Sermon: Walking in the Light

Let's take a moment and let's pray for this morning and for God's word this morning.

Our Father, we thank you for your exceeding kindness in giving us the gift of your word and giving us the gift of your spirit. We do pray this morning that the word would work because the spirit is at work, at work, in this room, at work, in this feeble preacher at work, in the hearts of each of us that sit and stand here this morning that we would find that we have heard from you and that your word is working faith and faithfulness in our lives.

We pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. First John chapter one, verses five through 10. This is the holy and errant sufficient word of God. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed 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 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us, though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

For those of you that are parents in the room, I wonder if you remember when you were longing and praying and hoping for that child to be born as the wife was pregnant or for your adoption to be finalized, and then once the child was home that that wasn't sufficient. You began praying and hoping and, and wanting that child to hold their head up and then that wasn't enough. You wanted them to be able to crawl and then that wasn't enough.

You wanted them to be able to walk and then that wasn't enough. You wanted them to start shoveling the snow and mowing the grass. Uh, you, you, you wanted to see them mature to grow. Uh, every good pastor, it's the same as you preach. As you teach. It's not enough just that you see people converted that there is new life. You, you want to see them mature. You want to see them grow. Paul will say this in Colossians. He will say Him, we proclaim Jesus, him,

we proclaim warning everyone in, teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we might present everyone mature in Christ. He, he wanted to see maturity, growth, walking in Christ. John, in our passage here is as a pastor is aimed at this same thing. He, he's focused on their walk in Christ, their walk with Christ, their maturity in Christ. And so he begins our passage with God's character. He says, God is light. There's a number of different things in scripture

that this refers to, that there's no shadow in him. There's no un holiness in him. There's no unrighteousness in him. No, actually just the opposite. He is good. He is righteous, he is holy biblically. It also came to refer to the fact that God is the one who reveals what is true. Light provides knowledge of what is darkness hides what is. And so Psalm 36, 9 for with you is the fountain of light in your light, do we see light?

And Jesus is God come down in the flesh and as God in the flesh has entered into the world, we read John, Jesus says of himself and John eight, I am the light of the world. John will say at the beginning of his own gospel, John one four in him was life, and the life was the light of men. John one, nine, the true light which gives light to everyone. Jesus was coming into the world. God is light, he's holy, and he reveals

and he is revealed to us what is true and what is good and what is holy.

Why? Well, over and over through the scriptures, you will hear the same theme, whether it's in Leviticus or whether it's in the Psalms or whether it's in one Peter. So let me quote from one Peter in Peter. Peter says this, for I am the Lord your God, therefore be holy because I am holy. He is holy. His character matters. And he's saying, look, I am holy. You are my people. I am holy. So if you are my people, be holy. As I am holy.

His character matters. So our character matters.

So now Paul says that the Ephesians five verses eight through 10, very similar to our passage this morning for at one time you were darkness. You were darkness, but now you are light. And the Lord walk as children of light for the fruit of life is found in all that is good and right and true and tried to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. The light of the world has come into the world. He has shown the truth, the revelation of God.

You have received that light. He has flooded your life with that light. You are now his so as His you are to be holy as he is holy. And so John says in our passage, if we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. God's character matters. Our character matters.

When look at this passage in light of what are three false statements that John is bringing out in the text, he gives us three false statements. It's most likely these false statements we're circulating around the church, the churches at his time, and he's just addressing them head on. So you get them in verse six, verse eight and verse 10. They are those if we say, and then you have the false statement, the false statement

that if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, if we say, uh, the second one, if we say that we have fellowship with him, we walk in the darkness first and second is if we say the false statement that we have no sin. And finally the false statement that we have not sinned. And it appears to me that there's a little bit of a progression in the text as John is walking through them because he uses more severe language in reference

to us if we believe these things from lying in verse nine, to deceiving ourselves in verse eight, to accusing God of being a liar in verse 10. So from lying to deceiving yourselves to you're calling God a liar in verse 10. So let's look at these three false statements. And what I wanna do though, I want you to be thinking as we're doing this about your own walk in Christ and your own maturation in Christ. But what I wanna do is start with the third

if statement first because it makes more sense in my mind. Verse 10. He says, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. John is pointing out here in that third if statement that there are some in the churches that are saying that they have never sinned. They've never sinned. But John's saying, if you say that, then you make, he says, God a liar. Now what does that mean? You make God a liar.

You can't make God a liar. What he's saying is, is that you are stating that God is a liar. Well, why is it that by saying you have not sinned, you are stating that God is a liar, making him a liar because the scriptures are clear and the scriptures are God's word. And God has made it abundantly clear in his scriptures that you and I are sinners, were sinners, and so we sin. You have a fallen mind, you have a fallen heart,

you have fallen affections, you have a fallen will, you have fallen fingers, you have fallen toes. Your baby toe has fallen, every part of you has fallen. You fell in Adam and you were born into this world. In Sin one Kings 8 46, there is no one who does not sin. Psalm 14, they have all turned aside together. They have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. And then Paul in Romans three will simply summarize,

all this all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin dwells in the heart of every single one of us. All of us are sinners, and every Christian should be able to say, I'm a sinner. I've sinned.

There's nothing you can do as try as you might. You can't remove that sin.

There is nothing that you can do because you do not have the ability, the ability, the agency to actually remove it. You can't do it.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. It's just false to say, you have not sinned by saying that you've sinned.

That's that third false statement. Now, back to the first false statement, verse six.

So we've sinned. Now listen, verse six, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth to to live in the darkness as evidence that I'm not in fellowship with God. Why? Because his character matters and I belong to him. My character matters. Now, we have to caution here, there's a real sense in which you and I are always as Christians walking to some degree in darkness.

Actually, John is going to address that in the very next if statement that we get to. We're all weak, we're all frail vessels. We fight daily, daily, hourly, minute by minute against sin and against the world and against our adversary. That's not what John is referring to. He's referring to someone who lives habitually in darkness. Their life has no light, and it's evidenced by the way that they live. They live as one who has no fellowship with God,

though they claim to have fellowship with God. To live in darkness is to live as though you have no revelation of God, who he is, what he is determined is good, and what it is that he commands of you. If we walk in darkness, but say we have fellowship with God, then John says, we lie.

I remember a pastor in college preaching a sermon, and it was the first time it it ever registered with me. Seems so simple, and yet I, I remember, whew, I'd never thought about that. He was talking about darkness and talking about sin. He said, have you, have you ever noticed a sin hides in the darkness? Drunks hide in a bar that is dimly lit. Thieves do their work at night. They love darkness. Prostitutes are ladies of the night. Why?

Because it's darkness. And why in the darkness? Because sin hates the light.

It's a curious thing about walking in darkness though. And that's this, it's exciting. Let's just be honest. You gotta be honest, especially when you parent your kids that there's an excitement about walking in the darkness.

Sin has an appeal, but it's also deadly. And I was, uh, in Boy Scouts as a kid, we used to go spelunking once a year. That has to be one of the best English words out there, spelunking. It's right up there with bruhaha. And uh, yeah, I, I keep a list on my phone of my favorite English words, uh, but spelunking and spelunking is cave exploring non-commercial caves and going into them. And so what we would do is we would put on long sleeve

shirts and we would put on jeans and we would put on helmets, and then we would go into these caves and we would go as deep as we dared to go. And our tradition was, is after a couple of hours of going into this cave and getting into the belly of the cave, after you'd gone a couple of hours, someone would say, well, it's time. The older scouts would. And we'd all say, okay, everybody, look where you're at. Find a place to sit.

And everybody would take a seat and we'd say, everybody turn off your flashlights. And nobody can make a noise.

You don't think about it, but you and I don't ever experience complete darkness. There's always a little bit of light wherever we're at. When you're in the belly of a cave, there's no light

and it's disorienting. That's why you have to sit. It's dark.

We'd sit there and we'd wait

dark, no sound and just wait. It's a test of manhood

because somebody eventually breaks. They would do one of two things. They would either flip on their flashlight real fast like nobody would see it, or the more crafty would start to go, Ooh.

Like they were trying to scare other people when they just wanted to hear and make sure someone else was there that would laugh. I'm not alone. There's an excitement in the darkness and it's terrifying. Worse than that, it's deadly.

You take one wrong step in darkness and it could be off a precipice,

but to walk in the light oh, oh, to walk in the light, verse seven, to walk in the light is to see clearly it's, it's to enjoy freedom. It's to enjoy life abundant. Jesus said in John 10, I came so that they might have a life and have it abundantly. He shines the light of revelation in our hearts and we see, we see

has to be one of the most astounding things about coming to salvation and Christ. As all of a sudden you went from blind in darkness to now you see, you see God

and you see what it is that he desires from you. And you see right and truth and goodness and beauty and holiness, and you see life.

Remember when I was first converted in college and it was one of the, not all of us have this experience, but it was my experience. It was John Van Edwards experience when I came to faith in college. I can remember that very week where I came to faith. And I remember walking outside and thinking, I've never seen the sky before. It's more blue than I've ever seen that grass. It's greener than green. I didn't know that it was that green. You just see,

it's quite interesting. John's mind runs to, if we, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, he says, we have fellowship. He says, verse six, I would think we would expect him to say that we walk in the light. We have fellowship with God. That's just what he had said. In the opposite. He said, if we walk in darkness and think we have fellowship with God, we lie. But here he says, walking in the light, we have fellowship.

And he, he doesn't say God. He says with one another. The Christian now dwelling and walking in light of God's revelation is oriented to God and thereby is oriented to God's people. We see and we walk in the light. The greatest evidence of your and my walk with Christ is the way that we walk with his people. But what did the Lord Jesus say when he was asked? What is the greatest commandment? He says is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart,

soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The first is required for the second, but once you have the first, you have to do the second. There're two sides of the same coin.

To love God, to love his people. And that shapes everything about you, that that's a's walking in Christ, walking and living in the light. You've been around people like that, that are just mature in Christ and they're just, oh, they're delight to be around. There's a difference about them. There is a life and a light there because why? Because loving God and they are loving others.

Here's a good question for your walking in the light. You could ask yourself, do I love God's people more today than I did last year at this time?

Where's the fruit in my life? Am I praying more for others? Am I serving more? Do I see my life as more and more belonging to the Lord? And this church truly not my own? Do I truly love this bride of Christ? Do I give to her? Do I sacrifice for her? Do I serve her? Do I speak well of her? Do I encourage her? Do I give myself to her because Christ did?

And he said, follow me. And you're to look as he looks, as you're walking with him. And after him,

he then gives the great promise. In the second half of verse seven to the first false statement, he says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And then he says this, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we are in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, cleanses us from the guilt of sin, the penalty of sin, the defilement of sin. What sin all

if you're in the light and be one of the greatest evidences, I think of our depraved nature is that we feel the weight and we feel the guilt of sin as we are dwelling in darkness. It will absolutely eat our lunch, and we attempt to alleviate it in every possible way within the darkness.

We will excuse ourselves, we will blame others, we will minimize it. We will turn to alcohol. We will binge watch Netflix. We will scroll through social media. We will tell other, we'll tear others down to make ourselves feel better. And on we could go, but that guilt and that weight, it remains why? Because the darkness can't do away with it.

Now, it can mask it for a time, but it never removes it. It can't. And yet we will do anything, anything to stop from walking into the light when simply walking into the light cleanses us from all sin,

shame disappears. Condemnation vanishes. Guilt is removed. It's just washed away.

You say, but this was a great sin cleanses us from all sin. But oh, I I, I walked in it so very long, cleanses us from all sin, but I knowingly cleanses us from all sin.

We sing that song. There's power in the blood.

Do you really believe that when you sing it?

So understand sinner, this is the very blood of the God man.

I mean do, do the math.

Do you think that your sin is more powerful than the very blood of God as it will be said of Christ in acts? Do you believe that your sin is mightier than the one who sits enthroned above over angels and archangels and that demons and devils will bow their need to? Do you believe that your sin is greater than he? Or do you think that your Lord of glory that he died for nothing?

Or do you think his blood was shed only for mere trifles and it's not great enough to cover over your great sins?

Well, some of my sins, it surely covers. But this is, this is just too much and it's too great. Really, it cost him everything.

And you think he gave up everything so that you could receive just a little relief from guilt so that you could just be forgiven of some of your sins so that you might have the possibility of hope.

He gave up everything.

He's a son of God.

Your sin doesn't stand a chance.

All sin 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. All sin. You have life. Life abundant.

Second false statement, verse eight. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. And here he's addressing the contention by some that they are now because they are filled with the spirit. Because they say they are united to Christ because God is their God and they are his people that yes, it's true that they had sin, but they don't now sin. They're free from sin in the moment. And this is even worse. Why? Because they have the light.

They should know it. It's an interesting turn here. Think about this. Those who claim to be super spiritual without sin don't have the truth in them. John says, whereas those who claim to have sin actually have the truth in them. Every Christian knows that Romans seven fight. The things I don't want to do, I do. And the things that I do want to do I don't do. We should be able to say with John Newton, who famously said, my soul is like a besiege city, a legion

of enemies without the gates in a nest of restless, traitors within, within. That's the Christian.

The first plank in walking with Christ is recognition that I'm a sinner. I was a sinner and I am a sinner.

I simply was a sinner, cleanse from sin, but I am a sinner, a sinner cleanse. Now verse nine provides the remedy for those who still sin, which is all of us walking in the light. Doesn't mean you do so perfectly, provides the remedy in English. It's a little odd. It doesn't make a lot of sense in our minds because of the if statements. It sounds like only a, a kind of a, a possibility. But in the Greek, it's very clear.

It's what we call a third decension, a third class condition. And that because of the tense and the mood of the verb, it makes it clear that this is a, a kind of general truth in the present day. It's a general truth. So listen to what he says about our present sinfulness. Verse nine. If we confess our sins, or we could say it maybe in English, it makes a little more sense to say, we ought to confess our sins because if we do,

and here's the comfort, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You sin great. Join the club. We're all there. What do you do? But I thought we were to walk in the light. Yes, we seek to avoid sin, but when we sin, which we do daily, even while attempting to walk in the light means that we run to Jesus and confession and true repentance. And that is walking in the light.

You've seen sin as sin. You've seen Christ as the Savior. You know that he alone has grace sufficient, and you run to him.

This is walking in the light. Remember hearing a story about a wife who was complaining about her husband and their marriage, and she was asked, have you ever done anything wrong in marriage? And her response was Not so far, really, we're all sinners.

You sin. You're walking in the light,

you confess, you repent, and you seek to walk in the light in your next step and notice the comfort he has as you and I go in confession to this God. It's based upon his character. Verse nine. He's faithful and just he's faithful. God's promise to forgive your sins. He's promised. When you confess your sins to the Lord, he has promised by his word that he will forgive your sins. Now that confession is not just mouthing it,

but it's turning to him with true sorrow and it's repenting and turning away from that sin. And as you and I do, he is faithful. He upholds his promises. He's promised that he forgives sin.

He can't lie. Notice it's not just faithful. He's also just verse nine. He's just, the penalty's already been paid. It's been paid by the blood of his son. And so there can't be double jeopardy for your sin. The payment's already been so you can't pay it. Now a second time, that would make God unjust. But he's just, he's faithful and Joss. And so Martin Luther wonderfully said, he said, so when the devil throws your sins in your face

and declares that you deserve death in hell, tell him this. I admit that I deserve death in hell. What of it for I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf as name is Jesus Christ, the son of God. And where he is there I shall be also. He cleanses us from all sin. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. All you have life,

You clean.

And what pains me, man, does it pain me to watch? Some of you walk around as if you're unclean

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I want you to do in a, in your imagination with me. Imagine there was a man that, that he was born with a crooked spine. And because he was born with that crooked spine, he, he was, he grew up. And as he matured, I mean he was just always hunched over. And because he was always hunched over, he began to have a hump that was on his back. And he would just have to shuffle along in life. He was always looking down.

He could not look up because his spine was not straight. And he had this hump that was on his back. And his entire life was one just of pain and agony.

And then imagine that there was one physician in the world, one surgeon in the world that could perform that surgery. And he heard of this man and he went and he found him. And he comes to the man and he says, I'm going to do this surgery as a gift. I'm gonna straighten your spine. I'm gonna remove that hump and I'm gonna give you a new life to gift.

And the man, he, he undergoes the surgery and this good physician, he straightened his spine. The hump is gone. The man truly has a new life.

And then imagine one day that the surgeon is walking down the street, and I'll be darned, he looks down the street and there's a man who's just shuffling his feet that's bent over and looking at the ground and reminds him of that man that he knew From before.

And so he, he makes a beeline over there and oh, he gets there and it's the man.

And he says to the men, didn't I straighten your spine and remove that hump? Yes, yes you did. Didn't I give you a new life? Yeah. Yes, yes you did.

Why are you shuffling along and, and looking down? You're meant to stand up straight and not only look ahead, but you can look up.

He's no longer under that condition. He, he's no longer what he was to Christian. The burden's been removed.

Spine's been straightened.

Here's what I think happens as you and I think we honor the Lord to some degree by carrying around a little of that guilt

was that physician honored by the man walking through life like that. Now, when he had received that gift, it doesn't honor him. It mocks him.

He cleansed you from all sin. He cleansed you from all righteousness. No guilt, no shame, no condemnation, no punishment,

free,

free.

John Bunion was reflecting upon this truth while he was considering the words of Christ. When Christ said this. And he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out bunion, said, you know, you and I, we, we, we always are struggling with faith and unbelief. And he says, oh, those words of Christ, it just, it cuts all the feet out from underneath of unbelief. And then bunion in his brilliant way wrote this.

He said, but I'm a great sinner. Say us thou I will know wise, cast out says Christ, but I'm an old sinner. Say us thou I will know wise, cast out says Christ, but I'm a hardhearted sinner. Say us thou I will know wise, cast out says Christ, but I'm a backsliding sinner says, thou I will know wise, cast out says Christ, but I've served Satan. All my days say is thou, but I will know wise, cast out says Christ, but I've sinned against light, say is thou I will know wise,

cast out, says Christ. But I've sinned against mercy, say is thou I will no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have no good thing to bring. Say thou I will know wise, cast out says Christ.

Clayton

forgiven life.

Life abundant. God is light. And oh, what a revelation He is given us in Christ.

And oh, I pray that you know that life. Let's pray together.

Our Father, we are thankful and truly you are God of light, of holiness and a God of revelation. And that your great revelation of Christ himself, the light that came into the world, makes a way for a very unholy people to be declared holy before your throne. If we bask in the light of the life of men, the Lord Jesus Christ,

and may we may we know what it is to have life and life abundant in him. And that be true of every single one of us in this room and outside of it in Christ's name. Amen.