God Is Light; The Reality Of Our Fellowship With God

KINGDOM REALITIES SERIES- (realities are truths, facts)

God Is Light, The Reality of our Fellowship With God - The facts of God’s righteousness in which are fellowship is based

Bible Passage - 1 John 1:5-2:2

INTRODUCTION:

MESSAGE OUTLINE:

THERE ARE 3 MISCONCEPTIONS OF MAN:

I. Man Can Fellowship with God and Still Walk in Sin (1:6-7)

II. Man is Not Totally Sinful and Depraved (1:8-9)

III. Man Can become Righteous and Sinless on His Own (1:10-2:2)

I. Man Can Fellowship with God and Still Walk in Sin (1 John 1:6-7)

6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

What does it mean to “walk in darkness”?

It means that the world is in the dark about God.

Man’s physical senses and flesh can know only the things of the physical and material world.

If there is a God, if there is a spiritual world, man has absolutely no way to penetrate it.

Man can take all his technology and science, all his intellectual and creative reasoning, and he will never be able to penetrate the spiritual world, not with his physical and material nature.

The physical and material world cannot and never will be able to penetrate and cross over into the spiritual world.

What does it mean to “have fellowship with God”?

It is the opposite of walking in darkness—walking in the light of God

The light of God is the revelation of God Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to reveal God.

Jesus was able to show us exactly what God is like. When the Son of God came to earth He told us and showed us exactly how to live, exactly what God expects of us

Therefore to walk in the light means to believe in the Son of God and to follow Him

Man believes that he can be godly apart from Christ.

It is possible that one can live a highly moral and perfect life without Christ and still walking in darkness because of the sin of pride in having that kind of life.

Now a person who is LITERALLY walking in the light will inevitably see a dirt here and a dirt there that needed to be cleaned. While a person in the dark will never see any dirt at all. (Mila’s complaining about me not opening the light or the windows)

A believer who is walking in fellowship with God will be so sensitive as to the presence of sin (dirt) but God provided a way to cleanse the sin so that fellowship will continue (“and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin”)

Remember that God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skin (not any plant) to cover their nakedness and so that they can “unhide” from God. An animal’s blood was shed as a result. Gen. 3:21

Remember that a lamb’s blood was painted on the doorposts of the house so that the firstborn in that house will not die

TRANSITION: So, it’s impossible to walk in both light and darkness at all. This is the first false or erroneous idea of man:

The atheist believes that he can live just as good as the Christian apart from Christ

The Muslim believes that he can have fellowship with God by doing the 5 pillars of Islam

The Hindus believes that He can please God by being good on this life so that he would be better on the next life

Christians believe that through Christ’s blood, we have fellowship with God

II. Man is Not Totally Sinful and Depraved (1 John 1:8-9)

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Bible teaches that every part of our being (mind, will, emotions and flesh) was tainted by sin.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

Jer. 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? Mark 7:21

Mark 7:21 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

If you will look at Ezra, it’s hard to believe that these verses are true. But I would say, Joel give Ezra some more time to grow up and then come back to me. Remember that every prisoner was once a baby!

Note that the word sin is not plural but singular. The sin being talked about is sinas a root within man, as part of man’s nature, as a principle, a law, a force, an energy within man.

The false teachers in John’s day were denying the reality of the existence of the sin nature in their lives. If someone never admits to being a sinner, salvation cannot result.

Alcoholics Anonymous is is an international fellowship of men and women who have had a drinking problem. They have a 12-steps recovery program for their patients. At the top of the list is this:

We admitted were powerless over alcohol --- that our lives have become unmanageable.

If anyone denies this first step, there will be no recovery at all

We have a power in us that is a hundred times more powerful than alcohol! It is a power that aims to land you not only in jail but in hell!

Deception is the act of causing someone to accept as true and valid what is false and invalid

The word of God and our experience are telling us that sin is at work in our lives

If we do not admit that, then we deceive ourselves and recovery is impossible

But if we confess (or admit, agree with what the scriptures say) then healing is possible as 1 John 1:9 is declaring

To forgive our sins means that God forgives the guilt of sin. God justifies us: He counts the death of Christ as our punishment. Jesus Christ bore our guilt of sin. When we believe in Jesus Christ and confess our sins, God counts our belief and confession as the guilt which Christ bore. We stand before God, no longer guilty of sin.

To cleanse us from all unrighteousness means that God cleanses us from all the dirt, filth, pollution, and contamination of sin. Not a single stain or spot of sin remains on us. We stand before God sinless and perfect, but remember why: because we believe in Jesus Christ and confess that we are sinners who trust the blood of God’s Son to cleanse our sins.

How do we know that God will forgive our sins and cleanse us? How do we know that God will count the death of Jesus Christ as the punishment for our sins? Because God is faithful and just or righteous

TRANSITION: To deny that we are not sinful and depraved is worst enough but to trumpet that we can be righteous and sinless by our own effort is an insult to the God who came down and be crucified so that we can become righteous and perfect. Which leads us to the last misconception of man about himself. (from bad to bad-der to bad-dest)

III. Man Can become Righteous and Sinless on His Own (1 John 1:10-2:2 )

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

If we can become righteous and sinless on our own, this makes God a liar & this disputes His word

It will surprise us to know that most religions of the world teach this kind of belief:

Roman Catholicism places great emphasis on church sacraments as the main process by which a person's sins are forgiven and one is assured to eventually attain Heaven after death.

Within Islam, a very few behaviors -- e.g. being a martyr in the defense of Islam -- guarantee that a person's sins will be forgiven and that they will achieve Paradise after death. Some other behaviors will guarantee that they will be sent to Hell. But, for most believers, entrance into Paradise is dependant upon their belief in God and his messengers (Surah 57:21), and upon having committed a preponderance of good deeds while on earth (Surah 2:25 and Surah 4:57). Thus, Muslims are generally not at all certain of their fate after death.

Many Eastern religions view sin very differently. Sin is viewed as an error caused by inadequate knowledge. Many teach the concept of Karma. This is the total effect of the good deeds and sinful behavior which each person accumulates during their lifetime. These religions generally teach that, after death, one's soul enters a new body in order to live a new lifetime. The nature of a person's next reincarnation, and whether they will be reincarnated into a human or animal body, will be determined by their accrued Karma at the time of their death.

But God has said that all people are sinners:

Psa. 14:3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.

Psa. 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

Isa. 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Jer. 17:5-6, Rom. 3:10-19,23, Rom. 6:23

To deny that fact is to blaspheme God with slander that defames His name.

The reality of our fellowship with God is therefore agreeing that His indictment on us is TRUE.

Whoever says that “knowledge is power” got some wisdom on it.

John is telling believers: if we know what’s going on you know what to do. “My little children (his term of endearment to the believers) these things I write to you so that you may not sin.

Illustration: When I was 16 and going to the big city of Manila, my father used to say to me about the dangers of being alone in a big city. John is telling new believers of the dangers that lie ahead but just in case they fell to the trap of the enemy, they have a way of escape.