Research shows that the sunniest places in Canada are southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, a swath of land that runs from Calgary to Estevan boasting over 2375 hours of bright sunshine annually. (For reference, that’s about an hour more per day than Toronto.) Often the big skies are blue, the clouds are sparse, and the sun is bold. However, some find it difficult to fully enjoy that prairie perk because of the cold. With winter temperatures regularly dipping below -40°, many choose to “appreciate” the sunshine from indoors. The potential for frostbite can serve as a significant obstacle to the enjoyment of regularly clear skies. 

The book of 1 John makes it clear that God wants his children to enjoy the life-giving warmth of his light and love. He wants us to walk in close fellowship with himself (1:3). Unfortunately, many believers simply “appreciate” its cloudless clarity from afar. Why? Because there are obstacles that distract and discourage, realities that can, if we’re not careful, keep us from fully enjoying the divine gift of intimacy with God.

SERMON MANUSCRIPT 

Many of you are aware that, prior to coming to Oakville, my family and I spent a number of years serving in southern Saskatchewan. What you may not know is that that area is one of the sunniest locations in the county. As one report says, “Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan form the sun belt of Canada. The swath from Calgary to Estevan boasts over 2375 hours of bright sunshine a year.” (For reference, that’s about an hour more per day than we get here.)

And we noticed while we were there! It seemed most days the sky—and there’s lots of sky in the prairies—was blue, the clouds were sparse, and the sun was bold.

Now, that doesn’t mean we always got to enjoy it. Why? Because it’s cold! It’s not uncommon for winter days to feel like -45° with the windchill. So, there were times that Patricia, myself, and the kids would “appreciate” the sunshine from inside the house. For us, the temperature was a significant obstacle to enjoying the beauty of Saskatchewan skies.

The book of 1 John makes it clear that God wants his children to enjoy the warmth, illumination, and security of his light. He wants us to have fellowship with himself. [1:3] The sun’s shining and we’re invited to bask in it. But many believers simply “appreciate” it from afar and maybe watch others enjoy it. Why? Because there are obstacles, things that distract and keep them from the beauty they could experience.

In the passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago, John highlighted three essentials for living in God’s light—walking in holiness, obedience, and love. In our passage today he describes two obstacles that can stop us—worldliness and deception. These are two obstacles we must avoid so as to abide. Let’s consider them in order.

Obstacle #1: Worldliness. [2:15] We can experience the Father’s love or we can love the world. We can’t do both.

“But wait,” you might say, “didn’t I read somewhere that ‘God so loved the world‘?” You did and he does! But these are different uses of the word. God loves the people of the world, so much so he sent his Son to deliver them from the system of the world, that which is corrupted by sin, at odds with God, and ruled by Satan. [Eph 2:1–2; Jas 4:4] 

It’s loving this system that John’s concerned about. [2:16] Worldliness isn’t mere activities like consuming certain media, wearing certain clothes, or preferring certain company. Worldliness is an attitude in which our affections are less shaped by God and more shaped by the world—a desire to feel things (lust of the flesh), own things (lust of the eyes), and be things (the boastful pride of life).

Now, success is not evil. Wealth is not sin. Power is not wrong. Promotions are not wicked. But they become light-blocking obstacles when they’re prioritized; when we spend more time thinking about our reputation than God’s, chasing the applause of people more than the approval of our Lord. They become an issue when our concern for earthly treasure eclipses our concern for heavenly treasure.

This is worldliness: living lives shaped not by God’s values but by the values of the world that hates God. And it’s an intimacy killer.

Worldliness is learning about the hedonistic lives of celebrities and wanting to be like them. It’s listening to cultural influencers and mistaking their ramblings for wisdom. Worldliness is shaping the priorities of our homes around convenience and not christlikeness. It’s handing over the shaping of our convictions on marriage, sexuality, gender, dignity of life, creation care, and justice to a world ruled by an Enemy who hates all of those things. This is worldliness.

And it’s foolish for many reasons, one of which is in [2:17]. It’s like buying VHS tapes when DVDs were the new technology. Sure, they were cheap, but they were passing away. It would be stupid and embarrassing. 

So it is when believers love the world. We’re hitching our wagons to dying priorities and strategies that will one day be obsolete and we’ll end up with a box of silly trophies in eternity that impress no one.

Jesus was very clear when praying for his followers. [John 17:14–15] Brothers and sisters, we’re in the world but we’re not to be of the world. John isn’t calling for us to retreat into isolation, but to be shrewd, thoughtful, and prayerful because worldliness is an obstacle to us walking in God’s light and love.

As believers, we can be distracted by the world. But we can also be tricked by the ruler of the world. That’s obstacle #2: Deception. 

[2:18–27] In any relationship, believing lies about someone will hamper our ability to enjoy closeness with them. It’s the same with God. Deception is an obstacle to us walking in God’s light and love. 

And John, here, provides some pointers on how to spot deception. First, it’s end-signalling. [2:18a, d] We are living in the last days before Jesus’s return. How do we know? Because of mounting deception and sin. [1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:1–5]

That deception would threaten to obstruct our enjoyment of God’s light did not take God by surprise and, in fact, signals to us that we may not need to fight much longer. Maranatha! Deception is end-signalling.

More concerning, it’s also church-originating. [2:19a] It’s from within Christianity that antichrists emerge. Satan puts operatives behind enemy lines. These deceivers sound like us, acts like us, but, as John says, “they were never of us.” Whether they realized it or not, they were and are pawns, saboteurs, carbon monoxide leaks within the household of God. These deceivers are church-originating.

And they’re Christ-denying. They are antichrists, after all, false teachers opposing Jesus, contradicting his teaching, misrepresenting his character, and confusing his people. [2:22–23] Deception is everywhere, friends, and it is a serious obstacle to us enjoying closeness with our God.

I read an article a number of years ago entitled Seven False Teachers in the Church Today. In it, the author names the heretic, “the person who teaches what blatantly contradicts an essential teaching of the Christian faith.” The charlatan is one who “is only interested in the Christian faith to the extent that it can fill his wallet.” The prophet is a teacher who “claims to be gifted by God to speak fresh revelation outside of Scripture.” The abuser “claims he is tending souls, but his true interest is ravishing bodies.” The divider “generates factions, not unity … [sometimes by making] “a minor doctrine into the mark of Christian maturity.” The tickler “preaches only the parts of the Bible they deem acceptable. Therefore, he speaks much of happiness but little of sin, much of heaven but nothing of hell. … He preaches a partial gospel which is no gospel at all.” Finally, there’s the speculator, “obsessed with novelty, originality, or speculation.”

The article concludes this way: “Satan’s greatest ambassadors are not pimps, politicians, or power-brokers, but pastors. His priests do not peddle a different religion, but a deadly perversion of the true one.”

There is deception everywhere, friends, signalling the end, coming from within the church, and denying the person and work of Christ often subtly but always tragically. 

And, because of the internet, these antichrists have more access to God’s people than ever before. They may come highly recommended. They may write books, speak at conferences, appear on radio and TV. They’ll sound good but they block the light.

So, how do we stop it? How do we protect ourselves, our families, and our church from such pervasive deception? Well, John points us to two weapons at our disposal. 

First, the truth of the Spirit. [2:20, 26–27a] An anointing, in Scripture, designates something for sacred use. That’s believers, in this case. We’ve been anointed with what Jesus promised in John 14–16, the coming of the Spirit of truth. [John 14:26; 16:13] 

This anointing isn’t a reality we’re to seek but, rather, a current reality we’re to enjoy. “You have an anointing,” John says. And look at the result: [2:21, 27b] With all the deception and worldliness flying around you, understand you have the truth abiding in you.

Some here probably stopped listening as soon as I read “and you have no need for anyone to teach you.” Obviously, John is teaching them, so what does he mean? John simply wants his readers to remember that the Spirit is their true Teacher, the ultimate source of truth. If any other teacher—say, an antichrist—says something contradictory to the true Teacher, dismiss it. 

Do you realize that the same person who wrote the words of this book lives inside of you? Have you ever thought about that? You can understand the Bible. Will it take time? Humility? Study? Community? Yes, yes, yes, yes. But if you are a believer, anointed with the Spirit of truth, you have what you need. 

You don’t need a pontiff, a decoder ring, or a seminary degree. Just open God’s word, surrounded by God’s people, calling upon God’s Spirit to open your eyes, “that I may behold wonderful things from your law” (Ps 119:18).

Heretics, charlatans, so-called prophets, abusers, dividers, ticklers, and speculators are everywhere. John calls them antichrists. While they cannot steal our salvation they can stifle our intimacy with the Author of salvation. Be alert and dependant on the Spirit of truth who moved men to write the words of Scripture, of which Jesus prayed for us “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” It’s our divine weapon in this war, our sword, the truth of the Spirit. Wield it well.

The second weapon John highlights is the promise of the Son. [2:24–25] Keep the first things the first things, brothers and sisters. What did we hear from the beginning? That we are sinners in need of salvation. That God so loved the world that he gave his Son. That Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. That by faith we receive eternal life. That is the promise he himself made to us.

Let that abide in you. Remain in you. Stay near your heart and at the forefront of your mind. “I am saved eternally by the graciousness of God and the work of his Son and the power of his Spirit!” When you do, you will abide in the Son and the Father. You will experience intimacy with the Almighty. You will walk in the light.

The Enemy wants nothing more than for saved people to forget that they’re saved, to doubt the reality of their security, to blur the finality of their forgiveness, to confuse the totality of their justification.

John, inspired by the Spirit, is telling us to remember who we are: we are blood-bought, heaven-bound, Spirit-indwelled, children of the King of king. Live like it’s true. [2:28–29] Cling to the promise of the Son, walk like it’s true, throw off the obstacles of deception and worldliness and enjoy the light with shamelessness and confidence.

While the Boyd family watched the long sunny winter days in Saskatchewan from the other side of a window, there were many who didn’t. In fact, from our living room we could see people enjoying, walking, sledding, and smiling. During our years out west we knew many people who looked forward to those months—weeks of skiing and snowmobiling, driveway shovelling and snowman-building, weeks of appreciating firsthand the beauty of a peaceful white landscape under a bright blue canopy. They loved it.

What was the difference between us and them? They were prepared. They knew what to expect, they dressed rightly, and they stepped outside. And they were richer for it, basking in the light.

As Christians, we’re invited to so much more than viewing the sunlight from afar and watching others enjoy intimacy with God. We’re not to pull away from the coldness of the world but to prepare ourselves, dress rightly, and step out into the light. 

Are there obstacles? Yes. Worldliness threatens all of our hearts. Deception threatens all of our minds. But we’re to get ready, armed with the truth of the Spirit and the promise of the Son, step out into the cold world, and enjoy the light.

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