Sermon by Bob Brown on Sunday AM 6/27/04
Consistent Confessions
Text: 1 John 1: 5-10
I remember reading a comic about a pastor interviewing for
a job. He was sitting around a table with a bunch of elders, to
whom he responded, “Maybe I don’t have a lot of experience
like you, but I have watched a lot of TV!”
There is a part of the problem in our society; we sometimes confuse
reality with what we see happening around us. I can still remember
when I found out, as a young boy, that the people on our TV weren’t
real! What a blow, no real Superman, no real Captain Kangaroo,
no real gunfights. TV hasn’t really changed that much today
either. The people blown up, shot up, lying dead, are still there
for the next program. It isn’t reality!
We must make sure that our real lives, the lives we lead every
day, in the world and in the church are not out of touch with
the truth of God’s Word. We read in the prophet Isaiah, 5:20:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness
for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter.” Just because something seems, sounds or
looks right doesn’t make it right.
Now, let’s look at what is expected of us from the Word of
God. If a person claims to be “in the light” (v.7),
we see that it is only true if they are walking in the love of
Christ, for God is love. This means love for God and others around
them, particularly brothers and sisters in Christ (cf. 2:9-10).
Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “You’re here
to be light, bringing out the God colors in the world…If
I make you light bearers, you don’t think I’m going
to hide you under a bucket do you?” (Matthew 5:14-16).
We as believers are to be light-bearers in this world, walking
in such a way that others know the truth of whose we are! Now,
in this passage, 1:6-2:2, we see the claims of false teachers
and students who are eager to go with what they are saying.
Here John exposes the false, but contradictory claims they are
making, and then gives the truth. The truth will always come from
within the light of God’s Word, and will be confirmed by
the Spirit.
When listening to the teachings of someone who claims to hear
from God, ask yourself this: Are their teaching and behavior consistent
with each other? Does what they say fall in step with the Scriptural
teaching that God is light and all sin is exposed in His light
and glory?
What the apostle John is teaching here is: here’s the false
teaching/belief, here’s the error of it and here’s the
truth that refutes the error. The one thing that we can never
get around is this—sin—that goes against the moral content
of who God is, is in our nature and affects our relationship with
God.
We see three false errors in this passage of Scripture. All of
them are based on a false premise, of people who want to be close
to God, but think it can be done on easy terms! This comes from
having no idea of the doctrine of sin and how that affects our
relationship to a Holy God, who is light and His light exposes
sin. So, John explains the problem of sin, before he gives the
solution. He explains the sin and even tells us the remedy, which
comes when we acknowledge our need for forgiveness.
The first false claim is that we can have fellowship with God,
which is closeness to Him, be of one heart with Him and others
of like faith, and at the same time have a habit of walking in
darkness. Usually this means that we try to hide our thoughts
and actions from everyone, or else we try to make it seem like
it isn’t really a bad thing we’re doing. We get this
impression from TV and other false ideas.
What happens is that it is not that uncommon for people who claim
to have fellowship with God, to see no reason to either first
go to the cross of Christ for cleansing and forgiveness, or to
lead a consistently sanctified life after coming to Him. If we
make a claim to be walking in fellowship with God, and we aren’t,
we are deliberately lying, and the truth is not in us, because
we do not live according to the truth.
The error is walking in darkness; the truth is that we need to
walk in the light. That means we walk in the light of His holiness
and His presence without deceit or dishonesty in our mind or consciously
tolerate sin in our conduct. Walking in the light means walking
in absolute sincerity, with nothing to conceal. We see two results
of this, fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus,
God’s Son, purifies us from all sin. This means that when
we receive cleansing through His blood, we enjoy the fellowship
of God and each other, in an open, sincere, honest, transparent
relationship.
The second false claim that is being made is this: the denial
that sin even exists in our nature. This means that if there is
no sin nature, that they cannot benefit from the cleansing effects
of the blood of Jesus because they say, we have no sin. But, to
say we have no sin means that we are only deceiving ourselves.
In other words, we are self-deceived rather than deliberate liars,
but either way, the truth is not in us. Not only do we fail to
do the truth (v.6), we don’t have any truth. Today many people
fall into the same kind of trap, by saying that we are only scapegoats
for all of the psychological and physiological social ills that
plague our culture. We might as well say with Flip Wilson, “The
devil made me do it!”
The attitude that we should have is to admit our sin and receive
the forgiveness in Christ, which God has made possible for us.
IF we confess our sins, i.e., acknowledge before God that we are
sinners not only by nature, but also by doing sin God will forgive
& cleanse. So we really see we are in debt to God (but He
forgives) and we are stained with sin (which He cleanses). Both
the forgiveness and the cleansing are a part of the faithfulness
and justice of a loving God, but are conditional upon our confession.
The third false claim is somewhat like the second, “if we
say we have not sinned…” We may know that there is sin,
and that sin would break any possible fellowship with God if we
did sin. We may even acknowledge that sin actually does exist
in our nature, and yet deny that we have ever sinned, so we convince
ourselves that we are not out of fellowship with God.
To say that we have not sinned is not just to tell a deliberate
lie (v.6), or even to be deluded (v.8), it is actually to accuse
God of lying, to make Him a liar and to reveal clearly that His
Word is not in us. Because we learn from His Word that sin is
in all of us, and the Bible clearly tells of the sinfulness of
all men.
So let’s all stop playing games and get honest with God and
ourselves. If we will consistently confess our sin, we will consistently
be forgiven and cleansed, by the Lord Himself. The fact that you
are here this morning says that you know too much to even try
to deceive yourself any longer.
This morning, we called this message consistent confession, but
I want to make it not only a head thing and a heart thing, but
also a real thing. Let’s make it a claim check! When you
check in a coat, hat or another belonging at a public event, they
give you a piece of paper that you present to redeem your personal
belongings. This morning, if you want to redeem yourself, to say
to God, I want to live in your light, and make it once again a
public declaration, then I want you to come forward and receive
your own personal claim check. This can be used whenever you need
it, to continue to walk in the light of His love and grace.