Don't be Two-face

Read verses

1 John 1:5–10 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. 8 If we say 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. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Opening Prayer

Last week we discussed the surrounding details to the book of 1 John and John’s introduction to the book.

We saw that John was calling the churches to return to the beginning.

· He wanted them to come back to the gospel that had been taught them because they were beginning to fall victim to false teachers.

One of the key things pointed out last wk was the word LIGHT.

As John continues in chapter 1, he focuses on the Light.

· The issue - people are saying they are Christian in church,

but they are living as is they not Christian out of church.

This is THE SAME PROBLEM that we face TODAY.

This reminds me of a character in the comic “Batman”

“TWO-FACE”.

· Two-face started out good until ...accident that scared half of his face.

· RESULT: one side he looked nice and the other side he appeared scary.

· Became a bad guy.

· As the villain, he would flip a coin TO determine to DO good or bad.

If we are not careful, we are can easily walk-through life bouncing back and forth between these two natures and think this is ok. We actually begin to believe that it is ok to say we are Christians while we sometimes deliberately walk in darkness.

If we are not careful, we can think we are saved when we are not!

But we learned last week, light and darkness are separated by God.

In our verses today, we are given the secret to being able to overcome the dark side that is within us, while revealing those who are simply two-faced.

In Verse 5, we are given

#1. The FOUNDATION. The starting point. It all stands on this.

1 John 5 says...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 is God's message to man

· Jesus himself was the manifestation of this message in his life and words.

· That message is:

· God is perfect, , pure, and righteous--(God is LIGHT)

· We all fall short of this standard! (but there can be No DARKNESS IN HIM)

When i think of God as light I think of Matthews 17, Jesus was meeting with Moses and Elijah at the mount of transfiguration and Peter started to make plans to build temples and God showed up. In verse 5 it

(Peter) He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The bright cloud overshadowed them. This means there was no shadow that was cast because God’s light removed all shadow.

Where there is a shadow there is darkness. Verse 5 says that there is no darkness in God. Where God is, there can be no darkness because his light removes darkness.

John goes on to tell us three responses to this LIGHT that we can choose in according to our text this morning. Option “A” In v. 6 we see...

#2. The FAKER.

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

The faker says one thing but does another.

This faker pretends by putting on a mask and masquerades as the Good GUY!

John is telling us is that The Truth behind the maskis revealed in our daily walk.

What this means is that either you are a Christian or you are not and can be seen by your practices.

This word practices means our HABITUAL LIFE. OUR LIFESTYLE, DIRECTION AND PROGRESSION.

ARE WE MOVING DAILY TOWARDS DARKNESS (UGLY LIVING) OR LIGHT?

We cannot have both. We cannot come to church and say all the right things, then turn around on Monday and Tuesday and do bad things. As Christians, we cannot act one way around our church friends and another way at school or work. We must choose. Either we walk in the light, or we are walking in the darkness.

If we are living this two-faced life, then John is calling us a liar.

· We are lying to God when we say that we want fellowship with him.

· We are lying to people around us.

· We are lying to ourselves!

Probably the most damaging lie is the lie we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves that we are living a in fellowship with God. We think that we are good and upright.

WHEN we walk in darkness it prevents us from having fellowship with God and we do not even realize it.

Option B is in verse 7. Here we see a person who is ...

#2. The FOLLOWER.

John tells us in verse 7.. 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.

If we are a follower of Jesus, the we walk are WALKING the same PATH JESUS WALKED... Jesus always walked in the path of Spiritual light. If we follow His path, then We are in the LIGHT… Only int he light can we are see, hear and do as Jesus did.

When walking in the light, Our ACTIONS then come from the HEART of God and speak LOUDER than WORDS of man

Verse 7 tells us that this not only creates fellowship with God, but with other believers as well.

But this is not from our doings. There is nothing we did to allow us to walk in fellowship with each other, but what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is His act of Love for us that allows us to have unity and fellowship with one another.

I want to pause for just a minute and discuss unity and fellowship.

· Fellowship and unity does not mean you always see eye to eye.

· However, even in times where we are having difficulties with other, we can have fellowship and unity because of our relationship with Christ.

· Challenges IN the moment are overcome by walking with Christ together.

· We must never let our disagreements overcome our fellowship.

A third response to the foundation is that of ...

#3. The FOOL.

John tells us in verse 8 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

When we lie to ourselves for long enough, we become fools our own making. Here we see the importance our words to our Christian walk. If we continue to tell lies of our perfection, and how great we are...we eventually believe our lies! We deceive ourselves!

What we, and others speak into our lives matters. This is why Jesus tells us to be careful in Matthew 7:22-23, he says, 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.’

This is why it is important that we don’t lean on our own understanding or the understanding of others but on what we read and study in God's Word. That we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the sin our lives.

Although true believers are cleansed and forgiven from all sin, we must continue to repent of those things that we know to be unrighteous.

True Followers are more sensitive and convicted of sin...so as we read in verse 9, we see...

#4 True CONFESSION.

John says, 9 If we confess our sins, knowinghe is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The process of confessing sin never ends because we will never measure up to His standard. This is exactly why Jesus had to die a perfect death for us...

This is why we read in verse 10, 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The acknowledgment of sin in our lives is crucial. I will be the first to tell you that I struggle with sin. There are sins in my life that are tempt me more than others. I love how Paul says this in Romans

Romans 7:15 ESV 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

· I hate when I mess up.

· I hate when I fall short.

· I hate when I knowingly do things against God’s commands.

If I were to stand here today and say that I don’t sin, then I would be lying to you. I likely have committed some sin today.

Would you agree with that statement in your life? Do you have sin here and there in your life? Do you hate that it happens?

If you do, If you said yes to that, I want to tell you that it is a good thing.

It means the Holy Spirit is convicting you of your faults. It means you have the truth within you. That is a good thing.

Seeing the sin in your life step one.

Step two John tells us to confess our sins. We are to confess our sins before God and before men. When we sin against God, it damages our relationship with God. When sin against men, it damages our relationship with them. An old proverb says confession is good for the soul. That is a me focused look at confession. I would like to change that and say confession is good for relationship.

Here is a confession of mine. I can be prideful. Sometimes people are around to help and I tend to push them away. I try to do it all myself. I overload myself because I got this. Then I fall short and I say, I can fix it myself. I got myself into this, so I’ll get myself out of it. So I allow my pride to damage relationship with God and others. So I confess to God and to you today I battle with the sin of pride. If my sin of pride has hurt you, I am sorry.

Here is the good news about confessing sin to God, He forgives. Verse 9 says that with confession he is faithful to forgive. That he will justifiably forgive us. While man may not always forgive us, God will. I can’t promise that your brother or sister will always forgive you. I hope that they will. But God promised he will forgive us of our sins when we confess them.

As we close and go to group, Do you feel as though you are walking in darkness? Do you feel like at times you are two faced? Are there sins preventing you from fellowship with God. What sins are preventing fellowship with other Christians? What do you need to confess to God?

If you are not sure you know Jesus this way, If you are not sure that you are walking in light don’t leave here without doing what you know to do! Let’s make sure we not only confess Jesus as Lord, but we believe in our hearts and follow him also!