Sermon Tone Analysis

This is the message we have heard from Him.

This is not my message

This is God’s message, that was spoken to us by the Son of God, who we have heard, seen and touched.

The source of this message is from the very top authority of all, it is from the Sovereign Lord!

How many of you have ever been in a situation where you were the ambassador, so to speak?

You were just the messenger.

“Dad, said!”

God is Light

In Him there is no darkness . . .

1 Jn 1:5-7

At all!

There is a repetitiveness to the words spoken.

This adds to the urgency, importance and priority of what is being said.

God is light, In Him is no darkness, at all! None, nada, zip, zilch!

God is Light

Perfect, Unstained, Righteous and Just Tanscedence

Complete Righteousness! Utter perfection and goodness!

Infinite Perfection!

Set Apart or Transcendent- There is a gap or a disconnect between the Holiness of God and sinful man.

HOLY HOLY HOLY- Perfect, established, righteous and set apart from all contaminants.

God does not experience “Moral Vertigo”

We may occasionally experience moral vertigo, but we are instructed to walk in the light, looking to God’s Word and being obedient to the counsel of the Holy Spirit

Walk in the Light

This is one of the vital signs, that we should be looking for in our lives.

Those who claim to have fellowship with God, will be walking in the light.

If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (He sanctifies us, sets us apart, makes us transcendent from the world).

Walking IN the Light, is not the same as walking according to the Light.

Sanctification is a process of “walking” in the Light of God!

Walking in the light is not a legalistic lifestyle, which the Pharisees seemed to be so able to exemplify throughout their lives.

Walking in the light isn’t seeking praise and affirmation by a strict adherence to a set of rules.

Walking in the Light- is an ongoing confession and recognition of God the work that He is doing in our lives.

As God through His gift of grace works on us, more and more we die to sin and increasingly we live unto righteousness.

We see His perfections and our faults and find ourselves wanting, needing, falling short apart from His unmerited favor toward us.

When was the first time you

Do you recall the first time in your life, when you became aware of the darkness of your heart?

I really want to encourage you to think about that.

If that moment doesn’t immediately come to mind for you I want to encourage you to take some time this week and think back through your life and see if you can remember if there was a time when you remember coming to the knowledge that you have fallen short of God’s requirement of obeying the law.

Similarly, do you recall the first time in your life when you became aware of the Holiness of God and on top of that, do you recall the first time you realized that you couldn’t measure up to God’s standard, but you also found peace in knowing that Christ made a way for you to be accepted by the Father?

In a man is healed of blindness, so that Jesus Christ could be seen as He was, The Light of the World.

Likewise, those who are saved by God’s grace, have had their spiritual eyes opened to see the reality that GOD IS LIGHT and thereby they begin to emulate Him in righteousness and holiness.

Justification is an act of God’s free grace, but sanctification is a work of His free grace.

We, the saints in Christ Jesus are in the process of being changed back into the image of God.

We have been altered by sin.

Because of sin, our image (perfect at creation) has been effaced, ever since the fall and we are now, by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus Christ are being made new.

We are having our image restored.

John is saying, if we or as we walk in the light, as Christ is in the light we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Christ washes (process of sanctification) away our sin.

In a message during the 2019 Ligonier National Conference Dr Ligon Duncan suggests there are three aspects of our lives that are changed.

We begin to think right

We begin to act right

We begin to “want” right.

We begin to want to do what is right.

It is a joy, to want to do what is right.

Complete Joy, which we spoke of last week, comes from right fellowship, which happens as we want to do right, and when we do right and when we think right.

Doing what God has said, is a blessing, not a burden.

If you hear or see someone acting as though obedience to God’s Word is a burden, rather than a blessing, you know that their heart is not right.

They are not walking in the light.

Maybe you find yourself in that category.

You have bought into the lie, that obedience to God is a burden.

Well, let me tell you, that is absolutely positively categorically a lie!

Christian freedom is walking in the light and liking it and wanting to do it.

This freedom and joy in obedience is a result of the incredible work of the Holy Spirit, wherein He causes us to be better image bearers of the Heavenly Father.

Dr Duncan went on to state later in his message, “Pauline approach to sanctification, says to the Christian, become who you are.”

If you are a believer, you are a new creation!

The old has passed and the new has come.

Walking in Darkness

We read about this activity of “walking in darkness” or loving darkness, throughout the Gospels and John’s letters.

Listen to the Gospel of John’s description

Men love darkness rather than light.

Now listen again to John’s letter in 1:6

We are going to see this same phrase a few more times in this letter in the coming weeks.

But you get the picture right.

There is a clear contrast to “walking in the light” and “walking in darkness”.

Example of sleeping in the Lean-to near Dix Mountain and Tim Clark’s expressive reaction when he saw Holmes Bay after the fog cleared away.

Listen to Paul’s description of what is taking place in the life of the believer, regarding the Light.

As we walk in the Light, our knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, is increased.

Our understanding of God’s Perfection and Sovereignty grows.

By the act of His grace toward us, our ability to recognize our own personal shortcomings and sinfulness is enhanced, for His glory.

May His Word abide in our hearts, and may the work of His Word as it transforms us and enlightens us also shine forth from our lives, as we “walk in the light”.

This is a vital sign of our spiritual life.

That we will continue in the Light, staying in the light.

Not being perfect, but being perfected under the illumination of Word of God.