September
2007
WASHED BY THE BLOOD
I John 1:7
Last week I preached about reconciliation to God by the blood of Jesus Christ. Today I am not really shifting the focus at all to say that our sins are washed by the blood of Jesus. But John’s verse here (1:7) is not really about salvation per se. It is the blood and only the blood that cleanses us from sin. But John is talking about fellowship in this context. I might summarize it this way, as John spends the letter of first John explaining: if we are reconciled to God, we are going to give evidence of that by how we are reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you read First John, you recognize early on that love for one another – or the lack of it – is an issue in this church. Members were claiming to love God, but not loving one another. Members were acknowledging knowledge of God, but knew nothing about fellowship with God’s children. John rightly calls this sin. In John’s gospel, 8:44, he boldly declares that if a person not does love Jesus and does not walk in the truth, he not only is a liar, but his father is the devil.
Imagine how John might state this in a sermon: “If you don’t love Jesus and His church and do not walk in the truth, you might say you love God, but actually you are of your father, the devil.” A mighty powerful and hard hitting sermon! John offers a requirement for cleaning from sin.
Probably most of us have washed clothes. We all want our clothes to be clean and look nice. Dirt and stains can ruin good clothes. It is a good feeling to wash our white clothes and see that the stain has been washed out. We all know that good feeling of taking a bath when we are dirty and sweaty. None of us would enjoy going to a hospital if it was dirty and contaminated with all kinds of germs. If it was cleansed and disinfected, we would feel better about our visit there. Cleansing is a good feeling.
First, in order to realize cleansing from sin in our lives, we must have a genuine born again experience with God and know Him
IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT AS HE IS THE LIGHT…
To walk is an idiom for to live. If a person is born again, truly saved – not just good or religious – but truly has met Jesus Christ and been changed, that person will walk in the light. That person will not and can not look like the world any more. There will be a radical difference between that person and a person who does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You cannot fake it. You will be different. The ways of this world will not interest you. You will not want to be like the secular world, nor adhere to their values. Things of this world you once found pleasure in will now trouble your soul just to be around them. There will be a noticeable difference between you and everyone who does not follow Jesus. No one will have to guess or wonder if you are a Christian. There will be so much convincing evidence in your walk once you have met Jesus, that no one could possibly mistake you for a worldly person.
In Mark’s gospel, chapter 7:5-13, the Pharisees asked Jesus why the disciples did not walk according to the traditions of elders. Jesus replied by calling those Pharisees hypocrites. The Pharisees walked according to tradition. But Jesus said it was all in vain. They actually had rejected what God said and replaced His words with their own traditions, thus rendering the Word of God useless in their lives. The disciple stood out because they walked differently from everyone else.
This same truth can be applied to the church in First John. The members may keep all the customs and laws. They may attend worship and follow all the traditions. But if they do not walk in the light – truly live out God’s Word in their daily lives – they are hypocrites. They may claim to know and love God, but reality is – they are walking in darkness. That is a picture of spiritual blindness. He says in verses 6 & 8, the verses preceding and following our text today, that such people in darkness are not practicing the truth and have deceived themselves. If…is a huge word. If you walk in the light… If you do not, you are a hypocrite, a liar, and a deceiver.
Many religious people, and even church going people, have deceived themselves by believing that they can love God and yet not live it. It is sad to see professing Christians walk in darkness. They acknowledge having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, but continue to live like the world. Their values and beliefs, and their daily walk often seem no different from their non professing family and friends. It is sad, but most of all is hurtful. Those very religious people are the reason most non Christians will give for not wanting to come to church. If we can continue to walk in the ways of the world, how can we say that we are walking in the light?
Second, if we are truly born again, we will enjoy wonderful fellowship with other believers.
WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP ONE WITH ANOTHER
I know what some of you may be asking. Some people are hard to get along with. I may give it my best and most loving effort, and people may still not fellowship with me. Yes, that is true. First of all we must consider that the person you are trying to love may not be a genuine born again Christian. You still love them and pray for them, but you will not be able to enjoy Christian fellowship with them. You must also consider that many Christians may be young and immature, still seeking to be grow in the fruit of the Spirit. A Christian may be living with unconfessed sin. He or she may be going through difficult times and have not learned how to trust the Lord’s strength. It may be that they are saved and are struggling in their Christian walk. I am not saying that every time you don’t get along with someone that it means you are not saved.
But the best evidence of a proper relationship with God is our fellowship with one another. If we walk in the light, we will have fellowship, not only with God, but with others. A friendly woman opened the door to her apartment where I and another pastor were making a visit. She identified herself as a Christian, but added, “I don’t go to church. I don’t believe in organized religion.” We continued to have a friendly visit. She even complimented the pastor with me and his church for the community service they had provided. But truth is truth. If you cannot get along with God’s people, you cannot profess a love for God. If you deny the body of Christ that Jesus gave His life for, don’t try to convince people that you are truly born again. This woman had literally deceived herself. She told us she loved God, but, according to John, she lied to us.
It is unimaginable in the church where John preached that one could have fellowship with God and be alienated from the community of believers.
Third, fellowship takes place when the problem of sin is dealt with.
THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN
Again, let me say that John is not addressing salvation here. He is writing to people who are already redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. He is addressing believers – or those who profess to be believers. The problem is sin. Last week we talked about reconciliation. We are reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus. The price has been paid. We are no longer strangers to God. We are brought into the family of God. But, living in this frail body, I still commit sin. Sin hinders my fellowship with God and other people. If I am truly redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, I am saved eternally. My salvation has never been dependent upon my ability to pray, live a good life, or even to remember to confess sins in my life. Salvation is a gift of God with no strings attached.
Since I am saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, I cannot continue to accept sin. A sure sign of your salvation is that you do not desire to do anything that will hinder your walk with God. You desire instead to please Him. But, as I said, this passage is written to believers. Although sin cannot any longer send me to Hell, sin may hinder my walk with God, destroy my testimony, and render me useless for service. It is sin that has crippled the fellowship at John’s church.
Perhaps Christians were gossiping, lying, or slandering. Maybe some believers fell out with each other and refused to talk. They turned the cold shoulder to each other. Obviously, as verse 7 clues us, something was going on in this little church that kept Christians from loving and fellowshipping with one another.
Verse 9 is John’s answer to restore fellowship. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The word for cleanse is a present tense that implies “keeps on cleansing”. The church is a holy fellowship, as we will see next week when we preach about separation by the blood. The church experiences continual cleansing from sin. Fellowship is maintained (or restored if it has been broken) by the cleansing of the blood of Jesus.
Cleansing is so often spoken of as pardon from sin or removal of the guilt. But it is more than that. It must be. If I spill juice on your perfect, new carpet and ruin it, you may pardon me if I say that I am sorry and really didn’t mean to do it. You may forgive me so that I may not feel guilty about it any more. But the stain is still there. Cleansing removes the stain. Last week I preached about the stain of sin that hinders our fellowship with God. The blood of Jesus reconciles us to God. But the cleansing of sin is necessary to enable me to feel better. If I remain dirty from my sin, even though you are willing to pardon me, I am still dirty. Because I am dirty from sin, I will not be any different than I was before. Since sin will not enter into Heaven, I must be cleansed, as well as forgiven.
King David cried out to God in Psalm 51:2-3, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” David longed to feel clean because his sin was ever before him. He could not escape it. Wherever he went, even when he closed his eyes, he could see that terrible stain. It had to be removed. He cried out desperate for God’s cleansing touch in verse 7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
CONCLUSION: Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Paul wrote about the coming of Jesus and spoke of this cleansing in Titus 2:13-14, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Is that your desire…to be found pure when Christ returns? Then we must strive to receive that cleansing in our lives daily. 2 Corinthians 7:1 instructs us, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
We cannot cleanse ourselves of sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. But we can strive to live lives that are pure and holy and pleasing to God. When our sins are washed daily, we will be able to live in harmonious relationship with other believers.