Sermon Brief
Date Written: January 6, 2009
Date Preached: January 7, 2009
Where Preached: OPBC (Wed PM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Study of John’s Letters
Sermon Title: The Incompatibility of Light and Dark
Sermon Text: 1 John 1:6-7
6 If we say, "We have fellowship with Him," and walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing 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.
Introduction:
The next section of this letter spans from v.6 here in chapter 1 to v.2 of chapter 2 and it deals with Christ and the Atonement He brings and provides to sinners. John uses the metaphors of dark and light to contrast the differences from God and ungodly… from Christ and Anti-Christ!
Tonight we are going to camp out in John 1:6-7 and focus on this light/dark metaphor of John’s and how it reveals some telling information about serving Christ and who we are called to be!
What we need to first understand is that in this letter John is emphasizing that those who make the profession of faith in Christ, must back that vocal profession with actions that reveal their decision… in other words ACT as if you are a believer, don’t just give it lip service!
And we can make NO mistake, the writer here is NOT going to allow anyone off the hook who believes that somehow the dark and light can peacefully co-exist! Light and Dark are totally incompatible and cannot co-exist where one is the other is NOT! They are polar opposite and actually repel each other.
The writer here is expounding on the message that a believer cannot live their lives and walk in Christ as he or she should when they have one foot on the path of righteousness and one foot in the path of darkness.
Thus the way he introduces these 2 verses in v.5 where he says, “God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all!” And what he is saying is that one cannot serve God, who is the essence and epitome of light and still dwell in the realm of darkness and sin… a realm that is hostile and a home to the enemy of God!
In this darkness God is rejected and a godly life is mocked, scoffed at and ridiculed! But understand that John is not simply saying that darkness is merely sin or wrongdoing… the entire premise of his argument is that this darkness he speaks of is a realm that is totally ANTI-God and is hostile towards the things of God!
This dark realm is characterized by disobedience to God’s commands and the lack of a true and intimate relationship with Christ as Savior. This is why John encourages his readers to NOT walk in this dark realm! He never tells them that they will never have any darkness in them…
John never alludes to the belief that Christians are perfect and without sinful behavior, a fallacy that many NON-believers think about Christians… they think that WE, as saved believers, actually believe that we are now perfect and without sin!
But John’s teaching here is just the opposite, in fact he says, “Hey if you say that you don’t have sin in your life…that you don’t have some darkness in your life… then you are fooling yourself and lying to others! John understood that believers here on this world would NEVER be without a trace of sin in their lives…
Again let us look to the term John is using for failing God… he uses the term ‘darkness’ which is a synonym for ‘walking in darkness’ or an indwelling sinful nature that leads us away from God and God’s relationship!
Let me share something that many of us don’t understand and that is that Darkness and Light are not 2 realities that are WITHIN each of us, but rather they are realities greater than us and OUTSIDE of us…
Darkness and light are 2 opposite forces that each make a claim on us… We are challenged by the Gospel to make a choice… to decide where we choose to dwell and walk in our witness… what circle we desire to be a part of…and then make the all out effort to live as Christ desires us to live!
There are many synonyms for this expression found in 1 John 2:17, things like do I please God in my actions! Do I always do what is right in every situation… do I always live my life by the Truth of God’s word!?
In 2:17 John emphasizes that we are to strive to do what pleases God… to live to please Him! Or what he says in 3:22 when he writes DO WHAT IS RIGHT! Basically he is telling us to live by the Truth of who we are in Christ!
Now many of us may equate this to the phrase we have heard all our lives… “Practice what you preach…” but this goes deeper. This ‘living by the Truth of who we are in Christ’ is about us living in conformity with the truth and light of Scripture, and living in sync with the character of God!
In other words, we allow the character of God to shape ALL of who we are… the way we act, the way we speak, the way we think, the way we REACT, the way we pray, the way we play… and on and on and on!
Now the result of living this type of life… the commitment of the believer to walk in the light of Christ in all they do and say has 2 discernable results:
First, Scripture says that when believers are living this type of life that we have a special fellowship with one another. The Bible calls this fellowship… koininia… which is a Greek word for a special bond of those who are like minded!
All who follow Christ and live in this manner are guided by the light of Christ in their lives and He is the principle guiding force for their decisions and direction! All of this fellowship is based on the Christian love we have for each other because of Christ as Jesus instructed in John 14:34-35…
Second, I can see that all those who are walking in the light and enjoying this love and fellowship with other believers, they are secure in their walk in Christ because they know and understand that we are covered by the blood of Christ and our sin has been taken away and we are made pure in the eyes of God
So what we have to realize is that because we are in the light does not mean we have NO sin, because we are going to sin, but we have the assurance of Christ that the sin we do commit is covered and if we will confess that sin, we are forgiven and made pure!
So those who are walking in light realize that they are NOT perfect, that they can and will sin and that they MUST confess that sin to have it forgiven…nothing is taken for granted and living a cavalier sinful lifestyle simply because we know we can be forgiven is NOT acceptable.
But on the other hand those who are living in the darkness will deny the need for forgiveness and the need for purification… which means that those who live in the darkness cannot recognize the NEED for purification, but must be brought into the light to see their need… introduced to the light of Christ to reveal their darkness!
As believers, within ourselves, we cannot tolerate or ignore a sinful lifestyle, impure actions OR evil attitude. We must always understand and recognize just what ‘walking in the light of Christ’ must mean for us! In other words, what does the phrase “God is light” truly mean…
This also means that even though we have been shone on and enlightened by the PERFECT light of Christ…we are NOT perfect and will NEVER be perfect as God is perfect! But in spite of our inability to be perfect, the blood of Christ PERFECTS us in the sight of God so that we can come before Him blameless and holy!
What we need to understand as Christians (mainly so we can share it with those around us) is that our relationship with Christ…our fellowship with God… it is not some mystical communion with a vague and distant deity… but it is a real and tangible commitment to a holy and just God who manifested Himself in flesh in the person of Jesus Christ! And with that in mind we can know and experience a vital and real relationship with Him!
That commitment is rooted in our willingness to WALK IN THE LIGHT! Our willingness to live our lives, doing the right things and living out the truth of Christ!
Pray!
Next week we will begin to look further in 1 John 1
