1st John 1:5-7
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness
at all. If we say that we have fellowship with
him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is
in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1st John
1:5-7, KJV)
“We’re
in 1st John, as you remember last week as we got
started, he [John] knew Jesus in a very personal way, in
such a way that he wants to address false teaching—Gnosticism,
those types of teachings. As
we continue now, he gets very practical. As
we noted in our last week’s study, and this book certainly
makes things clear, draws a clear line in the sand, certainly
a book of absolutes. I think it’s great, it’s
something that encourages us and motivates us as Christians. But
also if we are deceiving ourselves, not really true Christians,
it is a book that certainly can get our attention too…Certainly
the words that you and I speak, the things that we say are
important. But as we’re going to be reminded
too as we go through this epistle in the last part of the
first chapter, what we do is
even more important. That
principle is carried on in other parts of the Bible too. It
is true, that what we speak and what we say can at times
be even contradicted, even nullified by the things that we
do. So there’s that quote that’s
often said,
“What we do speaks louder than what we say”,
no doubt about it. So therefore, as we will be reminded this
morning, our actions need to be in line with what we say. That’s for sure. Now this principle of our actions speaking
louder than our words will be seen in this part of this text
at the end of 1st John chapter 1, but he’ll
also remind us, that was even more important, that’s
more important than what I say and what I do is what God
says. That’s of most importance, what
God says. What
God says stands true regardless of what I say, regardless
of what I do, what he says is true and it doesn’t change. Now
in these last five verses we’re going to look at today,
but we’re also going to look at them next week, we’ll
see that a person’s speech is referenced at least six
times, using various verbs. Words
such as “declare”,
“say”, “lie” and to “confess”. So
“speaking” is certainly a theme. There’s
an important emphasis on it in these verses. We’ll
see that too in chapter 2 as we get into that the week after
next. But also
we’ll see that there’s multiple references to
a person’s actions. Word’s
such as “walk”, “practice”, “deceit”. So it’s very evident that “walk”,
a person’s
“walk” an important theme on this passage too. Now
in referring to a person’s walk or lifestyle,
John will also compare it or at least contrast it to light
and darkness, the difference between light and darkness,
he’ll compare our walk to that. That a person’s lifestyle is either
referred to as walking in darkness or walking in the light. And furthermore, John especially wants
you and I to understand as we study this letter together,
especially here at the beginning, is that the reality of
a person’s walk, whether it is in the light or in the
darkness, will also have an effect on their ability to walk
with God—their relationship with God, their intimacy
with God. And this is because as John will tell
us this morning, “God is light, and in him is no darkness
at all.” So as we begin and read these verses,
let us also be reminded of Paul’s words to the church
in Ephesus. “Therefore be imitators of God as
dear children. For
you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk
as children of the light.”
Beginning
with verses 5-7, “This
is the message we have heard from him and declare to you,
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth. But
if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses
us from all sin.” Now
in order to simplify our study through these verses for the
next two weeks, I’ve basically laid out a simple outline. And
here’s the five points, just a way for me to order
my thoughts, and a way for you maybe to bring to remembrance
some of the points that we’ll make.
First point:
What John says.
Second point:
What our life says.
Third point:
What someone deceived says.
Fourth point:
What someone cleansed says.
And the last
point: What God says.
So
our first point, what John says. John
explains here in verse 5, what he now says is what Jesus
said to him. He’s just repeating what he heard
from Jesus. Jesus
has told him certain things. When
he was with Jesus he heard him teach certain things. So
now he’s declaring, what he’s saying from this
point on is exactly what God, Jesus Christ told him. Now
also he uses the pronoun “we”, so when he says
himself, he also includes the other disciples,
“what we heard.” So
the disciples, “these are the things that we have
heard…and now this is what I declare to you” the
reader, you and I this morning.
God is light…how we achieve
joy
Now
what is the truth that John is now saying that he first heard
Jesus share with him? The
truth, verse 5, that he says is “that
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Now
if you remember in our study last week, at the end of the
passage, verse 4, John says that he writes with a purpose. The
first purpose is that ‘your joy and my joy may be full.’ He immediately now begins with his message,
and this message, when we internalize this, when we understand
this, it will produce this life of the fullness of joy in
you and I. And I’m sure all of us want that
experience more in our lives. So
may the Lord open our eyes to this truth, this truth that
God is light. But what is so important about this truth,
that he would say “I write to you that you would have
fullness of joy” and the very first thing he says is “God
is light”? What
is so important about that? What
is the big deal? Why
would I internalize this truth and what follows from this
is that it will have such an effect on my life, that I’ll
have a greater joy in my life. What does he mean when he says “light”
anyway? Well
in the Bible we learn that in the physical sense, light represents
God’s glory and his brilliance. You see passages like that. Paul to Timothy in 1st Timothy
chapter 6 referring in a physical sense to God as light,
he says “God the blessed and only ruler, the King of
kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal lives
in an inapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or
can see.” So
when he says God is light, there is the physical sense of
that as far as his glory and his brilliance. Also,
we see that in Revelation chapter 22:5, verse 5 at the end,
referring to heaven. “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp
or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them
light, and they will reign for ever and ever.” So
God is the source of light in heaven [the 3rd heaven,
at his throne]. So his brilliance, his glory, so when
it says God is light we know in other passages that in a
physical sense that refers to his glory and brilliance. Also
in the Bible, light represents God in an intellectual sense,
as far as his illumination, his perfect illumination and
his perfect understanding. You’ll see what I mean in Daniel
chapter 2, verse 22. In
Daniel we’re told there about God, “He (God)
reveals deep hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness, and the
light dwells with him”, meaning he has perfect understanding. He knows everything. He’s omniscient. So light in that sense represents God’s
illumination, his understanding. Also,
though, here especially in verse 5, chapter 1, light here
represents God in the moral sense, that of his righteousness,
his holiness, his purity. “God
is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” So you get this sense, there’s
a sense of the morality, his righteousness, his holiness,
his purity. Now the Greek word for darkness is not
the more commonly used word here in Greek for darkness, the
word skotos [Strongs 4655]. The word skotos is
the common word and it generally refers to physical darkness,
or at times it refers to darkness in the moral sense referring
to sin. But when John writes “darkness” here,
he uses the Greek word skotia [Strongs
4653] which has a moral sense to it. But
rather than referring to sin, it refers to the consequence
or the result of sin. So
when he says “God is light and in him is no darkness”,
when he says “darkness” he says that Greek word skotia, and that means the result of sin
or the consequence of sin. So
what exactly does he mean? What
is the consequence of sin? Skotia refers to what happened after Adam sinned, the consequence,
the result of sin. And
even to this day, 6,000 years later, Adam’s sin has
an affect on my life, meaning the world around me has been
affected by that sin. There
is the result of sin in the world. But
also in my very nature, the Bible says I have a sin nature
[via the spirit in man or spirit of man, which is receptive to Satan’s wavelength, Satan’s
evil broadcast into the world—all human beings are
tuned into this wavelength via the spirit
in man that we all possess, giving us our intelligence
and human intellect]. So the consequence, the result of sin,
includes even me today, that I have a sin nature. Now I can as a Christian be walking in
the light. Yet
even as I am walking in the light, I still am affected by
the consequences of sin, that type of darkness, meaning sin
is still around me. There’s
this battle going on. But
also I still have this sin nature [called in Romans 6, “the
flesh”. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/Romans6-1-5page1.htm ]. So
there’s a battle within as I’m seeking to walk
in the light, there’s this battle. So when he refers to darkness here, he
refers to it in that sense. But
John is making a point that in God there is absolutely, positively
no darkness. There’s no sin, or even consequence
of sin. And when
he says, “no darkness at all” in the Greek there
is this absoluteness to it, meaning there is no possibility
whatsoever, there is no sin in him, no consequence, there
is nothing in any way—sin is completely foreign to
him. So God, he says, is light, and in him
is no darkness. Now,
why is that important for you and I to realize? John,
as he writes this, ‘these things that I’m going
to share with you and teach you, that I write this to you
that your joy may be full.’ So
why is it so important that I understand that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all? I
think of David’s words in Psalm chapter 16. You
remember David said in Psalm chapter 16 that “In God’s
presence is fullness of joy.” [Psalm 16:11 KJV] In
his presence God is light, and in his presence there is fullness
of joy. So then, that tells me a little bit about
my own life. If
darkness is completely foreign to God, and if sin is absolutely
not in him, and is completely apart from him, then what does
that tell me? That tells me that I can’t be living
in darkness. I
can’t be living in darkness or living in sin and expect
to be near God, and expect to be in fellowship with him. And
if I cannot expect to be near God or fellowship with him,
I can be sure that I won’t be experiencing the fullness
of joy. Because
the fullness of joy is in the presence of the Lord. So
that’s why this is so vital, that this concept that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” I think of our recent Easter
sunrise service. You
know, we got there as we do on Easter sunrise service, the
folks are setting up, and ministering. You get there before it’s daylight,
you get there in the dark. And
our service is at six, so it’s at that time of day
where the morning light is slowly working its way up, and
there’s that transition time. Well,
some folks were taking some pictures with my camera, of the
service. And
I liked the pictures. I looked at them and said “Cool”. The first picture taken was a dark picture,
with just a little glimmer of light, coming up in the east,
as the sun was just starting to come over to the point where
there was a little bit of a glow, and you could see the steeples
from downtown. And
in the camera if you get that little bit of ray of light,
you get that little circle, and it’s kind of a good
shot. But there was this darkness. And then as you look through the following
picture, it quickly became more and more light, and eventually
it was complete daylight. There
were the people standing and sitting in the stands, there
was the worship team and others on the stage, it was light. When
the sun rose, the darkness left. And
as long as the sun was there, the morning sun, there was
no darkness. The darkness could not be there, because
the sun came up. So
he says, “God is light, and in him is no darkness”,
there is no possibility for darkness to be in him, it isn’t
in him in any way, or to be in his presence, in the sense
that it would affect him. So,
that is important for me to understand, as John describes
the nature of God.
Now,
also when I think of light, I readily associate joy with
light. Generally, for most of us, I’m sure,
we don’t associate darkness with joy. I
think of just the physical darkness and physical light. When
I went to Bombay just a few weeks ago, maybe you’ve
had this experience. I
was just arriving at the city, got in a van with some guys,
and drove across the city to this Methodist center in Bombay. As
we were driving it was night-time, and there’s something
about getting to a place you’ve never been at night. It’s
almost kind of eerie, it appears very different in the dark. I
will say to you that, getting to India, and getting to Bombay
is radically different, especially at night, it was a completely
different world to me. In
fact, as you drive through the city, compared it to parking
garages, it looked like a bunch of parking garages that people
were living in, and there were also a bunch of people living
and sleeping on the streets, entire families. But
there was something just eerie about the city. But then the next morning I got up in
the Methodist Center and a couple of us went up on the roof
of the Methodist Center to pray, and up on the roof now it’s
daylight. You
can see the parks, you can see the bustle in the streets,
you can see the buildings. I
got a different view of the city. And
actually the city seemed very exciting to me. It
was eerie the night before. But
in the light it was very exciting. So
to me I associate joy to light, and in darkness there certainly
doesn’t seem to be joy. I think also the times in Boston when
I was in college and I would make my way from my university
to where I lived on Columbus Ave., and I would make my way
through this park called The Fens near Fenway, and in the
summertime or in the springtime going through The Fens was
really nice in the daytime. If
there was a sunny day there would be kids playing, there
was the gardens, there would be elderly people gardening
or other people that had gardens there, and it was nice,
it was pleasant. I
enjoyed walking through The Fens. But
at night, it was a completely different experience walking
past The Fens. In fact, it was dreadfully fearful to
go past that area. And
I would just set it into high-tail-it, in gear you know. And
I might even do a sprint through that area. I
remember even one time some guys passing by me, a guy pulled
out a switch-blade to just sort of intimidate me there in
the moonlight, was flashing a switch-blade. I
thought he was going to do something with it, maybe were
messing with me. Maybe they were going to do something
with it, and they saw the angels with me that I didn’t
see with me there and left me alone, I don’t know. But
we have that point, the darkness, I don’t associate
joy with darkness, but I do with light. And
God is light. God is light, there is no darkness in
him. And in his
presence is fullness of joy.
Our words vs. our actions, lifestyle
Now, verse 6 to 7, he takes this principle
further. “If
we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth. But
if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin. If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us.” ‘If
we say’, the phrase
‘If we say’, you’ll notice as we go on,
this is repeated in this text at the end of chapter 1, but
also into chapter 2 it’s repeated multiple times. Verse 8 it comes up again, verse 10 it
comes up again, then you get into chapter 2 it changes slightly,
it’s then “he who says”, you see it in
verse 4, chapter 2, verse 6 of chapter 2, verse 8 of chapter
2. So this point
of talking, our words, is certainly referred to, it’s
certainly emphasized here in these verses. And
what John is now directly addressing is this issue of our
words, our talk, specifically referring to what we say about
ourselves in relationship with where we stand with God. And he says here in verse 6 that ‘if
we say we have fellowship with God, but we walk in darkness,
then we are lying, and we do not practice the truth.’ If
I say that I have a close relationship and close fellowship,
an intimate relationship with God, but when you look at my
life you see practices, you see habits, you see a lifestyle
that is contrary to the Word of God, then what I am telling
you is not true, I am lying, and I’m not practicing
the truth. And why is this the case? Why is it the case? It is because of what we just noted in
the previous verse. God
is light and in him is no darkness. So
if I say I have an intimate walk with God and he is light,
but you look at my life and you say,
‘George, man, there’s darkness in your life.’ Then
how can I possibly be fellowshipping with a God who is light? That’s the logic. And it’s so vital for you and I
to understand that. This
brings me to my next point, and that is we had what John
says, and now we have what our life says. And he’ll carry this through these
verses here. I
may say one thing, I may profess that at present I am close
to God, as he says there in verse 6, but if my life is saying
another thing, it speaks more loudly, it speaks more loudly
than my words and my lips speak. It
is in fact contradicting, my life is contradicting, even
nullifying what I profess with my mouth. So,
what John has heard from Christ and is now declaring to us,
is a message that most assuredly draws a very clear line
in the sand. It
is one of absolutes. And
that to walk in darkness, to live contrary to the way of
God, and yet to profess to have intimate fellowship with
God, clearly proves otherwise, completely proves otherwise. Rather,
the darkness in a person’s life proves that their profession
is not true, and they therefore do not practice the truth,
hence there is no intimate fellowship between God and that
person, regardless of what they might say. Now
when he says the word darkness in verse 6, it is that common
word, the Greek word skotos which
means sin, that is, the voluntary choice of sin as opposed
to skotio which is a consequence of sin. He’s now referring to this choice
of sinning, of taking a route of a sinful lifestyle, equivalent
of living for the flesh as we read in Romans. Now,
when he says this, it’s important to differentiate
between voluntarily living a sinful lifestyle, walking in
darkness, as opposed to merely stumbling, as James notes
and describes in James chapter 3, verse 2. There
in James he says, “For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word he
is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” The Greek word there “to stumble” in
James there is the word patao and
it means simply to do something wrong. So
James says, if a man doesn’t stumble, but the way he
says ‘We all stumble in many things.” [KJV
uses the word “offend”
instead of “stumble”] He
says as believers we stumble, that means we trip up, we do
sin at times, maybe more times than at other times. But
that’s not what he’s referring to, just stumbling,
just sinning, you know, tripping up. Today
I may have said something that I regret. Today
I may have done something that I regret. But
if there isn’t a practice of that, that’s different
from what John is referring to here. That’s stumbling. But what he’s
referring to here is “walking” in darkness, planting
your feet in a lifestyle of sin, having a habit of sin, a
lifestyle of sin. That
is what he is referring to. And
when that happens, you can be assured that it greatly hinders
a persons ability to have an intimate relationship with God,
regardless of what they may be saying. Now,
examples of this, I mean, you may be coming to church, you
may be singing in the choir, but your life may be very different
in such a way that it is declaring that what you’re
doing and what’s in your heart is clearly saying you
are not walking in the light, but you’re walking in
darkness. But
John uses the phrase here in verse 6, “do not practice the
truth.” In the Greek there is the definite article “the”
which precedes the word “truth”, and that
means that he’s referring to the very life of Christ,
all that Christ stands for. So when he says “do not practice
the truth”, I mean Jesus is the truth, there
is the sense of the life of Christ working through an individual,
the life of Christ being seen in an individual. That’s
what he means “do not practice the truth”, meaning
Jesus is the truth and therefore if you’re not practicing
the truth I’m not seeing the life of Christ in you. So this explains then to me, first of
all, a person who says they are a Christian, but when you
look in their life you don’t see any evidence of the
life of Christ. Maybe
they’ve been in church a long time, maybe they were
baptized when they were little, maybe they’ve grown
up in a Christian family and they say they are a Christian. But
when I look at their life, I don’t see the life of
Christ, I see a different life. I don’t see Jesus living through
them. So therefore what John says here is they
do not practice the truth, meaning Christ isn’t
in them, so therefore they don’t really have an
intimate relationship with Christ. You remember Paul said in Galatians chapter
2 verse 20 that when we became a Christian Christ now lived
in you?
“I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Christ now lives
in me, Christ now lives through me. He
goes on to say,
‘Now the life I live, I don’t live anymore but
Christ lives through me and I live by faith that he came
and he died for me. [And
if you look at the precise wording, it is “the faith
of the Son of God”, not our own. That
faith is a part of Christ living within us.] Now
if Christ isn’t ever seen in a person’s life,
John makes it clear here that this person, if Christ is never
seen in their life, then they are not a Christian. It
doesn’t matter what they say, their life clearly indicates
and proves that they don’t know Jesus in an intimate
way. Because
when I become a Christian I then have the Holy Spirit come
in me, Christ now reigns in my life, I now have a relationship
with God, and in time you should see Jesus in me. You know the Bible says “All things
are new in Christ.” The
old is gone, the new is come, you are new creations in Christ
when you come to Christ. So, when he says that ‘if we say
that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not practice the truth.’ This
verse makes it clear in the following verses that the honesty
is important, honesty about myself, honesty before others,
and especially honesty with God. So,
a simple question. Today
you’re here, maybe you’ve been around the church
for a long time, but a simple question, are you a true Christian? Are
you a true Christian, according to what John is indicating
here? Is Christ in you? Can the truth, the life of Jesus Christ
be seen in you in one manner or another? I’m
not saying that you’re perfect. But
are you a true Christian? Was
there a time in your life when the Holy Spirit entered you
and you became a new creation? Can
you point to a time? I hope that all of us this morning can
with a hundred percent confidence and assuredly say yes,
I am a Christian. I know, there’s a time in my life
when I realized I needed Jesus, I accepted him, he came into
my life, now Christ is in me. I
struggle, I stumble at times, but I am a true Christian,
Christ is indeed in me. So
can you say yes? I
hope you can say this. I
know I can say this. I
can confidently say this. And man, sometimes you may look at me
and say
‘Wow, that doesn’t seem to line up.’ But
at other times, at other times, the life of Christ, I can
see it in me. Christ is changing me, I’m not the
same man I used to be. I
know, there is a point in time when Jesus Christ [Yeshua
haMeshiach for our Messianic believers] came into my life,
and became the Lord of my life. So,
Christ, the truth, is in me. Can
you confidently say yes to that question? It is vital that you can. The reason why I told you that is sometimes
we grow up in traditions, sometimes we grow up in church
environments where we don’t learn that. And
we think being a Christian is being an American, or being
a Christian is just being associated with a church. But
that’s not being a Christian. And
when it comes to standing before Christ, it is vital that
we are Christians. And a Christian is somebody who Jesus
Christ has entered their life through the Holy Spirit [cf.
John 14], and now resides in their heart [and mind]. So
are you a Christian? It’s
so important that you are. Because
to be without Christ is to be apart from God. God
is light, in him is no darkness at all.
Another application of ‘walking
in darkness’
Verse 6, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk
in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” Verse
6 can also be applied to a Christian who for some reason
or another has started to slip into a lifestyle of sin. They’re saved, Jesus is within them,
cleaned them all up. But
for whatever reason, there’s a habit, there’s
a lifestyle, there’s an addiction that’s worked
its way back in. Now
they’re stuck in this. And
if that is the case, they can say “I’m saved,
I’m so close to God” and they may be saved,
but we can say their fellowship with God is greatly hindered. I
can’t say I’m close to God and be living in
sin, because God is light and in him is no darkness at
all. So, a
Christian who is living in sin, it is affecting their intimacy
with God. And that is regardless of what they profess,
regardless of how they try to appear. The
Bible says in fact that they’re hypocrites. They try to appear one way, but man there
is this private sin, there’s this lifestyle, sometimes
it’s not even private. It’s just in their life and they
just want it and they don’t want to do without it,
yet they’re not close to God. That is for sure, no matter how many ‘Praise
the Lord’s’ they say, no matter how many Jesus
bumper stickers they have on their car, Christian video’s
at home, books they read—their lifestyle of sin is
greatly affecting their relationship with God. So,
with that today, are you a true believer in Jesus Christ,
born-again believer?—but as you sit here you know
that there’s a practice of sin in your life? Maybe
it’s a hidden sin, which often is the case, maybe
an addiction to pornography, an addiction to alcohol, and
addiction to drugs, continual practice of gossip, or a
part of hatred or bitterness toward an individual, and
it just sits there, or the sin of pride, or the love of
the world—and there’s that habit, that practice,
continuance in your life. Maybe
it’s not even a hidden sin. There
are people that, they’re Christians, born-again,
they’re just in an open lifestyle of sin, two Christians
living together that aren’t married. Somebody
in the lifestyle of promiscuity or homosexuality and they’re
saying ‘I’m walking close to God’ and
they’re deceiving themselves, because they’re
not, because God is light—and in him is no darkness
at all, that is for sure. Now
one of the first symptoms of a believer who is walking
in darkness, that has their relationship with God hindered,
because of that walking in darkness, one of the first symptoms
is a dullness in that spiritual relationship, that walk
with God. It starts to affect their worship. It starts to affect their Bible reading. I can attest that, for a couple years
in college, I’m a born-again believer, even witnessing
as a Christian, living a horrendous life. I
was in the Bible every day. I
just did it to make my conscience feel a little better. And
I was praying, but I’m sure it wasn’t very
effective, because I was living contrary to the Word of
God, and I wasn’t close to God. So, one of the first symptoms is dullness. It affects my Bible study, it affects
my prayer-life, it becomes empty and stale. I
come to church, there’s now a dullness, there’s
a routine to the service, doesn’t have a vibrancy
to the service. Now has that become your experience? Has that become your experience? Well then, take note of what John is saying here
in verse 6, there’s a walk of darkness. There’s
a lifestyle, there’s issues that you’ve got
to deal with in your life, that’s hindering your
fellowship with God. “If we say that we have fellowship
with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the
truth” (verse 6).
Walking
in the light brings us into ‘spiritual’ fellowship
with other believers—‘walking in darkness’ spiritually
separates us from other believers
Now
as we see in 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 Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin.” So now there is harmony between a
person’s walk and what they profess. But
the result of that, he says ‘we have then fellowship
with one another.’ So as I have an intimate relationship
with God, it enables me to have an intimate relationship
with other believers. So if I don’t have an intimate relationship
with God, but a walk of darkness in my life, then it will
also effect my ability to have an intimate relationship with
other believers. And that is certainly something that you
see happen even frequently in the church. You’ll
see believers that start to struggle in sin, and because
they start to struggle in sin, maybe you don’t know
about it, but you start to see symptoms because they start
to get critical of other believers. And then they start even staying away
from church, because there’s no communion between light
and darkness. So there’s that strain, there’s
these symptoms that there is a lifestyle, there’s something
that’s grabbed their heart, hook that’s got them
again, and you start to see it…clear signs of it.
Now,
going even a step further, if a Christian is married to another
Christian, and a husband or wife starts to dabble in sin,
starts to get into a lifestyle of sin, that can also affect
a marriage, in that, if one believer is walking in the light,
now one of them isn’t, there’s no communion. There’s now a struggle. So she just starts to wonder, man, I’m
just not connected to my husband. Sometimes
it’s because he’s gotten into something he shouldn’t
be, you know. If there isn’t that spiritual connection
with a brother and sister in Christ anymore, what’s
happening? Or vice versa, a husband, not connected. You start to see there’s no hunger,
no passion [spiritually]. And
then because of that maybe there’s other schisms and
struggles and problems in the marriage. So,
when I as a born-again believer, start walking in darkness,
it effects my communion with God. It effects my worship, it effects my reading,
my prayer, my coming to church, and it also starts to effect
my relationship with other people, and potentially even in
my own home, those that are born-again because of the darkness
that’s there. So, if you are a believer today, struggling
in such a way, understand too that God is righteous…sometimes
we deceive ourselves [saying] ‘I know God will eventually
forgive me, I’ll have my fun, I’ll lead this
lifestyle, and I’ll confess and he’ll forgive
me.’ But we fool ourselves, in that God will
forgive us, but we forget the cost of what it took for him
to forgive us. So we kind of belittle that. He will forgive us if our hearts truly
repent. We forget
the Bible says we reap what we sow, there’s always
consequences. That’s
the real problem, man. It’s
the stuff that comes back to us, that we have to deal with. So understand the righteousness of God,
he chastises those that he loves. He
loves you so much, he’s not going to just let you stay
there for too long. He’s going to work in your life. He wants to be close to you, he wants
a close communion. But
also we need to make this point, that if you repent [which
in the Jewish culture means to make an about face, turn around
and go the other way, interestingly] right now—maybe
you have been hiding sin in your life, struggling with sin…the
most wonderful thing today, is you can repent. [Go
to Pastor Joe’s sermon series for 1 John 1:1-10, where
he explains this verse, dealing with standing in the light,
as he is in the light, and what that means.] That’s
the great thing about being a Christian, is you can repent,
meaning you can be forgiven. And you can have the relationship restored
with God. That’s
the beautiful thing. I
can be at my house, I can be in my office, and maybe it’s
been a time where I haven’t been close to the Lord,
I can get on my knees and say ‘Lord, what’s going
on? OK, I confess, this and that and this…That’s
the amazing thing about the work of God in my life. So today, if you’re a believer and
you’re struggling with walking in darkness, it’s
effected your relationship with God, it will effect your
fellowship with others, but understand too today, this isn’t
to condemn you, this is to tell you, to get your attention. But also, you can change today, you can
walk out of here forgiven, also with the power to have victory
and to go and do the right thing regardless of what you may
be facing, you can go and do the right thing. I
think of Jesus in our Bible reading last week, of that beautiful
story of that lady caught in adultery, and you know these
guys are trying to condemn her. But Jesus doesn’t condemn
her, and he doesn’t condemn you either. In
fact, we made that point clear, who’s going to cast
the first stone, we’re all sinners saved by grace. Then
he wonderfully said to the lady, he said “Go and sin
no more.” ‘If you put your faith in
me, you are forgiven, but now you’ve got the means
and ability to go and sin no more.’ I like that about the Bible. God says we go and sin no more. [Meaning that with the indwelling Holy
Spirit we have the ability to turn from sin and chose not
to sin, a supernatural power living within us, if we’re
willing “to stand in the light as he is in the light”,
which means to be honest with God about the sin we’re
caught in, habit of sin, sinful lifestyle, and ask him to
help us out of it, and he with the Holy Spirit operating
within us, will cleanse us, helping us to ‘go and sin
no more.’ But
standing in the light as he is in the light means to be transparent
with God, totally honest, exposing those sins, and asking
for God to help us out of them, turning and walking the other
way—not just saying “I’m sorry” but
doing nothing about it. That’s what’s not often
properly taught about, what the word “repent” actually
means. For clarification on this whole process,
go back to http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/Romans6-1-5page1.htm and
review that whole Romans chapter 6-8 section.] It’s miserable really living in
sin, it’s great to know that I can go on and sin no
more. That’s
a beautiful thing, man. That’s
a word of hope to me. It
says, “We walk in the light as he is in the light” so
there’s harmony. I confess that I know God in an intimate
way and having this neat time with him, and you look at my
life and say, ‘Yeah, he’s just with the Lord,
it’s just clearly evident, that man is full of the
joy of the Lord, he’s in the presence of the Lord,
there’s harmony. So when there’s harmony, there’s
also this ability to be close to other believers, and have
a sweetness with them, as he says in verse 7. Then
he says “if we walk in the light as he is in
the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (verse
7). And that’s
a tremendous statement there, and we’ll pick up with
that more next week. When
he says the word
“cleanses” here, it is in the present tense. So
it means “continuously cleansing us from all sin.” So what is implied here is, we’ll
see in the following verses, when Jesus Christ cleanses me
from the cancer of sin in my life through the shedding of
his blood, he leaves me totally clean, totally clean in a
way that now I’m acceptable to God, in a way that I
can be in his presence, that I can have an intimate relationship
with God, and that I can also have that intimate fellowship
with others. So,
his blood cleanses me from all sins, so as I am walking in
the light, that also proves that I’m being cleansed
from my sins…there’s a continual cleansing going
on. I’m
walking in the light, that doesn’t mean I’m not
stumbling. As we’ll go on next week, I’ll
stumble, I’ll confess my sin, I give it to the Lord,
he cleanses me, and I just continue to walk in the light,
and there isn’t a hindrance or a stop in my communion
and fellowship with the Lord. Now,
when he uses this term “the blood of Jesus Christ”,
he’s certainly not ashamed to say that. And
as you remember, he’s also dealing with this Gnostic
teaching, that Jesus, one part of the Gnostic teaching taught
that Jesus was just a phantom. Very
clearly here he’s not saying that Jesus was a phantom
when he talks about the blood of Jesus Christ. Phantoms
don’t have blood. Jesus
was a living being, he was the Son of God, God come as a
man into the world, and of course that blood. So
there was that blood of Jesus Christ when he died on the
cross that then has provided a means for me to be forgiven
of my sins, and to be cleansed of my sins, so I can have
a relationship with God. It’s
not the example of Jesus Christ that cleanses me, it’s
his blood that cleanses me. As
you remember the teaching in the New Testament. I
like that word, as we get to the end of our time, “the
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” That’s
a great word, “all.” Especially when it’s next to him. He cleanses us from all sin, everything that
I do. If you’re
here today and maybe there’s ‘ah, I can’t
believe I did that, it still bothers me at this point, it
bothers my conscience that I did that.’ You
can know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from
all sin, everything. You
can be cleansed of everything, completely cleansed, made
right before the Lord. And if you confess, just trust, ‘I’m
cleansed, it’s over.’ My
sin has been separated from me as far as the east is from
the west. Sometimes as Christians we just carry
the yoke of something that we’ve done, and it bothers
us and hinders us. Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Know today you can be cleansed from everything
you’ve ever done. Confess
it to the Lord and ask him to forgive you, and Christ is
in your heart, you are cleansed from all sin. It’s
all clean and you’re made white, that’s a beautiful
thing. I think of this story. At the great parliament of religion
that was held in Chicago many years ago, practically every
known religion was represented. During
one session, Dr. Joseph Cook of Boston suddenly rose, and
he said this, “Gentlemen, I beg to introduce to you
a woman with a great sorrow. Blood
stains are on her hands, and nothing she has tried will remove
them. The blood
is that of a murder. She’s
been driven to desperation in her distress. Is
there anything in your religion that would remove her sin
and give her peace?” A hush fell upon the gathering. Not one of the company replied. Raising his eyes heavenward Dr. Cook then
cried out, “John, can you tell this woman how to get
rid of her awful sin?” The
great preacher waited, as if listening for a reply. Suddenly
he cried out, “Listen, listen, John speaks. The
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin,
1st John chapter 1, verse 7.” Not
a soul broke the silence. The
representatives of eastern religions and western cults sat
dumb in the face of human needs. The gospel of Jesus Christ alone can meet
the need. The
sin of the race of man demanded the blood of Calvary, the
blood of Jesus Christ. Man, it cleanses us from all sin, all
sin. So this
morning each and every one of us can be completely clean
from our sin. And
we can go and have peace in our heart, we can then leave
with an intimate relationship with God. And
then if we’re in his presence there is the fullness
of joy [cf. Psalms 16:10-11]. John
writes these things so that your joy may be full. Let’s
pray…” [sermon
transcript from anther Christian congregation somewhere in
New England, pastor wishes to remain anonymous.]
For another excellent
resource that goes hand-in-hand with a part of this study,
log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/GoandSInnomore.htm,
and if you would like to purchase Dr. Brown’s book,
the information and links are there to do so online.
