Help for the Hypocrite

1 John 1:5–7 ESV

5 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. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Prayer

As we consider the passage that is before us this morning,

we need to remember that John has written so that we know we are believers.

Not that we may think we are, but that we may know we in Christ.

1-3 John (Chapter 2: Live in the Light (1 John 1:5–10))

Have you ever stared directly at the sun?

That is one of those strange activities that your mother warned you not to do

Then what happened? Immediately your eyes began to burn, and the intense burning compelled you to turn your face.

Then, when you turned from looking into the sun back to the world around you, your eyes had trouble refocusing.

The witness from John here is that he is LIGHT.

1 John 1:5 (ESV)

that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

This is not the first time we have ever heard this before, all throughout the OT, God is described this way.

David says in Psalm 27...

Psalm 27:1 (ESV)

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

In another place he declares...

Psalm 36:9 ESV

9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

Even in the prophet Isaiah, when God is describing the effects of His Messiah who is to come he says...

Isaiah 49:6 (ESV)

I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

All throughout the OT we see this witness to God’s light and brilliance.

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 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.

The imagery that John picks up here is easy for us to comprehend.

Light and darkness have often been terms used in religious circles.

The light representing the good and the darkness representing evil.

For John, LIGHT is righteousness and DARKNESS is unrighteousness and sin.

It is the nature of light itself that makes clear that which is hidden in the darkness.

When we walk into a dark room, we turn on a light.

We don’t turn on the darkness.

When we hear the statement, “God is Light” we should hear ethical implications.

Light is a symbol or a representation of the concept of purity.

A Dark Stage with a Bright Spotlight

Picture with me an extremely dark stage.

And in the middle of that stage there is an extremely bright light that hangs down.

The light provides illumination for everything else.

If the light were somehow removed, the person on the stage would be absolutely lost.

What is God like in His nature?

The Standard: The Purity of God

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 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.

When we say God is pure? What do we mean?

Louis Berkhof helpfully talked about God’s ethical holiness in this way....

This ethical holiness of God may be defined as that perfection of God, in virtue of which He eternally wills and maintains His own moral excellence, abhors sin, and demands purity in his moral creatures.

Basically what Berkhof is saying is that God is completely perfect in His ethical and moral excellence.

Affirmation: God is Completely Pure

He is completely and wholly absent of the presence of sin and darkness.

He is the plumbline of morality.

We ONLY understand what morality is based off of Him.

The demand then of this perfection is purity.

Isaiah 6:3–4 ESV

3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Like the prophet Isaiah who cried out, “Woe is me, for I am lost!”

This God that we serve is so utterly different than we are.

He is so utterly pure because He is so utterly devoted to Himself!

John even gives the same truth in the negative...

1 John 1:5 (ESV)

that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Denial: God is NOT Darkness at all

For example

A person may have a good characteristic

And that may be a true quality of that person.

But to say that God is light and there is no darkness is to say that He is ONLY Light.

He is so extremely LIGHT that there is NO DARKNESS at all.

“there is no darkness in Him, none”

Basically this is saying that God is so pure that there is not a trace of impurity within Him.

When we consider how we view God in our minds and in our hearts,

we must reject the challenge from the serpent in the garden, that God is somehow BAD.

We need to be aware and able to speak the truth of this passage to that lie.

Genesis 3:5 ESV

5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 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.

This passage is deeply encouraging because it shows us that no matter our situation, GOD IS PURE.

Job situation

Family Loss

1 John 1:5 (ESV)

that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Not only is He Himself completely and totally pure, he demands that of His creatures as well.

When the Scriptures tell us a fact about the nature of God, it always demands us to change in some way.

Since God is Light, You Should Walk in His Light

There are several responses to God’s perfection and purity.

Today we will be examining the response of Hypocrisy.

Now what John is about to do is interesting and deserves us spending a minute reflecting on the pattern.

Claim

Reality

Truth

He does this in verse 6, verse 8, and verse 10...

1 John 1:6 ESV

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

John is describing a term we know as HYPOCRISY.

What is hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy is most simply a theatrical term.

A term which is used in theater productions.

It is a theatrical term because it denotes the mask an actor wore to impersonate another character.

Essentially, these opponents of John are putting on masks that say, “We have fellowship with God!”

While on the underneath, they were fakes.

Hypocrisy: The Leaven of the Pharisee’s

Jesus addressed a group of people like this while he was on earth.

As he was privately talking with his disciples about the Pharisee’s, this is what he said...

Luke 12:1–3 (ESV)

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

He says that what the Pharisee’s are doing is like “leaven”

Leaven is essentially the yeast that you put into dough to allow bread to rise.

What Jesus is saying that theatrical masks and leaven are essentially the same thing.

They produce appearances but are really just false impressions.

The leaven allows the bread to rise but it does not actually give any substance or weight to the bread.

He is saying that these Pharisee’s appear to be one way by their confession, but their lives tell a different story.

Now we should take heed to believe that hypocrisy was unique to these people in that time.

Hypocrisy is always a danger present to us.

It is always a danger because Jesus demands that we acknowledge our sin, and our sin demands that we attempt to conceal it.

Example - Manipulating Volcanos

As I considered and studied about hypocrisy,

I came across an interesting science that apparently involves controlling how volcano’s erupt.

As I thought about this science, I think it is appropriate to compare volcano control to that of hypocrisy.

You can try to control it for a time, but one day, it will explode open for everyone to see.

We are all tempted with hypocrisy.

And most simply, we see hypocrisy in our lives when our WORD do not match our LIFE.

Now think with me for a minute, if you define hypocrisy by our words not matching our life.

How often has that happened to us in a given week?

With our spouses

With our children

With our co-workers

Claim: “We have fellowship with God”

The gnostics were people who believed they had a special knowledge of God.

They believed they could have direct access to God without walking in the apostolic witness.

They believed that their physical bodies were bad

So they would abuse them with eating, drinking, and all manners of immorality.

You can hear John directly addressing this group with this statement.

You can also hear Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7.

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

These are some of the most chilling words in all of the Scriptures and they come from the mouth of Jesus.

Notice that these people who are coming to Jesus are claiming to have fellowship with God.

They are coming to Him and declaring how they have done all these things in His name.

1 John 1:6 ESV

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Reality: “Walking in Darkness”

What does John mean by “walking”?

For John, to say that someone is walking is to express a manner of that person’s life.

Walking is another way of expressing how a person lives.

To say they are walking is to say that they are living their lives in a certain fashion.

And these particular people John is talking about are walking around in moral darkness.

“So every time I sin, I am walking in the darkness?”

Now to be clear, this is the kind of sin which was the direction of their lives.

This is NOT just sinning every once in a while.

This is NOT just sinning and hating the sin.

This is NOT sinning and afterward hating the fact we act in such a way.

He has something different in mind.

These people were living in overt rebellion and not even acknowledging that it was sin.

They were moving in a direction which led to destruction.

These people who had caused so much disarray in the community were walking in moral impurity.

Listen to John’s analysis of these individuals....

1 John 1:6 ESV

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Truth: “You’re a Liar”

John is pointing his finger at these gnostics and calling them what they really are: LIARS

He doesn’t say that they DON’T know the Truth.

He says, they are NOT practicing the TRUTH.

He is saying that they claim one thing, but the manner of their life displayed something else.

The manner of their life showed that they were NOT in fellowship with God.

The manner of their life showed that they were STILL in REBELLION to GOD.

The leaven of the pharisees was a masking of what was true, but Jesus give us another picture...

Matthew 7:16–20 ESV

16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

What does this teach us about humanity?

It teaches us something that theologians have called progressive sanctification.

Progressive Sanctification

When we come to Christ and God breaks the power of sin in your life, He does it ultimately and decisively.

We see this reality expressed in Romans 6:10-11

Romans 6:10–11 ESV

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

But progressive sanctification teaches us that God does not just zap us out of this earth.

He sanctifies us progressively.

He makes us more like Jesus slowly.

It is a process of struggling against the sin that remains in us.

Before we became a Christian, we would sin and would not be bothered by it.

If you’re a Christian, you are acutely aware of how sinful and wicked you are.

This is not a cause for John to worry,

John is a good pastor in that he gives us a way to get out of our hypocrisy.

He gives us a way to come back into the light.

But John is setting out for us to understand it by...

Evidence

Reality

Truth

What he is showing us is SALVATION is NOT something earned but it is revealed in the life of the believer.

It is NOT ONLY profession but it is the great revealing.

He does this in verse 7, verse 9

GLBC

We should pause for a second here...

As we consider what it means to be a part of this church, how often do we allow the opposite to be true.

We need to allow the evidence of our lives speak more than the claims of our lives.

So as we consider bringing in new members to this assembly, we should consider John’s analysis.

For John, He does not say that claiming something is enough.

Actually, we will find that for this apostle, claiming means nothing.

1 John 1:7 ESV

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 his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Watching Where We Walk

Notice how John gives us a path to get back under the huge spotlight of God’s fellowship.

He gives us a way to come out of the darkness and go back under the light.

1 John 1:7 (ESV)

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

Evidence: “Walking in the Light”

Again, notice that walking for John is not merely your confession.

It is a manner of your life.

It is a direction your life is heading in.

It is not just confession from our lips but can be witnessed from our life.

Example of Community (From Preaching Commentary)

Imagine someone who is a member of a health club and attends all the club nutrition meetings.

But when he is not at the health club, he binges on the worst kind of foods you can imagine.

He goes back to the health club meetings and says, "Today I ate three cranberries and half of a pear" when he actually consumed a Big Mac and a supersized order of fries!

It is a sad spectacle when a Christian claims the moral high ground, but from God's perspective he actually languishes in the pit.'

We don’t walk in the light perfectly.

John is not extending to us a Christian perfectionism (which we will talk about next week)...

He is saying that when we begin by being honest.

Honest about our condition.

Honest about our estate.

Since God is light, you should begin by being honest about your life.

Walking in the light for John is not about how well you walk, we can be limping along in the Christian life.

But as we limp along, we look unto our Savior!

Looking unto Jesus, who is indeed the light!

Then true fellowship is possible.

When this is true of us, and we are walking in the light

1 John 1:7 (ESV)

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,

Reality: “We have fellowship with One Another”

It’s ironic to me that he doesn’t say that we have “fellowship with God”

But the reality is: God already knows about all the masks we use.

God is in no way deceived by who we are.

But what is hampered, what is hindered is our fellowship with one another.

When we choose to hide behind masks and pretend that we are better than we really are, we live in isolation.

Community is not possible when everyone is faking.

Communion with one another around Christ cannot happen when nobody acknowledges their shortcomings.

Example - Allowing People in Our Life

By way of application, may I ask you a few simple questions..

Do people here at this church know you well enough that they would have the ability to call you out if you were walking in a hypocritical way?

Do you allow people here to know you this well?

Part of walking in the light means that we have our lives open to one another.

1 John 1:7 ESV

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 his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Truth: “The blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin”

This cleansing is an ongoing and continuous occurrence.

Progressive sanctification shows us that when Jesus died, he didn’t make perfect people.

It is the process where every day God is working in us to make us more like Jesus.

He made people who continue to struggle and wrestle with their sin.

And as we wrestle, as we fight and kill our sin, we have horizontal fellowship and the blood of Jesus is continually applied to us.

Since God is Light, You Should Walk in His Light

The Standard: The Purity of God

Affirmation: God is Completely Pure

Denial: God is NOT Darkness at all

Hypocrisy: The Leaven of the Pharisee’s

Claim: “We have fellowship with God”

Reality: “Walking in Darkness”

Truth: “You’re a Liar”

Watching Where We Walk

Evidence: “Walking in the Light”

Reality: “We have fellowship with One Another”

Truth: “The blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin”