EPIC: High-Impact Truths in the New Testament – Part 18

and it's all about the high impact truths in the New Testament. You're not gonna be disappointed today. Today is one of my favorites. It's first John chapter one with a bonus. First John chapter one with a quick look at a couple of verses in chapter two. So we've got this big question, right? I mean, you know the infamous first John one nine. Oh my goodness, it has been hoisted up on a pedestal and presented to the religious world that yes, you are forgiven of all your sins but you need to confess to be forgiven of all your sins. Wait, what? Yes, a double take. You need to do a double take with that one because the religious world has been told yes, you are forgiven of all your sins but you will be forgiven if. You will be forgiven if you confess them. So then the logical question arises, what if I forget one? What if I leave one out? What if I fail to confess every sin? And this is why many have then invented the idea of the last rites, the last ritual. There you are on your deathbed, supposedly able to drum up all the leftover sins, supposedly able to recall all of your leftover failures that you didn't confess previously

and that if you just engage in this last rites or last rituals, then you will enter into eternity as a purified person because of your thorough confession. Do you see the logic? I mean, if you're forgiven because of your confession, then you better get busy. In fact, you're gonna need a supercomputer out of Washington to keep track of all the tens of thousands, millions. I've met some of you billions of sins that you've committed in your life, right? I mean, I'm joking around, but seriously, we got a math problem. We got a math problem when we've committed millions of sins and only confessed hundreds or thousands. If it's about your confession, you have no hope. If it's about your words and your apology, we have no hope. But if it's about the blood of Christ shed once for all, now that makes a whole lot of sense. And so first John 1-9 is there on a pedestal and we've got to decide something about it. It says, if we confess, he will forgive and cleanse us. So ask the logical question, who is this talking to? Who is it referring to? Who is John trying to reach? What is the issue? Is this really a bar of soap for Christians to get right and get cleansed on Monday and then Tuesday and then Wednesday? How would we ever reconcile this verse with others that tell us we are totally forgiven for all time?

Well, I'll tell you, the most popular view is to say that we are totally forgiven positionally. We are totally forgiven forensically. We are totally forgiven, patriarchally. And out comes all of this terminology to kind of relegate our forgiveness to some weird category of being true, but not really true. And then we're told that if we just do first John 1-9, the daily confession, then we can make it real in our experience, even though it's already true. Now the problem with this is that never, not one single time in the New Testament, are we told that there are two kinds of forgiveness. We are never told that we're forgiven positionally but not relationally. We are never told that God has a heavenly ledger and then an earthly ledger. We are never told that there are two truths that oppose each other. Let me be clear and state it plainly. If you're forgiven, then you're forgiven. If you're forgiven in God's vantage point, then God sees the truth and you're forgiven on earth also. Whatever is bound in heaven is bound on earth. Whatever is loosed in heaven is loosed on earth. Jesus declared this showing that the apostles had the authority to tell somebody if you have believed in Jesus, then you are loosed from your sins. If you have believed in Jesus Christ,

then you are forgiven once for all. Now, if that's true, then we've got some studying to do which we're gonna dive in right now to first John chapter one. As we begin this chapter, I want you to notice some Christmas words. Yeah, it's about that time of year. It's time for some Christmas words about the physicality of Jesus. We begin in verse one. He says, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes concerning the Word of life. And so, what we see here is that there is a radical message about God becoming man. There is a radical message about Jesus being physical. There's an incredible message that says fully God, fully man, that's what we celebrate at Christmas, right? We celebrate that Jesus became flesh. Now, why, I would ask you, why in a passage about forgiveness, why in a passage about confession, why in a passage about sin denial versus admitting your sin, why did these physical words come up? Why are they here? Well, it's interesting because they are not here by coincidence. John is fighting a heresy called Gnosticism, and the Gnostics believed two main things about Jesus and the gospel. Number one, they believed, get this, they believed Jesus was not physical.

They thought that he was very much like a projector beam, like in Star Wars or something, when Princess Leia appears in Obi-Wan, Kenobi is there watching, and Princess Leia says, "You're my only hope," and there's this little projector beam, a hologram. Well, that's what the Gnostics believed, that sort of thing about Jesus, because get this, if Jesus is God, then there's no way he's gonna take on this dirty flesh. If Jesus is God, there's no way he's gonna take on this human body that would be lowering himself. But look at what we celebrate at Christmas. At Christmas, we celebrate, he didn't lower himself, he willingly became one of us, born fully human and fully God. And so, John is defending the physicality of Jesus for a reason. The Gnostics were denying the physicality of Christ. Now, get this because it's really important. The second claim of the Gnostic was that there's no such thing as sin. And if there is, sin doesn't matter. Because, you know, lying and cheating and stealing and fornication and adultery, all that's just fleshy stuff. That just happens in the physical world. We are above that. We are spiritual. We are Gnostics. We have secret knowledge.

We, you see? And so, they are sin deniers. Now, notice the two heresies. Denying the physicality of Jesus. Denying the reality of sin, all right? Now, with that in mind, we see why he opens his chapter this way. Hey, hey, everybody, we touched him. Jesus, we heard him. We saw him. We touched him. We handled him. He was physical. That's why this is here. It's not coincidence. So, if you're following the logic of this, oh my goodness, it's gonna make so much sense. The first half of this chapter affirms the physicality of Christ. The second half of this chapter affirms the reality of sin. So he's talking to sin deniers. He's talking to Jesus in the flesh deniers. And when you realize that, then you go, oh, that's what he's doing. This is not about Christians needing to admit their sin every single day, every single second in order to be forgiven by God. He wants the sin deniers to come to their senses. And he wants the Jesus in the flesh deniers

to come to their senses. Why? Because then they can be saved and have fellowship with us. Even the fellowship here, you'll notice when we get into it, this is not about an in and out burger. This is not about in and out of fellowship with God. The fellowship is with us, he says. We want you sin deniers to have fellowship with us. All right, so let's keep going. Verse two, he says this, and the life was manifested and we have seen physical word and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. All right, I'm starting to get it. I'm seeing the physical words. It's making sense. John from verse one, right from the start is driving this home. Jesus was physical. I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved. I leaned up against him at the last supper. I rested my back on his back. He was physical. Don't you deny it. All right, verse three, he says, and what we have seen and heard, okay, we get it. so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ. We love you. We want you to have fellowship with us but right now

that's impossible because you're denying who Jesus is and you're denying that you have a sin problem. You can't be a Christian if you're denying that you have a sin problem and you're denying who Jesus is. In fact, you're acting anti-Christ, he says, elsewhere. Anyone who says Jesus didn't come in the flesh is anti-Christ. We love you. We want you to come to your senses. We want you to have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with Jesus and the Father and we don't know what your deal is but we're begging you just admit Jesus is physical and admit sin is a real problem and you need a Savior just like us. Now, hit the pause button for a side note. What have we done? We are taking an evangelistic appeal where John wants these people to get saved so that they can enter into Christ and enter into connection with other believers. We have taken a passage that is evangelistic and we have turned it into a bar of soap for Christians to get forgiven and cleansed. No, sir, no man. It's not what it's about. It's not its intention. It's not its context. And we'll see that as this continues to unfold. But lastly, John says, not just that we're writing you so you'll have fellowship, but we're also writing you these things, he says, verse four, so that our joy may be made complete. Man, nothing would jazz us more than if you would come to your senses. Nothing would please us more and excite us more than if you fellow Jews together with us in any Gentiles that anybody reading this because he died for the sins of the whole world, anybody reading this boy, it would please us to no end. If you would come to your senses, admit your sinfulness, call upon the Lord and be saved. And when you do, what is he? What's he going to do? He'll forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness, it's going to say in verse nine, all, not little by little, not Mondays, not Tuesday's afternoon failure. Every single sin past, present, future taken away once for all. All right, verse five, he says, this is the message that we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Are you might think this is trivial? I mean, who says there's darkness in God? I mean, why even bring this up, John? Whoever said that there's darkness in God? Well, here's where he's going. There's two teams, team light and team darkness, team God and team Satan, team believer and team unbeliever. And he's about to contrast light and darkness. Never the two will meet. That's really important as we keep on reading because he's going to talk about unbelievers who are walking around in the darkness. They're walking, but they're in darkness. And then he's going to talk about believers who are walking around. They're in the light. No, they don't perform perfectly, but they're in the light and there's no darkness in there. They're in the light. They're in Christ. All right,

with that in mind, watch him contrast two kinds of humans in the next few verses. Now, again, this is really important. He's not contrasting two kinds of Christians. He's contrasting two kinds of humans. And that's his whole point to differentiate the deceivers from the believers. Here we go. Verse six, if we, any one of us, if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. All right. So what is this person? Well, apparently this person's claiming to have fellowship with God, but they don't really. They're in the darkness. They're a deceiver. They're deceiving themselves. They're not practicing the truth. And they're really confusing other people because they're saying stuff like tell you, he was not physical. I've got fellowship with God. Let me tell you, let me shed some light on the true gospel. Sin, what sin? There's no such thing as sin. Let me tell you about the true gospel. See, you can do whatever you want in the flesh. It doesn't matter because we're up here. We're Gnostics. We got the secret knowledge. We're operating in the Spirit. So none of our decisions matter. Sin is not a problem. So you see in context that there are people who are claiming to have fellowship with God, but they are actually still dead, still in darkness, still in Adam, and they are denying the physicality of Christ and they are denying the reality of sin. All right. Now let's look at the other group because that's your team. That's the group you're in. That's the family you're a part of. Ready? Here we go in verse seven. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, what is true about us? We have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from how much? All sin. All right. Now I'm going to ask you, is this about trying to get fellowship with God every day? No. Who's the fellowship with in verse seven? Who's the fellowship with in verse seven? It's with each other because if you're in Christ, then you're connected. You're connected to the body. We're part of each other. I belong to you. You belong to me. We belong to each other. That's the body of Christ. So get this. If somebody is taking this passage and making it about a Christian who's in fellowship on Monday, but then they think a dirty thought and they're out of fellowship at 2.30 in the afternoon, then they got to do some confessing and repenting and asking and then they get back in fellowship by 3.30. That's pretty good. That's only an hour of being out and now they're back in. But wait a minute. 24 minutes later, they think a jealous thought and they entertain it. So they're out of fellowship again. What do they got to do? Well, they got to 1 John 1 9. They got to confess and ask and then they get back in. See, that is the most popular

interpretation of this passage and it's dead wrong. I'll tell you right now. It's dead wrong because number one, if that were true, where is this formula in any letter in the New Testament? The Galatians didn't know the formula. The Romans didn't get the memo. The Ephesians didn't hear about it. I guess everybody was just out of fellowship because they didn't get the notice. Or the simpler understanding is that in context, he is saying that there is a group of people who are called Christians and we are in the light and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and we have fellowship with each other. We're not trying to get it. We've got it and it's with each other, not God. That's true too. We have fellowship with God. But I'm saying, verse 7 is just a proclamation. It's an announcement that we are connected to each other. So the bouncing in and out, the in and out burger type theology, don't eat it because you're in. You're in. You're in Christ. You're in fellowship. And here's a zinger. If you're going to choose to sin, you'll have to sin while you're in fellowship with God. You mean he doesn't leave? No, he said, I'll never leave. You mean he doesn't forsake? No, he said, I'll never forsake. You mean I'm still in? Yeah, he said, nobody can snatch you out. So sin takes on a whole new look, doesn't it? Now you're taking Jesus with you. Now you're taking Jesus with you. He doesn't say, oh, you go over there and get your stuff together and I'll be over here. And when you're done cleaning yourself up, cleaning your life up, then you know what? I'll join you again for some fellowship. That's what people are saying essentially. Oh, you didn't lose your salvation, but you just fell out of fellowship. Oh, great. How do I get back in? 1 John 1 9. Well, what about all the sins I forgot about? I don't know. Well, you know, maybe, here's one. Maybe he forgets if you forget. Yeah, if you forgot about some sins, don't worry. He doesn't worry about those. Oh, so amnesia is the solution. I could just load up on Benadryl and have total amnesia. And then all my sins, if I forget, he forgets. Do you see? It's nonsense. Either Jesus took away your sins once for all, or Jesus We're bragging on Jesus. He'll never die again because it worked the first time. We're bragging on Christ. In fact, John even goes there. We'll see in a moment, John says, we've been forgiven past tense on account of his name. This is about his name. Folks, do you hear the passion? I know you hear me speaking in a firm manner because I'm convinced, but I am also speaking from the simple truth that the blood of Christ is better than the blood of animals. And if they only went once a year to get more forgiveness, why are we going once an hour?

The blood of Jesus is more powerful than the blood of bulls and goats. They had the day of atonement. We have the once for all. Jesus is greater, a greater high priest, a better covenant founded on better promises, a forgiveness that is once for all. All right, verse eight, he says, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Whoa, this sounds really familiar. He said something almost identical in verse six about people who are deceiving themselves, about people who don't have a clue about the truth, about people who are practicing a lie. Now he's talking again about him. If we, any one of us, say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Who's the truth? Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. You know where that's recorded in John's gospel. Jesus is the truth. Is Jesus in you? If Jesus is in you, then this verse is not about you. You're reading someone else's mail and that's illegal, but you're reading someone else's mail. So we got to call a spade a spade. He's talking to people who are saying, sin what sin? I have no sin. Sin what sin? I've never sinned and the truth is not in them. That is an unbeliever. What is the first step to becoming a Christian? Lord Jesus Christ, I am a sinner. These people won't say that. They're saying they have no sin. The unbelieving sin denier. All right. So what's the solution, John? You've presented the problem. What's the solution? Well, here it is. The infamous 1 John 1 9, which is a beautiful verse. It's evangelistic. Look, if we've been saying we have no sin, what's the solution? Confess our sins. Admit it. Admit our sinful state. Confess our sins. And then what will he do? He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not Tuesday at 2 30s unrighteousness. Not Wednesday at 4 o'clock. Not Friday night's unrighteousness. All. Confess that you do have sin. Stop saying you have no sin and Jesus will enter your life. He will indwell you, steal you with his spirit, causing you to be born again. And he will cleanse you of all. He brews 10 14 by one sacrifice. We've been made perfect for all time. Whoa. And guess what? Same author, same letter. We're going to see that total forgiveness as we close today from the same author and the same letter. He's going to talk to the believer, my little children. And he's going to say your sins have been forgiven. Not might, not could, not if you remember them all, have been forgiven. All right. Look at verse 10. He swings back to describe and urge these sin deniers once again. Verse 10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us." Now, if you're good at holding stuff in memory, I want you to hold this in memory. That this was addressed to someone who didn't have the word in them. Guess what's coming up? In chapter two, as we close out

today, you're going to see that Christians have the word in them. That's no coincidence. John is going to affirm that every Christian has the word implanted in them. So this is not about a believer. Here we go. So in chapter two, we're just going to take three or four minutes here as we close. Look at this powerful statement from the Apostle John. Oh my goodness, it just doesn't get any better. Verse 12, "I am writing to you, little children, because your sins, Is it in process? No, is it progressive? No, is it positional or relational or patriarchal or no? No, no, no, it's just a truth It's just truth Your sins have been forgiven if you're one of God's little children, which we are Then your sins have been taken away once for all same author same letter next chapter so simple Verse 13 I am writing to you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one I have written to you children because you know the father now in this verse. I just want to highlight the knowing It's almost like you do a double take and then eventually by the last verse. You'll do a triple take He's telling you, you know God. Listen to this. Please. He's telling you. You know God. You know the father You know the Lord. It's intuitive. It's heartfelt It is at the core of your being an intuitive knowledge of the father You don't know everything about theology. We don't know everything about the Bible. We're learning We're growing and true all that's great, but there is a knowing you do know him This is the new covenant folks the new covenant was they will all know me from the least to the greatest and I will remember their sins no more Which we're talking about today. They will all know me So next time somebody says well, you just need to know the Lord you say hang on a second I do know the Lord. I'm learning and growing, but I know the Lord. He lives in my heart It's intuitive. It's permanent They will all know me from the least to the greatest from the two-year-old the

Bible scholar at the seminary anybody who has understanding calls on the Lord receives Christ There's an intuitive heartfelt knowing of God All right, we finish with this What a glorious way to finish verse 14. I have written to you fathers because you know him Who was from the beginning? I have written to you young men because you are strong talking about strong in the Lord catch this last point and The word of God Abides in you and you have overcome the evil one Do you remember what I ask you to hold in memory? Because in 1 John 1 verse 10. He was addressing people who don't have the word in them Is that a Christian can't be because he's even telling the youngest Christians young men in the Lord He's telling the youngest believers that they have the word of God abiding in them The word is Jesus the truth is Jesus when John is addressing those who don't have the truth in them And don't have God's word in them. He is addressing the unbelieving sin denier Do you see it? Why is this important because the flip side is incredible You do have the word in you you do have the truth in you and you don't need any more forgiveness It is finished. Oh We can admit our wrongdoing and we should oh we turn from sin every single time because our heart hates it And you're not made for it turn from sin say no to sin But did the cross work or did the cross work? You don't turn and confess and ask to get Jesus to die again He died once he took away all your sins. He didn't leave any out He didn't wait for your apologies. He's not up in heaven with a clipboard You're not falling in and out of fellowship. You're in you're one with him forever clean cleansed and Close eternally. Let's give thanks father. We thank you for this truth Wow For you to do what you did meant you have confidence in your plan, which of course you should And your plan to make us clean and close your plan to take away our sins once for all how risky But then again, not so risky

Not so risky when you put your spirit in us Not so risky when you make us new not so risky when you give us a new heart that hates sin Father, we thank you for this gospel. It makes so much sense you remember no more, removed as far as the East is from the West. God, we thank you. Jesus, we brag on you in your name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]