God Is Without Any Darkness Within Him — Rolfe Barnard

God’s Holiness and the Spirit’s Description of Three People

I want now you to turn to the first epistle of John, and I want you to follow me, and I'll be helpful, and if I can, and I want us to let the word of God teach us something this morning. We're going to take up the business of the fact that God is utterly without any darkness within him, and we're going to study here the Spirit's description of three different people, and then the Spirit's remedy.

I want us to read verse 6 and 8 and 10, and then go back and read verse 7 and verse 9 a little later. Here is God's description of three kinds of people, and the professions they make and the confessions they make about the way they're living.

The first one is described in verse 6 of chapter 1, the first epistle of John. Now, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Now, verse 8 is another man.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Now, the Bible is not written, I repeat, to confuse us, but it is written to humbles, and you can't be lazy spiritually and get to heaven.

Studying Scripture and Taking Sin Seriously

I know that's true. A fellow told me down in South Carolina last year, he got offended at me, he said, Preacher, I can't read. And you say if I don't get earnest about this seeking the truth business, I'm going to miss out.

He said, I can't read. I said, you better get somebody that can to read to you. You better get somebody that can to read to you, because this book wasn't written to put up on the parlor table and be admired.

This book's got to be studied, and you need all the help you can get. I come along, say one thing, somebody else says something else, and you're going to have to answer to God for what you could know about his will for you and what you do know.

You need to study this book. Some years ago, I was up in the state of Maryland, and stayed there two weeks in a meeting. About twelve years later, I got a heartbroken, pitiful letter from a woman. We had a hard meeting, and about twelve years later, I got this letter from this woman.

And she said, I want to tell you something of what's happened since the meeting. She said, in the meeting, the Lord used you to take the word and show me the sin in my life, and said, I booked you, I opposed you, I talked against you, all during the meeting.

And she said, here's the price I've paid. My husband was accidentally killed, my oldest son died on the operating table, I've lost my home. She says, take all of that to bring me to quit holding on to that sin and cussing the priest.

She said, when I meet the Lord at the judgment, I know I'm going to have to meet him, and I'm the one who breathed the Spirit and resisted the Spirit and resisted the truth and held on to sin. I was this time in a meeting, and we'd come face to face with this plea that I want to lay on every heart of every member of this Church.

I wonder if we realize how much it costs us and others to indulge in any known sin, any known sin. I want us to look at that for a little while this morning. Here are three men. The first one is sound in doctrine, but he isn't right in his living.

I was over at one of your homes this week, and they showed me your, I don't know, what you sort of believe, written up by one of your leaders. And that's fine, that's fine. Now, a fellow can be right in what he says he believes, but if he doesn't translate that into right living and right conduct, let's see what he does.

The First Liar: Sound Doctrine Without Holy Living

Let's look at verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, that's God. But at the same time, we say we have fellowship with him, that we are on good terms with him, that his smile is upon us, that he listens to us when we pray, that he guides us daily, that we're conscious of his presence.

At the same time we say that, we walk in darkness. What do we do? We lie. Here's a fellow that's trying to deceive the other fellow. He's seeking to deceive his neighbor, his fellow church member. Look, he knows that God is holy.

He wouldn't doubt verse 5. This, then, is the message which we've heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. In a bit of darkness, in a bit of wrong, in a bit, can't find a thing wrong with God.

He dwells in utter light without even a shadow of darkness. He's perfectly holy.

He's perfectly upright.

Now, this fellow says I've got fellowship with him, but at the same time, he says I'm have fellowship with this one in whom there is no darkness at all, and at the same time, he's walking. He ain't believing.

That ain't his doctrine, but it's his practice thing. And he's walking in darkness. In other words, he is engaging in that which he knows is not right, which he knows is not holy. Now, that fellow, the word says, is a liar.

When he says that he has any fellowship whatsoever with God, while at the same time he's walking in any kind of darkness, and it has to be no darkness, he says, for him to be responsible. What does he do?

He lies, and he does something else. Let's see what the next phrase is. And he does not the truth. First, he's trying to deceive others, and he lies when he says he has fellowship with the Holy God, while he's walking, practicing something that isn't, won't stand up under light.

And when he does that, he lies, and he does not do the truth. He doesn't put it into practice. In other words, he's sound in doctrine, but he's not sound in his living. He's trying to diverse what he says he believes from what he practices.

And God says he's a liar, he's trying to deceive other people, and he's not doing the truth. He's not doing the truth. Now, he's in bad shape. He knows right, but he don't do it. See? He's in bad shape.

He knows right. He knows right, but he don't practice it. And God says he doesn't know the truth. He doesn't, doesn't say he doesn't know it, says he doesn't do it.

He knows it, but he don't do it! He's unsafe.

You can't divorce right belief from right practice. A woman said to me not long ago in the inquiring room, said, I know I ought to do so-and-so, but I don't do it. I said, you're not a man. She said, I don't want to do so-and-so, but I do.

I said, you're telling me a story people don't do.

Just keep on doing what they don't want to do.

It's one thing to be sound in doctrine. It's another thing to be sound not only in what you believe, but in how you live. Now, watch it now. This fellow is trying to deceive somebody else. And don't make the scripture say what it don't say.

It says he does not do the truth. He doesn't put it into practice. Now, let's look at verse 8. We've got a different class of liar. We've got three liars here now. I don't call them liars. God says they're liars.

The Second Liar: Self-Deception About Sin

Here in verse 8, we've got a different class of liar. Here's a fellow who says that if we say that we have no sin, we're not trying to deceive anybody else, but we're deceiving ourselves. They're liars.

They're the fellows. He's trying to deceive the other fellows. He's saying one thing and doing another. See? And he's deceiving the other fellow. And he's not putting into practice what he knows to be right.

But here's this second liar. And he's not trying to deceive anybody else. But he is deceiving himself. He says that he has no sin. He says that he has got to the place that he doesn't have to battle with his old sinful nature.

Now, he's a devout person. Sometimes you hear him say that he never sinned, and he grabs the teaching that the old nature has done away with, and he says, I'm a boy, I can't sin. Now, who's he deceiving?

He's not trying to deceive you. He's deceiving himself. And he's headed for a fall. Now, let's see what the fellow that does that is guilty of. First, he's guilty of deceiving himself. And then he's guilty of another thing.

Now, notice the difference between verse 8 and 6. The fellow that claims to have fellowship with God at the same time walks in darkness, he does not the truth. He doesn't put what he believes and what he knows into practice.

But this fellow in the 8th verse, it doesn't say he does not do the truth. He says the truth is not in him. He doesn't know the truth. You see? And in the First Professor of John, the word truth means gospel truth.

The first fellow knows to do right, but don't do it. He's not putting into practice what he'll be held accountable for. Because if you don't live up to what you know, you're in a bad shape. If you do not walk in the light that you have.

Why, you definitely walk in darkness, don't you? But here's a fellow that says, Glory! I don't have any sin. That's all done away with. I'm past that. Now, he throws me in his shade. And that first fellow.

Brother, he's not only got the hidden, but he's undone by it. He, he. Why? You couldn't drag him to do anything that he knows to be wrong. Brother, he'd be just like an old Puritan. They'd call him a fool.

They'd say, he done gone crazy over religion. Why, he just leans over backward. He'd rather lean over backward running from evil, than to be broad-minded and wallow in a mud hole. But he deceives himself.

In that he, but he don't know right. He's wrong in his doctrine. But he's not wrong in his conduct. The first fellow is solid, boy. He's an old Baptist, brother. He'd stand on the street corner and spit tobacco.

He was an ardent doctrine until the cows come home. We arrived. This other fellow, he's wrong in his doctrine. He doesn't understand that when we're redeemed, we're only partially redeemed to start with.

This old body's still like it was. He doesn't understand that we yet wait for the time when our bodies shall be redeemed and we shall be freed from the very presence of sin. He's wrong in his doctrine.

He doesn't understand the truth about sin and about the gospel. Brother, he'd rather be wrong in what I believe and right in what I practice than to believe the truth and live like the devil. Now he's not trying to deceive anybody else, but he is succeeding in deceiving himself.

Brother, he's living, he's trying his dead level best to live right. You see it? But he deceives himself when he thinks that there'll ever come a time in this life when he won't trip if he doesn't work, that there'll ever come a time when sin is not crouching at the door and it'll devour you if you open the door just a crack.

You let one little sin come into your life and pretty soon the door will come open. It's little foxes that devour the big. You see? You give consent in your life to one thing that's at least questionable and you open the door cracking pretty soon.

Think the devil as far as one will come in. That's right. He's got two men now. One is sound in his doctrine. He's dead sure isn't in his practice. The other is sound in his life. Brother, he's striving to live for the Lord, but he's headed for a fall because he didn't realize the danger he's in.

The Third Liar: Denying Sin and Rejecting Salvation

Now let's read verse 10. Here's the third line. They're all different. Here's a fellow. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. Now the first fellow deceived another folks. The fellow in verse 8 deceived himself.

And the fellow in verse 10 trying to deceive God. Each time fell a little over God's eye. First fellow's trying to deceive you. He wants you to believe that he's right. You watch his life and you see.

But you, he says, I'm all right. He's trying to pull away over your eyes. Second fellow's trying to deceive himself, and he succeeds. But the third fellow's trying to make a liar out of God. We'll see how he does it.

This is a fellow that says, I never have sinned. I'm all right. I don't need to be saved. I've never been ruined by sin. I don't need God to save me. I don't need the blood of Christ to redeem me. I don't need the Spirit of God to regenerate me.

I never have sinned. Never have. As far as I know, I never did anything in my life that was wrong. Lots of people fall. He'll say now, I've never done anything I'm ashamed of. And lots of people look at me like I'm crazy.

I repeat text, oh, sin. They just frankly say that's not true. I never done anything wrong. I never have. Now who is it they're trying to deceive? They're making a liar. And they do something else. That's the last phrase.

They've proved that the spiritual ignoramuses, they've proved that His Word is not in them. Not a bit of it. It's all just passed off of them like water off a dust bag. His Word has not taken any root whatsoever in them.

They don't believe a word of it. It's just as a blank wall to them. And there's no hope for this fellow. If he stays in that shape. Nobody will ever seek the Savior. Until he's convinced. And convinced that he has sinned.

And that his sins separate him from God. And that he cannot undo his sins. And that he's in such a roaring condition. That unless the Lord does for him what he cannot do himself. He'll never make it. Now you have three classes of liars.

I'd rather be the middle one. This middle fellow's saved. He's fixing to go by heaven if you don't watch out. And he's wrong in his head. He's teaching. He doesn't realize the deceitfulness of sin. But bless God.

He is trying to live right. And there's hope for him. But you get him straightened out a little bit on the truth. He'll regulate his living by the truth, you see. There's some hope for the first fellow.

He's a church member. He's sound in doctrine. He's wrong in practice. And if you can show him that belief must be translated into conduct. And that the only evidence that a man's a child of God. Is that his conduct grows more and more pleasing under the Lord.

I see lots of people like that. They say, oh my, I've been taught to believe some things. And I believed them up here, but they never got in here. For if they get in there, it's with the heart that man believes is under righteousness.

If a man believes the truth in his heart, that's the whole man. Not just in his head, in his intellect. Why, it'll affect the way he lives. So there's hope for him. There's hope for him. But there isn't any hope for this last fellow.

Who never has sin. Here God wants a liar. By saying, I've never sinned. He seeks to make God a liar. And he proves that the word of God has never taken root at all in his soul. His word is not in us. Now I want us to notice quickly verses 7 and 9.

Walking in the Light and Receiving Cleansing

And here's what I want you to get this morning. And it'll lead us back to my opening remarks. All week we've been plowing as deeply as we know how. And this week we're hoping to see God bless. Last night a man came to me with a light of heaven in his countenance.

He'd been greatly disturbed and distressed during the meeting. And he stayed here the other night a while, and then he came to see me the next day. And last night he came, and there was a different look and a different expression.

Then he said the thing settled. I'm glad he's not. I take his word for it. Listen, am I speaking to anybody this morning that the Spirit of God gives the truth this week. And has put his finger on something in your life that's wrong.

God helped you this morning. You get rid of that. Don't you block the power of God. Don't you grieve the Spirit of God. Don't you do it. I want to show you the gracious provision God's made for his people.

Let's look at verse 7, then verse 9. And I want you to get this now. If we in the life, as he is in the life, we have fellowship one with another. That's not exactly what the Lord is saying here. What he's actually saying is this another is not a fellow Christian.

But this another is the Lord. And the way to have fellowship with him. And the only way to have fellowship with him. You get this now. Is to walk in the light. As he's in the light. Now watch it. And the blood of Jesus Christ.

His Son. Cleanses us. Now watch it. Cleanses us. Who are they us? People who are walking in the light. As he's in the light. They have fellowship with the Lord. And yet they need the power of the blood to cleanse them.

Now how can that be, Brother Barney? Now get me carefully. Here is the gracious provision of the Lord God Almighty. Where you can have fellowship with God every day. How? By walking perfectly? No. None of us have made that yet.

But by walking in all of the light that you've got. Will that be perfect? No. It will be imperfect. But a man can't do what he doesn't know to do. And God knows what you can't know. Unless you're willfully ignorant.

See the point? But even the fellow who's walking in the light. Living up to all that he knows that God requires of him. Doing that which he knows God wants him to do. And refusing to do that which he knows God does not want him to do.

Even he needs the cleansing. And he has to be cleansed every day. So he can have fellowship. And that cleansing takes care. Listen to me, boys and girls. That cleansing takes care. Watch it now! Not for the fellow that's doing all the crazy going on.

But this cleansing takes care of the sins that people are not conscious of. But they are the sins of the people who are doing what they know to be right. You see? In other words, if Ralph Barnett wants to have any fellowship with God at all.

King Henry the Brother.

If you're walking in anything you know to be wrong.

If you're doing anything that God's Word plainly teaches is sinful. That's right. And the brother of Jesus don't cleanse you daily. Don't do it! But this precious brother of Christ is the fellow clean because you've got to be perfectly clean.

To have any fellowship with God. And it takes care of that which you do not do, of which you're not conscious. That which you do do that's wrong, but you don't know it. Because you can't have any fellowship with God unless you're perfectly clean.

You see that? But now wait just a minute. Wait just a minute. Let's look at verse 9. Now here's poor Ralph Barnett. I've been trying to serve the Lord quite a while. Wait a minute now. Today, today, things that 15 years ago seemed to me to be all right.

They seem to me today to be all wrong. How can you explain that brother of mine? Well here it is in verse 9. If the blood of Jesus Christ kept cleansing me every day, that I consciously and positively and willfully sought with all of my heart to please him and to do nothing that would displease him, and all that while I didn't do a perfect job of it.

In spite of the motive of my heart, in spite of the strivings of my soul and body, I couldn't stand up and say that I did what only my Lord could say. He said I do always the things which please him. I've never been able to say that.

But brother Barnett, didn't you have any, couldn't you have any fellowship with the Lord? If you were living up to all the light you had, you could. For the blood of Jesus Christ took care of that which was displeasing that you were not conscious of.

But wait a minute now brother Apollo. Wait a minute. You're walking along here indulging in something that's sinful and you don't know it. You're walking along here and you're not doing something that's right.

And not to do right is sin, isn't it? And one day, while a spirit, some preacher, some Christian, maybe he doesn't use any human instruments, maybe you're reading the Bible some day, and the spirit of God takes a truth and he puts it.

But you say, God, I didn't know it! I know, but you do now. You do now. You do now. Now that's where verse 9 comes in. There's not a great deal of use for people to come to me. Many people do. And I would be helpful if I could.

And I would even go backwards of being old Puritan in my ignorance. But brother, you better listen to me. You better buy you a Bible, honey. Or cut out claiming to be a Christian. Because you can't have any fellowship with God unless there's a daily cleansing as you're walking in all the light you've got.

And as sure as you do that, the further you'll walk, God Almighty will say, well, old Ross, grown enough now. He's awful dumb, but I believe he's got sense enough now. I'm going to go down there and say, look here, boy, that thing's wrong.

And when he does that, you'll do one, two things. You'll confess it, or you'll rebel. And if you rebel, trouble's down the road. Only God knows how much trouble is because God Almighty has to chasten one of his children, who when he comes to see truth, won't walk it.

When he comes to see a thing that is sinful, he'll argue with God. Now, that word, confess, means to agree with. It doesn't mean, it doesn't say if we confess our sins. That's our accent. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.

Sins is something we do, isn't it? See? It doesn't say now, if we just say, Lord, forgive us of our sins. No, it doesn't say that. But it says if we confess it. The Lord said, this is sinful. How do you confess it?

Say, Lord, you're right. You're right. Confess it. You can say, Lord, forgive us of our sins till you're blue in the face and it's blasphemy. And he was talking about here. He doesn't say if you want your sins forgiven, to pray and ask him to do it.

You're not get your sins forgiven by praying. You get your sins forgiven by confessing they're sinful and turning from them. That's the Christian life. See it? And Brother Barnard can't show you those things.

But if you know the Lord, and if you walk with him in all the light you've got, he'll keep on showing you. When he shows you, then the way to get forgiveness, to confess it, say, Lord, this is right. I think bald-headed, Sammy.

There's some things in your life, Brother Sammy, the Lord has not pleased with. I don't know what they are, but he does. And chances are, I hope this is true of you, that you're not like yourself. But if you walk in all the light you've got now, in all the light you can get, the day will come when the Lord will say, Sammy, look at that.

Look at that. Well, Lord, I didn't know it was there. Well, look at it. Sammy says, I don't believe it's wrong. God says, this is wrong. Sammy says, this is right. God says, this is wrong. Sammy says, no, you're wrong.

I'm right, you're wrong. I'm right, you're wrong. That's where God starts going one way, and you start going another, and you have absolutely no fellowship with God, be it. It's when you say, you're right, Lord.

You're right. I chase a jackrabbit every once in a while. I want people to understand that if there isn't any questionable thing, that I would willfully refrain from shooting that once in a while. And I know that a man who's not saved, he'll just say, well, that fellow's a radical fool.

And I know that a person who's saved, it may be for a while, he'll refuse to look at something. But if he's saved, he's saved, he can't go on that way there long. Because when the light is turned on, and the saved man will not walk in it, there's a darkness out there.

He'll need to know where there's a God. He doesn't have any assurance of peace, of power, of victory. God doesn't pay any attention to him when he prays. And if he's God's child, he can't stand it. And that's the reason I'm always shooting at things.

Because that's the way God wants me to show people how they're fixed up. You keep on defending something that's wrong in your life, and you prove that you're not a child of God. For old Ralph Barnard, as he walks in the light, if he's doing it, not perfectly, but sincerely, the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing.

And I can be conscious of the fellowship of God. And then when the Lord says, Ralph, that's sin, then I'm in trouble. Unless I say, that's right, Lord. And I turn from it. How is it with you? Are you one of these liars?

Scripture, Fellowship, and the Daily Ministry of the Spirit

You're trying to deceive the other fellow. You're trying to deceive yourself. You're trying to pull the wool over God's eye. You young people, you don't bring your Bible. What is it, a habit you've got into?

I wish I could correct you of that. How's the Lord going to show you anything? Except through his book. Now, honest to God, Ralph Barnard can't do it. You just say, oh, he's an old, he's an old fogey.

Nobody but Ralph can do it. And he uses his word. Well, you say, I just leave my Bible at home. I do like that, Mr. President Christian. Never look at it. Never look at the Bible. Preacher comes, they go brush it off.

I'm getting by fine. Yeah, you're getting by fine. You don't even know whether there's a God or not. You absolutely haven't the slightest idea of where there is a God. Talking about fellowship with him, you don't know what on God's earth the preacher's talking about.

You cannot have any fellowship with him. If there's the slightest bit of known wrongness, the Bible calls it darkness side. You see it? And the only way you can walk with it is in sincere effort to walk in the way he's prescribed.

But that way is outlined in the book.

Some of you young folks have a chemistry book. You take it to class with you. You'll be through with the chemistry book in a year or so. But the issues of this book are eternal. In the book of chemistry, they'll take you how to take different formulas and mix them up and make something out of them.

But in this book is the way of eternal life. I've seen hundreds of people quit sinful habits because the preacher said they ought to. They always go back to them. The only people that this thing does any good is the fellow that's down to business.

Every once in a while the Lord puts his finger on this and he says this is wrong. See? In other words, brother, you're headed for eternity. And the only person I know doing things for you is the Lord.

And he does it to take in the truth and show it to you. And then when he shows it to you, he doesn't do it so you can argue about it. But he does it so you can walk with it. So you can say this is wrong.

Thank you, Lord, for showing it to me. You have fellowship with him as long as you didn't know it was wrong. But the instant that changes, your fellowship is gone unless you turn from it. The scriptures say he that covereth his sin shall not prosper.

But he that confesseth, that's agreeing with God, see? And forsaketh his sin. Thank God. That's the fellow that shall find mercy. Now this little church, not many of you. Little sides of the road. Listen to me.

Listen to me. We're in a death struggle now. Our churches are in a struggle now of people who claim to believe right, but whose hearts are not open to the daily ministry of the Spirit of God. He alone can show you truth.

He alone can turn the light on. And if you want any fellowship with God, looks like you want it. God won't hear you when you pray unless you have it. God won't give you church souls unless you have it.

God won't even save your children unless you have it. If there's anything, sister, this side of heaven that's worth seeking for, it's the company and the smile and the fellowship of Almighty God. And if we walk in the light, he'll show us some more, you see.

And then the next day, if you're a little stronger, he'll give you a little heavier load to carry. And the next mountain will be a little higher. And the next valley will be a little wider. When I meet you people at the judgment, I hope not a person who's heard me this morning will say,.

God, I will not walk with you. You say this is wrong.

I'm not going to take what you say about it. And you'll be a stumbling block. And you don't want to be that, do you? Souls are in the balance. Your soul and the souls of others. Let us stand. Now, my friends, this is a very practical message this morning.

Have I helped anybody? Have I? This will help you if you look at it, if you'll walk in it. You won't talk to me. Have I helped you? Anybody? You need it. You need it. It won't do to just say, well, the preacher's this, that, and the other.

No, no. What I've talked about this morning, that's what we've got to come to. Not to do it. Just keep on. Brand yourself as one of these folks. God says a lot. I will make you this proposition. I'm speaking to people here this morning.

You say, I don't know whether you're living up to the likes you've got or not. That's when you're in the Lord's. I can't tell. Just have to leave that between you and the Lord. Nobody else can take care of it, can they?

I don't know what the Lord's able to show you. I don't know whether you want Him to show you. That's between you and the Lord. I'm not God. But I have to answer to God for whether it's faithful as I know how.

In the spirit of love, I want to love people. And I want my heart to weep as I rebuke people. But my God. It ain't worth it, brother. It isn't. My God. Lord, don't let the devil just snatch away the truth that we tried to plant in the power of the Holy Spirit in hearts.

Tonight, as we shell out the woods for souls, and on during the week, Lord, God. I've tried to get this group here now clear that they'll be on God's side. And so we thank you for this time together in Jesus' dear name.

Amen.