Sin Can't Bring Us Down But Denial Can Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: January 28, 2009

Date Preached: January 28, 2009

Where Preached: Oak Park (Wed Evening)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: A Series from 1 John

Sermon Title: Sin Cannot Take Us Down, but denial can!

Sermon Text: 1 John 1:10 – 1 John 2:2

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Introduction:

Here in these 3 verses John repeats what he has just taught in the previous few verses… and that is the fact that sin is something we cannot deny!

v.10 – here John is not speaking about a lifetime of sin or a lifestyle of sin but is speaking about sin in general just as he was in v.8. He reiterates that we cannot deny that we sin, if we do we are calling God a liar…

God’s word declares that God cannot fool Himself, God is not going to lie… and if God does not lie and we are calling Him a liar, then we have no part in Him.

v.1 – Here is where John explains it very well, he states the reason for his teaching and it is to help each believer to seek a life of NO sin. However, it has just gotten off his pen that we cannot deny that we are sinners, so how can he justify this statement?

Well he uses it to drive home the point he first brought up in v.9. He wants to reiterate the saving Grace of God in the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ! You see many still saw Jesus as a good teacher and a moral man who was unjustly punished at this point… but not the Messiah or Savior!

John wanted all who he taught that Jesus WAS indeed the Messiah, the Anointed One whose purpose was to save the lost and offer the Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness that can only come from God.

John says that his desire and his teachings are focused on people living lives that do not seek sinful outlets or sinful behaviors… that people would strive to live as close to Christlikeness as possible…He was not saying here that we could EVER reach that potential, but that it must be something we all have to strive for as believers!

Then comes probably the BIGGEST word in the NT… BUT! Have you ever been listening to someone and they have your attention, then they say BUT… and you lose interest or see the ‘catch’ of what they are about to say coming?

Well this is basically what John was doing, however his BUT was a good thing, not a hidden agenda or some tricky multi level marketing scheme… the BUT John was speaking about was something ALL believers would have to deal with…

We are NOT able to live sinful lives… we are all sinners…so why is John pushing the sinless life? Well his push is not for sinless lives as much as it is for a striving for that sinless life and he interjects here that WHEN we fall… and we will! When we stumble…and we will! When we sin…AND we will…

That Jesus has provided a way of redemption for those who fall, stumble and sin! Jesus has provided Himself as our advocate…as our attorney, so to speak… He stands in the gap FOR us before God!

Jesus Christ is the mediator we have between this life and the perfect and holy God of the Universe and without His intervention we are doomed. Jesus came to provide a means of salvation but also to be here for those who falter, fail and fall after coming to a saving knowledge of Christ!

You see the 1st believers thought that once you were saved that you would not sin anymore because if you did that meant that you couldn’t be saved… this is why so many people from the 1st century waited on baptism… Baptism was reserved for the ‘really’ saved people…those who could endure for a short time before death AFTER baptism and NOT sin!

However, what John is saying here is that SINNERS are welcome in the church! John is telling us that it is NOT the sin that will take us down, but it is the rejection of Jesus… the denial of His Supremacy… the denial of sin and the refusal to confess that sin to God!

In other words, it is NOT the sin but our refusal or denial to accept Christ for who He is… our Savior that dooms us! In v.2 we find John revealing even more about Jesus… that He is the propitiation for our sins…