Reading: 1 John chapter 1 verses 5-10:
Ill:
• A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday.
• "What are you most proud of?" he asked him.
• "Well, " said the man, "I don't have an enemy in the world."
• "What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!" said the reporter.
• "Yep," added the centenarian,
• "I’ve outlived every last one of them."
Ill:
• Every form of life has its enemies;
• Insects have to watch out for hungry birds,
• Birds must look out for cats,
• Cats must look out for dogs etc
• We humans have our enemies;
• We are constantly fighting germs which cause infections and disease
The Christian too has his enemies:
• One of those is what the Bible calls ‘sin’.
• Four times in these verses John mentions sin.
Ill:
• A party of school children were being showed around a hospital;
• And the nurse who was giving them a tour round asked if anyone had any questions;
• One child asked,
• "How come the people who work here are always washing their hands ?"
The nurse gave the answer;
"They are 'always washing their hands' for two reasons.
First they love health; and second, they hate germs".
One of the enemies that every Christian has to battle with is sin:
• Sin is more than just wrong actions, outward disobedience,
• It is a wrong attitude an inner rebellion or desire.
• Sin is disobedience to what God has said (Bible),
• Sin is living independent of God (very 1st commandment “Put God first”)
When somebody becomes a Christian there are three things to remember concerning sin:
(a).
• Regarding the PAST we are saved from sins PUNISHMENT
• It was dealt with at the cross – once and for all.
Quote:
“My sin – oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin – not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul”
(b).
• Regarding the FUTURE;
• The Bible teaches we shall be saved from sins PRESENCE.
• We shall be changed; 1 Corinthians chapter 15 talks about a new body, and a new heart!
• One that will enable us to spend eternity with the Lord.
(c).
• Regarding the PRESENT.
• Each Christian must do daily battle to experience God’s POWER over sin.
• Living a life that pleases God is not impossible;
• But very much possible!
• Within every Christian a battle is talking place (civil war),
• God’s Holy Spirit is pulling us towards him and his ways.
• But our old sinful nature, which finds sin attractive,
• Pulls us away from God towards those things that are wrong.
• We have to choose which one we want to win,
• The sinful nature or the new nature God has given us.
Ill:
• When I have a meal, I have a choice.
• I can eat junk food or I can healthy.
• My physical and mental health will be affected by that choice;
• Constant junk in and I will become unhealthy.
• But if I feed my body on good things;
• Then that too will produce results.
• There is of course a spiritual parallel to that illustration:
• What we allow into our hearts and minds will affect us for good or bad.
Quote: Eleanor Roosevelt:
“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words.
It is expressed in the choices one makes.
In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves.
The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
Quote: One of the earliest Church leaders Augustine:
• Said he experienced three stages with sin:
• (1). Lord, make me good, but not yet.
• (2). Lord, make me good, but not entirely.
• (3). Lord, make me good.
Every Christian ought to be desiring that third stage:
• Lord make me good, make me holy, make my life pleasing to you!
• That is what John means when says “Walk in the light as he is in the light”
Now at the time of John:
• False ideas regarding sin and forgiveness was being taught by false teachers,
• This false teaching brought confusion to many and resulted in wrong living by others.
• It left the believers uncertain about salvation and unconcerned about sin.
• John in this letter is writing to correct these false ideas,
THREE FALSE IDEAS AROUND AT THE TIME OF JOHN WERE:
(1). I am a Christian but I can live anyway I like;
• Verse 6:
• “People who claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in the darkness”.
These Christians continue to deliberately, habitually practice sin:
• Which means they are either ignorant of God’s ways,
• Or ignorant of the quality of life God gives to his obedient children.
(2). I am a super Christian because I do not sin at all;
• Verse 8:
• “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”
The Christians claimed to be at an advanced stage:
• They claim to have somehow eradicated their old nature;
• John says the only thing they’ve eradicated is common sense
• They might have deceived themselves,
• But they Have not deceived anybody else!
(3). I am a Christian but I refuse to acknowledge sin in my life.
• Verse 10: ”If we claim we have not sinned”
• “We make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives”.
• These Christians deny they have committed any sins.
• That may mean they were saying we are not responsible for our sins.
Ill:
• They blamed their sins on a variety of different excuses;
• They blamed their heredity, they blamed their environment,
• They blamed their temperament, on their physical condition.
• Or the fact they had been mislead or led astray by someone.
• In other words they blamed everyone else for their mistakes and short comings (sin),
• But themselves.
So John says to these people:
• If that is true you make God a liar;
• Because he has said again and again; we are sinners by nature and sinners by practice!
Notice
• To help us get them get to grips and realise the importance of this true teaching;
• John teaches us by contrasts:
(a). Darkness & light:
• In verses 5,6,&7 John compares two very different things;
• He compares sin to darkness; and in contrast he compares God to light.
• Obviously he pointing out to his readers that the two cannot exist together;
• Light destroys darkness.
Ill:
At age twelve Robert Louis Stevenson:
• Was looking out of his bedroom window and into the dark,
• He was watching a man light the old-fashioned gas streetlamps.
• Stenson’s governess came into the room and asked what he was doing;
• He replied: “I am watching a man cut holes in the darkness!”
(b). Saying and doing:
• There is another contrast here;
• The contrast between saying and doing.
• Three times in verses 6, 8 & 10.
• The emphasises is on practicing what we preach, belief must show its self in behaviour!
Quote: Francis Bacon.
“It is not what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong;
not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich;
not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned;
not what we preach but what we practice that makes us Christians.
Ill:
• An angry church member once went up to her pastor.
• And asked him
“Why do you keep on preaching to us Christians about sin. After all, sin in the life of a Christian is different from sin in the life of an unsaved person”
• The pastor replied,
• “Yes you are correct, sin in Christian is different. It is much worse.
Ill:
• A policeman who beaks the law is worse than an ordinary person,
• You expect better, higher standards!
Because none of us are perfect:
• As Christians we will at times fail, by deliberate choice (wilful disobedience)
• Or by a moment of weakness (caught off guard) we will sin.
Now there are two ways the Christian can react when they sin.
• (1). We can cover up our sins.
• (2). We can confess our sins.
(A). Covering our sins:
Verse 5:
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light;
in him there is no darkness at all”.
We have already noted that:
• Darkness and light cannot exist in the same place.
• If we are walking in the light, the darkness has to go.
• If we are holding to sin, then the light goes.
• There is no middle ground, no vague "grey" area, where sin is concerned.
ill: A man purchased a white mouse to use as food for his pet snake.
• He dropped the unsuspecting mouse into the snake's glass cage,
• Where the snake was sleeping in a bed of sawdust.
• The tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands.
• At any moment the snake could wake up and he could be swallowed alive.
• Obviously, the mouse needed to come up with a brilliant plan.
• What did the terrified creature do?
• He quickly set up work covering the snake with sawdust chips;
• Until it was completely buried.
• With that, the mouse apparently thought he had solved his problem.
• Yet you and I know all he had done was cover the problem not remove it!
• Some Christians in this passage are like the snake;
• They were trying to cover up their sins,
• So John the apostle wrote to say impossible;
• Sin cannot just be ignored or forgotten.
Question: How do Christians try to cover up their sins?
Answer: By telling lies!
(1). We tell lies to others (verse 6):
“If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,
WE LIE and do not live by the truth”.
• We lie when we want other Christians to think we are more ‘spiritual’ than we are.
• So we put on a show, a display to try to make a favourable impression on them.
• We want them to think that we are walking in the light,
• Though in reality we are walking in the darkness.
Ill:
• An example from history (any guess who this is?):
• He made free use of Christian vocabulary.
• He talked about the blessing of the Almighty;
• And the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of his new government.
• He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility.
• He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers.
• He showed his tattered Bible;
• And declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it.
• Scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God.
• Question: Who was he? Answer: Adolph Hitler.
• He was a master of outward religiosity;
• But sadly with no inward reality!
Ill:
• Robert Redford was walking one day through a hotel lobby.
• A woman saw him and followed him to the elevator.
• "Are you the real Robert Redford?"
• She asked him with great excitement. As the doors of the elevator closed,
• Robert Redford replied;
• "Only when I am alone!"
• He is of course an actor,
• So what you see portrayed on the big screen is not going to be the same as in private!
Verse 6:
• In may ways is saying do not be a hypocrite;
• Quote:
“Be what you is,
cause if you ain’t what you is,
you is what you ain'!”
(2). We tell lies to ourselves (verse 8):
“If we claim to be without sin, WE DECEIVE OURSELVES and the truth is not in us.”
• Once one begins to lie to others,
• It’s only a matter of time before we lie to ourselves,
• The problem in verse 8 not deceiving others,
• But deceiving ourselves.
• It is possible for a Christian to live in sin,
• Yet convince himself that everything is fine in his relationship to the Lord.
Ill:
• The Queen has been in Southampton this week to name a ship;
• The name of the ship: QUEEN MARY 2.
• When it was launched in 1936:
• The original Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans.
• Through four decades and a World War she served until she was retired,
• Anchored as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California.
• During the conversion,
• Her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted.
• But on the dock they crumbled.
• Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed.
• All that remained were more than thirty coasts of paint;
• That had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away.
• Those massive smoke stacks had no substance;
• Only an exterior appearance.
Verse 8 is warning us not to become people:
• With no substance, only an exterior appearance.
• Ill: What Jesus criticised the Pharisees for (all show and no content).
(3). We tell lies to God (verse 10):
“If we claim we have not sinned,
we make HIM OUT TO BE A LIAR and his word has no place in our lives.
When a Christian tries to cover up their sins:
• Notice how the spiritual decline becomes still worse:
• We lie to others, we lie to ourselves and then we end up lying to God.
• Question: How do we lie to God?
• Answer: Verse 10: We do that when we contradict His Word.
Some of us deliberately sin and se the excuse:
• “It’s wrong for others but I have special circumstances”.
• Or we try to justify our sin by saying; “That verse doesn’t apply to me because….”
• e.g. “I’ll sleep with my boy/girl friend because we will end up getting married anyway”
• e.g. “I will go out with a non-Christian and they might get saved”
Quote: This reminds me of a statement by Tolstoy:
"Even in the valley of the shadow of death, 2 and 2 still don’t equal 6."
• No matter what we may think,
• No matter what we may wish,
• No matter what our opinion might be or how we package it,
• God’s word is undeniable, unchanging and non-negotiable.
Deliberate disobedience means we miss out!
lose three things:
(1). His word (Verse 6, 8, 10):
Notice:
• That there is a deterioration in the disobedient Christians attitude to the Bible;
• A decline takes place.
• He stops practicing the Bible “Do not live by the truth” (verse 6);
• He stops listening to the Bible “The truth is not in us” (verse 8);
• He rejects the Bibles teaching “And his word has no place in our lives” (verse 10)
A major symptom of walking in darkness is the loss of a spiritual appetite:
• Ill: As a boy playing truant, I had to miss my food to be taken seriously!
• You cannot read the Word profitably while you are walking in the dark.
Quote: John Bunyan:
This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book”.
(2). His Fellowship Verse 6-7):
• The dishonest person loses something else:
• They lose fellowship with God and also with God's people (verses: 6-7).
!If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”.
The person walking in darkness has no desire for fellowship:
(a). No desire for fellowship with God:
• As a result, prayer (fellowship with God) becomes an empty form.
• Worship (our appreciation of God) becomes a dull routine.
• We end up going through the motions;
• The joy, the meaning, the purpose, the life – all sadly absent.
Ill:
• Matthew chapter 15 verse 8:
• Jesus criticised the Pharisees by saying:
• N.I.V.
• “'These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”.
• The Message:
• “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it.”
(B). No need for fellowship with other Christians.
• This person may be critical of other Christians in the fellowship;
• And starts staying away from church, and becomes erratic in their attendance.
• Fellowship in the New Testament is about giving not just receiving:
• Give of our time, our money, our gifts, our resources, our……..
• Most of all it is about giving of ourselves,
• But if we are covering up, then we have nothing to give.
Ill:
• A rather pompous-looking deacon;
• Was trying to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life.
• "Why do people call me a Christian?" the man asked.
• After a moment's pause, one youngster said, "Maybe it's because they don't know you."
• If we are covering up, then we don’t want fellowship,
• Because if people get to know us they might see the real ‘us’
(3). His character (Verse 6):.
“If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live by the truth.”
• The third loss is really the result of the first two:
• The believer loses his character.
• The process starts out with his telling lies
• And it ends up with him or her becoming a liar!
• They are no longer a liar because they tells lies;
• They now tell lies because they are a confirmed liar.
Ill:
Henry Wingblade used to say that Christian personality is hidden deep inside us.
• It is unseen, like the soup carried in a tureen high over a waiter's head.
• No one knows what's inside--unless the waiter is bumped and he trips!
• Just so, people don't know what's inside us until we've been bumped.
• But if Christ is living inside, what spills out is the fruit of the Spirit.
It is character that makes a person valuable:
• And nobody can give you character,
• You must develop it yourself as you walk with God.
Ill:
When Oscar Wilde arrived for a visit to the U.S. in 1882,
• He was asked by customs officials if he had anything to declare.
• He replied: "Only my genius."
• Fifteen years later, alone and broken in prison,
• He reflected on his life of waste and excess.
"I have been a spendthrift of my genius...
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character."
Quote:
“Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit;
sow a habit, reap a character”
WE CAN COVER OUR SINS OR:
(2). We Can Confess Our Sins
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
VERSE 9; CONSISTS OF THREE PARTS:
(1). The condition: “If we confess our sins”
• If we confess our sins”
• The word ‘confess’ means “to agree with”:
• It means to say the same thing that God says about our sin,
• We admit, come clean, tell the truth, are honest about our sin.
Ill:
The children in a prominent family:
• Decided to give their father a book of the family’s history for a birthday present.
• They commissioned a professional biographer to do the work,
• Carefully warning him of the family’s ‘black sheep’ problem:
• Uncle George who had been executed in the electric chair for murder.
• The biographer replied:
• “I can handle that situation so that there will be no embarrassment.
“I’ll merely say that Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution.
He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties and his death came as a real shock”.
The apostle John reminds us that forgiveness flows out of being honest:
• We need to confess our sins on a regular basis to God,
• Good principle: is to keep short accounts with God.
Ill:
• Problem swearing;
• Read somewhere this advice;
• “Once you swear, pray straight away and say sorry Lord, help me not to say it again”
• It’s amazing how that advice helped me! Short accounts!
(2). The assurance: “God is faithful and just”
(a). God is just.
• If you and I were the authors of verse 9 we would probably write it this way:
• “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and merciful”.
• But John deliberately chose the word ‘just’.
• The forgiveness we have in Christ is based on God’s justice, on his righteousness.
Ill:
• Oops: The Book of Blunders, 1980.
• Surprised while burgling a house in Antwerp, Belgium,
• The thief fled out the back door, clambered over a nine-foot wall,
• And dropped down the other side, only to find himself in the city prison.
• The man actually escaped conviction on a technicality,
• The judge who he appeared before told him:
"I know that you are guilty and you know it,
and I wish you to remember that one day you will stand before a better and wiser Judge,
and that there you will be dealt with according to justice and not according to law."
(b). God is faithful.
• This book the Bible is full of promises 7,474.
• God always keeps his promises!
Many of those promises say:
• That he will never spurn, he will never reject a contrite, a penitent heart.
• And he has given his word on that, a promise he will faithfully keep!
Ill:
• David’s prayer of repentance after he was found guilty of committing adultery & murder,
• Psalm 51 (verse 17).
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.”
(C.E.V.)
17The way to please you
is to feel sorrow
deep in our hearts.
This is the kind of sacrifice
you won't refuse.
(3). The fulfilment:
“Will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
THERE ARE TWO KEY VERBS IN THIS VERSE:
(a). First verb: Forgive
• It describes the act of cancelling a debt;
• And restoration of the debtor.
Ill:
Notice on the city gates.
(b). Second verb: Purify (or Cleanse):
• Refers to making a forgiven sinner holy;
• So that he or she is able to have fellowship with God.
Ill:
• 10 Lepers “Go show yourself to the high priest”
• Not only healed but fit for worship.
