Getting Honest with Yourself About Sin

One of the most backward countries on the continent of Europe is Romania. In the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s, a Communist dictator named Nicolae Ceausescu, wove a web of fear over that country. Even among the other Iron Curtain nations of Eastern Europe, Romania was looked upon as a terrible place to live.

Ceausescu’s secret police, the Securitate, terrorized the population. Everyone was being watched and informed upon. Friends and family members would disappear in the dead of night. The people lived each day with dread.

Until one remarkable day, in December 1989, in the town of Timisoara. The Pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Timisoara was a man named Laszlo Tokes. He was different from the run of the mill clergy in Romania, who were under the thumb of the government.

Pastor Tokes, was a newcomer to the pulpit. He began to preach the Gospel. He began to administer communion to his little congregation, and teach them about Jesus’ love.

In Communist Romania, in 1989, this was an extremely dangerous thing to do. The secret police took note of Pastor Tokes, and began to tighten the screws to make him stop.

They cut off his heat and electricity. He began to receive threatening phone calls in the middle of the night. But he continued to preach, and the people continued to come to hear him, in ever increasing numbers. In just one short year, the congregation swelled from 150 to 5,000.

Every Sunday, in the center of Timisoara, people were jamming into the Hungarian Reformed Church, sitting or standing for hours to hear the life changing truth of the Word of God.

In the eyes of the government, this had to stop. So, at the beginning of December, the Securitate issued a summons to evict Laszlo Tokes from his pulpit and his home. They planned to come and get him on Dec. 15.

On Sunday, Dec. 10, Pastor Tokes looked out over his packed church and announced simply, “Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I have been issued a summons of eviction. I will not accept it, so I will be taken from you by force next Friday. They want to do this in secret because they have no right to do it. Please come next Friday and be witnesses of what will happen. Come, be peaceful, but be witnesses.”

Five days later, the secret police arrived to get Pastor Tokes and his wife. But they could not get to the door of his apartment, because massed around the church building, like a human shield, were the members of his congregation.

All day long, the crowd swelled in front of Laszlo Tokes’ church. The news of what was happening spread like wildfire through the city, and other Christians joined in the silent protest. As darkness fell, the tension rose. Everyone was waiting for the secret police to make their move.

Just then, a young man named Daniel Gavra pushed his way through the crowd till he was next to a Baptist pastor named Peter Dugulescu. Daniel whispered, “Look, Pastor,” opening his jacket so as not to be seen by the Securitate. The way things were escalating, Pastor Dugulescu half-expected to see a gun. But inside Daniel Gavra’s jacket was a packet containing dozens of candle stubs.

They quietly passed them through the crowd, and in just a few moments, the light from the candles began to pierce the darkness. More candles were found until the center of Timisoara was a sea of lights, lighting up the darkness.

By the next day, the crowd took their protest one step further. Someone shouted the dread words that were on everybody’s mind. “Down with Ceausescu! Down with Communism! Romania awake to Liberty and Freedom!” That was enough for the Securitate. Just before dawn on Sunday, Dec. 17, they opened fire on the people, with tanks, armored cars, and machine guns.

Hundreds of people were shot, including Daniel Gavra. His left leg was blown away by a hail of bullets. But for the Securitate, and for Nicolae Ceausescu, it was too late. The people had risen, armed only with candles, and thrown off the chains of darkness that had so long enslaved them. The revolution spread across the country, and by Christmas Day, the dictator was dead.

Later, Pastor Dugulescu visited young Daniel Gavra in the hospital in Timisoara. The boy was still recuperating from his wounds. Where his left leg once had been, now there was only a stump. But Daniel’s spirit had not been shattered. He said “Pastor, I don’t mind so much the loss of my leg. For it was I who lit the first candle.”

The story of the revolution in Romania is a story of how light triumphed over darkness. In a small way, it resembles a far greater story that we have been studying in the book of 1 John.

John was a man who had walked and talked with Jesus. In fact of all the disciples, John was the one who was closest to Jesus. He was one of the first two disciples called by Jesus. He became part of the inner circle. He was the one sitting next to Jesus at the Last Supper. He was the only disciple who went with Jesus all the way to the Cross. He was the one to whom Jesus entrusted the care of His mother Mary. He was the one who is called in the Gospels “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

Of anyone on this earth, John knew Jesus best. If anyone understood Jesus, and the message of Jesus’ ministry, surely it was John. And in this letter, John sums up that message in verse 5…

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

He boils it all down to one sentence: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

A few weeks ago, I talked to you about light and how light is the one thing in our experience that most resembles what God is like. We discussed some of the properties of light:

We discussed how light always wins over darkness. You can have a lot of darkness, and just a little bit of light, and that light will always defeat the darkness.

We discussed how light is revealing, how it shows things as they really are. We talked about how light is penetrating and pure and powerful. And God is all of those things. He is blindingly pure and holy. There isn’t the slightest shadow of darkness about Him.

If you want a good example of how God is like light, think about the sun. Nobody can look at the sun - it’s too bright. If you look at the sun for very long, you will go blind. And yet we all live in the sun’s light. We all benefit from its brightness. It gives life and warmth and sustenance to everyone on earth.

And, in a spiritual sense, that is what God is like. The Bible says “No man can look upon God and live.” He’s too bright. He’s too pure. He’s too intense. So that’s why Jesus, God the Son, came to earth.

Have you ever seen the rays of the sun streaming through the clouds on a summer day? Those rays bring all the energy and light of the sun itself, but because they are filtered through the clouds, we can look upon them.

That’s the way it is with Jesus. God filtered himself down to our level when he became a man. None of His character was lost. None of his attributes were lost. But now we could look upon him and live, because he had lowered himself to our level.

And that’s what John is talking about in the first few verses of this letter. He’s telling us that he had looked upon God, and walked with God and talked with God, in the person of Jesus Christ. And he wants us to be able to have that kind of fellowship with God too. A fellowship of walking in the light.

In your bulletin today, there is an insert, on which I have given you a structural analysis of this passage. That’s just fancy name for a diagram of how the thought flows. John makes this definitive statement in v. 5 - God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. That’s the message he wants to convey to us.

Then he shows, in v.6 and following, the implications of that message:

There are six implications. Three of them are negative - they are the ones in gray. But three of them are positive - they are the ones in white. They all have an “if - then” kind of structure, showing a cause and effect relationship.

The big idea behind this passage is that if you are walking with Jesus, who is the light, then his light is going to overcome the spiritual darkness in your life. But if darkness is what characterizes your life, it proves only one thing; that you are not walking with Jesus.

You see, there were false teachers in John’s day who claimed to be in the light. They claimed to be in the know spiritually. You’ve heard of an “agnostic”. The word agnostic means “not to know”. An agnostic is someone who doesn’t know about God. He says “Maybe there is a God, maybe there isn’t. I just don’t know - I’m an agnostic.

But there were people in John’s day called themselves “gnostics”. They said “We do know. We know all about God. We know all about spiritual things. We have inside information, we have special insight into these matters.”

But they were wicked people. They were living evil lives. They said “It doesn’t matter how you live; all that matters is what you know.”

There are spiritual teachers like this today. They talk about God and they talk about spirituality. They claim to have great authority in these matters. But when you look at their lifestyle, it leaves much to be desired.

The Bible says, “If you claim to know God, if you claim to be in the light, then that is going to make a difference in the way you live. God’s light not only lights up your mind, it lights up your footsteps as well.” The Psalmist said, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

Let’s look at each of these six statements that John makes.

1. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

How do you tell if a person is really a Christian? Well John says, “Look at their life. What do you see in their life? Do you see light or darkness? How are they walking? Are they walking in the light or in the darkness?

You don’t have to be a bank robber or a serial killer to be walking in darkness. Walking in darkness simply means that you’re walking through life according to your own wisdom. Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Don’t walk in your own wisdom. A person who is walking in darkness is a person who walks according to his own understanding. He leaves God out of it entirely.

The real proof of whether or not you are a Christian is your lifestyle. Are you walking in the light or are you walking in darkness? Is your lifestyle really any different from that of a person who doesn’t claim to know Jesus? What role does Jesus really play in your decisions, your plans, your goals, your values? Is your life a reflection of the fact that Jesus is at the center of it, or does your life look pretty much like everyone else’s?

Notice that each of the three negative implications begins with what a person claims. But it doesn’t matter what a person claims. It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s how you live from day to day.

Or, in the words of a certain loud-mouthed football coach from Texas “You can talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk.” You can claim to be a Christian, but if you’re walking in darkness, you’re lying.

2. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, there are two positive results:

- we have fellowship with one another, and

- the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

When you walk with Jesus, you’re walking in the light. And that leads to fellowship with one another. I’m sure you realize that one of the deepest needs of every one of us is to have meaningful, caring relationships with other people.

The lie of the devil is that you can have those relationships by doing your own thing, by following your own agenda, by leaving God out of your life, by walking in darkness.

The truth is that the darkness actually isolates you from other people.

A year ago, a bomb went off in the World Trade Center. All the lights went out. And those terrified office workers were trying to grope their way down pitch-black stair wells that were filled with smoke. And even though there were thousands of people there, every one of them felt as though they were all alone.

In the same way, when you’re walking in darkness spiritually, you really can’t make meaningful connections with other people. You can’t find them, you can’t truly know them. You can’t reach out and meet their needs because you’re so lost and disoriented and frightened yourself.

But if you’re walking with Jesus, you’re in the light. And you can see and appreciate other people for who they are.

“And the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.” Notice that the word “purifies” is in the present tense. Just because you’re walking with Jesus doesn’t mean that you’re not a sinner anymore. You still need cleansing. You still mess up. But by walking in the light cleansing is immediately available.

3. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

One of the first things you have to realize about yourself if you’re going to become a Christian is that you are a sinner. A lot of people don’t like that. They hear the word “sinner” and they think it applies to everyone else but themselves.

The really dangerous thing about sin is that it warps your thought processes. You think that sin doesn’t change you, but it does. It changes your heart, and it changes your brain.

When you start to sin, the first thing you do is you try to rationalize it. That’s what Adam did in the Garden of Eden when he disobeyed God. He tried to rationalize what he did.

When a married man runs off with another woman, he tries to rationalize what he’s doing. He gives all kinds of reasons and excuses to justify it.

A sinner begins to think differently about himself. He tries to put a positive spin on what he’s doing. Of course, the more he does that, the more “rational lies” he tells himself, the further and further away from reality he gets. And all the while, he thinks he hasn’t changed, but he has. He has become an obsessive liar.

The Bible says that if you claim to be without sin, the only person you’re fooling is yourself. You’re not fooling God. God knows exactly what you are. And you’re not even fooling other people. They have your number, too! The only person you’re fooling is yourself. There’s no fool so great as a fool who thinks he is wise.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said that the first step on the pathway to the kingdom of heaven is to get honest with yourself about sin. To see yourself as you really are.

To become poor in spirit - to realize that you are in abject spiritual poverty because of your sin, and to mourn, to cry out to God because of your sin. None of us can even begin to walk in the light until we’ve shed those kind of tears.

That’s what this passage is all about. Getting honest with yourself about sin. And you can’t do that without God’s help.

4. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Coming to Christ means learning to see our sin the way He sees it. The word confession is made up of two Greek words that simply mean to “say with” or to “agree with”.

When you confess your sin, you are simply saying to God “I agree with your assessment of what I did, and of what I am. My own analysis is faulty. There’s are fatal flaws in my reasoning.

Your analysis of me is the only one I can trust. You’re right, God… I am a sinner. I have fallen far short of your glory. I have acted in ways that are completely unworthy of you.”

When you confess your sin to God, you cannot bargain with him. You cannot say “God, I admit it; I sinned. But on the other hand, God, you’ve got to admit I’ve been living a pretty decent life otherwise. I’ve done a lot of good things. And I certainly haven’t been as bad as some other people I know. So why don’t we just call it square on that basis?”

That is not confession. A person who does that hasn’t even begun to see himself as a sinner. He’s trying to put himself on an equal footing with God and bargain with Him. You can’t do that if you ever expect to know God’s grace and forgiveness.

5. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

This is the logical end of what John has been saying: If you refuse to acknowledge your own sinfulness, you’re calling God a liar. It’s as simple as that.

And if you call God a liar, what hope is there for you? You’ve placed yourself on the throne of your life. You’ve had a little coronation ceremony and crowned yourself king. You have established your own authority and you have rejected God’s. When a person reaches that point, the light goes out forever.

6. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Have you ever seen that bumper sticker that says “Christians aren’t perfect; just forgiven.” Walking with Jesus will keep you out of a lot of sins. But we continue to struggle with our tendency to sin, and often it gets the better of us. When that happens, it is great to know that we have an advocate who speaks to God on our behalf.

When I sin, as I often do, I imagine that somewhere in the heavenlies, a conversation something like this takes place before the throne of God.

Satan stands up and says “Aha! Did you see that? Did you see what that McKnight character did? Hah! He’s a preacher! He’s one of your hired hands! But he’s acting more like one of my people. Are you sure he’s one of yours?”

But then Jesus steps in and says to God “Yes, Father, he is one of ours. And what he just did is one of the things I died for. You can charge that sin to my account. It’s covered. It’s paid for.”

That’s what it means to have an advocate. An advocate is one who speaks for you. One who looks out for your best interests. Jesus is our advocate, because He is the atoning sacrifice, not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world.

The word atonement simply means to cover. When Jesus died on the cross, he covered our sins. He took away our guilt by taking it on himself.

The way to have fellowship with a God who is light is not to deny your own sinfulness, but to acknowledge it, to confess it, and to accept what Jesus Christ has done about it.

Life is too short and too important to spend it stumbling around in the darkness. God offers us the opportunity to come into the light and walk with Him. Jesus came with the first candle, so to speak, and it cost him everything to light it for us.

In John 8:12, Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So let’s walk in the light as he is in the light.