In this sermon, John emphasizes the nature of God as spirit and love, but also as a consuming fire and judge. He urges listeners to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior to avoid the consequences of God's judgment. John highlights the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus and the role of the Word of God in developing that relationship. He encourages believers to let their lives shine as a testimony to the world and to find joy in their faith, even in difficult circumstances.

I'd like for our scripture reading to be this morning in 1 John 1. Lord willing, I've been looking at this book, 1 John, for quite a while, and I think I received confirmation yesterday that until I go through the whole book, Lord willing, this is what I'll be using. So when you come, I suppose, for the next few months and I'm here and I'm speaking, more than likely I'll be in 1 John. Reading from verse 1 of chapter 1, 1 John. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. May we just bow again in a word of prayer. Father in Heaven, having read the word of the living God, O we pray that by thy Spirit you will enlighten our minds and hearts to the truth that is before us. Pour us our blessing, we pray thee, that as the Spirit of God ministers a word to each of our needs, we shall indeed find joy in our souls. The person of our Lord Jesus Christ be exalted, praised and worshiped, the unspeakable gift of God. In his precious name we ask this, giving thanks. Amen. As in most cases, when someone sets a pen to paper, especially if that person is an inspired writer and he is functioning under the control of the Spirit of God, you expect him to really make statements that will grab your attention. I don't think there is any doubt about the Apostle John being excited about what he was about to say, what he was writing. And there is a reason for that. If you remember when he wrote the Gospel of John, that passage that we refer to so often when we think about the person of our Lord Jesus, and the beginning was the word, the logos, that perfect expression of everything that God is. And the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. This is the beloved Apostle writing about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the life of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. What a shame! There are mixed emotions there, I believe, as John writes about this, to think that indeed he had borne witness. Note this. We heard, we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. How profound that is! How deep that is! How moving that is! Can you project yourself into that position as a believer in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, what it would mean like? Have you had this experience? So often people ask the question, How do you develop a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you develop a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, you need to receive him as your Lord and Savior, and you also need to keep this real handy, the word of God. Or you read the word and you allow the Spirit of God to move in power upon your soul and your mind and enlighten you to the truth of how glorious and wonderful this person is. And John was saying, Look, I heard him with my own ears. I heard him. I have seen him face to face. I have seen him. Peter says, Having not seen, we love him. We've never seen the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we sometimes, when we are enraptured with the thoughts of him, we try to, in our own imagination, think what he would appear to be like. We really don't know. He's a man! He's a man. God incarnate in flesh. And the Apostle John has had his soul so moved that he said, I've heard him, I've seen him with my own eyes. We have looked upon him. Our hands have handled him. I have touched God manifest in flesh. Quite an experience, a moving experience. Wouldn't you get excited about that? As a believer, I would, to think about it, to think about that kind of intimacy with the Son of God. When I look at the other side of the picture and I see that the world we live in could find no beauty in him, and so many speak contemptibly of him. They use his name in a vain way. They make profanity out of his name. This person that to so many represents the Savior of mankind, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the one that hung upon a cross and suffered under the wrath and the judgment of God for poor sinners like you and like me. Oh, yes, I desire personal relationship with the Son of God. I claim him as my Lord and my Savior. I claim him as the only hope of ever having any access into the presence of God. It's through him. Little wonder that the Apostle Paul would say, Let him have the preeminent place. Oh, let him have first place. Oh, let him have first place. You know, when you think about that, if he doesn't have first place, what place does he have in our lives? If he's not number one, what is number one in my life? Some people say, I'm busy. I'm raising a family. I have a profession that I am dedicated to. I give it my very best. Oh, you are? You know, the Word of God would change our thinking about so many things like that and say, Doesn't he deserve the very best? Doesn't he deserve first, since he's the one that loved us and died for us? He deserves first place. Don't you think he can take care of all of the other things? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. Why is it we can't trust God? Why is it that so often we think about ourselves and our own personal likes and dislikes? Let him have first place in your life. I think John is excited about this, and I'm glad he is excited. And I pray to God that he might excite our souls this morning about the one that we trusted as our Lord and as our Savior. I think the psalmist, Psalm 23, verse 5, prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemy. He anointed his head with oil. My cup's running over. My cup's running over. And that's what happens when you become enraptured in your soul and the Spirit of God reminds you of the glory, the honor that is due to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a wonderful Savior. And so John says, I have heard him. I know what he says. I know what he does. I have seen him in action. With my own eyes I have seen him. Our hands have handled the word of life, for this life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Isn't it wonderful that God loves us? For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God loves us, loves poor sinners. God is no respecter of persons. The vilest person that you can think about this morning, that person that may be deserving the most severe penalty that could be meted out by a court of law. He is despised and hated by a lot of people. God loves him. God loves him. Someone mentioned a poor man was just executed here in North Carolina this week, this past week. He didn't die unloved, I can tell you that. God loved him. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for him in the penalty of his sin. He trusted Christ before he died. I hate to think of someone that has been placed in a position where the full wrath and the judgment of mankind falls on him, and he is not aware that God loves him in spite of whatever he is. God is no respecter of persons. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Savior of all mankind, especially of those that believe. Oh, he's the Savior. Not one person in this world could ever say, Jesus Christ didn't die for me. Oh, yes he did. Oh, yes he did. God laid on him the iniquity of us all. Don't you dare say the Son of God left you out. He didn't leave you out. He is your Creator. He knows your name. He knew your name before you were even born. This is omniscient power, resident in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he knows you, and he knows me, knows all about us, and he still loves us, still loves us in spite of what we are. Poor sinners. You say, Oh, I'm such a terrible sinner. The Apostle Paul has already taken the lowest place. He said, I'm the chief of sinners. He beats you to it. You're not the chief of sinners. Paul says, I am the chief of sinners. Oh, he pasted of the grace of God in receiving the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, what a life he lived for the glory of God. Once God got a hold of that man that hated the person of Jesus Christ, hated those that named the name of Christ, persecuted the Church, stood by as Stephen, had those stones rained down upon him. He was a character. He was an enemy of God. But God loved him. God loved him. Christ died for him, and he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, and he was saved, and he's still saved. He's with the Lord. That's what happens to a believer. Oh, we like to say this, especially at funerals. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Man, that's a victor's shout. That's a victor's shout. More than conquers through him that loved us and gave himself for us. We've got a wonderful Savior in the person of the Lord Jesus. John had seen him. John had heard him. God gave him this thought in his heart and soul. He is a wonderful Savior. He indeed is the unspeakable gift of God. He said, These things write we unto you that your joy may be full. Had any joy in your soul lately? You say, I can't find anything to rejoice about. Man, you just don't know how depressed I am. My health, my personal health is bad. You know, Bill King, I talk to Bill from time to time. He was here a few weeks ago. Maybe it was a few months ago, I'm not sure. He was talking about the doctor said, Boy, you're just living on borrowed time. Bill said, I just have to live it one day at a time, and I'm rejoicing in the Lord, and my soul is lifted up to know that I'm safe and I'm secure in Christ. He can come any time he wants to. He can take me any time he wants to. I have joy, joy deep down in my soul. How wonderful that is. And that's what John wants to have you and me do this morning. Rejoice in the Lord because of what we know regarding the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm writing unto you that your joy may be full. Is your fellowship and communion with God sweet and precious to your soul? Oh, brother and sister, please, develop a living relationship with the Son of God if you claim Him as your Savior. Quit fooling around. Develop a communion and fellowship with Him that is out of this world. It can be experienced. It can be experienced. John experiencing. John experiencing. A true worshiper of the true and the living God who has revealed himself in human form, left heaven's glory, came down to this world, identified with the likes of us, poor sinners, saved our souls, enriched our lives and filled us with joy that comes from the very heart of God. Indeed, we have something to rejoice about. Fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy to have that in our souls. If he could rejoice about it, we can rejoice about it. And I am rejoicing this morning. My soul is lifted up because my thoughts are upon him, the person of the Son of God. This, then, is the message we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Three times over, John makes mention of something concerning our God. God is light. God is light. That is the positive side. The dark side of it is the negative side. There is no darkness in God. Oh, there is a lot of darkness in our Lord. I think Mark Hartley mentioned Wednesday night here. Have you ever reflected back and looked upon the life that you were living before you were saved? You ever think about that? Think about where you would be today if you were not saved. What was it like before you were saved? What did you do on the Lord's day? I know a fellow who said he went fishing every Sunday that he could sneak out of the house and get away from his wife and go to the lake and go fishing. He loved to fish. He loved outdoors. He got saved. He became a fisher of men. He was a witness for God, and he in great power won many, many souls to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Spirit of God enabled him to exercise that gift he had as an evangelist to go out and do the work of an evangelist, spread the good news, tell them about this wonderful person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we should be excited about our relationship with him. How God is liked. John says in the 4th chapter of his message of the gospel, God is spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. He also reminds us in the 4th chapter of this same book, God is love. God is love. God is love. I don't want to leave you hanging there too long. He is also a consuming fire. God is a consuming fire. God will judge you for what you are as a poor sinner if you don't accept by the grace of God his Son as your Savior. You may not like that, but your problem was with God, not me. You are not going to like what God does to you if you don't trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Believe me. Believe me. He don't like people to take lightly the divine invitation that he extends to you and to me. Come unto me, all you that are burdened and heavy laden with your sin. I'll give you rest in your soul. I'll save your soul. That's what God will do, is the God of light. I've heard people say, and you perhaps have, too. You may have said it. I don't know. I may have said it. I'm not sure. When I stand before God one day, I'll tell him. I'm not as bad as people think I am. I'm not even as bad as you think I am. Do you know that stupid? You have to have perfect righteousness to stand in the presence of God. If you stand in the presence of God in your sin, you will be eternally separated from his presence forever. He'll kill you with judgment, judgment so powerful, so eternal, that there will never be an end to it. That's what God will do. God is a consuming fire. Someone else has already felt the consuming fire of God for my sin, this poor sinner. That's why I'm excited about the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. He is the one, the Lamb of God, that could take away the sin of the world. He took away the penalty of all my sin. All my sin. You say, What about them next week you're going to commit? Them, too! All my sin. The penalty of all my sin. He bore the penalty for that on the cross. We're going to find out in just a minute that it goes a little deeper than that. You need to be aware that fellowship and communion with God, as a child of God, means that you've got to be clean. You've got to have clean hands. You've got to be a clean vessel. If you've got iniquity in your heart, says the psalmist, God will not hear you. Do you know if you give any place to your sin in your life as a believer, it will block fellowship with God immediately. And it can't be made right until you get out on your knees and confess it for what it is. When you do, he restores you just like I have my heir and children. Come on home, son. Come on home. How wonderful it is for God to favor us by providing us with such a wonderful Savior, and we can fellowship with him. Our God is light and there's no darkness in him. This is so alien to the thinking of mankind. God is light and the sending of that light into the world. It says, light came into the world, but men love darkness rather than light. Did you ever witness that? I know someone that I pray for, and I have witnessed to that person many times, and that person has confessed to me, if I could only give up my sin, if I could only give up my sin, I would trust your Savior. Why don't you let him take care of your sin? What are you trying to do? You're just trying to clean up your act. I tried that one time. I thought I'd reform, I'd get good enough for God's presence. I was losing ground all the time. This poor soul is losing ground and wasting time because they think they've got to get clean enough to come into God's presence and receive salvation, just as you are, just as I am as a poor soul. Lord, I was drunk last night. Lord, I committed adultery last night. Lord, I killed somebody last night, just as I am. You can come into his presence and receive Jesus Christ, the presence of God, and be made clean and fit for the presence of God. Is that deep enough for you? Is that full enough? Does that satisfy your soul that you can't be satisfied? Because that's how wonderful it is to receive the grace of God. Oh, there's such deep meaning. Oh, what a wonderful thing this is. Our God is light, and that light has come into my life. That light has come into my life. This little light of mine, young people sing it, young children, and this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. You see, the light of heaven has come into our souls, and now we can lighten up the world with our testimony concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. May every one of us be a witness for him. Brethren and sisters, if you know him, let your little light shine. We're living in a dark day, dark time. Man's sin is everywhere. Sin is laughed at today. I sometimes think that. What in the world are they laughing at? They're enjoying something. They're savoring the sweetness of something that God hates, and they're laughing about it. They're being entertained by it. How sad it is. Aren't you glad you're saved this morning? You can say amen in here. Amen, brethren. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Our brother is striking real close to home now. Now we're talking about you and me. Oh, we're the ones that have received this light into our souls. We are the ones that have been cleansed from all of the filaments of our sin and its penalties. We say we have fellowship with him. Still walking around in darkness. Some people say, I'm walking the center line. I'm in the gray area. Got one foot over here and one over here. You're living a lie. It's not possible to do that. You're one way or the other with God. There's no in-between. There is no middle ground. You say, I'm going to stay neutral. I'm neutral. You better wish you could be neutral. If you ever stand before God in your sin, you'll find out there was no neutral ground. There is no gray area. Whether you're saved or you're lost, that's the truth. You can't have fellowship with him and walk in darkness. The child of God can't do that. We walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all sin. Oh, the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, took that cleansing power to make me fit for the presence of God, takes the cleansing power of that precious blood to keep me in fellowship with him, because I accept the value of that every time that I confess that I have sinned. I have sinned. Please don't say you don't sin. Please don't say it. Wait until I finish here. You won't say it. You won't say it. If you do, you'll be ashamed, because you did. This wonderful truth. God desires holiness in the inner parts. I think Mark was telling us about the priesthood of the believer on Wednesday evening. Our God is a holy God. We're a part of a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood, offering up praise and worship to our God. That's the truth. We can have fellowship with God. Poor, sinful men and women that we were, now we're made fit for his presence and we can offer up worship and praise to him. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Do you know your heart is the most deceitful part of your body? Your heart. What Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above everything else. Some poor, self-righteous fellow says, I'm all right. I'm okay. I was baptized when I was a child. I was confirmed and accepted into the fellowship that my parents brought me into. I was a member, a full-fledged member of that fellowship. I attended those services regularly. I taught Sunday school there. I sang in the choir. I did a whole lot of things. Have you ever trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves, not of works, lest any one of us should ever boast. You can't save yourself. I don't care how good you think you are. That little heart of yours has deceived you and you think you are right with God. You aren't right with God until you have Jesus Christ in your heart and soul. Then you are right with God. Then you are ready to meet God. You don't have to be fearful of dying or death. None of us like the thought of dying because that speaks of pain and suffering. But death, the child of God, is not fearful of death. That's been conquered by our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll tell you, when he saved your soul, he accomplished everything that needed to be accomplished on your behalf. Just in a few moments I want every one of us, as we bow in prayer, to thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. I would like to say that if you were to try to place some monetary value upon something in the scripture, what I'm about to read to me as a believer, I would have to say, there's nothing in this book that I find so pleasing to my soul as to what I'm about to read. If we confess our sins, wouldn't it be terrible if you couldn't confess your sins? Do you still maintain some position of saying, I don't call it sin, it was a mistake, that's all. Or you call it some other name, but you don't call it sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Yes, my brother, my sister in Christ, you do get dirty and you do sin in the course of life. Your heart may have deceived you and you think you are above sinning. If you do, you are claiming sinless perfection. And you can sort this book through and you won't ever find any sinless perfection apart from one person. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, to be in agreement with God, I have sinned. Yes, I'm saved, I'm on my way to heaven. But I have sinned. I've entertained an evil thought in my mind. I have hated someone. You think a believer in Jesus Christ, one that has received so freely of the grace and the mercy of God, can hate another human being? Happens all the time. I hate him. I hate him. I hate her. Oh, they say it. I'm not bashful about it. I hate him. Oh, you do. God doesn't hate you, he loves you. Want to be God-like? Love those. Those that despicably use you. Those that would inflict hurt upon you. You don't overcome evil with evil, you overcome evil with good. That's what God has done on our behalf. Brother, don't try to hide any sin in your life. I said this not long ago, don't wait until the end of the day to confess a sin that you've committed. It's so easy to sin in word, thought, or deed. Any one of us, more than likely, will sin in some way before this day is gone. It's so easy. I wish it wasn't that way. But we still have that old man, that raging beast in our souls. He's there. Not one word in the Word of God that gives us an encouragement that it can be remedied and fixed, still there. The old nature. You'll be there as long as you've got flesh and blood. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. You will be as that new creature in Christ Jesus. You will have a new body. You will have a body like the Son of God when you are in his presence. Finally delivered, O praise God! That gets us out of Romans 7 into Romans 8. We confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. God can only act in the measure in which he has dispensed truth to you and me. He always acts from a position of perfect righteousness. Or you may not agree with it, but he still acted from a position of perfect righteousness. You say, God, I don't agree with you on that one. Oh, you don't? One day you will. One day you'll have full enlightenment. God only acts according to the truth, and he will forgive us if we humble ourselves in his presence and confess, Yes, Lord, I sinned. I had an evil thought. I spoke a hasty word. I did something that I wished I had not done. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me, he will. The only danger here is if we claim to be innocent and above sinning, and some people do that. Some people do that. They live and act like they don't sin. Isn't it a terrible thing for a Christian to become haughty-minded and to elevate himself to some position where he says, I don't sin anymore, and I can't sin anymore. We make him a liar if we assume that position. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. I want the word of God to be deep down in my soul. I want this word. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. I want to be motivated by the word of God. The Spirit of the living God moves and directs us into the perfect will of God according to this book, the truth. That's the way it's got to be, brother, doesn't it? I don't have to go ask someone else. I'm looking in the word. We've got a wonderful Savior and we've got a wonderful God. Be sure you give thanks to God for the Lord Jesus Christ as we bow and pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we have read from the word of the living God, truth that indeed fills our souls with awe and wonder, so thankful that we've identified ourselves with one that loves us, one that loved us so much that he that knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Thank you, Lord, for the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray now as we part from this place, Lord, my prayer is that not a soul will go out the doors of this building that doesn't know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Oh, right now at this moment in time, Lord, cause their hearts to be melted in my presence, overwhelmed with the feeling of conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment, and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Oh, our God, save souls today and keep our little lights just shining brighter and brighter until we hear the shout and we're called home to glory to be with our Lord. It's in his name we pray. Amen.