Walking in the Light
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Introduction:
Introduction:
AG: Light video https://www.sermoncentral.com/church-media-preaching-sermons/sermon-video-illustrations/out-of-the-darkness-6413-detail?ref=MediaSerps
A little light makes a big impact.
Have you ever been in a cave when they turn the lights off? Total darkness is unusual, and can be disorienting. But even one small light, no matter how indirect, gives us a point of reference and pierces the darkness.
John takes up this idea of using our walk and light.
You see, it is easy to talk a good game. I can trash talk all day about how great of a baseball player I am. But put a bat in my hand, and then you will see a 50 year old man who hasn’t hit a ball in over 30 years! Talk is cheap.
The same holds true in our christian life.
We can easily talk a good game. We can make ourselves sound spiritual and even convince others.
BUT, If we aren’t walking in the light, then we are full of hot air!
It should bother us when we catch ourselves in that kind of hypocrisy.
in John deals with this very issue.
Part 1: Conflict
Part 1: Conflict
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. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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 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.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
talk vs walk
1. The basis of Fellowship
1. The basis of Fellowship
light vs dark
Part 2: Build the Case
Part 2: Build the Case
1. The basis of Fellowship
1. The basis of Fellowship
· The Message: God is Light and in Him is no darkness
Light and Darkness are familiar symbols in Scripture
Intellectually-
light is biblical truth
darkness is error and falsehood
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
Spiritually
Spiritually
light is holiness or purity
Darknesss is sin and wrongdoing.
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Ro 13:11-14
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.
1 Th 5:4-7
The message is Heard
· The message is Heard
The message is Proclaimed
A child of God knows the Light, for He is the light
In Him is no darkness:
He doesn’t sin
He doesn’t cause others to sin
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
The heretics claimed to be so holy, they had no sin
The heretics claimed to be so holy, they had no sin
The heretics claimed to be so holy, they had no sin
They were in fact, sinning by being so arrogant to believe they had no sin.
2. We have Fellowship with God
2. We have Fellowship with God
· We have fellowship with Him
· The test:
· Our lifestyle demonstrates our fellowship with God
· No fellowship if we walk in darkness
· We have fellowship if we walk in the light
John states that our behavior reveals our hearts.
he isn’t claiming that we do good (walking in the light) to be saved.
He says we walk in light because we are saved.
As we walk
Lit. walk around
darkness-
habitually live contrary to God’s way
light-
habitually live God’s way
We display our true fellowship.
time spent with God leaves its mark
Fellowship with God leads to righteous living
Heretics often claim righteousness, but talk is cheap.
3. We have fellowship with each other
3. We have fellowship with each other
· If we walk in the light
· Jesus’ Blood cleanses us from all sin
· If claim none- we lie
Either
I have never sinned
Or I no longer sin
Many today redefine sin
They accept and even embrace sin.
This is self -deception!
We are flesh and thus still have a sin nature
· If confessed- we are cleansed
Confess-
Jesus can overcome it.
a. Through His forgiveness
b. Through His grace
He declares us to be righteous
c. Through growing us.
· Due to
· Jesus our advocate & Propitiation
Part 3: Application
Part 3: Application
So where does this leave us this morning?
Examine your life for evidence of your true condition.
If sin is habitual and present tense there is a problem.
I am a Christian and I am a _______.”
(Drunk, adulterer, liar, thief…)
If you habitually practice darkness that is a warning sign!
If you habitually practice darkness that is a warning sign!
Darkness and light and incompatible.
“Since you have met Jesus what has changed in your life?”
“I am an unrepentant sinning Christian.” No such thing.
“I am ________ … but that’s okay, because God loves me.”
God is not darkness, and God doesn’t bless the darkness. Many Christians don’t understand this.
God I know that I am in sin, but will you bless me.
If God blessed darkness, then God would be training us to live in darkness.
Things you used to do begin to bother you.
Sir Alexander Fleming, upon introducing his newly discovered drug, penicillin, warned against taking too little of it. An under-dose, he said would permit germs to remain in the system thereby allowing one to build up an immunity to the drug. These immune germs could be "passed on to other individuals so that the thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatments may be responsible for the death of another" if not himself as well.
penicillin, warned against taking too little of it. An under-dose, he said would permit germs to remain in the system thereby allowing one to build up an immunity to the drug. These immune germs could be "passed on to other individuals so that the thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatments may be responsible for the death of another" if not himself as well.
Something similar to this carelessness takes place in the spiritual realm where masses of people seem to be playing with religion - taking in just enough of it to become immune to the real thing.
In a View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond, a former zoo keeper, had this to say:
“Raccoons go through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owners. Since a 30 pound raccoon can be equal to a 100 pound dog in a scrap, I felt compelled to mention the change coming to a pet raccoon owned by a young friend of mine, Julie. She listened politely as I explained the coming danger. I’ll never forget her answer, “It will be different for me. . . .” And she smiled as she added, “Bandit wouldn’t hurt me. He just wouldn’t.”
“Three months later Julie underwent plastic surgery for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason.”
None of us are immune to sin.
People are deceived. They think that they have their stuff all together.
You should be able to walk up to any true Christian and ask what sin are you wrestling with?
This person is the one who has been a Christian for sometime. They have cleaned up their lives. They have victory over many things that used to really control them.
Deception is what happens over in darkness, bring that over in the light and we’ll truly see what it is.
Confess your sin and receive His forgiveness.
• Deception is what happens over in darkness, bring that over in the light and we’ll truly see what it is.
Name your sin for what it is. Don’t sugar-coat it / don’t soften the language.
Affair/adulterer; Bend the truth/Liar; I just need a little something to relax/you’re an addict-drunk.
Don’t name your sin in a way that the Bible does not.
Take it out of the darkness and drag it into the light!
Name it / agree with God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Let us be honest with God, ourselves, and each other and confess our sins to receive forgiveness instead of denying them.