Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. The last several years has seen a bit of a falling away of churchgoers, hasn't it? The reasons are many, but, none the less, it's a real issue to pray about. The early church faced a similar issue.
Some of the folks were leaving the fellowship and would turn around and preach another gospel and spread doubt among those who stayed. It's at this point where we get the passage that talks about walking in the light as he's in the light. Here's John with God Is Light, Part 3. Turn back to 1 John. Surprise, right?
We're going to be going through it for a while. But the book of 1 John 1, verses 5 through chapter 2, verse 2, is what we're looking at. Very quickly, to review, to give some context, and to bring us back up to speed, what is John's major burden in this first part of his letter? from the first two chapters. What is his burden?
His burden as the pastor and founder of these churches. His murtain is to bring these believers, the readers of his letter. Uh assurance, confidence. Assurance of their salvation because he says in chapter 2, verse 19, he says that some of these church members who have been with those church members who remained in the churches. He says these other former church members have departed.
Chapter 2, verse 19, he says, And they went out from us, they have left. And so, this departure created doubts in the minds of those who remained. And what had happened was, those who had departed came up with different, they adopted different views concerning the person and work of Christ and different views of sin. And what they did was, when they left, they actually were coming back into the churches as itinerant pastors. Pastors.
Now listen very carefully about this point of application before we continue. You have to be very, very careful about people who appoint themselves as Bible teachers outside of the visible church. These were self-appointed Bible teachers. Who had not been sent by the church, had not been ordained by the church, sent by the church, officially recognized by the church as called of God to carry out the office of preaching and teaching, pastoring in a church. That were just self-appointed, and they called themselves Bible teachers, and they came back with this itinerant ministry into these churches.
And the effect of what had happened because of their teaching was it began to undermine the confidence in the message of the gospel that these believers had originally received. Chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. And John found it necessary to write to these believers to assure them of their salvation. Chapter 5, verse 13.
So that's the. That's the context of what is happening here that John is addressing. And so what he does in this opening part of the This opening part of the letter from chapter 1, verse 5 to chapter 2, verse 2, is he is taking up the topic of sin and sin's effects on fellowship with God and fellowship with one another in the church. Because what had happened was this: that those who had departed. They claimed that they had now a special anointing of the Holy Spirit.
And throughout John's letter, he talks about, he uses that term. He talks about you've received the anointing, you have the anointing. We'll come back to that. That's not the Benny Hen type of anointing that he's talking about. We'll come back to that and explain that in detail.
But he uses this term because those who had left, the secessionists, those who had seceded from the church, departed from the church. This is what they claim. They claim that they had this special anointing of the Holy Spirit. And because of this special anointing, it led them to listen to this: to go beyond the gospel that John and the apostles had preached to them, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. No, we'll come back to that, but just understand this is always the problem.
People claim that they have these special anointings of the Holy Spirit so that they can move. beyond the simplicity of the gospel. You know, so what we'll see when we come to the end of this is John is teaching us in his letter that we never move beyond the gospel. And so, because of this special anointing that these people who departed have, they kept moving on the gospel that John proclaimed to these believers. This made those who remained in John's churches to question Well, don't we lack this special anointing, which John deals with in chapter 2, verse 20 and 27?
And so, if we don't have this special anointing of the Holy Spirit, Right. Then I guess we don't really have the truth, and so they were beginning to question this gospel that they had been given by John and the apostles. And so, what had happened was, they had no more confidence. Their assurance of salvation was undermined. They had doubts.
And so John takes up this topic of sin in this first part of the letter because these believers who departed said, we no longer sin because we have this special anointing. And because of this, we don't have to have Jesus' sacrifice for sins because we don't have any sin. We have come to a place of sinless perfection. And so, this is probably what some of these believers who remained in John's churches were thinking: well, we continue to sin. We are professing believers and we are trusting in this gospel that John and the apostles have given to us, but we yet continue to sin.
Do we really have fellowship with God? Do we really have the Holy Spirit's anointing? Do we really know God is Jesus' sacrifice for sin necessary for us? And John writes at the first part of his letter to assure his readers that they're in fellowship with God, that they have salvation. The way he does this in chapter 1, verses 5 through 10, is that he refutes three false claims to fellowship with God.
God made by those who had departed from the churches. All right, so verses 6, 8, and 10 are the false claims that they have. He says, verse 6: if we claim to have fellowship. Verse 8, if we claim to be without sin. Verse 10, if we claim we have not sinned, we're going to look at that today.
And John refutes these three false claims made by those who had departed.
So that he can give assurance to those who remain in the churches that they do have fellowship with God. Just quick, look at verses 6 and 7. John, he refutes this first claim. He says, They claim to have fellowship with God, yet they walk in darkness. They reject the gospel.
They claim to have fellowship with God, but they deny the reality of needing Jesus' sacrifice for their sins. Verses 8 and 9, they claim to have fellowship with God, and because of this heightened fellowship, they've ceased to sin. But John says this is not evidence that they're walking in the light, but in the darkness. They are deceiving themselves, they're lying to themselves. He says, because one who is truly in fellowship with God doesn't deny sin, they confess sin, they acknowledge sin.
They see their sin. And John says it was a double fruit for all those who acknowledge their sin, so that their sin is not an impediment to fellowship with God, an impediment to fellowship with other believers. He says, God forgives our guilt, He forgives our debt, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He forgives us of our guilt and he cleanses us from our defilement, both of which prevent fellowship with God and one another because he is faithful and he's just. And that's what we looked at last week.
This brings us to verse 10. Look at this last claim made by those who departed. He says, They claim to have fellowship with God and to have not sinned. Look what John says in verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, he says, Look at this, we make him that's God a liar, and his word is not in us.
So, John is just restating what he said in verse 8. This false teaching of the secessionists, those who have left, this false teaching of those who departed, chapter 2, verse 19, they claim to be people who have not sinned. That's quite a remarkable Plain, isn't it? He says they claim to be people who have not sinned since they've come to know God and experienced this special anointing. But he says, while the secessionists claim to have no sin, John clearly implies throughout the whole letter that their behavior was marked by sinning.
He implies that they continued in sin and they don't do what is right because he says one of their chief sins that he's pointing out in this first chapter is that they're liars. He says it. Three times. I mean, how, that is quite a blunt statement, right? He says that one of your chief sins is you lie.
Look at chapter 1, verse 6. John says, Those who departed from the church claim to have fellowship with God, but they walk in darkness. He says that makes them liars. It's a sin to lie, right? Look at chapter 1, verse 8.
John says that those who have departed from the church claim to have fellowship with God, and therefore they don't commit sins anymore. And John says that involves lying to themselves. They deceive themselves. They lie to themselves.
Now look what he says in verse 10. John says, those who have departed from the churches and claim to have fellowship with God and to have not sinned. He says they may God A liar. And John says their denial of sin is itself a profound sin that implicitly calls God a liar. And this is the most severe accusation that you can make.
As he says, verse 6, he says, They're liars. Verse 8, and he says they lie to themselves. But verse 10, he says, Now they make God into a liar. To say that they've not sinned and they've ceased to sin because they have this special anointing of the Spirit where they've come into a higher fellowship than a typical person and they can go beyond the apostolic gospel. And John says, No, they make God a liar when they say this.
Why is this? Because God, in his word, says that the whole human race is what? Guilty of sin. This is Paul's whole point. In the first part of his letter to the Romans for three chapters, he takes great pains to show that both Jew and Gentile.
that the whole world Listen, chapter three, verse twenty-three is his concluding statement. He says. And you know this, he says, all have done what? Sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All Jew and Gentile, everybody, the whole human race is guilty before God.
This is what we heard this morning in our scripture readings from Isaiah 53, verse 6. Listen to what we heard. All of us, like sheep, have what? Gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way.
We have all sinned. We have all departed from fellowship with God, from fellowship with each other. We have all broken God's law. 1 John chapter 3, he says that sin is lawlessness. We've all broken God's law.
We're all guilty before God. This is what God's word says to us. And John says, those who claim they have not sinned make God a liar because God in His Word has said that all of us have actually sinned.
Now, it's important for us to keep in mind the context. Remember, John is addressing in this context the secessionists, those who have seceded from the church, departed from the church. Chapter 2, verse 19. He's addressing their claims of their denial of human sinfulness, and because of that, their need for Jesus' atonement for their sins, because these two realities go together. Because all have sinned, what?
All stand in need of Christ's saving work. But if sin is not a reality, Jesus' atonement is not necessary.
So, John says, if you deny the need for atonement, it's an implicit presumption of one's own innocence. In effect, saying, I have not sinned, therefore, I don't need Jesus' death for my sin, because I have not sinned. The secessionists' claim to have not sinned seemed to have caused John's readers to reconsider whether Jesus' atoning death is really at the heart of the gospel and the Christian faith and life. They're thinking, well, if these people are without sin, is Jesus' atonement necessary? Do you see the doubt that's come in?
Do you see the lack of assurance that has come in, the confidence in God, who has told us in his word what the truth is? John says, This is the message that we've heard from him and declared to you that God is light. And John is just working out the ethical implications of chapter 1, verse 5 as we work through this letter: that God is light. And God says in his word, which is light, right? All have sinned, therefore all need Jesus.
And they're saying, we haven't sinned. We don't need Jesus. Who are we to believe? This is why John, throughout his entire letter, emphasizes that God the Father sent his Son into the world to atone for the very sin that the secessionists, those who departed from the church, deny. Just listen, for example, for a couple of verses.
1 John 2, verse 2, in our context here. John says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. Do you see that? He is a propitiation for our sins. I've told you this before, and I want to remind you again: the gospel is not Jesus died on the cross.
That's not the gospel. The gospel is: Jesus died on the cross for our sins. That's the gospel. Jesus is not just a propitiation, he's a propitiation. for our sins, you say.
1 John chapter 3, verse 5, John says, You know that he appeared. This is his incarnation, which those who had departed from the churches were now denying. He says, You know that he appeared in order to take away sins. And he says, and in him there is no sin. In contrast to these who have left the church and say they're sinless.
John is telling those who remained in the church, who are aware of their sins. He says, Let me remind you: there's one sinless human being who has ever lived, and it's not those who've departed, it's Jesus. In him, there is no sin. 1 John 4, verse 10, he says, And this is love. Not that we loved God, not that we have kept the great commandment that we've heard read to us already this morning.
And this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus has fully exhausted God's wrath. That's what propitiation means. He has Fully and finally, forevermore, exhausted God's wrath against us for our sins. And all of this, John says, originates in the Father's love for us.
And so the Father sending of his son to be the propitiation for our sins, John says, demonstrates the reality. of sin. 1 John 1, verse 9, which we looked at last week, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Look, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The very fact John says of divine forgiveness and divine cleansing of our defilement before God demonstrates the reality of sin.
Thus, any denial of sin calls into question, John says, God's faithfulness. His righteousness, his justice, his truthfulness. It treats God as a liar. John Calvin says this: He says, Whoever tries to escape this charge then carries on war with God and accuses him of falsehood as though he condemned people who did not deserve it. We're gonna end of verse 10.
John says, God's word has no place in one who claims to have not sinned. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. John says the same thing in verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And so, by this phrase, his word is not in us, John is saying that the one who claims to have not sinned.
Rejects the truth that everyone has sinned and is guilty before God.
Now What John is teaching us here is the difference between God's law and gospel. What is the word of God? If somebody were to ask you that on the street, And you have a, you go to work tomorrow and you jump on the elevator, and you've got 15 seconds before you hit the third floor. And they just happen to ask you, what is the word of God? What would your answer be?
This is what John is teaching us. What is the Word of God? We divide God's Word into two parts: it is the law and gospel. That is what the Word of God is. With this distinction, it's easy to understand the purposes for which the Holy Spirit, chapter 4, verse 6, John calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth.
And so, with this distinction of what God's word is and what John is teaching us here, we divide God's law and word into two parts, the law and the gospel. With that distinction, it's easy to understand the purposes for which the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, uses the preaching of both of them in the church. First, the Spirit of Truth, chapter 4, verse 6, the Spirit of Truth working through God's Word that is in us, His law, the law part of His Word, His truth that is in us. The Holy Spirit, working through the proclamation of God's law, his word, brings about in us the knowledge and failing of sin. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 3, verse 20.
Listen, he says, through the law comes the knowledge of what? Sin. This is what he says in Romans chapter 7, verse 7. Paul says, He would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, Do not covet. Covet.
Because of the following condition in which we're born, Psalm 51, verse 5, we are blind to our true condition. We deceive ourselves. We lie to ourselves. We walk in the darkness, John says here in chapter 1. And he says, if left to ourselves, we would remain in this darkened and deceived condition.
John says, this is what John says we would do, chapter 1, verse 6, we would lie to ourselves. Chapter 1, verse 8, we would deceive ourselves about our true condition. Chapter 1, verse 10, we would make God a liar and deny our sin. And so John is teaching us that God's law is like a mirror, and it shows us, it reveals to us our sin. Through the preaching of God's law, the Spirit of truth makes us conscious of our sin.
This is why John says in chapter 1, verse 9, that those who are walking in the light, those who are in fellowship with God, Confess sin. They do not deny their sin. They acknowledge their sin. And so, John, in this way, is refuting those who have departed from the church. He's refuting their claim to know God and to have fellowship with God.
Because John says, when the truth is in us, and what is God's truth? It is His law and gospel. When the truth is in us, John says, we'll be confused. Conscious of our sin. We will have the knowledge of our sin.
We will feel our sin. But second, God's word not only consists of the law, but also of the gospel. This is why John goes on in chapter 2, verses 1 through 2, to give us the absolution of Christ through his propitiating work on the cross for us, for our sins. When the Spirit of Truth is in us, chapter 4, verse 6, the Spirit of Truth, John says, makes us conscious of our need of Christ's atonement for our sin. This is why J.I.
Packer, in his book, Keeping in Step with the Spirit, he says the Holy Spirit is like a hidden floodlight shining on the Savior. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, shines upon Christ through the gospel that is proclaimed to us and shows us that Christ is the solution to our guilt that we see from God's law. That's what John is talking about here. He says, when we're born into this world in sin, we are born in darkness. We cannot see where we're going.
We cannot make things out. But when the Spirit of truth puts the truth of God's word in us and we come into fellowship with God, all of a sudden the light bulb comes on and the objects in front of us that we couldn't see begin to illuminate. And we can begin to take baby steps and begin to walk. And as we walk, we begin to see things we never saw there before. And we go, oh, And you begin to have the knowledge of sin and the feeling of sin, and you're overwhelmed with your guilt.
Your defilement before God, John says. And Jesus, the blood of Jesus, he says, cleanses us from all of that. Because we don't just have the light of God's law working through the Spirit, but we have the Spirit working through the gospel to illuminate not just our sin, but to illuminate our Savior from all of it. And so John says there can be no claim to fellowship with God that denies sin and denies the need for Christ's atonement for sin, because to have God's word in us, His truth in us, means that the Holy Spirit of truth is working in us, using His Word. Two Illuminate our sin.
To show us our sin, to make us feel our sin. And we become humbled and we groan under the burden of our sins. But the Holy Spirit then also uses God's word to help us to see that we can flee to God's mercy in Christ. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 2. Listen to what John says, my little children.
Writing these things to you so that you may not sin. He says, and if anyone sins... If you've become consciously aware and humbled and grown under the burden of your sins, he says, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus. Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
He has exhausted God's wrath. And so the Spirit of truth leads us to find rest in nothing but God the Father's favorly love for us for Christ's sake. He says, we trust, chapter 1, verse 7, that the blood of Jesus, which is his death on the cross, cleanses us from all sin. We trust God, who is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We trust in Christ to be our advocate with the Father because Jesus is righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins.
He is righteous one. He is without sin. In him, there is no sin. And so he intercedes as our advocate. Sue it.
As we reflect this morning on John's third denial of those who have claimed fellowship with God and departed from the churches, there are two important lessons for us to think about as we finish. Here's the first. The first lesson that John teaches us is that to deny the reality of sin. It's to destroy fellowship with God in each other. It's quite obnoxious to live with a person who says they don't sin.
Yeah. You cannot have fellowship with people who say, I don't sin. Just try it. Yeah. But listen, sin is the great destroyer of fellowship with God and with one another.
And I know preaching on sin isn't popular today. Because We like to come to church and we like to be taught that we're just people who need some coaching and encouragement and to have some tips to have our best life now. That's not what John teaches here. He says, sin is the great destroyer of fellowship with God and with each other. Since Has destroyed the perfect fellowship that God has established in creation.
It has been destroyed. But second, John teaches us from this letter that Jesus' atoning death is central to having this fellowship with God restored. John teaches us that the heart of the gospel in the Christian life is the cross of Christ. He tells us that God offers the forgiveness and cleansing of our sins because of Christ's propitiation, his death on the cross, for us. Because of Christ's sacrifice for us, the fellowship that was lost and destroyed because of our sin is now restored.
And all the impediments that destroyed fellowship of God, our guilt and our defilement have been forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Christ. He says, Jesus' propitiation, his exhaustion, all wrath against us for sin forevermore, has satisfied all justice. And so all the impediments to fellowship with God and to fellowship with one another has been removed forever through the death of Jesus on the cross. Listen very carefully to this statement and what John is teaching. Remember, I want to come back to this.
What had the secessionists told the believers who remained in the churches? We have a special anointing so that we can now move beyond the gospel. And John, to assure these believers, is saying, no, no, no, no, no. If you truly have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth working in you, you don't move beyond the gospel, but deeper into it. This is Listen carefully.
This is always the danger in temptation. It is to move beyond the gospel proclaimed by the apostles. Two. Move beyond the gospel as the epicenter of the Christian message in life. Yes, yes, yes, I've heard the gospel.
Now just tell me, give me practical tips. I've actually had a person come to me and tell me, I no longer want to come to your church because week after week you preach the gospel to me, but you never tell me what to do. This is why John, in his letter, takes us to the heart of the gospel for assurance. John teaches us in this letter that we never move beyond the gospel proclaimed by the apostles who were eyewitnesses of this marvelous work. He says, What we do is continually avail ourselves of the gospel and keep it central in our daily lives because we never stop sinning.
Therefore, we never stop needing the gospel to be. Hear them out in our life. If we want to have assurance. We have to keep, as John does for us here, as he did for the readers, and he does for us. If we want to have assurance, we have to keep the gospel central.
Why? Because we sin every day, and so we have to have the assurance every day, every moment of every day, that God offers to us the forgiveness and cleansing for those sins. We have to have the assurance that the gospel, this good news that the gospel proclaims, that we are freed from our guilt, freed from our defilement. Think of. Just think over this past week.
Think of a sin that you committed in thought, word, or deed that you're ashamed of as you sit here right now. You have to have assurance that God doesn't hold that against you. That you're forgiven. You have to have the assurance that, as shameful as that sin might have been, you have been cleansed by the blood of Christ so that you are free from all guilt and shame. You can can't live the Christian life without that.
John is teaching us that the epicenter of the Christian life and faith is the atoning work of Jesus on the cross for our sins. We never leave it behind. We never go beyond it. We are freed from the guilt and defilement of our sins for Christ's sake, for His death on the cross. Period.
This and this alone restores us to fellowship with God and with one another. Because of his death for us on the cross, because he is our righteous advocate with the Father, right? And he is, John says, the propitiation for our sins. He says in verse 7 as we finish. The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us.
From who all sin? That's assurance. And if we leave it, there's no assurance. But John says, if we. Put our stake down there.
There's constant assurance for us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that We can freely confess our sins as we're about to do this morning. without any fear of judgment. Without without any caution light.
of reprisal by a judge. And we have this confidence solely because Christ's blood cleanses us from all our sin, because you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness for Jesus' sake, because Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, he is our advocate with the Father. Jesus is our confidence. As the other Hebrews say, as we enter into a new and living way by the blood of Christ. And so I pray that all of us here today will leave here with our hearts resting in the joy.
of Christ for us. For the forgiveness of all our sins, for the cleansing of all our sins, for the removal of all our debt, all our guilt, and all our defilement, so that all impediment to fellowship has been removed forevermore.
So, me with us now by your Holy Spirit of truth and guide us into assurance and confidence as we receive your visible gospel at your table. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Please subscribe if you haven't already for all our new episodes.
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