Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now, here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. In 1 John 1, verse 5,
John, speaking under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, said,
This then is the message. I've entitled this morning's
message, This then is the message. Not because I say it is, but
because God says it is. This then is the message. Not a message, or one of many,
but the message. only message, anything that does
not line up with this singular message is wrong. This, then, is the message. John, upon what authority do
you speak to make such a claim, this, then, is the message? Well, let's go on reading. This
then is the message which we've heard of Him. This is His message. He gave us this message. It has divine authority behind
it. This message have we heard of
Him. And next He says, we declare
it unto you. Our job is simply to declare
this message. We don't hide it. We don't tone
it down with words of man's wisdom. We simply declare it. And here
it is. Listen real carefully. This then
is the message which we've heard of him and declaring to you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now, there is the message that
summarizes the message of this book, of all divine truth. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. God is. The Bible is a declaration of
the is-ness of God. God is. He is as He says He is
in His Word. He said, I am that I am, not
I would be, could be, should be, or want to be, or will be.
I am that I am. God is. God is holy. Someone
says, what's that mean? That means He's not like me and
you. Huh. He's other. He's separate. God is just, altogether
righteous. God is sovereign. That means
He controls everything. God is all-powerful. We could go on and on with what
the Scripture declares God is. God is love, not His love and
God fits that definition. No, God is love. God is, and
according to this Scripture, the summary of it all is God
is light. Now, the light being spoken of
is not what we call light, made of particles and rays coming
from the sun and the stars. The Scripture says he covers
himself with that kind of light as a garment. That's not the
light being spoken of. You know, when the Lord appeared
to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, he appeared as a
great light from heaven above. the brightness of the sun. Now,
I can't imagine a light above the brightness of the sun, but
such is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we cannot tell what the substance
of that light is any more than we can tell what the substance
of God is. But they're one and the same.
God is light, transparent, utterly pure. That which is absolutely
pure is light. God is light. God is the pure
and the naked truth. Nothing is needed to embellish
Him, to dress Him up or dress Him down. God is light. And light enables us to see things
as they really are. Now, by nature, we don't see
things as they really are. But God is light. He's the light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And light
cannot be contaminated. Light can come into contact with
the dunghill, yet not be contaminated by it. Light speaks of God's
immutability, His holiness. He can't be contaminated. He
can't be impure. He's absolutely light. He can't
change or be changed. He can't mutate. He never needs
to respond. God is light. And in Him is no
darkness at all. No darkness of sin or unrighteousness. or mutability, he is whole. He's not part this or part that
with the sum of the parts making the whole. He's not part merciful
and part just and part gracious and part of all that coming up
to make God. No, not at all. He is whole. Everything he is,
he is holy. He's holy sovereign in all things. He's holy, holy. He's wholly
just. He's wholly merciful. He's wholly
gracious. He's wholly all-powerful. All
He is. He is wholly. He's the Father
of life in whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. And there's
no darkness in His salvation. No lessening of perfect justice. In forgiveness, there's no letting
sin go unpunished. In His death, there's no punishing
for the same sin twice, first at Him and then at somebody else's.
There's nothing of him punishing the innocent and justifying the
wicked. The gospel is a thing of absolute, perfect righteousness,
no loopholes, no shadow of darkness, no minimizing or passing over
absolute justice. There's perfect fairness and
perfect equity, no minimizing of the consequences of sin. There
is no indulgence in grace. In Him is no darkness at all. Absolute, pure justice and righteousness. Now, what does all this mean?
In John chapter 8, verse 12, the Lord made this statement
regarding Himself. He said, I am the light of the
world. God is light. And in him is no
darkness at all. And Christ said, I am the light
of the world. Now, the context of this is very
important. He says this right after this
took place. Verse 2 of John, chapter 8, And early in the morning
he came into the temple, and all the people came unto him,
and he sat down and taught them, and the scribes and Pharisees.
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had
set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman
was taken in adultery in the very act. Now, one wonders where
the man was at this time. Why did they bring the woman
and not the man? Well, these were scribes and
Pharisees. This was a setup. And they thought they could trick
the Lord. They thought they could trick omniscience. They thought
they had Him in a corner He couldn't get out of. Now look what they
said. They said, Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such
should be stoned. Indeed, adultery is a great evil. And God did command that the
adulterer be stoned. And this woman was taken in the
very act, and she deserved to be stoned. That's what God's
law says. Now, Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should
be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him,
that they might have to accuse him. Now, they thought they had
the Lord in an unanswerable situation. Moses said that such should be
stoned." Now, what do you say? If you say, go ahead and stone
her, we can say, I thought you were compassionate. I thought
you were gracious. I thought you were merciful.
Why are you saying to stone her? If you say, set her free, we
can say, well, where's your respect for the law of God? You don't
respect the Bible. The Bible says to stone her.
And you say, no, we've got you trapped. They said, tempting
him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down. And with his finger wrote on
the ground as though he heard them not." What's he writing? We don't know, but let me do
a little bit of speculation. He's writing with his finger.
I believe he was writing as God wrote with his finger in the
Ten Commandments, thou, shall not commit adultery. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that's without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stood down and wrote
on the ground. Now there's one other time in
the scriptures where we read of the finger of God writing
something. It's found in Daniel chapter
6, where it says, Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Thou shalt not commit adultery,
a sin of which every one of these men were guilty, if not literally,
in their hearts. And it's the same thing. The
Lord said, Whoso looketh upon a woman to lust after hath committed
adultery already with her in his heart. These men were adulterers. They were hypocrites. The Lord
said, Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. If
you are free of this, go ahead and cast the first stone. And
again, he stood down and wrote on the ground, and they which
heard, being convicted by their own conscience, not by the Holy
Spirit, but by their own conscience, because if they were convicted
by the Holy Spirit, they would come to the feet of Christ, but
they leave him. They which heard, being convicted by their own
conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even
into the last, And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing
in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself
and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more." Now, how
is it if this woman was guilty? She was caught in the act, and
yet the Lord says, I do not condemn thee. The only reason that Jesus
Christ can say, I do not condemn thee, is because there's nothing
to condemn her for. She stands not guilty before
God's holy law. Now, the only way that can be
understood is in light of the gospel. And right after he said,
I do not condemn you, he said, I am the light of the world. I am the truth regarding how
that can be true, that this woman who was guilty can be not guilty. It's what the Bible calls justification. Justification means you're not
guilty. I've heard people define justification. It's just as if I'd never sinned.
No, it's not just as if I'd never sinned, because if it's just
as if I never sinned, that means I still sinned. Justification
is, I never sinned. The reason the Lord did not condemn
that woman is because there was nothing to condemn her for. That
is what the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ does. You see, my
sin became His, so that He became guilty of it. And God's wrath
came down upon Him. The sin-bearing substitute. God
took my sin, placed it upon Him. It became His. The Scripture
says He was made sin. And my sin was punished. And
that perfect obedience, just as truly as He was made sin,
I made everybody He died for, everybody He represented, all
who believe, are made the very righteousness of God. They are
not guilty. Is God guilty? Is Jesus Christ
guilty? Absolutely not. We're made the
very righteousness of God in Him. Now, this is how that publican
can beat on his breast and cry, God be merciful to me, the sinner,
and Christ can say regarding that man, I tell you that man
went down to his house justified, not guilty. He is the light as
to how that could be. God is light. And in Him is no
darkness at all. Isn't that glorious? Now, if
you go on reading in this passage of Scripture, John gives the
application of this. And he gives us five ifs. Three of which have to do with
what we say. Two of which have to do with
what we do. Three are lies. Two, are the truth. Three have to do with what we
say. Two have to do with what we do. Now let's look at these. He says
in verse 6, now remember he said this is the message, 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. Now, here's a claim. We have
fellowship with Him. I pray, He hears me. We have
fellowship. I'm close with God. We have fellowship,
one with another. I speak to Him, He hears. He
speaks to me, I hear. Now, if we make that claim, fellowship
with God, But walk in darkness, we lie. This claim of fellowship
is a lie. Like those of whom our Lord described,
many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
preached in your name? And in your name have we not
cast out demons? And in your name have we not
done many wonderful works? The Lord says, Then shall I say
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now, what is this thing of walking
in darkness? Does it mean someone who claims
to be a Christian and yet in the dark practices secret immorality
that nobody else knows about? And that's a bad thing. That's
a bad thing. I wouldn't justify that in any
way. But that's not what the Lord
is talking about. He's talking about claiming to
have fellowship with him and yet walking in darkness as to
how a sinner can be just before God. how a sinner can be righteous
before God. To claim to have fellowship with
God and to walk in the darkness of salvation by works, salvation
by free will, salvation by human merit, when I make that claim
of fellowship with God, it's nothing more than a lie. And
the truth is not in me if I make that claim. Now, here's the second
if. He says in 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, cleanses
us from all sin. Now, if we walk in the light
of how God saves sinners by Christ, how He makes them righteous through
the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ, If we
walk in the light that Christ is my righteousness before God,
and therefore I'm not guilty through Him, now all my sins
have been put away by what He did. You know, I can have fellowship
with that one who looks to Christ only as everything in their salvation. Now, I don't have any fellowship
with that one who's trusting their works. They're not even
being honest. But that one who looks to Christ
only, I have fellowship with that person. If we walk in the
light as He is in the light, How is He in the light? Oh, He
dwells in the light that no man can approach to, the Scripture
says. And I dwell there with Him. If He's there, I'm there
because I'm united to Him. I'm in Him. And that's how I
dwell in the light. As He dwells in the light, I
do too, in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have this fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin. Now, notice, He doesn't deny
the reality of sin. He doesn't say we don't have
any. He says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. He washes
away from all our sin. Here's the 30th, verse 8. If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth
is not in us. If we say we have no sin, Now, the word sin here is a noun. At no time in my experience can
I say, I have no sin, because I always have a sinful nature. Because my sinful nature is always
there, I always have sin. And for someone to say, well,
I have no sin, John tells us, They've deceived themselves.
Your self-deception is scary, isn't it? They've deceived themselves,
and the truth is not in us if we make that claim. We've lost
all credibility. And any time someone who says,
I have no sin, they're liars. They've deceived themselves,
and the truth is not even in them. Now, that's the third if.
Remember, this all has to do with the light. God is light,
in Him is no darkness at all. Now, if we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, the darkness is salvation by
works, we lie and do not the truth. If we walk in the light,
as to how God saves, we have fellowship with one another.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, if we say we have no sin,
if we go into that kind of darkness and that kind of lie, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. And this is one of my
favorite verses of Scripture, in verse 9, if we confess our
sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now,
what does it mean to confess your sins if we confess our sins? Now, the word confess means agreement. It means to speak the same thing. It's an admission of guilt. If
we confess our sins. Now, somebody says, does that
mean you need to confess each one of your sins individually?
Well, there's not enough time in the day for you to do that,
or for me to do it. Because every time we breathe, we sin. You
can't confess all your sins, because you don't even know what
they all are. Most of the sins we've committed, we don't even
know they're sins. That's how ignorant we are. It's not talking about
confessing each individual sin. Like I said, you don't have enough
time. But here's what it is. It's agreeing with God. It's
taking sides with God against yourself. It's agreeing with
what God says about your sin. It's guilty as charged. That's what it is to confess
your sins. Now, he said, if we confess our sins, look what it
says. It says he is faithful and just.
to forgive us of our sins. It doesn't say he's merciful
and gracious, although he is, but that's not what it says.
It says he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, what's that mean? He's faithful
to forgive us of our sins. He's faithful to do what he had
already decided to do. The best example, I think, of
this in Scripture is a man by the name of Mephibosheth. He
was the son of Jonathan, David's dear friend. You can read about
this in 2 Samuel 9. David and Jonathan were best
friends. And Jonathan knew that God was
going to make David king of all the earth. He knew that all of
David's enemies would be defeated. And he asked David, he said,
David, enter into a covenant with me. Make me this promise
that you'll always show kindness to my house. When God's cut off
all your enemies and you're reigning without a rival, be merciful
to my children. Years pass. David is now the
king of the world. Jonathan is long dead. And David
said, is there any that I can show kindness to, the kindness
of God to, for Jonathan's sake? He remembered that covenant,
that agreement that he made with Jonathan, and he was faithful
to keep that covenant. And God says, is there any of
the house of Adam that I can show kindness to for Christ's
sake? That's what God's faithfulness
is. And there was a servant who said, yeah, there's one left.
His name's Mephibosheth. That word means shameful thing.
And he's lame in both his feet. He's not worth anything. He can't
work for you. He can't do anything for you.
But he's of the house of Saul. David said, Go fetch him and
bring him to me. And he's brought before David,
scared to death. And David said, Fear not, for
I will surely show thee the kindness of God for Jonathan's sake. And Mephibosheth, that poor lame
man, was brought into the king's house. He stayed lame, but he
ate at the king's table for the rest of his life. Do you see
how David was faithful to do something for this man, for Jonathan's
sake? God is faithful to forgive sin
for Christ's sake. He's not faithful to forgive
sin because you confess. The reason you confess is because
he's faithful to his covenant. That's where your confession
comes from, his grace. He's faithful, but not only is
He faithful to forgive sins, He's just to forgive sins. In
other words, the justice of God demands the complete forgiveness
of sins of everybody that Christ died for. Their sins are paid
for. They're put away. And the very
law of God says, justify, cleanse it. Not only is He faithful and
just to forgive us of our sins, but the Scripture says He's faithful
and just to cleanse us. from all unrighteousness. One is justification, the other
is sanctification. He's faithful and just to do
this for us. Now, if we confess our sins,
if we take sides with God against ourselves, He's faithful and
He's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, here's the last if. Verse
10, if we say that we've not sinned, Now, here the word's
a verb. Remember in verse 8 it was a
noun, talking about a nature. But here it's a verb. If we say
we've not sinned, we make Him a liar. And His Word is not in
us. Now, anything that I do, including
this sermon, including my prayers, including my Bible reading and
my witnessing, including my efforts and desires, if I'm in it, it's
sin. I don't care what I do, it's
sin, because I did it. That sinful nature makes all
my actions sinful in and of themselves. And God doesn't accept my actions
for any other reason but the shed blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we say we've not sinned, we
make Him a liar, because He says we have. And His Word is not
in us. We've lost all credibility. And God is light. And in Him
is no darkness at all. And that light is the light of
how somebody like me can stand before God without guilt and
it be real, not unjust, no shade of darkness, but real through
the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ in my behalf. Now, we have this message on
cassette tape, on DVD or CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen.