God is Light (1 John 1:5-7) with Dr. Conrad Mbewe

Well, brethren, let me invite you to turn your Bibles to First John and Chapter 1.

First John and Chapter 1.

And as uh you do so, some of you might know this, but it's just worth my uh mentioning it.

I probably did it the last time I was in Australia.

Uh every time I come here, I remind myself that uh the Baptist church back home in Zambia owes a lot to missionaries in who came from Australia.

Although the Baptist faith uh was initially brought into the Zambian context by two missionaries from England, one of them who was uh ordained by uh Charles Hardon's pagean.

It wasn't long before they needed the uh the help of the Baptists in uh South Africa, and so that was the next group that came over to help.

But then because of the problems of apartheid, it became fairly evident that they needed to scale down on missionaries from South Africa for political reasons, being misunderstood and everything else.

And so they were scouting around where do we get a replacement for ourselves, and that's how uh the Baptists in Australia um came in and helped to bridge a very important gap as uh the church in Zambia was being established, and so it's for me it's uh um quite an emotional experience to then come from Zambia and come to Australia to come and be a blessing to those who have been a blessing to us across the ocean.

So, in case that skipped your attention, I thought I should uh mention that for your encouragement and uh yeah, also for you to continue seeing the church in our part of the world as uh um by the grace of God that which has been produced through your efforts, uh your sacrificial giving, not just financially, but giving of your sons and daughters to come and labor among us.

This morning I want to address uh a phrase that is found in um uh first John chapter one and uh verse five, and it's the phrase God is light.

And if you will be coming later on this evening, I want to address another subject that uh uh John again crystallizes in a very in encapsuled form, and it is God is love.

But I want us to begin with the first one: God is light, and let's read then from verse 5 down to verse 7 of 1st John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

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' son cleanses us from all sin.

John is an interesting writer, and sometimes you're not quite sure what he's bringing out when he is expressing um Christian doctrine.

And sometimes you think he's going around in circles and just being repetitive.

But if you really concentrate, you begin to notice that as he is making his rounds, he's always adding something.

And in that sense, he has a kind of stereo effect as he is um bringing out God's self-revelation and also God's way of salvation.

So this letter that he writes, uh, first John, at least from chapter five, you get the impression that it is primarily about assurance of eternal salvation.

In that chapter and verse 13, he puts it this way: he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

And so, in many ways, what he is doing is giving us different aspects of Christian experience that if it is true of us, then we can conclude that truly we have life eternal.

And in verse one down to verse four, the the main truth that is bringing out is the fact that to be a Christian is to have a living experience or an experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, for those who were the early um bearers of this good news, it was also in a physical sense they had come to know this Jesus.

And so John was able to say in verse 1 that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest, in other words, came down and was with us, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

But then he's now bringing in the fact of them, the recipients of this letter, also knowing this same Jesus and in knowing him, being in fellowship with those early bearers of good news.

Verse 3 That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and we are writing this thing so that our joy or your joy may be complete.

Christianity is about not just hearing about Jesus but knowing him personally, and that's unique to the Christian faith.

You can go to other religions on the planet, and they are primarily about following laws and following rules and following rituals.

You will not find, for instance, a Muslim speaking in terms of the fact that I've got a personal relationship with Muhammad.

They don't speak in those terms, but the Christian speaks in those terms, it's a living relationship.

But then John goes on to deal with another aspect, and this time it is to do with God's essential nature.

And the point he is making is that if we are to claim to be Christians, we must be individuals who have come to terms with the kind of God who is there.

And once we come to terms with the kind of God who is there, we then ask ourselves the question: have we come into a relationship with him on his terms?

On his terms, because of who he is, and have we done so with genuine integrity of heart?

That's basically the point that he is making there.

Because surely, if you're going to be reconciled to God, which is what Christianity is all about, then it must be because you are now relating to this being on his terms because of the kind of being that he is.

I'm sure you have related to individuals who claim to be Christians primarily because they were born in a Christian family, or they've been going to church all their lives, or they've gone through baptism, or they participate in either the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist or the Mass and so on.

But their lives contradict what you clearly see in the Bible.

And you say to them, Look, with all the love that is in my heart, I don't think you are a child of God.

They may think you are being judgmental, but you it's out of genuine love.

Because the kind of God who is there, you can't hide behind rituals.

You need to show something of a commonality.

And that's what John is dealing with here.

He is primarily saying, in these words, God is light, he's primarily saying that uh God is holy.

But before we jump into that, let's at least notice that he is saying this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you.

And when he brings out, therefore, that God is light, we need to acknowledge the fact that this is not something he is inventing.

This is not something he has come up with.

He's basically saying, we also received it, and having received it, we are passing it on to you.

Which is what we do as preachers.

I don't come among you here in Sydney with some new philosophies that I've come up with and so forth to sort of excite you into some frenzy.

I simply come with what is here and give it to you.

What we have heard is what we are sharing with you.

And what is that?

John loves to use pictures when he's describing God, describing uh the father, describing the son, describing the Holy Spirit.

For instance, with respect to the Son, especially in the gospel, he speaks in terms of he is um the good shepherd, he is the bread of life, he is the way, the truth, and the life, he is, and on and on and on he goes.

And often he doesn't even say he is like something, he simply says he is.

Well, we've got the same situation here.

He in the second, rather in in his epistle, he says, God is light.

What does he have in mind by that phrase, God is light?

I want to suggest three things.

The first is that he is a being who is the foundation of truth.

The foundation of truth.

When a place is dark, if the lights were to go off right now, I can describe things to you, but your mind will have difficulties trying to grasp what it is that I'm describing.

But the moment I turn on the light, you go, oh, so this is what you were describing.

Because now you are seeing things as they really are.

Well, that's a kind of God who is there, he is a God of truth, he has revealed himself, he hasn't left things in obscurity so that you can grope around in the darkness trying to feel what kind of God there is.

No, no, no, no, he's a God who has disclosed himself.

Why?

Because he wants you to know him, and so he's revealed himself in creation, he revealed himself through the prophets, he revealed himself through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even the way of salvation has not been left to you to try and somehow discover.

He has abundantly revealed the way of salvation to us.

It's incredible that all the way from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, there is but only one way of salvation that is brought up.

Through all those authors, and over all those centuries, in different situations, it's been one way of salvation.

If you ever care to study your Bible, so that's the first sense in which light, no doubt, is appropriate for God.

The second way has to do with goodness.

Goodness.

Light is a source of health, a source of growth, a source of joy.

It's it's uh I love birds.

Some of you may have picked that up over time, and uh I'm really amazed it happened here.

I arrived in the middle of the night uh on on Wednesday night, yeah.

And first thing Thursday morning was the beautiful singing of birds.

First thing.

That's just the way in which the the birds come out with excitement and joy.

I remember many years ago we had the eclipse of of the sun in in Zambia, and it was a total eclipse.

It was in the middle of the afternoon.

So we came out with the kids and we uh lined up, we had these kind of uh glasses that ensured that our eyes are not hurt, and as the afternoon was coming to about 3, 4 p.m., it just began getting dark.

It was an incredible experience.

But what I noticed was the way in which at that point the the sparrows that had nests just under the roof of our house began to quickly come back for the night, and just as they came in, suddenly it was bright again, and I could imagine they must have been a little confused, but they began to sing again the morning song, and I thought, wow, this is beautiful.

Light brings joy with no gloom, no decay, no death in that sense.

It's it's the joy that you can't miss.

Or to borrow the picture of Malachi and chapter four, as uh Malachi is speaking about the the uh the son of righteousness that will uh arise at at the end of human history when when he comes to to judge the world.

He he puts it this way about um the children of God, Malachi 4 and verse 2.

But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise and book.

Look at what it says there, with healing in its wings.

You shall go out leaping like cows from the store.

You can picture that when you've got your cows and calves and so on, and it's it's dark now, you take them into the stall and you lock them in.

It's now morning, the sun is beginning to rise, you open for them.

Obviously, the older animals sort of come out with that majestic walk as usual, but not the cows.

The cows come out and jumping up here, jumping up there.

There's just that exuberance and joy.

The sun has come out, and that's what is being pictured here.

That's true about light.

Light brings health, brings joy, brings exuberance, and again, that's true about God.

Anybody who who thinks that when you come to the Christian faith, you are leaving joy behind does not know the God of the Bible.

The God of the Bible is one who wants you to have real life, and that's why eternal life is not just life that goes on and on and on.

No, no, no, no.

Eternal life is the most satisfying, fulfilling life for all eternity, but it begins now because God is light.

A few years ago, I was evangelizing a couple uh down our street, and I was going there weekly, and it was becoming fairly evident that it was the the knife was getting rather uncomfortably close to both husband and and wife.

And the the wife finally says to me, you know, I'm convinced about what you're saying, I'm convinced, but I can't let go of where I am because I'm afraid that I might lose pleasure and joy in life.

And I remember saying to her, between you and me, who's happier?

Because the one who is happier surely is the one who crosses the road to share his happiness.

It's not you who has come to me, it's me who keeps coming to you.

Because I know life with a capital L is in God, and I want to say that.

That same truth to you that ultimately, real life, everlasting life, joyful life, peaceful life, life again.

I say with a capital L is found only in God through Jesus Christ.

But there's one more aspect of light that I think all of us would easily guess, and it is moral purity.

Moral purity.

And that is pretty obvious because in the Bible, often evil is spoken of in terms of darkness.

Darkness.

Wickedness is dark.

And then moral purity, ethical purity is spoken of in terms of light.

So let me ask you whether this is the God you know, the God of truth, the God of goodness, and the God who is holy, ethically pure.

Because what John is telling us here is that that's the God who exists.

And if in your mind you've subtracted one of those truths, you have an idol.

It's not the God of the Bible.

But let's go on because it has implications on all of us.

And what is the implication?

Well, it's in the text, so let's go back to 1 John.

And it says this that this God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

In other words, there are no mixtures in him.

He's not truth with some error, revelation with some obscurity.

He's not goodness, but hey, you know, I'm holding that back away from you.

And he is not holiness with some mixture of evil or sin.

It is absolute purity.

But then he goes on to give us the first of quite a number of if statements.

And they're quite a number from verse 6 all the way to chapter 2 and verse 1.

Quite a number of them.

The first one is if we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie.

The second one is, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and so on.

The next one is in verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

The next one is in verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins.

The next one is in verse 10.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar.

And then the last one is in chapter 2, verse 1.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous.

And all these if statements are meant to get us to appreciate the implications of the first statement that is given.

The very first one is saying, birds of a feather flock together.

That's basically what it is saying.

So if God is light and you claim to have fellowship with him, let's go on and see that.

If we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

What does John mean by the statement we walk in darkness?

Again, remember what I said.

John is famous for using picture language, and the walking here has to simply do with your regular daily life.

If I come to live with you for a week, I'm in your home.

I should be able to say this person is god-like or godly.

I should be able to say this person is Christ-like, therefore, he's a Christian.

Why?

Because the kind of life emanating from you reminds me of the kind of being God is.

Number one, you uh your life is shrouded in deceit, lies.

Your life is obscure, mysterious.

You're saying one thing, but your life seems to be saying something else.

In other words, I'm not seeing truth, I'm not seeing truthfulness.

Oh, let's go to the second aspect.

You're claiming to be a Christian, but as I'm living with you over that one week, I'm discovering you are a very difficult person to get along with.

Very difficult.

I'm literally walking on eggshells when I'm near you.

Your spouse wants to run away from you, your kids are just hiding away because you are a terror to live with.

He is worthy.

That's not Christianity.

Your life ought to be oozing with goodness and love.

There should be a joy about your life that spills over into other people's lives.

Well, let's quickly throw in the third one.

Morality.

That's even worse.

I'm seeing that here you are living a life of wickedness.

Yes, hidden.

But now that I'm close enough, I'm seeing it.

A life that is evil, a life that is ungodly.

And you know, there are people who are like that, they even warn their children.

You go and tell the people at church what you've seen here, and you regret it for the rest of your life.

How?

And you still claim to be Christian.

That's not Christianity, that's being a Pharisee, where outwardly you are a whitewashed something, but on the inside you are full of dead men's bones.

That's not Christianity, and that's what John is bringing out here.

He is saying, if we say we have fellowship with God, who is light, while we are walking in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth.

We do not the truth.

And my version here has added, do not practice the truth.

And I'm sure that's what the text means.

There is no real truthfulness in your profession of faith.

Is that describing you this morning?

A person who claims Christianity, but in the end, you repulse people from the Christian faith because of your actual life, your actual life, and basically what he's saying here is that therefore start being truthful, own it, and that's what I'll come to now.

On it, recognize the kind of God who is there and begin from there, and that's what he goes on to deal with in verse 7.

The issue of integrity.

That it's when an individual is genuinely reflecting the life of God that you find that when others are also reflecting the life of God, they have genuine communion, partnership, fellowship with one another.

Because they've got nothing to hide.

They are transparent.

They are radiating goodness.

They want to know about your life and how they can minister to you, and they accept your life into their life so that you can also minister to them.

It's it's genuine fellowship.

And you all fighting evil and wickedness and sin.

And so you can join hands together and and serve the Lord together.

That's genuine fellowship.

Whereas darkness is antisocial, it kills true fellowship.

Because it's always injuring other people.

You confide in that person, and before you know it, it's in the gossip circle.

Whatever it is that you shared, they even add exaggerations to it to make your story worse.

And by the time it comes back into your ears, you regret the fact that you shared that which made you vulnerable with this individual.

Because they're just hurtful.

That's not fellowship.

That's not fellowship.

But light enables us to be free in one another's presence.

We hear other Christian struggles and we take it to the Lord in prayer.

We carry the burden together with them.

As the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Because now you've got two shoulders carrying this with them.

But there's a further blessing that is in this text, and it is the one that is an even further surprise, and it is this and the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sin.

Now, I'm saying it's a surprise because our understanding of being in the light is, as I said, moral purity.

We spoke about that ethical righteousness.

So the assumption seems to be that okay, so if if I am walking in the light, it means that I am absolutely holy.

I can't remember the last time I ever sinned.

John is very quick to say that absoluteness is true of God, but not true of us.

For us, it is a process of growth.

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn rising ever brighter to the full light of day or of noon.

That's the way it is with us.

We grow in that sense.

So, with us, there is the sense of integrity that makes us have a well-beaten path to the cross.

We are individuals who, as we're confessing earlier from the Lord's Prayer, who say, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

We are individuals who walk in the light, and because we are in the light, in other words, in truth, in integrity, we are conscious of our own sinfulness.

Sinfulness in terms of what we have already done, and hence the need here for forgiveness.

Back to our text there.

And the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us from all sin.

And in case we've missed the implications of that, listen to this.

If we confess our sins, or first of all, the lie, verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth, the light, is not in us.

But on the other hand, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So the point there is, first of all, the advantage of this light is that you have real, genuine fellowship with one another.

In our home, all our children except the last one became Christians over time.

And it was so evident that in the home there was it was like a mini church.

The sharing of the common life was incredible.

I mean, in due season, all the kids fell in love and abandoned us, and you know, they've they've since gone.

But before they left, it was a miniature church.

The the fellowship was just incredible.

But we're always mindful of the youngest son who just couldn't relate to that life, just couldn't relate.

And often would be caught in escapades, you know, doing wrong things here, thinking he's hiding, and then you know, other things would come out.

It was just incredible.

But but but our children had had come to Christ and it was genuine, it was real.

I remember on one occasion a cousin or a niece for us had come visiting and went with one of our daughters to the shops and ended up with some boyfriend buying her things, and as they were coming back, she says to our daughter, yeah, so how are we going to explain all these things we are coming with to uh uncle and auntie?

And my daughter said, simple, we'll tell them the truth.

No, we'll be in trouble.

Well, then you shouldn't have done it in the first place, you see.

Uh it's better we are in trouble for doing what was wrong than adding lies on top of it.

So the friend tried to convince her.

Finally, they arrived, and we were in the sitting room, the lounge, and they passed with all these goods going to the bedroom.

My wife and I looked at each other and thought, wow, where did all that come from?

So, of course, the young lady stuck to the bedroom.

Our daughter came out, and my wife asked, So, what happened?

Christmas has come a little early.

And before she could answer, the friend came and looked at her, hoping, come on, you can't, you can't, and it was like switch turning on a switch, she gave it.

Her boyfriend bought all those things for her.

But the point is, that's the way Christians live.

You live in the light, you don't start participating in being deceitful.

Because the moment your life becomes deceitful, you are no longer in real fellowship.

You can't.

It was so obvious that everybody else would be enjoying fellowship.

Those who are not believers in the family have got so much to hide, and therefore they cannot relate.

But more than that is this final statement here, and it is this that in coming to Live in the light, there is the acknowledgement.

I am a sinner, I deserve to go to hell because of my sins.

There is a savior who's paid the price for sin, and it's Jesus Christ.

And I'm going to him for cleansing.

And it's at the beginning, yes, but may I say it is an ongoing process for the rest of life.

We have a well-beaten path to Calvary because we are walking in the light.

I often say that if you were to be a fly on the wall and listen to the prayer of a godly man and a godly woman alone at the end of the day, alone speaking to God, you'd be saying to yourself, What on earth did this guy do today?

As they are confessing their sins, and yet it's the sensitivity of soul, that's all it is.

The sensitivity of soul that says, Lord, forgive me.

Forgive me.

There's so much that I ought to have done that I haven't done, and there's so much that I haven't done that I ought to have done.

Have mercy on me, cleanse me from all my sin.

Wash me through the blood of your son.

But it's the sensitivity, the growing sensitivity, because a child of God is walking in the light.

Again, I want to ask, is that you?

Is that your life?

You claim to be a Christian.

Does this if clause describe you?

Remember, it's only the first one.

But all it is saying is this that the way you live betrays where you are going.

It does.

Because God is light.

If he has really saved you, there will be something of the characteristics of that light emanating out of your life.

Is it?

Is it doing so?

Or you've simply got a life which is really darkness but sprinkled with church going.

That's all you've done.

Sprinkled it with church going.

That should not be the case.

And all John wants us to do here is what I hope you will do right now.

And it is to come out of darkness and come into the light in terms of truthfulness.

In terms of saying to God, God, that's not me.

And I'm giving up hypocrisy now.

I'm giving it up now.

I want to be before you what I really am.

That's truth.

There isn't goodness in me.

Look at the misery I am spreading around me.

Lord, change me.

Change me by your spirit.

Make me new.

Lord, wash away my sin that I may have a clean slate.

Because you alone are able to forgive.

Brethren, do not let anybody ever cheat you.

The God of heaven is light.

Darkness ain't going in.

And just make sure that that's the way your life also is.

And if you find you are caught on the wrong foot, as I always say, we've got such a wonderful, wonderful Savior.

That's why He came.

His salvation is free, completely free.

He's not asking you to go and change yourself first, clean yourself up.

No, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

He can wash away all your sins now, while you are in that seat, even before you go out of those doors.

You can go out there like those um calves we're reading about earlier on, jumping with three shouts of hallelujah.

My life has changed.

God in Christ has come in.

He can do that for you.

But you need to be honest, you need to be sincere.

You need to have integrity today.

Let's pray, Lord.

Search by your spirit, O Lord, even now.

Eternal light, eternal light, how pure the soul must be, when placed beneath thy searching light, shrinks not, but in calm delight can live and look on thee.

The spirits that surround your throne might bear that burning bliss, but how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the indescribable appear, and on my naked spirit bear that uncreated beam.

Oh God, thank you that in Christ that can be so.

We pray that you reveal yourself in that way to each one in here today, that we may all hide in Christ forevermore.

Amen.