Holiness is the only way to maintain fellowship with God, as sin is the only thing that can mar this communion. The sermon begins by establishing Jesus Christ as the gate to fellowship with God through His atoning sacrifice. It then emphasizes that while believers may sin, the apostle John's purpose in writing is to exhort them not to sin, as sin is far more tragic to God when it occurs in the life of a believer. The core lesson is that true knowledge of God is demonstrated by obedience to His word and walking as Christ walked, with the ultimate application being a godly fear of sin and a reliance on God's provision for it.
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eleven verses of chapter two. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which he have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you. Which thing is true in him and in you?
Because the darkness is past or is passing, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hath his brother is in darkness, even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hath his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. May God bless the reading of his precious word. Again we humbly but earnestly pray it will be the Holy Spirit, who alone can, may he interpret and illuminate the words for our mutual edifications.
Just a brief introduction of what we have already seen in our study thus far. In the opening of the epistle, beginning in verse one, going through verse four and even verse five, we have the gate to fellowship with God, even through the person of our blessed Lord Jesus, who is the word of life, the life eternal, who was made incarnate to bring to you and to me the love and the grace of his Father to redeem us. He alone is the gate to the fellowship that is ours with the Father. Looking at verse five and six and going down into chapter two and verse two, I believe we could give this subject of a section, a very important subject in relation to his context.
Holiness is the only way to maintain fellowship with God. Holiness, the maintenance of fellowship with God. And we have the apostle dealing with the question of sin and particularly bringing before us in relation to that fact that even we as believers should realize the only thing that can mar the fellowship of our heart The communion of our souls in happy fellowship with the Father must be, can only be sin. Trials may never do that.
Troubles and difficulties need not do such. For often they bring us even nearer to his heart. But that which separates the mutual fellowship and marries it between the Father has to be and can only be sin. if he said of St. Augustine, that there was only one thing he feared, which his enemies delighted if they could possibly bring him to do. For they realized he was not afraid to die, he was not afraid to suffer, he was not afraid to give himself in death for the sake of his sake he loved, but they said there was only one thing he feared.
That was sin. My beloved, Humbly but earnestly, may you and I have the same godly fear. But what a joy to realize as you take the embrace of this section from verse six and going down into chapter two and verse two. The opening verses of chapter two bring God's provision for the sin that comes into the life of a believer. Note the blessed introduction of the chapter as John particularly declares, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. One of the obvious purposes of the epistle, and may I say if you will read through the epistle, I believe you will find seven distinct references by John as to the purpose of his writing.
And here he declares, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. Let us take, as we have already noted in the preceding portion, that is not possible for us to say we cannot sin, or that we do not sin, but nevertheless let us not minimize the exhortation that we should not sin. For God will not minimize the awfulness of sin, and to the heart of the Father, sin in the life of a believer is far more tragic to him than in the life of an unbeliever. for it is one of his own children.
But then notice he goes on to say, if, and sometimes it has been translated and possibly can be, but if any man sin, if any believer sin. And may I suggest, what John is implying is nothing that is common, but he is implying that it should be an infrequent, a very rare thing If any man commits a sin,