Because this is essential, I would like to refresh your memory before we get into the heart of this sermon.
We dealt with these FOUR things about the Ephesian Christians:
(1) THEIR HERITAGE. They were second and third generation Christians. Their parents and grandparents had been in the church at Ephesus when Paul came along and preached and was used of God in a mighty way. But, that had been some years ago. Now they were being told by false teachers that the things Paul had taught their parents and grandparents were not right.
Then we talked about...
(2) THEIR COMPROMISE. After Paul, and some of the other great preachers, had died, the false teachers began to teach, for one thing, that God does not care what we do with these physical bodies that are evil, and, they said, would not be resurrected. They said that GOD ONLY CARES ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF MAN.
John dealt with that specific false teaching in his letters. Then, John had to deal with...
(3) THEIR OPPOSITION. The “perverted teachers,” who had come in among them, tried to draw the Christians away from the teachings of Christ which was their rich heritage, to follow them. In this we see the truth that the devil can, and does, attack the church from WITHIN, often more than from WITHOUT! At that time their opposition was not so much from WITHOUT as from WITHIN the church.
Illus: This makes us think of a method used often today to destroy large buildings. They have found that the best way to take a large building down is by planting dynamite charges in strategic locations inside the building and setting the charges to go of in a certain sequence. This causes the building to fall in on itself. Thus the building is destroyed, in a matter of minutes, with no effort from without.
John dealt with the OPPOSITION COMING FROM WITHIN churches. John also dealt with...
(4) THEIR HERESY. The false teachers were called Gnostics. They taught the Lord was no more than a DIVINE GHOST.
John was quick to respond and assure them Jesus was not a divine ghost. He told them HE HAD SEEN, HEARD, AND TOUCHED JESUS. JESUS WAS NO DIVINE GHOST!
John was the spiritual statesman who not only SAW, HEARD, and TOUCHED JESUS, but in verse 5, he revealed the kind of Savior Jesus was. John said, “...God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
Illus: Members from cults will come to your door and tell you they believe in the same Jesus we believe in, but the Jesus they talk about and teach about is not Jesus, God’s Son that this Bible reveals.
Then John refutes their teaching that we can be children of God and walk in darkness.
Look at verse 6. He said, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, WE LIE, and do not the truth.”
Then John, the elder statesman, continued to tell them about Jesus, whom HE HAD SEEN, HEARD, AND TOUCHED!
Look at verses 7 through 9. We see several things, such as...
I. THE COURSE
Look at verse 7. We read, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Again, some would be quick to remind us that you find sin in the lives of SAINTS and SINNERS. AGAIN, THAT IS THE UNDENIABLE TRUTH!
But, I remind you again that there is a vast difference in the lives of SAINTS and SINNERS.
• SINNERS LUST AFTER SIN. That is, they often plan to sin weeks in advance of sinning. They plot and plan how they can have more and more sin in their lives.
• SAINTS FALL INTO SIN. They do not lust after sin, and even if they do plan for it, this is something they fall into. When they realize what they have done, they confess the sin to God and stop their sinning.
However, it is true that many people in churches around the world believe they can have fellowship with God and walk in darkness at the same time.
John made it clear this could not be the case. In verse 6, he said, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and WALK in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”
Look at the word “walk.” This is translated from the Greek, “peripateo,” which means: “To follow, to tread all around, be occupied with.”
Every day each Christian’s life is built around Christ. Christ lives within us. We are occupied by Him.
Salvation is the greatest thing that can happen to a person.
I know some folks make it sound as if there is not much to it! But, when we get saved, the LORD OCCUPIES OUR LIFE! We are never again the same.
Illus: I like the story the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells of how he was in a revival meeting in Woodbury, Tennessee. A man came up to him after one of the morning sessions and said, “Dr. McGee, would you like to go squirrel hunting today?” Dr. McGee agreed that would be something he would love to do. The man picked Dr. McGee up and took him to his large farm where they were going to hunt. He gave Dr. McGee a shot gun and told him to go in one direction and he would go in the other and they would later meet where the trails crossed. As Dr. McGee was going along in his direction it began to rain he saw a cave. He immediately decided that would be a good place to get into to get out of the rain. After he was there about half an hour he began getting cold from having been in the rain and decided to make a small fire to warm up by. The fire warmed the cave a little. It also made light and Dr. McGee became aware he was not alone in that cave. He said, “I have never been in a place in which there were so many spiders and lizards as there were in that cave! Over in one corner was a little snake all coiled up, just looking at me.” He said, “My friends, I got out of there in a hurry, working on the assumption that possession is nine-tenths of the law, and since those creatures had the cave ahead of me, it belonged to them. I proceeded down to the barn and really got soaking wet, BUT I WASN’T GOING TO STAY IN THAT CAVE!”
That is a good illustration of the Christian. Once THE LIGHT, THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, reveals all the dreadful things in that “dark cave of sin” we once lived in, we are not going to remain where those things are. If you are abiding “in Christ,” you are going to quit your...
• Cursing.
• Lying.
• Deceiving.
• Back stabbing.
• Gossiping.
• And all other sin.
Why? Because you are now “born again.”
2 Cor. 5:17 says it this way, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
There are people in churches across America who claim to know the Lord Jesus, and claim to have fellowship with Him, but listen, if they were “walking in the light,” seeing the UGLINESS OF SIN, they would not remain in that “dark cave of sin.” THEY WOULD GET OUT OF THERE!
The world, that is sinners, see the people who claim to be saved who “walk in darkness,” and they call them HYPOCRITES!
John says they are LIARS. The fact that they “walk in darkness,” the fact they daily build their lives around sin, proves they are not in fellowship with God, Who is LIGHT!
Look at the last part of verse 7 again. We read, “...and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
The word translated “cleanseth,” is from the Greek, “katharizo,” which means, “To cleanse, make clean, purge, purify.”
For example, let us suppose a child of God SLIPS UP and FALLS into a sin. DOES THIS MEAN HE HAS LOST HIS SALVATION? No! If that were true we would have to be getting saved throughout the day every day because every time we slipped we would lost our salvation.
A Christian DOES NOT lose HIS SALVATION when he falls into sin, but his FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IS BROKEN. We see this clearly in the life of King David of old.
Illus: David was known as being a man after God’s own heart. However, David fell into some terrible sins, such as: Neglect of duty, lust, deception, adultery, and eventually even murder. But, in Psalm 51:12, we read that he cried unto God, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
David did not ask God to “Restore” his salvation. He asked God to “Restore...the JOY OF...salvation.”
We can not “WALK IN DARKNESS,” and have fellowship with God at the same time.
Illus: Remember how it was when you were first saved, born again? Remember the closeness you felt with God. You felt close to Him because He had just cleansed you of all your sins and you felt clean and pure. Then, as time went on, Satan began to put “pot holes” in your path and you fell into them. The sin in your life separated you from that fellowship you had with the Savior. Then, as you felt sorry for what you had done, you confessed, “Lord, I have allowed sinful things to come between myself and you. Cleanse me, O God, of those things that I might be pure again.” Then, once you confessed, you were in close fellowship with God again. The Bible says that, ““...and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
As children of God we try to “WALK IN THE LIGHT, AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT...” but sometimes we trip and fall into sin.
Illus: But, just as we may look at our hands, physically speaking, and find dirt on them, we do not allow it to remain. We go immediately and find some water and soap and wash them clean.
It is the same when we find we are soiled by sin. We go to the Lord and He cleanses us. ““...and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
This is THE COURSE we follow as Christians. We “WALK IN THE LIGHT, AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT.”
Then look at...
II. THE CONFUSION
It seems that John might think, since he has been stressing so hard that we Christians do NOT WALK IN SIN, that perhaps he is thinking we Christians must be PERFECT.
This is a MISCONCEPTION and he did not think that, nor did he feel others should expect that.
John clears this up in verse 8. We read, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Notice the word “sin” in verse 8. It is in the singular. That is, he is not talking about the many kinds of sins a Christian might trip up and fall into, but instead he is talking about the SINFUL NATURE OF MAN.
There are some who claim they are sanctified and no longer have that desire to sin, but as you observe the lives of these who claim to have this kind of sanctification, you can not help but wonder where they get such teachings because they are like all Christians, they find themselves, from time to time, falling into sin.
If a man says that he does not need to accept the Lord as his Savior because he believes he does not have a SINFUL NATURE, he does two things...
• He deceived himself, and
• The truth is not in him.
If a man thinks he is basically good and does not need the Lord to save him from that SINFUL NATURE he has of the biggest misconceptions one can have.
Even though we, as children of God, do not WALK IN DARKNESS, we do still have a SINFUL NATURE. Every day Satan tries to TEMPT US, LURE US, TRAP US, ENTICE US, ETC., to do evil!
Illus: We have a law in this land called an ENTRAPMENT LAW. Suppose I know someone who has a problem with drugs, but I know that person has been trying to stay off of them. Also suppose I do not like that person, so I hide a camera in a room and I invite that person, knowing his weakness, into this room and immediately expose him to drugs. Suppose that person, who has been fighting this weakness, begins to think, “I have to get out of here.” But, there is another voice that says, “No, don’t leave. You know how badly you want a ‘fix.’ Go ahead.” As this person stands there, his weakness overrides his desire to do what is right and he partakes of the drugs I offer him. Even though his having drugs may be illegal, I can not take the video of the person doing this and turn it over to the police and have him locked up for having drugs. Why? Because of the ENTRAPMENT LAW which does not allow any evidence from my setting a trap based on the person’s weakness and his falling into the trap.
The laws of our land will not allow this, and this is a good law. But listen, the devil does not care about giving anyone a fair shake. He does not care about doing what is right. Every day he tries to ENTRAP Christians.
Satan knows every man has an EVIL NATURE within. Satan knows man’s weaknesses. If he tempts us with one thing and that does not trip us up, he will try another, and another.
John says that if we say WE DO NOT HAVE THAT EVIL NATURE within to want to do evil:
• We are deceiving ourselves.
• We have no truth in us.
The word translated “confess” in verse 9 is from the Greek verb, “homologeo,” which means, “To say the same thing.”
That is, God says we have a sinful nature, and we confess what God says is true.
Conclusion:
Notice what John says in verse 10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
He is saying we should not make God a liar. We know, as Christians, that we fall into sin from time to time. We should confess the sin and God will cleanse us.
Illus: Lillian Holcomb said, “At bedtime I tell our two grandsons a Bible story. One night I said, ‘Tonight we’re going to talk about sin. Do you know what the word ‘sin’ means?’
Seven-year-old Keith spoke up, ‘It’s when you do something bad.’
Four-year-old Aaron’s eyes widened. ‘I know a big sin Keith did today.’
Annoyed, Keith turned to Aaron, ‘You take care of your sins and I’ll take care of mine!’” (Lillian Holcomb, Pueblo. Colorado. Christian Reader, “Kids of the Kingdom.”)
This is what all Christians have to do, we have to take care of our own sins.
I. THE COURSE
II. THE CONFUSION
