Would you turn in your Bibles
to First John, chapter five? While you're turning there tonight,
we're going to have a baptism. Michelle Grubb is going to confess
Christ in believers baptism, and that just rejoices my heart. I saw this little girl grow up.
She's a little girl and more, I don't guess, but I guess I'll
always see her that way. But. Claire Sharon. called me last
night, and we were talking about this, and I said, I wonder if
Donna knows about this, because you wonder what people know in
glory. And Claire pointed out where the scripture does say
there's joy in heaven over one sinner that repented. And I thought,
I guess probably the Lord told her. Isn't that special? And we're also going to observe
the Lord's table together tonight. I'd like to begin reading in
verse five of First John, chapter five. I'm sorry, First John, chapter
one. Verse five. This then is the message. That's what I have entitled.
This message, this then is the message. Which we've heard of
him. And declare unto you. that God
is light, and in Him is no darkness at
all. That's the message. God is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all. Now here's the application of
this message. John gives us five ifs. Let's go on reading. 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. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. This then is the message, not
a message, not one of many messages. This is the singular message. This is the only message. Anything that is contrary to
this message is error, is evil. This then is the message. John, by what authority do you
say that this is the message? He says, this then is the message
which we've heard of him. There's the authority. We heard
this from him. We heard this of him. He gave
us this message. And we declare it unto you. We don't tone it down. We don't
dress it up. We don't dress it down. We don't
embellish it. We declare it. That's all we
do. We declare the message that He
gave to us. Here is the authority. Here is
the authentication of this message. He who calls himself the light
of the world gave us this message. God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. God is. Prove it. Don't need to. Even if you struggle
with His existence, there's something in you that tells you that you
know He is. God is. God is as He says He is in His
Word. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous. God is love. God reigns. God is merciful. God is all-wise. God is everywhere
at once. God is. That's the message of
the Scripture. The message of the Bible is a
declaration of the is-ness of God. God is. God is light. The light being spoken of, that
God is, is not what we call light, made of particles and waves coming
from the sun and the stars. He covers himself with that light
as a garment. That's how glorious he is. That
light, the brightness of the sun, would be a covering to him
of his light. Somebody says, can you explain
that? No, I can't. But God is light. When the Lord appeared to the
Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, he appeared as a light from heaven
above the brightness of the sun. Now, we can't tell what the substance
of this light is any more than we can tell what the substance
of God is. But they're one and the same.
God is light. Light is clear. Light is transparent. Light is that which is absolutely
pure. absolutely pure, no shadow, no
darkness. Light is the naked and open truth. Nothing is needed to embellish
it. Nothing is needed to dress it
up or to dress it down. Light enables us to see things
as they really are. Whatsoever maketh manifest is
light. Light cannot be contaminated.
Light can come in contact with the dunghill and yet not contract
its filth. Light cannot be contaminated. Light speaks of God's holiness.
Light speaks of God's immutability. He cannot be changed, nor can
He change. He doesn't mutate. He always
is, I am that I am. And in Him is no darkness at
all. Now this then is the message
that we've heard of Him. This is the message we declare
to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. No shade of sin or unrighteousness
or mutability. He is whole. You see, God is
not part this and part that and the sum of the parts make the
whole. God is wholly sovereign. God is wholly just. God is wholly
merciful. God is wholly gracious. God is
wholly love. God is. God is light. He's called the father of lights
in whom is no variable. Neither shadow of turning. You see, there's no darkness
in his salvation. No lessening of perfect justice
in forgiveness. There's no letting sin go unpunished. There's nothing shady about him. He doesn't punish for the same
sin twice. He doesn't punish the innocent.
He only punishes the guilty. He doesn't let the guilty go
free. All guilt is punished. You see, God is absolutely righteous. God is absolutely just. There's
nothing shady. There's no shadow. There's nothing
unrighteous in his salvation. You know, we were talking about
this in Sunday school class this morning, and this was such a
blessing to think about. How many times I've said in the past,
heard it, said it, justification is just as if you never sinned.
Now, there's a problem with that. You know what the problem with
it is? you sinned. That's not what justification
means. Justification does not mean just as if I never sinned. Justification means I never sinned. That's how I stand without guilt
before God. I never sinned. Now, God is light. In him is no darkness at all.
There's no darkness there. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Turn to John chapter eight. Now, remember the verse I opened
with. Verse 12. Then spake Jesus again
unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. Now, I love the
context of this statement our Lord makes of himself. Let's
look in verse two of John, chapter eight. And early in the morning, he
came again 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
sent her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman
was taken in adultery. In the very act, we caught her
red-handed. You can't help but wonder where
the man was in all this. Why didn't they bring him in?
He was just as guilty as she was. Now, Moses, verse 5, in the law,
commanded us that such should be stoned. Now, she was caught red-handed.
There's no doubt about her guilt. She was caught. And God's holy
law commands that the adulterer be stoned. But what sayest thou? This, they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him. Well, what a bunch of idiots,
really, thinking they can twist what the Lord said, they're talking
to omniscience and they think they can trap him in his words.
They thought. If he. Let her go free, we can
say, where's your respect to the word of God, the word of
God commands that she be stoned and we've got him there, we can
say, where's your respect for the word of God? But if he condemns
her, we can say, I thought you were merciful. I thought you
were gracious. We got him trapped any way you look at it. He can't
get out of this. They thought they had omniscience
trapped. Verse six, but Jesus stooped
down. And with his finger wrote on
the ground. As though he heard the not, I
love thinking about that. You know, they had all their
important things they were saying the Lord wouldn't pay attention
to him. He wrote on the ground. And I like to think about what
he was writing. I feel quite sure. I can't prove it, but I
feel quite sure he was right. He was writing something. And
remember, it was the finger of God writing. I think he was writing,
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Verse 7, 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 stooped down and wrote on the ground. Now, two times
we read of the finger of God writing. The first was the law. Thou shalt not commit adultery. And the second time is there
in Daniel where that finger appears, the writing of God on the wall.
Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou art weighed in the balances
and found wanting. Verse 9, And they which heard,
being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. Now Holy Spirit
conviction would have brought them to Christ. But their own
conscience brings them away from it. 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, she
was guilty. She was caught in the act. Yet
the Lord said, I do not condemn thee. How can that be? Christ
is the light of how that can be. He's the light of the world. The only way you can understand
that, she didn't have anything to be condemned for. That's why
he didn't condemn her. The only reason the Lord wouldn't
condemn somebody is because they don't have anything to be condemned
for. Her sin became his. His righteousness is hers. She
never sinned. Nothing to condemn her for. Christ
is the light of the world as to how that can be. He's the light of how that publican
who beat upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The Lord says of that publican,
I say unto thee that he went down to his house justified. Justified. Never sinning rather
than the other. Christ is the light of the world. Now, God is light. And in him
is no darkness at all. There's even a shade of the indulgence
of sin or letting sin go by in any way or the shade of him punishing
for the same sin twice. Anything that could be unjust. That's not God, because God is
light. And in him is no darkness at
all. Aren't you glad it's that way? Now. For the application of all
this, John gives us five ifs. Three are bad and two are good. Back to 1 John 1. Three have
to do with what we say. Two have to do with what we do. Three are lies and two have to
do with honesty. Five ifs. Now this is the application
of this glorious message. God is light. And I find such
confidence in this. God is light. I don't have any
confidence in a salvation that doesn't magnify absolute justice,
absolute holiness, absolute righteousness. God is light. And in Him is no
darkness at all. Now, verse 6, 1 John 1, let me
get there, verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. If we say we have fellowship
with Him, a lot of people make that claim. I have fellowship
with God. I pray and He hears me. And he
speaks to me. I have fellowship with God, and
John spake of fellowship earlier in this chapter. Look what he
says in verse three. 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 this word fellowship means a sharing in common. And there
is a true fellowship between believers. It's a fellowship
of understanding and knowledge that only God, the Holy Spirit
can give. It's a. Fellowship of faith,
we believe same thing we believe, same gospel, we're looking to
the same savior, we're resting in the same righteousness, it's
a fellowship of faith and it's a fellowship of nature. Partakers
of the divine nature. It's a fellowship of true sympathy
and interest, a sharing in common, and it's a fellowship of joy.
Now, there's a real fellowship. But John says, if we say if we
say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie,
we deceive ourselves and we do not the truth. Now, most people,
when they look at that verse, they'll say, well, that's talking
about is someone who claims to be a Christian. And yet practices
some secret immorality in the dark that nobody knows about.
He's a hypocrite. He claims to be a Christian,
but underneath it all, he practices some secret immorality. Now,
that's wrong. If that's what you're doing,
that's wrong. May God give you grace. That's
wrong. But that's not what John's talking
about. When John's talking about walking in darkness, he says,
if I claim to have fellowship with him, if I claim to be a
Christian, if I claim to have fellowship with him and I walk
in the darkness of salvation by works. I'm a liar. My claim to fellowship
is an empty claim. Remember what our Lord said in
Matthew chapter seven? Many shall say to me in that
great day, not just a few, but many, many shall say to me, Lord,
Lord, have we not preached in your name? In your name, have
we not cast out devils? And in your name, have we not
done many wonderful works? Then shall I say unto them, I
never knew you. Never. I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now, these are people who made
a claim. I had fellowship with him. But
the Lord says to these people, I never knew you. Now, Christ says regarding the
claim of fellowship with him, if I walk in the darkness of
salvation by works in any way, salvation dependent on something
for me to do, that's what salvation by works means. It means somehow,
some part of my salvation is dependent upon me doing something.
If I walk in that darkness and speak in fellowship with God,
you know what I'm doing? I'm lying. It's a big, fat lie. It's hypocrisy. It's not the
truth. I'm not doing the truth. You know what you do when you
do the truth? You believe the gospel. Believing the gospel
is doing the truth. So if we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. We're not practicing
the truth. Verse seven. But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all
sin. Now, here's the second. If if
we walk in the light, The light of the gospel. The light of how
I can actually be not guilty because of what Christ has done
for me. The light of who he saves. He saves his people. He saves
the elect. He saves those who believe. The
light of how he saves. He saves by his precious blood.
The light of when he saves. Before time began. When I believe. When Christ died. All those are
true. The light of how He saves by His grace. If we walk in the
light as He is in the light. How is He in the light? If we walk in the light as He
is in the light. Now here's my light. As He's in the light,
I'm there with Him. That's my salvation. Being simply
in Him. As He is in the light, I'm there
with Him because I'm in Him. If He's there, I'm there. If
we walk in that light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another. You know, I can have sweet fellowship
and communion with anybody who believes that Jesus Christ is
their only righteousness before God. Anybody who really believes
themselves to be a sinner that has no righteousness in and of
themselves, that looks to Christ only as everything, well, I can
have fellowship with them. Now, somebody that doesn't believe
that way, I have nothing in common. Nothing in common. We believe a different gospel.
But that person who walks in the light, we have fellowship
with one another. And here's the light. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. It's not a denial
of sin, but the blood of Jesus Christ washes it away so that
we have no sin. That's our fellowship, is in
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the gospel of Christ. Now,
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another. I'm looking at some people right
now, I'm having fellowship with right now. We have a true sharing in common,
don't we? The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse eight, here's
the 30th. Now, God is light and in him
is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we're lying. But if we walk in
the light as he is in the light. Verse eight, God is light, in
him is darkness, is no darkness at all. If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Now, this third if is another
one of those if we say, if we say. Three if we say, two if
we do. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. Now this is in the light of the
gospel. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Now here the word sin is a noun. Down in verse 10 it's in a verb.
It has something to do with what we do, but here it has to do
with what we are. I'm talking about a sinful nature.
At no time can I say I have no sin because I've got this sinful
nature that's always there. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil. is present with me. Now, if I deny that in any way,
all I've done is deceived myself. And this is a scary proposition,
our ability to deceive ourselves, our ability to tell ourselves
a lie and make ourselves believe it. That shows the treachery
of the human heart. We can deceive ourselves. But
understand this. If we say we have no sin, a sinful
nature, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In our attempts at self-justification
and self-vindication, we deceive ourselves. And we've lost all
credibility. Somebody that can look at you
and say, I'm without sin, at least there. I was alright there. That person has deceived themselves
and don't pay any attention to anything they say. You know,
that's why it's kind of funny when people use religion for
their business, kind of like this is a Christian establishment,
therefore, you know, we're going to be more honest. I just know
that they're going to be the most dishonest ones of the bunch.
I mean, you can just write that down. It's always like that.
Watch out. Watch out when somebody comes
across, you know, in that real pious, you know, I'm no, no,
I don't believe you for a second. I'm not impressed with me, are
you? I'm really not. I'm not impressed with man's
religion. As a matter of fact, I think it's disgusting. It's
self-deception. Now, for the fourth, if I love
this, this is really what what inspired me to want to bring
this message is just meditating on this verse. If we confess
our sin. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we confess, not say we don't
have it. If we confess, now that word
confess has as its root meaning agreement. We agree with what
God says about our sins. It doesn't mean that you confess
each one individually. There's not enough time in the
day to do that. And it's equally true that most of the sins you've
committed, you don't even know they were sins. You weren't even
thinking about it. It's impossible for us to confess all our sins. But what we do, we agree with
God. We take sides with God against
ourselves. We agree with what God says regarding
us. We confess. our sins. We speak the same thing God says
concerning our sins. We agree with God's assessment
of us. Do you? Do you agree with God's
assessment of you? That's what it is to confess
your sins. Now this is what is so beautiful
about this. He says, if we confess our sins,
oh, may God give us the grace to do that even now. Confess
my sin before God to take side with God against myself. If we
confess our sins, he is merciful and gracious to forgive us of
our sins. Doesn't say that, does it? Doesn't
say that. It says if we confess our sins,
he's faithful. And just. to forgive us of our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, what's
this all about? He's faithful to forgive us of our sins. He's
faithful. I know what came to my mind.
I thought of Mephibosheth, one of my favorite characters in
the Bible. Mephibosheth, his name means shameful thing. He
was the son of Jonathan. You can read about this in 2
Samuel 9, where David said, is there any? that I can show the
kindness of God to in the house of Saul for Jonathan's sake. Now, what happened many years
before this, Jonathan and David made a covenant. Jonathan said
to David, I know that God is going to make you king of all
the land and every enemy is going to be brought before your feet
and you're going to reign without a rival. I know God's going to
put you in that. Here's what I want you to do.
After I'm dead and gone and you're ruling and reigning without a
rival. Remember my family. Show kindness
to my children. Promise me you'll do it. Promise
me you'll show kindness to my children." And David said, I'll
do it. David loved Jonathan. Many years have passed. David
is now reigning without a rival. And he says, is there any? in
the house of Saul that I can show kindness to for Jonathan's
sake. You see, David was going to be
faithful to his promise. And there was a servant who said,
well, there is one. His name's Mephibosheth. He's
lame on both his feet, he's not worth anything. He can't do anything
for you, he can't work. He was lame through a fall, you
can see the typical truth of that. David said, go fetch him
and bring him to me. And he looked, they bring Jonathan
before him. And he looked at Mephibosheth. He saw Jonathan's face, I have
no doubt. He thought about that covenant
he made with Jonathan. And he said, you're going to
eat at my table forever. He's faithful. He's not faithful
because you did something. He's faithful to the covenant
he made before time began. And the reason you're forgiven
is because he's faithful to that covenant. If we confess our sins,
you see, the reason you're confessing them is because he's been faithful
to his covenant. He caused you to confess them.
You wouldn't have done it if he wasn't faithful to his covenant.
He's faithful, and not only is he faithful, he is just. The gospel demands the complete
justification of everybody for whom Christ died. He's faithful
and he's just. You see, there's no shadow of
sinfulness. There's no letting guilt go unpunished. There's no punishment of the
innocent in the gospel. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. And if we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. There's justification.
And he's also faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, Lord, you said in your word,
take him up on this. Take him up on this, right? Everybody
in here, take him up. Lord, you said in your word, if we confess
our sins, you're faithful and just to forgive us of our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord, you said that in your word.
I'm confessing my sin. Forgive me. Cleanse me. That's the believer's response
to the gospel. If we confess our sins, if we
agree with what God says, he's faithful. He's just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now, here's the fifth. If we say we've not sinned. Three, if we say if we say we
have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, if we say we
have no sin and here if we say we've not sinned and here the
word sin is a verb. That means it has something to
do with what we do. regarding any action. I can't
say, well, I didn't see him there. Somebody says, well, I'm being
honest. No, you're not. No, you're not. I'm telling the truth now.
No, you're not. As long as you're in it, you
can't say I didn't see it. I'm preaching this message and
I believe, but I can't say I haven't seen in this message because
I preached it. That's that's the problem with it. If I'm in
it, Their sin, that means anything I do, I don't care what it is,
anything I do, there's sin in it. You believe that about yourself? Anything you do, like when you
pray, when we pray, maybe you'll be praying and all of a sudden
you forget what you're doing, you'll fall asleep while you're praying,
or maybe you have some kind of evil, sinful thought while you're praying.
You know, that's not the big problem. That's a problem, no
doubt. But the big problem is, I'm praying. That's what made
him sin. So John says, if we say we've
not sinned regarding anything that we do, we make him a liar
because he says we have. And his word is not in us. So these three, if we say, has
to do with lies, don't they? If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. We're not doing the truth.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And if we
say we've not sinned, we make him a liar because he says we
are. But if we walk in the light, God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. The light of the gospel. The
light of the gospel, how God can take me and make it to where
I have never sinned. My sin became the sin of the
Lord Jesus Christ when He was made sin. My sin. He was made
sin. And just as truly as He was made
sin, I made the very righteousness of God in Him. That's the gospel. Now, He's
the light as to how that can be. When I go home tonight, I can crawl into my bed knowing
of the sin and the sins I've committed
and yet know that I didn't commit them. That I'm without guilt before
God. That, my friends, is faith. Faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This, then, is the message. It's
the message. Any message that's contrary to
this message is wrong. Let's pray.