Walking in Darkness
Walking in Darkness
Sunday, November 25, 2007
“If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
1 John 1:6
1. Last week we looked at one of the things that interfere with the fellowship we have with God - that is a false sense of who God is. This week, John reminds us of another one of those things - this time it is a false sense of who we are.
2. Fellowship is a position - like two people walking together along a road, or on a journey, or like a companionship. Gen 5:22 says “Enoch walked with God” that meant that he had fellowship with God.
3. When you see two people going down a road or a husband and wife going together through life - This is the true picture of the Christian who is walking with God, journeying through this world having true fellowship.
4. If we say “we have fellowship with Him” and that is exactly what we are saying if we call ourselves Christians. By claiming to be a member of a Church we are saying in effect “I have fellowship with God.”
5. However, “If we say that we are walking with Him and yet in the meantime are walking in darkness, then we lie. It is not true, it is a false claim, and we misrepresent ourselves to our fellow men and women and to the world., and it is all wrong. Why? The New Testament position is someone who has never understood the Gospel and what is meant by sin. Jesus said: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23)
6. Walking in darkness, or in other words sin, is a realm or atmosphere. According to the Bible darkness or sin is a kingdom that has a king. The Bible tells us that there are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of holiness and the kingdom of Satan and of iniquity. These are two realms in which man can live, so that apart from you and me and our individual actions there is such a thing as sin and evil, a realm, an attitude, an outlook.
7. Before we were born sin was in the world. The Bible tells us that sin is the explanation of all our ills and troubles and sorrows and it is the pollution and corruption of the perfect world God made. By God’s sovereignty and plan, this world is still under the control of “the evil one” or Satan. The Bible calls him by different names “the god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4) “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2) and we are reminded that “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6:12)
8. All of us that are born into this world are born under the dominion of this kingdom of darkness and that is who we are by nature.
9. The kingdom of darkness represents everything that is opposed to God, everything that is opposed to His holiness and perfection, everything that is opposed to His plan and purpose.
10. “Walking in darkness” means that you live in such a way that you rarely have any thought about God at all; And if you do think about Him, you do not think of Him as “light [in whom] is no darkness at all.” You think of Him as some benign fatherly person who is ready to smile upon your failures and who is ready to grant you entry into heaven at the end. This is a fallacy and it represents walking in darkness.
11. “Walking in darkness is someone whose whole outlook on life is ruled by worldliness, and who only thinks in human, earthly terms of all that life is. (1 John 2:15-16) Remember that the Christian can say with Paul that “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal 6:14)
12. God does what He is (God is not only light - He acts as light) and the same thing applies to man. We really show what we are by what we do. We reveal our doctrine in our practice, and those who have not realized the truth about sin and certainly those who have a wrong idea about it cannot have real fellowship and communion with God. “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” (Gal 6:15)
13. Let us finish today by looking at three things: (1) Not having a right understanding of darkness and sin leads to living a life that is a lie and you continue to walk in darkness. (1 John 1:6, 8, 10)
14. (2) If I say that I am a Christian and the world knows I call myself one and I continue to walk in darkness I am a liar and I am pretending to be something that I am not. “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” (Gal 6:3)
15. Not only am I lying to others, but I am lying to myself and deceiving myself. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Gal 6:7-8)
16. (3) Today, if you have been lying to yourself and others you must realize that you are a sinner and that you must repent of your sins and put your faith (full trust) in Christ as your only hope for salvation from the wrath which is to come. (Matt 3:7-12; Luke 3:7-9; John 3:36; Rom 1:18-22; 2:4-8; 3:5; 3:9-18; 5:8-11; 12:19-21; Eph 2:1-5; 1Thes 1:9-10; 5:5-10; Rev 6:12-17; 11:17-18; 14:9-20; 19:11-16)
GracePointe Baptist Church
2209 N Post Road
Oklahoma City, OK 73141
Phone: (405) 769-5050