Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to 1 John chapter 1 and reading
through our text verse 5. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5. A message, a message from the
Lord, a message that we have heard from our Lord Jesus Christ
and we read A part of that in the Gospel according to John.
Our Lord testifying, I am come a light into the world that whosoever
believeth on me should not abide in darkness. John 12 and verse
46. The message, the preaching, the
teaching, of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, concerning himself,
concerning the true message of the Gospel. And the Apostles
here, and Apostle John, that message that was heard of the
Lord, that is the message that they declare unto their hearers
and unto the churches. And may that be the desire of
all that preach the Gospel, all of us who stand in the Lord's
name. The commission that we have been
given is to preach the Word. John was a first-hand witness,
and he bears witness of what he has heard. We, ourselves,
we are not first-hand witnesses. but we are given the Word of
God and given that to preach. We are given the grace of God
in our hearts and the call of God to the ministry to be faithful
stewards of that Word, not to add our own or to take away from
God's Word. And we would seek that grace
and help to bring The message of the Gospel, we might preach
from a text, we might seek to open up that text, but may we
truly have a message, a word from the Lord, a word that has
a purpose in it, has direction, has guidance, has warning, has
instruction, has teaching, not be left, as it were, just to
beat the air and say words with no purpose at all. The Apostle
Paul, he spoke of the need to speak, and he said he would rather
speak five words with the understanding than 10,000 words in an unknown
tongue. He spoke to those that were using
tongues but did not interpret those tongues. Those that were
speaking in one language but the hearers couldn't understand
that language. And he spoke how that even the
trumpet, if it be blown, and often in the situation of war,
and to give direction, if it do not give a certain sound,
then who will prepare for the battle? And so it is very necessary
that the message as well has a certain sound. I'm very mindful
as well that we can have the right words, but when we have
the wrong emphasis, then no one will take any notice. If there's
a fire in this building, Maybe we couldn't see it, perhaps it
was in one of the vestries or the porch, but someone came in
and they just mildly said, there's a fire in the porch, we ought
to get out. It probably wouldn't stir up
many to any urgency, but if they came in with a great urgency,
there's a fire, fire in the porch, then that might stir us up. much more to action. And the Word of God may be helped
to not only just speak it, but declare it as to that message,
as an urgent message, a message of life and death, a message
that actually concerns us. We're not bystanders upon the
race. This is not just a lecture. that
is in a lecture hall, and well, if we get 50%, 60% at the end
exam, well, at least we might pass. This is a matter of either
attaining a promised rest, attaining salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, or not, is either being brought to heaven, or left to
descend into hell. It's either remaining under condemnation,
or is being brought to, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. So when John, he brings a message
and he says this then, is the message which we have heard of
him and declare unto you. And the message here is that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And I know I've used this illustration
before, but like here in this chapel, we are thankful for it
this morning. We do have light, and yet there
is not a case of no darkness at all, because under the seats,
we see that there is darkness. Light doesn't pervade everywhere. But we're told with our Lord
Jesus Christ that in Him, in God. God is light and in him
there is no darkness at all. Satan is said that he shall come
in as an angel of light. But Satan can never be where
there is no darkness at all. There is deceit, there is darkness,
there is sin, there is evil, there is that which does not
stand the light. Now Lord says that those that
walk in darkness, they will not come to the light that their
deeds might be made manifest. The light makes manifest. And the very first thing that
the Lord did in the creation was to say, let there be light,
and there was light. And He was the source of that
light. The sun and the moon, they were
not created, they were not put in the heavens until the fourth
day. And so the light was given by
God. We know that in heaven there's
no need of the sun or the moon. God is the light of that place. And in a spiritual way as well,
if there is light, if there is true light, then that comes from
our Lord Jesus Christ. We know it is. reflected and
heard in the Word, because we have in our text that this is
a message, and that message comes by Word, and that Word is a Word
of light. But we have in the temptations
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Satan, Satan coming
with the Word as well. You might say Satan is bringing
the light, he is bringing the Word of God, but he's bringing
it in a deceitful way. He's bringing it in a way that
is tempting the Lord of life and glory. He's giving it in
a way that will be to his advantage and to what he wants, twisting
and turning the word. And our Lord rightly reproved
him and compared scripture with scripture. It is written again,
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. That was when Satan
tempted our Lord to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the
temple, because it was written that God should give his angels
charge over thee, and bear thee up in their arms, lest thou shouldst
dash thy foot against a stone. So Satan will even try and use
the very light of the word of God, but use it in a wrong way. But we are told here the message,
not just individual words taken out of context, not like that
one, that told the judge when the judge asked him why he kept
stealing. And he said, well, it says in
the commandment that he that stole, let him steal. And the judge says, no, it says,
let him steal no more. He says, I've no need of those
words. It suited him quite well to say,
let him that stole, let him steal. And so we can do the same. We
can leave out words. We can just pick what we like
and apply them and think that that will be light. But it must
be not just the word, but the message. What is the message? What is the word that is being
spoken? What is the Lord's purpose of
this? It's most solemn to all the time
be taking texts or verses completely out of context and applying them
to ourselves or walking according to it and not actually knowing
the message. Of course, familiar in our land,
we have many things that are reported in the press. We know
that the Christian Institute, they ask us to pray that when
things are reported, that they are reported truthfully and faithfully. And I've known what it is to
write in to papers, and the paper has quoted my letters, put my
name on it, but they've changed the scripture quotations and
made them wrong. They've taken it to speak completely
different to what I'd written in and then refused to retract
it. And when I pointed it out, if
those that were professional journalists had someone take
what they had put in and littered it with spelling mistakes, grammatical
errors, and put their name on it, would they be happy with
it? And should a minister be happy when what he preached and
declared was publicly set forth in error, but not what he said
at all? and it's very much a discouragement
really to write anything up to a paper. But we can be like that
as well with God's Word. We can have the Word before us,
but be selective and take out what we don't want, or ignore
what we don't want. Our Lord said to those of His
day, that ye make the commandments of God of none effect by your
tradition. The Word was still there, but
it was made of none effect. So the emphasis here is not just
an individual word, or actually a text, or even one doctrine
in isolation, but it is a message. This then is the message, we
have heard of him, and declare unto you. And the same message
is the same one that is declared. Sometimes the most powerful statements
are those that are most simple, the most short ones. And here is one that is very
short, a very short statement. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. Very often our Lord taught in
comparisons comparing one thing with another thing, and so we
could see very clearly what the truth was. And in a way there
is a comparison here as well, light with darkness, and we open
that up a little bit more in a moment. But the statement isn't
just left that God is light, but clarifying that there is
In Him, in Him is no darkness at all. And we could say, well,
why is it not left just in Him is no darkness? That would be
true. But it's at all, at all, nothing,
not even a tiny speck of darkness in our Lord and in God Himself,
our Lord being the very true God. and eternal life. There is no sin, no evil, nothing
deceitful, nothing untrue, nothing evil. Everything is pure. Everything is holy. Everything
is righteous. Everything is good. There is no darkness at all. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. Now this truth that is declared
is to be remembered and everything that purports to come from this
God, be a doctrine of this God, is to be tried by this test and
As we have said, it is to be tried by the light of the Word
of God. Not just one word, but the message
of the Word of God. Now the Apostle in bringing the
Word, which we have as our text, then goes on to apply it. And apply it directly to what
we believe and what we say. As much as we may say the message
is contained in the Word of God, so we also must say that really
what we believe and our interpretation of it will be tested by our words
as well. And that is why in the following
words, following this text, there is, if we say, if we say, if
we confess, if we say, it is speaking. Now it's not an if
as well casting doubt on something, which we can use the word if
for, but it is put in this way that if we say and believe those
things that we are saying, if they're reflecting our hearts
and what we actually believe, then the following will be true,
what follows that statement. And so I want to look with the
Lord's help this morning at how the Apostle opens up, how the
Inspired Word opens up this message that God is light and in Him
is no darkness at all, as concerned our own walk and what we believe
and what we say. And it really is comprising in
three things. It concerns fellowship, it concerns
our walk, and it concerns sin. Those three things, fellowship,
our walk, and sin. We know with our first parents,
Adam and Eve, they had fellowship with the Lord. The Lord walked
with them in the cool of the day, but when sin entered, then
that fellowship was broken. In our Lord Jesus Christ, the
message is a reconciliation. God and sinners reconciled. And the aim in view is those
that were foreigners, aliens, alienated by wicked works are
brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Every local church is
to be a gathering of believers, save sinners, voluntarily fellowshipping
with one another, joining with one another, joining together
as a church and joining around the table of the Lord. A little type, if you like, of
that greater fellowship of all the churches and all the one
church militant on this earth. and of that which is above, and
at last there shall be that one great fellowship, that great
union, communion, one with another, all seeing eye to eye, all thinking
the same thing, speaking the same thing, one mind in the Lord,
taught by the same Spirit, redeemed by the same precious blood of
Christ, all with the same trust in Christ alone. and they walk
together. How can two walk together except
they be agreed? And so the Apostle John here,
he says in verse three, that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So then we have,
immediately after the words of our text, the declaration of
God and of John, that God is light and in Him is no darkness
at all, a test for us regarding fellowship. Regarding fellowship. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. And so this is the true measure
of fellowship, right fellowship. The message, God is light, those
that have fellowship with Him They will also be walking in
the light, whether they have fellowship one with another in
the Church of God, or whether they have it between their God
and themselves. It's a great blessing for an
individual church. Sometimes a church, a cause of
truth, a gathering together, is referred to as a fellowship. a company of sinners that are
walking one with another without division, having one mind, gathering
without a jar. That should be the description
of every church. It's a most solemn thing where
there is difference, where there is those schisms, where there
isn't that walking one with another. One should desire that the place
where you worship, the place where you gather together, and
those that you walk with and are with, that you can have true
fellowship with them. Now we know we will not have
a perfect church on earth, But if we are gathering in a place
of which we know that there are those that are not walking in
the light of the scriptures, they're walking in darkness,
we should not have a place there. We should be seeking those to
walk with that truly reflect the God of light, trying everything,
buying the Word of God. Some of the charges that God
had to the churches in the Revelation, to the churches they were written
to, was that they had those that taught error, that there was
darkness in that church, and they were reproved for that.
And so where there is that fellowship, There must be of that one mind
in the Lord. We should be able to test all
things that are said and all that we walk in by the Word of
God. So we may ask ourselves here,
what fellowship do we have, one with another? Is it true? Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, that a book of remembrance was written
on those that feared his name, that thought upon his name. Do
we have any fellowship with the people of God? Any time spent
with them? Any communion with them? Do we speak to them? Do we write to them? Do we email
them? Do we WhatsApp them? If you were
thinking of more modern forms of communication, do we communicate
one with another? What type of friendship, fellowship
do we have? And what about with the Lord?
How much time do we spend with the Lord? Are we friends with
him? Abraham was said to be the friend of God. Are we? Do we
love to be in each other's company? Do we trust each other? Are we
suspicious of the Lord? Do we mistrust Him? Sometimes
we may hold back from those of this world, even those that make
profession, because we don't really trust them. It may be
that we do love them in the Lord and believe they're truly the
Lord's people, but maybe we think if we confide to them that they
won't keep that confidence. But how is it with the Lord?
Can we pour out our hearts, as the scriptures say? Pour out
your hearts before Him, ye people. God is a refuge for us, the hiding
place. It might be with us, darkness,
but with the Lord they cannot be. There's a real question here
regarding light and darkness concerning fellowship, concerning
with whom we spend time. Do we want to spend eternity
with those that we spend the time with here? And those that we have fellowship
with here, is it in the things of God? Or is it just on temporal things? How much? Do we really, like
the apostles, being let go, they went unto their own company,
or thy dear Ruth, a male by-test by nature. But she claimed to
know Ammon, thy people be my people, thy God my God. How do
we view the people of God in that way? Well, closely joined
then to fellowship is our walk, really inseparably joined as
in the words before us here. If we say, so our profession
might be, and what we say is that we do have fellowship, maybe
as we've spoken just briefly on this first point of fellowship,
you might have said, said to yourself quietly, yeah, we have
fellowship. We have fellowship. We have fellowship
one with another. The apostle has this test here. Let us test ourselves with him. If we say we have fellowship
with him, do we walk in darkness? Because
if we walk in darkness, the word here says that we lie and do
not the truth. What is darkness? sin and evil, walking in those
ways that are forbidden ways, walking in the ways of the flesh
with no resistance, hatred, sorrow, grief. We're not like Lot who
vexed his righteous soul day to day with the unrighteous deeds
of those that were with him. You know like those that Paul
speaks of that mortify the deeds of the body through the spirit?
The word speaks of that which is of the flesh, the lust of
the flesh, the desires of the eye, the love of this world,
the affections, those things that we have by nature. Now note, it doesn't say that
if we say that we have fellowship with him and have sin or have darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. These verses 6 and 7, is concerning walk. We come in
the third place to sin, but in these two places it is walk. Every child of God will know
the sin and evil within. And him says, though his outside
be kept clean, he knows the filth within. Of no doubt Joseph knew what
it was, not only to be tempted by Boteva's wife, but to feel
that temptation within as well. And that is why he ran. But do we always do that? Job
knew the temptation to sin with those things that were before
his eyes, so he said, I've made a covenant with mine eyes, why
then should I think upon a maid? That which we actually do, that
which we walk in, give agreement to, spend our time, our money,
our affections go after, that are not a grief to us, a sorrow
to us, They're not a cause of a fight, a resistance. We must
say that we're actually walking in a way that is a way of darkness. It's a searching word, a really,
a searching word for us. It's not just before others.
No, we can be hypocrites like that. We can think, well, as
long as our walk before those that look on the outside, we
can deceive others. But no, what is our walk before
the Lord? Before the Lord. This is a test
of true fellowship. Would we want the Lord to come?
and to live with us for a while, and to see what we did, and who
we met with, and what we said, and what we looked at on the
internet, or in the paper, or some other things, what we read,
how we walked. There's a contrast here between
what we say and how we actually walk, and what flows from the other,
if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
the judgment of the Lord is this, we lie and do not the truth. The other side of it, if we walk
in the light, as He is in the light. We have fellowship, that's
true fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Be very careful who we may say
that we have fellowship with. You know, if our fellowship is
with those that are walking in darkness, you might say, well,
we have fellowship one with another. Yeah, you might. But it's not
in the light. We want fellowship in the light. One day we shall meet with God. We shall see him in that light
which no man can approach unto. And it's a blessed thing if we
then are willing, willing in time. to have the light of the
word searching our hearts, and so our real true state is found. One of our hymns says, I think
it's hymn 710, nor are men willing to have the truth told. The sight
is too killing for pride to behold. Then the Lord brings a message.
Very often it will be a searching message, a message that will
hurt, a message that may find us out that actually this is
the reason. And some of us, we may have backslidden
and once did have fellowship with the Lord and with His people,
but now don't, and this is the reason why, because of how we
are walking, what we are allowing, what we are not resisting against. What are we not praying against?
So the second test, as it were, or mark of this message is what
is our walk? How are we actually living our
lives? Well, now we have a third message. What the message concerns is
it concerns sin. It would be a strange thing if
the message of the Gospel, the message of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ did not concern anything about sin. The name
of our Lord is His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. And the whole reason why our
Lord came is to do that. Not to just bring them to heaven,
but deliver them from the power and dominion of sin, to deliver
them from the condemnation due to sin, to deliver them from
all of the power of sin within them. Sin shall not have dominion
over you, you're not under the law, you're under grace. Well,
there's three things then that are set before us concerning
sin. Or you might say, with four things,
because in verse seven, concerning the fellowship, if we walk in
light, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all
sin. You can be sure if those are
walking in light, and we are walking in light, then the Three
things, the three statements that are made here in verses
8, 9 and 10 will apply to that person. And if it has that effect
in obedience, in a right walk, it shows what is right within. I want to look then at those
three ifs in verses 8, 9 and 10. The first if, which has the consequence
that the truth is not in us, is this, if we say that we have
no sin. If we say that we have no sin. That at this present time, where
the Word finds us, where we stand, where we meet, where we gather
at this time, We have no sin, there's no sin on us. We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. Now John is speaking of believers,
he's speaking of God's children. You know, there's some people
that will say, well, because all of the sins of God's children
are blotted out at Calvary, the Lord dealt with them there, put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself, that as soon as a believer
believes that, receives that, he never needs to confess sin,
he hasn't got sin, he's sinless, he's spotless. And so his testimony
would be, we have no sin, Christ has put away sin, we have no
sin. I've heard it said by One actually,
whether it was the teaching of that church or not, had said,
well, what is the problem? The Lord has come, he's put away
sin, so we just live our lives and we'll go to heaven at last.
And in effect, they're saying we have no sin. Christ has put
it away at Calvary. It's universally put away for
the whole world and therefore, We don't need a personal work,
we don't need the spirit's work, and really there's no consciousness
of sin, no present consciousness of sin at all. Yet if this is what we are saying,
that we have no sin, at any particular time, We deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us. The truth is, God's dear children
are still sinners, will still be sinners, right to their dying
day. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The reality of Christ's coming
is that he put away that sin, cleanses from sin, cleanses from
his guilt, cleanses from his power, cleanse and deliver us
from the condemnation due to it, but we still sin in thought,
in word, and in deed. And it is faith that looks to
Christ's blood alone, is not looking to our sinlessness. No. And the word here is very, very
clear. May it be a help to those of
you who feel your sin, who know that you are sinners, that you
do sin, and you do sin day by day. You don't want to walk in
it. You seek for grace not to walk
in it. It troubles you. But you don't
say that you have no sin. What a solemn picture of one
deceiving themselves, and the truth is not in us. will make
us to know our sinnership, not to mask it, not to imagine it
doesn't exist, not to deny it, but to say that we do have sin. Then we have in verse 9, and
it is a beautiful verse, if we confess our sins. So to those
in verse 8, that know that they have sin, here is another if,
and joined to it, most beautiful promise. If we confess our sins,
those sins that are felt in verse 8, those sins are very real. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. No,
naturally, we think, well, before we come to the Lord, we want
to cleanse ourselves, we want to make our walk right, we want
to make our hearts right, and then we'll come to the Lord,
but to come while we are yet feeling sinners, to come and
confess that sin, to own it, not to a man, but to the Lord. We are told this beautiful word,
He is faithful and just. What a friend, what a saviour,
what mercy here on confession of sins. He forgives us our sins,
and not only that, but cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
That is, cleanses us from the power of sin. Some of you may
be really troubled, you think, how can I confess rightly a sin
But I know in my wicked heart it loves sin, and it doesn't
really want to be free of it. And I feel I'm going to confess
this sin and go away, and I'll commit it again. But what is
said before us here, if we confess our sins, not only will the Lord
forgive them, but He'll take us and cleanse us, wash us, take
away the love of sinning. Undo and deliver us from the
power of that sin, that which we cannot do. He will do for
us. One of the hymns is a prayer. Take away the love of sinning. Alpha and Omega be. And so verse
nine is a beautiful promise, a beautiful encouragement to
us to confess our sins before God. In prayer, tell him our
sin. And then we have in verse 10, a solemn word that the consequence
of it is this, that we make God a liar and his word is not in
us. And the if is this, if we say
that we have not sinned. Now, you might say, what is the
difference between verse 10 and verse 8? Verse 8 is speaking,
or as it were, the presence. If we say that we have no sin,
we have no sin now. But then in verse 10, If we say
that we have not sinned, we've never sinned. But the people of God, they know,
and we sung a little of it in our middle hymn, past offences,
pain mine eyes. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And the confession is that we
have sinned. David, when he was brought in
guilty with murder and adultery, he said, I have sinned. But it
will not be just for those great things. It will be a constant
mindfulness of it, that we have sinned. God says that we have
sinned. His word declares we have sinned. The whole gospel is for sinners.
The good news of salvation is for sinners. He came into the world to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, to endure the wrath
of God, to fulfil the law, to supply that blood, to be the
Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the sins of
His people in this world, the sins of this world in all their
darkness, blackness, all how they work in a sinner's heart
and God's people feel them to work. Now sometimes we might
have a remedy prescribed by a doctor and it doesn't work in our particular
case, doesn't fit it, doesn't meet it. But we know with the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the message from Him, it is for
the sin of this world. In all how we may feel it and
see it and groan under it, it is the remedy. Our Lord says,
if you believe not that I am he, you shall perish in your
sins. And when many were going away
from our Lord as if, well, he couldn't save us, the Lord had
a question with the disciples, will you also go away? And Peter,
he spoke for them all, he said, to whom else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The message
of the gospel is for sinners, those that confess and feel and
know their sinnership, those that seek, by the grace of God,
to walk in the light and to have fellowship one with another.
and with the Lord, for God is light, and in Him is no darkness
at all." What a contrast really is in this message. God that
is light, and those that again and again the Lord says, if they
are true, if they're not making me a liar, they'll know and feel
that they're sinners. And yet the message brings these
sinners, a priest that brings these sinners to walk in the
light and to walk with me and walk with my dear people. May
we truly have some meditation and exercise of this word. There's some very, very strong
statements in it. Some statements that completely
rule us out from being the people of God if the language of the
IF is ours, but statements that if the language of the IF of
verse 9 is ours, it is a most blessed assurance and hope of
forgiveness and cleansing from sin and unrighteousness. May
the Lord grant us His message in our hearts to receive it,
as we sung in our first hymn to receive the message of the
Lord, This then is the message which we have heard of him and
declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness
at all. Amen.