May it please Almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let us turn
to the first epistle of John, the first chapter, and we'll
read verse 7. The first epistle of John, and
the first chapter, and reading 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. this verse sets before us two
very important points and considerations. And the first is the light, and
the second is the blood of Jesus Christ, his son. And so we need to realise that
both of these considerations are most important for every
one of us as we commence this new year to realise that we need
the light from God to shine into our heart otherwise we remain
in darkness and we have some natural comprehension, don't
we? of the difference between light and darkness They are completely
opposite. And in darkness, when it really
is dark, we can't see anything. And yet when the light gloriously
shines, everything is clear and we can see everything. So it's
a very simple illustration for every one of us to understand,
from the youngest to the oldest, and to realize that you and I
are born in darkness. We are born in darkness. Indeed the Apostle John tells
us here, he says in verse 5, this then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth so
the Apostle sets before us the need there is to have light and
that means the light from heaven that means that the light shines
into our heart and shows us the great truths of the Gospel and
shows us the great need we have of understanding and receiving
the great truths of the Gospel. And really, the great truth of
the Gospel is summed up again very simply in the latter part
of this seventh verse, when we read, the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And again it is so essential
that all of us know that we are cleansed from our sin. We are all sinners without exception. We've all sinned and because
of our sin we have alienated ourselves from God. We're separated
from God. And we need to be united in fellowship
to our God. And we need therefore the wonderful
blessing of being cleansed from all our sin. And this cleansing
is only done through the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it'll be a wonderful blessing
if the Holy Spirit shines into our heart light, spiritual light,
and gives us a wonderful understanding of the need we have of being
cleansed, of being washed from all our sin, every sin. Every sin. There's no such thing
really as a small sin, because every sin condemns us. And what a great blessing it
is, therefore, if the work of the Holy Spirit opens our eyes,
our spiritual eyes, to understand the great and glorious truths
of the Gospel. We read together that beautiful
chapter in the Colossians, which speaks so wonderfully about the
Saviour and the work of the Saviour and what a mercy it is. And we're
told, as the Apostle writes, he says, that we might walk worthy
of the Lord until all-pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work and increasing in the knowledge of God. to be fruitful in every
good work we need to be blessed with spiritual light in our soul
and he says strengthened with all might according to his glorious
power and to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness
the Lord God gives power spiritual power glorious power and to all
patience and longsuffering. And he goes on to say, giving
thanks unto the Father which has made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. The saints do not walk
in darkness. The saints of God walk in light. And therefore how needful for
you and me to know that we are walking in the light and we're
not walking in darkness and so he goes on to say who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness this is a very positive statement
who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us that means we've been changed into the kingdom of his dear
son the kingdom of light what a wonderful blessing that is
and if you and I do not possess that to pray earnestly that we
may indeed have this glorious light shine into our hearts and
the Apostle goes on to describe what it really means in whom
we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of
sins. Well that's a great and wonderful
statement and a very important statement in the epistle to the
Ephesians. Again in the first chapter we
have the same words. The apostle was obviously very
concerned that the churches might really appreciate the need there
is to be redeemed. That means to have our sins paid
for, the price that our sins cause. Remember, the wages of
sin is death, and you and I need to be delivered from that. You
and I need to be redeemed, and we're only redeemed through His
blood. even the forgiveness of sins. Well, it's a great, wonderful
favour to realise that we have these truths spelt out for our
understanding. And it's very easy to read the
Bible, to read the chapters of the Bible, and to not understand
what the Bible is saying to us, what we are being told, how easily
we just read it, and pass over it. That's why we need the Spirit
of God to give us light, spiritual understanding, and spiritual
light to understand and appreciate the great and glorious plan of
salvation, to make us realize why it was so needful for the
Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, to be born into this
sinful world. to live that perfect life and
to die that sin-atoning death on the cross at Calvary. Because without those things
being accomplished, there will be no hope for you and me today. So do we come? Can we come? And can we recognise that our
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. What a mercy, if the Holy Spirit
therefore directs us and reveals to us our need of this blood
being shed for us, because the blood of Jesus Christ being shed
signified his death. He gave his life, a ransom, for
us how humbling to think that Almighty God did that for us
and we read together in that chapter really the greatness
of this God and if you and I understand the greatness of our God how
humbling to think that the great God died to atone for your sin
and my sin for every sin The greatness of God is spelled out
in these words, for by him, the saviour of sinners, were all
things created that are in heaven and are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers or things, all things, were created by Him and for Him. Again to realise the great depth
of truth there, they were created by Him and for Him. This is the great God that you
and I are privileged to deal with, privileged to be able to
come to, privileged to be able to pray to and come in all honesty
desiring that we may be a true follower of our great and glorious
Saviour. And so he says, and he is before
all things, Christ was before all things, in eternity past,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, a mystery for our little
minds that cannot really understand the glory and the amazing truth
of the Trinity But nonetheless, it is so. And it's good when
God gives you and me faith, when God shines his light into our
heart, so that we realize the grand and glorious truth of such
things. He is before all things, and
by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church. Christ is the head of the church,
who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. It's a wonderful statement, isn't
it? The Apostle writes to the Colossians,
and of course we today are privileged to be able to read that statement
and have an appreciation of the greatness of this God who you
and I are able to come to in prayer what a mercy unworthy
as we are sinners of the earth and when the light shines and
convinces us of our sin we realise then we need a wonderful saviour
we cannot save ourselves we cannot take away our sins There's only
one way our skins can be removed. And that is spelled out in this
seventh verse. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Well, if you have had the
light shine which has convinced you that you are a sinner and
you cannot save yourself, that you're lost and ruined in the
fall, there's only one way there's only one place of redemption
and that is as we read in that 14th verse of the first chapter
of Colossians in whom we have redemption through his blood
even the forgiveness of sins well what a mercy today if the
glorious light of the everlasting gospel shines into our hearts
reveals to us our condition, reveals to us our need, and leads
us to the Saviour, and leads us to realise there's no other
way wherein we can be saved, because all of us cannot be saved
unless our sins are washed away, unless we are cleansed from all
sin and the only way that can occur is through the redemption
that the Lord Jesus Christ has procured through his death. He gave his life willingly so
that by his grace his people may possess this wonderful gift
of eternal life. You and I have been born into
this world, we've received a soul, a never-dying soul, a soul that
will live forever. And you and I, through that soul,
will live forever. We will never be annihilated,
as some people like to think when they die. That's the end. They'll have a very rude awakening,
realizing that what they believed was totally false and how Satan
today still deceives he is the great deceiver he doesn't change
his tactics he doesn't change the way he desires to deceive
mankind and to think for all these years since the creation
of the world he's roamed around convincing so many of the falseness
of his way to convincing them to turn away from the truth of
God and giving them that evil heart of unbelief well may the
Holy Spirit convince us of the truth of the Scripture sometimes
it's good just to ponder just to think of your life and my
life, to realize that we could have been born in a place where
we would never have heard about the Word of God, that we would
never have heard about the way of salvation, we would never
have heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely it should be very
humbling to think that God, in His mercy, in His love, to be
born into a Protestant nation caused us to be born into a nation
whereby we do have the Word of God caused us to be born into
a nation where we can read the Word of God and we're not obstructed
by the law of the land We are obstructed, of course, by the
devil. The devil doesn't want you and
me to read the Word of God. He will put many things before
our eyes which distract us from reading the Word of God. But
that doesn't alter the fact that God has blessed us wonderfully
with His Word. And to think that in His Word
describes everything that you and I need to know. about ourselves
and about the glorious Kingdom of God and about that which is
to come what a mercy therefore if God shines his light into
our heart and we understand we understand the way of salvation
we understand that the only way is through the Lord Jesus Christ
whom to know is life eternal and may it therefore as we go
forth into this new year be continually concerned to have the evidence
that the light of God is shining into our hearts and I believe
this when that light shines it directs us to the Son of God
And it directs us to Calvary. It directs us there. You may
say, why does it direct us to Calvary? It directs us to Calvary
for this reason. It was there that the Lord Jesus
Christ finished the work that His Father gave Him to do. That great work of redemption. That great work so needful in
order to save our souls. And it was at Calvary where the
Lord Jesus Christ suffered what we often term that ignominious
death. It was a death, a very humbling
death. A death that was reserved for
the very worst of criminals. Christ himself, of course, was
not a criminal. but you see he bore and paid
the price for us as criminals because we are criminals we have
offended God we've disobeyed God we've sinned and therefore
we are guilty and we deserve eternal punishment what a wonderful
blessing therefore to have the light shining into our hearts
and directing us to Calvary and to see there the suffering Son
of God giving His life, giving His life willingly, willingly. Forget not Gethsemane, where
the Lord Jesus Christ realized what was before Him. And we're
told, as sweat as it were, great drops of blood being in an agony.
An agony, realising that what he had to endure. And sometimes
again it's good just to ponder these things, to think that if
you and I had before us in a few hours, we were going to be lashed,
with whips we were going to be stripped of our clothing we were
going to be taken out and nails to a cross we were going to be
hung there as a spectacle not for what we'd done but to realise
perhaps it was because of what we had done and realise we could
never satisfied the demands of a holy God. And there was the
spotless perfect Son of God suffering that ignominious death. He gave his life and at Gethsemane
he cried out, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And then he says, nevertheless,
not my will, for thine be done that was the glorious example
of the Saviour and he was willing to give his life to suffer in
that way to procure redemption for the souls of all his people
did we not have to come? I hope we do and say what a Saviour
What a saviour, a glorious man as he was, who was willing to
stand in my place, was willing to pay the price
for my sin, was willing to shed his precious blood and to complete
that work that his father had given him to do. in order to
redeem my soul. Well, if the Lord gives you and
me light to understand this great truth, you'll rejoice in it. You'll rejoice. The Lord has
given you light to understand, given you light to appreciate
what the cost is that you might be set free. you might be freed
from all your sin indeed that you might be washed in the blood
of the Lamb the Apostle John concentrates considerably upon
this wonderful theme and it is a wonderful theme and of course
in the first chapter of the Gospel of John we read those words that
John said to those around him behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Now, of course, when he said
that, he didn't know precisely how that was to occur, but he
did know that that one who he had baptized would indeed be,
that's right, John the Baptist, that was, the one who he had
baptized would indeed be the savior of sinners. What a wonderful
mercy then to realise that that was true and that vision was
given to John the Baptist and he was able to declare it and
we know of course he didn't live very much longer he was beheaded
but nonetheless he'd given that wonderful testimony and what
a truth it is and so we come this morning in a grateful I
hope we are grateful that we have such a statement as this
before us but in your life and my life there will be a but a
but because we're told if we say that we have fellowship with
him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth you see
sometimes people pretend to be a believer when they're not a
believer but when they are a true believer they're able to confirm
this great truth because the Apostle then says but But if
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we are fellowship
one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth us from all sin. So there is this great favour
of union. The Church of God has fellowship. Fellowship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. and fellowship one with another. It's that which separates. It's
that which sets the Church of God apart. Fellowship. Indeed, one with another. What
a mercy if God has given us this great privilege to have fellowship
one with another. And it must be centered in the
Lord Jesus Christ. which centralises our union. That's which binds us together. Not because we are following
a false Christ. We follow a despised and crucified
man. We follow a glorious saviour
who gave his life in order to redeem our souls. Well, what a mercy then to understand
that the light shone, you walk in the light, you rejoice in
the light, you rejoice that God has revealed this truth to you. It's not something which is dry,
something which you don't want to hear about. It's something
you love to understand and love to hear about because our eternal
life Rests upon the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ his
son cleanses us from sin because Remember, there's no sin in heaven
You and I cannot enter heaven with any sin And we cannot cleanse
ourselves We have no ability to do it. We haven't got the
currency to pay for it because the currency required was a the
blood of Jesus Christ, that perfect man who laid down his life that
you and I might receive the gift of eternal life again. It's very
humbling, isn't it? I hope it is to realise that
God gives us this wonderful gift. We've just passed through what
we term the Christmas season, haven't we? We've given and we've received
gifts, no doubt. But I wonder if we really thought
about the most precious gift, which is the gift of eternal
life. If God has given you and me that,
and revealed it to us as the light of the Gospel has shone
into our heart, what a mercy, what a blessing. Because if we
have received that, it means what it says. Eternal life. We shall spend eternity with
this glorious saviour. The one who was so willing to
give his life that you and I might possess life. Eternal life. and live forever with the Lord. Well, it's a great and wonderful
favour, isn't it, to understand these great truths which are
set before us in the Word of God and set before us in the
Gospel. And it's so wonderful to realise
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who has gloriously come
and died And of course, he didn't stay in that place. He rose again,
a conqueror over sin, death, hell, and the grave. And the
Apostle John, as he goes on and writes in the Revelation, he
tells us, I heard a great voice of heaven saying, behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said it will be right,
for these words are faithful and true. That's the prospect. Mill is before the Church of
God. It's a glorious prospect to look
forward to, and it should give us a right balance in our life
as we have to contend with much opposition or to contend with
that great adversary of souls the devil who will always try
and turn us away from the things of God and the battle against
him will not end until we pass out of time into eternity but
remember he is a vanquished foe Because the glorious Saviour,
He conquered. He conquered the devil. The devil
could not conquer the Saviour. He tried, but he failed. And as we read in the Hebrews,
those wonderful words, and we are more than conquerors through
Him. Not our own ability. Not our
own skill. We can never redeem our souls,
but it is through Him. So as we enter into this new
year, surely the great question should be for each one of us,
what think ye of Christ? What do we think of Christ? What
do you think of Christ? What do I think of Christ? Do
we highly prize him? Do we come in and realize what
the Apostle Peter was able to speak of when he said, redeemed
with a precious blood of Christ? Well, it is precious. It's invaluable. Because without
it we cannot be saved, without it our sins cannot be washed
away. And therefore how wonderful it
is to realise that the Lord of life and glory submitted Himself
to the demands of the Holy Law of God, came down and willingly
did the will of His Father, in order that he might redeem his
church, the church which his father had given him. And he
knew that in order to redeem them, he had to give his life,
had to shed his precious blood. Well, it's a wonderful theme
and wonderful truth. And as we go forth into this
year may it be a theme which is often before our eyes because
it puts everything into a right perspective and we can realise
he hath done all things well and he leads us on safely and
brings us home at last to that glorious habitation to be with
Jesus forever. Well, these words are wonderful
words, they're very simple, they're very precious, they're very important. But, well it's a but in all of
our lives, but may it be true that we do walk in the light,
as He is in the light, and we have fellowship, one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin. Amen.