I want to look at one more message
with you from 1 John chapter 1. Our Lord has given us, his church,
a message. This message is the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now everything that we declare,
everything this church declares and that we speak of, whatever
text we're in, it's always in the light of the gospel. Everything
we say, we don't forget the gospel. It's not disconnected in any
way from what Christ has accomplished for us. So it's always in light
of the gospel and according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now
Paul tells us, in that sense, he wrote to the Thessalonians
that there's coming a day. He says, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power. If men are being judged for not
knowing God and for their disobedience to the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, then you can be certain that this message must be the
gospel. This is the gospel that we're
preaching. The message that John is writing of here in his epistle
and the message spoken and declared by the church, it's going to
be of Christ. It's going to speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is what the church is called
to declare to the people. John said in verse 5, 1 John
1 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. No darkness at all. Now, all
that I am by nature is darkness. All that I am by nature is darkness. And if all that I am by nature
is darkness, and God is light in whom is no darkness at all,
and all the scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ is the true
light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, if
that's true and it is, then tell me about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we need to hear.
We need to hear this gospel of Christ, the light of men. Don't
waste my time telling me about dead-letter religion, telling
me about doing certain things to make myself more holy or more
moral. Tell me about Christ, the light
of men. Tell me Him, because I'm darkness,
all I am is sin by nature, and God is light. I need to know
Him. Tell me of the one who illuminates
God, who is the light of God, to reveal to me who the Father
is and how I might walk before him in fellowship in truth. Don't
tell me dead things that cannot save. Tell me the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me the desire of every sinner
here that rejoices in Christ. Why do they rejoice in Christ?
What are they hearing? That's what we want to hear.
I want to know Christ. So I want to preach to you tonight
from verses 5 through 10. And I have three points, three
points, three main points that I'll make. And then in those
three main points, we'll look at three minor points in each
one. First, the first point regards
this message of which the apostle speaks. The second point regards
what this message reveals to Christ's church. And the third
point regards what this message produces in Christ's church. And we're going to see that from
these verses of John. So let's begin with three very
important things in this first point, three things to know about
this message. First, you want to hear the gospel
of Christ. You do. Whether you know it or
not, you want to hear the gospel of Christ. You need to hear the
gospel of Christ because it's Christ Jesus that reveals God
the Father to us. It's Christ Jesus that reveals
the truth of God to us. They that worship God, our Lord
said, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Again, all I am
is darkness. I don't know how to worship God
in spirit and in truth. How do I do that, Lord? Christ
is the one that reveals it. Christ is the one that gives
his spirit. Christ is the one that reveals
the truth of God in our hearts. He makes us to know it and it's
through this message that John is speaking of here, that all
these brethren are speaking of here recorded for us in the scripture. God being light, speaks to our
God's perfection, our God's purity, our God's holiness, our God's
righteousness. And in him is no darkness at
all. And so I want to hear Christ,
you want to hear Christ, because we need to hear him because that's
how he drives that darkness away. It's Christ that removes that
darkness and gives us light. That's how he makes known to
his people who are but darkness, who the true and living God is.
This darkness, it's me. It's what I am by nature. It's speaking of my sin. It's
speaking of my sinful nature that I'm born with, that I walk
in every day of my life by nature. All that I am in this flesh,
all that I am in religion, all that I am in this world is darkness. So I don't know how to worship
God in spirit and truth who is light. I don't know him. I don't
know him. I'm nothing but darkness. The
only thing that removes this darkness is the blood of Christ,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood removes the sin and
it makes us the very righteousness of God in him so that Those who
come to the Father in the blood of Christ are accepted of God. They are received into God's
presence. They dwell in the presence of
God all the days of their eternal life in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. So you want to hear this gospel
because it reveals Christ who reveals the Father to us. The
second point about this gospel, about this message, is that the
understanding and hope we have in this gospel, it's a revelation,
meaning God's got to reveal it to us. We want to hear it because
it's God who reveals the truth of this gospel to us in its fullness
and glory and makes us to know. through the preaching of this
gospel. John said, this then is the message which we have
heard of him. We've heard it from God. It's
revealed by God. He reveals this word and the
understanding of this word to his people. Paul calls this gospel
a revelation of the mystery of God. That's how he referred to
it. He said, At the end of Romans,
Romans 16, verse 25 and 26, now to him that is of power to establish
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ
according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret
since the world began. It was kept hidden. The nations
didn't know this. It was revealed. and revealed
in types and shadows and pictures in the law. And earlier than
that, it was revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and no one
else. Even as we've seen in Genesis,
Laban, he was aware of the God of Israel. Abraham, Jacob's grandfather,
but he didn't know him personally. He only knew a little bit of
him, but it was gone. He was blinded from that truth. And so this is a revelation,
revelation. Paul went on to say, it's now
made manifest. These scriptures of the prophets
are now made manifest according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, made known to all nations and for the obedience of faith. For the obedience of faith. And
so you're not going to know God except God reveal himself to
you in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't know him. I can't know
him. Except he revealed Christ to us. So we want to hear this
gospel because this is where the gospel mystery is revealed. It's where it's made known in
the face of Jesus Christ. He calls, our God calls his people
by the preaching of the gospel. We want to be here because this
is where faith is heard. Where unto he called you by our
gospel, Paul said, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Meaning, God uses this word,
he uses this gospel, and makes it effectual in the hearts of
his people. meaning He regenerates us, He gives us life from the
dead. He does that by the giving of His Spirit, who takes the
things of Christ and reveals them to us, and reveals them
in us. And the Spirit takes the blood
of Christ and washes us of our sins, covers us, our sin, with
the blood of Christ, so that we hear and rejoice in what He's
done for us. He does that. Now third, God
has revealed his salvation to his church for the purpose that
they would go and declare it. We don't take this mystery that's
been revealed to us and bury it in the dirt, in the ground. A picture of burying it in this
flesh and just putting it away and keeping it to ourselves.
No, this has been revealed to us to declare it, to make it
known to others. Paul said, to whom God would
make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
whom we preach. We preach Christ. We preach Christ
crucified, warning every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom. This is the wisdom of God. Who
is that? That's Christ. Our God makes Christ our wisdom
to know the true and living God that we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus. We may present all in Christ
Jesus. So don't put off the hearing of the gospel. Come and hear
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ because this is where
God manifests and reveals and blesses the hearts of his people,
opens their ear to hear what Christ has accomplished for them
by his death on the cross. All of us are sinners. None of
us is worthy of eternal life. But this is where he gathers
unworthy sinners and declares to them the good news of what
Christ has accomplished for them. And this is where he reveals
faith in that blessed word under the preaching of the gospel message.
So that's some things about this message that John speaks of here. Now I want to look at the message
that we're declaring. And I want to look at what is
this message revealing to us? What does God make known to us
in this message specifically? So let's look at verses six and
seven. John said, if we say that we
have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie. We're liars, 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. So here again, I want to give
you three things that are revealed unto us in the message of the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Three things. First, the preaching
of the gospel reveals what Jesus Christ accomplished for the church
in coming here, in taking upon him flesh and dying on the cross. What was he doing there? What
was he accomplishing for his people? Well, at the end of verse
seven, It tells us, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth
us from all sin. What our Lord is revealing in
the gospel is what Christ's death and his resurrection accomplished
for his people. He's letting us know. He's declaring
to us. He's telling us exactly what
Christ accomplished for us in his death. Sinner, this is good
news for the needy sinner. This is good news for you that
have labored and strove and spent and sacrificed and gave all these
things unto God in religion and could find no rest for your souls. Because you kept looking at your
works and thinking, maybe today this will be enough. Perhaps
this will finally do it. Maybe the Lord will give me comfort
and speak into my soul that I am His and put away my sin from
me forever. And you kept looking at your
works. And all the while, he's declaring, Christ, look to my
Son. He's the Savior. It's not your
works. It's not your sacrifices. It's
not your giving. It's not your giving up. It's
none of that. It's Christ. It's Christ Jesus
who gives us life, who put away our sin, who paid the debt that
we owed. We cannot wash away our sins. And that's what he's showing
us. In all the law, they never put away their sins. They sacrificed
tens of thousands and millions of bulls and goats and sheep
and cattle and doves nonstop. And none of it could put away
the sin of the people. But the blood of Christ, in one
death, one sacrifice unto the Father, he put away all the sins
of his people once and for all, forever. This is good news, brethren,
for polluted, vile, wretched sinners who cannot put away their
sin by their works. It'll never happen. But Christ,
he did it. It's finished in Him. He's able.
Our Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself to the Father, to His
Father on the cross, to obtain remission, forgiveness for the
sins of His people, so that the apostles went to the people and
said, Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Stop
looking to Moses and what you're doing under Moses, look to this
man. This is where the forgiveness
of sins is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And by him, all
that believe are justified from all things from which he could
not be justified by the law of Moses. The needy sinner hears
that and says, thank you, Lord. That is good news. Good news. That's exactly what
I need is the blood of Christ. Cover my sin, Lord. Save me from
my sins. Don't judge me according to my
sins. This flesh is wicked and vile. I don't want to do the
things that I do, but I don't know how to not do them. And
when I would do good, evil's right there with me. Who shall
save me? This wretched man who shall save
me from this death, I thank God for his son, Jesus Christ, who
gave himself and put away my sins by the death of himself
and the shedding of his blood unto you. This work is accomplished. It's not waiting on you. It is
accomplished already by the Lord Jesus Christ when he said, it
is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. It was done there. And God says,
declare this word, because his people hear it, and they are
set free from their sins, and set free from that bondage of
having to constantly labor and work. And oh, no, I've done it
again, and trying to fix it and make it right. You're never going
to make it right. We're going to sin. We still
are going to sin. I'm not saying that for you to
be encouraged in it, but we're sinners by nature. And when we
sin, we're gonna turn back to Christ and confess our sin to
Him and seek the forgiveness of God to help us, to be merciful
to us, to put away that rage and that fear and that worry. But Lord, don't let me be turned
back to dead works that can't save me. Save me in Christ right
now, Lord. Put away my sin in him. Cover me in his blood. And you
are. And that's why you pray it. That's
why you seek him and trust him, because you've heard the word. You that believe him. Then the
second thing that's revealed, that if we're going to have fellowship
with God and his people, it's going to be in Jesus Christ.
He's going to make that known to us through the gospel. Look
at verse six. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. In other words, our peace is
in Jesus Christ, not in our works, not looking to ourselves. It's
in Jesus Christ, the God man mediator whom the father sent
to reconcile us. To himself by the blood by the
death by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ He came
and redeemed his people he paid that debt believe him That's
the word that the Lord is declaring to us. We are sinners Christ
is the one who came as our shorty if you if you sign for a car
and If you go and buy a car and you won't get the loan because
they say you need a shorty, well, you got to get somebody that
will be shorty for you. And what that means is they're
saying I'm responsible. If they can't pay the debt, I'll
pay it. I'll cover the debt that they
owe. That's what Christ did. We cannot
pay the debt. Christ, our shorty, came and
paid all that we owe unto God so that holy justice is satisfied. He was taken. A ransom was found,
and the sinner goes free in Him. We go free from that. He paid
the debt. He settled the debt. In him,
therefore, Paul said, being justified by faith, by faith which is wrought
in us by the grace of God, by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand. and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Without Christ, there's no peace
with God. Without Christ, there's no access
to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us,
all things are delivered unto me of my Father. The first Adam,
who had all dominion, he just turned it right over to Satan.
But all dominion is given to Christ, the last Adam. And he
isn't turning it over. He faithfully accomplished that
work which the father sent him to do for his people. He said, no man knoweth the son
but the father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son. And he to whomsoever the son
will reveal him. We're in darkness. But Christ's
like turning on a light in a room that's nothing but darkness.
And that light shines forth. And then you see everything in
the room. You see all things clearly. That's Christ. That's
what he does. Then we see the true and living
God in the face of Jesus Christ, revealed in him. And so he says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. He is our rest, our peace,
our acceptance with God. Without Christ, that's where
we're walking in darkness. That's what he's talking about
there. Don't turn from Christ. Don't turn to dead religion and
try and soothe your conscience with works. That's walking in
darkness. Walk in Christ, trusting Him. Otherwise, it's darkness, we're
lying, and we're not doing the truth. In Christ, we have fellowship
with God, the light. Then third, in the preaching
of the gospel, our Lord reveals that in Christ our fellowship
with God shall be as new creatures. Look at 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 Now, if we're walking in the light, because that's
what I'm focusing on here, if we're walking in the light in fellowship
with God, it's because God has made us new creatures. That's
the only way we're walking in fellowship with God. We're born
again, new creatures, born of the seed of Christ. Paul said,
therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. What's the old things? The way we did it. We kept trying
to come to God in our works, in our religion. We just slapped
a bumper sticker that said Jesus over it, but it was still dead
works religion. We were still trusting our flesh.
But Christ delivers his people out of dead works, out of what
they're trying to do, and to trust Christ, to believe him.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. We're looking to Christ, trusting him. Our Lord doesn't
fix up and improve this old man of flesh. We're saved by faith. We walk by faith. We're saved
in hope. waiting upon that day when Christ
comes and raises this body up, a new body, a heavenly body that
will have no sin and won't sin against God. But until then,
we're walking by faith, trusting Him, because we see and feel
the infirmities of sin in this flesh, in our members. That's
because this old man, this flesh here, it's born of Adam's corrupt,
sinful seed. When Adam was in the garden and
he sinned against God, you and me were all in him. All the way
up from our father to grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather,
all the way back, it traces all the way to Adam. And when Adam
sinned, none of his kids were born yet. And so when he sinned,
He spiritually died. He became corrupted and defiled
and ruined so that all of us who come forth from him come
forth corrupt, ruined, vile seed. When he sinned, he died spiritually. And the day you eat of it, you
shall surely die. He died spiritually. And we died
spiritually. So when we come forth, we come
forth spiritually dead sinners. But he gives us life. We're born again by Christ's
incorruptible seed, the last Adam, who has all dominion. We're
born again of his incorruptible seed, so that as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, They are the sons of God. We're born
again. He gives us his spirit, makes us new, trusting Christ,
believing him. Now, in the beginning of the
message, I quoted the coming wrath of God that Paul quoted
from 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 7 and 8, when he said, when the
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, his mighty angels
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that 1. know not God
and 2. that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, this gospel is what
our God gives us to produce that knowledge of God and to obey
that faith that obeys the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. He produces that in us. So let me just give you three
brief things that speak to this from these verses here in 1 John
that speak to what our God produces in us who hear this word, who
believe Christ, So first, when God has made you to hear this
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I mean hear it according
to the Spirit, hear it in faith, you're going to first, you're
going to know that you are a sinner. You're troubled by your sin because
God makes you to know that you are a sinner. He does that to
make you to know your need, your desperate need of His grace. That's why He shows us our sin.
And it's in measure, thankfully. It is in measure. Thankfully,
I remember one time I asked to see the depths of my sin and
I said, Lord, stop, take it away because it was ugly. And I don't
want to see the depths of my sin. I know it's there. I see
enough of it all the time. So we're going to know that we
are sinners to know our need of His grace. Verse 8, 1 John
1 verse 8, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. All who believe Christ know I'm
a sinner saved by grace. I come short of the glory of
God. I've sinned against the true
and living God. And our God is not calling us
to pretend. I've dealt with that myself in
religion. I've met plenty of people like
that in religion, where you're playing a game, and you're trying
to pretend like you didn't sin, and it was just a mistake, and
you come up with other descriptions for it, and you justify it away.
No, we are sinners. Stop making excuses for it. We
sin in ways we don't even know that we sin. God isn't calling
us to play games and to pretend like we didn't do something.
We are sinners. We see it. We see it in the scriptures.
The scriptures show us constantly that all are under sin. That
we might hear the faith of Christ. That we might believe Him. Second, when God has made you
to hear this gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to
seek God's forgiveness. And he's gonna make you to know
your sinner, and you're gonna seek God for his forgiveness.
John says, verse nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And brethren, the true confession
is when the Lord shows you you're a sinner, And you see that all
my work, I've been trusting all my works, I've been looking to
myself to find a righteousness in me, to find a gap where I'm
not sinning and doing, thinking wicked thoughts or saying foolish
things. We're always looking for that
in religion. But the Lord shows us that That's
not my salvation. And when you've heard it, you're
going to stop looking to that. And well, you may continue to
do it because we still see that nature in us. But we're going
to see it. I'm doing it again. I'm looking
to my works. I'm looking to the flesh to find some peace. Lord,
turn me to Christ. And that's what he shows us.
He turns us from trusting dead religion and trusting our works
and casting all the burden of our care upon Christ and saying,
Lord, I don't even know the half of my sins. Lord, I trust you,
that as you say in your word, you put it away. Lord, I trust
you. And please keep putting it away.
And please keep growing me in grace. Please grow me in the
faith that you've given to your church, to your people. And don't
let me go, Lord. Keep me ever looking to Christ
and growing in Him." And that's the confession. That's what we're
saying when we confess Christ and believe in our heart that
God hath raised Him from the dead. That's the confession of
the believer. We're saying, I'm a sinner and
I can't do it. Because those that are trusting
their works don't confess Christ, not in that manner. They're still
hanging on to what they've done, and they're trusting those things. But the child of God turns from
their works and believes Christ, and seeks him, to know him more
and more. And then third, when God has
made you to hear this gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your
faith and hope rests, will rest, and does rest, and continues
to rest in Christ and Christ alone. Christ is all. And that's where we stay, fixed
in Him. And that's where the Lord's gonna
keep us, because in this flesh we will wander, we will look
away, we will think wicked thoughts. That is, we'll think that I can
soothe my guilty conscience if I do this good work. We'll turn
to those things, but it's God that will take that from our
hand and show us again, know all your salvation is Christ.
And he keeps us there. And that testimony... of trust
in Christ, that's a testimony that God has worked that in you.
That your hope in salvation is brought in you and born in you
of God and not of this flesh. And so John says in verse 10,
if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. We confess, I have sinned, I
cannot save myself, and Christ is all. He is the salvation the
Father sent. And we are told in Ephesians
2.10, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. And again, John 3, 21, But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Not in this flesh,
but in God. And so, it's God that does this
work in us. and will stay upon Christ. So
in summary, the message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's the light of God. And this
gospel message reveals Christ to us. And this gospel message
produces all those fruits. I'm the sinner. Lord, save me
by your son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, keep me right there. That's what he does in this word.
So I pray that that is a help and a comfort to your hearts,
brethren. in hearing this message and reading first john and and
just seeing it in that chapter because then that informs all
the rest of the verses that follow that you might struggle with
or stumble over or not sure what they're saying understand everything's
connected to the gospel And so it's not going to contradict
the gospel. And so if it appears to contradict the gospel, then
we're forgetting the gospel. And we just need, Lord, show
me this. Because I'm stumbling here. And
I'm looking to myself again. And that's not the Spirit. The
Spirit always testifies of Christ. Amen.