The Alert Christian
Series: Walking in the Light
Speaker: James Barnett
Date: 9th January 2021
00:00:00 --> 00:00:08 Welcome, everyone. My name is Barnetti the Magnificent, and I'm going to need a volunteer.
00:00:09 --> 00:00:13 Come on, I need a volunteer from the audience. Anybody? Don't make me pick somebody.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:21 I need a volunteer. Okay, young lady, yes, please come down the front. Let's give her a clap as she comes up.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:29 I have a fairly normal deck of cards here, young lady. You can see it's just a fairly normal deck of cards, yes.
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 What I'm going to get you to do is I'll just give it a quick shuffle. Yep, okay.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:36 What I'm going to do is I'm going to get you to take a card. Any card? Pick a card.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:42 Oh, that one. Okay, all right. Have a look. Show the audience. Yeah, don't you? I'll turn around.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:48 Show the stream as well. Okay, all right. Now pop that back in there.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:54 Wonderful. Okay, what I'm going to do now is just do a bit of hand waving over this.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:58 I'm just going to chop this a couple of times. Hopefully I haven't ruined my trick.
00:00:59 --> 00:01:07 Do this. Do this. And was it this card? What card is that? Okay, wasn't that a card? Okay.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:16 Was it this card? No. No. Okay. Now, here's the real test. Was it this card? Yeah.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:20 Yay! I got it right. Okay, let's give Chloe a round of applause. Thank you very much.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 Look at that. It was the... Oh, was it the Joker?
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 Yeah. Well, that's kind of funny, isn't it? That's kind of funny.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:34 Now, of course, you are not an audience. You are a church. We are a church. We are the body of Christ
00:01:34 --> 00:01:41 who is gathered together to worship our great God and to encourage each other. And I'm not Barnetti the
00:01:41 --> 00:01:48 Magnificent. I'm just James. And I don't do magic. It was just all a little bit of deception.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:55 Now, it was silly and entertaining. Well, for me, it was entertaining. But we can easily be tricked.
00:01:56 --> 00:02:01 You might be thinking, how did he do that? How did he deceive us so well?
00:02:02 --> 00:02:06 Now, it wasn't actually that important. But we can be tricked and deceived in life.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:14 And there can be grave consequences. You know, if we're tricked into buying a car by a salesman,
00:02:14 --> 00:02:19 that the car is actually a lemon. It's not a very good car. We don't realise it until it's too late.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:28 We live in a world of misinformation where people on all sides are crying out about being deceived by fake news.
00:02:28 --> 00:02:34 It hurts to be deceived. Lied to from a loved one or a colleague.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:38 It can make us doubt who we are and the things that we hold dear.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:46 The author of this book, John, he is writing to a church who is at a very dangerous risk of being deceived
00:02:46 --> 00:02:51 about who Jesus is and who they were as a church and who they were to be as Christians.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:56 People have come in and they have been spreading rumours.
00:02:56 --> 00:03:02 They have been deceiving people to try and change their views, to take them down another path.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:10 And today, as we see John's word against those deceivers, we will be challenged to watch out for deception.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:15 Because we too can be deceived about who Jesus is and who we are to be as Christians.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 So as we have a look at this, let me pray for us.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:26 Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that it reveals your son Jesus to us
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 and it reveals you, our Heavenly Father, to us.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:35 We ask that as we look at your word this morning, that you would give us eyes that see clearly
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 and that do not get deceived.
00:03:38 --> 00:03:42 And Lord, when we are deceived, we ask that you would help us to understand
00:03:42 --> 00:03:46 and to come back to loving and following you wholeheartedly, Lord.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:47 Amen.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 So please have your Bibles open.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 We're in 1 John chapter 3.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:57 If you don't have a Bible, there is Bibles at either side door.
00:03:57 --> 00:03:58 There are brown ones.
00:03:58 --> 00:03:59 We have written in them.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 They are a gift for you.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 We would love you to have a Bible if you don't have a Bible.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 So please take one of those, put your name in it, write all over it.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:08 That is yours.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:14 And as we have a look at 1 John chapter 3, John begins with a sense of urgency,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 speaking about a group called the Antichrists,
00:04:19 --> 00:04:23 those who came in and deceived and who had been deceived.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 Have a look with me, 1 John chapter 3 verse 18.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:30 Dear children, this is the last hour.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming,
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 even now many Antichrists have come.
00:04:35 --> 00:04:39 This is how we know it is the last hour.
00:04:40 --> 00:04:41 John's got this sense of urgency.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 Guys, we're living in the last days.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:44 We are in the last moments.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 And his desire for this church is to not be deceived.
00:04:49 --> 00:04:54 John consistently calls this church dear children, little children.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:59 And it's a reminder that little children are easily deceived.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 I don't know if you've ever done the whole,
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 I pull the coin from behind your ear trick to a small child.
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 Children are easily deceived.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:11 And this church can find it easy to be deceived.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 And John speaks about the Antichrist.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 It's something we've probably heard of before.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 Maybe we've heard of it in movies.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 We might have some different ideas about it.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:27 And there is two different concepts in the Bible generally when it comes to the Antichrist.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:32 There is a specific reference to one individual, the devil, the Antichrist.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:39 And then there is this reference here, which is more general to a number of different people who are Antichrists.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:41 So what does it mean?
00:05:41 --> 00:05:42 What does it mean?
00:05:42 --> 00:05:43 So we've got two options.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 Ante can have two different meanings, the word anti.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:47 Antichrist.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 First of all, it can mean those who are against.
00:05:50 --> 00:06:01 So if I said, you know, if I said, you know, that person, they're anti-Australian, that means they're against Australians.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:07 So this group, Antichrists, could be described as those who are against Christ.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 The word anti can also mean to take the place of.
00:06:13 --> 00:06:20 And so this group could also be described as those who want to steal Jesus' place and substitute it with their own version of Jesus.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 And so we've got this group who've come in.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 John describes them as the Antichrists.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:32 Either those who are wanting to take Jesus' place or those who are his enemies, those who are against him.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:38 And it actually turns out that this group was from that church to begin with.
00:06:39 --> 00:06:40 But they didn't really belong.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:41 Verse 22.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:42 Who is the liar?
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:51 Such a person is the Antichrist, denying the Father and the Son.
00:06:51 --> 00:06:59 These people had been part of the church and they'd left and they'd come back and they've had their view of Jesus twisted.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 They're denying that Jesus is the Son of God.
00:07:03 --> 00:07:08 And this person is against Christ when they deny that.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 They're preaching a different kind of Jesus.
00:07:11 --> 00:07:15 Jesus who is not the Jesus that's revealed to us in the Bible.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:19 One who isn't the Christ, the chosen one, the Son of God.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:25 And John is really concerned for this church that they would be deceived by these Antichrists.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 Instead of being tricked, he calls them to remain.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:31 Remain in Jesus.
00:07:32 --> 00:07:32 Verse 24.
00:07:33 --> 00:07:37 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 Remain in what you have heard from the beginning.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 Don't change your view of who Jesus is, that he's the Son of God,
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 just because somebody has come in and told you some stories about him.
00:07:47 --> 00:07:56 We looked at last week, John's resume in chapter one, where John said that he had seen and touched and heard Jesus.
00:07:57 --> 00:08:02 Don't just believe other people that have come in who haven't met him, who don't know him, who didn't see him rise from the dead.
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 John is a far more reliable witness.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:12 The group that came in to deceive the church was most likely a group called the Gnostics.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 Gnostic is all about knowledge.
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 They believed they had a special revelation from God.
00:08:19 --> 00:08:24 They believed that they alone had special knowledge from God about who Jesus was.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 And you had to have a special religious experience to receive it.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 But John calls them, don't be deceived by this.
00:08:33 --> 00:08:34 Remain in Jesus.
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 You don't need a new special revelation.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 You don't need new special knowledge.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 You've already got that knowledge.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:40 You've got it at the beginning.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 When you first heard about Jesus, that is all that you need.
00:08:46 --> 00:08:50 In verse 20, they've already been given an anointing by the Holy Spirit.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 They don't need anything new.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 They don't need anything else to be able to follow this God.
00:08:56 --> 00:09:05 It's a reminder that Christianity, sorry, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see who Jesus is.
00:09:06 --> 00:09:10 And so we don't need another revelation from the Spirit to see who Jesus is.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:18 And so John reminds them in verse 23 that whoever denies that Jesus is the Son of God denies God.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 This is a reminder that Christianity is an exclusive claim.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 You deny that Jesus is the Son of God.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 You cannot know the Father.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:28 There is only one God.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 And it is Jesus who reveals him to us.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:37 When the church kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, the same Jesus who had been revealed,
00:09:37 --> 00:09:38 well, they wouldn't be deceived.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 They wouldn't be deceived by the sleight of hand of the Antichrists.
00:09:43 --> 00:09:47 But the reality is we don't have this same problem.
00:09:47 --> 00:09:55 We don't have people coming in, preaching from the pulpit, saying you need to believe in this slightly different view of Christ.
00:09:56 --> 00:10:02 But yet it is also possible for us today, living in 2021, to be deceived.
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 We can be deceived about who Jesus is.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 It can be very subtle and it can be from our culture.
00:10:09 --> 00:10:14 It can be from other Christians who have got a slightly different view of who Jesus is.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:22 And so I think there are four types of deceptions we can see, at least four types, when it comes to who Jesus is.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 The first is Red Bull Jesus.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 Does anybody know what one of the slogans of Red Bull is?
00:10:31 --> 00:10:32 It gives you wings.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 Thank you for ladies on my left and right.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:35 It gives you wings.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:36 Red Bull gives you a boost.
00:10:36 --> 00:10:37 It makes you a little bit better.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 It's that 10% improvement you need.
00:10:41 --> 00:10:46 And so we can be deceived into thinking that we need a Red Bull Jesus.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 We need just a little bit more.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:50 I just need a push.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:53 You know, I'm a pretty great person.
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 And Jesus helps me just get over the line with God.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:03 I'm pretty close myself, but I just need God to get me over the line.
00:11:03 --> 00:11:04 And that's all he is to me.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 Jesus is just an energy drink to help me get to God.
00:11:08 --> 00:11:09 Don't be deceived.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 Ephesians 2 reminds us that we are dead.
00:11:13 --> 00:11:14 We are totally dead.
00:11:15 --> 00:11:16 It's not that we need a push over the line.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 We need, what are those things you have in hospitals?
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 The things you zap people with to make them come back to life?
00:11:24 --> 00:11:24 Defibrillators.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:26 We need a defibrillator.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 We don't just need a little bit of a drink.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 We need to go from dead to life.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 And that only happens because of Jesus.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 Dead people don't need a push.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:37 They need a grave.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 And if it wasn't for Jesus, that's where we would be.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:45 Instead, Jesus went to the grave for us to redeem us.
00:11:45 --> 00:11:52 So we can easily be deceived to think that we are pretty good people and Jesus just helps us get over the line with God.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:54 But that is not the reality.
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 The reality is far greater and far terrible.
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 We don't deserve anything good from God.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 And yet he gives us good.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:07 The second type of Jesus that we can be deceived by is our fairy godmother Jesus.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:13 My kids have been reading a whole lot of fairy tales recently, so I'm thinking fairy godmothers.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:19 This version of Jesus gives you whatever you like as long as you follow the rules.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:25 You can have salvation, but you can have all the blessings from God, but you've got to follow the rules.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:30 You can have salvation, but if you don't follow my rules, you'll turn into a pumpkin.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:30 At 12 o'clock.
00:12:31 --> 00:12:32 Is that how the story goes?
00:12:32 --> 00:12:32 I can't remember.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:38 But this deception ruins our relationship with Jesus because it brings it down to,
00:12:38 --> 00:12:43 I have to follow these restrictions so that I can get these blessings.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:49 This is a very simple little deception that can come in to our relationship with Jesus.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 Because the Bible does have lots of rules.
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 It does have lots of commands.
00:12:56 --> 00:13:00 But it is not fairy godmother, I'm going to give you these blessings.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:01 And I'm going to give you these curses.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:03 You've got to be home by 12.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:09 God pours out his lavish love on us and calls us to follow him.
00:13:09 --> 00:13:10 It is the reverse.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 He loves us, first and foremost.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:19 Instead of having to follow rules, we are given love.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:23 And we are called to have a relationship with the one who loves us and continue to love.
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 And we do that by choosing to obey.
00:13:26 --> 00:13:30 The third type of Jesus is skydiving Jesus.
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 I kind of wish I had pictures of each of these.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:40 But for many Christians, there can be a chasing after spiritual experiences.
00:13:40 --> 00:13:45 Trying to get a Christian high, like jumping out of a plane.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:51 The Gnostics were trying to deceive the church that John is writing to, to say that they had special knowledge.
00:13:52 --> 00:13:53 They had a special religious experience.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:54 And you had to get that.
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 You had to chase that if you wanted to be a real Christian.
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 Other groups today would say similar things.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:06 You must have a spiritual experience like speaking in tongues to be truly saved and to be a real Christian.
00:14:06 --> 00:14:10 Nowhere in the Bible does it say that.
00:14:11 --> 00:14:12 Don't be deceived, as John said.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 We have the Holy Spirit.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 Remain in what we have had from the beginning.
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 The Holy Spirit reveals the truth of Jesus to us.
00:14:23 --> 00:14:28 And so instead of chasing something new, chasing a new spiritual experience, a new spiritual high,
00:14:28 --> 00:14:36 instead chase a closer and deeper relationship with the God and Father who has been made known by Jesus.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 Fourth, the good man Jesus.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:46 This deception is a very common one from our culture.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:47 Jesus is a good man.
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 And Christians are to just be good people too.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 Jesus inspires us to be good people.
00:14:54 --> 00:15:00 And while we are called to be like him, you know, that is not why he came.
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 He didn't call us to just be like him.
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 He didn't make us to just be nice people.
00:15:07 --> 00:15:13 He came to take dead people wrapped in grave clothes, stuck in the grave, and make us new people.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 So Jesus is a good man.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 But he's not just a good man.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:22 He is God himself who came to do so much more.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:26 All of these deceptions start with a good thing.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:31 You'll find that true about every heresy that's ever been.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 Every heresy starts with something really good.
00:15:34 --> 00:15:35 Jesus is a good man.
00:15:37 --> 00:15:41 We get a spiritual revelation from the Holy Spirit.
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 God gives us wonderful things.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 God does help us so much.
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49 God does help us.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:49 God does help us.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:54 Every heresy, every deception starts with a core of truth.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 And it just takes it offline.
00:15:57 --> 00:15:58 It just takes it too far.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 John calls us to remain in Jesus.
00:16:04 --> 00:16:12 Don't be deceived into following a knock-off, low-cost version of Jesus when the real Jesus is so wonderful.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:18 Chase a closer relationship with him as the Holy Spirit reveals him to us through his word.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:25 And so John has reminded this church about who Jesus is and not to be deceived.
00:16:25 --> 00:16:31 And now he turns to our confidence in God and who we are as Christians.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 And all of this comes from our identity.
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 Have a look at the start of chapter 3 with me.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:38 Chapter 3, verse 1.
00:16:38 --> 00:16:48 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God.
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 This verse really stood out to me when I was preparing this.
00:16:51 --> 00:16:55 I don't think I've ever seen the word lavish in the Bible.
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 I'll have to do a word search on it later.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 God lavished his love on us.
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 Lavish is a great word.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:09 This is what I do when I'm preparing, if I'm having toast and butter.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:11 This is how I have butter on my bread.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:12 I lavish it.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 Usually for me, bread and butter is a one-to-one ratio.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20 Because I think that's the way God has given us those gifts to enjoy.
00:17:21 --> 00:17:22 But that's what God does.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 He lavishes.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:28 He goes over the top expressing his love for us.
00:17:28 --> 00:17:29 And verse 2.
00:17:29 --> 00:17:33 We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:39 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 We will be made like him, and we will be made pure.
00:17:44 --> 00:17:48 And he says in verse 9 that we're given the Holy Spirit like a seed in us,
00:17:48 --> 00:17:52 and it blossoms so that we can remain in God.
00:17:52 --> 00:17:59 John is really keen that this church isn't deceived into being confused about who they are as Christians.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:06 And he paints this beautiful picture of God's love, his lavish love, and what he does for us.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 The Antichrists have come in.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:12 They're trying to deceive people about who Jesus is and about what a Christian looks like.
00:18:13 --> 00:18:18 And John reminds the church of the beauty of being a child of God.
00:18:18 --> 00:18:25 And he builds on this comparison between those who are the Antichrists and those who are Christ's in verse 4.
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 Everyone who sins breaks the law.
00:18:30 --> 00:18:31 In fact, sin is lawlessness.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:36 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.
00:18:37 --> 00:18:38 And in him is no sin.
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
00:18:42 --> 00:18:46 No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 Now, we might have a bit of a confusion about this point.
00:18:49 --> 00:18:53 You might see it and do a bit of a double take as Paul was reading it for us for it earlier.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 Does that really say that Christians don't sin?
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 I'm a Christian and I've sinned, you know, a dozen times this morning already.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:06 Is this part of the Bible possibly wrong?
00:19:07 --> 00:19:08 Or am I just not really a Christian?
00:19:08 --> 00:19:15 Some modern Christians have been deceived and preached that Christians don't sin.
00:19:16 --> 00:19:16 Full stop.
00:19:17 --> 00:19:21 Or that it's possible for Christians to reach a state called sinless perfection.
00:19:21 --> 00:19:24 Where Christians just do not sin anymore.
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 But this doesn't make sense of the Christian's experience.
00:19:28 --> 00:19:31 This doesn't make sense of the joy of following Jesus.
00:19:32 --> 00:19:33 The joy of forgiveness.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:37 And struggling with our sin to continue to follow him.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 It doesn't make sense of our experience.
00:19:39 --> 00:19:40 But it also doesn't make sense of the Bible.
00:19:41 --> 00:19:42 It doesn't make sense of just this book alone.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:47 1 John 1.8, which we saw last week, call us to confess our sins.
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 Because we've forgiven us in Jesus, the advocate before the Father.
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 So, what do we do with this?
00:19:53 --> 00:19:57 If in 1 John 1, John says that when you sin, confess.
00:19:57 --> 00:20:03 And if he then says in 1 John 3, Christians don't have sin, what do we do with this?
00:20:04 --> 00:20:08 Is John contradicting himself in the space of two chapters?
00:20:09 --> 00:20:10 It is very strong language.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:16 Verse 9, no one who is born of sin will continue to sin.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:18 So, what do we do?
00:20:19 --> 00:20:23 I think there's two ways to understand what is going on at this point.
00:20:23 --> 00:20:27 This is going to be a brief stopover in a technical argument.
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 So, please stay with me for this.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 The first is the we don't do this here approach.
00:20:34 --> 00:20:39 From verse 6 of chapter 3, no one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
00:20:40 --> 00:20:45 And so, this first view says that as Christians, we are saved and we are forgiven.
00:20:45 --> 00:20:49 And yet we still sin, but we're not stuck in sin.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:59 And whilst we do it, it's different to before because now we know God and now we're not stuck in sin.
00:20:59 --> 00:21:06 And so, the mark of a Christian is that their life reflects God's love shown in Jesus' death.
00:21:06 --> 00:21:13 A Christian's life is lived to honour God, to obey Him, bringing glory to Him and to treasure Jesus.
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 Christians are different after they know God.
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 And so, while they sin, they're not stuck sinning.
00:21:19 --> 00:21:20 They're not in the habit of sinning.
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 It'd be me at home, family dinner.
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 It's about 6 o'clock on a normal night.
00:21:27 --> 00:21:32 And I say something like, children, we Barnets sit up straight.
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 We Barnets, we don't have our elbows on the table.
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 And we Barnets don't play with our food.
00:21:39 --> 00:21:43 But also, at the same time, one of my kids is lying on the floor.
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 One of them is flicking food at their sibling.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 And me, myself, I'm just spinning pasta on a fork.
00:21:50 --> 00:21:53 It's not true, me saying that we Barnets do all these things.
00:21:54 --> 00:21:54 It's not true.
00:21:55 --> 00:21:57 But it's a statement of who we are and who we should be.
00:21:59 --> 00:22:03 Christians, and so what 1 John 3 could be saying is,
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 Christians are not held in sin.
00:22:05 --> 00:22:10 Christians are called to follow God wholeheartedly with their whole life.
00:22:11 --> 00:22:14 Christians aren't held by sin in the same way.
00:22:14 --> 00:22:15 That's the first view.
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 The second view is the one I prefer.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 But reading a whole bunch of commentaries,
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 a number of people will go into either side, so I'm okay with either.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:29 But here, John has spoken about the identity of the Christians
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 and about those who are the anti-Christians,
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 those who are for and against Christ.
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 And he continues his argument here in chapter 3.
00:22:39 --> 00:22:43 He's describing them as either sons and daughters of God
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45 or sons and daughters of the devil.
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 The sin he describes as lawlessness is not
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 breaking the Ten Commandments type of sin,
00:22:52 --> 00:22:56 but the sin here is of rejecting that Jesus is the Son of God.
00:22:57 --> 00:22:59 Chapter 2 was all about the identity of Jesus.
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01 Don't be deceived about who Jesus was.
00:23:01 --> 00:23:02 Remain in Jesus.
00:23:04 --> 00:23:08 And now, those who have rejected Jesus,
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 well, they are the ones who do sin
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 and the ones who follow Jesus, they don't.
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 They don't reject Jesus.
00:23:15 --> 00:23:19 So no one who has the Holy Spirit working in their heart
00:23:19 --> 00:23:22 can reject Jesus in this sense and sin.
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 Because no one who has the Holy Spirit
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 can say that Jesus is not the Son of God.
00:23:28 --> 00:23:30 And everyone who doesn't have the Holy Spirit,
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32 well, they can't see that Jesus is the Son of God.
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34 And so all they can do is to sin.
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 It makes this passage a reassurance
00:23:38 --> 00:23:41 from John to the church of their salvation.
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 Your sins have been taken away.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:47 And you can see that because you are remaining in Christ.
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 And your fruit of love is for the church.
00:23:52 --> 00:23:54 Regardless of which of these two positions,
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57 John is clearly concerned that the church
00:23:57 --> 00:24:00 would be deceived by these imposters who would come in.
00:24:00 --> 00:24:02 That they would be tricked and deceived
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 by the view of Jesus and who the Christian was.
00:24:06 --> 00:24:08 We face the same challenge today.
00:24:08 --> 00:24:11 That we can forget the wonder
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13 and lavish love of God.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 And we can end up with a knock-off,
00:24:16 --> 00:24:18 cheapened version of Christianity.
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 And so I have three types of Christians
00:24:21 --> 00:24:23 that we can be deceived into being.
00:24:24 --> 00:24:27 Firstly, is the arrogant Christian.
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 This has been me in the past.
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32 It's the type of Christian that says,
00:24:33 --> 00:24:34 you know, Jesus died for my sins,
00:24:34 --> 00:24:37 and so it doesn't matter if I do a few more.
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39 He's died for them all anyway.
00:24:39 --> 00:24:40 What's another couple to the tally?
00:24:41 --> 00:24:42 He's already died and risen again.
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 But what we do does matter.
00:24:48 --> 00:24:51 Our sin grieves God.
00:24:52 --> 00:24:54 Instead of that, we can actually bring joy and happiness
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56 to our Heavenly Father,
00:24:56 --> 00:24:58 and glory to Him when we obey.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00 He offers us to be His children,
00:25:00 --> 00:25:03 to pour out His lavish love on us.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:07 And so let's not be deceived that what we do doesn't matter,
00:25:07 --> 00:25:11 but instead respond to God by loving Him and obeying Him.
00:25:12 --> 00:25:17 Second is the be true to myself Christian.
00:25:17 --> 00:25:20 This is a more modern deception,
00:25:21 --> 00:25:25 which takes our culture's love of celebrating people,
00:25:25 --> 00:25:27 pursuing their own personal goals,
00:25:28 --> 00:25:29 as being true to themselves.
00:25:29 --> 00:25:30 Have you heard of people say,
00:25:30 --> 00:25:33 you know, I just want to be true to myself here,
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 and so I'm going to follow this path?
00:25:36 --> 00:25:38 We can do that as Christians.
00:25:38 --> 00:25:43 And this view glorifies people who say,
00:25:43 --> 00:25:44 I'm going to be true to myself,
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 but what that often means is,
00:25:47 --> 00:25:50 I'm going to be true to my feelings and my emotions.
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 I am going to let my feelings and my emotions
00:25:53 --> 00:25:56 make decisions about who I am and what I will do.
00:25:57 --> 00:26:00 We can be deceived as Christians to think along these lines,
00:26:00 --> 00:26:03 to value our emotions and feelings too much,
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 and to align our identity with that,
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 particularly when it comes to sexuality.
00:26:09 --> 00:26:12 Instead, our identity is created first by God.
00:26:12 --> 00:26:13 At the start of chapter 3,
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 our identity is as His children.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:18 God has lavished His love on us.
00:26:19 --> 00:26:20 We have been made His children,
00:26:20 --> 00:26:25 and then our emotions and values get shaped by Him.
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 It is very dangerous for us
00:26:27 --> 00:26:31 to create our identity based on our emotions and feelings first,
00:26:31 --> 00:26:34 and not who God has made me to be.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:38 Because if I'm basing my decisions on how I feel,
00:26:39 --> 00:26:40 today, do you know what?
00:26:40 --> 00:26:42 I may have been sinning a whole lot,
00:26:42 --> 00:26:46 and I might not be feeling like a particularly good child of God.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:50 And then that leads me to doubt that I am a child of God.
00:26:51 --> 00:26:54 Instead, the start of chapter 3 reminds us,
00:26:54 --> 00:26:56 I am a child of God.
00:26:57 --> 00:26:59 God has lavished His love on me.
00:26:59 --> 00:27:02 So even though I don't feel that, I know that.
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 And I want my emotions to come into line
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 with this objective reality from God.
00:27:08 --> 00:27:11 Third, this is the insecure Christian.
00:27:12 --> 00:27:16 The insecure Christian feels the weight of their sin
00:27:16 --> 00:27:17 and the pain of their sin.
00:27:18 --> 00:27:19 But the problem with this deception is,
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 it makes the sin too big.
00:27:22 --> 00:27:24 Surely God can't forgive me.
00:27:25 --> 00:27:25 I'm too bad.
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 I am too sinful for Him.
00:27:28 --> 00:27:29 He can't forgive me again.
00:27:29 --> 00:27:32 I've sinned in this way again and again and again.
00:27:32 --> 00:27:35 Surely, I've failed Him so many times,
00:27:35 --> 00:27:36 He won't forgive me this time.
00:27:37 --> 00:27:40 There is a rightness about this pain and grieving
00:27:40 --> 00:27:42 when it comes to this sin.
00:27:42 --> 00:27:43 But the danger with this deception
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45 is that it makes this sin bigger than God Himself.
00:27:45 --> 00:27:47 It says,
00:27:48 --> 00:27:50 God, I'm too big for you to deal with.
00:27:51 --> 00:27:54 And it makes God very small.
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 It makes Jesus' death on the cross very small.
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 We can be deceived that because of Jesus' death,
00:28:01 --> 00:28:02 what we do doesn't matter.
00:28:03 --> 00:28:03 But it does.
00:28:04 --> 00:28:07 We can be deceived into finding our self-worth,
00:28:07 --> 00:28:08 into looking inside,
00:28:08 --> 00:28:10 instead of looking at the cross.
00:28:11 --> 00:28:13 We can be deceived into thinking too much of our sin,
00:28:13 --> 00:28:17 instead of being reminded of how great God's love is for us.
00:28:18 --> 00:28:20 No one likes being deceived.
00:28:21 --> 00:28:23 In that card trick I did earlier,
00:28:24 --> 00:28:26 would you like me to reveal how I did it?
00:28:27 --> 00:28:28 Very, very simple.
00:28:28 --> 00:28:31 When dear Chloe took the card,
00:28:31 --> 00:28:33 I held the deck back out,
00:28:33 --> 00:28:34 and I held it tightly,
00:28:35 --> 00:28:36 so that when she put the card in,
00:28:37 --> 00:28:38 it wouldn't go all the way in.
00:28:38 --> 00:28:42 And so the card would just be sticking out like that.
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44 It's very simple.
00:28:44 --> 00:28:45 You don't even have to look at it.
00:28:45 --> 00:28:46 You just close the deck,
00:28:46 --> 00:28:47 you flip it around,
00:28:47 --> 00:28:49 and then you can just feel where the card is.
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52 And without even looking at it,
00:28:52 --> 00:28:53 you can just pull the card out.
00:28:53 --> 00:28:56 Very easy little piece of deception.
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58 I'm sorry I deceived you and everybody else.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:01 But now I've done that trick.
00:29:01 --> 00:29:03 If you're going to hang around for the 11 o'clock service,
00:29:04 --> 00:29:04 you'll know.
00:29:05 --> 00:29:06 And you'll put your hand up.
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 I'll come up and be the audience member.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:12 But now you know how to look out for that deception,
00:29:12 --> 00:29:14 you can spot it.
00:29:15 --> 00:29:17 It's not just about keeping our eyes open.
00:29:17 --> 00:29:21 We actually need to have our eyes trained for deception.
00:29:22 --> 00:29:23 Brothers and sisters,
00:29:24 --> 00:29:26 for some of the deceptions around us,
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29 our hearts will leap to.
00:29:29 --> 00:29:32 We will willingly be deceived.
00:29:32 --> 00:29:33 Others,
00:29:33 --> 00:29:34 our culture,
00:29:34 --> 00:29:36 will want to close our eyes
00:29:36 --> 00:29:37 to who Jesus is
00:29:37 --> 00:29:39 and who he has called us to be.
00:29:41 --> 00:29:42 And that's so we don't
00:29:42 --> 00:29:44 buy into a cheap Christianity
00:29:44 --> 00:29:47 with a knock-off version of Jesus,
00:29:47 --> 00:29:49 with a watered-down version of Christianity.
00:29:50 --> 00:29:53 As we walk a life following him,
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 with that image on the screen in mind,
00:29:57 --> 00:29:59 we need to continue to walk straight following him,
00:29:59 --> 00:30:03 but knowing that we will get deceived,
00:30:03 --> 00:30:05 we will wander off the path.
00:30:07 --> 00:30:07 Years ago,
00:30:08 --> 00:30:12 when my kids first started getting into Duplo,
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 which is the younger version of Lego,
00:30:15 --> 00:30:17 I bought a knock-off version of it
00:30:17 --> 00:30:20 on eBay from somewhere.
00:30:20 --> 00:30:21 It could have been China,
00:30:21 --> 00:30:21 I'm not sure.
00:30:21 --> 00:30:22 Alibaba,
00:30:22 --> 00:30:22 I think it was.
00:30:23 --> 00:30:25 And it was very cheap.
00:30:25 --> 00:30:26 And it came,
00:30:26 --> 00:30:26 you know,
00:30:26 --> 00:30:27 six months later.
00:30:27 --> 00:30:29 And it came,
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32 and I thought it was going to be great,
00:30:32 --> 00:30:33 but it was different sizes.
00:30:34 --> 00:30:35 And so,
00:30:35 --> 00:30:37 it didn't actually fit in
00:30:37 --> 00:30:39 with the rest of the Lego that we had.
00:30:40 --> 00:30:41 Very frustrating.
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 It's all ended up in the bin.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:45 So we don't end up
00:30:45 --> 00:30:48 with an unsatisfying Christianity,
00:30:49 --> 00:30:51 without a relationship with God,
00:30:51 --> 00:30:55 following a totally different version of Jesus.
00:30:55 --> 00:30:56 Keep asking,
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59 is this the real Jesus?
00:30:59 --> 00:30:59 God,
00:31:00 --> 00:31:01 am I following you wholeheartedly,
00:31:02 --> 00:31:03 or have I been deceived
00:31:03 --> 00:31:05 into following a Jesus
00:31:05 --> 00:31:07 that just makes things a little bit easier for me,
00:31:07 --> 00:31:09 just makes it a little bit cheaper for me
00:31:09 --> 00:31:10 because it's more convenient?
00:31:11 --> 00:31:13 Am I following the Jesus
00:31:13 --> 00:31:15 of the Bible,
00:31:15 --> 00:31:17 of the reality of human history?
00:31:17 --> 00:31:21 Compare it with God's word,
00:31:22 --> 00:31:25 knowing that God has given us His spirit
00:31:25 --> 00:31:26 so that we can test
00:31:26 --> 00:31:28 where we're going.
00:31:29 --> 00:31:30 We can ask God,
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32 am I going following you?
00:31:32 --> 00:31:34 So that we can keep our eyes fixed
00:31:34 --> 00:31:36 on the real Jesus who loves us.
00:31:36 --> 00:31:37 Let me pray for us.
00:31:41 --> 00:31:42 Heavenly Father,
00:31:42 --> 00:31:43 I thank you so much
00:31:43 --> 00:31:44 for the book of 1 John,
00:31:44 --> 00:31:47 and for John's clarity
00:31:47 --> 00:31:49 in seeing the deceptions
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51 around the church
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53 and pointing them out for us today.
00:31:54 --> 00:31:55 Heavenly Father,
00:31:55 --> 00:31:57 we ask that as we
00:31:57 --> 00:31:59 want to continue to follow you,
00:32:00 --> 00:32:00 that we want to be people
00:32:00 --> 00:32:02 who are shaped by you,
00:32:02 --> 00:32:04 that we would have our eyes
00:32:04 --> 00:32:05 not just open,
00:32:05 --> 00:32:05 but trained
00:32:05 --> 00:32:08 to see how we can be deceived
00:32:08 --> 00:32:09 by our own hearts
00:32:09 --> 00:32:12 and by the world around us, Lord.
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 help us
00:32:14 --> 00:32:15 to keep our eyes fixed
00:32:15 --> 00:32:16 on you,
00:32:16 --> 00:32:17 trained
00:32:17 --> 00:32:19 to know who you are,
00:32:19 --> 00:32:20 to not be deceived,
00:32:20 --> 00:32:22 so that we
00:32:22 --> 00:32:24 will be with you
00:32:24 --> 00:32:25 when your son returns.
00:32:25 --> 00:32:27 We ask this in his name.
00:32:27 --> 00:32:27 Amen.
00:32:27 --> 00:32:27 Amen.