Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 John 1. 1 John 1.

We are going to read all of 1 John 1 today and focus on verses 5-10:

1 John 1:1-10

  1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
  2. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
  3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
  4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
  5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
  6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
  7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
  8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
  9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
  10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

I'm going to talk for just a few minutes about what happens when Christians sin. What happens when Christians sin.

I have met more than one person over the years who believes that true Christians do not sin. We used to have one of those people in our church. It's a popular teaching in some circles around here.

I remember one time going to a farmers market in Tennessee, it was an amish market, and they had a tract so I picked it up and read it, and it was all about how Christians do not sin.

One time someone from our church started attending a pentecostal church and they convinced him Christians do not sin and he gave me a little booklet about it.

It's more popular than you might think. But it is wrong for three reasons:

First, we know it's wrong because we know from experience that Christians sin. I sin. You sin. Our christian children sin. You have to either believe there aren't any Christians or you have to practice some pretty deep self-deception to believe that Christians don't sin.

Second, it's wrong because it goes against so much of the scripture. Every book Paul wrote was written to Christians, and every book had some admonition to put away sin. Why would we need that if Christian's don't sin.

We can read in Acts and the Epistles stories of Peter compromising and having to be confronted by Paul. Peter as the leader of Christianity, yet he needed to be confronted to the face.

Paul and Barnabas had such a sharp falling out over John Mark that they couldn't work together anymore. This was way before most of the New Testament was written. Paul wrote most of it and John Mark wrote one book.

It is absolutely ludicrous to think that Christians don't sin. You have to basically redefine sin to make that work.

A third reason why we know Christians sin is because this passage we are reading tonight tells us, in no uncertain terms, that Christians sin.

Look at verse 8:

1 John 1:8 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

That's pretty clear.

Look at verse 10:

1 John 1:10 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Again, pretty clear. Hard to twist that to mean anything else. So Christians sin.

It's nonsense to say Christians don't sin. The Bible is very clear that we do. Listen to what Paul said in Romans 7:21-24:

Romans 7:21-24 21. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul, the great apostle Paul, is writing the magnum opus of Christianity and he is saying "I have evil in me, I have sin in my members, I am wretched and need to be delivered."

If the apostle Paul still struggled with sin, I guarantee you that you will too. I know I do.

So what are Christians supposed to do when they sin? It's inevitable. It's going to happen. So what do you do?

When Christians sin

I believe that this passage gives us two options, two paths we can take when we sin.

One path is good. One path is bad. One path leads to light. One path leads to self-destruction.

We can cover our sin

The first option you have when you sin is you can cover your sin. We can say we have no sin. We can deny it. We can convince ourselves there is no sin there. That is option number 1.

And if we do that, we are doing several things, verse 8 says we are lying to ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, that doesn't mean that we aren't saved. It just means we are choosing in that instant to believe a lie. We are starting down the path of darkness.

And if we go so far as to say we never sin, then we are making God a liar, because God's word says Christians sin. We all sin and come short of God's glory. All our righteousness is as filthy rags.

So we can choose to cover our sin. We can deny it. We can sweep it under the rug. Proverbs 28:13 puts it this way:

Proverbs 28:13 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

What does that look like? What does it look like to cover our sin?

You can cover your sin.

But it is still sin. But all you are doing when you do that is deceiving yourself, keeping yourself from close fellowship with God, and keeping yourself from prospering.

Remember, the warning Moses gave in his final speech "Be sure your sin will find you out." You might be able to deceive yourself, you might even be able to deceive other people, but God sees everything.

God looks down at you with His omniscient eyes and asks "What are those leaves for? Why are you hiding from me? Where did that shame come from?"

Covering sin is a bad idea. It's like being a person who is told you have cancer and have weeks to live, and refuses to acknowledge it. You are still going to die.

It is like the ostrich, when the ostrich is being hunted, it sticks it's head in the sand. Only it's head. The ostrich thinks "you can't see me."

But everyone can, and God can see us when we try to cover our sins.

But there is a second option we have when we sin...

We can confess our sin

Look at verse 9:

1 John 1:9 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We can cover it, or we can confess it.

Again, Proverbs 28:13

Proverbs 28:13 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

So this verse brings up three questions:

Let's look at each of those in turn...

What does it mean to confess our sins?

The word "confess" means "to say the same thing."

Confess doesn't mean "Ok, you caught me." That's not confession.

A lot of times we think we are confessing and what we are really saying is, "Ok, I'm sorry I got caught. I did it. And I would do it again if I can get away with it."

That is not confessing your sin. That might be acknowledging your sin. But it is not confessing.

To confess means to agree with God about our sin. We have to see our sin the same way God sees our sin. We can't minimize it. We can't make excuses for it. We need to call it what it is. It is sin. It is an offense against God. It is evil.

One of the things we have done is try to redefine sin. We call it sickness. We call it a mental disease. We make up pet names for sins, but make no mistake about it - sin is sin.

We can change the label on the bottle called "sin", but that doesn't mean the contents are any different. How much better is it to just call it like it is?

So we have to come to the place where we agree with God about our sin.

So that brings me to the next question...

How is God faithful and just to forgive us?

It says:

1 John 1:9 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What does that mean that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins?

Well, God promised that He would forgive sins. Let me read you some verses:

Micah 7:18-20 18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

Jeremiah 31:34 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

So God is faithful to keep His promises. He promised He would forgive HIs people's sins and iniquities and it is right for Him to do it.

But how is it just? It's not really just for you or I to overlook sin? If a judge just ignores a crime, that is not just.

How can God be the justifier of the wicked and still be just? That is one of the central questions of the Bible.

The answer is through Jesus. We need to understand that God forgiving our sin doesn't mean that it is going unpunished. God punished our sin in Christ. All the sins we would ever commit, past, present and future, they are all under the blood of Christ. They have been fully and duly punished.

So God is faithful to forgive us our sins because He is keeping His promise and just to do it because He has punished those sins in Christ.

Look at chapter 2 verses 1-2:

1 John 2:1-2

  1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
  2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. His death appeased God. That's what that means. He paid for our sins and for the sins of the whole world.

So God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. But what about the third question...

How does God cleanse us from all unrighteousness?

I think there are two senses that we can understand this cleansing.

The first sense is in our relationship. Remember, for Israel to have fellowship with God, they had to be cleansed. Their sin kept them out of the tabernacle and their had to be an offering and a cleansing for them to go in and fellowship with God.

And when we sin, we can't fellowship with God. He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. So no fellowship with darkness. No fellowship with sin.

But if we confess our sins, that confession cleanses us and we have access to God. We have fellowship with God. We have been cleaned by Christ's sacrifice.

There is a second sense that I think confessing our sins cleanses us, and I think that is it changes our attitude towards sin and that helps us sin less and less.

That's what I think verses 3-5 of chapter 2 are talking about:

1 John 3:3-5 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

Summary

Sin breaks our fellowship with God. When a Christian sins, he has two options, he can try to cover and deny his sin, which will lead to chastening and stunt his growth in Christ, or he can confess his sin, which will result in a renewed relationship with Christ and continued growth and sanctification. A christian who is confessing sins is going to have a different attitude towards God's commandments than one who is in denial and a different level of fellowship with God.

Which one are you?

As you are turning there, I want to address something.

There is a rumor going around that Keith Summers and I have some secret plan for that building. Here is the truth: I have never once spoke to Mr. Summers about that building, I haven't spoken to Mr. Summers in close to ten years.

He did come to our Easter Service, but I didn't invite him and didn't get a chance to speak to him. He has not made any indication to me that he wants to buy that building.

The only thing I know is that he listens to our youtube channel sometimes and likes our preaching and that he has a special attachment to that building. But zero discussions have been had, either directly or through Evan about him helping us.

The second thing I want you to know is that Evan and Sidney are joining the church next Sunday. Because we have a business meeting next Sunday night, and because we don't want anyone saying they are just joining to vote, they are not going to come next Sunday night. I've also asked Nathan and Sarah to not be a part of the meeting because they are most likely leaving us to pastor and I don't want them to skew the vote.

I am trying to do things as absolutely above board as is humanly possible here.

One more thing, one person in the church has approached me with questions. I sure appreciate it. I really would like it if more people had questions and if they directed them to me.