ.
Is that same radical new thought? Of course not!
BUT TODAY we have people who willfully live in all sorts of habitual sin
And yet claim to be Christian.
Our world is overcome with sexual immorality.
(It’s the big one that comes to mind)
And yet the church is increasingly turning a blind eye to it as though you can live in sexual immorality and still be considered a Christian.
I know the real hot button topic would be HOMOSEXUALITY.
• Churches across our land are opening wide the doors to say that you can live in homosexual sin and still be a considered a Christian.
THAT IS SORT OF THE EASY TARGET.
• But what about teenagers who live in sexual immorality?
• What about the growing number of pregnancy among unwed mothers?
• What about the rise and addictions of pornography?
• What about the new fad of unmarried couples living together?
Can a person really unapologetically live in such conditions
And still claim to have fellowship with the Father?
John would absolutely balk at such a notion.
But it’s not like sexual sin is the only sin.
When Jesus redeemed a man did He not redeem the tongue?
• Does a Christian really talk with profanity?
• Is slander or gossip or lying the common talk of one who is redeemed?
When Jesus redeemed a man did He not address his greed?
• What are we to do with the fascination with gambling?
• Does a Christian really stand in line buying lotto tickets or live it up in Vegas?
• Are Christians not saved from their greed for the things of this world?
Paul pretty much spelled it out didn’t he?
Galatians 5:19-24 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Our culture has certainly sought to blur the lines,
But from John’s perspective is easy to see true Christianity.
Christians walk in the Light not in the darkness.
Christians walk in holiness not in sin.
And again we are NOT SAYING that Christians never sin,
They most certainly do.
WE AREN’T SAYING that Christians
• Never commit sexual sin,
• Or that they never sin with their tongue,
• Or that they never demonstrate greed.
They sometimes do.
What we are talking about is
The ongoing and unrepentant practice of such sins.
John is clear that Christians don’t walk in darkness, they walk in Light.
THIS IS THE CRITERIA.
Where did John get such a radical idea as that?
“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you…”
John got this message from Jesus.
John 3:19-21 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
Jesus said it first.
• People who love evil hate light.
• People who hate evil love light.
John isn’t telling you anything you’ve never heard before,
He is merely giving you what is OBVIOUS CHRISTIANITY.
AND IT IS that genuine believers who share the common life of God are those who “walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light”
• Those are the ones who “have fellowship with one another,”
• Those are the ones who share that common spiritual life.
• That is the church.
IS IT RADICAL TO SAY that the church is recognized in the world by her holy living?
• That is Christianity 101 again.
• God is holy and so God’s people live holy lives.
• There is nothing radical about that.
But the bigger question is WHY?
Why is it that those who share common life with God live holy lives?
Why is it that God’s people live holy?
Is it because they are just more committed?
Is it because they were just raised better?
Is it because they are just more moral at their core?
Of course not!
The reason the church can be recognized by her holiness is because
“the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
And this brings us to that second point.
JESUS SAVES
At this point I would have to ask you the fundamental question:
SAVES YOU FROM WHAT?
You could say “from hell” which is what most would say.
• And that’s not wrong, but think deeper.
• Why is hell a threat to you?
• Because the Holy God you offended has promised to send sinners to hell.
So you say, “Oh well then He came to save us from the wrath of God”
• And that’s not wrong either, but think deeper.
• Why is God angry?
• Why will God send men to hell?
SIN
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
Sin is that which falls short of God’s holy standard.
Sin is that which is rebellion against the will of God.
Sin is that which is an offence to the Creator.
And the consequence of sin has always been death.
God told Adam if you touch that tree or eat from it you will die
AND ADAM DID DIE.
• And so has all of Adam’s descendants who follow in his footsteps.
• It is sin that offends a holy God.
• It is sin that causes that holy God to send men to hell.
• It is sin that kept God behind a veil which you could not enter.
But the glorious message of the gospel is that Jesus came to save us.
HOW DOES JESUS SAVE US?
THROUGH HIS BLOOD HE CLEANSES US
“the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
THAT IS THE DISTINCTION
Between those in the church and those outside the church.
• THOSE OUTSIDE the church have not been cleansed.
• THOSE INSIDE the church have been cleansed, are being cleansed, and will be totally cleansed.
Think about it like this.
You have two boys who are both filthy from playing all day in the dirt.
• You tell them to go take a bath.
• They both come back and tell you that they took a bath.
• But one of them is still dirty.
Obvious that one of them never got in the bath.
THAT IS JOHN’S POINT
• A person can say they are cleansed from sin,
• But if they are still covered in sin they are lying.
Jesus doesn’t hypothetically cleanse His church from sin,
He actually and effectively does it.
HOW DOES JESUS CLEANSE US?
John says it is by His “blood”
“the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
That is such a strange statement.
• We actually sang last Sunday, “Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”
• If I take you outside this morning and throw a bucket of lamb’s blood on you, I seriously doubt you’ll feel clean.
But John clearly says that it is through His blood
That Jesus cleanses us from our sin.
The Old Testament makes it clear
That God requires blood because the life is in the blood.
Genesis 9:4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
Leviticus 17:11 “‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’
Leviticus 17:14 “For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, ‘You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.’
• The wages of sin was not to give blood, the wages of sin is death.
• Jesus didn’t just bleed, Jesus died.
• He offered His life to God.
• He was killed to make atonement for our sin.
And through His sacrifice our offence has been covered.
By shedding His blood (dying) Jesus satisfied God’s wrath on our sin.
We are justified and forgiven before God.
But you will also notice that John
DID NOT speak of Jesus’ saving work in past tense.
He DID NOT say, “the blood of Jesus His Son CLEANSED us from all sin”
John said it “cleanses us” (present tense) – it’s ongoing.
Now there are a couple of things in play here.
ONE IS the Absolute Sufficiency of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
We’ve read it many many times.
John 19:30 “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Peter said:
Acts 3:18 “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
Hebrews 10:10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Hebrews 10:14 “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
All of those passages speak of the absolute completeness
Of what Jesus did on the cross.
Through that one offering He fully atoned for
All the sin of all the elect for all time.
The offering He gave to God extended backward
• To every believer since the beginning.
• It reached all the way back to Adam and Abraham and Moses and David and all the other Old Testament believers.
Romans 3:23-25 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;”
All of those Old Testament saints were sinners, and ALL THEY EVER HAD in their lives were animal sacrifices.
• God covered Adam with animal skins
• God provided a ram in the thicket for Abraham
• God gave Moses the sacrificial Law
But goats and bulls can’t take away sin,
So their sin was temporarily passed over.
It wasn’t until Jesus died that their sin was actually atoned for.
His death reached backward to cover all their sin.
But His death also REACHED FORWARD to cover all the sin of those who would believe in the future. (This is hard to fathom)
• That somehow, 2,000 years ago,
• God was already aware of all the sin that His elect would ever commit
• And He imputed that sin to Christ and Christ paid for it there too.
On the cross He was dying for sins that I would commit 2,000 years later.
On the cross He was dying for sins that I have yet to commit.
It is a mystery to say the least, but this is the message.
On the cross Jesus purchased total atonement
For all of those who did believe
And for all of those who would believe in Him.
This is the point of that cryptic statement at the end of the faith chapter.
Hebrews 11:39-40 “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.”
• All of those Old Testament saints listed in the faith chapter “did not receive what was promised” (at least not in their lifetime).
• We were all perfected at the same time.
• Every Old Testament believer and every New Testament believer had their debt paid at the exact same time.
JESUS DID THAT.
SO WE ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT – Since Jesus’ death reaches forward, He is Still Cleansing His church.
• That is NOT to say that Jesus is still suffering, He is not.
• That is NOT to say that Jesus will die again, He will not.
• He finished it all on the cross.
But in the sense that some of my sin is still yet future,
Christ’s past work is still atoning for me now in the future.
So we can say that His blood still “cleanses us from all sin” because even the sin I have yet to commit is atoned for through His blood.
SO FOLLOW THE MESSAGE THAT JOHN RECEIVED FROM JESUS
GOD IS HOLY
• Because of our sin there is a separation
• No man is welcome to Him in our filthy state
BUT JESUS SAVES
• He came to cleanse us from our sin (past, present, future)
• So that we now are granted access to God through Him.
For those who have been justified through His death,
They alone are welcome to the Father.
AND THE POINT IS THAT JESUS IS STILL CLEANSING HIS CHURCH.
THERE IS NO PART OF THE MINISTRY OF JESUS
THAT LEAVES THOSE HE IS SAVING IN ANY SIN AT ALL.
A GNOSTIC COULD SAY “That Jesus had atoned for their sin and given them a justified spirit and still claim that what they did in the flesh didn’t matter.”
THOSE ANTINOMIAN’S MIGHT SAY “That since we are saved by grace, it doesn’t matter if we live in sin.”
OUR WORLD TODAY MIGHT SAY “God loves me just as I am and He is not offended by my ongoing sin.”
THAT IS ALL HERESY.
John said, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
“ALL SIN”
What Jesus does for the spirit or soul of man
Must manifest itself in the flesh of the man.
To put it another way.
It is absurd to think that Jesus came to justify sinners
And then leave them in their sin.
Jesus healed the man at the Bethesda pool and told him, “stop sinning”
Jesus rescued the woman caught in adultery and told her, “go and sin no more”
John 13:6-11 “So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
• Peter was clean, that is to say he was justified through Christ.
• But there was still dirt on Peter’s feet.
Christ wasn’t only interested in Peter’s heart,
He was also interested in Peter’s feet.
Jesus forgives us of our sin and then pulls us out of it.
After Jesus gave life to LAZARUS, what was his command?
John 11:44 “The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
• Jesus gave life to Lazarus and then Jesus commanded him to live it.
• He didn’t tell Lazarus to lay back down in the tomb.
• Get the grave clothes off and go live.
Listen to Jesus preach to the Jews:
John 8:31-36 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
I SUPPOSE I WOULD SAY IT LIKE THIS.
Jesus most certainly saves men from THE PENALTY of sin.
• We know that.
• He atoned for us.
• We are justified.
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin.
He also saves us from THE POWER of sin.
Paul said it like this.
Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:16-17 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,”
When Jesus died He didn’t just satisfy God’s wrath,
HE ALSO broke sin’s yoke on you.
• Believers at times are deceived and tempted into sin but they are never forced into it.
• While believers today do still at times succumb to temptation and fall into sin, it is not because they have to.
Christ saves us from the power of sin.
But listen, and this is important.
Christ also saves us from THE PRACTICE of sin.
This is the one that is often forgotten or omitted today
That is at the forefront of John’s mind.
While believers may stumble and at times fall into sin,
Sin is never the habitual practice of their lives anymore.
John will really harp on this later:
1 John 3:4-10 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
What does he mean?
He means that Christians live holy lives.
IF THAT SHOCKS YOU it is only because
You have been influenced by the reigning deceptive narrative of the day.
BUT I CAN PROMISE YOU
• From the beginning;
• From the time of Jesus;
• From the time of the apostles;
• From the formation of the church;
• It was always understood that Christians live holy.
NOT BECAUSE they are in and of themselves more committed or stronger.
• It is because Jesus has atoned for their sin before the Father.
• It is because Jesus has freed them from sin through His death.
• It is because Jesus is cleansing them from sin through His word and through His Spirit.
Did you know that this is one of the obvious marks of a Christian?
• Christians are those who are being sanctified.
• Christians are those who are being washed.
And now you understand John’s point.
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;”
OBVIOUSLY!
• For one because God doesn’t fellowship with darkness.
• For two because Christ is cleaning His church from sin.
That is the message.
• God is Holy and on our own we could never approach Him.
• But Jesus saves and through His blood we are declared clean and being cleansed that we might gain access to the Father.
If you are living in sin, DON’T KID YOURSELF.
If someone says you can live in sin, DON’T BELIEVE THEM.
Jesus didn’t come to let sin survive.
He came to save us from all our sin.
And it is this that we have in common.
This morning we will gather around the Lord’s table to celebrate that.
Regardless of all our differences,
Those who have believed in Christ have this in common.
• We have been justified by the blood of Christ.
• We are being sanctified by the blood of Christ.
And this is also why the Lord’s Supper is ONLY FOR the Redeemed.
• If you have not believed in Christ.
• If you have not confessed Him publicly through baptism, do not partake, this is for the church.
• But if you have believed in Him partake and rejoice that what Jesus did, He did for us.
Through His blood He has atoned for our sin, freed us from it,
And is washing us clean from every stain.
And thus we now have access to God through Him.
