In our Scripture today John speaks of being in light and darkness. He tells us that we can have Jesus Christ the light. But live as if we are in darkness – live like we don’t know Christ.
Story: Got A Light?
When I was in college we used to spend a lot of time on the beach. People would stop us, hanging on to a cigarette and ask “got a light”, I guess they didn’t have matches in their swim suits...We would say,
Jesus is the light.
We are continuing our series on why good people do bad things.
What we have seen so far is: We try to build a good world around us….
Listen to Christian Radio, Read the Word, Be with good people. It doesn’t matter what kind of a world we build around us Scripture teaches: Our corruption still comes from within. We seek to be good people. God is not looking for good people. He is looking for devoted people. We use the path of least resistance. We usually embark on the path of least resistance, in small steps. I did not deliberately try to become involved in deceit. Want something bad enough – we can pray ourselves into a peace about it, this “peace” enables us to work outside the Scripture. Sometimes it is more of a Sense Of Inevitability, than a peace. We also saw how Shame is part of the puzzle - innocence at all costs - I am going to do what I need to, to eliminate the possibility of shame.
Today we will see that sometimes we plainly deceive ourselves. As John puts it, “we claim to be in the light – but walk in darkness”. Can a Christian who has seen the light – found Jesus Christ, walk in the darkness? You bet.
1John 1:5.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. The message is from Jesus: Listen up. He starts by saying this is not philosophy and declares that God is light. What does he mean? God is light appealed to pagans / former pagans. Light / darkness was common in pagan thought. John – from the Hebrew, OT light -Intellectual sense = truth, Moral sense – righteousness. NT Jesus carrier of illumination. God is light – absolute glory in his truth and holiness.
In a bit we will see more practically what light does for us.
John also tells us why he is telling us this:
1John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
John is telling us a key to understanding so we will not sin. Understand – not to be without sin or to be perfect but in effect to not life a life of sin. In our terms: be held hostage by sin. When we are held hostage by sin, we are blinded and we deceive ourselves. Good people doing bad things.
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live by the truth.
Let’s look closer at chapter 2 and understand what is going on.
Verses 1-5 talk about salvation.
Verses 6-11 talk about the Christian life.
1-5
applies to me getting saved – in this context
purpose – you will not sin
reality – you will
take heart – Jesus has taken care of you
He is the atonement for or sins. He has taken our place for judgment and made peace with God the Father for us.
Verse 2
Not universalism, automatic salvation. What is means is an opportunity for anyone, anyone to be saved. No one is outside the possibility of being saved. We know we are saved by obeying his commands, by a life change, Not continual – consistent.
Let’s jump back to chapter 1
Light and Darkness.
Properties of light: it Illuminates, I can see where I am going....
Story – camping on the beach.
It was so dark we got lost. We stopped the car, got out made camp and went to sleep. We woke up with a start. Dune buggies were everywhere.
Turns out it was not the best place to camp.
We Needed light.
Light Exposes. It shows our flaws.
Story – Walter Mondale – Ronald Reagan debate.
During the dbate the lights were very bright. Walter looked older, worn out, though he was younger and maybe healthier. Ronald, wore make up, people took him as more competant.
Take these two properties: Illumination, Exposure. This is what Jesus does for us in our lives. Illuminates truth, intellectual. Illuminates righteousness, moral. Exposes the same. This is where we fail.
Control. It gets down to an issue of control. I can claim a whole list of things – and believe I’m in control, But I’m a liar – deceiving even myself.
8 If we claim to be without sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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.
By contrast darkness hides, covers up. For us, sin is a darkness – that covers up the Truth and Righteousness and we are fooled. We have talked about how we know we are saved. How do we know we are walking with God?
Let’s go back to chapter 2
This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Darkness = error.
First error – sin is unimportant.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
This does not mean one is not a Christian. It means his sin has blinded him. In context – this is not specific acts. We will sin, that’s a fact stated at the beginning....and Jesus covers our sin.
Darkness – living habitually in darkness. Not only specific acts, but determination to continue to sin. This determination is key. Living in darkness makes fellowship with God impossible. Verse 10 stumble – sin. Christian behavior can not be separated from experience - They are mixed together. I cannot claim to be a Christian and live like every else where sin is taken lightly it is dealt with lightly. We are too quick to pronounce ourselves cured
Story - Bugs.
Came home late from work. It had been a hot day, and I thought, the lawn will die if I don’t water. It was already dark, very dark, when I started to water the lawn. Then I noticed, the lawn was moving. I got flashlight i there were Hundreds of bugs migrating from my neighbors yard - 2 inch big cockroaches!
We would spray Pesticide – they would move next door. They would spray pesticide – back they would come. We finally all sprayed at the same time. Whew!
Darkness hid the roaches – we couldn’t stop our problem until it was brought out into the light. And it was creepy
We have a natural inclination to hide. Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.
1 – honesty before God, here is the start.
2 – what we hide grieves God, he sees it anyway.
3 – light and darkness cannot coexist,not sin but sin we refuse to let go of.
Amen
