Continue our study in 1 John. The name of the message tonight
is Deceiving Oneself. Deceiving Oneself. 1 John. We're going to read the
whole first chapter tonight. We're going to read the whole
first chapter. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life. So they saw him and they heard him. For the life
was manifested, that means that speaks of Christ's incarnation,
and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that
eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto
us. Again, he repeats it again, 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. And these things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 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. And here's
our verse for tonight. If we say that we have fellowship
with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
Let's continue to read to the end of the chapter. But if we
walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another. In the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 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 that we have Not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Now this wonderful
book, and it is a very wonderful book, is written in simple words. It's written in very simple words.
Very simple words. It's easy to understand. And
the words are written in a simple language so that you and I can
understand the words. And we understand the words,
we know we who are born again because God has has regenerated
us and given us faith and grace to trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we're taught of him. But the words of this book are
very simple, very simple words. Another characteristic of this
wonderful book is that it is written in the spirit of love.
It's written in the spirit of love. Each line is seasoned with
love. John tries, as we'll see tonight,
John tries every profession by the rule of love. He measures
every claim to the test of love, and every claim is submitted
to the test of love. Do we love Christ? Do we love
Christ? Do we love one another? We see
that. It goes all through the book.
Do we love one another? Do we love the brethren? All
the brethren? All of them? And the third characteristic
of this wonderful book that is throughout this book is John
seeks to unravel, which we'll see tonight, the web of hypocrisy
that false professors are under. He does not want the believer
in Christ to be deceived. In this book is written to God's
born again blood bought children, those who know Christ, those
who claim to be saved by grace through the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed on Calvary's cross for
the remission of our sins, those who claim to be born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. This book is written to them
and it's written for God's people to know that they are saved by
Christ. To know that they're saved by
Christ. To know that they have eternal life in Christ alone. We looked at that a few weeks
ago in Sunday morning service in the message called We Know.
We went through the book of 1 John and we saw that. Now last week
we looked at verse five. We looked at verse five when
the scripture declares 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. We consider that God is light
and that our God is holy, he's holy, and in him is no darkness
at all, no sin, he's absolutely perfect, he's holy, he's spotless.
Just as the Lord Jesus Christ who was God incarnate in the
flesh is holy, spotless, perfect, sinless. So our God is perfectly
holy, sinless, and he cannot have sin in his presence. He
cannot have sin in his presence. And in him is no darkness at
all, the scriptures here proclaim. We've also considered that this
epistle was written to bring forth the humanity of Christ,
and we see that in the first few verses, as well as the deity
of Christ, to bring forth the truth of how the believer has
fellowship with the Father and other believers in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was God manifest in the flesh. And
John is bringing forth tonight in our verse that there is a
difference between being a professor of Christ, being a professor
of Christ, and being a possessor of Christ. being a possessor
of Christ. In other words, there's a difference
in saying one is saved and it being mere lip service and one
saying they're saved and actually experiencing salvation in and
through Christ and Christ alone. In light of that, turn to Matthew
chapter seven. In light of that, let's look
at the words of the master in Matthew seven. We'll read verses
22 to, or 21 to 23, and 22 is one of the most chilling verses
in the scriptures, I believe. Look at 21 in Matthew 7. Not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven. So not everyone who professes,
right, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to
me in that day, and look at that word, many, many. Think of all
the religion in the world right now. Think of people who believe
they're saved by something they've done, and they're not saved at
all. Think of the many people who
are like that. I was once like that, and I was deceived. But now the Lord has shown me
the truth. I'm born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesized
in thy name? Have we not cast out devils in thy name? Have
we not done many wonderful works? Now, note that what's one of
the main differences between grace and religion? We promote
what Christ has done, don't we? We say, look what the Lord's
done. The preachers get up and we preach and proclaim and say,
look what the Lord's done. He's done it all. What are these
folks doing? They're saying, Lord, we've done
all these things. They're bringing all the attention to themselves,
aren't they? We don't know. We we cast out demons in your
name. We we did all these wonderful works. What does the Lord say
to them? Many will say to me, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in our name, have in our name of cast
out devils in our name? Done many wonderful works and.
And then why profess unto them, I never knew you. I never know.
Could you? I never knew you intimately.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. See, he knows his bride
intimately. He knows his blood-bought people intimately. He knows us
by the word gnoska. He knows us intimately. There's
an intimate relationship. He doesn't know these folks in
that way. They claim to know him. They claim to have done
all these things for him. And he says, I never knew you. My, that's chilling. And he says,
many. Let's go back to our text in
1 John with that in our minds. In verse 6 we see, and remember
it's the Holy Spirit of God that has John penned these words which
proclaim, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk
in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. but not the truth. Now remember, as I mentioned
earlier in the series, that John, just like Paul, is dealing with
various issues within the church. They've sprung up in the church,
one of them being such is works-based salvation, where people seek
to mix works and grace, and mixing works with grace is like oil
and water, they don't mix. You're either saved by salvation
in Christ alone plus nothing by the grace of God alone or
you're not saved at all. That's the bottom line. They
just don't mix. So they've been battling that.
We see that in the book of Galatians where Paul's writing about against
the Judaizers who were saying you gotta be circumcised to be
saved. And he's saying no, no, salvation's by grace alone, through
faith alone in Christ alone. That's what he brings out in
that epistle. Another error which has sprung up too is the Gnostic
errors, and they've kind of split off into various things. There's
one which denied the humanity of Christ where we see John right
at the beginning of the epistle bringing forth the humanity of
Christ, so he's combating that error. And then also another
Gnostic error was one that put Christ as one of many mediators
between God and man. And we saw Paul deal with that
in the book of Colossians, when we studied the book of Colossians.
He did a masterful job with that, showing the supremacy of Christ.
So these errors were within the church. These errors had already
crept in. Another error that had come in
was antinomianism. Antinomianism was another error
that had come in. And that teaching is to the effect
that a person may be living in gross sin with no repentance
or no conviction of sin, and at the same time supposedly having
fellowship with God. Having fellowship with God. So
John's dealing with that matter, as we can see in this verse.
He's dealing with that right here. He says, if we say that
we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. Antinomianism is basically someone
saying, well, now that I'm saved, I can sin all I want because
I'm forgiven. Now, I know of not one grace
preacher that I've ever heard who ever teaches this. Not one. And I do not see this in the
Bible. because it's not there. Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians
5. 2 Corinthians 5. The Bible talks about the love
of Christ constraining. What does that mean? That means
it constrains us from sin. When we think about Christ, when
we think about how much he loves us, it constrains us. It constrains
us from sin. Let's go there to 2 Corinthians
5, verses 14 and 15. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead, and that he died for all, that they which should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again. Now notice the little words there,
should not henceforth live unto themselves. Oh my. We're no longer slaves
to sin. We who are God's born again blah
blah people. As a matter of fact, we hate
sin. We hate sin. I've mentioned this many times.
We hate sin more in ourselves than we do anywhere else. And
in anybody else. But we see here the love of Christ
constrained us. Because we no longer live for
ourselves. We no longer live for ourselves.
If we do live for ourselves, then we've made a false profession.
Because the scripture says in our text, if we have fellowship
with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Think of how we lived in our,
and this is something I often like to look back at, and I've
said this many times, looking back at certain things, but just
think, it doesn't take, you don't have to think very long on this.
Think of how we lived in our unregenerate state. Think of
how we lived in our unregenerate state. I don't want to think
about it much, but when I think about it, I realize I just lived
for self. That's who I live, I live for me. I live for the
model, take care of number one. That's what we used to hear all
the time, wasn't it, back in the day. And that's a model that's
been around for thousands of years, basically, because that's
what man does. Man takes care of himself above
everybody else, above everybody else. But now that we're born
again, beloved, we have a new master. We have a new master
now. We have a new master, a new life,
which is not our own, is it? And we realize our lives are
not our own. We're bond slaves of Christ now. We belong to Him. We belong to our King. And we
know that. He's purchased us, hasn't He?
He's purchased us with His precious blood. And now, as Paul wrote
there, The love of Christ constrains us. We don't want to live for
ourselves anymore. And we still struggle with selfishness. We
all do. We could all put our hands up. I don't do that, but
we could all put our hands up. Couldn't we? Right? It's just,
but we don't, we don't live like we used to live. We don't think
like we used to think. It's not all about us anymore.
Now it's about the furtherance of the gospel. Now it's about
the work of Christ. Now we care for our brethren,
we lift them up in prayer. I didn't pray for anybody hardly
before, I don't even think I knew how to pray before, and I didn't.
But now we hear about one another, going through things, what do
we do? We lift each other up in prayer, don't we? We pray
for one another because we love one another. And it's a genuine
love. It's a love of God in us. But just think of how the love
of Christ itself constrains us from sin, just like Paul wrote.
Now we know that believers who walk in the light, we often stumble
and fall, don't we? John's not writing here about
sinless perfection, which some people promote. He's not writing
about that, because if we read further in the chapter, it says
here, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, verse
seven, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that
we have no sin, what? We deceive ourselves. And the
truth is not in us. 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 that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. So this isn't saying
that believers don't often stumble, don't often fall, because we
do. We do, we're sinners. We're safe sinners, but we're
sinners, and we find ourselves in sin just like everyone else.
Just like the laws, we still do. And everything we do we know
is tainted with sin. But, John is bringing forth here
that this is not the general trend of our lives. It's not
the general trend of our lives. Let's read the verse again. If
we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. So what John's bringing forth
here is that this isn't the, it isn't the general trend of
our lives to just live in sin. Because we hate sin. We didn't
hate it before, we didn't even, did you ever before, I didn't
think that I was sinning, that I was drinking sin like water,
I never thought that until the Lord revealed to me who he was
and his holiness and who I was and what I was, just a sinner
to the core. Then I knew what sin was about
and I knew the awfulness of it. But before that, like scripture
says, you drink it like you drink a glass of water, like it's nothing.
I just need a glass of water. And that's how it was for us
before. It governed our lives, beloved. It ruled us. So John's
bringing forth that this is no longer the trend of the believer's
life. Again, we hate sin in ourselves
more than we hate it in others. Brother Henry Mahan had a good
point on this that I really liked, that he brings forth about the
believer. Now remember, the general trend of our life in our natural
state is we just sin, that's all we do, we don't even think
about it. But listen to what Henry says here about this verse
and about the born-again believer now. in Christ. The general trend
of their lives is holiness and righteousness, and honesty, love,
and godliness. Is that not true? Yeah. I remember
a preacher saying one time, a grace preacher, and I absolutely love
this, you know, ask yourself a question. Do you sin more than
you want? You didn't think that before
though, did you? Before the Lord saved you? Didn't think that
way at all. Yeah, well yeah, I'm guilty before
God. So the trend now for the believer,
and the walk there is, we're gonna see the walk that John's
bringing forth is the trend of our life, is how we live our
lives, beloved. And I love what Henry said there.
The general trend of the believer's life is holiness and righteousness
and honesty, love and godliness. Again, the natural man's trend
in life is all about them. And they're in darkness. They're
in the darkness of sin that John brings out here. And with that
darkness comes what? Hatred, bigotry, prejudice, lust,
envy, jealousy. Occasionally they'll do something
good. But it's all tainted with sin
too, but they do something that they think is good. But what
do they do? They brag about it. They brag
about it. Yeah, I was there, I know, I
know, brag about it, they tell others all about it. So the general
trend of the unbeliever's life is hatred, evil, sin, and wickedness.
But think of what Brother Henry brought out, the general trend
of the believer's life is holiness, righteousness, honesty, love,
and goodness, and godliness. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter five. I want us to look at this in light of what John's
bringing forth here. We'll read about the works of
the flesh, and then we'll read about the fruit of the spirit.
The works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And think
of how the works of the flesh, beloved, they come natural to
us. They come natural to us. But the fruit of the spirit.
Now I remember when I was in religion, I gotta be more patient,
I gotta be more loving, I gotta be more, right? Going down the
checklist of the fruit of the spirit. But you know that the
fruit of the spirit is something that God has to rot in us? Try
and try as much as a person can, they can never bring about the
fruit of the spirit. It has to be wrought in us. Because
it's called what? The fruit of the spirit. It's
his work. It's his work, boy. Look at this
in Galatians chapter 5. We'll read verses 16 to 23. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, that ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit. There's a war, right? There's
a civil war within the believer. And the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to
another. One to another. See, there wasn't
that battle until we were born again. so that she cannot do the things
that she would. That's what we find out with ourselves, don't
we? But if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the
law. Well, that's a wonderful verse right there. Now look at
this. Paul's gonna bring forth the
works of the flesh. And think of how these just naturally come
to us. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these,
adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envians, murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like, of
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times
past, they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Now look at this, but the fruit
of what? The spirit. This is something, again, that
the spirit rots in the believer. It's called the fruit of the
spirit because he does the work. He does the work. The works of
the flesh come natural for us. As I said, that comes natural. Natural. Look at this, but the
fruit of the spirit is what? Love. Joy. Peace. And that's the peace that
passes all understanding, that keeps your hearts and minds in
and through Christ Jesus. Long-suffering. The opposite
of the strife and anger, right? Gentleness. Goodness. Faith. And that faith is one object.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Meekness. Temperance against
such, there is no law. My, so John, let's go back to
our text. John is bringing forth that if
you say that you have fellowship with Christ and the general bent
of your will and the general trend of your life is rebellion,
dishonesty, lies, and hatred, that this sort of behavior, they're
the works of the flesh, then you're lying to yourself and
you do not the truth. You see what John is saying here?
John is bringing forth, if we say that we have fellowship with
Christ and we walk in darkness, meaning the general trends of
our life, meaning that the general trend of our life is disobedience
to God's Word, then we are not telling the truth. We're deceiving
ourselves. If anyone says he knows and has
fellowship with God, but walks in the darkness of sin, unbelief
and ignorance, he lies and does not act truthfully. This is true of the man who professes
to believe in Christ, man or woman, who professes to believe
in Christ, as we walk not only in the light of Christ, he's
the believer's justifier. He's justified us from all our
sins. We walk also though in the light
of Christ as what? Our Lord and Master, don't we?
Yeah. We seek to be obedient to Him.
You know these folks who say, just make Jesus Lord of your
life. For the believer, He's already Lord of my life. He's
the one I seek to please. He's the one who I want. It's
the love of Christ that constrains me from sin. God made him Lord. He's already Lord. We just bow,
don't we? We bow our knee to his sovereignty. We bow our knee to who he is. We desire to serve him. The opposite
of how it was before. We didn't want to serve God in
our lost estate. We had no desire to serve him. I marvel that I now love to hear
the gospel when I didn't want to hear it at all before. Is
it so with you? It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. So John is writing about those
who bore the name of Christians, those who were in church fellowship,
those who in his day, as now, there were in the Christian assemblies,
who were not born of God. who were not born of God. Turn,
if you would, to chapter 2, verse 19 of this same book. And it
talks about some who were mere professors. And several of the commentators
bring forth that these were probably the Gnostics and probably the
Antinomians and probably the workspace folks, because they
wouldn't last long in the assembly where grace is being preached
and proclaimed. They wouldn't be able to stand
it very long. And look what it says, they went out from us,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. but they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. And remember John's writing about
having fellowship with God in Christ and through Christ. So
he's saying they weren't of us, they're gone. They're gone, they
left the assembling of the saints. Now that's a scary spot to be
in, isn't it? Now, can a sheep wander off for
years? Well, it happened a couple times
at where Norm is. He said one couple wandered off
for five years and they came back and they said, oh, we made
such a mistake, we wish he'd never, ever left. Well, praise
be to God. That doesn't happen very often,
but praise be to God when it does, when it does. Jude refers to certain men who
crept in unawares, right? ungodly men who were turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Well, think of that in light
of the heresy of antinomianism. Where they say, well, we can
just do whatever we want. Love of Christ will constrain
us from sin, beloved. Oh, they abused the doctrine.
Those who those who Jude were writing about were turning the
grace of our God into lasciviousness. They were abusing the doctrine
of the grace of God and the benefits of Christ revealed in the gospel,
especially the doctrine of Christian liberty. And they were encouraging
themselves, themselves and others to openly sin, vile sins. Because they thought, well, we're
good. I ain't never heard a grace preacher ever preach that. No. No, we don't. Well, we preach
that Christ keeps us, isn't he? He restrains us and constrains
us, doesn't he? He does. Praise God. Now, also thank God for restraining
grace. That he don't let us wander off
into things that we do. Because left to ourselves. Amen. Praise God for restraining and
constraining grace. Oh my, it's wonderful. But don't
ever forget the liberty that we have in Christ. There's a
balance, isn't there? There is. We have such freedom.
We do not know how free we are. But that, we know, doesn't give
us a license to go crazy. Isn't it amazing how God works?
It's incredible how he works, beloved. It's absolutely incredible. So what John is bringing forth
here, he's unraveling the web of hypocrisy of the false professor.
That's what he's doing here. Look at this. Let's go back to
1 John 1.6. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. What does the believer do? We
put ourselves before the Word of God, don't we? We put ourselves
before the Word of God. We find out quickly if our profession
is genuine as we walk, as we read and look in the text,
the scripture, we find out if our walk is real, don't we? Oh
my. Turn if you would. to 1 John
4, 6, and I'll read what the scriptures declare in John 8,
47. The scriptures in John 8, 47 declare this. He that is of
God heareth God's words. He therefore hear them not, because
ye are not of God. So the born again believer reads
the word of God, and we hear the voice of the shepherd, don't
we? And we bow to those words. We bow to those scriptures. We
desire to serve our Lord. Look at this in 1 John 4, 6,
2. We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. See, John's plainly bringing
it forth, isn't he? Now, a lot of things can be faked
But one thing that cannot be faked is true love for the brethren.
Look at verses seven and eight, right after John 4, 6. Look at
verses seven and eight in John chapter four. What cannot be
faked is true love for the brethren. Let us love one another, for
love is of a God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Now all men love themselves. Natural state, men love themselves. And they love those who are around
them, but sincerely reach out in a genuine heart love to God
and to his people. It's a gift of God. To truly
love God's people, to truly love our God is a gift of God. And He rots that out. Remember
the fruit of the Spirit? Love. That's a love for God and
a love for His people. And He's the one who rots that
out in us. Because it's not natural to us to love God, and it's not
natural for us to love God's people. It's not natural for
us to love the Word of God. It's not natural for us to love
the Savior. But when the love of God, when it's worked upon
us in the fruit of the Spirit, when we have the love of God
in Christ, we love all those things, don't we? Yeah, we do.
We do. Oh yeah. He that loveth not knoweth
not God, for God is love. Now again, think of this too. Think of this. So natural man
does not love God. Natural man does not love the
brethren. What happens? God must change us. You must
be born again. You must be born again. It's
a work of God. It's a work of God. See, it all goes right back
to him. Always, always goes back to him
doing all the work. The only one who can change the
natural man, the only one who can take one who hates God, or
who does not profess to love God, or the brethren, or the
scriptures, or Christ, the only one who can change us in that
natural state is God. He's the only one who can do
it. He's the only one who has the power to do it. And what
happens when he does that? We love the brethren, we love
God, we love the Savior, we love the word, we love the gospel.
Oh my. And then look at verses 9 and
10 in the same chapter, 9 to 11 in the same chapter. In this
was manifest the love of God towards us. Now look at this.
God's love, his eternal love for us was manifested. Remember
Christ was manifested, the word was manifested. Look, the scriptures
say here that God's love was manifested to his people. How
was that done? How was that done? Because that
God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. The love of God for his people
was manifested, was openly revealed in the fact that God
sent his son into this world to save his people from their
sins. That's marvelous. That's absolutely
marvelous. Because that God sent his only
begotten son of the world, what? That we might what? Live through
him. We who were dead. We who were dead, born dead in
trespasses and sins, that we might live through him. We're
born again, and we're gonna live eternally with our Lord. We're
gonna live eternally with our Lord. Oh my, here in his love,
not that we love God, because we know that we didn't love him,
he loved us first. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be what? The propitiation
for our sins. That means to take all the wrath
of God for our sins. to be the propitiation, to appease
the wrath and justice of God. And each believer can see themselves
there. Our sins, as a believer, I say, that's my sins. If you're
a believer, you can say, that's my sins too. Oh my, what a Savior, what a
Redeemer, to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, what? We ought to love one another.
If the love of God, because really when you stop and think about
that love that's just being proclaimed there, the love of God, and the
fact that God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins,
it should be real easy for us to love the brethren, shouldn't
it? Oh my, it should just flow naturally like a creek, or like
a river going down. It should just flow, because
oh, just think of the love that God has for you, and then think
He has the same love for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Isn't that amazing? Oh, it's incredible. Oh, it's
amazing. Now if this love is missing,
then God's not there. It's just that simple. And whatever else is there, God's
not there. We see that clearly proclaimed
over in 1 Corinthians 13. Turn there if you would, 1 Corinthians
13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians 13, we're starting verse 1. Though I speak with tongues of
men and of angels, and have not charity which is love, I am become
a sounding brass, or as a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
charity, what? I'm nothing. Charity is love, again. And though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my
body to be burned and have not charity or love, it profitth
me nothing. Charity or love, I'm going to
just say love when I read that. Love suffereth long. It is kind,
love envieth not, love vaulteth not, itself is not puffed up,
it doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, so it doesn't
promote itself, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bearing all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know
in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When
I was a child, I spake as a child, and I understood as a child.
I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish
things. For now we see through a glass
darkly. But then, oh, when we're in glory, face to face, oh my.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am
knowing. Now there abideth faith, hope,
love, these three. But the greatest of these is
love. Oh my. So God's people will love
one another. They love one another. Turn if
you would to Matthew chapter 13. And I want to read a portion
here in Matthew 13 in light of what we're looking at. And I'm
going to read the verse again in 1 John. Knowing that this
is all about those who deceive themselves. If we say that we
have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. Now look at this in Matthew 13. We'll read about the parable
of the weeds in light of the scripture that we're studying
tonight. In light of the scripture that we're studying tonight.
Matthew 13, verses 24 to 30. Another parable put he forth,
saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which soweth
good seed in his field. But while man slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when
the blade was sprung up and bought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also. So the servant of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, dost thou now sow good seed in
thy field? For whence then hath it tares?
And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants
said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root
out the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to
the reapers, gather ye together first the tares and bind them
in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Now look down at verses 36 to 43, where we see our master explain
to the disciples what the parable of the weeds meant, or the tares.
Matthew 36, we'll read the verse 43. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him,
saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He
answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed
is the son of man. The field is the world. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the
children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers
are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this world.
The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do
iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, who
hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now note there, then shall the
righteous, and always remember, we're only called the righteous
because it's of the righteousness of Christ. That's the only reason. And that's a marvel all on its
own, isn't it? And you know, that's a missing
note in preaching today. I was talking, Brother Matt and I were
studying this week, and we were talking about this. Preaching
on the righteousness of Christ is a missing note in what's being
taught out there. You know why? I just thought
about it a little while. You know why? Because they don't
believe in the righteousness of Christ alone. They believe
in their works, which is they weave their own code of righteousness.
And they don't like hearing about the righteousness of Christ.
They don't even know about the righteousness of Christ. But
it's so important to preach all about the righteousness of Christ
because it is the only righteousness that God will accept. And the
only reason we're called righteous in that text is because of that
precious righteousness. The righteousness of Christ.
The righteousness of Christ. So we see a tie-in here with
our verse tonight. The tears that our Lord mentioned
in this parable, we see them spoken of in our verse tonight.
Let's go back to 1 John 1.6. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. One commentator brings this forth
of our text. The person is said to be walking
in darkness, which is not in God, namely sin. The verb is
present subjective, which speaks of a habitual action. a habitual
action. This is the general trend of
their life. Again, it's a habitual action. They can't shake it.
They can't shake it. Thus, the person spoken of in
1.6 there is said to be sinning habitually, continuously, which
shows that he's an unsaved person and thus to be walking in darkness,
walking in darkness. Again, it does not speak of falling
into sin because all believers are capable of that. But this
speaks of one who walks their conduct in the order of their
life and their behavior. They walk in the sphere of the
darkness of sin. They do not seek to please God. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
The individual making this claim of fellowship with God while
at the same time the trend of their life is that of an unsaved
man or woman's behavior, they are an unsaved person. That's the bottom line. And John
says that in making their claim, they lie and do not the truth.
Look at verse 8. If we say, and here's that term
again, if we say, if we say we have no sin, and notice the word
sin, it's singular, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. No man is free from sin. No man is free from sin. Some
people foolishly talk about not sinning anymore. I've told you
that I've met a few of them in my life, not many, but a few.
They believe in what's called sinless perfection. It's always
about what they do. And in the fact of them proclaiming
their sinless perfection, they're lying. They're lying. They're sinning right there.
But see, they've deceived themselves. They've deceived themselves.
They walk not in the truth. They prove themselves to be liars. But oh, how the believer battles
with sin. Oh, how we battle with sin. Oh,
how we struggle. We have a new nature within us,
don't we? Which is born of God. A righteous nature, a holy, divine
nature. But oh, this body of flesh. Paul said the flesh lusts against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that you cannot
do the things that you will. It's a constant battle, isn't
it? It's a constant war. Many profess to have communion
with God while they're ignorant of the salvation revealed in
the gospel, and they live in habitual sin. But the believer
struggles with sin all the time. We struggle with sin all the
time. But praise be to God, beloved, we are washed clean by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we do? We seek to
live a life that pleases our Lord, don't we? We seek that.
We know we don't always do that, but we seek that, don't we? Remember
what Brother Henry said, where the guide and the trend of our
life is to seek holiness and righteousness. We desire to serve
our Master. We desire to serve our King.
We don't want to live like we used to live. So we can see that John is bringing
forth before believers, he's bringing this point up before
believers, to even stir up the saints ourselves, and to prevent
our becoming careless in our own walk. We're being warned to watch our
own hearts, beloved, and to be careful in our walk, and to cherish
the things of God, and to set Christ ever before us, to set
him ever before us, and to love the people of God. To love those who God loves. Why? Because He gave Himself
for us. Always remember, He gave Himself
for me, the believer says, but He gave Himself for us, meaning
all the believers in Christ. We who are saved and born again.
We look and walk in Christ. Look at verse seven, but if we
walk, and we'll look at this next week, but if we walk in
the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
In the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all
sin. What a wonderful verse. John is bringing forth this text
that we're looking at in verse six, hoping to have some of those
who are mere professors brought to a state where they see themselves
as deluded and deceived also. that they will discover their
perilous state before God. That's what he's hoping, is that
the Holy Spirit will reveal to them that they're just mere professors
and not possessors. And when he reveals to us, when
we're born again in the Holy Spirit, when he reveals to us
that we were believing a lie and now we know and believe the
truth, we say, hallelujah, what a Savior. He's amazing, he's
wonderful. He's incredible. And only He
could reveal that to us. John is hoping that for those
mere professors that God will work a work of grace in them. And remember, John's bringing
this forth by their inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. He's
bringing this forth by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Why?
To unmask hypocrites. To unmask hypocrites. And thereby prevent the children
of God being troubled by those who had nothing in common with
them. And to separate themselves from all such false pretenders.
Again, we see that over in that verse in chapter 2. They went
out of us. They left. Rejoice. Rejoice, beloved of God. If you are born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, if you have a true sight and a true sense
of sin, rejoice. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you know the way of salvation that's only through Him and Him
alone, Only by grace and by grace alone. If you know the way of
salvation through his perfect obedience in his life. You know
the way of salvation through his death upon the cross, right? Because it's his life that was
counted towards us. His righteous living. And it's
his death that purchased us. If you know. If you know him. And if you're growing in grace
and the knowledge of Him, then you have fellowship with God
and with Christ. And always remember, too, that
the blood of Christ gives us complete justification. Complete
justification. Complete. Complete pardon. All our sins forgiven. Completely. Completely. And the deliverance from our
sin. From the power of our sin. From the guilt of our sin. From
the penalty of our sin. Not from the present yet, but
when we die, from the presence of our sin. And what do we say? Hallelujah. What a Savior. What
a Savior. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee for the time that we've had together. We thank
Thee for Thy Word, O Lord. We thank Thee for how it points
us to Thee and Thee alone. We thank Thee, we who are Your
blood-bought people, we who are born again in the Spirit. We
thank Thee. for what you've done for us,
for what you've revealed to us. Oh, you've done a mighty work,
Lord, and it's all of thee. And all we can say is we love
you and praise you, and we thank thee. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.