May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
first epistle of John, chapter one, verses five to seven. The first epistle of John, chapter
one, and reading verses five to seven. 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. 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. I'm very conscious that sometimes
the Word of God may be very difficult for us to understand, and especially
our young people. Well, I don't want to preach
a sermon and the people not understand the truth of God's Word. And
I don't want you young people, you children and young people,
to also not understand the Word of God. It is the position of
a preacher to explain word of God so that the people may be
benefited and blessed in their souls. And so these words this
morning that we just read here in these three verses in the
first epistle of John, just to put it very simply, the apostle
is really speaking and telling us the great need that you and
I have of having light. Now, we understand what light
is, don't we, naturally. We understand what darkness is.
We know that when the sun rises, there's light. When it sets,
it gets dark. And we understand the difference between light
and darkness. And that's in a natural way.
And all of us appreciate that without any problem. But from
a A spiritual perspective, and of course the truth is that a
spiritual perspective is very, very important. And the spiritual
perspective is very simply this, that we are born spiritually
dark. We are in darkness, and we do
not appreciate the light of the Gospel until the Spirit of God
awakens our innermost being, our soul, and brings it into
light. And that light is really this. It shows us our need of mercy,
our need of forgiveness, and it directs us therefore to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that Lord Jesus Christ, he
is the light. He is the light of the world. And it would be a wonderful thing,
therefore, if you and I possessed that life in our souls, given
by God, to know the light of the Gospel, the light which is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I hope I've explained that
very simply for you. to just understand a principle
that the light is the Lord Jesus Christ, and all of us need to
know that light. Now you might say, well of course
I know about Jesus. Well, many people know about
Jesus. He is an historical figure. Many people know about Jesus.
But if we are born again of the Spirit of God, The difference
will be that we will want to know Jesus as the one who has
saved our souls. And you might say, well, what
does that mean? It means this. We are born as
sinners and no sinner can go to heaven. Only those who are
saved and have their sins forgiven can go to heaven. And so that's
why We have these words here, the blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanses us from all sins. That means it purges or it removes
our sin. And therefore it is so essential
that all of us have the knowledge that God gives to us in our heart
that he has died for us, that he's shed his blood so that our
sins might be forever washed away. And so here we have then,
in these three verses, great and glorious truth of the word
of God. And you and I will bless God
if we receive this wonderful favour in our souls, where the
Holy Spirit reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ as our all-sufficient
Saviour. And it is the work of the Holy
Spirit that applies his word to our hearts. And when that
is done, the interesting thing is that we are surprised that
we never really understood things previously. Why? Because we were
in darkness. Our spiritual eyes had not been
opened. But when our spiritual eyes are
opened to see God's plan of salvation, and to see that plan of salvation
applies to our souls, it's then that we rejoice and are thankful. Now John, the apostle John, He
writes in the previous verse, he says this, and these things
write unto you that your joy might be full. Now what a wonderful
thing it is when the gospel is so precious to us, so wonderfully
revealed to us, that we have joy in our heart, thankfulness
to God that he has revealed these things to us. And we do then
go on rejoicing. to know that we are amongst the
family of God, that we are amongst those for whom Christ died, and
that by his grace one day we shall be with him in glory forever
and ever. Well, what a wonderful truth
it is, and what a wonderful gospel we have. And so the Apostle John,
he comes and he tells us this. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and John is telling us the message which
he has received from God and it is a wonderful message and
it's a message which we've heard with our outward ears. Bless
God if you and I have heard it with our spiritual ears so that
we rejoice in the truth of God's word. This then is the message
which we have heard of him and declare unto you, the apostle,
you see, declare the truth of God. And my friends, may we declare
the truth of God. And what is the truth of God?
He tells us very simply, God is light and in him is no darkness
at all. There is no sin with God. You
see, it's sin that brings darkness. It's because of the sin of Adam,
which brings in the darkness. If there had been no sin brought
into the world, there would have been no darkness. I'm talking
here of spiritual darkness. But because of Adam's sin, it
brought death. And that death brought darkness.
And therefore we are in darkness until the Spirit of God comes
and shines that light into our heart and we realise then and
we bless God for the wonderful plan of salvation. We bless God
for the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe, and this is so true
when the Lord teaches us, we bless God for the Father in sending
his Son. We bless God for the Son in coming
into this world and dying on our behalf and we bless God for
the work of the Holy Spirit in conveying these great truths
to our soul so that our hearts are ready and open to receive
the great truths of the Gospel. And that makes us true worshippers
who worship God in spirit and in truth, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And our view of the things of
God expands. We perhaps had just little views,
but when the Spirit of God comes and opens our understanding,
our view expands and we see what a wonderful gospel it is and
how we rejoice in it and how we thank God for this wonderful
message. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you. Well, I wonder today
if you and I can look into our hearts and bless God that we've
heard the message. The message of God has come into
our hearts, and it's penetrated there, and it's quickened us. The apostle uses that word, quickened,
and you hath he quickened, made alive. What a wonderful thing
it is to know that we have been made spiritually alive, we who
were dead. It's a wonderful thing, and let's
be quite clear, it's a most important thing. It's only those people
who are made alive by the Spirit of God who will go to glory. It's only those who rejoice and
joy in the great plan of salvation will ever go to glory. But bless
God if the Spirit of God has awakened our hearts to realize
and understand the great truths and the great plan of salvation. And so the Apostle 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. No darkness in God. He's pure. He's holy. There's no sin. It's sin that makes darkness,
don't forget that. And therefore, there we have this wonderful,
beautiful position of God who is light and in him is no darkness
at all. See, everything we see in God
is light. Everything we see in God is pure,
and it's righteous, and it's holy. There's nothing sinful
about God. And we can ponder, and we can
meditate, and we can glory in the wonder of the Godhead, in
the purity of it, and in the blessedness of it. And so, here
we have this statement that God is light, and in Him is no darkness
at all. And then the Apostle expounds
this just to clarify the truth as it is spoken to us and as
it affects you and me. It's not something which is,
just as it were, abstract. It's something which is personal.
Rural religion is personal. And so we read If we say that
we have fellowship with him, I suppose we might say that means
that if we say we're a Christian and yet do not, if we say that
we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. So if we might just say that
we have fellowship with God and do not understand and realise
and have it revealed to us the great truth of the Gospel, the
truth is that we are lying. We're just pretending to be a
Christian and we're not understanding the wonderful depth of the truth
of God's Word and that fellowship with God. There is a vast distinction
in the world today between true Christians and pseudo-Christians,
and by that I mean people who pretend to be a Christian. There
are many people, if you ask them today, well, are you a Christian? And they would say, oh yes, I'm
a Christian. In actual fact, they're not a Christian. They
just have a name. named to live, but yet are dead.
They do not possess the life of God in the soul, which gives
them spiritual light. Because when you and I are blessed
with spiritual light, what does it do? It shows us the holiness
of God, the righteousness of God, the purity of God, and by
comparison, it shows us our sinful nature. our black nature, our
evil nature, and it will bring us into that position to repent,
to be sorry for our sins, and to turn to Almighty God, seeking
for that forgiveness. The great truth is that a true
Christian is a repenting Christian, one who has truly repented before
God. Don't forget, as we said on Friday,
The first words of the Lord Jesus recorded are when he preached
and said, repent and believe the gospel, my friends, unless
we are sorry for our sins before God and truly bow down and worship
and pray for forgiveness and really desire it and really feel
to need it. There is no life in our souls. We are still dead. trespasses
and in sins we are still in darkness and so we have this statement
here if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness
we lie and do not the truth the word of God is very straight
isn't it It's not wishy-washy. It directs us very clearly to
the importance of having the light, and the light is the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. There are some Wonderful words,
there are many very wonderful words, are there not, in the
Word of God. But some words stand out more than others perhaps.
And one of the great verses which speaks about the light is to
be found in the 2nd of Corinthians. As I mentioned to you before,
it's very easy to remember because it's 2, 4, 6. It's the 2nd of
Corinthians, the 4th chapter and the 6th verse. And it reads
this, for God who commanded The light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts. Yes, that's the innermost being,
it's not just a theoretical knowledge, shone in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. There is our light and the Apostle
just goes on, just to remind us, he says, but we have this
treasure, that's the treasure of the knowledge of God, he tells
us in earthen vessels, and that means that you and I are just
of the earth, we're just dust really, and he says we have this
treasure, this wonderful treasure of the knowledge of Christ, earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. We cannot glory in anything in
our flesh but we can glory, can we not, in what God has said
and in what Christ has done to bless God for the wonderful truths
of the gospel. And so We read, if we say that
we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. Well, none of us pretend to be
what we're not. You see, if we're not a Christian,
we must not pretend to be a Christian. And if we're not a Christian,
we must seek to God that we might be a Christian, that He will
reveal Himself unto us as He does not unto the world. And
He reveals to us the great need we have of a saviour and shows
to us the glory of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that redemption
which was obtained through his death, what a glorious work it
was. And then the apostle goes on
and he tells us, but, you see, there's a but, if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, We have fellowship one with another,
and this means one with God. Fellowship with God, one with
another, with God. Well, that may be a testament
not of the reality of our Christianity, whether you and I have fellowship,
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. whether we have union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, whether we like to be found praying to
the Lord Jesus Christ, whether we know where it is to have access
at the throne of grace to speak to the Lord Jesus Christ. Fellowship. You see, this fellowship is very
important and you may remember that again the Apostle Paul desired
this wonderful favour and this wonderful blessing of fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And let us remember, of course,
the Apostle Paul, of course, he knew the Lord Jesus Christ,
but he wanted fellowship with him, and he wanted to have the
evidence of God's blessing and God's favour with him. And he
speaks to us when he wrote his letter to the Philippians, and
he said it in these words, Now this is the Apostle, don't forget,
he says, that I may know him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
fellowship of his sufferings. You might say, well that's a
strange statement, fellowship of his sufferings. What it means
is really this, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered upon the cross
at Calvary. He suffered so, so greatly. that you and I might receive
the forgiveness of sins. And the Apostle desires here
that he might know something of fellowship, union with the
Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings. And of course, Christ's sufferings
were not only at the cross, they were very extreme at the cross.
But if you think of his life, the opposition that he had, And
if you and I are true Christians, be very sure we will have opposition
in this world because the devil is trying to make us part of
the world and not part of the Church of God. So there will
be opposition. Christ had opposition. And opposition
will bring us into contact with the Lord himself and fellowship
with him if we are a true true Christian. And so the Apostle
says that he might know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. You see the Apostle was looking
forward to the time of resurrection, the time of eternal glory. That was what the Apostle was
doing. He was looking forward to that occasion, that time which
would come and bless God in your life and my life. If our concern
is to be a true Christian on this earth, walking with God,
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in the light,
union with him to realise that this is the beginning of eternal
life, and that will be carried on when we pass out of time into
glory, into eternity. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another,
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, What a test this is, isn't
it, of the reality of your religion and my religion as to whether
we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You must answer
that before God. But here we have the Apostle
John writing to us very clearly. And speaking to us like this,
if we are walking in the light, and if we are truly walking in
the light, it means that we will have fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if we have fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ, it will draw us to him and we will rejoice
in this great and wonderful truth that we have here and the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. No sinner can enter glory. No
sin can enter glory. You and I, my friends, need to
have all of our sins taken away. Everyone, we need to know that
we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. So here we have this
statement. If we have fellowship, you see,
we shall rejoice in this truth that the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanses us from all sin, all sin. Remember the apostle
when he wrote to the Corinthians, the first epistle to the Corinthians,
and he spoke to the Corinthians and he spoke and told them what
they were like. what they had been like, so that
they couldn't claim they were a very righteous person. And
he just spells it out in some detail, and he tells them, that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The list
is, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall enter the kingdom of God. And you might
say, well, I understand that's a comprehensive list and I understand
that all those things are wrong. And then the apostle comes and
he points the finger at them and he says this, and such were
some of you. Don't think you're exempt. And
such were some of you. And my friends, you and I will
fall under the condemnation of a word like this. We won't think,
well, I can't say I'm clean from all those. I have to confess
that I'm guilty. And then he goes on to say, and
such for some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. What a comprehensive statement
that is. What a wonderful statement. And
to those who are indeed sinners, deep sinners, dark sinners, black
sinners, And yet here is this glorious word of the gospel,
but ye are washed. All our sins washed away. Remember,
every sin needs to be washed away. We can't have any hidden
sins. They've all got to come to the
surface. They've all got to be washed away, taken away. Not only washed, but sanctified,
made holy. justified and all these things
are in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God and the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleansed us from all sin and so if we consider ourselves
and think of ourselves as Christians and we may think well I'm not
a very good Christian well none of us are of course we're no
good Christians we can never claim to be a really good Christian. Paul never claimed to be a good
Christian. He claimed to be the chief sinner. He knew what a
bad person he was. And when the Spirit of God shines
into our heart, we won't stand and say, well, everybody take
notice of me, what a great example I am. We'll probably hang our
heads and say, what a bad example I am. But I thank God for his
mercy. I thank God for his amazing grace
and his great love towards me. He saw me ruined in the fall,
yet loved me not, withstanding all." Oh, my friends, what a
great God we have, and what a love we have for Almighty God. And
so we have these statements about the shed blood of the Savior. Well, you know, John the Baptist
was wonderfully privileged, wasn't he, in his life? And we know
that he was very similar age to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the Lord came to him to be baptized. And when he came to him to be
baptized, John the Baptist directs us to this thought, and it's
so wonderful, is it not? He says, the first chapter of
John, in verse 29, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto
him, and saith, What words of favour this was. And my friends,
John the Baptist, he saw it, he believed it by faith, and
you and I today need the same faith to believe the same truths,
have the same spiritual sight, to be able to come and say, as
John the Baptist did, he said this, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world." The Lamb of God.
Why did he use such an illustration as that? Why did he speak like
that? The Lamb of God. It was, I'm sure, because the
Old Testament dispensation, which we read of today in that ninth
chapter of the Hebrews, it tells us there of what the high priest
did. on that great day of atonement,
the Lamb slain. Same as the Passover. Remember
the Passover. What occurred? The Lamb was slain. And what happened when the Lamb
was slain? The blood was taken. The blood showed that death had
occurred. And in that Passover night, which
of course was remembered, they didn't forget it. The Passover
night. The blood was put on the doorposts
and the lintels. And where was the place of safety? Only in those houses where the
people had gone into that house under the blood, the doorposts
and the lintels. There was the blood. There was
only safety to those people who had passed through that door
with the blood over it. my friends, exactly the same
today, not in a physical sense, but you and I today are only
safe as we are found under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the Lamb of God, only
safety under that blood, signifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And you
and I today are only safe under the blood, the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ, he came
into this world to take away the sins of his church. They
might be forever taken away, might be forever washed away. John here speaks of these things
a little bit further on. As you remember, he wrote the
book of the Revelation. He had a wonderful vision as
he was there on the Isle of Patmos. And he tells us, he says, John,
to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and
peace from him which is and which was and which is to come. Again, he's given the great statement
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his greatness. Here we have a wonderful
picture, do we not, which is, and which was, and which is to
come, the eternity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and from the seven
spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ,
who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him, unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins, in his own
blood. Just you think of that. Here
we have John given this wonderful view, this wonderful revelation,
and how relevant and how important it is for you and me today to
know that this applies to us, that God loved us. My friends,
God has loved us. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. And if he's loved us, he's also come and he's died for us. And if he's died for us, he shed
his precious blood for us. And if he shed his precious blood
for us, then our sins are washed away. This word is so gloriously
true. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. And then he goes and says, and
hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Well, that's a wonderful
statement, isn't it? The Apostle commences this first
chapter of the book in the Revelation. Great truths, is it not? Words
of comfort to his church to know that our salvation is secure. There's no doubt. Christ has
died. He rose again. He conquered sin,
death, hell, and the grave. And therefore, these words are
so wonderful, aren't they? The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all sin. The shed blood was the evidence
of life taken and life given. And you can trace it through
right from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden when the
Lord Jesus himself came and slew those animals in the Garden of
Eden and took their skins and clothed Adam and Eve. And we have there a picture that
they were covered, their nakedness, with those skins. And we today
can view that in a spiritual light, that we are covered today
with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in order
for that to occur, the animals had to be slain. In order for
that to occur today, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be slain
and had to die upon that cross at Calvary. And as those animals'
blood was shed, so the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was
shed upon that cross at Calvary. And just trace it through the
Word of God, because it's a glorious theme. It runs right through
the shed blood so so needful all those sacrifices which were
offered up again and again and again and again we read of sacrifices
being made and then of course we can think can we not of that
wonderful occasion on uh on mount moriah when abraham was commanded
to go and offer up his son isaac He obeyed the Lord. He took Isaac
up to that mountain. He was just about to kill him
with that knife and the Almighty God told him to stop. And yes,
now he said, I know that thou believest in God. And he looked
around and there was a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. And
he was told to take that ram and offer it up instead. The blood was shed. The ram was
offered. What does it signify to us today?
Substitution. The Lord Jesus Christ offered
up in our place, in our stead, shed his blood, just like that
ram. And then of course, as we mentioned,
the Passover. And of course, there was then
throughout the history of Israel, the morning and the evening sacrifice
and many, many other occasions when sacrifices were offered
and the blood was shed. And as we read together, without
shedding a blood, in that ninth chapter, and do remember it's
a very important statement, without shedding a blood, without the
death occurring, there is no forgiveness, there's no remission.
It's only through the one offering for sin, the law Jesus Christ
made, that you and I have that great hope of eternal life. What a wonderful thing it is
to know that we have such a savior, I'll just say that the Apostle
John, he went on and remember he had that view of heaven, of
the scene in the seventh chapter and he asked the question and
one of the elders answered, he asked the question, he said,
why are these things? And the angel came and he said,
What are these, question one, what are these which are arrayed
in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir,
thou knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Washed
white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God and serve him day and night. in his temple, and
he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall
the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." And so we have this great statement here The
blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. This
word cleanseth, what does it really mean? Well it means to
purge, to take away. It means to remove. And so we
can think of it in this terms. The blood of Jesus Christ his
son removes all sin from us, all sin. Without that, we would
not be able to enter into the holy place. The high priest could
only enter into the holy place with blood. The Lord Jesus Christ,
he entered into the holy place because he shed his blood. He was entered into glory because
he shed his blood. My friends, that blood was shed
for you and me. To think of him now, seated in
glory, And one day, by his grace, he will receive us unto himself. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I come again, when I come again, I will receive you unto
myself, that where I am there, ye may be also. To think the
Lord will receive us, those for whom he has shed his precious
blood. Don't forget this then, and the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin, all
sin, no sin remaining. What a great truth it is, what
a blessed truth it is to think as we look at ourselves, and
perhaps we feel ourselves to be very sinful and very black,
to think yes, but the Lord Jesus Christ, He came to take away
all my sin. And the Apostle says, when he wrote to the Ephesians
he says according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will
to his praise to the praise, rather, of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace." We have redemption. We are redeemed,
as the Apostle Peter said, redeemed with a precious blood of Christ. My friends, the blood of Christ
is invaluable. It is precious. Do we glory in
it? Are we thankful today for the
death of the Saviour, for his shed blood? And to know that
because of that, you and I today have hope of eternal life in
whom we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. Are they not rich?
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he was rich, yet for our sakes
he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich. If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we are fellowshiped one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us. from all sin. Blessed be
God. Amen.