I never had any interest in it, but there used to be a “reality” TV show called “Undercover Boss.” It stopped filming in 2022; maybe COVID had something to do with its demise. As I understand. It was about various CEOs, company owners or other bosses, who posed as new-hires in their own businesses, learning things about working conditions and some of their employees. For days or weeks, bosses worked along side employees, without being detected at least for a while. That’s all I know about the series, so my conclusions may be wrong. But I can imagine that among other things, both the bosses and workers discovered misconceptions that they had about one another.
On a much broader level, there are all kinds of misconceptions that non-Christians have about Christians. For example, one of our members was telling me this week that before her conversion, she was convinced that churches were all filled with hypocrites. Perhaps she believed that most or all Christians were hypocrites – actors playing a part. This is just one example of a misconception based on half truths. How many of our neighbors think we are unthinking fools, rejecting science and living in a dream world? How many think we fun-despising kill-joys and grumps? We wouldn’t know how to have a good time if our lives depended on it. Multitudes think we hate sinners, especially certain common notable varieties. Many think we look down our noses at non-Christians from our holier-than-thou position. Are there any non-Christians of the opinion that we think we can’t sin now that we are “saved?”
As children of God we need to work on destroying those pre-conceived misunderstandings. I should spend the next half hour talking about ways to remove those faulty opinions. But we’ll have to save that for another day.
Thinking especially about our scripture, I need to ask once again: to whom was this letter written? This First Epistle of John was addressed to followers of Jesus, believers in the Lord Jesus – disciples. It would have been a waste of time to be sharing this material with people who hated Christ. Without being driven by God Himself, no Christ-hater would be reading this letter of his own free will. The lost man does not want to be exposed. While the lost sheep longs to hear the voice of his shepherd, the wolf does not. There is no doubt that this was written to encourage those were “called the sons of God” – chapter 3:1. And what do these few verses say to and about the Christian? “If WE say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”
If you are here with no profession of loving Christ Jesus, first of all, thank you for coming. I acknowledge that there could be actual sacrifice in your attendance. Second, please be assured that the man who is speaking today, who does profess to love the Lord… Please know that I am nothing more than another sinner who has been saved by God’s grace. Furthermore, the Christian couple sitting behind you or in front of you, are sinners like everyone else. The only difference between us and the angry, defiant man on death row is God’s redemption and forgiveness. No one is looking down on anyone else here today.
When John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves…” he was talking to Christians. When he said, “if we say that we have not sinned, we make (God) as liar, and his word is not in us,” he was writing to church members and professed believers in Christ. In these statements, he lays out some principles which are universally true and which need to be accepted everyone. Yes, many things change, when a hard-hearted soul is born again, but what that Christian knows about sin should be applied by him or her to the children they brings into the world, and to the neighbors around her. As I heard someone say the other day, “What was written to Christians, has lessons for the lost.” And “What was written to the non-Christian also has lessons to teach Christ’s disciples.”
This morning, knowing what kind of sinners John was addressing, I would like to step beyond those people. I’d like to take the general principle which he is applying primarily to Christians, and make a broader application to all the people of planet earth. I know I am putting words in his mouth to some degree, but John is referring to “sin AND sinfulness.”
Verse 8 speaks of SINFULNESS, something somewhat different from SIN.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Notice that the word “sin” is singular; it is not at the top of a page followed by a list of specific sins. Let’s see if this illustration works: I think it is safe for me to say that all of us here today have sight. For some us that sight is getting weaker, and many of us need the assistance of lenses to see well. But we have sight. Now, what have you done with that sight today? Who have you actually seen? Have you looked at everyone in the auditorium? Have you seen that the hymnal I use is blue while yours is some sort of maroon color? Have you seen that some of the maroon hymnals out there are darker than others? We all have sight, but we don’t always use our sight to see. Similarly, nearly all of you have your hearing, but again, some of us use hearing aides. Using what hearing you possess, have you heard everything you could have heard? My wife says that I’m not as specific in my hearing as my general hearing allows. Some people hear everything, but they only “hear” what they want to hear. There is a difference between having the ability to hear and actually hearing.
And like these, there is a difference between being a sinner and committing specific acts of sin. I am a sinner, but I have never committed adultery; I’ve never murdered anyone; I’m not an arsonist. And I will not deceive myself, nor will I try to deceive you, by saying I have no sin.
But what do I mean by saying “I am a sinner; I have sin.” Remember, it is like saying, “I have sight,” or “I have hearing.” I was born with all three, and so were you – sight, hearing and sin. That is not supposition; that is not an expression of my mean heart toward anyone. And it is not gloating or pride. It is a fact often declared in the Bible: You and I have sin; we possess sin; we are sinful; we are sinners.
I know that it is often said in this auditorium, but I must say it again; May you be able to teach it as well. When God created the first man and made for him his beautiful wife, they were without sin. This verse in First John didn’t apply to them at the beginning. But then Adam chose to rebel against the will of the Lord – he sinned. Despite not being sinful, and not possessing sin at that time, he sinned. And as God had promised, Adam died. Physically he went on but his spirit died. So to speak, his spiritual DNA was instantly mutated, meaning that the children, grandchildren and every one of Adam’s descendants were infected by the sin mutation. Adam’s first children, Cain and Abel, were born sinners; they had sin.
Now, please return to the scripture we read during our worship service – beginning with Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” There is one simple explanation for the universal reality of death – SIN. Death is caused by sin. Yesterday, it could be that some specific sin caused someone in Spokane to die. Suicide perhaps. But the broader principle is that the spiritual gene of sin, brings death to everyone. Old age. Verse 14 – “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.” Not one of us was with Adam and Eve when they rebelled against God and ate what had been forbidden. And because circumstance are different, no one has ever sinned exactly the way that Adam did. We have not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. And yet, we have been born with the sinful effect of Adam’s sin. Throughout this chapter Paul is teaching about the grace of God as seen in the gospel. But there is no point in the gospel, if there isn’t the understanding of the need caused by sin. There are two reasons people refuse to consider God’s offer of forgiveness and deliverance from sin: The first is a low opinion about the holy God. And the second is an inaccurate understanding of sin.
In verse 17 Paul reminds us of the effect of Adam’s sin and the need of God’s grace. “For if by ONE MAN’S OFFENCE death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall REIGN IN LIFE BY ONE, JESUS CHRIST. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ONE the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by ONE MAN’S DISOBEDIENCE many were made sinners, so by THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE shall many be made righteous.” Adam didn’t force me to lie, shoplift and steal when I was a child. That was all me. And Adam didn’t force you to fornicate or use illegal drugs. But Adam did make us both sinners, and out of that sinfulness we chose to commit various sins.
“If we say that we have no sin, we DECEIVE ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If we deny that we have a sin nature, our denial is proof we don’t possess the truth. But there is more than that: the original word translated “deceive,” is elsewhere translate, “to go astray,” “to wander out of the way,” and even to “seduce.” If we say that we have no sin, we deliberately choose the wrong path. And if we have any sense at all, which often times we don’t, we know where that pathway leads – trouble.
Don’t deceive yourself, every cemetery and every grave reminds us that sin is universal. Dinosaur bones are proof that sin has corrupted every form of life. This is not about “your truth” in contrast to “my truth.” This isn’t about the ridiculous “truth” a Hindu might profess in contrast to the truth of a born-again Christian. This whether or not the truth of God – God’s truth – can be found in our hearts.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves…” We are deceiving ourselves if we say that there is no sin in us. The reason Americans hate funerals, preferring “Celebrations of Life,” is because the truth of death and sin are not in us. We don’t want to own up to death, and even more we don’t want to admit to the real cause of death – sin.
Some people refuse to believe they are SINNERS, and some will say that they DO NOT SIN.
Actual sins are a lot more difficult to deny, but still there are people, who make the claim – “I do not sin.” Many try to redefine sin in order to avoid its spiritual stench. “I’m not a drunk. I have the disease of alcoholism.” “I’m not a sinner, but I admit to being an addict.” “Because my father was such a bad man, I suffer from this psychosis or that mental problem.”
Sadly there are professing “Christians” who also make this claim. And remember this letter was directed professing saints in Christ. Apparently there were professing Christians in John’s day who may have been saying they had not sinned. I wonder how the words “I have not sinned” can be uttered without the sin of pride. How can they be said without deliberately lying? Once again, some of them “deceive themselves.”
There are a number of denominations which teach forms of what is generally called “sinless perfection.” I am told most don’t like to use those two words. “Sinless perfection” is usually applied to them by others. Those denominations are all rooted in Wesleyanism – off shoots of John Wesley’s Methodism. The Nazarenes, the Salvation Army, some of the Church of God, believe this doctrine. Various Pentecostal and Holiness groups talk about a “second work of grace” or “entire sanctification” which produce this perfectionism. Many of these people talk about a growing in love for Christ to the point of no longer sinning. They don’t emphasize “not sinning” as much as “loving God so much” they have victory over sin. For example, John Wesley is quoted to have said, “I believe a person filled with love of God still liable to involuntary transgressions. Such transgressions you may call sins, if you please; I do not.” I may not know all that Wesley meant, but it sounds to me a simple redefining of transgression to avoid the obvious sin.
But John says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us.” In verse 10, the apostle leaves sinfulness in the singular sense and moves into the plural acts of sin. I could try to prove to you we sinned when Adam sinned, but that’s not what John is saying at this point. He is saying that not only are we sinners, but even Christians commit sins.
And it goes without saying that non-Christians sin as well. How many scriptures – how many direct statements from God and His ambassadors – do we need to prove the fact? As the sin of Adam was carried into his children and throughout the world, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” – Genesis 6:5. I Kings 8:46: “There is no man that sinneth not.” Psalm 53:3: “Every one of them (all humanity) is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good no not one.” Paul takes the Psalmist’s words and fills Romans 3 with echos of filthy words, thoughts and deeds. Isaiah, 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” If we say that we have not sinned we make Jehovah, Paul, David, Solomon and Isaiah liars. And in screaming “liar” at the prophets of God, we prove ourselves to be the real “liars.”
And “his word is not in us.” Is this the reason there are so many “feel good” churches in Christendom today? Is this the reason there is more philosophy than theology being preached in Christendom today? Is this why modern pastors rarely preach expositorily, moving verse by verse through Bible books? Generally speaking, isn’t modern Christian trying to avoid what John is telling us here? The world needs to hear, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Even as a Christian I need to hear those words of the Lord Jesus. I need to hear the words of the prophet Nathan, “David, thou art the sinner, I’m talking about you.” Even Christians need to hear “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, ” and, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” We need to hear that a life without respect and love for God is sin. We need to hear that ignorance of God and the ignoring of the Lord is sin. And we need to hear that “the wages of sin is death.” Adam, “in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
I needed to hear these things,and I believe these things must be preached throughout the world.
But in the midst of these horrible thoughts there is a most wonderful declaration.
John says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” And “if we confess our sins, he is faith and just to forgive us our sins, and to clease us from all unrighteousness.” “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man (the Lord Jesus Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” – Acts 13:38.
Let me take you back to Romans 5: “For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
There are a lot of people who don’t like – who hate – the Biblical doctrine that Adam’s sinfulness is still infecting and condemning his children thousands of years after that initial transgression. Who knows, some of them may also hate that Adam was created with eyes and ears, and these things he passed on to his children as well. But if we are going to reject that Adam’s sin has condemned us, then we must also reject the forgiveness of sin through the merits of the Lord Jesus. “For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”
I praise God, and I wish that I could thank the man who told me so many years ago that I was a sinner. It wasn’t something I didn’t really know, but I was trying to hide from the responsibility of my sinfulness. And then that evangelist told me that God had provided forgiveness and peace with Him, through the merits of His Son’s death. As John tells us, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Solomon once wrote: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
Please, throw off the cloak you have been using to deny and cover your sins. There is a much better covering – a covering and atonement supplied by God Himself – the blood of Christ. Join me and thousands of others by humbly admitting to your sinfulness and trust the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive, cover and save you from your sins.