2015/04/26 - The Truth About 1 John 1:9

all right good morning everyone and welcome to church without religion my name is Andrew Farley if we haven't met yet I wanted to let you know that I'm right now away at what is called Convention 220 that is in Virginia on the East Coast I'm at Convention 220 we've got five different keynote speakers and 12 workshops that are being presented and it's just a huge grace community that is coming together in a beautiful fashion to hang out for three days and so I'm out east right now but coming to you by the the magic of video and streaming video and all that so my thanks to JJ and Bryan for making this possible and why don't we go ahead and open with a word of Prayer together father we just thank you for the fellowship opportunity that we have we have fellowship with you and we have fellowship with each other we thank you for the freedom that we have to worship many Christians around the world you know we can take it for granted but they have to struggle even to gather together and worship and hide and and and worship underground and operate in that in the dark in order to even preserve their lives father we thank you for this freedom we enjoy we thank you for the spiritual freedom we have through your son we ask that you administer to us today in a personal way in Jesus name Amen all right so today you know we just finished our series in Ephesians and I'm going to do a few individual messages here and there and this morning I've opted for talking about the truth concerning first John 1:9 the truth about one simple verse that has caused a whole lot of difficulty in the Christian world a whole lot of division a whole lot of controversy and it's caused a lot of doubt in the lives of believers concerning where they exactly stand with God and what exactly is going on day to day as we as we all fail I mean the scripture says that we stumble in many ways so when we stumble what is God thinking what is - yup - what is our relationship like is it severed is it broken is it affected negatively is there something that is beyond repair does something need to be repaired all of these sort of questions can hit us as humans and first John 1:9 as in some people's minds tended to be the solution right that if if you have sinned a great deal or sinned in some capacity there is a chasm that is between you and God and then here comes your formula for forgiveness and your formula for cleansing and your formula for restoration back to God and first John 1:9 would be it it might be quoted to you that if we confess our sins that if we would just simply admit our sins if we would confess them to God then he will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness and so you can see how one verse that is as I like to say pulled up with a crane and laid over here on a pedestal and taken totally out of context that this becomes the bar of soap for Christians it becomes the formula for cleansing for many Christians and it ultimately ends up myrrh keying the waters the waters become murky concerning our forgiveness we end up saying things like well just as the Catholic might say you know I thought you said Jesus took away your sins well what are you doing I'm going to the confession booth why well to get my sins forgiven but I thought you just said Jesus took away your sins oh yeah yeah yeah well what are you doing well I'm going to talk to the priest I thought you I thought you said Jesus took away your sins well what are you doing well I'm going to do my ritual on my deathbed so that I can get those sins taken care of but wait a minute I thought you I thought you said and then you know we Protestants if we don't watch it we pull out first John 1:9 and it's I thought you said Jesus took away your sins what are you doing well I'm just first John 1:9 and I'm confessing my sins to get him to forgive me do you see that now nothing wrong with admitting our wrongdoing nothing wrong with confessing our sins to God nothing wrong with confessing our sins to other people the scripture even talks about that it says confess your sins one to another so that you can pray for one another I can't pray for you and you can't pray for me unless we have a friendship where there's trust involved and we're talking about the struggles that we go through and so you know while confession can be healthy confession by the way just means to agree with so when you confess something to God you're basically saying God of the universe you're right god of the universe I agree with you you are right so that can be healthy we confess that Jesus is Lord we confess that God created the world we confess that Jesus Christ died for our sins and we confess that this is a real struggle in our lives whatever it may be so we are admitting our sinfulness but the question is does first John 1:9 apply to us as a daily Christian bar of soap because when I admit my wrongdoing is that when God responds to me by swooping down out of heaven in order to at that moment forgive and cleanse me as if I were not forgiven and not cleansed prior to that moment and so as we begin to look at first John a 1:9 this morning we're going to look at it by building the context and look at it by you know against the backdrop of the finished work of Jesus Christ this is not a fly in the ointment this is not a worm in the Apple this is not something that somehow taints the gospel and it's certainly not an invitation to say in double-talk fashion that yes Jesus took my sins away but he still needs to take my sins away yes Jesus forgave me but he still needs to forgive me yes Jesus cleansed me but he still needs to cleanse me and so you can see how these sort of thoughts get us off into some crazy doctrines I mean some people even after looking at first John 1:9 as a bar of soap they then look at Peter and the foot washing and Siddhant as some sort of foot washing fetish in today's Christian world I mean in other words they build a doctrine of forgiveness out of the foot washing and they say see you're totally forgiven except for your feet and so you need your feet washed daily just like Peter got his feet washed by Jesus but you know you can very clearly see from that passage that as you go there you know Peters focus is one thing and Jesus's focus is another and they're getting their wires crossed and Peter says why don't you bathe all of me and Jesus says I'm just bathe in feet Peter what are you talking about and he says that this is actually an act of radical servanthood and that's the context of that it's not even a forgiveness passage to start with so how do we turn a passage about radical servanthood and serving other people how do we turn that into a theology of well you're mostly forgiven but not totally forgiven and now you need your feet washed well the way we get there is through a misinterpretation of first John 1:9 and a misunderstanding of our total forgiveness so today we need to go back to square one and look at what is the most controversial and the most often quoted verse about our forgiveness in Jesus Christ so let's look at this first John chapter 1 beginning in verse 1 it says what was from the beginning what we have heard what we have seen with our eyes what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life now as we open the letter here to first John chapter 1 and we read this verse we might think okay get to the point John I mean you know get to the meat of the matter here this is just fluff well really what's happening is is that he is instantly he is immediately attacking something he is attacking the false belief that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh in fact two thousand years ago many people were purporting that Jesus would not stoop so low that he would not humble himself to such a degree as to really become one of us instead he faked it instead he just posed as a human instead he just pulled the wool over our eyes and pretended to be fully human when really he was not because that would somehow infringe upon his godhood or something and so there was a group and this will be very important later there was a group called the Gnostics now if you don't know what Gnosticism is it comes from the idea of Knossos which is knowledge is where we get one of our words for knowing or knowledge from and the Gnostics were interested in selling or better said they were peddling secret knowledge secret spiritual knowledge that you could get and so they were infiltrating the church and some of their ideas and thoughts an early form of Gnosticism was infiltrating Christianity and so you might have heard something back then like it's great that you're a Christian it's great that you're acquainted with Jesus Christ but now let me lead you into a deeper knowledge of some deep spiritual truths that will secretly unlock all kinds of meaning and purpose for you and these were what the Gnostics were claiming that they had now there were two primary belief systems concerning Christ and Christianity two primary beliefs that marked a gnostic number one they did not believe as I said they did not believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh now number two and equally important is that they did not believe that sin was real or that sin was actual and so they were ultimately sin deniers now here's why they reasoned that sin was not real because any sort of sin whether it be sexual or a sin of some appetite or some addiction any sort of sin is going to occur in the physical world but we you know we are Gnostics we have a deeper knowledge we live on a spiritual level not on a Fizz Cole 'evil but a spiritual level and so because of this anything that happens on the physical in the physical realm is lesser less important even a fabrication of reality because the real reality happens in the at the spirit level so you can see then why they would believe that Jesus didn't make himself physical because that is too low it is too base and the spiritual was only real to them and so Jesus was purely spiritual and in fact sin to them was not real because it occurred in the physical world and they were sin deniers so now you see these physical words here in verse one what we have heard see what John is doing he's very politely telling these Gnostics who were wrong in many regards he's telling them we heard Jesus audible voice physical voice what we have seen with our eyes we saw him with these physical eyes we laid our eyes on him and he was definitely physical and visibly present he was not an illusion he was not a ghost he was not an apparition he was not a beam of light he was fully human and we laid eyes on him and then he says that we touched him with our hands perhaps this being the best argument of all in other words as one of the Apostles John leaned against him you know in the upper room at the Last Supper John it says leaned up against him and so many people you know Thomas we know that Thomas touched his hand saw the hands with holes in them and touched them so whether it was Thomas or John or any of the other apostles who gave him a big hug well they touched him and they knew that he was truly physical and he was not faking it and so this is very important to realize because what we are seeing is that from day one minute one in other words from chapter one verse one John is fighting against gnostic belief he is combating gnostic heresy now we continue we look at verse 2 he says the life was manifested what we have seen again physical words here and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life that's Jesus which was with the father and was manifested to us in other words Jesus Christ is eternal Jesus was with the father and then he was shown to us manifested to us he appeared on planet Earth first as a baby and grew up to be a man the man God and so while some people wrongly teach that you know Jesus showed up and lived for 33 years and somehow became the son of God no no he always was the son of God he's always been the word he is eternal he has no beginning and he has no end this is our Christ Christ is eternal life but for a period a sliver of time in human history this God appeared to us in human form and lived for 33 years and so he was manifested to us it says and then he says what we have seen and heard and now by verse 3 you're like all right already I get it I get it seeing her touched manifested okay okay I get it and to us it is no big deal we celebrate the humanity the physicality of Jesus at Christmas and we've got it solid no question but remember that the Apostle John is fighting something that all of his readers have toyed with potentially been tempted with they've definitely heard the false doctrine that Jesus was simply an illusion of physicality and so he says now watch this this is really a big deal because fellowship is going to come up later watch this so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our Fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ so in other words he saying I the Apostle John and telling you now why I am writing this and why is he writing it check it very carefully Christian read it very carefully the passage here says I proclaim this to you so that you too may have fellowship with us guess what everybody reading this letter does not have fellowship yet with other Christians in other words not everybody reading this letter is a saved person these sin deniers and this these Jesus in the flesh deniers are certainly not saved in fact we find that out later in John's letter when he says anyone who denies anyone who denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh not a believer in fact the whole thing is Anti Christ against the gospel and so this is very important because as we begin to unfold the true meaning of first John 1:9 we have to address is it written to Christians as a bar of soap and what we've already seen into verse three is the context of John's writing here about this topic is this that he wants the audience to have fellowship with him and other believers in other words we Christians over here me and my fellow Christians we proclaim this to you why so that you - not yet but when you believe you too may have fellowship with us so now we're seeing in other words not every verse and the Bible is addressing Christians you know we might think all that is so controversial but think about the opposite did John not have an evangelistic heart did Paul not want to talk to unbelievers as well in other words sometimes the Bible is written to humans and if the shoe fits wear it if you've been denying Jesus's physicality correct that if you've been saying that sin isn't real correct that if you're already a believer fantastic in other words if the shoe fits wear it now you'll notice then that he says our Fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ but I'm writing you plural there I'm writing you so that you can join us in this awesomeness but you don't have it yet if you're a sin denier and if you're a Jesus in the flesh denier so now we go to verse 4 and again he says these things we write why are we writing it so that our joy may be made complete in other words I'm kind of bragging on Jesus here I'm kind of into how awesome this message is and I'm writing you because it gives me joy to write you and it brings my joy to a completeness to see this same gospel that has affected me so deeply be in your life and change the way that you think and believe and act and so he says this is the message that we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all now again we're setting the stage for something we're setting the stage for first John 1:9 because the verses that are about to come are going to talk about fellowship they're going to say that some people are in the darkness they're going to say that some people are in the light now many Christians today unfortunately some Christian teachers and preachers teach that you can go from light to darkness and darkness to light and light to darkness it just depends on what hour it is and what you've done lately in other words you can bounce in and out of light and darkness you can bounce in and out and in and out of fellowship so now two points we want to make this morning that will be absolutely critical number one anytime anytime light and darkness is talked about in the Bible it is always that God is light and that the believer is a child of light and that sin is darkness and that the enemy is darkness but the Christian is never in darkness and in God there is no darkness at all so if you are a child of God and you live in Christ if you are in the spirit in Christ you have received him you're a new creation then you are in the light not in the darkness but if you are still in Adam in the flesh and that's the life that you have which is really death then you are in darkness not light now for someone to teach that a Christian can go from light to darkness and darkness to light based on their daily performance basically you're saying they lose their salvation at two o'clock get it back at 3 o'clock lose it again at 4 o'clock and get it back by 5:30 and then we've got a performance based salvation another word for that is works based justification you're getting justified by the works you did it for so that you're good again at 5:30 now the reality is is that you're either in the light saved or you're in the darkness lost and there is no bouncing in and out and in and out so what we're about to see now is not a Christian that has two conditions it's not a Christian that's bouncing around we're really about to see two identities we're about to see sin admit errs and sin deniers we're about to see people in the light and people in the darkness we're about to see people who say they have no sin at all that they've never sent a day in their life which is false and people that readily admit their struggles because they know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses them so why not just admit it so watch this now as we progress and talk about fellowship verse 6 if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth now who is the we here well you would have a hard time labeling the as Christians in fact you would have hard time labeling the we as purely non-christians you know who the we is again in this part of the chapter the we is humans and if the shoe fits wear it because verse six says if we're saying this and then verse seven says if we're doing this and then if verse eight says if we're doing the opposite and then if verse 9 says well if we're doing the opposite of verse eight and then verse 10 says if we're doing the opposite of verse nine in other words the we you can't even pin it down because it's not about saying this is purely a saved person or this is purely a lost person this is about humans who believe all kinds of stuff good or bad so watch now verse 6 is indeed describing someone who says they have fellowship they're claiming to have fellowship but actually where are they located and where do they walk they are in the darkness they're not in God because there's no darkness in God right there's no darkness in God and they are not in God they are not in Christ they are not in the spirit but they are claiming to be so they're liars and they're not practicing the truth because they're simply claiming to have fellowship with God when actually they don't they're in darkness so then what's the opposite of that well the opposite of that would be the believer verse 7 the believer is located where in the light not in the darkness but in the light how much of the time all the time so that's why we are walking around in the light I can walk after the flesh I could walk after the spirit but it doesn't change my location did you know your location doesn't change your spiritual geography is not altered sure your decisions matter I mean when we walk after the flesh we're miserable but we're still in God we're still in the light we're still in Christ we're still in the speed and that's why sin just doesn't jive anymore have you ever noticed sin doesn't really work for you it doesn't come out right you're not going yay god I can't wait to do that again after you sin because you're in the light and so he says if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light what does he say we have fellowship with one another which was his hope earlier right hey guys the reason I'm writing this letter is so that you'll have fellowship with us but you don't yet okay so he says now if you're in the light then we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from how much sin all sin not some sin not merely remembered sins not just remembered or maybe not just forgotten sins but all sins big sins small sins sins of repetition sins of omission as we like to say sins of commission as we like to call them boy we love to categorize our sins don't we we obsess over our sins we like to think of how big they are and how frequently are and how disgusting they must be to God and God saying why are you thinking about your sins instead of thinking about your Savior the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sins what do you what are you worried about stuff that you're cleansed from I mean why worry and why fixate on that stuff how about fix your eyes on Jesus Christ so now again I want you to notice that the we could be anybody in verse 6 as we go back verse 6 it says we are in darkness well that's an unbeliever then verse 7 it says we are in the light well that's a believer so you've got two different kinds of people on planet Earth here believers and unbelievers darkness and light now now we've built the true background and context for first John 1:9 haven't we here comes the first John 1:9 sandwhich as I like to call it first John 1:9 is in the middle and what surrounds it is verse 8 and verse 10 so let's look at the the first John 1:9 sandwich here what is sandwiching this verse here we go if we say that we have no sin now remember that we as anybody right we as humans we don't even know who we is yet till we read the verse now think about in context now who is the group of people that say they have no sin who is the group of people that say they've never sinned a day in their lives who is it well it's that group of Gnostics it's that early form of Gnosticism they were sin deniers remember that they were Jesus in the flesh deniers and they were sin deniers so now John is politely you could say politely but he's pretty firm he's politely yet firmly trying to correct this issue and he's saying if we any one of us say that we have no sin no sin at all we're crazy we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us hey Christian is the truth in you well you'd say yeah the truths in me I mean I don't always live by the truth but the truth is in me Jesus Christ the way the truth the life he is in me in fact in 2nd John guess what we find if you go over there to the Epistle of 2nd John you find the same author the same apostle and he says that the truth is in us Christians that it is in us who believe and he says it will be with us forever so the truth is in Christians and the truth will be with Christians forever so who in the world is John talking about here in verse 8 when he says the truth is not in us any of us who were saying we have no sin he's talking about unbelievers man he's talking about sin deniers and so then he says now what's the what's the answer I mean what's the solution the solution comes in the next verse the infamous first John 1:9 the focal point of this entire message here it is hey send and ire hey you who've said you have no sin hey you who say that Jesus didn't come in the flesh and that sin is just an illusion and that you haven't sinned the day in your life hey you listen here's the answer if we any one of us have been believing that junk confess our sins admit 'im admit our sinfulness just agree with God about the sin issue it's not a big deal he knows you've sinned you know deep down you've sinned just admit it don't be a sin denier be a sin admit err and then what God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from how much from all unrighteousness do you know that this means that this verse is not about one by one by one by one in other words it's not Old Testament style cleansing Old Testament style cleansing was again and again and again and again and one by one by one year after year over and over and over and over and if we don't watch it what we're doing is saying oh I don't live under the Old Testament I don't need repeat sacrifices I've got Jesus and we say that to a big Amen of applause and then we turn right around and we use first John 1:9 to try to get cleansed again and again and again and again and little by little that is worse that is that is saying that Jesus's blood is less powerful than the blood of bulls and goats you know that because they only had to go once a year in the Old Testament the day of atonement took care of everything for all of Israel with the sacrifices and the scapegoat who goes out into the desert as far as a symbol for for how far away the sins would be and all that a shadow a picture of Christ but not Christ just a shadow just a picture but they they did that once a year and here we come along here we come along after the death of Christ after the final sacrifice for sins and then we're going to say that we need to get forgiven and cleansed little by little day by day sin by sin not year by year but sin by sin by sin that is neurotic that is crazy talk that is saying that the blood of Jesus Christ accomplished less than the blood of bulls and goats so we need to think about what we're doing first John 1:9 is actually an evangelistic verse it is aimed at the sin denier it is the solution to 1st John 1:8 1st John 1:8 says you've been claiming you have no sin first John 1:9 is saying stop claiming you have no sin 1st John 1:8 says the truth is not in you first John 1:9 says basically start acknowledging the truth and you'll get him in you so what we see then is an appeal to the sin denier to come to their senses and what kind of forgiveness do they get they get forgiveness of all sins they get cleansing of all unrighteousness that is what is found in Jesus Christ now we go to verse 10 again remember I told you it was the first John 1:9 sandwich right here we are in verse verse 10 to finish up and he says if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us he is his word in you you know the Bible talks about Jesus Christ being the word in fact that's how John started this chapter he talked about the word and the Word made flesh and even in the Gospel of John the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glory that a you know glory that came from God manifested in physical form Jesus Christ the word is the word in you what you bet it is the word is in you if Jesus Christ who is the word is in you so again you go back to who is it you know that doesn't have the truth in them who is it that doesn't have God's Word in them who is it that says they've never sinned who is it that says they have no sin at all who is it that denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh who is it that denies that sin is even a real thing to deal with these are unbelievers and the answer is quite simple come to your senses admit your sinfulness believe that Jesus came in the flesh and you will move away from being an antichrist person to being in Christ and forgiven and cleansed forever now let me tell you when we really recognize the true context of first John 1:9 we no longer get beat up by the error of that double-talk the idea that I'm forgiven but I'm not forgiven I'm cleansed but I'm not cleansed I need to do my first John 1:9 ritual in order to get okay with God again now again I want to reiterate what is confession confession the word homo logos the same word in other words it is saying the same thing as God says so to admit our sins is one thing but it's very different to think that admitting our sins one by one by one by one is going to get God to swoop down out of heaven and died on a cross again and issue forgiveness again or or that God is going to sprinkle us somehow from the pearly gates with some new portion of cleansing that has nothing to do with the cross now the cross is the means to forgiveness it happened once for all and it needs no repeat it is finished and so what does this do for us is it just merely hell a bunch of theology a bunch of context about one verse that's caused a lot of trouble what it does is it allows us to realize how rooted we are how rooted we are in Christ and how safe and secure and stable you know when the Bible talks about fellowship it never not one single time talks about us bouncing in and out and in and out of fellowship any passages you'll find in the New Testament with this word fellowship in them it is saying that you are either in the fellowship and saved or you are out of fellowship and lost but there is no going back and forth based on some sort of cleansing ritual that you might do for yourself so we here at church without religion we hate sin we believe that sin gets us nowhere we want nothing to do with sin we want to run far away from sin we want to flee temptation we resist the devil we stand against his schemes we hate we detest sin but we also hate when people denigrate the work of Jesus Christ and act as if it is less powerful than the bulls and goats that were sacrificed in the Old Testament in other words let's call sin sin but let's call the sacrifice of Jesus what it truly deserves to be called a completed finished work that resulted in a miraculous once-for-all cleansing for every single person that is in Christ Jesus and so this is precisely why you will not find a single verse that is a formula for cleansing in Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians first and second Thessalonians you name it you journey through every epistle in the New Testament and you will not find a formula for daily cleansing for Christians this first John 1:9 has been a standalone that has been misinterpreted misunderstood over the years and has been twisted and warped and unfortunately it has disfigured the father's face for many of us what we need to be doing is realizing that there is a reason why we won't find a formula for forgiveness and cleansing mean if it were there don't you think the Philippians needed to hear about it don't you think Paul would have uttered one word about it to the Galatians or the Colossians if there were a formula for you and me to stay in fellowship with God through talking about our sins and then him sort of putting us back in then how in the world did the Corinthians miss that one and what in the world did the Ephesians do for themselves if they didn't have those verses the reality is that first John 1:9 is a standalone verse that has a context and has a true meaning and it is evangelistic at heart written to the sin denier so that they could get what we already have in Jesus Christ now that's something we can confess are you willing to confess that you're a forgiving person are you willing to confess that the work of Jesus Christ actually worked are you willing to confess admit say the same thing that God says about Jesus's blood you know what he says no-repeat' needed much better than bulls and goats a better ministry a better sacrifice a better high priest a better covenant founded on better promises and this is why because it's not little by little by little it's one time and forever so let's let's pray and celebrate and thank our God father we are we are grateful we just want to say thank you that's all we can say we're those of us who are in Christ we're in the light those of us who are in Christ we are in fellowship with you we're also in fellowship with one another that's why we don't want to lie to each other we want to find trusted friends trusted believers and share our struggles but not to get you to forgive us just to be honest and opened and find help and find prayer the Father at the same time we thank you your son's sacrifice is Schwindt it is sufficient forever so that by one offering you tell us by one offering we have been made perfect forever not perfectly behaved but perfectly cleansed forever we thank you Father that when Jesus Christ returns he returns not to bear sin not to bear sin but to bring us this salvation that is so Wow so great so powerful so miraculous better than anything that anyone experienced before us before the cross and now we sit on this side of the cross relishing it cherishing it celebrating it and thanking you for all you've done in your son and his name we pray amen

Channel: The Grace Church with Dr. Andrew Farley

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Length: 40min 52sec (2452 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2015