Walking With God part 1a

“Walking With God (part 1a)”

Introduction:

1. For this week and next and then for the following opportunities that I have in the pulpit I will be preaching through the book of 1 John. 
2. The series will be entitled “Walking With God”
3. But before we jump into the book and start breaking down the passage I would like to start with a little background.
4. Background
1. If I were to ask you about the personalities of Peter or Paul you could probably all answer me and be pretty close
2. In the Gospels, Peter was very out spoken and often got himself into trouble.  Then in Acts a very mature and Spirit–filled Peter dominated the early church.
3. And Paul was so open with his feelings and motives that sometimes we’re embarrassed by his totally honest revelations.
4. But if I were to ask you about John’s personality you would have a harder time answering me.

                                                              i.      I am sure that some of you would come up with the fact that he was part of the inner circle with his bother James and Peter

                                                            ii.      You might remember that at the Last supper John was the one closest to Jesus reclining at the table.

                                                          iii.      But what else do we know about this quiet apostle?

1.      Apparently he and his brother were quite young and passionate when they first joined the disciples.

a.       On one occasion James and John were sent ahead into Samaria to find lodging.  But know one would welcome them.

                                                                                                                                      i.      So they asked Jesus “do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” Luke 9:54

                                                                                                                                    ii.      What were their nicknames?  Sons of Thunder.  How appropriate!

b.      Another occasion John told someone to stop casting out demons in Jesus name, “because he was not one of us.”  Mark 9:38

c.       And the final profile we have of John in the Gospels was found in Matt. 20:20-28 where we find James and John talking with their mother who goes to Jesus and ask Him to reserve a place of honor in his kingdom for her two sons.

                                                                                                                                      i.      Obviously when the other disciples heard of this they were not happy.  Then Christ used this to teach them about humility and servant hood.

2.      Yes, we can all understand John, because we have known (and possibly been) such go-getters, firebrands.

a.       We can understand his quickness to take offence and to react.

b.      We can understand his pride that held others at arms length.

c.       We can understand his drive to succeed.

d.      We understand all this because these are the motivating passions in our world.

                                                                                                                                      i.      These are the desires that the New Testament encourages us to replace with a set of values summed up in the concept of holiness.

                                                                                                                                    ii.      Yes, we understand young John only too well. He is so much like us!

3.      But here in the 1st epistle of John we see a totally different man:

a.       Now his favorite word is LOVE

b.      He is gentle and so selfless that he hardly even mentions himself in this epistle and only when it is applicable to his teachings.

c.       We meet a man who has been transformed.

1. Now that we have a better understanding about the man (John) lets dig into this 1st epistle of John.

Outline:

• Turn with me to 1 John 1:5-2:2 and follow along as I read.
• The Series that we will be going through is “Walking with God” This morning we will be looking at “Walking in the Light,” being Honest.

I         Walking In the Light (Vs. 5)

A      There are so many times that we (people) try to hide our sin and cover over what we do so that “know one will ever know about it.” 

1        Think about it:  when are most crimes committed? 

a         At night, when it is dark out.  Criminals feel safer at night because not as many people can see what they are doing. 

b        Many crimes are committed in dark allies.

2         But if you are a Christian this morning then.  “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (Vs. 5)

3        When we were saved, God called us out of darkness into His light (1 Peter 2:9).  “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

4        We are children of light (1 Thes. 5:5).  “You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.”

5        Those who do wrong hate light (John 3:19–21). “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

6        When light shines in on us, it reveals our true nature (Eph. 5:8–13).   “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible.”

7        Light produces growth and beauty, but sin is darkness, and light and darkness have nothing in common, they cannot exist in the same place.

a         If you are walking in the light; then the darkness has to go.  But if you are holding onto sin, then the light goes.

b        There is no middle ground or “grey” area.  You are either in the light or in the darkness.

This brings us to our second point… How do we try to cover up our sins?          By telling lies!

II      There are three steps in lying that we tend to follow.

A      The first step:  We lie to others (Vs. 6)

1        We live the hypocritical life:  we say one thing and do another.

2        We all want our friends to think that we are great Christians so we tell them that everything is fine and when they ask about our Spiritual life we elaborate it and make it sound great and wonderful.  When in fact there are all kinds of problems there.

a         We don’t pray very often.

b        We don’t read our Bibles.

c         We pretend that we are worshiping in church when our minds are really in a million other places.

d        And I could go on and on with all the ways that we try to look good on the outside when the inside is filthy. 

1)      The sixth of the seven Woes goes like this, Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” 

·         This is Christ himself speaking to the leaders of the Jewish nation at that time. 

2)      We can all give a good impression on the outside but God can see what is on the inside and that is really what counts.

B       The second step:  We lie to ourselves (Vs. 8)

1        Once you tell yourself something enough times you begin to believe it. 

a         This can work with just about anything.

1)      I am overweight:  well the first time that you think that it isn’t readily accepted, but every time you look at yourself in the mirror and think that, it isn’t long before you are on a diet, or in a gym, or not eating.

2)      Then to apply it here one might say that I am OK spiritually, I mean:

a)      I come to church at least once or twice a month.

b)      I pray before I eat. 

c)      I even pray before I go to bed.

d)     Or you can be someone who will say that I am here every time the doors are open.

i          Sorry to break it to you but that doesn’t make you a good spiritual person. 

ii        It is a life style not just a spiritual “time card” that we punch.

b        King David was a classic example of this point here.

1)      First he lusted after Bathsheba, then he actually committed adultery.

2)      Instead of openly admitting his sin.  He tried to cover it up with lies.

a)      He had her husband come home and tried to get them to sleep together but her husband couldn’t justify it when his fellow soldiers were out on the battle lines.

b)      Then when he saw that that failed he had him murdered.

c)      And to justify it he married her.

d)     He lied to himself that this was OK and tried to carry on just the way that he had before in ruling the country.

e)      Then his court Chaplin the Prophet Nathan came and told him a story and David condemned the man in the story.

f)       Once Nathan told him that he was that man, that was when David finally got the whole picture and the Lie that he had been telling himself finally caved in on him and God punished him for his actions.

But wait it gets worse!!! 

C       The third step:  Trying to lie to God, or make God out to be a liar! (Vs. 10)

1        This is obviously a bad way to go but we all do it.

a         Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

b        We try to think and act like we are exceptions to the rule.

1)      Think about it; when we reach this point in our sin we go to church and maybe even Bible studies but never get anything out of it. 

2)      We can sit there and apply everything that the speaker is saying to someone else but it never affects your life. 

3)      Believers who reach this low point are usually the most critical of other Christian but they resist applying the Word to their own lives.

2        Sin has a deadly way of spreading doesn’t it?

D      At this point we must discuss an extremely important factor in our experience of life that is real. That factor is honesty.

1        We must be honest with ourselves, honest with others, and honest with God.

2        Our passage describes a believer who is living a dishonest life: he is a phony.

3        He is playing a role and acting a part, but is not living a genuine life. He is insincere.

4        What does a dishonest person lose?

a         He loses the Word:

1)      He stops doing the truth (vs. 6).

2)      Then the truth is no longer in him (vs. 8).

3)      Then he turns the truth into lies (vs. 10).

b        He also loses His fellowship with God and God’s people.

1)      As a result, prayer becomes an empty form to him.

2)      Worship is dull routine.

3)      He becomes critical of other Christians and

4)      Starts staying away from church

c         Then he loses his character.

1)      Abraham Lincoln once said, “If you are going to lie you had better have a good memory.”

2)      How true is this?  Once you tell one lie then you have to tell another lie to cover that one up and another one and another one, before long the snowflake turns into an avalanche!!!

3)      And the character that you had is now so far destroyed that it will take a lifetime to rebuild.

Conclusion:

1.      At this point it seems like there is no hope and that God has given up on us but wait.

2.      The thing that is encouraging here is that he doesn’t leave us hanging here he goes on and gives us hope. 

3.      I am sorry but I am going to leave you hanging here and you will have to come back after the lunch to get the rest of the story.

4.      And to see the hope that God gives us here in this passage.