1 John chapter 1 is where I want to land today. We're actually in, and I think I've explained this before, but we take a passage or a chapter every year at camp, and we study it. We figure out what it's going to be right at the end of the summer, and then we study it and work on memorizing it, those of us that are there all the time. all the way around through the year, and then our summer staff begins to work with it in the late spring, and then that's the passage that we'll use through the next summer with our campers, with our devotion sheets that we use, our counselor classes, our Bible reading that they do, even the messages that they hear in some of the services come from this passage. And so our passage this year is the book, this letter of 1 John. And so I'd like to spend some time here today, and I'd like to spend all of our time there next Sunday as well. But I was struck by our scripture reading today. The psalmist declares, I will praise thee with my whole heart. That really is the essence of the message that I want us to see today. We want to see God for who He is and praise Him for it, and make sure that in this change that happens in our life, we don't then act for our own glory, but for His. So we come now to this first chapter of the epistle, and I'm just going to read to you from the beginning. Here in, I'm lost, oh, there we go, good. Here in 1 John, I got a little nervous. The first time I taught Sunday school class, I got up, couldn't find my passage. I was up there for about two minutes, told them Jesus loved them, and I had to sit down. So I'm gonna make it a little longer than two minutes today. Beginning in verse one of chapter one, he says, 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. Now let me stop for a second and go back to these first two verses. What is he trying to, what's the point he wants to make here? That which was from the beginning. He's speaking of Jesus Christ. which we have heard and seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. He's trying to give us the idea, help us understand exactly why he is going to be able to talk about Christ like he's about to. So we all have people, there are people in the world that we're all perhaps attached to in some way, we are favorable to, we like them, we know them, we're comfortable with them, but we really, we don't even know them in person. But we do feel like we know them, right? We go, well I... I'm going to listen to this person on the radio or I'm reading this article. I always love the article that this person writes in the newspaper or this blog or on YouTube. And I know what they're going to say. I bet I know what they're going to say here. When I was in college, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, our schedule worked out that we could get to lunch and get back to our rooms by 12.35 or so. But we had to leave again just about 10 till 1 to get to class. But you know what happened between 12.35 and 10 minutes to 1? Paul Harvey came on the radio. And so we would race back to our room and turn on the radio. And then we had it timed. I say we, it was a buddy of mine. We worked at the same place on campus. And then we would come back from there. I guess this particular year we had to get to work together. So we would go to class, eat lunch quickly, and come back. And he lived in the room right above me. So he would leave his room. And I could wait about three seconds. And then when I got to the end of the hall, he would be coming down the steps and we'd go on to work. But I always knew what Paul Harvey was going to say, right? And you do too. He was going to say, and now you know the rest of the story. And I always knew that it was going to be a cool story. I knew where it was going to come from. And I could also say I knew what it wasn't going to be about. I knew it wasn't going to be about, it wasn't going to be glorifying evil. And he wasn't going to be pushing an agenda that I didn't agree with. I knew what he was going to say. And so you could say that a little bit about Paul Harvey. Well, I bet I know what he's going to say on this issue, on this topic. That's not what John is doing here. He's not saying, hey, you know, I listen to Jesus on the radio a lot. You know, I went to one of his crusades. I was sitting there on the mountainside when he was in the boat and was preaching. I heard him. This is different. Sometimes we see someone famous and we say, and I've been in this situation a couple of times where I was standing outside Yankee Stadium one time because I was leading a mission trip and we had been in New York City and we took this evening to go to a game and then I had teenagers with me and somebody got lost. Praise the Lord, they weren't actually lost. Someone just said, oh, I didn't see them. And so then I roamed around Yankee Stadium afterwards for three hours and rode the subway home about 2 a.m. Don't do that, okay? But while I was standing there, Mariano Rivera, he's the first, he just now became, he's in the Hall of Fame, first one to ever get unanimous voted in. He walked, I mean, he was right here. And I said to somebody later, I said, he was so close to me, I could have touched him. So when we're trying to make the point that we saw someone famous or we know someone well, We're going to use the language that John uses here. You're going to say stuff like, hey, you know what? I was right there with him. I was in the same room with him. I mean, I reached out and touched him. That's what John is saying here about Christ. He's not saying, I saw him on TV, or I read a lot of his books, or I see the article he writes every Sunday afternoon. I'm pretty sure I know what he was going to say. He says, listen, I was with him all the time. I saw him. I mean, look at the language. We've heard him. We've seen him with our eyes. We've looked upon him. Our hands have handled him. And we know that the disciples were with him for those three years of his earthly ministry. And they were there, as we read through the Gospels, we know that, I mean, they were together all of the time. They traveled together. They stayed in the same places. They ate together. In fact, they put all their things together so that one of the disciples carried the purse, right? I mean, you walk, well, hey, I'm kind of hungry. Well, I don't have any money. You got to get it from Judas. All right, that's the closeness that they had. And so, John now goes on to say, that which we have seen, verse three, that which we have seen and heard, we're gonna tell you about it. Declare we unto you that also ye 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. So here it is. I know this is a crescendo that builds up here. He says, I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna give you the message that Christ gave to us. And I want you to know that this really is the message. And I can speak with authority because I was with him. Someone else might try to say that he said this, I can tell you, I was there and I heard him say this. So you can count on me. Now, we know what he's gonna say. I mean, we are, I let the cow out of the bag already, right? I mean, you can read ahead or I already quoted it for you, but let's remember this, this book is filled with a few themes, but two themes that come out. One overarching thing that comes out is love. And the two emphases are that you should be loving God and loving others. Why? Because God loved you. In this book, we find these statements. We love him because he first loved us. There is no fear in love. And so what strikes me is, he says this, this then is the message we have heard of him and declare unto you. And you would think that he would say this, that God is love. But that isn't what he says. He says, God is light. And in him is no darkness at all. Now what is he saying? What he's saying, I think, is obvious. He's using this picture of darkness and light. We find it used other places in Scripture. Light represents righteousness, and darkness, sin. And so there are three, there are many things that we can take from this. I wanna emphasize three this morning. Three truths. One that we see from this statement is that God is holy. God is without sin. You remember, Peter reminds us of that when he says, reminds us that it's said in the Old Testament, be holy for I am holy. It also reminds us there is no darkness at all in him. It reminds us of his attitude towards sin. Solomon tells us in Proverbs, these six things that the Lord hates, yea, seven are an abomination to him. God hates sin and there is no Sin in God and so because there is no sin and because there is no darkness and because he tolerates no darkness We can make this statement. No one will be in heaven who is not as righteous as God is I'm gonna say that again. No one is gonna be in heaven who is not as righteous as God is. Why? Because God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And so what we find here then, the third aspect is this standard of righteousness for us. This verse, this truth that God is light and in him is no darkness at all is a problem for humans. because man walks in darkness. In fact, John takes it for granted, right? I mean, look at his description now. He says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Verse eight, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, We make him a liar and his word is not in us. So first of all, if you say that you can do both, if you're gonna try to say, well, I can walk in darkness and I can walk in light. No, you can't. If you say, well, I'm not sinning. Yes, you are. If you say, well, I never actually did. Oh yes, you did. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. We have sinned. And even to say, well, I mean, I've only sinned in one point, right? If somehow we were hearing listed the sins that were damning us to hell. Right? And they called my name, Aaron Burke. And they said, OK, let's see here. We've got here disobedient to parents, foolish talking, cheating, murder, stealing, lying. Hang on. OK, you got me on the disobedient to parents for sure. And sure, I'll take some of the foolish talking. But I've never murdered anybody. What does James say? He who is guilty in one point is guilty in all. So the problem for man is that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. The solution for that problem is Jesus Christ. Verse seven, 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, cleanses us from all sins. Verse nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so now, because of this work of Jesus Christ, that he took on our sin, and he then died for our sins, we are declared righteous. We now can walk in the light. You can't walk in the light and in darkness, so now we can be in the light. This great work of God now allows us to be righteous and in heaven with him. Paul says in Romans chapter one, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Now this is, I love that word ashamed, but because it's a fairly deep word, right? We use that verse sometimes to encourage the kid to grab the big Bible, right? Sometimes we don't have, we used to have a big Bible here, remember that? I don't know what we use that for, but it was this, grab the family Bible and put it under your arm and walk to school. You're not ashamed. That's not exactly what it means. What it means is this. It means the gospel always is going to do what it said it was going to do. If I sit in this chair and it breaks, I will be embarrassed. If I sit in this chair and no one's in here and it breaks, I'm not really embarrassed, but I am ashamed because it, pun intended, let me down. the gospel will never let me down the gospel always do here's what here's what paul says i'm not ashamed of the gospel of christ i am thinking of the gospel this way i'm thinking that the gospel always do what it said it's going to do why can you say that paul because it is the power of god and salvation i know that the gospel means that god's power ensures my salvation and that picture is here as well because Because this light and darkness, light always overcomes the darkness. How many of you have gone, you've taken an official, meaning you paid for it, and you had a tour guide, a tour of a cave? Anyone done that? Okay, now, when that happens, Now you could have experienced the phenomenon I'm about to give you, if you've been in a cave anyway, but I know that when that happens, when you take a tour, a cave tour, and you pay someone, and someone's walking you through, this always happens. They turn the lights out. You know what? You really can't see your hand in front of your face. Dad was right. You can't see anything. But if someone lit a match, now you can see. Light always overcomes the darkness. You prove this every day. When you go to bed tonight, now if you sleep with a light on, some people have to have the lamp on or whatever. You don't have to tell us that, okay? But let's just assume, all right, here's what's gonna happen. It's time for bed. I'm gonna go to sleep now. Honey, turn out. The light, right? How many of you are gonna say, honey, will you please turn on the darkness? You won't do it. You can't do it. You don't get charged from the power company for darkness. You can't pump in the darkness. The light always overcomes the darkness. And so now, through the power of the gospel, we can walk in light. We should rejoice in this. With my whole heart will I praise thee. Now I want to take you now out of John and over to back really then to Peter's epistle, 1st Peter chapter 2. And this is where I want us to see the practical application here. because Peter now picks up on this very same theme. Peter could have been, this didn't happen, but he could be reading John's letter and giving us this truth in verse 9 of chapter 2. He says, but ye are And let's just say what these are. He's gonna give us four titles that tell us, that indicate they're similar, right? They're related. They're cousins, if you will. They're giving us and teaching us the same truth. And he uses these four titles. Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation. peculiar people." It's a, you know, that's a strange, that's a strange word. I think the New King James says, you are God's particular people, or something along that line, and that's, that's what he means. Here's what he's saying, you as Christians are in a group that is pulled aside that is set apart. You are a team, you are a group, you are a squad, you are whatever you are, you're set aside here apart from everyone else for a particular purpose. And here's the purpose. What does it say? That you should show forth the praises of Him that did what? That called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. So Peter highlights for us here now this truth that John is teaching us. That now because God is who he is, through Jesus Christ there has been this great change. You were walking in darkness. It's obvious. It's so obvious that John lays it out really, he would be in almost a sense of, he's flabbergasted to think that anybody might try to assert that somehow they weren't a sinner. Really, there's no way you're doing both. There's no way you aren't doing it now, and there's no way you never did it. And if you try to say that, we all know you're lying. And so now this great event has happened. God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And now we can walk in the light. Now we can do acts of faith. We can serve others. We can be kind and loving and charitable. We can have self-control. Peter says this, listen, I've pulled you aside and I've done this for you. so that you can give glory and praise to the one who did it for you. So now what does that mean? That means this. That means I cannot say, well, you know, I set these chairs up every week. Look at me. So therefore I think someone else should do it this week. Well, you know, I gave a lot of money and so therefore I need to be let out of some other things that maybe are cramping my schedule. I need to be recognized for what I've done because they were really good things. And I'm a little frustrated that other people don't see what I'm doing for good. Now listen, let's be honest. Don't we all think that way? I mean, I think, we all think that way. Somewhere along the way, we think, man, I'm doing some, can I walk down here, is this okay? Is this gonna mess up this? Don't we do that? I mean, I'm kinda tired and I just wish somebody would recognize that I'm doing good stuff. What Peter says is this. The only reason why you're doing good stuff, that's a very theological term, but I think you know what I mean. The only reason you're doing good stuff is because you're in the light, and the only reason you're in the light is because God called you there. God put you there through Jesus Christ. That's the only reason you're there. So then, what you ought to be doing then is, here's an opportunity for me to do it, and God gets the glory. You know, there are people that knew you before you, when you were still walking in the light. And when they look at you now and they go, that's not the same guy. That's a good thing. If they go, if they're wondering what happened to her? If you have the opportunity, you better tell them. I was walking in darkness and now I'm walking in light. So now, how do we put this into practice? Well, you go, well, I came to church, I wanted to be encouraged, you know, and sometimes we think that being encouraged means that, ah, recognize what you did, that was really good. No, what we need to be doing is we need to be encouraging each other to respond this way. Right? You know what? Every decision now we make, when I do this, is it gonna reflect well on the one who called me out of darkness and into his marvelous light? If I say this to that person, because I'm a little perturbed, is that gonna reflect well on, is that giving praise to him? If I punch them in the nose, is that gonna, Or what if I'm struggling, I mean, I'm burdened, I'm carrying all kinds of burdens, and I need help, and you come to me, maybe that, if we all recognize, wait a minute, we're all in this together, what is this? This together is, we're all here to give praise to God. So let me try to encourage you. I know what you're doing now is terrible. I know it's hard. I know you don't see the way out, but will you, I'm here to help you. Today, when you respond, give glory to God. Now, you may not have the strength to do it tomorrow, but I'll be here tomorrow to try to help you. But let's remember we're all in this together, and what we need to do today, our responses today, the things that we say today, need to reflect on Him, need to reflect on the one that Remember we were walking around in darkness and we were stuck there and now we're out of that and now we're in light. He didn't do that so that we could bring glory to ourselves. He did that so we would glorify others. Now I mentioned that about sometimes they knew you before and sometimes... Maybe they didn't. Maybe you got saved when you were five years old. That doesn't diminish the fact that we can bring glory to the one who puts us in the light. Because where would we be without Him in darkness? So praise be to God who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And may this body of believers be one that recognizes that is why we're set apart and set aside. And that is a big reason why we come together on a regular basis to pray for one another. Yes, that our ills will be healed. Yes, that our needs will be met. Yes, that we will find safety. But the overarching end to all of those things is that in the end, we ourselves can give glory. With my whole heart will I praise thee.