And we started off last week
and worked through the opening statement, my little children,
which is where I will start again with us to remind us of the import
of how John opens up. Verse one says, my little children,
these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And hereby we do know that we
know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him and
does not keep his commandment is a liar and the truth is not
in him. But whoso keepeth his commandment
or keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth
in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. These
first six verses are where we will be focusing tonight. We're gonna try to make our way
out of verse one and two, although there's enough there for us to
dwell on. And then we will get into the
second category of false claims that were made by the heretics
in John's day, who told people that they knew Christ But as
John examined them and were able to deconstruct their arguments
in their theology, proved logically by our text that they could not
know the true and the living God because what they said did
not correspond with how they lived. And that's what we want
to work through. If you don't know, the book of First John
is really about true and authentic fellowship with God. That's kind
of the title and theme of our study in First John, true and
authentic fellowship It was the claim that John made in 1 John
1, verse 7. Verse 7, but if we walk in the
light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another
in the blood of Jesus Christ. His son cleanses us from all
sin. And of course, in verse 3 was his purpose. This was his
aim as he wrote the epistles. We have written to you that which
we have seen and heard and declare we unto you in order that, that's
the little phrase that you may also, that's a purpose clause,
that you may also, here's the objective of the epistle of 1
John, that you may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So we spent
several weeks, three, four, five weeks maybe, underscoring the
doctrine of fellowship, how that the word koinonia, which is in
your outline, Koinonia is the underlying basis for God having
a relationship with sinful man. Koinonia is the common term for
fellowship in the scriptures. It has to do with relationship. It has to do with partnership. It has to do with an equal participation
in the commonwealth of a group. When the people of God say they
have fellowship with God, they are essentially saying they are
part of the family of God and they are operating reciprocally
within the framework of the resources that God pours into the life
of the people of God. In other words, the idea of fellowship
is not a lopsided notion where God does all the acting and you
passively sit back and simply enjoy the benefits. The word
fellowship means equality. The word fellow fellow is an
old English Saxon term that essentially denotes two people of the same
kind. And so when you hear the Bible
use the term fellow, it's a word that's used in the Old Testament.
It's describes two people who have the same essence, the same
qualities, and therefore are compatible in terms of relationship. Meaning this, you and I as human
beings could never have fellowship with animals because we are not
alike in that regard. Human beings can have fellowship,
we can partner, we can associate, we can reciprocate, we can communicate,
and we can mutually work together for whatever objectives that
are before us. This is why we have successful
associations, whether they are families or businesses or ministries,
we can fellowship. You cannot fellowship that way
with a cat, dog, or an animal. You can have a relationship with
them, but you can't fellowship with them. They cannot reciprocally
in an equal fashion relate to you on the same level. This makes
the idea of fellowship with God absolutely tremendous because
God has saw fit to make mankind capable of mutual beneficial
relationship with him. It is also tremendous in that
God has saw fit to make mankind capable of being part of his
family. so that he is able to draw from
the resources of the bounty of the Godhead and relate to God
just like you and I relate to one another. The intimation or
the significance of the term fellowship for the people of
God must be understood as all the resources that God has determined
to bring to the relationship in order to make you an equal
partner with him in that relationship. fellowship for you should be
understood as God bringing to the table of mutual relations
with you and him, all the resources necessary to make you an equal
partner in that relationship. If it is true then that we have
fellowship with him, then our fellowship is going to be manifested
by our ability to embrace those resources and reciprocally relate
to God. And that's what John is getting
at. John is saying when a person has fellowship with somebody,
they have things in common. Remember, we dealt with Acts
chapter two. We won't go there. I just do
want to build this just in case you forgot. The word communion
is the word for fellowship. You guys see that, right? The
root word there is the root word common. It means we have things
in common, in common. And that is remarkable that God
would establish a relationship with his creature by which he
would make them so compatible to himself that we would have
things in common. Like I can talk to God and God
can talk to me and I can love God and he can love me and I
can reciprocate with God in terms of his mission and his agendas
and his purposes. And God can reciprocate with
me. In other words, God can assist me in my agenda and my objectives
and my purposes. We are fellows in that way. In
the Old Testament, that's the way the language is used in Psalm
45 concerning Jesus when it says, you have anointed me above my
fellows. Isn't it magnificent that the
second person of the Godhead would take on a human nature
in order that we might be partakers of the divine nature? Isn't it
magnificent that God would make it that we could be in communion
with him? Isn't that magnificent? The idea
that this infinite being called God and all of his perfections
saw to it that he would resource us with the capacity to relate
to him. Now, if you are understanding
the heart of what I'm getting at, what you will begin to realize
is the idea of sonship. That's what you'll begin to realize
when we start our series in the gospel and sexuality. I'm going
to be driving that point home. Sonship is what God has always
called his people to a relationship with God that reflects the nature
and character of God, because the people with whom he has relationship
are not merely fellows, but they are sons. That means something. And therefore, in the fellowship
or koinonia of God and man, what mankind has the opportunity to
do in that reciprocating relationship with God is to reflect the character
of God to the world. Otherwise, we don't truly have
fellowship. Am I making some sense, ladies
and gentlemen? David was able to bring Mephibosheth into the
kingdom, though Mephibosheth was naturally an enemy of David,
being the son of Saul, David's sworn enemy. But because Mephibosheth
had a covenant with David through his father, Jonathan, David was
able to bring Mephibosheth in and sit him at the table and
make him as one of his own sons. Mephibosheth had all the resources
and the blessings and the dignity and the right and the privileges
of sonship. with David, knowing that in his
nature, he was an enemy of God. We call that the gospel. That's
the grace of God for you and I. Naturally, we are enemies
of God. Supernaturally, we are sons of
God. If you are a believer, this is
where we are in our text. Verse one, part one, my little
children, you guys see that? The word little children is one
Greek word. We talked about it last week. What's the Greek word?
Technon. It is a term almost exclusively,
not completely used by John, because John was the disciple
in the group of disciples that paid the most attention to what
Jesus said. Being the one who didn't talk
that much, you know, you learn something if you keep your mouth
shut. You know that, right? Being the one that didn't talk
that much, he was able to actually hear what Jesus said and His
epistles, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and the book of Revelation reflect
the language of Christ in the most visible way. His terminology is the same terminology
that Christ used. And I said that with the four
dominant Greek terms that are used for the idea of being a
child or a son, This third category, technon, the first category,
as you guys have learned, is nepios. That's what it means
to be a newborn babe, brand new. The word is generally translated
babe, not able to talk. Then the next word is pideon. We've talked about that many
times. That means to be under instruction. If you don't have
the visible concept of a Pideon, it's a child that's anywhere
from the ages of two years old up to an adult. Every young person
is a Pideon anywhere from two years old to an adult because
you are in training mode. The word Pideon, when it's translated
in its derivative, means to instruct, to train, to teach, to admonish,
to develop. And that's in a real sense, that's
where we are as believers in training mode. When you go from
a nephios, that is a babe, newborn babe, into the pateon state,
you are under the teaching of the word of God. You are growing
in a knowledge of Christ. You are being corrected by the
doctrines of the gospel. Your mind is being renewed because
all of the bad data is being taken out and the good data is
being put in and that hurts. But the objective for that kind
of transformational dynamic is to make you a technon. Do you
see that? The word technon in the Greek
is a Greek term that means family likeness. When God makes you
born again, you're born again from the inside, a new creature
in Christ, the incorruptible seed is in you. You cry, I have
a father. There's a relationship there,
but you don't all together look like the son of God. It takes
time for the mind to be transformed, renewed to where you now start
thinking God's thoughts after him. and start aligning your
will with his will so that over time now you start to conduct
yourself in a fashion that befits the sons of God. When the term
technon is used, it's a term of endearment where leaders in
the church, i.e. Jesus, the apostles, John, would
tell those who have been disciples long enough, you are my children
now because you act like my children. It's a father-son relationship. Are you guys following me? It's
a father-son relationship. I told you before in the outline,
if we had our graphic up, we don't. But if we had a graphic
up, you'd understand. And this in your outline, this is an apostolic
term, and it's a familial term. In the early church, the father-son
relationship was a prominent metaphor that was used. First
century church, second century. In fact, in the early church,
we would call it the writings of the fathers, the pateers,
part of Greek theology, New Testament theology. A pateer is a father. and fathers were the instructors,
they were the teachers, they were the elders, and it would
be a sort of relationship where the redemptive truth of Christ
would be passed down from the elders to the children, and the
children would manifest their sonship by conforming to the
teaching. Now, I'm gonna share with you
several verses inside 1 John that underscored this. But technon
is a family term, my little children, a term of endearment, It constitutes
the functional relationship of the believer and then the familial
relationship. So in your outline, you'll see
over in chapter two, verse 12, 13 and 18, notice this chapter
two, verse 12. He uses it again. I write unto
you little children because your sins are forgiving you for his
namesake. Do you guys see that I'm writing
unto you little children? The word little children is one
Greek word, techno. And then he says in verse 13,
I write unto you fathers, do you see the familial parallel,
the paradigm of a family there? I write unto you fathers, I write
unto you children, I write unto your fathers. Because you have
known him that is from the beginning I write unto you young men because
you have overcome the wicked one Do you guys see the gradation
you see the children you see the young men you see the father's
do you guys see that? That's the biblical language
of development and grow you start off as a child You grow into
a young man. It describes the category of
the young man. He's strong in the word and Then
it goes on to the fatherhood status. He's mature in Christ. He knows the father. He's settled.
He's situated. He's rooted. He's grounded. He's
immovable. That's what we all want to get
to a fatherhood status. This is not exclusive, exclusive
to the motherhood. If you read second, John third,
Johnny talks to the mother, the elect lady, she's called the
church of the living God. But here he is dealing with that
fundamental, uh, progenerative principle. of the fathers to
the children. Here's what he says. I write
unto you young men because you've overcome the wicked one. I write
unto you little children. Here it is again, because you
have what? Known the father. Now he's being repetitive and
we're going to see that when we get back to first, uh, second
John chapter one, because John, uh, John is going to deal with
the false claim that the false prophets and false
teachers say, we know him. So we're gonna be developing
that and it may not take place tonight because we need to look
again at 1 John 2, verse one and two concerning the resources.
The next time we read this verse is in verse, this term little
children is in verse 18. Little children, it is the last
time and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now
are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. That phrase is used several times
in 1 John And what John is doing is acting as a father to the
church to let them know not only about the past effects of the
heresy that had come into their church and split it and taken
off a group of Gnostic thinkers who had denied the incarnation
of Jesus Christ and the reality of the God-man Christ, but he
was warning them about what the continual progressive apostasy
would be in the church. Little children, you have been
told that it is the last hour. By implication, what that means
is that the only people who are going to take the apostasy seriously
are the sons. They are the only ones that are
going to take the apostasy departure from biblical truth seriously.
So he speaks to them. The next time we read this phrase,
I'm going to give this to you as a gift. You won't see it in
your text because it's in the Greek, but it's in first John
chapter three, verse one and two. Listen to it. Behold what
manner of love the father hath bestowed upon who? That we should
be called sons of God. Do you see that's our great term
techno? Thereby the world does not know
us because it knew him not ah, here's another this is a kind
of a Episode Jetticle is an antithesis that underscores the nature of
sonship watch this when you become a techno you actually become
a stranger to the world when you actually develop into that
Christ-like characteristic that is more consistent in your thinking
with what biblical truth says, now you are alienating yourself
from the world. This is gonna get into that aspect
of the claim back in 1 John, when John says, the man that
says he knoweth God, but does not keep his commandments is
a liar and the truth is not in him. We're getting ready to get
back to the man who says he knows God and abides him ought to walk
even as Jesus walked. Now. When we get to that, we're
going to be able to raise the question, how did Jesus walk? How was Jesus in the world when
he got here? What was it like for Jesus to walk to and fro
through Capernaum, Galilee and the regions about Palestine?
Was Jesus the most lovely object in the sight of the people when
he came? Was he the darling of the masses? Did everybody in
the world love Jesus? See, because the implication
in our culture, which loves to define terms and establish the
narrative for us, is to tell us, well now, see, if you were
like Jesus, you'd love everybody and you'd love everything, you'd
be permissive, you'd be accepting. I mean, Jesus wouldn't be that
way, would he? See what I'm getting at? You
know what the text says? If you manifest your sonship,
our techno, our childhood status, the likeness of God, the world
is not going to know you because the way you operate, they have
no reference point to it. Your priority, your values, your
purposes, your goals, your passions, your drives, your convictions,
your objectives. They're going to be different
than the world. This is how you'll know whether or not you're a
son of God. David said it in Psalm 119. I
won't go there, but listen to this. Lord, I am a stranger in
the earth. Don't hide your commandments
from me because nobody understands me but you. This is really interesting. You know how you're walking with
God and he's revealing his glory to you and opening scripture
up to you and you're delighting and you walk with him and it's
glory land because of this close communion and fellowship with
him. but it seems like on the opposite end of the scale, you
are in conflict with all kinds of other people. The more you
walk with Christ, the more you're gonna be in conflict with this
world. And then you tripping because you wondering why you're
in so much conflict with the world as if your conflict with
the world is a disapproval of God towards you. Interesting,
isn't it? Okay, I'm just gonna leave you
there with that. Let's go back and go to work. Some very interesting
things to mark here. deal with the other verses. Go
back to 1 John 2, verse 1. Let's unpack this in delight
in what John is getting across. His main objective is to let
the children, remember the children are the family, in on the foundation
for their relationship with God. And we definitely want to be
extremely clear on this. To not be clear on this that
he's going to explain in verse 1 and 2 is to set yourself up
for failure in terms of your walk with God. Your walk with
God in mind is extremely contingent upon us understanding these next
two verses or these first two verses. John's first intention,
as you see it, is that he is writing in order that we do not
what? Sin. Please understand that. And as he addresses his intentions,
he lets the church know, he lets the children know that we have
provisions that we must keep in place at all time in light
of the fact that sin occurs. Now, I want to deal with these
two statements as we open this up. We said last week when we
looked at first John chapter two, Verse one, and we dealt
with the imperative. My little children, these things
I am writing to you. That's an indicative. That's
what John is doing. In order that you sin not, you guys see
that? No one's Bible says anything different than that, right? In
order that you sin not, the hinder clause, that means there's a
purpose. My purpose for you is that you do not sin. Now, the
construction in which that phrase is used is in what is called
the Aries verb form. And what it means is, John does
not want the children of God to fail to listen to all that
he has said in relationship to what they were talking about.
What he was talking about in chapter one is the notion that
we could claim to know God and walk in a way contrary to knowing
God. What he was dealing with in chapter
one was the flawed conclusion that comes with the idea that
we can walk in the light, but practice darkness, implying that
God himself is darkness, because you can't have fellowship with
God, who is himself light, while you yet walk in darkness, unless
of course, watch this now, unless of course, God doesn't view you
as a sinner in need of the merits and blessings of Christ's sacrifice
on Calvary. Does that follow? The argument
on the part of the heretics was this. Not only am I not a sinner,
I don't sin and I have never sinned. That was what we developed
over the last several weeks, isn't it? Well, that's a very
convenient to doctrine to walk with, isn't it? I'm not going
to stay there long, but here's what I'm going to help you with.
This is very important. We're going to spend seven to
eight weeks unpacking this horrible cultures misrepresentation of
the glory of God as it was deposited in the life of human beings.
This pluralistic relativistic culture that's able to define
and redefine itself in the most ignorant way and then act as
if what they are doing and saying is rational. There are people
who will legitimately frame their lips and say that they don't
sin. Now, if you can honestly say
that you don't sin, I can tell you, according to the scriptures,
you're not walking in the light. See, because the light of scripture
has already told us not only do we sin, we are sinners by
nature. That's the testimony of scripture,
right? This is what John is getting to. When somebody concludes that
they are not a sinner by nature, that they are not a sinner by
nurture, that they are not a sinner by habit, they are denying the
claims of scripture. To deny the claims of scripture
is to walk in darkness. We have learned over the several
weeks subsequent to dealing with that flawed syllogism is that
confession is essential to a right relationship with God. Are you
hearing me? That confession is to be wide open, is to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To be a confessor
is to say what's right about God and to say what's right about
ourselves. If you are a person that's walking
in the light, you are a confessor of God. Every aspect of your
life is confession because you are ready, you are inclined,
you are disposition to say exactly what God says about everything. The New Testament Greek term
homo legal is the Greek term for saying the same thing that
God says. What is a confessor then? It's
a person that reads the scriptures, rightly understands the scripture
and says, this is what the scriptures say. is not a person that look
at the scriptures and then take the scriptures and reinterpret
them to fit their own lifestyle. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So what John is saying is, listen, little children do
not sin like that. Because if you feel compelled
to impel, to propel, to devise a state of being which denies
original sin, which denies the presence of sin, which denies
the practice of sin, You have completely disannulled the necessity
of the blood. You guys understand that? And
so last week we closed by stating 1 John 1, verse 8 in its original
verb form, and this is how it goes. If we are continually confessing
our sins, He is both just and faithful to have already forgiven
us our sin and to have already cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Did you guys get that? Watch
this. Our confessing of our sin does not affect the forgiveness
or the cleansing that is ours in Christ. Our confessing our
sins affirm the forgiveness and the cleansing that's ours in
Christ. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So we're not telling heaven to move. Heaven is telling
us to move. Heaven is telling us to tell
the world that God has made a provision for sin in the person and the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And so long as we are in between
a state of grace and glory, we must confess that we are sinners
saved by grace on the process of development into a state of
glory, when in glory, we'll be just like him. That's 1 John
3, verses one through four. Beloved, it doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when we see him, we shall
see, when we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. When he appears, we'll be made
just like him and thus we'll be free from the tension of what
we are in him and what we are in ourselves. But until we see
him face to face, we have to live with the tension of what
I am and what I am in him. And my joy exists in what I am
in him. What I am in myself produces
a hope. Are you guys following me? Because
hope is the desire of a thing not seen or accomplished or fulfilled. One day I hope to be like him.
And every man that has this hope in himself purifies himself even
as he is pure. So John is leading us along the
path of the believer on the grounds of the resources of grace, which
are centered in the blood atoning work of Jesus Christ. Now follow
how John develops this. I got your attention, I'm sure
you understand now. My little children, these things
I write unto you that you do not sin. Now the next clause
is this, are you ready? And if any man sin, you see that
phrase? And if any man sin, this is where
I have, if sin occurs, this too is also in the Aries. And the
Aries is almost like a past tense verb. It's an act once committed, marked and in other words you may not
understand what that means but in other words here's what John
is saying my writings to you are designed that you do not
find yourself sinning against the gospel but embracing the
gospel fully walking in the gospel since it has provision for everything
life and godliness through a knowledge of Jesus Christ but if you do
happen to sin are you guys following that Now here's what he did not
say. But if you are living a lifestyle
constantly engaged in sin, he didn't say that. That would be
what we would call a present indicative verb form. John would
actually be stating if he says, I've written these things that
you do not sin, but if you are living in sin, he would basically
be talking to an unbeliever, right? Because the status of
the unbeliever is not merely that they sin, but that they
live in sin. Are you following me? The status
of the believer is not that we sin or live in sin, but that
sin lives in us. Are you guys following me? Need
to help you with that just in case you didn't get it. The lifestyle
will indicate the cornea. The lifestyle will indicate the
fellowship. The passions, the desires, the
aspiration, the confession will indicate where you fellowship.
If your fellowship is with the devil, then you are living in
sin because the devil sinneth from the beginning. He never
abode in the truth. He cannot abide in the truth,
right? But if you are walking in the light, watch this, positionally,
you have not sinned because Christ is your righteousness. Practically,
you are living in obedience to God, but personally, sin dwells
in you. Does that make some sense? I
need to get that into your thinking because these categories are
critical to making sure that you confess the truth. If these
categories are not properly understood, you're going to be compelled
to save yourself by actually denying certain factors that
are realities because you won't know how to hold these tensions
together. Why is it that the impulses and
the drives of sin still dwell in my members? Well, if you're
asking the question legitimately, at least we are on a proper assumption
that sin is present because there are those who are lying and saying
that they don't even have a struggle with sin. Now, either they are
in glory or they're lying. By the way, when I gave you those
three verb forms, when I gave you those three conditions for
what it means to be a child, a babe, and then a paideon, to
be under instruction, and then the technon, to look like or
bear the resemblance of the family, the other Greek word, you guys
have heard it before, is huios, That is the most mature status
in the relationship between the believer and Christ. And the
huya status is that status by which God has been pleased to
allow you now to suffer for his glory as his son suffered for
his glory. You are most manifesting the
glory of God when you are able to suffer for Christ's sake.
You guys got that? You are most manifesting the
glory of God when you are able to suffer for Christ's sake. See, when the son of God came,
the ultimate manifestation of his love for his father was that
he suffered for our sins. And he is conforming us to that
very same image. That's why suffering is a critical
component to the affirmation of our salvation. Pastor, why
go through so much suffering? Because God is conforming you
to the image of his son. If you want to delete or separate
or negate suffering from the equation of your sanctification,
you're not going to arrive at a full sonship status. All whom
the Lord loves, he chastens. Suffering is an ingredient in
the conformity of the believer to Christ. It's a proof that
God is in you. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So what John is doing when he opens up first, John
is saying, essentially, Brethren, do not develop a theology that
justifies sinning. You don't need to. God has given
us within the framework of the koineah, the fellowship, every
resource necessary for all of the troubles you go through.
The troubles that are on the outside and the troubles that
are on the inside. The struggles with people that
don't understand you and the struggles that you don't understand
on the inside. Do not forsake or deny or neglect
or distort the resources. Are you guys hearing me? Confess
him for who? he really is. That's what John
is saying. I'm looking forward to opening
this up now, because if John is saying, as I am saying, that
there are going to be events in your life where you sin, what
you are now going to need to do with those events is be reminded
of the advocate that you and I have with the father. Do you
guys see that? Look at verse two, verse one,
very care, carefully. Listen to it now. My little children,
these things I write unto you that you send out it. If any
man sin, if it should happen, we have an advocate with the
father. Do you see it? So here's John's
solution to your sinning. When you fall into sin, it's
not for you to go hide behind the trees and sow fig leaves
or develop a new doctrine that says you didn't do it. It's for
you to continue walking in the light by bringing that sin to
the cross. and dealing with God honestly,
because that's faith. You're not walking by faith if
you are afraid to approach the throne of grace in time of mercy,
knowing that you have a high priest who ever lived to make
intercession for you and have an advocate with the father who
was able to appeal every transaction of sin in your case. You see what God is actually
doing by reminding the believer that on a judicial level, because
this is a judicial issue that we're dealing with, he's reminding
the believer that the believer doesn't have to worry about the
indictment and accusation of the conscience in light of the
reality of sin, because God has already provided for that too.
Are you guys following me? Walk with me now. I know this
is technical stuff, but stay here for a moment. When the believer
does sin, and the spirit of God convicts him of it. He goes through
a number of dynamics. Those dynamics are the anxiety
of having offended God. That's if you're a true believer.
You're not a true believer, it don't matter. But if you're a true
believer, the initial anxiety is that you have offended God.
You weren't made to sin. So it's conflict there. And now
after that anxiety is the need to reconcile that problem. That
puts you in a dilemma or it puts you on the road of resolving
the conflict. We all have to resolve conflict.
We were talking about that in music theory last night. Music
is another form of confessing God. And this is what's so powerful
about music. It opens up with a particular
thought pattern. It develops, it reaches a crescendo,
and then it resolves. This is what we love about singing.
We get to talk about conflict within the aesthetic beauty of
song. And then we get to resolve that conflict and be satisfied
with the conclusion at the end of that song that makes us feel
good. That's the same way life is. So you hit a wall, you make
a huge, horrendous mistake. You commit a sin that the Holy
Ghost says, Hey, you better deal with that. And what John is saying
is don't sin by pretending that you didn't sin or pretending
that you don't sin or pretending that there's no sin nature. as
if somehow Christ's blood atonement and advocacy is unnecessary. See, now that would be precisely
what Adam and Eve did because they had no knowledge of the
atoning work of God in Christ for them. Are you guys following
me? Until God came and brought them to the light and showed
them that the blood was already shed and that coats of skin were
already given, they were simply driven to hide. And this is how you'll find out
whether you're a believer or not. If you hide your sin in your
bosom rather than to go to God with your sin. David is what
we talked about several weeks ago. Psalm 51, you desire truth
from the inward part and from the hidden part, you'll make
us to know Christ. You want us to come clean against you and
you only have our sin and done this evil in my, in thy sight.
I said, I would confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And he heard me
and he forgave me of all my iniquity. This shall all the godly pray
in a time when they are in trouble. Did you hear that? The godly
will know how to go to the throne of grace and get a hold to the
horns of the altar and say, Lord, clean a brother up. Because I
don't like this. I don't like broken fellowship.
I don't like being out of fellowship with God. I don't like God being
my enmity. Whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
I don't like being an enemy of God. I don't like this idea that
I'm loving my sin in such a way that it's going to be a block
and a hindrance from me and God. No way. God showed me his glory. Nothing is more important than
the glory of God. Nothing. And so the believer
is going to apply The mercy and grace that God has for them now
We can work this through our text because this is beautiful
in your outline follow with me then verse 1 point B I'm just
going to state it out for the record then go to verse 1 point
C Verse 1 point B. Do not sin because it's not God's
purpose, right? It's not the believers intention,
right? It's not our design, right? So I quote Romans 6 verse 1 what
shall we sin that grace may abound God forbid? I quote John chapter
eight, verse 10 and 11, 1 John 3, 9, 1 John 5, 21, 1 John, I
mean, John 8, 34 and 44. Those are the verses that echo
each other because Jesus said that if you are practicing sin,
you are the slave of sin. And John says, if you are a believer,
watch this now, 1 John chapter five, verse 20. If you are a
believer, you will not allow the wicked one to touch you,
you will be kept. That's 1 John 5 verse 20. Look
at it with me. I want you to see this and we'll
come back and deal with this. Pastor, I'm shaking in my boots.
Good. You need to. We'll work this through. I'm
never in a hurry to get people back into a comfortable place
because the world gives you all kinds of false comforts. You
need to be shaking in your boots. You need to make sure your feet
are on solid ground. You don't need to be pretending you're
all right with God and you're not. First John chapter five, listen
to what it says here in verse 19 and 20. I'm just gonna use
verse 19. Nope, let me use verse 18. We know that whatsoever is
born of God does what? Now whatsoever should have been
translated, although it's in what is called a neuter form,
it should have been whosoever is born, I'm sorry. We do know
that whosoever is born of God, sin is not. But he that is begotten
of God, what? Keepeth himself. and that wicked
one touches him not. Do you see that? The natural
tenor then of the born again believer, this is the natural
tenor, is for him to avoid the sin that would send him to hell. I need you to hear that, because
it's going to take me weeks to work through 1 John, if you want
to work through it. Because 1 John is dealing with
the technical language of helping us understand what it means to
live as a child of God, coexisting with the struggle of sin. being
able to resolve the tension between living for God's glory and therefore
never desiring the sin. At the same time, knowing that
sin is present and that sin occurs. That dual principle of being
righteous and sinful at the same time has to be something that
we reconcile in our walk. The good that I would, I do not.
The evil that I would not do, I find myself doing. How do I
resolve this? By the spirit of the living God.
That's Romans chapter 8, right? Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? You know what Paul is saying? I have an old
man and I have a body that is consistently driving me towards
rebellion against God. I have a new nature that stands
over as its own ego able to see this fool acting a fool. And
I'm saying who gonna deliver me from him? I have implied by
the who that deliverance comes from a person, not from a thing,
not from a performance, not from an act. not from religious observances,
not from dues and don't and commandment keeping. I'm going to be delivered
from my old man and his power to lead me to hell by the grace
of God and the person of Christ who came to deliver me. Now that's
what first John is going to teach us how to do. This is why this
class is so critical because if you say, you know him, you
say, you know him, you better be able to demonstrate that he's
given us every grace for it. Are you guys following me so
far? So then here's what he says. We know that whosoever is born
of God does not live a lifestyle of sin. Sin is not his old Saxon
language. It's hard to understand the verb
form. It means that he doesn't live a life of continual sinning.
That's not his lifestyle. That's not his MO. That's not
his calling card. He doesn't live for the enemy. We know that. Now, every time
that John uses this type of prohibitive language, He's thinking of the
heretics who left the church, making an excuse for sin, who
have now scandalized the gospel. Are you guys following me? Listen
to the language. We know that whosoever is born
of God does not sin, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one touches him not. Are you there with me? Stay
with me there. You notice how John uses a language
that implies the obligation and responsibility of us to keep
ourselves? Does anybody have a problem with
that? That statement? I mean, you guys see that's what
it's saying, right? Good. Stay right there. Because see,
that's part of the coin in there. That's part of the coin in there.
God has privileged me with the resources of his grace to be
able to relate to him on the grounds of my responsibility
to draw from those resources when I get in trouble. Are you
following me? Are you following me now? Are
you following me now? In other words, when He made
me a child of God, He didn't make me lazy. He didn't make
me dumb. He didn't make me stupid. He
didn't make me careless or lethargic. He didn't make me antipathetic.
He made me aware of the resources of his grace that are essential
to the sustaining of the fellowship between me and him More than
that because he revealed his son so gloriously to me in the
person of christ as my redeemer as my surety as my Substitute
as my advocate as my mediator as my high priest He is so near
to me in my understanding of the gospel that even when I think
about sin I'm ready to run to the throne of grace and draw
mercy in time of need That's how I'm keeping myself. Did you
hear what I just said? That's how I'm keeping myself.
That's how the believer keeps himself. That's how he keeps
himself. I'm thinking about David in the
Psalms. It's so interesting. I'm not going to go there cause
I don't want to break up the time, but the fallacy of thinking
that old Testament saints didn't have the same grace that new
Testament saints can be Cannot be proven anywhere in the Word
of God if you read the Psalms carefully you will see Christian
theology Christ exalting theology Fellowship between David and
Christ the the idea of David having an advocate the idea of
David having a substitute and assurity You'll see it all through
the Psalms You'll see how David thanks God for God's grace to
allow him to overcome the traps and temptations of the enemy
He thanks God for the grace for keeping him from falling prey
to his adversaries. That's the same kind of Thanksgiving
we should yield. You know, every day that you don't find yourself
going to the throne in utter misery because of some horrendous
sin that you have committed is the grace of God. Am I making
some sense? I mean, the message that John
is teaching is not, as I said before, the extremism of a an
empty Catholicism that has you going through the repetitive
motions of confessions and rosary beads and hail Marys and masses
and all of that stuff. Cause that'll harden your heart
and it'll make you even a greater sinner. Cause you will presume
on the forgiveness of God because of the repetitive practice of
sin. On the other hand, the grace of God, when it's actually operating
in our soul, does not make us so careless about the atoning
work of Christ that when we actually crash, We don't go to the throne
of grace. We just presume we're all right.
You just get up and keep walking. No, that won't happen. Cause
remember now a primary resource of the fellowship between the
believer in Christ is the blood and righteousness of Christ.
When the spirit of God, who is the third person is operating
in your life. And remember that was the by-product of Christ's
atonement. I have to go to my father because if I don't go
to my father, you will not receive the comforter. You need to receive
the comforter because you need somebody with you and in you.
working on your heart and your mind, bringing you into a intimate
deep profound knowledge of who I am and what I desire. You need
the spirit of God. You need that third person who
is the immediate presence of Christ telling you when you're
wrong in a way that's effectual because you know you're wrong,
but you need the Holy ghost to scream it. Hey, shake you up. You better get back to the cross. That's right, isn't that right?
Watch it now. And so 1 John is describing the
relationship of the believer that does not allow him to apostatize. He keeps himself. Verse 19, and
we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Do you guys see that? Go with
me back to 1 John 2, verse 1. Let's unpack this a little bit
more. About 10 more minutes before I open the floor for questions.
John is making sure that we understand the provision on a legal and
a judicial level because the conscious is where the battle
is fought. The conscious is where the battle is fought. So now
in your outline, as we deal with the resource of the advocacy,
verse one point C, there is an advocacy. You guys see that there's
an advocacy. because of the judicial aspect
of our relationship with God. And that advocacy is called a
paraclete. That's the word, although it's
translated advocate in your Bible, it's the same word as comforter. And it speaks to the work of
the Holy Spirit advising you, instructing you, correcting you,
guiding you when he enters into your life. I will send another
comforter to you who will be with you and in you. John 14,
15, and 16, correct? The word comforter, parakaleo.
The Greek terms are broken up into a preposition. Para means
to come alongside of, and kaleo means to speak to or instruct.
The word kaleo we use for call. Kalesis is the idea of instructing. So what happens? Here you are
walking your merry way. And we talked about this last
week. When you are a newborn baby in Christ, you are crawling.
You're not walking. As you enter into a techno state,
you are learning to walk because you have been in a process of
piety on instruction. But as we all know, when we have
our little babies learning to walk, one of the things we expect
for them is for them to do a lot of what falling. Is that true?
I mean, that's just part of the process of learning how to walk.
They wobble trying to stand up. Right. And they try to put one
foot in front of the other, but they're going to fall, right?
And then when they're trying to negotiate things like stair,
oh, they're definitely going to fall. You know how it was
when you ladies had your babies? Y'all swore that your baby would
never fall. You was going to always catch
your baby. Your baby was never going to roll down the stairs.
It wasn't going to fall off the table. Remember that? Remember
how you cushioned everything? How you said, I ain't going to
let my baby fall. So you kept watching your baby. You kept
protecting your baby. Right? Until you was cooking
something or talking to your girl on the phone and boom! The
baby hit. Right? Crying and screaming how
you thought the baby was going to die. Remember that? How you
thought that baby was going to die? Lord! And you fell on your
knees and cried and asked for forgiveness because that was
the most horrible sin you had committed. Like it wasn't going
to happen again. And it continued to happen. And
you began to realize after a while when they started falling, you
just said, you okay? Remember that? You okay, baby? You okay? You okay, baby? Here's how this
works. And remember I told you paratoma
is different than harmatia. Paratoma, transgression, is different
than harmatia. Paratoma, the transgressions
that take place in the journey and the daily walk of the believer,
are just part of the reality that we don't walk perfectly.
We're going to have to learn how to walk, right? We're going
to be getting into walking in chapter 2 and 3. to walk like
him. But there are times when we paratauma,
we trip up, we fall. We got to know what to do when
we trip up and fall. That will be an evidence of our
sonship. That will be an evidence of our sonship. Do you know what
to do when you trip up and fall? See what I'm getting at? It's
just part. It's incorporated in our growth
process. And John understands that when
we trip and we fall and we look back, we analyze what happened.
Our conscious vex us and we go, Whoa, what's going on here? And
especially when we start walking a little bit more confidently,
and that's where it gets dangerous. You grow in the Lord a little
ways, and then after a while, you know, you're walking pretty
cool. Right? I mean, because you're
rolling. You're just rolling, you know.
You ain't even thinking about it. You're just walking. And
you just don't think you're going to stop. Pride goes before. Boom. Because you're walking too fast,
you're walking carelessly, you forget that you still need the
Lord near you. He needs to guide your steps.
He needs to watch your footsteps. He needs to go before you and
behind you. You need to walk with a reverence and a humility
that says, Lord, I could stumble anytime. Am I making some sense?
You've got to show you that you aren't doing this on your own.
So in the advocacy role, this is what we find out in the outline.
This is very important. There's an advocacy, and the
advocacy is for these categories of people. Watch this. For the
weak, do you see that? For the laxer, we'll talk about
that if you understand that term. And for the ignorant, should
they fall? There's an advocacy for the weak,
for the lobster, for the ignorant, should they fall. I quote Galatians
chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, James 5, 19 and 20, Mark 18 through
15. This is the role of the paraclete,
the intercessor, the counselor, the instructor, and the representative
for the weak. And no matter how strong you
are, there are times when you are weak. Because the walk of the
believer, are you with me? In the Old Testament, this is
called the halakha. And then David will talk about
in Psalm 119 Walking in his precepts walking in his statutes walking
in his commandments. That's the way of our life in
that walk We will have times when we stumble. We will have times when we fall. We will have to then rely upon
our advocate when that takes place. Galatians chapter 6 verse
1 and 2. Go there for a second. I want
you to mark it. This here is where Paul instructs the church
to deal with a brother or sister who actually engages in a fault
or stumbles or sins through the trials that come primarily not
exclusively but primarily as a consequence of ignorance weakness
or naivete brethren if a man be overtaken in a what does your
Bible say anything other than fault says what trespass good
that's the better one the folks that say sin and I told you about
that there's a difference between sin and trespass and the reason
why the Old Testament used the word fault is because the fault
is is a consequence of blind spots. The trespass was an act of ignorant
going beyond the parameters, but it nevertheless is a sin.
But the sin is not in the intentional high-handed deliberate rebellion,
that is your harmatia, where you know it's wrong and you do
it anyway. That's a different category of
sin. Faults are where when you are
engaged in a temptation and you don't know how to negotiate that
temptation because that temptation has just blindsided you and you
make the wrong mistake. You make the wrong move and it
ends up in a transgression. You and I are just not perfect.
We are not omniscient. We don't know everything, particularly
when the winds of temptation are coming. Brethren, if a man
be overtaken in a fault, and I love the way Paul is dealing
with this. Paul understands the nature of the nefarious battle
that we fight when we're trying to do what's right, and temptations
both within and without are forcing us to take a course that will
result in spiritual hazard. You, which are, what's the word?
That's not the Greek word, gnosis, or the Greek term for knowledge.
It's the word for spiritual. You who are spiritually mature. Not you who have your PhD in
doctrine or theology. Not to say you shouldn't. But
there's not a one-to-one equation with how much you know the Bible
talks about things and how much that truth actually resonates
in your life to shape your character, to make you the kind of humble
person that you are empathetic and can actually help somebody
in time of struggle. Am I making some sense? A person
can be filled with knowledge and not filled with compassion.
and thus not filled with compassion, unable to deliver the brother
or sister that's in the pit. I'm just telling you. So the
idea of being spiritual is not that you understand the doctrine
of infralapsarianism, or superlapsarianism, or eschatology, or any of that.
It's that you have been taught by the Lord what it means to
walk humbly with the Lord your God, and you desire other people
to successfully do so. And so you help negotiate their
recovery by grace in a careful enough fashion to say, my brother,
my sister, I've been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, let
me help you out. Got it? That's what that means. That's
a mature person. That's a mature person. And so
the mature are called alongside of the brother who is in a fault
to help him unpack the fault, help him deconstruct the fault
as a part of deliverance. I'm going to take advantage of
dealing with this part of deliverance, part of helping people get delivered
from their pits is helping them see how they got into the pit
in the first place. and then helping them understand
how to negotiate their way out of the pit successfully so as
not to get in the pit again. That means you have to know how
to climb in that pit. You're comfortable enough in
that pit because you've been in that pit and you understand
the traps of that pit and you know the rungs up out of that
pit. Now take a step here. When we
get here, let me tell you something about this step. And those steps
are designed to gradually help a brother or sister out of pits
and out of snares so that they come back into the light and
can be part of the land of the living. It requires maturity
to be able to do that. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? Part of that is what we're talking about now when
I talk to us about the mediatorial work of Christ This is the thing
that I'm loving about our brothers and a few of them are with us
tonight as I'm dealing with the men's transition homes these
brothers that are really coming out of real struggles and Are
trying to get back into the mainstream of life. I am loving the idea
of helping them to be renewed in their minds and be able to
see through the clarity of scripture how we have fallen prey to bad
ideas and bad doctrine and bad notions. how we've been lied
to and fell prey to those lies and allowed ourselves to get
trapped by our own passions into a destructive lifestyle. And
then how to come out of that thing by being honest with God.
I'm talking about dead honest with God. I keep telling people
ain't nobody going to hell that's honest with God. But be sure
of this, to be honest with God, God has to reveal himself to
you with the kind of resources that will allow you to take the
fig leaves off. Because the vast majority are
going to hell because they're not honest with God. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? I love to use that simple concept.
I know it blows some of you theologians away, but I'm just telling you
the truth. An honest person will not go to hell. A deceived heart turns us aside. Self-deception, manipulation,
walking in darkness, pretending we're right when we're not, making
excuses, denying God's glory, that'll send you to hell. Asking
God for help sin. I am Lord. I look Lord. I'm not
stop that'll get you to glory God will hear him cry like that.
I guarantee you got it here cry like that Man, what did you pretty
guess? I don't know man. I just said
Lord help help a brother. That's not real theologically
astute. Is it help a brother? Ask Peter
though Peter was sinking Lord help a brother. I Saved by the grace of God. That's
good doctrine right there. Help be my Ebenezer All right,
so going back to our text This here Paul is calling upon us
to bear one another's burdens Let me see if I can open up this
just a little bit more and if you don't have questions, I understand
I do want to so encourage you in two weeks from now on our
first Thursday September 27 to be here bring your mama your
daddy your daughters your son your nieces your nephews everybody
needs to actually be confronted with the whole doctrine of sexuality. Everybody needs to. We, and particularly
the church, needs to understand the biblical doctrine of sexuality
from Genesis to Revelation because we are not armed to deal with
the plethora of lies and information, misinformation, disinformation
that's trapping our relatives and our children and our children's
children and sending them into hell. in the name of them being
free to redefine themselves over in their own image. And so we
need to be able to have a clear and explicit and a comprehensive
understanding of what the Bible teaches about these things so
that we can let them know the Bible's clear. The Bible's clear
on what constitutes the boundaries of relationship. Very clear.
But believers don't know how to do that. So we're going to
spend seven weeks going into that in depth. I want you to
be here. He says here in verse 1, we have an advocate. Do you
guys see that? We have an advocate for the weak,
for the lapser, for the ignorant. The weak, the lapser, the ignorant. The weak, the lapser, the ignorant.
The ignorant. Who is the ignorant? The ignorant
is that fellow like Peter in Luke chapter 22 where the Lord
Jesus was headed to Calvary and somehow Peter thought He had
enough strength to endure the assault of the pagan religio
world that was getting ready to take Christ and crucify him.
Remember how he was thinking, Lord, all these other cats, they're
going to leave you, but man, I'm with you. Remember that? You know what we call that? Ignorant.
So our Lord in the gospel of Luke said, now, Peter, I want
to share something with you that you don't know, because I'm your
advocate. I'm your substitute. I'm your
surety. I'm your representative. I'm your paraclete. I'm your
counselor. I'm your advisor. I'm your defender. You don't know this Peter, but
Satan has already asked to sift you like weed. Peter, you don't
know this. You think you know, but you don't
know. Hell has put its arms against you. It's targeting you, Peter. You don't know this. You are
walking on cloud nine. You feel so good because you
haven't sinned in a month. And somehow what you have started
doing, Peter, was looking around at your brethren and saying,
look how weak he is. Look how fickle he is. Man, listen
to John, man. John sounds like a wimp. And
listen at the rest of these cats, their theology is all over the
place. Man, I'm glad I'm not like them. The devil was marking
Peter out as a target. He put a big old bullseye on
Peter's head. And the point was directly at
Peter's heart. And he went to the father because
the devil can't do anything without getting permission from God.
And he said, now, can I test this boy? Cause I know I can,
I can tell he's acting like one of mine right now. The pride
is emanating from him. I can smell it. God, are you
guys hearing me? I can smell the pride of Peter.
I'd love to have him for, I'll run him through the sifter. I'll
mess his head up. I'll have him. I'll have him
asking questions like, I don't even know if there is a God.
Is there even a God? I mean, man, you know, you come
to think about the argument on the part of the evolutionists
and the scientists, man, it sounds pretty good. I mean, you know,
and then when I get over here in this kind of basic, you know,
listening theology where it kind of just talks in plain language,
the language over here in the world of theology and the language
over here in the world of science is the two languages are so radically
different. This one is sophisticated, lofty,
transcendent, complex. It must be right. This over here,
I got a lot of questions about a lot of these historical accounts,
don't you? Well, maybe there's not. See, when the devil starts
sifting you, unbelief grows exponentially. I don't care what you say. You
start to doubt, you start to question. And he got you once
that occurs. The only way you and I can be
delivered from unbelief is by an advocate. Someone who steps
in between your descent into sin because of unbelief and mediating
your behalf. Here's what our advocate did.
He said to Peter, Peter, I've already dealt with your fall. Even before you've fallen, I've
dealt with your fall. Now you're gonna fall, but I've
dealt with your fall in such a way that all it's gonna do
is strengthen your faith. I want you to know I did that.
Because your fall is going to be so traumatic that you're gonna
give up. You're going to say I'm done.
There is no ground for me even to pretend to be an apostle because
you will deny me cussing like a sailor. But I'm going to keep
your faith. And when you recover, tell everybody
I kept you. Don't you lie on yourself. Don't
you lie on me. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? That's an advocate standing in the gap of the ignorant person
going before us. to make sure that the fall, if
the Father permits it, only advances our faith and glorifies God. That's good, isn't it? Now we
can quote Romans chapter 8, verse 28, all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to the purpose. Isn't that right? God can make all grace abound. God
can cause his servant to stand when he falls and stand in such
a way that he becomes a stronger oak tree than he was before.
Only God can do that. That's the advocate. with the
father. And that preposition needs to
be understood. We have an advocate with the
father. You know what that means? This
whole court case business is cinched up, you know, in the
country, little country town where, uh, where, where everybody
married to everybody, you know, first cousin, second cousin and,
and, and, and the, and the sheriff in the town is, is, is, is Mr. Smith. And, and the judge in
the town is Mr. Smith and the lawyer in the town
is Mr. Smith, guess what? You jacked
up if your last name ain't Smith. Are you with me? But if your
last name is Smith, you're good to go. Because your lawyer is
a Smith. And the officer is a Smith. And
the judge is a Smith. And the knucklehead standing
before the judge is a Smith. Don't that make you feel good?
The Spirit of God brings you before the Father. And what you
see standing with the Father is the Son. And the Son is standing
there in your behalf. That's good stuff. All you have
to do is agree with God. Isn't that what we learn? Agree
with your adversary while you are in the way and let him plead
your case. Now I'm done here. When we think
about that court case scenario, you are not thinking in terms
of the real judicial indictment of sin against you as it will
be on the last day for those who don't know God. When you
become a true believer in Christ, The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
your, and we're going to learn this next week, propitiation,
your substitute, your sacrifice, your atonement has already pleaded
your case before the throne of God by his blood and righteousness
so that God is not hearing cases against you anymore. Are you
hearing me? Do you hear me? Because see Christians
still talk like the devil has access to the throne of grace,
like God's looking at your sin. No, this scenario that we are
looking at is really about the comfort that comes into the conscience
of the believer, that we have an advocate with the Father.
We therefore can accept the judgment that there is therefore now no
condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? That every time you think about
the judicial status of the believer before God, It's the status of
having everything already dealt with because the judge is your
father and the advocate is the son and the case is done because
the blood was shed. The righteousness has now been
imputed and god is not actually hearing cases against you anymore
Even though you hear them in your own conscience, even though
the devil is going to try you even though men are going to
try you remember we Have an advocate With the father jesus christ
the righteous and so long as we are confessing him as lord
and savior He is just and faithful to have already cleansed us and
to have already forgiven us 2,000 years ago by his work on Calvary
Street. All right, let's stand for prayer.
We won't take any questions tonight. Father, we thank you for this
word. We thank you for the truth as it is. And John, we hope and
pray that it would cause us not to be lapsed or lazy or indolent,
but even more zealous to love you and to walk before you, knowing
that you have provided everything for our salvation. As we go our
way, give us traveling mercies, prepare our hearts to worship
you as you ought to be worshiped. You made us to worship you. We
pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. God bless you.