Midweek Bible Study | 1 John 1 | Gary Hamrick

first John chapter one is where we start obviously as we begin a new book study together if you take a Bible from one of our Usher's its page 11 95 in those church Bibles page 11 95 now sometimes when we start a new book and this is going to be the case with first John even though this is a tiny book it's only five chapters and then it and then it gets even tinier with second John and third John and Jew they're only a chapter each is is taking time to give an introduction and it just so happens that this particular book it needs a little bit lengthier of an introduction even though it's a tiny book because of what is happening in the first century when John writes this so I'm gonna give an introduction and then we'll pray and then we'll see if we can get through chapter 1 tonight but for you note takers this is a book that bears the name of John in the title and so it was written by him around 85 to 90 AD John's pretty old when he's when he's writing this he was the youngest of Jesus's apostles he may have been anywhere between late teens and early 20s when he was a personal follower of Jesus making him around 80 years of age at this particular time that he writes this book so he's going to be the last of the surviving apostles and and in his old age he he pens some of these final epistles here now the name of John only appears in the title of this letter nowhere does John identify himself and and yet there is evidence that he is the writer so you have some liberal theologians who will say we don't really know who wrote the the letter of first John and so even though this book does not bear his name he doesn't you know like a lot of Paul's epistles he begins or ends by referring to his own name John doesn't refer to himself in this in this letter that's probably because when you were the last surviving elder you don't need to identify so everybody knows at this point but nevertheless I'm going to give you the historical reasons why we can be confident that this is attributed to John as the author style substance and sources those three words first styled at least ten identical phrases that appear in first John also appear in the Gospel of John so there is a style similarity here between first second and third John and the Gospel of John and we do know that the Gospel of John was written by John and so the similarities of style certainly indicate that he is the author when it comes to substance we find out in the first verse of chapter one here when we when read it when we read it a little bit that that John reversed himself as the eye witness that he was there to see these things he was there to behold these things to to touch and and to be a part of this as a personal eyewitness and since he again was the oldest of the surviving apostles this puts him as that eyewitness so substance tells us that it's John and then finally sources the early church fathers all agreed I rainiest origin Clement of Alexandria Tertullian all the early church fathers attributed this letter to the Apostle John one of the things that I love about this letter so that's settled as as far as I'm concerned although you know his name's not mentioned one of the things that I love about the Epistle of John the first epistle here first John is that he is one of these guys who for thick-headed people like me explains himself very very clearly reading comprehension was not my best subject in school I have to read things and reread and reread because what happens is my mind drifts and I can read a whole page of something all the while thinking about entirely different things and realize I didn't understand a thing I just read can anybody else really oh thank you wow I don't know if you're just doing that to make me feel good about myself or if you really have the same problem I do but I'm going to start a support group but anyway and it looks like there's a lot in the group here so one of the things I love about John is for people like me he spells out four purposes for writing his letter for purposes why did he write this letter and he's going to tell us the first is to make our joy full or complete and I'm just going to take you through these verses so you see just how plain this is so chapter 1 in verse floor where he says and these things we write to you that your joy may be full let me spell that out for us he says here's one of the reasons I'm writing this epistle to you I want in your relationship with Christ I want your joy to be full I want it to be complete the second reason another reason he says he writes this is to warn us about habitual sin look at chapter 2 verse 1 where he says my little children these things I write to you so that you may not sin it so again he spells it out for us now we're gonna see in a moment that this does not mean that Christians don't sin at all but again I use the word - bicha Wilson because he's talking here about as believers but it's not that believers are sinless it's that as believers the older we get in Christ we should sin less alright everybody understand that we'll play on words and so one of the things here that is problematic and the life of a believer is when we still live like we used to live before we became a believer and so that's inconsistent so he writes another point of his writing is be careful of habitual sin that is not a characteristic of a follower of Christ number three he tells us also plainly in this letter I'm writing to refute false teachers look at chapter 2 verse 26 chapter 226 these things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you so again it's just very plain talk these things another reason that I've written to you concerning those try to deceive you so he writes to refute false teachers and then finally number four he writes to assure us of our salvation Chapter five last chapter verse 13 again he just spells it out very plainly to us verse 13 these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God so it's it's intended to be a letter of encouragement now I will tell you that when you read first I remember the first time I read it as a young believer is a teenager and I thought to myself when I got through reading first John I ain't even saved because the way he writes about if you do this and you do this and you do this and you do this you can't claim to have fellowship with the Lord and I and I was doing this and I was doing this I was doing this and I was doing this so I was really I don't think I'm even saying he actually writes to assure us of our salvation so that by the time we finished the letter we will be more secure and confident in our walk with the Lord but it is a challenging letter in that it is going to confront us it confronts us with sloppy Christian living and it's going to challenge us these are the kind of things that you should do as a believer and should not do as a believer and one of the things and and that stands opposed to Christianity in this particular time that is important for us to understand the background of this story which is why I'm spending a little bit more time with this introduction is is Gnosticism Gnosticism was a heresy that took root starting in its infancy in the 1st century AD which is when John is writing here jut just at the end of the first century 85 to 90 AD and it really becomes a stronghold in the 2nd and 3rd centuries ad so I mean for a couple hundred years or so Gnosticism was a heresy that infected and affected the early church so what is Gnosticism I'm going to explain what gnosis is them is and then on the screen I'll just give you a summary but first let me just basically explain what it is Gnosticism is from the Greek word ganas Co which means knowledge one of the things that this heresy that crept into the early church that that some of the early Christians thought or believed was that knowledge was the way to salvation it's about what you know and not necessarily who you know so if we can accumulate knowledge about these things then that's the key to salvation but the other important thing about Gnosticism it was really the the evil behind it was this thinking that things physical okay as it relates to physical body and tangible material things that's really what is evil so the physical is evil the spiritual is what is good and for that reason the early Gnostics believed that Jesus was not really physical because they thought everything physical was fleshly and thus evil and so they dismissed the physical incarnation of Jesus God coming in flesh and they believed that Jesus was just a phantom spirit that it was Walker and it wasn't real flesh he was just phantoms spirit which which is completely contrary to Scripture because you know he became flesh and dwelt among us as what you know John writes in his first gospel so you know we beheld his glory the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth he God became flesh and dwelt among us and so he does take on flesh he does take on skin so to speak he wraps himself in humanity humanity its flesh itself is is not sinful it's how we operate in the flesh that is sinful so the fact that Jesus had a physical body did not make him sinful because he he was tempted in every way as we are yet was without sin as what scripture says so it's not that the physical or the tangible or the material is sinful in and of itself but the early Gnostics thought that so here's where they went and they're thinking with that if therefore everything physical doesn't matter that it's only about what is spiritual then you can really this is what they taught you could really do whatever you want physically because that's not what counts it's only about the spirit you see how twisted this guy's which led them to this sloppy living in the early church were people who bought into Gnosticism then began to believe well if it doesn't really matter what I do then my behavior really is not an indication of my Christianity or the lack thereof so I can do whatever I jolly well want to do and they were engaging in all kinds of sin and all kinds of practices because they were using the physical to gratify the desires of the sinful nature and to live lives like they weren't saved and so John now as Gnosticism starts to take root at the end of the first century it's just it's just in its infancy but John is addressing this in this first epistle here first John because it's gonna take root in the second and third centuries and it's gonna wreck a lot of people in the early church in terms of their faith because they don't have a proper understanding of who Jesus is if you deny that that God came in flesh you're denying the Incarnation you're denying the whole you know virgin birth you're denying God in flesh okay so so you're denying the authenticity and deity of Christ who takes on flesh and dwelt among us and dies for our sins and on top of that you're compounding that false doctrine if you don't believe that Jesus is you know come in flesh then you're living in false doctrine but you're compounding that by saying well that the flesh doesn't even really matter because once we get saved it's all about the spirits so you can do whatever you want with your body that's what's happening here okay so that's that's the main backdrop now just to kind of summarize all that I just said there into a few couple of sentences here Gnosticism was basically a heresy of the 2nd 3rd centuries ad that started in the 1st century AD which taught that one all physical matter is evil therefore Jesus did not have a physical body he was a phantom spirit and number two since only the spirit matters anything you do physically doesn't matter so that's Anastas ism teaches that's what a lot we're buying into John is spending his time primarily and as he writes first John - with that backdrop in mind addressing some of the problems that were prevalent in the church but here's the thing you know even though Gnosticism is not an issue today per se we can still get into that kind of sloppy living where where we just start to think you know what it's all about you know your spirit and going to heaven when you die and we're gonna shed this body of flesh anyway so it doesn't really matter what we do with our bodies it's not really about the body you know formed us we were created the dust we shall return and then a lot of people just get really lazy in in their spiritual disciplines and living for Christ and not gratifying the desires of the sinful nature and dying to self you know that's a whole part of the Bible that relates to us as Christians about dying the South taking up your cross daily you know crucifying the flesh there there exists from the moment you get saved a battle which was not there before you got saved before you get saved when you don't have a regenerated heart that loves Jesus you just did whatever your Unruh generated life wanted to do and so therefore there's no conflict and and so people lived however they want to live you understand this because before you came to know Christ if you especially if you came to know Christ a little bit later in life there's a lot of stuff you did before you came to know Christ that you just did because it's what everybody else did you're just gratifying it your own flesh and it's no conflict okay then you get saved now your moral conscience is awakened because of your love for Jesus and and and him living within you and all of a sudden now you're conflicted and some of your friends won't want you to go where you used to go and you're like I'm not sure if I should go there anymore and and and you know you're thinking about doing some of the things you used to do yeah I don't think I should do that anymore because now this conscience factor kicks in because now you actually have this moral awareness and you have this heightened understanding of wanting to please God and when you want to please God you realize there's a lot of stuff that your flesh wants to do that it's not pleasing to God and so this is this is the challenge for us as Christians you know Christians can go around anybody can go around saying this is what I believe but your belief needs to match your behavior and if it doesn't you're a hypocrite that's what it comes down to it's not sincere it's not a sincere faith you know sincere comes from two Latin words see me Cara see me meaning without and Cara meaning wax in the first entry when Romans you know would make these beautiful statues and chisel them out of granite and stuff once in a while that the chisel in the hand of a chiseler would slip and they would be making this beautiful statue out of granite and all the sudden boink off goes the nose and I'm like ah you know I just I just made this beautiful statue of Aphrodite and and now she's missing a nose what am I gonna do and here's what they would do they would soften wax and they would take the wax and then they would do a little plastic surgery on Aphrodite and they'd give her a nice beautiful nose and and then they'd sell it like that and you'd come along on the market and you'd buy a little if you you know we're in a Christian obviously you buy a statue of Aphrodite and you'd put her in in the in the front window of your house and you think this is beautiful I paid a lot of money for this everybody walks by is gonna see my beautiful statue for Aphrodite and then the hot summer heat comes through the window and all of a sudden Aphrodite you know she's not as Aphrodite as she thought she was because now our noses melted all down her face and you're like what's this oh somebody made it with wax so scenic era is when it's legit no wax okay and this is what God calls us to be as Christians no wax now nothing fake that we have to be sincere and authentic in our relationship with them and this is challenging stuff because every single one of us truth be told our flesh wants to dominate our flesh wants to rule and and it's going to be a constant battle until the day we die and shed this body of flesh so that then we can fully be with a glorified body and our spirit combined with our glorified body in the presence of the Lord no more temptation no more from within because we are an undivided soul with a regenerated body in the presence of the Lord forever and ever how many people are looking forward to that day amen amen so so this is where we're going here with first John I know that was a bit lengthy but let's pause here and let's pray father thank you for your word thank you for the Apostle John and just being inspired by your spirit to pen these things and as we go through this epistle over the next couple of weeks we pray that you would help us to really take these things personally how is it Lord that what we believe may not be consistent with how we behave and what are the things about our lives that you would by your spirit just gently challenge us about how can we be walking more in ways that please you not gratifying the desires of our sinful nature but dying to self and living for your glory so help us in this battle Lord because it affects all of us and sometimes some days the battle rages harder than other days some days it feels like a battle that we aren't going to win in other days we we seem to have the victory and we just pray that you would help us encourage us strengthen us and empower us and as we look through this chapter Lord give us hearts to receive and believe and to put into practice what we read and we love you and praise you together in Jesus name and everyone said amen first John 1 verse 1 he writes that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our Fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ and these things we write to you that your joy may be full so that's his introduction here first couple of verses and in verse 1 back up where he says that which was from the beginning he's actually you know what beginning is he talking about well he's talking about two things he's talking about Genesis 1:1 in the beginning God okay you have to go any further than that in the beginning God and he's also referring to his own Gospel John 1:1 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and so between Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 he's talking about the beginning he's talking about as it relates to God which which we have heard now he's talking about being that personal eyewitness i've heard we've heard this we've seen it with our eyes we have looked upon and our hands have handled okay he said I've been there I've seen it I've heard Jesus I I have seen him I have touched him I've looked upon him our hands have handled concerning the word of life Circle the word life and and then in verse 2 that life the life was manifested so there's gonna be a few things that John says God is in in first John and here they are and I'm gonna give you all three right right at the beginning even though the last one doesn't come till chapter 4 and it's probably the most quoted one is the best-known one but the first one that that John writes about here that God is is God is life God is life he says there concerning the word of life I'm at I can testify concerning a word of life verse 2 that life was manifested and and the word life is used 14 times in this little epistle only five chapters he's gonna he's gonna put a heavy emphasis on life now there are a couple of Greek words that and the New Testament originally in Greek that translate life you have by Oh we know that land right biology the study of life that's physical life natural life you have sookay which is really the study of the soul but it's sometimes translated in the Bible is life and then you have the Greek word Zoe zo e and Zoe makes a pretty girl's name - but Zoe in the Greek means life that is eternal the fullness of life the fullness of life and and Zoe really that kind of life we can only have through a personal relationship with the one who is life that is the Lord and so this is the kind of life that he's talking about here jesus said in John 14:6 I am the way the truth and the life Zoe no man comes to the Father except through me so even by Jesus's own testimony if you really want to have the fullness of life if you think to yourself you know I don't really feel like you know I I feel like something's lacking in my life that might be because you don't know Christ because he is the fullness of life and once you know him you know fullness of life like you've never known before some people some people have the opposite view they think you know if I get serious about Jesus he's gonna kill my life I'm not gonna have a life if I get serious with Jesus I won't be able to do some of the things I used to do you have you have your being so robbed it's like you think that drinking out of that nasty bitter muddy well is so refreshing that's because you haven't tasted living water until you taste from the well that never runs dry and you realize this this this what this is water that I've been wanting all my life I thought what I had was really great no what you have is that muddy bitter stuff that's a that's a bad well and you don't even know because you have nothing to compare it to until you know what Christ offers the well you're drinking from you think is delicious but when you taste of him my oh my there's nothing in comparison so he is life and John 1:4 had said John would write in his in his gospel in him was life and that life was the light of men so one of the things that he talks about here is his life what we'll talk in a moment here how God is light and then I just want to touch on God is love even though we will get there till chapter 4 just just because just as a kind of a fact about first John as it relates to love the word love is found 45 times in first John alone 45 times now listen to me on this that is more times in the in first John than any other book of the Bible and it's only five chapters now the exception is the book of psalms it has a hundred fifty chapters but the word love only appears 141 times in the Book of Psalms so even proportionally then it means that first John talks about love even more than the Book of Psalms more than any other book of the Bible it is a major theme and every single time the word love is used in first John it is the Greek word agape as most of you know there are different words in the Greek for the word love in English you know it's it's kind of sad because in English it's our language is kind of deficient in some ways and especially in the word love because we we say you know I love ice cream and then we say I love my wife or I love my husband right well I hope you loved your husband or wife more than you love ice cream but we only have one word so we say oh I love Friday's I love my kids I hope a little bit more than Friday's you know but but in the Greek language they were brilliant so they had different words like storge is family love eros is erotic love Filet O is brotherly love Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love where's my friend from Philly says the city of brotherly shove but anyway and then you have and then you have a gob a which is this highest supreme love and every time all 45 times that the word love is used in first John it is always a copy it's talking about this highest form of love that we can only really know in a personal relationship with the Lord so he is these things and so you know back here now what we'll get at least tonight to how he is light but but he talks here about how god is love rather got his life in verse 2 and that life was manifested so the manifestation of God's life comes a present in in Jesus that's why he adds there in verse 2 we've seen we bear witness declare to you that eternal life this fullness of life zowie which was with the father and was manifested to us through the person of Jesus that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship you can circle that word fellowship that word is used four times in first John twice right here because he says that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship there's a word again is with a filing with the son Jesus Christ and it is that Greek word Koinonia we we name our small group ministry after the cornea so we call in K groups our K group Bible study that meets in homes because it's the idea again of this kind of fellowship that you can only really have in this relationship with Christ have you ever gone somewhere I can tell you personally like Terry and I this past summer I was invited to speak in Thailand at this missions Congress and there were there were people a few hundred people there from all over the world ok and they even had about six different languages that were being translated they had translators in the back of the room translating as I'm speaking and in the earpieces of people just like at the UN kind of a thing it was just a marvelous thing but you know and and here we walk into a group of a few hundred people from all over the world that we never met before and some of whom we don't even speak their language and yet I can tell you it's that instant friendship and fellowship and like brothers and sisters and and you've never even met these P and the first time you meet them it's just like what you had that special common bond and fellowship why is that it's Koinonia because it's based on Christ so you can meet basically a complete stranger and they know Christ and you know Christ and you instantly have a kind of fellowship that just transcends all other kinds of things that that normally divide other other people that that shouldn't divide us in the body of Christ and you come together under the umbrella and fellowship of Jesus that's the kind of Koinonia that he's talking about here it's with this father it's with the father and with the son Jesus Christ and these things we write to you that your joy may be full verse 5 this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you so here's the other thing that God is light and in him is no darkness at all okay now he's gonna move in this section here using this language about light and darkness and he and he tells us here that God is light and in him is no darkness at all you know it's interesting Albert Einstein in in the theory of relativity he was talking about how if you could travel at the speed of light which is 186,000 miles per second he said if you could travel at the speed of light time ceases to be and he was once asked how many people understand this and he said me and one other person and they said who's that other person he said I haven't met him yet 186,000 miles per second he said if he could travel at the speed of light time ceases to be you see God is light and he's outside of time God it God is not restricted by space and time he's outside of the time-space continuum now he made a decision 2,000 years ago to enter that continuum to come into our order of space and time by taking on flesh and dwelling among us in the person of Jesus but outside of his entry into the world into the human race taking on flesh dying for our sins God is outside of time he's not restricted by time he he's not measured in terms of time there is no beginning with him there is no ending with him so it's interesting even you know basically you know science not that we need science to validate the Bible right I always believe that eventually science will catch up with a Bible but it's always interesting to note something that John says there in terms of you know God is light and in him is no darkness and and then Einstein comes along says you know if we could travel at the speed of light there is no time and it's consistent with what scripture teaches here but he uses this terminology about light and darkness because in in the next verse he's going to say if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin so he starts to use this terminology or about light and darkness to communicate who God is God is light God is outside of time and here we are we're in darkness you know before before we get saved certainly we're walking in darkness in John 8 verse 12 Jesus said I am the light of the world whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of Life so you know all this terminology is usually used to describe the Lord and describe I relationship with him and and so Jesus comes along and says listen I'm the light of the world you you you you're in fellowship with me you won't be in darkness it's interesting because there is something true pure right unashamed good and clean about the light versus when you think about darkness you know at night time darkness there's something sinister there's something evil there's something wicked and shameful and fearful and secretive about living in the darkness you know at night you know think about it you never had to tell your kids to be afraid of the dark and you were - or you were a kid why is that why is there this this fear attached to you know like darkness it's it's because there's something about the darkness that that there's there's this kind of you know seedy thing that happens in the darkest think about when most crime occurs most crime except and unless some criminal is really brazen doesn't occur in the daytime it occurs under the cover of darkness it occurs at nighttime think about you know things that that come out in the you know rats and bats and cats you know just all of those things that just does evil things that just keep crawling out you know at nighttime every scary movie you've ever watched the setting was at nighttime it was all in the darkness because there's something about the darkness that that is that just presents itself in in this way so this is why the Bible uses this terminology you know what's the difference between a butterfly and a cockroach light and darkness you know one comes out at the light oh this is beautiful oh and then what is your cupboard in the dark it as soon as you you know if there's a cockroach in your house and you open up the cabinet they scurry you know because the light is coming so you know they flee and you and you would think that most people would want to come into the light when it where it concerns the Lord where things are pure and true and good and right but not everyone wants to in fact Jesus said in John chapter three 19 to 21 he says this is the verdict light has come into the world but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God so Jesus says unfortunately you know I've come into the world light has come into the world but there's going to be a lot of people that just love darkness more than light they're more comfortable under the cover of darkness doing what they do rather than coming into the light it can be a very vulnerable and terrifying thing to come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed you know why a lot of people don't want to come into the light for that reason they feel like if they do then the shame will be too much now unfortunately that might be true in human relationships where if you come clean about something and the response is a lot of shame and guilt then you're gonna do you're to think yourself why did I even come clean if I'm gonna get all the shame and guilt but with God it's never like that when we come into the light and we he's gonna say later in this chapter when we confess our sins you know when we when we get right with him and we come into the light there's this cleansing purifying liberating thing that happens that is the result of a very open and vulnerable encounter with Jesus and since he knows everything anyway it's not like we're it's not like we're gonna shock him when we come into the light and Jesus gonna be poo I didn't know that it's not going to be any of that he already knows what he wants us to do is just come clean and come into the light but this is why John says here in verse six if if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth now there's going to be a few things false teachings and and wrong assumptions and false claims and kind of again kind of it stems out of Gnosticism but but that John refused and and this is one of them one of the things he's refuting right here in this passage is the idea that we can fellowship with God regardless of our actions again you know with Gnosticism looks like well the body doesn't really matter so we can do whatever we want and so if we translate it into our own culture today and what he's saying here in verse six is that you know we can't go around saying we have fellowship with God we were close to him we know him we're walking with the Lord and walking in the darkness at the same time because that means we lie and we don't practice the truth but here's here's the remedy though verse 7 and this is what I was talking about a moment ago about about being vulnerable and coming into the light but if we walk in the light as he is in the light because he is light we have fellowship with one another okay because there's nothing that hinders horizontal relationships like living in darkness as well as the vertical relationship it hinders when we walk in darkness okay so when we come into the light when we get right with the Lord we have fellowship with one another that isn't hindered on the horizontal and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin isn't that beautiful just he's telling us listen when we come and we step into the light and we and we say okay Lord you see anyway you know anyway I just want to get right with you I don't want to be living in secrecy and in darkness I don't I don't want to be living a hypocritical or duplicitous life where I'm you know I believe one thing but I hate behave differently I want Lord to just be right with you and come clean with you and you step into that light oh how our sins are cleansed His Son cleanses us from how much sin a little all circle that in your Bibles cleanse us from all sin not not a little bit not a couple all sin and so he refutes that false claim that you can have fellowship and still just behave everyone he's like no no no you got to come into the light you got to be right with the Lord it's got to be you got to be true with him and but the bonus is that the blood of Jesus that He shed on the cross his atoning sacrifice cleanses us from all sin when we do that no shame he doesn't shame us he cleanses us and then here's the second thing we'll just tackle this real quickly and then close out chapter 1 for tonight the second thing that he refutes here between verses 8 and 10 if you look at this with me says if we say and that's always the lead-in claws like verse 6 was if we say and now here again in verse 8 if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just this is the remedy to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and then he ties it in in verse 10 by saying if we say that we have not sinned we make him that's God a liar and his word is not in us and so basically the second thing that he refutes here is this idea that we're not sinners it says yes we are he says if we if we say we have no sin that's verse 8 so that's inherit sin and in verse 10 if we say that we have not sinned that's that's acquired so one is like denying the sin nature and the other is denying sin practices I'm not I don't sin you know it's because again Gnosticism was kind of the root of this is just like well the body doesn't really count for anything so no matter what I do with my body it's not really sin it's all about the spirit and so now that I've you know saved it's not only about my spirit and thus I can't really sin anyway because all that other sinful stuff happens in my body and the body doesn't count for anything so it's very twisted but he's just reminding us of the general sin nature that we all have we're all born into sin david writes about in the psalms about how surely I was in sin for the time I was conceived in my mother's womb we inherited sin nature because Adam's sin the human race got spoiled and every descendant of Adam has now been spoiled and our nature is sinful that's why when we're born as soon as we are able to walk or talk or do anything we we just gravitate right to our sinful nature you know a little kids they do stuff that's sinful they're just you know you might think yourself well you know I think only that's not really fair little kids they do things innocently no they don't no they don't you must not have kids I can remember reading a book with Tyler when he was about three years old and he had taken the book which I didn't know until I'm turning the pages he had taken a crayon and scribbled all over it okay that's fine kids do that all the time that's not sin by itself right kids stay kids do that but as I'm reading the book with them and I turn the page I see scribble all over it I'm like whoa so Tyler who did this and he looked at the scribble and he looked at me and he said mommy did that that's in right there I fried that is sin right there they turned out okay praise God but I'm just saying nobody had to teach him now listen listen when I turn the page and they're scribbling marks you blame it on mommy where'd that come from a sinful heart it's not just adults kids are just short sinners they're sinners too because we're born into sin and so we sin so he says don't deny that when we have a sinful nature and don't deny that along the way even as Christians our flesh will get the best of us and sometimes we sin but here's the good news that is sandwiched right between verse 8 and verse 10 which talks about the sin nature and the sin practices verse 9 says but if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness amen and amen so that's where we will leave it tonight you can read ahead well it we have much more there than the little epistle of first John but let's give thanks to the Lord tonight and just pray as we leave father thank you for your grace and your forgiveness thank you as we step into the light you cleanse us thank you when we confess our sins you're faithful and just you forgive us of all our sins you cleanse us from all unrighteousness help us Lord to walk in ways that are pleasing to you that as we live out our faith it would be evident not just to you supremely to you but also to others who will look on our lives and be able to tell that we're different because we want to live in a way that brings glory to you not gratifying our flesh not doing things we used to do before we got saved but following after you and living in such a way that brings you glory and honor and praise but Lord our flesh always wants to get the best of us so help us in our battle against the flesh fill us fresh with your Holy Spirit to empower us and help us to live out our lives in such a way that brings praise to you we lovingly thank you in Jesus name and everybody said amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Rating: 4.9211822 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel Leesburg Va, Bible, Sermons, Teaching, Faith, Christian, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Gary, Hamrick, Calvary, Chapel, Biblical sermons, knowing God, salvation, evangelism, Leesburg, Pastor Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Connection, radio, hamrick gary

Id: 1tD9Z7Ioqmk

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 21 2019