1 John 2:1-6

I think we maybe too quickly read that and skip it like “Yeah but he doesn’t mean that,” no he does actually. Let’s sit with that for a moment. Repeat.

By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

Same as before, let’s not jolt into qualifying mode and lets just hear this for what it says.

It is true that you should be able to look at someone’s life direction, their walk, and that be your best evidence for whether or not they are a Christian, and it is also true that you should see it in your own life personally.

When God saved us, He did not do so simply to take us to heaven. He saved us that we might be conformed to His perfect image, that we might become like Jesus, that we might walk as he walked, that we might become obedient - Declared Holy. . .

Romans 8:29 (ESV)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Ephesians 1:4 (ESV)

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Colossians 1:22 (ESV)

he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

I am afraid that we have become so fearful of legalism, rightfully so, that we are afraid to say what John and the whole Bible says, the Christian life is a life of obedience. Now don’t cut off your ears and not listen to the rest of the passage and sermon, but that is true.

The FRUIT of the Spirit is love, joy . . . if you have that Spirit in you, you will produce those things. An apple tree produces apples, that’s how you know its an apple tree.

I like this phrase he uses later even better for our understanding: Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. This is a common metaphor in this book about the life of the Christian.

1 John 1:6–7 (ESV)

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.

Not a step or multiple steps, life direction.

There is a gas station at the end of our neighborhood, and Naomi and Coen and I like to walk there once a week or so and they spend their allowance on a snack and a drink, this past week, about halfway there, Coen had to pee. Now if you have had kids, you know that the amount of time you have after that statement is directly correlated to how old they are. When they are first potty trained, that statement of need to go gives you 36 seconds to have them on a toilet or in the grass, and I can tell you from personal experience that that 36 seconds doesn’t care if you’re in your living room or sitting in traffic on I85 in Atlanta, or trucking at 75 on the interstate in the middle of Oklahoma, you have 36 seconds to solve the problem. Alarms are going off, you’re throwing the kid over your shoulder and running or slowing down the car enough to chunk them into the grass so they dont mess up the carseat AGAIN. MAYBE, just Maybe, there was a time when you were just exhausted and nerves already shot when that kid alerted you to your 36 seconds and you told the kid, I just don’t care, we’ll hose you off when we get home.

For Coen, at this stage of life, we have about 4 minutes. . . so we walked into the woods a bit . . . after that, Naomi found something off on the other side of the road she wanted to show me so we walked over there a bit. . . now when we got home, and Ariel asked what we had been doing, and I say “We walked to the gas station.” Is that a lie? What if she said, “NUH UH, I SAW YOU GO TO THE RIGHT OFF THE ROAD A FEW STEPS AND ALSO TO THE LEFT OFF THE ROAD A FEW STEPS,” she’d be insane. Despite the detours, we walked to the gas station. That was our direction. We took steps in other ways. . .

1 John 3:9 ESV

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

There is a difference in sinning and making a practice of sinning.

In general, you should sin less than you used to. More aware . . .

In summing up this idea in the first 2 chapters, John Stott “ The claim to be a Christian (is here) stated in terms of knowing God, or walking in Christ, or being in the light, but invariably, if it is an authentic claim, it will show itself in a new life of obeying God: imitating Christ, loving our brothers and sisters. Without such moral authentication, the claim is seen to be bogus.”

Practical advice, instead of just looking at your fruit yourself, ask a couple people who know you well if they have seen growth in you, fruit in your life.

YOUR JOY LIES IN YOUR OBEDIENCE. If you know the bible, you shouldn’t be shocked that the less sin is in your own heart, you’re going to enjoy life more, the more joy you can have even amidst some pretty brutal circumstances.

Adrian Rogers said, “Study the Bible to know about God. Obey the Bible to really know God.”

You will Fail, Christ will Cover It

1 John 2:1–2 ESV

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.

Can’t think that John thinks you actually CAN not sin, remember what he JUST said!

1 John 1:8 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Not just, “If you happen to sin,” he has already said, HEY, YOU’RE A SINNER! If you pretend you aren’t, you’re a liar!

In fact, the defining characteristic of the one that walks in the light is that by way of the light, you see your sin more clearly and acknowledge it!

If you know what the Bible says about sin, you are in dire straights. Your sin is COSTLY, and because God is just, your sins must be paid for, and you will pay for them

Romans 2:5 ESV

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Ephesians 5:6 ESV

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

John 3:36 ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

. . . unless

He is the propitiation for our sins

1 Corinthians 15:3 (ESV) (Gospel, FIRST IMPORTANCE)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins

Romans 3:25 (ESV)

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Hebrews 2:17 ESV

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

PAYMENT FOR YOUR SINS. God as a Holy God cannot just say, well lets just pretend you aren’t a sinner, your sins are for heavier than you think they are, and far more costly, and God said someone must pay for these . . . and so he said I’ll pay it myself.

Mark 10:45 ESV

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

1 Corinthians 6:20 (ESV)

for you were bought with a price.

Romans 5:9 ESV

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

1 John 1:7 (ESV)

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.

Isaiah 53:5–6 (ESV)

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

You will fail, Christ covered it. Listen, hear me, shake off your numbness to this and hear me: Christ covered all your sin.

Just like in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan not only paid for the man to stay that night and for months after that, he also said and any other costs he accrues I will come back and pay for those also.

Universal in its scope - sins of the whole world

No one is beyond its reach, certainly you are not

Christ will Cover Your Sin . . . As your Righteous Advocate

1 John 2:1 (ESV)

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.

Because He is the Righteous ONE, He is able to be our advocate

Advocate - Defense Lawyer - one who speaks on behalf of the accused

(‌Adolph Deissmann provides references to these ancient texts, in which the paraklētos is consistently portrayed as an advocate: one who speaks on behalf of the accused)

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Revelation 12:10 ESV

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Zechariah 3:1 ESV

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

Job 1:11 ESV

But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

‌He is accusing you, and he has damning evidence.

Courtroom Scene

Judge - God

Prosecutor - Satan

Condemning Evidence being Presented - Our Sin

Law of God has been Broken

Sentence - Wages of Sin is Death

Defense Attorney - Jesus

His Plea - His perfect substitutionary death as payment (His argument is not that you are innocent, he cannot lie, he argues that he has paid for these sins already.)

Outcome - Our full acquittal

He’s never lost a case

Christianity is altogether different than any other view, here we have the wrath of God against sinful people, and the way it is appeased is BY the love of God THROUGH the gift of God.

Dear Christian, bring yourself back to God’s way of walking. Be killing your sin or it will be killing you.

Do you consider yourself a Christian, does the fruit of your life affirm that? Not perfection, but walking towards and behind Christ. Growing in the fruits of the Spirit. If it doesn’t, take this as your warning and heed it, repent and turn back.

If you aren’t a Christian, if you are in the darkness, the Lord commands you to repent, turn to the Lord, be baptized as the sign and seal of that faith. Let’s not wait another day.