Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
It is always wonderful to hear someone publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ. And yet, some of us are bound to know at least one person who once professed faith but whose life now suggests that their profession of faith is at least doubtful.
What this means then is that a profession of faith can’t always be taken at face value. If you have followed the US election at all, you have probably heard mention of FACT-CHECKERS. When there is a debate between the candidates, each of the political parties and every media outlet have teams of fact-checkers who check every statement of the candidates to see if it is true or not. Well, there is a time and place for ‘fact-checkers’ also in relation to a person’s profession of faith. And we see this in the passage before us today because the Apostle John functions as a profession of faith fact-checker.
You see, John wrote to a church where some people who claimed to be Christians were causing a lot of damage and hurt amongst the congregation. So John wanted to help believers by showing them how to fact-check a profession of faith. He wanted them to see that certain behaviours and ideas make it very plain that despite a profession of faith, there is actually no real fellowship with the Lord and His people.
And these are timely words, because there are people like this in every age of the church. And we too need to know how to recognize false fellowship claims. But there is also much that is useful in these verses for those who do have a living and personal relationship with God and His people.
In these verses then, THE APOSTLE PUTS FELLOWSHIP CLAIMS TO THE TEST. And because fellowship implies relationship with someone, what John does is to describe God, in v5, and then the person who claims to be in fellowship with God, in vv6-10. So there we have the shape of our sermon – The Character of God and The Fellowship Claim of the Person.
I. First of all then, from v5, we read about the character of God. And what we read is that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” So what does this mean?
A. Well, let’s just think about LIGHT for a moment: What is light useful for? Boys and girls, is it easier to read when there is light or when it is dark? It is easier to read with light, isn’t it. Light makes things visible. Light helps us see. Light reveals what is there. And light is also necessary for life and growth. Have you boys and girls heard about photosynthesis before? Photosynthesis is a part of how plants grow; they turn light into energy for growth. So if you put a seed in soil in the dark, that seed will not come to life and grow; it will die. But if you put the seed in the windowsill, where there is light, you will soon see a plant. So light is good for seeing and knowing, and for life and growth. And “God is light.” Earlier we read this of God from PSALM 36, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”
1. Three implications then of the fact that “God is light.” The first is that we MUST START WITH GOD. Our starting point for everything must be God. Because we are creatures, and because our thinking is so easily influenced by this or that thing, we need a source outside of ourselves to know the truth. And that source must be the God who created everything.
a. And just by way of an aside, if you want to know why it is that so many things have changed and are changing in the world today – marriage issues, gender issues, environment issues, abortion/euthanasia, drug laws, creation/evolution, and many other issues we could add to that list, the reason is that as a society we no longer come to these issues starting with God! Now we start with man and his opinions or his needs or his desires or his rights, etc. And where this will end up is with an almighty mess, because that is always the result when you don’t start with God.
b. But “God is light” means we must start with God. And to start with God means we go to the Bible. For the Bible is where God has revealed Himself and His will for humanity. Psalm 19 – “The perfect law of the Lord makes us wise”
2. And the chief benefit of the Bible, which is the second implication of “God is light,” is that ONLY IN THE BIBLE DOWE ENCOUNTER THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Jesus is the One who reveals the darkness of the world and His victory over that darkness. In John’s Gospel, 8:12, Jesus said of Himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And in 14:6 He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” We start with God only as we come to know His Son, Jesus. And the only place God where He has revealed His Son as the Saviour we need is in the Bible.
3. But the third implication of “God is light,” which is also a benefit of the Bible, is that ONLY IN HERE DO WE HAVE THE DEFINITIVE AND AUTHORITATIVE MORAL STANDARD OF HUMAN LIFE. How can we know what is right and what is wrong? According to the world, that can change from one government to the next, or from one scientific report to the next, or from one legal opinion to the next. And so, what is wrong today might be right tomorrow. And what I was not allowed to do yesterday I might be allowed to do tomorrow. And what you think is right, someone else thinks is wrong. Surely then, there must be some objective, outside of us, standard of what is right and wrong?
a. And again, by way of an aside, this is called THE MORAL ARGUMENT. Talk to anyone for any length of time, and it will not be long before they express an opinion about something they believe is right or wrong, or good or bad. And good, bad, or better means there must surely be a best somewhere!
b. And there is: “God is light”; God is best. The Bible reveals a God who is utterly holy in His being and in everything He does; He is pure and He is good and He is true. There is no impurity in God, there is no evil in God, there is no untruth in God. There are no ‘dark corners’ in God, no shadows, no ‘grey areas,’ no moral inconsistencies. God is the opposite of and He is 100% opposed to evil.
c. And this holy and good and true God, who is the Creator and sustainer of life, is the only one who can define morality. And He has done so in the Bible.
B. Do you see what all this means then? It is very important that we properly understand the implications of what is said here about God. For only then can we make sense of what is said about the person claiming to be in fellowship with God. If we want to see and we want to know, if we want to live and we want to grow, we have to turn to the Bible, where we meet Jesus. And through Jesus we learn the moral standard of God, which is a standard of absolute goodness and purity and truth. And that is a frightening thought because many people want a God who will let us live as we please; a God who is benign, who doesn’t interfere, who is happy to sit on the sidelines so long as we try our best and just don’t murder or rape or rob banks, kind of thing. But a ‘white lie,’ or a juicy bit of gossip, or a moment of frustration with that idiot driver, or an illegal download or two, or a few dollars left off the tax-return, or the occasional harsh thought or word directed toward our spouse, that’s no big deal. Everyone does that! But the God of the Bible, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” He cannot tolerate any wickedness at all.
II. So that is THE CHARACTER OF GOD as we see it in v5. And now we are ready to consider THE FACT-CHECKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP CLAIM OF THE PERSON that we see in vv6-10. And three things expose the claim of fellowship with God as false (and they are the three declarations that begin with “If we say,” in vv6,8&10), and two things reveal the claim of fellowship with God as true (and they are the declarations of vv7&9).
A. So let’s begin with THE FIRST “IF WE SAY” DECLARATION OF V6. And John is most likely quoting those who were troubling this congregation, who held to GNOSTIC beliefs. For when you read Gnostic writings, the things said here are their beliefs. And yet, having said this, the ideas described here are not limited to the Gnostics of John’s day. You will find professing Christians today who have never heard of Gnosticism who think or live as is described here. So, “If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
1. Now boys and girls, walking in darkness is not about footsteps taken with the light off It refers to how a person lives from day to day. To walk in darkness means that a person does not understand that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,” so this has little or no effect on their lives. God says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” But this is not important to this person so he or she sins habitually.
a. Earlier we read from Ephesians 4 which contrasts walking in darkness with walking in the light. To those who profess faith in Christ, Paul says, “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do … They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God … They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Speaking the truth, avoiding sinful anger, not stealing, having nothing to do with sexual immorality and impurity, these things just were not important to them. And so, they “do not practice the truth.” So they are actually a part of the kingdom of darkness, not the kingdom of light. Their fellowship with God claim is a lie.
b. It basically boils down to this: we show who we are by what we do. When a husband says to his wife, “I love you,” but he hits her or ignores her or speaks harshly to her or mocks her in public, it is obvious to all that he is a liar. So, if you say that you are a Christian but the holiness of God means little to you and you are living in prolonged, unconfessed sin, you lie and do not practice the truth.
B. But let’s look now at THE SECOND “IF WE SAY” DECLARATION OF V8: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
1. So if we start with those Gnostics of John’s day again, what is in view here is their idea that the Christian no longer had sin. They believed that when you became a Christian, you no longer had a sinful nature and you no longer actually committed sin. To them, Christianity was all about the soul and when you became a Christian, your soul was made completely pure. So what you did with your body was entirely unimportant. You had no sin.
2. But again, you will find professing Christians today who have never heard of Gnosticism but who actually believe the same things:
a. HUMANISTS believe that man is basically good. They say that sin is an invented idea of religion. Anything ‘bad’ is actually the result of a genetic problem, or an illness, or a lack of education, or a poor environment, or a chemical imbalance, or we did not get enough hugs when we were children, etc.
(1). Just listen to the news reports in the wake of a murder. One of the first questions asked is why this happened. And the answer today will always be one of those things I mentioned. The murderer is basically a good person who is a victim of __________ “We have no sin.”
3. But there are also those who generally accept sin, as in ‘To err is human,’ but who refuse to see what they do as sinful. Murder? Sure, that is sinful. But as I said before, things like a ‘white lie,’ or gossip, or a moment of frustration with that idiot driver, or an illegal download or two, that’s not sin! I have no sin.
4. And there are also professing Christians who believe in PERFECTIONISM – the idea that through good works and spiritual disciplines, or a special anointing of the Holy Spirit, a person can actually become free of sin.
5. And there are also professing Christians who are ANTINOMIANS – they have the idea that because they are new creatures in Christ, they are free of the demands of the law – sin can no longer be charged to them.
6. But what did we see last week as we considered the doctrine of the Fall? Romans 5:18, “One trespass led to condemnation for all men.” “In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all.” In Psalm 51:5, David the believer says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” In Romans 7, Paul the believer said, “Sin … dwells within me.” And perhaps the most comprehensive declaration about our sinful and corrupt nature comes from Psalm 14, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”
7. In JOHN 3:19-20, Jesus said, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
8. One of the most powerful tools that the devil makes use of is to convince people that they have no sin. Because if you do not know that you are in darkness, then you do not seek the light!
9. So how about you? Do you know that you have sinful nature and that you sin? Because if you do not, though you might claim fellowship with God, you are actually deceiving yourself and the truth is not in you.
C. Well, next we turn to THE THIRD “IF WE SAY” DECLARATION OF V10: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
1. And we can keep this one very brief. In ROMANS 3:23 we read this, “For all have sinned.”
a. The Gnostics, however, had a version of Christianity that had nothing to do with the cross and the forgiveness of sins. Instead it was a kind of secret knowledge and following the teachings of Jesus type of thing. So sin was not even a concept that they spent anytime considering.
b. But again, you will find professing Christians today who have never heard of Gnosticism but who simply do not see themselves as sinners! They like the idea of God and they like the traditions and rituals and community of worship and church, and while they might agree that rapists and murderers have a bit of a problem, they themselves were raised in Christian homes and have never done anything wrong. If you were to tell them that they are wretched sinners who need to repent and be converted, you might as well speak a Latin sentence, written backwards, and then translated into Polish – it makes ZERO sense to them!
c. But God says, “For all have sinned.” So they make God a liar, and His word is not in them.
2. I trust you can see then that what we have just stated is particularly relevant for any here today WHO HAVE GROWN UP IN CHRISTIAN FAMILIES. Have you come to see yourself as a wretched sinner who needs to repent and be converted? Have you come to understand and know that you have been living in darkness and you need to enter into the light? Because if not, your fellowship claim is false.
III. And that brings us, finally and positively, to THE TWO THINGS THAT REVEAL THE FELLOWSHIP CLAIM TO BE TRUE. And the first of these is in v7 where we read, “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.”
A. I hope it is clear to us all now that HOLINESS is extremely important. We have already quoted 1 Peter 1:16, where God says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Hebrews 12:17 says, “Strive … for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” And our Ephesians reading called on us to speak the truth, and to avoid sexual immorality, etc. We must live a morally upright life.
B. But if “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” is the basis of our fellowship with God, then THE ONLY STANDARD THAT WILL SATISFY HIM IS TOTAL AND UTTER PERFECTION. And this is our massive problem, isn’t it. Because not one of us, even though we strive with every fibre of our being, can offer to God sinless perfection.
C. So if we are to enter into fellowship with God now and spend an eternity with He who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all, our darkness has to be dealt with and conquered, decisively. We need to move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Well, John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus, the “true light … [came] into the world … [And] “to all who did RECEIVE him, who BELIEVED in His name, he gave the right to become children of God … Whoever BELIEVES in him is not condemned.” You ‘walk in the light’ if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” If your only hope is the cleansing blood of Jesus, then your fellowship claim is true!
IV. And yet, even though there is this decisive transfer from one kingdom to the other, even though the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, past, present, and future, as we have already seen, anyone who says, “I have no sin” deceives him or her self. Sin continues to cling to the believer throughout his or her earthly life. So instead of denying our sin, we are to do what we read about in v9, which is to CONFESS our sins: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
A. The Greek word that we translate as “CONFESS” literally means ‘to agree with’ or ‘to say the same thing.’ So when we confess our sins it means we have the same view of them that God has. We are no longer excusing ourselves, or comparing ourselves with others, or blaming something or someone else for what we have done. Instead, we are recognizing that we have sinned against God by breaking His commandments or not keeping them as we ought to, and that our sin is offensive to Him and deserving of His condemnation. So we turn to God and we confess our sins.
B. And WE DO THIS OFTEN AND QUICKLY. One of my sons has been working as a mechanic. And because of the technology in cars today, when a car’s computer senses a problem, a warning light starts flashing somewhere on the dashboard. And the sensible driver will take his car in to the mechanic straight away to get the warning light checked out. And this is because if it says on your dashboard CHECK OIL, and you ignore it, well, somewhere down the road you are going to have to deal with a problem far worse than a blinking dashboard light! And the same is true if we do not confess our sins often and quickly. Delay confession, ignore your sin and somewhere down the road you will have a much deeper spiritual problem.
C. BUT “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And that cleansing continues every day as we come to Him again and again in confession and experience His forgiveness, until one day, when we are with the Lord Jesus in heaven, we will no longer need to confess our sins because we shall be completely clean!
So the fact-checking of fellowship claims is finished. We have seen that fellowship with God means we walk in the light, which means we believe in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and we confess our sins, often and quickly. And did you notice, from v7, that rather than the expected “we have fellowship with God,” we read instead that “we have fellowship with one another”? This is going to be a theme we return to in John’s epistle. The church of Jesus Christ is community of professors and confessors. We are united by our profession of faith and we are united in our confession of sin. Anneke, welcome to that community. But to the rest of us, how has your fellowship claim fared today? Amen.
Prayer – (adapted from Matthew Henry),
O God of Grace, You have put my sin on Christ, and have given me His righteousness, clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, adorning me with jewels of holiness. But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so flavoured with impurity; my confessions of wrong add to my sin; my receiving the Spirit is tainted with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe that can cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in dirty clothes, and by grace I am always receiving from you a change of clothes, for you always justify the ungodly; I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, “Father, forgive me,” and you are always bringing forth the best robe to put on me. Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace. Amen.