God is Light - 1 John 1:5-7

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Brothers and sisters, we're going to be reading together chapter one and the first two verses. Now, if you are in Christ Jesus, If you have been taken by God's grace, and if you have experienced the life of Christ, if you know what darkness was, and I'm not reading, of course, I'm speaking to you only.

If you have experienced the new life that is found in Jesus Christ, and if you have been taken from darkness to light, from death to life, from being in the world to be in Christ, And if you have been partaker of the life of Christ, the peace, the hope, the joy that is only found in him, then it will be the interest of your soul to walk in the light as he is in the light. Oh, my dear soul, that you will be indifferent and cold to these words. that you may find not resounding your ears and the depths of your soul when I say that I'm going to speak to you about how to or what it is to walk in the light, that in your heart and in your soul, when God sees that he may not find any level of interest or desire to walk in the light. What a horrible thing will be that you will be satisfied and pleased with religion, just with coming to church and singing one hymn or two and just doing particular things. Very important matters, the ones that we attempt to speak about.

Let us read them together, brothers and sisters, and everyone within the sound of my voice, chapter 1, chapter 2, verse 2 also. This is the Word of the Lord, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. 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, 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. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things, so that your or our joy may be complete." Now, verse 5. This is the message we have heard from Him, and proclaim 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, he 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 no sin, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He himself, he is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. This is the word of the Lord, my dear brother, sister, and my dear soul within the sound of my voice.

As I said to you, and I hope that I use that word now, I'm doubting. I want to speak to you about what it is to walk in the light. And you would have seen there in those verses from verse five onwards that that is one of the most important things that the apostle wants to emphasize, to walk in the light. When we started with the exposition of this letter, I said to you, my dear soul, that we could summarize first John as just simply a practical exposition of John 17, verse three, in which the same apostle, the apostle John, says, That this is eternal life, that we will know God, the only God, and Jesus Christ, whom he sent. That knowledge that we are supposed to have of God in the person of Jesus Christ is supposed to change us, to affect us, to transform us in such a way that, of course, we are not going to be the same people that we were before.

And the type of life that we live as Christians, by virtue of that knowledge of God, is going to be so clearly differentiated from the past. Then the apostle writes in first in his first letter to the church, different characteristics of what it is to live the Christian life. If one was going to ask him or herself what it is to be a Christian and what are the signs of a biblical conversion, then that person could easily come to first John and to read on his or her knees in prayer in the spirit of Christ before him, asking to have the light of the scriptures so that his or her heart will be confronted with the reality that comes from above. The one who knows all things, the one who sees all things, and the one that is going to judge the living of the dead. As we have said many times, there is no more important question in life than that of the spiritual condition of your soul.

It does not matter how much money you have in your bank account. It does not matter how well your family is structured. It does not matter the type of car that you have or do not have. It does not matter your plans for the future, your education or how much intellect you have. It does not matter.

What matters is your status before God. Your relationship with God in Jesus Christ and how silly men and humanity is that they give themselves to all type of endeavors except seeking the only true and living God. Millions and millions of people, as we speak, Millions and millions of people, as we are preaching and you're hearing these words, are giving themselves entirely to human endeavors that, in the end, will see them sent to hell. And if that was the reality only of outside of the church, one could have certain hope just by being in a church but beloved of Jesus Christ. Many will say on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out demons in your name?

Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do all of these mighty works in your name? Depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of inequity. Within the sound of my voice, there is a chance that those who are sitting or anyone who is sitting before me or in front of me will be in the same condition of those who are outside of the context of the church, giving themselves to human endeavors that in the end will be consumed and will pass away and everything will be exposed in the reality of the one who knows it all.

If you're going to give yourself to something, if you're going to give your heart to something, then give your heart to seek the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who upholds your soul, the one that gives you peace, the one that is able to give you true and genuine joy, the one that is able to give you genuine hope. of what is going to take place and the one that is able to sustain you and equip you and empower you even in the midst of difficulty and tribulation. The scriptures are so crazy. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Count it all joy when you fall in many trials.

Count it all joy. When trials and difficulties arrive at my door, when my mind is filled with darkness and with uncertainty, O Lord, how am I going to count it all joy? How am I going to rejoice in the midst of difficulty? How am I going to rejoice and have a heart with gladness? How am I going to open my mouth to sing praises unto you?

Impossible to be done in the flesh. The natural consequence of that state is to be taken by the emotions, by fear, by the lack of peace, the uncertainty of this world, the weakness of the flesh, and try to solve things in our own strength. When Christ is enthroned in the heart, He is the one that opens the eyes to see this eternal hope that in Him, independently of what takes place in the present time, our lives are secure. What would a child of God desire? other than walk in the light, as he is in the light.

walked as he walked, take the steps that he took, say the words that he said, desire what he desired. Oh brother, sister, so easy we can be taken with religion. So easy we can be taken with preaching a sermon and coming to church and saying things and this and that. So easy we can be taken just by how Christianity works and operates. The heart more naturally will be inclined to take all of those religious stuff, all of the Christianity that is empty of power, rather than submitting to Christ.

Finding ourselves, creating unto ourselves a type of religion with labels and forms and ways and methodologies to appease our own conscience. when our hearts are deviated and apart from the experience of the presence of Jesus Christ. Not when we come to church. Not when we put our clothes just to see each other in a proper way. Not when we say the things that we have prepared.

but rather in the secret place, when sin is knocking at the door, when you have the opportunity to take unrighteousness or righteousness, when you have the opportunity to be angered or not, when you have the opportunity to lie or to tell the truth, when you have the opportunity to respond to unfaithful or to wrathful spouse with Christ-likeness. That is the moment in which the Lord witnesses and brings conviction through his spirit of the reality that is found in the heart. Brother and sister, time is wasted. Even in that particular point, in that secret place, we are contempt and satisfied simply with religion. I want to speak to you and to myself about what it is to walk in the light.

as the one who gave his life for you has called you to walk in the light. And when he says walk, he's not referring to Sunday. He's not referring to the Bible study, but he refers to your life, to walk in the light as he is in the light. And if I'm going to speak to you about why or what it is to walk in the light, I need to point to you to the importance of speaking about what it is to walk in the light. And that is found there in verse seven.

If you read it carefully, you will see the importance, brother and sister of what it is to walk in the light. It says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, first, we have fellowship with one another. And second, the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. We have one cross that is the conditional for two realities. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then first happens that we have fellowship with one another.

And second happens that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. How are we understand that? The church will never operate in the power for which the church was called. The church will never have the levels of fellowship that the New Testament calls us to. The church will never have the love for one another that is written here in the scriptures.

If we do not walk in the light, As He is in the light, and in verse 5 He has said that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. It is not about me choosing my only shirt to come on Sunday to preach to you. It is about what is inside of my heart from Monday to Sunday in order to relate to you. It is the same thing for you. It is not about what we do here.

It is about what goes on in your heart and in your mind from Monday to Sunday, every second. That is when you are either walking in the light or you are not walking in the light. And second, something glorious. And that is that even though we have been forgiven already by the faith that we have had in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we walk in the light, we continue to experience the forgiveness of the Lord every time that we sin. It says, And the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

My dear soul, I don't need to know you much. I just need to know that you're a human and a Christian. How many times have you been troubled by the absence of the presence of the Lord, by the sin that has taken, by the conviction that you cannot deal with, that the word that you said that you shouldn't have said, the place that you went that you shouldn't have gone, the thing that you did that you shouldn't have done. And then your conscience is pierced and days pass and pass and pass, and you are not able to find peace, dealing with sin in darkness. When a saint is walking in the light, he is not only able or she is able to have fellowship with one another, as it is written in the scripture, but also that person is able to experience the forgiveness that is always available in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, I come before you repenting from the sin that I have committed against you, and by virtue of the walking in the light and the faith that we have in the cross, experiencing forgiveness. This transaction now is done. Repentance before the Lord and forgiveness experienced. Then the person is set free from the scene that they have repented. That is why it's very important that we speak about walking in the light.

My dear brother or sister, a friend there found in verse seven. Now let me then speak to you to what it is to walk in the light. And I'm going to see your faces to see how we progress with it. Stamina, I think, is the word that you use in English and see how we progress with this. what it is to walk in the light.

Let me just do what the Puritans used to do in the 17th and 18th century. Let me tell you what it is not to walk in the light. And when we understand what is not to walk or walking in the light, then I hope that the Lord will help us then to move into what it is to walk in the light, what it is or what is not better first. not walking in the light is of course walking in Darkness. The first thing that we need to understand, my dear soul, brother, sister, if you're going to experience the power of the light of Jesus Christ, if you're not going to take your darkness and put it a label of light, if you're not going to take your darkness and put it a label of my Christianity, if you're not going to take your darkness, secret darkness, and reframe it and reshape it and rename it as I'm a Christian, You need to understand not only the place where you should be, but the place where you should not be.

And that is darkness. The first thing that I want to do with you, my dear soul, is that you will understand a very important distinction. I don't know if the air conditioner is... Sorry. Otherwise, I will melt here.

The first thing my dear soul, give me your mind once again, sorry for that. The first thing that I want you to understand is a distinction. A distinction, we're going to understand first what it is to walk in darkness. What is it, what it is to walk in darkness? And the first thing that I want you to understand is a distinction.

And the only word that I can give or the words that I can give to this distinction is I want us to understand what it is, emotional darkness and what it is, is spiritual darkness. I want us as a church to understand when we're speaking about darkness, what it is, emotional darkness. And the second thing is a spiritual darkness, because if we mix those two, we will easily move from emotional darkness into a spiritual darkness which contains sin. Now, the scriptures, when the scriptures speak about darkness, always all the time are speaking about spiritual darkness. But because of the nature of the emotions that we experience, the scriptures do speak about a type of experience that you experience, that I experience, that it is in the emotions and sometimes you call it darkness or sometimes depression or sometimes being down, that does not necessarily require the presence of sin.

There is a type of darkness, and I hope that verse is perhaps coming to your mind from the Old Testament, especially. And I think the brother mentioned the sounds. There is a type of darkness that is emotional in nature that the Scriptures call affliction. in which we will put ourselves many times for the circumstances of Providence, and we will experience something that we define at times as darkness. We must understand this experience of the heart so that we will be able to understand what a spiritual darkness is, and from there jump to understand what is walking in the light.

I hope that that makes sense. Come with me to Psalm 13. Do not read Psalm 13, but just come with me to that psalm. Don't read it, please, otherwise you will not understand what I'm going to do. But just simply open your Bible there to Psalm 13.

And I think that Brother G is the one that mentioned the Psalms and David. But when you go through the Psalms, You can experience loads, lots of emotions, right? That's why we identify ourselves with David. That's why we identify ourselves with the psalmist, because many times we can take the experience that we have in our hearts and see what this person is going through is exactly what I'm experiencing. And sometimes those are not nice feelings or good emotions, but rather we call that darkness.

I'm trying to explain to you this emotional darkness in which there's not necessarily the presence of sin. So if you go to Psalm 13, I want you to pay attention there to the last two verses of this Psalm 13. When the Lord saved me in 2011, I think I've told you, you brethren, when the Lord saved me in 2011, I struggled with assurance of my salvation for two years. I think I've told you some of you. Two years struggling deeply with the assurance of my salvation.

Nights in which I will not sleep. Nights in which I will just be reading Jonathan Edwards, you know the sermon, right? Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Reading that, just been sleeping to my side and I will be with this uncertainty of my soul for two years. This sound was the word that the Lord used to bring peace to my heart, certainty, supernatural certainty.

Now that is according to my mind. by the Spirit of God, just confirming the finished work of Christ on the behalf of the sinner. Pay attention to these verse five and six. It says, If you only read those words you read and says, But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. And if you only had those two verses, then you will say, wow, David is experiencing this joy, this gladness in salvation. And he's experiencing this relationship with the Lord that he's dealing with him bountifully and that he sings to the Lord. This is the heart of David that he's rejoicing and experiencing all of these things. good things and perhaps he's smiling and he's filled with gladness as he meditates upon the Lord.

But then you read from verse one through verse four and that which leads to that experience there. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long may I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. My enemies say I have prevailed over him. My foes rejoice because I am shaken. David, the man after God's heart, taken by the assurance of his salvation in the heart that he was one with God, yet many times afflicted by the circumstances.

Enemies around, night, those who were supposed to be on his side, those who were supposed to be of his family, many times decided to kill him and to take his life. The glorious controversy being experienced in the heart of David. Peace and joy in knowing that he was with God. But at the same time, oh Lord, where are you? They are coming.

They are going to take me. They are going to take my soul. They are going to take my body. They are going to afflict me. They are going to kill me.

Fear and joy. Yet you can see something very important here, that the fear that David had never removed him from the presence of the Lord. Come with me to Psalm 42, and we will see the experience of his heart, which has been the experience of your heart many times. I dare to say based on what the scripture says of human nature. This is another soul, Psalm 42.

You may remember those verses as we many times sing, right? Those are glorious verses. Speaking of a person who is walking in joy, speaking of a person who is walking in the power of happiness and gladness, one would say, as the deer pans, I said 42, right? As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude-keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. And it continues, and it continues, and it continues. Why are you troubled? Oh, my soul experiencing David was experiencing the affliction and of the circumstances, fear and enemies and all of these things that were taking place. Yet in the midst of this emotional darkness, he remained at one particular place, and that is that he remained in the presence of the Lord.

the affliction, brother, sister, within the sound of my voice, if there is any interest in you in understanding what it is to walk in light, when the soul is cast down and traveled in emotions, yet the faith that is operating within the soul, moving that person to remain at the feet of Jesus Christ, The testing of the faith is happening just there. The trials that we're supposed to count them as joy is happening there. Because then when the soul of the person is being afflicted, when the person is experiencing sorrow, when the person is going through all of those emotions, then the flesh, Satan and his demons are going to come to tempt you to separate yourself from the presence of God. Now to take the circumstances and the enemies. They are coming.

They're going to destroy the walls. They're going to take me. I'm going to die. He's persecuting me. He's taking and coming.

Satan, your soul, your flesh is going to move you from this emotional darkness that you could have endured by testing of your faith, counted all joy, remaining in the presence of the Lord. He's going to remove you to set or move you to put your eyes in yourself or whatever other thing that is not God, then to make you walk in spiritual darkness. That is not the testing of your faith. What Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verses 6 to 9, Rejoice in this, even if for a little bit of time you endure difficult trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold, will be found for the praise and honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ at the day of His revelation. That is what Peter says there in chapter 1.

Same thing, James says, as we have said, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, the controversy. That is that when you're experiencing this emotional darkness and down, as we call it, a soul that is being troubled, the duty of the soul is to remain at the feet of the Savior. The moment. that your soul is tempted to depart from the only one who can sustain you. The moment that your mind is taken to whatever other thing that is not the Lord Jesus Christ.

The moment that these circumstances are not bringing you to your knees to be before the presence of the Lord, but rather you are standing up from your knees and now you're trying to solve things and you're on a strength departing in your heart from the Lord. Then this is when this darkness is easily now transformed into spiritual darkness. And spiritual darkness, of course, is what we need to understand next for us to understand what it is to walk in the light. So come with me, please, to first, John, and then I will show you what it is to walk. In darkness, spiritually speaking, now, if you wanted to confirm what I said about David, you can easily just go on Second Corinthians chapter four, even in Second Corinthians, and see the experience of the apostle Paul.

Remember? that he was afflicted, persecuted, many times he was in very many dangers. Yet he remained steadfast in the presence of the Lord." David, here in the New Testament, and just simply see the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the time of trials and difficulties, he said, not mine will, but your will be done. remained in that very moment in the midst of the uncertainty and in the midst of the genuine struggle of the soul in the presence of the Lord, whatever it is.

whatever it is, uncertainty of the future, uncertainty in the flesh, uncertainty financial, whatever it is. And I don't have as many examples or vocabulary in my mouth to speak about the circumstances in which human beings place themselves that bring them to the situation in which, why are you cast down or trouble to my soul? easily then move to spiritual darkness. And I want you to pay attention because now we speak about a spiritual darkness, which is what the apostle has in his mind. But even in a spiritual darkness, I want us to see two levels of spiritual darkness.

So when I'm speaking about a spiritual darkness, I'm speaking about the presence of sin, right? It's not about the person emotionally affected that is in the presence of the Lord still without sin. But now it's a person that is in spiritual darkness. And now that person is in the practice of sin. Now, a person who is in a spiritual darkness could be of two types.

Let me show you the first one and I will try to make it as concise as possible so that will endure in our flesh. Let me just simply show you here in chapter two in verse nine. I want you to see the first type of walking in darkness. It says whoever said chapter two right in verse nine. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for a stumbling. Let me explain, and we will continue with the text here. According to the writings of the Apostle John, here in 1st John, this is the Holy Spirit giving us this letter to us. There are two ways of being in darkness. One is to be in darkness, and the other one is to walk in darkness.

One is to belong to darkness, And the other one is to walk in darkness. The person who is in darkness will necessarily walk in darkness. But the person who walks in darkness is not necessarily in darkness, but that person could be in light. Does it make sense what I'm saying? Spiritual darkness.

When a person is utterly lost, that person remains in the darkness in which he or she was born. Salvation could be easily defined as just being taken from darkness into light. And a person who is in darkness is a person who is still dead in his or her trespasses. And because of his belonging and his position in darkness, that person will walk in darkness, which is the person that we have here in verse 9. He says, whoever says that he's in the light, another word, whoever says that I am a Christian, Wait a moment.

And hates his brother is still in darkness. What a terrifying test, the one that we have here. Because that means that even within the sound of my voice, there is a person who is treasuring up hatred against his brother or his sister that places that person not in the light, but in darkness. A genuine believer cannot hate those who they profess to be brothers or sisters to. This is the whole point of the apostle here in verse 10.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light or in other words, walks in the light. And in him, the one that is walking in the light, there is no cause for stumbling. You see this vocabulary of walking, stumbling. Now it says in verse 11, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness. And what I said and walks in the darkness, that's what I said, right?

and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Lost completely. Spiritual darkness in its natural state. A person has been born in Adam and that person is walking in darkness because they are in darkness and there's absolutely nothing that they can do. They do not know where they're going because their eyes are completely closed to the light that if they had experienced would have shown them the way where to walk.

This is the first type of darkness, the one that is completely taken and belongs to that darkness. Second type of darkness. And from there, I will try to be concise and move into the light, because this is very important for me to share with you. And I hope that it is for the church. Now, brother and sister, the Christian and here I need to be very careful because now I'm going to be judged, pretending to be or trying to be a teacher of the word of God.

A stricter judgment will come upon me. And if I do not manage to explain this in the Holy Spirit, and if any one of you is partially paying attention, please don't pay attention at all to what I'm going to be saying. Because if I do not manage to explain what I'm going to say, I can easily put a burden upon the one who is free, or I can give freedom to the one who should be under the bandage of the law. So what I'm going to be saying here is a two edged sword that need to be explained carefully. Hence, your attention is necessary.

The Christian, that is the person who is in the light, that is the person who, by virtue of the workings of Christ in him, has been taken or her has been taken from darkness into light. Then that person is called to walk according to his or her calling. That person is supposed and expected to walk in the light. But that person can at times walk in darkness. Come with me then, please, to verse five of the passage that we're trying to address.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. He says the apostle using the pronoun we including himself right into it. From there, he's going to start with a possibility of what could take place in which the apostle himself is including himself and the apostles even. Verse six, it says, If we say we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we once again speaking to Greece, including himself, walking the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ 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, once again, say we have no sin, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. The apostle implicitly assumes that if we say something with our mouth and we're doing something else in our hearts, that then we are in a category of people. Now, one could say, yes, that category of people is just simply false believers.

It could be. But come with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Let us hear, brother, sister and dear soul, the instruction of the Holy Spirit to your soul, if you're in Christ, through the mouth of the apostle Paul. This is something that Rita prays very often.

It's the first one it says. I, therefore, I prisoner for the Lord, did I say efficiency? I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. This is a expectation. You say command.

It is a request off the spirit of God to the church through Paul to walk according to the calling that we have received to walk according to who we are right. But you say he's not saying walking in the light. Come with me, please, to the same context. You can read the passage entirely. And then now let us read from verse 17.

It says, if you're going to in Chapter four. Now you're there now, these I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds now. If it was impossible for the Christian to walk as the Gentiles, that verse will make no sense, right? It is possible for the Christian to walk in the way that the Gentiles, spiritually speaking, walk. Hence, the Spirit of God is giving this instruction to the church through the Apostle.

Don't do. Now, he says, verse 17, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance, what is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about him, and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, that is light, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness.

The apostle through the power of the spirit, calling Christians to walk according to the calling that they have and not to walk according to the ways of the Gentiles who walk in darkness. The Christian can has the possibility at times of walking in darkness. And of course, we can just simply see the scriptures here or see our experience ourselves. But now here's a very important qualifier. The author of Hebrews will speak with the same language if you see there in verse 18.

What I'm trying to say to you is very important. So endure, please, my dear brother, sister and friend in your flesh. I know that we've gone long, but please endure. In verse 18, it says, they are darkened. These are the Gentiles that we are not supposed to look like.

In verse 18 in chapter 4 of the Ephesians, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. Come with me to Hebrews, please. Hebrews chapter 3, and this is a verse that we have mentioned many times. Hebrews chapter 3. Here you will have exactly the same vocabulary that is used by the author of Hebrews speaking now directly to Christians.

I'm trying to explain to you what it is to walk in a spiritual darkness for the Christian. It says, verse 12. Take care, brothers and, of course, sisters, right? Take care, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart or heart of unbelief, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today.

I don't know if it happens in your mind, but you see John saying that if you walk in the light as he is in the light, you have fellowship with one another. And then he says here, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today. that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart and unbelief, departing from the living God, and that you might be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

What it is for the Christian to walk in darkness? Remember that I said that what I'm going to be saying here is a two-edged sword, that if it's not explained correctly, can put a burden on those who are free. And if it's not explained correctly, it can put a jail or jail in those who are free and give freedom to the one who should be under the law. Pay attention to this and may the Lord help us, brother and sister. Walking in darkness for the Christian, first of all, it's not that in the morning I committed a sin and during the rest of the day I did not sin or like I was living a life glorifying to the Lord.

A Christian is not walking in darkness when they just sin once, but rather walking in darkness is a condition. Can you see it? Hardening of the heart, the deceitfulness of sin. The apostle makes it very clear in First John, chapter one, that if we say that we have no sin, we make him a liar, right? And the truth is not in us.

But there is a state of the heart, my dear brother and dear sister, in which the heart of the Christian is hardened in such a way that now this person has been taken by the deceitfulness of sin. And that is that this person can remain in an unrepentant state, committing sins against God when they know that they are sinning. They are going to engage in this activity, which is unrighteous. They are going to look this thing, which is unrighteous. They are going to say this word, which is unrighteous.

They have been convicted previously in the past. They have come before the Lord to say and to repent and to pray for forgiveness. Yet slowly, slowly, this person kept on checking the computer, kept on opening this website. Kept on opening the phone. Kept on speaking to this person that way.

Kept on harboring, I think is the word that you have, right? Keeping in your heart bitterness against the spouse or husband or wife. They were, you know, like a disturbed initially because of this thing that they did. Next time they were okay and they were okay and they were okay with whatever it is. Remember, sin is a transgression of the law.

Sin is something that does not come from faith. Sin is when we don't do the good that we are supposed to do, whatever that is. It is for your life. And then the person gives him or herself continually and continually and continually. That which initially pierced them and convicted them of any type of sin, now is not bothering them at all.

They're okay hiding them that thing. They're okay just keeping that secret in their heart. And even they are happy with religion. They will come and preach the sermon as I'm doing it. They will come and share the gospel with people.

They will come to the prayer meeting. They will come to evangelism. They will do whatever it is. We are unable to see the heart. You're unable to see my heart.

But yet hardening and progressing and progressing and progressing and progressing. What is it to walk in the light? Let me just take that back and let me just actually give a word because I suppose that I will use this definition for walking in darkness. When I am referring to this type of darkness, of walking in darkness with a hardened heart, this is where the Puritans and where the preachers of all call to be in a backslidden state. Don't think about backsliding as, you know, contemporary church, thinking about a person who comes to church from time to time.

Oh, we haven't seen him for a while. We haven't seen him for three months. He is backslidden. No, this person is probably lost. the type of sin that I'm speaking could be happening among us.

Because that type of hardening of the heart is the one that will end up choosing religion to appease one's self-conscience. It's the type of sin that will depart from God in the secret place, but then being in the pleasures of religion, in the satisfactions of morality, in the satisfactions of saying the right and the correct thing. Do not allow contemporary Christianity to redefine the piercing power of the two-edged sword. Backsliding is not about the person who once came to church and then they stopped coming. More than likely, that person is in darkness.

It's not the person that is struggling in the heart to do things of religion. It's the person that is doing what they don't want to do. That person is more than likely lost. I'm speaking about being a backs leading person and you can just go and read any Puritan and you will see that what I'm saying is what they said and is what the scriptures says. Now from there, let me move now then please to what it is to walk in the light.

Let us return to our passage, my dear brother, sister, dear soul. And I want to point to you two things and I think I'm managing the time okay. Let me just point you to two things to what it is to walk in the light, because when we redefined what it is to walk in darkness, what will be the natural consequence of the next step to redefine to what it is to walk in the light? And this is what I want us to pay attention to, because just as Christianity has redefined to be backslidden. Oh, you know, the person who did not come to church, he has come to church twice the last year.

He is backslidden. That redefinition of walking in darkness, take that the person who comes to every Sunday, that person is a good Christian. You see, the standard has been lowered, put in a category that is made up by religion, by complete Western Christianity. Religion has redefined what a Christian should be. And now, because churches want to have people seated, you know, having a church with 30 people is not very good.

It's not a good ministry. So because churches want to have people and buildings and programs and things, it is better for me to have a person there giving me his or her money than having a person who is truly living in the light and in Jesus Christ. By the numbers, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Fearful, brethren, fearful. At times I think that we should go and do evangelism outside of many churches.

Didn't we prophesy in your name? And I'm not saying this for the other churches. We should also do it here. Didn't we do these things in your name? I've been a Christian for 10, 15, 20 years.

I do all of these things. It is here, my dear brother, sister, is in your heart. So let us come now, please, I think I said to the passage first John chapter one. I want to say and explain to you at least communicate or share with you. I don't want to explain, but share with you two things that will that will show us what it is to walk in the light.

OK, what it is to walk in the light. We are going to find that in verse 6, in which we have the statement there of the Apostle. It says verse 6, if we say, We have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness. We lie and do not practice the truth. Now ask just simply the opposite question.

This verse is telling us here what it is to walk in darkness, right? It is the hypocrisy of saying, I have fellowship with God, but I'm walking in darkness. Then I do not practice the truth. Now see the truth that is implicitly contained here for the opposite. I don't know if that is clear at all, but If we were going to read it the opposite, it says, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in the light, we tell the truth and practice the truth.

Right. So that means that walking in the light, contrary to what is happening here, is a reality of my fellowship with him who is light. I cannot walk in the light if I do not have a genuine fellowship with the one who is light. How do I or how do I manage or how should I what should I do in order to walk in the light? I should have fellowship with the one who is light.

So that when I come before him, my darkness is removed, that when I come before him, his light will overtake. When I come before his presence in fellowship with the one who is light and in whom is not darkness at all, we'll transfer, you know, like not like infusion, like the Catholics, but we will be partakers of his nature, right? We will be... the Christ will be enthroned in our hearts. You think that happens on Sunday, just ticking the box of a couple of hours?

or just going to this or that, or just going through the Scriptures. I don't want to be in the Scriptures. I don't want to pray, but I have to do it. You think that the Lord is going to work in that sense? You think that the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, will not capture your affections?

You think that He will come to your heart and He will not do any of that? He will allow you to continue to be taken by Facebook or YouTube or this or that? Imagine the creator of the universe coming and dwelling in your heart, showing you his love, his forgiveness, his mercy, his compassion. How is a person who has been generally saved not being amazed by it and taken to remain with that person? Once again, I said the puzzle is very clear.

It does not mean that we do not sin, right? It's very clear there. But it means that we have fellowship with him. And it says that we walk in the truth. Now, quickly come to sound 15.

Just the first three verses, I think it's six verses. Five. Okay, pay attention to this, Psalm 15. Remember, fellowship in the old covenant. Fellowship was to be in the presence of the Lord, either in the tabernacle or in the presence.

That is, the Levites had access to the presence of the Lord. When here the psalmist is speaking here, when the psalmist is speaking, he's speaking about fellowship with God. When he says, Oh, Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent or tabernacle? Better translation. Who shall abide in your tabernacle?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Remember Moses coming to have fellowship on the holy hill, Sinai? And then he says, he who walks blamelessly and does what is right now speaks the truth with his mouth. And it speaks truth in his heart. the place where there's no one to confuse.

With words, easily, we can confuse each other. We just pretend things. In the heart, speaking truth, concerned about the thoughts that might be pleasing, that may be in alignment with the light of God. that in the secret place, brother, sister, my dear soul, not in the external religion, in the heart, in the heart, in the very depths of the soul, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, not takes up a reproach against his friend in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own heart and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest usually, and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Moved from where? From the place of the tabernacle of the Lord. O Lord, how shall abide in thy tabernacle? How am I going to come to thy holy hill? The one who walks uprightly, the one who speaks the truth in his heart.

Because fellowship with him will necessarily produce practicing the truth. Let me just finish with this, which is very important. And this is where I aim to give, I hope through the scriptures, some consolation to your soul when we deal with sin. Let us come back to first John, please. What is the second manifestation of truly and genuinely having fellowship with Christ?

Remember what happened in Hebrews chapter three, verse 12. Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart and a belief departing from the living God. Right. This is the contrary opposite to fellowship. Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief that makes you depart, that you fall away from the living God.

And then he said he spoke about that your heart may not be hardened by by the remember deceitfulness of sin. Walking in spiritual darkness is departing from God and then being taken by the deceitfulness of sin. Walking in the light is having ongoing fellowship with Jesus Christ, the one through God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent. That is eternal life. That is salvation.

And secondly, walking in the light will be manifested in your continual and ongoing overcoming of the deceitfulness of sin. Pay attention. I'm not saying your continual and ongoing overcoming of sin, but rather I'm saying your continuous and ongoing overcoming of the deceitfulness of sin. Because a person who walks in the light will at times sin. And the thing is not if I sin or not, but how do I deal with the sin that I have committed?

A person can deal with the sin that he or she has committed in the light that he or she is walking, or a person can deal with the sin that she or he has committed in darkness. And then when that person deals with that scene in darkness, hardening, hardening and hardening or experiencing this, you know, oppression and these difficulty scene is going to deceive you in at least two ways, according to my understanding. The first way that scene is going to try to deceive you is you didn't see. You didn't think you're self-righteous, right? That's natural to to us.

The first thing that's in what to do is just simply you're not guilty. You're all good. You're the standard that everyone should follow. You are the Christian standard that everyone in this church should be just taking note. Everyone should come to you and take advice.

You have the answer. You have the words. You have the knowledge. Everyone should be like you. Nobody, nobody is like you.

Everyone needs your help. You don't need the help of anyone. Because you have managed to solve everything. You're the one that is there to help everyone. Come, bring your problem.

I will solve it. I will provide solution for you. I have the knowledge. I have the wisdom. You don't need help.

Why do you need help? You have the answers for everything. You have the information that you need. You have lived. You have experienced.

You have the knowledge. No one is like you. Taken now by the deceitfulness of sin. In the heart, secretly, dealing with things that perhaps even... I think the word you have is oblivious, right?

To it. The deceitfulness of sin. Pride is the manifestation of that. Prideful, arrogant, spiritual pride, humility, not experienced at all. The deceitfulness of sin has taken that person.

The Lord convicted that person initially for them to come and repent before the Lord and to ask for forgiveness and to be taken into a state of genuine forgiveness. But then that person is so good. That person is just so good for him or her just to fix things on his or her own. the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the propitiation, the one that is seated at the right hand of the Father, I don't need that. I just simply just go with my solution to the problems.

I just simply go with my intellect and all of my things. I'm good. I'm the standard that I should be followed. First manifestation of the deceitfulness of sin. Second manifestation of the deceitfulness of sin is that when you are convicted of your sin and then you come before the Lord and say, Lord, I have sinned against you, forgive me."

Then the deceitfulness of sin does not allow you to take and receive the forgiveness. You come before the Lord and say, Lord, Lord, I have sinned against you. And you're not able to experience the forgiveness that is immediately given to you by virtue, not of your glorious and perfect repentance, but by virtue that Jesus Christ was the propitiation. And according to chapter two, it says in the present time is the propitiation of your sins. That's why he says, and if anyone sins in verse one in chapter two, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father.

Jesus Christ is the righteous. He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Brother and sister, not being able to be forgiven will put a burden upon your shoulders that will take you into spiritual darkness. Because the only reason why you're not taking the forgiveness that is available upon the cross in Jesus Christ, every time that you confess your sins, because the same reason than the first person, your self-righteousness. There's something that you need to fix.

You know, like, there's something that I need to fix on my own. Forgive me simply that and that's it. And now I'm forgiven. I'm cleansed. No, there's something else that I need to do.

There's something else that I need to fix. There's something else that I need to do on my own so that I can move. So then when you don't read the Bible when you should, the next day you read it three hours. And you try to derive satisfaction from your works. When you didn't say the thing that you were supposed to do, then the next time you try to say many more words.

You try to derive satisfaction from your own works. You committed, you broke, you did whatever, and then you try to fix it on your own. You should, at times, of course, you should fix whatever, but you're not deriving satisfaction from fixing the problem that you caused. You derive satisfaction in the heart from the forgiveness that Christ gives you. Brother, sister, never allow your heart, never allow your heart, never allow your heart to deal with a circumstance without experiencing and knowing that you have been forgiven.

Don't go to bed, right? Don't go to bed in which you are uncertain about being forgiven or not. because a heart that has not experienced forgiveness will be a heart that easily will move into the sinfulness of sin. That is the problem that we have here in 1 John. If we say that we have no sin, we are liars.

That is, the light of God is coming and shining upon me, and I'm saying, I did no sin. I did no sin. I have no sin. So when I say, Lord, your light that is convicting me, I did not sin. I make him a liar because he is now convicting me and saying, you sin.

And because I'm making him a liar, the truth is not in me, because if the truth is in me, then I have an agreement with a lie that is exposing my sin. And that agreement is confession of sin. And I confess my sin. And then I know that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And his name is Jesus Christ.

Glorious hope, glorious peace. Where shall we go? He has the words of eternal life. What bunker or a cave can we build in order to be protected from the outsiders? None.

The city of refuge is Jesus Christ. The mind that stays on him shall dwell in eternal peace. Just by having the mind in Christ, the one who upholds, sustains us, empowers us, the one that gives us the life that is necessary for you, my dear brother and sister, and also for you who is within the sound of my voice, who knowingly are not in the person of Jesus Christ as I speak." Oh, my dear soul, listen to the voice that is calling you to come to Christ. Today is the day of your salvation.

Today is the day in which you can come on your knees before Him. Today is the day in which He can be the propitiation for your sins. Today is the day in which he can come and cleanse you. Today is the day in which he can make you one with him so that you will not experience the hardening of the heart, the separation from God. And ultimately, if you continue in your unrepentant state, seeing the one that is going to come in the clouds and every eye will see him, not as king and king and Lord of lords on your behalf, but take the road of iron and to break your kneecap.

and to send you where you belong. Come to Christ, dear brother, sister. And I said that to myself also. And dear soul, knowingly not in Christ, come to him. Let us pray.