Turn with me in your Bibles back
to 1 John, where we looked this morning. 1 John chapter 1, and
I'd like to just pick up where we left off. John, beginning in the fifth verse,
1 John chapter 1, verse 5. John says, 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. Now here, John says,
this is the message. This is the message. This is
the message that we have heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says this message, I want to declare, as I said this morning,
the gospel is a declaration. And we are assured that in the
declaration, in the preaching, in the setting forth of the gospel,
we have confidence in this one thing, that Almighty God is going
to call out His people. Now, you see, if you do not believe
the gospel of God's free grace. If you don't believe this, you
then believe a message that absolutely has no assurance whatsoever that
there's going to be anyone saved. What you're saying, if you believe
that man is the final word in salvation, then there's got to
be that possibility by deduction that maybe there's nobody that's
going to choose the Lord Jesus Christ. You see what I'm saying?
But if we believe, and we do, that Almighty God has promised
that His sheep are going to hear His voice, then that is the encouragement. We know, we believe, this message
is effectual. We believe that every time the
gospel is set forth that it is going to accomplish the purpose
for which it was sent. We know that. You say, well,
but there are some times that the gospel is preached and we
don't see any response. But what difference does that
make? What's that got to do with it? He didn't call me to see
response. He called me to preach the gospel.
He said, you go into all the world and you preach the gospel. This is where God has raised
up a place. This is where the Lord put me.
And so here we are. We declare, John says, this is
the message that we've heard, effectually heard of Him and
declare unto you that God is light. The Lord Jesus Christ
said in John 8, 12, He said, I am the light of the world. I am the light. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the light. So when John said, this is the
message that we declare unto you, God is light. You know what he just said? The
Lord Jesus Christ is God. God. The Word, the eternal Word,
In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now listen, what we're saying
is this, we are placed our faith in God Himself, God. God is life. Now the significance
of that declaration, turn with me to John, the Gospel of John
chapter 1. For John to make that statement
in 1 John 1, this is the message we've heard of him, declaring
to you, God is light and in Him is no darkness. In the Gospel
of John chapter 1 and verse 4, it says this, In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. And the light, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, light Himself, God is light, and the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Now turn
over to John 3, John 3, verse 18. John 3, verse 18. The Scripture says, "...he that
believeth on him is not condemned." As Brother Scott just read a
moment ago, he is not condemned. He is not condemned right now.
Man that believes on him is not condemned now, right now. And now is all we've got. Now
is all we've got. Let me ask you this. Have you got yesterday? Have
you got tomorrow? No. Know what you've got? Now. Right now. Now is the day of
salvation. He that believeth, verse 18,
on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God, And this is the condemnation, that light
is coming to the world, and men loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. For John, back in 1 John chapter
1 and verse 5, for John to say, this is the message we've heard.
This is the message we believe. This is the message we declare.
This is the one that we declare. God is light. That takes a believer to say
that. It takes a new heart to say that and believe it. I know
a man can say it with his mouth, but to believe it, to say it,
God is light. As the light, the Lord Jesus
Christ illuminates the new heart to behold Him as God's salvation. Think back, and you can, before
Almighty God called you out of darkness. Did you behold Him
as God's salvation, eternal salvation, everlasting salvation, that God's
purpose in eternity to save His people, that Christ came to save
those elect, that He laid down His life for them? Is that the
way you saw Him? No. No, it's not. The way you
saw Him was the way that false preachers were telling you. He
wanted to do something. John says He's light. He's the
source of all wisdom and knowledge. He is light for all things are
judged according to Him. The plummet will be laid, and
we're going to be laid against Him who is light, and a man doesn't
line up with Him, in Him, by Him, is lost. He's pure when He says God is
light. He's pure and holy in nature
and illuminates all things such that there is no hiding from
Him. He is omniscient. He's light. He's light. And in Him, John
says, there's no darkness at all. There's no darkness. Now,
do you know what darkness is? What is darkness? Darkness is
the absence of light. It's the absence of light. If
the Lord Jesus Christ is light, He is light, then that means
that there is absolutely nothing within Him contrary to the glory
of His holiness. God is light, and in Him there
is no mixture of impurity, no darkness whatsoever, no absence
of Himself, no darkness of error, No darkness of sin, no darkness
of ignorance. Almighty God is light. And that's
the way his character is described here by John. This is the message.
John says this is the message. This is the message. Now, you
know, if a man says this is the message that we've heard from
Christ himself, God is light. The Lord Jesus Christ said concerning
himself, he said, I am God, I'm he. I mean, if we say, verse 6, if we say
that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness,
we lie and we do not the truth. If we say that we have communion
with Him, fellowship, you know what fellowship is. Fellowship.
If we say we have fellowship and we walk in the absence of
light. We lie, that is, in unbelief. Now that's what walking in darkness
is. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and we walk in unbelief, we lie. Now let me show you what
walking in darkness is. Turn with me to John 12, the
Gospel of John. Chapter 12, John 12, verse 35, John 12, 35, Then Jesus said unto them, Yet
a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the
light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whether he goeth." What is it to walk in darkness?
It is to know not the way. It is to know not the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that walks in darkness does
not know where he is going. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way. A man that walks in Him, that
has fellowship in Him, knows that He is the way. Man by nature,
now you listen to me. You talk to anybody, you talk
to anybody that does not know. I was talking to Brother Scott
about this yesterday. You talk to somebody that does
not know by faith the gospel of God's grace, knows Christ,
and this is their interpretation. They say, We're all coming from
different directions, but we're all heading to the same place.
You know what I mean? I mean, you know, you may go
your way, you know, and I may go this way, but you know, it's
all like great spokes, you know, of a wagon wheel and the hub
is where we're going. Well, the only problem with that
is it's just not so. It's just not true. The Lord
Jesus Christ said, I am the way. There's one way. There's one
way. There's one spoke. One. And you try to make a wagon wheel
out of that if you want to. But I'm telling you, he said,
I am the way. No man comes to the Father but
by me. He that walks in darkness, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, is the one that does not know where
he's going. does not come by Christ, does
not come to Christ. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and we walk in darkness, the darkness of our sinful nature,
we are liars. We are lying and we are of our
father, the devil, who is the liar. And we do not the truth. If we walk, verse 7, 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, if we walk in the light." Now, you know, I
know, I can understand. I can read where it says, if
we walk in darkness, and I can see where the Lord said, if you
walk in darkness, this is what that is. You don't know where
you're going. You're like those that were in
Sodom. And I'm not go back there and
read it. I'll just tell you what happened. You know what happened.
There was a group of people, group of men, and they were,
you know, coming after. There was these two angels that
came in to Sodom and they came there to get Lot. They came to
Lot's house and these men were coming around and they started
saying, we won't. How about sending those two men
out? You know, and Lot said, no, I'm
not going to do that. I'll send you. How about my daughters?
You take my daughters. No, we'd rather have the men.
And it says the angels came out and blinded them. And it says
they groped, looking for the door and couldn't find it. Blinded. They didn't know where they were.
Walking in darkness. They couldn't see. Darkness.
Absence of life. Have you ever gotten up in the
middle of the night? And you need to get up and it's so dark
and you're groggy and you can't find, and you're trying to find
your way around. You're disoriented. You don't
know where you're going. Spiritual darkness is a man that
does not know where he's going, doesn't know where he's at. But
the Lord said through John in verse 7, I said that to say this,
I can understand what He's talking about when He says, if we walk
in darkness. But He says, but if we walk in
the light, as He is in the light. Walking in the light. Now what is that? If we walk
in the light, Amos 3.3 says this, Can two walk together except
they be agreed? How can two walk together? In
fellowship. If we say we have fellowship
with Him. If we have fellowship with Him. If we walk with Him.
So walking in the light is to walk in agreement with God Almighty,
if we agree with Him. Turn with me to the Gospel of
John, chapter 6. John 6. If we walk in the light, that
is John 6, 65. John 6, 65. And He said, therefore,
said I unto you, that no man can come to Me, come unto Me,
It were given unto him of my father. Now, obviously, the Lord
Jesus Christ is speaking to some people here that had appeared
as though that they were walking with him. They were traveling
with him. They walked with him. But something became very evident
in just a few minutes. It says from that time after
the Lord said no man can. You know, you start saying something
that gets to a man's ability and you start telling him that
the Lord says no man can no man has the ability to come unto
me unless it were given unto him of my father. You try to
take a man's free will away from him and this is what's going
to happen unless God does something for him. From that time many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Will ye also go away? And Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God." Now something happened right here.
Two groups of people here. One of them walked no more with
Him, and one of them continued to walk with Him. And you know
what the difference was? One of them agreed with him and
the other one didn't. How can a man, if we say we have
fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we do
not the truth, but if we walk in the light as he is in the
light, then we agree with him. We say, Lord, as you say you
are, you are. And if we walk in the light,
verse 7 of 1 John, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
One with another, us with Him, as I said this morning. And the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sins. If we walk in fellowship, if
we agree in Him, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanseth
us. That word cleanseth right there
doesn't mean one time. It means cleanses and cleanses
and cleanses. You remember when the Lord was
going to wash his disciples' feet? Peter said, you're not
going to wash my feet. And the Lord says, if I wash
not your feet, you have no part with me. What the Lord has told
me, he said, you're clean. But there's a cleansing every
day. There's a continual cleansing.
He cleanses us. He cleanses us every day. The frailty of this flesh is
very evident, and He cleanseth us, cleanseth us, and cleanseth
us. He cleanseth us, look at this,
from all sin, all sin. The sin of Adam was imputed to
me, charged to me. That makes me guilty, number
one, by Adam's Death from Adam reigned on all men. But how about
the present sin of my own disobedience? How about my own failings? There's
enough sinfulness and unbelief, as I've said in the message that
I'm preaching right now. The Word that I preach is right
and true. But the frailty of this flesh,
when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke, He spoke as the light. No darkness
whatsoever in Him. Could I say that about myself?
No. No. The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. Cleanses me now and cleanses
me forever. Cleanses me from eternal evil
and eternal damnation. From the sins of commission and
the sins of omission. Things that I do and things that
I should have done for him to know to do right. For him to
know to do right and to do it not. To him it's sin. It's sin. A man is out plowing in his field.
Goes out there and he gets it. There's a hard working man. Goes
out there and hooks up those mules, hooks up that team and
gets out there and plows, works hard all day long. I'm telling
you, if that man that plowed that field did it honorably,
took care of his family, made a living, honorable living, if
that man did not do that, and he didn't, in absolute, total
dependence and faith and belief and trust, total, perfectly,
as God Himself, to him it was sin, Carl. It's sin. Anything
that's not a faith, perfect faith, absolute, perfect faith. Anything that is not of faith
is sin, sin. John says, if we walk in the
light. Now, do I walk in myself perfectly? Oh, you know better than that.
But I'll tell you this, in Him I'm perfect. In myself, I'm not. Oh, wretched man that I am. But
if I walk in the light, if I walk in the light, then I agree with
Him. If I agree with Him, it's because He gives me a heart to
agree with Him. He gives me a heart. He keeps me. He made me to agree
with Him. He made me willing in the day
of His power. I walk in Him, and I walk absolutely
knowing that without Him I can do nothing. I know that sin is
present with me. I know it is. I know it manifests
itself. I know it does, but thanks be
to God If I walk in the light, if He's in the light, if I've
been made by His grace to agree with Him, I have fellowship with
Him, I walk with Him, and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanseth us, cleanseth me from all sin. That's my hope right
there. I know that in myself I can't
measure up. I know I can't. We're going to
deal with that right now. If we say, verse 8, that we have
no sin, We have no sin. Now, you know, I got to looking
at this, it says in verse eight, and I'm going to go down and
deal with verse 10 in just a second. But it says if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Then
verse 10 says, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him
a liar and his word is not in us. Now, you think the spirit
of God was being repetitive there? You think he just didn't have
anything else to say, so he just put another verse in there just
to kind of add a little something. He says two things there. We're
going to deal with the first one right now. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, that word sin right there,
if we say we have no sin, that word right there means the governing
principle within. that is the source of all evil
actions. Sin, right here, is described
as an organized power. In Romans 6, 6, it's called the
body of sin. And is this what men think is
free? Man has a free will. John says
if we say that we have no body of sin, no source, a body itself,
a body of sin. If we say that we have no sin,
if there's nothing in us that is the production of sin itself,
if we say that we have no sin, no governing principle within,
we deceive ourselves, we willfully deceive ourselves. Now, you know,
that's a strange thing. How can I fool myself? I might
fool you. I might make you think that I'm
something. I might convince you that I'm
able to do so and so. I can deceive you. But deceive
myself? How do you deceive yourself?
How do you fool yourself? Buddy, there's the deceptiveness
of which man by nature knows nothing about. The heart is desperately
wicked and it's deceitful above all things. The human heart deceives
and convinces me, left to myself, convinces me that I'm right before
God. Desperately wicked above all
things. If we say we have no body of
sin that is within us, that we are not sin itself, If we say
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, the truth
Himself, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the truth is not in
you. He is not there. This admittance
of no sin is the human nature, the human heart, the natural
man. If the truth dwells within, how
can one be but truthful. If truth Himself is within, that's
when a man will be honest. He'll be honest. If we say that
we have no sin, and you know what a believer will say? He'll
say just what Paul said, I know in me, that is in my flesh, dwells
no good thing. To will is present, but how to
perform that which is good, I find not. Sin is present. Here, right here, we say we have
no source body of sin. This is the attitude of the self-righteous
man, that Pharisee that said, I'm not like other men are, especially
not like that publican over there. Well, I fast twice a week, you
know. I tithe everything I have, you
know. If we say we have no sin, I'll
tell you what we're saying. We don't need a substitution.
I don't need one. Why? Because I am not sin. I'm not sin. Christ was made
to be sin. You know why He was made to be
sin? Because that's what we are by nature. That's what we are. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Man says, And he has no source
of sin, no body of sin, because he doesn't feel like he has any
sin. Man can tell himself he's all
right, but our feelings and our carnal heart is a deceitful judge. Satan, the great liar, says,
you have no sin. You're okay. That man who has
no love for Christ is saying in his heart, I have no sin. If we confess our sins, verse
9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, I remember
as a young kid, I was taught, you know, I came up in religion.
I came up and I taught. I was taught. that, you know,
I need to ask the Lord to forgive me and to, you know, forgive
me for my sins and, you know, that I could confess my sins.
And, you know, and I did. I remember in my mind, I just,
you know, and in my mind, I thought that the way that you confess
your sins is just tell the Lord you're sorry. Just say you're
sorry. Just admit it. You know, I came
up in a place where I would go and I would confess my sins to
another man. And he would tell me to do some
certain things and I would, you know, I would, you know, do what
he told me to do. And those sins were, as far as
I knew, were put away. Confess them. Just confess them.
That's all you've got to do. Well, let me ask you this. What
are you going to do with the justice of Almighty God? What
are we going to do with justice, Neal? Now, I'm talking, the Lord
said, I'm a just God. We'll deal with that in closing.
I'm winding this down. But He said, I'm a just God.
What are you going to do with justice? I told you last week,
take a dagger, stick it in somebody's heart and just tell them, I'm
sorry. It was me. I was the one. I'm sorry. I confessed
it. Is it better now? Does that make
it better? Confession. If we confess our
sins, what is it to confess our sins. Now, I think that that's
pretty important. What is it to confess? If we
confess our sins, now, I know this. I know that there's got
to be something more to this confession than what meets the
carnal eye. I'll tell you why. Because I've
read in Scripture where there were some that did confess, you
know, that pleaded, and the Lord left them. Left them to themselves. How about Esau? You know, the Lord says, Jacob
have I loved and Esau have I hated. And Esau came in and he was hungry
and Jacob had made a pottage. And Esau said, I want that. And
Jacob said, give me your birthright and I'll give you something to
eat. He said, what is that to me? You can have it. You can have it. And Jacob gave
him something. It said later that Esau sought
repentance with tears and couldn't find it, couldn't find it. How about Judas? After Judas
had betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, he said he
came back later to the chief priest and said, I've changed
my mind. They said, that's blood money.
And it says that he took it and threw the money down. They took
it and went and bought a field to bury people in. And it says,
and Judas went and hanged himself and went to his place. There's
a couple of instances there where I've seen where men tried and
confessed. What is this? What is he saying
right here? If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Is it that a man just has to
say, I'm sorry, it's over, I confess. Is that all there is to it? Turn
with me to Leviticus. I don't want to keep you too
long, but I want to show you this. Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus 16 and verse 20, now
this is speaking about Aaron was the high priest, and the
priest, high priest, was the one that is making this action,
doing this action here. He's the high priest, and when
he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and he's talking
about Aaron now, the high priest, reconciling the holy place and
the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring
the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all
the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions,
and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and
shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
And the goat shall beat upon him all their iniquities unto
a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat. into the
wilderness. Now here's what would happen.
This high priest would come in and he would take and he would
lay his hands on this goat, on this goat's head, and he would
confess the sins of the people. And then that goat was turned,
that scapegoat, that goat was turned loose and he would go
out into an uninhabited place, a place far away. No people,
nothing there. The high priest confessed the
sins of the people, laid his hands, and legally those sins
were in God-sized, but in type of the Lord Jesus Christ, laid
on Him the sins of His people, imputed to Him. And the Scripture
says that we are priests with God, priests with Him. Now we
are made priest unto God to offer up spiritual sacrifices by Jesus
Christ and the believer in his confession. When he confesses,
it's not merely that a man just says, I'm just sorry. I just,
I'm sorry. God is a just God. In the confession
of our sins, we are pleading pleading for mercy on the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on Him, the believer lays
his hands of faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ in His sacrifice. We lay hold of Him, laying hold
of Him, and confesses pleading totally based on His merit of
His shed blood for those sins. And by faith, we believe that
Christ has paid the debt of these sins. And we say, Lord, for Your
sake, Lord, I confess before You. I don't even know how to
confess. I don't confess. I can't confess all that I've
done. I don't know the depth that I've done. Here's what I
confess. Lord, I am in need of Your mercy. And I plead the blood
of Christ that was shed for me, He who is faithful. If we confess
our sins based totally on the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ
having put those sins away, Put Him away in His precious blood.
Shed His blood for Him. Put Him back behind God's back. Far as the East is from the West.
If we confess Him, not based on our confession, but based
on His merit, He put Him away. If we confess our sins for His
sake. You see, if we have fellowship,
we agree with Him. God says, I put Him away. If
we walk in darkness, if we say we have fellowship with Him and
we don't walk in the light, that God Almighty is light itself. Christ is light. We're liars. If we confess our sins based
on His merit, based on His blood, based on His work, based on Him,
if we confess them, Lord, You see it. You see it. You put them
away. Lord, I believe it. Oh, I see
in me. Lord, I see. I'm missing the
mark. I see. The sin that so easily
besets me. Lord, I confess to You. Lord,
based on Your merit, I confess. Lord, have mercy on me. Forgive
me. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful. He's faithful and just. He is faithful to His covenant.
Faithful to His Word. Faithful to the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's just. He justly forgives
us our sins. If the debt has been paid, if
he's paid my debt, if he put away my sin, if he paid my penalty,
justice demands, let him go. Let him go. He's not guilty. You get a man in prison, if that
man's debt is paid. If that man's debt is paid, the
law has no hold on him whatsoever. Let him go. Let that sinner go. That's what justice says. Justice
says that debt was paid. It was paid at Calvary. Blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, put it away. He's free. No condemnation right now. Right
now. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. from all unrighteousness. It wouldn't be just for God to
demand a double payment. God is just and faithful to Himself. God is just and faithful to His
elect, based totally on the merit of Christ Himself. And the Spirit
of God prompts us to confess. That word, confessing, right
there, it is based, our confession is is based on the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But you know that word confession
right there, you know what it means? To tell out to and to
agree with. To agree. Man by nature says,
I have no sin. God Almighty reveals to a man,
you're a sinner and you need me. I am your hope. I am your salvation. And Almighty
God prompts a man confess what he is. Lord, as you say, I am.
I am. The Spirit of God causes us to
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. And then that
last verse. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Back in verse eight,
I said a while ago that that word right there, if we say we
have no sin, No body of sin within us. No body. No source of sin. That word right there, that's
what it means. It means like the source of. The source of. This word right here, back in
verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, that is the manifestations
of it. You know why a dog barks? Because he's a dog. He barks because he's a dog.
You know why a man commits acts of sin? Because there's a body
of sin within him that is the source of it. Out of the abundance
of man's heart, his mouth speaks. Whatever a man is, that's what
he does. The reason you act the way you
act is because of what you are. That's what you are. You've got
different people in here that got different mannerisms, characteristics,
they do things differently. You do what you do because of
what you are. If we say that we have not manifested
in verse 10 this body of sin, what we're doing is we're calling
God a liar. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That word there means missing
the mark. Missing the mark. If we say that
we haven't missed the mark, what we're saying is, God, you've
lied. We call God a liar. We've missed
the mark in word, thought, and deed, and His Word is not in
us. If we confess our sins, though,
it's because He's given us the heart to do so. We realize Almighty
God's put away my guilt in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.