Psalm 85 is the very thing that
I'm going to preach on tonight in a different text. Turn with
me to first John chapter one, but it is the very thing I'm
going to preach on. First John chapter one. Let's read these 10 verses here. First, John one. Verse one 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 that you
also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is
with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And these
things right we unto you that your joy may be full. 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. 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 sins, 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 was talking recently
with a brother about sin. We were talking about sin, the
sin that so easily besets us. We were talking about just how
easy it is for this flesh to fall into it. It is so easy. It comes easily and we fall into
it easily. And we were talking about how
sad and depressed it makes us and how much it brings us down.
It just brings us down. You can be up one minute and
then sin creeps in. Whether it's sin of us in us
or around us, whether it's current sin that
grieves us or past sin that grieves us or future sin that we know
is right around the corner. We start dwelling on it and it
ruins the whole day, doesn't it? And the conclusion that we came
to in our conversation is we need Christ. We need the Lord
Jesus Christ. We need Christ. We just need Christ so badly,
so desperately. We need to call on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need to worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need to be here. I need to be here. We need to gather with his people. We need to hear his word preached. We need to be reminded of his
gospel. We need it. We need it so badly. It's the only thing that'll pull
us back up. You get out into the world and
it's just the slough of despond. It's the miry clay. And the more
you go in it, the more it just, you sink down into it. This is
the only thing that'll pull, reach way down and pull us up,
pull us out. And we both acknowledged in this
conversation that all of us, And I'm talking about God's people
here. I'm for sure not talking about
those who are lost in false religion. This is not the acknowledgement
of self-righteous religion, not at all. But among God's people,
we both acknowledge that we all view each other as having a better
handle on sin than we do. We look at each other and we
think, I just don't see them sinning as much as I do. I don't see them having the thoughts
that I have. I don't see them saying the things
that I say. I don't see them doing the things
that I do. The reason for that is because
we don't see each other as much as we see ourselves. We don't
spend time with each other like we spend time with ourselves.
We spend more time with ourselves and we don't see each other's
secret moments. like we see our own. We don't
see each other's thoughts like we see our own. And am I the
only one who's glad about that? If we did, we would see that we are all
in the same boat. We're all in the same boat. There
are some people who are just more naturally reserved than
others. You know, they may say less and
sound wiser in doing so. And we think, oh, I just wish
I could be more like that person. Well, if we could see into the
mind, heart and soul of that person, just like all the rest
of us, we would see we are all in the same boat. Oh, I just wish I could be like
you. Really, you don't. Really, you don't. All of mankind has been in the
same boat since the beginning of time. In my conversation with this
brother, we were complaining about the fact that it is so
easy to feed sin today. It's so, so easy to feed sin
because everything in this world Everything that this world has
to feed it with is at the fingertips of a cell phone. You used to have to struggle
to find things and get your hands on things and now you can feed
sin with anything you want to feed it with. It's at the tap
of a screen. It's so. But then in our conversation,
we realized that's irrelevant. That's irrelevant. In the days
of Noah, God looked down on the imaginations and the hearts of
all men and women on the face of this earth. And God saw that
every imagination and intent of the heart was only evil continually. That's what it was. only evil
continually, only full of sin continually. Every man and woman
on this earth has been dealing with this same struggle since
time began. Every man and woman, every age,
every generation. And what that means is all of
us need Jesus Christ. We need the Lord Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul needed Jesus Christ. He needed the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, I just wish I could be like
Paul. I just wish I could be like the apostle Paul. The apostle
Paul needed Jesus Christ. That's what he needed. You cannot
cry. Oh, wretched man that I am. Without knowing something of
your own sin, you can't do it unless you don't mean it. And
he meant it. You cannot cry. I'm the chief. I am the chief. If you believe that other men
and women are more sinful than you, you can't cry that in self-righteous
religion, men and women believe that others are more sinful than
they are. But in the true calling of God's
people, they believe that they are more sinful than all of all
others. And the apostle Paul is proof
of that. Every child of God sees himself
or herself as having the least handle on sin of all believers,
the least control over their sin of all believers. And because we all feel that
way, it means we're all in the same boat because we all think
you are not as much of a sinner as I am. You're better than me because we all think that it
means we're all in the same boat. Elijah never died on this earth. This man, Elijah, he never died
on this earth. God sent a whirlwind to pick
him up and carry him straight into glory. And the apostle James
said. Elijah was a man subject to like
passions as we are. He was a center just like me
and you. He had doubts. He had fears, unbelief, just
like me and you. Every child of God ever recorded
in the scripture, every one of them, you start at Genesis. And
start going through these men and going through these stories,
every, any women, every child of God ever recorded in the scripture,
God exposed the fact that they were all centers, all centers. They were all great centers.
They did things, you know, what I'm talking about. You read some
of these stories and you're, you're almost ashamed to read
them out loud. They did things even though God acknowledged
that they were his people saved believers. He said, David's a man after
my own heart. But the saints of the Old Testament
recorded in the Old Testament, they did things that if men and
women did those things today, which they do, things haven't
changed. But when it happens. Even sinful
man looks at it and says that can't be a child of God. That's
not a child of God. No way. You can't do what David
didn't be a child of God. You can't do what lot did and
be a child of God. That's not just sin. That's wickedness. That's that's evil. Even so, every child of God,
every. soul that's had his eyes open
to what he is by nature, looks at that what's recorded in the,
in the word about his brethren or her brethren and says, I'm
worse. I'm worse. When the apostle Paul
said, I'm the chief, He meant, I'm the chief. That's what he
meant. I'm worse, I'm the chief. Worse than David, worse than
Lot, worse than every other sinner that has ever existed. And I
love what Charles Spurgeon said about that. He said, I take issue
with the apostle Paul. Don't you love this saying of
his? I never get tired of saying that. He said, I take issue with
the apostle Paul for he has stolen my seat. I would feign tap him
on the shoulder and say, sir, go up higher. You've taken my
seat. I'm the chief of centers. You
can't claim that. That's me. That's me. Well, our
conversation ended. And about two hours later, this
brother called me back and he said, I really appreciate the
conversation we had earlier. And I said, I do too. He said,
you know what it made me do? He said, it made me start praying
for all of my brothers and sisters. Just thinking that they are going
through the same thing I'm going through. dealing with the same
struggle I'm dealing with. He said it broke my heart for
him. And I thought, what a good way
to look at that. What a good way to look at that. The end
of the story of Job says that the Lord turned the captivity
of Job when he prayed for his friends, when he thought on his
friends. Sometimes we get so consumed
with what we are going through, we never even think about all
of our brethren and what they're going through. They're going
through the same thing. I strongly believe, I do sincerely
believe this, I've experienced it and I strongly believe that
if we would think on what our brethren are going through, all
of their sorrows and all of their trials, and bring those things
to the Lord, and bear it with them, as the scripture
says, and bring their troubles to the Lord on their behalf,
I believe the Lord would ease ours. I sincerely do believe
that. We go through, I was talking
again with this brother about the depression, the sadness, If you ever find yourself in
a depression, the fastest way to get out of a depression is
to start thanking the Lord. Go to the Lord in prayer and
thank Him for all of His goodness and all of His mercy and all
of His kindness and everything He's done for you in the blood
of His Son. And that depression will go away. And let's bring our brethren
to the Lord and all of their troubles and think on others. Let this mind be in us as it
was in Christ. Think on each other. I believe
that if we'll focus on ourself last, we won't even. We won't
even end up focusing on ourself. But I tell you all of this for
this reason, OK, here we go. Our sorrow over sin is real. It is real. And it's something
that every single one of us deal with. If we do not, if anybody
here does not really sorrow over their sin, I would strongly encourage
us to ask God to reveal our sin to us. If he does, we will sorrow
over it. We will absolutely sorrow over
it. But sorrow over sin is something that all of God's people have
to deal with. It is so real. Verse eight right here in first
John one says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. All of us deal with this. It's
true for all of us. Verse 10 says, if we say that
we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in
us. But verse nine says, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us. And these last three words are
what brought me here after this conversation from all unrighteousness,
all unrighteousness. All of it, all of it. The end of verse seven says,
the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. All sin, no matter how deep,
no matter how vile, no matter how wretched, all sin, all sin. We read a moment ago in our scripture
reading, our brother just read Psalm 85 for us. Verse two said,
thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. What an amazing
verse this is really. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. All of it. All of it. Just hearing that, doesn't it
make you feel clean? This is something else we talked
about. You get out into this world and you're just picking up just filth
and vileness. And it's not that filth is what's
out there. Filth is what's in here. But
it's just so, you know what I mean? Coming to worship and gathering
with God's saints and hearing the gospel preached, this is
not what makes us clean. The blood of Christ made us clean.
We were washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But coming in and gathering with
the saints and hearing this word preached and being reminded of
the gospel one more time, it's like It's like it just washes
off everything we've been picking up all day and all week. It's just refreshing. Just the thought of being washed
in the blood of the Lamb. From growing up as a kid and
even now, I have thought this my whole life and I even think
this now. I've always thought if I was
covered in blood, I wouldn't consider myself to be clean.
If I was covered head to toe in blood, completely covered
in blood, I wouldn't consider myself to be clean. And I sure
wouldn't consider myself to be white as snow. It's amazing that
that's what the scripture says. You know, you wash me throughly,
purge me, cleanse me, cover me in your blood, I'll be white
as snow. Why does the scripture say it that way? It's because
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is so pure. It is so spotless. It's so holy. It's so righteous. It's so good. It's so perfect. It's so beautiful. In God's eyes, it's white as
snow. It is white as snow. Just hearing that, just hearing
being washed in the blood that just cleanses us, just cleanses us. Hearing that where our sin has
abounded, His grace and His mercy through the covering of His blood
has infinitely more abounded. It brings a cleansing to us again.
Thank God, the end of verse seven says the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanseth, cleanseth, cleanseth, cleanseth. It did cleanse, it still cleanses,
it will cleanse us from all, all sin. All sin. Listen to this man,
brother Offord's story one more time. I've read this to you quite
a few times, but this man was a member of Charles Spurgeon's
congregation. And he told this story and Spurgeon
made him tell it over and over again. He said there was a poor
man living on Dartmoor who had been employed during the summer
in looking after horses and cows and so on that were turned out
on the moor. He was a perfect heathen and never went to a place of
worship, perhaps since he was a child. For him, there was no
Sabbath. After a time, he grew very ill.
He was over 60 years of age and having nothing to live upon,
he went into the workhouse. While he was there, it pleased
the mysterious spirit to make him uneasy as to his soul. He felt that he must die. He
knew it was coming. And the old man had just enough
light to let him see that if he did die, all was wrong with
regard to a future state. He had a little grandchild who
lived in a neighboring town, Plymouth, I think it was. And
he asked leave for his grandchild to come in every day to see him.
As he was very ill and near death, that was allowed. She came in
and he said to her, read the Bible to me, dear. She complied. And the more she read, the more
wretched the old man grew. read again he said he the more
she read the more dark his mind seemed to be with a sense of
guilt just guilt guilt guilt you know anything about that
you know anything about guilt guilt oh guilt guilt that's just an awful awful feeling
guilt At last, one day, she came to
that passage in the first epistle of John, you know it. The blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. Is that there? He asked. Yes, grandfather, replied
the little girl. That is there. Is that there? Oh yes, grandfather, it is there.
Then read it again. Read it again. She again read,
the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. My dear, are you sure it is just
like that? Yes, grandfather. Then read it
again, dear. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all sin. Then he said, take my finger
and put it on that verse. Is it on that text, child? Is
my finger on that blessed text? Yes, grandfather. Then said he,
tell them, alluding to his friends, that I die in the faith of that.
And he closed his eyes and doubtless entered into eternal rest. And
I will die in the faith of that truth. By the grace of God, and
so will you, I trust, brethren and sisters, die with your finger
on that text. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all sin. Thank God. Can we not sincerely
say that? Thank God. Thank God. Are you down and discouraged
over your sin? If so, Just listen to that again. Just listen to that again. It'll
pick you right up. That will pick you right up.
The blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. That is amazing grace to me. All sin. Thank God. Amen. All right, let's all stand
together.