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…
The Greek word hilasterion is used here by John and it is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word kapporeth which refers to the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
Now hilasterion can be translated as either propitiation or expiation, but these 2 words imply different and separate functions of the Mercy Seat.
propitiation = a covering or washing that turns the wrath of God away from a sinful person
expiation = which means to make amends for, or suffer punishment for wrongdoing
While there is great debate on which word should be used here, I would argue that both carry with it the essence of what Christ came to do. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said that He came to seek and to save that which was lost… in 2 Pet 3:9 Peter shares that God does not wish any to perish but all to come to repentance [which leads to salvation]
The idea of propitiation includes that of expiation as its means; but the word "expiation" has no reference to quenching God’s righteous anger. The difference is that the object of expiation is sin, not God. One propitiates a person, and one expiates a problem. By expiating (removing the problem of) sin God was made propitious (favorable) to us.
So we can see that Jesus’ role in God’s plan covers BOTH propitiation in that the blood of Christ is a washing of our soul that cleanses us from all unrighteousness and the blood of Christ is a covering that protects us from the wrath of God when we do fail Him.
But we can also see that Jesus’ role in God’s plan includes expiation as well as we know that Christ died on the Cross and suffered the punishment of our sins… Jesus took the sins of the world on His shoulders and bore the consequences of those sins…
2 Cor 5:21 tells us that, “He who knew NO sin became sin for us so that we could know the righteousness of God!” Christ made amends to God for our sinful lives!
But we must take care in how we approach this idea… we cannot fall into the trap that says Christ dying on the Cross opened up God’s love for the sinner… we must know and understand that God’s love for the sinner is what drove Christ to the Cross! Jesus’ death did not cause God to love us but it was God’s love for us that saw to it that Jesus died!
So Jesus is our advocate, and what He accomplished on the Cross was to deal with the stain of sin… but it was the love of God for His creation that brought Jesus to the cross so that the problem of sin could be dealt with… So you may be sitting there wondering how a preacher can make the statement like “Sin can’t bring you down… only denial can!”
Well I can tell you that I know what God’s word has promised to ALL who profess Christ as Lord and Savior and that is…FIRST we are all sinners… sinners saved by Grace! Sin is a part of our world and a part of our nature.
It is only when we deny the power of Christ’s atoning sacrifice that we fall! When we confess our sin to Christ He is our advocate and is faithful to forgive us our sin and wash us clean!
But when we deny our sin… when we say we have no sin… when we deny the fact that sin exists in our lives… denial of our sin leads to not confessing the sin in our lives and we do not trust in Christ to remove that sin… we are doomed!
So denial of our sin or denial of the atonement is what brings us down NOT the sin because we are sinners! But thru Christ we have been forgiven and washed clean through the confession of our sin and acceptance of His forgiveness and sovereignty.
This news is great comfort to all who believe, but should also stand as a warning to any and all who say they can live their lives WITHOUT sin! Denial will bring you down!
