We are reading this morning from 1 John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 10. Ready? That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This, then, is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 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. The message this morning will be the second in the series of the short exposition of 1 John. Last time we gave a general introduction to the book and observed that the importance of understanding the book rests upon the understanding that a group of people has split off from the churches in Asia Minor. and they have formed a rival church which is in opposition to apostolic Christianity. These teachers would later formulize their teachings into what became known in history as Gnosticism, and it was a very serious attack upon apostolic Christianity and nearly destroyed the Christian movement as a whole. And John is addressing this in his little epistle. He is condemning the false teachers who have left, and he is reassuring his readers to stay firm in their hold on the gospel. If you noted in our reading this morning, John opens his letter at full speed. He doesn't even stop to say hello. It's that important. He bypasses the normal greetings that he gave in 2 and 3 John. He does not even identify himself or his readers. He is like a shepherd who has spotted a pack of wolves who have attacked his flock, and the sheep are confused and do not know which way to run. The shepherd runs toward the invaders, inflicting pain and death with his rod of truth and bow of justice. And thus John sets out immediately, both to defend his flock and to destroy or overthrow the enemy. In this first section, which we have read, comprised of the first ten verses, He touches on a number of key issues relating to basic true Christianity. First, the person of Christ. Secondly, the genuineness of the Christian message. Thirdly, the authority of the Apostle's witness or testimony. And fourth, the nature of God. Fifth, the seriousness of sin. Sixth, the purposes of his letter. Seventh, the love of God and other related doctrines. Let's look first at the first four verses at the preface of the letter. I'll read it again. You focus along as I read and then we will examine some of its contents. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ, and these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." John begins, if you note, his preface with the subject of the entire letter, namely, Jesus Christ. That is going to be the main theme that is running through this little epistle. Verses 1 through 3 comprise one entire complex sentence in the Greek text, and it is very difficult to translate. The words that start out, that which, refer to an object that later on in the sentence is identified as the Word of Life. But what is this Word of Life? It may sound rather simple. But there are two possibilities. First, it may refer to the impersonal message of the gospel. As John refers to it, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. And then later on he would, this is eternal life, the message. This may be what he is referring to. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16, for example, exhorts us, ìLet the word of Christ dwell in you richly.î So this may be a reference to the word, the gospel message. 1 Timothy 6 reads, ìIf any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. So it is possible that the word of life may be referring to the doctrinal content of the message of which the apostles preach. But the second meaning of the word of life, and I think this must be the one that we lean more to while not rejecting the other, is that it is a reference to a personal being, and it refers to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Why do I think this way? Because in John, in his gospel, in chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 and verse 14, he says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Sound Bible teachers are divided over John's usage, and strong arguments can be presented for both positions, either referring to the person of Christ or to the message of Christ. The expression, from the beginning, also introduces some uncertainties. It is open to several understandings. One, it may refer to the eternal preexistence of the person of Christ, as mentioned, which we read in the gospel. Two, it may refer to the beginnings of the gospel era when Jesus made his appearance in history. John uses it elsewhere in this likeness. A third way in which it is used by John is in reference to when the readers had first heard and believed the gospel message, when the gospel first came in contact with them. That was the beginning. Since the message of Christ cannot be separated from the person of Christ, I believe it to be best to understand John as using these expressions interchangeably. If you will note in your passage, look at your text there. John makes much use of the pronoun we in these verses in contrast to his readers whom he refers to as you. Who are the we that John is referring to? It is best to understand it as the first generation of believers, namely the apostles. who had had personal contact with Jesus. Now, who did the apostles believe Jesus to be? In verse 1, he was the preexistent Christ. He was from the beginning. And that's why that in this second message we are focusing upon what we will entitle it as basic apostolic doctrine and fellowship. John is going to lay quickly the foundation of Christian doctrine. Jesus was preexistent before he became a man. He was from the beginning. The verb was here. in the Greek text is known as the imperfect tense. A verb describes what? Back to our English days in school. You remember? Action. Well, the Greeks also had active verbs. A lot more than we do in English. We have past, present and future. The Greeks had more. And so we miss that when it's translated. into our English text. But the word was is in what is known as the imperfect tense. Now stay with me. This describes an action which has always been ongoing in the past, is continuing now in the present, and will continue on into the future. Thus, Jesus was in the beginning. He has always been God, He is God, and He will always be God. And that is what John emphasizes by using this particular tense of the Greek verb. In verse 2, John describes the preexistent Word, or Christ, as being the eternal life which was with the Father. And this is identical with his expression in his gospel where we read again in John 1, 1 and 2, let me quote it to us, ìIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.î John is very precise in his understanding of the person of Christ. John closes his letter Turn to 1 John 5 and verse 20. He closes his letter by identifying Jesus Christ as the one true God in whom alone exists eternal life. You have your passage. Follow as I read it. And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ." Now watch, this is the true God and eternal life. John here affirms at the very outset the true deity of Christ's person. Now in verses 1 and 2, John then moves on to affirm the true humanity of Christ. He asserts that this eternal being, God, had in history assumed a real body so that His voice could be heard, His features could be seen, His flesh could be touched and handled The apostles had heard Jesus teach with a human voice. John 5.24, Jesus said, He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life. The apostles saw and they beheld the glorious body of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter said in 2 Peter 1, verses 16-18, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables. That is, we haven't made this thing up. When we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory. And when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount." They heard the voice of Jesus. They saw the body of Jesus. They could touch and handle his resurrection body. It was to a group of terrified disciples. who believed that they were seeing a spirit, that Jesus said to them in Luke chapter 24, verses 39 and 40, Behold, my hands and feet, that it is I myself, handle me, and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. Now, why would he show them his hands and his feet? because he has just been crucified. The same body that he died in, now he has arisen again in a new glorified body, but it is a real body, different from the past and yet connected to the past. Jesus is not out there in space somewhere in an invisible form. He is residing in a human body. even yet today. And the apostles said, we saw it, we touched it, and we testify in court of law that we're not lying, that we haven't made these things up. So what is John asserting? He is saying that the one eternal true God revealed or manifested Himself in a real flesh and bones body. And the effect which this had upon the Apostles is summarized in the words of what we call Doubting Thomas. He's one of the Apostles. Now, remember the Apostles, when Christ died on the cross, they didn't think he was going to rise again. So they didn't make up this story. They didn't meet in a room somewhere and conjure up, well, let's go steal the body and throw it somewhere and let's go and tell everybody he rose from the dead. They were devastated. They didn't think he was going to rise from the dead. So when he did, he appeared to Thomas. And Jesus said, Thomas, touch my nail-scarred hands and pierced feet. Thomas then cried out, what? My Lord and my God. Now, if you know anything about the revelation of the Bible, only God is worthy to be worshipped. No angels, no creatures. If Jesus was just a creature, he should have corrected Thomas' misunderstanding. If Jesus were not God, He should have corrected Thomas right there on the spot and said, Thomas, don't worship me. Worship God only. You're mistaken. But he didn't. He received worship. Now, either Jesus was who he claimed he was or he was an imposter and the biggest liar ever walked on the face of the earth. You don't have any option. You either got to take this side or you got to take this side. Either Christ is God or He's an imposter. If you don't believe He's God, then you've got to believe He's an imposter. And if you believe He's God and you haven't done anything about it, you better get doing something with it this morning. You see, you can't be neutral with this thing of Christianity. Jesus said, He that is not with me is against me. You can't just take it or leave it. You will take it or you will leave it. There will be a choice made. All of us are making that choice, even now. The apostles were convinced that the eternal person of the Son of God resided in the flesh and bones body of Jesus Christ. They were convinced of that. John asserts that he had personally seen and heard Jesus Christ and could bear witness of the truth of his person and the words that he taught. Now, the false teachers who have left the Church could not make this claim. To those who were claiming that Jesus Christ simply appeared or seemed to be human, that is, the Dosedits that we talked about in the first message. John said, no, I have heard him. I've seen him. I've felt him. He's real. Remember, the Thucydides said he just had a ghost-like body, sort of like an angel coming into appearance, but he didn't have any real substance. John said, no, that's not the true Jesus. And to the other group of the Gnostics, the Corinthians, who said that Jesus was not the divine Christ, but that the divine Christ came upon Jesus at his baptism and then left him before he died on the cross. John said, no, Jesus was the one who was from the beginning. The Christ that I felt was from the beginning and preexisted with the eternal Father. In doing so, John, thou shoot down the foundation of his opponents. He comes out of the gate running. He doesn't stop to introduce himself or his readers. He comes out fighting over this issue of who Jesus Christ is. Now, if you're a Christian, you concur. It's important to know who Jesus Christ is. Your eternal destiny rests on it. It's life or death, heaven or hell. What will you do with this person named Christ? The apostolic doctrinal test for who and what a true Christian is, lies in a person's willingness to confess that Jesus Christ, now listen, is fully God and fully man. That's what apostolic Christianity is and that's the only kind of Christianity that there is. John says you break off from that and you're in a group of deceivers. Apostolic Christianity, or what we now call biblical Christianity, is the only type of Christianity. And John says that involves confessing that Jesus is fully God and that he is fully man. Any person who refuses to make this confession cannot be considered as an apostolic Look over in 1 John, chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. Give you time to locate it. Hereby I know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of what? Is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is what? Is not of God. See, John's a black and white fellow. No gray here. You're either on this side of the aisle or you're on this side of the aisle. Now, look on. And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. You're either Christ or you are anti-Christ? You're one or the other. All of you that are listening to my words this morning, you are either pro-Christ or you are anti-Christ. And that depends by the definition which John is giving, are you confessing that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man? If you are, you are pro-Christ, you're a Christian. If you're unwilling to confess that, you're not a Christian. You are an anti-Christ, you are opposed to Christ. John now proceeds to inform his readers that he had two purposes in mind for telling them this apostolic doctrine. The first purpose was for them to have fellowship with him and with God. And this fellowship is found only in the message concerning God's Son, Jesus Christ. Now, follow me as we look at this word fellowship. When you think of fellowship, what do you think of? Well, follow me, it's not what you think of. The word which John uses for fellowship, koinonia, has the basic meaning to share something in common with another. Now, remember that. Fellowship, in John's definition, means to share something in common with another. Now, many churches today promote themselves as places where you can attend and participate in food, fun, and what? Fellowship. The three F's. Food, fun, and fellowship. That's today's typical church. But for John and his readers, fellowship is something more profound than good food and good times. Fellowship in the Christian usage involves a commitment to a common body of beliefs relating all to Jesus Christ. and faithfulness to a moral life of dedicated obedience. Christian fellowship also involves a social life consisting of a common love or shared love for God and other people, especially fellow believers. So Christians have something in common with God and with each other. They have something they share, and what they share all ties in to the person and work of Jesus Christ, a set of doctrinal beliefs, and the working out of that as manifested in a life of moral obedience to the teachings of Christ which entail, as John will emphasize, a love for the brethren. Christians that are apostolic Christians love to be with other Christians. Do you? Or if you had your choice, you'd just soon not be around. Christians that bring up the Bible. That says a lot about you. It identifies you. That you don't have anything in common with biblical Christians. And one must have something in common with God before you can have something in common with apostolic Christians. And that common bond is the belief and confession that Jesus Christ is God's Son. You don't confess that, you don't know God. You don't confess that, you don't have anything in common with biblical Christians. And that's why you don't enjoy being around them. Family members like to be together. They have something they share in common, fellowship. Now, the second purpose of John's letter is stated in verse 4, that your joy may be full. Now, what is joy? Joy is not to be equated with the happy, thoughtless emotion of party goers. Well, let's go out and have a party. Have joy. That's not the way it's used in the Christian setting. In John 17, verse 13, Jesus spoke of having joy as he was facing the most unhappy occasion of his humiliation leading up to the cross. He spoke of the joy which he had with the Father even though it was not a party-going time. Christ's joy. was an assuring satisfaction. Catch this. Christ's joy was an assuring satisfaction that he would accomplish his goal. He came to do what? The will of the Father. Was he going to accomplish that will? That's what gave him joy. Who for the joy that was set before him despised the shame and is now sit down on the right hand of the Father. Jesus leading up to his death on the cross could look beyond that cross and see himself enthroned having accomplished everything that the Father gave him to come into this world to do. And that enabled him to suffer the pain and humiliation. It gave him joy because joy is the assurance of an accomplished goal. He saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. And now Jesus prayed in the garden that his disciples might possess that same joy. And John's readers have been shaken by the false teachers who have pulled out and left the church. And now John's readers stand in assurance that what they have believed is the true message of eternal life, and that they need not look to the new message that the false teachers were setting forth. So the summary of verses 1 through 4 can be set forth in three points. Number one, Jesus Christ was a real person. He was God in the flesh, and this apostolic witness was based on first-hand experience. It wasn't hearsay as far as the apostles were concerned. Secondly, the apostolic witness when received and believed is the basis for sharing the fellowship of eternal life with the Father, the Son, and all other true believers. And thirdly, the sharing of fellowship in eternal life is presently going on in the believer's life and will be perfected in the life to come. It's not that we are going to have eternal life one day, we have it now. We know who God is, we know who Jesus Christ is, and one day we're going to know it perfectly. Let's move to verses 5 through 10, now examining fellowship with God. This then is the message which we have heard. See those words? This is the message. That's why some Bible teachers believe that the word of life refers to the message. but it can refer to either. This, then, is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. For 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 that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us." Apostolic Christianity not only has a doctrinal standard by which our beliefs can be tested in relation to the person of Christ, but it also provides a moral standard by which our behavior can be judged. In verse 5, John affirms that God is what? He is light. To speak of God in this manner was to make use of a well-known symbol conveying several facets of meaning. To say God is light was to mean that he was one of revelation and illumination. He puts light on the subject. Light illuminates the dark places and symbolizes the way in which God reveals himself to men to show us how to live. Are you getting any light on the subject? God is one who illuminates and reveals light. And thus light, in this sense, represents knowledge. God is knowledge. He is the source of all knowledge. The psalmist can then say in Psalm 119, 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It illuminates his understanding through knowledge. A second use of light in the scripture is that it describes God's holiness. Light symbolized the flawless perfection of God's moral character. God is pure. and holy and without sin. The holy angels, you recall in Isaiah 6, cover their faces in his presence. And what do they cry out? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Again, light is used in the Bible as a synonym for God's truth. Psalm 43, verse 3 says, O send out thy light and thy truth. let them lead me." Knowledge, purity, and truth. God is that. Now, when John goes on to say that in him is no darkness at all, he's thinking of light and darkness in ethical or moral terms. Light being a picture of truth, knowledge, and righteousness, while darkness is a picture of falsehood, ignorance, and sin. God is a moral being and cannot tolerate immorality in his moral creatures. They are made in his image and after his likeness. And thus he says, in 1 Peter 1.16, be ye holy for I am what? I'm holy. I'm the one who has created you. You're a representative of my likeness. I am holy. Now you be holy. The basic Christian message rests then upon the foundational premise that if men are to have fellowship with God, or what does fellowship mean? to have something in common with God, they must walk in his light as revealed in the historical person of his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. In essence, those whose fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, will in their lives reflect the moral character of God. And when a person is not in the habitual tenor of their life reflecting the moral character of God, they are revealing that they do not belong in the family of God, as we will work our way through in 1 John. he will cover that over and over again. If God is light, then fellowship with him is dependent upon moral purity. Get it? Now, if you're beginning to squirm a little bit, this is what made the false teachers squirm and go out and start another church where these qualifications were not set forth. tone down the seriousness of sin and allow you to be a Christian in name without having to deal with the fact that all of God's people are reflecting the moral character of God. Not just some, but all do. The pre-Gnostic teachers were apparently teaching the opposite. To them, fellowship with God was not related to moral conduct. It was how much that you knew, how much you gnostic to know, how much that the Spirit of God had revealed directly to you through direct revelations. That was what was the basis of fellowship. John said, no, it's related to one's moral conduct. That's what you have in common with God. In verses 6 through 10, then John refutes three false claims being made by the false teachers. And if we don't catch this, we'll not understand what in the world John is talking about here with these statements, particularly at the outset of his letter. Notice now, in these verses, his use of the pronoun we now changes its meaning. It no longer refers to John and the apostles, but he is now applying it to anyone who professes to represent Christianity. If we say we are a Christian, then this should be true of us. Watch verses 6, 8, and 10. John introduces each false claim of the false teachers with the words, If we say. Verse 6, If we say. Verse 8, If we say. Verse 10, If we say. Three claims are being made by the false teachers. John now proceeds to refute each one of these claims. In each of these three teachings, John demonstrates the Christian attitude toward the nature of sin. Now, the three claims which the false teachers were making were, number one, in verse 6, we have fellowship with God. We're on good terms with God. Now, you run across people all around the United States. You ask them, well, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. I'm in good terms with God. The man upstairs. Paul's teachers were saying, we get along. We have a hotline to our Creator. We have fellowship with Him. Verse 8, second claim, we are without sin. Anybody here want to make that statement? That's pretty profound. And third, we have not sinned. As we'll see here in just a minute, we have never sinned. That is something that you will find very few people who profess Christianity, and even a mass of people who don't, to be so bold as to make that statement. Now look at verse 6, the first claim. Let's examine it. They were saying that it was possible to live in sin and still have fellowship with God. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. The false teachers were saying sin is not that big a deal, as long as you know something about God and he's spoken to you directly and you've had this assurance, this experience, then that's all that it is. Sin is not such a big deal. You can have fellowship, something in common with him, and live however your body dictates. Now, John's reply to that is that if God is light, and there is no darkness in him, no person can claim to be living in fellowship with God while walking in sin at the same time. Impossible, John says. Anyone who makes such a claim is lying, John's words, and is not living by God's standard of truth. The word walk is an interesting word which we must focus on or it will raise all kinds of questions. It refers to a person's moral activity. It, again, in the Greek use of the active verbs, is what is known as a present tense verb. What's the big deal with that? Follow me. In this tense Walk refers not to a few isolated acts of sin, but to an ongoing, habitual lifestyle of walking in the darkness. If you don't understand that, then you will have a problem as a believer knowing that you are sinful, of believing that John is saying you must be sinlessly perfect in order to have fellowship with God. John is not teaching that, but he is teaching it is impossible for a person to have a habitual, continuing, ongoing walk in sin and at the same time be in fellowship with God. Now in verse 7, John shows what a true believer's lifestyle is like. They walk in the light. Same tense here now. Their conduct manifests an ongoing conformity to God's moral standards. Two benefits emerge from such a lifestyle of walking in the light. The first benefit is that such people have, look at it, fellowship with one another. Now, who is the one another? Some believe it refers to Christians. and fellow believers, but I believe it is best to understand it as referring to Christians and God. The fellowship which John has raised or addressed in verse 6 is between God and believers. Look at it. If we say that we have fellowship with who? Not with other believers, but with God. We walk in darkness, but if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another. That is, with ourselves and God by walking in the light. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't have fellowship with other Christians. But this is what brings about the ongoing fellowship with God, is the habitual, ongoing walking in the light, in the knowledge of the gospel of Christ and the moral obedience that is required in that gospel walk. Now, the second benefit of walking in the light is that the blood of Christ cleanses us from what? All sin. The blood of Christ is a symbolical way of speaking of the death of Christ. Leviticus 1711, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement or a covering for the soul. In the Old Testament, the blood was the result of the death of the sacrificial victim, the animal, and its application to the person offering the sacrifice indicated that the effects of the sacrifice applied to him or her, whatever the case may be. And the effects of the blood applied were the removal and the forgiveness of their sin. The expression all sin refers to every kind of sin and shows that there are no limit to the types of sin that Christ is able and willing to forgive. Are you a big sinner? He's a big Savior, a big Savior. His death makes all kinds of sin forgivable. We will only make the one qualification as the lesson goes on in John in the weeks to come, and that is the sin unto death, the sin of apostasy. We haven't time to describe that today. And thus a true Christian cannot, now hear me, a true Christian cannot live a lifestyle of habitual sinning. Impossible. The Christian's life is one of moral purity. that enables fellowship with God to occur through the cleansing of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. And John's teaching here on the blood flies right in the face of the Corinthian Gnostics who denied that the divine Christ actually died on the cross. Now, the second false claim is addressed in verses 8 and 9 as we move quickly. The claim is, we have no sin. Now, this claim makes a step further from the truth. The claim that one may live in sin and it does not affect your fellowship with God is one thing, but the claim that you have no sin is quite another. In this, John is addressing another type of the Gnostic error. The word sin, if you note, is in the singular. and refers to a denial of the principle of sin residing in fallen human nature. I'm not a sinner in Adam. I don't have a sinful nature. The false teachers may have been claiming that through the special knowledge they had received, they had been cured of their sinful nature. Or, they may have been saying that though they sinned in their bodies, their flesh had nothing to do with their spirits. They communed, Brother Asa, and fellowshiped with God through their spirit, not their body. Therefore, they have no sin before God. The body is nothing but sinful. Let it alone, God doesn't care about it. Commune with him in your spirit. In either case, they were boldly saying they were not sinful, thus allowing them to believe they had fellowship with the spiritual being of God. That teaching still floats around in today's Christian churches, is just let your body do whatever it It's lust once because the real you is the Spirit. The Spirit cannot sin. God is a Spirit. So commune with God or fellowship with God in your spirit and do whatever you want to in the body. It was self-evident to John that these men were sinners and were deceiving themselves and their beliefs and were strangers to the saving grace of God. in Christ Jesus, no matter what a person claims, a true Christian cannot and will not deny his or her sinful nature. So just how does true Christianity handle the sin question? Not by denying it, but by confessing it. Are you a sinner today? Do you confess that or deny it? That's how you handle the sin question. The word confess comes from two Greek words which mean to speak the same thing. It carries the idea of agreeing with or admitting to. Do you admit that you are a sinner? Do you agree with God when he says that all have sinned and come short of my glory? Do you agree with that? Do you confess that? To confess our sins means that we say the same thing about our sin as God says. In confession we agree with God that our sin is wrong. Proverbs 28, 13, He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. The false teachers were denying their sinfulness while the true Christians were confessing their sinning. To deny one's sinfulness means the truth is not in us. In contrast, to confess one's sinfulness is to give evidence of having the truth in us. God has promised to forgive sin upon our repentance of it, and to this promise he is both faithful and just. Micah 7. Don't turn there, but just listen as we're coming to a conclusion here. This passage in Micah clearly describes the character of the forgiveness of God. Who is a God like unto thee that pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old." Aren't you glad that God is a God who can and has the ability to pardon our sins? Who is like him? Now, how can he do so and be just? How can he pardon our sin and let the sinner go unpunished? John says God is not only faithful to forgive those who repent, but he is just in his forgiveness. But listen, it is not just for a holy God to allow sin to be removed and the sinner to be released. That is not just. Justice requires that the acts committed receive the punishment which they deserve. It is at this point that the doctrines of grace enter the picture. Bless God, Jesus took my punishment. for my sins. Forgiveness is therefore just because Jesus shed his blood as the just one in the place of the unjust ones. He is faithful and just in his forgiveness. He can faithfully promise forgiveness just because he has a just basis upon which to forgive. John pronounces his conclusion upon the spiritual state of the apostate teachers. They are deceived. They are lost. They are not Christians. The third claim of the teachers is the most blatant of all. In verse 6, We have seen that one group of the false teachers were saying that one's moral conduct had nothing to do with one's fellowship with God. Then in verse 8, another group was saying that sin was not a part of one's human nature, and they denied thus the fall of man. But in verse 10, another group had advanced in their apostasy to the point that they were saying that the specially enlightened ones had never sinned so as to stand in need of an atoning sacrifice to restore them to God's fellowship." That's why the passage we won't get to deal with today in chapter 2 and verse 1 comes in, that he is the propitiation for our sins. They were saying we don't need any propitiation, for we have never sinned. The expression, We have not sinned, translates again a Greek verb in the present tense. This describes an action that occurs in the past of which the effects continue to exist in the present. John uses this type of verb to describe a person claiming to be in a condition of having never committed a sinful act in the past, or are they sinning now in the present, or will they ever sin? You in that category? John says this type of person is calling God a liar and identifies himself as a stranger to the word of truth. He cannot be considered a Christian in any sense of the word. God has spoken. He has declared that all people have sinned. Paul says there is none righteous, no, not one. all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. To deny what God has said, to deny what one is and has been, is to place oneself beyond the effectual solution which God provides for sin. God has a solution for sin. Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2 will bring it out. It's through the death of his son. These people say, we don't need that, and thus they are placing themselves beyond the solution which God has given for sin. They're deceived, and yet they say they're Christian. You say, well, that's a weird group of people. No, our churches are filled with them. The whole Unitarian so-called church, the heretical body, bases its teaching upon what we are setting forth here today. Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science, and nearly every cult has the same approach to what we are talking about this morning. To make this claim is final apostasy, described by John as the sin unto death in 1 John 5.16. It is also described by the writer of Hebrews in several forceful expressions, if we sin after we've come to the knowledge of the truth. There remains no more what? Sacrifice for sin. If you don't need a sacrifice, Jesus is not going to come back and sacrifice himself again. That's God's solution. Thus, in his opening, John has affirmed that apostolic Christianity rests upon a doctrinal foundation, that fellowship with God involves a proper profession of Jesus Christ as perfect God, perfect who shed his blood to make atonement for sins, the practical moral experience of Christians is to seek to avoid sin, and if they do so, they are to confess their sins and avail themselves of the cleansing process that is found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is how a Christian handles their sin. Any person or teaching which claims to be Christian and fails to confess these principles is to be viewed as a parasite which has attached itself to the identity of Christianity and is sucking the life out of biblical Christianity, but has no life to live on in itself. I close with this statement. The church of Jesus Christ, according to Ephesians 2.20, is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. If we should desire to obtain and maintain eternal life in fellowship with God, let us then model what is said of those who were converted on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.42. They continued steadfastly in the what? No, I need to quote it exactly. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. They had something in common. That was New Testament biblical Christianity. Any which departs from that is no longer Christianity.