1 John 1:5-10

God is Light and there is no darkness in Him.

The incredible mercy of God in coming to Him through faith in Jesus

All our sins are forgiven. What an awesome God!

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There was a verse that was not part of my message this morning. It came to me in an email this morning, and I want us to think of this as we go through a few verses in 1 John. This comes from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, chapter 9. Daniel is praying for himself and his people. If you will recall, they have been carried off to Babylon. The Babylonians have attacked and won the battle in Judah in 586 BC. And here is just one verse out of Daniel's humble prayer before the Lord. I want us, if you can, to keep this in mind as I preach this morning, chapter 9, verse 8. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame. To our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. That's a powerful verse. Powerful verse. Thank you, John, for reading our scripture this morning. John has a primary concern for the people that are reading his epistle, and it's about their true salvation and also and about the assurance of salvation. And that theme is found in chapter 5, verse 13, where he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Now, after opening up this section by looking at God's holiness, the remainder of the passage is shaped by three if we say comments, and each having a follow-up statement. Each time we read if we say, as John read this, we are introducing a false claim, but it is then followed by a statement of contrasting truth. Now, before we get into these various issues with us deceiving ourselves and needing to be redirected with the truth, I want to look at verse 5. I want to camp on verse 5 for just a couple of moments. As a reminder, it says this this is the message we have heard from him. That's from Jesus, and proclaim to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Here's what we read in the Gospel of John, where John is speaking of Jesus, found in chapter 1, verse 9. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. And a few verses earlier it says, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. What does this mean? Well, it means several things. We probably can't even exhaust all the things it means when we say God is light. In describing God as light, John is referring to the Lord's absolute pure morality and pure knowledge of all things. In other words, there is no moral defect in the Lord, nor is there a lack of knowledge in God. He is perfect in all of his ways, and he sees everything in the light of his shining brilliance. Nothing is hidden from his sight. You and I can hide nothing from God. All of our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our sins, both in word and in deed and in thought, are openly exposed to him because his light exposes all, and he will judge even our idle words, according to Jesus in Matthew chapter 12. So here's what God's judging of us in the light of his holiness, in the light of his truth, along with his full and complete knowledge of all things and his purity. Here's what it means. First, scripture is clear that judgment will bring to light, quote, things that are hidden in darkness. Here's what it says in 1 Corinthians 4 5. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. Second, every act. So not only every thought coming, emanating from our hearts will be judged by God, every act will be judged by God. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 14, we read this for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. This exposure of us by and through the light of Christ ensures that each person receives a just evaluation of their life, confirming that their standing before God is based on the light of pure truth rather than on human perception or desire. The holiness of God refers to the unparalleled majesty of his incomparable being and his faultless, unblemished moral purity. Unlike his created beings, that's you and me, God is eternal. He is preeminent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He was, is, and will be before all things. He is ageless, timeless, tireless, and faultless. He is beyond full human comprehension. Indeed, our language, at least my language, lacks the superlatives necessary to justly describe God who is light. But even as fundamentally flawed creatures, we should tremble in the light of his majestic glory. Here is one way in which we should find ourselves regarding his holiness, his purity, his perfection, and the pure light of his holiness and his glory. I'm reading from Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1 through 5. In the year that King Uzziah died, this is Isaiah speaking, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. Imagine this in your mind. High and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Continuing on, Isaiah says, And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Obviously, none of us have had the privilege that Isaiah had through this vision. But we have his word, and if we will allow ourselves to be taken away in our minds to see his temple and his surroundings, we too should find ourselves saying, perhaps even quaking in our boots, woe is me! I am a man or a woman of unclean lips. I honestly am unable to get across using words that I know to reveal any better to you about the light of Christ. But nothing else is so brilliant. Nothing else is so revealing. Nothing else compares to it or to him, because he is the light. John Phillips says in his commentary on his epistles of John, quote, what an amazing and wonderful thing light is. Darkness cannot drive out the light, but light can drive out the darkness. There can be no fellowship between light and darkness, and God is light. Another wonderful property of light is that it cannot be defiled. Think of this. Even though it passes, say, through a glass of muddy water, light is not changed. Light is not defiled. Moreover, light can and most certainly does reveal that very defilement. Also, life as we know it craves light. A plant will always turn toward the light and struggle to reach it. End quote. That's in part who He is: majestic, glorious, pure, untainted by any sin or evil, holy, vastly different from you and me, omniscient, all-knowing before time ever began. Omnipresent, everywhere at all times, seeing all things, both visible and invisible, merciful, holding back on our deserved punishment until he decides when that mercy stops or may not stop. Full of grace, sharing with us great gifts that we don't deserve. The first of which is in significance is our salvation. And he is patient, kind, loving, and just. This is the God in Christ that John reveals to us. In part, he does so that we may see his brilliance and at the same time our desperate need for a way to come back to him. But John wants to debunk any ideas that we may take. He wants us to take a deep look at ourselves to see if we are truly born again. Because all the things that happened to Isaiah when he saw God in that temple, as he humbled himself and looked at himself and said, What a sinner I am. God has made this great cavern between him and us. He has made a bridge, and that bridge is Jesus, who for those who believe in him and the work he did on the cross, your sins are wiped out. And even though you might say, and I might say and should say every day, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. We in Christ can turn to him and say, Lord, forgive me, help me, continue to be my Lord and Savior. And he will turn no one away. And your forgiveness is guaranteed, as we are going to see shortly. How is the believer to be? Instead of walking in darkness, we should be walking in the light of God's truth. Every day, Jesus expects his followers to practice the truth on a daily basis. That is, it should be my lifestyle, it should be your lifestyle. And let's look at the results of walking in the light as we go to verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Walking in the light, as opposed to walking in darkness, is a separated walk. It is a walk of holiness and helps to confirm a profession of knowing God personally. And what John tells us is that if that takes place, we will have fellowship with other believers. First part of this verse tells us once again that the root of our walking in the light comes from trying our best to emulate the character of God's communicable attributes. That is primarily his moral attributes, such as love, goodness, kindness, justice, truth, reason, grace, forgiveness, and mercy. If we strive for those attributes of his, which are, as theologians say, communicable, we can have those attributes, certainly not in perfection, but we can display them, then we are walking in his light. Is that how we desire to walk each and every day? In love, in kindness, in goodness, in justice, in truth, in grace, in forgiveness, and in mercy? I'll grant you that that's a tall order. But that should be our goal each day. Our head comes off that pillow. Now, this is important. This does not mean that our holy behavior earns us this cleansing that we're going to be reading about. No, walking in the light, as I've just described it, shows that we are among those who have already been cleansed by his blood. In other words, it is not good works that saves us. Jesus Christ died to save us. Our faith in him and the work that he did on the cross is what saves us. The response to that salvation should be how we walk. And the question for you and for me is do we walk daily in the light? And we can focus on one fact in this verse that it says we will have fellowship with one another. Acceptance of sin will kill fellowship. But true holiness unites us with fellow believers. But look at what else walking in the light does. Last part of verse 7. The blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus, of course, refers to his sacrificial death on the cross at Calvary, and the fact that his blood covers every single sin committed by every single believer. The blood shed at Calvary is fully and totally thorough, complete, and inclusive in that it also covers the sins of the entire world. Listen to what John says in the same epistle, chapter 2, verse 2. He tells us that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, means believers, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Propitiation, kind of a big word, is that which furnishes a reason for not executing a judgment justly due for wrongdoing. And specifically, what we learn in this verse and others, Christ Himself is the propitiation, because he, through his person and work, took our punishment so that we never suffer eternally for our lawlessness. Therefore, his life and his death furnish the only ground for the forgiveness of sin. But notice in the verse we are studying at the moment only those that are walking in the light, those who are truly born again, have all their sins cleansed from their lives. So understand this Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection was enough to He paid the price for the sins of the entire world. But only those that place their faith in him receive that ultimate forgiveness. So if we put these things together, we see three things. The shedding of Christ's blood at Calvary was the one-time propitiation for the sins of the whole world. He was the one that took the punishment, the penalty for our sins, that you and I don't have to go through that. But only those that truly believe have taken advantage of this free, undeserving gift of grace called forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And finally, that if you are standing right now in your sins, be it known to you that the same work that Jesus did on the cross for all present and past believers remains in effect for you and all others, if you will repent and believe. Now we come to verse eight, where we read, if we say, here's one of these if we say comments, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. You know, in the first if we say verse, we found that it was an attempt for someone to claim fellowship with God while remaining in their sins. Now, in verse 8, John is addressing those who claim they have no sin to begin with. Now, to you and me, that might sound like a ridiculous argument. But you know, there are those that don't think they need a savior because they really don't sin. Sue and I have a close friend who has witnessed to his fellow worker a number of times, but each time the man tells our friend that he isn't really a sinner. It's hard to believe, but that's who he says he is. We would call this self-deception, and John says there is absolutely no truth in him. Perhaps our friend's coworker means that he doesn't have any sin that's egregious enough to consider it a sin or to need a savior. I've never robbed a bank, I've never committed adultery. The problem with this is that the needle is always going to be moving to lesser and lesser sins that we now have to call them not sins. Let me use scripture as an example of what I'm trying to say. It's the passage out of Mark chapter 10 about the rich young ruler. And as he, Jesus, was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing, go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And verse 22 in Mark 10, disenheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Now, while we don't read this directly in these scriptures, this man, at least in my opinion, had lowered the standards for what it actually meant to not murder, to not commit adultery, to not steal, to not lie, to not defraud, and to honor the guy's mom and dad. Jesus says that lust in your heart is like committing adultery. No, it's not the same as the very act. But what Jesus is saying is when you or I lust for someone or something else, in his eyes, we've committed adultery. Having someone, hating someone is like murder. The smallest of lies have you has you breaking commandment. I think it's number nine. And this man is actually saying that he's kept all these things from his youth. And so why do I believe that he lowered the standard of what following the true commandments really means? Because the man replied to Jesus that he was pure as the driven snow with regard to all the things that Jesus told him he had to do. He says, Teacher, I've kept all these things from my youth. Which one of us could ever say if Jesus were standing next to us, all those things you just said, Jesus, I've kept? We'd be completely dishonest and we'd be filled with lies. But that's what that young ruler did. Even though he would not obey the Lord to sell his possessions and therefore had rejected the opportunity to salvation. He had already deceived himself, in my opinion, as I read these scriptures, even before speaking to Jesus. Look at me. He's like the Pharisee in the synagogue, where he says, I'm glad I'm not like this tax collector behind me. I'm the good guy. I really don't need to be here. I'm a teacher. And the tax collector beating his chest says, essentially I'm paraphrasing, Lord, don't even look at me. I'm so evil. If we say we have no sin, we are clearly deceiving ourselves, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Paul tells us in Romans 3.23. Now we come to verse 9, which is such a great comfort to all believers. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If instead of trying to hide our sin or deny our sin, we confess it, we will experience cleansing. And before I go any farther, when I say if instead of trying to hide our sin or deny our sin, how often do we go to the Lord to confess sins that we have committed against him on a daily basis? Thought, word, or date. Do we just do them and not think about them? Maybe think a little and say, well, Jesus died for that sin. I have a feeling that we all fall into that trap. We all get kind of, you know, that's a little bit of self-righteousness. Yeah, it was a sin, even if I think about it. I might not even think about it. I might just commit it as a habit. It's not where the Lord wants us to be. Instead of trying to hide our sin or deny our sin, if we confess it, we will experience cleansing. Listen to the truth taught first in the Old Testament. In Proverbs 28:13, we read this: Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. You want to prosper? You want to prosper in the Lord? You want to walk in his light? You want to hold tight to his garment daily in your life? Don't conceal your transgressions from him. But he who confesses and forsakes those transgressions will obtain mercy. And here's a beautiful verse found in Psalm 32, verse 5. This is David speaking. You know, King David, King David the murderer, King David the adulterer. Here's what he says. I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Here John assures us that God, who is the one by the way, who is deeply and greatly offended by every single sin that we commit against him, that he is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins in Christ Jesus. And if we look closely at this verse, what do we wonderfully and miraculously find? That if we confess, this is how I interpret this verse, by the way, that if we confess the one sin that we just committed against the Lord, that we are aware of, not only does he forgive that sin, but then he goes way beyond that forgiveness. He cleanses us from all sin. Really? Are you kidding me? Nope. That's what the word, that's what this verse tells us. How great is our God? He is greater, more wonderful, more merciful, more forgiving, more awesome, more incredible, more magnificent than we can ever imagine. And if we are in Christ, then we are his and he is ours. Those who repent and believe in Jesus and the work that he did on the cross are joined with God in Christ and have been promised forgiveness and cleansing as we have just read. Because Jesus took the punishment of all those who believe. God imputes his son's righteousness to our account, and so we rest in the covenant promises of God. So, what have we learned today? What have I hope we've learned today? First, God is nothing like us. Don't pull him down from his glorious light and make him more like you or like me. He is light, and our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick. So much so that Jeremiah tells us who can understand it? Who can understand how desperately wicked our hearts are? Even we can't understand that. He is pure and holy. We are depraved sinners. By our sin, our darkness, we have separated ourselves from him who is pure light. But Jesus came, and what an astonishing incarnation! God became man. This God, about whom we have just partially described this morning, left his home in heaven to become one of us. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, John tells us in verse 1 of chapter 1 of his gospel. But then the word became flesh and dwelt among us, verse 14a. And why did he do that? Why did Jesus leave his home in heaven in a perfect relationship with the Father? He did that to become sin for you and to become sin for me. The Son of God, pure, holy, unblemished by any sin himself, came to become sin for us. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Before Paul tells us that Jesus actually became sin for us in that verse, here's what he says: therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. We can read that now. You and me are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, telling others of Christ. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. That's our job. And when we do that, we're walking in the light. For those that have not been changed by the power of God to become one of his adopted children, it is time you made today the day of your salvation. It is so easy to do so because Christ did it all. Repent of your sins. Make today the day. To wait until tomorrow is foolish, because for you tomorrow may never come. Jesus said in John 15, 13, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. And in John 10, 11, he says, And greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. Drew Hunter, a pastor from Zionsville, Indiana, wrote this. Jonathan Edwards urges us to, quote, let it be our first love, to enter into an everlasting friendship with Christ that shall never be broken. The gospel calls us to trust Jesus as our Savior, submit to him as our King, and value him as our treasure. It also calls us to enjoy him as our friend. I ask the praise team to come up as I ask Isn't it time for you to have a friend in Jesus? You know, he's waiting for anyone that has not given their life to him yet. What are you possibly waiting for? Repent and believe in the one who loves you so much, he died for you and to give you life and life everlasting.