We're going to talk today about false professors versus true possessors. And we've discussed the fact that it's thought by some people that 1 John, this letter, started out not as a letter, but really as a sermon or a message. Because unlike other New Testament letters, there's no greeting or conclusion. It's like they were looking at him in person. He knew them, and they knew him, and off he went. But anyhow, it wound up as a letter. John did write it down. And, you know, John was on Patmos when he heard Jesus say some critical things to the church at Ephesus. He said, you've left your first love. John heard that. Later on, John moves to Ephesus, we think. That's what tradition says. So it could be that this letter is part of John's prescription for helping a church that had lost its first love. Its love had grown cold. So that could always apply to us. And we read last time the first paragraph, and John tells us some of his purposes in writing. So let's reread the first paragraph. And I remember Cliff gave the right answer as to what those purposes were, and let's see if we can reconstruct them. Nathan, read the first paragraph for us. that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have 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 and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Okay, one reason has to do with joy, so that our joy may be complete. And what's the other so that in that paragraph? It has to do with fellowship, so that they would have better fellowship with John. And by the way, he said, I have fellowship with the Father. And the idea is, obviously, we will too. So that means it's possible to be a Christian and not have the depth of fellowship with other believers that you ought to have, not have the depth of fellowship with God that you ought to have, and not have complete And so I tried to deal with that last week. Most people don't like just eating dry toast with nothing on it, but that's what you've chosen for your life, if your fellowship with Jesus is not what it could be. And so I ask, if your fellowship with Jesus is not what it could be, what's stopping you? Why do you keep eating dry toast? If you're not going to make it right now, when are you going to do it? And John's going to deal with some things that will keep us from correct fellowship with God. And in a word, that thing is sin. Then the other idea was complete joy. And I tried to ask the question, when other people look at your life, would they say, yeah, boy, oh, so-and-so, that guy, when I think of him, I think of a man full of joy. Or would they say you're a sourpuss, or you're puddle glum, or you're Eeyore, or you're just a sad sack, or you're a cry baby, which is your life? Well, which should be your life? Woohoo! Yeah, and that doesn't mean you're giddy in the face of terrible things, but you've got that quiet inner joy that should be complete. The real telling thing is what other people think about you. What would your husband say about you? What would your wife say about you? What would your kids say about you? Now John obviously did write the Gospel of John. He was standing right there when Jesus talked about this. And Jesus said in John 15, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be where? In you. And that your joy may be full. So this is the normal Christian life. It's supposed to be. And that's why John's writing. So he's putting it to us. So now in the second paragraph, which we're going to get into today, he deals, as I said, with the subject of false professors versus true possessors. And three times in this next section, he raises false claims of salvation and he refutes those false claims of salvation because it seems, I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but it seems that not everybody that's talking about heaven is going there. That's the way John thought about it. So he is writing, one of his goals is to help dispel his readers of a false notion about who's going to heaven and who isn't. So, you remember I talked about last week, he's clearly talking about Jesus, the man, but he emphasizes the message and the man at the same time. So he says, that which we have seen, that which we have heard, that which we have touched, That witch is an it. Not he who we saw, he who we heard, he who he touched. But he's clearly talking about Jesus, but he's emphasizing the message that the messenger Jesus brings. And so now, in verse 5, he gets to it. Now here's the message! Here it is! And he's going to tell you what it is. Al, I want you to read that next paragraph, which is 5 through 10, and he tells us the message. This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we 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, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. So what's the message? He said, here's the message. What is it? God is light. That's the message. And those who have fellowship with Him do what? They walk in the light. They practice the truth. That's the message. That's what it comes down to. So tell me about God being light. In what sense is God light? I don't want to make light of God or anything, but what sense is God light? Light and darkness are often used as metaphors in spirituality to represent goodness. God knows all things. He sees all things. So He's light in both of those senses. So Rusty is saying light then represents truth, purity, illumination, holiness. Imagine the ugliest mess you could think about, something gross, and light falls on that thing. Not only does it completely expose it, But light doesn't get dirty at all. You ever notice light doesn't get dirty? It doesn't contaminate the light. But it shows that bad thing for what it is. And I'm told that darkness, by definition, is the absence of light. Light immediately dispels darkness. So, as John uses it here, God is truth. Jesus said that. God is holy, holy, holy, the angel said three times. So yeah, we can see that. So conversely, what's darkness gonna represent? Well, that's gonna be the opposite of what God is. It's gonna be sin and lies and deceit and bad stuff, isn't it? If you think about shining a bright flashlight into a dark place, light reveals. We don't always see what is there until the light is shining on us. So light reveals what's there and we don't see what's there. And that's true in our lives too. We might think we're doing pretty good until the light of scripture comes on it or the light of the Holy Spirit comes on it. And you see things in your life that you didn't think were bad and God reveals them for what they are. John said this about Jesus, it says, In him the word was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. So what's the first false lie? What's the first false profession that he deals with in verse 6? If you say, what? You have fellowship with God, but you walk in darkness, yeah, you are a liar, basically. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in the darkness, we, what? Lie and do not practice the truth. So there's the first one. Now he's setting up an acid test of fellowship with God. Those who walk in darkness cannot be in fellowship with God. It's just that simple. John 3.19, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. You ever walk into the kitchen at night after you've been in bed a couple hours and you turn on the kitchen light and there's roaches and they go. Now, that's never happened at our house, because we have a spotless clean house. But I'm told, like when I was in college in the fraternity, we'd turn a light on and the roaches would run. Well, they come out at dark, don't they? And they run, they don't like the light. And that's the way a lot of people are. With their sin in their lives, they don't want the truth of scripture, the truth of the gospel to be illuminating their lives. And of course, they run or they try to put the light out. So this shows us, as I said earlier, there are people who say they walk with God, but in reality don't. And John's saying, now you need to wake up. That's possible. There's people in our church who are self-deceived. They think they walk with God. They're telling other people they walk with God, but they don't. And John says, how can you tell? Tell me again, how can you tell? They walk in the dark. Look at their life. They walk in the dark. Now, he said these people don't practice the truth. How does somebody practice the truth? How do you practice truth? So whatever the truth is, that means you act on it. you do what the truth says. So we've talked before about Satan, I imagine, has pretty good theology. God made him, he's been in heaven, he knows about the Trinity, he was on earth, he watched Jesus die, rise again, knows he's got in human form. He's probably got better theology than any of us in this room. He's orthodox. But what does he lack? He's got orthodoxy, but he doesn't have orthopraxy. He doesn't practice the truth. And so how great is the condemnation of someone who knows the truth and doesn't practice that truth? Us. We hear the Bible all the time. We're supposed to be practicing, obeying the truth. The Bible talks about believing the gospel. It also talks about obeying the gospel. And that's what John's coming down to right here. Yes, sir. I think one of the results of not practicing the truth, or one of the forms, of it is self-deception. You don't know who you are. And that's where scripture comes in. Amen. That's why it's so important for any church to be devoted to the apostles teaching because that's the standard, that's the rule, that's the light. I hope to end soon enough that we're going to talk about these questions on the board and so I'm going to ask you to discuss later on in small groups if you've ever met a false professor based on John's definition of a false professor. Tell an experience of somebody you met that you know maybe that's a false professor who says one thing and does another and you're convinced this guy thinks he's got it but he doesn't. What is it that true possessors confess? What do they believe? And what do they practice? Phil gave us one example. They love one another. And number three, what reasons does John give us today not to sin? He's going to tell you why you shouldn't sin. Well, what reasons is he going to give us as we go on into this? So you remember Pilate very cynically asked Jesus, he said, what is truth? Remember that? And so when John says, those who walk with God practice the truth, well, what truth is he talking about? Jesus said, now this is all from John 14. Now John wrote John, right? He got this from Jesus and he's quoting Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. So Jesus is the embodiment of that. Jesus said, when the spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. Now that means if you've got the Holy Spirit, you've got a source of truth inside of you that's working inside of you at the same time the scripture is to guide you into truth, to illuminate scripture, to help you understand what God wants you to do. Jesus said, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth does what? listens to my voice." Jesus said, He was praying to the Father. He says, Lord, Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. So we're back to Scripture again. John heard Jesus say all that. So he said, if you walk with God, if you really fellowship with God, you're going to practice the truth. Now look again at verse 7. He says what's true of those who walk in the light in verse 7. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with who? One another. And the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. So what two things are true of those who walk in the light? First thing that's true is what? Who do they fellowship with? One another. And what's the second thing? The cleanse from all sin. Talking on the phone to Craig this week, and he was talking about the importance of being open and transparent with each other. There really is no such thing as the lone ranger Christian living the successful Christian life. If you're in fellowship with God, you're going to be in fellowship with other Christians. If you love God, you're going to love His church. That's an important aspect of this. So people who walk with God, what do they do? They fellowship with other Christians. They want to fellowship with other Christians. They long for fellowship with other Christians. Earlier, you remember last week, John said, I am writing so that you may have fellowship with us. That's part of the deal. Now, I want to state the obvious because John does. What role does the blood of Jesus play in allowing us to have fellowship with God? Yeah, it's going to wash your sins away. Jesus said, no one comes to the Father except through me. Doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile or Hindu or Muslim, no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. That's what he said. There is no salvation outside of Jesus. And tell me, how many of our sins, according to this, does the blood of Jesus cleanse us from, according to verse 7? All. Past, present, future. So when you slip up and you sin, this is a very comforting verse. It's a tremendous blessing. It's a relief. Now the second lie, we'll come back to this, the second lie is in verses 8 through 10. What's true of those who think they're without sin? Here's your second lie, 8 through 10. He says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. So what's the second lie? What's the second false profession? People who confess they have not sinned. That's in verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. You'll see that. The worst form of human badness is human goodness. If that human goodness is a substitute for the blood of Christ. When I was lost, even though I was religious, I thought I would go to heaven because I was a basically good person. And I knew Jesus died, but I didn't think it had anything to do with me. Those other people killed him. I was trusting Jesus just like I trusted George Washington. I didn't trust him, and I don't trust George. But I wasn't against either one of them, and I believed in both of them. So again, the devil believes in Jesus. I don't trust him. And so I thought I was basically good. So there's a lot of nice people out there, aren't there? They think the gospel is for thieves, and for murderers, and for liars. That's for those kind of people. It's not for them. Wife beaters. So these nice people drive nice cars, and they wear nice clothes, and they're nice to their neighbors. And they think they're too good to be damned. They think they're heaven-bound. And that's why I said the worst form of human badness is human goodness when it's a substitute for Jesus. That's like that fellow Jesus talked about who prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. So let's talk about you. I hope you understand that you have sinned. but not just sin in the abstract, sin in particular. You, personally, sin. It's not about somebody else, it's about you. Look at this in verse eight. He says, if we say we have no sin, now that word we means a lot to me. Who's we? Who's that include? John. Did John sin? Well, he had sin. I think here, there's two ways to take this. On one sense, he could be talking about those people who don't think they need salvation because they don't think they're sinful. And he could be talking about those people. And so the fact is, you need to understand you're not good enough to go to heaven. Only Jesus is good enough to go to heaven. And that's why he was qualified to die for us. But also I think he could be writing this to believers. Have you ever met anybody who thought they'd achieve sinless perfection? A guy came to our church one week. He told me he couldn't remember. the last time he sinned. And he told me he didn't sin. And I'm thinking, well, you just sinned because you're lying. Well, there are people like that. I mean, I think John could be saying, he said, I'm writing this so you don't sin, but you need to understand, you're going to sin. You are. So he gives a promise in verse 9. What's the promise? I bet you have this memorized. Anybody want to quote it? You don't have it memorized? Okay. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So there's the promise. Proverbs says, whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. So let's suppose you're a Christian and you sin here in the church meeting because you're rude to somebody or you ignore somebody or you say something harsh and you've sinned. But you walk out in the parking lot to get lunch because you left something in the car and you get run over and killed in the parking lot before you can confess your sin. Are you forgiven? But does it say you have to confess to be forgiven? I think he's talking about a way of life, not a specific sin. I think he's talking about a way of life, not a specific sin. So the blood of Jesus does continually cleanse us from all sin. That's why I said past, present, future. He's not talking about you gotta confess to keep being saved. Some people think you can lose your salvation and if you die in a state of unconfessed, unrepentant sin, too bad, you go to hell. No, Jesus, for his people, he forgives you, he cleanses you of all your sin whether you confess it or not. So what is John talking about? I would argue Well, there's two things. I would argue one, I think primarily, this is a salvation confession. You get to the point the Holy Spirit is convicting you of your sin, you understand your sin, you confess your sin, your need for Savior, you turn to Jesus and His blood for forgiveness, and He gives it to you. I think 1 John 1-9 is a salvation verse. But let's run it the other direction. Christians do sin, and even though you're still forgiven, whether you ever confess it or not, It makes you at least feel back right in fellowship with God. So when I sin against Sandra, even though she might forgive me, I need to confess that to get my relationship back right with her. So back to Cliff's point, it's not a salvation issue for a Christian. You can't argue it's a fellowship issue. It has been said, and I say this because it's easy to remember, a lost man leaps into sin and he loves it. A saved man lapses into sin and he loathes it. So I really believe the most miserable person in the world is not a lost guy. It's a saved guy who's out of fellowship with God. Yeah, we know it's possible, based on what John said, you can be Christian and not have full joy, not be in full fellowship with God. So I would argue, I really think 1 John 1-9 is a salvation verse, but certainly every Christian, I would think you're going to want to confess your sins to the Father to keep your fellowship going with Him. Yes sir, Adam? I think to some extent it may be helpful in considering his way of life of confessing sin is to consider what the opposite is. And that would be either denial or apathy towards sin. And so I think a lot of it is just being willing to be looking for that sin rather than just pushing it off and hiding it under the covers. So you don't want to deny it, you don't want to be apathetic, that's good. So let me ask you, let's check. You ought to be able to tell me when was the last time you sinned. If you don't know, that's probably a problem. When was the last time you confessed to God your sin? I don't mean abstractly, I mean specifically. I know when it was I did it, and I wasn't even thinking about asking you this. If you can't tell me the last time you confessed your sin, I think you probably have a problem. This letter is for you. Yes sir, Al. I came to believe early in my Christian life that a single word captured the essence of Christianity. And that single word was humility. And for me, anyway, to have any semblance of humility whatsoever requires confession. Because without confession, I'm living as though I don't need Jesus Christ. Without confession, you're living as though you don't need Jesus. And it does take humility to recognize your sin and confess that sin. Amen? James says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. He doesn't say you have to confess your sins to the priest. Part of the reason we're going to have these meetings on Monday nights is we're going to bust it up into smaller groups. So if you need to confess your sin, do it. If you need some prayer, we're going to do it. And we'll pray for other stuff too, but that's part of that transparency and that openness. Look at verse 10 again. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His Word is not in us. How does claiming to be without sin make God to be a liar? Even though you're probably not thinking that direction, it's very common in society today to say, hey, this is not sin. People are going back to the Bible and saying, the hottest issue kind of in the society today is not sin. That's probably not what it's addressing here, but that is certainly a good point. Yes, it's the same thing at the end, isn't it? So, God has said we are. Genesis 6-5, now this is before the flood. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that, listen to this, every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's what he said before the flood. So he killed everybody. And you know what he said after the flood? The exact same thing! And he said, despite the fact that it's still true, I'm not going to kill them all again. Now, he's talking about lost people. I'll give you that, but that's our state before Jesus. Psalm 143, verse 2, No one living is righteous before you, in Adam, in your own self. Isaiah 64, verse 6, All of our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Filthy rags are the virgin's say. So, when God looks at the best you have to offer in your own self, what he sees is a pile of old dirty rags. Jeremiah 17, verse 9, The heart is deceitful. above all things, and desperately sick who can understand it." So a sick heart, a deceitful heart, reads something in the Bible, like Cliff said, that's wrong, and they rationalize it away. That's why we have scholars and professors. They do the church a tremendous service by explaining and exegeting away these hard things in the Bible we really don't want to do. And when they're done, you don't have to do it. So I'm going to start a new thing. It's called the Society for Convenient Christianity, the SCC. And we're going to come up with excuses for why you don't really have to do what the Bible says. Romans chapter 3 verse 9. All, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written. None is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. Romans 3.23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Ephesians chapter 2. You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world. That's the problem with saying you don't have sin. Alright, I'm going to conclude with the first couple of verses here in chapter 2. John says another reason that he's writing. Look at that. Little children, verse 1. I am writing these things to you, why? So that you may not sin. But, if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Why was John writing these things? So that what? Even though we're all sinners, even though you need to confess you've got sin, that's not an excuse to sin. Peter quotes the Old Testament where it says, be ye holy for I am holy. So if you're really born again, if you're really walking with God, you're going to have a desire not to sin. Romans, in chapter 6, Paul put it this way, are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? Because he says you're saved by grace. You don't work for it. And so the logical thing is, well sure, we can live like the devil. And he says, no you won't. How can we who died to sin still live in it? I think somebody earlier said, the idea here is habitual sin. And I talked a lot about the Greek tenses last week. Well, he shifts between present tense and what's called eros tense, between a lifestyle of wallowing in sin and that punctiliar sin. Bang, bang, bang, which is a one-off. So your life as a Christian, if you're going to sin, John's right, and so we don't. But he said, well, you will. But when you sin, it ought to be punctiliar, not continuous. You ought not be like the hog who just wallows in the mud. You fall in it every now and then and get back out. So look at your life. If you're wallowing in sin, John basically says you're not walking with God, you're deceiving yourself. Your sin ought to be repented of, confessed, and you get back on with your walk with God. So he says when you do sin, Jesus is your advocate. What's an advocate? It's a lawyer. It's your defense attorney. The Greek word is paraklete. That's a courtroom term. You're on trial. This is the guy you've called alongside as your legal counsel to represent you. So he's your defense attorney. And that's what Jesus is. Jesus the righteous. Why does he stick that in there by Jesus being righteous? Because you ain't. You need somebody that is. He can represent you. That's the deal. And so, God's justice demands punishment for violated holiness. But Jesus, our advocate, the righteous, serves as the big word that starts with a P. Propitiation, which is, boy, that's a 25 cent word. Bust that up into 5 cent words. What does it mean? Satisfaction. NIV says atoning sacrifice. So, you've got God's wrath against sin. Jesus turns away that wrath. He shields us from it, because He took it. False teachers draw this dichotomy between the God, the Father, and Jesus, and they say things like, well, the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, but the God of the New Testament is a God of love, and God the Father has got wrath, and Jesus saves us from that. There's no dichotomy between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. They're all God, right? And so, God planned our salvation, Jesus carried it out, the Holy Spirit applies it. One guy said, how did he say it? He said, the Father selected us, Jesus saved us, and the Spirit... I don't know what the Spirit does. I will say He sanctified us. Anyway, it's all God. It says God so loved the world, now He so hated the world. There's no tension between God the Father and Jesus. Within God's sovereignty in the Trinity, this is all worked out that Jesus God is the atonement for our sin to save us from the Father God's just wrath against violated holiness. But God loves us. Jesus died for us because of that. The Holy Spirit applies it to us, convicts us of our sin. Alright, I'm going to just stop there. We'll talk some more next week about Chapter 2, Paragraph 1. But I want us to split up into small groups of three for the next five to ten minutes. By gender, try to deal with these three questions. Do you know, and can you tell some examples of false professors that you've known? False because of what John says. Number two, What is it true professors confess and practice? And number three, what reasons does John give us not to sin in what we've studied so far? So let's bust up into small groups and I'll call us back together in five to ten minutes. This message was produced by the New Testament Reformation Fellowship, reforming today's church with New Testament church practices. Permission is hereby granted for you to reproduce this message. You can find us on the web at www.ntrf.org. May God bless you as you seek to follow Him in complete obedience to His Word. May your faith in the Lord Jesus be strengthened and your daily walk with Him deepened.