Sermon Tone Analysis

1JOHN 1 - TESTING POINTS

 

It’s amazing how easily we take things and people for granted until we lose them.

It’s hard to realise how  much something or someone means to you until there’s an empty space where they were.

I don’t want it to  seem boastful or inappropriate, but to have Bible teachers minister to you who are committed with whole  hearts to teaching the Word of God is an immense blessing.

We have such an abundance of such men in  our own congregation, and who visit us like Bill Bygroves last week.

It’s one of God’s special gifts to His  church - when Jesus ascended to heaven having triumphed over sin and death he gave gifts to men, and he  gave some to be pastors and teachers.

It’s a gift.

And it’s so that Christians in the life of the church can be  strengthened spiritually and be brought to a maturity in the life of faith.

These Bible teachers are like shepherds whose business is to feed the sheep of Christ’s flock.

Good,  wholesome, lively Bible teaching is like food for the flock.

So, the Lord Jesus said to the apostle Peter, “*/Feed  my sheep/*” - that’s your life purpose and ministry.

If you don’t work to feed them, you won’t be working for  me, the chief shepherd.

That’s all very nice.

But the NT teaches that it isn’t long before men come to feed poison to the flock,  believing that it’s good grass.

They’ll have something attractive to say; it may sound captivating, it may be  exciting, it may look good and taste good, but it’ll be deadly poison.

20 years ago this week, an evangelical  minister persuaded and coerced a 900 strong congregation to commit suicide with him.

He fed poison to their  minds before he ever fed poison to their bodies.

These men who bring false teaching to the church of Jesus  are bringing poison.

So, any true pastor who cares about his people will shout a warning about the poison and those who  administer it.

Any parent who didn’t stop their baby drinking weedkiller would be held guilty before the courts  if they could have prevented it.

Any pastor who didn’t tell you about stuff that can kill your soul will be held  accountable before the Chief Shepherd when he appears.

C.f.

finding a torch bulb with no glass in Gareth’s mouth.

Alarm, concern, search, doctor, cotton wool  sandwich.

When the Apostle John wrote his first letter, he was like a worried Dad.

People were coming and giving  spiritual poison to John’s spiritual children.

So, he shouts a warning to them in this letter.

The poison is false  teaching administered by Bible teachers.

They came *speaking* bad things.

Look at the references to *saying* - v6, v8, v10, 2:4, 6, ....and so on!!

And just in case we’re not sure who John’s talking about look at *2:18-22, 26*.

So, one way to look at 1John is to say that it’s a test kit.

*C.f.

recent purchase of a cholesterol test kit from pharmacy.*

You can use 1John to test for poison in the church, and you can use it to test yourself to see if you’ve  swallowed any of this life-threatening stuff.

John wants to save you from stuff that’ll put you in eternal peril.

So, his last verse - */Little children, keep yourselves from idols/*.

You don’t want to lose eternal life; you  don’t want to fall into mortal sin, you don’t want to fall under the spell of the evil one, the father of lies, the  devil.

So, don’t drink the poison, keep yourselves from idols.

 

1.

GOD’S UNMIXED PURITY (ch.

1:5)

 

We’re going to look now at the first test kit.

There were people coming into the congregations who were *saying* something.

They were teaching that you could be a spiritually minded person, a person who was  spiritually secure, but that you didn’t need to live a godly life.

They were teaching that the blood of Jesus had  cleansed us from all sin, we had nothing to worry about, God was our loving father, we couldn’t earn our  salvation it was a free gift of God, therefore, the ordinary Christian was in a perfectly satisfactory condition  before God and didn’t need to be concerned about holy living.

“People who talk to you about holy living are  legalists” they were saying.

You’re free from the law of God.

You don’t have to worry about the rules and  regulations of religion.

And have a look at *4:2,3*.

They were denying that the Son of God had become *incarnate*.

They didn’t like the  idea that the Lord Jesus had become joined to human nature, to our flesh.

Why?

Because they wanted to  create a Christian life in which you could be spiritual in your spirit, and fleshly in your body.

They were  teaching that spirituality didn’t have anything to do with morality.

You could have sex outside of marriage and  still think of yourself as a spiritual person.

Sex was in your body, in your flesh, your spirituality wasn’t  affected by that.

So, these teachers wouldn’t accept that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

That’s pure poison.

Here’s the test - */v5 - this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to  you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all/*.

God is light.

Light’s always unmixed.

You can’t  mix darkness and light.

You can’t switch on a light and have half the room pitch dark and the other flooded  with light.

You can’t turn on your car headlights and have one beam lighting up the road and the other making  the road dark.

It’s natural.

Light in the NT represents the pure, unmixed character of God.

It stands for moral  purity - men loved darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil.

It stands for truth - God has shone in  our hearts to give us the light of the *knowledge* of the glory of God.

Darkness is a picture of sin and  ignorance; unrighteousness and blindness.

If you’re not a Christian tonight, you’re in the dark.

God is unmixed purity.

He’s full of moral perfection and he’s full of truth, and so is His son Jesus.

Yes so is  his Son Jesus even when he was a man in human flesh.

This same apostle says about Jesus - */in Him was  light, and that light was the life of men, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not  overcome it/*.

People think they can fool around with God.

They refuse to take Him seriously.

They think they can play tag  with God.

“He hasn't touched me on my shoulder yet”.

Why would anyone play fast and loose with a God of  burning, unmixed purity.

C.S. Lewis’s picture for the Lord Jesus was *Aslan the Lion*.

A dangerous creature,  a powerful creature.

Full of goodness, full of kindness, but say the characters in the books, “*/He is not tame/*”.

One swipe of those great paws, one blast of that powerful breath and you’re finished.

God is unmixed purity.

He’s a consuming fire.

He’s not to be messed around with.

Played with.

If you’ve  never taken God seriously, and got urgent about being right with him, then you’re blind and ignorant; you’re  still in the dark.

God’s unmixed purity.

2.

YOUR UNAMBIGUOUS RESPONSIBILITY

 

Let’s do our syllogism practice, we’ve not done it for some time.

All 71 buses go to Kingston.

This is a 71 bus.

Therefore, it goes to Kingston.

To be a Christian is to walk with God (fellowship, sharing, communion)

God is light

Therefore Christians walk in light.

*See 1:5-6*.

If you say you’re a Christian and yet you walk in darkness you’re a liar.

*/You lie and do not do what is true/*.

You cannot choose to walk in light and choose to walk in the dark at the same time.