Let's look in 1 John. 1 John. Stomping to Kathy Bell and her
family's doing well and very thankful for that. All right,
I'm going to read these first seven verses again. I've read
them before, but we'll read them again. That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the
word of life. For the life was manifested,
this life, this word of life was manifested and we have seen
it. Bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was
with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father. and with
his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. 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, cleanses
us from all sin. Talking about telling me that
story, sweetest I ever heard, that's what John's doing here.
He's telling us about the Lord Jesus Christ, sweetest story
ever told. And my subject this evening then
is in verse five, verse five. This then is the message, 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. How did he get to this conclusion? He had been saying a lot of things
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He said He was the Word of Life.
He said He saw Him. He handled Him. His eyes looked
upon Him. We even touched Him with our
hands. The very Word of Life. And this Word of Life came into
this world. Was manifested. Manifested. Brought out. Whom God set forth. Predestinated. Foreordained. Set Him forth. Set Him forth
in His birth. angels declared his glory and
said unto you is born this day in the city of david a savior
which is christ the lord and then the wise men came and offered
gifts to him and then they had to take him into egypt and bring
him back out so he said this that eternal life that was with
the father that eternal life that was in eternity came down
here and was manifested unto us eternal life And eternal life
is not how long it's gonna be, it's the quality of it. It's
the very life of God himself. Everybody's gonna spend eternity. Everybody, once you become a
being, a soul, you're gonna spend eternity. You'll never go out
of existence. Never. Never, never, never. But life is in the Son of God. Life is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything outside of Him's death.
And He came to save us from the death that we was bound to die. And then He said, and how did
He get to this place we was talking about? That which we have seen
and heard, that's what we declare unto you. We're not telling you
anything new. We're not telling you anything
you've never heard. That's what He's saying. He said, this is
what I told you about in my whole epistle. I told you about the
life. I told you about that light that
was the light of men and was the life of men. how that God
came down, the Word came down here and dwelt among us. And
then he goes on to say, and we do this, we declare this unto
you that you also may have fellowship with us, union with us, communion
with us, be one with us. And then he said, if you have
this fellowship with us and this union with us, and you know who
our fellowship really is and truly, our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We're in union
with the Father and the Son, made accepted and the beloved.
That's what our Lord Jesus said. And he said, I saw it again today
in John 12. He that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. He that
believeth on me, believeth on him that sent me. And he says,
no man has ever seen the Father except by me. No man can come
to the Father but by me. And he said, told Philip, said,
Philip, when you've seen me, don't you know you've seen the
Father? So they have this blessed union, the Father and the Son
does. And then he says, our fellowship is with both of them. We're one
with both of them. You can't be one with the Father
without being one with the Son. And if you're one with the Son,
you're one with the Father. Our Lord, when He prayed for
us in John 17, that's when He said, Father, that they may be
one as we are one. And then he says this, and these
things write we unto you that your joy may be full. And boy,
when you start hearing that message, you start hearing this blessed
gospel. It brings joy. Blessed is the
people who know the joyous sound. It brings joy. It fills us with
joy. And then he says, and now, so
this then is the message. I'm gonna tell you what the message
is. And this is what God taught us. This is what we heard of
Him. We heard this of Him. And this is what we're going
to do. And it's always a declaration. He said, we declare unto you.
We declare unto you. We're not going to debate with
you. We're not going to argue with you. We're not going into
a counseling session. We declare. The gospel, the truth
of Christ is a declaration. It's a declaration. And this
then is the message we have heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light. God is light. You know, man in
his fallen nature has always put himself first. In his fallen
nature, he always puts himself first. It's just natural for
him to do that. It's water to run downhill. He
puts himself first. His thoughts his opinions, his
feelings, his rights. Man always, natural man is always
putting himself first. It's what I think, it's my opinion,
it's my feelings, it's my rights. And no matter what you say, they
always gonna hold to that. They always, and then if you
ask them, well, do you know God? They say, well, yeah, of course
I know God. They presume that they know God.
You say, well, what's he like? Well, of course he's a God of
love. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. But in
light of man, so in love with himself and his opinions and
his thoughts and his rights. So used to putting himself first
and preachers put man first. The average preacher puts man
first. The average preacher wants man
to feel important. Want man to feel welcome. Wants
man to feel good about himself. Wants people to walk away feeling,
boy, I did God a great favor today. I patronized God in the
church. So they want to go away feeling
good about themselves. But God said here and John said
here, this then is the message that we've heard of him and declare
unto you that God is light. He didn't say love. God is light.
God is light. And the message and the Bible
has always, always started with God. And that's what the message,
and this destroys this idea and this concept that man is first. Man's not first. God was before
there was ever a man. Before God ever took a piece
of clay out of the ground and fashioned it into, put it on
the wheel and made a man out of it. God was, God is, and God
always will be. And John says, this is the message.
God is light and no darkness. And that's what we declare unto
you. Now, when he says God is light, he didn't say not a light,
not one of the lights. He didn't say he's the light.
He said, God is light. That's his nature. He's light. And this word light is the same
word For holiness, purity, transparency, clearness. And I want to show
you a couple of things. First of all, look in John chapter
1. John chapter 1. John chapter
1. Oh, God is light. And that's the same thing as
saying that He's holy. And He even dwells in a light
that no man can approach unto. And when he took Moses upon the
mountain, he said, Moses, don't let anybody come near. I'm holy
and that people can't even come near to me. If I ever speak to
anybody, I got to speak to them through somebody else. Cause
if they see me or hear me, they can't live. They can't live.
Look, excuse me. Look what it says here in John
1.6. Look here. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light. See how that's capitalized? That's
talking about a person. light. You don't find, I don't
capitalize light when I write it, do you? But this book does. You know when John said he came
to bear witness of the light that all men through him, see
he's talking about a person through him, might have life, might believe. He was not that light, again
capitalized, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That
was the true light which lighteth ever man that was in the world. cometh into the world. So he's
talking about a person. Then who is he talking about?
God over here, same one. God who is life. Look in John
3. Let me show you something here
in John 3. Let's look at this just a minute. John 3, 19. John
3, 19. And you know light dispels darkness. You know if you get in a dark
place, you turn on your light, then you go looking for a flashlight
for light to look in the dark places. And light dispels darkness. When you turn on the lights,
darkness has to flee. And if God's pleased to turn
on the light, darkness has got to go. But it don't always go. But look what he said here in
verse 19 of John 3. And this is the condemnation
that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. Now let me tell you something,
here's the thing, light come into the world and men love their
darkness. Now here's the thing about it,
light can come and shine on darkness and the light shining on darkness,
it The light is on that darkness, but that darkness don't know
that that light's turned on it. And the light's unaffected by
the darkness. And sometimes the darkness is
unaffected by the light. And so Christ came into this
world as light, and He dwelt among everybody's in darkness.
He dwelt among people that were sinned, and He died for sinners,
and He was totally unaffected by anybody He was around. He
touched a leper and never had leprosy. If I did, I'd contract
leprosy. But our Lord Jesus Christ could
touch a leper and the leper would be healed and he wouldn't have
no leprosy. You know why? That's what he said. Men love
darkness rather than light. The light's there. In the light,
darkness understands that the light's there. But I like it
dark. I like it dark. My mother, bless
her heart, she sat in the dark for years. She'd turn off all
the lights and sit with nothing but television on and just sit
in the dark. She loved to be in the darkness.
Man alive, pay the light bill, turn them on. Let's see what's
going on around here. Man alive, can't even find your
way to the bathroom if you ain't got lights. And that's what he
said here. He said, man, the light's there.
The darkness sees it, but listen. Listen, I like my darkness and
look what he goes on to say that everyone that doeth evil Look
what he said. He hates the light Hates it me
and say I don't hate God. Well here he says he does Here
it says he does and look what he says neither cometh to the
light and here's the reason why lest his deeds Be reproved unless
they have to admit I'm everything the light says that I am But
he that doeth the truth, listen to this, he that doeth the truth
comes to the light. Oh Lord, oh give me that light,
the light that his deeds may be manifest that God did this
in me. God turned on the light, God
brought this in me. And I want to come to the light
and I want everything to be transparent because God is light and I know
that he sees everything there is about me. So okay, now, back
over here. God is light. And I'll tell you
something, beloved. He created light. He created
the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and daylight for the world
to be able to see. And I'll tell you what, and I'm
gonna show you some things. I know we're gonna look at some,
but look over, you know, David said it this way while you turn
to Psalm 36. David said it this way, the Lord is my light, my
light and my salvation. Look at Psalm 36.9. Psalm 36.9. The Lord is my light and my salvation. This is it right here. Look what
he says here. Psalm 36.9. For with thee is
the fountain of life. Oh, fountain. fountain of life. Now listen to this, in thy light
shall we see light. When you turn on the light, that's
the only time we'll ever see any light. It's only in the light
that you give us can we see light. He has to give us light to see
light. He has to give us grace to see
grace. He has to give us He has to give
us salvation for us to understand what salvation is. If God didn't
give us light, we wouldn't see the light. Is that not right? If you've ever been in darkness,
you know what I'm talking about. Look in Psalm 97 and verse 11.
97, 11. Oh, this is an incredible verse
right here. Look what it, it's in capitalized,
light's capitalized here, Psalm 97, 11. Look what he says, light
capitalized. It's sold for who? For the righteous. Oh, how did he so light? He just
turned on the light on all his people. Sold light all around
them. And look what he says now. And
God not only did sow light, sown for the righteous, and gladness
for the upright in heart. So you see, he sowed right light
for us, for the righteous. And so back over here again in
our text, and I'll tell you, when it says God is light, it
says God is holy. That's what that means. God is
holy. God is holy. In Isaiah 6, how many times have
we looked at? When the seraphims, they cried,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
our God. In Revelations, it's holy, holy,
holy is the Lord our God. That's just like saying light,
light, light. But I tell you, none of the other
attributes of God is ever mentioned in threes. He never mentions
God is love, love, love. He never mentions God is mercy,
mercy, mercy. But he says God is holy, holy,
holy. And when you find out he is holy,
you do exactly like Isaiah did and he cried, Oh Lord, woe is
me. That's the first thing that happens
when the light's turned on. And John's saying here, if you
know God, this is the way it happens. You see God, His light,
as holy, as glorious in His being. Huh? He is holy and is a light
in the Bible. This is what's so precious about
God's blessed word. It always starts with God. You go through this blessed book
and if God starts with himself and then he goes downward towards
man. In the beginning, God. Paul said,
we're bound always to thank God. God who has from the beginning
chosen you. And here he starts out God. God,
everything starts with God. The Bible starts with God. And
if he doesn't give us light and turn on the light for us and
make himself known, he won't be known. And it's not the preacher's
ability. John said he wasn't that light.
He'd come along and said, I'm not that light, but he's the
light. Now who in the world needs light? Who needs light? Where
do you need light? Wherever there's darkness. People
not in darkness don't need no light. You start getting around
folks not in darkness, they don't need no light. My children don't
need no light. My grandchildren don't need no
light. They've got it all figured out. They've got all the answers.
But boy, you find folks, beloved, that God turns on the light to,
they throw up both hands and say, oh! Oh, I tell you what, bless his
name. That's what John's saying. This is the message we've heard,
and this is what we're teaching you. This is what we declare
unto you. And if we don't know God is this way, holy, God is
the light, if we don't know God like this, we won't never, nobody
will ever understand the coming, why Christ came into this world.
If you do not see God as light and God as holy, we'll never
understand why Christ came into this world. We'll never know
why the word was manifested. We'll never know why the life
was manifested. We'll never know why they saw
him and they handled him and they touched him. We'll never
know what that means for Christ to come unless we know that God
is light and God is holy. We'll never understand that.
And that's why people don't. They think Jesus just came here
to do a pretty good job of trying to get folks in the notion of
loving Him and liking Him. But that's not what He come for.
And because God is like, that's why Christ came into this world.
That's why the life was manifested that was with the Father. And
if we don't see God as light and see God the way He is, we
won't understand man's hatred and rejection of Him. I just
read it to you there. The light shined in the darkness,
and the darkness seen it, but they said they hated the light. They hated the light. And we'd
never understand man's awful depravity and awful sinfulness
if we didn't see God as light. How many people in this building
tonight understand because God is light how desperately, desperately
we need the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I need Him. I need Him. He's light. I'm not. He's light. He's holy and I'm
not. He's everything that I'm not,
so how in the world am I going to come into His presence? Because
these men, they see the light and they hate it. They say, let's
leave me in my darkness. And I'll tell you surely, surely,
if men does not see God is light and God is holy, They could never,
ever understand the cross and our Lord Jesus Christ's death
on that cross, apart from God being light. Why did Christ come? Why did he go to a cross? Why did he die an awful, shameful,
horrible death? rejected of God and rejected
of men. Why would he do that unless God
was light? Huh? And that's what he goes
on to say here then, you know, in verse 6, he said, if we say
that we have fellowship with Him, if we say that God fellowships
we, this God who is light, and we have fellowship with Him,
and we have union with Him, and God has fellowship with us, and
we go ahead and walk in that darkness when God is light? John
said, Oh, listen, you can't possibly do that. You'd be telling a lie
to walk on in the darkness of sin and rebellion and walk on
in this idea of God having no power, no rights, no authority. The blood of Christ don't actually
put away sin. When He says that this is, and
that's what He said in the next verse. He said, and if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we'll have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, cleanses
us from all sin. And men won't understand if you
don't see that God is light. But oh, listen, because of that,
we see, we understand why Christ came. Why men hate Him and reject
Him. And look what He says here. This
then is the message. This is the message we've heard
of him. And declare unto you that God is light. It's not debatable. God is. And where is the only
place, the only place where we can see that God is light and
live? You know where it's at? Second
Corinthians chapter four. This is the only place you can
see God in light and as light and live, and enjoy Him, and
see His glory, and have life, and be able to have union and
fellowship with Him. Oh, my. And this is the first
thing in knowing God, knowing that He's light, that He's holy.
That's why Isaiah said, if they speak not according to this word,
this testimony, it's because there's no light in them. But
look what he said here in 2 Corinthians 4. bid our gospel be hid. It's the same thing, say it,
that the light shined in darkness, hid to them that are lost. They'd
rather stay lost. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Now listen
to this. Lest the light, the light, the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ. There's a light in the gospel.
God turns on the light in the gospel. God shines the light
in the gospel. And it's the gospel of Christ,
and He's the image of God, which should shine unto them. And so
that's where we see God's light. We see it in our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the very image of God. For
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and to
ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. Now listen. God
who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness now listen
to it now has shine in our hearts to give the light of what knowing
God knowing God and his glory we're at when you look at Jesus
Christ I just, oh my goodness, what
a blessing. Oh, I love it, don't you? I love
this glorious gospel. And then it said, in him is no
darkness at all. In him is no darkness at all.
None whatsoever. None whatsoever. Let me tell
you, when it says there's no darkness at all in him, that
means that there's You know, you can't have light and darkness
at the same time. If there's light, darkness got
to go. If there ain't no light, you're
in darkness. And since God is light, there can't be any darkness
in him. It'd be impossible for there
to be any darkness about him. And let me tell you some things
he cannot do. And I know it's, I don't like talking about what
God cannot do, but I do know what the scripture says he cannot
do, because there's no darkness in him. He cannot lie. He cannot
lie. He cannot lie. Secondly, He cannot
change. He's immutable. His Word, He
cannot change His Word. He cannot change His Law. And He cannot change His Gospel.
And He cannot change His Covenant. And He cannot change His relationship
with His people. He cannot do that. He can't do
it. He can't do it. And I'll tell you something else.
He cannot be tempted. God cannot be tempted. Look back.
James is right over to your left. Two books. You got Peter and
then go to James chapter 1 verse 13. He cannot be tempted. I remember
years and years ago, first learned the gospel, we all learned the
gospel together and there's a fella got in trouble, got in trouble
and he said, well, he said, you know, he said, you know, if God
let me do that, you know, and God let me, do this and do that
and the other and he's blaming his sin on God and the sin that
he got into. And I told him, I told him flatfooted,
I said, don't, whatever you do, don't blame God for your sin. He came to put sin away. And
if there's anything wrong in your life, we're the one that
does it. And if there's anything right
in our life, God's the one that does it. And that's why we go
to Him, that's why we come to Him, that's why we trust Him,
that's why we look to Him. Because we know what we are,
but we also know who He is. And I'd rather have Him knowing
who I am, wouldn't you? When I fall, who's gonna pick
me up? God is. That's why David said, when my
foot had well and I slipped, said the Lord held me up, wouldn't
let me fall. And oh, look what James said
here in verse 13, 1-13. Let no man say when he is tempted. Now, we're gonna have temptations.
There ain't no doubt about that. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man. God don't do that. And I'll tell you something else
he cannot do. He cannot deny himself. wherever he lives, wherever
he abides, wherever he dwells. And I tell you what, all of us,
we've been like Simon Peter, we've denied him. But did our
Lord deny Simon Peter? You know why he didn't deny Simon
Peter? Because he'd have to deny himself if he let Simon Peter
fall. And when God got one of his elect and that, he cannot
deny himself. He couldn't deny himself when
David was in the arms of Bathsheba. Now you think about that a minute.
Because if he did, if he denied himself, he'd have to deny David.
He'd have to deny me or you. He can't. If we're one of his,
if he's ever gonna deny something, he'd denied me long ago. But
he can't deny me. Why can't he? There's an old
hymn that we used to sing all the time. I will not be denied. And God will not deny his people.
He won't do it. He won't do it. All right, now
I'm gonna wind it up right here. Here's what I'm gonna say, three
things, it's gonna sound odd. He cannot not be holy. He cannot
not be holy. He cannot not be unjust. He cannot
not be perfect. And you know what God did to
save the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road? You know what
happened? He shined a light on him above the brightness of the
sun. He found out that God is light,
and the light was so bright that it blinded him. And oh, what
a blessing. Clay Curtis preached on that
one time here. Blessed blindness, where God
blinded Paul on the Damascus Road. And he said, blessed blindness. Boy, God blessed him to blind
him when he put him down. And it was a light that God turned
on him. A light. God, who hath delivered
us from darkness and translated us into his marvelous light. Oh, Father, oh, Father, our God,
we can't just, we're inadequate, just so inadequate. No wonder
the apostle said, who is sufficient for these things? Utterly inadequate. to talk of you the way you ought
to be taught. Think of you the way you ought
to be thought of. Speak of you the way you ought to be spoken
of. But oh, Lord, we certainly love trying. We certainly love
talking about you. And God bless this word. May
it be strengthening, encouraging, and edifying, and uplifting.
May it be instructive. And Holy Spirit, you're the only
one that can make it effectual. We ask it in Christ's holy name.
Amen. Amen.