Faithful and Just: What Jesus Would Do For Me

Faithful and Just: What Jesus Would Do For Me
June 1, 2010 5:30 PM -0500
Manuscript
Outline
Notes
Bibliography
Every one of us has painful shortcomings and things we know we've done wrong. For those who feel that God is far away, discover the amazing promise of what Jesus would do if you'll only let him.

Thesis: Jesus would have us acknowledge our sin and turn from it to a life in pursuit of holiness.

Objective: Call the congregation to acknowledge any sin in their lives and embrace Jesus' promise to cleanse them if they will choose to pursue holiness.

  1. Sin is contrary to God (5-7).
    1. God is light (“God is light” (5); The philosophical concept of light excludes the possibility of anything that's even the slightest bit less than good.).
    2. We can't have fellowship and sin (6; Given that God is light, it is not possible to be in fellowship, defined as a “friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests,” with God. If we say that we're in fellowship but continue to choose to sin, we make ourselves to be liars, too. Hypocrisy is not a viable option.).
    3. We must choose the light (7; If we will choose to walk in or live by what is good and right, then we can enter into fellowship with other people, and with God, and the blood of Jesus becomes effectual for us, purifying us – notice the absoluteness of that concept! - from all – notice the absoluteness of this quantity – sin.).
  2. Sin is contrary to ourselves (8-9).
    1. We are our own victims (8; If we deny that we have a sinful nature and guilt, ultimately, the only person that we're really deceiving is ourselves.).
    2. We must confess our sins (“If we confess our sins” (9); The key to fixing this deception and correcting ourselves is confessing sin, which is essentially agreeing with God about the definition and gravity of sin, and acknowledging that yes, indeed, I am guilty. It is bad. And I deserve eternal death for it.).
    3. Jesus will forgive and purify (“he will forgive us... and purify us” (9); If we will confess, then Jesus will take the initiative to forgive us – that is, restore the relationship between us and God – and move forward to purify – notice again the absoluteness! - from all unrighteousness – again, the absoluteness of these concepts!).
  3. Sin demands our response (10).
    • We can deny it (10; We can choose to say that we don't have sin, but to do so is to accuse God of deceit and reject the entirety of Scripture, which effectively removes any solid foundation from our lives.).
    • We can ignore it (10; We can choose to do nothing, but at the very heart of it, this is exactly the same as denying it outright.).
    • We can confess it (10; The unsaid flip-side of this verse is that we can embrace God and His word in our lives simply by acknowledging that we've sinned and choosing to live without sin from this point on.).

Ryrie

  • (5) light = holiness and purity. “This symbol was used much by John.”
  • (5) Notice that this is not the only time that John uses the “God is...” formula. He uses it also in John 4:24 and 1 John 4:8.
  • (7) “To walk in the light is to live in obedience to God's commandments. Two things esult from walking int eh light: (1) fellowship with other believers; (2) continual cleansing from sin (since walking in the light brings to light other sins that need cleansing).”
  • “The contrast of light and darkness characterizes the section (1:5-2:17)”
  • (8) “without sin” is “a reference to the indwelling principle of sin rather than to acts of sin.”
  • (9) “confess means 'to say the same thing about sin that God does.' Forgiveness and fellowship within the family of God is restored when we confess.”
  • (10) “we have not sinned” = “we have not committed sin. Even believers sin; if we deny past sin and present guilt, we are deceiving ourselves, mocking God, and not walking in the light.”

Henry

  • The point of John's objective in saying that “God is light” is to attribute God as “a self-active uncompounded spirituality, purity, wisdom, holiness, and glory. And then the absoluteness and fulness of that excellency and perfection. There is no defect or imperfection, no mixture of any thing alien or contrary to absolute excellency, no mutability nor capacity of any decay in him.”
  • “It is the prerogative of the Christian revelation to bring us the most noble, the most august and agreeable account of the blessed God, such as is most suitable to the light of reason and what is demonstrable thereby, most suitable to the magnificence of his works round about us, and to the nature and office of him that is the supreme administrator, governor, and judge of the world. What more (relating to and comprehensive of all such perfection) could be included in one word than in this, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?”
  • “to walk, in scripture account, is to order and frame the course and actions of the moral life, that is, of the life so far as it is capable of subjection to the divine law.”
  • “To walk in darkness is to live and act according to such ignorance, error, and erroneous practice, as are contrary to the fundamental dictates of our holy religion.”
  • “Now there may be those who may pretend to great attainments and enjoyments in religion; they may profess to have communion with God; and yet their lives may be irreligious, immoral, and impure. To such the apostle would not fear to give the lie: They lie, and do not the truth. They belie God; for he holds no heavenly fellowship or intercourse with unholy souls. What communion hath light with darkness? They belie themselves, or lie concerning themselves; for they have no such communications from God nor accesses to him. There is no truth in their profession nor in their practice, or their practice gives their profession and pretences the lie, and demonstrates the folly and falsehood of them.”
  • “As the blessed God is the eternal boundless light, and the Mediator is, from him, the light of the world, so the Christian institution is the great luminary that appears in our sphere, and shines here below.”
  • “A conformity to [the light of the world] in spirit and practice demonstrates fellowship or communion with God. Those that so walk show that they know God, that they have received of the Spirit of God, and that the divine impress or image is stamped upon their souls. Then we have fellowship one with another, they with us and we with them, and both with God, in his blessed or beatific communications to us.”
  • “We must beware of deceiving ourselves in denying or excusing our sins. The more we see them the more we shall esteem and value the remedy. “
  • “The Christian religion is the religion of sinners, of such as have sinned, and in whom sin in some measure still dwells. The Christian life is a life of continued repentance, humiliation for and mortification of sin, of continual faith in, thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and hopeful joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin abolished for ever.”
  • “if we say either that we have not sinned or do not yet sin, the word of God is not in us, neither in our minds, as to the acquaintance we should have with it, nor in our hearts, as to the practical influence it should have upon us.”
  • “He is clement and gracious also, and so will forgive, to the contrite confessor, all his sins, cleanse him from the guilt of all unrighteousness, and in due time deliver him from the power and practice of it.”
©2014 Debra Heights Wesleyan Church
4025 Lower Beaver Rd
Des Moines, IA
(515) 279-5212