Oct 1, 2020
I John 1:5—2:1
Morning Bible study led by Matthew Butler
Thursday, July 30
One of the joys I had growing up in the Milton (WI) SDB Church was going to Camp Wakonda every year. This beautiful property is full of tall trees, green grass, woods to explore, games to play… Great memories!
One of the “not so happy” memories I have from Camp Wakonda has to do with the fact that the boys’ dorm is about 300 yards away from everything else. It’s tucked away, far from the main building. And at night, after getting ready for bed in the bathrooms of the main building, you have to trek back all the way to the dorm before “lights out.”
I remember one particular night, when I had taken a little too long getting ready for bed and I was left to make the journey back ALONE. One thing I should mention: the land between the main building and the boys’ dorm is a minefield of obstacles—including trees of various sizes, log benches around a big open fireplace circle, and picnic tables. Usually, there was a single light, high on a pole or tree, that would light the way “home.” But on this particular night it was OUT. It was pitch black. So I did what every young man would do: I took off sprinting and screaming into the dark night! I was terrified that “something in the dark” would get me. That night, in the pitch dark blackness, something DID get me. My full speed sprint was stopped immediately with a swift picnic table bench to the shins!
The funny thing is, I knew those obstacles were out there in the night…I knew they posed a threat…
…but I didn’t have that single light to guide my way.
This is kind of like our SIN isn’t it?
We often know that it’s taking up residence in our hearts, but we often choose to leave the lights out. We know they pose a threat to us, but instead of clearing them out, we try to navigate through life in the dark.
What we need is illumination.
We need something to illuminate the darkened parts of our hearts and clear out that sin that so easily entangles us. Or, in this case, we need someONE.
Let’s look together at Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus When We Sin. The Scripture we’ll be spending our time in is
1 John 1:5—2:1.
Now, you’ll notice that the title is “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus When We Sin.” Not IF we sin…but WHEN we sin.
One of the dangers of the Christian life, especially if you’ve been following Jesus for a long time, is to assume that you no longer have any significant sin. It’s almost like sin is a bad roommate that we’ve just gotten used to. “Oh, that’s just Sin over there…leaving his dirty dishes in the sink. Not cleaning up after himself…
We should be continually ridding our lives of sin and putting it to death! You know, dragging it off the sofa of our hearts and kicking it to the curb.
The passage that I want us to look at in 1 John 1 starts off in verse 5 with this: “This is the message we have heard from him [‘him’ being Jesus] and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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.”
There is this “spiritual line,” if you will, between Light and Darkness. We can’t say that we’re “in the light” while we’re stalking over here in the shadows. You are either “IN GOD” by the blood of Jesus His Son or you’re not. So why then do we tip-toe on the line between Light and Dark? Why do we knowingly sin—in word, action, or thought? Some of you may be thinking, “I don’t! I don’t mess around with that ‘SIN’ stuff anymore!”
Let’s keep going in 1 John 1. Look at verse 8. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Or verse 10: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Can we be honest with ourselves? And honest with each other? There’s still sin lurking around in there. And we can either ignore it, cover it up and lie about it…
Or, there’s a better way.
Verse 9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The good news of being in the fellowship of the Father and the Son is that when we sin we don’t have to bury it or hide it in shame. We have a faithful and just Father Who is willing to forgive us.
How can this be? “I thought that Darkness and Light don’t mix. How can I bring my Darkness to the God who IS Light?”
Answer: JESUS.
The next verse, verse 1 in chapter 2 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, [‘Who is that?’] Jesus Christ the righteous.”
This good news of being forgiven in Jesus should not give us license to sin anymore, but when we do we have an Advocate—Someone standing before the Father, in full agreement—declaring:
“He’s mine.”
“She’s mine.”
“Father, that’s Your son. That’s Your daughter.”
“I bought this one with my own blood.”
If today, you feel as though you’re too far gone, that you can’t possibly be forgiven for what you’ve done… Let the Word of God encourage you, and “fix your eyes on Jesus.”
Robert Murray McCheyene, an old Scottish pastor, once said, “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.”
When you look inside yourself and you don’t like what you see… When you see the sin within you, know where to take it.
Take it to Christ.
I want to close by simply sharing the final section of Romans 8. Let this good news sink into your ears and your heart.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who
is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When we sin—not if but when—may we Fix our Eyes on Jesus.
