Okay, go to 1 John with me. 1 John 1, the title as I
text it to you, should be of great interest to every sinner,
saved by grace, a message of confession, forgiveness, and
cleansing, a message Center is a message for God's people. A
message that we'll be convicted and yet comforted if we're here. There's no comfort without conviction. There's no comfort without conviction. Look at verse 3 and 4. That which
we've seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us. The truth is our fellowship.
It's with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things write we unto you that your joy may be full. This is
to those who know God, those who have fellowship with the
Father and with His Son. And it's a desire that others
might know Him. This is life eternal, by the
Lord's sin, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ. It's life. It's salvation to
have a a knowledge of, but more than that, a union with. That knowledge implies that I
love to know, like Adam knew his wife Eve. That's what Paul
said, O mother, I may know him. So this is for those who know
him, have this union with the father and his son. And he said,
we've declared him unto you and written these things unto you
that you might have fellowship with the father and his son.
And these things we write unto you that your joy might be full. Now, you remember me saying on
Sunday, and it's a good statement, that you are who you walk with.
That you become like those that you commune with and have fellowship
with. That's just so. If you're walking
with the world, you'll become like the world. John is the one,
he says so much about this in this whole book. This whole book
is to discourage God's people from the world. And in the latter
part of his book, he said they are of the world. And therefore
speak they of the world. And the world hears them. But
we're of God. Paul said our conversation's
in heaven. And he is of God. Heareth us and walketh with us.
John's the one that also said we know that The whole world
lies in weakness. And it is. What fellowship can
we have with darkness? Light doesn't rub off on darkness.
The Lord, He has to be born again. But darkness and the world sure
rubs off on us. But if we walk with God, this
is why He said that we walk in the light, as He is in the light. That light is imparted If we
walk with God, we'll be like Him. Genesis 17. Look at Genesis 17. This is what
the Lord said to Abraham. Genesis 17. In a moment, we'll
look at what the Lord said of Abraham. Genesis 17. The Lord appeared to Abraham.
Verse 1. He was 99 years old. He appeared to Abraham. and said
unto him, I am the almighty God. Walk before me, and be thou perfect. Walk before me, and be thou perfect. I will make, and I will make
my covenant between me and thee, and multiply thee exceedingly. Abram fell on his face and talked
with him. And he's called, Abram's called
in the scriptures the friend of God. Can two walk together except
they be agree? You walk with your friends, don't you? That's
who you want to spend time with. That's who Abraham walked with.
That's who Noah walked with. Enoch walked with him. That's
who Alan walked with, don't you? Our Lord's the one that said,
Johnson said, the friendship of the world is in the doing
of God. So it's serious, isn't it? And
so go back to our text. So these verses, these following
verses he says in verse 5 and 6 of 1 John 1. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light. In
him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. I do not truth. We lie. Chapter 2 verse 1. He says, little children, these
things I write unto you that you sin not. You see that? He said, we write these things
unto you, we declare Him unto you that you may have fellowship
with Him, walk with Him, that your joy might be full, and we
write these things unto you that you sin not. That you sin not,
you walk with Him. This is written to declare Christ,
it's written to declare our God, it's written to convict and convince
us of sin and discourage it. And then he tells us of forgiveness.
We're going to get to it. And as I said, there's no comfort
without conviction. Paul told young Timothy, he said,
preach the word, reprove, rebuke, correct. So, alright, this book
tells us about The consequences of sin. Sin is no light thing. There's no such thing as a little
sin. There's no such thing. There are really no such thing
as little consequences. Sin is why we suffer and die,
and sin is why the Lord suffered and died. Sin is what put our
Lord on the cross. How can we make light of it?
How can we indulge it? How can we continue in it? Paul
wrote that then. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer? How can it be? God help us. We need help. No one. We need
forgiveness. We need cleansing from sin. David said this, and I believe
you have this desire too. He said, I will behold thy face
in righteousness. Not mine. His, through the righteousness
of Christ, imputed to me, imparted to me, Christ in me, the hope
of glory, this new birth, this work of God's Spirit. It's completely
His work. It's not my work. It's not a
cooperative work. It's His work. I'm going to behold
thy face in righteousness. This is why David said, I'll
make mention of thy righteousness and thine own. He said it four
times in Psalm 71. Imputed, imparted, it's not ours,
it's His. He said that I will behold thy
face in righteousness, and he said, I will not be satisfied until I awake with that likeness. This is what Paul said in Romans
7. O wretched man that I am, I want to be delivered from this
body of death. There's nothing I want more than
to be done with this old hammer and do that crap. Can you say
that? That's a good sign. That's a good sign that Lord's
done a work in you. God help us. We need help. We
need forgiveness. We need cleansing. David needed
mercy. David needed forgiveness, didn't
he? That's what he prayed for in
Psalm 51. But David said this today, I
want to be clean, didn't he? Cleanse me. That's what we're
going to look at tonight. Interested? Verse 6, he says,
if we walk in darkness, we lie. No fellowship with God. And we
all have done this. We're supposed to be children
of light. We fall into darkness. The darkness of the world. The
darkness of sin. We all have. We've secretly indulged
it in our minds, in our thoughts. Right? He's going to go on to
say, if you don't admit that, you're a liar. God is light. David said, Whither
shall I flee from thy presence? We looked at that in Psalm 139.
The darkness and the light are like to him. And David wrote
that Psalm 51. He said, I did this in your sight. I did this in plain sight of
the Lord. What's wrong with me? That's
why I said, you've got to create in me a right spirit. All right? So he says, if we
walk in the light, if we walk in darkness, we're lying. We
don't do the truth. But, verse 7, if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, God helped me to walk in the
light. Whatever that means, I want to walk in it, don't you? To
walk in the light is what? To walk in His Word. Here's the
way, he said. Walk in it. Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet, a light unto my path. Here's the way. It's not
a good way. It's the only way. It's not advice. It's command. If you be willing
and obedient, you'll eat the good of the lamb. Here, walk
in this way. David wrote this over and over
throughout the psalm. Teach me thy way. Didn't he? Help me to walk aright. We failed Him. If we walk in
the light of His Spirit, we have fellowship one with another.
If we walk in the light of His Word,
the Holy Spirit, if any man hath not the Spirit of God, he is
not of His. There is therefore now no condemnation
of them that are in Christ who walk, not after the flesh, but
in the Spirit. The Spirit of God leads His people,
leads us in the paths of righteousness, for His name's sake. He leads
us. He gives us a light. Can we grieve
the Spirit? Yes, we can. Can we quench the
Spirit? Yes, we can. And we do. Can we
ignore and love? Yes, we can and we do. This is
what He's telling us. Take heed. We're led by the Spirit. Walk in the light. He's given
us a conscience. It's a good thing. Romans 13. It says, walk in the light. That
means walk open and honest before God. A modern word that's used
today, a pretty good word, transparent. Be transparent. Be open. Nothing to hide. That's what
that means. That's good, isn't it? Even tells
us not to lie to one another. Isn't it? Walk open and honest. Isn't that good counsel? Romans 13, 12, and 13. Look at
this. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light.
There's some protection in this. Walking in the light. Let us
walk honestly as in the day. Like it's... You remember that
article I wrote on let's talk like everybody's listening. You
remember that? In private. Talk like, you remember
I gave that illustration, I left this on and I went home and I
searched my brain, what was I saying? And you do the same thing. Well,
let's talk like that in private so I don't have anything to regret. Walk, verse 13, walk honestly
as in today. Not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness. That's what got David in trouble,
isn't it? He should have been out fighting
like the rest of the kings were doing. He wasn't. He was lounging. Not in strife. Put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, verse 14, make not provision for the flesh to
fulfill at last. Do you need them? Alright, go
back to our text. Walk in the light. See us in
the light. No, go to Ephesians 5 with me. We read this on Sunday,
I believe. Ephesians 5, go there. We need
to read it over and over again. They were instructed over and
over and over and over about our walk. And I can't understand
for the life of me why anybody would resent that. And why any preacher of God's
Word would not declare it. I can't understand it. I want to hear this. I want to
know, don't you? Ephesians 5, and I resent with
every fiber of my being those that say we don't declare this
thing. You know. But Ephesians 5 verse
8, you were sometimes darkness. Now you're light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light. To prove the Spirit is in all
goodness and righteousness and truth. This is what he leads
us into. Proving. Walk as children of light. Proving
what is acceptable unto the Lord. His good and perfect will, he
wrote of in Romans 12. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness. Reprove them. It's a shame even
to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. All
things are reproved. that are approved make manifest
by the light. Whatsoever it does make manifest
is light. Christ came, remember, He said
that. He said if I hadn't come, they'd have a cloak for their
sin. But I've come and exposed them
and now they have no cloak. But then in John 3 we read this
where it says, He that doeth the truth cometh to the light.
God's people, they come to the light to do what? Cleanse me. Teach me. Instruct me. I want to be like you. I'm tired
of being like me. Read on in Ephesians 5. It says in verse 14, Wherefore
he is saying, Wake thou that sleepest. Arise from the dead. Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly. Above reproach? That's what that
says. Not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. This is the will
of the Lord, your sanctification. Set apart, consecrated to Him,
and live a life like that. Anybody resent that? I have this
written down. I fear if somebody resents this,
I'm just being honest with God's Word on it. This is what God's
people want, alright? Now look at verse 7 of our text,
go back there. We walk into life, we have fellowship
with Him, the Father and the Son. Now aren't you glad? The second part of this verse,
man. The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son. Cleanses us from all sin. It's not saying that God will
cut you off of your sin. We feel like He will. He does,
though, don't we? That's what David was afraid of. Take not
thy Holy Spirit. Cast me not away from you. He
thought God would cut him off. Why? His sin. No. God said, I will never forsake
thee. We're going to read Hosea here
in a moment, and you're going to be glad we did. What it's saying is just plain
and simple. Now, David, one time he said,
if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And David lived like that for
nine months, ten months, or what, a year or more. He lived like
that after his sin. He wasn't thinking straight.
And he had no fellowship with God, or he wouldn't have lived
like that for that long. And finally, God sent a preacher,
Nathan, and convicted him. He said, thou art the man. And
it killed him. He said, I was out of my head. But what it is, is God, we won't
feel like we have any fellowship with God. We'll feel like he's
cut us off, and rightly so. We'll feel his frowns. We'll
feel his displeasure. And it's not like when we're
doing good, he's smiling at us. No, we never feel like that.
After we've done all that's required of us, we're still not properly
serving. So what he's saying is that we're
sure going to feel his displeasure, and how can we have fellowship
with him? But run to him. You remember,
Peter, I love this. Simon Peter, when he first knew
the Lord, when the Lord first revealed himself to Simon Peter,
is when all those fish got in his boat, you know. Simon Peter
knew, if he knows his fish, he knows everything I've been thinking.
And he wasn't thinking good thoughts. Do you? All day? Would you want
people to know your thoughts just since you've been in this
room? God does. All right? Simon Peter, he said,
depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Alright? After three years went by, and
the Lord revealed Himself to Simon Peter over and over again
as a Savior of sinners. After three years, and then when
finally he denied the Lord, he sinned against Him worse than
ever. And I believe he thought maybe
he was cut off. Didn't he? And he heard somebody
said, Oh, Simon! Lord told us to call you too. Sweetest words you ever heard.
All right, they were in that boat, remember? And the Lord
said, cast your net over. And Simon Peter had denied the
Lord. And then somebody said, it's the Lord. What Simon Peter
did? He couldn't get to him fast enough. He couldn't get to him fast enough.
He knew he had sinned against him, but he still, he had to
come back to him. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Who? Us. Anybody. Cleanseth us from how many sins? All sins. All sins. Isn't that wonderful? Alright,
do you remember what the Lord said to Abraham? Listen to what He
said of Abraham. In Genesis 18, let me just read
this to you. If you want to turn, you can.
In Genesis 18, the Lord said of Abraham, He said, Shall I
hide from Abraham the thing which I do, destroy Israel? Seeing
that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and
all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. He said,
I know him. that he will command his children,
his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord,
to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
that which he has spoken of him. That's what the Lord said about
Abraham. That's what he said. Listen to what he said about
Job. You remember what he said about Job? He said this to Abraham. He said, Pastor, you considered
my servant Job, there's none like him in the earth. A perfect
and upright man, one that feareth God, and that steweth evil. I
want the Lord to say that about me. Don't you? The Lord helped me to walk in the
light, as thou art in the light, like Abraham, like Job. But, Abraham, he went down to Egypt. Egypt
always represents the world. And he denied his wife, not once,
but twice. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Abraham sinned. Now Abraham didn't walk with
the world, but he fell in it, like Noah. Noah didn't walk with the world.
He forsook it, didn't he? He got in that ark, but he fell.
Don't you love that statement that Noah was in the ark and
he sinned. Was he a sinner in the ark? Sure
he was. But he didn't fall out of the ark. He couldn't. He couldn't. He stumbled and fell, but not
out of the ark. He's in the ark. David. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. All have sinned. And bless God,
the blessed promises and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son. Cleanse us, whoever you may be,
from all sin. What kind of sin? All sin. Doesn't
the scripture say, all manner of sin shall be forgiven? Isn't
that good news? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. All right, in our text, John
2, 1, verse John 2, 1 says, little children, these things I write
unto you that you sin not. Don't do it. Isn't that a good
parent? Don't do it. Don't think on it. Don't dwell on it. Pray, Lord,
lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one.
Don't fulfill it. John's the one that wrote about
it to James. He said, when sin is conceived,
lust is conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and the end of it
is what? Death. You'll feel dead. But, he said, and he said, if
any man sin. No sin. Sunday morning we're
going to look at the advocate. We're going to look at the advocate
we have. Our lawyer. He says, he's saying to me right
unto you that you sin not. The consequences are terrible. You feel like you've lost fellowship
with the Lord. But, and, when? When? If any man, whoever it
is, sin, we have an answer. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us. If any man do, and we all do,
what are we going to do if we do? And we will. What are we
going to do? What are we going to do about
it? Our worst sins may be yet to come. I hate the thought of
that, don't you? I hope not, but they may be. How are we going to undo it? We can't. But the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us. Good news. There is forgiveness. Psalm 130 verse 4. Don't you
love that? There is forgiveness with thee. Can you quote the rest of it? That thou mayest be feared. That thou mayest be feared. Don't
you think David feared? God, I'm cut off forever. And
he found out he wasn't. He's the most grateful, humble,
broken, a thankful man on planet earth. And when those thoughts
rose back up in his head, and they did, what do you think he
did? Oh, Lord, deliver me from going
down into the pit. I've been in that pit and I want
back in it. Oh, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the awful
effects of it, the consequences of it. Look at verse 8. He says, if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. That's talking
about original sin. You know, somebody years ago
summed up the truth in five doctrines. All right? And it is a summary
of the truth. There is no truth without these
five truths. It begins with depravity. Or
three things. My pastor preached a message
on three questions. What happened in the garden,
what happened on the cross, and what happens in the heart when
God says a thing. This is the truth. What happened in the garden? Man died. He became totally depraved. His will, his affection, his
mind, his whole head is sick, his whole heart is stank. That's
Isaiah 1, isn't it? What happened in the garden?
Isaiah says the consequences of it is he's died. His head
is sick, his heart is faint, from the sole of his feet, his
walk, to the crown of his head, his thoughts, and everything
in between, his affection, everything about him, that's man. But you
know what we've got? You know what salvation is? It's
for us to say that personally about ourselves. Not say, well,
Kelly, oh boy, he's sure a rotten fella. No, old wretched man that
I am. If any man say not, I am the
chief of sinners. He is deceiving himself and the
truth is not in him. This is what the truth comes
and reveals to every born again believer. This is what the truth
is. The first thing is you are to pray, not man is to pray.
You are to pray. You see, you do not need Jesus
Christ if you are not to pray. You don't need a blood redemption
if you're not to pray. If you can do something for yourself,
you don't need Christ. If righteousness comes by the
law, you don't need Jesus Christ. But sins are only put away one
way, by the blood of Jesus Christ, God making His Son to be sin
for us. And you're only going to be in
the presence of a holy God one way, His righteousness. Now if anybody say anything less
than that, Oh, I believe in total depravity. That's not salvation. It's I'm depraved. Oh, wretched. Many people sing Amazing Grace. John Newton is the one that wrote
that. And he thought of himself, he never got over the fact that
God saved a wretch like him. He wouldn't talk about anybody
but Himself. So if we say we have no sin, all sin, any sin,
original sin, we are not going to be condemned or damned for
Adam's sin. Nobody is punished for Adam's
sin. That's why we believe babies
are saved, because they don't sin at the solilitude of Adam's
transcription. We say we're lost because of
our own sin. We say we have no sin, all sin. If we don't say, from the sole
of my feet to the top of my head, there's no soundness in my flesh,
the truth's not in us. The truth's not in us. All right,
verse 9. If we confess our sins. All right, now he's talking about
committal of sin. The sin he talked about in verse
8 is the nature I have. When David said, my sin is ever
before me, I don't think he's talking about that one act. I think he's talking about the
nature that made him do what he did. I know he is, like Paul, a wretched
man that I am. Oh, I find in me a law of war
and in my memory. when I would do good, evil is
present with me. That's what he's talking about.
Now verse 9, he says if we confess our sins, actual sins that we
commit. Sin is our nature. Now, there's
a new man created in the image of Jesus Christ. He's holy, he's
righteous, he's unblameable, he's unapprovable, he sinneth
not. In 1 John 5, He sinneth not.
In Him is no sin. It's a new creature that God
born. You must be born again. That's
this new creature. God's creation. Not our. His
creation. It's a mystery, but it's certain.
That there are two men in a new man. Everyone that's born again. There's a new man. There's an
old man. This new man loves holiness. Loves righteousness. Loves God.
Loves Christ. Loves the truth. Walks in it.
Loves it. Talks to God. This old man doesn't
love any of that. He hates all of that. He's absolutely
opposed to all of that. They are opposites. That's why
opposites don't attract. They're poles apart. They repulse
each other. That's a mystery, but it's so.
And every one of God's people feel this war within them. They
have this new man that loves God, that loves the Holy. They
have this old man that loves sin. This is why it says, put
on the new man, put off the old, feed the new man, starve the
old. All right, this old man is what
makes us do what we do. This old man makes us do sins. Sins of thoughts, sins of words,
sins of acts. This old man is what makes us
do that. Sins. All right, verse 9 says,
if we confess our sins, our sins, our sins, this is repentance. That's what this is. All right,
who do we confess to? It says here, if we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. Do not,
I repeat, Do not confess particular sins to any other human being.
Don't do it. Unless that person is as forgiving
as Jesus Christ, unless that person loves you
just like Jesus Christ, they'll never be able to forgive them.
They will never treat you the same. They cannot. They cannot
get it out of their head. Our God says there are sins and
iniquities I remember no more. It's like it never happened.
And He tells us to confess them all. He knows them anyway. That's what this means about
being open. He knows them anyway. But do not confess. Because what it does to is if
we confess sins to one another, they won't forget them. It changes
everything, and it feeds their flesh. It feeds their flesh. Tell me
if it's not so that you sometimes take encouragement from the failures
and the falls of others. I know a man who was a preacher, and I thought he was a good preacher.
We all thought he was a good preacher. And he just up one
day, left his wife and three children, and men confronted
him. And you know what his answer
was? He said, I'll just get in line with David. Oh, well. That's not what David would say. You see, that's what he
was pleading on. He was taking encouragement from
David's sin when it should have convicted him. You know what
I'm saying? It should have convicted him.
The Lord told David, the sword's never going to depart from your
house. You're going to have trouble from now on. That's what he said. And he knew
it. And he knew everything that came on him. He said, I deserve
it. I deserve a whole lot more. All right, verse 9, he says,
but if we confess our sins, if we confess our sins, all of them,
all of them, sins, to him, the only mediator, the great high
priest, James. Now, somebody say, well, James
said, confess your sin. No, he didn't. He said, confess
your faults. Look it up. There's a difference. And some young buck sat in my
office one day and argued that with me. Mandy was there with
me. He said, it says confess your sins. I said, no it doesn't.
It says confess your faults. And he had a Bible that said
sin. I said, throw that in the waste can right now. That's Catholicism. The word faults actually translates
to side slips, to lapses, to errors, not particular evil sins. It's like saying, I got a bad
attitude. Don't confess that I got a bad
attitude. I've had a wrong spirit. I've
done this. I've been in a bad spirit. False.
Confess them to one another. Brother, I'm sorry. I am. And I couldn't have said what
I did. Don't confess your sin. Confess your sin to him. Confess
your faults. That's James 5.16. Don't confess unto anyone ever
but the Lord. And confess them all to Him.
He knows all of them. Don't hold back. Don't hold back. If confession is good for the
soul, it's only good for the soul if you confess unto Christ.
If you confess unto Him. He's the only one that can give
you forgiveness, and peace, and comfort, and rest, and assurance
that He's forgiven you. Forgiveness is a wonderful word.
A wonderful thing. Confess your sins to the Lord.
All of them. Now, confession involves more
than just saying forgiveness. Repentance is more than just
saying forgiveness. Proverbs 28, 13 says, He that
covereth the transgressions... I want to turn with Proverbs
28. This is important. Because this is true repentance. The word repentance means change.
The word repentance means turn. Proverbs 28, 13. Look at this.
And this is what John is saying. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just. Confess unto Him. Verse 13. He
that covereth... Proverbs 28, 13. He that covereth
his sins shall not prosper. Confess them. All of them. But whoso confesseth and forsaketh. You'll have mercy. See there.
What if David had said, please forgive me, please forgive me?
And that's all he said. That's what Esau said. Esau said,
my punishment, my punishment, my punishment. Paul said, oh wretched man that
I am, oh wretched man that I am. David said, cleanse me, cleanse
me. He said, forgive me, and he said,
cleanse me. Turn me. I'd rather pray tonight. Turn us, O Lord, and we'll be
turned. We need to be turned from them,
not just forgiven. We need to be turned from them. All right, in our text. This
is wonderful. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. What sin? All sin. He is faithful. He said, and we quote this all
the time, this is a place of faith and worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to hear this
and believe this because everybody's a sinner. That Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. That's why he came. He's a friend
of publicans and sinners. This man eateth with public consent. See, I came to seek and to save
the Lord. Faithful. He is faithful. He's
faithful. Whoever confesses their sins
to Him, you know what? He will forgive you. Because
He's the Lord. He's the Lord. He's faithful.
Our God is faithful. Sid is going to read from Hosea.
Let's do it. Hosea chapter 11. If you know,
I just browsed through this book not long ago about Ephraim. Remember? Remember how it started about
Ephraim? Ephraim is a picture of every child of God. He started
out by saying, Ephraim joined his idols, leave them alone. Didn't he? He joined his idols,
leave them alone. But if he was a man, he would
have. If God was a man, he would have left him alone. But he didn't. Look at chapter 11, verse 1. When Israel was a child, I loved
him. Called my son out of Egypt. Verse 3. I taught Ephraim, taking
him by their arms. They knew not that I healed.
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of blood. I was to
them as they that took off the yoke on their jaw. I laid meat
before their butt. Verse 7. I bent the backsliding
from them. But they called him to the most
high none would exalt him. Look at verse 8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?
How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admon?
How shall I set thee as a bone? Mine heart is turned within me.
My repentance are kindling thee. I will not execute the fiercest
of my anger. I will not return to destroy
evil, for I am God, and not man. That's why it's faithful to forgive
everybody who asks you. He's God, and not man. I may sin against you, and sin
against you, and sin against you, and finally you say, that's
it. And I come back to you and say, please forgive me. And you
might have had all you can take, say, and do it. No more. It's
over. That's why people get divorces, isn't it? I can't take it anymore. Our Lord said, where's the bill
of divorce that I gave you? Where's your bill of divorce?
Show it to me. Find it somewhere. Yeah, you've been an unfaithful
wife. You always have been. You probably will be again. But
show me the bill of divorce, our Lord said. You won't find
it. Why? He's faithful. He's a faithful
husband. We're at Gomer. He's Hosea. He's faithful. He abided faithful. If we deny him, we can't deny
himself. You heard that first thing. I
belong to him. Hosea never would leave Gomer. If she left him, he never would
leave her. Why? Because that's a picture of our
Lord toward his people. He's faithful. He abided faithful. We're saved by His faithfulness,
not ours. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. Faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. Now, Barnard used to say this, God can't forgive
sin. When people first heard him say
that, that's blasphemy. He said, no, God's got to punish
it. He can't just forget it. It's got to be paid for. Every
sin shall receive a just recompense and reward. That's what God is
holy. God is just. I will by no means clear the
guilty. But God is merciful. The truth is God is holy. But
God is merciful. What are we going to do? Well,
mercy and truth are meant together. Righteousness. You can't be with
God unless you're righteous. If there's nothing righteous,
there's nothing I want. God is angry with the wicked. No peace
for the wicked. But I'm wicked. Well, righteousness and peace
have met again. Happily kissed each other. Where? Person. Jesus Christ. And they met at Calvary. Truth
of God. Man's a sinner. Mercy of God. I'm determined to show mercy.
Met in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God poured out on Him the iniquity,
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Made Him sin for us who
knew no sin. stripped him naked, gave us his
righteousness, and God killed that sinner on that cross, and
that was me. God didn't just forgive our sins.
He punished them. God is just, you see. He's just. That's why He cannot, He cannot,
He cannot put a soul in hell for whom Jesus Christ died. Doctrine? That's my hope. Christ died. Who shall lay anything
to charge of God's elect is God to justify. Who is He to condemn?
Christ. Isn't that good news? Or you don't? And to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. If you're like me, and I know
you are, you think, I don't feel one whit better than I did when
I was 17 years old. In fact, I feel worse. What it
is, is your understanding of sin and God and all this. More light encompasses more darkness.
You see more than you saw before. You understand more. And we think, I don't feel like
He's doing anything to me, but our Lord said, sin shall not
have dominion. He's able to subdue all things
unto us. I will say this, and it's not
bragging at all, it's just thanking God for his spirit, for his grace. Paul said this, by the grace
of God I am what I am. The life I now live, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me. He said, it's not me. It's Christ in me. And thank
God, like John Newton said, here he said it, where he said, I'm
not what I want to be. I'm not what I ought to be. I'm
not what I'm going to be. But thank God, I'm not what I used to be. It's true. It's true. If I was,
I wouldn't be standing here right now. I would find this the most
painful thing on earth. You wouldn't catch me right now.
Now I don't want to be anywhere else. That's that new man. Read on. Verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, If we say we have not sinned,
done anything. Oh, I've never done this, I've
never done that. Brethren, our Lord magnified
the law. That means he blew it up to see
that it's spiritual. Paul said the law is spiritual,
meaning it demands perfection in thought and word and deed.
Our Lord said if you've looked on someone to love, you're guilty.
A man can't be held guilty for his thoughts. Yes, you can. God
says you would. It's only the grace of God that
kept you from doing it, right? We get to blame for whatever
we do. He gets the credit for whatever we don't do, or whatever
we do. He gets the credit for that,
the glory for that. But if we say we have not sinned,
if you'd ask any true believer, the oldest woman or man in this
room, they would say there's not one single sin that I haven't
thought, thought about doing, wanted to do, if not committed
it, I've thought about it and wanted to do it. Right? If we say we have not sinned,
we're calling God a liar. Calling God a liar. As God said,
there's not a judgmental earth that doeth good sin, not one. And whoever doesn't sin, it's
because that's Christ in them. That's not that man. Romans 1
talks about the world. Romans 2 talks about religious
people. Romans 3 said, are we better than all? It's proved
before we're all in sin. They make him a liar, and his
word's not in us. Now we're going to get to Sunday. We're going
to get to chapter 2. We sure do need an advocate,
don't we? Oh, we're all guilty. Guilty as charged, whatsoever
things the law saith, that saith them that are under the law,
that every mouth might be stopped. You know what Job said? The Lord
said of Job, there's none like him. A perfect man, upright,
astute of people. There's none like him in the
earth. There's nobody better than Job. He's the best man on
earth. That's what God said about Job. You know what Job said about
himself? In Job 40, he said, Behold, I
am mine. Now, if Joe said that, where's
that lead man? We need an advocate. Tune in Sunday. Stand with us. Our Lord and our God, thank you,
thank you, thank you for your word, your promises. And all the promises of God in
Christ are yea and amen to the glory of God by us. We thank
you for your blessed promises. Oh, this is life eternal, Christ. His blood is righteous and we
thank you. Oh, Lord, take your word, convict
us, convince us of sin, approve us, correct us, rebuke us, comfort
us, encourage us, mold us, make us, shape us, conform us to Christ's
image. In his name we pray. Amen.