First Epistle of John: Lesson Eight

"For I acknowledge my transgressions,

And my sin is always before me.

against You, You only, have I sinned,

And done this evil in Your sight-

That You may be found just when You speak,

And blameless when You judge."

Psalm 51:3-4

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Let's seek the Lord......

"Father, today we will be discussing sin and what it does to both the believer and You. Lord, I come before You this day to thank You for giving us Your light....a way through this dark world. Thank You for providing the atonement for our sins that we can walk in Your light and have fellowship with You.

I seek forgiveness of my sins that keep me in darkness. I do not want to walk in darkness, but fellowship in Your light. I confess my sins and agree with You that they are sins against You. I pray that You will forgive me and wash me clean. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit this day.

I pray that as each lady reads this lesson, she will be convicted of her sins to the point of confessing them before You so she may have that perfect fellowship with You and her joy may be full.

In Jesus' name.....amen."

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He is Faithful

Last time we looked at what it means to walk in the light so we may practice the truth and have that fellowship with God who is the Light.

Today we will complete the first chapter of First John as we look more into what it means to be a Christian....and what Jesus' blood did for us.

1 John 1:8-10

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

Powerful words are written in 1 John. Clearly he is giving us the message of Christ: To know Christ is to walk in light and have fellowship with God.

John starts out this portion of his letter with "if we say....". Obviously, at this time as with our time, many people were saying they were Christians, or followers of Christ. So John has provided us a way to know if these people truly are believers or not.

Please read:

Gen 6:5

It is God who clearly sees the sinful ways of man's heart. There is no hiding from our God.

Ps 14: 1-3

David understood that sin begins in the heart. He learned a painful lesson that God sees all that we do....

Please read:

2 Sam 11: 1-27

In this familiar passage, we find King David in disobedience to His Lord. He was supposed to be out in battle with his men. Instead, he sent his men out to do battle for him while he remained in Jerusalem and fell into sin.

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us...."

David was clearly deceiving himself when it came to his sin. He thought he could hide it from the world, and the Lord. The truth was not in David any longer.....and he became a murderer.

"And when her time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD."

He thought that by making Bathsheba his wife, all would be well. But God has seen what was done....and He was displeased.

Imagine reading that what you had done "displeased the LORD." Sends shivers up the spine...

Please read:

2 Sam 12:1-23

• Here we see how the Holy One of Israel handles sin. He does not handle it simplistically or lightly. God handles sin as what it is: a harsh and violent mark against Him.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Please read:

Psalm 51

This is the psalm David wrote as his confession before the Lord of the sin he committed with Bathsheba.

To me, there is no other confession of sin in the Bible where the reader can feel the pain and angony of the writer. Daniel 9 is another great passage of scripture about confessing sins, but here in Psalm 51, you can relate to the sins David committed....you can almost see him lying on his face in pain as he knows his son is dying for his sins.

Ps 51:4

"For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, only You, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight- That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge."

How does David handle his sin?

• First, David confesses his sin.
• He knows that his sin was against God, not just the people around him. But ONLY God.
• David has a understanding of what sin is.
• He acknowledges that his sin was evil done in the sight of the LORD.

David then asks the LORD to cleanse him and renew his spirit. And we know from 2 Samuel 12 that God hears his servant, David, and is faithful to forgive and cleanse him from all sin.

We serve a faithful God who hates sin but loves us so much that He provided a way back to Him when we go astray. He truly is the Good Shepherd.

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God is Light

Remember that John not only wants us to know that he was a credible witness to the message of Christ, but he also wants us to know a few things about God. In God there is no darkness at all. We serve a holy God.

Please read:

1 Sam 15:22-23

"..to obey is better than sacrifice..."

Our Lord is more interested in us obeying Him than our tithes and offerings...our talents and vocations....our anything else we may put before Him.

In 1 John, we are seeing that it is not enough just to "say" that we are Christians. Being a Christian is more about doing that of the LORD and not just saying it. The Gnostics believed they had no sin and were above sin. They felt they were spiritual beings and in need of no atonement.

John wanted his fellow believers to stay far away from these dark lies and stay in the light where fellowship is.....where Christ remains.

We learned here today that God is faithful:

• He is faithful to forgive us of our sins. (Ps 130:3,4,7) He desires us to come to Him and openly approach Him about our sins.
• He is just to forgive us. King David knew that the LORD was just and would forgive him.
• He cleanses us from all unrighteousness through the blood of Jesus. Imagine God had not given us a way to be cleansed! But He did give us a way because He loves us.

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Life Application

So how do we take what we learned today and apply it to our lives?

We can make sure we remain in fellowship with God through Christ by confessing our sins.

• The word for "confess' in Greek is: homologeo and it means to "agree with". When we confess our sins, we are basically saying to God "I agree with you that what I have done is evil in Your sight."

By consitantly coming before the Lord to confess, we are remaining in Him and acknowledging who He is and who we are: depraved.

"...and the truth is not in us."

Remember that if we say we do not have sin, God's truth is not in us.

Please read:

John 8: 31-32

John 14:6

We read here that it is Jesus who is the TRUTH. If we say we have no sin.....it is Jesus who is not in us.

By confessing daily, a Christian is asking God to renew their spirit and set them on the course for the day: His Course...not ours.

As believers, the most obedient act we can do is to actively seek God for the forgiveness of our sins. In doing this, we are acknowledging who God is and who we are. Only after this can we receive His forgiveness and cleansing.

Then we can hear from Him and openly serve Him.

Seek the Lord today to "agree with" Him that your sins are evil in His sight so you can receive that forgiveness and cleansing He has for you.

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Until next time.....

"God promises us continued cleansing from all unrighteousness. Because we sin daily, and we must live day by day with our remaining depravity and all its evil fruits, we need daily forgiveness and cleansing. We need to close the breach that our sins make in our communion with God. We need to find healing for the hurt we inflict on ourselves and on our fellow human beings. We need to deal with each day's accumulation of debts. Every day we must confess our sins to God, seeking that forgiveness and cleansing he alone can bestow."

-Dr. Joel Beeke (The Epistles of John, 2006, p. 49)

Blessings,

Ruth