Lessons About God: Holiness and Forgiveness

1 John 1:5-7

Rev. Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Greeley, Colorado
September 5, 2021

1 John 1:5-7

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out 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, purifies us from all[a] sin.

Last Sunday we studied the phrase “God is light.” Today we’ll learn that God is holy and that God is forgiving.

2. GOD IS HOLY: This is what makes possible the breaking of our fellowship. One of the most puzzling realities that Christians have to deal with is “what happens when I sin?” We’ll speak more about that in our future studies, but in this passage, John introduced the possibility that a Christian can know the God who is light and then walk in darkness. In 1 John 1:5-6 we read, “There is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.”

I’ve known believers who have struggled with this problem for years. Many of them have come to me and said, “Pastor, I must not be saved because there is sin in my life. Was I ever saved in the first place? Do I need to be saved again?”

In order to understand this, I want us to focus on two words: Relationship and fellowship. In the Christian life, we have a relationship with God and we can have fellowship with God. The two are not the same and understanding the difference can help you become stronger in your faith.

(1) RELATIONSHIP: Entering God’s family (your relationship with God is unbreakable). We all have friends, some Catholics, some Assemblies of God, even Methodists who believe a person can be saved, and then lose their salvation.

During my first student pastorate when I was a freshman in college, I visited our local banker at Slaton State Bank in Slaton, Texas. “Mr. Wilson, when you go to church, where do you go?” He said, “I go to the local Methodist Church, but explain to me, do you believe once a person is saved, she/he can be saved forever?” I said, “Absolutely” and I shared the gospel with the president of the bank.

We believe in the doctrine of eternal security. That means that once you are truly a child of God you can never do anything to change your status as a child of God. Some people call this, “Once saved; always saved.” But I don’t like that term because it breeds misunderstanding.

Through the years I’ve heard people say, “You Christians believe ‘once saved always saved.’ If I believed that I’d go out and sin all I wanted to.”

They don’t understand salvation. If one has the attitude that once we’re saved, and we can sin all we want and get away with it – perhaps we need to examine if we are saved in the first place.

Jesus said in John 10:28: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

This is just one Bible verse on this topic of the eternal security of the believer. Evangelist Dr. Homer Martinez who officiated my wedding 27 years ago often said, “Before you establish a doctrine, look for the overview, do you this truth in God word, over and over and over again.”

I believe once you’re born into the family of God, that relationship can never be broken. But now I want us to focus on the second word –

FELLOWSHIP. And as we’re going to see in a moment, your fellowship with God can be disrupted.

(2) FELLOWSHIP: Enjoying God’s favor (this is breakable). When we start walking in the darkness, our fellowship with God can be disrupted and broken. Let me give you an example from my family. I knew that my mother loved me. She took us to Mexico to see our relatives, she cooked delicious food, made the best tamales ever and kids from the neighborhood enjoyed visiting our home because they loved my mom’s freshly made flour tortillas and chorizo and egg and homemade salsa. I was proud to be Leonor’s son and she was proud of me most of the time. But there were times when I didn’t honor my mother because of some inappropriate decisions I made.

My mother and had the gift of hospitality. My stepfather often brought to our house men and families who were newcomers to San Antonio and she cooked for them and allowed them to stay in our house until they had enough money to rent a house. Many of these individuals still stay in touch with my mother after all these years and they share how grateful they are of her help.

Among the families who came to live with us temporarily was Ms. Lucy and her daughter Cirila, we called her “Cila.” Lucy was the sister of my stepfather’s brother-in-law. Lucy was out looking for a job and my Mom cared for Cirila. My siblings and me did not like Cila. A 9 year old I did not care for the color of her skin, her haircut looked ridiculous, she was just a weird kid and often we pulled her hair and pinched her cheeks. Cila cried and then complained to my mother, “Ms. Leonor, your son Juve is hitting me, he is pinching my cheeks.” Of course, I always denied this. One time my mother caught me in the act. I was in the hallway, I held her head, pulled her hair and I squeezed Cila’s cheeks.

I remember my mom talking to me about my behavior. I was too old to be spanked, but her look of disappointment was worse than a spanking. She told me that she was embarrassed by my behavior. I apologized and there was some kind of punishment I received. But the main consequence of my bad behavior was that I had disrupted the friendship and fellowship I had with my mother. I was still Leonor’s son – that hadn’t changed, but I was out of favor with her for several weeks.

In future messages we’ll learn about how King David, who was a man after God’s own heart, made some terrible decisions, and he lost fellowship with God. Later after he had confessed and repented of sin, he wrote a song that described how miserable he was when he was still hiding his sin.

In Psalm 32:3-5, David sang, “When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Yes, God will forgive our sin and fellowship can be restored, but when we are walking in darkness, we are miserable. And the devil will use that time to accuse us.

I read a story that sheds light on this. Years ago, a little boy and girl went to visit their grandparents on the farm. The boy had a slingshot his granddad had made for him. One day he was shooting at the barn but couldn’t hit it. He shot at a tree and couldn’t hit the tree. He looked over at his grandmother’s prize goose, pulled the slingshot back and WHAP!

He hit the goose right in the head and killed it on the spot. Terrified, he didn’t know what to do, so he did what most little boys would do—he dragged the goose into the woods and covered it up, figuring no one would know.

About that time his older sister walked out and said, “I saw what you did!” And he pleaded with her not to tell their grandmother. She said, “Then you’d better do what I say unless you want me to tell.”

That night they were at the dinner table and the grandfather said, “Tommy, would you like to go fishing tomorrow?” Tommy’s eyes lit up and he was about to say, “Sure!” But his older sister stared at him and said, “Tommy, you don’t really want to go fishing, do you? Wouldn’t you rather grandad take me fishing?” Tommy gritted his teeth and said, “No sir. I don’t want to go. Why don’t you take sis fishing tomorrow?”

The next day, grandfather asked Tommy if he wanted to ride into town in his pickup truck. Before he could answer, his sister interrupted and said, “Tommy, you don’t want to ride to town, do you? You’d rather granddad took me. Right?” Again, Tommy bit his tongue and said, “Sure, why don’t you go sis?” This went on for several days until Tommy couldn’t stand it any longer.

The fact that his sister had the knowledge of killing the goose was driving him crazy. So he stormed into the kitchen and said, “Grandma, I’m so sorry. I shot your goose with my slingshot and buried it. And my sister saw it and threatened to tell on me. I’m so sorry!”

His grandmother smiled and said, “Tommy, I was watching out the kitchen window when you shot that goose. And I have already forgiven you.”

Tommy said, “Well, why didn’t you say something sooner?” His grandmother said, “I just wanted to see how long you were going to let your sister make a fool out of you”

When you’re out of fellowship with God, the Devil has you right where he wants you. He accuses you and he abuses you. God has already forgiven you, so run to Him to confess your sin so you can enjoy His favor again. Relationship is eternal—it can’t be broken. But fellowship, where you enjoy the favor of God, can be disrupted by sin in our lives.

3. GOD IS FORGIVING: The blessing of our fellowship. When we walk in darkness, our fellowship with God is disrupted. But God is loving and forgiving and we read in 1 John 1:7: “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

There are two blessings we experience when we come to God to have our fellowship restored.

(1) Walking with other believers. John wrote that we have fellowship with one another. Our fellowship with each other is dependent on our fellowship with God and I believe if you’re not right with God you cannot be right with your brother. And usually when somebody is not right with another Christian, you can make sure that one of those two believers is not right with God. Only when you walk in the light, fellowshipping with God, can you walk with each other.

The most glorious thing about this whole passage is that God desires to have us walking in fellowship with each other and in fellowship with Him. When I think of walking in fellowship with God, I think about the perfect fellowship that Adam and Eve had with God in the garden before sin destroyed their fellowship. They were thrown out of the Garden and lost their way.

So what does it mean to walk in the light as He is in the light? It means He guides us. There’s a lot of darkness in this world, but we are called children of the light. He guides us with His Word. In Psalm 119:105 the Bible says: “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”

(2) Washed in the blood. One of the greatest promises in the Bible is found in verse 5: “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.” There is a scarlet thread of blood redemption that runs from Genesis to Revelation the Bible. The Bibles says in 1 Peter 1:18: “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”

Last week we talked about Elisha Hoffman who wrote the song, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” He wrote one other famous hymn that you will recognize. It’s a song that’s full of questions: “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in this grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?” Are you washed; in the blood? In the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb; Are your garments spotless?

Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?”

CONCLUSION: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” But then He said, “You are the light of the world.” Which one is it? Is Jesus the light, or are we? Yes. It’s like the sun and moon. The sun generates light, but the moon is a cold dead rock. But when the moon reflects the light of the sun it can be so bright at night that you can see your shadow. Jesus is like the sun, and we are to reflect His light in a world full of darkness and death.

So what’s the take-away? We must SEE HIS LIGHT! BE HIS LIGHT! The Bible says in Philippians 2:14-16: “Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you SHINE LIKE STARS in the world, by holding firm to the word of life.”

How do we do this? Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in Heaven.” As we continue to show acts of kindness in a hurting, dying world, we must make sure that we point people to God.

So, believer, how is your FELLOWSHIP with God right now? Are you enjoying sweet fellowship with Him? If not, there may be a sinful attitude, or sinful habit in your life. Confess it and your fellowship with God can be restored. Be freed in Christ’s name.