"These Things I Have Written... 1 John 1:5-10

Introduction

Have you ever said something with good intentions but it didn’t come out right? That’s me three or more times a day.

This happens all the time during church services.

Misquoted as, “psalms, hymns and spiritual thongs” while officiating one of my best friend’s wedding.

Here are 13 examples from real worship leaders over the years during a song or a prayer. They called it #worshipheresy

“To the God of treachery, all glory be, to the One who gave it all...”

I sang, “He cr*ps himself with light” during How Great is Our God. Mixed “wraps” and “crowns.” #worshipheresy

I sang, “I see a generation rising up to take their place with selfish faith.”

“The weight of all of Your shame, released when You came and gave up my life.” #worshipheresy

“Jesus, we thank You that the tomb is not empty.”

“Father, we thank You for rising from the dead.”

“Not because of what You’ve done, but because of who I am.”

“I thy great father and thou my true son,” during Be Thou My Vision. #worshipheresy

“I’d rather have silver than Jesus or gold.” #worshipheresy

I don’t think it counts, but I when sang “Never Let Go” by Matt Redman, I missed an entire verse and chorus by sneezing.

I picked soft music for a corporate prayer time that I later found out was the theme to “The Exorcist.”

“Jesus lay prostate on the ground.” #worshipheresy

“You are wonderful. And you’re never to be trusted.”

During Give Us Clean Hands I sang, “We turn our eyes TO evil things.”

During Give Us Clean Hands I sang, “We turn our eyes TO evil things.” #worshipheresy

“He is jealous for me, floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.”

I once asked a congregation to “Stand and worship us,” rather than “Stand and worship with us.”

Heard during an offering prayer, “Lord, we thank you that Jesus set a wonderful example for us while being a great American.”“God, you always change!” #worshipheresy

“Lord, align Your will with ours.” #worshipheresy

“Ashamed, I hear HIS mocking voice call out among the scoffers!” Sang that one loud and proud. #worshipheresy

Heard during an offering prayer, “Lord, we thank you that Jesus set a wonderful example for us while being a great American.”

“God, you always change!” #worshipheresy

Once heard a pastor say, “Please rise for the hymn of indecision.” #worshipheresy

I was trying to prime our church for the pre-chorus of God of This City and I emphatically yelled, “There is no God!” #ranouttatime

“Thou on my head in early youth didst smite”...actual lyric is “thou on my head in early youth didst smile.”

I once prayed for God to give a guy “aides.” When you say that word out loud, no one pays attention to the letter E.

“Lead us into temptation and deliver us in evil...” Speed praying should’ve never happened. #worshipheresy

“Marvelous sins of our loving Lord…”

“Sex is better, money is better than You, Jesus.”

I prayed, “We’re just trying to repay You for what You’ve done.”

Just caught myself singing “banana in the highest” to myself in the shower. Not quite right. Must be hungry this morning. #worshipheresy

Once heard a pastor say, “Please rise for the hymn of indecision.” #worshipheresy

“In every high and stormy gale, my anchor old within the whale.” #worshipheresy

“In every high and stormy gale, my anchor old within the whale.” #worshipheresy

“God, that you would decrease so that I may increase...” Yep...prayed that during worship once.

What is a heretic?

Heretic - A person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted.

Heretic - A person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted. (Proclaiming a lie as truth)

There is a difference between committing heresy without meaning it and doing it on purpose.

In the time of John’s writing, the Jewish Christians of the day had been labeled as heretics.

Their views on Jesus being the messiah had caused them to be labeled as people who were proclaiming a lie against God.

John wrote to encourage these believers in light of their developments. Instead of being heretics, they were actually preserving the truth of old. Jesus had been with God since before the world was formed. He entered their history and was tangible evidence of God’s love to people. Their belief in Him provided fellowship and joy with God the Father.

John continues his proclamation in verse 5.

1 John 1:5 NASB95

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

John was preaching a message that he had heard from Jesus. He did not make up this idea on his own. He’s not necessarily quoting any specific saying of Jesus, but rather summarizing the teaching of Jesus.

Message - promise

announce - declare with authority

There is no more comprehensive statement about the essential being of God than “God is light.”

This is a statement of the absolute nature of God. He is light in His very nature. This is not a metaphor. Light is immaterial, diffusive, pure, and glorious. Physically it represents glory, intellectually is truth, and morally it is holiness.

Light was the first manifestation of God in creation.

While is true to say that God is “the high and lofty One … he who lives for ever, whose name is holy”, he desires to be known by all and has revealed Himself.

There is no secrecy, no hiding in the shadows, or anything like that with God. No one can claim a relationship with Him without coming to full knowledge of truth itself.

The people standing against the Jewish Christians believed that their morality of sin was acceptable and fine according to their human made philosophy of life.

If God is also light in the sense of possessing an absolute moral perfection, their claim to know him despite their indifference to morality is seen to be nonsense.

Psalm 4:6 NASB95

Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?” Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!

Isaiah 60:1–2 NASB95

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. “For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.

Putting yourself in the light of the Lord according to His word gives you the ability to distinguish truth from lies (heresy).

In other words, you need to realize that the words said against Christianity are actually a boomerang. Every arrow shot in your direction is not meant in opposition to you as much as it is in opposition to God.

They don’t hate you. They hate the God that you serve and His son who saved you.

1 John 1:6–10 NASB95

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself 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 that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous 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.

John points out three religious heresies

John points out three heresies in the following verses that the church had to fight through.

1. “I can have fellowship with God while walking in habitual sin.”

The definition of the word Gnostic is about as easy to nail down as a flopping fish. It is derived from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “to know.” In the case of Gnosticism, what is “known” has shifted over the thousands of years since Gnosticism first reared its head during the formation and solidification of the early church.

Basically, the Gnostic believes in acquiring special, mystical knowledge as the means for salvation. According to Gnostic beliefs, there is a Great God that is good and perfect, but impersonal and unknowable.

Basically, the Gnostic believes in acquiring special, mystical knowledge as the means for salvation. According to Gnostic beliefs, there is a Great God that is good and perfect, but impersonal and unknowable.

They thought of the body as an envelope covering the human spirit. They believed that their soul could not be contaminated with the sin of the body.

If a person could become truly spiritual, they had progressed beyond the possibility of any defilement.

John said that if people walk in the darkness of error and sin, this is not possible. Since God is light, such claims are ludicrous.

“walk” literally means to walk about; indicating the habitual course of the life, outward and inward.

The phrase “and do not practice the truth” only occurs in John’s writings.

All walking in darkness is not doing of the truth.

There is a difference between walking in sin and struggling with sin. Walking in sin proclaims, “God is fine with this action because this is who I am.” Struggling with sin proclaims, “I’m not fine with my sin even though it still exists in me. I’m going to fight every day to honor God no matter what.”

Why do people come up with these resolutions in their life? I have done the same thing.

People wont come out and say it but our sinful hearts will try to think of ways that we can honor God and still do what we want to do.

When enough of these people come together in this idea, they will justify their actions in such a way that it will become the correct way of life even if it’s sinful.

John is clear. We don’t get to define what is right or wrong.

When we walk in the light, the presence of God in our life will build Godly centered community. Jesus’ death clears away the sin of those who believe in Him, which makes a relationship with God possible.

We will teach our children what honesty, integrity, and responsibility means. We won’t settle for the life our culture tells us is the reality and will learn to fear God and shun evil.

We won’t be afraid to honor God in the eyes of people because we know the truth.

Truth - “I can have fellowship with God when I confess my sins to Him.”

2. “Since I am a good person, I am not a sinner”

The Gnostics claimed that they were without sin.

Since they didn’t believe themselves to be sinners, they didn’t see why they would need Jesus. Whatever their outward conduct may be, there is no sin they inherited in their nature.

Heathen and pagan authors had little no concept of sin in their writings.

Instead of calling their actions sin, they would say that they “wandered in their understandings” or “the body was sinning instead of the soul”.

John claimed that anyone who believes in this way are deceiving themselves.

Literally means “lead ourselves astray”.

The truth - The whole Gospel

The person of Jesus Christ - He is the Truth, the perfect revelation of God. This truth can be recognized or rejected by men.

The truth is given to man by the Spirit and communicated to His spirit.

It is the spirit of truth as opposed to the spirit of error.

Last month, my family decided to fill out brackets for the NCAA tournament. The purpose is to pick 4 college basketball teams out of 64 other teams to advance to the final 4. Out of those 4 teams, you must choose who you think will be the NCAA national champion. Out of all the millions of brackets, no one picked a perfect sheet. What if we had to pick one person out of our group to fill out of a bracket and our lives depended on it?

Maybe I would chime in and tell you that I was qualified to do this. You would all stand behind me as I picked my teams wondering how things would turn out. As I start filling out my bracket, some of your eyebrows would raise when you saw me pick the University of North Texas to defeat UT, and then go on to beat Maryland, and than beat UK, and then DUKE. One of you might ask me, “what are you doing?” I would say, my brother goes to UNT and I really like the players on the team and the colors that they wear. I could never pick against my favorite.

One of you would snatch the bracket out of my hand, rip it up and say, “until you’re willing to pick teams that you aren’t a fan of, you can never be trusted with this.”

John told the people the same thing. “Until, you’re willing to admit that you sin is the problem in your life, you are walking down a path of destruction.”

The proper Christian attitude to sin is not to deny it but to admit it and then to receive the forgiveness which God has made possible and promises to us.

We are sinners by nature and practice.

Sin is a debt which God forgives and it’s a stain that he will remove.

The word faithful is applied to God as fulfilling His own promises.

Hebrews 10:23 NASB95

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

Forgive - send away, dismiss

The choice is the same for everyone that lives:

Walk in lawlessness, darkness, lovelessness, and selfishness

Confess and be forgiven.

Parents, your job is not to teach your children what is means to have a perfect marriage. Dads, you are not called to teach your children how to be a stud for a father. Mom’s, you are not called to be the perfect example of elegance and grace.

You are to teach your kids to fear God, confess their sins, and to be love and be loved by Jesus.

Truth - “Since I am a sinner, I can be forgiven by Jesus.”

3. “It is impossible for me to sin.”

This is the most blatant of the heresy. The people believed that they had superior enlightenment that rendered them incapable of sinning.

John is clear about this outbreak of sinful behavior. To say that we can’t sin to make God out to be liar. They were doing this deliberately with deluded thinking. This goes completely against the scriptures.

Psalm 14:3 NASB95

They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 NASB95

Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

Isaiah 53:6 NASB95

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

John declared sin to be universal and not something that anyone could back away from. When someone claimed to have not sinned, they were in essence, rejecting God’s statements about sinfulness and denying the need for Jesus’ sacrifice.

One day several years ago, my wife and I were at a restaurant, the waiter was being really ugly to us and our friends. I wrote and ugly note on the receipt and we left. I felt beyond proud of my actions until we walked out the door and I told my wife what I did. I wound up going back and apologizing later.

Guilt is an interesting motivator and it is an objective result of sin but it is not depravity.

Depravity - the innate corruption of human nature, due to original sin.

Guilt - a feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation.

Every sin is an offense against God as an act of opposition to His will.

Human nature responds to God with their guilt in one of two ways:

Have guilt without the depravity - “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Have depravity without the guilt - Verses 7-8 above. (These are the people John were talking about.)

What can we clearly see from this passage? The sinfulness of the world can be made out to be that there are people who are blaspheming the name of God and refuse to admit this fact.

Instead of dealing with their sin, their sin is dealing with them and they are turning into what our world has become.

This is a clear cut problem and it surrounds you and I daily.

Instead of blinding our eyes from this predicament, we must see the world for what it is.

“It is impossible for me to be holy without the blood of Jesus Christ.”

You don’t need to be afraid of the truth. There is nothing better.