We are continuing this study in I John under the Series titled “Living in the Light.” Week 1 we discussed how “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all,” and how you and I are to “Love one another.” Last week, the message was titled “Living in the New Name,” and today we’ve titled this message “Living in the New Name Part II.” If you remember from last week, John begins this letter by saying, “My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not . . .”
So, John is addressing these young Christians who still haven’t grown up in the Lord. John is reminding them, “Hey, you’re still in the family of God, even if you’re like children. God still loves you; He’s still chosen you; He’s still walking with you.” “My little children, I’m writing these things to you, as family members, so that you may not – what? So that you may not Sin. Why? Because sin is contrary to the nature of a person who professes to be a Christian. It contradicts the New Name we carry when we walk in sin.
Now let’s go back to chapter 1 and verse 9, where john says, “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we confess them to Him.” But listen to me, this is very important to get: God’s willingness to forgive us of our sins is not a license for you and I to sin. Remember last week we talked about those two types of sin: The sins of Omission and the sins of Commission. John is writing these young Christians and encouraging them not to MESS WITH SIN – Light has no business hanging around with darkness.
I remember a sermon I heard years ago from an old evangelist by the name of Vance Havner. I can’t remember the particular title to the sermon, or his exact wording, but it was regarding light and darkness. He said this, “If you hang around in the dark long enough, thing begin to get brighter, clearer. It is not because the darkness has gotten lighter, it’s simply that we’ve gotten used to the dark.”
So, John is not writing to give us an excuse to sin but urging us to avoid it – to “SIN NOT.” Then John goes on, “But, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” John is writing to encourage them not to sin, but when they do, WHEN YOU DO, we have an advocate with the Father.
WE HAVE HELP LIVING IN THE NEW NAME (V1 & 2)
Now why is that important? Because the Tempter, when you sin, he tries to make you think that you are no longer a part of the family; You haven’t lived up to the New Family Name, so you are no longer part of the family of God. But I am telling you Church the Devil is a liar and a deceiver, because John assured you and I that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ THE RIGHTEOUS. Listen, your earthly family may have a cut-off switch with you, but your heavenly Father does not!
- You can come to God in your anger;
- And you can come to Him in your joy;
- You can come to Him in worse moments;
- And you can come to Him in your best moments;
- You can come to Him with your biggest successes;
- And you can come to Him with your biggest failures.
As the sons and daughters of God, we don’t need someone to go to Him on our behalf, but through Jesus Christ the Righteous – we can go straight to the Father.
Then in verse 2, John says, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
This means that you and I are incapable of living up to the New Name. We are incapable of living a righteous, sin-free life – we need help – and that help is “Jesus Christ the righteous And He is the propitiation for our sin . . .” God had a plan for us and for the help that we would need Living in the Family Name!
Satan may stand as our accuser – because we sin, but Jesus stands as our Advocate – and He paid the price for that sins. So, my question to you is this: Which one do you believe? The accuser or the Advocate? Folks listen; God has more Grace than you have Sin!
I want you to picture with me standing in a court room; You are the accused, standing before God the Judge. He asked you how do you plead: You know you have sinned; you know you have failed; you know you hurt your wife or your husband; you know shouldn’t have committed that crime, or that sin; you know you gossiped about your brothers and sisters in Christ and instead of building them up, you are trying to tear them down. Simply put – YOU HAVE NOT LIVED UP TO THE FAMILY NAME. You know you are guilty. And here you are standing before God and you know you need help. Then Jesus stands up and says, “Your Honor – DAD, I am the lawyer for the accused, and I have already paid the penalty for the debt Joe owed.
It is in that very moment, when I turn to Him that paid, that He steps up to defend. That’s what it means for Him to be the Advocate and the Propitiation. He is more than my lawyer, He also paid the debt I owe.
A defense attorney tries to get your sentence reduced – But Jesus comes wipes the slate clean. WE GO FREE THROUGH MY BLOOD! Folks, that is the beauty of the Cross. He is our substitute – our Advocate.
So, child of God, stop living in shame and defeat – lift your head-up and walk tall in the New Name you have in Christ Jesus. Celebrate the Advocate Who has paid your sin-debt in full.
Since We Have Help Living in the New Name;
WE SHOULD BEHAVE LIKE A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY (V3)
“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”
Now to me, that seems pretty straight forward, doesn’t it? John is probably remembering the Last Supper, where Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” John’s not mincing words here.
The question becomes “How do you keep the commandments?” Some of you are probably thinking, “Well that’s simple – just do it.” But here’s the problem – YOU CAN’T.
I know that’s confusing, and if you are like me, you are asking the question, “If I’m supposed to just do it, but I can’t, then why am I being asked to do it?”
Because the way you go about doing it is different than every other religion. Well, I think the fact that John gave us verses 1 and 2 before verse 3 is so that we would understand the Gospel. In order to understand verse 3, we have to know what it means to be freed from the penalty of sin.
Luke 9:3 would say that we have to die to ourselves. If that is true, what has to happen for Christ to come alive in us? I think Paul would say, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Simply put, the only way we can walk in the Commandments is by surrendering our lives to Jesus. So, the way we do that is by laying down our lives on the altar, accepting Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives – thereby taking on the New Name. And the only was we can Live in the New Name is by surrendering to Christ.
Church, STOP walking out of here every Sunday thinking YOU are going to live by the Commandments, you are going to LIVE UP TO THE NEW NAME, and walk out of here yielding to Christ and being filled with his Spirit. And let me tell you this morning, the charismatics don’t have a monopoly on being Spirit filled. If you want to Live Up to the New Name, you are going to have to trust Jesus to live vicariously in and through you.
John put it this way, “HE MUST INCREASE AND I MUST??? DECREASE!” Less of me and more of Him.
Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do NOTHING.” Let me tell you what that means in Greek – NOTHING; Let me tell you what that means in Hebrew – NOTHING; Let me tell you what that means in Aramaic – NOTHING; Let me tell you what that means in French – Nothing; Let me tell you what that means in Spanish – NOTHING.” We can do NOTHING apart from Christ.
And there are just too many people in the church today trying to be SOMETHING without the Spirit of God. And it produces the fruit of what? NOTHING.
You carry a family name, so live like you are a member of the family. I saw a T-Shirt once that said this on the front: “I’m Standing on the Solid Rock.” On the back side of the shirt, it said this, “Forgive me if you had to come to the backside of the shirt to see if I were a Christian.”
We’ve been called to be illuminated by the light of Christ – to “Live in the Light.” Do you know what happens when we don’t walk in the spirit?
- We walk in the flesh;
- You say things you didn’t intend to say;
- You do things you didn’t intend to do.
Remember sin will take you further than you want to go, make you stay longer than you wanted to stay, and it will have you doing things you never saw yourself doing. How do you get out of that?
But, when we go back to remembering that we have an Advocate, and He has changed your name, He’s enabled you to walk away from sin! The problem with a lot of Christians is they are continually doing a 360 in their lives when they should be doing a 180.
You know what it means when you’ve done a 360 – it means you’ve done a complete circle and when right back to where you started. And Christ is calling us to turn from where we came from and do a 180. Paul would say we are to “Flee from sin.”
Since We Have Help Living in the New Name;
We should Behave Like a Member of the Family;
BUT WE SHOULD REALIZE OUR ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN OUR WORDS (V4)
Let me ask you, “How many of you had some New Years resolutions when you started this year, and now 7 months in, you find you failed to fulfill those resolutions?
- I intended to go to church;
- I intended to lose weight;
- I intended to work harder on my marriage;
- I intended to read my Bible more;
- I intended to pray more;
- I intended to cuss less;
- I intended to love more;
Rick Warren said, “People only believe the parts of the Bible that they actually practice.” So, if we examined your practice, what would it say about the amount of Bible you believe?
Look at verse 4 again, “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” There is no mincing of words there.
Suppose someone says they love you, but are constantly mean, abusive and even hateful to you. How much weight does their words carry if the actions contradict it?
What John is talking about here is people who constantly live their lives, day-in and day-out, contradictory to lifestyle Christ demands of our lives. They say they love Christ, but nothing in the lives reflects that.
Here’s the real problem though, we are so focused on the sins people had in their past, we WON’T LET THEM FORGET. They have come to Christ, Old things have past away and all things have become new, they are now a part of the Family of God, they’ve been given a new name. God has forgiven them of their sin – and what do we do church? We say, “Well God might have forgiven them – But I Won’t! In stead of looking at the person the are now, we keep looking back at the person they were!
Now look at verse 5:
“But whoso keepeth (OBEY) his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”
WE SHOULD OBEY BECAUSE WE LOVE (V5)
Does anyone know Why is it that I only date Kim? Some of you will say “Because it’s the Law.” And you’re right. But that’s not why I only date Kim. I only date Kim because I love her – and Tuesday will be our 20th Anniversary, and I can say without hesitation that I love her more today than I did 20 years ago.
My motive for my good actions is because of love. I am a one-woman guy because of love. Now I say all that to say this: If we are called to have only One God, why do we keep going to so many other Sudo saviors?
Listen I follow Christ, not because of obedience, or because I’m a Son of God – I walk in obedience because I love God. And the longer I serve Him, the more I love Him. I love God today more than I did 55 years ago when He saved me as a little boy in Fourth Street Baptist Church; I love Him more today than the day he called me to preach over 30 years ago. I even love Him more today than the day I did over 2 years ago when we planted Rally Point Biker Church.
Folks, if you say you are following Jesus, it is not Obedience that cause you to follow – it is Love.
You say, “Preacher why do you preach so much about love? Because listen to me, without it, we can never Live up to the Family Name.”
Let me leave you with one final thought.
WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO, DO WHAT JESUS DID (V 5, 6)
“5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
Back in the day, when I was much younger and much thinner, and even wore skinny jeans (I lied right there because we didn’t have skinny jeans back when I was young and thin). But back in the day, there was a bracelet people used to wear that had these initials on it: WWJD. Anyone know what that meant?
The principle behind it was this: before you go off and did something stupid, you are supposed to stop and ask yourself – What Would Jesus Do? When you don’t know what to do, do what Jesus did!
Conclusion: This morning, as we’ve talked about Living in the Light and Living in the New Name, maybe you’ve stumbled. Maybe you’ve failed. Maybe the weight of not living up to the ‘family name’ as a child of God has left you feeling unworthy. Hear me church—you have an Advocate. Jesus Christ the Righteous stands for you, not just to defend you, but to declare that your debt is paid in full. You don’t have to live in shame, defeat, or confusion. You can walk confidently in the New Name, not in your strength, but by surrendering to His. Today is not about doing more—it’s about trusting more.
Fighting for My Pea Patch 