Taylor Brown

October 25, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Are You Sure That You Are Forgiven?

Taylor Brown

October 25, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Introduction:

Forgiven People... (1 John 2:1-6)

Take SIN SERIOUSLY (1 John 2:1a)

1 John 1:8,10 - If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ...
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Trust in the ONLY RIGHTEOUS ONE (1 John 2:1b-2)

2 Corinthians 5:21 - For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Obey WITHOUT EXCUSE (1 John 2:3-5a)
Follow the EXAMPLE OF CHRIST (1 John 2:5b-6)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:50
Well, please open your Bibles to 1 John 2, verses 1-6. 1 John 2, verses 1-6.
01:00
Do you ever struggle with figuring out if someone is mad at you or not?
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By your laughter, I'm assuming yes. As a child, you misbehaved big time, so your dad gave you a real passionate talking to, and for the rest of the day, you're walking on eggshells, and you couldn't figure out, is dad still?
01:19
mad at me.
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Maybe someone at the office seems aggravated.
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And you're not sure, did I do something wrong?
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Did I say something?
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And you check around the office to see if you did something wrong.
01:34
Someone at church acts weird around you.
01:36
They seem off.
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And you can't tell if you're the reason that they're off.
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You have an argument with your spouse.
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And you can't tell if it's over or not.
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You can't tell if it's resolved You feel like you're in limbo You feel like you're in relationship monopoly jail And you don't know if you've pulled the jail free card just yet Especially the men in the room So what do you do?
02:05
You kind of tiptoe around the house You're on your best behavior You throw out conversational bait Seeing if the fight is over Talk about the kids You talk about work You'll even sink as low as talking about the weather to see if you're still in an argument or not. All of us can relate to wondering if someone else in our lives is mad at us or not and not knowing what to do about it. What about God? Do you ever wonder if God is mad at you? Do you ever struggle with figuring out if God is angry with you or not? You're not sure what to do about it.
02:49
I just struck a nerve with some of you and you're thinking that is on my mind all the time. I feel like I am tiptoeing through life with this dark storm cloud above me and I'm just waiting for the lightning bolt to strike me. While others of you are thinking I've never considered that in my life. Why would God be mad at me? I didn't do anything to him. Some of you are worried about that God is mad at you when he isn't. While others of you are not concerned that God is mad at you while he is. You realize God does get angry. God is wrathful. He hates sin. He hates that which dishonors him and destroys lives. The Bible couldn't be any clearer that God is angry about sin. And he is mad.
03:47
at sinners.
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But praise the Lord that Scripture is equally clear that God is loving and He cares for sinners.
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God shows unconditional grace. He shows undeserved mercy.
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God made a way for His anger towards sin to be satisfied and for sinners to be forgiven.
04:12
You cannot afford to be uncertain of where you stand with God.
04:16
You cannot afford to be ignorant of God's attitude towards you and your sin because the consequences are irreversible and eternal once this life is over. So I ask you again, are you sure that God isn't mad at you? Are you sure that God isn't angry about your sin? Are you sure that you are forgiven?
04:47
This is the third week of our newest series, Are You Sure? We're studying 1 John and unpacking some very important yet uncomfortable aspects of our faith and our personal lives. Two weeks ago, Pastor Jeff asked the very important yet uncomfortable question, Are You Sure that You Know Jesus? You must know Jesus Christ as a personal friend. It's not enough to know a lot of facts.
05:15
about him.
05:18
And last week he asked the question, are you sure that you're not self-deceived?
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It's so easy to pretend that everything is okay on the outside when nothing is okay on the inside.
05:33
And the question you and I must face this morning from 1 John 2, verses 1-6 is, are you sure you are forgiven?
05:43
In this passage, John gives you a snapshot of what forgiven people look like and how forgiven people live. Forgiven people can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is not mad at them. Forgiven people should possess a blessed assurance that God is no longer angry about their sin. I hope that you will be refreshed this morning by God's past forgiveness or that you will experience His forgiveness.
06:13
for the very first time. I pray that you will walk away from this sermon with blessed assurance because your sin has been dealt with in God's chosen way by God's chosen Savior. So before we continue, let's go to the Lord and ask for His help. Please pray that I will faithfully represent God's Word and I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive God's Word.
06:46
Father, I come before you and admit that I am not up to the task of preaching such a marvelous text. I stand amazed in the presence of 1 John 2, 1 through 6. Lord, may you speak through me, Father. May you preach a much better sermon in the hearts of those listening than I ever could with my mouth. Lord, do what only you can do. Seek and save the lost. Bring the dead to life. Bring blessed assurance.
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where there is doubt.
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And we ask all these things in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
07:20
So on your outline, we're going to be talking about forgiven people.
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What they look like and how they live.
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So on your outline, forgiven people, number one, take sin seriously.
07:31
Forgiven people take sin seriously.
07:37
Let's read the first sentence of chapter 2, verse 1.
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John writes, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. John addresses his audience as my little children. This isn't a derogatory put down. He isn't saying, listen up you little snot nosed punks, I got some stuff to tell you. No, no, he's not doing that. It's not a put down. It's not a annoying nickname like when the waitress who is your age or younger calls you honey, sweetie, or sugar. She has everything besides ruffle your hair to make you feel like a little boy. You just want to say, ma'am, I am a grown man. Please treat me as such. That's not what John is doing here. At the time of this letter, John is 80 to 90 years old. He is a spiritual father who loves those who are under his care. This is a term of deep affection. Just imagine John putting his arm around his readers and telling them as their dad what they need to hear. And as a dad, You tell your kids what they need to hear even when it's hard. Even when it's challenging. And John gives a challenging word. He says, I am writing these things so that you may not sin. Let's press the pause button for a minute because this verse can be easily used and abused. At first glance, it may look like John is saying that Christians can be perfect and sinless in this life.
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Is that what John is saying in this passage? How do we know that? The sermon last week from Pastor Jeff, if you go up a few lines in your Bible, John says this, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Forgiven people will sin. It's going to happen.
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But John wants forgiven people to avoid sinning with their thoughts, words, actions, and reactions. He wants God's people to take their sin very seriously. In this verse, John is putting his arm around all of us to say, kids, sin is a big deal. Don't just shrug your shoulders at it. Don't act like you're helpless against it. Aim to not sin.
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Will you miss that mark? Very often. But failure shouldn't change your aim. Failure shouldn't change your goal. My family has a seven-month-old golden retriever puppy named Parker. She's the most beautiful dog I've ever seen. She has this white set of denture-looking teeth that just astound me every single day. Her fur is so beautiful, but she uses those beautiful teeth to get into things that she shouldn't.
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She messes up her beautiful fur all the time. In particular, I have grass seed under my deck that I'm trying to grow and water, and she gets into it every single day. Every single day, we're wiping dirt off her nose, wiping dirt off her paws, we're picking topsoil out of her teeth, and in those moments, I want to yell at her, stop that! Then what does she do as soon as we clean her up?
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It's back out to the mess again. And once again, I want to yell at her and say, Parker, I didn't clean you up so you could go back to the mess. I didn't clean you up just so you can get messy again. I'm not going to yell at you like I want to yell at my dog, but I do want to take a page out of John's book and put my arm around you as one of your pastors to say to you, God didn't clean you up from the mess of sin so that you can go back to the mess again.
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God didn't clean you up just so you could keep getting dirty over and over and over again. If you are forgiven, you must understand that God saved you from your sin. He didn't save you to sin. God saved you from the sin of watching pornography. He didn't save you so you could wallow in the sin of watching pornography. God saved you from the sin of pride. He didn't save Assaulting yourself at work, at home, and in this church. God saved you from the sin of laziness. He didn't save you so that you could stay lazy. To be clear, the goal to aim for is not sinless perfection, because that is impossible this side of heaven. The goal to aim for is spiritual progress. Not sinless perfection, spiritual progress. Are you taking steps forward in your Christian life? Are you seeing victory over sin? Are you trying to flee sin or are you constantly waving the white flag and giving in? If you need help today, please talk to me. Talk to Pastor Jeff, Brian Behe, Justin, Katie. Talk to one of our elders. We would love to help you.
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You may be in a bad place, but you do not need to stay there. Forgiven people do not take sin lightly. Forgiven people take sin seriously. Secondly, forgiven people trust in the only righteous one. Forgiven people trust in the only righteous one. Check out the rest of verse one.
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But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Again, at a first glance, it may look like John is kind of sort of saying that Christians will never ever sin. It may look like he's presenting this hypothetical scenario of this Christian who somehow does sin, but don't worry, most Christians won't.
14:07
But again, that is not what he's saying. In the original Greek, this sentence is definite, not unlikely. The word if can also be translated as when. And that really changes how you view the verse. But when anyone does sin. For parents in the room, you know it's not a matter of if your kids will disobey. It's a matter of when you're kids are going to disobey. It's the same with kids in the family of God. Sin will come. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when. So if you are a forgiven child of God, what is your source of hope when you do sin? Look at the end of verse 1 again. But when anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.
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the righteous.
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Jesus Christ is the only perfect man to ever walk the face of this planet.
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During his earthly ministry, Jesus only had right thoughts.
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He only spoke right words.
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He only did right actions.
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He only had right re-actions.
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Jesus never sinned, and he never even came close to sinning.
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Not even once.
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Even though he was tempted in all the ways that you and I are. Forgiven people do not trust in themselves and their own righteousness. Forgiven people trust in Jesus Christ, the only righteous one. Forgiven people are not righteous in and of themselves. Forgiven people are only righteous because they are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a free gift.
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And John says that Jesus Christ the righteous is also the advocate of those who are forgiven. What is an advocate? An advocate is a mediator, an intercessor, a go-between. To use modern language, an advocate is a defense attorney. When do you hire a defense attorney? When you need someone to stand in the gap for you and represent you in court.
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of a crime, you need someone to defend you.
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And you realize that every single sin is a crime against God.
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And there is a prosecutor who is trying to accuse you of that crime every single time that you sin.
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And who is that prosecutor?
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Satan.
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Do you realize that Satan's not in hell right now?
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That's not his home right now.
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The Bible says he is roaming the earth looking for lives to destroy. He is accusing true believers day and night before the Lord. Your enemy tries to throw your sins in God the Father's face. Satan tries to convince the divine judge of heaven that he should lock you up and throw away the key. Satan is a heavyweight prosecutor.
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against the one who is defending you, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Jesus is not a lame ambulance chaser whose picture you see all over billboards and bus benches. He has never lost a case and he will never lose a case. You could never afford Jesus defending you so he takes you on as a client free of charge by paying the fee himself. If you are forgiven, Jesus is defending you in the courts of right now.
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When Satan accuses you, your defense attorney objects, and the case is thrown out. The charges are dismissed.
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He says, you cannot hold that sin against him or her.
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The penalty has already been paid.
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And God the Father, the judge, throws the case out, and Satan gets no chance at an appeal.
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There is no retrial.
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Satan loses every time because Jesus wins every time. But how has the penalty been paid? How exactly does Jesus get the case dismissed? How did Jesus become the undefeatable defense attorney? Well, John answers these questions in verse 2 by showing you that Jesus Christ the righteous is your advocate because he is first your propitiation.
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verse 2. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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When was the last time you used propitiation in a sentence? When was the last time you used that word outside of a Bible study? Probably never. It doesn't get much use beyond the four times it is mentioned in the New Testament. What is a propitiation? A propitiation is a wrath-appeasing sacrifice.
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It goes back to the day of atonement when a bull and a goat were killed and their blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat on the top of the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle and later the temple. But this sacrificial blood of animals was never enough to fully appease and satisfy the wrath of God. The sacrificial blood of animals pointed forward to the sacrificial blood of the Son of God which was shed upon the cross. If you are forgiven, Jesus not only paid the penalty for your sin, he became your sin upon the cross. He bore the fiery, wrathful punishment of God in your place, on your behalf. Jesus was treated as if he lived every sinful day you've ever lived. And now you are treated as if you lived every sinless day that he ever lived. Jesus received your garbage of unrighteousness.
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In exchange, you receive his treasure of righteousness. On that Friday, Jesus heard guilty so that you could hear not guilty forever and ever and ever. His body was broken so that you could be made whole. I can't put it any better than Paul in 2 Corinthians 5.21. He, God the Father, made him, Jesus, to be, who knew no sin, so that in him, in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.
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Jesus is the perfect defense attorney because he is the perfect propitiation.
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Jesus is your defender and your deflector.
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He is your advocate and your absorber.
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Jesus defends you in the courts of heaven because he already deflected the angry wrath of God that you deserved. He deflected your eternal punishment in hell upon himself while he hung upon that cross. Jesus advocates your case because he absorbed that wrath himself. If you are forgiven, what is your only hope when you sin? Your only hope is not a what.
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Your only hope is a who. Your hope is Jesus Christ, the righteous. Forgiven people do not trust in themselves. Forgiven people trust in the only righteous one. Thirdly, forgiven people obey without excuse. Forgiven people obey without excuse. In verses 3 through 4, John gives an objective test.
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of your faith.
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He gives a surefire way to know if you are a faithful, forgiven man or woman of God, or if you're an unforgiven pretender.
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Look at what He says in verses 3 through 4.
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And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
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Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
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That's pretty clear cut, isn't it? There is no wiggle room with John. Unforgiven people prove they are unforgiven by refusing to do what Jesus says. Unforgiven people do not think obedience is important. Unforgiven people make excuse after excuse about why the commands of God do not pertain to them. While forgiven people do what Jesus says without To be clear, John isn't saying that you should view the commandments of God as a list of to-dos that you have to do. Instead, you should view the commands of God as things that you want to keep. John talks about keeping the commandments. And this word keep means to look upon something as your treasure and therefore to guard it.
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as your treasure.
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You take care of what you treasure.
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You guard what you value.
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What in your possession do you treasure or guard the most?
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Maybe for you it's your car or your truck.
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You spend a lot of time, a lot of money on this truck, and you want it to be pristine.
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You want it to be perfect.
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You're constantly washing it and waxing it.
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You park far away at Giant Eagle so nobody dents your precious baby. You treasure your truck so you guard your truck. Maybe for you it's your house. It's your biggest physical investment so you take care of it. You do repairs. You make improvements. You treasure your house so you guard your house. For me it's books. For my entire life I have treasured the sanctity of the I do not dog your pages. I do not read hardcovers with a dust jacket on. If you do that, you have problems and you need help. I am very particular about my books whenever I receive them. I check them for damage. I actually keep my Bible in its original box when I take it anywhere. If I need to go somewhere with a book and it's raining, I put it in a Ziploc bag.
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I'm also particular about who I lend my books to. If you do not return my book, if you return my book not as it was given to you, with dents and sand falling out of the pages, that's actually happened before. I opened the book and sand just fell out. Do you know what I thought about that person whenever I opened the book? No more books for you! The Taylor Brown Lending Library is closed to you.
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my books. If you treasure God's word, you will guard God's word. If you love this book, you will live in light of this book. If you love the Lord, you will prove that you love him by doing what he says, by keeping his commandments. And obeying God's word won't just be your duty, it will be your delight.
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Evangelism, making disciples, won't be chores to get past. Evangelism, making disciples, will be joys that you want to live into. Serving your church won't be a, yeah, if I have time, I'll do it kind of task. Serving your church will be a, I will make time for it kind of assignment. Investing in the spiritual well-being of your family and your friends won't be on the back burner of your mind. Instead, those things will be at the front of your mind because what could matter?
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more than investing in the people you love the most. John says that unforgiven people expose themselves as liars who do not possess the truth. In verse 5, listen to what he says about forgiven people who do possess the truth. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.
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Whose love is John talking about in this verse? Is he talking about God's love for you if you're forgiven? That's not possible. God's love for you cannot be perfected because it is already fully perfect. John is obviously talking about your love for God. Raise your hand if you think your love for God is perfect. Not one hand raised.
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you'll be wondering, Pastor Taylor, what does it even mean that my love for God can be perfected?
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Well, a child's love for his parents, his or her parents, is very strong. It's real.
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But a child's love for his or her parents is also immature. It's also self-serving. If you went back to Harvest Academy and pulled one of the kids out and you said, why do you love your mommy and your daddy?
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That boy or girl would probably say something like, well, my daddy takes care of me. He gives me nice stuff. My mommy takes care of me whenever I'm sick. Are those great answers? Yeah. Are those cute answers? Sure. But those answers are also self-serving. They're also about what your parents can do for you, not who they are as people. And as you get older, as you begin to develop greater affection for your parents. You begin to love them not just for what they do for you, but who they are as people. Young married couples truly love each other. But that love is immature. It's very young and it needs to grow and be perfected. I love my wife way more today than I did on July 26, 2014.
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when I first said I do. We have gone through so much since then. We have become parents together. We've done ministry together. My love for her has been, is being perfected. It's growing. It's maturing. And hopefully in 10, 25, 50 years from now, my love for her will be even more perfected, more mature, more down the road. When you truly love someone, that love shouldn't stay immature. That love shouldn't be stagnant.
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It should be stunted. It should be developing and deepening with each passing day.
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What about your love for God?
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Is your love for God being perfected right now?
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Is your love for God growing or is it plateauing?
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Could it be that your love for God is not being perfected right now because you're not applying His Word to your life?
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Maybe that flame of passion is flickering in your heart because you know what the Bible says, but you don't do what the Bible says. Maybe your passion is dwindling because you sit in a seat Sunday after Sunday listening to sermons you do nothing with. You have a fat theological head, but you have a malnourished heart and lazy hands and feet.
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Have I described you at all? If I have, I have some questions for you. Don't you miss the way you used to feel about the Lord? Don't you long for the days when you couldn't wait to get in Scripture and just do what it said? Don't you want to get back to where you used to be? If that's you, take the first step this morning by crying out to God.
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Admit that you have lost your first love. Tell him, God, I don't want to just go back to where I used to be. I want to go far beyond where I used to be. Talk to your small group about your lack of passion. Ask for their prayer. Ask for their help. If you don't have a small group, get in one and find accountability in your life. Continue to make strides forward day by day, week by week, month by month, instead of backsliding into the rut of the same old, same old.
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Let the love of God be perfected in you by keeping the word of God that has been given to you. Forgiven people treasure and guard God's word. Forgiven people obey without excuse. Finally, forgiven people follow the example of Christ. Forgiven people follow the example of Christ.
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At this point in the message, you may be overwhelmed.
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You may be thinking, Pastor Taylor, John's level of obedience is ridiculously impossible.
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No one can do this. I just don't have it in me.
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This is too hard.
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I understand your concerns, and I even share your concerns.
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There are times when I look at pastoral qualifications in the Bible and I think, this is just too hard for me. I can't do this. Let me give you the counsel that I preached my own heart in those moments. Stop looking at yourself. Start looking at the one who has forgiven you. Start looking at Jesus Christ. That's not my own original thought, by the way. I just ripped off what John says in verses 5 through 6.
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He says, by this we know that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. When you don't know how to do something in particular, it's a good idea to imitate someone who does know how to do that particular thing. When my son is stuck on a video game level, he hands me the controller and says, Dad, show me what to do. I show him. He grabs the controller back.
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and he imitates me. He follows my example. If you don't know how to do a certain repair project at home, what do you do? YouTube. You just imitate what the guy or gal on the video is doing because they know way more than you do. You follow his or her example. 14 years ago, I had no idea how to write sermons or shepherd people's souls. So what did I do?
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I followed the example of Pastor Jeff who does know how to do those things.
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I followed his example.
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You may feel like the Christian life is too hard.
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And you just can't do this on your own.
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Guess what? You're right.
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You can't do this on your own.
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So look to the one who can.
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You may feel like this is too hard for me.
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Look to the one who the Christian life is a breeze for.
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Look to Jesus Christ.
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Follow his example.
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Walk in His footsteps. Love people like Jesus loved people. Pray as Jesus prayed. Resist temptation as Jesus resisted temptation. No imitation is exactly like the original example. At seven years old, Sam cannot play video games as well as I can, but he still tries his best. If you're looking up a video for a house project, as well as the guy in the video, but you should still make the attempt. I'll never be half the pastor that Pastor Jeff is, but I still give it my maximum effort to follow in his footsteps. In this life, you and I will not flawlessly imitate our Lord and Savior, but that shouldn't stop us from trying. That shouldn't stop us from giving maximum effort. Forgiven people imitate Jesus. Forgiven people follow the example of Christ.
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As we close this message, I want to re-ask the question that I asked at the beginning of this sermon. Are you sure that God is not mad at you? Are you sure that you are forgiven? Hopefully many of you in this room and watching online have been filled with blessed assurance from the Holy Spirit. You've been reassured that your sins are forgiven and have been taken If that's you, I want you to do something with me. I want you to inhale and take a deep breath. Now exhale. Take a sigh of relief because God is not mad at you. He will never be angry with you ever again. Every last drop of his anger was poured out upon Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus is now your propitiation, your defender, and your your example. Here's another big thing. God is not disappointed with you. He's not in heaven wagging his finger at you. When he looks at you, he sees his own son with whom he is well pleased. God doesn't just tolerate you. He loves you just as much as he loves Jesus. And I would never say that unless God said so in his word.
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You being kicked out of the family of God is as impossible as Jesus Christ being kicked out of the family of God. Your spot in heaven is as secure as Jesus' spot in heaven. There is nothing better than this kind of blessed assurance of knowing your sins are forgiven and your name is written in heaven. Obeying so that God will love you is exhausting and it's pointless. Obeying because God loves you.
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is what you need.
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This blessed assurance is the only fuel in the tank for true obedience.
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For truly fighting your sin.
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However, I know that some of you in this room are not filled with blessed assurance because you have nothing to be assured about.
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At this moment, God is angry at you.
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God is mad about your sin.
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The wrath of God is hanging over your head.
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you're currently on a path to hell. That's the road you're on right now. But you can make a U-turn today. You can trust in Christ today. You can turn around and turn towards Jesus Christ. Call out to him and ask for his grace and his forgiveness and he will give it to you. He will not reject you.
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If you come to him in faith, trust in his wrath-absorbing sacrifice and blessed assurance can be yours this very moment and every moment after this. There is no more important decision than this. Jesus is ready and willing to forgive you. But are you ready and willing to ask for his forgiveness? Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for your love that we do not deserve. We thank you that you not only give us eternal life, you want us to know that we have eternal life. And Lord, if there are believers in this room who don't have that assurance, Lord, comfort their hearts. Give them your peace. Remind them of the gospel. And Lord, for those of us in this room who do not know you, who do not love you may today be the day of salvation. May those who have no assurance possess that assurance as they walk out today. May they not leave without talking to one of the pastors or someone else here, Lord. Lord, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for all that you do for us and all that you will do for us in eternity. We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 John 2:1-6

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do we struggle to take our sin seriously at times? What does it look like to take your sin seriously?
What does it mean that Jesus is our advocate and propitiation? Why are these terms so important for our faith and our obedience?
How is God calling you to keep His Word and imitate the example of Jesus in this season of life?

Breakout

Separate into mens and womens groups to share your personal sin struggles and pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

October 18, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Are You Sure that You're Not Self-Deceived?

Jeff Miller

October 18, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Introduction:

3 Things Self-Deceived People Do: (1 John 1:5-10)

Live in SECRET SIN. (1 John 1:6-7)
Claim to be a GOOD person. (1 John 1:8-9)

James 5:16 - Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
DENY sin. (1 John 1:10)

Romans 3:10-18 - None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

John 3:20-21 - For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:50
1 John chapter 1. You know, we're going through the book of 1 John verse by verse in this series. Are you sure? And we're evaluating our salvation. Are we really in the faith? Do you know what I was thinking about this past week? Just this random thought came to me. When I was a kid, And I would go whether it was to the dentist or the doctor's office or whatever, the eye doctor, the pediatrician. When I was a kid, in the waiting room, they would have this magazine, Highlights for Children. How many people remember Highlights for Children? Okay, quite a bit of it. Is that still a thing? It is? That's still going? Well, when I was a kid, do you know what my favorite section was of Highlights for Children? My favorite section.
01:48
And I would flip through and find this first. Goofus and Gallant. Remember Goofus and Gallant? If you're not familiar, they would be these two cartoons showing opposites in manners. And Goofus was like, they'd show a cartoon of him doing the, how you say, unsavory thing. And then there'd be Gallant showing the proper thing.
02:18
And it would be things like, you know, Goofus trashes the room. And you'd see him just like knocking lamps over and stuff. And it'd be like, Gallant asks his mom if he can help her clean the room. And then it would be like, Goofus says that his supper is a pile of warm garbage and complains about it. Gallant says, thank you, Mom, for making this meal for us. Right? Goofus blows his nose on somebody else's sleeve. Gallant uses a Kleenex. You get the point. But I remember as a kid reading that thinking, boy, Goofus sounds like he's a lot more fun to hang out with. And that is wrong. That is wrong.
03:18
I seriously had was this. I want to think that I'm gallant. But sometimes I wonder if I'm goofus. Like, what does that have to do with anything? I was thinking about that this week. I think the Apostle John, I think that would have been his favorite part of Highlights for Children too. Goofus and gallant. Why? Because John is all about showing the opposites. It's lie or truth.
03:48
It's light or darkness. It's Goofus or Galan.
03:54
You're like, man, which one am I?
03:56
Which one am I? And John wrote this letter so that we could know for sure.
04:02
So let's pray.
04:04
We'll get into it. Pray for me.
04:08
I'll pray for you.
04:09
And then let's get into God's Word together.
04:13
Father, we ask that you would open our hearts up now, all of us.
04:18
to receive your truth.
04:20
If we're just listening to our hearts, Father, we've already talked about that.
04:23
That's a bad idea.
04:24
Because your word says that the heart is deceitful above all things.
04:31
Your word says when we receive Christ, we receive a new heart.
04:34
And sometimes, Father, there's people that think they have the new one and they don't.
04:39
Because their heart's lying to them.
04:41
So I pray, Father, by the light of your word, You would show us where we really are. And that we would act accordingly. Father, I pray against any distractions externally or internally as we spend these few precious moments in Your Word together. We pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, Amen. Are you sure?
05:15
that you're not self-deceived. Self-deception, that's the subject that kicked off this series a couple of weeks ago. We spoke of it in general terms, and as promised, today we're getting ultra-specific, because churches are filled with people who think they're saved and they're not. Not everybody in this church is saved.
05:45
Well, what does it even mean to be saved? And you see, that's the problem. People don't understand what it means to be saved. Some people think salvation is knowledge. Like, I know some things. Yeah, I know what the Bible says. I know. I'm familiar with the Word of God, and they think salvation is just knowing some Bible facts, and that's not salvation. Some people think salvation is activity. Like, are you saved? Well, sure, I'm saved. I work in the church, and I do all these things.
06:15
So obviously I'm saved. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you are. Some people think salvation is feeling. Are you saved? Oh, you know, I know I am because, oh, golly, I just feel so good when I go to church. I just feel so good. It just warms my heart when I go to church. And I just leave with a good feeling and they equate that with salvation.
06:45
Some people think salvation is morality. Are you saved? Yeah, I'm a good person. I know I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person and good people go to heaven, right? Now look, we certainly think knowledge, activity, and feeling and morality are all good things. They're all wonderful things. We encourage all of it, but they are not salvation. Like, well, what is salvation? Well, that's what we're going to look at in the text today because a key component of salvation, A key component of coming to God is this, coming into His light. If you choose to stay in the dark, stay in your sin, we're going to see John tells you you're self-deceived. And that's the question of the day. Are you sure that you're not self-deceived? Look at verse 5, where we left off last week. John says, This is where John starts. Last week, he talked all about the person of Jesus Christ, and he's continuing with some Theology 101, and this is Theology 101. God is light. He is light. What does that mean?
08:13
Well, biblically, that means a lot of things. Light refers to His glory and His beauty. Yes, absolutely. Light refers to purity, that God is pure. Light refers to guidance. But in particular here, you're going to see very clearly that light refers to God's revealing. It's connected to truth. It's connected to guidance.
08:43
path being lit up. By nature, I'm walking in the dark, lying to myself about my condition, and the light of God and God's truth shines on my path. Now I see things as they really are. That's what God's light does. God is about truth. God is about dealing with reality, things as they are. No deception.
09:14
That's why John writes this, because as we saw a couple weeks ago, your heart is a liar, and it's a tragic, tragic thing that we lie to ourselves, and then we turn around and believe the lie that we tell ourselves. So on your outline, I want you to jot some things down. Are you sure you're not self-deceived? And in this section, he gives three things that self-deceived people do, and if you do, do any or all of these things, then I have to lovingly tell you, you are lying to yourself if this describes you. Okay? Three things self-deceived people do. Number one, they live in secret sin. You go to church, you talk the talk, you look good on the outside, but there's a secret sin. Right? Look at verse 6.
10:14
He says, if we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. He says, if we say we have fellowship with Him, you hear that all the time. People say, well, yeah, I believe in God. Yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian. Now, obviously, John is not addressing, this is so important for us to remember, He's not addressing unbelievers in this section.
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Unbelievers sin and enjoy sin and don't care that they're enjoying sin.
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There's no regard.
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He's very specifically talking about people who say they have fellowship with God, who are churchgoers.
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Not true born-again believers, but attend church, at least pretend to be Christians.
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That's who He's talking to here.
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Not flagrant, unbelieving sinners, but more subtle, unbelieving, nominal Christians.
11:21
Alright?
11:23
But notice he says about these nominal Christians, the people who say they believe in God, say that they're Christians, he says, while we say that, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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Walk in darkness, it's walking in sin, and obviously Darkness is talking about a secret sin. That maybe you come to church and you put on the front, but there's a secret addiction happening at home. Maybe it's a secret affair. And even if it's not physical, maybe it's emotional. Maybe it's just inappropriate messaging back and forth with a person.
12:12
who is not your spouse. Maybe it's a secret viewing of things on the computer that we should not be looking at, or on the phone, or on the tablet. It's, I look good on Sunday, but I have this whole private secret thing. John here very clearly says, your Bible says the same thing as mine, right? John says, if you say you believe in God, but you're really walking in darkness, He says, you're living a lie. Look at verse 7. He says, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. You see, coming to God, knowing God, salvation is coming out of the darkness.
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and into the light.
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Now please hear me.
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Walking in the light is not talking about being perfect.
13:25
That is not what he's saying.
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I don't want you to walk away from here today going, well, you know, I do struggle with sin sometimes, so.
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Look, we all do.
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He is not talking about perfection.
13:42
He is not talking about living in perfection. He is talking about living in openness. That is what He is talking about. That is awesome news. Do you realize what good news that is? Because you can't be perfect. There is not a one of us here that has the ability to live a perfectly righteous life. You can't be perfect, but you can be open.
14:13
You can live a life with no hidden sin, no secret something that you hope nobody ever finds out about. You can live a life of not pretending. Walking in the light means this. I sin, I confess, I'm getting with God on this, and I'm getting accountability on this. That's what it means to walk in the light. And when that happens, notice he says we have fellowship.
14:42
with one another.
14:45
You are not going to have fellowship in the church if you have detached yourself spiritually because of sin.
14:58
But I've got to remind you again, Harvest Bible Chapel is not a museum of saints.
15:04
This is a fellowship of broken people.
15:09
But we're living in openness.
15:12
We're walking in the light. What does that mean, church? That means all of us together. We're learning. We're repenting. We're growing. But we're dealing with things openly, not keeping things secret and private. We're walking in the light. You're like, oh, I can't let people find out that I'm a sinner. We already know.
15:43
That cat's been out of the bag for a while. We already knew that you're a sinner. Do you know who else is? Every single one of us in the room. Every single one of us. But you see, that's even more good news. That you are loved.
16:11
by God. You are loved by Harvest Bible Chapel for who you really are. Not for who you pretend to be. So you're walking in the light? Are you living openly? I'm not hiding things. Yes, I sin. Yes, I have a rebellious heart. But I'm dealing with it.
16:41
dragging that stuff into the light and I'm dealing with it. You'll notice when a person refuses to drag it into the light, when a person is living in darkness, you know, he talks about fellowship here. That's one of the first things to go. You'll notice that church attendance starts to get real sporadic. Why? Hmm. Just kind of feel like a hypocrite going in there with this secret.
17:11
thing I know I need to deal with and I just I don't feel right being church attendance drops off small group attendance just stops I mean I might go to church once in a while but there is no way that I'm going to go to a small group where somebody is going to ask me how I'm doing spiritually but I am not doing that you're keeping yourself in the dark this is what church is meant to be again we're not a museum of saints. We are a group of people, this group, we are people saying, let's get into the light of God. Look, yes, we're sinners, and we need cleansed, and we need changed, and we all agree on this. So you're walking in the light, or you're walking in darkness. You're living an open life, or you're living a secret life, which isn't it? Because there's no middle ground.
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And I have to ask you, which one describes you right now?
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Honestly.
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Are you keeping a chunk of your life in the dark?
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Or are you like, you know what, I do mess up, but I'm dealing with it, man.
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I'm dealing with it.
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If you're in the darkness, look, today's the day you've got to stop lying.
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Because your claim of believing in God means nothing.
18:36
if your real life is characterized by sin, not by repentance. So self-deceived people, John says, first of all, they live in secret sin. Second of all, number two, they claim to be a good person. We talked about this very briefly two weeks ago, and I told you then we're going to be getting into it as John does, so here we go. But self-deceived people claim that they're good. I'm a good person. I'm a good person.
19:06
I'm a good person. I have a good heart. Well, what does John say about that? Look at verse 8. He says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we claim we're without sin, I'm not that bad. I'm actually a good person deep down. I have a good heart. And God knows that.
19:37
Here's what God knows. God knows that you were born with a sin nature that you inherited from Adam. We're born with a rebellious nature. That's just all there is to it. And if you're like, I don't believe that. I don't believe that we're born with a sinful, selfish nature. I don't believe that. If you don't believe that, then I'm going to take you on a tour through Harvest Academy. Oh, don't laugh. These are your kids.
20:06
My kids are grown. These are your kids. But you'll notice if you take a tour, these kids, by nature, self-centered, demanding, complainers. But here's something I know about that, parents. You didn't teach them that. No parent has ever sat their kid down and said, now, son, I'm going to teach you a very important lesson today. I'm going to teach you how to lie.
20:36
because it's going to get you far in life. No parent does that. You would be a monster if you did that. So how do these kids automatically know how to lie? How do they know? It's because we're born with this broken, sinful, rebellious nature. But here, John says, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, if we claim we're without sin, he says, you deceive yourselves.
21:06
You are lying to yourself. But look at verse 9. He says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confess. That word confess literally means say the same. What does that mean?
21:37
Confession just means you're agreeing with God. That's what confession means. Like, I'm not a good person. I look at my actions. I hear the words that come out of my mouth. I see the rotten attitudes in my heart. And you know what I see? You know what I'm experiencing? I am full of selfishness and hatred and lust and gossip. And that's me.
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That's coming out of me.
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And he says to confess. Do you know what confess means?
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It means to drag it out into the light.
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We're not redefining it.
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He goes, no, drag that out.
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Look, God, this is who I am.
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I see that and I agree with you, God.
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I have a problem that only you can fix.
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That's what it means to confess.
22:38
Sometimes you talk to Christians or you read books from theologians, they get kind of caught up in this verse. Wait, wait, is this verse here, verse 9, confessing? Is this for believers or for unbelievers? People actually debate about that. Like, is he saying like an unbeliever confessing? Or is he saying this is about a believer confessing?
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And I have the definitive answer on that. The answer is yes. This is for believers and unbelievers both. It's like repentance, right? Matthew 3.8, Luke 3.8, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Confession is the same thing. Yes, it's coming to Christ, absolutely. But it should be a regular occurrence in our walk with Christ.
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And I think regarding like Roman Catholicism, I think that's a baby that we threw out with the bathwater. Even though I don't believe that a person has the ability to grant or withhold forgiveness, I don't believe that at all. But I do believe there is something good about going to another person and confessing your sin. That should be happening in here.
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in the light characterized as confessors. Always going to God. Here's specifically how I messed up. I need to change God. I confess that. And God, I thank you that you've provided forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Help me to repent God. Let me be the person that you've called me to be. You see the glorious promises when you drag this sin into the light, when you confess it before God, what does your Bible say?
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He forgives and He cleanses. Like, why does He do that? Because I deserve it? Because I'm awesome? Because my sin wasn't that bad? No, no, no, no. It says right here why He does that. It's because He is faithful and just. See, that's the promise of salvation. It's not based on me or my integrity. Your salvation is based on God's promise. It's based on God's terms. It's based on God's integrity.
25:06
And hear me, church, the person who is truly done with self-deception, the person who is truly walking in the light will confess their sins to one another. Right? James talks about this, James 5.16. It says, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
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That is something that's true of people walking in the light. That when they're dealing with sin, they're going to the leaders of the church. They're going to the elders and the pastors. They're going to their small group leader and say, hey, I need you to pray for me. I want to confess something to you. Here's where I'm struggling. They're dragging it into the light, confessing. And this is how you know your repentance is real. Nothing in the dark. Everything in the light.
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All I want is forgiveness and cleansing and fellowship.
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You're like, but I'm a good person.
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You're really not.
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But as long as you think you are, you're never going to get the blessings that God has for those who walk in the light.
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All right?
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Three things self-deceived people do.
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They live in secret sin.
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They claim to be a good person.
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Number three, they deny sin. They just deny sin. John just kind of sums all of this up in verse 10. He's like, here it is, right here. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. Sin? I don't sin. Well, you just called God a liar.
26:59
I shared with you before a few weeks ago, we had a, I remember a leader in another church. I thought it was during an elders' meeting, and Erin reminded me. She goes, no, he actually said it in front of the whole church. But he got up in front of the whole church, he goes, I don't struggle with sin. Like, wow, really? What does John say about that? If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. You're calling God a liar.
27:29
I'm a good person. You're calling God a liar. Because God says that you're a sinner. Like, where did He say that? Well, He says it a lot of places in His Word. But there's one passage in particular that I like to share. When people struggle with this whole, I don't think I'm really a sinner. It's Romans chapter 3. What the Apostle Paul does is he gets his spiritual shot and he stuffs all this scripture from the Old Testament in it and he blasts us all right in the heart with it. This is what Romans 3 says. This is God's assessment of you by the way. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.
28:29
The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. In the way of peace, they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That's what God says about you, by the way. So, is God wrong?
28:59
Because if you deny this, then you're saying that God is a liar. And I don't think I've met too many people in my life that are brazen enough to use those words. God, you are a liar. I don't know anybody that would say that, but if you're denying sin, that's really what you are saying according to John.
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Because we tend to minimize our sin and maximize other people's sin. Have you noticed that?
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So easy for us to watch the news or hear the gossip and just, oh, shame on that person.
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What a horrible person. I knew that he was a garbage person.
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I knew she was trash. Shame, shame, shame.
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We maximize other people's sin.
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What about my sin? Well, I'm not that bad.
30:00
God doesn't grade us on the curve. And that's why self-deception is such a dangerous thing, church. It would be like if you went to the doctor and the doctor says, you have a terminal disease. The doctor's like, this disease that you have is going to kill you in a month.
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So, your brilliant plan is this. I'm just going to find a doctor that is only going to talk about my good qualities. You know, that doctor that told me that I'm going to die within a month, what a downer. What a downer. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. I want to find a doctor that talks about how great my hair is.
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How pretty my smile is. What a beautiful singer I am. I want a doctor that just tells me that stuff, but not tell me the bad stuff. And you're like, oh, that's silly. You know, that's how a lot of people choose a church. You can't confess Jesus as a Savior if you say that you don't have what He saves from.
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If you refuse to acknowledge your sin, I just have to ask you, what's the cross about? Why did the Son of God suffer such a brutal and humiliating death and die on that cross? So church, John's message here is not, true Christians are perfect, We aren't.
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Or, true Christians don't sin, we do.
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Here's John's message.
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True Christians acknowledge God's truth about us, live openly, and confess our sin to God and others.
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He says, true Christians walk in the light.
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Jesus talked about this.
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John chapter 3.
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An excerpt from the exchange with Nicodemus.
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Look what Jesus said.
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For everyone who does wicked things.
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Hates the light.
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And does not come into the light.
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Lest his work should be exposed.
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But.
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Whoever does what is true.
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Comes to the light.
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So that it may be clearly seen.
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That his works have been carried out.
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In God.
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So what is it today that you're trying to keep hidden? Is there some sin in your life that you hope nobody ever finds out about? Look, there's guilt and shame in the dark. But this says, There's forgiveness and cleansing in the light. The only way to end self-deception is to come into the light. Will you do that today? I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please, as the worship team makes their way back up front. Just bow your heads and close your eyes with me, please.
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But Father, we confess to you that we don't like confessing. It's embarrassing for us in our minds to tell people that we have a sin struggle of some kind. And that embarrassment is from the enemy who would want us to keep our sin in the dark. Father, you have told us, We all struggle with sin. We're all sinners. And you've called us all to come into the light. To experience forgiveness and cleansing and fellowship. Father, I pray for those here that I'm not naive enough to think that there's nobody here that has some secret struggle. Father, I pray that you would give them the faith to drag Whatever this thing is, drag it into the light so you and this body of believers can deal with it. We thank you for your promise, Father. We thank you that coming into the light doesn't result in you giving us a guilt trip or chastising us. It results in you loving and changing us, Father. Thank you for that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 John 1:5-10

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Describe what it means to “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). Is this about being perfect? What does it mean?
Why should we confess our sins to one another? What does that accomplish? How do we encourage such behavior in the church? (See James 5:16)

Breakout

Pray for one another. Are there any sins in your life that you need to drag into the light so you can truly have fellowship with God and one another?

Jeff Miller

October 11, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Are You Sure that You Know Jesus?

Jeff Miller

October 11, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Introduction:

5 Truths of the Gospel You Must Believe (1 John 1:1-4)

It never CHANGES . (1 John 1:1)

Jude 3 - I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Revelation 14:6 - ...I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth...
It's rooted in REALITY . (1 John 1:1-3a)
It's our mission to PROCLAIM . (1 John 1:2-3)
It results in RELATIONSHIPS . (1 John 1:3b)
It CHANGES you. (1 John 1:4)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:50
Open those Bibles up. The book of 1 John. All the way near the back of your Bible. Look, I know it's a rainy day and you get sort of sleepy. But we are fired up for the Word of God. Amen? And if you're not there yet, look, we'll have service outside today. Alright? So let's get fired up for the Word of God. God has communicated some things to us in His His Word that He wants us to know. So let's get fired up for it and see what the Lord wants to teach us from His Word. Just take a moment, please, to pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately as I should. And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us in His Word today. All right? Let's just take a moment and lift this time up before the Lord.
01:50
Our Father in Heaven, as we turn to Your Word, we just spent some time singing concerning Your Son. And we're looking at a passage today that very obviously talks about Your Son. And I pray, Father, that You would have our hearts and minds to be laser-focused on what it is You want to teach us in Your Word.
02:19
Father, I thank you ahead of time for what you're going to do through this message, through this series. We know, God, it's not my words. It's your word. Father, that's why we want nothing more than to be faithful to clearly and accurately represent your word, whoever's standing in this spot right here. Father, let your word be proclaimed. Let our hearts be open to receive.
02:49
Let your word take root and bring transformation in all of us. Father, again, we thank you and praise you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen. We're kicking off our series on 1 John called Are You Sure? We're going to be talking about assurance as we go through 1, 2, and 3 John. And we started this last week, and we saw that Jeremiah taught us that your heart is a liar. Right? The Bible says above all things your heart is deceptive. Your heart is a liar and you will believe the lies that your own heart tells you. But the good news is under the new covenant God promises to give us a new heart. But here's the problem.
03:48
on our end.
03:51
Many people are unsure which heart they have.
03:56
Okay?
03:57
And when we think about salvation, people are just unsure because you have the unregenerate heart, the heart of the unbeliever is a liar, and it will lie to the unbeliever and say, yeah, you're obviously a Christian, you go to church, and you do all these nice things, and you're a generally good person, and it will lie to you.
04:22
But the regenerate heart, the heart that's been redeemed, the heart that's been born again, still, it feels the weight. There's this tension that comes that though the heart is regenerated, we still live in sinful flesh. We still live in a body that craves sin, even though our heart has been transformed. And there's a tension. And ironically, that tension, is what causes doubt. It causes believers to doubt their salvation.
04:54
So what do we do? What do we do?
04:56
We do what the Bible tells us to do. We talked about this last week. Test your faith.
05:03
You have to test your faith because here's the thing. Some people doubt their salvation and they shouldn't.
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They're saved, but they just lack any kind of confidence to boldly step out and serve the Lord because they're struggling with doubt. So there's people that doubt their salvation and shouldn't, but on the other hand, you have people that have confidence that they shouldn't. They're trusting in something to save them or that they are saved and that something isn't Jesus Christ. They have confidence in something they shouldn't. Test your faith. But look, here's the good news.
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You can know for sure whether you're truly saved or not.
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Which heart you have, you can know for sure.
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When I was in high school, I had a biology class.
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There was a two-period class, back-to-back.
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And there were so many days that the teacher would come into the biology class with his teacher book. And he would put the teacher book up on his podium. This happens so often. He'd open up the book and he'd go, I'll be right back. And he'd leave.
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And he didn't come back. For two periods. That happened so much. Well, sometimes, a little twist in the story here, sometimes when that happened, he'd come in, open the book, and he'd go, Do the lab assignment on page 56.
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I'll be right back.
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And he'd leave.
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And he didn't come back.
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And do you know what we would do?
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We knew he wasn't coming back.
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He told us to do the lab.
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And guess where all the answers were? In his book that he left open to the page on the podium. So do you know what my friends and I would do? We would just go up to the book and copy all the answers. Done. Now listen. I want to be very clear about something. Kids. Kids in the room. I am not condoning such behavior.
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to do that. I was wrong. I should not have done that. Okay? That was bad. All right, kids? Are we clear on that, kids? Stay in school, don't do drugs, all that stuff. Are we clear on that, kids? That was bad. But, but, this is the good news when it comes to church, is that God actually encourages that behavior, kids. God actually says, look, my book is open. I gave you an assignment to test your faith, And here's what I want you to do, kids. I want you to come up and look in the book where the answers are. And that's what we're doing for this series. That's what the book of 1 John is all about. 1 John was written by John. At this point, he's an old pastor in Ephesus when he writes this to the other churches in Asia Minor. Now, we just finished the book of 1 Corinthians.
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And if you were with us on that journey, we saw that Paul wrote like a lawyer. Right? Paul, in his writing, he gives this reasoning and this logical flow, and he's building his case and his arguments, and that's how Paul writes. John doesn't write like that. Paul wrote like a lawyer. John writes like a dad.
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I want to tell you some stuff. About the Lord I want to tell you some stuff that's really important. And he just tells it like it is. And you're going to see as we go through 1 John nothing is vague. Everything to John is black and white. John speaks in absolutes. Right? You're going to see that throughout. John's like look here's the deal. You're either walking in the light or you're walking in the dark. He's like here's the deal.
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It's truth or it's a lie. Here's the deal. You're either a child of God or you are a child of the devil. It's black and white. So he starts this test, this assurance test with, look at verse 1. Look at the end of verse 1. He says, concerning the word of life. That's where the test starts.
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Now, when he talks about the word of life, who do you think he's talking about? I'll give you a hint. We just sang a whole bunch of songs about him. Who do you think he's talking about? Go ahead and say his name. Jesus. That's who he's talking about. And here's where the test starts. Are you sure that you know Jesus? Because to be sure that you're saved, you have to be sure about the gospel. So John kicks off with five truths of the gospel that you You have to believe. These are things that, these are truths, these are convictions that true believers have. That a true believer in Christ will not waver on these convictions of the gospel. Five truths of the gospel that you must believe. Number one, write this down on your outline. It never changes. It never changes. Look at verse 1. He says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. Stop there for a second. Look at this first phrase. That which was from the beginning. The beginning of what? The beginning of what? Well, obviously in the context here, he's talking about the beginning of the incarnation of God, Jesus Christ.
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God came to the earth. Christ lived His perfect life and His teaching and the apostles' teaching and the gospel. He says the gospel has not changed. This is exactly what Jude was talking about. Jude verse 3. He says, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to, look at this, contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
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Jude says, look, you've got to fight for this. You've got to fight to maintain the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's a hill that you have to die on. Keep the gospel pure. John says, it's been this way from the beginning. We've got to fight for that church. It's never changed. It's been the same from the beginning.
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Heretics always have something new.
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Heretics always have something new.
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Like look at the Mormon church.
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It's about new revelation.
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Look at the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian science.
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About new revelation.
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Look at more modern, non-denominational churches.
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Always got something new.
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Oh, I got new revelation.
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I got this new word from God. And John's like, no, it's been the same from the beginning. These people that are like, I unlocked it. I cracked the code. There's no code. All right? It's been this way from the beginning. And people are like, hey, I discovered the secret. Have you seen these people? I discovered the secret. And it's like reading between the lines and the numbers of the verses add up to.
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John says, no, no, no, no, no. This is once and for all. There's nothing new. There's nothing new. Why are we adding stuff to it? Can somebody explain to me why we're adding stuff to it? How in the world can you dress up the gospel? Do you know what the gospel teaches? The gospel teaches that we have completely turned our backs as a human race. We have turned our backs on the God who created us. We have spit in His face, and we have said, you're not going to to tell us what to do. We're going to do what we want to do. And how did God respond to that? God responded to that by becoming a man living a sinless life on this earth to die on the cross the penalty that I deserve and that you deserve. He came to take our place and die a horrible, humiliating death. To be wrapped up and put in a grave. Oh, but that wasn't the end of the story.
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because three days later, he walks out of the grave and appears triumphant and victorious.
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And then, and then, he flies back to heaven.
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So tell me, what are we possibly adding to that to make that a better story?
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Like, why are we dressing this up?
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The gospel does not change.
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It will not change.
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And listen, I have it on perfect authority that the gospel will never change. I know for a fact that the gospel will never change. You're like, how do you know that? I'll tell you how I know that. You get to the book of Revelation that describes the last days of earth. And look at what it says in Revelation chapter 14, verse 6. John, same guy, says, I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an, see this? Eternal gospel.
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to proclaim to those who dwell on earth. See that? In the last days of the earth, he says it's still the same gospel. It's an eternal gospel. It hasn't changed. Man's condition, sin, hasn't changed. God's solution, Jesus, hasn't changed. The gospel never changes. Right? That's number one. It never changes. Five truths of the gospel you've got to get on board with. Number two, it's rooted in reality.
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It's rooted in reality. We're going to look at verse 1 again. I want you to see he keeps hammering something specific. I want you to see if you pick it up. I think it's pretty clear in the text. He said, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.
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The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. Stop there. You see, John, it is so clear in these verses, John is so obviously over the top as As emphatic as he can possibly be, he's saying this, listen, the word of life was a person. Meaning this, Jesus was not some mystical idea. Jesus wasn't some spiritual experience that somebody had. Jesus wasn't some vision that somebody had while they were sleeping. It's very clear, John's point here, is this. God literally became a man, a real flesh and blood human man.
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Do you see the verbiage he used? He goes, we heard him. We heard him teach. We've seen him. I like how he adds, with our eyes. Just to be clear, we didn't see him with like, our minds lie in a dream, blah, blah, blah. He goes, no, we saw him with our eyeballs.
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And he says, we looked upon him. Like, wait, wait. Isn't that the same as seeing him? Not exactly. I thought this was really interesting this week when I was studying. That word for looked upon in the Greek is where we get the word theater. What do you do at the theater? When you go to the movies, you sit down and what do you do? You closely, intently watch.
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You're gazing on the screen. You're watching and following and looking close. See how that's different than Saw? You can walk by and get a glimpse of something. And John's like, yeah, we did see him with our eyeballs, but we did more than that. We sat down and we watched him intently like one would watch a movie in a theater. And he says, we touched him with our hands. He wasn't a ghost like some people taught.
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this apparition. No, Jesus Christ was a man, a flesh and blood man that we touched him with our hands. You're like, okay, so you heard him, you saw him, you watched him closely, you touched Jesus Christ. What's your conclusion, John? What's your conclusion? John says, my conclusion is he's the word of life. He was with the Father. That's another way of saying he's God. He's the word of life made man of That's when something is invisible, but it's been made visible. John's like, my conclusion is this. Yeah, we spend so much time with him, and Jesus is God. That's our conclusion. You're like, all right, all right, all right. All right. You're like, Pastor Jeff, why is John so adamant in this letter to emphasize the fact that Jesus was actually a a real flesh and blood human. Why was he so adamant about that? Well, you know, there's different waves of false teaching that the church has to deal with over her history. And this particular false teaching that John was fighting head on Gnosticism. Have you ever heard of that? Ish. Even if you've never heard that word, you should be kind of familiar with it. Have you ever heard of an agnostic? Have you ever heard of that? What does an agnostic say? An agnostic says, I don't know if there is a God. Gnosticism, when you put that little A at the beginning of the word, that means not, right? So, Gnosticism is the person that says, I do know something, right? Agnostic says, I don't know.
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A Gnostic says, I do know. I know something special. I know something you don't know. I have a secret knowledge about God. And one of those things that the Gnostics thought they knew, which isn't true, but this is what they taught. The Gnostics taught this idea that matter was evil and spirit is good.
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it, smell it, hear it, like matter. That's obviously something evil, but if it's spiritual, it's good.
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You're like, all right, so maybe they believe a little different than you do, Pastor Jeff. So what's the big deal? The big deal in that belief system is found in the implications of what that teaches. Because you see, for the Gnostics, one of the implications was this.
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and John's going to address this through the letter. One of the implications was sin doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I sin. Why? Because my body's evil, matter's evil. If I sin, it's just an evil world, right? That's just what happens. It doesn't matter if I sin because all sin is done like in the flesh and matter. That's just what's going to happen. So they didn't think sin was that big of a deal. John's going to address that down the road here. But when it comes to Jesus Christ, here's the problem.
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with Gnosticism, a good spiritual God would not be able to take on flesh, they taught. Why? Well, if God's good because He's spirit, as soon as He took on flesh, that would make Him evil because matter is evil. So Gnostics taught Jesus wasn't really a flesh and blood human. He was a ghost that was walking around. He was an apparition. And understand this idea that Jesus wasn't actually a real human being.
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completely undermines the entire gospel. Because the gospel is this, God became a man to die as a man to pay the penalty for sins committed by man. So Jesus isn't some mythology. Jesus isn't some fictional character. John's making a point here to say, no, no, no, Jesus is a real historical person.
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The Gospel's rooted in reality. Believers are convinced of that. Look, we're not here to celebrate some fairy tale. We're here to celebrate the God who broke into history as a man. True believers get that and hold that conviction. Number three, truths of the Gospel. John comes right out of the gate and says, you've got to get on board with this. You've got to believe this. Number three, it's our mission to proclaim it. Look at verses 2 and 3 again. Verse 2. He says, The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
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That which we have seen and heard. Here it is again. Verse 3.
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We proclaim also to you.
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Believers get this.
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It's our mission to be a part of advancing the kingdom. In the church, in the mission field, it's our mission. Believers get that. Believers get on board with that in some way, shape, or form. Praying, giving, going. True believers are on board with the mission of Jesus Christ. That's what John here is saying. John's like, we witnessed Him. That's why we're proclaiming Him. And understand that that's really the only way The way gospel can be effective in somebody's life is if they hear it. Right? One of my favorite illustrations of that, I heard a pastor share this one time, but he said, you know, going back to the days before our technology, right? Going back before cell phones and emails and even telephones. He says, imagine that you have a death row inmate who's, going to be executed like today.
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But he has a pardon from the governor.
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The governor wrote up a pardon and it's sitting on the governor's desk.
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And the governor needs to get that pardon to the site of execution.
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Are you with me?
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This guy is going to be killed but the governor says he's pardoned.
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So the governor, again we're throwing out technology for this illustration.
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So the government actually gives the pardon to a carrier.
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a mailman. And says, hey, I need you to take this to the site of execution. This pardon will let this man go free. And he gives the pardon to the carrier. And on the way, the carrier gets distracted. And he decides to, I don't know, go to the arcade. He stops at Taco Bell, whatever.
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The Way just stops. And He never delivers the pardon. Did the pardon do the man on death row any good? No. You see, the pardon itself was great. The pardon itself was effectual. The pardon itself would have saved a man's life, but the problem was the man who was supposed to give the message failed to give the message. And if you fail to give the message, then the pardon just doesn't matter.
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See, John, he keeps saying, I proclaim this to you, I proclaim this to you.
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The true believer has that burden. The true believer has that burden to reach the lost. And I can ask you, if you're sitting here like, I don't really care. If you don't care about the lost people, I just have to ask, how can the love of God be in you?
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Because when Jesus has saved you, you know, you know, look, He saved me from hell. He saved me from my own rebellious sin. You know. Now, I've got to tell other people about this. I've got to be involved somehow in advancing this glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ. Five truths of the gospel you must believe. Number four, it results in reality.
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relationships.
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Look at the second part of verse 3.
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He says, We proclaim also to you, Look at this, So that you too may have fellowship with us.
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And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
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Fellowship.
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What is fellowship?
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I would suggest to you the word fellowship has gotten severely diluted in the church today. You know what we call fellowship? Getting together and having a potluck. And you're like, what's wrong with having a potluck? Lots of things. I don't love potlucks. I remember when I was a kid we went to the Methodist church.
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They had these potluck dinners all the time. You know what I did? The potluck dinner, you know what I did? I made sure going into it, I knew what my mom had made. And that was the only thing that I ate. Why? I don't know where this other stuff came from. I don't know. I don't know if 117-year-old Gladys had her cat sleeping in the crock pot, and then she made that nasty casserole. I don't know.
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that.
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I mean true or false?
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You're like oh.
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I guess we're not having a potluck here anytime soon.
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Oh you can.
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But I'm going to find out what Aaron made.
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But in the church world we're like that's fellowship.
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And I guess.
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I guess.
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But understand this biblically.
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is so much more than that. And it's such a hard word to really give an English equivalent. It's more than common interest. It's more than that. Like a bunch of people at a Penguins game are all hockey fans. It's more than that. The closest we can get to understanding the word fellowship is this idea of sharing.
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Versus making something one's own.
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And it goes back to what Pastor Taylor said during the Scripture reading today.
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It goes back to exactly what he said.
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To understand, yes, salvation is an individual decision.
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You're not saved because your mama or grandmama or your spouse are saved.
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You're saved when you personally, individually receive God's gift of grace in Jesus Christ. But salvation is a corporate concept biblically, right? That's what fellowship is. When we come together, like Pastor Taylor said, when we come together to sing, we're saying we are sharing all of this together. This Jesus, this salvation, this hope, we are sharing this together.
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This is something that we all have that we are sharing. John's audience that he was writing to, you know, they never met Jesus. But John says, we have fellowship together. Because of the proclamation of the gospel, they and we share this. That my relationship with God results in a unique relationship with others who also have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You know, we do membership interviews at Harvest. Part of the membership interview is, I want to hear your testimony. And if you're a true believer, you have a testimony. A testimony is just simply this. It's just simply this.
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was like before Jesus Christ. This is how I met Jesus Christ. And here is how Jesus Christ changed me. That's a testimony. Okay? But sometimes, sometimes whether it's through the membership process or baptism, sometimes we'll have people say, like, well, how did you come to know Jesus? They'll say this phrase, well, I've always been a Christian. I've always been a Christian.
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And I want to respectfully disagree with you. That's impossible. You have not always been a Christian. I mean, think about it this way. My wife, Erin, I could stand up here and I could say, I've always loved Erin. I've always loved her. But technically, that's not true. I didn't love her before I knew her. Right?
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be impossible. At some point in my life, I met her. And I fell in love with her. And I entered the covenant of marriage with her. But at some point, I had to meet her, right? And it's the same with Jesus Christ. At some point in your life, whether it was through a church or a ministry, whether it was being discipled in your home, at some point in your life, you met Jesus.
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And that resulted in a relationship with Him.
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And again, a unique relationship with others in the church.
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So true Christians, they know it.
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They live it.
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They're like, I'm not just a church goer.
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I have a relationship with God.
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And I have a relationship with the people in this room.
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Gospel results in relationships.
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And then number five, finally.
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John's like, these are things you've got to get on board with, Christians.
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If you're a Christian, you get this.
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You know this.
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This is a conviction that you refuse to let go of.
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Look at verse four.
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He says, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
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The last one.
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It changes you.
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I love that. That's how John kind of bookends this passage. He's like, the gospel never changes, but it changes you. The gospel never changes, but it changes you. This, this is a life-changing message. And somebody might want to push back on that and say, yeah, you know what, life-changing message. Yeah, you know what?
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I'm still sick.
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I still struggle with things.
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Listen.
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Life change means me change.
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Jesus doesn't always change your circumstances.
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But He always changes you.
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And look, someday Jesus is going to make everything better.
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We just sang that.
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We believe that someday all things will be made new. But for now, for sure, Jesus is making you new. He's making you better. He's turned you from a dead person into an alive person. And if your faith hasn't changed you, then your faith hasn't saved you. Because the Bible says that God indwells every believer. We just covered this.
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1 Corinthians 3.16. Remember that? That was a good day. The Bible says God indwells every believer. And don't tell me that the God of the universe takes up residence in your heart and you haven't changed. We still live in fallen flesh. It's not about perfection, but it is definitely a new direction. And John is going to address that. You know a big part of that change?
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Here's one of the biggest things that changes in a person's life when they come to Christ.
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And it's just that awesome little word.
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Joy.
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And it's not even just joy.
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He says complete joy.
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Full joy.
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Joy is more than happiness.
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Right?
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What's happiness?
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Happiness is a day at Kennywood.
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Right? Happiness is a pierogi. Happiness is puppy breath. That's happiness. True or false? True. That's happiness. Happiness is temporary. Right? It comes and goes. Joy doesn't come and go. Joy is this abiding quality.
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confidence in God's presence and His promises. That's joy. You know what, I had a horrible week, but I still have joy because I know things will not always be as they are now. Listen, my friends, if life isn't rough for you right now, just wait about 15 minutes because it will be.
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was never that Jesus is going to remove every hardship, but the promise was Jesus will be with you through every hardship.
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Knowing Jesus, really knowing the real Jesus changes you.
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John says he brings joy.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ brings complete joy.
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So this is the first test. It's a test of theology. John just simply comes out of the gate in this letter by asking, do you know the gospel? Nothing else matters if you don't. Are you sure that you know Jesus?
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team would make their way back up front and our communion servers.
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We're going to close this time around the Lord's table.
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You know, it's funny.
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I knew today we'd be talking about Jesus. So I'm like, what a great way to end a sermon by coming around the Lord's table. That makes sense, right? And then I was also thinking, well, going out of the sermon, you have to like lead into this time, right? And it just, it was amazing to me just the Word of God this week as I was sitting there thinking, all right, so what do we tell people that the Lord's Supper is about? What is this about?
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over my outline and I'm like, the Lord's Supper encompasses everything that John said in these verses. Isn't that awesome? I mean, think about this. We said the first thing about the gospel is it never changes. Do you realize this church and the church has been receiving the Lord's Supper since Jesus instituted it? That hasn't changed. This is an ordinance of God.
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that has not and will not change as long as the church is on the earth. And then we'll do it with Jesus in heaven. Then the second point rooted in reality. Thinking about that, what do we celebrate with the Lord's Supper? The body and blood of Jesus Christ. I'm like, yeah. That when we take the Lord's Supper, we're saying we believe that God became an actual man and bled and suffered and died for our sins.
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And then, okay, so the third point, you know, John was talking about proclaiming, proclaiming, and I'm like, we just studied this in 1 Corinthians, right? Chapter 11. What does Paul say we do as a church when we receive the Lord's Supper together? He says we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. And I was looking down through, we talked about relationships, we talked about fellowship. Why do we take the Lord's Supper? This is something that we take the Lord's Supper.
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something that we share as a congregation. This is something we do together. This isn't like, hey, somebody get a doggy bag and take their Lord's Supper to go and have it in the car on the way home. No, we do this together. Why? When we proclaim the Lord's death, we're saying this is we, this is us, this is a body of Christ proclamation. And then the last thing here, we talked about how the gospel changes you. That's what we say.
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Celebrate in the Lord's Supper. We're not here for empty, dead religion. We're here to celebrate the God who died for your sins, who rose from the dead, so that you could be transformed by the power of His Spirit within you. So we're celebrating the life change, the joy that comes in knowing that our best days are absolutely ahead of us. So I'm going to invite you now to please stand, and our worship team is going to play.
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God's word tells us on the night that Jesus was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it and he gave thanks. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me. After the meal, Jesus took the cup and he said, this is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin. Drink this in remembrance of me.
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Amen. Would you stand as we close in worship?

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 John 1:1-4

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why is John so adamant that Jesus was flesh and blood (1 John 1:1-3)? Why does it matter?
As compelling as the pure Gospel is, why do you think people are always changing it / adding to it?
How would you reply to someone who says, “I've always been a Christian!”?
How is joy different from happiness? How does the Gospel make for “complete joy” (1 John 1:4)?

Breakout

Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

October 4, 2026

Blessed Assurance

The Self-Deception Test

Jeff Miller

October 4, 2026

Blessed Assurance

Introduction:

Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew 7:13-14 - Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:21-23 - “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Lamentations 3:40 - Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!

1 Corinthians 11:28 - Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Galatians 6:4 - But let each one test his own work

The Test of Self-Deception:

Circle whether the statements on assurance are True or False in your life today:

There is no way I can be self-deceived.

True False

Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

I think I am a really good and important person.

True False

Galatians 6:3 - For if anyone thinks he is SOMETHING when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Sin has never really been an issue for me.

True False

1 John 1:8 - If we say we have no SIN we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

I go to church a lot, but that doesn’t really affect the way I live.

True False

James 1:22 - But be DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

The way I talk doesn’t really reflect my faith.

True False

James 1:26 - If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his TONGUE but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Corinthians 13:5

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Which of these test questions was most convicting to you?
A non-believing friend says to you, “Deep down, I am a good person.” How do you convince them they are self-deceived?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another. Are there any areas of your life that you now see you have been deceiving yourself?

Are You Sure That You Are Forgiven?

Introduction:

Forgiven People... (1 John 2:1-6)

Are You Sure that You're Not Self-Deceived?

Introduction:

3 Things Self-Deceived People Do: (1 John 1:5-10)

Are You Sure that You Know Jesus?

Introduction:

5 Truths of the Gospel You Must Believe (1 John 1:1-4)

The Self-Deception Test

Introduction:

The Test of Self-Deception:

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

Forgiven People... (1 John 2:1-6)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

3 Things Self-Deceived People Do: (1 John 1:5-10)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

5 Truths of the Gospel You Must Believe (1 John 1:1-4)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

The Test of Self-Deception: