Thank you so much for that good song, Stephen and Marie. We appreciate that and appreciate having you here and playing the piano for us. It's a beautiful morning. We were cloudy and misty when I went out to do chores early, but on the way down here, it cleared off. It's just a nice spring day. The grass is growing. Nice time of year.

We're going to be looking at 1 John 1, 5-10 this morning, continuing our study in the book of 1 John. We have been looking at kind of an intent and purpose of John in this book, and that's something that I want you to keep in mind. We're going to go over that again today.

I was kind of struggling through some of these texts because I've heard a lot of teaching over the years, and as I studied it, I just couldn't make it jive with what I'd heard before. I was walking from the cattle trough, filling it up the other day, and I was saying to myself over and over, start with the words. Start with the words. 

And I'm in the midst of a hermeneutic study with Caitlin and some of her friends, and it's so important that we keep in mind some of those hermeneutical principles as we study the Scriptures, including the intent of the author. What is he trying to accomplish? And we talked about before that his intent is to give us assurance. So we're going to talk about that again today as we see that God is light. 

When I was first saved, I thought it was really important, in fact, that it was my job to determine who was saved and who was not. I thought that I needed to ascertain if a man was a believer or not so that I'd know what he needs and what I needed to give him. And this became a real problem for me because sometimes it's really difficult to determine if a man is a true believer or not, as Jesus explained in the parable of the wheat and the tares. 

And this kind of thinking leads to a focus on men's works, on their performance, and on often reading something into every detail of what a man does or what he says, what he thinks. This can lead to a judgmental attitude, assessing the works of others and attempting to judge their hearts. I learned after some time that it was really not important for me to decide whether someone was saved or not for this simple reason. 

Whether a man is lost or saved, he really needs the same thing. He needs the gospel truth. He needs the truth of God's Word. He needs Jesus. So if I work through the Word with a man, if I teach him about the gospel and about Jesus, then if he's not saved, he will believe or he will go out, as John says. And if he is saved, then he will grow and his fruit will become manifest. 

Regardless, what I need to do is give him truth, exhort him to believe the Word, and to trust in Jesus. This was a liberating realization for me because it freed me to focus on truth. It freed me to focus on Jesus and loving others and sharing Jesus with them, rather than focusing on a man's works to determine where he is in his walk with Christ or lack thereof. 

I bring this up as an illustration of what we're going to study in 1 John today. And as I've been studying, struggling really, to sort out this first chapter and who John is talking about and who he's talking to and what it is he's trying to accomplish and teach us, I've read through a couple of commentaries and word studies. 

And in so doing, I was reminded of a very common teaching in 1 John. Several teachers take this book and make it into a series of tests for believers to determine if they're truly saved or not. The idea was that there were many false professors in this church or churches that John wrote to. And John gives them 10 or 11 tests by which they can know if they are false converts or true believers. 

Now this is important, and I really want to make this clear. Here's the thing, I don't believe that John's intent is to give a series of tests for us to examine ourselves by to see if we really have salvation because this would instill doubt in our faith, not give us assurance. 

I believe John's emphasis is on truth and on assurance and what we have and who we are in Christ. This modern evangelical take on the epistle has largely missed the tone and the context of the letter. The churches to which John writes are not comprised of false professors who need to be scared straight, but of true believers under attack with false teaching who need to be assured. John is trying to eliminate doubt, not create it. 

This is not a series of tests to prove our faith to ourselves through observing our performance, but a list of truths meant to show us what is true of us in Christ. And I believe this is an important distinction because one has us focus on the truth of God's Word, what God says is true of the believer and the unbeliever. It asks us to believe that truth and then to live in light of it. The other has us focused on ourselves and on others and on our works and performance to evaluate our spiritual state. 

One test that is usually given as an example is from 1 John 2 and the idea that if we keep the law, if we keep the commandments, we can know that we are saved. If we keep the ten commandments is how this is usually taught. If this is the pattern of our lives. If this is a test for me to apply to myself to see if I'm a believer, and I take it as a grading my ability to keep the law, then let me ask you this, my brother, my sister in Christ, where does that leave you? 

Honestly, where does that leave you? We've considered these things before in our study of the book of Romans, but what I want you to see here is that John is concerned in this book with truth and with assuring believers, not with tests for the believers. 

Remember what John's primary purpose is. His intent in writing this epistle to those who believe Jesus is that those who believe might know that they have eternal life. He does not do this in an attacking way, a scolding way. He's not angry with them and their lack of performance. It's not like Paul writing to the church in Corinth. He is a shepherd. He is a father coming to them in a time of stress, of false teaching invading the church, affecting the church and some leaving and the danger of them drawing some of the true believers away. 

He comes in kindness and encouragement, not in condemnation. This book is all about assurance. Now let me ask you this. Does a series of tests as to how well you measure up to the law, to love, to performing some standard, does that give you assurance? What is it that gives us assurance? Where does my assurance come from? 

My assurance comes from the truth, from God's Word, from His promises, from what He says. Understand this difference, my friends. If I believe that my sanctification or my assurance of salvation is based on my ability to live up to God's law or His standard of love or whatever list you want to make, then I will have no assurance. I will fall into deep despair at my inability to live up to that standard because of a focus on myself and my works and some law. 

And John knows that the way to promote growth and assurance and fruit in the believers is to point them to the truth of what they have and who they are because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Is John concerned about sin and holy living? Yes. He says in verse 1 of chapter 2, “I write you these things that you may not sin.” That is a concern of John and it is our concern, our great concern and desire to live a life of righteousness that brings glory to God. 

However, that kind of fruit does not come from looking to some law, some test to measure how we are doing. I listen to these teachers and they go on about the law being binding on us, how we need to keep the law of God, how those who live up to some standard are not true believers; they are false converts. 

And then I look at the law, and I say, I can't do that. I can't keep it perfectly. And the harder I try, the more I fail because the law brings only wrath, because the law brings condemnation. Paul says it's a ministry of death because the law demands perfection. And my brothers and sisters, I am not perfect. I am what I am by the grace of God. I have a deep God-given desire to live for Him, to bring Him glory, to bear fruit, to be a witness. But I fall and I sin. 

And if I look to myself and my performance and to the law, then it just tumbles out of control into despair. I met with a young woman a long time ago and her husband; she had listened to a teacher who had taught sinless perfection and that if we were faithful and true, we could live up to a standard of sinless perfection. She had lost her temper and she had yelled at her husband, and she wouldn't come out of her room for two days because she was so upset at how she failed and she shouldn't fail. 

If John's not asking us to test ourselves and see how we measure up, but he's concerned about righteousness and sin, then how is it that we can live such a life? How is it that we can bear fruit consistent with our salvation and bring glory to God? That's what we're going to explore in the rest of this chapter, chapter 1 and on into the rest of the book. John wants us to first know that we have eternal life. He wants us to have assurance. 

And we must keep this primary intent in mind. And we must also remember his secondary concern dealing with those who would try to deceive them, the false teachers, because this thread runs all the way through the epistle as well. So I would submit to you that John's great concern is for truth. To preach the truth. To preach salvation, doctrine, and who they are and what they have in Christ. 

Listen now. Affirming their faith. Not questioning it. You see, the matter is truth. Not determining who is saved and who is not because, frankly, that can be exhausting, distracting, and almost always fruitless. I want you to keep coming back to John's intent. His purpose of pointing the believers to truth. Getting them to see the truth that will give them assurance. 

And also that will reveal the error and will keep them from harm. And I want you to notice his tone. He's not going after false converts. He's not looking for believers who are not living up to something. He is telling us what is true of those who believe Jesus so that we who believe might know that we have eternal life and that our joy may be full. 

These are the major themes that must guide us through each verse of this little book. So let's dig into chapter 1 at verse 5. 

1 John 1:5, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that 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.”

I have four points for you on your outline to frame our text. First, we're going to see that God is light. Second, that Jesus is the light of life. Third, walk in the light or walk in darkness. And fourth, truth, not tests. 

Well, it's really difficult for me to get past this first verse of our text in verse 5. We could spend a month here and never exhaust the great truth that John is stating. If you search the word light in the Bible, you'll find it appears 253 times in the New King James. From Exodus 33 where God showed Moses His glory manifest as light, to the Shekinah glory, the pillar of fire that traveled with Israel in the tabernacle, through the ministry of Jesus and the truth that He is the light. 

We see that the word light speaks of truth and of purity. A manifestation of God. John says God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. 1 Timothy 6:15 says, “which He will manifest in His own time. He who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be glory and honor and everlasting power.” 

Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Psalm 36:9 says, “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” 

Turn to the Gospel of John and consider John's words considering Jesus the light. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” 

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

We see that the Scriptures equate light with life. Jesus is the light. Jesus is the life. In John 3:16, it says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. 

There are so many passages to consider. John 8:12 says, "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.'” John 11:10 says, “But if one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.” 

In his gospel, John equates light with life, with salvation in Christ, having Christ, knowing Him. John 12:36 says, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” John 12:46 says, “I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.” 

It becomes clear here that God is light, that Jesus is the manifestation of that light, and that light is synonymous with life. And Jesus gives us light. He gives us life when we believe Him. And thus we are the light of this world, in this world. The revelation of Christ to men in darkness as He lives His life in and through us. 

This is so amazing, my friends, so profound, so vital. Listen to this passage in 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. 

1 Thessalonians 5:5 says, “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” We see throughout the New Testament this great contrast between light and darkness. Jesus is light. His light is life. He gives us that light. He gives us His life through faith in Him. And now we are the light of this world, in this world, the revelation of Christ to men in darkness as He lives His life in and through us.

This is so amazing, my friends, so profound, so vital. Listen to this passage in 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. 

1 Thessalonians 5:5 says, “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” We see throughout the New Testament this great contrast between light and darkness. 

Jesus is light. His light is life. He gives us that light. He gives us His life through faith in Him. And thus we are the light of this world, in this world. The revelation of Christ to men in darkness as He lives His life in and through us. 

This is so amazing, my friends, so profound, so vital. 

Listen to this passage in 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” 

1 Thessalonians 5:5 says, “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” We see throughout the New Testament this great contrast between light and darkness. 

We listed several texts that reiterate time and again how the believer walks in light and how the unbeliever walks in darkness. 

And in our text today, John uses the contrast of light and darkness. Look at verse six of our text. 

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and 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 Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that 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.”

Now think this through with me. John wants first and foremost to give believers assurance of salvation. He wants also to expose those who seek to deceive and draw away the believers through false teaching. But John knows that the way to expose error is to teach truth. And that's what he's doing here. 

He, like Paul in Romans 8, is stating truth concerning lost and saved in order to draw a contrast and to tell us what is true of us in Christ. John says that the believer's walk is in light. He says that the unbeliever's walk is in darkness. Fellowship comes from light, which is life, which is given by Christ to us through faith. If we have faith, then we have light, we have life, we have Christ, and we walk in the light, no longer in darkness. 

Colossians 1:13 says, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” We no longer walk in darkness, why? Because we have acknowledged our sin. We have seen our need for a Savior. And we have seen that light of God manifest in Jesus, and we have believed Him, trusted Him to save us from our sins through His death on the cross. 

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. 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. 

Do you see the contrast here? We are the ones who walk in the light, who have the life of Jesus through faith. He has cleansed us from all sin. John says, some men say, alluding to false teachers, some men say they have no sin. Some even say that there's no such thing as sin. They lie and don't practice the truth. 

I remember witnessing to my grandpa one time. As we were talking, he like every good yooper man used the Lord's name in vain three times in two sentences. I confronted him about his sin, just trying to get him to see his need. He said, “I don’t have any sin.” 

I said to him, “You just used the Lord's name in vain three times in the last two sentences you spoke.” 

He said, “Well, He uses my name in vain.” 

He would not recognize his sin. He would not see his need. And therefore, he would not come to Christ in faith. He who says he has no sin deceives himself, and the truth is not in him. 

But we are the ones, John says, who confess our sin. Listen, God says that we are sinners. That all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He says there's not one who is righteous. No, not one, not you either. 

What do you say to that, my friend? What do you say to that in your heart? Do you say like my grandpa, that God is a liar? And that I have no sin? That I'm a good man? Do you speak heteros, different than God? Or do you speak homo? The word for confess in verse nine here is homo legeo. It means to speak the same thing. It means to agree with God that I am a sinner. Do you agree with God that you are a sinner in need of a Savior who can do nothing to save yourself, but you are wholly dependent on Jesus through faith to atone for your sins, to suffer the wrath of God in your place on that cross, to be buried and to rise again triumphant over sin and hell and death? 

Do you confess your sin and call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you might be saved? If you do, then the verse says that God has cleansed you from all sin and unrighteousness. What amazing truth, what amazing promises. 

Verse 10 says that some say they have no sin. The idea in verse 8 and verse 10 is that there are two types of liars here. One says he has never had any sin. He has never sinned or even that there is no such thing as sin. 

The other says that he no longer sins. He may have sinned once, but he's grown beyond that. He has evolved to a higher spiritual plane where he no longer has to worry about dealing with indwelling sin. John says they are both liars, and the truth, the Word, is not in them. 

What we have in these verses is a contrast between believers and unbelievers. What is true about each? We who believe Jesus, we walk in the light. We have fellowship with God. We have had our sins forgiven, and we have been restored from all unrighteousness. Doesn't that give you assurance? 

My brother, my sister in Christ. Because you see, John's focus here is truth, not tests. I want to be so very clear, and I trust the Holy Spirit to make this plain. God has a way of teaching us about our salvation in Christ in the New Testament. 

A method of laying down truth. Teaching us the indicatives, the facts, the maxims concerning our salvation in Jesus Christ. And it is out of these truths, these facts, that we gain understanding, listen now, of why we can now live a new life in Christ. 

Not how, but why we can live a new life in Christ. It's so different than a test. I'd like you to listen carefully to a quote that I came across in my studies commenting on 1 John. It says, “As there ought to be daily progress in faith, so he says that he wrote to those who had already believed, so they might believe more firmly and with greater certainty, and thus enjoy a fuller confidence as to eternal life. Then the use of doctrine is not only to initiate the ignorant in the knowledge of Christ, but also to confirm those more and more who have been already taught. 

It therefore becomes us with a great care to attend to the duty of learning, that our faith may increase through the whole course of our life, for there are still in us many remnants of unbelief. And so weak is our faith that what we believe is not yet really believed, except there be a fuller confirmation. 

But we ought to observe the way in which faith is confirmed. This is what I want you to hear. We ought to observe the way in which faith is confirmed, even by having the office of and power of Christ explained to us. For the apostle says he wrote these things, that is, that eternal life is to be sought nowhere else but in Christ, in order that they who were believers already might believe. That is, make progress in believing. 

It is therefore the duty of a godly teacher, in order to confirm disciples in the faith, to extol as much as possible the grace of Christ, so that being satisfied with that, we may seek nothing else." That's John's whole point here. 

The false teachers are telling him, “We have something more. We have higher knowledge. We're founding that Gnostic heresy that would come later. Come to us; we'll show you a better way.” And John's saying, “Go back to that which you had from the beginning. Jesus is everything. Jesus is sufficient. Seek satisfaction in nothing else.” 

We just taught through all the truths, the contrasts of 1 John 6 to 10. And let me ask you, doesn’t that encourage you? Doesn’t that give you assurance to know that believers are the ones who walk in the light? They are the ones who have the light, who have the life of Christ in them and walk in that light. 

Is there implicit in this the exhortation to holy life? Yes, that's why in the very next verse, in 1 John 2:1, he says, “I write you these things that you may not sin.” 

A holy life is what we as believers desperately want. We want to live in a way that glorifies God and shows the power of the gospel, but this fruit must come by Christ’s life in us through faith. 

Not by some standard or law that we’re trying to meet. You see, that's why I believe this idea of John writing about a series of tests by which we can know that we are saved is so damaging, so defeating, and agonizing rather than assuring. 

There exists this whole system of thought within evangelical Christianity that we are still trying to earn God's favor. We're still trying to live up to some standard. 

But the truth is, assurance comes from Christ alone and His sufficient sacrifice, His word and promises, not from ourselves. 

I love what we've studied about light and life in the word today. What we've seen about God being pure light and Jesus being the manifestation of that light and how light is equal to life and how through faith Jesus has given that life, His life, to us. 

And now He lives in us, empowering us, manifesting His life in and out through us as we trust in Him. 

I love this truth because it is the key to the Christian life. Christ in you, the hope of glory. We don't find holiness by keeping a list of rules, and we can't find assurance by this either. 

Fruit is produced in and through us as we know the truth. Think of Romans 6. Paul says, “Don't you know that you died to sin? Don't you know that you were united to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection? Don't you know that your old man was crucified with Christ so that your body of sin might be rendered powerless? 

Don't you know that you died with Christ? You were buried with Him and that you rose to newness of life, that you're now free from sin? That you are now dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord?” 

We have to know the truth. And that's what John is teaching us about light and darkness. And we have to then believe the truth. Romans 6:11, logizomai, reckon the truth. Count up the facts that you’re dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

And then yield to Him. God tells us about truth, about our salvation, about who we are in Christ. And He asks us to believe Him and trust Him and reckon it to be so. Then we are to yield. We are to present our members as instruments of righteousness. 

We are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, allowing God to transform our outward expression into consistency with who we are inwardly. Because of what He’s done. And this through faith. 

This through abiding one day at a time in Jesus as a branch in the vine, seeing His light, His life, His love poured out through us. This is why John says that the commandments of the new covenant are to believe Jesus Christ and love one another. These commandments are not burdensome. 

These are the very things that we want most of all deep in our heart to do. This is our desire because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 

My brothers and sisters, do you see the difference? Do you see what it is to keep, to guard, to value these commandments, these truths? As opposed to putting a list of laws on your refrigerator to follow and evaluating yourself as to how you did at the end of each day. Maybe I'm not even saved. 

There’s no assurance there. And I tell you, there’s no fruit there either. Because God's way is for us to know the truth, reckon the truth, and yield to Christ’s life in us through faith. 

And if we are looking to ourselves and to some law, we are doing it apart from Christ. And the fact is, without Him, we can do nothing. 

You want to have a life of holiness, to not sin, as John says? Do you want to have assurance and to discern error from false teachers? Then know the truth of who you are in Christ. 

Know that if you have believed Jesus, you have fellowship with God. You walk in the light, you have Christ's life, and you know and agree to your sin and need, and you are depending wholly on Jesus. 

Believe God's promises that your sins have been forgiven, that you have been restored from all unrighteousness, that you have, you possess, present tense, eternal life. 

Find assurance in His Word. Not in your ability to live up to the law. Find assurance in truth, not in some test. My brother, my sister, please, sense John's fatherly, shepherd-like tone and intent. 

Find your assurance, not in yourself, but find your assurance in Jesus alone. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, and we're thankful that You continue to teach us. Help us to learn to believe You. Help us to have a great desire and passion to know Your Word, to know Your truth, what You say is true. And help us to reckon that to be true. And then, Father, to present our bodies to You, to yield to the Spirit, that You might produce fruit through us for Your glory. That's our hope, that's our desire. In Jesus' name.