EVENING SERMON FOR 8/21/2024 11:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-7 “The
Nature of God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 1:5
Message of the
verse: “5
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in
Him there is no darkness at all.”
What I have decided to do as I look at this verse is
to quote from a sermon that John MacArthur gave in this section in 2002. The important thing that I am trying to talk
about is that God is Light. I know that
in the past that I looked at this subject, perhaps when I was studying the
Gospel of John and remember that this is a very important truth for us to
understand and that is why I chose to quote from this sermon mentioned
above. It will take us a number of days to look at it as I do not want
to put so much on these SD’s that will take a long time to read and may
discourage people from reading it.
“Now, that then poses the question: Who possesses
this? Right? How can we be sure that we have this life? Well, it’s not just if
we say we have it - verse 6 - it’s if we - verse 7 - walk
in the light. And John then sets up a series of contrasts that we’re going to
look at starting next week. John then goes on to discuss who is really a
possessor of the light, who really has the life, as opposed to those who are
still in the darkness. That basically sets up the rest of the book.
“You notice this theme comes back a few times.
Turn to chapter 2 and verse 9 “The one who says he’s in the light,” that
doesn’t do it. “You say you have the life, you say you’re in the light, you
hate your brother? You’re in the darkness.” Verse 10, “The one who loves his
brother abides in the light and there’s no cause for stumbling in him.” Verse
11, “The one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the
darkness, doesn’t know where he’s going because the darkness has blinded his
eyes.”
“So this is the way it goes through this epistle. It’s a contrast between who is
in the light, who has the light and who does not. Even over in chapter
5, verses 11 and 12, the same thing is basically emphasized. “The witness is
this, that God has given us eternal life. This life is in His Son. He who has
the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have the Son of God doesn’t have the
life.” And remember, life and light are synonymous.
“So let’s go back to chapter 1, verse 5. When John
starts, after the introduction of the first four verses, in which he affirms
the reality of the incarnation and himself as a personal eyewitness, as he
starts into the main emphasis of his epistle, it is critical to have a
foundation, and the
foundation is that God is light. That’s the foundation. God is the
source of life, God has given that life through His Son to those who believe.
“Then the question arises, how do we know who has received that light?
How do we know who possesses the life, the eternal life of God? So John puts
himself in a position - you could say he’s poised to reject claims by
those who have no right to claim the light and to affirm the reality of
salvation to those who do have a right to claim the light. Now remember, there
is a polemic tone in all of this because John is trying to protect the churches
to whom he writes from deceivers, false teachers, false prophets, liars. John’s
passion is for the truth, and he wants to expose the liars.
“And so this whole epistle is at the very
foundation of the safety of the church. It is being able to distinguish who
really has eternal life, who really has the light, who is really in the
fellowship and who is not because false teachers are successful because they
claim to be in the light. They claim to know the truth. They claim to have the
life of God, to be possessors of eternal life. And we’re going to see that the
first test that John applies to determine whether somebody is really in the
light, really possesses the life, really has received eternal life is their
attitude toward sin - their attitude toward sin.
“And in the passage that is before us in this
first chapter, John attacks the notion that someone can have eternal life who
denies sin. It’s a rather simple test to know who possesses eternal life -
they confess their sin. And so now you know where we’re going in the epistle,
where John is going, and how important it is that he starts this section by
saying, “And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you.” And
he’s saying, “This is what I’m telling you because I heard it from Jesus. God
is light. This is not my opinion, this is a message we heard from Him, from the
incarnate One, the Word of life, light incarnate and we’re telling it to you.
I’m telling you what God in human flesh told me.”
8/21/2024 11:08 PM
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