The Message of Jesus – Part 3
1 John 1:5-10 (8-10)
January 2, 2022
As you know, we’ve begun studying the epistle of 1 John
And John has started with the issue of fellowship.
• ON ONE HAND we are learning BASIC TRUTHS about what it means to be in the fellowship of the church.
• ON THE OTHER HAND we are learning HOW ONE ENTERS that fellowship.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF COURSE IS
The spiritual unity that is unique only to the redeemed.
John 17:20-23 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
We are talking about that common spiritual life
Which comes only from the Father through Jesus Christ to the redeemed.
It is not primarily a social fellowship, it is a spiritual fellowship.
And John has been outlining HOW ONE ENTERS this fellowship.
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.”
We enter the fellowship when we hear and believe THE MESSAGE of the gospel which Jesus gave the apostles and they gave to us.
And so, as we have said for a few weeks now,
THIS MAKES CLARIFYING THE MESSAGE VERY IMPORTANT
And that is what John is reiterating for us here in the opening chapter.
He made the definitive statement in verse 5
(5) “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you…”
It is Christianity 101
• This has been the foundational message of the church from day 1.
• This message is what one hears and believes in order to enter the fellowship.
And we’ve been studying it for the last 2 weeks.
#1 GOD IS HOLY
1 John 1:5-6
This was John’s point when he said that
“God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
God is perfectly holy.
God dwells in unapproachable light.
And therefore God has no fellowship with darkness at all.
What that means for us at the outset is that
Fellowship with God is NOT AUTOMATIC for humanity.
Humanity has fallen into sin.
Humanity has fallen into darkness.
And this put a division between man and God
So that there is no natural or automatic fellowship between God and man.
• We talked about the veil.
• We talked about the sin of Uzza.
THE ONLY WAY that any man can have fellowship with God
Is if he is saved from the darkness and walks in light.
THAT IS CHRISTIANITY 101
And that truth helped us grasp our FIRST SORT OF 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;”
THIS IS OBVIOUS.
• If God does not fellowship with darkness then it stands to reason that those
who walk in darkness have no fellowship with God.
They can claim it, but they are lying.
They are those FRAUDS that we talked about.
The first leg of the message has always been the holiness of God
And the fact that man in his sin has no fellowship with Him.
That is a harsh, but accurate, and necessary truth.
However, there is good news.
#2 JESUS SAVES
1 John 1:7
There is a way to leave the darkness and be transferred to the Light
So that one may have fellowship with God.
How does that happen?
It occurs when “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Again, this is obvious Christianity.
• Since God is holy and man is not.
• Man must be cleansed if he is to gain access to God.
• This occurs through the sacrificial atonement of Christ.
Jesus came to this earth, lived a righteous life,
And then died upon a cross that He might save men from sin.
• He saves from THE PENALTY OF SIN – “no condemnation”
• He saves from THE POWER OF SIN – we are freed from sin’s power
• He saves from THE PRACTICE OF SIN – He sanctifies and washes us
And THE POINT we understood is that
Jesus does not save men from sin and then live them in it.
His cleansing is not a hypothetical cleansing, it is an actual one.
HE JUSTIFIES US – where we are clothed in His righteousness and granted access to the Father.
HE SANCTIFIES US – where He continually washes us and conforms us into His image.
HE WILL GLORIFY US – where His salvation will be complete and we will be holy.
Everything about the work of Jesus
Is to save us from that which has separated us from the Father.
Colossians 1:13-14 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
That is the good news.
• The separation from God is repaired by Jesus.
• We are reconciled, we are redeemed.
AND NOW, AS THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN REDEEMED,
AND WHO ARE BEING CLEANSED,
We are those who “walk in the Light, as He Himself is in the Light” and “we have fellowship with one another”
As the church we share the common bond of “sinners who are being cleansed of our sin” so that we have fellowship with God.
THAT IS THE MESSAGE.
BUT just as there are those who denied the first point of the message
Regarding the holiness of God,
There are also those who deny the second point of the message
Regarding our need for cleansing.
And this is THE SECOND IMPOSTER John would introduce us to.
The first one was THE FRAUD who walked in darkness but claimed fellowship with God.
Now we are dealing with THE DELUSIONAL
Who do not believe they need a Savior to cleanse them from sin.
(8) “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
What does it mean to “say that we have no sin”?
This one obviously must be distinguished from verse 10
“If we say that we have not sinned…”
In verse 10 it is obviously a reference to sinful behavior.
That person says that they don’t do sinful things.
So what then does John mean here in verse 8 regarding those who “say that we have no sin”?
Here we are dealing with a person who claims to not be a sinful person.
They deny that they have a sin nature.
They deny they have a fallen flesh in need of redemption.
THEY CLAIM TO BE A GOOD PERSON.
They may not deny that they slip up from time to time,
But the belief is that “On the inside I’m good.”
You can actually hear Jesus confront the Jews with a very similar mindset.
John 8:37-47 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
And again
John 9:39-41 “And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
You see that they had this belief of being intrinsically good.
Incidentally much of our CULTURAL MINDSET and even MODERN PSYCHOLOGY bases its beliefs on this faulty premise.
It is the belief that people are basically good and if they sin or mess up
It is only because they are a victim of their circumstances.
But that is NOT the Christian message.
If someone can come to the realization
That they are a basically good person,
It is an undeniable revelation that they are not walking near to God.
All throughout Scripture, THE CLOSER a man gets to God
THE MORE AWARE he is of his sinful state, not the less.
Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
How about when Peter realized who Jesus really was.
Luke 5:4-8 “When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
How about when John saw the resurrected and glorified Christ.
Revelation 1:17a “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man…”
The closer men get to the light
The more aware they become of their sinfulness.
Not just the sin they’ve committed, but their overall sinful nature.
To claim that “we have no sin”
Only indicates how far you actually are from God.
Furthermore, Christianity doesn’t blame sin on your circumstances
Christianity says you sin because you have a sinful heart.
Romans 7:14-24 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.”
The message of Christianity…
The message of Jesus…
Is that men sin because in their heart they are sinful.
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
We understand that man is not a sinner simply because he sins.
MAN SINS BECAUSE HE IS A SINNER.
MAN IS IN DARKNESS.
Man needs to be cleansed if they are ever to gain access to the Father.
But for a man to “say that we have no sin”
John says “we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
If you are of the belief
• That you do not have a fallen sinful nature
• That has corrupted your heart
• And made you incapable of holiness
• THEN YOU ARE DECEIVED.
Most specifically you have deceived yourself.
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”
A man who thinks himself to be intrinsically good is not a Christian man.
• Every man is fallen.
• Every man sins because every man is sinful.
• We all inherited that from our father Adam.
• And thus we all are in need of the cleansing of Jesus.
• No one is exempt.
If someone claims otherwise, they are not a Christian.
If someone claims otherwise, they are not part of the fellowship.
This is Christianity 101
This is obvious.
Every man is need of the cleansing of Jesus.
And the third leg of the Christian message is THE MEANS through which that cleansing is RECEIVED.
God is Holy, Jesus Saves
#3 REPENTANCE IS REQUIRED
1 John 1:8-10
The issue on the table from John here is that of repentance.
(9) “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This is the means through which the cleansing of Jesus is received.
• A man confesses his sin to God
• And God who is faithful and righteous forgives that sinner
• And cleanses them based upon the sacrificial work of Jesus.
That is also BASIC and OBVIOUS Christianity.
Sinners must repent of their sin and trust in Christ.
Now to set the appropriate backdrop I would go ahead
And introduce you to that THIRD IMPOSTER as well.
He is found in verse 10. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”
• We saw the FRAUD who walks in darkness but says he is in the light.
• We saw the DELUSIONAL who thinks he is a good person not needing a Savior.
• Here we see the BLASPHEMER who refuses to admit that he sins at all.
This man has been called a sinner, but he balked at the notion.
The question is: WHO CALLED HIM A SINNER?
God did.
But when God called this man a sinner this man in turn called God a liar.
• He ignored God’s word.
• He closed his Bible.
• He blew God off and walked away.
James 1:19-20 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”
What James is talking about is how a man receives the word of God.
James says you should “be quick to hear” it.
• You ought to want to hear what God has to say.
He says you should be “slow to speak” or argue.
• God knows you better than you know yourself, you ought not make excuses or give argument when God confronts your sin.
And finally James says, “and slow to anger”
• Meaning that you don’t fight against God’s conviction. Don’t get angry about it.
Why?
• Because “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”
That is to say, “Fighting and arguing with God’s word is not going to help you achieve the righteousness God is seeking to produce.”
Some people argue.
Some people deny their sin.
It walks hand in hand with the man who denies his sinful heart.
Might I remind you that Christianity begins with
An understanding of your sinfulness and a grief over it.
Matthew 5:3-4 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
It’s not people who deny their sin who enter heaven,
It’s people who own up to it and grieve over it who enter.
I’ve always loved the Centurion who received praise from Jesus.
Matthew 8:5-8 “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
• Literally the centurion said there, “I am not enough.”
• It wasn’t just that he had sinned, but that he was a sinner.
• He was unworthy.
• He was broken.
• Jesus would praise that man and say he hadn’t found faith like that anywhere in Israel.
AND THAT IS THE POINT.
• A man who thinks he isn’t sinful is delusional.
• A man who denies that he sins at all is a blasphemer because he is calling God a liar.
If someone denies the presence of sin and their need of a Savior
You are obviously not looking at a Christian.
• Foundational Christianity understands the holiness of God.
• Foundational Christianity understands the need for the cleansing of Jesus.
• Foundational Christianity understands that repentance is the means through which we receive it.
So let’s look now a little closer at that wonderful verse 9.
This is a promise on which we hang our hats and our hope.
(9) “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We already addressed the issue that
True Christians are aware of their sin and their sinfulness before God.
The question is, what do they do with it?
What does a Christian do with their sin and their sinfulness?
And the answer:
THEY CONFESS IT
“If we confess our sins…”
“confess” translates HOMOLOGEO
HOMO means “same”
LOGEO is the Greek word for “word”
It means “to say the same thing”
It means “to agree or to concede”
It is the very opposite of self-deceived pride or arrogant argument.
A Christian is one who agrees with God about their sinful state.
When the Bible says I am sinful, I don’t deny it, I agree with it.
When the Bible says I have sinned, I don’t argue about it, I admit it.
THIS IS BASIC CHRISTIANITY.
The Christian life is characterized by repentance.
• I’m not just saying that you repented one time and that’s how you were saved,
• I’m saying that as a Christian repentance is a common occurrence.
• A Christian longs for righteousness…
• A Christian strives to walk in the light…
• A Christian is honest about his fallen sinful nature, his continual failure
• And therefore A Christian lives in a continual repentant state before God.
THAT IS CHRISTIANITY.
Not those who deny it, but those who agree and confess it.
A MAN WHO DOESN’T SEE HIS SINFULNESS,
John says, “The truth is not in that guy.”
A MAN WHO DENIES THAT HE EVER SINS,
John says, “God’s word is not in that guy.”
BUT A MAN WHO HAS
• Heard the truth about his sinful nature
• Had his sin exposed by God’s word
• Grieved over it and owned up to it
That is a man who is being cleansed by Jesus
And who has fellowship with God.
Again, that shouldn’t be shocking to you.
There’s nothing radical about that at all.
BUT I SUPPOSE SOMEONE MIGHT ARGUE HERE…
If God is Light and does not fellowship with darkness…
Then how is it that the only way to fellowship with Him
Is if you admit your darkness?
From a human standpoint you’d think that you’d have a better shot fellowshipping with God if you were able to keep your sin concealed.
That is what humans do isn’t it?
They get caught in sin so they lie about it
So they can avoid the consequences.
But the message of Jesus is just the opposite.
The message of Jesus is that
• You should own up to your sin
• And confess it to God
• And then you get fellowship.
WHY?
Because “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Why is it that people who confess their sin gain fellowship with God?
• Because Jesus saves and cleanses those people.
• And based upon the work of Jesus, God forgives those people.
We are talking about the REALITY OF FORGIVENESS.
I listened a sermon recently by John MacArthur on forgiveness and I really liked the way he explained it.
“Forgiveness is a promise. It is a promise from God to the repentant sinner, to the one who comes to Him with a broken and a contrite heart, affirming his own desperate need, his own sinfulness, and reaching out for the provision of Jesus Christ, it is a promise from God to that sinner.
And here’s the promise: that his sin will never be remembered, that his sin will be buried in the depths of the deepest sea, that his sin will be removed as far as the east is from the west, that his sin will never again be brought up in the mind of God; or the tribunal of heaven. It is a promise that no charge will ever successfully be laid against that sinner; that no accusation against him will ever stand; a promise that under no circumstances forever will he be condemned. That’s the promise. A magnanimous, far-reaching, startling and astounding promise; given purely and simply out of the heart of a loving and gracious God to a penitent sinner.”
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/47-9/the-blessings-of-forgiveness-part-2
I think that’s a great way to look at forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a promise from God not to punish those who repent.
I think that even helps us understand
Why humans are typically so bad at forgiveness.
We make promises of forgiveness to people too,
But we often don’t keep our word.
Something comes up, maybe another offense occurs, and the first thing we do is renege on that promise we gave and we immediately bring that first sin back to the table.
But do you know why you can trust God’s promise of forgiveness?
It is because “He is faithful”
When God promises not to punish you for your sin,
He will never go back on that promise.
We see such beautiful language in Scripture:
Psalms 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Isaiah 38:17 “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”
Micah 7:19 “He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.”
All of those are merely analogies to express exactly what John says here.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful…to forgive us”
He doesn’t go back on a promise.
The Christian message rests on this.
• That God shows grace to the humble.
• That God lifts up the lowly in spirit.
• That God forgives repentant sinners.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.
Remember the issue is NOT JUST for God to not condemn us,
THE ISSUE IS FELLOWSHIP.
God promising not to destroy you is not the same thing as God allowing you behind the veil.
God promising not to condemn you is not the same thing as God allowing you into intimate fellowship with Him.
There is a SECOND THING God does when we repent.
Not only is there forgiveness based upon the faithfulness of God.
But there is also cleansing based upon the righteousness of God.
For John also says that “He is…righteous…to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
• It’s the second time that word “cleanse” has shown up in the text.
• In verse 7 we read about how “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
And here we read again that when we confess our sins
That God will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
WHY?
So that we may have fellowship with Him.
• God not only forgives repentant sinners,
• But through Jesus He cleanses them.
ISN’T THAT GOOD NEWS!
At this point there should be no confusion
Regarding what you are to do with your sin.
You should know that
• The reason you sin is because you are sinful.
• Your sin separates you from a Holy God who will not fellowship with darkness.
• Jesus came to save sinners from their sin by cleansing them with His own blood.
• If you will confess that sin to Him, He will forgive you and cleanse you so that you may for the first time have fellowship with God.
THIS IS THE MESSAGE
And when that message is heard and believed
This is how a person enters the fellowship of the church.
This fellowship is not for those who love sin.
If you love sin you are a fraud.
This fellowship is not for those who deny their sinfulness.
If you deny your sinfulness you are delusional.
This fellowship is not for those who ignore or disregard their sin.
If you disregard your sin you are a blasphemer.
The true fellowship is those
• Who have confessed their sin
• And who are forgiven of their sin
• And who are being cleansed of that sin through the work of Jesus.
THAT IS THE CHURCH!
If you are a part of it, rejoice! Because you don’t deserve it.
If you are not a part of it, repent! That you may be forgiven and cleansed.
BUT DON’T BE A FRAUD OR DELUSIONAL OR A BLASPHEMER
