12. Walking in the Lie vs Walking in the Truth p2

Walking in the Lie vs Walking in the Truth P2: The Christian’s Blessing

1 John 1:5-2:6 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

By way of a brief reminder, mainly for me lot to lose sight of the forest for the trees, John begins his introduction in the first 4 verses laying down the foundation of the incarnation and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He clearly asserts these truths as essentials of the faith. 1Jn 1:1-4  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—  (2)  the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—  (3)  that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.  (4)  And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

The John begins with the thesis statement of his letter in verse 5 “This is the message we have heard from him (Jesus) and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” The point is that if we want to have fellowship with the Father then we must come to Him as He is and not how we want Him to be, but we come to Him in all of His holiness, truth, and revelation. We must come to Him as He is revealed in Jesus. Everything He says is absolute truth and we must accept it as absolute truth. The rest of the letter is explaining what that looks like.

When we looked at verse 8 we saw the negative in a conditional statement. ‘If we’ meaning anyone, anywhere, anytime, no matter what their position or station in life may be, say we have no sin then the following statement is true, ‘we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’. We saw that deception is meant to cause harm to the target. We cannot even trust ourselves, since we ourselves are the target of this deception, to not do ourselves harm. (Jer 17:9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? The result of such self-deception is, in the words of A. W. Pink, “proves these to be destitute of a saving acquaintance with the Gospel.” Since there has been no saint that they were the subjects of sin, inwardly defiled and all their actions affected with it. David confessed I have sinned against the Lord. Paul said he was chief among sinners. If the Scriptures says that our heart is deceitful above all things, what hope is there of ever coming to salvation of our own accord? There is none. Therefore, implicit in this text is the work of God in our salvation. It is explicitly stated elsewhere in the Word of God.

1Th 1:4-5 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, (5) because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

1Pe 1:2-3  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.  (3)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

When we turn the negative of verse 8 to a positive, what does it say? If we say we have sin, we do not deceive ourselves, and truth is in us. Previously, walking in darkness is seen as in diametrical opposition to walking in the light, it is not only a theoretical denial of what God has said in His Word is true but a practical outworking of that denial in carrying out the deeds of the flesh in rebellion against Him. having fellowship with God and with His children. Having the truth in us is walking in the light, having fellowship with the Father and His Son and with the people of God. With the understanding that it is God who has ordained our salvation, Christ has secured our salvation in His atoning sacrifice, and the Spirit’s application to us we see verse 9 in light of the blessing of God upon us. There are 4 points in this text. There was no way to cover this verse without leaving much on the table. So I have chosen to cover one point today, which will be shorter than normal, the second point alone and the 3rd and 4rth point together. May God grant us ears to hear and hearts to understand what He has given us in His word.

1. The Blessing of Confession, 2. The Blessing of Christ – Faithful and Just, 3. The Blessing of Forgiveness of our Sins, 4. The Blessing of Cleansing from all Unrighteousness

General Observations

Like the previous verse this starts with a conditional ‘if’, meaning that upon fulfillment of the condition the implied then is assured. Forgiveness of sins is one of the assurances of salvation but there are conditions. The condition in this verse is to confess our sins. We read in other passages the conditions are faith and repentance. Mar 1:14-15  Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,  (15)  and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Does this mean that John is at odds with Jesus? No. Confession of sin is an integral part of repentance. The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote a treatise on repentance in which he lays out 6 key ingredients. 1) That we rightly perceive ourselves as sinners. 2) Sorrow over sin when we see it’s effect on ourselves, others, and on God. Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. This is a sorrow because sin is sinful not because it is painful. 3) Confession of sin 4) Shame of Sin 5) Hatred of Sin and 6) Turning from Sin. So, John was not as odds with Jesus over the conditions for salvation. If you will repent and believe, you will be saved. That is the free, general call of the gospel. Anyone, anywhere, can proclaim this truth at any time and not run afoul with sound doctrine. Let us now consider the first point.

I. The Blessing of Confession

You may be asking yourself how is confession of our sins a blessing? That is the question we want to answer but first let us define the term.

Defined - literally means to say the same thing as another and so to agree in one's statements with, to acknowledge, to admit the truth of (an accusation). Following are some other ways the Greek word translated confess in verse 9 is used.

(1) To commit oneself to do something for someone, to make a promise. The key here is if the speaker binds himself to his word and gives a solemn promise. (Acts 7:17, Mt 14:7) Act 7:17  “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt

(2) To share a common view or be of common mind about a matter, to agree Act 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge (or confess) them all.

(3) To confess or concede that something is factual or true, to admit. The opposite is to deny something is true. (Jn 1:20, 1Jn 1:9, Heb 11:13.

(4) To acknowledge or profess something, usually publicly. Rom 10:9  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I this verse a religious sense of making a statement of what one believes.

To summarize to confess our sins is to agree with God on 1) our sinful condition and 2) any and all actions that break the law of God. It is more than admission of sin it implies contrition and repentance. Another possible meaning, considering the usage of the word in other verses is that it is also a confessional statement. Just as Paul was lining out the differences between the Sadducees and Pharisees. Paul said the Pharisees acknowledge both. The NKJV translates our Greek word as confess, as in a doctrinal statement. Verse 8 there is a denial of sin, verse 9 responds with confession of sin.

If we reverse verse 9 and make it negative. If we do not confess our sins, He is not faithful and just to forgive us our sins and will not cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The reality is you are in darkness and walking in darkness. There is no one to rescue you from your sin, no one to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. We are not saying the God is faithful and just because He is. He just is not for you unless you repent and believe.

Does it mean that if the Christian doesn’t confess a sin, he/she doesn’t have forgiveness? No! Christ Jesus redeemed us from all of our sins at the cross. Our past sins, our present sins, and our future sins. And such is the nature of sin, sins of commission and sins of omission that we may commit sins in ignorance and not know to confess them. Christ has redeemed us from all of our sin. You may ask why is it necessary to ask forgiveness of sin? One, in the Lord’s prayer we have the example: Mat 6:9-13  Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  (10)  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  (11)  Give us this day our daily bread,  (12)  and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  (13)  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Confessing our sin is is a resubmission of ourselves under the right and righteous rule of our Lord God and re-establishing our break in the relationship. God has not broken with us, He is faithful even when we are unfaithful because He cannot deny Himself. It is for us.

How is this a blessing to confess our sins? What these texts say is that those who are walking darkness deny they have sin. They are liars and self-deceivers, and the truth is not in them. In this condition there can be no so revelation that they are now sinners and in need of salvation. There is no reasonable explanation, or Scripture that brings us to any other conclusion. This means that Someone else must break into their self-deception, there must be a change of heart in order for it to no longer be deceitful above all things and desperately sick. That is exactly the promise that is made by God.

Eze 36:26  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Keeping in mind confession is not just an admission of guilt but is true sorrow for sin and a necessary step in repentance; God has done a work in your heart. That general call to faith and repentance has been made effectual by God graciously giving you the very faith and repentance necessary for salvation in the mighty working of the Spirit. His gracious giving of those gifts are based upon His choice of you before the foundation of the world. The struggle you have with sin now is evidence of this mighty work of God. He has put His law in your mind and written it on the tablet of your hearts. Dear Christian, each confession of sin is a reaffirmation of your walking in the light as He is in the light and that the truth indeed is in you. Each confession of sin is a resubmission of ourselves under the right and righteous rule of our Lord God. Each confession of sin is an acknowledgement of our need for Christ and His shed blood on our behalf. And as Paul said in Phil 1:6 I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. This should also be our confidence as well.

May we all rejoice in the Lord as He has been pleased to cause us to walk in the light of His truth and recognizing we are sinners in need Jesus our Redeemer and Friend.