Walk in God's light and be purified through Jesus's blood

Text 1 John 1:6, 7 Time 17/08/14 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

In 1 John 1:5 we read these words. The Apostle John says This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. We do not often have the phrase God is … in the New Testament but it does come up from time to time. Several times Paul says God is faithful and once that God is just (2 Thessalonians 1:6). We are reminded that God is one and in John 4:24 Jesus himself says God is Spirit. In Hebrews we are reminded that God is the builder of everything and that God is a consuming fire (3:4, 12:29). Twice in 1 John we are told famously that God is love (4:8, 16).

So fundamentally God is Spirit (not body), he is one (a unity), he is love and so he is faithful; he is just too. All things are built by him and he is a consuming fire. He is also light. In him there is no darkness at all. Clearly John is using a picture here. If God is light he is pure, he is true, he is unchangingly pure and true. There are no shadows. All life depends on him and he reveals all things. There is no ignorance in him.

John wrote this first letter to Christians to remind them about the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of him at the beginning of the letter as That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared he says we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard – with this purpose so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Further, We write this to make our joy complete.

It is after that introduction that he reminds them of the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. That is where he wants to focus. From this declaration he moves on to speak about how to live as a Christian, as someone who really does know God.

I thought that would be a good thing for us to think about this evening. If we are Christians, which perhaps most of us are, then it is always good to come back to the fundamental things.

If you are not a Christian then we are glad you are here and we want you to understand what a Christian is and how to live as a Christian.

The final verses of the chapter are often quoted to unbelievers, although strictly speaking they are written to believers. It says

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Simply pretending that nothing is wrong and that we are not guilty before God is not a realistic option. On the other hand, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and ore than that purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Go to God and confess your sins. Do not pretend there is nothing wrong.

This evening, however, I want us to focus on verses 6 and 7 and I want to say three main things.

1. Understand how to live as a Christian today

Now, of course, there are many things we could say under this heading but what I want to do is to focus on these verses and to draw out one over arching principle that sums up how the Christian is to live. It is this picture of walking not in the darkness but in light.

1. Negatively – Do not walk in the dark

(6) If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. To claim to be in fellowship with God (who remember is light – he is pure, holy and knowing) and yet to walk in the darkness cannot be right. The claim is patently false.

It is like saying “I love being out in the sun with Bob” but spending all your time indoors or claiming to know what it is like to live somewhere but knowing nothing about that place in fact.

There was a case last year of a man in America called Jeffrey Kepler being sent to prison for lying. He falsely claimed to have served in the Army for nearly 3 years in the late seventies. He said he was an Airborne Ranger, who qualified for Officer Candidate School. He also claimed to have won numerous medals, including the Silver Star, the Bronze Star twice and a Purple Heart. In fact, although he served for nearly a month in 1986, he was honourably discharged for not meeting medical fitness standards. There were no promotions, awards, or commendations, and he was never in combat.

He did this to gain veterans benefits. People lie for many reasons but a lie is a lie and if a man claims to be in fellowship with God but walks in darkness he clearly is not Christian. He is a hypocrite, a mere nominal Christian at best.

What is it to walk in darkness? It means to sin and not to own up to that sin. It means refusing to repent. It means avoiding the light – the light that opposes sin. It may mean not coming to church or a man may come to church but shut out the light in other ways – by sleeping or thinking of something else or just not doing anything about what he hears. It is closing your Bible shut, not praying, not examining your heart and seeing the sin there. Darkness is connected with many sins such as drunkenness and debauchery and burglary, etc. People who do not want to be seen, who do not want to be found out often do things in the dark.

This is like Ephesians 5:8 where Paul says you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.

Is that you? A child of the light. Stop walking in the darkness. Run from it. Reject it.

In the Star Wars movies they talk about the Force, which is a mystical energy that permeates the Star Wars galaxy. The force has what they call a dark side that represents an aspect of it that is not practiced by the goodies in the films, the Jedi, who view it as evil. The baddies, the Sith, interestingly, view the dark side as good. Now, despite what some think we do not live in a Star Wars-like universe where there is a force that is both good and evil but a world made by God but that has evil in it at the moment, until it is expelled forever by God. Nevertheless, there is what we might call a dark side, a way of living that is evil adn contrary to God' wishes. We must not walk in it.

2. Positively. Walk in the light.

John says (7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, …. then certain things follow, things that we would expect of a Christian.

A Christian then is someone who shuns the dark and walks in the light. That is, and this is the thing that is so fearful and yet so exciting, he lives in the presence of God, in the full glare of his holy presence.

What does this mean practically?

It means that he is careful to read his Bible regularly. He knows that God's Word is a lamp to his feet and a light on the path of life. He listens to the Word preached. He pays attention to the preacher. He examines himself – he lets the light into his heart. He seeks to live a life of holiness. He wants to be pure and upright and honest. The Holy Spirit shines in him and shapes his life.

There used to be a children's programme when I was a kid called How? It was mostly a science programme but it answered all sorts of questions sent in by children. I remember one time they had a little machine on wheels which was a sort of moth – that is, like a moth it was automatically drawn to a light source. I remember one of the presenters then switching the engine around which made it do the opposite – it went away from any light source. Now it's a mole he said.

Spiritually, are you a mole or a moth? Are you drawn to the light or repelled by it? Do you walk in the darkness, merely claiming to have fellowship with God and not living by the truth or do you we walk in the light, as he is in the light? Which of these descriptions best describes you? In the dark or in the light? It is vital that if you say you are a Christian, that you know God and belong to him, that you truly walk in the light not in the darkness.

2. Realise there is a blessing that comes to those who live like that

We see then what it is to walk in the light. If we do this then one of the immediate benefits is that we have fellowship with one another that is with our fellow professing Christians and ultimately with God himself. To walk in the light is clearly to have fellowship with God who is light.

There is an expression isn't there, “to see things in the same light”. We might say of two people “they see this thing in the same light”.

Now if we walk in the same light as God then we will see things in the light that he does. We will have fellowship with him. We will also agree with our fellow Christians.

The world stumbles around in the dark and one person is always stumbling into another and so there is a lot of fear and pain and trouble. If we walk in God's light we can be confident. We will see what to do and we will avoid hurting each other a great deal.

Churches sometimes discuss how to improve the fellowship they have and they usually come up with things like trips out or holidays or other social gatherings. In fact, far more important is walking in the light and not in the darkness. It is walking in darkness that breaks fellowship among believers. If we walked in the light more then we would find ourselves more eager to share with one another and to be a help to one another more than we so often are.

Let's never forget then that fellowship is always greater where two people walk in God's light. We are all walking – that is we are all living our lives. But how are we living – in the shadows, in the darkness? Come out from the shadows and from the dark and live in the light of God. What glory and joy is found in those paths. What fellowship with God's people.

3. Notice the comfort for every Christian who seeks to live in this way

The Christian life then is a matter of walking – not sitting down but walking and walking in the light of God not in the darkness. But when you walk in the light you become very conscious of your sins.

I remember as a child being allowed to play outside in the dark in the winter months. You'd play happily outside for an hour or so until your parents called you in. It was only once you came into the house where the lights were on that you would realise how dirty you had become.

Similarly, when we walk in the light there is fellowship with others but there is also a realisation of how sinful we really are. It is most humbling. That is where this last phrase comes in - and says John the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Yes, we see our sins but let's never forget this – it is also a central part of being a Christian that you know that whereas the light of the Father can only expose sin, the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

The reference to his blood, of course, is a reference chiefly to his death on the cross. It is by his holy life and his atoning death that he has provided a way for us to be purified and washed clean from sin.

The old illustration used to be carbolic soap – red soap that was nevertheless able to make you not red but clean. Shower gel comes n all sorts of colours theses days including red – you take a little of it in your hand (green or red or whatever), you rub it in and soon all the dirt and grime is gone. The blood of Jesus is like that. Once his blood is applied, all your sins are gone. Nothing can wash away sin like Jesus blood. How does that old hymn go?

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

It is because Jesus died in the place of sinners that is there is cleansing for them. All their sins are washed away because he has died in our place. It is not baptism that washes clean or some other ritual. It does not say that coming to church or communion will do it – only the blood of Christ.

Hebrews 9:14 is similar How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

The picture is in Revelation too 7:13, 14 too. John says, Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes - who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; (the great tribulation is life on this wicked earth) they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

This is the fountain Zechariah spoke of (13:1) On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. It led William Cowper to write

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

One writer puts it this way “There is no stain made by sin so deep that the blood of Christ cannot take it entirely away from the soul.” This is the true Christian life – not simply seeking to walk in the light but also knowing that daily cleansing that Christ has freed us from our sins by his blood.

My final question to you then is, are you remembering the blood of Christ? Are you daily being cleansed in it, as it were? As you turn from the darkness and seek to walk in the light day by day, are you also being washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, the one who died on Calvary?

Let me close by exhorting you.

1. Are you turning from the darkness and walking in the light as God is in the light? That is the only way to live.

2. Don't forget the blessing that belongs to those who walk in that light. They know not only fellowship with God but with one another too.

3. Walking in the light is demanding. It is like living wearing only white. The stains soon show. But the blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin. Those who walk in the light confess their sins and so come to God to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. All their sins are forgiven – not just some but all. Are you going to Jesus? Never stop.