DON'T Obey 1 John 1:9

Do not obey 1 John 1:9, it cannot help you.
1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Some have asked us, Do I have to confess my sins to go to heaven?
And they're surprised when they learn that neither John or anyone in his audience was ever concerned with going to heaven.
See, John was an apostle of the circumcision, and those who were saved by his gospel, they are awaiting their restored earthly kingdom, Acts 1:6.
Their eternal destiny is not heaven.
It's a popular teaching, but it's not true.
Going to heavenly places is Paul's gospel, his gospel to us.
But for John, Peter, James, and all the apostles of the circumcision, they're looking forward to reigning in their earthly kingdom, sitting on twelve thrones and ruling over the twelve tribes of Israel.
No one outside of Paul's epistles are destined for heaven.
When reading 1 John 1:9, don't miss this important point, who is being addressed? Whose John's audience?
For much too long, Christianity has suffered from a broken system, one that can only be put back together by rightly dividing the word of truth.
The books Hebrews through Revelation, which would include 1, 2, & 3 John,
they were for the circumcision, and they correlate with early Acts where Peter is addressing, Ye men of Israel.
As we've been discussing for several weeks now, John never penned a word to you.
In John 4:22, he penned the words of Jesus saying, Salvation is of the Jews.
And in Galatians 2 verses 7 through 9, Paul said that John, he preached the gospel of the circumcision, so John's gospel, see, this is what you need to understand, it's not only to the circumcision, but of the circumcision.
It's a different gospel.
1 John 1:9 is forgiveness based on the if-then policy.
It's conditional upon them doing something for it, but our forgiveness, our forgiveness today is based on the blood of Christ.
For us in this dispensation, it's as if God, he had a legal pad, and after the perfect sacrifice of Jesus was made, he goes and takes out his pad, stamps paid in full, and paid in full, my friends, that means you and I can rest.
Paid in full.
If I were to draw you a chart, I might put parentheses around the 13 books, Romans through Philemon, the 13 books of Paul.
Those books are both to and for you.
That's where you find the gospel of your salvation, instructions for your worthy walk, and about your inheritance, and future destination, and so forth.
But 1 John, hey, that's outside those parentheses, it's a Hebrew epistle aimed at Hebrew people.
It reflects the Romans 15:8 ministry of Christ to the circumcision under the law, but it does not, now listen, it does not reflect Christ through Paul in this dispensation of grace.
We're the uncircumcision, not circumcision, and our gospel says God, 2 Corinthians 5:19, he stopped imputing the sins that John's audience had to
1 John 1:9 confess.
Man, this is good news.
As recipients of God's grace, 1 John 1:9 just can't be our mail.
Here we have one of the most popular verses among twistiantity, and it directly contradicts what Paul tells us.
Paul never gave a to-do list of how to get our sins forgiven.
Confessing to get forgiveness was a national plea to Israel.
But people use it, they use it as their mediator, and they've literally replaced Jesus with their own confession of sins.
They replaced the 1 Timothy 2:5, Christ Jesus, who is the only mediator between God and man.
With words, they replaced it with words that come from their mouth.
The problem we're faced with is some say they believe the gospel, but never really did.
Because believin' 1 Corinthians 15 1 through 4 plus 1 John 1:9, that's not believin' the gospel.
Ephesians 2:8 and 9 is not a difficult passage, For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For by grace are you saved.
Now, how do you square 1 John 1:9 with that?
Can't do it.
Grace means unearned, 1 John 1:9 is a way of earning it.
For by grace are you saved and that not of yourselves.
Put that up against 1 John 1:9 and ask the question, is confessing my sins of myself?
Of course.
It's yourself doing the confessing.
Surely you see the contradiction here.
But some, hey, they stay busy confessing their sins while on their way to hell.
You cannot reconcile 1 John 1:9 with Paul unless you understand how to rightly divide the word of truth.
Without rightly dividing the gospel of your salvation from the gospel not of your salvation, you'll remain lost and without hope.
We're always amazed at just how many who claim they believe their Bible, but when put to the test, they do not.
Case in point, let's look here at 1 John chapter 2.
We were there in chapter 1, let's go to 2, we'll come back, but 1 John chapter 2, and let's look at verse 3, And hereby, we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
Does that line up with your relationship with God?
We know we know him if we keep his commandments?
Really.
I know I know him because after hearing the gospel of my salvation, I trusted Christ by believing it, Ephesians 1:13.
Some make the claim that John taught Paul's gospel of grace, but he did not.
And it's evident if you just believe the words on the page.
Now don't pull the alarm chain and step off the train just yet, stay on board for the rest of the ride.
We're just getting started.
1 John chapter 2 verse 3.
1 John 2:3 here is just one chapter after 1 John 1:9 is it not?
The same book.
So, if you've chosen to follow 1 John 1:9, then surely you're a commandment keeper also, right?
Or is 1 John 1:9 okay for you, but yeah, you choose to disobey this one.
Well, God doesn't allow cherry picking.
He allows rightly dividing, but not cherry picking.
Not one member of the circumcision here in 1 John would think that Paul's Romans 6:14 words where he said, You're not under the law, but under grace, they would never think that that was written for them.
Not a chance, because they were under the law.
We just demonstrated that in 1 John 2:3, and now all we have to do is keep reading.
Go to 1 John chapter 3.
Look there, get with me, verse 4, here we see the words, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.
Sound like a grace preacher to you? No.
Not one person in John's audience was in the body of Christ, resting in their eternal security, havin' been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and waiting to go to heaven.
They operated on probation, not salvation.
Matthew 24, He that endures to the end shall be saved, remember?
When you're ready to stop playing games with the verses, the truth is not hard to locate.
Okay, while here, while here in chapter 3, let's keep it moving, verse 22.
Drop down, and here we see, And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,...
This is conditional.
This is not grace, this is a conditional system, if we keep, if we do.
This is more law for you.
They were under the law, you are not.
The book of 1 John never had you in mind, and is why the verse doesn't work for you.
This is a covenantal law verse, not a dispensation of grace verse. Ephesians 3:2, If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to youward,...
No Paul, most haven't.
Think of the words you just read, If whatsoever we ask, we receive of him.
If that were operating today, why is St. Jude's and Schreiner's hospital packed with sick and dying children?
If whatsoever ask you receive is to you, then why do we have global hunger?
Or did you forget about that?
Maybe that one slips your mind when you pray.
Maybe it doesn't fit between all those personal prayers you're praying for yourself.
Or, maybe this verse just plain out don't work today.
Some of you are in those 1 John 1:9-er churches, and you need to get closure on this today.
2 Corinthians 5:21, we're all familiar with this one, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Now ask yourself, come on, if I'm the righteousness of God in him, why would I be confessing my sins?
If your sins aren't on God's mind, why are they on yours?
Satan wants to keep you sin-conscious, but God says, We're accepted in the beloved, Ephesians 1:6, complete in Christ, Colossians 2:10.
So, if we're complete in him already, if we're complete in him and already accepted, why would we confess our sins?
Limited forgivers teach a very blurry view of forgiveness, which makes the cross of Christ of none effect.
Let me give you a bit of hard truth, hope you can digest it.
If instead of trusting the cross of Christ, you're depending on 1 John 1:9 to forgive your sins, your next stop is hell.
God reserved a special place for you that will one day be thrown into a lake of fire, a place where you can roommate with Satan.
1 John 1:9 does nothing but place you in mind bondage.
That's all it does.
It does nothing but keep you stuck right there on the wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
So, make sure you bring plenty of soap.
It has you keeping short sin accounts with God, even though 2 Corinthians 5:19 says there's no sins in your account.
Confessing sins for forgiveness was written to Israel concerning their mutual covenant agreement of doing, that they had with God.
If they did, he did.
That's how it worked.
Popular preaching won't tell you this, but we will, and we'll use God's word to prove it.
It's all the proof we need.
You want more evidence?
Leviticus chapter 26 verse 40, If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, immediately we see confession, a match with 1 John 1:9.
Why?
Because confessing for forgiveness is always about Israel.
John may be in the New Testament of your Bible, but it matches their Old Testament doctrine.
Let's keep reading, With their trespass, which they've trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me, and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies.
If then, now watch, here's their if-then-covenant language, the mutual covenant of doing between both God and Israel, not you.
You've never been under a covenant a day of your life.
Keep reading, If then, their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then... here's your timeline, ...then will I remember my covenant with Jacob.
Ah, this sounds familiar, right?
Sounds like Jeremiah 31, does it not?
There when Jeremiah wrote, This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
Also sounds like Peter over there in Acts 3:19, Repent and be converted so that your sins can be blotted out when the Lord returns.
Confessing sins was for the nation Israel and never meant for us.
Confessing sins today only undermines the good news that Paul revealed.
Now, grab Nehemiah 1, Nehemiah chapter 1, these are all verses here, all verses we're going over that were to the children of Israel, verses outside of the grace parentheses of Romans through Philemon.
They match 1 John 1:9, but they do not match your gospel found in Paul's letters of Romans through Philemon.
That's where your instructions are located.
Okay, Nehemiah 1, and notice here in verse 6, Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of the servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess,... here we go again, ...confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned.
Amazing what a little study does.
When we apply ourselves instead of relying on others to do the work for us. Okay, let's continue, Psalm chapter 32 verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sins. Selah.
How did David get his sins forgiven?
Oh, just like us, Trey.
Everyone in the Bible is saved the same way.
Everyone in the Old Testament was looking forward to the cross.
Wrong.
Just believe the Bible, and stop trying to read what was only later revealed to Paul back into what David believed.
David's gospel wasn't Paul's gospel, and yes, there's more than one gospel in your Bible.
OK, Psalm 51.
Here's more from king David.
This is his prayer.
Verse 1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Blot out my transgressions?
You know what that should sound like to you?
Foreign language.
If you've been hearing correct teaching, that is, this isn't your mail.
Your mail says, Did you hear about the cross of Christ?
Your mail says, Did you know that God stopped imputing your sins?
But for David, oh no, different administration means different data.
His news isn't your news.
Verse 2, Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Sounds like 1 John.
All David knew was the wash, rinse, repeat cycle, the one that God designed for him.
What about Job?
What does, what does he have to say about all of this?
Job 33 verse 27, He looketh upon men, and if,... oh, there's, there's, here's the condition again, ...if any say, I have sinned,... there's the 1 John 1:9 confession, ...and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
See where we're going with this?
Outside of our dispensation of grace, forgiveness was never solely based on the shed blood of Jesus.
It was conditional, and only an unbeliever of God's infallible word would argue against this.
Mark 1:5, And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, doing what?
Confessing their sins.
The 1 John 1:9 pattern is found in multiple places in your Bible, but missing from all 13 epistles of Paul.
And that, that is why what Paul wrote is called the dispensation of the grace of God.
That's why you don't see that language anywhere else in scripture.
Oh, they found grace, a little here, a little there, but they were never totally saturated with the dispensation of grace, good news that you and I have today.
Grace means forgiveness is unconditional and unearned, but for Israel it was conditional and earned.
But we're under a different administration with a different economy, and in not one place does Paul tell us to confess our sins to get them forgiven, as if forgiveness is still yet in future.
I can't begin to count how many times over the years that we've encountered a limited forgiver who had never heard this good news.
Partial blame, of course, goes to the Catholics.
They went to the wrong mailbox, took mail that was addressed to the children of Israel, and called it a sacrament of confession.
Then came along the Protestants, not wanting to be left out, you know.
They lined up like Pavlov's dogs and got a few pieces of stolen mail for themselves.
Let's take a quick look here at a verse in Leviticus chapter 5.
Leviticus was written to who?
The Levitical priesthood.
To the Levitical priesthood of Israel, and not Father O'Connor over there at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.
Okay, Leviticus chapter 5 verse 5, And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing.
Confess to who?
The Levite priest.
This was a verbal confession that was mandatory, not optional.
The priest acted as a mediator to facilitate forgiveness.
After hearing the confession, he would decide which procedure needed to be taken.
You can go and read Leviticus chapter 4 to see all the nuances of this.
But this practice, this practice of confessing to the Levitical priesthood carried over to the 12 apostles.
In John 20 verse 23, we see Jesus telling them, Whosoever sins you remit, they're remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained.
Are you beginning to see how all this started?
Where the Catholics got it?
Where the Protestants got it?
It shouldn't really be a secret as to why we see so much confusion today.
If you fail to divide Israel's prophecy from Paul's mystery, you're bound to be confused into thinking that confessing of sins is needed for forgiveness.
The confusion comes from either thinking you're old covenant Israel or new covenant Israel, and that confusion will remain until you come to see that you're neither.
You're not either or, but rather neither nor.
You're not old covenant Israel.
You're not new covenant Israel.
You're the one new man, the new creature church, which is his body.
Rightly dividing the word of truth will change your perspective on forgiveness, but it won't happen until you allow Paul to be your apostle.
Romans 11:13 and Galatians 2:7, to allow him to be who Christ called him to be.
Acts chapter 9 verse 15.
How do we as believers?
How do we?
This could be a question so let's address it.
How do we as believers deal with our sin?
We flee from it.
2 Timothy 2:22.
Sin is not becoming for a saint of God, Ephesians 5:3.
So, we deal with it.
Instead of confessing it over and over and asking for forgiveness, we just stop and deal with it.
And we thank God for having forgiven us all sins.
But confessing for forgiveness of sins that are already forgiven is a waste of time.
And time is a valuable commodity.
We should be redeeming the time because the days are evil.
We're not to be unwise, but to understand what the will of God is.
That's how to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.
We're not beggars in need of forgiveness.
As recipients of God's grace, we're not called to live beggarly lifestyles.
We're not called to make confession for forgiveness a part of our daily practice.
We're called to rest in the forgiveness already granted.
And accepting the grace-based finished crosswork will allow you to do just that.
God's not forgiving us according to some installment plan.
1 John 1:9 is not a bar of soap.
We're not in the wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
We're on this side of the cross where God declared that he stopped counting sins.
Unlike James, Peter, John, or the Old Testament saints, we're recipients of God's dispensation of grace.
We operate in step with a different economy.
If he were keeping a record of our sins, then Christ's sacrificial death was of none affect.
It was in vain.
Romans 5:13, For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
You know what that means in the Greek?
Same thing it means in English.
We're not under the law, so sin is not imputed when there is no law.
So, next time you feel the need to look up to the sky or your bedroom ceiling and ask God to forgive you, I want you to stop and think first.
Ask yourself, which non-imputed sin am I asking God to forgive?
If God stopped imputing sins, no one needs forgiveness.
What they need is eternal life.
What they need is to hear the good news of how Christ died for those sins that they're getting ready to ask forgiveness for.
We taught a message around 2012 called, 1 John 1:9 is not your bar of soap.
And today, here in 2026, we still stand on that.
Nothing's changed.
The blood took away your sins, he died, he was buried, and he has risen.
Stop wrestling with your sins and rest in that good news.
Trust him, believe on him, and just rest.
Grace and Peace.