WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.879 Amen, amen. You may be seated. Children, we are ready for Children's Church at this time. 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:13.060 You may make your way back to Miss Savannah there in the back. It is always a joy to see those kids 00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:17.839 running out the back and just having a wonderful time, but not only having a wonderful time, 00:00:18.219 --> 00:00:22.879 but diving into God's Word and learning more about who He is. I encourage you as parents, 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:27.820 if your kids are going out to Children's Church, that you ask them what they learned, because 00:00:27.820 --> 00:00:33.539 I can promise you each week they're learning more and more about who God is and who Christ is. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:41.280 Well, several months ago, I had a good friend in ministry tell me that he was concerned that there 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:45.600 were people in his church. In fact, he said the majority of people in his church, he said he 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:52.340 didn't feel like they were able to communicate and explain what it means to be a disciple of Christ. 00:00:52.939 --> 00:00:57.000 He said not only could they not really describe what it means to be a disciple of Christ, 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:02.520 that he was concerned that they wouldn't even really know what the characteristics of a disciple 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:07.560 means and what it means to be a part of this discipleship process. And while that spurred 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:13.200 something in me, I had already been thinking about and God was already working in my heart to develop a 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:20.599 discipleship pathway for our church. And that was the motivation that I needed to give this a sense 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:26.980 of urgency, to give this something, to bring this to the forefront of what we are focused on as a 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:34.260 church. And it quickly became the emphasis of my sabbatical. And I hope it becomes the focus 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:40.380 of everything that we do as a church. You see the great commission, it tells us to go and make 00:01:40.380 --> 00:01:47.340 disciples. And so if what we are commanded to do is to make disciples, then I think it's going to be 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:53.300 pretty important that we understand what that process looks like and what are some characteristics 00:01:53.299 --> 00:02:00.939 of a disciple of Jesus. And so what you see up here is kind of the preliminary workings of that getting 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:07.539 played out. As we began thinking about this, we started putting an emphasis on the characteristics of 00:02:07.539 --> 00:02:14.519 a disciple. And so we see that disciples know, they grow, they show, and they go. And one of the things that 00:02:14.519 --> 00:02:20.879 we're still working on thinking through is making one change to this. And that change is to add one word 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:28.019 to it. And that word is all. And so above each one of those disciples would be all. All disciples know. 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:34.219 All disciples grow. All disciples show when all disciples go. Because what we want us to understand 00:02:34.219 --> 00:02:41.300 is this discipleship process is not just something for certain believers. It's not just something for 00:02:41.300 --> 00:02:48.079 those believers that want to go the extra mile. But these are characteristics of every single believer, 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:53.920 of every single follower of Christ, that they understand these things. And so it is my hope and 00:02:53.920 --> 00:02:59.060 prayer that this will be something that becomes a part of everything we do. This is what we're going 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:04.840 to be focusing on over the next eight weeks as a church. But I hope and pray that it's something 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:11.820 that goes far beyond that. That we won't see it just simply as a short series that we go through, 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:17.980 but that it will become the heartbeat of our church. Because this is ultimately what God has called us to do. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:25.480 It's to make disciples. To grow in our relationship with Him. This idea of discipleship and the fact 00:03:25.480 --> 00:03:32.200 that we are all to be disciples, I hope and pray will be the DNA of everything that we do at this church. 00:03:32.480 --> 00:03:37.820 That it'll be something that we measure all the ministries that we do by. That it'll be something 00:03:37.820 --> 00:03:43.939 that just pours out of who we are. So this morning, as we look at the passage that we'll be in, 00:03:43.939 --> 00:03:51.280 in 1 John chapter 1, we're going to clearly see some truths in this passage. This truths that all 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:57.199 disciples should have a part of their life. And all disciples know that who God is, and in light of 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:02.759 who God is, they'll understand who we are. And understanding who we are, in light of who God is, will 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:10.199 lead us then to clearly see who Jesus is. And so we're going to be in 1 John chapter 1 for this. 00:04:10.199 --> 00:04:16.019 Now I realized that we, about three and a half years ago, spent about 10 weeks going through 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:21.639 1 John. We're not going to do that again. And in fact, as I was thinking about a way to kick this 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:27.319 series off, 1 John kept coming to my mind. And I kept pushing it out because I'm like, 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:31.360 we've already gone through that. We've already gone through that. And so as I was meeting with some 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:36.379 mentors of mine and some other people in the staff, actually Ken, who you saw a picture of earlier, 00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:42.000 he said, yeah, Brett, but here's the thing. Nobody's going to remember that. And I said, 00:04:42.579 --> 00:04:46.579 I said, Ken, you don't know much. You don't know that. Hopefully they will remember this. But 00:04:46.579 --> 00:04:54.240 I think sometimes it's important for us to not necessarily see something new, but to be reminded 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:58.860 of something that we already know. And so we're going to be going back and we're going to look 00:04:58.860 --> 00:05:02.800 through this with a little bit different lens, a little bit different application of how we're going 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:08.920 to see these things and understand it. And so if you have a copy of God's word, I want you to open 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:15.220 with me to 1 John chapter one. We're going to start in verse five. If you're having trouble, it's not 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:21.460 the gospel of John, but flip to the back, go to revelation and go back a few chapters and you will 00:05:21.460 --> 00:05:28.740 find 1 John there. But 1 John chapter one, starting in verse five, this is what the word of the Lord says. 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:58.720 It says, 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:26.740 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:34.780 we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins 00:06:34.780 --> 00:06:43.120 and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And so as we begin looking at this 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:48.220 passage today, and in light of understanding that, that all disciples, that disciples know some, 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:54.220 some truths, they know some things about God. What we're going to begin seeing is disciples know 00:06:54.220 --> 00:07:01.560 who God is. Disciples know who God is. Now, this obviously does not mean that once you're saved, 00:07:01.640 --> 00:07:08.060 that you'll have an all-encompassing knowledge of who God is, nor does it mean that if you've been a 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:15.460 follower of Christ, a faithful follower of Christ for 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, however many years, that you'll 00:07:15.460 --> 00:07:20.160 have an all-inclusive knowledge of who God is. That's arrogance. That's not what we're talking about here. 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:26.820 What we're talking about is there's some basic truths that all disciples understand and know 00:07:26.820 --> 00:07:34.240 about who God is. This passage, it tells us that this message, we have heard from him and we proclaim 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:45.040 to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. This affirmation about who God is almost 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:50.580 catches you by surprise. The author is trying to, John, he's trying to get us to understand this, 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:56.420 the significance of this. He says, this is the message we've heard from God and we proclaim it to 00:07:56.420 --> 00:08:03.920 you. We want you to understand this, that God is light and in him there is absolutely no sign of 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:13.439 darkness whatsoever. He's light. There is absolutely no darkness in him whatsoever. The idea of God being 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:19.980 light is something that we see throughout scripture in other places. But what John is doing right here is 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:27.439 he's offering us a contrasting scenario. He's painting two pictures. He says that light is the picture of 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:35.019 truth. It's the picture of knowledge. It's this picture of righteousness while darkness is the picture of 00:08:35.019 --> 00:08:41.860 falsehood. It's a picture of ignorance. It's a picture of sin. And so what John is saying right here, he says, 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:50.080 look, God is truth. He's knowledge. He's righteous. And in him there's no darkness at all. There's no 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:59.620 ignorance. There's no falsehood. There's no sin in him whatsoever. And so since God is light and in him there is 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:10.920 no hint of darkness anywhere, then we must conclude this, that darkness, that sin has no place in his presence. 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:17.959 Sin has absolutely no place in his presence. Now this is where it poses a problem for us. 00:09:18.699 --> 00:09:26.240 This is where we see the greatest problem plaguing humanity because all of us are sinners. And so what 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:34.459 this means is that because of our sin, there is no place in his presence. And because of this, the next 00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:41.840 truth that I want us to, for us to see that disciples understand is very important. Yes, we, we understand 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:50.060 all disciples, disciples know who God is, but we also disciples know who we are. We know who God is. And in 00:09:50.060 --> 00:09:57.420 light of who God is, we need a clear picture of who we are. So disciples know who God is and disciples know 00:09:57.419 --> 00:10:04.039 who we are. Well, the Bible tells us very clearly that we are sinners. Now it doesn't matter what, 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:09.599 what singer or what politician tries to convince you. Otherwise, most people aren't good. There's not 00:10:09.599 --> 00:10:15.360 that most people are good, but just a few bad apples. What we see is the fact that, that everyone 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:22.279 is a sinner. No matter what background you come from, everybody has this problem. In fact, Ephesians 2, 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:28.579 it tells us, it says that we are all dead in our trespasses. It doesn't say that we're pretty bad 00:10:28.579 --> 00:10:33.539 often. And if we get ourselves together, then maybe we can fix this problem. No, it says we're dead in 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:39.500 our trespasses. It says we're following the way that Satan wants us to follow. We're going down the path 00:10:39.500 --> 00:10:44.899 that he wants us to go down. And it tells us that we're objects of God's wrath, like everybody else. 00:10:45.439 --> 00:10:52.100 And so it paints this picture. Romans also paints this picture for us in Romans 3, where it tells us 00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:58.100 very clearly. It says, none is righteous. And if you didn't understand what none means, it says, no, 00:10:58.300 --> 00:11:06.159 not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside and together they have become 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:17.120 worthless. No one does good, not even one. And so disciples of Jesus, disciples of God, we have a clear 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:24.580 understanding of our condition before God and apart from Jesus. We are sinners. And one of the things 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:31.299 that this passage tells us very clearly here is that we are dishonest sinners. Now I know what you're 00:11:31.299 --> 00:11:36.659 thinking. You're probably thinking, well, Brett, is there such thing as an honest sinner? And so I want 00:11:36.659 --> 00:11:42.399 you to just hear me out here for a second. What I mean by dishonest sinners is that a lot of times we're 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:48.899 dishonest with ourselves about our sin. It says this in verse 6, chapter 1, verse 6, it says, 00:11:49.019 --> 00:11:56.259 if we have fellowship with him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:04.039 You see, people get really good at hiding their sin. People get really good at putting on a show and 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:11.159 anybody can act pretty good if enough people are watching them. And so what we see here is we often try 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:19.299 to minimize our sin. We downplay it and we just outright try and hide it. What this shows is very 00:12:19.299 --> 00:12:25.019 clearly is a lack of repentance. Now repentance is going to be something that we talk about pretty 00:12:25.019 --> 00:12:30.500 heavily for the remainder of this time that we have together because it's key to our understanding 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:37.539 of who God is. It's key to our understanding of who we are and what Jesus has done for us. 00:12:37.539 --> 00:12:46.599 In fact, when you look at Jesus's first proclamation in Mark 1 15, he says, repent and believe the gospel. 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:53.679 And then Peter in Acts chapter 2, he's just given this very compelling message to all of these 00:12:53.679 --> 00:13:00.059 people that are there to hear about who Jesus is and hear what he has to say. And people are 00:13:00.059 --> 00:13:04.519 convicted and they ask Peter, what are we going to do with this? What are we going to do about this 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:10.740 knowledge? And Peter tells him, he says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 00:13:10.740 --> 00:13:17.699 Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You see, repentance 00:13:17.699 --> 00:13:26.519 is always linked to our understanding of who we are and who Jesus is. What John is saying here is if you 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:33.679 can, you can say whatever you want to say about Jesus, but unless your life changes, you really don't 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:41.739 believe what the Bible says. You can say all of the right things, but unless your life changes, there's a good 00:13:41.739 --> 00:13:47.039 chance you don't really understand and believe what it is that you're saying. And this is what we mean by 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:53.279 disciples know. This is what we mean by disciples know, not just that there's a head knowledge, but that you're 00:13:53.279 --> 00:14:01.219 giving your life to this. But this is something that you're, you're banking on. You're, you're going all in on this 00:14:01.220 --> 00:14:08.860 knowledge of who God is and understanding who we are and who Jesus is. Jason and I had a similar 00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:14.139 professor. So we were talking about this, the, uh, actually a little while back, but one of the things 00:14:14.139 --> 00:14:20.019 that, uh, this professor, I think his name was Dr. Lierbach, if I remember the, who we had similar, but 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:26.399 Dr. Lierbach, he gave us this formula for what it means to show what you actually believe. And I've shared 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:32.740 this with you a number of times over the years, but this formula is very simple. Um, it's a, it's this, 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:40.720 it's your stated belief plus your actual practice will give you your actual belief. He says, if you 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:48.360 want to understand what you actually believe, then there's a very simple formula for this stated belief 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:53.460 plus actual practice will give you your actual belief. In other words, what he's saying, he says, 00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:58.200 you can say whatever you want to say. You can say whatever you want to say about Jesus. You can say 00:14:58.200 --> 00:15:03.379 that he's the, the son of God. You can say that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross 00:15:03.379 --> 00:15:08.460 for your sins. You can get all of those things, right? You can say that he is Lord of your life. 00:15:08.680 --> 00:15:13.900 You can say that he's your greatest treasure. You can say that you're following him with your life. 00:15:14.400 --> 00:15:19.960 But if you're not actually doing those things, if you're not actually showing that he is your 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:26.160 greatest treasure with your life, if you're not actually following him, then you call into question 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:32.240 whether or not you actually believe those things. Because it's not just a head knowledge that we're 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:37.940 talking about. We're not just talking about being able to get all of the answers right on the test. 00:15:38.180 --> 00:15:44.080 We're talking about, do we know this? Do we believe this? Are we giving our life to this? 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:50.920 This is what we're giving our life to, not just part of our life, but we're giving all of our life to 00:15:50.920 --> 00:15:58.080 this. Imagine that, that I was, imagine that I was having a premarital counseling session with a 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:04.139 couple and, and they come in and the man comes in and says, you know, I'm really just not that into 00:16:04.139 --> 00:16:08.780 you. You know, there's some aspects of you that I like. There's some things that I appreciate. You 00:16:08.780 --> 00:16:13.379 know, I appreciate that, that your dad has a lot of money and I appreciate, you know, all of those 00:16:13.379 --> 00:16:17.840 things that we're going to be provided for, but, but there's just some things that I'm just really not 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:24.080 into you about. Or imagine they come in and the, and the, the man says, you know what? You are going 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:29.620 to be my number one. You're going to be my number one, but I do like the company of, of some other 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:34.960 ladies as well. And so, and so while you're going to be my number one, there's going to be some other 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:40.840 people in our, that the, the, the ladies hopefully is going to say, absolutely not. I don't want to be 00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:47.460 number one. I want to be the only one in your life. Yet a lot of times, this is how we come to God. 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:54.580 This is how we come to Jesus as a, as a buffet line where we just come in and get what we want 00:16:54.580 --> 00:17:02.920 and leave the rest. But what we see is he is either Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all. John is making 00:17:02.920 --> 00:17:09.079 a very strong warning to his readers in this letter. If you claim to know Jesus and have a relationship 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:16.059 with him while we're living unrepentant lives, then this could be a very serious sign that we don't 00:17:16.059 --> 00:17:22.439 have a relationship with Jesus. Even if it's one area, you get, God, I'm giving you all of these other 00:17:22.439 --> 00:17:26.919 areas. And we start compartmentalizing, God, you can have this, you can have this, you can have this, 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:33.220 but, but, but not this over here. This is mine. You know, don't you have enough with all of those other 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:40.200 things. That's not what God is after. He didn't go to the cross for part of your life. He went to 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:47.200 the cross for all of you. And so we see all of our lives being given over to him. He is either Lord of 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:54.200 all, or he's not Lord at all. So, so don't be a dishonest sinner with your life and think, you know 00:17:54.200 --> 00:18:00.620 what? I'm going to claim to follow Christ, but I'm actually going to live for myself. But the next thing 00:18:00.619 --> 00:18:06.179 that we see in this is that, that there are those sinners that are in denial, these in denial 00:18:06.179 --> 00:18:11.699 sinners. And in this passage, we can still clearly see that there are obstinate sinners or sinners that 00:18:11.699 --> 00:18:20.259 are just in denial of who they are. In verse eight, it says, if we say we have no sin, it says we deceive 00:18:20.259 --> 00:18:27.619 ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:35.439 is not in us. Verse 10, it says, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the word is not 00:18:35.439 --> 00:18:43.359 in us. I think this is probably one of the biggest issues that we face when it comes to sharing the 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:50.199 gospel is that people are not willing to admit that they're sinners. We live in a day and time where we 00:18:50.199 --> 00:18:56.539 don't really understand sin very well, where we've tried to redefine it, where we've tried to make it 00:18:56.539 --> 00:19:01.879 something that is tame and okay to deal with, where we're trying to make it something that's respectable. 00:19:02.779 --> 00:19:08.579 One commentator noted though, he said, John is telling us that the only way that you're ever 00:19:08.579 --> 00:19:15.720 going to hear the words that you are forgiven one day is if you say the words, I am a sinner. 00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:23.680 We've got to understand in verse 10, right here, it says this, if we say we have not sinned, 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:29.840 we make him a liar and his word is not in us. We confess that we are, we understand who we are. 00:19:30.120 --> 00:19:37.960 We don't live in denial that we are not sinners. The issue that seems to be becoming more and more 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:44.740 prevalent today is this fact that we don't understand sin. People don't see themselves as 00:19:44.740 --> 00:19:53.019 sinners. There's a book written in 1973 titled, Whatever Became of Sin? And in this book, 00:19:53.019 --> 00:19:59.599 Carl Menninger, he notes some observations that he's seeing in 1973. Now I'm just going to go ahead 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:05.139 and tell you that he's making these observations in 1973. It's not a whole lot better. I think these 00:20:05.139 --> 00:20:12.359 same observations can be made here in 2026 as well. But he says this, he says the very word sin, 00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:21.680 which seems to have disappeared, was once a proud word. It was once a strong word, a serious word, 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:29.720 but the word went away. It almost disappeared. The word along with the notion. Why? He said, 00:20:29.779 --> 00:20:37.259 doesn't anyone sin anymore? Doesn't anyone believe in sin? Again, he wrote those words in 1973 and I 00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:44.440 believe they are still very true for us today. In fact, D.A. Carson commented that the most frustrating 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:53.120 aspect of doing evangelism in universities is the fact that students generally have no idea of sin. 00:20:53.480 --> 00:21:03.360 He said, they know how to sin well enough, but they have no idea what constitutes sin. This is one of the 00:21:03.360 --> 00:21:09.940 biggest challenges that we face today. No one wants to admit that they are sinners. You won't get clarity 00:21:09.940 --> 00:21:17.940 from politicians on it or entertainers. In fact, the only way to truly understand the gravity of the word 00:21:17.940 --> 00:21:28.559 and the gravity of sin is by looking at God's word. You see, our sin, if properly understood, drives us to 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:36.779 the gospel. Our sin, if properly understood, it drives us to the gospel. And our sin, if properly understood, 00:21:36.779 --> 00:21:45.319 drives us as believers deeper into the gospel. It doesn't just drive us to the gospel. We as believers, 00:21:45.500 --> 00:21:51.119 if we understand it, it will drive us deeper into the gospel the more that we grow in our relationship 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:58.519 with God. Without knowledge of sin, we don't see a need for a savior. Without understanding that we have 00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:04.759 this problem, we don't need a solution to the problem. Without understanding our sin is a big deal, 00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:11.339 we're not going to look to Jesus on the cross and think that it was necessary. With a low view of sin, 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:18.599 we are going to have a very low view of grace. But this is not just for people who never attend church. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:24.500 It's not just for people who are not actively in anything that has anything to do with religion. 00:22:25.140 --> 00:22:32.079 This is for religious people. This is for believers who are growing, who put on a good show on the 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:37.139 outside and everyone thinks that they are great and wonderful. And they probably think they're great 00:22:37.139 --> 00:22:46.759 and wonderful as well. You see, closeness with God makes us more aware of our sin. The closer we are 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:53.859 with God, the more aware we are of our sin. I love how Paul says it in 1 Timothy 1. He says, 00:22:53.859 --> 00:23:02.219 the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 00:23:02.219 --> 00:23:10.679 sinners. And then he says this, of whom I am the foremost. Or in other translations, of whom I'm the chief 00:23:10.679 --> 00:23:18.519 of sinners. I am the foremost of sinners. I am the greatest sinner. Now, are there people who have lived 00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:23.259 during this time that Paul's writing this that probably had more sin in their lives if you just 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:30.460 measured all of the times that probably so? But what Paul is saying, he says, look, the more that I grow 00:23:30.460 --> 00:23:36.559 in my relationship with Christ, the more that I understand who he is, the more aware of sin I am in 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:43.420 my life, the more I see the need to put it to death, to get rid of it. What I'm saying is that you could 00:23:43.420 --> 00:23:49.900 have grown up in the church your whole life and never really understood God's grace or God's 00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:57.620 forgiveness because you've never really seen your sin as a big deal. And that's hard to wrap our minds 00:23:57.620 --> 00:24:04.259 around because what we're saying is that you could have grown up in church your entire life. You could 00:24:04.259 --> 00:24:09.140 have been around people who've talked about God's forgiveness and God's grace and all of those things, 00:24:09.140 --> 00:24:15.940 but you've never really seen yourself as a sinner. You've never really seen yourself in need of God's 00:24:15.940 --> 00:24:22.520 grace. And so what we must do is we must understand who God is and who we are in light of that. 00:24:23.980 --> 00:24:30.240 We don't compare ourselves with others around us. We don't say I'm better than most and so that must 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:38.460 mean I'm good. We say I am a sinner and I need God. Actually, that attitude of comparing yourself to 00:24:38.460 --> 00:24:43.440 everyone may be evidence that you've never actually had a relationship with God, that you've never 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:48.220 really understood that need because all you're doing is looking around and say, well, at least I didn't do 00:24:48.220 --> 00:24:53.840 this. At least I didn't do that. I must be good because look at all these other people that are good 00:24:53.840 --> 00:25:01.920 and I'm better than that. We've got to stop comparing ourselves to other people and understand 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:10.680 our desperate need. If your sin doesn't drive you to the gospel or deeper into it, then you may not 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:17.340 understand the gravity of it. And so the final way that I want us to see us as sinners is this, 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:25.080 is that we are sinners saved by grace. We are sinners saved by grace. It makes it very clear here. 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:32.059 Verse 7, it says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one 00:25:32.059 --> 00:25:41.559 another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. Verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:48.579 he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 00:25:48.579 --> 00:25:55.159 And so, yes, we see ourselves as sinners. We understand that very clearly. And in light of 00:25:55.159 --> 00:26:01.539 who God is and the fact that he is light and in him, there's no darkness, that sin separates us 00:26:01.539 --> 00:26:08.960 from God. But we see that we have hope in this, that we are sinners saved by grace, which is all of 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:18.119 this is leading us and pointing us to the truth that we as disciples know who Jesus is. So as 00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:25.819 disciples, we know who God is, we know who we are in light of who God is. But all of this is pointing us 00:26:25.819 --> 00:26:34.339 to know who Jesus is. Disciples know who Jesus is. It says, my little children, I am writing these things 00:26:34.339 --> 00:26:43.019 to you that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, which we all do, we have an advocate with the father, 00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:52.500 Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the 00:26:52.500 --> 00:27:01.680 sins of the whole world. He is our advocate. This is who Jesus is. The same word John uses here 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:08.980 is the word that he uses in his gospel to describe the Holy Spirit being our helper. The word refers to 00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:16.180 one who is an intercessor or a mediator, one who might help with a legal issue or help us gain access 00:27:16.180 --> 00:27:24.039 for another to a prominent person. He may help us gain access to a prominent person. And for this 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:30.680 example, he's helping us gain access. He's the only way for us to gain access to the father. The fact that 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:39.580 we need an advocate is a reminder that sin separates us from God, but we have an advocate, which means 00:27:39.580 --> 00:27:46.539 when we sin, we are not driven to despair. When we sin, we're not thinking, well, I have just messed 00:27:46.539 --> 00:27:54.440 everything up again. But as awful as sin is, we have an intercessor to help us deal with the fact 00:27:54.440 --> 00:28:01.500 and keep us close to God. We have an advocate. And the way that this is possible is highlighted 00:28:01.500 --> 00:28:07.480 in this next verse right here. It says, he is our propitiation. Now, some of your translations here 00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:13.519 may read, he is our expiation or he is our atoning sacrifice. And these words and these translations are 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:19.720 really helpful. It's helpful for us to understanding what he's trying to communicate. Like expiation, 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:27.000 propitiation in part is the removal of sins. They're covered those sins. However, propitiation 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:34.819 also carries with it that this is done by taking on God's wrath, by paying for the removal with his 00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:40.539 blood. It's not just that our sins are covered. It's just not that they're hidden or taken away, 00:28:40.660 --> 00:28:48.059 but they're dealt with. They're done. Jesus dealt with it on the cross. We see this being played out 00:28:48.059 --> 00:28:55.419 in 2 Corinthians 5, where it says, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we 00:28:55.419 --> 00:29:05.240 might become the righteousness of God. For our sake, for our benefit, he made Jesus become sin. The one who 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:12.619 knew no sin, the one who had no sin, he made him become sin so that he could make that sacrifice for us. 00:29:12.619 --> 00:29:20.099 He made the righteous one become sin so that we could be given his righteousness. And then also in 00:29:20.099 --> 00:29:29.699 Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Christ redeemed us 00:29:29.699 --> 00:29:37.839 from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. And so he took on all of those things that we read 00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:43.659 about in Ephesians 2, that we are objects of God's wrath, that we're following the way that Satan wants 00:29:43.659 --> 00:29:50.099 to go. He took all of those things on himself. He became the curse for us so that we could have a 00:29:50.099 --> 00:29:58.419 relationship with the Father. In light of all of this, of who God is, who we are, who Jesus is, 00:29:58.839 --> 00:30:04.899 John is saying, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 00:30:04.900 --> 00:30:12.700 You see, sin is like mildew. It thrives in the darkness. It grows in the darkness, 00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:20.800 but you expose it to the sun and it goes away. You bring sin into the light and it exposes it. 00:30:21.620 --> 00:30:26.240 Now the process of this repentance that we're talking about, you know, we, I'm writing these 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:32.220 things to you so that you may not sin. This process of repentance is not always easy. In fact, 00:30:32.220 --> 00:30:39.220 I would say that it rarely is. C.S. Lewis once said, he said, fallen man is not simply an imperfect 00:30:39.220 --> 00:30:47.980 creature who needs improvement. He is a rebel who must lay down his arms. This process of surrender, 00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:56.539 this movement full speed astern is what Christians call repentance. He says, now repentance is no fun at 00:30:56.539 --> 00:31:02.339 all. It's something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means killing part of yourself, 00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:09.500 undergoing a kind of death. Now, I don't know about you and your household right now, if you have 00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:15.500 any kids to get ready each morning, but I've got three kids to wake up and get out the door to school 00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:23.359 each and every day. Now their favorite part of the day is when I walk into their room, the lights are off, 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:28.979 they're sound asleep, and they love it when I come in and I flip on that light and say, all right, time to get up. 00:31:29.099 --> 00:31:36.000 It's their favorite part of the day. Now they just love it so much. Oh, daddy, thank you so much for turning 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:41.500 this light on. My was used to the darkness, but thank you for turning this light on. No, they don't ever do that. 00:31:42.019 --> 00:31:45.859 They act like they're Superman. I just threw kryptonite on them. Oh, what are you doing, dad? 00:31:46.099 --> 00:31:51.539 And sometimes they even get up and will go turn the light off and get back in the bed. Does anybody else's kids do that 00:31:51.539 --> 00:31:57.440 or is it just mine? They don't like it because they're used to the darkness. They've gotten 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:04.119 accustomed to it. They're living it and this is what they enjoy. You see, when our sin is brought 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:11.700 into the light by God and his word, it can be painful. Our knee-jerk reaction may be to try and 00:32:11.700 --> 00:32:18.680 pull away from it, or we may start getting very defensive and say, I'm really not that bad, 00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:25.560 especially compared to everybody else around me. I'm pretty good, but that's not the standard we're 00:32:25.560 --> 00:32:33.460 going for. It says God is light and in him there is no darkness, or hopefully we will look at our sin 00:32:33.460 --> 00:32:43.100 exposed by the light and it will point us to our savior who became a curse for us, who became sin so 00:32:43.099 --> 00:32:48.419 that we could have his righteousness so that we who have placed our faith and our trust in him will 00:32:48.419 --> 00:32:55.259 never have to be that curse. If you've been saved from something horrible, if you've been saved from 00:32:55.259 --> 00:33:02.719 something terrible, why would you want to go back to it? Why would you want to turn away from that savior 00:33:02.719 --> 00:33:09.480 and go back to living for that horrible thing? You see, disciples know Jesus and they want to be 00:33:09.480 --> 00:33:16.599 like Jesus. They know him, they want to be like him, and this repentance is a part of that. 00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:24.900 And closely related to that is the word revival. You know, I think that all of us as believers, 00:33:25.120 --> 00:33:31.640 we long for revival. If we are following Christ, if we're giving our life to him, this is something 00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:38.660 that we want to see. And in fact, part of my heart behind wanting to put this emphasis on 00:33:38.660 --> 00:33:45.140 discipleship and the fact that we are all disciples is because we want to see revival take place. 00:33:45.500 --> 00:33:51.340 We want to see lives changed in this church. We want to see lives changed around our community. We 00:33:51.340 --> 00:33:57.779 want to see this take place. But one of the things that we know from church history, one of the things 00:33:57.779 --> 00:34:02.740 that we know about the different revivals that have taken place, one of the key characteristics, 00:34:02.740 --> 00:34:11.179 and I would say is probably the main characteristic, or at least the fruit of revival, is repentance from 00:34:11.179 --> 00:34:18.840 sin. One pastor that I was reading talking about revival, he said this, some so-called revivals have 00:34:18.840 --> 00:34:27.019 been characterized by exotic experiences without much emphasis on repentance. All about a show, 00:34:27.019 --> 00:34:34.420 all about this experience without actual repentance taking place. He said people go like tourists to 00:34:34.420 --> 00:34:42.539 such places to see what is happening. I wonder whether you could call that revival. He said after the 00:34:42.539 --> 00:34:50.179 revival at Asbury College and Seminary in 1971, he said many students came to the bookstore to return 00:34:50.179 --> 00:34:56.920 things that they had taken without paying. He said that is a powerful sign that they had become 00:34:56.920 --> 00:35:03.559 right with God. That is a powerful sign of revival taking place because of the repentance that you're 00:35:03.559 --> 00:35:12.380 seeing. If we are to be disciples, it is clear that there are some truths that we know and believe. We know who God 00:35:12.380 --> 00:35:21.099 is. We know who we are in light of that. We know what Jesus has done for us. In short, we know the gospel. 00:35:21.099 --> 00:35:30.319 Disciples of Jesus, disciples, all disciples know the gospel. And it is my hope and prayer that as a church, 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:38.119 we want to see God move in mighty ways. We want to see God move in this church. We want to see revival 00:35:38.119 --> 00:35:45.599 taking place. We want to see disciples growing. And one thing that we all see as clear evidence to God 00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:55.139 working is repentance. One clear way to show our understanding of who God is, who we are in light 00:35:55.139 --> 00:36:04.319 of who God is, and what Jesus has done for us is repentance. He says, my little children, I am writing 00:36:04.319 --> 00:36:11.619 these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does, we have an advocate with the Father, 00:36:11.619 --> 00:36:18.739 Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours only, but also 00:36:18.739 --> 00:36:24.659 for the sins of the whole world. I don't know where you are in your relationship with God right now, 00:36:24.739 --> 00:36:33.819 but I do know that all disciples know God. They know who God is. They know who they are in light of 00:36:33.819 --> 00:36:41.319 who God is. And they know Jesus is their only hope. They know Jesus is the only answer. 00:36:41.619 --> 00:36:47.639 They know the gospel message. And so if you are here today and you realize that you need a Savior, 00:36:48.839 --> 00:36:55.279 then today can be the day that Jesus becomes your advocate. Today can be the day that you begin this 00:36:55.279 --> 00:37:02.679 process of discipleship, that you can understand that as your advocate, Jesus is arguing our innocence. 00:37:02.739 --> 00:37:09.039 He is arguing his propitiation. He's arguing that it was sufficient for you and for me and not only for 00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:14.000 us, but for the sins of the whole world, for all of those who place their faith and their trust in him. 00:37:14.320 --> 00:37:21.440 His payment, his satisfying of God's wrath is enough. This hope is offered to you today 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:29.159 if you've never received it. But he's also from this passage showing that disciples understand the gospel 00:37:29.159 --> 00:37:36.559 and they live a life of repentance. This does not mean that you're perfect, but as believers, 00:37:36.779 --> 00:37:43.559 as disciples, we should be seeking to put sin to death in our life. It shouldn't be something that 00:37:43.559 --> 00:37:48.659 we get comfortable with. We're not looking around at everybody else around us and saying, well, at least 00:37:48.659 --> 00:37:53.339 I'm not that bad. At least I'm not doing this thing over here. I'm not as bad as I could be. And so 00:37:53.340 --> 00:37:59.920 compared to everybody else, I'm pretty good. No, we understand that we are living a life of repentance. 00:38:01.059 --> 00:38:07.000 Maybe you need to give your life to Jesus. Maybe you need to take sin seriously and start repenting. 00:38:07.500 --> 00:38:11.740 Maybe you have some sin in your life that you need to deal with, that you need to get rid of, 00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:17.280 that nobody else knows, but you need to get rid of it. It needs to be dealt with. Maybe you need to 00:38:17.280 --> 00:38:22.420 stay seated right where you are in just a moment when Clay's singing. Maybe you need to take your spouse 00:38:22.420 --> 00:38:27.619 or your kids by the hand and just pray right where you are. Maybe you want to take another step and 00:38:27.619 --> 00:38:34.159 come forward and pray right here in the front and say, Lord, I need to deal with this in my life. 00:38:34.780 --> 00:38:40.920 Maybe you need to come forward and say, Lord, I need you. Whatever the case may be, whatever God is 00:38:40.920 --> 00:38:47.220 leading to you, I encourage you this morning to listen to him and to follow him. Let's go to the Lord in 00:38:47.219 --> 00:38:55.679 prayer. Father, thank you. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for what he's accomplished on our behalf. 00:38:56.439 --> 00:39:03.819 But Lord, help us to see that clearly today by first understanding who you are, that you are light, 00:39:04.059 --> 00:39:12.159 that there is no darkness in you, that there is no sin in you. And Lord, our sin poses a problem for us. 00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:20.219 Lord, help us to all clearly see that we're sinners in need of a savior and let that sin point us to you. 00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:27.359 And so, Lord, I pray that there's somebody here today, whether this is their first time or this 00:39:27.359 --> 00:39:36.359 is their thousandth time, Lord, that they see their sin clearly, that they see their sin as pointing to 00:39:36.360 --> 00:39:43.400 the gospel, pointing to their need for someone to act on our behalf. And so, Lord, we thank you. 00:39:43.880 --> 00:39:50.400 We thank you for Jesus, the fact that he became a curse to redeem us from the curse. He became a curse 00:39:50.400 --> 00:39:58.260 for us. And so, Lord, help us to see you clearly today. Help us to clearly see the hope that we only 00:39:58.260 --> 00:40:06.560 can have in you. And so, Lord, as we see you clearly, help that sin to be brought into the light. 00:40:07.520 --> 00:40:12.280 Help that sin to be something that we are trying to bring out and to put to death in our life. We 00:40:12.280 --> 00:40:18.220 realize that you accomplished this once and for all on the cross, that when you look at us, you don't 00:40:18.220 --> 00:40:24.400 see our sin, our shame, our regret, but you see your son's holy and perfect life. And so, Lord, help us 00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:31.280 to become what you've already declared us to be. Help us to put that sin to death in our lives so that 00:40:31.280 --> 00:40:38.960 we can more clearly see you and live for you in all that we say and do. We ask all this in Jesus' name. 00:40:39.280 --> 00:40:45.619 Amen. I'm going to invite you to stand. If God is speaking to you this morning, my hope and prayer 00:40:45.619 --> 00:40:49.200 is that you're willing to be obedient to what he's calling you to do.