Holiness matters

can help us to test our own view of sin. And I think that's always something that's important

for us to consider. My attention was drawn this week to a relatively recent Barna Institute survey,

so that's a group that often kind of do surveys about sort of Christian belief. And this was a

survey done within Christian churches that revealed some striking, alarming things. Only 44%

of those who were surveyed, for example, believed that Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life.

52% believed it was possible to earn one's salvation by good works, says people, within churches.

And only 35% believed that God wants His people to be holy, that growing in holiness is something

that matters. What do those statistics reveal? Well, they certainly reveal error and confusion

about the person and work of Jesus. It also, in turn, reveals confusion about the reality of sin,

which in turn shows confusion about the truth that God's grace is and will always be the only basis

for the hope of salvation. But also, it reveals to us that the warnings of John's letter are warnings

that God's people always need to hear. So, the situation facing John, we thought about this a

little bit last week, he is confronting head-on some false teaching. There were some people in first

century Ephesus who were separating Jesus so that they said He was not fully God and fully man.

And one of the truths, the teachings that they were bringing related to that is that because the

spirit is more significant than the body and that Jesus never took on a body, they were teaching what

we do in and with our bodies actually doesn't matter. That holiness in life doesn't matter,

that it's about some kind of spirit connection. So, we come to this section of John's letter,

and what we're going to hear is him recording for us three false slogans that were being produced by

these false teachers, wrong answers to the problem of sin. And he's going to invite us to test our own

view of sin against a key statement, test their teaching against a key statement also, that God is light

in him that is no darkness. And then we're also going to discover from John God's response, God's answer

to the very real problem of sin in our lives, as we'll discover it centers on Jesus, who last week we

encountered as the Word of Life. But let's begin here in verse 5 with the test that John invites us to

apply. So, verse 5, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light, in him

there is no darkness at all. So, John is bringing Jesus' message about God to the church. And in summary,

he says this is what Jesus would want us to know about God, God is light. Think about the property of

light. Light is always shining, it is always revealing. And when applied to God, it's saying

that God is always shining, revealing his purity, his holiness, his majesty, his perfection. And that's

the consistent message of the Bible. The book of Leviticus, we hear God say, be holy because I am holy.

In the prophet Habakkuk, he says, your eyes, speaking of God, are too pure to look on evil.

We could go to so many places and we would discover this God who is holy is other than us,

set apart from us. There's no contamination or impurity with God. And that has implications then

for how we live. Think about what Bob read for us from John chapter 3, that invitation to come to Jesus

John 3 · chapter mention

to find life and to walk in the light. One of the problems was people were choosing darkness instead

of light. Later in John chapter 12, Jesus would say, walk in the light while you have the light,

John 12 · chapter mention

so that you may become children of the light. It's an interesting idea. We become what we behold.

You'll look to Jesus as the one who is light and we will become more like him. But John is saying to us,

God is light, there is no darkness in God whatsoever. To consider God is to consider his intense,

perfect glory and beauty. John says, this is the message that we heard from Jesus. We're declaring to

you. Jesus, who we know never compromised on sin. Jesus who came as the only answer to sin.

And so as John is listening to false teaching, he wants the readers of his day and every day

to understand that it is foolish, indeed it is dangerous, to imagine I can have fellowship with

a God who is perfect light, but not seek to walk in the light of his truth and his holiness.

John is going to make plain that it's a denial of God's truth also to say that any Christian or any

church will not struggle with sin, will not need cleansing from Christ. And one of the false

teachings is that we've moved beyond that. We've reached a higher level. We've reached perfect. No,

we will always struggle with sin. We always need cleansing. And John's desire as he sets about with

this statement and then approaching these errors is to see a church who's walking in the light.

That's the language of verse 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with

one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. This is what he wants for us,

to be a church who are walking in the light together. We're allowing God's glory and truth and God's

grace to shine on us, causing us to be honest about sin and causing us to delight in God's grace,

as the good news of the Lord Jesus also shines in the gospel. Because God is light and there's no

darkness in him. And remember, John has already told us that Jesus is fully God. So Jesus is light

and there's no darkness in him. He is the one who came to shine the light of God's glory and grace in

the world. Jesus is the one who came to take and to endure the darkness of sin and its judgment so that

we can take our sin into the light, so that we can live in the light, so we can have fellowship with God.

And so we need to be clear on the identity of Jesus and we need to be clear about the reality of sin.

And that's why he takes us to these lies that we need to reject from false teachings. So in verses 6

and 10, we're going to see three of them. But even before we get back into our text, I think we've seen

again this week that whenever there are significant debates going on, and it's just a feature of news

reporting nowadays that we'll hear these fact-checking claims and statements being made. Is that thing

that has just been reported, can it be verified? Are there statistics to back it up? Are there

time-stamped photographs that give proof of what's being reported on? And so John wants to fact-check

some slogans from these false teachers and to check them against what's true of God. If God is light,

does what they say about sin really stack up? And we'll see that it doesn't, and so we must reject

them as error. So there's three slogans. Here is the first one. It's here in verse 6. The first slogan

of these false teachers, we deny that sin breaks our fellowship with God. If we claim to have fellowship

with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But there were a group of

false teachers saying, this body, it's just like an envelope. The stuff that matters is what's inside.

What we do with our bodies and our body really doesn't matter. We can claim a pure spiritual

connection with God regardless of our behavior. That what we do in life is not going to affect the

fact that we can have fellowship with God. John says, it's nonsense. If we are walking in darkness,

and the imagery of walking, this is our habit, this is our pattern. If our direction of travel

is to go against the God who is light, it is impossible to still enjoy fellowship with God.

It is impossible, and we know this, for light and dark to mix. It is impossible to imagine we can have

fellowship with the God of perfect light and holiness if we are not being honest and dealing with our sin.

Again, we hear that all through Scripture. Psalm 5 verse 4, you are not a God who is pleased with

Psalms 5:4

wickedness. That's really straightforward. Psalms 66, a personal reflection. If I had cherished sin in my

heart, the Lord would not have listened. Isaiah 59, here's what the prophet says.

Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden His face from you so that He

will not hear. So, if we find ourselves saying, I don't need to go to the cross for cleansing.

I don't need to confess sin. If we say to ourselves, I don't need to worry about personal holiness.

If I believe that God's grace gives me a free pass to act however I want, John would say to us,

we're believing a lie. We're out of fellowship with God, and we're out of touch with reality.

That's the first slogan and John's response. Here's the second one. This is another thing the false

teachers were saying. They were saying, we deny that sin exists in our nature. Verse 8, if we claim to be

without sin, we deceive ourselves, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Think about that. Even today, when the sun was shining, one thing that we know about the light,

when it shines, it exposes. You clean your windows, the sun shines, and you see the smears that you

hoped weren't there. The sun shines, and the dust on your TV screen dances before your very eyes.

And that light of God that shines and exposes

shines a light on the sin, the impurity, the imperfections in our hearts and in our lives.

And so the teaching of these false teachers is clearly error, as they claim sin is no longer a

problem to us. We have gained a victory over it. John says, to think like that is to lie to ourselves

and to not have the truth. Even to think about some of the texts that we have considered recently in

church. To go back to the imagery of Genesis 4, God very clearly says to Cain, sin is like a wild

animal. It's like a predator. It crouches. It's ready to attack. If we say, there's no sin in me,

I don't have a problem with sin, we are already doomed. Isaiah 6. Think about the prophet's response

as he was exposed to the reality of God's majesty and holiness. It's not, here is one in an equal

measure with me. It's, woe is me, I am undone. Or the testimony of the apostle Paul in Romans 7,

speaking of that ongoing war within. And remember, he's an apostle. But he would testify, what I want to do,

I don't do. What I hate to do, because I know it's wrong, I do. Who will rescue me? Who will deliver me?

Think about Jesus giving us the Lord's Prayer, encouraging us to pray, forgive us our sins,

and lead us not into temptation. It is foolish, it is dangerous to deny that sin exists in our nature.

And actually, the real experience of mature believers runs contrary to this as well.

That the more that we are exposed to the reality of who God is, that the more we understand

of God's character, of His glory, of His holiness, the more we begin to see the extent of God's love

in contrast to our own lack of love, mature believers would testify often to being more aware

of personal sin as the years go by. To deny then that we battle sin in our nature

is a dangerous error. Because again, think about that practically. If I think my sin is not a problem,

I'm not going to go to Jesus for cleansing. Or I'm not going to ask the Spirit to help me to resist.

And we would miss the promise and the assurance of verse 9.

If we confess our sins, instead of claiming to be without sin, He is faithful and just,

and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. There's a wonderful promise,

a wonderful pardon that we will miss out if we deny the reality of ongoing sin.

There's a third slogan in here, a third error of the false teachers.

We deny that sin is seen in our lives. Listen to how John frames it in verse 10.

If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar. We make God out to be a liar,

and His Word is not in us. For John, this is the worst. This is the worst lie,

is to accuse God of lying if we claim, I am perfect. I don't have any form of sin problem.

What makes this so serious? Well, it simply goes against what God reveals in His Word.

Isaiah 53 is a wonderful promise of the gospel, but it speaks to the universal reality of sin. We all

like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Or Psalm 14, all have turned away,

all have become corrupt. There is no one who does good. To claim we have not sinned makes the gospel

of no value, makes God's Word out to be a lie. Because the gospel says that sin is so serious a thing,

that nothing less than the sacrificial death of the Son of God could forgive it.

But they say, I don't sin. For I don't need Jesus. I've reached perfection by myself.

How we think about sin matters because it will have implications for how we think about Jesus

and how we respond to the gospel. There's lots of wonderful stories told about Spurgeon,

a 19th century preacher down in London. Here is one of them. Spurgeon was having dinner with a man

who over the course of that time was clearly showing evidence of believing that theology that claimed that

he had now reached that higher level of perfection. He was done with the battle with sin.

And Spurgeon's wonderful response was to throw a glass of water in his face,

at which point the man had a rather angry reaction, revealing that sin was still lurking.

As Spurgeon put it, the old man in you is not dead. He simply fainted and could be revived with a cup

of water. John warns us. We can lie to ourselves about sin. And we lie to ourselves about sin when we take it lightly.

When we say, well, I am saved by grace, so how I live now doesn't matter.

We take sin lightly and we lie about it when we redefine it to make it seem and sound more acceptable.

When we minimize it. When we turn a blind eye and allow certain sins to become, to use Jerry Bridges' phrase,

respectable sin.

And that's why we need to take our view of sin and apply it to that test. God is light, no darkness in him.

He is pure, shining holiness.

And John wants to expose their wrong thinking.

So that, because he's a pastor and he cares,

he wants his readers then and now

to understand

the darkness of sin.

The danger of not dealing with sin.

So that we would understand our desperate need,

our ongoing need

of the gospel of the Lord Jesus

and the purifying

that he brings.

So that takes us,

thirdly, to the true answer

that we need.

Okay, so

we've said this. Here's

John's statement. God is light.

God is pure and holy.

And he's making

clear by rejecting false

teaching that we are not pure and

holy, that we do sin.

But he says this as well.

We are called to live in the light.

And we're invited

into fellowship with God.

And we should be asking ourselves,

well, how is that possible?

God is perfectly holy

and we are not.

Light and dark cannot mix.

So how can this be?

God is perfectly

and we should be

the answer

The answer comes

not by trying to explain

away sin.

The answer comes

not by lowering the bar

of God's holiness.

Our response

isn't to hide away

in the darkness,

but it's to recognize

God's provision.

It's to understand

that God's answer

to the problem of sin

is His Son,

the Lord Jesus.

The Word of life

and the light of the world.

And so at the beginning

of chapter 2,

Pastor John wants to do

two things for us.

First of all,

he wants to strike

the right balance.

Have a look at verse 1.

He holds these two statements

in a kind of a tension.

So he says,

first of all,

I write this to you

so that you will not sin.

So John never wants

the church

to take sin too lightly.

He says,

here's my goal

that you do not sin.

That's the direction

he wants our life

to be heading in.

Okay?

We know that that

will only be true

for us in glory,

but it still sets

the direction of travel

for the Christian life.

That we are pursuing holiness.

We are pursuing obedience.

So he wants to make clear

that we don't take sin lightly,

but then as a pastor,

he doesn't want to be

too severe also.

Because immediately after,

he says,

but if anybody does sin,

we have an advocate

with the Father,

Jesus Christ.

So he says,

if we do sin,

recognize this,

rest in this,

trust in this,

God has graciously provided

the answer

to the problem of sin.

And this is our good news.

Having considered

the bad news,

the reality that actually

we do have a sin problem,

John then turns

to give us gospel.

That God has provided Jesus

as the answer

to our sin problem.

And this is good news

because it means

we can be honest.

We don't need to try

and hide our sin

to make ourselves

look or feel better

than we are.

We're not invited

to try and cover over our sin

or to try and turn over

a new leaf.

We're not to try

and fix it ourselves

because we simply cannot.

Instead,

we are to look to Jesus

and trust in Jesus.

And to help us with that,

he gives us three wonderful truths

about Jesus.

In quick succession,

and we need them all,

and it's a wonderful picture.

Here's the first wonderful truth

about Jesus.

He is our advocate.

If anybody does sin,

we have an advocate

with the Father,

Jesus Christ,

the righteous one.

So we're taken

into the courtroom.

Here is our advocate,

Jesus.

He comes alongside us

to plead our case.

He mediates for us.

He speaks to the Father

on behalf of his people.

And remember who Jesus is.

He is the God-man.

So having worked for us

on the earth,

John is saying,

Jesus now continues

to work for us in heaven,

pleading our case

on the basis of his

perfect, completed work.

Claiming his all-sufficient merit

as the basis why

people with faith

should be accepted.

And John wants to stress

how reliable Jesus is.

In a law court,

if we ever find ourselves

in trouble with the law,

doubtless we will want

the very best person

to represent us

if we are to get

the verdict that we desire.

And so John wants to tell us

who Jesus is,

this advocate for his people,

for those who trust him.

Notice how he describes Jesus.

So he is our advocate.

Secondly,

he is the righteous one.

See that there

at the end of verse one?

We have an advocate

with the Father,

Jesus Christ,

the righteous one.

And notice that John

calls him Jesus Christ,

wants to keep reminding us

he is fully God,

he is fully man.

This is the one

who has been anointed

to be God's appointed Savior.

And as fully God

and fully man,

he is righteous in his being.

God is righteous,

therefore Jesus is righteous.

He is the standard

of perfection,

and he never shifts

from that line

and that standard.

And you can read the Gospels

and you meet one

who is sinlessly perfect,

righteous in all his ways,

in all his words.

He was righteous

in his being,

he was righteous

in his life,

always doing

the Father's will,

always keeping

the Father's command.

His life given

as a perfect,

righteous sacrifice.

And again,

it reminds us

that getting the identity

of Jesus right matters.

Those 44%

of people polled

who didn't believe

Jesus was sinlessly perfect,

they can have

no assurance

that Jesus

is the basis

for their salvation.

We need to know

that he is

the sinless

Son of God,

that he is

the righteous one,

and as such,

he is perfectly qualified

to be God's answer

to the sin problem

and to be the one

who is the perfect mediator.

As God,

he represents God to us.

As man,

he represents us

before God.

But John's not finished

describing Jesus

as the true answer

we need.

He is our advocate,

he is the righteous one,

but he is also

our sacrifice.

Look at verse 2,

he is the atoning sacrifice,

the word there

is literally

propitiation,

for our sins,

not only for ours,

but also for the sins

of the whole world.

So this is our advocate,

and he is righteous,

and he is also

our sacrifice.

So the basis

for his plea

as our advocate,

when we sin,

what's our hope?

Is that Jesus,

our righteous one,

has completed

God's plan

of salvation

by way of offering

himself

as a perfect sacrifice.

We believe and trust

that the judgment

that should fall on us,

the wrath of God

that we deserve,

has been diverted,

been turned away from us,

and it's fallen

on the Son of God

instead of on us.

We believe and trust

that in Jesus

our sin

is paid for.

The substitute

has taken the penalty

for law-breaking.

That as he says

in verse 7,

the blood of Jesus

purifies

from all sin.

The effect

of Jesus' cross work

is that the stain

of sin

is cleansed

for those

who have him

as our righteous

advocate,

who trust him

as our sacrifice

dealing with our sin.

And so John

presents this statement

about Jesus

inviting the church,

inviting us to think,

isn't Jesus

a better answer

to the problem of sin

than denying it?

Than being overconfident

about our ability

to overcome it?

Isn't this a better answer

than rejecting

what is clearly true

because we see it

and we experience it

and we feel sin's sadness

and effects

in our lives?

It's the gospel.

This is better.

This is good news.

It reveals how deep

God's love is,

how deep

his grace

is truly.

God sees everything.

God sees everything

about us.

God sees the sins

that we try

and hide

from ourselves,

the sins

that we seek

to hide

from others

and yet,

when we are in Christ Jesus,

he loves us.

And because

the penalty

has been taken

and because

the righteous one

has given himself,

God can look at us

and be as pleased

with us

as he is

with his son,

Jesus.

When we are in Jesus,

we can walk

in fellowship

with our God.

The blood of Jesus

really does

cleanse us

from our sins.

And so the promise

of verse 7

is ours.

If we walk

in the light,

as he is in the light,

we have fellowship

with one another.

And remember,

John has already said

to have fellowship

with one another.

The foundation of that

is having fellowship

with God.

So we can walk

in the light,

the light of truth.

That for a local church,

for a body

of believers,

we can be a fellowship

honest about sin

and honest

about grace

as we enjoy fellowship

with the living God.

And notice

how John

closes.

He is the atoning

sacrifice

for our sins

and not only

for ours

but also

for the sins

of the whole world.

What is John

saying

about Jesus

there?

He is saying

that because

Jesus is

the eternal

Son of God,

His sacrifice

has eternal

virtue

and value

so it is

a sacrifice

that is

sufficient

for the whole world.

John

is not

saying

that everybody

in the world

is going to be saved

regardless of their

response to Jesus

but he is saying

Jesus

is a Savior

big enough,

great enough

for everyone.

So we can

confidently share

the gospel

with anybody

that we meet.

We can say

to them

believe in the Lord

Jesus

and you will

be saved

and your sin

will be

forgiven.

So the truth

about Jesus

the truth

about sin

the truth

about salvation

actually then

fuels our

mission

gives us

confidence

in sharing

the gospel.

In the first

century

there were

voices

beginning to

appear

even within

the church

saying sin

is no big

deal.

In the 21st

century

there are still

plenty of voices

even within

the church

saying sin

is no big

deal.

That's primitive

we're beyond

all that.

Holiness

is optional.

To believe

that is to

believe the lie.

What we need

is God's truth

that holiness

does matter.

It matters

to God

it matters

for our

lives

and because

that is true

the gospel

is good news.

It is God's

real answer

to our

real problem

and when

we believe

it

that all

our hope

of forgiveness

and being

right with

God

rests in

the Lord

Jesus

and his

finished work

then it

gives us

freedom.

It gives us

freedom to

confess

our sin

with that

assurance

that we

will be

forgiven.

It gives

us the

freedom

even to

communicate

hard truths

with a

sense of

hope

hope.

We can

speak to

people

about

the

serious

nature

of

sin

and

invite

them

to

trust

in

Jesus

with

hope

because

the gospel

is true

and we

have

freedom

as God's

people

to celebrate

God's

grace

as we

find it

in the

Lord

Jesus.

Let's

pray

together.

Lord

God

we

thank you

that we

come

before

the

God

who

is

light

that

there

is

no

darkness

in

you

whatsoever

that

you

have

not

will

not

cannot

sin

co

to

sense