62-03 Fellowshiping with God, Pt 1

1 John 1:5-6

The past decade, the church in America has been concerned with not offending people who might be "seeking". Churches have refocused their purpose and see it as their mission to make people feel better about themselves. In an interview, the pastor of one of the larger churches in America located in Houston "my goal is to give people a boost for the week." This is a man who speaks to 25,000/wk and yet sin, repentance, hell and judgment are never mentioned from that pulpit.

The church must be passionately concerned with warning people about sin and its consequences. We live in a culture that de-classifies sin and calls it a disease, illness, addiction that can be "cured" thru psychology and prescription drugs.

1189 chapters in the Bible and 1185 deal w/ sin, presence and consequences. Only 4 is there no presence of sin. The Bible places a great emphasis on sin. Anyone who is passionate about lost souls will issue the warning call that sin leads to eternal death.

Satan knows the wages of sin-promotes false religions and false teachers who minimize sin's impact on the human heart.

LJC taught that a person's problem was not external but at the core of his life: Mark 7:20-23; Jer 17:9

People are well versed in denying their own sin. They say “well, we're not really all that bad." That was true of Israel in the days of Malachi-God told them plainly what sort of sacrificed was required of them and those that were acceptable to God (Lev 1-7). But Israel continued to offer food that was defiled and defective animals as offerings to the holy God.

Mal 1:6-8; 2:1-4,11,17

No wonder God rebuked them harshly. They denied their sin and even called it good in the sight of God.

John had a similar problem in facing the Gnostics: Docetism, Certhianism. There was also the group that said spirit is good and matter is evil and what happens with the body has no bearing on the spirit-so they denied sin's existence and believed at the same time to have fellowship with God.

As a faithful preacher, John understood the seriousness of sin and passionately described the tests of fellowship with God by developing 3 essential truths that every Christian must know.

1) character of God, 2) certainty of sin, 3) confession of Xian

Fellowship w/ God (vs 3)

I. The Character of God (vs 5)

Notice-flow of divine truth: The message John (apostles) announced was not their message. It was derived from a more perfect & reliable source-God Himself (specifically JC). Jesus is the source of perfect revelation and what He reveals is absolute truth.

Important for the preacher to realize that he does not preach his own message but the message God has given. Paul said "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose [council] of God" (Acts 20:27).

2 Tim 4:1-4

The message John announced was stated in terms of a contrast:

"God is light ... "

John is writing about the character/nature of God as light-to help finite man understand infinite God ( sometimes anthropomorphisms-arm, hand, eyes ... ) God is sometimes called a rock or tower. These help us to understand more about God's character-God is light.

2 other times John uses formula:

God is spirit-Jn 4:24

God is love-1 Jn 4:8

God is not "a" light as if one among many other lights-His character is that He is light.

Not describing physical aspects of light-though true:

Rev 21:23; 22:5

Psalm 27:1 NASB95

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?

Psalm 36:9 NASB95

9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Of course Jesus said:

Jn 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36

John is using this metaphorically-making this aspect of God's character very complex.

Joseph Bonsirven "there are 3 sense in which God may be described as light. Light represents divine glory and majesty, it speaks of divine illumination or revelation and it depicts moral rectitude [integrity]."

1) God's glory & majesty-often God & glory associated with light.

Ex 13:21-22

Moses coming of Mt Sinai after meeting with God had a glowing face as a reflection of God's light.

Ps 104:1-2-psalmist says

Transfiguration- Matt 17:2

2) Light describes divine illumination

God's light often represents the truthfulness of God's word.

Ps 119:105,130

2 Samuel 22:29 NASB95

29 “For You are my lamp, O Lord; And the Lord illumines my darkness.

God is light and gives sight.

The natural man is blind-unbeliever:

2 Cor 4:4; Eph 4:17-19; 1 John 2:9-11

Divine illumination first comes in salvation giving a person a new ability to understand divine truth.

Act 26:16-18

Illumination progresses along with sanctification—

Psalm 119:130 NASB95

The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.

So Psalmist prays "give me understanding-teach me"

Ps 119:12,26,27,33,34,64,66,68, 100,102,108,124,135

Paul prays for Colossians 1 :9-11

3) Light describes God's moral & ethical virtue.

Eph 5:8-9

Notice the contrast: "In Him ... "

Double negative that literally reads "and darkness in Him is not, not one bit." John is stressing the total absence of darkness in God. Darkness is not just the absence of light which indicates neutrality but it has a moral quality. Darkness stands directly opposed, to everything that characterizes the holy God.

The darkness in this context is the opposite of truth and righteousness-falsehood and moral evil. This is not to be found in God at all.

In John's day-the false gods did not have such a distinction:

Findlay "They had gods that could cheat and lie, gods licentious and unchaste, gods spiteful and malignant towards men, quarrelsome and abusive toward each other. They had been accustomed to think of the Godhead as a mixed nature, like their own, only on a larger scale-good and evil, kind and cruel, pure and wanton, made of darkness and light."

Men who worship false gods always create those gods in their image. This becomes a perversion of God's purposes-created in God's image to worship Him. Gnostics did this very thing.

God is light-including the representation of truth and the qualities of moral purity, uprightness.

II. Certainty of Sin

Truth Xian's must know/believe to have fellowship. The one condition that every person is beset with is sin. It continues to be that one constant since the "fall". The Bible teaches unequivocally that all men are born sinners (Rom 3:23; 5:12) All need deliverance from God for salvation.

So even the newborn baby-though appears innocent-is very much a fallen creature who needs salvation.

John says we can know we have fellowship with God based on our recognition of sin as our inherent condition-or chief problem.

Yet there were many in John's day who denied sin & sin's effects and consequences.

(denied 3 things about sin-only 1st today)

1) Denied the gravity of sin

Vs 6-the claim: "if we say ... "

This is hypothetical (3rd class condition). John is not saying that there were necessarily those in this fellowship who were asserting the claim but acknowledging that it could very well be the case.

The claim is to have fellowship with God-to share with God the life and the light that He gives to those who come to Him thru Christ. To have fellowship with God is equal to having eternal life.

Note the contradiction between the claim and the conduct:

"any yet walk ... " The claim that one is united with God but walking in darkness is contradictory.

"walk" lit "walking" -process of living. If the continual walk of a person is characterized by those things that are opposite of God's character-John adds "we lie ... "

Darkness again is everything that stands contrary to God's nature. It means:

Absence of truth

Absence of holiness

Presence of error

Presence of evil conduct-unrighteousness

The issue is not how often one does these things—for the believer it is possible to have moments of unholy conduct. The. issue is that the person making the claim to have fellowship with God yet habitually walks contrary is lying and the truth is not in him.

Matt 6:22-23

Argument from lesser to the greater. Jesus is saying that if you are physically blind (in the dark) that is bad-but much worse to be spiritually blind.

The seriousness of sin is that it is of such character that is self-deluding- to the point that we think we are acceptable to God and have fellowship with Him when that is not the truth.

Proverbs 30:12 NASB95

12 There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness.

If you habitually act contrary to God's nature-that is your way of life and you claim to have fellowship with God-then you are deluding yourself b/c the truth is not in you-or you would manifest the qualities of the truth.

People say "just do your best & look to God occasionally for help."

But sin is much more serious than most people think. They tend to see sin more in terms of particular sins-this sin or that sin.

Bible teaches there are 2 kingdoms-God's and Satan's, evil, darkness.

Sin/darkness is a realm. It was in the world before us-going all the way back to Eden-where man was made perfectly in God's image but choose to rebel against God's command. The image was corrupted at that point along with the entire creation being polluted.

2Cor 6:14

Don’t think you can mix with sin and darkness and come out unscathed.

Sin is serious-for John the 1st test in a long series of tests to determine if we have fellowship with God is that you have a right agreement with God over sin's gravity.

I do not mention and John is not writing this so that genuine believers would doubt their salvation-1 Jn 5:13

To know-is to have assurance. For us-we are called to examine ourselves, examine your life-how do you habitually walk-is it contrary to what God stands for? If so, the solution is to confess your sin and God will forgive you. Then you too can have assurance of your salvation.

The church is here to warn people about sin. We’re not here to boost you for the week. We’re not here to pummel you and make you feel guilty. If you feel guilty, turn to the HS and seek forgiveness thru repentance.