Ocean View Baptist

Preaching March 27, 2011

I am privileged to be here among you and share about the wealth of knowledge we find in 1 John, thank you for having me!
I have the craziest story to tell you of something that happened this weekend! So I go running often on Saturday mornings in Kommetjie, and I was there Saturday morning. I am so accustomed to the sights I will see there, the lighthouse, people walking dogs, sun rising, surfers taking in some early waves. I run to the lighthouse and go up the boardwalk. At the top is the beautiful sight of the waves and mountains and sky – just God’s beautiful creation. But when I got to the top, I was completely freaked out.
The waves were going backwards! They were actually swelling and breaking backwards, in motion back towards the sea. There were all these people gathered to watch and everyone was as shocked as I was. You expect certain things to always be the same and then they just change on you and it really knocks you down! Did any of you hear about it? It was just yesterday; did anyone see pictures of it?
Oh, well that’s probably because it didn’t happen!
Wow, can you imagine if it did, that would be insane right?
Waves work as a force of nature, and whether the tide is coming in or out, the waves always break towards the shore. Always.

There are just certain things in our world that you can count on; that you know will always be the same. And our lives, our sanity, depend on it.
The greatest place that we see this, and our lives certainly depend on it, is with our Father God. His character is unchanging, His word is unshakable, His work on this earth never ceases, and His love always pursues us. Right? We can definitely say amen to that.
Our lives depend on those truths about God, and if they were to change, wow, we would get the surprise of our lives! Everything would topple over, right? Everything would collapse!

Even though it seems crazy if I were to go around telling such a ridiculous story that is so untrue, I wonder how God feels when we go around talking about Him?
When we are inside the walls of this church, in a women’s group, praying with pastor, then we claim the things I spoke of earlier, that our God is always faithful and His character is unchanging. We dance and praise and sing these truths.
But then comes Monday morning and we start talking crazy talk. We start believing things that are even crazier than waves crashing towards the sea.
We start talking to one another and we say things like, I just don’t know if God is going to show up in this one.”
Or, “I’ve tried to forgive but I just can’t, I don’t have it in me.”
Or, “I really don’t know what to do anymore, I can’t see how God is going to fix this, and I feel like I should just give up.”
When we are together in worship, we speak the truths of an unchangeable God, but then when we go about our personal lives, we seem to have created a different God, that does things differently in my life, and he’s forgotten me, or he isn’t just that powerful, or this is beyond repair, or I just can’t see Him in this. It’s like we are speaking of the waves going backwards. We begin to believe in a God that is limited, weak, has limits, and might just forget us in the end.

Maybe you don’t struggle with this, but certainly the community of 1 John does
This is a letter, written to a group of Christians that are dealing with a lot. They are trying to hold on in the midst of struggle
They want to believe in the Jesus that they first committed their lives to, but now they are finding that life doesn’t work out like they imagined.
Dreams are being dashed, the struggles seem too big, sin is running rampant among believers, and it all just seems like too much.

John wants to make things absolutely clear. He wants them to have certainty in their faith and walk the journey ahead with no doubt of who their God is and what He will do for them through Jesus Christ.

READ: 1 John 3:4-10

This is some serious stuff John is telling us about here. He is talking about certainty, talking about how we know if Christians are really Christians.
John is saying that those who truly know God will not sin, and those who don’t know God; it is obvious because they are the ones who sin.
I know sometimes we struggle with this in the church. We look at certain people in the church, and they keep sinning, doing something we think is unthinkable, and we can’t understand how they can continue to be Christians while they are allowing that sin to be in their lives? How can they be both? When we look at others, it is very clear that some are living in sin and allowing it to run in their lives while still trying to be a Christians, and it just doesn’t work.
You see, this scripture is great for the perfectionists. We don’t like to admit that we are perfect, because I’m sure there is SOMETHING we have done wrong, but we get it right most of the time, let’s be honest.
People trust us, we have a good reputation, we live lives that just honor God, and honestly we don’t understand why other people have so much trouble with this sin thing??
This is a great verse for the perfectionists; we can finally just use scripture and tell everyone else to just GET IT TOGETHER.
We see a story of some perfectionists in the NT when some teachers of the law had dragged out a woman who was caught in the act of having an affair. They dragged her with just a sheet around her into the center of the town to make her PAY for her SINS.
And they want to catch Jesus in a trap, this crazy rabbi who is always trying to duck out of justice, just letting people get by, so they ask him what to do.
He says that yes this woman has committed a sin, but whoever has NO sin throw the first stone to condemn.
And they all end up walking away. Ughh, they were so close to justice!
And that is what we want to do with this passage. We want to take it as if it’s a big stone and THROW it at those around us who aren’t following God’s rules and are in sin.
YOU keep being angry, and YOU keep falling back into drugs, and YOU can’t seem to keep a job, and YOU are just a naughty child. YOU are the sinner.
Luckily, we read this letter in 1 John in light of Jesus’ life and teaching. He knew that none of us were perfect. None are without sins.
Romans says all have fallen short of the glory of God.
So surely this passage isn’t justification for the perfect ones, because none of us are.
And before we step into what this does mean, I want you to realize where you are.
Some of you are the woman in the middle, and you have been judged and judged and judged. You know you sin, and you can’t seem to stop it. You feel powerless, you feel like it always overcomes you. You feel that you just deserve what you get because you probably are worthless. And Jesus has stopped the stoning. You are forgiven. You are made pure, and you CAN overcome your sins.
And THIS passage in 1 John will give you the answer.
But first before we find out that answer, I want to look around to the rest of you. Most of you here holding a stone. You are the ‘good’ ones, you get it right, you follow the rules, you do this Christian thing well and you are tired of the hypocrites who keep getting it wrong.
Well before you judge another, it’s time to first look in the mirror. The moment that you reach sinlessness then you are allowed to throw stones at others and judge others.
But this passage isn’t a rock to throw; it isn’t proof that the hypocrite isn’t really a Christian.
This passage is about YOUR sin and YOUR purity.
Your judgment, your self-righteousness, your shame, your hopelessness. If you find yourself depressed, if you are rude, if you find yourself angry, if you want to give up. If you have given up to your sins, to your shame, to your anger, to thinking God really can’t help you, and then I want you to come along.
John wants to teach us something REVOLUTIONARY about sin and it will change EVERY ONE OF US. The ones lying on the ground, and those holding stones.

You see, this passage isn’t about being perfect, because we all sin.
Hear this: 1 John 1:8-10 - "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous 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."
We all sin, and John is just teaching us about confessing sin. We must see our sin clearly, for we all have it, and come humbly to our God in confession of that sin.
John speaks in this letter about two types of sin. The sins of believers, which are forgiven, and the sins of unbelievers, which lead to death.
All sin is forgivable, any sin is forgivable, the only sin that is unforgiven is when someone doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. Un-belief is the only unforgivable sin because then we put ourselves out of reach from God’s love and mercy.
So what is John speaking about then?
In verse 3:6 John says that no one who abides in God sins. That means that no one lives in continual and unconfessed sin if they are in Christ. When you live in Christ, he brings a conflict into your spirit when you sin and you actually come to a place where you can’t even bear the weight on your soul when you continue to choose sin.
As we grow deeper in the Lord, when we see our sin we hate it, we confess it, and then we move our lives from it. We see that sin separates us from God and we want to always have communion with our God.
Avoiding sin isn’t about you just making good choices. WE have Christ in YOU and ME, the hope of glory! That seed of Christ within us actually works to awaken us and help us to see our sin. We cannot overcome sin with will or might or trying to be good. It really can only be done through the power of Christ within us.
That actually should be a relief for some of you! Some of you have a sin that you really struggle with. It might be anger and rage, it could be pornography, it could be judging others, and it could be gossiping, it could be spending money, it could be fear. Whatever your sin is, if you feel like you are powerless against it it’s because you are! BUT if you have Christ within you then you can overcome, you WILL overcome with the power of Christ.
Just as Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He will help you to rise up from that sin, even if you feel you are a rotting dead carcass in it. You will rise up, you will overcome
You see, the key here is in verse 8 that says, ‘The Son of God came to destroy the words of the devil.’ This is the power in new life. When Jesus overcame evil by his resurrection, He overcame sin and the works of the devil in your life. The enemy no longer has power because that power has been destroyed in Jesus Christ.
You need God alive in you, and this starts with recognizing that the works of the devil aren’t out there, they are in HERE. They aren’t the drugs and alcohol ruling the community, they aren’t the anger and rage of your spouse, they aren’t the attitude of your children, they aren’t the apartheid system and history. They honestly might be all those things, but what FIRST needs to be destroyed is what the devil is doing in YOUR heart. God first wants to destroy SIN IN YOU before you can help to conquer it out there. Sin must first die in here.

Some of you can testify to this. As you have grown in Jesus Christ, He is helping you to love like never before, to forgive like never before, to serve like never before, to follow God’s ways like never before. You wouldn’t have believed it unless it was you! But it’s happening all around here, and it’s going to keep happening in Jesus name.

So if this is the life that we are promised, through Christ’s power to be free from sin, to move forward from sin and to live lives that aren’t caught in continual sin, then how to we get this?
First you must know that you can't do anything to make the new birth happen, any more than an unborn baby can do anything to get born.
We are dead in sin and only Jesus can raise us from the dead
WE must first just have FAITH that this is true, that God is real, and that He is going to do a work in US.
It’s like the waves. They have NEVER swelled and crashed toward the sea, and they aren’t going to start now.
God is real, faithful, and unchangeable. He isn’t going to stop now. No matter what your sin, what your struggle, what your pain, Jesus does have the power to destroy the sin even in YOUR life.

Here are three ways you can see this work in your life

1. A Clear Purpose for Living.

1 John tells us clearly that these things are written so we could live a life without sin. That is the goal. Not so that we could just be ‘good’ people but so that we could be FREE people.
But instead of seeing it as a negative, just DON’T sin, like don’t eat chocolate cake, and then that’s all you think about…
The positive place you focus is 1 John 3:23, This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." WE must believe in the power of Jesus Christ, believe it is possible in our own lives and then go forward to love others. We must stop picking up the stones to judge the sins of others; it’s simply not our job. Let’s love, let’s encourage, let’s believe in one another.

2. Hope that Our Failures Will be Forgiven

If we really want to see sin destroyed in our lives, then it really starts with believing we are forgiven.
Many of you have sins that you clearly see and want to overcome. Maybe it’s alcohol. It could be sinning in your eating habits. Sinning in spending money. Sinning in anger. Sinning in judgment.
But know right now, that if you walk out of this door and straight away do that exact sin, you are already forgiven.
And let the FREEDOM to fail give you the hope to fight. Because Jesus is your advocate and stands next to you, you don’t have to FEAR failing because you are forgiven. So you can risk the fight.
Don’t use it as a license to sin, but be bold in believing that you can overcome.

3. Christ Will Help Us

In this fight against sin we know that Christ will help us. You are not alone. He does not stand with a stone even though He alone could throw it at you.

He sees everything in your life clearly and He sees that the sin in your life will in the end destroy you. So He destroyed Satan first. And now the power is yours, and the King is beside you.
1 John 4:4 says, "He who is in you is greater than he that is in the world."

This is the truth we live in. It has been overcome. Our sin has been destroyed, and it’s our time to walk in freedom. Just as the waves will always continue to come in from the sea, our God is faithful and will be working within you to help you to overcome and walk in a life of freedom.

Yesterday, as I was at the beach, what was remarkable to me about the waves, and they did just keep coming into the shore and breaking. What really struck me was that they never stopped coming. And I thought of God’s mercy and love and power. It never stops. Sometimes it comes in slowly, sometimes it feels like a tsunami, but it is always coming, IT’S always covering, it’s always at work. There is not another truth. We may change, our faith may come and go, but God is always the same and He wants to do His work in you. It’s time to surrender and just ride the wave.