SERMON: THAT'S WHAT THIS ALTAR IS FOR

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
5 February 2006

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 John 1:5-2:6

1 John 1
5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7. 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 sin.
8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2
1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

-- earlier this week, I received an e-mail from someone that asked the question, "Are saved Christians still sinners?" and then went on to present lots of Bible verses to show this author's point that if you are saved, that you shouldn't be sinning any longer -- in other words, the author was trying to make the case that Christians should be sin-free
-- when I first got this e-mail, I immediately discounted it -- I get a lot of unsolicited e-mails from people because my e-mail is out there on the net in various places
-- but a few days later I thought about that e-mail again as I was driving past a local church -- the church sign said that they were going to be holding a revival for the next several days and that a guest evangelist was coming to preach -- and I found myself thinking, "why in the world is that church having an evangelist come to preach their revival?"

II. Thoughts on Revival
-- as I'm sure all of you know by now, I am fascinated by the concept of revival -- and am I fascinated at the way that the churches approach the concept of revivals in this day and age
-- I am still amazed at the fact that a lot of churches continue to press on with the old mindset of revivals -- a lot of us grew up with the idea that a revival is the place where the lost get saved -- where people who don't come on Sunday are going to come to church in the middle of the week, get convicted of their sins, and get saved -- that is our picture of revival -- and it was probably true in the early part of the 20th century on up to the 1950's or so
-- in fact, it was an event like that where Billy Graham got saved -- Mordecai Hamm had come into town and was preaching in a tent revival and Billy Graham went to hear him preach one night and gave his life to Christ
-- and that's what we know and that's what we expect to happen -- and so churches schedule a revival and hire an evangelist to come and preach the gospel and then they gauge the success of the revival based on the number of conversions they record
-- but, things have changed a lot since the 1950's -- revivals are not the events they used to be -- and even though we still schedule revivals and still hold them with the same format we've always used, we just aren't seeing lots of people come to Christ at these services -- in fact, most of the people who come to revivals now are already committed church members -- they're the only ones who actually want to come to church in the middle of the week
-- and so churches like the one I passed this week schedule evangelists to preach conversion to the converted -- to preach salvation to the saved -- and nothing much gets accomplished because the preacher is preaching a message to people who aren't there and is failing to preach God's message of revival and renewal to the people who are actually gathered there
-- I think it's time for the church to take a moment and step back and consider just what we mean and what God wants to see happen in our churches when we talk about revival
-- in the Bible, there are two meanings to the word revival -- the first is from the Old Testament -- in the context of the Hebrew Scriptures, the word revival conveyed the idea of breathing -- breathing with the breath of God -- living in such a way that God's presence was manifested through us -- not only at church -- not only in our individual lives -- but in the lives of the community and the nation as well
-- revival was a means by which God restored and preserved and healed the nations -- it was a means by which God prospered the nations
-- in the New Testament, the word revival takes on a slightly different meaning -- it becomes more personal and it means to bring back to life -- to live again -- to find the first love that you have lost -- in the New Testament, we learn that true revival begins first at home -- in your heart and in my heart -- and then spreads out to the church and to the community and to the nation
-- in their book, "The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever," Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter defined a New Testament revival as an extraordinary work of God in which Christians repent of their sins as they become intensely aware of the presence of God in their midst -- they say that a true evangelical revival is characterized by a deepening of their individual and corporate experience with God and an increased concern to win others to Christ
-- which brings us back to the question that that e-mail asked when I opened it, "Are saved Christians still sinners?" -- if you believe that a revival begins when Christians repent of sin in their lives, then you have to answer this question, "Yes, saved Christians can still be sinners" -- but, if that's true, then what do we do about it? -- these questions are exactly what the Apostle John was addressing in this epistle that we opened with

III. Are Saved Christians Still Sinners?
-- when John wrote this letter, there was a growing movement called Gnosticism that was bringing in heresy and false teachings into the churches -- Gnostics believed that anything spiritual was good and anything material was evil -- this meant that they believed that anything to do with the physical body was inherently evil -- and they believed that salvation was ultimately the freeing of the spirit from the body
-- because of their beliefs, the Gnostics introduced two types of false teachings into the church -- first, the Gnostics taught that you could still be in fellowship with God but walk in sin -- they reasoned that it was your spirit that was in fellowship with God, and so it didn't matter if your body walked in sin or not -- in fact, they said that since the body was going to be destroyed in the salvation act anyway, why not go ahead and help destroy it by walking in sin -- by gratifying all the lusts of the flesh so you would speed along your eventual salvation
-- secondly, the Gnostics held was that there was no real natural tendency to sin -- that your true spiritual self was good and could not sin -- it didn't matter what the body did -- what only mattered was the state of the spirit
-- the bottom-line was that these false teachers refused to take sin seriously -- and they were passing on this teaching to Christians in the churches that John was writing to
-- so John addresses these two false teachings in the passage that we read -- look back at verse 5

5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7. 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 sin.

-- John is telling us here that a relationship with God obliges us to live in the light -- in other words, if you are in a relationship with God -- if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and claim to be a Christian -- then you should be walking in His light -- the light of holiness and purity and righteousness -- you should be striving to be sin-free
-- in Romans 12:2, Paul writes, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." -- when you are a Christian, you are a new creation and you are in the process of becoming more like Jesus every day -- this means that we quit living our lives in the pattern of the world but live it in the pattern of Christ -- following His example and living lives of holiness as the Holy Spirit transforms us from who we were to who He has called us to be
-- John is painting a picture here of our goal -- of where we are heading in our spiritual journey -- as we wander through the wildnerness of this life, our Promised Land is a life free from sin -- a life of holiness and righteousness and purity -- this is where we should be headed as Christians
-- but, John knows that we aren't there yet -- look back at verse 8

1 John 1:8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

1 John 2
1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

-- even as Christians, we find ourselves still mired down in sin -- despite what the Gnostics taught, we were born with an inherent sin nature as part of us -- because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, we all were born with this innate capacity to sin -- that is why the Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
-- John recognizes that -- he tells us here quite plainly that saved Christians still sin -- and if we claim that we don't sin, then we are liars -- we are never going to be perfect in this life -- we are never going to reach the place where we don't occasionally sin in our lives -- hopefully, as we grow in grace -- as we become sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives -- we will look back and see less sin in our lives every day -- but the truth of the matter is, right now, we still sin -- no matter how much we may deny it -- no matter how much we wish it might not be true -- we still sin -- every single one of us
-- but, just like the Gnostics, I sense that the vast majority of us don't take it serious -- and that is why we haven't seen a major revival in our churches in decades

IV. Repenting of Our Sins
-- John tells us quite plainly in this passage what we are to do with sin in our lives -- we are to confess it -- we are to acknowledge the sin in our lives and to turn away from that sin and then God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
-- we see the same thing in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- God says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
-- even as Christians, we are sinners -- we know it -- God knows it -- and He calls us to confess our sins and to repent of our sins -- to turn away from them and turn towards Him -- and He promises forgiveness and healing and revival
-- but the sad part is, we already know all this -- this isn't the first time that we have heard these verses -- this isn't the first time that we have read them in this church -- but it seems like we don't take them serious -- it seems like the church as a whole is not taking them serious
-- I have talked before about how the church in America is no more holy or moral than the culture as a whole -- how we sin just as much as the rest of this country does -- and how we continue to lose members in all of our mainline denominations -- we lost over 140,000 members in the Methodist church in just the last two years
-- and, despite all of this -- we still don't take sin seriously enough to humble ourselves and pray and confess our sins and turn from our wicked ways and live the life that God has called us to live
-- John tells us here that God has given us provision by His Son -- through the blood that was shed on Calvary -- to come into His presence -- so that we might obey His commands and walk as Jesus did
-- when God called the Israelites out of Egypt and made them His own people, He had them build a tabernacle and in the midst of the tabernacle -- in the Holy of Holies -- He had them place an altar where they could come and seek forgiveness from their sins through a blood sacrifice
-- that is what the altar is for -- the altar is a place of sacrifice -- a place of repentence -- the place where revival starts -- this is the place where we can come before the presence of God and give Him all of our sins and our burdens and our needs so that we can be revived and refreshed and renewed with His presence and power
-- John tells us that Christ went to the cross for us as the atoning sacrifice for our sins -- He offered Himself on the altar for us as the final blood sacrifice -- so that we might experience forgiveness of sins and newness of life
-- now Jesus calls for us to offer ourselves for Him -- to place ourselves on the altar as a living sacrifice -- confessing our sins and repenting of our wicked ways and living the life He has called us to live
-- and yet we refuse to come -- every Sunday, we have Christians go home with sin still in their hearts -- with burdens still weighing them down -- with trials and temptations holding them in chains -- and that is the reason why we aren't seeing a revival in our church -- that is why we aren't living lives that God called us to live -- that is why you can't see any difference between us and the world
-- we are refusing to admit we are sinners and we are refusing to do anything about the sins in our lives

V. Closing
-- it is time we come and offer ourselves to God -- it is time that we lay our burdens on the altar of life -- to give God the things that are hindeirng us from growing in grace -- the things that are keeping us from seeing revival in our lives and in our churches and in our communities
-- God's altar is a place of restoration -- a place of healing -- a place of new beginnings -- the altar is not only for those being saved -- it is also for us who have been saved
-- God tells us that revival starts in the heart of His people -- and our hearts won't change until we recognize the sin in our lives and come to God in confession and repentance
-- Charles Finney is recognized as one of the greatest evangelists ever to preach in America -- in the early 19th century, he preached to thousands of people in the northeastern United States, and a major revival swept through the churches in his day -- but curiously, Finney preached only in churches and only to people who claimed they were Christians already
-- what was his message? -- it was the same as the Apostle John in this passage -- the same as John the Baptist and the same as Jesus Himself -- first, he reminded these Christians that even though they were saved, they were still sinners -- secondly, he told them that God was calling them to live a life free of sin -- and finally, he told them that they should confess their sins and turn from their wicked ways and God would lead them from the darkness and into the light
-- and the people listened -- and they responded to God's call through Finney's message -- and over 100,000 lives were changed as revival swept through the United States
-- do you want to see revival in this community? -- do you want to see revival in this church and in your life? -- do you want to live the life that Christ called you to live? -- then we have to get serious about sin and acknowledge its presence in our lives and repent from it so that God will heal our land and forgive us our sins and revive our nation
-- and this all starts with you coming before the altar of God in humbleness and in repentance and offering yourself as a living sacrifice to Him
-- God is calling His people to live lives of holiness -- to walk in the light as He is in the light -- to turn from their sins and to live the life He has called them to live -- a life of holiness and obedience to His commands
-- I am going to close by playing a song by Ray Boltz called, "That's What This Altar is For" -- as this song plays, I want to invite you to respond to God's word as you feel led
-- if you would like for me to pray with you, I would be happy to do so
-- let's pray