"5 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. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 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. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."
There are a great many people today who claim to be born again Christians. However, admittedly, they do not go to church with any regularity, they admittedly do not pray with any regularity, they do not read their Bibles with any regularity and they do not have even a minimal structure of formal Christian belief.
Being a Christian is much more than just a claim, it is more than just having knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, it is to have personal and frequent fellowship with the One True and Living holy God. It’s easy to claim to have fellowship with Him, however, it's just as easy to be deceived. If we claim to have a genuine relationship with Christ, we must therefore, not walk in the darkness, but walk in the light, for He Himself was light and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Tragically, there are many today, whose claim to know Christ is nothing more than the peril of profession, and the danger of claiming to know a god, who doesn't exist in the biblical accounts, therefore, their knowledge is merely deceptive and their claims are false.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us what God did. But, the Apostle John, tells us who God is. John is concerned that we know, not just His works, but the very nature of God. In other words, John wants us to know who God is, not just what He has done, or even will do.
Many today, come to the Christian faith looking to have their own needs met. They are looking for God give to them something they do not have. To approach the Christian faith in that manner is to cater to our own self-centeredness. I submit to you today, that the way to be delivered from self-centeredness is to stand in the presence of the Almighty, omnipotent, Sovereign God.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we again are so grateful for Your Word for us today. Thank You for this wonderful reminder that
we are to examine ourselves, and in that examination, we ask You to reveal to us our true spiritual condition. Reveal to us if we are indeed walking in the light and demonstrating a love for the truth, or if we are only deceiving ourselves, as we continue to walk in darkness.
For those of us who claim to know Christ, if we have come to contentment with our sin, if we have abused Your grace, convict us of that now, so that we would no longer be deceived. May we then confess it, repent of it and ask that You would forgive us and remove it from us. May this be the moment when we each truly embrace Christ and plead for our salvation.
Father, I pray for those who are not covering their sin, but confessing and repenting of it, that there be a true and full cleansing. Lord, we thank You for this marvelous truth that has been brought to bear upon our hearts, for we are now responsible. I pray that You would give each of us an opportunity to go forth today, and proclaim it.
In Jesus precious name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Walking In The Light
The world in which we live, does not want to recognize the singularity of Jesus Christ as
the only Lord and Savior. It does not want to recognize that it is
guilty before God for violation of His law. It does not want us to recognize that we are sinners. Instead, they would much prefer to redefine the terms on a psychological level. People don’t want to hear about sin or a holy God who promises judgement upon sinners with His wrath. We don’t want sermons that make us uncomfortable but that make us feel better about ourselves, and our sin.
We don’t want pastors to bring up controversial issues. But to keep it positive. We would rather talk about how people are deficient, how they lack self-esteem, how they are victims of some form of abuse, some form of deprivation. Absolutely anything but a biblical diagnosis of sin. Rather than to acknowledge their, they confess they are people of bad choices, and they are being victimized as a result of those bad choices.
To define this in biblical terms, bad trees don’t bring forth good fruit. To say it another way, people make bad choices because they’re basically bad people. Who want to somehow blame the cultural influences for their choices. God has built into the design of mankind a device called a conscience. The primary function of the conscience, is to make you feel badly about your sin. That is a gift to us from God to retard the process in which you plunge into eternal destruction.
A true Christian, a true believer in Christ, has not only the right view of sin, not so much as sin categorically, but as far as sin personally. They recognize their sin as a point of shame.They understand that when you confess and forsake your sin, only then, does God grant His mercy. True Christians not only acknowledge their, but they are people who confess their sin before God. They are open and honest before God about their iniquities and seek forgiveness.
The practice of concealing sin, of covering up our sin, or redefining sin, is simply characteristic of people who do not know God! The man who covers his sin in this life heaps upon himself a severe and painful burden, from under it, he will not prosper. The man who covers his sin in this life also will have it uncovered as he stands before a holy God.
In Luke 12:2-3, Jesus said " But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops."
In other words, there is nothing, that you've ever though, said or did that won't be uncovered. In fact, there is a full, complete record of your entire sinful life written down by God in what the book of Revelation calls books. In the end, God will judge all sin because all sin is committed against Him.
We all remember king David, well, he was an excellent example of that. He was looking down from the palace, and he saw Bathsheba, and he was pleased with her. And, he decided to take her for himself. He literally broke four of the last five commandments. I'm not kidding. He broke the command not to covet, the command not to steal, the command not to commit adultery, and the command not to kill. All of that, in just one relationship! And, although he had sinned against her and sinned against her husband, his own family and sinned against the nation of Israel, remember when he repented?
Psalms 51:4, "Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge."
David recognized what many today seem to have forgotten, all sin is committed against God. I want you to understand something, which I believe is very, very important. true confession and repentance is not just admitting that you sinned. It is the acknowledgment that you sinned against God. That kind of confession that causes soul to prosper, that brings a person to true repentance and through faith to full forgiveness and blessing. True Christians confess, those who don't, cover up.
Open with me your Bibles to I John chapter 1. As we continue in our study of this wonderful epistle from the Apostle John, we come to verses 5 through 10, which is the end of this first chapter. I don't want to go back and cover a lot of of the first four verses, because if you've read I john, you'll recall he tends to circle back around many of the same truths, again and again. One thing I just love about John, is he just lays down the truth, with no exceptions and no caveats. This section by the way runs from verse 5 all the way through chapter 2 verse 1.
I would like to invite you to follow along with me as I read to you these final six verses of I John 1:5-10.
"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. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 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. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."
Verse 5, John says "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 is not sharing with us mere speculation, rather he is saying "We heard this straight from Jesus and now, we are proclaiming it to you." It was not a point of discussion, rather, it was an authoritative pronouncement from Jesus through the Apostles to the readers.
John says you can always tell a Christian by their view of Christ, their view of sin, their view of obedience. If they do not have what the Bible calls a sanctified attitude toward those things, then they’re not Christians. Regardless of what they may claim!
By the way, the word confess is the Greek word "homologéō," the word homo means the same, I'm not going to belabor this point today, however, I'm sure you think of several instances where that word is used.The word "logéō," means to mention, to tell or to say. Therefore, to confess means to say the same thing that God is saying about your sin. You’re saying the same thing about your sin God says about your sin. It's important that we don’t dodge the uncomfortable implications of what John is saying when he states the negative, "and in Him there is no darkness at all."
John wants to protect the churches in Asia Minor from destructive error, where the false teachers were presenting another Christ, and denying the true biblical doctrine of sin. There are a lot of people who claim to be in the light. The life that comes from God is that eternal life which is both true and pure.
In verse 6, he says " If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." People in the fellowship have the life of God. Anybody who walks in the darkness demonstrates that they’re not possessors of the life of God. By the way, simply claiming to possess eternal life isn’t sufficient proof. Claiming to be in the fellowship and walking in darkness indicates that liars who do not practice the truth.
Robert Schuller, in his heretical book, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, argued that classical theology erred in its insistence that theology is to be "God-centered,"not "man-centered." Further, he called for a new Reformation that puts man, not God, at the center of theology! Following his lead, other church leaders adapted the attitude of "What would you like to see in a church?" Making church a religious consumer oriented experience.
I encourage each of you to look at your own life, now, I don't want you to answer this, except between you and God, do you see eternal life manifest in the love of truth and the love of holiness in your life?
Verbal profession means absolutely nothing, we really need to learn this today in the church. A person’s verbal profession is not to be necessarily believed, but it is certainly to be tested. To better understand this, we must realize that John is writing against the false claims of the false teachers, whose claims were introduced by the phrase, "If we say…" John says that they lied, their lives did not back up their claims.
John goes on to say in verse 7, "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."
Since to walk in the light involves confessing our sins, to walk in the darkness then means denying our sins. "To walk" refers to the general tenor or attitude of one’s life. Walking in darkness means to live as the world lives, rather than in the light of God’s holiness, as revealed in His Word.
In verse 8, John is very back and white, when he says "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us."
The beginning to truly understanding sin is by understanding the nature of God. The natural man understands not the things of God. He cannot comprehend it. Even though they may have Bibles, they may have theology books, they may have gone to seminary, they don't understand it. Furthermore, they do not obey it. Many today, claim to have achieved a state of sinless perfection, not to have a sin nature. John says, "Wake up! You’re only deceiving yourselves!" Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness. Anyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not of God.
That bring us to verse 9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Many church leaders today, attempt redefine sin to mean something other than what God's Word declares. The Bible says that sin as rebellion against God. It is saying that I am not willing to allow God’s Word to confront my sinful thoughts, attitudes, motives, words, and deeds. A true Christian can never walk in darkness because we are in Christ. I'm not saying that we never sin, because we do. Though we may occasionally do the deeds of darkness, but we don’t walk in the darkness. If we do the deeds of darkness, we do them in the light of God and they are revealed. Our lives are characterized by a manifestation of God’s life and holiness and truth.
Walking in the light is not a description of spiritual class, it is rather a description of all true believers. Walking in the light, is to live openly before God, pursuing holiness and righteousness and hating sin.
John closes this chapter with verse 10, in which he says "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us." Though people may claim to have eternal life, they blaspheme, therefore they are a liar. John was speaking specifically to people who were doing just that. Though they claimed to be connected to God, they failed the test of repentance. There is the absence of eternal life. If you have received Jesus Christ as manifest by the fact that you live out that eternal life which is in you.
As long as I live in this earthly tent, I will sin. However, sin for the true believer never alters the fellowship because it is continually being cleansed. Christ released us from the penalty of our sins by His blood, by His sacrificial death. If we have come to Christ, and truly embraced Him, we are being continually cleansed. Therefore, nothing can come between me and God. The blood of Jesus cleanses us of all sin! No sin in the life of a believer ever goes uncleansed.
Paul said in Romans 8, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
However, if you dodge your sin, by blaming others or making up excuses for why you sin, there are no two ways about it, you are walking in darkness. It is important to understand, that John is not talking about a carnal Christian, he is talking about an unbeliever, regardless of what they claim. Because if you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, then you had ought to walk as He Himself walked.
I want to make something clear as we close, forgiveness and cleansing are somewhat overlapping, however,
forgiveness relates to the guilt of sin being pardoned, whereas
cleansing points to the defilement of sin being removed. The forgiven
person does not need to fear God’s judgment. The cleansed person is free to draw near to God in worship, because the defilement of sin has been taken away. The Bible clearly teaches that as Christians, we are forgiven totally at the point of salvation, this includes all future sins.
To help you better understand this, at the time Jesus went to the cross, how many sins had you committed? Of course, none, you were not yet born. Therefore, all of your sins were future. And at the point of salvation, your sin, past, present and future were forgiven and paid for.
In Closing..
God is light, and He grants that light to us, but it is conveyed to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the light shines from God through Christ to us.
The ongoing confession of sin and the experience of forgiveness and cleansing characterize those who walk in the light.
Paul said in II Corinthians 4:3-6, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
Unfortunately, it has become far too easy for so called Christians to put on a religious veneer by claiming that they have
fellowship with God, when really, they’re walking in the darkness and
deceiving themselves.
It’s only because of His light that we see light, it is only because of His light that we see light.
That light equates with life. It is only because of God that we have life. Life and light are linked together.
John said in John 1:5, "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
Walking in the light means to accept responsibility for our sin and to turn from it. God
promises us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive and cleanse us.
I leave you with the verse in which we began, "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."
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2021 All Rights Reserved