So you can once again, in the
help of God, I wish to turn together to the chapter that we read at
1 John, chapter 2, and the text you'll find in verses 6 and 7. If we say that 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 cleanses us from all sin. So we saw this morning that Solomon
had that concern for his son and we can say that the Spirit
of God seemed so fit to leave upon record that concern for
all who would read the scripture that there is that natural concern
for children that they would be that they would do well in
this life, that they would not suffer, but also that they would
have the wisdom of God, that they would lay hold of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that they would keep themselves from evil, they
would listen to the godly teachings of their parents, that they would
keep their hearts with all diligence, they would keep away from those
who would draw them aside, lead them away from the things of
God, that they would keep their hearts and keep their mouths
from perverse things, that they would keep their eyes so that
their minds would not be corrupted, they would keep looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ and that they would consider their pathway,
they would ponder the path of their feet, the pathway that
they are walking on, the way in which they are heading. each
of us are heading to an eternal destination and we're on a pathway. The end of that pathway we know
is death or should the Lord Jesus Christ come we will meet him
but that is the end of the journey and we're to carefully consider
the pathway that we are walking on and the end of that pathway
And if that pathway is that pathway of wisdom, that pathway which
the Lord Jesus Christ has laid down, that narrow way that leads
to life, then we're not to be decisive or undecisive. Our feet are to be established
in that right way. We're not to be washed away,
washed around with every wind of doctrine. with every teaching,
not to be in the world on a Monday and then back in church on Wednesday
evening and then back in the world again. We are those who
are steadfastly in the way. They are established in the way
and they're not turned around, not turned to the right hand
nor to the left and they are not to remove their feet from
evil. as we turned to John this morning
and how he said that he delighted, he had no greater joy than to
hear of his children walking in truth every parent, every
grandparent, every friend, every pastor, every deacon has that
real joy of experiencing someone who comes to the knowledge of
the truth. They are born again. And you
know sometimes that experience that somebody may have is not
a lasting experience. It is an emotional reaction to
maybe a sermon or a scriptural reading or an emotional reaction
to some situation in life and it doesn't have an ongoing change. There is no continued perseverance
in the things of God that once that emotion has worn away then
they also fall away. It was a common thing in the
early church that there were those who were carried along
by the things that were taking place and there were those who
were part of the church then they fell away, they went out
from us because they weren't of us which is what John says
here. And so a true work of God It's
not just like a firework experience on November the 5th where the
fireworks go up. They explode with great noise
and brightness and then they fall back to the earth and they're
remembered no more. The true work of God is like
the sun that shines. It is there. It's constant. It
is burning. Yes, it is covered by clouds
sometimes. Yes, it's dark sometimes. But it is there. It's always
there. And the true work of God in the
life of a believer, one who has been born again, it is a true
work of God, a lasting work of God, a light. It is stepping
out of the darkness. and it is coming into the glorious
light of the gospel, the glorious light of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is seen. That is what
John is saying. That the true change of heart,
the true transformation of that hard heart into a soft heart,
that true casting out of any darkness and the indwelling of
the spirit is seen. seen in the fruit of that change,
the fruit of that spirit and he says if we say that we have
fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not
do not the truth and so obviously those in his day who said we're
followers of the Lord Jesus we are walking in the light yet
as he examined their lives as he considered the lifestyle that
they were living to him it was quite evident that that confession
of the mouth was not really a transformation of the heart because there was
no fruit there was no evidence of the spirit of God in their
lives they were able to say that they're in the light yet they
quite happily walked in the darkness Like the proverb says, like a
dog returning to its vomit or a pig going back to the mud. The people of God, someone who
has been transformed, born again by the Spirit of God has no desire
to go back to the darkness. They have no desire to go back
to the husks of the world. They have no desire to be like
the pig who has been cleansed and then to go back to the dirt.
They have no desire to be like the dog. They understand that
Christ is not in the darkness and they desire to be where the
Lord Jesus Christ is, where the Lord Jesus Christ's people are
and that is in the light. And so he says that this evidence,
the fruit of salvation is seen in the fruit of a person's life. Jesus says, they will know that
you are my disciples because you love one another. love one
another as Christ has loved them or as Christ has loved you so
you also love one another. The scriptures say we know in
chapter 3 we know that we have passed from death unto life because
we love the brethren he that loveth his brother not he that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. And so as Jesus says, they love
one another. One of the evidences that you're
one of Christ's disciples is that you don't like the darkness
anymore and that you like to dwell in the light with the light
of the Lord's people and that you love the Lord's people. You love the brethren. When I first came here a long time ago now
and we'd been here for some time and I was concerned about being
baptised and that text was made precious to me then. We know
that we have passed from death unto life because we loved the
brethren. And I thought that is something
that had changed in my life. I'd gone from thinking Christians
are to be strange. I didn't want to be with them.
I wanted to be with the people of the world. I was more comfortable
with being with the company of the world than I was in the company
of Christians. But then that changed. It reversed
itself. I didn't like being in the company
of the world anymore. I didn't like their conversation.
I didn't like where they went. I didn't like what they did.
These things were now opposite to me. I'd come from the darkness
into the light. And now I loved the people that
were in the light. I preferred to be with the people of God,
the people of the Lord Jesus Christ. I preferred their conversation. I preferred to listen to people
speaking about the Lord Jesus and how the Lord Jesus had saved
them and how the Lord Jesus was leading them and how he was providing
for them and sustaining them. And so it was an evidence in
my life that a transformation had taken place. a reversal of
the things that I once loved now became the things that I
didn't like and the people that I once didn't like now became
the people that I did like and I wanted to be with them. And so John says that this is
the transformation that should be looked for in the life of
a person who testifies of Christ. They can't hop in the darkness
and hop in the light. They want to be in the light. They want to be with the Lord.
They want to be with the Lord's people. And so we can't say that
we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness because we're
a liar. We can't say we fellowship with
Christ and then walk in darkness. The scriptures say that makes
us to be a liar and the truth is not in us. Scriptures tell
us that the truth, it is the truth that sets us free. We've been set free from the
darkness, we've been set free from the sin, we've been set
free from Satan. Then why would we want to go
back We'd only want to go back if we haven't truly experienced
the true love of Christ. We haven't truly experienced
the light of the gospel. We haven't truly experienced
the transformation of our heart. That would be the only reason
we would want to go back. Our conversion, it was a fake
one. It was an emotional one. It wasn't a true work of grace.
A true work of grace, a true work of God. doesn't cause somebody
to want to return back to the darkness and to the lies. Christianity is not something
that can be put off and put on. It's not a hobby. I don't know if we can say if
it's a lifestyle. I think it's like farming. Farming
is not a nine to five. A farmer can't say, you know,
I'm not getting up until nine. The cows can wait, the sheep
can wait, the chickens can wait. It's his whole life. He can't
stop at five o'clock and say, oh, I'm not going to feed the
rest of you cows because the time is up. It's his whole life
or her whole life. They are farmers. What they do
is farm. They are governed by their animals
and their crops and what needs to be done. They live and breathe
farming and so it is with Christianity. It's living and breathing the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just on a Sunday. It's not just when mum and dad
are around or when it's a family reading or on a Wednesday evening.
It's Christianity. It's the whole lifestyle, the
whole man, the whole woman. And just like farming, farming
is constant. Christianity is constant. The farmer is constantly tending
his animals, feeding them, watering them, looking if anyone is sick. His crops, he's examining them
to see if there's any disease, any drought, if they need any
water. He's constantly looking to the
Lord if he's a believer, asking for the rain, asking for the
sunshine, asking for the harvest. And so it is in the life of a
Christian. It's constant. There's constant tending. It's
not just a one-off experience that happens. There's a constant
tending of our souls, of our minds, of our eyes, of our walk. The constant self-examination
and pruning and checking. Am I walking right? Do I need
more feeding? Is the word of God satisfying
me? Why am I thirsty? Coming to drink, coming to cleanse. And as the farmer constantly
checks everything, so the true child of God who's walking in
the light is constantly checking and examining his life, whether
he's in the way or not. he sinned here? Has he neglected
there? Is he drooping and wilting there? Has he become proud and lofty?
Does he need to confess his sin? Has he offended? Has he become
lukewarm? Has he become cold? And if you
look at your life, you're constantly assessing. Oh, I neglected family
reading. Why am I so hard hearted? Why
didn't I want to pray then? Why was I proud there? Why did
I say that? Why did I react in anger to that
thing? Constant self-examination, constant
checking, constant pruning, just like the farmer. Every single
day, it is work. No rest. I'm just like the Christian. Walking in the light every single
day. There's no rest. You can't neglect
our souls become very quickly a dry withered garden as it were
a dry withered field and we need that sustenance and we need that
feeding we need that drinking we need that fellowship with
the Lord we need that fellowship with the Lord's people and so
if we say that we have fellowship with him that we continue to
walk in darkness We lie and the truth isn't in us. We say that
we walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and we rather love the people
of the world more than the people of God and we can say that we're
liars. The truth isn't in us because
we shouldn't. Yes, we love their souls. Yes,
we desire that they come to see the salvation of the Lord. They
come to love the Lord Jesus Christ, but the way that they live, the
way that they talk, their lifestyles, it goes against the grain. It
goes against the light within our souls. And so there is an
evidence that we should look for. to check whether we belong to
the Lord Jesus Christ or not. Have we that evidence? Have we
experienced that time of being born again, that
time in our life when we were born again? Or was it just an
emotional response? Or was it a true work of God,
a lasting work of God within our souls? The fruit of salvation is what
John is speaking about here. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and the truth is not in
us. In verse eight it says, if we
say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned
we make him a liar and the word is not in us. So there is confession. Confession of sin. Yes the first
time that we were born again we confessed our sin. We acknowledged
before God that we were sinners in his sight. We have broken
his law. And we look to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope
of salvation, our mediator, our advocate, our propitiation, our
payment for our sins. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
there and then for our salvation. But it is a constant confession. We are constantly sinning against
God. As we walk in the light, in the
light of the revealed Word of God, as we walk in the light
of the Gospel, we see our sin. We see that we are not the people
that we ought to be. We see our failings and our shortcomings,
our lukewarmness, our cold-heartedness and we come at the end of the
day and we confess our sin. If we say we haven't sinned for
a whole day then the scriptures say we're saying that God's a
liar. because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God and anyone who knows anything of
the indwelling spirit of God will acknowledge that you can't
walk too many steps without sinning against God, without despairing
of yourself and then looking again to the Lord Jesus Christ
as our advocate with God. There is the confession of sin,
there is obedience. The people of God want to obey
the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 2 Verse three, hereby we do know
that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I
know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the
truth is not in him. Whosoever keepeth his word in
him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that
we are in him or by this we know that we are in him. that saith
he abideth in him we ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. And so those who love Christ
who have been born again of the spirit brought from the darkness
they walk in repentance but also they walk in obedience they have
a desire to obey the Lord Jesus Christ they obey his commandments
they want to follow him and to obey his teachings and the things
that he desired his people to follow, love one another, to
believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and to be baptised and to follow
him in the ordinances of baptism
and the Lord's Supper. That is the commandment of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is due in remembrance of
me. It is to love the believers.
Love the Lord Jesus Christ. Love his people. In chapter 3. Verse 10. It's the doing of righteousness.
In this the children of God are manifest and the children of
the devil. Whosoever does not righteousness
is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this
is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another. The scripture tells us that the
people of God walk in righteousness, they desire to to walk in accordance
and obedience to the Word of God. They desire to follow the
Lord Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such there is there is no law. So the people of God desire,
although their righteousness comes from the Lord Jesus Christ,
yet they desire to walk in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ in ways
of righteousness, in those things which are pleasing and good in
the sight of God. Yes, our hearts, as the Apostle
says, even when I do good, evil is present with me. Yet that
desire is there. to walk in righteousness and
obedience, that our lives are right in the sight of God, that
there can be no mark by which we have a clean conscience as
it were, there's no mark in our life where where people could
say, oh, he does this or he does that. He says he's a Christian,
but he does this and he does that. He says he's a Christian,
but he still goes here and still speaks like that. And so the
people of God, their hearts have been transformed and they desire
to walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, who
has saved them and brought them out of that darkness. If you go through the first letter of John there are
many, I think nine, evidences of the mark of a true Christian. I haven't got all of the references
there I'm just looking at chapter 4 in verse 9. And this was manifested
the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him here in his
love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved, if God so loved
us, then we ought to love one another. There's another reference
to being given the Spirit of God, that the believer is indwelt
by the Spirit of God. Yes they have come out of the
darkness and they're in the light, they have had their eyes opened,
they are now looking to the Lord Jesus Christ seeking to walk
circumspectly or carefully, seeking to ponder the path of their feet
and have their ways established not turning to the left hand
or to the right hand, putting away evil from their lives, seeking
to overcome the weaknesses of the flesh, seeking by the help
of the Spirit of God to put to death any remaining sin in their
lives, but acknowledging that even when they seek to do good,
that evil is present with them. They acknowledge that they continue
to sin. Not willingly, but painfully. That when they sin, sin grieves
them and hurts them. Not only does it hurt them, but
they realize that they grieve the Spirit of God. They realize
that they grieve the Lord Jesus Christ. And so their sin has
a double upset. It upsets them because they know
that Christ also looks on. But he doesn't leave them. He doesn't leave them. He remembers
our frame. He remembers that we are dust.
The people of Israel are a type of you and me. Look how many
times God blessed them and favoured them. Look how many times they
wandered off and the Lord drew them back because of his covenant
that he made with Abraham. Think how many times you and
I have sinned against God and we've wandered off. Yet because
of the covenant of grace, because this covenant, the covenant made
with Christ, we're not abandoned. He brings us back. So he says, if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all
sin. The apostle is not writing to
non-believers, he is writing to Christians who have seen the
Lord Jesus Christ, they are in Christ Jesus which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us and truly fellowship is with the father and with his
son Jesus Christ and these things write we unto you that your joy
may be full. These people had handled the
word of God, handled the word of life, had believed in the
Lord Jesus Christ And yet they had, it seems, some testifying
that they loved Christ and walked in the darkness, some having
backslid, but he gives them this great hope that the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Yes, they had
experienced salvation, but they had experienced the indwelling
of sin and they had experienced that backsliding that the indwelling
of sin bring. and there was that need for that
constant cleansing, that constant washing of our sin. In chapter 2 it says, My little children these
things write I unto you that you sin not and if any man sin
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He understood, you see. Yes,
they were believers. Yes, they had been cleansed.
But that ongoing battle in their life could bring them to despair.
Had we really been born again? Was I really a follower of the
Lord Jesus Christ? And that can be and is a constant
worry for the people of God. If I am truly a Christian, why
do I think the thoughts that I think? Why can I not control
my mouth? Why can I not restrain my anger? Why am I so quickly able to deny
the Lord Jesus Christ? It's a constant battle and the
Satan uses it. Well, it's because you're not
a Christian. You're not really a believer in the Lord Jesus,
you might just as well give up. And so he encourages them. Yes,
you may have sinned. Yes, you may have walked in the
darkness and turned yourself back again and denied the Lord
Jesus Christ, but we have an advocate with God. The Lord Jesus
Christ who stands there today, an advocate, an intercessor,
one who mediates One who's able to grasp the hand of man and
the hand of God and bring about reconciliation. One who pleads
for our cause. Our great high priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm thinking of this, the thought
of Moses when Moses went up into the mountain
to get the Ten Commandments and as he went up he delayed and
the people of Israel began to worship the idol. They created that calf and God
was angry. God was angry with their sin
and he was going to destroy them. chapter 32, and the Lord said
unto Moses, I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked
people. therefore let me alone that my
wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and
I will make of thee a great nation.' It's what God said that he was
going to do because of their sin and you can imagine him saying
that against me, you can imagine that saying that against you. These people they say that they
are Christians, they say that they're followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ yet they're stiff-necked, How quickly they've gone aside.
How quickly they've become angry. How quickly they haven't loved
each other. How quickly they've come to be gossips and busybodies. Let me alone. Let them destroy.
Let me destroy them. But then Christ steps in just
like Moses steps in. And Moses besought the Lord,
his God, and said, Lord, why dost thy wrath wax hot against
thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand? And the Lord repented of
the evil which he thought to do unto his people. In verse 30 it says, And it came
to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, Ye have
sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord Peradventure,
I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned
unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,
and I've made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou will forgive
their sin, and if not blot me, I pray thee out of thy book which
thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my
book. And so Moses stepped in. to intercede for the people of
God. God did not ultimately destroy
all the people of Israel but he did bring judgment upon them
and he plagued them because of the calf that they had made. But Moses steps in as a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ and this is what I want us to see
this afternoon as we may have sinned against God or we have
sinned against God. Yet Christ steps in. He takes
us by the hand and as he takes God by the hand and he says,
blot out their sin. Lay it upon me. He pleads their cause. He acts
as their advocate. And also their payment. He acts as their high priest. He became sin for his people. No amount of blood or bulls and
goats can take away any sin. Yet the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ is able to cleanse us from all sin. Christ
acted as the great high priest of his people as he went into
heaven itself to present himself as that perfect sacrifice, the
lamb that was slain. As the high priest went into
the Holy of Holies with the blood of the bull and then the blood
of the goat and then as he sent out that second goat into the
wilderness signifying that the sin is being taken away so Christ
shed his blood upon the cross and took his blood into the holy
of holies into heaven itself and took away the sins of his
people that his blood is able to cleanse from all sin. Satan would tell us there are
some sins that You've committed that will never be forgotten.
God will remember them. That's not what the Bible says.
Remember that Satan is a liar. He's a deceiver. He wants us
to walk under the weight of our sin. The scripture says that the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, every sin. As Christ rose again from the
grave it signified that all the sins of his people had been dealt
with. He rose again from the grave
and justified his people that they were cleansed from all of
their sins. Yes there's that daily need as
Jesus said about the washing of feet. There is that daily
need of confession. There is that daily need of sanctification. But ultimately the thief on the
cross as he was forgiven was striped away, ready for heaven. His sins, which were many, were
washed away. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleansed him from all sin. And so it is with the people
of God. Although they may be left to live for many years after
their conversion, and they may commit many, many more sins,
yet the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has dealt with all of
their sin, past, present and future. Their account is wiped
clean. Yet they constantly come for
that cleansing. Like David said, wash me and
I shall be whiter than snow. Purge me with hyssop, he says. And so it is with the Lord's
people, they need that constant washing and cleansing. that constant
coming close to Christ, walking in the light and confessing their
sin. They understand that they've
grieved the Spirit of God to come and confess and to repent
of their sin, to keep our accounts short with God and with each
other if we have upset one another then we are to acknowledge that
sin that we have committed and to ask for forgiveness and come
to that repentance over our sin that we may have that true fellowship
one with another. and the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. His Son cleanses us from all of our sin. May we know that
cleansing. May we come to that fountain
to be washed and to be made whiter than snow. May we be kept from
walking in the darkness. May we be kept from having a
religion that seeks to please the world and Christ because
it can't happen. We can only be in one side or
the other. walking with the Lord or walking
with Satan, walking on the broad road or walking on the narrow
way and we are to ponder the path of our feet even today to
consider which way are we going. What is my motive for walking
in the way that I am walking? Where are my eyes looking? Are
they looking to the things of the world or are they looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Are they looking to that fountain
that is open for sin and for uncleanness? Ponder the path
of thy feet and let thy ways be established. And the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. May the Lord
add his blessing. Amen. Our closing hymn is hymn number
556. The Lord proclaims his name,
and sinners hear his voice. His mercy ever stands the same,
and we'll in him rejoice. Hymn number 556 to the tune number
28. His mercy ever stands the same,
and we'll hear Him rejoice. His name's gracious name. ? In this day ? ? No mountain of
flesh shall prevail ? ? No mountain of flesh shall prevail ? ? No
mountain of flesh shall prevail ? ? No mountain of flesh shall
prevail ? The Savior's sin has done, but the Lord's suffering
still is good. Let joy and peace prevail. ? For goodness and for peace ?
? Let persons be in Christ our peace ? ? And live for Jesus'
sake ? ? God has made many ? and make thy name a choice. Thy mercy, freedom to those here,
and liberty in the world. May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father, the fellowship and communion
of the Holy Spirit do be with us each now and forevermore. Amen.