Be Accepted
Belong

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All right, good morning, church! We’re continuing our series entitled, “Belong, The Basics Of Belonging To God’s Family.” Today, we’re going to focus on one of the most basic questions that new believers ask: “What do I do if I sin again? I’ve come to Christ, but what do I do if I sin after that? How do I experience God’s love and forgiveness in an ongoing way in my life?”

We’ve entitled this message, “Be Accepted.” How can we experience God’s acceptance even when we sin again? This series, I would remind you, is based on the first five lessons in our Life On Life Discipleship Plan. Life on Life Discipleship is a 21 session plan for growing to be more like Jesus. You receive the teaching from a mentor; from one person who would be discipling you. It takes from 12 to 24 months to complete, depending on how often you can meet together. We would encourage you, if you’d like to know more about Life on Life, that you would sign up on your Connection Card.

What do you do when you sin? How do you respond when you sin? Sometimes, we make excuses for it. We say, “Everybody’s doing it, you know. I’m better than the next person.” Or, we say things like this to ourselves, “Well, I’m not hurting anyone,” and so, we make excuses for sin. Or, sometimes we have a repetitive sin area that we’ve asked God to forgive us for over and over again, and now, we feel ashamed to go back to Him with it. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s that area that keeps getting you; that area keeps you defeated.

Sometimes, if you’re a new believer, you might doubt your salvation. I would refer you to last Sunday’s message, when we talked about how to be confident. When you receive Christ, He’s forgiven all of your sins. You can “know that you know that, you know.” You can be confident.

Maybe, you grew up with a family of “worry warts.” My grandmother was a worry wart. My mother was a worry wart. I come from a long line of worrywarts. And so, you excuse your sins, saying, “Well, the reason I worry is because it’s in my genetics.”

Here’s what the bible says – we are all born sinners. Everybody has it in their genetics. Everybody has the “sin gene” if you will; we miss the mark of God’s holiness. So, what do we do? What do we do when we sin? That’s what this message is about.

This epistle from John teaches believers how to respond when they sin, so that they can experience God’s love,forgiveness and acceptance. I believe, today, that when we sin, we don’t have to hide it. We don’t have to feel shame and guilt for it. We can give it to God and we can experience God’s love, forgiveness and acceptance. Let’s look at the text today. We’ll see three steps on how to experience this acceptance. Let’s go to 1 John, chapter one, starting at verse three. 1 John 1:3-2:2 (ESV) 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But 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 cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. This is God’s word. Amen.

We’re looking for three steps to know God’s acceptance. Here’s the first:

1. Understand how sin affects our fellowship.

Take note of the word, ”fellowship .” It’s in our reading today four times. Circle the word, “fellowship,” and take note of it in the scripture that we just read. The word, “fellowship,” comes from a Greek word that I’d like to share with you. The Greek word is “koinōnia.” Fellowship is more than just “two fellows in a ship.” Christian koinōnia has the idea that you’re in fellowship with one another in Christ, so that the Holy Spirit is involved. It’s a spiritual reality deeper than just being a member of a club. It’s more like family.

This word, “fellowship,” could be translated, “communion” or “participation.” It’s the same word. It’s this idea of becoming one with each other. We often tell our community groups, our small group ministry, to leave an empty chair as a reminder that there’s an unseen member at the table. In your circle is the Holy Spirit; always make sure that He is invited.

Before every service on Sunday morning, this is how we pray: “God, we’ve prepared. We’ve practiced. But, if You don’t show up, nothing happens.” In order to have koinōnia, we want the Holy Spirit to be present.

John says this word, “fellowship (koinōnia),” four times in this text. Let’s understand how sin hinders our fellowship with one another because sin is an offense against the other. And it also hinders our fellowship with God. Let’s take note of a few things. We have some preliminary work to do here before we get down into the fellowship part.

Starting at verse three, he says, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Here’s what John is saying; he’s saying, I’m an eyewitness. I saw Jesus and I heard Him speak. I have seen and heard Him in person. You’re not talking to someone who’s just telling you what someone told him. He saw Him. He was an eyewitness. He saw Him teach. He spent three years with Him. He saw Him in every circumstance. He was there at the cross when He was crucified. He ran with Peter to the tomb and saw the empty tomb when He was raised from the grave. This is who is talking to you. He is proclaiming His eyewitness reality to you; this is some preliminary work that he is doing right there. Why is he doing it? Why is he proclaiming it? It is so 3… “that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” It is so that you can be part of the family. He is telling you what He saw and what He heard so that you can be part of the fellowship, the koinōnia, the family of God.

At the time of this writing, John is old. He’s the last living apostle. The other eleven apostles are all dead. They died martyrs’ deaths. John is the only one who didn’t die a martyr’s death. He was boiled in oil and survived. He was exiled to the isle of Patmos and instead of being beat down, God gave him a vision and he wrote the book of Revelation. He’s old. He’s in his 90’s probably now and to him, everybody gets called “my little children.” Here’s what he’s saying: Let me tell you why I wrote this book. 4 “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” Whose joy? Who is “we?” “We” is the Father, the Son and John. John is like the church family; the family of God. It gives the Father great joy for you to join the family. That’s why John is telling you about Jesus. It gives God great joy that you would be part of the fellowship. That’s why John is writing a letter. Hewants to make it clear so that you know what it means to be part of this “koinōnia,” this fellowship.

Let’s do a little word study here and work on some of these words. Verse 5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” John is now making a theological statement, “God is light.” Just three words but full of meaning. Later in this book, in chapter 4, John says that God is love. In this passage, he says, “God is light.” What does that mean? Light is a metaphor because he’s also dealing with its opposite, darkness. To say God is light, is to say He is holy, He is righteous. He is pure. Not only that,”God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. There’s no shadow of turning in God; He is perfect light. He is light; He is revelation. He’s true. He’s pure ; that’s who God is. He is laying this foundation.

Then, he begins a series of “if then” statements. It’s like he is writing a long equation for us here, but he’s making it very simple. So, we have five “if we” statements and then, later in chapter two, we have one “if anyone or anybody” statement, a total of six “if then” statements. Let’s “unpack” some of them.

Verse 6, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Who is “him?” “Him” is the Father. If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness. “Walk” means to live in; your lifestyle. So, if we say we have fellowship with God, Who is light, which means holiness and righteousness, but we’re still living in sin as a practice in our life, what’s the outcome? If we say we have fellowship with Him when we walk in darkness, we lie. We’re lying.

Now , John doesn’t play; he is over ninety years old. He doesn’t have much time left; he is just going to tell these “kids” the truth. You’re lying if you’re still living for the devil and claiming to be following God, You’re lying. It’s really simple. You’re lying and do not practice the truth. Practice has the idea of lifestyle. You’re practicing sin but claiming to be a Christ follower. You can’t do it. You’re lying. You’re not walking in the truth. This is strong language, isn’t it? If is the first “if then” statement.

He’s not finished. Then, he says in verse seven, 7 “But 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 cleanses us from all sin.” Is that possible? Yes, you can walk hand in hand with the Lord Jesus by His power. You can walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship–there’s that word again. We have koinōnia with one another. Let’s all do this together. Let’s all walk in the light, people. Let’s all walk together in the light. Let’s do that and then we’ll have fellowship with one another.

Even better than that, we’ll have fellowship with Jesus. His blood is like a fountain that continually cleanses us. Notice that it doesn’t say “cleansed,” which is past tense, which is certainly true when you receive Jesus. Jesus has cleansed us, but it’s an ongoing fountain. We’re still walking through this life and even though it’s already done and paid for, we need that daily reminder that He is still at work, cleaning us up.

I don’t know about you, but I take a shower every day. I like to brush my teeth a couple of times a day, too, when I get up in the morning and before I go to bed at night. I don’t know what it is, but I get that bad breath over and over again. I have to keep cleansing. Hopefully, you do, too. Don’t look at the person next to you right now, because maybe they didn’t have time this morning. Hopefully, everybody used some soap and took a shower today. Somebody taught you that growing up. You’ve got a habit of that. Here’s what John is saying; there’s some “dirt” that you can’t get to.

When I was a little boy, I used to love to play outside. I don’t know if kids like to do that anymore. I couldn’t wait to get off the school bus and get my what I called my “play clothes” on. I would be in a pickup game and I would get filthy. My mom would tell me to get in the bathtub. Me and my little brother Barry would get in the bathtub and probably do more playing than cleaning. She would come and check our results; she wouldn’t just let you out of the bathtub. She come and see that I did not clean behind my ears. You did not want my mama cleaning behind your ears. I’m surprised that I have ears. She was rough. She wanted to make sure I was clean when I was young.

You, especially, need help from the Lord to help you get clean. Remember old Lazarus? He had been dead in the tomb for four days. Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth” and Lazarus came forth. Then, Jesus turned to the people around him and said, “Take off his grave clothes and let him go.” We need some help sometimes to get clean and get those old, stinky grave clothes off. We have the blood of Jesus to continually cleanse us.

The Greek word here is the origin of the word. The Greek word here is “katharizō,” which is where we get cathartic or catharsis. It means “to purge, to purify.” Christ’s blood is the cleansing agent for our ongoing holiness. He’s at work in us. The whole point of being a Christ follower is not just that you’re forgiven. Yes, that’s the starting point, but Christ now lives in us and we’re becoming more like Him. He’s at work cleaning us up.

There’s a difference between relationship and fellowship. We’re talking about fellowship, aren’t we? Koinōnia is fellowship. What is “relationship?” If you were listening earlier, when brother Chris was given his testimony, he referred to Luke, chapter 15, the story of the prodigal son. If you remember that story, he took his father’s portion that belonged to him and went and spent it on partying, on riotous living, the scripture says. When all of the money had run out, all of his friends disappeared and he ended up working in a pigpen. We know that Jewish boys would never even want to be around pigs, but that’s the job he took. The food that the pigs were eating started to look good to him. And that’s when he came to his senses. He said to himself, “the servants in my father’s house live better than me.” They eat better than me. He was determined and came to his senses. “I’m going to go to my father and say, “Father, I’m not worthy to be called your son. I’ve sinned against God and against you. Just let me be a servant in your house.” He started working out plan C. The truth was, he was still a son and his father was still the father. Their fellowship had been hindered, it had been broken, but their relationship was still intact. In fact, I believe that father used to sit on the front porch. I’m just trying to visualize the story. I think every afternoon he would sit on the front porch, long about dinner time, wondering if that boy of his was going to make it for dinner. Every day, he would sit there, looking down the road. Then one day, there came his boy; he recognized him from a distance. The scripture says that he was looking for him. That old man took off running down the road. He ran and he met his son. The scripture says that he embraced him and kissed him. He yelled to the servants to come and put a new robe on him. Put new shoes on his feet and put a ring on his finger, for his son was dead, but now he’s alive again. He has come home. Kill the fattened calf; we’re getting ready to have a party! See, the father was still the father.

If you’ve received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He’s caused you to be born again. Last week, do you remember what we said? “You can know that you know that you know;” you can be confident.

What do you do when you sin and you feel that distance? You recognize your relationship is still intact. He’s still the Father. You’re still the daughter. You’re still the son, but there’s something that needs to be made right. The fellowship has been hindered. Just think about that. You don’t have to doubt your salvation. But you do need to think about what do I do with this sin?

Let me give you a couple of verses to think about your relationship. John 1:12 (ESV) “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” This is your new relationship; you are a child of God. If you’re a believer, you’re a child of God; that’s a done deal. You’ve been born again, yet, sin will cause you to experience life in such a way that you feel like you’re in the “pigpen.” Pigs don’t know that pigs stink. In fact, pigs like pig food, pigs like mud and they will return to it over and over again. If you’re a child of God, you can go jump in the pigpen, but it will be uncomfortable and you won’t like the food there. The Holy Spirit, who lives inside of you, will convict you. That’s really how you know you’re born again, because you can’t go back to your former life. You can’t go back to it.

This new relationship you have is not at risk. If you’ve really been born again, that’s not at risk. What’s at risk is your fellowship. Here’s how it will feel. David talks about this. I think he’s talking about how it feels, how the fellowship is hindered. He says in Psalm 32:3-5 (NLT) “3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. 5 Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to theLord .” Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” David is describing what it feels like when fellowship is hindered and you’re trying to just hang onto your sins and hide them and and you begin to struggle with guilt and shame.

Can I get you to imagine something with me for a minute? It’s kind of hard to imagine when we’re having 90° weather, but just think about a cold winter day and you have gotten out of bed, you have a cup of coffee and maybe you’re wearing your nightgown or your robe. It’s cold in the house. You pull back the curtain; the sun’s already come up. As you pull back the curtain, if you go to a southern direction window, eastern direction southeast, the sun starts coming and you start feeling warm. The sunlight comes into the window. It feels good. You stand there with your coffee. If you let the curtain close immediately, you feel cold again. Is it because the sun stops shining? No. It’s because the curtain closed. There was something hindering the heat and the light from the sun that now you’re in a cold environment again, You know what that curtain, that drape represents? It represents unconfessed sin. Open the curtain. Don’t keep lingering over there. You’ve interrupted your fellowship by offending the Lord. You’ve hurt Him. Remember what it says in Ephesians chapter four? “Do not grieve the holy spirit.” He has feelings. You’ve offended him when you’ve sinned. He’s not going to reject you; you’re his child. But it will hinder your fellowship. Draw back the “curtain;” confess your sin.

Let’s go to the second step. The first step is to understand that unconfessed sin doesn’t break your relationship. Your relationship is firm in Christ; He’s adopted you into His family. You’re born again. But it will hinder your fellowship, right? That’s what we have just covered . Now let’s talk in step two about this thing, confession.

2. Experience forgiveness from sin through confession.

Look at verse nine; circle the word, “confess.” That’s the word we’re going to work on. We’re going to cover verses 8,9 and 10 because verse eight and 10 are like bookends, on either side of verse 8 and 10 or both. “If then” statements with negative conditions. Verse nine, in the middle, has a positive condition. Let’s “unpack” those together.

First of all, let’s just think about the word, “confess,” for a second. Verse nine, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The word, “confess,” is an interesting Greek word. I’ll give you this Greek word; it is “homologeō.” It comes from the Greek word, “logos,” which means “word.” So to confess, in this context, means to say the same word. If God calls it a sin, agree with Him. Don’t call it a bad habit. Don’t call it a mistake. Don’t say it’s a “boo boo .” Don’t say it’s a “little white lie.” Say it’s a lie. If He calls adultery sin, it is sin. If He calls fornication sin, it is sin. If He calls stealing sin, it’s a sin. If he calls gossip a sin, it is a sin. If Jesus said, “Do not worry,” it must be a sin. If He said not to do it, it’s a sin. It is not a bad habit, it is a sin. Uncontrolled anger – is that a sin? Yes, it’s a sin.

This is not an “amen” sermon, but we need it. We need to get clean. Somebody needs to “clean behind the ears” on this. Stop playing with sin. It offends God. Stop relabeling it. That’s what we want to do today because we’re so beat up with sin and guilt. We want to relabel it and say that it’s actually our nature; it’s actually our identity. We try to say that it doesn’t go into the sin category. It goes over here in this other category.

God says, you’re lying. Not only that, remember that I told you these verses were bookends? Let’s set this up: “If we say we have no sin,” in other words, if you say that this thing you’re doing is actually not sin, he said that you’re lying. But, he says something even harsher here– he says, “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Now, look at verse 10, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” That one stings me worse. It’s one thing for me to be a liar and say that I am not a sinner. Now, I’m lying to myself. I’m deceiving myself. That’s verse eight. Verse 10 says that you’re calling God a liar because He called it a sin. You’re saying it’s not a sin, it’s a bad habit, it’s not a sin, it’s my nature and I was born this way. I can’t help it. My grandfather had a bad temper. My father had a bad temper. It’s just in my genetics.

We all have the sin gene. The bible says you were born in sin. We all have a tendency. We all have the “bends;” we were made to be straight and tall and grow up facing the sun. But we all have the “bends” ever since the fall. We all have the “bends” towards darkness. Lost people always prefer the darkness, but people that are born again prefer the light and agree with God.

When you agree with God, you name it the same word, you say the same word –sin. The reason we’re able to say it was such boldness, the reason we’re able to open up like this see is we can get forgiven.

If you don’t know that you’re going to be accepted, if you don’t know that the Father is the Father and you’re the son, then you hide. You don’t want anybody to see the sin that owns your heart. If you know He loves you anyway and He’s already forgiven you through Jesus, you can get in front of the mirror, get that sin out and boldly bring it to the Father. I know you already forgave me for this, but I just want to agree with you right now. I don’t want that for me because you said that it was sin. I want it out. You’re not afraid to do it because you’re accepted. You can move on; you don’t have to keep experiencing this hindrance to your fellowship. You can agree with God and call sin what it is and not be afraid of sin. This is what happens if I confess. If I go to God and say, “I agree with you that I’m a sinner.” What kind of God are we praying to? He’s faithful and He’ll keep his word. He’ll do what He said. He’ll forgive you. Jesus has already paid for how many of your sins? ALL of them. God is just; He’s faithful and just. Since He’s just, there will be no double indemnity, no double jeopardy. If it’s paid in full, He would be unjust to charge you for that. It is already paid for. He’s not going to do that. If you come to Him and agree with Him, He’s faithful. If you if you’re a believer, He is faithful. You’re His son; You’re His daughter. That is locked down, but this fellowship–what will He do about that?

The relationship is secure; He’s faithful and just, but He is not finished telling you, “If you confess your sin…” What else will He do? The scripture says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from…” (how much of our unrighteousness?) all of it. So, He gets “behind your ears.” He gets to those places you can’t reach.

When you first become a believer, you’ll probably start noticing some immediate changes in your life. Usually, the first thing you might notice is your mouth; your speech starts changing. The curse words and the filthy talk maybe start slipping away a little bit (unless you hit your thumb with a hammer or something, then it might leak.) Then, He starts working on gossip and lying; then, He starts working on not putting people down. Then , as you grow, as you’re growing in Christ, you’ll start thinking, I’m about to get it together here, and then some adversity comes your way and it reveals something new in you– Wait a minute, I’m still pretty sinful, aren’t I? I still have some sin in me. In fact, I don’t want to scare some of you young people, but as you get older, He makes you more aware. As you get older in Christ, you get more and more aware. There’s attitudes inside of you that nobody knows about but you and God. He begins to reveal those sinful attitudes to you. You’ll never finish needing another cleansing; it is ongoing from the Lord.

Sin hinders your fellowship, but it doesn’t endanger your relationship. Proverbs 28:13 (NLT) “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.” It is like pulling the curtain back open again and letting the sun shine back in our soul. Confession reestablishes communication.It says in Psalm 66:18 (NLT) “If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” In other words unconfessed sin hinders your prayer life.

My wife and I have a habit that when we go to bed, we pray together before we cut out the lights. She’ll come over to my side of the bed, we’ll hold hands and we will pray together. But, if we’ve had a little disagreement that day, we can’t pray, we don’t even want to hold hands. We have to reconcile with each other. I have to confess my sins to my wife, come clean and get forgiveness. Then, we can talk. If you try to “fake it,” it’s like the Holy Spirit within you says, Don’t be talking to me yet until you talk to her. The Holy Spirit will help you with that; you’ll feel this discomfort, this kind of grief from the Spirit. Are you really going to just pray with your wife right now when you’ve got this thing between you? These are examples of things that will hinder your prayer life.

I want to ask you some questions right now: “How’s your prayer life?” “How close do you feel to the Father today?” I heard Chris say that God doesn’t move; we’re the ones that move. What happens is if we have unconfessed sin that we haven’t brought to the Father, it causes, affects, hinders our fellowship.

Now, modern secular therapists tend to overemphasize the idea that you shouldn’t feel guilty. The therapist is primarily concerned with convincing you why you shouldn’t feel guilty. A psychiatrist will try to explain to you why you shouldn’t feel guilty. The bible says to you that you feel guilty because you are, but here’s what God can do for you – He can take away your sin and guilt. If we just say, “I don’t want to feel guilty,” all we’re doing is just covering it up. We can come to the Lord and say, “I know why I feel guilty; it is because I am. Lord, help me get clean.”

There’s two kinds of guilt: There’s a sense of guilt that comes from the Holy Spirit, where He will convict you, if you’re a believer. You’ll lose sleep over it; you will need to get right with that person. You were dishonest with that person. You need to call them and work that out. Lord, I’m confessing it to you right now. You need to go “get square” with them. That’s how the Holy Spirit will work in the believer’s life. When you confess it, it will be very specific. You’ll know what it is and you’ll feel relief. You’ll feel restoration; He’s already forgiven you. He just wants you to agree with Him so that you can be back in fellowship.

False guilt is vague. You can’t tell where it’s coming from. You just feel guilty. Sometimes, it’s from something in your past that you have yet to really trust that God actually did forgive you for it. It’s probably a place of shame where other people saw it and you just keep reliving it. That’s false guilt; it is not from the Holy Spirit. What we need to do with that is we take that to the Lord and we look at God’s word afresh and say, “How many of my sins are forgiven ? How many did You say?” Then, we are able to apply the gospel to ourselves. There’s a sense of false guilt that He does not want you to feel.

Here’s the end of this matter on this point — Keep short accounts with God. How often should you confess your sins? How often should you confess? Is it once a day? Twice a day? Once a month? How often should you talk to the to the Lord about it ? Here’s my suggestion – Keep short accounts. Every time you feel the Holy Spirit convict you of sin, handle it right then. Handle it right then; keep short accounts. Don’t let it build up.

I heard a preacher say some years ago and some of you have heard me quote this before: “Before you get out of the bed in the morning, lay on your bed, flat on your back and take your hands and put them down like you’re pouring out. Like you have “cups” that you’re pouring out. Say “Lord, I want to confess to You anything that offended You in the past 24 hours. Bring it to my mind. Cleanse my heart right now.” Sometimes the position of your body will help order your thoughts. Having done that, turn your hands over and pray, “Lord fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit. Fill me afresh.” Make this process a habit in your life, not just when you’re getting up in the morning, but anytime. Keep short accounts with God. You can recognize that He’s just and faithful. He will clean you up. He’ll cleanse you.

Let’s get to the third step. We’re now in the first two verses of chapter two. Notice that I told you earlier, John is an old man. Everybody he talks to, he calls them “little kids;” he calls you “little children.” He’s probably in his 90’s at this point. He’s the last living apostle. ”My little children…” He’s got a new reason that he’s writing that just came to him here. “…I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” That seems a little out of order after he just told us that if we don’t confess our sins, we are lying. Here he’s saying something new. He’s saying, “I’m writing this so that you don’t have to keep sinning.” You can have victory; that’s our third step:

3. Live in victory over sin relying on our Advocate.

Do you see that word advocate there in verse one? Circle the word, “advocate.” That word could be translated, “helper” or “comforter.” It’s often used of the Holy Spirit, but here it’s used of Jesus, that He’s our advocate, our help. We can have victory over sin. We can live a transformed life. Becoming a Christian is more than just “fire insurance.” It’s more than just forgiveness. That’s the starting point; living in Christ is victory over sin so that the old sins that have plagued us, the old patterns of sin no longer have to enslave us. We are set free. We can live in victory over sin.

He says in verse one, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin…” There’s the possibility he says “that you can overcome.” Are you thinking of that area that keeps getting you in that repetitive sin area? That one that you’re almost ashamed to ask the Lord to forgive you again you’ve confessed it so many times. Don’t stop. If you get dirty again, ask Him to clean it up. Ask for help; He will keep on forgiving. Don’t fall away and isolate in shame. He wants you to keep applying the gospel to yourself. Keep on letting Him clean you up.

Here’s our final “if then” statement: “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” There were five “if then” statements earlier found in verse six, verse seven, verse eight, verse nine and verse 10. There were five “if we” statements. Here, we have” If anyone” in chapter two, verse one, that’s number six of the “if then” statements. “But if anyone does sin…” he doesn’t say when you sin as if it were a certainty. He says, if you do, because you can have victory.

You can have victory over that addiction. You can have victory over what you’ve been calling a bad habit. You can have victory over worry. You can have victory over uncontrolled anger. You can have victory over that tendency to look at pornography and to feel shame before the father. You can have victory. You fill in the blank of your repetitive scenario. You don’t have to keep doing it. You can have victory; you’ve got an advocate. “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He says, Father, I paid for that one. Now let’s help him. Let’s help her. If you’re confessing your sin , you’re agreeing with God. Not only are you agreeing with the name of the sin, but you’re also agreeing with Him that you need His help. He is the only righteous one. He is the God that is light. I want to walk in Your light. I want to walk with You. You’re asking for His help. You’re asking for His advocacy

Jesus Christ is righteous. Lord help me to walk in righteousness. I don’t have to keep sinning, but if I do, I don’t have to “beat myself up.” I can run to the cross because He’s the propitiation. That’s a word, “propitiation,” is probably a word that we won’t use tomorrow. Let’s talk about that word, “propitiation.” 2 “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” When Jesus died on the cross, He was the atonement. He was that which appeased God’s righteousness and justice.

The bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The bible also says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus died on the cross as a representative in our place. He’s the propitiation for our sins. He became an atoning sacrifice in my place and in your place, so that the death we deserved, He took the sin that was on us. It was put on him, the separation from God. that was on us.

I didn’t have a relationship with God before I received Jesus. I was far from God. I was not a child of God, but He took my separation and cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” He took my separation. He took my sin. He took my death and He offers to me and to you His righteousness, His eternal life and His Sonship, so that you have a relationship with the Father. There’s nothing better than that. He’s the propitiation. In other words, He appeased, He paid it off. His last words on the cross were, “It is finished.” Another way of saying this was that He paid in full. He’s the propitiaion for all the world. The world has to receive it. It’s a gift. If you don’t receive it, you’re still walking in your sin, You’re still walking in darkness. But if you have received it, it’s yours because He paid it in full. He paid it in full.

Knowing this, let’s think about how He paid for all the sins, even the sins of the whole world, if they would accept it. Let me ask you a couple of key questions. Pop up the chart. Here’s the point where you said “yes ” to Jesus. We call that “the point of salvation.” Did He pay for the sins that you had committed prior to saying “yes” to Jesus ? Yes, He paid for that. What about the ones that you did on the way here because your kids were driving you crazy in the car? That was your reason for falling apart. Did He pay for those? What about the ones that you haven’t committed yet. Did he pay for those?

When we confess our sins as believers, we’re not looking for forgiveness. That has already been given. We’re agreeing with it. “Confession” means to agree with God that it is a sin. I think, it also means to agree with God that He’s just and faithful and has forgiven us. We can keep applying it; you can keep applying a fresh dose of the Gospel to yourself. The gospel never gets old because we keep on needing it.

Since He’s paid for all of our sins, does that give us the liberty just to go and sin all we want to? Here’s what it says in Romans 6:1-4 (ESV) 6 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” He wants us to walk like Jesus walked. He wants us to walk in the light.

One of the reasons that the world is not listening to believers today and our culture is going so far away from God is the lack of believers living the transformed life. John wrote, “…so that you may not sin…” but if you do, He’s got that covered. Get it cleaned up and don’t wallow in the pigpen , because, if you’re a child of God, you’ll know that’s not your food. You need to get back to the Father. He’s waiting on the front porch. Come on, go home. You can have victory.

Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 15:57 (NLT) “But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” You can have victory in Jesus. You don’t have to keep on being your former self.

The firstborn child in humanity was a man named Cain. He was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. Sin had already fallen upon creation; sin was already found in his heart. He had a younger brother named Abel; hey both brought a sacrifice to the Lord. Abel brought a sacrifice by faith. It says in Hebrews, chapter 11, “By faith, he recognized that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And so he brought a little first born lamb and offered it. And God was well pleased and accepted his sacrifice.” But Cain brought some vegetables from his garden and God was not satisfied. I believe that Cain knew better, but he brought what he had. And so we see that God told him that he wasn’t satisfied, but he told him how he could be satisfied with him.

It says in Genesis 4:6-7 (NLT) 6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Well, we know what happened. The very first murder was the firstborn murdering his little brother Abel. He was so jealous and so angry that he murdered his brother. That’s what sin does; that’s what darkness does. It destroys relationships. It destroys fellowship . For Cain, sin was crouching at his door like a lion ready to jump him.

We can have victory in Jesus because He has defeated sin, death and the grave. He has offered the perfect sacrifice. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and we can walk in it. We can walk in victory. We don’t have to worry about sin crouching at our door. We can confess it to Jesus. We can confess it to the Father. Remember, how He taught us to pray. At the end of the Lord’s prayer, He said, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The last part of that prayer is, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.” We don’t have to keep sinning. We can live in victory.

Do you understand how sin hinders your fellowship? Pull back the curtain, confess your sin and agree with God. Call sin sin. Say to God, “Thanks for forgiving me and cleaning me up. Not only do I want to be clean, but I want to walk in the light as You are in the light. I want to live in newness of life.” Do you want this? I sure do!

Let’s pray. “Lord Jesus, thank You that through You, we are accepted by the Father. I pray for that person that’s here today that’s never trusted You.” Is that you my friend? Right where you are, right in your seat, you can trust Jesus right now for salvation. You can pray along with me. Prayer is just talking to God. What really matters is the faith in your heart more than the words of your mouth. You can pray with me right now, right where you’re at. Pray like this, “Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I believe You died on the cross for my sins, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. Come and live in me, forgive me of my sin, make me a child of God. I want to follow You as my Lord and Savior.” If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He will save you. He will make you a child of God. Others are here today and you’re a child of God. You’ve been born again, but there’s a sin area that has been defeating you. Would you pray and just lift that up to Him right now and say, “ Lord, I’m going to stop calling that a bad habit. I’m going to stop making excuses. Lord, I want victory in this area. Give me victory. Lord clean me up. Help me to start over in this area so I can become more like Jesus. I can do it now because You’re just and faithful. You’re able to clean me up and empower me.” We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.