Coming To Grips With The Message

COMING TO GRIPS WITH THE MESSAGE

1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

INTRODUCTION: Last week, as we began to look at the status of the church as John declared, we saw that God is active. In fact His activity is present, personal, and verifiable. God’s activity deserves to be proclaimed, yet complacency and comfort work against the God-given mandate of proclamation!

The body of Christ is linked together by the proclamation of truth, and only as strong as the weakest declaration of truth. The body of Christ faces the same barriers, and struggles, regardless of location, the big difference is not God, it is not the battle, but the soldier in the fight

Steve Camp has written these lyrics in his song entitled, “Run to the Battle”:

Some people want to live

With the sound of chapel bells

But I want to build a mission

A yard from the gates of hell

And with everyone you meet

Take the gospel and share it well

Look around you as you hesitate

For another soul just fell

Let’s run to the battle

So what is it about us that keeps us from really getting involved with the message God wants to communicate to the world? Why can we not get excited about the gospel? Ultimately it is a problem of personal blindness.

Our own blindness regarding the reality of our relationship with Christ keeps us from the battle; keeps us from the fight.

I WHAT THE MESSAGE IS – 1 JOHN 1:5

A More than a mere message!

1 The word message means announcement

a This is a message

b THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT

1) It is a difference of quality and quantity

2 The message was more than just there

a Declare means to report, to show, to tell

B God is Light is more than a mere statement

1 It is intensive – God Himself and no one else can make this claim

2 It is descriptive – Light is the very nature of God

3 There is no room for darkness

a Obscurity – There is nothing that is able to be hidden or kept undercover when in the presence of God

b Sin – There is no opportunity or fertile ground for sinful activity to exist when in the presence of God

Now if it is obedience to declare God’s truth, and if God truth is not being declared, then it there must be something at work that prevents us from declaring the truth God wants us to declare. That something is darkness. That something is sin.

I am so sick and tired of pussyfooting around this issue. I am so fed up with passing it off as anything and everything else but what it is. If you are not declaring God’s truth, you are sinning – plain and simple.

The fault is not mine, the fault is not God’s the fault is yours! And you had better change, and you had better change now!

Here is how we get into this mess ….

II The Fraudulent Claim #1 – 1 John 1:6-7

A If we claim .. “Suppose we say”

1 I have fellowship with Him (God)

2 I am closely bound

3 I have a mutual relationship

4 I am living compatible with Light – the very nature of God

B Yet walk in darkness

1 Living a life with visible sin

2 Living a life with things obscured – cause I don’t want somebody else to see them

C The result of the false claim …

1 We lie

a Truth is what we say

2 We do not live by (or practice) the truth

a Truth is what we do

D The Alternative …

1 Walk in the light

a Know who God is

b Doing what God expects

2 Have fellowship with God

a The requirement of fellowship is to walk in the light

b The requirement of fellowship is to let the light of God reveal what is right and wrong.