February 10, 2019
Morning Service

Last week we looked at how John emphasized the point that he had walked, talked and did life with Jesus.  He saw and experienced a lot of the miracles that we read about in the scriptures.  One of his reasons for writing this letter was “that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.”  We were challenged to build our relationship with Jesus through prayer and Bible study; willingly giving Him a part in our day that we can “Be still and know I am God.”  I believe the relational side of our spiritual walk is key to our growth.  We then follow Jesus out of love and a desire to please rather than duty and a desire not to be punished.  There is a HUGE difference.  This morning John again gets right up into our business again and challenges us to be honest and bring all our failures into the light rather than hide them in the closet.

1Jn 1:5-7  This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  (6)  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  (7)  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.

            “God is light.”  Light represents what is honest, good, pure, holy and trustworthy.  Darkness represents the total opposite of light and is considered to be all that is sinful and evil.  John then says “In Him is no darkness at all;” which means God is perfectly holy and true and He alone can guide us out of our darkness and into His light.  Think of what light does; it exposes everything for what it truly is good or bad.  In the dark all things look the same, but when we turn on the light we see clearly the truth.  Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, so sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God.  The two cannot coexist.  We cannot walk in the light and live in the darkness.  We cannot say we know God and knowingly continue to live a sinful lifestyle.  This is the true definition of a hypocrite; claiming to be in the light on the outside knowing you are full of darkness.  Jesus confronted the Pharisees with this in Matthew 23; as He called them “whitewashed tombs.”  This was one of the false teachings John was trying to expose to the churches he was writing to.  They were falsely teaching that it was okay to live however you wanted enjoying all physical lusts because the body would be destroyed but it was the spirit that would live.  This was a popular teaching because it promoted a life in darkness and sin with no remorse or regret.

You must remember however that we are the Bride of Christ.  We can’t be married to Christ and act like we are single and available.  There is a commitment that has been made by you to be true and faithful to your husband.  We must be diligently seeking to do our best to follow our Savior.  We strive for perfection because “the blood of Jesus Christ the Son cleanses us from all sin.”  We can’t practice sin because we have been cleansed of it. So does that mean we are perfectly in the light and without sin?

 

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 

 

            This is the second false teaching John was fighting against; that those who choose to follow Christ are from the point of baptism on were incapable of sinning.  If we think we are perfect, we are only deceiving ourselves.  We must live with the fact that as long as we are in these physical bodies we will struggle with temptations that will lead to sin.  The false teaching, or we can call it the bold faced lie, is that sin plays no part in our lives if we are following Christ.  They claimed that there was no standard set that we had to live by; no boundaries.  That is not true, remember John just said in verse 6 that if we are hypocritical in our walk with the Lord, we are walking in darkness not light.  We must be very honest with ourselves and see ourselves just as we are; sinners saved by the grace of God.  We must not ignore the sin in our lives or even accept it as just part of life, but we must confront it and deal with it.

 

1Jn 1:9-10  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 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.

            God knew we would sin even after fully committing to follow Him and trying our best not to; so He made provision for us to be forgiven when that occurs.  When we sin we must first recognize it as such.  We have missed the mark of perfection and said or done something that we realize was an act of darkness rather than one of light.  We must recognize our sin for what it is; breaking our vow with God.  It is like we have violated our marriage agreement with our husband.  We have allowed darkness into His world of light.  This should not be a pleasant place for us to go.  Our failure should hurt us as we take our sin very seriously not lightly or even flippantly.  (Psalms 51).

  Upon that recognition, we then must act in faith and honestly, and repent confessing that sin before God.  Confession brings the darkness into the light and now it can be dealt with. It frees us from our sin and restores our broken fellowship with Christ.  There may be consequences that will not go away, but your relationship is restored and we must accept it and move forward.  God promises it and we need to act upon it.

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

 

When we honestly confess our sin before God, He forgives us and cleanses us from all darkness.  He forgives you!  He cleanses you!  He restores you!  Your relationship is restored just like it was before sin; accept it, be grateful for it, and move on down the path with a new resolve to walk closer.  The endless cycle of sin, repentance, and forgiveness is meant to make us stronger not weaker!  We are forced to be real about our sin and see ourselves open and honestly; knowing we are not perfect, just forgiven. It is God’s design to keep us relying upon His strength and not get fooled into thinking we can do this alone.  We need a loving, faithful and forgiving Savior; and we have One!!!  He made all this process possible by giving Himself for us.

 

1Jn 2:1-2  My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  (2)  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

 

 

            With a very loving fashion John assures us that God is on our side.  He stands in as an Advocate for us.  An advocate is one who stands in for another and provides for them what they cannot provide for themselves.  As our Advocate, Jesus is our defense attorney as we stand before the Judge (His Father).  The prosecuting attorney is Satan, known as the “accuser,” demands we pay the price for our sin; which is the death penalty.  When we stand there guilty as charged we are not however not without hope.  Jesus brings to the courts attention that in fact the price has already been paid in full; by Him upon a cross 2000 years ago.  The case is dismissed as a price needs only be paid once.

            Our struggle though is that so many of us can’t walk away from that courtroom feeling like we have been forgiven of our sin.  We waver in our faith whether God has really forgiven us and we then refuse to forgive ourselves.  We allow the accuser to follow us and continue to keep us in bondage for our sin.  Read it again:

 

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

            Putting our faith into action is also believing on God’s Word and acting upon it.  Leave your sin and guilt at the altar and let there be a new resolve in your heart to work diligently to keep sin from entering your heart again.  We are children of the Light, walk in it.  God has promised to that the “truth shall set you free.” 

 

Heavenly Father thank You for Your perfect plan for our continual cleansing and forgiveness.  Please help us to keep sins darkness out our lives and to walk in the true Light.