We got through chapter 1. So this week we're going to
start back in chapter 1 because we're actually going to be we're
going to start in verse 8 just to do some review in chapter 1.
And so we'll just start real quick.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves in the
truth. Oh, sorry.
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 that we have not
sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in US.
My little children, these things I write to you so that you may
not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He
Himself is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the whole world. And dear Lord, I just thank you
for tonight and I thank you for how big you are and how in
control you are, Lord. And I thank you for your word.
Thank you for everybody here, Lord, that you'd filled with
your spirit, that you'd guide and direct us, Lord, that you'd
be speaking tonight, Lord, that I just get out of the way.
And I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
So we went back to verse 8 just because it's really we're only
going to get through those first 2 verses in chapter 2.
But to get it some context. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US and that
we're going to go through a bunch of just the Margie would
mention it that you know, just that the different teachings
that people come up with and this is one of those John is
bringing up that there there's two sides he could be he he's
pointing out from both sides of the aisle.
Some say in Christ, nothing is sin.
That's the I can do all things crowd and then others say in
Christ, my sin nature is dead and that's the and therefore I
can't sin crowd, right? Either I'm perfect or I can do
anything. And neither one of those is what
John's saying, right? He's saying if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US, right?
We're we still have sin. John is reminding us that Christ
that we are free from sin, but our free will can and does reach
out of the light and sin, right? And Paul, Paul completely agrees
with that in Romans 323 and and really I'm going to call out
who's writing it, but we all know that the Holy Spirit wrote
it. But 323 for all sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. And John reminds us in verse 9
to just keep short accounts right that that that if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. And then verse 9, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So what I love about and just well, what I love about God is
as you're as you're digging into his word and you just get to see
him that he he is the same today, yesterday and forever,
right. David back in Psalm 32 writes, I
acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity.
I have not hidden I said I I will confess my transgression to
the Lord and you forgave me, forgave the iniquity of my sin.
So it's really we a lot of times we think, and this is both David
and John saying it. We, we think there's, there's
the ability to hide our sin. Like I'm not going to confess it
because I, I, I feel guilty, but I don't want to talk to God
about it. Well, he already sees you.
He already knows about it, right?
It's, it's that moment in the garden when, when Adam is hiding
from God. Was he ever actually hiding?
When God said, Adam, where are you?
You knew where they were, right? But Adam needed to come out.
And, and in this, in the, in the David part, there's, there's two
types of sin. There's iniquity and
transgression, which iniquity is like bent.
It means bent or twisted, corrupt, the idea of aiming to
do good and then missing. So think of David and David
sleeping with Bathsheba, which is he fell short, he was tempted
and he failed, right. But then transgression is like
like rebellion or or violating. And there you can, you can
picture David ignoring God and having Elijah or Uriah killed.
And I always, I always picture David going La La La La La La
right? I'm not listening God right?
And Uriah's name means light of the Lord.
And if you guys can imagine the neon light that Uriah was
shining on David's sin when David had slept with Uriah's
wife and Uriah wouldn't sleep with his own wife.
The sin was being announced and David was definitely ignoring
it, right? So it's that's that's
transgression. But David said God Forgives both
of those right and and you got to remember that's before Jesus.
So how does that work? How does David how did how is
how are we to know this right? Colossians 126 says the mystery
which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now
has been revealed to his Saints to them God will to make known
what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory and that hope
of glory is what is what the all the all the pre Incarnate Jesus
people had right They they didn't know how it worked.
They just knew it worked. They they knew who they were
supposed to honor. And as I as I have here, David
didn't know how God would do it. He just knew he would.
And there there's that faith in that right.
So Paul goes on in Romans 324 and says being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by by his blood
through faith to demonstrate his righteousness.
Because his forbearance, God had passed over sins that were
previously committed to demonstrate at this present time
his righteousness and he might just be sorry.
He might be just and the justifier of one who has faith
in Jesus. And that is a lot to look at one
word that is this. This is really fun guys.
Propitiation here is he la stay rayon, which I mutilated, but
that's the best I can do and it means mercy seat.
And and that's what we what we very often when we talk about
propitiation and it's true, we call it an atoning sacrifice.
But here, this word that Paul that's being translated for us
in English is propitiation is the mercy seat.
And this is Paul pointing to, pointing us to Jesus as the
mercy seat on the ark, right? He, he was, he was where we met
mercy. It's where Israel back in the
Old Testament, that's where they went for mercy.
It's where the high priest went to receive that to, to ask for
that mercy, right? It's where they took the
sacrifices where they took the blood.
David again in Psalm 51 two says, wash me thoroughly from
from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is
always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done
this evil in your sight that you may be found just just you speak
and blameless when you judge. So David under good God was the
one he needed to be forgiven by right?
And that happened at the mercy mercy seat and how that
happened, they didn't they didn't understand.
They just knew God said that's how that happened, right?
When they when they read the law that they knew, they knew what
they were supposed to do and they knew they served a living
God and this was what was required and how it worked was a
mystery to them. What wasn't a mystery to them
was their need for forgiveness from a holy God.
When someone says they have no sin, they're saying they have no
need to be saved and are good. They are and they are lost and
in their sin against God, denying His Holiness.
And that's really, you know, I, I talk to people and very often
somebody will come up to me and say, so am I going to go to hell
because of this, this sin or, you know, whatever the big sin
in their life that they think that the church hates or
whatever. Guys, that is not the sin
sending them to hell. I mean that sin's a sin.
That ain't the one. The one that's sending them to
hell is that they don't believe God is holy and worthy to be
served. That's it.
Because once you make that decision, God will start
cleaning up all the rest of the junk in your life, right?
But you have to make that decision.
You have to decide that he is the gold standard.
He is where you're at. And if you haven't decided that,
then you're over here in the weeds going well, I got a quit
drinking or I got a quick cussing or I got to quit
watching bad movies. Well, none of that matters if
you're not in Christ. Once you're in Christ, he's
going to start yard sale in your life.
Ask me how I know that right? And, and that, but that's,
that's the God we serve, right? He's a living God.
It isn't. I, I, I will talk about the
Bible and I will tell you how awesome it is that he wrote it
down. And he, he definitely uses the
Bible. He definitely speaks to us
through it. But the awesome thing is we
serve a living God that is totally going to convict you and
speak to you and tell you things that you need to get out of your
life. You know, it doesn't talk about
it doesn't talk about Facebook and TV in, in the in the word.
But there might be a time where he says you need to get off
Facebook. You need to put your phone down.
You need to you, whatever that is right.
And and that's a you and him conversation.
And when you decide in any of those conversations that your,
your liberty and in America, we are really guilty of this, that
I have freedom and liberty to to do whatever I want.
If God is telling you to stop, whatever it is, if God's saying
no, your answer is yes, I will yes, Lord not, but I can because
right. And that's, that's everything
right. That's that is if he's asking
you to fast, if you whatever that thing is, and it isn't
about it isn't about what he's asking what he what he's asking
your neighbor to do. You know, I, I use, I use when
I, when I got saved, I, I chewed and I chewed a lot and they look
back on it, it tastes kind of funny.
But I was not convicted at all when I got saved about chewing.
I had, there were people that smoked, they were convicted when
I got convicted of chewing and it became it, it became, I mean,
I'd love to say I got a little conviction and I just quit.
It didn't work like that. It took some time and it's a
long story, but when I did finally quit or when it when it
came to a head and I quit, I didn't look at everybody that
was chewing and say you're sinning because they're not.
There's nothing in the Bible about chew left or right.
They're not sinning because God convicted me to stop, right?
But if I keep doing it, I'm sinning if God convicted me,
right, It's Pastor Mitch one time was convicted to quit
watching TV and he removed the TV from his house.
He didn't come to church and go everybody needs to get rid of
the TV in their house because I was convicted, right?
So it's, it's God is that's the God we serve.
He's a living God that wants to speak to you about your life and
your relationship with him, right?
And just just knowing that that's that's that isn't a that
isn't a bad thing, guys. That's an awesome thing, right,
that I don't I don't have to guess.
A lot of times he just tells me I get dents in the back of my
head from it. If we say that we have not
sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in US.
And, and you know, this is just back to the we've all sinned and
fall short and we need Jesus. And first, John 511 says this is
the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is
in his Son. He who has the Son has life.
He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
And when we deny that we have sinned and we deny that we need
a Savior, we're, we're in that spot.
That's not good, right? That's, that's not where we want
to be. Now all of that is just getting
us into chapter 2 and chapter 2 is these first 2 verses are
probably, I mean, I've always liked them, but I didn't know
how much fun they were until I really dug into them.
These two verses are awesome. And if you want to, I'm going
to, I'm going to stir a whole hornet's Nets just because it's
fun. And I, and when I say that it's
so I like to mess with doctrine that that leaves things out to
make their doctrine work. I always say.
So when I got saved, I was an evolutionist because I grew up
in the secular schools and that's where I was and, and I
was not a very, I thought I was a smart evolutionist.
I was, and I was just taught whatever they taught me in high
school and I enjoyed it. So I and then Steve was teaching
through Genesis and we got to Noah's, Noah's ark and he's
teaching through it. And I'm like, well, that's a
problem because I want to believe the Bible's true Lord.
And I had faith in that and faith, this is the word of God
and this is true, but you're going to have to meet me because
I have no idea how any of that works.
So I took a refuting evolution class and I really walked in
that class like a prideful, arrogant 31 year old who thought
he was smarter than he was. And Rob Wallace was the the
teacher and he was a science teacher at a school.
So he knew both sides of the argument very well.
And we went through feuding evolution.
And I will tell you what evolution is due to this day is
give you they're they're no different than our news media.
We're kind of used to it now. They give you their bit of the
information and their bit of the information is exactly true.
I mean, they are not lying. They are just leaving out the
rest of the chart. And when you see the rest of the
chart, their information doesn't seem to matter as much.
And, and you'll find a lot of times when you get into
doctrinal issues that they're that both sides are firing
verses back at each other and people go, well, you can't be
sure on any of it. It's like, no, first you have to
remember how awesome and big our God is.
And if he says it, it's true. It isn't, it isn't.
This truth is true and this truth is true.
One of those that we would like to talk about.
There is one God and three persons, right?
And we can, I think in this room, we're pretty, pretty solid
on the Trinity. That's a thing.
And there are, there are those kind of truths throughout the
Bible because he's bigger than us in a, in a way that we can't
there, there should be things that he says that I can't
understand. I can, I can kind of explain to
the best of our ability, but it's, it's beyond my how does
that work? Well, I'll explain that right
after the rapture, right, right. When we're with Jesus, we'll,
we'll have a class and it'll all be, Oh, that's how that works.
So verse one says, my little children, these things I write
to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins, we have an
advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous, righteous
now advocate here and and Margie mentioned it that this is John
writing John writing here and then John wrote the gospel as
well. And Paraclete toss, which is
that word for advocate is only used in four locations.
And in those four spots, the other three spots, that's the
helper, the Holy Spirit. In this spot it's Jesus.
And all four spots are John. So he isn't confused on what
he's using and where he's using it.
So, so it's the advocate, which is which is with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. So he's saying the pericletos,
the advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And he says in other places that you will have a a helper will
come. I will send a helper for you.
I don't have those verses because I jumped a different
direction, but know that that's the coolest thing right there is
that literally John is on purpose.
This isn't this isn't an accident.
He's referring to the Holy Spirit everywhere else.
And here he solidly connects in one failed swoop, the Father,
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in one, one sentence.
And I just love that. It makes me smile.
And then Romans 826, it says likewise.
And and remember, this is this is that advocate with the
Father. So like a lawyer, an
intercessor, Romans 26 says 826 says likewise.
The Spirit also helps in our weakness, for we do not know
what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself
makes intercession for us with the groanings which cannot be
uttered. So we ask, OK, so who is it?
Jesus or the Spirit? Yep, that's right.
He is our lawyer, right? He's who lives inside of me, the
Spirit, who who's in me, Jesus, right?
And, and, and that is the God we serve.
He's that big and that we need to trust and rely on him.
He is faithful, right? And this is he is faithful to
finish the work that he finished at the cross.
And and that is such I mean, he's he is faithful to finish
what he already finished. But that's because he is outside
of time and we are in time. And that's one of those things
guys, that that anybody that tells you they understand that
is and understand that like, yeah, that's completely within
my grasp is the the scientists that go well, you know, we know
time started at one point and and then they try to explain it.
They are they are out of their element because it is not
something that we can grasp to be outside of time.
OK, so verse 2. And he himself is the
propitiation for our sin, and not for ours only, but also for
the whole world. And this is the hornet's nest of
fun. So this is Jesus is the this
that propitiation here is Jesus is the sacrifice that removes
sin. So in John, the word that is
translated propitiation is hell loss Moss, which is the atoning
sacrifice. So when you look at the
combination combination of John and Paul, Jesus is the sacrifice
that's satisfied and the mercy seat that is satisfied.
He is it once again a picture of of both the Son and the Father
all in one and that and their, their, their togetherness.
Jesus is the only one that could pay the price for the mercy, and
he is always wanted to give it. And not and then that last
sentence, not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
And this is that this is that I just get a stir up doctrine,
right. This is a Calvinist would say
that that God is sovereign and there are those that are elect
and those that can't be good can't go to heaven and those
that that are already going to heaven.
And what this says is not only ours but for the whole world.
And so that leaves things that and what what Calvinists do and
there's another side of this the Armenians and what they do what
both sides do is leave the other argument out.
Now Armenians will tell you that that it's all about my free will
and God. This place is just kind of
running on its own and we get our free will and and then
Calvinists will say no, it's all God's sovereignty and we really
don't have a choice in the matter anyway.
And and those are the extreme views, right.
So I mean, I am definitely brought painting with A broad
brush. When you look at Calvinism,
somebody bigger than me explain the sovereignty of God and and
the and free will kind of like this And there this was AI think
I heard this on the radio. Think of who put the breath in
your lungs. God right but do we still choose
to breathe and so those are both and right you you still have
choices in that a couple of more verses just so we've got this
whole world part down is first John 413 by this we know that we
abide in him and he and us because he has given us the
Spirit and we have seen and testified that the father has
sent the son as the savior of the world, not of the elect of
the world. John 129 says the next day John
saw Jesus coming towards him and said behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world. But this is just going through
John and my favorite. This is truly my favorite like
well that just because they will tell you that God chose and and
my decision has nothing to do with it. 6 John 663 through 70
and it says it is the spirit who gives life the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak to you
are Spirit and their life. But there.
But there are some of you who do not believe.
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did
not believe and and would betray him.
And he said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come
to me unless the Father granted to him, unless sorry, unless it
had been granted to him by my Father.
From that time many of his disciples went back and walked
with him. No more than Jesus said to the
12 Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life also. We have come to believe and know
that you are Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus said to them, Did I not choose you?
The 12 And one of you is the devil.
So he chose Judas, right? Did Judas choose him and and
that granted by the father up there in in verse 65 it it's
grant, it's D doe me, which is to grant or to bestow or to
entrust or to offer freely. And and so they would your your
doctrine. People would say, well, that's
see that says that that's father granting it.
But Jesus in John 519 says, so this can't be they can't be the
Father doing one thing and Jesus doing something else with this.
I chose you because in 519 it says then Jesus answered and
said to them, most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do.
For whatever he does, the Son does also in like manner.
So it can't be that the Father and the Son are two two
different things right here and in so Jesus chose the 12.
So the father chose the 12 because that's what it says.
He can do nothing that the Father isn't doing.
And as many as received him, he gave the right and that is
that's John 112. But as many as received him, he
gave the right to become children of God to those who
believe in his name. So out of out of 12 apostles, 11
of them, he, he chose 12 and 11 of them received him right and
became children of God. So Jesus does the choosing, but
we have to accept and, and freely receive the gift by
faith. Oh, and there's that there's
another doctrine that it all hamstrings.
It's just I, I will jab at real quick.
Irresistible grace, which is another like hardcore Calvinist
line is that if God chose you, you could not refuse him.
Just said that Judas refused him and pretty straightforward.
So and I, and I am, I'm having fun with that guys.
But it I'm having fun with it, but I don't want to be if
somebody's watching online or something, I don't want to be
dismissive in that the Calvinists and the Armenians
have some good there is there's truth there.
They, it's if they got if they get off the rails, right?
And understanding that, that both sides have there's, there's
truth in that, right? I mean, they, they're, they're
verses that they use there. There's truth in those.
They just have to at any point, if you have to explain away a
verse to make your beliefs work, you're, you're, you're
struggling, you're, you're in the wrong place, right?
You need like that that old line.
If if you have a problem with the verse, you don't have it has
a problem with you, right? So we bend to it.
We don't try to bend the Bible to us.
So all of this to say, like David in the Psalms, there are
things we can't get our heads wrapped around, right?
I mean that literally David didn't understand in the Psalms
how a lamb dying at the altar and being and blood being
dripped on on the mercy seat, how that saved him.
He just knew it did right? He, he knew that's what God
asked him to do. And, and he was doing that.
And but there are things we can get our heads wrapped around,
right? And, and that's the, the major
stuff, which like pretty simple, I think everybody in this room
could admit that we've all sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. That isn't one that, that that's
not a hard one, right? And that Jesus rose again on the
third day and he did that to pay for that sin so we can spend a
turn and and through his his paying for that sin gives us the
right to be called children of God if we accept his gift,
right. A Chuck Smith quote that is
really just he's way better. He's way better at quotes than I
am. He used to.
I heard a bio I heard a Radio One that that he said he was a
Calmenian. So he's a little both, but I am
not a Calvinist. I am not an Armenian.
Both have truth. Both go too far.
If you only teach one side, you end up in heresy.
The Bible teaches God's sovereignty and human
responsibility. The truth lives in the tension,
right? And that is in that there's
there's mystery there, right? Be willing to accept that
mystery that, that there's stuff that I don't know that I can't
lock down right, because he's bigger than me.
Like I can't lock down how I'm in time and he's outside of
time. I can't lock that now.
I can't lock down how he is sovereign and I have free will.
I can, I can explain it like this.
I can show you where he's pointing it out, but I don't
know exactly how that works. And why is it all important?
I mean, that's, that's the at the end of the day, guys, for us
in this room. Why is it important to us?
Why is why is that a conversation?
Because when you fall on either either one of those camps, it is
really hard to go out and share the gospel with people.
It is really hard to be on either side of that, that that
God is an uncaring UN uncaring and he isn't plugged in and he's
not involved. But we have free will that's
hard to share who Jesus is or that I don't really have a
choice in it. And I don't know if you're saved
and I don't know if you're elected, but you know, when you
can say the prayer, maybe find out.
That's a hard way to do it, right?
So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit chose
you and chose me from the foundations of the world.
Will we agree we need him? And as I said on Sunday, get in,
sit down and hold on, right? And, but it's a gift that we
have to accept. And so in Uganda we do pretty
simple evangelism because it they, I don't know, Uganda
doesn't, doesn't require they, they get it.
They, they first of all know that God is real and are pretty
excited about a God who died for him and, and rose again and is
living right. And so we do, we do the
bracelet. I'm sure there's a bunch in this
room that's, that have done the bead bracelet, you know, the
black, the black bead, the red bead, the white bead, the blue
bead and the green bead, the gold bead, all the things, but
the black bead, it represents sin and it's for everybody,
whether they, whether or not you accept Jesus into your life, you
all have a black bead, right? We all sin fall short, right?
And Jesus died for everybody, and that's the red bee.
And it doesn't matter whether you accept it or you don't
accept it. You know, the truth is the
truth. He died for everyone, the whole
world, and that's it. These are and that's Ephesians
17. In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin according to
the riches of His grace. And then John 316 is about
obviously forgiveness and that is for the whole world that
believe he he offers forgiveness to the whole world on the white
bead, but it's not theirs unless they accept it, right?
That's that he chose to die for everybody, but who who believes
in him will not perish and will have everlasting life, right.
And then the green bead is about growth.
And that's 2nd Corinthians 57. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. And that is faith equals works,
equals grace, or equals growth, right?
Which is if I have faith, you will see work in my life and
through that work, I will grow closer to the Lord.
And that isn't I'm not working so that everybody see it like a,
a works mentality. I'm going to read my Bible.
I'm going to pray. I'm going to because I'm not
going to get anything out of it if that's what I'm doing.
But if what I'm trying to do is grow closer to Christ and spend
time with him, then I'm going to get rewarded for that because my
reward is going to be that I'm going to grow closer to Christ
and then the gold 1 and that one and that that sorry, the green
bead is only for those who accept him, right?
Someone's someone back at the at the blood that hasn't accepted
him in in their forget, haven't gotten the forgiveness.
They don't get to grow in Christ, right?
They don't they don't get any of that.
They're not children of God that get to grow closer to him.
I had that backwards. But anyway, I'll get there blue
blue that was faith all that was about faith.
I missed one sorry. Ephesians 415 is about growth,
but seek the truth and love that you may grow up in all things
into him who is the head Christ. And then gold is our eyes are on
him and not in this world. And that's that's heaven right
where where we laying up our treasures.
But guys, we should be able to share that because we know who
Jesus is. And I don't mean to get to share
the bead bracelet, but we should be able to share that simple,
simple truth with people that that Jesus came because we're a
bunch of sinners who need a savior and that he came for
everybody. If they will accept him and he
wants their he wants them. I mean, he wants him to the
point that he was willing to go to a cross and die on it.
And if we have faith in that, he's going to do amazing things,
right? John 1421 is he who has my
commandments and keeps them, and is he who loves me and he who
loves me be loved by my father? And I will love him and manifest
myself to him. And that manifest myself to him
is when I listen to Him and obey, He becomes bigger and more
real in my life that manifest, right?
So yeah, that's it guys. I stood that pond.
It was a lot of fun. I I enjoyed today.
I I was busy Monday and Tuesday. So today I just sat down in my
office and dug into two verses in first time.
So I'll get you guys out of here.
So Lord, I just thank you for all that you've done.
I thank you for how big you are and I thank you that that you do
know the end from the beginning and Lord that as we are here in
the present, and that's what we have control of, Lord, that we,
we know that you are before us and after us, Lord, and that we
can count that your, your plan is bigger than we are and that
you do have a plan and you have a plan to use each and every one
of us, Lord. And that you would do that, that
you would be in our midst, Lord, that you'd be putting
appointments in front of us, guiding and directing us.
And I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.