Be Honest
1 John 1:8-2:11
Be honest with yourself about sin (1:8)
Be honest with God about sin (1:9-10)
Be honest about the Remedy for sin (2:1-2)
Be honest with yourself about your relationship with God (2:3-11)
Test yourself (2:3)
Test your Actions
Test your Affections
Slide
How honest are you?
I think most people think they are pretty honest.
But what if I hooked you up to a lie detector and asked you questions?
Would you be confident of your honesty then?
Moment of Truth Game Show
About 7 years ago there was a game show on called “Moment of Truth,” that did just that. They would hook people up to lie detectors and ask them questions and if they answered 21 questions honestly, they would win $500,000!
Sounds simple enough, no.
Well it turns out that there was nobody on the shows that aired that answered all 21 answers. They either stopped and took the money or the polygraph indicated thei response was false.
There was even one contestant that truthfully admitted to
cheating on her husband, and
admitted to thinking she should have married her ex boyfriend,
all while her husband was sitting there watching.
Obviously she wanted to create a crisis point in her marriage and make a lot of money doing it. But after answering those questions truthfully, she was asked the question,
“Do you believe you are a good person?”
Listen to how she responds and what the lie detector says.
Moment of Truth Video
Go back to first slide after video
And after cheating on her husband, after ruining her marriage, after saying she believes she should be married to her ex boyfriend, she answers the question “Does she believe she is a good person with…“Honestly, I think I am a good person.”
And the lie detector says False!
How can you get that wrong? I think the reality is that she was trying to convince herself of the lie that she was a good person, but in her subconscious she knew the truth, she was not a good person.
Transition to us
I think we all have to start being honest with ourselves at a deep level and stop believing lies that we may even be telling ourselves
Just like this person on the game show was outwardly believing a lie, but deep down knew the truth, but she was trying to convince herself otherwise.
I believe the lies we try to convince ourselves of are the source of many of the problems we see in our society. The depression, the anxiety, the addiction issues we face.
Now I am not saying this is the only source, but as our society says certain actions and lifestyles are alright, we try to believe them and convince ourselves they are ok, but at a deep level, because we have been created in the image of a holy God, there is a part of us that knows the truth, and living the lie and trying to believe the lie, has detrimental effects on us.
Jesus said that if we are truly his disciples and follow his teachings
Slide
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
We need to start being honest with ourselves and believing the truth so we can be free.
Transition
Today, we are continuing on in our Series called Genuine Faith that is taking us through the letter of 1st John and we are going to see that John tells us the same thing, we need to
Be Honest
Slide
What do we need to be honest about?
We need to be honest about sin.
I think it is important for us to be honest about what sin is so we can believe truth and find freedom.
If we don’t recognize sin in our life and the destruction it causes, we will not be free and we will continue to be in bondage.
So let’s be honest about sin and be free from the bondage it brings.
Transition
Ok, so what is sin?
I think this is part of the problem. We have not identified sin correctly. Sure sin is the things we think are sin – murder, stealing, etc.
But sin is not just those things.
Sin is any disobedience to God and it does not just happen in our actions, but even more often it occurs in our heart.
We will talk about that more in a minute, but even beyond our acting wrong and thinking wrong, sin is also NOT doing the good things we know we should have done.
Slide
James 4:17 - Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Wow, if we include all of that in the category of sin, it sure becomes a lot easier to see that we are all sinners, to the very core of who we are.
So, now that we have defined sin correctly according to what the Bible says, I want you to turn to 1 John 1:8 – 2:11
Slide
And we are going to read about what John has to say about
who we need to be honest with and
what we need to be honest about
in regards to our sin.
So read with me
1 John 1:8-2:11
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
Pray
Ok, John has a lot to say, so let’s take this piece by piece and see what it is John is telling us.
First, we see that John says that you need to
Be Honest with Yourself about your Sin
Slide
1 John 1:8 - If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
We need to stop deceiving ourselves and be honest with ourselves about sin in our life.
There were people that were telling the church that the things they did were not sin and were seeking to convince those John is writing to that they were not sinning either.
We face that same thing today.
Sex outside of marriage is not sin
Acting on homosexual temptations is not sin
Hating someone is not sin.
Viewing pornography doesn’t hurt anyone is not wrong.
Those are lies.
We need to recognize the fullness of sin in our lives and face the reality of it.
We are sinners in more ways than we think.
Listen to how Jesus, even in his day, taught people about sin.
Matthew 5:27-28
Slide
"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Sin is not just breaking a command.
Sin occurs when we give free reign to evil thoughts in our heart.
We need to recognize and be honest with ourselves about our sin fully if we are going to live in truth and freedom.
Sin is far more than society is teaching.
We need to know that and be honest with ourselves about our sin.
Transition
But you not only need to be honest with yourself, you also need to
Be Honest with God about your Sin
Slide
1 John 1:9-10
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
We need to be honest with God about our sin.
The word that is translated confess in our Bibles means actually to “say the same thing”
We need to be in agreement with God about our sin, that it is sin.
What does that look like?
What would it look like to confess our sin to a Holy God?
I think it might be helpful to start out with what it doesn’t look like.
It doesn’t look like this
“Lord forgive me if I have done anything wrong.”
“Lord if you see anything wrong in me, please forgive me.”
We try to minimize our sin, or just ask God to forgive us generally.
That is not being in agreement with God.
Now, I do think there are things we don’t recognize in our life that may be sin.
Then I think we should ask God to reveal it to us.
Listen to what David writes in
Slide
Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
David asks God to reveal his sin so that he can confess it.
And when David sinned with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed in battle and it was revealed to David by Nathan the prophet, David responds by recognizing those specific acts were sin and he agrees with the Lord by confessing it, saying
2 Samuel 12:13 - "I have sinned against the LORD."
Slide
And what does Nathan, God’s prophet, tell David after he confesses and is honest about his sin with the Lord?
Nathan says, "The LORD has taken away your sin.”
There is freedom and restoration of fellowship with the Lord when we are honest about our sin with ourselves and with God.
Apply
Be honest about your sin with yourself and with the Lord.
Lord, Forgive me for Lusting after another woman
Father, Forgive me for my gossiping tongue. Help me overcome this sin.
Forgive me for my impure thoughts
Forgive me for not honoring my parents
Forgive me for not helping the person whom you were directing me to help
Don’t say forgive me if I have done anything wrong.
Say Lord forgive me because I have sinned against You in this way, and then name the way.
Be honest with God about your Sin.
Transition
And
Be Honest about the Remedy for Sin
Slide
John continues in 1 John 2:1-2 saying
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus is the remedy for our sin.
We live in a society and age where it is no problem to talk about God.
There are all kinds of people who believe in a “god,” but that does not make it the one true God.
The one true God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ and paid for your sins by dying on the cross.
In fact, John tells us, that he paid for the sins of everyone in the whole world.
However, that payment for sins, only gets credited when by faith we receive Jesus as Savior by believing in Him, who He is, God in the flesh, what he did, died for our sins and rose 3 days later.
You are not believing in the true God until you are believing in the Son He sent.
John records Jesus’ words in his gospel saying in
Slide
John 5:23 - He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
And salvation is only received, even though your sins and the sins of everyone else in the world, have been paid at the cross, that salvation only becomes manifested in your life, when you are honest about the only Remedy for our sins that God has provided, and you believe in and receive Jesus as your Savior.
That is the only remedy for sin.
Being good enough is not a remedy for sin. - You aren’t good enough
Being better than someone else is not a remedy for sin –
You are not better – you just probably sin differently
Being rich enough to pay money is not a remedy for sin
You don’t have enough and can never have enough because there is not enough ever.
The only remedy for sin is receiving Jesus as Savior by believing in Him and
the only remedy to experience continued fellowship with the Lord is to confess your sins to Christ who is our advocate “who speaks to the Father in our defense”
Jesus Christ is the remedy for our sins.
He is the remedy so we can experience salvation and He is the remedy so we can experience fellowship.
We not only need to know the reality of our remedy, but to live it.
Transition
And finally, you need to
Be Honest about your Relationship with God
Slide
These next verses start out
1 John 2:3-11
”We know that we have come to know him if …”
Now that we know we need to be honest
with ourselves and
with God and
about Jesus being the remedy for our sins,
John now gives us some tests to see if we are really being honest about our relationship with the Lord.
How can we be honest with ourselves about our relationship with the Lord?
We test ourselves.
Paul also tells us this in
2 Corinthians 13:5
Slide
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?
So how do we test ourselves?
John tells us in the following verses.
He says first you need to
Test Your Actions
Slide
1 John 2:3-6
3 We know that we have come to know him if (and here are the tests)…we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Now it is important that we keep all of this in context of the previous verses as well.
John has just finished telling us that we need to be honest and recognize that we are sinners with ourselves and with God.
We are going to sin.
But just because we are going to sin at points does not mean that we should be living a lifestyle of sin.
Just because God offers us forgiveness when we sin, that does not mean He offers us a blank check to go and sin.
As we recognize sin in our life, we need to seek to overcome it with the power of the Holy Spirit Whom we have received when we believed in Jesus as our Savior.
This is the part that can be confusing for some people.
Sometimes people believe that
If I receive Jesus as my Savior, then I can do whatever I want because my sins are forgiven and my salvation is not dependant on what I do.
While your salvation is not dependant on what you do,
the truth of your salvation,
the truth of your receiving Jesus as your Savior
is shown by what you do.
That is why we test our actions.
You need to ask yourself if what you say you believe is evident in your life.
Better yet, ask someone else.
Is there habitual sin in your life that you
aren’t overcoming or
trying to overcome or
feeling convicted about in your life?
Be honest with yourself now, because we will all face a moment of truth when our lives and motives and inner most thoughts will be exposed for what they are.
Have that moment of truth now.
Be honest by testing your actions now.
If you find that you have some habitual sin in your life, then confess it and repent and be purified and restored into right relationship with the Lord.
Don’t be like the man John talks about.
“The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:4)
His command it to confess. Do that and be purified.
Transition
Finally, after testing your actions, you should also
Test Your Affections
Slide
1 John 2:7-11
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Slide
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
John is telling us that a true Christian will have a love for his brother.
Jesus said in
John 13:34-35
Slide
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
People should be able to clearly recognize us as followers of Christ by our visible love for one another.
Do you have love for your brothers?
Is it more than just words out of your mouth, but actions from your heart?
These are some tough tests.
The reality is that none of us completely measure up.
But as a Christian, our beliefs and love for others ultimately should be evident in our actions and affections.
Conclusion
Have you been honest about your relationship with God?
You can find out as you test your actions and affections.
If you find you have failed the test, then turn and receive Christ as your Savior.
And as you put your trust in Him, confessing the truth about who Jesus is – God in the flesh – and in what Jesus did – died on the cross for your sins and resurrected from the dead, receive him and keep your fellowship with him close by confessing and repenting of sin in your life so you can be set free by truth.
Invite worship team up
I am going to invite the worship team up now and in a moment, I am going to close in prayer and lead in a prayer of confession, but before I do, I am going to offer a time of solitude with the worship team playing quietly in the background, so you can ask God to reveal sin in your life and you can confess it to him as you are honest about the sin in your life.
Let’s take a moment and confess our sin before the Lord.
Quiet time of confession – Worship team plays quietly
Close in prayer of confession and for forgiveness for our sins.
