Sovereign Grace Bible Church
These are the sermons and teachings of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Biggsville, Illinois. We exist to fulfill the Great Commission through the Great Commandment within Gospel Community.
Sovereign Grace Bible Church
Walking in the Light (1 John 1:5-10)
Walking with God means walking in the light—but what does that really look like in our daily lives? This powerful examination of 1 John 1:5-10 challenges our tendency to compartmentalize faith from practice.
When John declares "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," he establishes an absolute standard of moral purity that should transform how we live. Yet many of us claim fellowship with God while walking paths that look suspiciously like the world's. As the sermon powerfully states, "The world cannot hear what you're saying over how loud your life is."
The good news isn't about trying harder to be perfect. Rather, John reveals that authentic faith creates a natural family resemblance between our lives and Christ's character. We're not called to fill the entire spotlight of God's holiness—we simply need to stand within it, allowing His light to transform us from the inside out.
This message tackles the uncomfortable truth about our ongoing struggle with sin while offering the beautiful promise of cleansing. When we confess—simply agreeing with God about our moral failures—He is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This cleansing covers even the sins we've forgotten to confess.
Perhaps most challenging is the reminder that true Christianity cannot exist in isolation. Fellowship with God naturally creates fellowship with His people, forming a community where accountability and growth flourish. As you listen, consider: what areas of your life remain outside God's light? The path forward isn't about working harder but loving Christ more deeply.
Where is God calling you to move from darkness into light today? Share your thoughts and subscribe to join us on this journey of authentic faith.
Good morning. Good morning, go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 John. 1 John is in the way backity-back of your Bible, on the far right. It's one of three letters that we have in the New Testament that the Apostle John wrote specifically for God's people, for their instruction, for their building up, for their encouragement. We began by just understanding the first four verses and, like I said before, the good news is I don't have to be creative anymore, because every week you'll know what the sermon's on the next week, because it'll be the next couple of verses. You'll never be worried, concerned, and you'll never have to worry about me coming up with some sort of cheesy title for a sermon again, because it'll just be the next portion. In light of that, as we practice expository preaching here, we're going to go verse by verse through verses 5 through 10 today of 1 John.
Speaker 1:Last week we learned about the word of life and this week what we're going to get into now is what does it look like to be in relationship with this word of life? What does that mean? What does that entail? We live in a day and age where truth seems to be becoming trendy and relative. At the same time. It's your truth, it's my truth, it's our truth, it's your truth, it's my truth, it's our truth, it's their truth, etc. And yet God's word has to be the standard upon which we measure truth. If there is truth of any kind, if truth truly does exist, then the creator and sustainer and ender of all things must be the judge of truth. In light of that, what does it look like to be in relationship with the word of life? Well, it's not a pick your own adventure. It's not an. All paths lead to heaven. Jesus meant it when he said in John, chapter 14, that I am the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by me. There is no other way. There is no other name upon which people will be saved. So, in light of our flimsy and fickle culture, today's message will go very much against the grain. Please read with me God's holy word. Please read with me God's holy word.
Speaker 1:This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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. 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.
Speaker 1:Our text will break down into the following outline Verse 5 will be the light, verses 6 and 7 will be the link and verses 8, 9, and 10 will be the lens. We begin with the light in verse 5. John is expounding. He's explaining further this message. He says this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you. Who is the him, why it is the word of life himself. It is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:This is a firsthand basis. This is a eyewitness account. There is no in-between. This is not like googling something and trusting the AI response at the top of your screen. Please stop doing that. This is directly from God. What is this message? We're proclaiming to you that God is light.
Speaker 1:And if you're anything like me, the first time I read through the Bible I was like that was a letdown. This is the message. You're like I'm ready. You're like God is light and You're like I'm ready. You're like God is light and you're like cool, is there anything else with that? Is there a bigger? I missed the confetti. Like there had to have been a moment where this is bigger than what I'm currently reading, because just saying God is light is okay, cool. Like now I don't have to worry about being scared of the dark because God is light. This makes sense. Like in heaven there is no sun because Jesus is the light. Okay, is that what the text is saying? And what I want you to understand is that when John is describing God as light, what he is primarily focusing on is God's perfect more attribute, that he is perfectly pure, which is why the negative is then stated again here, because that's very typical in Hebrew communication is to state a positive and then to make sure you get it to state the negative that reinforces the positive. What is he saying? He's saying God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
Speaker 1:Now you and I have no concept even of this. You see, in this room there are lights everywhere. You might even say it's well lit, maybe too lit. At some point in time it'll get dark outside and it'll feel even brighter in here, because perspective is based off of whatever we're looking at at the time and not reality itself. God is perfectly light. Comes to us and we say, cool, like the sun. And it's like no, no, no, you don't understand. You see, the sun is so bright that if you and I stare at it for long enough, we will lose our vision. And that is a created thing. It is so minuscule in comparison to God, who created it, but not only it millions and billions of other stars just like it, some of them even more spectacular. This is God. God is perfectly light and there is no darkness in him at all.
Speaker 1:Here's one of the greatest problems we have. Is we look at moral goodness like this and we say, okay, god's perfectly morally good, and we're like what's the best litmus test for this? Is it, mother Teresa? Like the moral goodness scale here for humans? Is it some sort of missionary or monk, some do-gooder that gave away all their money to feed poor people? What is the standard upon which you and I look? At a statement that says God is light, he is perfectly pure and lacks any imperfection, and we look at a statement that says God is light, he is perfectly pure and lacks any imperfection and we look at that and say, yeah, I can understand that. That makes sense, because the human mind actually cannot make sense of it. How do I know that? We'll come back to verse 5, but look at verses 6 and 7 with me. This is the link. This is where things connect.
Speaker 1:Okay, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but if you look someone bold in the face and say you are a liar, that's about as offensive as you can get. We don't like being told we are things, but if I were to get just a general show of hands of actually, let's get some participation today, guys, has anyone ever lied in your entire life? Go ahead and raise your hand. You guys are a bunch of liars. Oh, my goodness. Okay, let's try something else. Has anyone and you don't have to raise your hand has anyone ever taken the Lord's name in vain? You've misused God's name. Yeah, okay. Has anyone ever taken anything that's not theirs, even a pencil? Maybe it was an hour on break that you were actually supposed to be working? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So you're a blaspheming, thieving, liar. You're like I came to church to feel good. Today, pastor, you're getting about a C-minus currently. Why are we here? What is your purpose? Is it to never be called a liar again? Is it to never be called a thief? Or a blasphemer, an adulterer, an addict? For a blasphemer, an adulterer, an addict.
Speaker 1:If we say we have fellowship with him, who is perfect, light, perfect moral goodness, while we walk in darkness, you and I lie and do not practice the truth. Because Jesus gave us a promise. He's in the upper room with his disciples and he says if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And all the little mini inter-legalists in your mind said that's a weight on you. You better start obeying better, okay? And we say no, no, no, no, no. This is a promise, promise, a perfect promise from the Savior who says look, if you just love me, everything else will work out. You look at the sin in your life and you say I can't win, I can't do it. And Jesus says exactly, if you just love me, all of this will go away.
Speaker 1:You see, I don't know if you've ever had like a weight loss journey of some kind, but there is this sense upon which you almost kind of want to just like grab some flab and just chop it off and you're like ta-da, like we did it. Did you see that that was awesome? One fell swoop and it's gone. And yet that's not reality. What actually happens? Well, when you're disciplined and you're consistent, you will almost never see it until you've been doing it for six months to a year and you're like I'm starting to see some change here, like I feel a little different. That's true, it's a little looser. Don't look at mine, mine's tight, okay. But we have this moment where we see, over time, the effects of that consistency so much greater is walking in the truth, is loving God. When you and I simply focus on our affections towards Christ, everything else goes away.
Speaker 1:You and I so often look at the cup of our life and it's full of sin and ugliness, hatred, bitterness, lies, gossip, slander, and we say I just got to get rid of this, lies, gossip, slander, and we say I just got to get rid of this. But the problem we have is, if you pour the cup out and don't put anything else in it, you and I don't drift towards holiness. I don't know if you've ever noticed that or not. If you put your life on autopilot, you're not like. The kids were so much well-behaved today because I didn't do anything, that was great. Did you see that? I was just like Jesus take the wheel and the kids were just like I would love to obey. That's never happened. Why? Because you and I don't drift towards the light. There's no natural cadence where we're like yes, I can't wait to do the right thing.
Speaker 1:When we empty the cup of sin and idols things that we love more than God we have to fill it back up with a greater affection, and that greater affection must be Christ. The antidote to the sin in your life is not to beat yourself down, greater to have someone check in on you all the time and make sure you're keeping to. You need a heart that loves Christ more, and the only way you and I ever get there is when we keep our heart and our mind fixed on Him. But here's the issue. We live in a day and age where majority of people still that number's going down. Majority of people still will call themselves Christian by name, so we'll call that nominally. They're nominally Christian. They call themselves Christian by name, so we'll call that nominally. They're nominally Christian, they call themselves Christian by name, and you'll hear wonderful people.
Speaker 1:I had a conversation once with a guy where I'm asking him about his faith and he says, yeah, I believe in God. And you're like that's awesome. And I'm like, what about Jesus? And he's like, yeah, he's cool too. And you're like, oh, he's cool too. And you're like, oh, no, we missed it, like we were kind of going there and we completely lost it.
Speaker 1:If we say we have fellowship with him, which is what being a Christian is, is being in relationship with God's people and, through that, being in relationship with Jesus Christ himself, who is life in everything, and then we live a life that doesn't line up with that, at the very least, you and I could agree the correct term would be hypocrite. You say I believe this and with your life, you say something else. I heard a non-Christian once say this really well, and I think it might be a quote from somewhere else, but the idea goes down to this that the world cannot hear what you're saying over how loud your life is. You see, if I say Jesus is first in everything, and the world looks at me and says you're right, I can name three things that you would probably do rather than spend time with God. We're lying, we're not telling the truth. More importantly, we're not practicing the truth. We're not living the truth out verse 7 but on the other, we're not living the truth out Verse 7,.
Speaker 1:But on the other side, 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. What's the link here? The link is your life, how you live, shouts from the rooftops greater than any Facebook post, any conversation, any trending thing that can possibly happen. Your life is on display If we walk in the light as he is in the light. I want you to be very aware that language matters here. So if the Bible had said if we walk according to the light as he is in the light, then it would be the idea that we have to measure up to something. We have to hurry up and fill up all this light and be Jesus here, otherwise we're not going to make it. All this light and be Jesus here, otherwise we're not going to make it.
Speaker 1:However, when the text says, when we walk in the light as he is in the light, we're able to walk freely, knowing much like a giant spotlight. If any part of the spotlight is touching me, you can see me. I am not big enough to fill the whole spotlight and I don't have to be so. He says look at your life. God is perfect. And he's not saying so. You go ahead and be perfect.
Speaker 1:What he is saying is you should look something like each other. Like, can you imagine right for those you don't know, I'm white and Hispanic mixed, so that's my race. And so can you imagine? Like Bree and I, we say we have another baby and we bring him out and he's like this, like full-blooded Asian kid, and we're like see, you'd say that didn't come out of Bree, like there's no way. And I'd be like what are you talking about? I told you that's my son. You're like you might have adopted him, but you didn't have him. Why? Because no one's going to look at me and be like that dude's Asian. It's just not going to happen. And yet, so much worse is you and I were like, yeah, I'm with Jesus.
Speaker 1:People were like you don't look anything like him. What are you talking about? Do you own a Bible that leaves your car? Like do you love anyone other than yourself? Do you just sit there and think about what will fulfill you most in this moment? Do you respond and react just like the world does when they wrong you? How will they know that you're different if you don't act different? You don't act different. Jesus does not gently welcome himself into your life and say as you allow me room, I will take things over. Jesus is both Savior and Lord. He is master, he is ruler over your life. To where, at the moment of salvation, we say my life is yours, I have nothing to give, I have nothing to do. That is not yours. That is what the Christian life is supposed to look like.
Speaker 1:You and I are meant to be little Christians, right, christ followers. We're meant to be little Christians, right, christ followers. We're meant to look like. That makes sense. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, what do we have? Again, what's the first thing? It says we have fellowship with one another. And if you're a Christian, the first thing you have is fellowship with God's people. And you're like okay, look, I've grown up in America, okay, and here I can do my own thing, I can start my own business. I don't need no input from nobody. I can cut off family and never talk to them again. I'm good, I can do this Christian thing on my own, to which the Bible now, twice in the last two weeks, has told you no, you can't. It is impossible to be a healthy Christian outside of God's given community in the church. It is impossible to be a healthy Christian outside of the church. We have fellowship with one another, but not only that.
Speaker 1:The blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Why is that put there? Well, because, as we're preaching through this, there's again that little inner legalist. He never goes away, by the way. He's always there and he's in your mind saying see, you better start doing better. You're on the rocks, you're on thin ice. You better start performing. You better giddy up, you better pull up your bootstraps. And we're like no, no, no, we obey out of love and gratitude for what christ has done for us, not out of a fearful obligation of the damnation to come, because the payment for my penalty for my sins, all of them, has already been paid it. It is done, it is finished. I have nothing left to do with that, and thank God, because I could do nothing with it. This leads us to the lens. How are we to look at this? Through what lens are we to see the light and the link of our life?
Speaker 1:Verse 8 says If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Again, liar is a very offensive word. Sinner is also offensive. See, the world will look at things like. This week. Everyone knows that Charlie Kirk was assassinated and I'm sure everyone in this room would say the guy who killed him is a bad person. Right, that guy sinned, he did a terrible thing. Do we ever talk about our own sin that way? Even when we do terrible things, when we cheat on someone, when we betray someone, when we hate someone, throw things and yell, when we're bitter and don't forgive, do we ever think that's a terrible sin? Or do we justify it and say mine's not that bad, my sins aren't that bad? The guy I work with, though that dude's a piece of work. Okay, Like he needs Jesus. I'm like more of a half-calf. I need like half of Jesus, like he's full-blown. He needs the whole thing.
Speaker 1:How often do we look at our lives and admit our sin? Because the world wishes to say we have no sin. But this first one and this is important because verse 8 and 10 will look redundant almost, if you don't know this from the greek. The first one has to do with this idea of guilt, shame and penalty. Well, the sin in verse 10 has to do with this idea of habitual, ongoing sin. So the first one is just saying I don't owe a penalty. Okay, I'm not that bad. Actually, I'm pretty good overall.
Speaker 1:I loved someone today, I sacrificed for somebody and we say good, good, good, good. The only reason you did that and that the jackal down the street didn't do the same thing is because that is not made in God's image. You are so that even the worst of us still does loving things, still gives, still has compassion from time to time. If we say we have no sin, what are we doing? We are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Speaker 1:Verse 9,. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Us to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Verse 9, the word confess means to say the same as Okay, so you and I can have like all these weird thoughts of confession. Confessing in the Bible means to agree with God about your sin. That's all it means, god. I agree that when I did that it was wrong according to your word and I am sorry. Will you please forgive me. That's it. That is a confession. So if we confess our sins, what happens? Do you have to start working really hard now ends what happens? Do you have to start working really hard now? Is that what happens? Like you better be faithful now. You better work out some justice here. You better earn that forgiveness back.
Speaker 1:No, look at the wide open arms of Jesus as he says he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The weight of my sin at the moment I believe in Jesus is never put on me again, ever. The moment I confess, the moment I agree with God, I am free, I am alive. Now why does that matter? Well, because if God was not faithful, we would trust him about as much as you trust your neighbor, and if he was not, just you and I would be fearful of what was to come. But because he is faithful and just, I can rest. And we look at the Christian life all too often as work that needs to be done, that I need to motivate myself to do as opposed to a lazy river upon which God is pulling me through and through and through and is helping me to get to the next level again and again. Why? Because he is faithful. Now, all of my anxiety.
Speaker 1:Folks, please highlight this verse, especially the end here. Look at this. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Okay, isn't he saying the same thing here? Right, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins. And then he's just doing like a Hebrew thing where he's repeating himself no, have any of you ever remembered every sin you've ever committed to confess to God? No, no hands, not even one. Wow, how good is it that you and I don't have to remember every sin, that we don't have to sit with anxiety in a room by ourselves, like, okay, he'll forgive me, but I need to remember everything to confess it, otherwise it goes into the bad pile. Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. You don't confess all your sins, I'm here to tell you. But Jesus is so faithful that he cleanses you of everything, even the sins you don't know about. And that is why we are saved by grace through faith, because I can't earn any of it. And yet, when I understand this truth, I acknowledge it and then begin to trust it, that faith transforms my life to when now I'm cleansed.
Speaker 1:But number two here for verse nine is that the first aspect of forgiveness here is more of a judicial idea the penalty is taken away. The second idea has more to do with the idea of not being icky anymore, right, so there's one thing to say like I was outside and I was working in mud and cow muck and all this stuff and I'm covered in everything, and for me to come home and my wife to say I still love you and everything's okay and I will give you a hug, and me to say yay, and then the next moment for her to say, but I'm about to hose you off, and then you're getting a bath and you're going to be clean from all of that and then we'll do a real hug. You see, there's a difference between being accepted where I'm at and then being cleansed of where I'm at. The Christian life is not this come one, come all and stay as you are. It is come one, come all. Die as you are, give everything of your life away, die as you are, give everything of your life away and God will make you a completely new person. He will cleanse you and make you completely new, so that the taint of sin from your past will go away. You and I are clean.
Speaker 1:Verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. You see, the first one, like we said, has to do with this kind of judicial idea. This I owe a penalty for my sin. The second one here is the idea of being a sinner who sins and it's like no, I don't do bad stuff, I do pretty good stuff for the most part, like I'm. I'm a pretty good person. I'm the best pappy, you know. I am the best daughter, you know, I'm the best. Whatever you know, I can tell you of people that are much worse than me. Okay, I have a long list of people much worse than me. What does it say If you and I aren't willing to agree with God about our sin, if we aren't willing to agree that we continue to sin in this life, even as Christians pause? This letter was not written to non-Christians. It was written to Christians.
Speaker 1:Christians struggle with confessing sin. Christians struggle with understanding their justification. Christians struggle with admitting their ongoing sin and need for a Savior. But what happens if we don't admit that sin? We make God to be a liar and His Word is not in us. See, there are not two truths here. The Bible disagrees completely with the idea that there's more than one truth. It says either you're lying or you're making God out to be a liar. You choose. You and I have to be a body of believers who look at God's word and admit I need a Savior and I've never needed Him more than I do today.
Speaker 1:And, dear friends, if we want to make any lasting impact here, we want to have a church that makes a difference for the kingdom. It begins right here, kingdom, it begins right here. If we invite the community into something. Where lives are not being transformed, where sin is not being confessed, where we don't live our lives on display, we are foolish and unable to do literally anything positive for the kingdom. It begins and ends with the light, and as soon as this becomes about anything other than that, it's time to pack our bags and do something else.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the light of the world. He is perfectly pure, and the challenge today is not go into your life and go be perfectly pure, but I do want you to go home and to prayerfully consider what part of your life is the light not shining into? What part are you holding back? Because I'm here to tell you, while you might not be aware of all of the areas that that's in myself included, the people around you are, especially the watching world, and you don't want to be the person inviting people to church and saying you should come to church. We got this new church, it's great. And then look at you and say but you act just like me. We have to be different, and you and I won't get there by working really hard. You and I will get there by loving God.
Speaker 1:Let us pray, father. We come before you in adoration of the fact that you chose to die for us, that you, the light of the world, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, chose to give everything away for us, who were just in darkness. We were separated from you, and rightfully so. We had nothing to give you. We are not good on our own, and yet, by your grace, you saved us. You've made us new Lord.
Speaker 1:We ask that Sovereign Grace Bible Church would be a church on fire for you, that we would be different, that we would kill the sin in our lives. That we would live lives of accountability to each other, walking in community. That you, lord, would be glorified and honored in this place. That your name would be high and lifted up. And, lord, that as people look in, they would see the light. They would see the difference In this desperate and dark world that we live in. They would see the light. They would see the difference In this desperate and dark world that we live in. They would see hope. They would see a future. Lord, help us to be your hands and feet, help us to speak your truth and to walk in the light, as you are in the light. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
