Consistency: a piece of the universe that seems to be lacking more than most any other component. As human beings, we thrive on consistency. Every day you may put your glasses on the bedside table or on your dresser before you go to sleep so that when you wake up you will always know where it is. It will consistently be where you put it the night before and if the cat knocks them off, it can cause a bit of a problem. We like consistent times when we work and play. Even our very bodies thrive on waking up and sleeping at the same times each day. We love having a consistent job where we do not have to sit and wonder if we will be employed next week. It can be absolutely nerve-wracking to wonder if you will have a job tomorrow. We like consistency, especially when other people are involved. We find assurance in knowing that a person or item will be where we expect and do what they should do. When people consistently are there for us and spend time with us, we feel that we can trust them.
C.H. Spurgeon, a great preacher, once said that “A man’s life is always more forcible than his speech. When men take stock of him they reckon his deeds as dollars and his words as pennies. If his life and doctrine disagree, the mass of onlookers accept his practice and reject his preaching.” What we say to one another matters, but what we do with each other matters that much more. It is so much easier to believe in a person who lives out his or her life with dignity and honor than someone who speaks of both and does neither. We want our spouse to be consistent with their marriage vows. We want them to “love and cherish” us each and every day. We regularly want to see and hear that we are loved and cared for. Consistency plays a very large role in our daily lives but did you know that it can drastically affect your spiritual life as well?
We have been moving quickly through the book of 1 John, a book about sharing our lives with God and each other. The word for this “sharing of life” is fellowship. We must consistently share our lives with God by spending time in His word and in prayer to continue fellowshipping with Him. Regularly spending time with your spouse must happen for a healthy relationship. So also you must spend regular time with God to keep the relationship alive. When you start a camp fire, what happens if you forget to add some wood to the fire? The fire dies and you have to start over again. The fire in your heart, which burns for God, must be added to from time to time to keep it going. You must consistently add wood to the fire. 1 John 2:28-3:12 speaks of this need for consistent living in our Christian lives. You’ve heard it said, “If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk.” That’s what we are going to talk about today. Christian and hypocrite should not be found in the same sentence. We must live consistent lives to continue our fellowship with God. We must talk the talk and walk the walk. The truth is that the results will be obvious. Let’s look at our talk first.
The Talk – Do we sound like we act? (1 John 2:28)
“Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”
Let’s take these verses piece by piece. Verse 28 says that each person must abide or live with Christ so that when He returns they will be prepared. When Christ comes back, every body will be humbled and put down on their knees. Some people will do this willingly while others will fight it to their own disgrace. John tells them that they must live with Christ so that they will not shrink away or try to hide from Him because they chose not to believe in Him. The word “abide” means to live with but not just once but on a regular and consistent basis. John is telling them that they must make a choice each day to either live with Christ or live without Him. They could choose stand in confidence or hide in shame. Many Pharisees had made a mistake like these men and women could make. They would do and act just like Christians, saying all the right things.
Jesus speaks to those who choose only to speak like a Christian and not act. “"Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (NIV) These men and women gave “lip-service” to the greatness of God and yet never really knew God. They spoke about Him and even did miraculous healings and yet never really got to know God by spending time with Him.
Some men did this in the books of Acts and paid for it. “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” I love that story. It always makes me chuckle to read that in Acts 19:11ff. Just coming to church and “talking the talk” isn’t good enough. Actually, unless your talk is backed up by real faith in Christ, it can be downright dangerous to your spiritual well-being. The sons of Sceva got beaten up because of it and they are lucky that’s all they got for feigning to know God. If you find yourself missing something in your life, especially at church then you might check into developing a relationship with Christ. If you come and speak like you are saved and you have never accepted Christ and have never developed a relationship with Him, then you are dangerously close to the fires of hell and you may not even know it. Talking the talk is worthless without walking the walk.
The Walk – Walking like we are Saved (1 John 3:1-9)
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
Let’s take this piece by piece. The first three verses are an encouragement to anyone who knows Christ and spends their time with Him. By devoting lives to Christ and sharing life with Him anyone can become a child of God. God becomes like a father to whoever will choose to accept Him. God loved His prodigal rebellious creation so much that He made a way for mankind to become like His own son, Jesus Christ. Christ promised to return someday and when He does, He will have a new body and shining pure white. When He returns those who have shared their lives with Him will also receive new bodies and they will also be clothed in pure white garments. By keeping focused on Christ during this life, each person purifies themselves because they are sharing life with a pure God. This all sounds great for someone who never fails so what does God have to say about that?
Check the next six verses, 4 thru 9. Listen and see if you hear a cross-road in these next verses. “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Did you hear the cross-road? A choice must be made each day to live for Christ or to live for sin. The verses describe the choice in constant or consistent actions such as practices and sins. These words are just like the word abide, they signify ongoing action or something that is repeated over and over again. Christ came to remove sin from mankind. Sin breaks God’s laws and Christ is the only one who can fix that problem. No one who lives for God will continually disobey Him by sinning. No one who chooses to continually disobey God lives with God.
The men in Acts 19 gave lip-service to God but they never lived it. They talked the talk but never walked the walk. A little boy says it better than I can. “A 3-year-old boy found a quarter in the driveway as he and his family were leaving to go to church one morning. When they returned home, he pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to his mother. “You can have this money, Mommy. I was going to give it to Jesus, but he wasn’t there.”” Ouch… a painful but dangerously true statement sometimes. Have you ever been in a church that felt totally dead? Has this church felt totally dead? If that little boy came to church with you, would he say that he couldn’t find Jesus. What would that little boy find in your life?
A person who lives for Christ is called a child of God. Christ came to remove habitual sin from our lives so that we could be renewed. He came to destroy our love for sin and bring us back to a God who wants to be our Father. You see we sit at a cross-road each and every single day. You walk up to a sign and have a choice; do you choose to live for sin or do you choose to share your life with God. If you choose Jesus, you will have joy and hope of a new home in heaven. You will find yourself adopted by God, a loving heavenly Father. You can have peace knowing that your failures have been forgiven forever. Walking consistently with Christ each day, will bring assurance to your life that He is there and that heaven is near. Fellowship with God must be based on a consistent walk with Him. You can’t keep a fire going without adding wood. You can’t keep your relationship with Christ alive without reading God’s Word, the bible, and spending time with Him in prayer.
The Truth – The Results are Obvious (1 John 3:10-12)
“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”
There is one more piece to this part of first John that you should know. Talking the talk is important but walking the walk must happen even more so. Talking the talk without walking the walk is the quickest way to get yourself in trouble both with God and the people around you. The truth about how you live is obvious. Paul gives a sure fire way to know whether someone lives for sin or lives for God. He tells us that children of God do what is right and children of the devil do what’s wrong. Children of God do what God says is right including loving your brother. God has told mankind for centuries to be kind to each other. Six of the Ten Commandments are aimed at how mankind relates to mankind. Do not steal from, envy, or murder one another to list a few. Since God created mankind, he told them to care for one another. Listen to the moral story of Cain and Abel. Abel was righteous, right in God’s sight. Cain chose evil. One day Cain and Abel decided it was time to sacrifice to God and so each brought his own stuff. Cain was a farmer but Abel was a shepherd. God was pleased with Abel’s offering but not Cain’s. Cain got very upset and eventually killed his brother Abel. Why? This verse tells us why; Cain chose evil over good. Cain chose to follow sin and the devil.
The truth is the results of your choice, either to walk the walk or just talk the talk, become very clear after you have made them. You can choose to follow the path to God and live like a Christian should or you can claim you are going to do that and do nothing to live like a Christian should. Many of you have been coming to church for years and yet do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You have talked the talk and sat in the pews for years and yet do not know Christ. On judgment day you will say “Lord, Lord” as though you served Him by coming to church and doing some stuff and He will say “I do not know you.” You can “DO” all the stuff you want around here and never have a personal relationship with Christ. Remember the poor sons of Sceva. They did all the talk and none of the walk. I can see it. It’s obvious. If you are growing, it will be obvious as well and I much rather see that. Some of you are growing and it gives me great joy to see that.
One day Jesus Christ will come back and when he does we will all bow down. Some of us even in this room will bow down by choice and some of you will bow down because you have to. Each day you make a choice to either talk the talk or walk the walk. Each time you enter this building you have made a choice to either live for Christ or just act like it. The results of your choice become very clear when we see your actions. If you choose to live and act like Christ, then I get pretty happy. If you choose the other option, you can work that out with God.
