1 John Sermon 2 - 1:5-10

I became overwhelmed this week at the prospect of preaching these 5 verses well in our 25 minute time slot, I feel burdened each week to be sure that I am preaching to you that which is the primary meaning of the text at hand; so I am not going to spend much time on this one, considering coming back next week and spending all of our time on it

Let me sum it up for you this morning - this is a dense and pervasive biblical truth; it does not mean God is shiny or bright.

Light is a common metaphor for God and it means many things throughout the Bible, John uses it more than any other single author, chiefly here it means a couple of things

Truth - Omniscient, never wrong, never lies

Good - No Sin, No Darkness (double negative)

We often take this for granted, “Well of course God is good,” Why? Why of course? Could he not have been otherwise? Could he not have been Not Good, even Evil? The only place where God being Good by definition comes from is the Judeo Christian God, think of all the other gods and goddesses in history, they weren’t good by definition, most were vindictive, angry, jealous, maybe moments of kindness but none without vice. Not THE God, not the true God. He is Good. He is Light, with no darkness at all.

Transition.

1 John 1:6 ESV

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

— We cant have Koinonia with Him and walk in Darkness

Darkness of course serves as a metaphor for sin, unrighteousness, wickedness, and perhaps chiefly self-righteousness which we will see in a moment.

This is simply a logical conclusion that comes from that message. Koinonia with God is what Christ has bought us, but we cannot have connection with LIGHT if we walk in darkness.

John 12:46 ESV

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

John 8:12 ESV

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 12:36 (ESV)

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

Ephesians 5:8 ESV

for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

If you are in the Koinonia of God, you are by definition in the Light.

If you are walking in Darkness = You are by definition Away from God

“If we say” (1 John 1:6) - this is the way John identifies the false teachers / ping pong

1 John 1:6 (ESV)

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Lots of people that live nearby us, Bible belt, likely some in this room, who SAY I have fellowship with God = I have a relationship with God.

If you say that, and yet walk in darkness (not step but walk, directional - more on that in a moment)You are lying. You do not have koinonia. Your life is a lie. You are a counterfeit Christian.

There is no washing no cleansing for you, you are still in your sins.

Perhaps you know you’re lying, or perhaps you are like the ones he mentions in a moment that have deceived themselves

Matthew 7:23 (ESV)

And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’ (darkness)

Transition. Key Section is these final verses.

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

— If we Walk in the Light — The Blood of Jesus cleanses us from All sin

Another logical conclusion, If God is Light, and in him there is and can be no darkness, then the only way you can be with him is if you have been cleansed of all sin.

Remember what we learned last week about Koinonia - not just with God, also with one another, we see that again here (1 John 1:7). It seems like it should say “if we . . . we have fellowship with God,” but there is no difference

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

WOAH - ALL SIN . . . not mine . . HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE, does he know all my sins, does he know my thoughts, does he know - - > He knows every single thing

Your sin is a drop, God’s forgiveness and grace is all of the Oceans

Your sin is a grain of sand, God’s forgiveness and grace is the Sahara

Your sin is an atom, God’s forgiveness and grace is a universe

When he said the blood of Jesus cleanes you from ALL SIN, he meant it, no exceptions - you are welcomed into the light only if you have no darkness - so Christ made sure to cleanse you completely, of your past and future sins.

The Good News is really THAT good

Romans 5:20 (ESV)

Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

SO we have got to know

What does it mean to walk in the light - 1 John 1:7

1 John 1:7 (ESV)

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

That’s a BIG IF! . . . if you do not walk in the light . . . it shows you are not in the Koinonia . . . your sins are not forgiven

Cannot mean to not sin, if it meant we lived without sin, there would be no sins to cleanse here in verse 7! But there are!

The next verses make that clear, and also give us the answer about what it means to walk in the light.

1 John 1:8–10 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

There is a parallel there, did you catch it.

1:7 - If we walk in the light. . . the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin v. 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

What does it mean to walk in the light? Biblically it means many things, but here the chief thing we see is it means to “live a life of confession of sin”

Now what I don’t mean here is confession the 4th step of a 5 step salvation process that is the final step down into the river, yanking it out of context and making it something it isn’t

Live a life of confession of sin means nothing different than live a life of repentance, which we say here a lot to define the Christian life.

See the juxtaposition here in our verses 1 John 1:8-10 - 2 Categories, Lost and the Saved, Dark and the Light

1 John 1:8–10 (ESV)

It is not, some over here who confess all of their sins, and some over here who confess only some of their sins and forget some and so won’t be forgiven. It is THESE PEOPLE WHO DON’T THINK THEY’RE SINNERS, AND THE CHRISTIANS WHO KNOW WE ARE SINNERS!

To walk in the light is to acknowledge my sin and my need of a Graceful Savior!

“If we are characterized as those who are continually agreeing with God about our sin, God is both faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us.”

It is as if John is saying “There are some who cover and conceal their sin. They are liars. There are also confessors who acknowledge and admit their sin. They are forgiven.”

The Difference in the fool and the wise, the dark and the light, is not that one sins and the other doesn’t, it is that one is foolish enough to not acknowledge his need and the other sees it plainly.

Spurgeon “He who cannot find water in the sea is not more foolish than the man who cannot perceive sin in his members. As the salt flavors every drop of the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature”

Light exposes sin, God is light, if you arent aware of sin in your life, it is because you must be miles away from God. But if you are close to God, you can’t NOT see it.

You know how it is, imagine you or your wife cleans the whole house, spends all day, the air is clear, the furniture is clean, the floors are spotless, she stands back to admire her work, and in that moment, one of the window shutters chinks open a bit and a ray of light comes into the room and what do you see, in the air, dust particles dancing around, thousands of them, its that way in the whole room of course, but can only be seen in the ray of light.

John 3:19–21 ESV

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

To walk in the light, is to willingly walk where sin is continually exposed. To walk in darkness is to keep your sins hidden, where they can poison you quietly and slowly from the cobwebbed corner.

Confession of sin means opening yourself to the God of light, relinquishing your grip on your sin. I have said many times that the difference in the Christian and the non-Christian life is that the Christian is on the side of God against . . .

Psalm 32:5 (ESV)

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Proverbs 28:13 (ESV)

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Luke 18 (ESV)

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

If you hold onto your sin, as your pet, it will kill you, if you open yourself to the God of light, He will save you and forgive every sin.

Isaiah 2:5 (ESV)

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Throughout history, the church would stand for the reading of God’s Word, out of reverence, and desire to focus on the words. We don’t do that here . . . - STAND!

Psalm 32:1–5 (ESV)

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah