The BLOOD of Jesus | 1 John 1:6-7

Fellowship, Orthodoxy, and Orthopraxy in 1 John

All right, so where are we at? What was that, Kennedy? Where are we at, peoples? What book are we in? First John, let's turn there. Let's turn there together. Oh, look at this, I have notes. So prepare yourself, Avery.

So before we dive in to chapter one, who listened to Pastor Gabe's teaching this past week? Raise your hand. Yes, yes. Boo on the right side. Hey, and I emailed you. I emailed your brother. Did he share that email with you?

Josiah, we blame you. Anyway, hey, the teachings of Gabe Hughes are really, really good. So raise your hand if you listened to it. Tell me something that you remember. Raise your hand. Does anybody remember anything that Pastor Gabe Hughes talked about?

Any takers? Something that he mentioned that I thought was really important. He talks about walking in the light, right? And how do we discern God's will? His word, right? I remember he went to Ephesians five and started talking about how we walk in the light.

We can discern God's will. We can know the will of God as he's spoken to us through his word. And he mentioned two important phrases. I wanna test y 'all's memory. He said, what's important is orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

Do you remember, Lauren, what that means?

It's the practice, it's the practice of the word.

Okay, so right practice, meaning that how we're ought to live, right? So that's orthopraxy. What is orthodoxy? Any takers out there? Avery knows things like this, typically. There you go. See, she's being so nice right now.

What does orthodoxy mean? It means right teaching. So we get orthopraxy, how we ought to live and practice, which we're gonna talk about that word practice today. But we get orthopraxy from right teaching.

So we start with the word and that shows us how we ought to live our lives, right? So with that being said, let's look at 1 John chapter one. So starting in verse one, please follow along with me. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, the life that was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard and 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. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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.

If we say 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 we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

First question, we've talked a lot about fellowship. What does fellowship mean in the context of, first John, and raise your hand. Because I know you peoples, you like to all talk at once.

Aaron?

Like I said last time, togetherness, and in this context, togetherness for the people who are in the work.

That's so good. So togetherness is such a good way of describing fellowship. This is a type of fellowship, right? Now I've told people this, I used to have the wrong understanding of what Christian fellowship was.

I used to think, you know, it's going to a Sunday school classroom where it's cold, eating steel crackers. That's not fellowship. Fellowship is a deep togetherness, a joint participation among saints, right?

We're not only one together, you know, in light of the truth of God's word, but we're also one together with God. So it's talking about in a context of salvation. This right here is something different that the world doesn't understand, right?

They may understand, oh yeah, Christians kind of huddle together and do their thing. They don't understand. They're not able to understand spiritual truth. So that's really good. Fellowship in 1 John is talking about salvation in a context that saints share with one another, in a context of oneness with God as well, in relationship with him, okay?

So as we go further into this, who is writing this epistle? This is a really tough question.

Josiah?

What is the most likely one that we've been going with?

Most likely John the Elder or the Apostle. John, who Jesus?

The one I'm rolling with is the Apostle John, who also wrote what books of the New Testament?

John?

Yeah, he wrote the Gospel of John. And what else?

Josiah?

Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and Revelation.

Yes, so he wrote five books. And so he's the one that's talking about this unique fellowship that him, the apostles that saw Jesus, saw his earthly ministry, saw his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, he is saying you can have this fellowship with us and with all the saints.

And so we have this fellowship by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, okay? So I want us to keep that in mind. In verse four, what is the benefit of having fellowship with the saints? What's the purpose?

You can cheat and look at your Bibles in verse four. There's a benefit, Lauren.

Totally do not cheat, so that our joy may be complete.

Yes, so what do you do if you're lacking joy in your life? How can you fix that?

Aaron?

Ask for it through prayer or fellowship. Discuss it amongst one another.

Absolutely, pray for it and fellowship with the saints so that our joy may be complete. Why is that the case? Well, when your heart is renewed with God's truth and you're with the people of God, it's gonna build you up.

It's gonna encourage you. That's why we meet every Lord's Day, every Sunday, because that's gonna fill us up through the rest of the week, and we need that continually. That's why we do this week in and week out, and for the most part, it's day by day.

We go to the Word. We go to the Word also in prayer so that our joy may be complete in fellowship with the saints and also fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So I want you to keep in mind that word fellowship because verse five talks about this message which we have heard from him, from Jesus, John is saying.

We also proclaim that to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. All right, everybody who was not here last week, y 'all get a pass. So what is John talking about here? What does it mean that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all?

Bum, bum, Delaney.

The light is, no, no crickets. The light is signifying that God is holy and that he is perfect, and then the darkness is that sin.

God is light. God is holy. God is perfect in all of his ways, right? He doesn't change when he makes a promise. It's a guarantee to happen, right? And it's impossible for God to sin or be anything less than perfect.

So we talked about Isaiah in the throne room. Remember Isaiah chapter six? What did he do when he saw the glory of God, which was Jesus on the throne? How did he respond with himself? Do y 'all remember?

Josiah?

Yes, so Isaiah said, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips that dwell amongst the people in unclean lips, where Peter said, depart from me for I'm a sinful man.

Right?

Why is that? Why was that Peter and Isaiah's response before God who is holy, holy, holy? Any takers out there? Where's the crickets?

Just kidding.

So why should we respond that we are sinners in light of God and his holiness? Let me offer this. When we gaze upon God and all of his perfection, his glory, we realize that we're not that. We realize that we've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

So when we look to ourselves, oh man, I see sinfulness. I see someone who deserves God's justice, right? Because he is perfectly just to judge sin. So initially, we ought to be convicted of our sin. Do we stay that way?

Should we stay in that state of brokenness over our sin?

No.

That moves us to what? Joy, right? Because there's joy and salvation in the Savior. And then we are given the comforter. So that brokenness then moves to joy and comfort in the Spirit because we know that we can be saved in Christ, right?

So that's what John is talking about here. God is light. God is holy. And in him, there's no darkness at all. There's no imperfection. God cannot sin and God cannot lie, right? So when he makes a promise, we can trust that we will be in fellowship with him and nothing can change that.

But does that mean that we're gonna be perfect every step of the way? What do y 'all think? You're like, no. So what happens when we do sin, even though for those of us that are trusting in Jesus, what does that do to our relationship with Christ?

It damages our joy, right? The joy begins to kind of dissipate a little bit. A lot of times when we're resting in Christ, we have peace knowing that all of our sins have been dealt with at Calvary. But when sin kind of slips back into our life, we lose a little bit of that joy.

We lose a little bit of that peace, right? And so as we're gonna see, we should go back to the Savior and be quick to confess our sin, knowing that he is just and faithful to always forgive us. Josiah, do you have a thought?

Through one man, all have sinned. But through another, we were gained salvation.

Yes, so who would, that first man you're talking about, who is it?

Adam.

In Adam, all died, right? He represented all of humanity when him and Eve sinned in the garden, right? But by Christ, he made it all right. So we don't trust in ourselves the things of Adam, but we look to the better Adam, Jesus.

We trust in him, and then we can have fellowship with God. So look with me at verse six. Our primary text is gonna be verses six and seven this evening. If we say we have fellowship with him, with Jesus, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

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. So that first phrase there says, if we say, we walk in the light, right?

If we say I'm a Christian, does that make a person a Christian just because they say they are? Okay, I'm getting some nos out there, why?

Aaron?

That doesn't, of course, anything you say in other areas, it doesn't truly make you something unless you, how do I put that?

Let me put you on pause. Ayla, do you wanna chime in?

Some people say that they are, but it really shows through their actions.

Absolutely, we see the fruit. The fruit is eventually gonna manifest itself, whether they're really of the saints or not. And I will say this, we can't ultimately see someone's heart. So we wanna be careful not to judge someone too quickly because what if they're just an immature Christian?

Right, we're all growing in our faith, right? But what he's telling us is just because you say something doesn't make it so. Did someone else over here wanna add anything?

Well, I kinda want to add something. Some people try to say they're Christians just to outwardly try to add more character, but that obviously isn't going to do anything when it comes to salvation, right?

Thank you.

I was just gonna add that you have to look at how they act.

Right, because Jesus said, you shall know them by their fruit, okay? And so just because you say one thing doesn't make it so. In fact, and you don't have to turn there, but in James 2, it's a similar question that's posed.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? The idea is no, just because you claim to be a Christian, just because you claim to be a part of the brethren doesn't make it so, especially if your life doesn't produce the fruits that glorify God, right?

So there's gonna be evidence. And so John goes on to say, if we say we have fellowship with him, right, with the Father, with the Son, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So I wanna talk about that word practice for a moment.

Raise your hand. Who on here plays sports? Used to, got some hands. Okay, put your hands down. Does anybody practice playing instruments? Okay, so pretty much everyone raised their hand. We all practice at doing different stuff.

Someone, raise your hand, tell me what is to practice, what does that mean?

Aaron?

To get better at through doing stuff over and over again.

Right, right, right. Repetition, whether you feel like it or not, you're gonna do it, right?

Caleb?

As soon as he got done saying that, I just went blank. Even though I knew it was. I'm gonna try to explain. It's where you like force, not only force, but what's the word I'm looking for? Convince yourself to do something.

Discipline maybe.

Yeah, kind of discipline yourself to do something and to be able to try to learn it. And then to practice it is to go over it over again to keep better.

Absolutely, let me pause you there.

Lauren?

We pretty much do the same, just to work on it diligently.

Work on it diligently. Let me get y 'all's thoughts on this. To practice, you plan to do something over and over and over again, and it's typically something that you wanna do. You're thinking about it, you like it, maybe not every time, right?

Sometimes maybe you're sick of it and you're like, man, I need to practice. But especially for sports and playing instruments, it's something that you enjoy to do. You're thinking about it and you like it, okay?

So here's my point, back in verse six. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, remember that phrase, we lie and do not practice the truth, okay? And so for those people that are just simply claiming to have fellowship with God and fellowship with the saints, but they practice things that are contrary to God, that's really what they plan to do and they wanna do and they do it repetitiously.

It's the pattern of their life. But think about the flip side. Those that are walking in the truth, that practice the truth, those are things that you plan to do, the things that you wanna do repetitiously, even though some days it's like, oh, I don't wanna read my Bible.

Oh, sometimes I don't wanna go to church, but we're gonna do it anyway because we practice it. We love it. And what I'm getting at, it's a heart issue. Practice a lot of times is a heart issue. We do something and we plan to do it.

And like Lauren said, we plan to do it diligently. Does that make sense, the word practice? So the word practice is kind of synonymous with the word walk, okay? If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie, right?

We're not only being deceitful, but we might be deceiving ourselves, right? Oh, I'm a Christian. I'm a part of the fellowship. But what does your life look like? Well, it's not producing fruit that one of giving God glory, gathering together with saints, spending time in the word.

Do you remember last week, we talked a lot about holiness, right? When we look at God's holiness, we should be broken over our own sinfulness, but that should move us to comfort and rest in Christ by faith alone.

And then we desire to be holy as he is holy, right? It's what Christians do. And so where does that begin essentially? Well, by walking with the Savior. How does that happen? Well, in relationships, it's back and forth.

You talk to somebody and they talk with you. We pray to God and he speaks back to us through his living and breathing word. 1 Peter 2 says, as newborn babes desire the pure spiritual milk of the word, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Remember us talking about that? If you've been born again, if you love Christ, if you're following him, you desire his word, right? You want to walk in the light, meaning to spend time in his word and be obedient to what you're reading.

What do we think about the person that says, oh, I love going to church, I love singing songs, but I don't really like hearing the word preached or spending time in the word. What does that tell us about the person, JD?

That their love for Christ does not override their love for, or their hate for certain things like reading and stuff.

Right.

It doesn't make sense for someone to say that they're in the fellowship, that they're Christian, but they don't love Christ's word, right? Because that's how you have fellowship with him. And so we're talking about the word walk in darkness or walking in the light.

It's a heart issue. You practice the truth or you practice a lie. And it's a heart issue. And so turn with me in your Bible to 1 John 2, verse 19. Because this is telling us, eventually the pattern of one's life and their heart will give fruit.

So they went out from us. So John is talking to his audience of saying, there are people that identify as Christians as being a part of the fellowship, but they went out from us eventually, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be complained that they were not all of us, okay? So we're talking about walking in the light or walking in darkness, right?

It's what you practice. It's what you plan for to diligently do over and over and over again, okay? And so eventually the fruit's gonna manifest itself. So now look with me at 1 John chapter three. Let's see here.

Look with me starting in verse four, because I want you, I'm gonna read through this, but I want you to make a note of the time you hear the word practice or walking in darkness or walking in the light.

And I want you to also think about the spiritual warfare that goes along with that, okay? So 1 John chapter three, starting in verse four. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. Talking about Jesus. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning, for the reason that the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. All right, so somebody raise your hand. What is John talking about here? Any takers?

Josiah.

No more.

People who practice righteousness and people who practice sinful nature.

Absolutely, you got two groups of people, those who practice righteousness and those who practice sinning. Now, does this mean you have to do the best works that you can in order to obtain favor with God?

No, we're saved by grace through faith apart from any works or anything we could accomplish, right? But the point is, is if you're born from above, if your heart is changed, then there will be evidence in your life of that change, right, so works flow from a changed heart of faith.

Let me ask you this. Look with me back at verse four. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Okay, so somebody tell me what is sin according to 1 John here?

What is sin?

That's a big deal, right?

In one of our. Catechism? Yeah, catechism. What is disobeying God and his laws?

Say it again.

Sin is disobeying God and his laws.

Disobeying God and his laws, absolutely. Now, you see that phrase, sin is lawlessness? Guess what? Means you're a lawbreaker. It's not that you're just a person that messes up occasionally, right? From the heart, we have been born sinners.

From birth, we've been born sinners and that's why we sin. And when we sin, we commit cosmic treason against our creator, okay? And what's the consequences of sin? Does anybody know? What if we die in our sin, Emma?

Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse both in this life and the next.

Every sin deserves God's wrath in this life and the life to come. Is that right?

Wrath and curse both in this life and the next.

Yes, we deserve God's wrath because he's just. Does that make sense? So like when a criminal stands guilty before a judge, they go to pay their crime. They go to jail or whatever that may be. We are all sinners before God.

The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God in Christ Jesus is eternal life, right? And so we have to understand, we're not just people that mess up occasionally. We are sinners, meaning that we are lawbreakers and we deserve God's justice.

Is this good news or bad news? Somebody help me out. That we're sinners? Bad, it's bad news but JD's getting at something. It leads to the good news. In order for us to understand the good news of the gospel, we have to first understand the bad news that we're sinners, that we've broken God's laws, right?

Sin is lawlessness. And so that should crush our spirit like Isaiah, like the Apostle Peter. Lord, depart from me for I'm a sinful man. But when we look to the perfect Savior, then it brings us to the good news, right?

But notice this. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. So people that are not in Christ, what does their life look like? Someone help me out.

Josiah.

The book of Judges.

The book of Judges. Y 'all remember going through a lot of that? It just kept getting worse and worse and worse. What does it mean that an unbeliever practices sinning? What does that tell us a little bit about them?

Think about us talking about the word practice earlier. Remember practicing is something that you look forward to, something that you plan diligently for. The unbeliever practices sin. That means they look forward to it.

They're ready for the next sin that they can do. And so for a believer, it's not like that. Are we gonna sin? Absolutely, and if you say that you haven't sinned, remember 1 John 1 says you're a liar. You're deceiving yourself because you're gonna sin, right?

But a believer doesn't plan for it, doesn't love it, doesn't diligently seek out after it. We practice righteousness.

Why?

Because we love Christ. We desire to be obedient to all of what he has called us. We practice those things, meaning that from our heart, we plan to do those things that are glorifying the God.

Right?

All right, let's go back to chapter one. Let me look at my notes, y 'all. Okay, so let's look at verse six again. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

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. Okay, we're gonna sit in awkwardness until someone answers this question.

What does it mean when John talks about the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin? What's the importance of the blood of Jesus, Aaron?

So take the scenario of you walking to a bathroom and you have a mirror. Let's say those mirrors are the Ten Commandments. They are actually like the mirror, and it's a reflection of the sin in your life.

And picture the blood of Jesus Christ as the shower that will wash the sin away.

So what you're getting at is the blood of Jesus is a reference to the good news, that we can be saved and that we can have our sin forgiven. But like you said, if we're looking in the mirror at ourself as we truly are, are we a good person or what?

Are you a good person, as Ray Comfort would say? Whoa, did I have an English accent there? He's from Down Under. All right, Josiah.

No man is good in the name of the Lord.

Right, the scripture's clear. We're not good people. We're sinners. Sinners is not a code word for, oh, you just mess up occasionally. No, you're a lawbreaker, lawlessness, right? And so when we look at the blood of Jesus, that's a reference to his death that he suffered on Calvary, okay?

Hard theological question. Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer and die on the cross? Boom, boom. Delaney?

Okay.

Uh-oh.

Throw it out there.

It's because no one else could do it. Because when he became man, he's fully God and fully man, he perfectly fulfilled the law and he was the only one who could do it because he's God. And he fulfilled it perfectly.

And if you had someone that was tainted by sin, it wouldn't have worked because we needed that perfect sacrifice.

And that's what he did.

That's so good. Okay, we're gonna unpack a little bit what you said, but I love that answer. Jesus is the only perfect one that could do that, right? Suffer down on the cross. We're gonna get into why it's so important.

But are we familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden?

Right?

Adam and Eve ultimately sinned against God, right? And what happened as a result of their sin? Does anybody remember? Emma, Emma, you gotta raise your hand. And Caleb, wait for me to call on you.

All right, I know, I know.

It's been okay.

Yes.

What was the question?

So what happened as a result of Adam and Eve's sin?

The result of Adam's sin was death.

Yes.

Penalty of Adam's sin was death.

Penalty of Adam's sin was death. No, this is exactly right, was death. Okay, now I want you to think about something with me. Adam and Eve, humanity, we're both physical beings and spiritual beings, right?

We have a soul, we have a spirit, and yet we have skin, flesh, and bone, right? And so when death happened, that touched both features of what man is. Spiritual death and physical death happened. And you may say, wait, they didn't die physically in the garden, but they should've.

Remember God said the day that you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, surely you will die that day, right? But you say, but they didn't die. Does anybody know why they didn't die that day?

Caleb.

I'm not real sure, but there are two things that are kind of similar to that. They died spiritually, which means they would be punished with hardships and stuff, like spiritually dead. And a couple years ago, my mom showed me a video or something of pastors or someone talking about why was the punishment of Adam's sin so severe, but yet that was actually nothing compared to what it was supposed to be.

It was actually a show of mercy.

Okay, anybody else want to hop in on that?

Or just for the more short, obvious reason, we're here, you know, they're basically the mother and father of humanity. So anyway, that's just the dumb, obvious reason.

I agree with that.

Go ahead. All right, Avery.

Aram was offered up.

Okay, now, Aram was offered up with Abraham taking up Isaac to Mount Moriah, right? But I like the direction you're going. Something else came into the picture as a substitute. Josiah, do you want to speak to that, any?

Just to add on to both, they were supposed to die instant, but God had a counter plan that was already set in motion.

What was that plan? Does anybody know? If you were a part of our eschatology series a few weeks ago, I spent a long time talking about this. In Genesis three, I believe it's verse 21, God made coverings for Adam and Eve.

These coverings would have been animal skins to cover them, showing that they need a covering for their sin. Where would God have gotten these animal skin? What would have had to happen for them to have been covered by animal skin?

God killed a lamb.

Yes.

He had to kill a lamb, some type of animal. Some type of physical death had to occur as a substitute. Adam and Eve should have died physically in the garden, but they didn't because God is merciful and provides a sacrifice.

And Genesis 3, 15 says that God will send a seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent. Who is that promise? A Jesus, right? And so Jesus is our substitute who physically died at Calvary in our place.

If he didn't do that, we would have to suffer that punishment for all eternity. So when we read the verse in 1 John 1, 7, the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Think about this. Jesus is the second person of the Godhead, right?

You have the Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus truly becomes man, like Delaney said. Remember, he was born of a virgin. He took on humanity, took on flesh, and he lived a perfect, sinless life. He was obedient to the law.

We stumbled and were sinners and broke the law. Jesus was perfect, spotless, and yet he suffered on Calvary for all of those who would put their trust in him. So when you put your faith in Jesus, all of your sin, right, isn't that what the verse says?

Cleanses us from all sin, not just past sins, right? But all of our sins, because if we look to Jesus in faith, all of our sin, past, present, and future, it goes back in time and gets put on the cross of Calvary, and it doesn't stop there.

You get something in exchange for your sin. Does anybody know what that is?

Eternal life.

We get eternal life by the perfect righteousness of Jesus. Remember how he was completely obedient to the law of God? That righteousness gets put on our account. Remember the coverings of the animal that was covering Adam and Eve?

The perfect righteousness of Jesus now covers us. So in the garden, we see a picture of the gospel, right? We should, now, we are gonna die physically because of the effects of sin, but we don't have to die spiritually for all eternity by receiving the perfect justice of God, right?