The Thrill of Victory
Victory from Sin
I John 1:5-2:2
Last week we began a brand new series of messages dealing with the Thrill of Victory. Its design is to help us learn how to appropriate and enjoy what Jesus has provided for us.
As we discovered from 2 Corinthians 2, the key is found in submitting to His lordship. God won the victory through Jesus Christ, and it becomes ours through submission to Him. We get to get in on it by association. We do that by understanding we are chained to His chariot, and are being led in triumphant procession regardless of where we go or what we do. Therefore, always, and in every place, if He is leading us and if we are chained to His chariot, we are on conquered ground.
Now if He is always leading us in triumphant procession and that includes all the time and every place, then the victory is available to us in some very strategic areas. It is those areas we are going to consider these next few weeks.
That means we can have victory over Satan and self and circumstances. But perhaps the best place to begin is with the victory over sin. Jesus has provided for us a way to win against sin.
Now it seems to me the basic difference between the Christian and the non-Christian, between a saved person and a lost person, is not the absence of sin but rather our attitude toward sin.
When God saves a person this does not necessarily mean that this person will no longer make any mistakes. Nor does it mean that the sinful nature has been eradicated and that he will never be tempted to sin again; it simply means that his attitude toward sin is going to be changed.
Notice our text in 1 John 1:5-2:2
Hear what he is saying? All of us sin. Anyone here today want to argue that point? It’s rather obvious isn’t it? It couldn’t be much plainer than verse 8 makes it.
And the significance of verse 8 is magnified in verse 9.
Now I would be willing to speculate that someone hearing that for the first time probably thought, "Well, if human nature is as it is and it is impossible for us to live above sin and we are going to sin anyway and God will forgive us all our sins, why worry about them?"
We hear it quite often in our day and culture. "God made me like I am, everybody is this way and it's just a part of human nature and I can't help it."
So in anticipation of that, John says at the beginning of Chapter 2, “And by the way, I’m telling you this so you won’t start sinning and acting like it’s unimportant.”
Listen: The Christian ideal; the standard for which we are to aim is always to not sin. And as long as we fall short of that standard, we have no right to be content with our life.
Not one of us can say that we are all right, that we have reached the apex or arrived where God wants us to be. But in the meantime, God has a solution for us.
Verse 1b-2
Now there is a word in these verses that occurs twice and in that little word, we find the key to victory over sin and it is the little word “fellowship”.
Notice verse 6 talks about our fellowship with God.
Fellowship with God means that God shares all that He has with me because when He saved me, we began to share in a common life and everything that God possesses is mine. And John describes this fellowship as “walk(ing) in the light).
Now, “walking in the light” produces two things. First of all, according to verse 7 we have fellowship with one another. In particular, that is other Christians. Because of what we’ve experienced through Jesus, there is a kinship; there is a spiritual relationship between those of us who are saved.
Then secondly, verse 7 continues by saying, “and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin”.
Now I would say that fellowship with God, fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin would be a pretty good definition of having victory over sin.
Now the stumbling block in all of this process, according to verse 7 is “walking in darkness”.
That means the key characteristic of my fellowship with God is not “walking in darkness”. Or put in a positive way, I am to “walk in the light as He is in the light”.
What does that mean? That means I am to generate a holy fellowship by walking in the light. As verse 6 says, I am to “practice the truth”. Those who walk in the light share in the character of God, and we are to habitually and continually practice and maintain holiness.
As we do, we enjoy fellowship with God, we get along with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are continually cleansed from our sins.
On the other side of that, if I leave the light and walk in darkness, if I allow sin to come into my life, if I do those things which are contrary to God's will and nature, then not only is my fellowship with God severed, my fellowship with other Christians is severed, and my sins are uncleansed.
And I personally believe there is where we find the explanation for much of the attitude and conduct of many Christians today.
That’s the reason that some Christians' prayers are never answered. God cannot share with them all the things He has because sin has come into their life. This is the reason some don't attend church very often and don't get very much out of it if they do. They don't enjoy it because sin has severed their fellowship. This is why some have lost the joy of their salvation and are not the happy Christians they used to be. They have allowed sin into their lives.
That’s why some of you can’t wait to get out of here and never enjoy any fellowship or interaction with anybody at the church. That’s why you’re so miserable in your spirit and hard to get along with. The fellowship with God is severed, therefore the fellowship with God’s people is severed.
Instead of having continual cleansing of your sin, you nurse a grudge and enjoy your bitterness and protect your habits and gripe about everything and everyone around you.
So what do we do about it? How do we make sure that we are walking in the light and not in darkness? so that our fellowship with God and others is healthy and we enjoy the victory of continual cleansing from our sins? There is a three-fold attitude that John introduces here.
First of all he says there must be a
1. Consciousness of Our Sin
Notice verses 8
Now look at verse 10
Now what is the difference between verse 8 and verse 10? In verse 8 he is talking about the principal of sin....the sinful nature. Here is a man who denies that he has a sinful nature.
David said, "in sin did my mother conceive me and I was shapen in iniquity." The Bible says that a baby is born speaking lies. That is our nature. It is our sinful nature. I am not a sinner because I sin, but I sin because I am a sinner.
In Ephesians 2 we are told that "by nature we are the children of wrath."
And notice in verse 8 he says we deceive ourselves. That’s interesting isn’t it? We aren’t deceiving others. We are deceiving ourselves. We can deceive ourselves, but we can't deceive other people and we can't deceive God. Listen: If you think you are above sin, God and us know better!
So one of the first prerequisites for walking in the light and having victory over sin is admitting I’m a sinner. I must be conscious of my sinfulness.
God is light. God is holy. There is no darkness at all in Him. There is not even a shadow of sin in God. This means that I am to live where God lives. I am to expose myself to the light of God so I can see the dirt that is in my life.
Listen: Suppose you spend the day working outside. You mow the grass and weed the garden. You decide to change the oil in your car and wash the dog. If at the end of the day, you go into a drak house, you can feel your way into the bathroom and look in the mirror and not see one speck of dirt.
But at the moment the light comes on, it will immediately be revealed. And it doesn’t make any difference if it is a little night light or a flood lamp, any light will reveal some dirt. And the more intense the light, the easier it is to distinguish.
We are to walk in the light of God. The most brilliant and incomprehensible light of the universe is the light of God. And the moment it shines on your life, the sin is unmistakable.
So the person who says they don't see anything in their life that needs to be repented of or mourned over is the person who is walking in darkness and what they are saying is, “I am so far from the light of God that I cannot see my own spiritual condition.”
The closer you get to God and the closer you come to the light, the more sin in your life is revealed. If you are walking in the light, it means you are exposing every act, exposing your daily behavior to the light of God's holiness and you are judging your life, your character and your behavior by God Himself, by His holiness, by His standard of truth.
We have allowed the devil and the world to brainwash us so that no longer are things black or white, but they are kind of a muddy grey. We have lost the distinction between right and wrong. We've given birth to the theory that morality is relative and it all depends on where you live.....if others are doing it, it's all right.
But the Bible says God is light, He is moral perfection, and He is the standard by which we are to judge ourselves. There comes a time in the life and experience of every Christian when he must mourn over his sin.
It is an astounding thing how the heart gets hardened. I remember as a little boy how I always looked forward to the summer because I could take my shoes off. Those first two or three days were mighty tough on those tender feet that had been protected by shoes all winter long. We lived in the country and didn't have sidewalks and paved streets, they were dirt or gravel roads and you were always looking for the grass to walk on.
But gradually the soles of your feet were toughened up and by the end of the summer you were running down that rocky road and never even realizing you had your shoes off. It is the same way with the heart.
You begin to slight God a little bit, then you begin to leave God out of your life a little more. But, now you have been doing it so long that you don't even notice it. The pathetic thing is that some of us are so far from God that it is nearly impossible to see the light and we are not even aware of it. We need a re-birth of the consciousness of sin in our life. If you want to walk in the light, if you want to experience victory over sin, you’ve got to start there.
The second thing there must be is a
2. Confession of Our Sin
Verse 9
The word “confess” means to "say the same thing" or to agree. Confessing my sin is to agree with what God has said about me already. He has already said that I am a sinner.
But you know what happens? It’s just like when you first wake up in the morning and the sunshine comes streaming in or you get up and turn on the light. The light is so bright we want to shut our eyes. That’s what many do when God starts speaking to us about our sin.
When we get a little close to a conviction, we run from it. We don’t want to agree with God. We want to argue with God.
Did you ever notice in that verse that the word "sins" is in the plural and not the singular? That is significant. That is the difference in verse 8 and verse 9
On the one hand, here’s an individual who says “I have no sin”, meaning I don’t need a Savior because I’m not accountable. There is no sin nature; we just live and die and it’s all over.
But the truth of the matter is, there is a God, you are accountable to Him, you have a sin problem that will damn you to hell if it’s not dealt with, and Jesus is the only solution to your “sin” problem.
That’s one issue. On the other hand, verse 9 is a different situation. Here is one who not only knows there is a “sin” problem, but he can share the list of how it expresses itself.
The “sin” problem expresses itself through these “sins”. To confess our sin (singular) would be to confess the fact that you are a sinner. But this verse is saying, if you want to walk in the light, it’s not just making a one-time profession of faith and becoming a Christian, you must walk in the light by specific and particular confession of sins. Name them one by one.
You committed them one by one, confess then one by one. This means dragging them out into the light and examining them. The best way to get victory over our sins is to face them in God's presence and come clean with God about it.
If you are a gossip, come clean about it. Some of you live your days criticizing and harming others with the words that you use and the language you speak. You need to call it what it is in the presence of God.
Some of you are lazy and unmotivated to serve God. You don’t take the time to study God’s Word and spend time in prayer. You’ll just breeze by on someone else’s prayer and Bible study. You need to confess that as the sin it is.
Some are full of pride and arrogance. You look down your spiritual nose at others and much like the Pharisee, thank God that you’re not like them”. But God calls it sin.
And the list goes on and on. But if we’re gonna walk in the light as He is in the light, we must confess our sins the moment we become aware of them. Did you ever think about that?
You’re walking down the street and have an impure thought, and there is such an awareness of sin and the light of God that you just have to stop right where you are and get down on your knees and confess it?
“Dear God, I don’t want to take another step out of your will. I don’t know what’s waiting around the corner, and if something should happen to me, I want to leave this world right with you and in sweet fellowship with you. Oh God, you called it sin and I do to. I agree with you. Forgive me Lord.”
Or to say, “God, I just can’t stand the fact that I’m at odds with someone. That’s not like you God and I want to be like you. Show me how to get it fight God. I don’t want to have to answer to you for an unforgiving spirit or harboring a grudge. God, I don’t want to injure someone for which you died. I don’t want to be the cause of the fellowship problem in my church.”
If we will walk in the light, we must confess our sins.
A consciousness of our sin, a confession of our sin, and then there must be a
3. Cleansing from Our Sin
In verse 9 he says that "God is faithful and just, not only to forgive us but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Do you know what happens too much of the time? We get convicted of our sin, God gets hold of us and we are miserable and want relief, so we take a spiritual Alka-Seltzer. We walk down the aisle, shake the preacher's hand, shed a few tears and feel a little better
The guilt is gone; the old conviction of sin is gone; but we go back home and pick up right where we left off as far as our sin is concerned and the process starts all over again.
What has happened? We asked God to forgive us of our sin, but we aren't willing to let God cleanse us from that sin. Cleansing means to take it away and get rid of it. He wants to throw away the dirty rags. He is not only going to save us from the penalty of our sin, but also from the pollution of that sin.
Now listen to this: Some of you are wondering why you never get victory over a sin or bad habit. Here’s why: you have not allowed God to cleanse you from your sin. And what is missing in your life is fellowship with God. Cleansing is the only way our fellowship with a holy God is maintained. We must walk in the light.
So how does it work?
The answer is found in the first two verses of chapter two of 1 John.
1 John 2:1-2
Notice how he begins: “My little children”. Now we know he is writing and speaking to Christians. And he says, the reason I’m writing is to encourage you to walk in the light of God. Live a holy life. Don’t let anything get between you and God.
But just in case it does, here’s what you need to realize. You have an advocate with the Father. This advocate is the motivation to continue to walk in the light.
Does the devil ever try to convince you that it’s not worth it to live for God? Does he ever tell you you’ll never amount to anything and God will never be satisfied?
We’ll here’s John’s counsel for how to get through that and have victory.
First of all, do all you can to live a holy life and walk in the light in fellowship with God.
And when you mess up, remember, you have an advocate with the Father whose name is Jesus Christ.
Now “advocate” is just a fancy word for defense lawyer and the purpose of an advocate is to come alongside you and plead your case. Now in John’s day, the advocate was not necessarily a paid attorney.
Sometimes it was a friend of the family. Sometimes it was the head of the family and he was bound by family ties and family honor to stand by your side and speak to the judge on your behalf.
God says that our advocate, our defense lawyer with the Father is Jesus Christ, the righteous. That means He is in perfect standing with God, and He is constantly in the presence of the Father (notice the intimacy of the relationship, children and Fathere). And in this constant presence of perfect standing, He is there to plead for me. He intercedes for me.
By the way, our “advocate” as he is identified here, is described in John 14:16 as our "comforter".
So this advocate has dual roles. Down here on earth I need help to live my Christian life so Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit to be my advocate here on earth and he helps me day by day.
But I also need someone to help me up there in heaven when I sin, when I offend the Father, when I transgress against God, when I walk in darkness.
So, just as the Holy Spirit is my defense attorney on earth, so Jesus Christ is my defense attorney in heaven and he pleads my case before the Heavenly Father. He is my advocate, my salvation, my forgiveness.
Listen: Do you want to experience victory over sin? Then all you need to do is accept what Jesus has done and is doing on your behalf. My salvation from sin, my cleansing from sin, my victory over sin does not depend upon anything except the advocacy of Jesus Christ the righteous as He stands in the presence of the Heavenly Father and pleads my case.
And notice He is the propitiation for my sin; that means the covering for sin. What does it take to satisfy God when sin has been committed? Always and forever it has only been one thing and that is blood. The only thing God accepts as a covering for sin is a blood sacrifice. So what John is saying is that Jesus Christ is the covering for my sin so that God cannot see it.
And notice it doesn't say He WAS our covering, or He WILL BE, but it uses the present tense...He IS, constantly covering for sin. As long as Jesus Christ is in the presence of the Father and as long as He is pleading my case, as long as His blood is effective before the Heavenly Father, that long my salvation is secure and I have victory over sin.
Understand what I’m saying: Down here on earth when you hire a lawyer to defend your case, he defends you. He calls in some character witnesses and they testify of your good moral character and good reputation and the case is built on you.
But that is not the case with our heavenly lawyer. Why not? Well, first of all he couldn't find a character witness that would plead for us and if He did, they would have to lie because there is nothing good to say enough to say about us anyway.
So what happens? When Jesus, our heavenly lawyer, pleads before that court in heaven, he does not plead my innocence, he admits my guilt.
You may say, “Wait a minute! What good does that do? Whose side is He on anyway?
Let me finish: He doesn’t plead our innocence; instead he admits my guilt and He offers His blood. He says, "Father forgive him, not because he deserves it, not because he is innocent, but because I covered his sins with my blood."
That, dear friend is Victory over Sin. If I were to commit a sin tonight and before I had a chance to confess it were I to die and go out into eternity I would still be saved because Jesus IS the covering for my sin in the eyes of God and He is my heavenly advocate, always there constantly in the presence of my Heavenly Father to plead my case.
And that is how my fellowship with God is maintained. Every time I confess my sin, I have the privilege of going to God by way of the blood of Jesus so I am guaranteed cleansing from my sin. And that is where the victory over sin is found.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh precious is the flow that washes white as snow!
Do you want to know victory over sin? Then be willing to admit your sin, confess it and receive God’s cleansing for it.
That’s true whether you are a lost person in need of salvation or a child of God who is distant from the fellowship God desires.
Let’s pray.
