Alright, First John 1-1. First John 1-1. We're going to go all the way through 2-17 this evening. 1-1 through 2-17. Somebody said, somebody said, you're back. I said, yep. I'll just keep coming back till they tell me not to, so. It's just waiting. One of these days, maybe this is the message right here. We shall see. First John 1.1 says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have 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 us, which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you 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. 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. My little children, I am writing these things to you 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 for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God, abides forever. Jesus, you break the power of canceled sin. You set the prisoner free. Your blood can make the foulest clean. And I know this because your blood availed for me. Help us. In your name we pray. Amen. All right, so this is the theme here for this retreat is authentic belief produces assurance. And when we start to think about assurance, we often start with the question, and this is a really good question, and I think devotionals and sermons over the next few days are going to address this question, and it's good. It's a good question. But we start with the question, do you think you're saved? Do you think you're a Christian? This opening 27 verses And this sermon doesn't really care about that question. Because John tells us there are people who would say yes, and they're wrong. They're walking in darkness. They're deceived. They're blind. So we're not going to start with that question. It's a good question. We're not going to start with that question. The question I'd rather ask here is, would the apostle John say that you're a Christian? Not do you say you're a Christian. Would the Apostle John say that you're a Christian? And I think if we were to ask him that, I think he, after studying these 27 verses, I think he would respond with four questions. You say, John, you're sitting there, you're eating sushi or whatever. And you say, John, the reason I wanted to get together, do you think I'm a Christian? He would say, well, I don't know you. Different centuries and all that. I got some questions for you. Number one, first question. First question, we've got to get a handle on before John can tell us what he thinks. Number one, do you continue to commit yourself to a local church? Number one, do you continue to commit yourself to a local church? You say, Steve, there's no, the word church is not in this. Just shut up for just a second, OK? Just hold on. Because hold on, we're just going to think for a second together. It's going to be fun. These verses are teaching us that you either have fellowship with God or you don't. And fellowship, and I think Pastor Sean was actually hitting at it a little bit when he's talking about worship, fellowship is not that you met him once six years ago. If I ask you if you have fellowship with Pastor Sean, you don't say, yeah, well, I shook his hand after church six years ago. No, I want to know, are you friends? Do you know each other? Do you love each other? Do you have ongoing communication? Do you have mutual mission? Are you together? Do you have fellowship? Ongoing fellowship? The way people talk about whether or not they're Christian sometimes is, yeah, I met him after church six years ago. Well said. So you either have fellowship with God or you don't. And now John is being very careful to say that if you're going to have fellowship with the Father, it has to be through Jesus Christ. It has to be through Jesus Christ. It has to be through the eternal life that was made manifest. It has to be through the incarnation and the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the one that we have seen and heard. And then John is gonna be also careful to say, you have to know him the way we proclaim him. You can't make him up. You have to know him the way we proclaim him. We have exclusive fellowship with the father and his son, Jesus Christ. We have, you can't just do this however you want. John is saying you have to do it the way we say you do it. You have to know the Jesus that we described to you, the one that we have seen and heard and touched, the one that gave us, gave us. We have, we're in some ways just more important than you. The apostles are more important than you. Their words are more important than your thoughts that you have in your prayer journal. John says, you're going to know Jesus. You have to know the Jesus that we proclaim to you. Now, this is where church comes in. What is the only Jesus-authorized way to continually submit yourself to the teaching of the apostles? Go to church. Go to church. Jesus invested the teaching of the apostles, which is also called the New Testament, right? We have the New Testament. We can have fellowship with the apostles. Not eating sushi with them. Well, we can have fellowship with them, which means to believe and to submit to what they have proclaimed to us about Jesus Christ. We have that in his word. And what has Jesus authorized as far as the way to continue to submit yourself to the teaching of the apostles? Be a part of a church. Be a part of a church. Sean and I have talked about this before. Unfortunately, I discover my stupidity five, six, seven years too late. Right now, I am stupid. I just don't know how. In five years, I'll know. But I don't know right now. One of the ways I was stupid five, six, seven, eight years ago, Sean, was I used to say this. I used to say, I used to say, and I learned it from somebody else. But that's no excuse. I used to say, church membership, or no, church attendance doesn't save you, Jesus saves you. I said it all the time. Is that true? Yes, it's true. Is it stupid? Yes. Because you say it over and over and over, and I'm pitting the two against each other. I'm making it sound like it's only the self-righteous legalists that go to church. It's stupid. I wish I could have that one back. Lots of things I wish I could have back. That's one of them. Because now we live in a world that, we live in a Christendom that thinks that you can love Jesus, but not his church. And that you can somehow continue to submit yourself to Jesus without continuing to submit yourself to his only authorized, his only authorized way. Silly. And of course it's true, it's true, going to church doesn't save you, but it is really hard to read through the New Testament and not come away with the truth that if you're saved you'll go to church. So yes, true, it's true, church attendance doesn't save you. If you're saved, you'll go to church. So that's the, I think that's the first question John would ask. Are you submitted to the teaching of the apostles? And for you 2020 through Christian, what that means is you submit yourself to a faithful Bible teaching church. Second question. These get more fun as we go along. Second question, do you continue to confess your sin and believe the gospel? Do you continue? All of this is ongoing. None of this is, I shook Jesus' hand six years after church, and now I'm good. None of it is that. This is all ongoing fellowship. This is all our ongoing practice, our ongoing walk, our ongoing life. This is, is Jesus the propitiation for your sins right now? So my question is, and I want you to think about this and actually answer it in your head one way or the other, is there anyone anywhere in your life who on some sort of regular basis hears you say that you are a sinner? Hears you confess that you're a sinner who needs Jesus? is because here's what's happening in these verses. So as Sean mentioned it, we can't dig into every single phrase. We just cannot. But we are definitely going to talk about the things that smack us in the face. And so this is the thing that smacked me in the face, the thing that I never really thought about before. These verses here in chapter 1.5 through 2.2, These are verses about how we carry ourselves. These are verses about what people think of us. These are verses about what we say. These are verses about what we say. These are not verses about what's in your mind and in your heart. These are verses about what you say. Let me read those verses again to you. 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. We have a gospel-glued community. We have this community with each other, friendship with each other, partnership with each other, mission with each other. We have fellowship with each other that has the gospel. We are sinners. We need Jesus. Christ came to this world to save sinners. I am the foremost. We have that in common. We have fellowship with one another. It's how we are known by each other. I'm gonna overemphasize that. 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 with our mouth 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. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Right now, he is our advocate. You understand, right now, Jesus is your advocate? Right now, Jesus is serving as your advocate. And He is the propitiation for our sins. He is the one who takes the route that we deserve. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Do you confess your sins? Is there anybody? And Jonathan talked about this as well. I thought for a second Jonathan was just going to preach this point of the sermon when he was talking there. And I thought, this sermon actually will get in under 40 minutes. You aim for 40 minutes. This one doesn't have a chance. But I thought, well, maybe if Jonathan preaches half of it, we're good. But he let the team down. So I got to finish it. He was really, he got us there. And then he's just pfft. If you, and I know I'm going to go into some kind of wonky theological territory for a second. Just for the sake of illustration, just hang with me for a second. If you died right now, and you're looking at your watch like, that could happen, this sermon, maybe, we'll see. If you died right now, and you stood before God, and God said, hmm, should I let you into heaven, or should I not? What I'm going to do is I'm going to base my decision on your last 24 hours. Just the stuff you thought, just the stuff you said, just the stuff you did or didn't do, we'll use that to determine whether or not you're good enough to get into heaven. Would any of us want that deal? No, we want Jesus. Jesus is the only one who makes the followers clean. His blood availed for us. We want Jesus. But don't we act, though? Don't we carry ourselves as if our last 24 hours are probably fine and good enough? That is not what John is telling us to do. He's saying, own it. Fess up. Be honest. I'm an arrogant person, so what I'm about to say is arrogant, although I've prayed quite a bit, and I'm hoping that it's not, but I'm sure that in it, there's arrogance. So, I'm sorry. But I'm going to use myself as an example, because I know this, because I ask myself these same questions, alright? Like I didn't I'm not just preaching this to you and just saying you got to figure it out But I don't I don't have to worry about it. I asked myself the same questions And so I thought and I said, you know what the only times that I confess my sin out loud to people is is when I have already sort of I Where the setting is normal for that so I put myself in situations where that's normal and Right? So family devotions. In family devotions, we're reading through the book of Philippians. It's 6.45 a.m. every morning, and it's 6.45 because that's the only time that all of us are in the same room, and my wife is a Nazi. So anyhow, the 6.45, I mean, it is 6.45 too, and like, it's just like, anyhow. But Philippians give me all kinds of opportunities to say, yeah, dad's failed. I have sinned. I have not done everything. I have not done nothing from selfish ambition. I'm full of selfish ambition. I have not counted other people more significant than myself. I have not rejoiced in the Lord always. I rejoice in the Lord 99% of the time, but no, no. I get to say to my children, I have sinned. I need Jesus to be my advocate and my propitiation right now. Right now. I need to throw myself on the mercy of Jesus Christ right now. Now, we do this in our community group. In our community group, we are discussing, and this is a fun one, the fear of man versus the fear of God. So everybody in the room, last Sunday, it was fun. I mean, almost everybody in the room gave stories of, yeah, this is where I caved to the fear of man, and I didn't give God a second thought. And then our community group, the guy who co-leads it with me, it was his turn. And in the end, he just led with the gospel. He just said, aren't we thankful for Jesus Christ? Aren't we thankful for Jesus Christ? I don't do this when I'm just kind of, if my life is only ever just talking football, this is never going to happen. It's not gonna happen. If my life is only ever the things of this world, the conversations, if I don't basically pick myself up and sit myself down in situations where this is the normal thing to do, I probably won't do it. Can I strongly encourage you? to get with people on a regular basis, where one of the things on the agenda is just to say, here's how I'ma screw up, here's how I need God to help me, here's how I'm thankful for the mercy of Jesus, here's the, I mean, just like, my prayer request this week is I have been impatient and irritable with my family. I need their forgiveness, I need the blood of Jesus, So who do your friends think you are? Do they think you're a saved sinner? Or do they think that your last 24 hours have been good enough? This is the question that John is asking. And I want to say this, too, because I also want to talk about a temptation that I feel very strongly, and I'm guessing this is a temptation that comes along with loving the Word of God, loving to read, loving theology, loving to debate. So here's a temptation that I think is facing a lot of us, so I just want to talk about it for a second, is this. Our times of Bible study, our times of Sunday school, our times of whatever Bible study times we have, if we're not careful, they become academic debates very quickly. They become pre-Mill versus post-Mill versus ah-Mill. They become five points versus three points versus one point of Calvinism. They become, we just get intent on defending this view of six literal days of creation, which is, all of these things that I'm saying are big deals. We should understand, and we should have a grasp on the finer points of doctrine, and what we believe, and why we believe it. But, if that's all we're doing, if 98% of our Bible study is that, like if I was reading, He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, and all you wanted to think about was limited atonement, you're doing it wrong! You're doing it wrong! If you're going through First John, and that's what you spend your time on, was it for the whole world or was it not for the whole world? It's good to have that sorted out in your brain. But if that's all you're doing, you're doing it wrong. And I know, because again, I've lived there. I've spent lots of time there. You get into these passages and you say, how does this passage show me the glory and the grace and the authority of God? How does this passage show me my sin and my ongoing need for Jesus? How does this passage show me what to believe and how to live for God's glory? So does anyone anywhere ever hear you admit out loud that you need Jesus? That's our second question. Our third question, Again, more just ramping up the fun. That's what we're doing. Yep. Do you continue to love your brothers? Do you continue to love your brothers? Chapter two, verse three, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing to you no new commandment. This is stuff we had in the Old Testament. Love your neighbor. This is not but. It is new because Jesus is new. He's making all things new. He's bringing in the new covenant. I am writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Don't you want to be in that true light? Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light. In him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So we must confess our sin, right? But we don't want to do it in the weird, stupid, therapeutic ways. All right, so I want to talk about that for a second, because I've talked about this before, and people love it. So I'm really trying to make more friends. And so Jonathan almost stole this point, too. I mean, he came so close. I was like, I really can call it a night. He came so close. I have this actually in my notes, Jonathan. So this is not, you might have said it. I don't know. I may be quoting you. I just didn't realize it. Modern worship songs are terrible. And here's the reason. And I guess I don't mean that all modern worship songs are terrible. I mean the collective effect of modern worship songs is less than helpful. And here's why. Because they don't talk about sin. They talk about being broken. Some sort of word like broken. Jesus, I'm so thankful that you're here with me, even though I'm broken. I'm sitting here broken in my brokenness, and here you are, Jesus, even though I'm broken, you're with me, so I'm so thankful that you love me, even though I'm broken. What does that mean? What does it mean? What does it mean? We're broken because we've broken God's laws. We're lawbreakers. We're commandment breakers. This isn't a therapy session. We don't need Jesus to make us feel better about ourselves. We don't need to have that little buzz that comes from being vulnerable. That's not what confession is. That little, like, release. Oh yeah, I feel pretty good. I feel pretty brave because I said that I was looking at porn. Man, I just feel good right now. I was just honest. That's not confession. That's therapy. We are to hate our sin. We are not to coexist with our sin. We are not to coddle our sin. We are to confess our sin, which means we are to hate our sin. We're not to sit here and say, see, Jesus, thank you for coming and loving us even though we're broken. No, say, Jesus, thank you for forgiving us because we are law breakers. Thank you for the strength that you give to help us stop breaking those laws. Turn away from that. Actually repent. Actually fight against sin, actually pursue holiness. Thank you for helping us to be done with that. And what is the commandment that he's really getting at here? John's getting at the commandment to love your brothers. That's the commandment that he's really getting at. Now, I could make a case, and John's not making this case, I don't think, but I could make a case that all sins are your way of hating your brother. If you're engaging in pornography, you're hating your brothers and sisters. If you're going to be a greedy, apathetic, lazy, prayerless bum, you are showing great disregard for your brothers and sisters. All sin is really a lack of love for your brothers and sisters. But John isn't stopping there. He's not just saying, don't hate them. He's saying, love them. So John eats his last bite of sushi and he says, he says, he says, fish was a lot better in my day, he says. And then he says, tell me how you served your brothers in the last week. Tell me how you tried to bear their burdens. Tell me how you spoke the truth to them. Tell me how you stirred them up to good works. Tell me how you showed hospitality. Tell me how you used your gifts to build up the body of Christ. Tell me how you have loved your brothers. I used to love group projects in school. I loved group projects in school because of girls. Girls, and it's ridiculous to me, but girls deeply care about their grades. And they will do extra work in order to get A's. I could not. Yes, it is. It's ridiculous. It is a defect in the species. And so group projects were great because I would just find some girl whose identity was wrapped up in A's. Mine was getting a C so I could play whatever sport was going. I just wanted to stay on the team. Whatever it is, I will do. But the idea of doing homework in order to get good grades, it was a mystery. So I find some girl. I say, I want to be on your team. Be on the group project with me. And of course, she's just going to do her work and whatever work I was supposed to do. And we're both going to get an A. John is being as clear as he can here. This doesn't work that way. If you sit around and let the people who like to do the stuff do the stuff, you get an F. Because if you sit around, other people will do it. They will. They will. Jesus is going to build his church, and he will plow around you. Fourth question. Do you continue in the logic of the gospel? Do you continue in the logic of the gospel? Now, I don't know, because I don't know most of you very well. And even those of you who I do know pretty well, I really only know what you tell me. And so I'm not doing life with you. I don't really have what we would call ongoing fellowship. We text every once in a while. We call every once in a while. But I only know what you want me to know. And most of you, I don't know hardly at all. So I don't know what John would say if you asked him. I don't know. But I know that these people he's writing to, he thinks they're in. Because look what he says in verse 12. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. And then John jumps right into verse 15. Do not love the world. or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world. And the world is passing away along with his desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. So this is John's logic. Just track with me. I'm almost done. Just listen real quick. Here's John's logic. He's saying, I am telling you people to walk in the light. because your sins are forgiven. In other words, I am telling you to walk in the light. I am telling you to not love the world. I am telling you to resist the desires of the world, the pride of life, the desires of the eye, the pride of life, the desires of life. I'm telling you, stay far away from that. It is not from the Father. It is from the world, and it's gonna pass away. Do the will of God and abide forever. Here's my advice to you. Do the will of God and abide forever. Walk in the light. This is John's word to these people. And here's the logic of it. He is saying this to them because he thinks they can. The commandment makes no sense if John doesn't think they can do it. Right? So my son Pete is with me. When it's time for dinner, I say, Pete, come to the dinner table, and he comes to the dinner table. But when he was six months old, I did not say, Pete, come to the dinner table. What's wrong with you, boy? I didn't issue warnings to him, like, if you don't crawl up there, get your fat behind up in that high chair right now, you're not gonna have dinner. I didn't say that to him, because he couldn't do it. The logic of the gospel is, Walk in the light because you can and you can because your sins are forgiven Now now now here's the thing here's my I don't know advice here's my advice to you If we sat down together and and we and and you said Steve do you think I'm a Christian you say The Apostle John's not here. You're obviously the next best thing. What do you think? I would say, well, do you believe the gospel that the apostles preached, that the apostles gave us in their word? Do you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you? Yeah. Are you committed to a church that preaches that gospel? Are you submitting to that shepherd that watches for your soul in that flock? Are you committed to a church that preaches the gospel? Yeah. Do you confess your sin? Is there a time where, is there anybody in your life who on a regular basis hears you talk about your sin and your ongoing need for Jesus? And you say, yeah, I mean, yeah. And your confidence is kind of going down as we go. Do you love your brothers in Christ? And the first thing you say is, all of them? Yeah, yep. But you say, yeah, yes, yes. And then I would say to you, OK, good. Go to church, and every week, hear the logic of the gospel. The logic of the gospel is, walk in the light because your sins are forgiven. The logic of the gospel is you, you must, you must walk in the light. And you can, because you know him who is from the beginning. And please listen to this. You will never, I mean, you're never gonna outgrow the need to regularly hear the command to not love the world. Because you love the world. Your eyes love the world, your flesh loves the world, your pride loves the world, you, I mean, that's just in you. It's just like, church is holding you back, you understand? You're gonna need to hear it every week. And every week, you're gonna need to hear. I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. You need to hear it every single week. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for your word. Jesus, I am the foulest. I am certain that this sermon was plagued, was shot through with arrogance, self-righteousness, doubt, all kinds of stuff. I'm just a mess. And you have made me clean. You are my advocate. You are my propitiation. Your blood can make the foulest clean. And I know this because your blood has availed for me I pray that this sermon and then the sermons and the devotionals this week will either be, they will be of great comfort and encouragement and motivation for those whose sins are forgiven, for those who know you who is from the beginning, and it will be a time of great conviction for those who are walking in darkness. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Man.