John is a fascinating creature, person. I'm talking about John the Apostle, the disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no one else like him. He had the most unique relationship, human relationship to Jesus Christ of anyone. And so, he was the most intimate besides Mary, his mother, to John. They're the closest humans to Jesus was his mother, and then his best friend and his disciple and chief apostle, John.

And so, I hadn't planned on really beginning by talking about John, but you know, you begin where you begin. Because in reading John's gospel, there's no other gospel like John. There's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They all are very common to each other and that they are narrative. They tell us sort of in narrative form. They tell us and inform us about the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and his deeds and then focus all of them ultimately upon his death and then his resurrection.

But John, when he writes about the life of Jesus, is later, he has a distinct purpose. And his distinct purpose is to show us that Jesus is the Messiah. And so, to do that, he selects certain miracles, miracle works that Jesus did. And in them, he shows how he is fulfilling what was in the Old Testament by his own life and ministry. But for instance, that he is the light of the world. as we read in John chapter eight today.

But then we moved to his epistles, his letters, his pastoral letters. John was a pastor. He was a pastor of Ephesus. And Ephesus is one of the leading churches in the first century. It's not just that congregation, but probably some other satellite congregations as we call that they met in various people's homes. Because the early church primarily met in people's homes or in rented spaces. We see that in the acts of the apostle. So he's writing to them his pastoral letters. And there's three of them that we have, and they're all very unique.

Now, John's gospel and the epistles in one way are very easy to read. You can open up and you can read them. And for the most part, you understand what's being said, or at least you think you understand what's being said, all that's being said. But here's the truth. You see, John's pastoral letter is not only easy reading, but it's profound thought. It will stretch you. And since we're preaching through it, we want to challenge you, Jeff and I, to read it like every week. Read through the first epistle of John. It won't take you too long. And that will help us. understand it, because we need to understand it and interpret it in light of the whole letter, not simply the little section that we may be dealing with.

Now, the section we're dealing with today is found in 1 John chapter five, I'm sorry, 1 John chapter one and verse five through chapter two and verse two. It's a unit, but that unit is dependent on the first unit. that we looked at last week. And so, as we come to approach the word, let us seek the face of our God and ask him to help the preacher preach the word.

Father, we do come to you because we want to know more about you. We want to draw closer to you and we know in doing so, we do it through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord. We thank you for John who wrote about Christ in such intimate terms. But Lord, help us as we read his letter, the burden he has on his heart for the people that he pastored in Ephesus and that others pastored, but that he himself was the chief pastor. And as he bears his heart and his concerns and testifies anew and again of our Lord Jesus Christ, help us to hear and to understand and to apply to our own hearts the message that he brings to the churches and to us. We ask that in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our reading, in our speaking, and in our thinking. In Jesus' name, we pray.

Modern man especially in the West. And by the West, I mean primarily Europe and the Americas, specifically North America, United States and Canada. It's primarily what I mean when I talk about modern man in the West. Does not regard sin as anything that's real. Sometimes they use the word, and they hear the word, but they don't give it much stock. To many, when we speak and talk about sin, it's sort of like a, that's a Christian thing. It's just Christianese. And they're talking about something that's not really real. They're just talking about, you know, mistakes, errors; they really have a problem in their thinking.

The recent statistic came out, but did you know that only 50% of America gives any stop to religion? Now, this is a big change from the past. 50% of America regards religion as something that's of not much importance. And so that 50% basically looks upon sin as a non-entity. It's a language that we use, but we really, we just fell into grasp that, you know, it has to do with mankind's development, his evolution, if you please.

Now, the Bible has a very different view of sin. And the Christian faith has a very different view of sin. In many respects, the Christian faith's view about sin is distinct. And I hope that we can see that today. In general thinking, sin primarily consists of deeds, actions, actions of wrong that we do. But in the Christian sense of sin, it goes way beyond deeds. That's something we need to get a hold of.

In fact, maybe we should talk about the definition of sin. Since the apostle John is the one who wrote the letter that we're looking at, examining his definition of sin that he gives in 1 John 3, I believe it's verse 14, I'm not sure of the verse, but is sin is lawlessness. So according to John, sin is lawlessness, living without the structure of God's principles of truth, of reality. And he specifically mentions two things that we must believe and that we are sinning when we do not. One is that we must believe in God as revealed in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is unbelief. Unbelief about God or toward God and unbelief toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And he specifies that sin is failure to love. the failure to love God and to love our fellow man, especially the household of faith, other believers, the brotherhood, as he calls it, the community of faith of those who share common life in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are commanded, urged, to love one another as Christ loved us. This is on John's heart.

So, when John talks about law, when he talks about love, we have to go back to his gospel. And when you go back to his gospel, John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, you'll find where Jesus talks about love, the love of God and the love of the Father. and the love of Christ toward us. So, we are commanded to love. And when we do not love, as God has commanded us, we have sin. Those are primary concerns on the heart of God. That doesn't exhaust the meaning of sin. But John gives his own definition in 1 John 3, as sin is lawlessness, that means, breaking the law and living without regard to God's standard of morality, God's standard of human relationships. We don't often think of it in this terms, but humans are made in the image of God. And as that, even though we are fallen and even though we are barred and scarred, we still have a dignity about us that's beyond that of the rest of creation. And we are to record or to relate to one another in these kinds of terms.

Now, let me give you a fuller definition of sin looking at Paul, Jesus, and John. So, sin in the biblical context is any action, any thought, or any attitude that falls short of God's perfect standard of righteousness and holiness. Paul wrote in Romans that sin is missing the mark. It's failure to be what God has created us to be. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount certainly spells out to us the absolute perfection of righteousness. You know, sometimes we often look back to the Ten Commandments, but looking at the Ten Commandments as they're given to Moses on Mount Sinai, they have specific reference to Israel, but they contain within them eternal principles. And those eternal principles are spelled out in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. And when you read the Sermon on the Mount and put it up against the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount certainly has expanded. And we think, whoa, have I ever broke that commandment? Yes, because in my heart, I've had the wrong attitude. In my mouth, I've spoken the wrong words. And in my deeds, I have transgressed God's commands. So, this is a fuller concept of sin.

So, sin is not merely a mistake. It's not merely a moral failing. It is an affront to the very character of God who's holy. It is doing that which is contrary to God. Now the Bible is concerned about sin. And so, for us to truly grasp the message of the Bible, we have to take sin seriously. Because after all, the whole purpose of Jesus coming is for what? Is to deliver us from the bondage and the consequences of sin. To rescue sinners. Jesus came on a rescue mission to rescue sinners, to restore them to a proper relationship with God. And the relationship that God wants to have with people is that of fellowship. Fellowship is not just a formal or business-like relationship. It's a relationship of family, relationship of close and intimate friends. Jesus came to restore us to proper relationship with God, but not a service relationship. He came to restore us to the fullness of relationship. And that's what's found in John's letter.

As we considered last week, listen to these opening words because they're very important as we look at the words that follow.

That which was from the beginning, which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it. and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

So, we know when we read that, John is speaking at the very beginning about Jesus Christ. He is the one who was from the beginning. He's the one that they, talking about the apostles, John and the others, we've seen with our eyes, we've touched with our hands. We're witnesses to him. And he's the one who reveals the father. He came. The Lord Jesus came so that we might have fellowship with God and fellowship with one another. It's very important as we come to the second section.

So, John gives us the first hint of wise writing when he says, and we're writing these things so that our joy may be complete. He's writing them so that our joy may be full, overflowing, rich, and abundant. Jesus said, I've come that men might have life and they might have it abundantly. An abundant life is a life that's full of relationship, relationship that is peaceful and relationship that is enjoyable relationship that satisfy. That's what we strive for in life. We want and long for relationship. And God wants us to have relationship with him.

But we are born outside of that relationship. Aliens. strangers, under condemnation. We do not know him. And that the scripture says, we do not even search for him. It takes a divine intervention for us to even want God in our lives. That doesn't mean we may not be religious. We may be very religious and still not have or even want a true relationship with God.

Well, so the very first thing John sets before us is that he's writing so that we're writing these things so that our joy, meaning the apostles who've given them the message, what will make them have joy is when you understand, receive the message, and in receiving the message, you experience Christ and relate to God as your Father. That this is uppermost in John's mind is reiterated for us in the very last part of the letter when he says, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that, for this reason, so that we may know Him who is true and in His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true and in His Son, Jesus Christ. And this relationship is what? He says, it is eternal life. Knowing God in Christ Jesus is eternal life.

Well, that's God's desire and that's God's action in the incarnation. Why did Jesus come? Well, he came to restore people to proper relationship with God. And that took his own life. It took him dying on the cross as the atoning sacrifice of the sins of his people. He came to establish this true relationship with the Father. but in establishing it, he must give his life, his human body, his life as a human in union with his deity. He must sacrifice it on the cross for us. That's what the scripture says. He became the propitiation for our sins. Without it, we could not be restored to God. That's a big message. Not necessarily all this in this one, but a big message.

Now I want us to then look at the section for today. John writes; this is the message we've heard from him. So who is he talking about? Well, this is the message we, the we is he, John, and the other apostles. those early believers, especially those disciples that hung with him. We heard this message from him, and this is the message that we proclaim to you. In fact, the only message that the apostles were to give was the message Jesus gave them. and the only message we're to give and to preach to you is the message that God has given us in His Son, this comes to us through the wording of God, God's Word, the written revelation. He testifies to Christ, but more than that, Christ is present in and through His Word.

So, this is a message we've heard from him and proclaim to you. What is that message? He begins with this. The message is this, God is light. And it's true that later John will say God is love in this letter, but he doesn't begin with that. You see, order is very important. There are some who think, God is love is the only thing that's important about God, but their definition of love is like sentimentality. God is like an indulgent grandfather who just wants to give gifts to his grandson or granddaughter, and he doesn't care what they do. They will always accept him and always do whatever and overlook any fault. Just very indulgent, like a grandfather, Father Christmas, if you please. We wanna think of God as a dispenser of gifts, and it doesn't matter what we do, He's gonna overlook it and give to us anything. That's the common people's idea of what means that God is love. That is not a biblical idea of God's love at all. God is love is built on the whole idea of covenant. of relationship that entails responsibilities and entails particular relationship of God to his people. God is love. But before that, God is light.

Now to say God is light is to use a metaphor. Now, literally, God is probably the brightest thing in all the universe, and he's the one who created the sun as we know it. The sun is only one of millions of suns in God's universe. They operate basically the same way. They are a mass of some kind that generate light, but light is necessary for life.

God is light. It's pure. God is holy is the metaphor of a holiness of God. That's what Isaiah experienced in the temple when he went in that day. He experienced God is holy. God, as it were, as he's concerned about the fate of the nation and what was going to happen, the king has died. You know, there's always fear in transition. But when he goes to seek the face of God, God lets him see the glory of heaven and the glory of his throne, the majesty of his being. And it's the angels are crying out, holy, holy, holy. And they cover their eyes, and they fly with their wings. The seraphim and cherubim are glorifying the holy, righteous God.

And Isaiah struck with his sin. He comes out from the depth of his own knowledge of himself that God has made real evident to him by letting him see himself, the Holy One. And Isaiah suddenly realizes, I am undone. Why? Because I'm a man of unclean lips. and I speak and live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. You ever thought about that? How often we sin with our lips. In words that we say of doubt, words that we say of fear, words that we say that are lies, Words that we say that hurt and damage and seek to destroy. Read the epistle of James and you can realize how sinful the tongue can be.

I'm sinful, but God had mercy. You see, in the days in which the animals are being slaughtered on the day of Atonement, the blood is shed so that the sins of the people can be put away until the Christ shall come. And so, the angel takes with the thongs a little piece of the charcoal, of the coal that touches his lips. It's a symbol of the righteousness of God coming to you because of the sacrifices made to cover your sins. God is holy, God is light. And so, to have right thoughts about God and to understand this word of God given to us, we must be very clear about the nature of God, that God is holy. He is perfect righteousness. He is absolute excellence. He is perfection, total infinity. is God, the Holy One. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Notice what John is doing, and this is his pattern throughout his letter. He has contrasts, stark contrasts. That's why sometimes it's difficult to read John's epistle and we get lost scratching our head because we don't see the reality of life where we live in the gray area. John says, white, black, total right, total wrong. And that throws us for a loop. He's making a contrast. God is light, but there's no darkness, no darkness in him. So, we have, the contrast, the opposition, light versus darkness. God is light.

Now, he comes to his major theme about fellowship with God. Now again, we need to elevate our meaning that we put to fellowship. We have superficial ideas about fellowship sometimes. We've reduced fellowship in the church many times to simply having like coffee and donuts before service or sharing a meal together. Well, that's good. Or fellowship, greeting each other when we come in and say, how you doing? How's your week? Fine, we would say and go on about our lives. That's not the biblical concept of fellowship. Fellowship is much more than that. It may embrace those things, certainly. We need avenues in which we can sit and talk and share together. But fellowship is a sharing of mind and heart. It's a sharing of life. It's a knowledge, a real intimate knowledge, not superficial.

Jesus came to establish by his own atoning sacrifice for us fellowship with God. I've come that they might have life, and they might have it abundantly. He's come to reconcile us to God. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. He did that by taking to himself our sin, bearing the punishment for it, and giving to us his righteousness. This is the great exchange that establishes fellowship with God. And the fellowship is brought about by Christ's own work and it comes to us experientially by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, convicting us of sin, of our failure to have fellowship with God, and convicting us of the truthfulness of who Christ is and what he has done in order to establish friendship with God.

Well, he has this context. This is a message we've heard from him to proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now, this is fellowship. He talks about Christ has come so that we may have fellowship." Isn't that what it says up here in verse 3? I'm reading from the ESV. So that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

So, beginning at verse 6, He begins to present us with things that deny or keep us, keep people from having fellowship with God. He presents us with what could be called three pseudo, that meaning false ideas that hinder having genuine, true relationship with God. So, I want to repeat an idea. John tells us, we declare to you the word of life so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus. That's why he's writing. That's what he wants us to have, is fellowship. But sin disrupts fellowship with God. Sin hinders fellowship with God. Sin unconfessed, sin unrecognized, sin keeps us from even establishing fellowship with God.

So, let's read what he says. Notice in your text; I urge you to take the text in your worship guide. You can underline and mark on it as we go along. Notice verse six, verse eight, and verse 10. The opening words is the ESV. If we say, if we say, if we say, so these are three claims, three ideas that people have. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, so that's the first claim. I know God, he's my partner, we go golfing together. You know? I know him; he's, my buddy. We say we have fellowship with Him. While we walk in darkness. That's opposite, right? God is light, right? Not darkness. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. So if this is our claim, if this is our truth, as we speak in our day, this is my truth, you know. There's truth and then we'll talk about my truth. Well, your truth should be matching God's truth. If it doesn't, you need to have an adjustment of what you mean by truth. Because what John says, that if your truth does not match God's truth, and this is the position and claim that you make, you are lying, we lie, and you do not practice the truth.

So, this is the first claim. These are spurious claims. They're false claims. of a relationship with God. False claims of a relationship with God that you claim you have, but in reality, you do not have. The first one is the idea that sin is a non-entity. It's not anything that matters in relationship with God. Sin does not affect our relationship with God. That's the idea. Perhaps sin is not even a reality to you. You don't really accept it per se, but people talk about it. So, this is the first claim. I have fellowship with God while I walk in darkness.

What is walking? this relationship with God, walking. Well, let's talk about walking for a minute. One, its movement, right? Walking. So, the scripture uses it to indicate life, the activities of life. So, scripture talks about walking with God. Enoch walked with God. And then he was not because God took it. We're told that we must walk in the light. So, it's talking about habit of life. It's talking about the way we conduct our lives. So, to walk in light means that I'm walking in the reality of who God is and in the reality of the relationship that he's established with me in grace.

But if I say that now, I'm walking in the light. If I say I have fellowship with God who is light, while I'm walking in darkness, I'm just telling a bald-faced lie. So, to walk in darkness is to have the habit. It's a habitual sin. It's living in what we call the world. John's gonna talk about the world later in his letter. That's the thing about John's letter. As you read it, John does not talk about something chronologically. He says about it and then he moves on. He talks about it in cycles. He talks about it, he mentions it, and then he's gonna cycle around. After a little bit, he's gonna come back and he's gonna talk about it again from another perspective. He's gonna shine another little light on it. He hasn't left the subject altogether. He keeps returning. He keeps returning to the idea of sin. He keeps returning to the idea of who God is. He keeps returning to what is true relationship with God. He keeps returning.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we're walking in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. In other words, that's just a false claim. Jesus talked about the tree and the fruit, didn't he? So, the tree manifests; the fruit manifests what kind of tree it is. Now, if you claim you have a fig tree, but it's bearing acorns, you obviously are not telling the truth, right? Because the acorns tell you that's not a fruit tree. Whatever fruit is on that tree is what the tree is. Something we have to keep in mind. Now, each time John gives us one of these claims, he gives the remedy for it. But if we walk in the light. So again, this is a contrast. How do I get away from this false claim? But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Notice how important it is that Jesus has come and that He is who He claimed to be, the incarnate Word. He is God manifest in the flesh. He is the Word who comes from the bosom of the Father on a mission. The mission is to give His life up in our behalf, in the behalf of those who believe in Him. His blood is the only cleansing agent for sin. That's the first claim.

We must have a clear vision of who God is and a clear vision and understanding of what sin is. Now, this is not necessarily original with me, but there's two things we must have as we talk about fellowship with God. We must have a clear vision, as I said, of God, a clear vision also of our own state, of who we are. And we must have feet that are planted in obedience.

Because when John talks about relationship and fellowship with God, he's talking about a life of obedience to the Father. A life that's lived in accordance with the life of Jesus Christ himself. If you wanna know what the standard is for Christian living, the standard is Jesus himself.

All right, let's go to the second claim. Verse 8, if we say we have no sin, this is the no sin category. And now, if you look at verse 10, I think you need to notice a difference between verse 8 and verse 10. In verse 8, it says, if we say we have no sin in the singular, sin, it has reference to what we are. It has reference to a realm. It has reference to a category. I may not be saying this exactly right, but the next one, verse 10, we say we have not sinned. Do you notice the difference? One is like a character, a nature. If we say we have no sin, that's not us; I'm sinless. But the next one is, we say we have not sinned.

You say, you know, you shouldn't have spoken like that. You have really been downgrading them. That's really a sin. And you say, it's not sin. You do not recognize your wrong speech or your wrong action or your failure to do what God told you to do as sin. You fail to acknowledge a deed, a motive, an action as sin. So, if we say we have not sinned, and that's what past tense, notice, we have not sinned. So, it's talking about something we've done in the past. It could have been immediate past or long ago past. We make him a liar. We take that position and his word is not in us. And number eight, if we say we have no sin, we are self-deceived. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

So, what exactly are we talking about here? I want to, uh, refer to the three denials. We have three denials before us. The first one, one in verse six, is the denial of the sinfulness of sin. We don't recognize sin as sin. And we regard what others regard as sin as simply a mistake, an error, or I simply haven't grown enough, that kind of idea. This is contrary to the biblical teaching that takes sin very seriously.

But the second one in verse eight is the denial of human sinfulness. So, at this point, it's helpful for us to recognize A teaching that is emerging in John's day is a false teaching that's affecting the body of truth, that's affecting the church. It will become full-blown in the next century. It's what we call Gnosticism. I know that doesn't mean much here in that word, but gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge. So, the Gnostics are those who claim to have some secret kind of knowledge that other people don't have. And some of their teaching relates to the relationship of matter to spirit. And they regarded them as total opposites. So in Gnosticism, you have the body evil, material is evil, spirit is good. Therefore, the Gnostics refused to acknowledge the truth of the incarnation. God would not become a human. God is not materially spirit. So whatever Jesus was, that's not what he was. He wasn't God in human flesh. Maybe he was a man, a material man that God blessed in some way, but he was not the divine incarnate. So, they ended up denying the reality of the incarnation.

They also ended up denying the reality of sin. Why? Well, spirit is good. Material in the human flesh is material, right? Just pinch yourself, you can realize how much here you are, okay? They say, well, body is sinful, body, sin, sinful, but spirit, pure, holy, total distinction. So, these are those who, in saying they come to Christ, that they have fellowship with God, it doesn't matter what you do with your body. The body's sinful. The body does sinful things. It's the flesh. The flesh is the flesh. But your spirit, you've been born again, you have a spirit. You see, they have this setup. It doesn't matter. If we say we have no sin, sin doesn't affect us. This is the denial of human sinfulness because it can regard sin as something only related to the material, only related to the flesh, not related to the spirit. So God has given me a new spirit.

Now that can be the false religion, but it can also infect the thinking even of those who are professing Christians. And so, we have heresies that arise in the history of the church who believe that, you know, well, sin is something related to the body. So, it's just something the body does. It doesn't touch the spirit. So, it doesn't really matter. Doesn't matter. The Bible says in 1 John here, that if you believe that the truth is not in you, the truth is not in you. You are self-deceived.

So, it forms the Gnostic, has this secret knowledge. Another form of it is doceticism. Doceticism means, with reference to Jesus, he just appears to be a human. He's not really a human. He seems to be, but he's not really human. Denial of the incarnation. Look, you must be clear about who Jesus is. you must understand and embrace him in his dual nature, one person who is both fully human and fully God. Because only that kind of mediator can establish relationship with God, fellowship.

Here, here's a cure. John gives us the cure. if we confess our sins. How is that plural? Our transgressions. God is faithful and just. Faithful means he's loyal; he's true to his word. He's just, he's righteous. Why? Because he can righteously forgive you because Christ has paid for the sin that you committed. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. One time I preached a sermon on the blood detergent. That's the only detergent that really works. It takes away the stains, the sins, the dirt, cleanses it.

So, the second claim is the denial of human sinfulness, the claim that says that we don't have a sinful nature. Well, that's wrong. We have a sinful nature. We're born with a sinful nature. And so, from the very beginning, we have a bent to sin. We know this. We observe it in our lives. Parents observe it. And if they think back on their own life, they can observe it too. But parents, when the kids around them, the young babies, they start exercising their own will. They manifest selfishness, the desire to have only you. You know, we just accept it as normal, natural, but is it? Because it's what, the beginning of the focus of self, not others. Well, it is human nature; I grant it.

But this also can take the form in circles of Christians, claiming to be Christians, who have the false idea that they can have an experience with God that will totally wipe out their sinful nature, totally eradicate it, so they don't have it anymore. So, there are people who believe this in churches, and they don't believe they sin. Now they just went and did something that we say, that's wrong, that's sin. But if we talk to them about it, they'll say that was a mistake. So, they make a distinction between mistakes and sins. Foolishness.

All right, so this is a denial of human sinfulness, but it's a false claim that I can have fellowship with God and claim that I have no sin. There's a third, verse 10, if we say we have not sinned. It's talking about individual acts of transgression. I have sinned. These are the words of the repentant, the one who comes to God.

Jesus told us three parables together. To indicate that, and he comes very much in the focus in the third parable of the lost son, the wayward son, who left home, wandered away, squandered everything the father gave to him. But when he came to himself and he came back to the father, he had some kind of belief that the father would accept him in some way, maybe as a hired servant. But the words that came out of his mouth when he approached the Father was, I have sinned. I've wandered away. Acknowledgement. That's necessary in our relationship with God.

Isn't that not what the Lord Jesus told us to do in our witness as believers, Luke 24. He gives us the commission. He tells us that we are to tell the story of Him and what He has done as the Savior of sinners, and we are to share it and preach repentance and faith. Jesus appears to his disciples in Luke 24, verse 44. These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

And when you open up the book of Acts, when the gospel is preached, there is the call of repentance and faith. The denial of any sinful deeds, the denial that we have sinned will keep us from having fellowship with God. Now, I believe that in how John put these at the beginning, he believes these are all pseudo claims. They're false claims of people who claim to have a true relationship and fellowship with God, but they do not have it. He does not regard these categories as people who are Christians at all, especially the first one.

But can Christians be influenced by such thinking? Yes, they can be. So, there's where false teaching begins to invade the church. John is concerned that false teaching will affect the fellowship of believers with God and with one another. Now, I want you to point out to you something very important about the fellowship. It says in verse seven, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Does that strike you as different? What would you ordinarily think would be said? Ordinarily, you would think, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with Him, right? But what does He say? We have fellowship with one another. Now, what does that tell us?

It tells us that those who are holding to this view are not actually participating in the life of the believers in the church, because they've withdrawn themselves if they were there immediately, or they're on the fringe of it, seeking to call people out of it. If we have fellowship with God, we have fellowship with one another, with the body of Christ. That is the teaching in the New Testament. And the one who claims, I'm a Christian and has total isolation from the church is a liar. They're living a lie.

Now, can Christians be affected with that? Yes, the Christians can be affected with that. They've come to Christ and maybe because of sinful behavior or because of false teaching, they're isolated. This is why baptism, for instance, is so important. Marks you becoming a part of the body because together you share life in one son.

If we say we have sin, no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we say we're walking in the light as he is in the light, but we're walking in darkness and we're lying. If you say you have fellowship. So, what does that say? And he says that our deeds manifest, make real our lives. If you say you are something, but your deeds do not manifest that, then you're not what you claim. As Jesus said, the tree is known by its fruit.

The Apostle John deals with a lot of test, testing the genuineness of the faith. And so, he's introducing that theme indirectly here, which he would develop as we move along. But now, you know, our understanding of these three things that I've laid out to you; you can begin to have the idea, well, okay, so forgiveness is offered. to those who will acknowledge that sin is real and that God is real in Christ.

Forgiveness is offered to those who recognize that they have a sinful nature that they're born with that manifests itself in relationship to God, in not obeying God, in not living for God, in living a lie, not the truth. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar. His word is not in us. I mean, is he saying that, well, sin is just inevitable, so we just have to live with it? Is that what he's saying?

Well, no, because God has not called us to live that way. And God did not save us to live that way. He saved us so that we could have fellowship with Him. And fellowship with Him is walking in the light, not walking in the dark. So, John wants to be sure he has a corrective. He puts it there at the very beginning.

1 John 2, verse 1. He says, "I am writing to you my little children is a term of endurement. I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. We must never accept a lower standard than the standard God himself has set. I'm writing these things so that you may not sin. I'm warning you so that you will not sin in these ways, having these attitudes and these false claims.

I'm writing these things so that, to make it positive, you will live for God in the light of His truth, seeking to conform your life to the pattern of perfection that's found in your Savior, Jesus Christ. We must never present the Christian life as something less than what God wants it to be. It would be false for us to claim perfection. On the other hand, we must be striving for perfection. And unless we are striving for holiness and righteousness, then we will never pursue it. You must have the goal of living a holy, righteous life. free from known sin. I mean, you know, we may sin in unknown ways. It's difficult for us to put our finger on that, which is unknown, but dogmania doesn't exist. That's why we confess sins. They have to do with, even though I'm not aware of it, because we can sometimes be doing something, but we're not aware that we're actually veering from a standard.

But my children, I'm writing these things so that you may not sin. But now, this is the reality of John. He is a realist, and we need to be realists, pragmatists. But if anyone does sin, so what's he saying? He's saying that Christians do sin. Sometimes we sin knowingly, blatantly, and God will Discipline us. If we persist in it, He's gonna discipline us. And it may be not to your liking at all.

I'm writing these things so that you do not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate. This is the gospel. This is what gives us encouragement in the face of the reality of continuing sin. Yes, sometimes I sin. Sometimes I say wrong or sinful words. Sometimes I think wrong, sinful deeds. Sometimes I fail to do, I'm afraid, sometimes, many times, I fail to do what God has put forward that I must do. I neglect spending time with him, reading and studying his word. I neglect the community of faith. I neglect being a part of the body of Christ with responsibilities.

Yes, but here God comes. He says, John, a loving father to his spiritual children, If anyone does sin, we have an advocate. We have a defense lawyer. We have someone who will step in and speak on our behalf. And that someone is not just anyone, that someone is Jesus Christ, the righteous. That's the Word become flesh. That's the Son who came from the Father. He came into the world to bear our sins. He is the propitiation for our sin. He's the atoning sacrifice. The reason God can forgive us is because Jesus paid the debt, the punishment due us because of our sin. He's the one who was raised from the dead and is even now at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes for us.

The devil is always ready to jump on our case. The devil is ready at any moments to tell you that because you'd committed that sin, because you did it more than once, things are up for you. God gave you three chances, you blew all three, and now you're hell bound, I don't care. That's what the devil wants you to understand. You did it one time too many, and now it's over for you. That's not how we live our Christian life. That's not how God treats us. Because of what Christ has done for us, we have an advocate with the Father.

When we sin and we acknowledge our sin, it's very important that we acknowledge our sins in our relationship with God. Don't play games with God. Say what it is. Be honest and true. That's the only way to have a true relationship. Don't fake. Don't make excuses. Just own up to it, we say. And in owning up to it, there's Jesus in heaven at the Father's right hand. And when I have sinned, I've confessed it. Jesus is there. He points to his hands. He points to his side. Father, they are yours because I bought them with my own blood. Our fellowship is restored.

You know, when you sin, and you won't admit it before God, what happens? Failure to admit it usually leads to repetition of it. The reason is because we give up hope, because we hear the lies of the devil. Don't listen to the enemy of your soul. Listen to the voice of Jesus. He says, "I paid for that sin." Forgiving. Now you see, we can talk about forgiveness in the ultimate sense. We're justified before God, and that deals with our entire state before God, that Christ is established by his once for all sacrifice on the cross.

But we live in the in-between. We live in relationship with one another and relationship with God in time. In our relationship with God in time, we come before God. Fellowship has been disrupted by our sin. It's restored when we follow what the scripture says. if we confess our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Notice it's sins, plural, acts and deeds, thoughts and words, not nature. It's actions and deeds. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But if we won't do that, if we don't avail ourselves of that, what's true about us? Well, we've called God a liar to his face. And his word is not in us. If that's your permanent position, then I'm afraid you certainly do not know it. God is not a liar. God is the truth. Christ is the truth. So if you believe Him and His Word is in you, then you know that if you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you, to restore full relationship with you and the joy of that relationship.

God does not want us to live with feelings of guilt because he's handled it in his son. He wants us to live in the security of adoption. God has adopted us in Christ, and we are as precious to him as Jesus is. Believe it, and you'll have full joy. We're never called to be justified over again or be adopted again. But we are called to be honest in our exchange with God, to acknowledge our sins and to look to Christ. Look always to Christ. He's the Savior. He's the Savior of our soul. Believe Him and you will live. For how long? Eternal. No. Billions and billions and billions of years to where you can't even count them. Eternity. Eternity. Amen.

Lord, we thank you for your word. And sometimes your word is hard for us. It's hard for us sometimes to just be honest, to admit our sin, to admit our wrong, and to acknowledge that we're not walking in the fellowship that you've established with us to the fullness that you want us to have. Grant us, oh Lord, that we will confess our sins as we are aware of them. And even when we're not aware of them, that will be sensitive always before you, looking to you constantly to replenish us in our life with you and with one another.

We want, oh Lord, to love you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love one another as brothers and sisters who equally belong to you. Aid us in this task. so that we'll bring glory to your name and not dishonor to the family of God. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.