[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church, located in Plano, Texas, for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry, please visit CitizensChurch.com Good morning, Citizens Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to see you all.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're new here, we're really glad you're here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're glad you're worshiping with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: To open God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been here a long time, welcome back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's awesome to see you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially students.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back from Wake Up Weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last week, we started reading the letters of John as a church, not just on Sundays, but on Mondays and Tuesdays with men's and women's Bible class as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, our students and unite.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's interesting as we go, there's going to be different places in the preaching speed as we go through the first second third John in the speed of the Bible classes and also with the students.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for this week, interestingly, we are exactly synced up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to be going chapter one and dipping into two verses of two.
[SPEAKER_00]: The students are going to go over the same thing on Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Men and women are going to also do that this week as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be pretty neat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're here last week, you will remember that at the time of the writing of the Epistles of John, the Apostle John is very likely the last surviving Apostle.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in his 80s or 90s, and there's a little group of churches that are near and dear to his heart in the area of Ephesus, and they are being rocked with controversy.
[SPEAKER_00]: False teachers have risen up, and they begin to not only leave, but to entice people to come with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: to join their new sect.
[SPEAKER_00]: And John is motivated, he's moved by love, by passion, by holy jealousy for his spiritual children, but also for God's people and the reputation of God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: To pick up his pen and to write urgently these impassioned letters, defending the foundations of the faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's a whole bunch of different ways that you can divide up the categories of John's themes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the way that I laid it out in men's Bible class last week is that John is writing to defend, to define and defend the true faith top-by-crice specifically around three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, Christian Confession.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is our conversion of faith?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is our doctrine?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we not believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, Christian conduct.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we behave?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we habitually do and habitually avoid?
[SPEAKER_00]: Christian confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do we find our assurance of salvation?
[SPEAKER_00]: How can we have true joy filled assurance?
[SPEAKER_00]: And not a false prideful assurance?
[SPEAKER_00]: Dancer these questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to talk about who we think Jesus is, what Jesus taught, what Jesus accomplished.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, Christian, confession, conduct, and confidence are totally rooted and grounded in the person and the work and the message of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, who is Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: What did he do?
[SPEAKER_00]: What did he teach?
[SPEAKER_00]: The false teachers have a wrong understanding
[SPEAKER_00]: And in today's passage, first John won five through two, John will begin to unpack the message of Christ that he received.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, he's going to tell us the content of that message.
[SPEAKER_00]: Super short.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he'll go through and list out the corruptions of that message by the false teachers, and then he'll offer corrections for those corruptions, for believers in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So first, let's look at the content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Try for one verse five.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the message we heard from him from Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the message that we proclaim to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, here it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ready?
[SPEAKER_00]: God is light.
[SPEAKER_00]: In him is no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's his summation of all of Jesus's teaching and theology, spending years with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, this is what Jesus taught me.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is light in him is no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that John begins his letter, not by addressing his opponents or trying with an emotional appeal to get people on his side.
[SPEAKER_00]: He starts by grounding everything in the very nature and the character of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is God?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: This statement covers at least two things, two aspects.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's nature and God's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's nature, in God's nature, God is light.
[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is God's light is the light of truth, of integrity, of honesty, of knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's light is the light that reveals all things, all knowledge, uncovers all truth, all hidden things.
[SPEAKER_00]: In him there's no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is God never lies, God's never wrong, God never believes wrong things or wonders about things.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not ignorant about everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing is hidden to God, God is light.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that Jayman shared last week is it needs to be true, that's true, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to be true, but it has to also be true for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just news but good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, this might self is not necessarily good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, have you ever seen a movie?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a ton of these.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone invented a super computer, or like a robot, or an android, or like an AI, you know, and then they, they, well meaning and they try to program it like destroy all evil
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, basically all the movies in the same way like the robot of the computer examines human history, human culture, gets on the internet, and it's like, oh, okay, the solution is we've got to kill all these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can bring peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a bunch of movies like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, Genesis in Genesis 6, God nearly does that exact thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 6, 5, 3, 7, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what God's light reveals.
[SPEAKER_00]: What He uncovered.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is His assessment of the heart of mankind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He saw that every intention, every intention, of the thoughts of His heart, was only evil continually.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord would regret it that He had made man on the earth and aggrieved Him to His heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Lord said, I will blot out man who might have created from the face of the land, man, and animals, and creeping things and the birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I've made him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God doesn't actually go through with that plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't wipe out, although that would be one, that is one possible legitimate solution to the problem of evil, the problem of sin, wipe out all the evil doers.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he doesn't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The very next verse starts with the word but, but, no one found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: God had grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: What it means that God is light isn't just that God is like a computer knowing all things and computing all possible realities.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just that God's nature is truthful and always correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's that God's character is also good and kind and generous, righteous, gracious, merciful, loving.
[SPEAKER_00]: The light of God isn't just clear and bright.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also warm and lovely.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember during the freeze, you could go in the midday, and it was freezing cold, it was so cold outside, and the sun is fully shining, and it's a light that illuminates, but it doesn't keep you warm.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is not like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's nature, lights are path, yes, but God's character warms our faces and strengthens our weak hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why John says in his intro to the gospel, in John, in the gospel of John chapter one, talking about Jesus and what he reveals.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, we have seen his glory, that glorious light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Glorious of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth, not or grace and truth, both.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a popular saying on the internet.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's like watching people argue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Facts don't care about your feelings.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God does.
[SPEAKER_00]: God does.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's light is a factual light, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's also a fatherly light.
[SPEAKER_00]: God absolutely cares about the truth, but he also cares about our hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the content of the message is that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: No darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is that God is not a duality.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not a Yiming yang in his internal battle of light and dark.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is only light.
[SPEAKER_00]: No darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no dark hidden secret about God that you have yet to learn, that if you found out you would be horrified.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also no dark hidden secret about God that you need to learn in order to get access to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, the false teachers claim that they knew secret things about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only they knew.
[SPEAKER_00]: They could share with you if you joined them and you went up enough levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a platinum level, but lots of cults have something like this where there's a secret thing they'll teach you about God that all the beginners don't know when you get to high enough, we got the secret handshake.
[SPEAKER_00]: John will emphasize that Jesus has already revealed the fullness of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing hidden or secret or just a pointing to discover.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing twisted.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no fine print in the contract that you forgot to read.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no gotcha at the end of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is light, there's no darkness in Him at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the content of the message of Jesus that He has revealed in both his teachings and in his life and death and resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if that's true, then there are consequences to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are implications to the fact that God is light and only light and He has no fellowship with darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these implications are really uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these are the implications that the false teachers don't want to face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they introduce multiple corruptions to the message of Christ that John feels pained to correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it's really important to note, these are not just ancient errors.
[SPEAKER_00]: These errors crop up today.
[SPEAKER_00]: They crop up continually all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: They crop up in our own hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is why First John is so important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he's going to outline three pairs, three pairs of corruptions and corrections.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to ping pong back and forth between what the false teachers claim and then what the truth about God actually is and God's people is.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Christian doctrine, Christian practice, look like.
[SPEAKER_00]: My first let's go over the three corruptions, the three errors that the false teachers make.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is found in chapter one, verse six, verse eight, and verse 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse eight, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Briefly going over these three errors.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first error is to say that sin doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't affect my fellowship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter how I live.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can habitually sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can joyfully sin, unrepentantly sin, gleefully sin, and God and I are still cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I like to sin and he likes to forgive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's a great partnership, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's applying demand, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If our faith in God is purely intellectual and not transformative, then we're liars.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're denying God's truthful nature, his righteous character, people who speak this way are hypocrites and liars, they're exposed by their behavior.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have no fellowship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They claim to be leaders who can teach you more about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have no fellowship in the first place.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not members of God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second corruption is to claim that we have no sin, as what says we have no sin, it's a noun.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we have, this can be taken as we, we have no signature, we have no need of atonement, no need of salvation, no need of regeneration, no need for a work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're not dead in our trespasses in need of rescuing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could use some pointers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could use a tutorial if you could help me out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could figure that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't need rescuing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That may have been it look bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Johnson's people who say this aren't just lying to others in the world, they're lying to themselves, they're not just hypocrites.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're self-deluded.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're delusional people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third corruption is a claim that, okay, while we might have a sin nature or there is a sin guilt because the children of Adam are descended from him, you know, those kinds of things, sure it's out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: The third era is, I have not sinned the verb.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not do the activity of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have personally outgrown that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I no longer actually commit any sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: This teaching is sometimes called sinless perfectionism or entire sanctification.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, yes, the world is falling, but not me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've risen above.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now remember God's assessment.
[SPEAKER_00]: As his light revealed, the hearts of humanity in Genesis 6, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Always evil, all the time, every thought, every intention of the heart that is the secret things, not even just what you talk about, the thing you're secretly planning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, here John gives his strongest condemnation to this kind of teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: To say that you have not sinned, is not just lying to the world or lying to yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's saying that God Himself is a liar.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just hypocrisy, it's heresy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just error, it's blasphemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not being wrong about God, it's cursing God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the false teachers to sum it up are basically teaching this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sin doesn't affect God, sin doesn't affect the world, and sin does not affect me.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, sin doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm okay, you're okay, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after each one of these corruptions, you'll see that John immediately offers a correction.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, what do Christians actually believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we actually do?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the nature of our character?
[SPEAKER_00]: These are the three corrections he gives.
[SPEAKER_00]: False teachers walk in the darkness, but believers walk in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Believers confess our sins, and believers fight our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: John says the believers walk in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then later he says in chapter two verse one, I write these things so that you may not sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is his goal, that is his heart, that is the heart of the Father for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will not sin, you said you will walk in the light both in truth and more, morally.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's how I was really similar to what the false teachers teach, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how is this difference from like sinlessness and perfectionism?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because notice each time he gets a correction, he ties this, walking in the light, victory over sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ties it to something that the false teacher's not.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ties it to the way that Jesus blood takes away our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time, John 17, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
[SPEAKER_00]: We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: John does not say, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and we have no need of the blood of Jesus because you're walking in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're doing great.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, he says, the blood of Jesus cleanses us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the present tense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not cleansed you when you gave your life to Christ, or cleansed you two thousand years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cleans us right now, continually.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, you never stop needing Jesus, even when you walk in the light, and he never stops meeting your need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never.
[SPEAKER_00]: First John, one, nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: John does not say here, if we confess our sins and Jesus will be like, I knew it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew it, I was waiting for you to slip up.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was the last try.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you you were on the last warning.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, Jesus is faithful to his promises.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is just, he is righteous to forgive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice, it says, it doesn't just say he forgives our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: He takes away the penalty of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says that he cleanses us from all on righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is purification language.
[SPEAKER_00]: He not only takes away the penalty of sin, he, as we walk with him, he purifies us from the very power of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our desires, our hearts and the inclinations of our hearts, move away from the way the world desires, all those things that are passing away, and we're being transferred into the kingdom of light.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just a penalty of sin that he takes away, but for the very power over us.
[SPEAKER_00]: First John 2-1, he says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way you live matters, it does, and I want you not to sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if anyone does sin,
[SPEAKER_00]: We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: His desire and will again is that we will not sin, but look what he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens if we do sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't say, then we have an accuser with the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, like, I told you, get him dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have an advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a lawyer, a counselor, someone who's speaking on our behalf.
[SPEAKER_00]: always making intercession for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's speaking to God on our behalf.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, before we get into chapter four, we will find that God is the one who sent Jesus to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like God and Jesus are on opposite sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not opposing counsel.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're on the same team.
[SPEAKER_00]: They both want the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' will is the same as the fathers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as Jesus Christ the righteous, it's not because He's winking and sinned.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why the false teachers, they don't think it's a big deal is because they know secretly what they're really like.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they wanna find a way where it doesn't really matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is absolutely righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He doesn't use that righteousness to attack us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But His desires to advocate for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus Christ the righteous one.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only one who had the who would have the right to condemn you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can we believe this about Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can we say this about ourselves?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because, like I said up top, the foundation that John lays is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus has revealed, the message of Christ is this, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is light, that is His nature and His character.
[SPEAKER_00]: Truth and grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: What this means practically?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think the one thing is really obvious, and the second is a little bit less obvious.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's light reveals.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a light that exposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You turn the lights on, and all the roaches around out of the room, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a prison break, and the spotlight comes on and you're caught, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So we imagine something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's light reveals sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it does.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing is hidden from the eyes of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to remember the character of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's light not only reveals sin, God's like heals sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same light that reveals is the same light that heals.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is not out to expose us to destroy us, to shame us.
[SPEAKER_00]: God wants to expose our sins with his light so that in his love and his mercy, he can restore us, purify us, protect us, sanctify us.
[SPEAKER_00]: is only in the light of God, where we are fully revealed and fully healed, that we can be fully known and fully loved at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: These false teachers are like black mold.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've ever had that, like a broken pipe that you didn't know about.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like black mold hiding in the darkness in the very deepest parts of your house, the back corners of your cabinets are drywall.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might notice him like, I'm busy, I'm not gonna, I'll deal with it later, but it just keeps growing and never stops.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't go away on its own, it keeps growing until you have to eventually rip out the whole wall.
[SPEAKER_00]: What God's like does, it exposes all that rot, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like sunlight, it kills and purifies that same rot.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the purpose of God's light.
[SPEAKER_00]: How, how does that work?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can we trust that?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we get to the crux of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: First John, two, two.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a thing that makes Christianity that gospel different from every other faith that exists.
[SPEAKER_00]: This past Wednesday, college life meant, and we discussed is Jesus the only way.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a key verse to think about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the propitiation for our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Jamie is going to talk more about this next week, but I just want to pack how it connects to this passage that we just read.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word propitiation is the $5 word that means to take away penalty, to turn away wrath, to turn away anger.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is right justly angry at those who are sinners.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something that makes us uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God is angry to the same proportion that he loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have two and a half year old little talitha.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's in kids care right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she is just my whole world.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love her so, so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And imagine you notice somebody harming talitha, and you say, hey, Mike, don't know what I'm over there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, no, that's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what doesn't bother you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think I love my daughter?
[SPEAKER_00]: If seeing her get harmed has no emotional impact on me?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the extent that I love my daughter, I will be moved.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is righteous anger that comes out because someone that I love is being threatened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the thing that makes us complicated is, everyone in this room is a victim of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have been wronged.
[SPEAKER_00]: But everyone in this room is also a perpetrator of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have wronged.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone here has received evil, but we've also committed it as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God is angry for us, and God is angry at us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, but remember, God, Jesus is our advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why we're being exposed to years not for condemnation, but for invitation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus comes to be our propitiation to absorb God's wrath, to turn away the penalty, to atone for sin, to reconcile us with God, to reveal the need for salvation, and then to bring that salvation himself, through His blood, that is through the power of His death in His resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's so important about this, is that Jesus alone is the propitiation, for a sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's important that it says propitiation here, and not Jesus is the self-help book for our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, okay, this is how you fix it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the YouTube tutorial on how to conquer sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'll do that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is not, every other religion is teaches you how to do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gives you good advice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gives you a manual, gives you a good teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus comes to give us Himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why it's called Good and News.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the Proficiation, not us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the one who attends, not us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the one who makes payment and transformation.
[SPEAKER_00]: He buys it with his own blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not asking for yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says not for us only, but for the whole world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what this can't mean immediately is that Jesus attones for the whole world in such a way that everyone has fellowship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, like, oh, everyone's saying, easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we just got through talking about other some people who don't have fellowship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some people who are outside the fellowship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've listed what those people are like, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: What this is talking about is that the propitiation of the sun is about this invitation is about incredibly broad, incredibly wide, it encompasses the whole world, it's open to everyone in the whole world and it's also incredibly narrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole world is invited through one door and that is Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's only one way.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's only one door.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's only one name under heaven by which we may be saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the propitiating name of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only Jesus pays.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only Jesus has the power and the right, because only Jesus Christ is the right just one of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the question here is, if you're in this room and you're listening to my voice, are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, are you tired of living a lie?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there sin that's strangling you?
[SPEAKER_00]: You feel like you're drowning?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there, are you, are you walking in darkness?
[SPEAKER_00]: You look good on the outside, but inside, you are just being eaten up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You feel, you're pretending to have a fellowship with God and God's people, but you feel super alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you're in a deep dark pit.
[SPEAKER_00]: What first John wants to do is to invite us into God's light.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to stay there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants us to let God's light reveal all of who we are, so that he can heal, all of who we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's light only heals what has been revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive us, to cleanse us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, now, I want to address something that's really important.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been a believer for any amount of time, you probably, now this is really probably new.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're nodding your head, like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a danger with being so familiar with this language that we actually don't understand it and we don't actually apply this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to walk through some applications on what this means for some groups at our church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So first of all, my beloved home groups, I miss you guys, I love you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love home groups, and Hungry's right now is in the midst of what it's called assessment season.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hungry's are invited to get together and instead of doing a guide or something else to go through an assessment guide that asks the Hungry to discuss, how are we doing on the three pillars of the home group?
[SPEAKER_00]: that we build community, pursue, sanctification, and live on mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: How are we doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the area of growth that we've seen?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are areas of stagnation that we've seen?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we want to pray for, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the questions in the home group guide, in the home group assessment guide, that we might be tempted to skip, is a very uncomfortable one.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to ask you to look around the room and think about how often are we actually practising confession and repentance with one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it says to look around and like, look at all the people, when's the last time you heard each person confesses in?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or that you're aware that it's happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this week, this month, this semester, this year, never, if the answer is never for everyone, that's kind of a chicken gen light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think in every home group, we would agree with a theory that we should confess our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: We would agree in theory, like I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, okay, we're done, we did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, like I admit I'm a sinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here what's happening is we're being told to confess our sins one to another, to share with specificity what those are, to walk in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a song that we sing here at church sometimes you guys might know it, it goes, thank you, Jesus, for the blood applied, you know that song.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's as if we change the lyrics of the song of two, thank you, Jesus, for the blood described.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I'm aware of it, I know what it's supposed to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the definition of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It hasn't happened applied to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a kind, if you remember from our James study, there are demons that have better theology than us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know all the things that we wonder about.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know all those things, but they're not transformed by those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blood of Christ is not applied to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: How is it that the propitiating power of Jesus is applied to us?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just through awareness of theology.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the profissation of our sins in two ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's two things we have to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, we admit our sin, one to another.
[SPEAKER_00]: The language here of confessors sins is used in four other places in the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every time it's not talking about admit it to God, it's talking about confession to another person to confess your sins to someone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we admit our sin one to another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now obviously, you need to have someone that you trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a trusted person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everyone can be trusted with your whole life and every secret about your life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're immature and unhealthy people, untrustworthy people.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a reality, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But is there anyone that you can be accountable to?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is there no one?
[SPEAKER_00]: First, we admit our sin one to one of the second things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We submit our sin to Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We submit our sin to Christ and allow him to be the propitiation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is I think a buzzword that's really popular today is like authenticity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a friend when in my 20s and this young lady and there was a guy that was interested in her and he pursued her for a while and then before they started dating he's like, hey, I just
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be I'm a super honest guy so I just need to tell you I'm like really lazy and I get really angry easily And I'm really selfish, you know, and so I probably I'm not going to treat you very well So just and she's like okay, and then later They were dating those things were true and she was very unhappy about it when she brought it up and in our friend group He was like well, I told you I was lazy and selfish and angry and like what are you complaining about?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was totally transparent with you
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'll be the first part where you admit, hey, I'm gonna open book, but that's not walking in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is admitting your sin, but it's not submitting it to Christ that he would transform it, not just to be forgiven, but to be cleansed, to be purified, to be transformed.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, this is the way that I am, and I'm not okay with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not just to walk to speak authentically, but it's to live authentically in light of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not enough to be revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to desire to be healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you, maybe some of you guys, oh, by the way, group connect is coming up on February 22nd as we talked about.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not in a home group and you're you're learning for a community like this, you can register for group connect right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if February 22nd, it'll be training and all the good things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe those of you, you might not have a community right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might not have trusted people that you can confide.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you're in a home group and you feel uncomfortable for various reasons, you know, maybe for various reasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have someone that you can keep you accountable right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just really want to invite you, you can come this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I invite you to come to recovery.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a 630 p.m. on Wednesdays.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there, if you feel like you're drowning you either from deep suffering that will not let go, or deep sin that will not let go, please come.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will find loving, brothers and sisters who are absolutely walking in the light, fallible, but faithful, imperfectly, but pursuing Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can choose healing, or you can choose hiding, but you can't have both.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to walk in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Families, we say this often,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, parents, your kids don't need you to be Jesus, you pretend like you're perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to see you needing Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, model walking in the light with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: What this means is, what this looks like is, first, let them see you admit your sin to them, ask them for forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let them see you admitting your sin to your spouse, to your husband, to your wife, to their aunts or uncles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let them watch you do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let them watch you submit your sin to Christ to pursue holiness, to go to counseling, to talk, to staff, to share in hunger.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let them watch you wrestle with these things and perfectly faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to see you both admitting and submitting your sin to Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, when your own children stumble, follow what it says here in two one that don't be there, be there advocate, do not be either accuser, be like Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: not like the enemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Model, not just a truth of God's word, but the fatherly warmth of God's light.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that our families will be marked both by grace and truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, I just want to acknowledge our students.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just got back from the wake of weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: The theme was Hosanna, right?
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for those of you who did not go,
[SPEAKER_00]: because these guys are all experts on Hosanna now, but the brothers who did not go, Hosanna means save us, means help us, it means rescue us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a cry, it's a plea to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not a crying to darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cry made with confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can we cry out, Hosanna?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can we plead to God knowing that he will heal us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear us, because God is light.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no darkness in him at all, because Jesus is our advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then when we cry to Jesus, he's not gonna sneer it us and be like, try harder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this again?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, Jesus loves to come to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one's question again is, is do you want healing or do you want hiding?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you come into the light that doesn't just reveal your heart, but heals it absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you believe about the person and the work and the message of Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you believe that he is the propitiation for your sins?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or are you trying to earn your way back to God's favor?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you think you don't need it in the first place?
[SPEAKER_00]: All of these things we're going to explore as we go through the letter of first John to unpack what it means to be in Christ that our confidence would be firmly placed in Jesus alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh Lord, that we would be a people who walk in light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is you're in the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, thank you, thank you that you are God who's light, but you are also God who's our father, that your Jesus are advocate, that your Jesus, the attorney sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh Lord, your Jesus, the good shepherd, your Jesus, the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we pray that these words would settle into our hearts, that we would not settle for a cheap grace, or something broken systems that don't satisfy.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, but that we would cry out to you, Hosanna, save us, knowing that you will answer, because you have already paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we pray for our church that this would be a safe place to confess in.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we would not cancel people because of their sin, nor coddle them in it, but Lord, that we would call them to walk in the light, Lord, that we would keep each other accountable in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you for this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we pray that you would take the propitiating blood of Jesus and apply it, God, apply it to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: What help us to see the beauty and the goodness and the faithfulness, the majesty of Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, let it be transformative, that we would see Him and know that, Lord, you see us, O God.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these things we pray in the matchless name of Jesus Christ.