Turn with me to 1 John 1. 1 John 1 and in verse 5 John writes,
This then is the message which we have heard of him, of our
Lord, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. If you would know the true and
living God, and if you would have fellowship with Him, you
must be righteous, you must be holy, you must be perfect, no
sin whatsoever. Now, the natural man cannot do
this for himself. He cannot make himself righteous. He cannot make himself holy. He has no desire to do so. He has no understanding how to
do so, and he has no desire whatsoever to bring himself out of darkness,
not according to the Scriptures. Our Lord, when He was speaking
to the Jews, who were very religious, and very confident in their religion
and in their righteousness. And he said to them, ye will
not come unto me. You will not come to me that
ye might have life. Man won't do it. If God doesn't
do a work of grace in him, man has no desire for Christ. He
cannot and he will not. He doesn't want to. Again, we're
told in scripture that this is the condemnation that light is
coming to the world. Who's the light? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Light is coming to the world
and men loved darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds were evil. That's a description. of us. That's a description of
what we are by nature in Adam. Our works are wicked works. Our thoughts are wicked thoughts.
Out of the heart comes all manner of evil and wickedness, adulteries,
fornications, murders. That's what comes from the heart. And the natural man doesn't believe
this word. He doesn't believe God's testimony
of man. And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
2, it's because he doesn't have the Spirit of God. And the things
of the Spirit are foolishness to carnal man, to natural man,
without the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. The natural man doesn't believe
this. And we're told, as it is now, just as it was before the
flood, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart of man
is only evil continually. That word is daily in the margin. Daily is his thoughts and intents
of the heart are evil. Man thinks he's good. He thinks
he can please God. If he's troubled a bit, he thinks
he can just turn to religion, get a little religion, clean
up some things, and all will be well with him. And he doesn't
see what the testimony of Scripture is, that we are wretched, miserable,
poor, and blind, and naked. naked. We think our works cover
our nakedness, and they don't. We are naked. And earning salvation,
the Lord is telling us, He's showing us that earning salvation,
obtaining eternal life, That which some men seek, eternal
life, it is impossible with man. It's impossible. That's the testimony
of God. But the Lord tells us this, that
the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. They are possible with God. God
is the one who does the impossible, not man. And so, as salvation
is impossible for man, it is possible for God. God is able
to do it. He's the only one able to do
it. And our Lord is doing the impossible
here by His message. Our God gives a message for sinners. This is a message that sinners
hear. This is a message that sinners
delight to hear. This is the message that sinners
need to hear. Because the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who hold
the truth in unrighteousness. God gives us His message. He has a message for sinners,
which, as John says here, we have heard Him. God reveals His
word. He reveals this testimony of
His scripture. This isn't about moral lessons. This isn't about teaching us
how to be good citizens and to give us moral lessons. This is
about salvation. This is about life and death. And God reveals, has a message,
which he gives to his preachers, and his preachers declare it
unto you. That's why we preach the word.
That's why we don't do skits, and why we don't rely on entertainment
and strategies of the world. We know that the most important
thing that we can do here is preach the word. We preach the
Word because that's what the Father is pleased to use to manifest
and reveal faith in the heart of His people through the preaching
of the Word, through the preaching of that Word. And so we declare
it unto sinners like you and like me. I need to hear this
Word. I'm blessed to hear this Word.
I need it because I'm a sinner. And my eyes, in this flesh, get
taken off of Christ. And so I'm thankful to hear this
word, to hear the gospel of our Savior declared unto us. And it's declared to us, as Paul
said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2.12, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. And that's critical,
because man thinks salvation is earned He thinks he needs
to do something to obtain eternal life from God. He needs to please
God. He needs to earn it. He earns
it by his works and by the things that he does and doesn't do.
And yet God says it's a free gift. Salvation is freely given
in the Son, in His darling Son, Jesus Christ. And so man's looking
to earn it, but God gives eternal life to as many as He's pleased
to give in His darling Son, Jesus Christ. So hear God's Word. My
prayer is that we hear His Word. His Word is a warning to sinners,
and His Word is salvation to the needy sinner. Salvation to
the needy sinner through the preaching of Jesus Christ. So
again, this then is the message which we have heard from God
and declare unto you. that God is light and in Him
is no darkness. No darkness. Now, to be clear,
the message that John is speaking of here is Christ. Christ is
the Word of God. He is the message. This is the
message which God is declaring unto us. He's gathered us together
to hear this Word, to hear this message, which is Christ. because
Christ in the believer is our hope. It's the hope of the believer. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message. And in this
message, our Lord keeps it very simple for us. He shows us two
things here. He makes us to know that we are
sinners and that what we naturally think is salvation, what we naturally
think pleases God is death. He makes us to know that we are
sinners. He makes us to know that our works, our ways, are
death. And in the gospel, he declares
who the savior of sinners is. He declares who the one who delivers
his people from death and who gives his people life. It's a
very simple message. We are sinners. Christ is the
savior. We cannot save ourselves. Christ
is the one who saves his people. And the Lord does this because
we're not going to have life trusting our works. We're not going to have life
trusting the things of this flesh. Paul said that believers are
stripped of that. He says, we are the circumcision,
which have no confidence in the flesh. We're the ones who have
been circumcised, not in the flesh, but in the heart by the
spirit of God. He does that for his people.
That's why he gathers you. That's why he gives you the word,
because through the word, he reveals faith in you. He set
your eyes upon the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, again and
again, and shows you this is what's needful, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's needful for me. And so he's
showing us that people in the flesh, that by nature, that's
all of us in the flesh, we're trusting works of darkness to
save us. We're trusting works of darkness.
We're trusting a false god. We're trusting false works. And
he's warning us. He's warning us in his word through
this message that our works are filthy rags, our righteousness,
not our sins, Isaiah said, He said, not your sins. He said,
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags to God. He's not impressed
with them. He's not pleased by our works. He's pleased with one, even the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he's pleased with.
So the only way we're going to have life is through faith in
Christ. It's in Christ Jesus and he gives
faith in him, trusting Christ to save me. Believe in God that
I am a sinner, that I am the sinner, that I cannot save myself,
but that he's provided his son to save me. That's the faith
which he gives to his people. He gives us faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he tells us that all who call upon him for
mercy and forgiveness shall have it in Christ. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You that are
sinners, you that are in darkness, call upon the Lord Jesus Christ
that you may walk in the light as he is in the light. We walk
in Christ that are his. We walk in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the light of God for sinners. And it's only by the light of
Christ that we see and know the true and living God. Through
our Lord's death on the cross, he put away our sins. And by
his resurrection, he justified us. Through Christ is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Through Christ and his resurrection
is preached unto you that you are justified and accepted of
holy God. He gives his spirit so that we
hear this word. He takes the things of the gospel
and shows them unto you, making them effectual unto you, showing
you your need and the satisfaction that Christ has made for you.
He makes us new creatures in Him so that that darkness isn't
what rules us and guides us and leads us along trusting what
we do. No, we trust Christ because new
creatures trust the Lord. New creatures are not fixated
on themselves, we're fixed on Christ. looking to Him, living
by Him. So first then, this simple message,
two things, first that we are sinners, and then we'll see the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So by this gospel message of
our Lord, He's correcting, He's adjusting our bad attitudes,
He's adjusting our sinful ways, He's correcting us because our
way is the way of death. It's the way of death. The gospel
comes and opposes the vain confidences of man. It takes down, it strikes
down that which we stand upon and build ourselves up and look
down on others and tear others down and raise ourselves up thinking
that we're something when we're nothing. He does this by his
gospel, and this is what is meant in verse 6, 1 John 1 verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship
with him, if we say we have fellowship with the true and living God
and walk in darkness, we lie. We lie. We're liars. We're lying. We're lying to ourselves. We're
lying to others. We're trying to get one over
on God, and it's not going to happen. We lie and do not the
truth. And that is not what our Lord
said to the woman at the well, the day cometh, the day cometh
when you will worship God neither in this place nor in the temple,
but those that worship God will worship him in spirit and in
truth, in truth. He's gonna correct us. because
we're all wrong. Everything about us by nature
is wrong. The true and living God must correct us and he does
it in Christ through this blessed gospel. And so he's saying here
if we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we're lying.
Well what is darkness? Now we saw last week We were
looking at it and spoke of three things that the Lord shows us
is darkness. One is man's desire and inclination
and love for sin and doing the dark, filthy works of sin. Whether
you grew up under the law of Moses or you grew up in a family
or a nation or among a people that said this is wrong, you
have an understanding of the law and you know because you
see it in others being punished and in your own heart and in
your own self being punished and corrected by your family.
We know, we're raised to see we are sinners. There's a law
that man has that where he knows that he is a sinner and has offended
the law, broken the law. He's a sinner. And so that's
one way we walk in darkness. But we also saw that another
way that man tries to fix that is he gets religion. He starts
getting religious, and he joins up to some religious order, thinking
that this is going to help me. This is going to help me climb
the step, climb the ladder, up to God. And God shows us, no,
it's not by partaking of the ordinances and learning doctrine
that saves you. That's not what pleases God.
These things are meant to turn us from the flesh and look to
Christ. But man trusts in his religion
and what he's changed and fixed in his life by his religion.
And so man deceives himself, thinking this is his righteousness.
And then the third way, which we barely touched on, but we'll
look at more so tonight, is how that man turns to the law of
Moses. He doesn't see the sufficiency
in Christ. He doesn't see Christ as enough
to save him. He needs the law. He thinks God
has given the law whereby he builds himself up and improves
his standing with God. He turns to the law. And we see
this going right back to the time of the disciples, of the
apostles. Where Paul was, he had been preaching
the gospel to Gentiles. And they didn't come up under
the law. And so Judaizers from Jerusalem came. And they said,
except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot
be saved. It's great that you believe Jesus
is the Messiah. That's wonderful. But unless
you're circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be
saved. Why are they called Judaizers?
Because they were telling the Gentiles, you've got to become
like us, Jews like us. And they were trying to make
them, bring them, subject them under the law of Moses. And that circumcision is a word
for us to understand. We use the law to what? Cut things
out. Cut that out. Stop that. Don't
do that. Cut this out. It's circumcising. That's all that it is. We're
doing that same thing. Even though we profess to believe
Christ. And there's a lot of people A lot of churches that
do that, they turn to the law. They say, now you've been saved,
now you can keep the law. And that burdens the believer. That troubles us because we learn
real quick, I can't keep the law. And we still see sin in
our members. And sin in this body, in this
land. And we begin to tremble because we're taught by man's
religion that, oh, you shouldn't be sinning now anymore. That
doesn't happen now in Christ. Well, then why does it happen?
Because we're all still sinners. And the Lord shows us that. He
makes us to know that. And he humbles us in that very
truth. And so the Judaizers, which are
still around today, though they are Gentiles, but they're Judaizers,
still trying to come under the law, They're blending faith and
flesh and it can't be done. And what happens if you've ever
tried to live unto God by the law as your rule of life, what
did you do? You stopped looking to Christ.
We stop looking to Christ and we start looking at what we're
doing and not doing. We give all our attention and
focus to that law and trying to fix and root out the sin and
push the sin away. We're turning from Christ because
salvation is a walk of faith, not of flesh. It's a walk of
faith. Turn over to Galatians chapter
3. Galatians chapter 3 and in verse 1 Paul begins, O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Who hath put a spell on
you? that ye should not obey the truth
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you. In other words, if you can save yourselves
by the law, why was Christ crucified? Why do we declare unto you his
crucifixion and his resurrection if you are now saved by the law? He goes on, This only would I
learn of you, received ye the spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith. The declaration of the gospel
of Jesus Christ that he is our Savior By Him we have the forgiveness
of sins. By Him we have life. That, brethren,
is the hearing of faith. Because in declaring God's salvation
for sinners, faith is ministered. Faith is worked in our hearts. The Spirit ministers righteousness
through faith. Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? It sounds just like modern day
religion, just as it was olden time religion. Back here in the
times of the apostles, men turned to the flesh to perfect themselves
by the law. By the law, that's turning to
the flesh. Have ye suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? Right, he's talking about persecutions
for trusting Christ. Persecution for preaching the
free grace of God. Men don't like that. Paul said,
if I yet preached circumcision, I wouldn't be suffering persecution.
If I just preached the law, if I preached Moses, I'd be received
by my countrymen. But I'm not preaching the law.
That's what he's saying. He therefore that ministereth
to you the spirit, right? This is what's happening now.
I'm preaching Christ and the Lord is pleased to pour out his
spirit. ministering the Spirit, and worketh
miracles among you, delivering you from vain confidences in
the flesh." That's why I preach the gospel and I'm trusting the
Lord to make it effectual unto you. Doeth he it by the works
of the law or by the hearing of faith? That's how the Lord
is ministered to you, by the hearing of faith, preaching Christ,
showing you Christ. And so Paul was very clear, we
are not to turn to the law of Moses. Because in Christ Jesus,
he tells us, he told the Romans, we died to the law, we're dead
to the law that we might be married to another, even to Christ. You know there's adultery, there's
spiritual adultery going on there if you're looking to Moses to
bring forth fruit. That's just like turning to another
man to bring forth fruit and children into the world. No,
Christ is our husband. He's the one that's going to
bring forth fruit in His people, trusting Him, believing Him,
looking to Him. And He has given us the gift
of the Holy Spirit and manifested fruits in us, which is fruit
unto God, fruits of righteousness, which is faith, hope, love, kindness,
gentleness, patience, forgiveness with one another, long-suffering,
even as our Lord forgives us so we forgive one another for
Christ's sake. He's forgiven us for Christ's
sake and we forgive one another. for the same reason, for Christ's
sake and what he's done in us. And so he gives us the Holy Spirit
and it's a walk of faith, brethren. It is a walk of faith because
you're going to see the weaknesses of this flesh. You're going to
see things that tempt you to look back to Mount Sinai rather
than trust Christ. Lord, here it is again, it's
perking up in me, this wicked flesh, save me, Lord. Save me,
keep me, keep my heart. Is it going to be by the thunderings
and lightnings and threatenings and beatings of the law? Or is
it going to be by the grace of your Savior who gives resurrection
power? As Paul said, I want to know
that power, that same power that raised my Lord from the dead,
raise me up from death, Lord. Or as Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15 31, I die daily for Christ, daily. daily, and it's looking to Him. It's looking to our Lord, and
so He does this. The law reveals that all men
are sinners, right? The law is lawful if a man uses
it lawfully. It's good if a man uses it lawfully. It's for sinners, Paul said,
not for the righteous, not for you that are righteous in Christ
and clothed in the righteousness of Christ. It's for those that
won't hear and are walking in disobedience and not believing
Christ. And it's to turn them, it's to
show them that God's wrath is upon you. But that's not salvation. Christ is salvation. And so the
law, all of the law, what men now call the moral law and the
ceremonial law and the civil law, those things give us pictures
and types and shadows that show us Christ. A, show us our need
of Christ, that we're sinners, and B, that Christ is the Savior,
the one who satisfies his people. And so, if grace is understood,
or if you have grace, you're going to be driven to Christ. You're going to be driven to
Christ, and you're going to cry out to Him. It's not trusting
ourselves to the law, not even for sanctification, because that's
what a lot of men say. They say, well, we're not justified
by it, but it is our sanctification. Well then why does the scripture
say that of God are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? That according
as it's written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. If
you are sanctifying yourselves, if you wake up and roll out of
bed and you pray to the Lord, Lord, please help me today to
look to you, to trust you, keep my heart, deliver me from the
lust of this flesh. Lord, save me, keep me. Who gets
the glory for that? The Lord. The Lord does. Because
he gave you that heart from the moment you woke up. He gave you
that heart. And that's the heart that we
desire. And when we don't have that heart, By His grace of the
hearing of faith, we hear, Lord, I need you. My eyes are looking
at the world, or they're looking at the flesh, or they're looking
at my works. Lord, put my eyes on you to see you, because that's
where life is. That's where my righteousness
and salvation is. And so if sin in this flesh troubles
you, and it will, this sin and this flesh will trouble you if
you have the Spirit of God. You're going to be troubled by
it. You're not going to like it. You're not meant to like
it. It's going to trouble you and
it's going to turn you to the Lord. If you're troubled by it,
turn to the Lord in prayer. Cry out to Him. Seek Christ to
strengthen you and to keep your heart. Because turning to the
law, to keep you in line, that's turning not to faith but to the
flesh. Now you're trusting what men
can do in the flesh, rather than what only God can do by His grace
and by His Spirit. Look at Galatians, if you're
still there, Galatians 5, in verse 4 through 6. Paul says,
Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are
justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Now I know
that men would not say that they are, there's very few people
that would say that they're justified by the law. Although amazingly,
there are people that would say they are justified by the law.
But when we're justified by the law or looking to the law for
our help, we're living in fear of the law. We're troubled. Because
we see there's still sin in our members. And that's because man
by the law is trying to prove and get to a point where he's
not troubled by his sin and his flesh anymore. He's trying to
prove it and give himself some comfort and some peace. But that's
not the spirit and the grace of God. And a man that would
turn to the law would rather be in bondage again. to that
under the constraints of the law. Verse 5, for we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Paul could have just said right
there, by the law. He could have said it there.
He could have just laid that strap right across your back. We wait
for the hope of righteousness by the law. No, he didn't. He
said by faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Either we are new creatures in Christ and taught and constrained
by love for Him and His love for us and taught to look to
Him and to cry out to Him in our hour of need, or we're yet
children of flesh. We're either led by the Spirit,
by faith, or we're led by the law in the flesh. And my prayer is that we're led
by His Spirit and faith. Verse six, for in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything, that is, trusting the
law, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
That's how we're kept, looking to Christ, believing He's my
Savior, He's my Lord, He's my husband, He's my friend, He laid
down His life for me, He gave His life for me, and rose again
for my life. for my life." Turning to the
law to keep you in line, it sounds good, it sounds reasonable to
the law, but the scriptures say, back in Galatians 3, verse 11
and 12, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
It is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Why do we keep
looking back to the law? We're justified by faith. And the law is not of faith. That, to me, is probably the
most compelling of all verses, not to look to the law. Because,
and that's why I keep saying, if you're looking to the law,
you're looking to the flesh. You're walking in the flesh because
the law is not of faith. Period. It's just not. but trust
in Christ to save me. That is, that's walking in faith.
Lord, I need your grace. I need your blood to cleanse
me from my sin. Lord, cleanse me from the filth
of my heart and in thought, word, and deed. Lord, help me. Keep
me. Don't let me be turned away to this world. Don't let me become
an apostate. Lord, keep me. Keep me by your
blood, by your grace, by your spirit. The law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them." In other words,
if we're turning back to the law for sanctification, then
live in it. And you're responsible for the
whole thing, and you're under the curse if you fail in one
spot. And we're going to fail. Even
people looking to the law fail to keep the law perfectly. So
that's the darkness that John is warning us of in verse six
when he says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and
walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Whether walking
in sin, whether we're trusting religion to save us, if I do
these steps, then God will save me, no. Or if we turn to the
law to keep us, to save us, to make us righteous, we're turning
from Christ, that's darkness. The prophet Isaiah said it this
way. Turn over to Isaiah 50. Isaiah 50 verse 10, there's two
verses here. And here, this one speaks of
faith. Isaiah 50 verse 10 Who is among
you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant,
that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? When we hear faith
and we hear Christ and we are troubled by this flesh. And we're
wondering, Lord, what's going on? I thought you delivered me
from this. And he has. And it's a walk of
faith. He thought that he's delivered
us from this, but it's a walk of faith. He has no light, right?
And he's describing a man here who fears the Lord, but doesn't
understand how to please him, and that he needs to be kept
by his son and finds no relief from the law. He says, if you're
in darkness, Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay
upon his God. Don't stay upon Moses. Stay upon
your God, the Lord Jesus Christ, your God and Savior. For the
just shall live by faith again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It's a work of grace through
faith. Believe Christ. He is the righteousness
you seek. He is the righteousness you seek. He's the one that clothes our
nakedness. He's the one that removes the
scales of blindness from our eyes that keeps us from seeing
our God and His righteousness and His salvation. He gives His
Spirit to teach you Christ, to keep you in the way of Christ. Now here's the description of
what men are doing today in professing Christ, but going to the law
for righteousness. Verse 11, Isaiah 50 verse 11,
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, we kindle a fire, why? For light,
to keep warm. to cook our food, for our nourishment,
for our strength. All you that kindle a fire, now
you that are working for your warmth, your light, for your
nourishment, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the
light of your fire. And in the sparks that ye have
kindled, this is sound of bed. This is what you've done. This
shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. Those that turn to the law, I
know it's counterintuitive to the flesh, but those who turn
to the law will not obtain that which they seek. They will lie
down in sorrow. But you that have no righteousness
of your own, and have no confidence in the flesh, but have the Spirit
of God in my faith, look to Christ and cry out to him, Abba, Father,
save me. Lord, I'm sinking down in the
waves. I'm troubled by the flesh. I'm
troubled by my sin. Save me, Lord. You shall have
joy. You shall have peace and deliverance
by your God. And so one day soon, the Lord
tells us this because there is judgment coming upon the earth. There's a day when all men shall
be judged. All men will stand before that
great white throne of God's judgment. And you that would be hidden,
you that would have a hiding place, you that would shut yourselves
in the chambers, Have a hiding place. That hiding place is Christ. Flee to Christ. Run to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The law is no hiding place. Christ is the hiding place for
sinners. He's the one whose blood covers
our sin. He's the one who makes us righteous
in him. He's our righteousness to stand
before God. John 12, 35 and 36, then Jesus
said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you.
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.
For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be
the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and
departed, and did hide himself from them. Jesus never told them,
you guys aren't doing a good enough job keeping the law of
Moses. You need to do better keeping the law of Moses. He
never did. He always turned the eyes of the people on him. He's
the light of God. Walk while you have the height,
which is shown forth unto you in the preaching of the gospel.
He gathers you together for this word. This 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. So we're not going to come and
worship Him in our works. we're going to worship him in
spirit and in truth by faith. By faith. And so having shown
us that, that wickedness, those works of darkness, that's not
fellowship with God. That second thing that he gives
us is, is, is to look to Christ. Verse seven, back in first John
one 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 cleanseth us from all sin. What does that mean? Does that mean that Christ's
blood cleanses us from all sin? Then why are men going back to
the law to cleanse them of sin and to purge them of sin? Either
this is true, and men are liars, or God is lying. And it ain't
God. God's not a liar. All men are
liars. God is the truth. God is declaring
the truth unto us. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. All sin. So settle it in your
hearts, brethren. Jesus Christ is the light of
God. Faith in Christ pleases the Father,
because that's the work of His Son. You that believe Him, the
Father sees the blood of His Son. He sees the righteous works
of His Son being brought in you. That's children. That's fruit
unto God, as opposed to fruit unto death, which is trusting
the law. That's fruit unto death. But
by Christ, we bear fruit unto life. Our Lord said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. If you would have peace with
God and stand before Him accepted of Him, then look to Christ and
rest right there. Rest right there in the Lord
Jesus Christ. One more thing, Romans 8 24 and
25, for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen, right? If you look at yourself and you
didn't see the works of this flesh and the horrors that we
see in our own heart and in this world, why would we hope? We
hope because we see what we are. We see our need of Him. We are
saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what
a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for
that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Wait for
it. Wait for the Lord Jesus Christ
to work it in your heart. One day this flesh is going to
be laid down and we will sin no more. While we're here, We're
going to be troubled by our sin. You're going to see it. But it's
given. We go through trials and the
Lord will chasten us and he brings us through fire trials to turn
us and show us our need of Christ and to show us the sufficiency
of Christ. So God is light and in him is
no darkness at all. Walk in Christ. That's walking
in the light. Don't come with your own works.
That's walking in darkness. Come believing. the Lord Jesus
Christ whom the Father hath sent, given, and spared not to deliver
you from your sins. Believe him. Believe him. That's
his word declared unto you. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts, brethren, and mine, for I need it every hour,
every day. Amen.