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The Illumination from the Lights of Christmas (1 John 1:5-10)
7 Plays10 hours ago
Since followers of Christ are called to be the lights of the world (Mt. 5:14-16), what better way to shine for Jesus than during the Christmas season? It’s a perfect setup to display Christ. So, how should we string the "lights of Christmas" during the Christmas season? John would tell us in the way we live our lives and in the words of hope that we share with others.
The Apostle John examines the typical strands of lights that we can use to display the glory of our Lord in his words written in 1 John 1:5-10. He actually speaks of light and darkness within these verses, so let’s compare what he has written to examining our "Christmas lights” or our witness for Christ. Like I discovered this year, sometimes we have bulbs that are burned out and need to be replaced. He deals with three spiritual “bulbs" that we will need to exchange, so just be prepared for those.
Here are five strands of "Christmas lights" that we can use to adorn our Christmas season through the way we believe, live and speak. But we also look into the mirror of God’s Word and see that perhaps there are some dark spots that we have been overlooking. These three will need to be switched out and replaced with better bulbs.
Revelation through Christ, v. 5
Proclamation of the Gospel, v. 5
Foundation of the Lord, v. 5
Deviation into Darkness, v. 6
Sanctification in the Light, v. 7
Refutation of the Truth, v. 8
Arbitration through Confession, v. 9
Defamation of the Testimony, v.. 10
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in
Personal Story: Christmas Light Troubles
00:00:44
Speaker
Grace. You know the other day my family went and purchased a live tree. ah It was shipped in to Texas from North Carolina and so it was a joy to get it. We got it home and we started to decorate it. We wanted to put our Christmas lights on first.
00:01:01
Speaker
And boy, did we hit a snag. I have one strand of lights that only half of them work. And so I've been trying to manage every year to hide the half that doesn't work. And then there was another strand that we put on the top of the tree that they all worked.
00:01:19
Speaker
until I put them on the tree. And then they decided not to work. So anyway, it was so frustrating. We had to take the both of those strands off. And then I went to Walmart, I bought some new lights. And now it's just looking great. And so so so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my family and have a tree it's lit up, got lots of Christmas ornaments and so forth.
Spiritual Lights and the Christmas Season
00:01:44
Speaker
But what I want to do today is talk about some spiritual lights that we can sort of drape around the Christmas season by the way we live, by the way we believe, by the words we use. I want to introduce you to a man
00:02:03
Speaker
who wrote 1 John, chapter 1. We're going to be looking at verses 5 through 10. But can you imagine a 90-year-old man being out there ah stringing up Christmas lights across his home? I'm not saying that's what John did, but what I'm saying is, by the time it was A.D. 90, he was either writing from Ephesus or Patmos, and most Bible scholars They estimate he would have been somewhere between 88 years of age to 93 years of age. But you know what he did? He was a bright light for Jesus Christ, not just at Christmas, mind you, every day.
00:02:44
Speaker
And I think that's the way that we can really shine for Jesus during the Christmas season.
Five Ways to Be a Light at Christmas
00:02:51
Speaker
So I want to read these six verses to you, and I want to give you five strands of lights. I'm going to use light metaphorically, ah not just Christmas lights around a tree, but I want to use it metaphorically that we can be a light.
00:03:08
Speaker
We're called the light of the world in Matthew 5, 14 through 16, but the way we're going to conduct ourselves during the month of December can really make an impact. So let me read these verses and then share these strands of lights with you. It says in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you.
00:03:36
Speaker
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. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
00:04:06
Speaker
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
Revelation vs. Speculation in Faith
00:04:25
Speaker
Wow, some great words there, lots of truth that's packed into that passage. So let's look at it together. If you want to really shine for Jesus during the month of December, as we're in this wonderful season of Christmas, then the first strand that you could use would be the revelation through Christ. You know, verse five, John starts out with this strand of lights by saying, this is the message we have heard from Him. You know, in some circles, people base their beliefs about God upon speculation. This is who they think that God is. But you know, Christians, we base our beliefs ah about God not upon our own speculation, but upon God's revelation.
00:05:19
Speaker
That's what he's talking about. You see, the Apostle John walked alongside of Jesus for three years during his earthly ministry. And that's why he can say with confidence, we have heard from him. This is what Jesus said about himself. And he says here quite clearly that God says, let there be light. That's found in Genesis 1.3. God said, let there be light. And guess what happened?
00:05:47
Speaker
That's where the sun came in. That's where the moon and the stars and all the planets and so forth. God simply said, let there be light and there was light. Genesis 1.3. Well, John is saying something similar in verses 1 and 2 whenever he says that the word of life was made manifest. You see, John and those other 11 disciples, they were able to verify, he is the Son of God. This is what God is like. And so I just thought, man, this is incredible that we have access through the Word of God
00:06:28
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to the revelation that came to mankind through the Son of God, who also was Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, not only at His incarnation, but through His life, the way He lived and what He taught, what He said.
00:06:44
Speaker
And so I thought, okay, I want to celebrate that at Christmas time. I don't want to just celebrate some of the peripheral things about Christmas. I want the heart of my celebration to be the revelation that came to us through Jesus Christ.
Celebrating Christmas by Sharing Jesus
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Speaker
I think that's something to celebrate.
00:07:04
Speaker
I want people to see it in my life. But there's a second strand of lights that John mentions. He put them up around his life, that's for sure. He goes on to say in verse 5, and proclaim to you.
00:07:17
Speaker
So one strand of lights is that we could wrap around our Christmas celebrations, the revelation of Christ. But a second set of lights that we should and could display would be the proclamation of the gospel. Hey, that's great. You know, it's not how much we know that we proclaim.
00:07:39
Speaker
We share who we know. That's the difference. As a matter of fact, let me give you an example of how simple it is. Remember, whenever the angels, they announced to some shepherds that Jesus had been born, that He had come to forgive the world of their sins, that the world could be saved through Him.
00:08:00
Speaker
And so after they heard this announcement, Luke 2, 18 and verse 20 describes their enthusiastic response. I mean, they didn't have Bible degrees and seminary degrees. You know what? They just told other people what they had heard and what they had seen. That's what I think the Lord is asking of all of us. Just tell them. Just tell them how real he's been in your life. Tell them how good he has been in your life.
00:08:30
Speaker
Tell him how he saved you. Tell him how your life has been improved and and blessed. Tell him what you've come to know about Christ. Just proclaim the gospel message and let everything this Christmas point to Jesus and point to the gospel. I think that would be one way of celebrating Christmas, one way of lighting up the season. But there's a third way, and it's all found again right here in this same verse five.
00:08:59
Speaker
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. You know, I think he's referring to the foundation of who God is, the foundation of the Lord. The foundation of Christmas, I believe, is built upon the character of God.
00:09:17
Speaker
You see, John's a metaphor of light captures the essence of God's nature. You see, whenever John says that God is light, what he's referring to is God's holiness, God's truth, God's purity, God's righteousness, God's faithfulness,
00:09:40
Speaker
You know, the goodness that each of us enjoy about the Christmas season, do you know that it rests upon the goodness and the generosity of God?
00:09:53
Speaker
You know, at Christmas, we should tell other people who God is. We should let them know because I don't think everybody's got a true um description of God in their head, their preconception. They have preconceived ideas of what they think God is like.
00:10:12
Speaker
But really, we could point them to Scripture and say, this is what He is like.
Role of Community in Faith
00:10:17
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He's going to tell you the truth. He's going to be the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is so faithful. He is so good. He is so righteous and holy. He won't he wont hurt you. He won't deceive you.
00:10:32
Speaker
Well, let me move to one of the burned out bulbs. You see, my problem with my Christmas Strandsworth, I had too many bulbs that it burned out. And so rather than going one by one and trying to figure out which one it was, I just went ahead and replaced the whole strand.
00:10:51
Speaker
Well, verse 6 is kind of like that. It's like the deviation into darkness. You see, rather than light, verse 6 says sometimes, even in Christian circles, the Apostle John says,
00:11:06
Speaker
people claim that they're having fellowship with God while they're walking, they're living in darkness. And so John just cuts right to the chase and says, you know what, really, when we do that, we're just lying. We're not practicing the truth. But you see, John's commitment was to being a man of truth, being a man of integrity.
00:11:29
Speaker
being consistent in the way he lived. And so what he had to do on a daily basis, I'm sure, was to replace, well, let's call them the bad bulbs. He had to say, is there any darkness in my life? Do these dark bulbs that are burned out, do they need to be replaced with bulbs that are bright with the goodness of the Lord?
00:11:53
Speaker
You know, verse 6 is the first of three, ah if we say, passages that are here in ah the verses that are read. Three times he says, if we say, if we say, if we say. And so what he's referring to are to inconsistencies.
00:12:13
Speaker
inconsistencies that are in the life of people who claim that they're Christians, but you see their life and you're thinking, I don't understand. Something doesn't add up here. So it's possible for this to happen. And so the first of the three is this deviation into darkness. They claim one thing, but their conduct is totally different. It describes a profession of light while practicing darkness. And so John holds us accountable. He says, don't live a double life. Don't try to deceive other people. You're only living a delusion. You're delusional when you do that. He said, no, be real, be honest, be truthful. And so he takes us to yet this one other strand of light. It's in verse seven, the sanctification in the light.
00:13:09
Speaker
You know, to sanctify means to set apart for a sacred purpose. And so here's what he's doing. He calls for deviations into darkness.
00:13:21
Speaker
to be replaced with sanctification in the light. In other words, live it out. He says, 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.
00:13:41
Speaker
There's a few things about sanctification and living it out that I wanted to to sort of share with you that I noticed in verse 7. I never noticed these things before. First off, I noticed that he said that we should live in the light as he is in the light. We should walk in the light as he is in the light. I think that what you're he's saying there is there's this intimacy with God. There's this fellowship with God that we can have
00:14:13
Speaker
And therefore, the more we're around him, we'll be kind of like Moses. You know, when Moses was with God up on the mountain top, receiving the Ten Commandments, when he went down the mountain, the people noticed something about his countenance. And what they noticed was, hey, Moses, maybe you didn't notice this when you left, but your face is glowing.
00:14:36
Speaker
You know, I think that when we spend time just with the Father each day, that time of intimacy and privacy, I believe it's going to rub off on us so that we shine when we come down from the mountain.
00:14:51
Speaker
But I believe also it does take intentionality. You know, the world wants us to follow it into darkness. The flesh wants us to walk in darkness. Satan, of course, wants us to walk in darkness. So you and I are going to have to continue with intentionality toward God. That's why I think he uses this this terminology of walk in the light.
00:15:15
Speaker
It means you're going to have to make progress. You're going to have to really walk in that direction. But then I saw something else I never noticed. I think that if we want to really walk in the light and live in the light and stay in the light, I think we need the help of a community. We need the help of other believers.
00:15:37
Speaker
I believe that when we incorporate others who are following God in our lives, I believe that it strengthens us. Let me read where he says this. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Man, that's powerful. I believe that holding one another close to the light will also assist us in living it out day by day.
00:16:06
Speaker
but there is the possibility that we would give way to yet a second contradiction of burned-out lights that's identified for us in verse 8. Let me read that verse again. If we say we have no sin,
00:16:22
Speaker
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. You see, it's almost like in verse 8, you have someone who is refuting the truth, someone who is resisting conviction of sin. Oh, God's putting the light on our sin and trying to bring it into the light, but we are resisting it. We're refuting it. And so God's telling us the truth, but we don't want to know the truth.
00:16:50
Speaker
We would rather hide in the darkness and in our lie. So we claim we're fine without repentance and without faith in Christ. We might say to God, I'm good. I don't need Him. I don't need what Jesus did for me. But what we don't realize is that the absence of continual repentance is the absence of biblical truth. and They're related.
Confession and Forgiveness through Christ
00:17:17
Speaker
You know, the Bible says all of us is sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's why we began to live out this personal delusion that he keeps referring to. He said, we deceive ourselves. We may deceive everybody else, but for sure we're deceiving ourselves.
00:17:36
Speaker
but it all begins with the truth not being in us. I encourage you sometime to read Romans 7 verses 7 through 12 because what it says is that scripture, one of the purposes for scripture, it's like it's it's going to light up the darkness that's hiding in our lives. So we're going to read a verse of Scripture and suddenly we're going to realize, oh my goodness, I've been so selfish. I've been so prideful. I've been so defiant. So all of those things can definitely be helped the more of God's truth that we get into our lives. So you could even put that as another strand.
00:18:19
Speaker
But definitely we need the strand of lights that are around our Christmas celebrations and around our lives through the month of December. That's mentioned in verse 9. I like to call it the arbitration through confession. It says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I read a book one time on conflict in personal relationships, and the book was written by someone who did a lot of, he's ah an attorney,
00:18:54
Speaker
named Ken Sandy, and it's called The Peacemaker. But he says there's a huge difference between someone who, let's say they go for you know some kind of negotiation, and so they're trying to come to an agreement, and some couples just can't seem to come to an agreement. So they have to move from something called negotiation to something that's more binding. You know what it's called? Arbitration.
00:19:20
Speaker
Arbitration is when you sign a contract and you bring in a third party and you say, we agree. And the the other ah party over there, they agree to this. And so we both agree. You listen to both of us and then you decide in whatever you decide, we will agree with what you said.
00:19:42
Speaker
And that's what this word confess means. It means to say the same thing. It means to agree with. So who are we agreeing with? Who are we saying the same thing with God? Whenever we confess our sins, it's like God has said, that's wrong. I don't want that in your life. And so we we confess our sins by saying, Lord, you're right. I agree with you. I want to say the same thing you say about that in my life.
00:20:11
Speaker
And so, just know that prevention of cleansing is like verse 8, where someone says, I have no sin in my life. But then verse 7 tells us, hey, there's provision for cleansing in your life, the blood of Jesus Christ. But notice in verse 9, there is a prerequisite to cleansing. Do you know what the prerequisite to cleansing is? Confession.
00:20:35
Speaker
It says, if we confess our sins, then we can be forgiven, we can be cleansed. But what if we choose not to confess our sins? What if we do not, we refuse to agree with God? And we're not going to say the same thing about sin. We're not going to be forgiven. We're not going to be cleansed. The prerequisite to cleansing is simply to admit, confess, agree with what God is saying.
00:21:03
Speaker
But if we'll do that, there's a very, very meaningful and powerful promise of cleansing that's mentioned in this verse. Let me read it to you. If we will do our part, then you know what God says about His part? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
00:21:28
Speaker
I like those two words, faithful and just. How can God be just? whenever he's going to say, okay, I forgive you. I know you did wrong, but now I forgive you. So now there's a clean slate. How can he be just and do that? Don't we deserve punishment? You know why he can be just? Because if we're a believer, then we have said to Jesus Christ, I know you went to the cross and you already paid the penalty that all of my sins rightly deserve.
00:21:59
Speaker
And so that's how God can be just whenever He says, I forgive you, I can cleanse you but because your sin and my sin, if we're in Christ, it's already been paid for by Christ. He took that punishment that we deserve. That's why God can be just. But what if I continue throughout my life and let's say I get prideful or I become selfish. And so God says, you know what?
00:22:27
Speaker
I am so tired of that toe-headed man down there named Victor Morrison. I'm not going to forgive him anymore. I'm done with this. As a matter of fact, I'm kicking him out of my family. Is that the way God would do?
00:22:41
Speaker
No, you know why he won't do that? Because of what he promises right here. If we will confess our sins, he is faithful. He is just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what an incredible promise!
00:22:58
Speaker
that He's going to be faithful no matter how many times we come back to Him, and we're kind of dragging in there and saying, I'm sorry, Lord. I agree with you once again. I'm sorry, Lord. He said, I'm going to be faithful, but I'm also going to be just because my son paid for that on the cross. Man, that's something to light up any Christmas right there, is to go through the arbitration of simply confessing your sins.
00:23:25
Speaker
and saying, if God said it, my agreement when I signed on with him was I would say he's right. He's telling me the truth. So let me close with one last burned out bulb. Hey, you don't want this. The remaining faulty strand of burned out light bulbs to replace this season is revealed and uncovered in verse 10.
00:23:50
Speaker
It's the defamation of our testimony as a follower of Christ. But more than that, it's the defamation of who God is. Listen to what it says. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. So, hey, man, let's face reality.
00:24:13
Speaker
You know, in the corporate world, not all Christmas parties are godly. Not all Christmas parties out there in the secular world honor Christ. So how a believer behaves in the world can impact his or her testimony as a Christ follower, either positively or negatively.
00:24:33
Speaker
So, when we go to those Christmas parties and they start telling off-color jokes or they start doing things that God wouldn't be pleased, we can either say, hey, I want to let you know I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, and I can't laugh at that. I can't go with that. I can't approve of that.
00:24:51
Speaker
I want to stay faithful to my Lord. Then we're going to be telling the truth. But here's the person who says, if we say we have not sinned, that's not a sin. I'm not going to say that to sin. Then we make him a liar and his words not in us. So it's like to defame somebody is to damage the reputation of another person by telling a lie about them. So here's the question this Christmas.
00:25:19
Speaker
Am I telling the truth about Jesus Christ with my life, with my beliefs, with my words, or am I losing my testimony? Am I telling people something that's not true about the Father and about His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?
00:25:38
Speaker
Oh, friend, let me tell you, this passage in 1 John 1, 5 through 10, it's so real. It's so practical. If we'll just simply do that, it's not asking us, hey, you better be perfect. You better now never make a single mistake in your life. That's not what this is saying. This is saying, when you make your mistakes,
00:26:01
Speaker
Simply go to God because there's ample provision for cleansing of your sins. Go to God. You can be forgiven as you're honest about it and say the same thing about it and confess it. Just don't pretend to be his follower and keep on living in darkness and you're only deceiving yourself. That's what he's trying to say.
00:26:25
Speaker
So I want to encourage you, as you go through the Christmas season, remember it's really all about Jesus. So we ought to be giving Him gifts, giving Him offerings, in addition to giving our family gifts and so forth. So what kind of gift can we give Him that would really honor Him most? I believe it's to walk in the light.
00:26:47
Speaker
I believe it's to share the gospel. I believe it's to you know tell people you know who God is, what He's like, that He's revealed what He's like in Christ. I believe that it's saying God is light, in Him is no darkness at all. I believe that it is to say, if I mess up, I'm just going to go to God privately and say to Him, Lord,
00:27:14
Speaker
I blew it. You're right. I was wrong. Please forgive me. And I believe He will forgive us. So I want to close our time in a word of prayer. So let me pray for us that as we go through the Christmas season, we would shine for Jesus. I pray that you would just encircle your Christmas season and your all the celebrations with godliness and faithfulness and with sharing the gospel message and and with who God is.
00:27:42
Speaker
Lord, I thank you so much for our listeners, those who listen in. I pray you bless them. I pray they have a great Christmas season. I pray that December would be one of their favorite months. I know it can be hard because there's so much to do. There's so many lists that we have. But Lord, help us remember that there are priorities that relate to Jesus, that relate to who the Father is.
00:28:08
Speaker
There are priorities that relate to ah sharing the gospel and and trying to help others that are in darkness see the way out of the darkness by simply turning to Christ in repentance and faith. Help us not soft pedal. Help us realize, hey, we just need to be honest. We just need to be true in someone that is genuine and authentic.
00:28:32
Speaker
and not trying to fake things. So anyway, Lord, bless my friends. Give them a joyous Christmas. ah Bless their families. Bless them. I pray that there'd be more joy this Christmas in their lives than any other Christmas before. But thank you again for this passage in 1 John 1, verses 5 through 10. May we remember it. So seal this message to our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:29:00
Speaker
Hey, listen, I don't know if you'll be checking back in with us, but if not, I really wish you a very Merry Christmas, and I pray your Christmas will be Christ-centered. You have a great day. God bless you. Bye.
00:29:26
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.