06/16/2025
Scripture notes for the message shared with you today By God
1 John 1:8-10 (KJV)
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:8-10 (AMP)
8 If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts].
9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
10 If we say (claim) we have not sinned, we contradict His Word and make Him out to be false and a liar, and His Word is not in us [the divine message of the Gospel is not in our hearts].
1 John 1:8-10 (MSG)
8 If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense.
9 On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.
10 If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
Misconception 2: Man is Not Totally Sinful and Depraved, 1:8-9
(1:8-9) Introduction: the great testimony has been borne; the great proclamation has been made. John the apostle has declared: "the Son of God has come to earth. He has come to earth to reveal who God is and what God is like and how God wants us to live. In addition to this, He has come to die for us and to cleanse us from our sin."
But note: man objects to the idea that Jesus Christ had to die for our sins. Man shouts at the idea:
"We are not that sinful, so sinful that we cannot handle the problem of sin ourselves. We can change our behavior and act responsibly. Man has the capacity to reform himself, to discipline and control his own life. Man has the ability to live a responsible life: he can resolve to change and live a decent, moral, and responsible life. Man has the power to please God himself. Man can do good and be good enough to make himself acceptable to God. Man is not so terrible a sinner, not down deep within. Man can become a moral and righteous person on his own. All he needs is...
• to be educated to understand himself and his world.
• to have a set of moral values and religious worship to encourage him in his values.
• to use his technology and science for moral and just causes."
The point is this: man rejects the idea that he needs someone to die for his sins, that he cannot become acceptable to God on his own. Man objects to the idea that the perfect and sinless Son of God had to come to earth to die for his sins. Man objects because it means that man is...
• sinful and depraved.
• so sinful and depraved that he is totally unacceptable to God.
• so sinful and depraved that he cannot become acceptable to God by his own efforts.
• so sinful and depraved that no matter what he does, he cannot secure God's approval.
• so sinful and depraved that he can never fellowship with God, that all his prayers, worship, and thoughts about God are vain and empty.
This is the reason many persons object to Jesus Christ. This is the reason many accept Him as a great religious teacher, but reject His claim to be the Son of God and the Savior of the world. They are unwilling to accept the fact that man is depraved, totally sinful. This is the great subject of this passage, the second major misconception of man about the deity of Jesus Christ, about the Son of God coming to earth: man is not totally sinful and depraved.
1. We are not totally sinful and depraved (v.😎.
a. This is a deception.
b. The truth is not in us.
2. The truth: we must confess our sins (v.9).
a. Because God is faithful and just.
b. Because God forgives.
(1:8) Man— Sin— Depravity: the misconception is forcefully stated—"we have no sin." Note that the word sin is not plural but singular. The sin being talked about is sin as a root within man, as a part of man's nature, as a principle, a law, a force, an energy within man. Persons who say that they can approach God on their own are saying that they have no sin, no root of sin, no nature of sin, no principle of sin within them. They are saying...
• that they can handle sin themselves; that they can change their lives and stop sinning enough to please God and to become acceptable to Him.
• that they do not need the Son of God to come to earth and die for their sins.
• that they can control their lives enough to keep from sinning.
Note what Scripture says about this misconception: we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. No person can keep from sinning. If any person thinks that he can keep from sinning, the truth is not in him; he is utterly deceived. And note: if we cannot keep from sinning, this means that we have a nature, a root of sin within us. The force and energy of the root shoots out and we sin. As stated, we cannot keep from sinning: this fact alone proves that we have sin within our nature, a nature that is depraved. To say differently is to be deceived and to deny the truth of all human experience. Remember: sin is imperfection. Sin is coming short of God's glory and perfection, missing the mark of His glory and perfection. This is the reason no person can ever live with God. God is perfect; therefore, only perfection can live in His presence. Man is imperfect and short of God's glory; he is sinful. Therefore, man can never live in God's presence. This is what the objector needs to see. If he misses this, then he will miss the eternal salvation that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, the very Son of God who came to earth to die for our sins.
Thought 1. Note a significant fact. There are those who say that man is not responsible for his sin; therefore, he cannot be charged with sin. They say that man acts the way he does because of his upbringing, parents, society, environment, education or the lack of it, playmates and associates. They say that man is a product of his environment; therefore, God cannot charge man with guilt. Man just is not responsible for his behavior. For this reason, God nor society can hold man accountable for his actions. The reason man sins is because someone else made him do it.
The problem with this is that it is only partly true. Environment and upbringing do affect us and have some bearing on our actions. But this is not all that we are; we are not just robots responding to the trigger of environment. We are free moral creatures with a free will that chooses to sin or not to sin. And it is deception to deny the fact. The truth is just not in us if we deny that we have a great degree of freedom in all that we do. The problem is not our environment; we just cannot keep from sinning and acting irresponsibly. We sin because there is a root, a nature, a force of sin within us. To object to what is so clear and visible is to be deceived, to show that the truth is not in us.
Thought 2. The person who thinks that he can control sin enough to become acceptable to God has a low view of God and too high a view of himself. Think how weak man really is: how weak his flesh is. He is not only sinful by acts, but he walks short of God's glory every day. And he is so corruptible that he dies after just a few brief years on earth.
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:21-23).
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
"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" (Romans 5:12).
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
"And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:19).
"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (Rev. 3:16-18).
"And 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).
"Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psalm 53:3).
"Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (Proverbs 20:9).
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6).
2. (1:9) Confession of Sins— Forgiveness of Sin: the truth is this—we must confess our sins. Man is deceived if he denies that he has sinned, if he denies that he has a root and force of sin within him. He deceives himself if he says that he does not need the Son of God to deliver him from sin and its guilt. Remember: the Son of God came to die for our sins, and it is His blood that cleanses us from sin. Therefore, if we will confess our sins, God will forgive our sins. And He will do even more: He not only will forgive us for the sins we know about and confess, He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
⇒ To forgive our sins means that God forgives the guilt of sin. God justifies us: He counts the death of Christ as our punishment. Jesus Christ bore our guilt of sin. When we believe in Jesus Christ and confess our sins, God counts our belief and confession as the guilt which Christ bore. We stand before God, no longer guilty of sin.
⇒ To cleanse us from all unrighteousness means that God cleanses us from all the dirt, filth, pollution, and contamination of sin. Not a single stain or spot of sin remains on us. We stand before God sinless and perfect, but remember why: because we believe in Jesus Christ and confess that we are sinners who trust the blood of God's Son to cleanse our sins.
How do we know that God will forgive our sins and cleanse us? How do we know that God will count the death of Jesus Christ as the punishment for our sins? Because God is faithful and just or righteous.
⇒ God is perfectly just or righteous; therefore He must condemn and punish sin. But note: God is also perfect love and mercy; therefore, He must demonstrate His love and mercy and provide a way of forgiveness for man. This is exactly what He has done in Jesus Christ. God has demonstrated His love in the most perfect and supreme way possible: He has given His Son to die for the sins of man.
The point is this: having done this for man—having given His Son to die for man's sins—God will forgive man. He is faithful and righteous; therefore, He will keep His Word. He will do exactly what He says. He would be unfaithful and unrighteous if He did not forgive us. Therefore, God will forgive any repentant sinner who truly turns away from his sin and turns to God and confesses his sin. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).
"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins" (Acts 13:38).
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephes. 1:7).
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
"Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives" (Ezra 10:11).
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).
"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isaiah 43:25).
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee" (Isaiah 44:22).
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:6-7).
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
"Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 3:13).
1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.NKJV Being God's people does not mean denying sin (1:8), but confessing it. Because all people are sinners, Jesus had to die. Because sin is not completely eradicated from the lives of those who believe in Jesus, God graciously gave his followers provision for the problem of sin. John explained it here in a nutshell: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
To "confess our sins" means to agree with God that an act or thought was wrong, to acknowledge this to God, to seek forgiveness, and to make a commitment to not let it happen again. Augustine observed that confession of sin is a sign that truth, which is itself light, has already begun to illuminate people's sin-darkened lives. Refusing to admit sin is self-deception. No one can fool God. By refusing to admit sin, however, people cheat themselves out of the possibility of fellowship with him. So confession of sins is necessary for maintaining continual fellowship with God, which in turn will enable people to have good fellowship with members of the church community.
Rather than denying the sin nature, believers are to confess their sins because God says they are sinners who need forgiveness. If this is not so, then his Son's death would be worthless. To confess sins means to agree with God concerning specific acts that have been committed; it means to admit sinfulness. It is the duty of nations as well as of men to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.
Abraham Lincoln
Confession is supposed to free people to enjoy fellowship with Christ. It should ease their consciences and lighten their cares. But some Christians do not understand how it works. They feel so guilty that they confess the same sins over and over; then they wonder if they might have forgotten something. Other Christians believe that God forgives them when they confess, but if they died with unconfessed sins, they would be forever lost.
These Christians do not understand that God wants to forgive people. He allowed his beloved Son to die just so he could offer them pardon. When people come to Christ, he forgives all the sins they have committed or will ever commit. They don't need to confess the sins of the past all over again, and they don't need to fear that God will reject them if they don't keep their slate perfectly clean. Of course, believers should continue to confess their sins, but not because failure to do so will make them lose their salvation. Believers' relationship with Christ is secure. Instead, they should confess so that they can enjoy maximum fellowship and joy with him.
LIFE APPLICATION
WHY CONFESSION?
If Christ already forgave all of our sins when he died on the cross, why does John tell us to "confess our sins" so that God will "forgive us"? At issue here is our fellowship—not relationship—with God. When we repent and believe in Christ, we become God's children forever. He adopts us into his family, and no sin on our part, no matter how awful, will ever cause him to "unadopt" us. However, a disobedient child of God cannot expect to have fellowship with God. This is where confession comes in. We agree with God (the literal meaning of the Greek term homolegeo) concerning our sin: that it is wrong, that Christ has paid for it, that it needs to be renounced, and that it has no power over us. As soon as we do this, we are once again able to enjoy an intimate, close walk with God. Confess your sins by saying, "I was wrong, I'm sorry, and I want to change!" To do so will "clear the air" and remove the sense of distance we feel from our holy, heavenly Father because of sinful choices we have made. What sins do you need to confess today?
When believers confess their sins, they do not stand in a place of judgment awaiting their punishment. That punishment has already been paid by Christ. Instead, John explained that God "is faithful and just."
That God is "faithful" means he is dependable and keeps his promises. God promises forgiveness, even in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:19-20). God wants to forgive his people; he wants to maintain close fellowship with them. But this can only happen when the way to him is cleared of sin's debris—and that can only happen through confession.
That God is "just" means that he could not overlook people's sin. He could not decide to let people get away with sin or to make the penalty less severe. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Sacrifices had been offered for sin, and blood had been spilt from the beginning. This could not change because God does not change. Justice would have to be done in order to decisively deal with sin. But instead of making people pay for their sins, God took the punishment upon himself through his Son. In this way, justice was done, and the way was paved for God "to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The word translated "forgive" is aphiemi, meaning "cancellation of debts" or "dismissal of charges." The word for "cleanse" is katharizo, referring to washing away sin (unrighteousness) and restoring holiness. Those who confess their sins to God can trust in his forgiveness because they can trust in his character.
LIFE APPLICATION
SELF-DECEPTION AND SIN
Some of the false teachers, trying to lead John's readers astray, claimed that they had not sinned. They argued that what a person believes is what counts and therefore how he or she behaves is irrelevant. Even as they pursued this "higher, special knowledge of spiritual truth," many lived in decadence. Nothing has changed down through the centuries. Due to the rising popularity of Eastern, "New Age" philosophies (and their sharp distinctions between the material and spiritual realms), many people continue to live as spiritual schizophrenics. They twist and distort the truth so that they can appear to maintain some semblance of godliness (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Even as they talk convincingly of "seeking God," they live as they please. Do not be deceived by these alluring forms of creative "spirituality." They are merely clever attempts to justify and rationalize sin. True faith will always be marked by right moral conduct.
1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.NLT The false teachers not only denied that sin breaks people's fellowship with God (1:6) and that they had a sinful nature (1:8), but some even had the audacity to make a third claim—that, even if they did have a sinful nature, they had never actually sinned! They were claiming that they had not sinned. That was a lie that ignored one basic truth: all people are sinners by nature and by practice. This verse parallels 1:8, except that here the focus is on the actual acts of sin emanating from the sinful nature. These false teachers thought that their superior knowledge had placed them out of the realm of sin, rendering them incapable of sinning. This claim went beyond telling a lie (1:6) or merely fooling themselves (1:8);
this claim was calling God a liar. God says that all have sinned—otherwise he would not have needed to send his Son. To claim sinlessness treats the Cross with contempt and Christ's suffering as worthless. To do this, said John, shows that God's word has no place in our hearts. "This" refers not to the living logos (Jesus) but to the message of the gospel. [Jesus Christ] could not be our advocate in heaven today if he had not died to be the propitiation for our sins; and his propitiation would not have been effective if in his life and character he had not been Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
John R. W. Stott
John wanted his readers to understand that people who make such a denial of sinful acts do not have the Word of God permeating and changing their lives because the Word of God clearly states throughout that all people sin and all need a Savior (1 Kings 8:46; Psalm 14:3; Isaiah 53:6; 64:6; Romans 3:23; 6:23). People cannot be forgiven if they do not recognize their sin.
2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.NIV
Psalm 19:14 (KJV)
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14 (AMP)
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my [firm, impenetrable] Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14 (MSG)
14 These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
The impact of God’s witness: Stirs us to cry out to God.
God’s supreme witnesses—nature and the Scripture—are windows: through them we see God. But they are also mirrors: in them we see ourselves.
In general revelation—God’s witness through His works—we see that God’s wisdom and power are infinite, limitless. In contrast, we are small; we are subject to Him; we are his servants (vv. 11, 13).
