1 John 1:6–10 - Experiencing Freedom from Sin & Suffering

Introduction: The Rare Breed of Midweekers

It is just as awkward for me as it may be for you guys to have me standing up here. How is it going? Midweekers, this is exciting for me. I have actually never preached at Midweek before. I feel like you guys are a rare breed. If I see someone out in the world and they say, “Oh, we go to Midweek,” I feel like I’ve spotted a rare species. “Oh, we saw one!” It’s exciting, and I’m glad you guys are here.

I just spent all of last week in Chicago with about fifteen high schoolers, sleeping on the floor of a church with a bunch of farty boys. My back hurts, but my heart is full, and I am happy to be with you guys now.

If you can, open your Bibles. We are going to be primarily in the book of 1 John, in the first chapter, verses five through ten. We will skip a few rocks through the New Testament to provide some overview. If you are a “Well person,” you are used to the way we preach: we take a scripture and a text, we walk through it, and we let the Lord speak to us through that. We are going to do that today, but through this series, we are also trying to understand the foundation of these different practices we are exploring this summer. So, allow me a little bit of grace to skip some rocks as we do this together.

Today, I am talking about the foundational principle of ongoing freedom. I have to tell you, there is a fear in me that wells up when I am assigned a text like this. I feel like, shouldn’t the guy preaching this be the guy who has everything figured out? I don’t want you to think that I feel like I have it all together, or that I am completely free and sinless. That is not who I am, because that is not who anyone in this room is.

This message is essentially about how we come to grips with that reality. How do we admit it? And then, how do we refuse to provide a foothold for the enemy in our lives by admitting those things? We are all in process. That is what the first four weeks of this series have been about. We talk about embracing the Gospel at a point in time, giving your heart over to Christ, and there are things He will take away from you—strongholds and sins He will remove. But then there are things that linger. That is why we need to continue to embrace the Gospel over time. That story plays out as we tell others about the goodness of God’s grace, and then we do that in community. What we are talking about today is an encapsulation of all those things moving forward together. Freedom is found in all of them.

The Mission of Freedom

I think looking at Luke chapter four is important because it marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. As my friend Jib says, this is the “title to His book.” What does He name it? I think we will see that the title is Freedom and Those Who Need It. Jesus walks in front of a congregation of His Jewish brothers, reads from the scroll of Isaiah, and says that the Spirit of the Lord has anointed Him to preach the Gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and to set free those who are oppressed.

Luke 4:18-19 (NASB)

‘THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.’

He is not just talking about physical chains; He is talking about the spiritual oppression of sin and death and the havoc those things wreak in our lives. This is the foundation of Jesus’ entire ministry.

Now, you might say to me, “Look, bro, this last Sunday I really expressed my freedom by lighting things on fire, eating too much, and screaming ‘America!’ at the top of my lungs.” Most of us in here are red-blooded Americans, and we understand freedom—or at least we think we do. We’re all about it, we all want it, and we express it in our own ways.

I have this vivid memory of my uncle. My whole family are “Okies.” My grandma owned a house near this old airstrip—not a real airport, just a field in Oklahoma that some people mowed so they could fly their planes. It was the late nineties, and my uncle was out there wearing a Looney Tunes shirt tucked into jean shorts with New Balances. He had a koozie with a clip and a beer in it clipped to his belt loop, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and two Roman candles in his hands—because apparently, that’s not illegal there. Oklahoma is the real land of the free. He was holding those Roman candles, yelling “Freedom!” like William Wallace in Braveheart. I remember thinking, “Is this the guy? Is this my hero?” Because at that moment, I thought I was seeing the freest man I had ever seen.

We strive for this. Our country is built on this. But most people think freedom is being able to do whatever you want. That’s not even true in our country. The freedom we express is actually the freedom of choice. You can hurt someone, but there are consequences. You can worship whatever god you want. That is what makes our country great: the freedom of choice.

The Already but Not Yet

This is true biblically as well. We accept Jesus at a point in time, we are made a new creation, and the shackles of sin and death are broken. Now we have the power to choose life over death. We have been freed from slavery to sin, but we still have the power to choose sin. That is the tension we live in. We are kingdom people stuck in the “already but not yet.” Jesus declared the kingdom is here, but it is only fully realized where He reigns in the hearts of His people.

We have given our lives to Jesus, but we still battle the flesh. We say, “I’ve given my life to Christ, but…” There are these “buts.” But I deal with bitterness that haunts my soul. But I deal with control that makes me unlivable. But I deal with substance abuse, jealousy, anxiety, depression, sexual immorality, or pride. The list of things that creep back in goes on and on. The Bible calls this the “old self.” I picture it like the guy at the party that is over, but he’s still hanging out and you’re wondering, “When is this guy going to leave?” We call it the flesh.

Romans 13:12-14 (NASB)

The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to [its] lusts.

Christ has set us free, but we still fall into habits that do not look like abundant life. How do we fight these battles? It is often Satan’s goal to ensnare and destroy the ministry of the believer by making us believe these lingering sin issues will never go away. The Bible calls these cracks in our line of defense “strongholds.” Satan uses those soft spots to neuter our effectiveness.

1 Peter 5:8 (NASB)

Be of sober [spirit], be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

I have to be honest with you about my story to demonstrate how this works. Prepare your hearts, clutch your pearls, do whatever you need to do. I have experienced these strongholds for years. I remember standing right here doing my Regen commencement on a Monday night, saying, “My name is Jordan Hogue, and I have a new life in Christ. God is recovering me from a pornography addiction, an addiction to food, and from pride and anger.” I said that in front of a room even more packed than this one. I didn’t know if people would think less of me, but I wholeheartedly believe that God’s power is made perfect in my weakness.

God is Light: Illumination and Purification

In this passage in 1 John, it’s not necessarily about the why; it’s about the how we battle these things. John tells us we need to admit it to ourselves, to God, and to each other. We have to walk in the light with Jesus. The irony of freedom is that true freedom only comes in death and union with God. This mortal body will continue to decay, and we will walk our whole lives moving from one battle to the next. The freedom you find is a nearness to Jesus, not necessarily a sinless life.

1 John 1:5 (NASB)

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

John starts with this theological statement: God is light. Light does two things: it illuminates and it purifies. Our proximity to the light is so important. Being close to God reveals the places in us that need refining—what the church has called “sanctification.”

My mom and dad have those old incandescent bulbs in their house. My house is all LED, but my dad is stubborn and thinks the old light is better. My son is two and a half, and he is like a fly to a light trap. If he is quiet in the other room, I know he’s doing something bad. Usually, by the time I get to him, I hear an “Ouch!” because he’s grabbed one of those hot bulbs.

When I was a kid, I had one of those lamps that clicked onto your headboard. It fell onto my pillow while I was reading and started smoking. My mom walked in and thought I was smoking or had lit a fire. I told her, “Don’t get mad at me! I almost died! I’m traumatized!” But we understand what it means to get close to the heat. There is a revelation of what is there, but also a burning off of what doesn’t belong. That is the purification of the light of God.

Practicing the Truth

John turns from this truth to the implications in verse six.

1 John 1:6 (NASB)

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and [yet] walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

Years ago, I sat in the driveway of our home and confessed to my wife. I told her, “I’ve been hiding my pornography addiction and my food addiction, and I haven’t been honest with you. It is tearing me apart.” I was young in ministry and hadn’t processed a lot of hurt and trauma in my life, and that hurt had to find its way out somehow.

I know some of you might think that sounds extreme, but please don’t think, “I’m glad I’m not that guy.” Sin is present in all our lives. It wells up in different ways, but it has the same root in every person in this room. As I sat in my shame, the reason I finally spoke up was because as I grew closer to God, the weight of the hiding became unbearable. I felt like a fraud because I was talking about the truth, but I wasn’t practicing it.

Notice John doesn’t say “agreeing” to the truth; he says “practice.” We often think being a Christian just means agreeing to certain facts. But my fear is that we are in danger of knowing about God without actually knowing God. You might be able to recite all the catechisms and reformed theology but never really know the Author. The truth of the Gospel is too radical to just sit in your brain; it has to trickle down to your heart and affect your actions.

Sin thrives in the darkness. It’s like a worm on a rainy day that thrives on the sidewalk, but as soon as the sun hits it, it shrivels up. I am an expert at hide and seek. One time at camp, they had to call my parents because they thought they lost me, but I was just sitting in a tree for hours thinking, “I’m winning.” We do that with our brokenness. We are afraid to admit it. But the enemy wants you to hide. He wants you to believe that abundant life isn’t possible for you.

John 10:10 (NASB)

’The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.

The Beauty of a Grace-Aware Life

But here is the good news. Look at verse seven and verse nine.

1 John 1:7 (NASB)

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:9 (NASB)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John Newton, the man who wrote “Amazing Grace,” wrote a letter when he was eighty-three years old. He confessed to a friend that he thought by that age his struggle with temptation would be gone, but it felt as strong as ever. He came to a conclusion that I have written in the cover of every journal I’ve owned: “We think growing in grace means getting to a place where we don’t need grace anymore, but growing in grace often means growing in our awareness of our need for God’s grace.”

Friends, that is good news. When we walk in the light, two things happen. First, we gain a community of commonality. When you admit your brokenness, you find deep, abiding community. In the student world, I see it all the time. When one person has the courage to be honest and let the light shine, others in the circle start saying, “Me too. Actually, me too.”

It is exhausting to act perfect. It crushes us to keep up with the Joneses and act like we have it all together. It’s a lie. I remember sitting in a Regen room in a circle of men, and I thought, “Can’t the church just look like this?” We were all dealing with different stuff, but we had the same root problem—sin—and the same solution—Jesus.

I saw a lady wearing a shirt the other day that said, “Too Blessed to be Stressed.” I don’t want to judge her; maybe she was having a great day. But I hate that shirt. A more honest shirt would say, “I’m stressed, and that stress has sent me to the cross where I find true freedom.” It is so frustrating that the church is often the place where people feel they have to put a mask on. If we truly believed the Gospel—that we are all broken and cannot save ourselves—we would just look at each other and say, “Oh, you too? Me too.”

The second thing that happens in the light is that Jesus dispenses grace. He says “walk in the light,” not “according to the light.” That is about proximity. It’s not about how perfectly you match Jesus, because you can’t. It’s about running to Him when you stumble. God’s priority is us being with Jesus, not just doing things for Him. Doing should flow from being.

The Superpower of Vulnerability

John returns to the negative in verses eight and ten because he is pleading with us to stop lying.

1 John 1:8 (NASB)

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:10 (NASB)

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

Lying to yourself is a sin. You won’t solve your own problems. You’ll just get stuck on a “try hard, do good, fail” treadmill of death. My Meemaw used to say, “Explanations are not excuses, boy.” Admitting we have sin is not a license to sin.

1 John 2:1 (NASB)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

Admitting, repenting, and walking in the light is actually how you battle sin. The kingdom is upside down. Our admittance of sin is what gives us the power to lay those things at the foot of the cross and walk away.

Three Solutions for the Way Forward

Our problem is that we lie to ourselves, we hide our sin, and we break fellowship with God and others. But God has provided solutions.

The first is to Admit. If we were honest about our brokenness, the world wouldn’t call us hypocrites; they would call us honest. Everyone has something. Maybe yours isn’t pornography; maybe it’s pride or bitterness toward your spouse. Admit it to yourself, admit it to God (He already sees it), and admit it to each other. Vulnerability is our superpower.

The second is Repentance. This is a military term meaning an “about face.” It means identifying the roots—like my fear of man and desire to please people—and turning away from those things toward Jesus. Confession without change is just saying “I suck.” We want more than that.

The third is to Walk in the light with Jesus. If you are just trying to rail against sin, you won’t win. You have to run to a loving Savior. Run to a Father who doesn’t stand over you in condemnation, but with open arms. He is not afraid of you, and He is not angry at you. While we were still sinners, He died for us.

If there is one thing you go away with today, find someone to share your stuff with. Let them bear that burden with you.

Prayer

Lord, I pray that we could believe in the abundant life You give. I pray we would seek You with all our hearts and run to You as a loving Father. Reassure our hearts that it is the best thing for us to let others into our pain, our grief, and our sin. God, I pray for courage for those in this room who feel guilt—turn that into joy. For those who feel anger at their own actions, make that into something beautiful. Help us grow closer to You. We pray this in Your name, Jesus. Amen.