1 John 1 — William MacDonald

Walking in the Light

Amen. We turn to 1 John, chapter 1, please. First chapter of 1 John. While you're turning, I'd just like to express thanks to the saints here at Sioux City for the fellowship of the conference, for all the hard work that has gone into it, all the loving attention to hospitality and to meals and all the rest.

It really is very refreshing to be privileged to participate in a conference like this, and we're really deeply grateful. There are a couple of prayer requests in connection with the work at the school I'd just like to leave with you.

One is that our beloved cook has been with us for seven years, and she feels she can't go on any further. She wants to, but can't. And so we're looking for someone to take care of a family of anywhere between 100 and 200 next year.

And, of course, there's a lot of help that would be mostly supervisory work and managing the kitchen. Another need is a librarian, if you know some devoted Christian who's looking for work in the field of library science, we'd like to know about it and get in touch with her.

And you might pray about those two needs at the moment. First John, chapter 1, verse 5, 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.

Fellowship, Confession, and Cleansing

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 sin, 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.

I'm thinking particularly of verse 5 where it says God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Verse 7, 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.

I think if a young person were to come to me today and ask me what one of the most important lessons to learn in the Christian life would be, I probably would be tempted to say that in going on for God, that one of the important things is to walk in the light.

And by that I mean to keep short accounts with God and with our fellow men. I really think it's one of the great secrets of Christian living and one of the things of first importance to us today. Now, the Bible says here God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

What do you think of that? God is light. You're saying, what do you mean God is light? Well, that's a good question. In what sense is God light? I think the Bible helps us to understand this. According to the Bible, light is that which doth make manifest.

Light is that which reveals. You picture this room in utter darkness, and then you come and you snap on the light. What a difference. Everything is hidden up to that moment that you snap on the light, and everything is made manifest, isn't it?

You might say this, that when this room is flooded with light, everything is out in the open. No secrets, nothing under the counter, no hocus pocus. Everything is crystal clear. Everything is transparent in that sense, and you know, I believe that this is all included in the thought here, God is light.

There's nothing hidden with God. Nothing hidden with Him at all. It doesn't have to be, does there? God is absolutely pure. God is absolutely holy. And you know what was wonderful, that God came and visited our planet in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of Him it was said.

That was the true light, which lighteth every man coming into the world. It was a wonderful thing when the Lord Jesus came into the world. Up until that time, the room had been in darkness, relatively speaking.

Relatively speaking, the room had been in darkness, and all of a sudden, a man comes into the scene, the Lord Jesus Christ, this is that which the true light, which lighteth every man that comes into the world.

Christ Reveals Human Sinfulness

What does it mean? Well, light makes man effect, and you know, the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world showed us up for what we really were. That's what it did. The coming of the Lord Jesus into the world showed us up for what we really were.

I might illustrate that this way. You never know what a crooked stick is until first you see a straight one. Do you? You never know what a crooked stick is until first you see a straight one. Well, thank God that 1 ,900 years ago, one who was absolutely straight came into the world, and it showed me how terribly crooked I was.

And that was the sense in which this light beaming upon the world showed us all exactly what we were. That was the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world. And you know, the life of the Lord Jesus is wonderful.

I never tire of reading and studying about the Lord Jesus in the Gospels. The Lord Jesus is absolutely unique. The Lord Jesus is the only one who could ever live and say to those about him, when they came and they said to him, who are you anyway?

He said, I am absolutely what I said to you from the beginning. The Lord Jesus is the only one who could say, look, I am what I say. Now, that isn't true with me and with you. We're kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

There's this about me, what I really am, and then there's that about me, what I want you to think I am. And they're not always the same. What I really am and what I want you to think I am, they're not always the same.

I have a person, and then I have a personality too. But you know, with the Lord Jesus, there was no difference. There was no difference between his person and his personality. And when you met the Lord Jesus and talked with him and walked with him and watched him, you knew him.

You knew exactly what he was. He was absolutely transparent. There was nothing hidden. But I believe that all of this is included in the thought, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Isn't that wonderful to think of a life in which there's no darkness?

Look into your own heart, dear friend. Any darkness there? Any locked closets there? Any unforgiving spirit there? Nothing like that was God. Nothing like that was God. With God, everything's out in the open.

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And what the scripture is saying here is that if I'm going to walk in fellowship with God, that's the way my life has to be too. If I'm really going to make progress for God, I can't go around having hidden things in my life or unforgiven things in my life.

I've got to drag the wretched monsters out and call them by their real name and confess and forsake before God and before my fellowmen. It's really searching, isn't it? I suppose that would be another S to add to our brother's series.

Walking in the Light Through Honest Confession

Searched. To walk in the light means to bring everything out into the open, Godward and manward. Have you ever known a person, have you ever known a Christian who had a very, very sensitive disposition?

And maybe someday, even in conversation, he said something to you, and then the minute he said it, he realized he exaggerated and he made it right, right away. That's what this means. That's what this means.

Or someone who spoke unadvisedly with his lips. Maybe he flew off the handle, and it didn't take very long before the Spirit of God brought this to his attention and he came to you and he said, look brother, I'm really sorry for what I did.

That's what this is speaking about. God is light, in him is no darkness at all, and if I'm going to walk in fellowship with God, I have to drag everything out into the open, Godward and manward. You know, there's an interesting word used in the New Testament in this connection.

The word is the word blameless. Have you ever noticed that word? It's an interesting word. The Apostle Paul said that even before his conversion, touching the law, he was blameless. Blameless. He said, what do you mean?

Does that mean that he kept the law perfectly all the days of his life? No, it doesn't mean that. But I think it does mean this, that the Apostle Paul, as a Jew, before God, when he realized that he had broken the law of God, he quickly went and offered the sacrifice that was required by the law under those circumstances, and that put him in a position blameless before God.

Blameless Leadership and Quick Restoration

Now, on Christian ground, it says in connection with the elders or the bishops of an assembly, a bishop must be blameless. What do you think that means? Does that mean a bishop never sins? Does that mean the bishop never flies off the handle?

Does that mean the bishop never makes a mistake? No, it doesn't mean that at all. But it means that when an elder of a local assembly does any of those things, he's quick to make it right. He's quick to make it right.

And this is what it means to walk in fellowship with God. God is light. In him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Sensitivity to God and the Practice of Repentance

First of all, this must be God-word. Our lives must be sensitive toward the Lord. It's easy for us to become hard and cynical and even bitter and cold. It's hard going through life and seeing all that you see and getting the terrible revelation of what human nature is in yourself first and then in others.

It's hard not to become hard and fierce. And what the Lord teaches us is that we mustn't be hard, that we must be soft before him. The moment that we're conscious that anything has come into our lives to break fellowship with God, that thing must be dragged out into his presence and confessed.

What is it? Oh, you say, perhaps it's impure thought. Yes, it could be impure thought. It could be sins of omission. It could be secret sins. It could be pride or discouragement or worry or unbelief or envy or any of these things.

And I'll tell you, when you study the life of the Lord Jesus and his moral glory, it makes you realize with a shudder how unlike him we are. And so when the Lord brings this to our attention, the thing for us to do is to come before him and bow very low before him.

He loves it. He loves it. What do you mean he loves it? I mean it with all my heart. God loves it. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart. And if you want to see it acted out and practiced, just read the 32nd Psalm or the 51st Psalm, and then you'll find out why David was a man after God's own heart.

I'll tell you a wonderful thing for me to read those psalms. And hear that dear man before the Lord crying out to the Lord. I do believe that those psalms are punctuated with tears, with hot human tears.

As David empties his soul before God and confesses his sin against God. I tell you, this is the pathway of blessing. Sinlessness? No, there's no sinlessness for us down here. Blamelessness? Yes, that's a different thing.

It's inevitable that offenses will come. And it's inevitable in our lives that there are going to be things that are un-Christlike. What are you doing here? You become defeated and frustrated and discouraged and then just give up?

No you don't. You come before the Lord like David came before the Lord and said, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in my sight. Dear friends, I'm persuaded that the reason for a tremendous loss of power in our lives individually and in our local assembly is our failure to keep short accounts with God.

I'm persuaded of it. I'm persuaded if we could come together and make things right before God and one another so that the Lord would come in in a tremendous burst of power and that we'd see blessing beyond our fondest trust.

Confession Toward Other People

But this confession is not only God-ward, it's man-ward as well. And you know, I hope I don't shock anybody by saying this, but it seems to me that that's the hardest part of it. Do you find it easier to confess to God than you do to your fellow man?

You've wronged somebody, I've wronged somebody. And I fight. The Spirit of God comes to me and says, look, come on, you've got to make it right. You were wrong. I want you to make it right. And I grit my teeth and all that stubborn determination wells up within me.

And I hope with the passing of time that the thing will just subside and I won't have to lose faith. Are you pro? I wonder, have you ever known that? Have you ever known the Spirit of God striving with you to go to a brother and say, brother, look, I was wrong and I want you to forgive me?

I'll never forget a time in my life when I, one time some years ago, when I spoke to a brother in the Lord. I shouldn't have said it. At the time I thought I was quite smart. And I really told him all that was on my heart.

And what was on my heart wasn't too bad. And some months later I was on a train going to a certain city. It happened to be in Iowa. But the Spirit of God got a hold of me in that train. And he sent to me a fine one you are, going to preach to other people.

There's something in your life that hasn't been made right. You spoke to an elder brother in the Lord the way you shouldn't have spoken to him. And you've never made it right. I want to tell you, dear friends, when the Lord gets a hold of you about something like that, I don't think anybody else than the coach knew about it, but it was very real to me.

And I want to tell you something else that I couldn't get up on the platform that weekend until first I had sat down and written a complete letter of apology to this brother. And what do you think the result was?

Well, I'd like to think that we've been closer friends since then than we ever have been before. But I'd like to think, too, that I've been more careful with my tongue. And, you know, God knows what he's doing.

And God knows that it's such a humiliating experience for us to go to one another like this. That we think twice before we fly off the handle the next time, don't we? God has his ways of producing holiness and sanctification in our lives.

He certainly knows how to do it. I remember dear George Verwer, a young friend of mine, telling, following Gates in Gospel Literature Distribution, and he was telling how one morning he was there in a mountain of correspondence.

George Verwer’s Lesson in Making Things Right

And it was just then his little boy, Vinny, toddled into the room. And of all the unpropitious times for him to come in and make a little test of himself, that was the time. And so George just caught himself short, as it were, and he flew off the handle with his little boy.

Then the unfortunate part of it is his wife came in right then, too. And that was the wrong thing to do. Poor Dreena came in, and then she got the other barrel from the gun. And George said that five minutes later he realized why that was a fine thing.

First of all, to take it out on that dear little child, and then take it out on his wife. And so before another minute went by, he went and folded them into his arms and made the thing right. You know, it was rather amusing.

He went back to his work, and there was a letter there that he hadn't opened. And he opened it, and here was a fellowship check of $250. Now, I don't mean to tell that story that every time you confess something, you're going to get a fellowship check of $250.

But the Lord spoke to him. The Lord spoke to him through it. And he learned the lesson. This is what the Lord wants us to do. God is light. In him is no darkness at all. And God wants our lives to be open.

Open Lives and Clear Lines of Communication

He wants him to be consent to himself and to one another. I read a book called Continuous Revival once, and I thought it was very nice the way the author said that we should not only keep the roof off our house, but the walls down as well.

We should not only keep the roof off our house, but keep the walls down as well. Isn't that nice? In other words, clear lines of communication to God, and clear lines of communication to one another. Mind you, this would cover an awful lot of areas in human life today.

Restitution and the Book of Philemon

Areas such as stealing, taking what doesn't belong to us. You know, there can be no fellowship with God until something like that is not only confessed, but until restitution is made. Don't you believe the Bible teaches restitution?

I think it does very clearly. In the book of Philemon, Paul didn't say that now that onestimus was saved, there was no more indebtedness there. He never said that. If anything, Paul acknowledged the indebtedness, and said, charge it to my account.

And you know, as we gloss over things in our lives, and we think, oh well, it's past. I've confessed it to the Lord, and that's the end of it. I tell you, there's a leakage of power if it isn't made right all the way.

If it isn't made right with our fellow men, with our brethren, and even with the unsafe. You know, sometimes Christians do things that are wrong with the unsafe. And you think, well, I wouldn't dare go and confess it to them, because they know I'm a Christian, and I wouldn't dare confess to them.

They're ungodly. Well, you know, that's the very type of thing that God uses to break their hearts sometimes. Because that's what they're not in the habit of doing. And sometimes just our unwillingness to bow low and to confess the wrong that we have done, and they know it all the time, those are the things that hinder blessings.

Everyday Sins That Damage Fellowship

Gossip. Criticism of others. Hypocrisy. Dislike of other people or unkind words. Why, when you think of the harm, the hurt that has been done in the world through unkind words, I just think of how hard it is to go and make it right.

Especially if you inherit. You know, some of us like to pass it off that we've inherited certain kinds of disposition. Well, it is a sad thing. I will say this. It is a sad thing to realize that there are Christians in the world today, and to them it's a matter of pride that they'd rather die than admit they were wrong.

Have you ever talked to people like that? Seven angels from heaven swore against me I'd still be right. This type of thing. Well, nobody is right all the time. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody hurts and harms others.

And I want to tell you, and I tell myself too, the pathway of blessing, the pathway of blessing is to keep short accounts with God and with one another. And I promise you it won't do a thing for your pride.

It won't do a thing for your pride. But I'll tell you, it will do a lot for your soul, and it might do something for your health too. It might. You know, I read an interesting book some time ago. It's called The Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible.

Forgiveness, Health, and Releasing Resentment

And this doctor tells about a woman, he was in Switzerland, he tells about a woman in Switzerland who went to a doctor with a very severe case of anemia. And the doctor examiner, he took the blood count and all the rest, and yes, yes, yes, she had a very bad case of anemia, and what she needed was to go up into the Alps, into a hostel up there, and have a few weeks of quiet and rest and vacation.

But in order for her to go up to one of these government hostels, she had to go to another doctor connected with the government to get her slipped, to get her permission. And so, in the meantime, I think three or four weeks had passed by.

And she went to this doctor and he said, yes, what is it? Well, she said, I have anemia. And she said, my doctor says I should go up to the hostel in the mountains and I should get some care. And so he said, well, let's examine you.

And so he examined the blood and he said, now there's nothing the matter with your blood. And she said, what? Well, he said, there's nothing the matter with your blood. He said, your blood is absolutely all right.

She said, the doctor told me I had anemia and I had all the symptoms of anemia. He said, well, how are you feeling now? She said, I'm feeling much better now. He said, I think I'll send you back to your own doctor if you don't mind.

Do you know what he did? He sent that woman back to her own doctor. And that doctor examined her. He said, your blood is all right. And then they sat there and they talked about it a while. And he said to her, has there been any crisis in your life in the last few weeks?

And she thought for a while. She said, the only thing I can think of is that I held a lifelong grudge. And she said, I gave it up. And Dr. Paul Tournier, one of the recognized doctors of Switzerland, says that that's what cured her anemia.

Do you believe that? Well, something to think about. God knows what he's doing. God knows that it's hard to do that. God knows that it's hard to bow low and to make things right with himself and with one another.

But it's worth it. It's really worth it. And it's the pathway of blessing. You know, the thing of it is, it must not only be a once affair, but it must be a continual affair. It must be the attitude in which we live.

Continual Repentance and a Tender Conscience

Wonderful thing to have a conscience that's sensitive towards sin and a spirit that's so willing that rather than grieve the Spirit of God and rather than displease the Lord, to have a spirit that's willing right now to make the thing right.

I wonder if the Lord might be speaking to some of our hearts this afternoon. I really do. I wonder if I can look back in my life and think of something that kept me awake at night and I think of all the things that I didn't say and would like to have said and I find that I'm cherishing a hard and bitter spirit in my heart toward a brother in Christ or a sister in Christ.

God is saying to me, look, I'm light. And in me there's no darkness at all. Everything out in the open, if you want to walk in fellowship with me, that's the way it must be. In this connection there's something else important that we should remember and that is that once we have confessed and forsaken and made restitution if necessary, God forgets and we ought to forget as well.

Accepting God’s Forgiveness and Walking Forward

You know, I find, Mr. Powell spoke about guilt complexes and the psychiatrist being overloaded with people with guilt complexes. I find in talking to Christian people, a lot of people who have gone to the Lord and confessed their sins and gone to one another and confessed their sins and their sins have been forgiven but those dear Christians can't forgive themselves.

Well, I believe that by faith, as you claim forgiveness from God, as you receive forgiveness from your fellow man, you must accept it that way and go on to new heights of achievement for God. Now, think what this would mean in the home.

Reconciliation in the Home and Assembly

Think what it would mean in the home if a husband and wife and parents and children were to walk day by day. Things are going to happen. Things are going to happen. There aren't going to be explosions.

You might as well face it. There aren't going to be. And you know what the explosions you do and you know how they break fellowship in the home. Let's just think how wonderful it would be if we were so broken and so soft and so tender before the Lord.

Mind you, it isn't the way of the flesh. It's the way of the Spirit. If we were so broken and so soft and so tender before the Lord that we'd be able to go to one another and put an arm around one another and say, I'm sorry, will you forgive me?

Why is it those words are so hard to come? Will you tell me? Awful hard, aren't they? I'm sorry. I was wrong. Will you forgive me? Not if I was wrong. I don't think that's a bona fide confession to you.

I mean, I think that has a legal clause in it. But I don't know. It's kind of a loophole or a backdoor. No, I don't like that. Not if I was wrong. I was wrong. I want you to forgive me. Think what it would mean in the assembly.

You know, I believe that every functioning assembly is a miracle of the grace of God that a group of people of such diverse backgrounds with such different temperaments could ever get along. It's just a miracle of the grace of God.

And this is the way. This is the oil. This is the oil that keeps things moving. I don't like to use personal references, but we have a group of men at school, a group of teachers there, and every Tuesday they meet around the table and they discuss the policies of the school.

They've been going on for 17 years now without a good fight yet. You know what I mean? How? How do you do it? By simply going in and bringing everything out on the table and keeping short accounts with one another.

This involved apologies from time to time, and I won't tell you who made them, but I'll tell you it's wonderful. We're recognizing that we're just human beings saved by the grace of God, that we make mistakes and we say things we shouldn't say and we do things we shouldn't do, but we want to walk in fellowship with God and so we drag it out in the open.

Practicing Openness in Every Area of Life

Think of what it would mean at work and in school and in every department of life if we could just be so wide open before the Lord and before those with whom we associate. May the Lord speak to our hearts through this.

Especially through this verse, through his own words. God is light. In him is no darkness at all. If we're going to walk in fellowship with God, everything's got to be out, exposed to the searchlight of his holiness.

May the Lord help us to be pretenders in the days ahead.