1,2,3 John

Overview

Walking in the Light: John's Confrontation of Early Heresy

John writes his first letter to a church under pressure from a group he describes in stark terms: false prophets 1 John 4:1, deceivers 1 John 2:26, and antichrists 1 John 2:18. His pastoral aims are threefold: that the joy of believers may be complete 1 John 1:4, that they would not fall into sin 1 John 2:1, and that they would know they have eternal life 1 John 5:13.

The heresy threatening the church was an early form of Gnosticism (from the Greek gnosis, "knowledge"). It taught four interlocking errors: that physical matter is evil; that salvation comes through a mystical, hidden knowledge rather than through deliverance from sin; that the body, being evil, may be either harshly punished or indulged in licentiousness ("it isn't me sinning, it's my body"); and that Christ's two natures must be denied—either through Docetism (Christ only appeared to have a body) or Cerinthianism (the divine came upon Jesus at his baptism but departed before the cross). In short, this teaching denied the incarnation and severed spirituality from moral life.

John answers with the eyewitness testimony of the apostles: "what we have heard…seen with our eyes…and touched with our hands" 1 John 1:1-4. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all 1 John 1:5. We cannot know God by turning inward to the sinful self, for Scripture describes us as blind 2 Corinthians 4, dead in trespasses Ephesians 2, and enemies of God Romans 5. Left to ourselves, we manufacture a god of our own preference—a doting grandparent, a Santa rewarding good behavior, or a "cosmic bellhop." God must reveal himself, and he has done so in his Son and in his Word.

John then employs a repeating pattern in 1 John 1:6-2:2: he names a distortion ("if we say…"), exposes its contradiction, and proclaims the truth. To claim fellowship with God while walking in darkness is a lie; but walking in the light brings genuine fellowship and cleansing through Jesus' blood 1 John 1:7. To claim sinlessness is self-deception; but confessing our sins meets a faithful and just God who forgives 1 John 1:9. And though we still sin, we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, the atoning sacrifice for our sins and for the sins of the whole world 1 John 2:1-2.

Pastoral application. Spirituality cannot be divorced from moral life. Partial repentance—claiming Christ while deliberately holding sin back—does not compute scripturally, because unrepentance kills faith. The church is not a place where "all are welcome" in the sense that anything goes; rather, the repentant are welcome, and the gospel calls every sinner to that posture. Loving one another therefore includes the willingness to gently confront sin, walking together through the steps Jesus outlined for the sake of restoration. We come to the Lord's Table as repentant people, leaning wholly on Christ our Advocate—who has borne the just wrath of God against sin and gives us his light, his fellowship, and his cleansing.

Transcript

Good morning. 3s

Let's join together in prayer, please. 5s

Gracious God our and Lord, apart from you, we cannot know ourselves rightly. 9s

And apart from the gospel, we cannot know you rightly. 15s

Teach us to know ourselves a right as sinful creatures who do not deserve your love, 20s

and teach us to know you are right as the God who in love gave your son into death to give us life. 26s

By your Holy Spirit, move us to confess our sins and never grant us your forgiveness 34s

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 41s

Well, we continue today on our study of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. 45s

Last week, we did a little overview of the various letters. 49s

We examined who John was. 54s

We saw the transformation from a son of thunder into a apostle of love. 58s

We saw how John was part of the inner circle of our Lord, 64s

how he played a leading role in the church following the ascension. 68s

We saw that unlike the other 11 apostles, 75s

he was not persecuted for his faith and his life was not taken from him through persecution, 79s

but he was exiled to the island of Pethmos. 86s

And we saw the importance of the long life of John in how God used the apostles when they were living. 90s

And of course, John was the last one that was living in terms of discerning the genuine scripture from forgeries. 97s

Well, today we move into chapter 1 and then into chapter 2 of our study, 107s

but a little background here that I want to give you. 115s

When John writes this letter, there is a problem that he is facing in the church, 120s

and that is they are being troubled by a group. 129s

And John gives us descriptors in terms of the group that was troubling them. 135s

So let's go to first John, chapter 4. 141s

First John, chapter 4, good way to find first John is to go to the book of Revelation, 144s

and then slowly work your way backwards. 150s

You're going to be there before you know it. 152s

First John, chapter 4, verse 1. 154s

And here John writes, 163s

beloved, do not believe every spirit, 165s

but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. 169s

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. 173s

So the group here that is troubling the church, the first thing that we learn 178s

is that they are false prophets. 184s

We get another descriptor. 189s

Let's go to first John, chapter 2, verse 26. 192s

First John, chapter 2, verse 26. 197s

There he writes, I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. 203s

So they were deceivers. 210s

They were false prophets. 214s

They were deceivers. 215s

Here comes the third descriptor, first John, chapter 2, verse 18. 217s

Children, it is the last hour as you have heard that antichrist is coming. 224s

So now many antichrists have come for this we know that it is the last hour. 230s

We get to that in the weeks ahead, are we going to delve into more of what the meaning of that is? 237s

Absolutely. 242s

But for now, let me just use the descriptor here that they were antichrists. 242s

So here's the group that was troubling here, the church. 250s

There were false prophets deceivers and they were antichrists. 253s

John wants to protect the church so that, number 1, their joy may be full. 259s

Let's go to chapter 1, verse 4, chapter 1, verse 4. 270s

We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 279s

The second concern he has is for holiness that they don't fall into sin. 288s

Let's go to first John, chapter 2, verse 1. 298s

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 303s

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 309s

Remember we explored that about the advocacy of Christ last week, sermonically. 315s

So John here is concerned that their joy might be full. 322s

He's concerned with regard to their holiness. 326s

And third, that they will know of eternal life. 330s

That they will know of eternal life. 337s

Let's take a look at first John 5, verse 13. 341s

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 353s

So the group then that's pressuring in then on the church or false prophets, their deceivers, their antichrists. 364s

John writes because he wants them to be a people of joy. 371s

He doesn't want them to fall into sin and he wants them to know that they have eternal life. 374s

The heresy that they were facing and that was invading is called gnosticism. 382s

Now the Greek word for knowledge is gnosis and so that's where you get gnosticism from. 394s

There's four different errors with regard to gnosticism. 401s

The first here has to do with matter. 405s

And in the gnostic understanding, the understanding was that the physical body matter is evil. 411s

So a person's body is evil. 419s

Salvation in the gnostic scheme of things. 423s

Salvation came through a special knowledge. 427s

Now what do I mean by that? 435s

It was mystical. 438s

It was recovering of the divine, quote, divine spark that is in the human. 440s

It's direct knowledge of God's hidden truths in this mystic enlightenment and relationship with God. 448s

You feel how slippery that is? 461s

How slippery? 465s

Absolutely. 466s

It was really not salvation from sin. 467s

It was salvation from ignorance is what it was. 472s

This led then to harsh treatment of the body and also liberality or licensuousness. 477s

And so if the body was that which was the problem and body was that which is evil, 493s

it would lead to harsh treatment of one's own body or conversely it would lead to licensuousness. 499s

Because it would be, well, it's not me that's doing these things. 507s

It's my body that's doing these things. 513s

So it's not me. 517s

So when I break the moral law then it is not me. 518s

It's this nasty body that I have. 528s

You see, this is fraught with problems. 533s

You see why John is concerned here. 535s

Then it was a direct challenge to the two natures of Christ, direct challenge to the two nature of Christ. 542s

And that manifested itself in two different ways. 552s

One was what is called dositism. 555s

And dositism is the heresy that says Christ only appeared to have a body but he really didn't have a body. 558s

He only appeared to have a body but he didn't. 565s

And the second heresy that was associated with that is what's called syrithianism. 568s

And syrithianism maintained that the divine came upon Jesus at his baptism but it left before the cross. 574s

So that's quite a stew, isn't it? 585s

Matters evil, salvation through a special knowledge leads to harsh treatment of the body, leads to liberality. 588s

And then it denies the two natures of Christ, denying Christ is truly God and truly man. 594s

So the incarnation is then denied. 605s

You boil it down then. 609s

The concern is for nosticism that is invading the church. 612s

With that is the background. 617s

Let's go into first John. 619s

We'll pick up in verse one. 622s

John one through four is all one sentence. 627s

In fact, just a little aside, there's no punctuation in Greek. 631s

There's no punctuation. 635s

So when you see punctuation in English translations of scripture, 636s

that's all editors putting in punctuation there. 643s

In Greek you just have one long sentence that just keeps going on. 648s

Now obviously you can tell logically where a period should be but you don't have that in Greek. 653s

Outside of that here, this is just one long sentence in verses one through four. 659s

So we start with, we declare to you what was from the beginning. 667s

What we've heard, what we've seen with our eyes, what we've looked at and touched with our hands, 671s

concerning the word of life. 676s

This life was revealed and we have seen it and testified to it and declared to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. 678s

We declare to you what we've seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. 688s

And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 695s

We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 699s

The operative verb here in this is declaring. 706s

John is saying, we are declaring to you the eternal Son of God. 711s

We've seen Him, heard Him, touched Him, we've walked with Him, we can testify to His truth. 717s

Let's go to verse five. 730s

This is the message we've heard from Him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in Him there's no darkness at all. 733s

God is light as an excellent description of His nature because it's God's desire to reveal Himself. 745s

So then the question then that John is getting at, the question is, how is it that we will know God? 751s

Will we turn inward upon ourself or will we turn outward to the Scriptures? 760s

Where we get God's definition of Himself? 771s

If we turn inward, just think this through with me. 776s

If we turn inward we are turning inward to the sinful self, to the distorted mind, to determine who God is. 781s

So remember, how does Scripture define us? 790s

Second Corinthians four says, we are by nature blind. Ephesians the second chapter says, we are by nature dead in our trespasses. 793s

Romans five says we are by nature enemies of God. In other words, we're angry with God for Him telling us what to do. 801s

When we turn inward upon the sinful self then we are turning inward to our sin to form the reality of who God is. 810s

God must reveal Himself to us for us to have the correct understanding of who God is. 824s

That's still a problem today, isn't it? 836s

Where people will turn inward upon Himself to determine that which is true. 840s

Let's limit it to God here. 848s

Turning inward upon ourselves to determine who God is, what God thinks, how God acts, we turn inward to the self. 851s

And what type of God are we going to devise when we turn inward to our selves? 864s

We're going to turn God into a doding grandparent who just wants to do it on the kids and it's the parents problem. 873s

Right? We get them, we send them back. 888s

We turn God in, no I'm not saying that's good grandparenting, don't hear that. 894s

We turn God into Santa. 901s

Turn God into Santa. 905s

That if we're not on the naughty list then we'll get the gifts. 907s

And so we'll make sure that we're good boys and girls and on that list. 914s

And so we turn God into one who is beholden to us into our works righteousness. 920s

We will turn God into one who is ultimately as one author says the cosmic bell hop, whose existence it is is to grant whatever it is is our whim or desire because that's their job. 926s

You see, in our sinfulness we're going to create a whole different God than the holy God that indeed we have. 944s

God must reveal Himself to us, verse 5 again. 956s

This is the message we've heard from Him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. 962s

If we say that we have fellowship with Him while we're walking in darkness we lie and do not do what is. 969s

True. 978s

John saying we've heard Him, we've seen Him, we've touched Him, we've walked with Him and we're going to tell you who He is under the inspiration of the spirit which obviously ensures the inherent scene of the fellability of holy Scripture. 979s

Okay. 998s

Now as we get into this next section there's a structure here that's helpful for us to understand. 999s

So look at the first couple of words of a couple of verses, verse 6. 1006s

If we say, let's look at verse 8. 1010s

If we say, let's look at verse 10. 1014s

If we say, you see what were the heretics saying? 1018s

Heretics were saying, we say, right, because the source of defining what's truth is not outside of Himself, it's inside themselves. 1023s

It's kind of like our temptation to say, well I think, right? 1036s

As Christians we say, the say of the Lord has so much more weight than I think, right? 1041s

When we say, let's say of the Lord, that's what the people wanted to hear, not I think. 1048s

I think, I think this. 1055s

The heretics were saying, we say this. 1058s

John then goes right at it. 1062s

And there's a structure here in these next verses. 1065s

The structure that gives an intro to the distortion, a contradiction of the distortion, 1070s

and then a presentation of the truth. 1091s

It's the same outline. 1097s

He repeats it. 1098s

Introduction of distortion, contradiction of the distortion, and the presentation of the truth. 1099s

So let's look at verse 6 here again. 1106s

If we say that we have no sin, or excuse me, if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we are walking in darkness, 1112s

if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we're walking in darkness. 1120s

So that's the distortion that we're going to fellowship with God while we're walking in error while we're walking in distortion, 1124s

then notice now the contradiction. 1132s

We lie and do not do what's true. 1137s

We lie about that. 1142s

Serenthus, behind the serenthenism, serenthus taught that spirituality with God is independent of physical morality. 1146s

Spirituality with God is independent of physical morality. 1161s

Remember again what the problem was. 1166s

It's the matter that's evil, I'm not. 1168s

So that's why He makes that distinction. 1172s

That still lived out today too, isn't it? 1176s

Where, in fact, you see it's a growing, growing problem among those that profess to be Christians, 1182s

that they will have partial repentance in their life. 1190s

There will be areas where they don't repent of. 1195s

They say then that they are in relationship with God. 1197s

They come to church on Sunday morning, still living in whatever the sin is without any repentance. 1200s

And they claim then that they are in relationship with God and they claim them that they are a Christian. 1212s

You see the problem with that? 1221s

Because lack of repentance kills faith. 1224s

It kills it. 1228s

So in other words, we can't say Lord, we come to You and we confess our sins except these. 1231s

I'm holding that back. 1239s

And say I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1242s

Because see when there is unrepentance in the body of the church, then the body of the church is to act in a gentle and a loving manner to confront the brother or sister who is an heir for the purpose Scripture tells us to lead them to repentance. 1246s

It's the most loving thing that you can do. 1261s

The most loving thing you can do is not to say the body of Christ is a group of people in which all are welcome. 1264s

Now stay with me on this. 1273s

Because I saw a sign of a church advertising all are welcome. 1275s

All are not welcome in the church. 1279s

Did you know that? 1280s

All are not welcome in the church. 1282s

The repentant are welcome in the church. 1284s

To say all are welcome in the church implies that one does not have to move into a life of repentance. 1289s

Are all welcome? 1299s

No. Are the repentant welcome? 1301s

Absolutely. 1303s

If there is no repentance, what does the church do? 1304s

Then it moves into the disciplinary process in terms of individually confronting with the sin. 1306s

Then you bring some witnesses along to say we want to as fellow sinners confront you in your sin. 1312s

And if that doesn't work, then it ultimately leads to the expulsion from the body so that the person might come to repentance. 1317s

We see that exercised in the church of Corinth. 1326s

We see absolute example of that. 1329s

Serentheans would say you can have a relationship with God while you still hold back some sins. 1334s

And the church says no, we need to confront that. 1341s

We need to confront it because those that are welcome in the church are repentant. 1345s

Does that mean that a non-believer should not come to church? 1350s

Certainly not. 1354s

Tag the sermon today. 1355s

We should be inviting the non-believer to church. 1356s

But if we give the non-believer the understanding or the perspective that come to church and we tolerate everything here, 1359s

well that's not true. 1369s

We tolerate what God tolerates. 1372s

Right? 1375s

Which is the fruit of the Spirit. 1375s

We don't tolerate the expression of the flesh. 1377s

We all understand that we are sinners and need of repentance. 1382s

And that's the issue in the end. 1385s

Are we an estate of repentance for the totality of our sin or are we holding some of our sin back? 1387s

The heretics in John's day were saying, 1394s

we can be in relationship with God because it's that nasty body. 1398s

It doesn't matter what we do. 1404s

You see, 1406s

John is coming right at moving the church into maturity of confronting one another in love. 1409s

Is that difficult? 1419s

Absolutely it is. 1420s

Absolutely it is. 1421s

But it's faithful to what God calls us to be. 1425s

Who are welcome into the church? 1429s

It's the unrepentant. 1432s

Are welcome. 1434s

When one comes to communion rail, Paul deals with this also. 1436s

When one comes to the communion rail, one comes as a repentant person. 1440s

If one comes unrepentant, Scripture says we eat and drink condemnation unto ourselves. 1446s

Even in condemnation, that's why. 1454s

Because we are spurning then the call to repentance. 1456s

We're minimizing the gift that God has given us that gives us of forgiveness through the cross. 1461s

So if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we're walking in darkness, 1473s

that's the distortion. 1479s

We lie and do not do what is true. 1483s

That's the contradiction of the distortion. 1486s

Here comes the truth. 1489s

Verse 7. 1491s

But if we walk in the light, is He Himself as in the light, 1493s

we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sins. 1496s

Unrepentance in destroys faith. 1505s

It destroys faith. 1510s

One cannot have within the body of Christ an acceptance of unrepentance. 1512s

Once that happens, you've created a new gospel. 1519s

You have a different communication. 1523s

You're not being faithful to watching out for and caring your brothers and sisters. 1526s

John goes at this because he understands what's at stake. 1532s

He understands that ultimately the gospel is at stake. 1537s

The gospel is at stake. 1542s

And may people love us enough to point out if there's an area in our life where they knowingly, 1545s

where they knowingly see where there is a lack of repentance, 1557s

may we love each other that much. 1561s

I'm willing to do whatever it takes here. 1567s

Even if that means this relationship is going to be broken to confront with regard to sin. 1572s

Okay, let's go on. 1579s

Let's go to verse 8. 1581s

Now, if we say that we have no sin, 1583s

is what we're the Nostocks saying again. 1588s

Remember, it's the body's fault. 1590s

It's not me. 1592s

So I don't have any sin. 1595s

It's that body that's the problem. 1597s

So if we say that we have no sin, there's a distortion. 1599s

Here comes the contradiction. 1603s

We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1605s

You see where we get our confession. 1609s

We get our confession from confession from confession. 1612s

And now here's the statement of truth. 1615s

Verse 9, if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins 1618s

and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1624s

So there was the distortion. 1630s

There's the contradiction. 1631s

There's the presentation of the truth. 1632s

And what is John getting at? 1636s

The absolute heresy that's being pushed upon the church by Nosticism. 1638s

Got his faithful to his promise. 1646s

He has just, he doesn't overlook our sin, 1649s

but he has dealt with it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1653s

Let's go to 10. 1661s

If we say that we have not sinned, okay, there's the distortion. 1666s

Here comes the contradiction. 1673s

We make him a liar and his word is not in us. 1675s

Over and over throughout Scripture, we see that God reveals to us that we are sinners, 1681s

that we are to repent of our sins. 1686s

That without the Messiah, we are lost. 1689s

And then into chapter 2, here's the positive, my little children, I'm writing these things to you 1694s

so that you may not sin. 1702s

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. 1705s

Do we ever reach the stage in which we will be sinless the sight of heaven? 1714s

Absolutely not. 1719s

John fully knows that. 1720s

But what John is holding up isn't saying, I don't want you to fall into this sin 1723s

because you don't think it's a sin for some reason. 1729s

Sometimes when we share with people, they don't know that something's a sin. 1736s

I've had people share with me and say, I had no idea that was in the Bible. 1744s

No idea that was in the Bible. 1749s

And then there's two different paths that can be taken. 1752s

Either there's repentance and there's joy or they're saying, 1756s

well I'm going someplace else. 1761s

Because can you find the someplace else that's going to tell you that that isn't a sin, you better believe you can. 1764s

You better believe you can. 1771s

And that breaks your heart when that happens. 1774s

When they say, I've got a relationship with the Lord, I have no intention of repenting of this sin. 1777s

I'm off. 1786s

I'm off. 1788s

The beauty is when people repent. 1789s

And they say, my, my, I had no idea this was in the Bible. 1792s

Thanks for sharing that with me. 1796s

I repent of my sin and you can pronounce that word of absolute to them. 1797s

That's a beautiful, beautiful moment. 1802s

So John isn't saying here, if you don't sin. 1807s

He's pointing out the facts that I lift this up to you so you won't think that something that isn't a, or is a sin, isn't a sin. 1812s

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 1824s

But if anyone does sin, which of course is all of us, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1827s

And here's the glorious expression further. 1836s

He's the atoning sacrifice. 1838s

Remember that we're atonement at one minute to bring back into relationship for us. 1841s

And not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world. 1845s

The wrath of God is real. 1853s

The wrath of God for sin is real. 1857s

That's Romans 1 and Ephesians 2. 1860s

Just look at the Romans 1, 18 to 32 or Ephesians 2, 1 to 5. 1862s

But God has dealt with the problem here. 1870s

God's wrath over sin is wholly just wrath. 1875s

He has dealt with it through his son who has borne upon the sun here all of our sin. 1879s

All of it. 1888s

That's the gracious good news and the gospel that is ours to proclaim. 1890s

John sees the problem. 1897s

John's experiencing the problem of false prophets, deceivers and antichrists. 1900s

He says, I don't want you to lose joy. 1906s

I don't want you to fall into sin. 1909s

I want you to know of your eternal life. 1910s

He sees the problem of nosticism as it's invading of the church. 1914s

And so he moves into this pattern of introducing what's the distortion, what's the air, 1921s

what's the contradiction of the distortion, and what's the positive message to proclaim. 1928s

That is a good modus operandi also for us with people, right? 1938s

It is to when we listen to them to scripturally reveal to them what the distortion is, 1942s

what's the contrary to that, what's the positive statement. 1949s

And to call one another to call the church not to say, I'll determine for myself what is truth. 1955s

No, God has determined what's truth and hold these scriptures. 1963s

To tell others that we don't live these lives that are bifurcated into two sections here in which we say, 1967s

I have a relationship with God and yet I'm still going to hold on to my sin and not repent. 1982s

You see, that doesn't compute scripturally. 1989s

So God calls the church, calls all of us to call one another where there is no repentance to repentance. 1991s

It's a glorious section where he's attacking here the heresy that is invading. 2000s

Well, next week we're going to continue on in chapter 2. 2012s

We're going to see how we are to love one another and continue to address false teaching during these end times. 2017s

We'll continue next week. 2027s