Turn back with me this morning
to 1 John chapter 1. My message this morning is walking
in the light. There is no other way to walk
with God except to walk in the light. If you are walking according
to rules and commandments, if you are walking according to
religious philosophy, If you're walking according to the course
of this world, you're not walking with God. There's only one way
to walk with God, and that's to walk in the light. And life and light are synonymous
with one another in the Scripture. John writes in the beginning
of his Gospel of Christ that in him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Life, eternal life, is light. Those who know God are children
of the light. That's how they're spoken of
in the Scripture. We are the light of this world.
And those who know God are children of light, and those who do not
are children of darkness. Where light shines, darkness
cannot abide. Isn't that what I read to you
in 1 John there? a few moments ago. If you say
you know Him who is light and you walk in darkness, you lie. You lie. You do not the truth.
Darkness can't abide where the light of God shines. Also in the Scripture, light
and truth are synonymous. The church is called the pillar
and ground of the truth. And our Lord said you're a light
under this world, a light set on a hill that all can see."
Light and truth are synonymous. Everything a believer does necessitates
light. You ever think about that? You
can't worship God apart from light. You remember our Lord
went through Samaria. He said, I must need to go through
Samaria. And there was a woman there,
and he met her out at the well. And in their conversation, she
said, you worship God in Jerusalem, and we worship God in these mountains.
And he said, you worship you know not what. It takes light
to worship. Light. You can't just worship.
Singing a hymn and feeling good is not worship. Worship requires
light. Everything a believer does. You
can't pray apart from light. You can't pray without light. How shall you call on Him, Paul
said, in whom you have not believed? And how shall you believe in
Him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? It takes light. It takes light to pray. It takes light to worship. Faith
calls for light. And then what is regeneration
except being called out of darkness into His marvelous light? That's
what regeneration is. So let this be established, God
is light and in Him is no darkness at all. No darkness in His purpose
and counsel. I remember as a young man, I
was reading through the Bible and I began to see some things
that I'd never saw before in my life. Somebody had mentioned
these things And I didn't know where they were in the Bible.
I was seeking some information on them. This man said, this
is what the Bible says. But he didn't tell me where.
And I went home, and my grandparents had left me a big Bible. One
of these big coffee table Bibles. And in the back, it had this
little concordance. And so I got in there, and I
looked up some things about God. And they told me that God was
sovereign. He was sovereign. And I said,
what's that mean? That means he does what he will,
when he will, with whom he will, where he will. He's sovereign.
And I looked that up and I found in the book of Daniel this scripture
about old Nebuchadnezzar. God sent him out there and caused
his nails to grow like bird's claws and his hair to grow like
eagle's feathers. And he went out there and fed
like the oxen on the grass. And then when God Brought him
back. Brought him back. Brought him
back to his right mind. He said, Now I praise and honor
and extol the God of heaven, who rules in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? David said, Our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he had
pleased. No darkness in His purpose and
counsel. And I began to talk to some of
the folks there in the church about it. And this is what they
told me about these things. This predestination and election
and God's sovereignty. They said those are dark things.
Those are hidden things. If God wants to hide something,
brethren, He's not going to put it in His book. You remember
what He told John on the Isle of Patmos? Oh, He told him these
wonderful things. He had old John just spellbound. He was in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day. And he began to give him all these revelations of Christ.
And he began to pen them down. And he got to a point where he
was just ready to write everything. And God said, John, put your
pen up. Put your pen up. God doesn't
want you to know something. He won't put it in His books.
He won't put it in His books. And there's no darkness. That's
my message to you this morning. There's no darkness in His purpose
and counsel. There's no darkness in His ways
and means. There's no darkness in His judgments
and justice. There's no darkness in His work
of salvation. No darkness in the work of God's
Holy Spirit. There's no darkness in His mediatorial
work. No darkness in His preservation
of the saints. And no darkness concerning His
second coming. We confuse things and make them
difficult to understand. Religion does that. Religion
does that. Well, what is this light that
John's talking about? Well, turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Put a marker there in 1 John,
and turn with me over here to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now Paul said he had denounced.
That is how he starts his chapter. I have denounced these hidden
things of darkness. I have denounced these things. And then he gets down here to
verse 3 and he said, But if our gospel, this gospel that God
gave me by revelation, this gospel taught from Genesis to Revelation,
this gospel, If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world," little g, the God of
this world, "...hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them." Here's the light, right
here, Jesus Christ. There's no light apart from Him.
There's no light apart from Him. All these abstract ideas men
talk about, debate about, whether or not they believe in God, and
is God this, and my God wouldn't do that, and your God, that's
your God, that ain't my God, and back and forth and back and
forth. Let me tell you something, you'll
never know anything about God except through Jesus Christ. The first question of the gospel,
when the gospel is preached and God begins to work in the heart
of a man, The first question that he asks him is this, who
is this man? Who is this man? Religion has put him in such
simplicity that nobody pays any attention to him. They've set
him in a place where his work is hardly even worth doing. They've set these great and marvelous
things that God manifested in Christ. They've set those things
in such a light as they don't show anything of the glory of
God. But I tell you, when you begin
to find out who He is, you're going to ask yourself this question,
who is this man? Who is this man? The Bible speaks
of Him as the eternal Christ. It speaks of Him in the beginning. Who is the beginning? He's our
hope. Who's the beginning? He's the
beginning. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and by Him all things consist. Who is this man? This
can't be that. I'm trying to restrain myself
from saying things But who is this man that religion sets before
men that they scoff at and laugh at and ignore and walk away and
they may choose him one day or they may not choose? I tell you,
if he ever appears to you as he is, if it ever comes into
your heart and mind by the power of God's Spirit, who this man
is, you won't debate about anything anymore. John, even in the light that
John had, When the Lord appeared before him as he was, and he
saw him, he fell at his feet as a dead man." Daniel, one of
the most holy, godliest men on this earth. Daniel. When the
Lord appeared to him, he said, my comeliness melted into corruption. Job. Where is a man like Job
in all the world? Where is a man like my servant
Job, God said? You know what Job said when he
sang him? Once have I spoken yea twice, I'll never utter another
word. If you ever see Him as He is,
you won't be debating about choosing Him or accepting Him or anything
else anymore. You'll bow to Him. That's what
you'll do. You'll bow to Him. You'll submit
to Him. You'll look to Him. And then
when you look to Him, that's when you're going to discover
this light. This light. This light is produced by the
glorious character of God. It's the first of all the glory. It's the glory of His grace.
Think about that. The glory of His grace. Paul
said a little further down there in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul said
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that all the glory might
be of Him and not us. You ever see a diamond ring?
They don't put it on a bed of diamonds. They put it on black
velvet. You know why? Because the black
velvet just fades into nothing and it shows that diamond. That's
why God took this gospel and gave it to men. Gave it to men. And once you see this gospel,
that man just fades into oblivion. You see him. You see him who
is God. And the first thing you see when
you see this glorious light, Paul said there in 2 Corinthians
4, he said, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
way back yonder in the beginning, when there was nothing but darkness
and chaos, covered the earth. You couldn't see it, just like
we can't see this old nature. We don't see our evil nature.
We don't see any of those things. Why? Because darkness is upon
the face of the deep. And this is the way it is. And
he's demonstrating that in all creation. And God said, let there
be light. And there was light. And then
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And the
first thing in salvation is God commanding that light to shine
in your heart. And he said, the same God who
commanded that light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. in the face of Jesus Christ. And this light is produced by
the glorious character of God. It's, first of all, the glory
of His marvelous grace. What is the grace of God? Religion
defines it as a disposition to be generous. That's what they
call grace. A willingness to be generous,
a desire to be generous. Another way they use this term
in the world is to describe a temporary immunity from punishment. They
call it a grace period. You got a 10-day grace period.
You don't pay your bill on time, you got 10 more days, and then
they're going to penalize you. And sometimes they describe it
as a desire or a passion. to be gracious. But the Scriptures
declare grace to be the unmerited favor of God, undeserved favor
of God. Grace is no more of works, otherwise
grace is no more grace. That's how Paul defines it in
Romans chapter 11. By grace are you saved through
faith, he said, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And this grace
is sovereign grace. It's the grace of God. It's who
God is. He said, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. That's what He told Moses when
He wanted to see His glory. All grace is sovereign grace.
Grace bestowed according to His will and according to His purpose.
Listen to the Scripture. This is II Timothy 1.9. Paul
said, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. It's
sovereign grace. It's sovereign grace. All grace is effectual grace.
God does not intervene without effecting a change. Somebody
said, well, how do I know if God's working in me? It'll be
effectual if He does. That's how you'll know. It's effectual grace. God never
attempts something and fails. What kind of God does man have
that fails, stumbles, and falls, and can't see, and has to learn
about things in time? What kind of God do they worship? Back yonder there in Isaiah,
you need to read through there sometimes. Start with chapter
40 and just read clear through to the end of Isaiah. God's telling
them who He is. And He said, you worship these
statues and images and gods of your imagination and these gods
can't save. Isn't that the God that's generated?
He can't do anything if you don't let Him. Preachers, I heard one this morning
on the TV talking to men about letting God do things in your
life. Letting God come into your heart.
You've got no control over your heart to open the door or shut
the door. You've got none whatsoever. And I tell you this, if He wants
in, He'll kick the door down, bolt, barn, jam. He'll come in.
He'll come in. He's sovereign. He's God. And he told them back there in
Isaiah, he said, you worship this God that can't save you,
and you worship this God without wisdom. He don't have any wisdom.
You sit there and talk to him and pray to him, but he never
says anything to you. He just lays up there like a big dummy
he is. He's just a piece of wood with some silver and gold on
him. And you're praying to him. And this God of your imagination,
he's dead. He can't do anything. He can't
save anybody. He said, I am God. He said, I
declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I
do all my pleasure. That's God. God never tries a thing and then
comes short. His gifts are effectual to the
saving of the soul. Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter
6, something of the utter impossibility. of one. And this is what men
talk about, men backsliding into damnation and all that kind of
stuff. That's nonsense. You ain't going to find that
in the scripture. He said we're not of them who draw back under
perdition. We're of them who believe to
the saving of the soul. We're of them who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation. And he tells
you over there in Hebrews chapter 6 the utter impossibility of
one who was enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, who was a partaker of the Word
of God and the powers of the world to come, if he should fall
away to renew him again to repentance. And that's what this world is
talking about. The possibility of one of God's elect believing
and then falling back into the world under perdition, lost,
gone. Paul said, if that was so, if
that was so, and one could do this, he could taste of all of
these things, the heavenly gift, be made partaker of the Holy
Ghost, partaker of the Word of God and the powers of the world
to come, if he should fall away. Why? Because he'd crucify to
himself the Son of God for him. The reason these gifts, gifts
of faith and gifts of repentance, all these gifts, the reason these
things are effectual, the reason God gives these things to you
is because Christ purchased the right. And to say that these
things could fail, you crucify them again afresh. Men, saved
and lost, and saved and lost, and saved and lost. Brother,
if God saved you, you're saved. You're saved. I never could figure
that out as a kid. I just figured I was so stupid,
I just needed just to believe what they were telling me and
go on, because I couldn't figure out how could a man be saved
and then be lost, and then be saved and then be lost. Salvation is God working in you,
both to will, that is to make you willing, Both the will and
to do of His good pleasure. Now, here's what Paul said about
that. You work out your own salvation
in fear and trembling. Do you know how he could say
that? Because he knew it was God who worketh in you. Both
the will and the do of His good pleasure. Paul said we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto these good works. which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them." What good gifts?
Gifts of love. Gifts of faith and repentance.
Divine gifts. Heavenly gifts. Gifts of God's
grace. And we have a heavenly confidence
that what He's begun, He'll perform without fail. That's what He
tells us over in Philippians 1, 5, and 6. All grace. Listen to me. If it's
the grace of God, All grace is effectual grace. We're not of
them which fall back under perdition. Grace is unmerited favor, sovereign
favor, and this grace is effectual. And when it comes, it comes from
God in power. Paul told those Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God. Boy, we like to debate
that, don't we? Paul said, I know. I know your
election of God, because when my gospel came unto you, it didn't
just come in words. We didn't go home and argue about
it. We didn't go home and debate about it. It came in power, and
it came in the Holy Ghost, and God revealed to you His light
in Christ. That's how elections are known.
To see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
is to see the glory of His grace. And grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Secondly, to see the light of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is to see the
glory of His justice. Men who live out their days walking
in spiritual blindness, walking in the vanity of their minds,
never see the glory of God's justice. Salvation is not purchased
by men's so-called free will and decisions. Decisions to accept
Jesus as your personal Savior, whatever that means. Salvation
is bought by one who hung on the cross and hung there and
died to satisfy God's justice. Justice has to be satisfied.
If I'm to have any hope before God, That justice which I've
offended, that law which I've offended, must be satisfied. I remember an old preacher one
time. He was talking along, and they had a blackboard up there
where they taught the young kids, and they'd write on that blackboard.
And he'd read off one of the commandments of God. And everybody
in here, are you guilty of that? And he'd put a mark up there.
Are you guilty of that? And he'd put a mark up there.
He said, no, this is salvation. He took that and erased it and
erased that. Well, that ain't salvation. Salvation is the satisfaction
of God's justice. His justice must be satisfied. Must be satisfied. It's bought by one who hung on
a cross and died to satisfy the justice of God. Paul said he
was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. I've got a lawyer here. He knows
what that word means. Justification. He was raised
for our justification. Sin must be paid for. Justice
must be satisfied. And the law must be honored and
exalted. And man, by nature, is a sinner.
That's all he can do is sin. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. He's already condemned. He that
believeth not is condemned already. Otherwise, he would have believed. Already under the curse, the
curse of being made under the law that he can't and will not
obey. The carnal mind's enmity against
God. Not their God, but the God of
the Bible. They're not upset with their
God at all. Henry described their God one time, this old gray-haired
granddaddy. He's up there, got a sack full
of popsicles, passing them out to everybody, you know. He's
just happy and ain't angry. He just wants to save everybody
he can, you know. Listen to what Scripture says
on this. By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight. For by the law, are you going
to look to the law? Here's what you're going to find.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Why? Because all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, the glory of His righteousness
and justice. But now Paul tells us the righteousness
of God without the laws manifested, one which the ceremonial law
pictured, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, because
there is no difference. Being justified, Romans 3.24,
freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God set forth in that Old Testament, in that mercy
seat. Set Him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. That old high priest would take
that blood of that sacrifice, and he'd put on that fine linen,
and he'd go inside that tabernacle, and he'd pour that blood out
on that mercy seat before God. And that's what he's saying.
Did they look to the blood of that lamb or that goat? No. It pictured the blood of
Christ who was yet to come. And that's what he's saying here
in Romans 3.24, whom God sit forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sin, both Old Testament and new. And to see the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is to see the
light of the glory of His justice. And then thirdly, to see the
light of the glory of God in Christ is to see the light of
divine mercy. Grace, somebody said, was God
giving to us what we do not deserve, unmerited favor. Mercy is God
not giving to us what we do deserve. Somebody said one time to me,
this is probably 30 years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday.
He said, all I want is what I got coming. And I said, it took me,
I lost my breath when he told me that. I didn't think anybody
was stupid enough to say something like that. And I said, you don't
want that. You don't want that. You don't
want what you got coming. You want mercy. You want mercy. Pharisees came in their religious
pride and pomp, and the Lord said, go on back home. Go on
back home. Boy, we wouldn't. We'd get them
a seat up front, wouldn't we? Sit right here. We give them
the chief seat in the house. Our Lord said, now you just go
on back home and you learn what this means. I'll have mercy and
not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the
righteous. I'm come to call sinners to repentance. Can you see the look on old Barabbas'
face when they marched him out into the daylight and took those
chains off of him and said, you're free to go? And he stood there
thinking they were going to shoot him in the back or something.
And he said, why are you letting me go? He said, another has been
chosen to die in your place. What a look he must have had
on his face. Mercy. Mercy. And every sinner called
by God is brought to see himself guilty before God. He finds himself
actually taking sides with God against himself. Read Psalm 51. David began to confess his sins,
and it's like he was in heaven looking down on himself and judging
himself with God. And that's what a sinner does.
When God reveals to him what he is, he takes sides with God.
You ought to send me to hell. I deserve to die. I deserve this
condemnation. And David confessed his sins
before God that God would be clear in his declarations about
man and just in his judgments. Have you ever been brought before
the holy bar of God? Oh, my soul, seeing yourself
as you are, guilty before God. Hopeless and helpless, nothing
to plead, nothing to bring, nothing to offer to God in exchange for
your soul. Until you do, you know nothing
about mercy. Mercy. Mercy is for the helpless. He said the whole don't need
a physician. The sick need a physician. Mercies for the guilty, mercies
for the weak, mercies for the sick, mercies for the ignorant.
God, I'm ignorant. I don't know anything about you.
Teach me something about you. He found us walking the course
of this world, walking after the prince of the power of the
air, walking after the lust of our flesh, and by nature being
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, He said, who
is what? Rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. And for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us to
gather with Christ. By grace, ye are saved. Mercy brought that to pass. Mercy
opened the door. Paul was talking about this God,
the living God, and comparing Him to the God of this world.
And men said, well, if He does everything He wills, why does
He yet find fault? Who's resisted His will? He said,
nay, but old man, who art thou that replies against God? Think about next time you're
sitting there in yourself and you're contradicting the things
that the Scriptures say so clearly, you think about that. Who am
I? Who am I before God, the Eternal
God, the All-Wise God? Paul said that he might make
known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which
He had aforeprepared unto glory. And then he says this, so then,
so then, these things being considered, these things being taught by
the Holy Spirit in your heart, so then, it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but it's of God that
showeth mercy. Mercy. And therefore, Romans 9.18, hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he'll
harden? Hugh Hardin. To see the light of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ is to see the light of the glory
of His mercy. And then fourthly, to see the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is to
see the glory of His love. Brother Mahan said one time,
to talk about the love of God is like standing before that
great North Atlantic Ocean. And somebody hands you a rowboat
and says, cross it. Cross it. Or standing before
Mount Everest, looking up into those lofty peaks and the actual
peak of the mountain just disappearing into the clouds. It's so high.
And somebody hands you a pair of tennis shoes and says, climb
it. Or draws a picture of an atom
and tells you to split it. The love of God. Perfect love,
infinite love, eternal love. And I'll tell you this, don't
ever try to evaluate the love of God in His providential dealings
with you. Don't ever try to do that. It's
like picking up a piece. If I had a thousand-piece puzzle
up here this morning, I'd just throw it out on the floor. And
I walked out there and picked up a piece, and I brought it
over to you, and I said, now here, what's the whole picture?
What's the picture on the front of that box look like? Well,
I can't tell. I can't tell, I'm going to have
to see some more. That's what we do when we take these little
isolated events that happen in God's providence in our life
and we try to evaluate His love and stuff in that one little
piece. You ain't getting the whole picture. If you want to
get the whole picture, look to Christ. Look to Christ. That's where His love is made
known. God's love is made known in Christ. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave Himself for us. Here's the love of God. And men
may be concerned about their love. They might try to manifest
their love dying for a righteous man or some, maybe even for a
good man, the Lord says. But God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
See the love of God in the election of His saints, making provision
for them, ordaining a representative for them, selecting a substitute
for them, taking upon Himself their flesh, being made one with
them, living for them. He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He become a man. A man dying
for Him, rising for Him, reigning in glory for Him, and coming
again to receive Him unto Himself. He said, I have loved Thee with
an everlasting love. And this is what He said over
here in Romans. He said this. Romans chapter
9, I believe. Jacob have I loved. You know
who He told that to? He told that to Jacob and Esau's
mama. And she still had those twins
in her womb. They'd never been born. They'd
never done any good or evil. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand because it's written, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. Hereby I perceive with the love
of God because He laid down His life for us. He's about to go to the cross,
and he's speaking very personally with his disciples now. And these
Pharisees are coming around, and just like a pack of dogs
nipping at his heels and trying to tear down everything, he says,
and this is what he said to them. He said, I'm the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. For the sheep. And they said, well, if that
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you plainly.
I told you. And I told you plainly. But you
believe not, because you're not My sheep. As I said unto you,
My sheep hear My voice. Yeah, but what if he don't speak
in the great cathedral? What about if he picks a little
shack out here in the middle of Arkansas and gathers together
a few people inside and speak? My sheep hear my voice. They hear it. And they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life. And they'll never perish. Never perish. That's the love
of God. That's the love of God. Oh, my
soul. Hereby we perceive the love of
God because He laid down His life for us. Somebody said this. He said, we'll submit ourselves
to another in accordance as we perceive their love for us. When I believe with all my heart
that you love me, I submit to you. I submit to you. And this
religious world speaks of love that leaves some in hell, and
leaves some to walk in darkness, and leaves some to return to
the hog pen. This world speaks of a universal
love that has no effectual influence on men whatsoever. Oh, but listen
to me. The love of God will not suffer
the least of His objects, the objects of that love, to perish. He's not willing that one of
them should perish. Every one of them is going to
be called to repent. And Paul said this. Somebody called this
the golden chain of assurance. It begins over there in Romans
8.28, saying, and we know. We know this. How come we know?
Because God was pleased to shine His light in our hearts and give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ.
And now we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
And he gets on down in here, and he said, what shall we say
to these things? Well, I'll tell you what believers
say. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can be against
us? And then he tells them, he said,
for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from what? The love of God. Where is it
at? Which is in Christ Jesus the
Lord. That is Romans 8, 38 through
39. And I might continue to show
you the light of the glory of God in these things, His holiness,
His wisdom, His sovereignty, but maybe we will do that another
time. But here is where I am going with this. John says over
here in 1 John, verse 7, chapter 1, verse 7, If we walk in the
light as He is the light. Now listen to this. That is the
light of His justice, and the light of His grace, the light
of His mercy, the light of His love, the light of His wisdom.
If we walk in the light as He is the light, we have fellowship
one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Fellowship is fellows in
the same ship. Fellowship is to be in the ship
with Him whom God calls His fellow. You remember that over in Zechariah? Zechariah 13, 7. God said, Awake,
O sword, against My shepherd, and against a man who is My fellow. You want to have fellowship?
Get in the ship. Get in the ship. He's the ship. He's the fellow. He's the fellow. And that word fellow means associate,
companion, comrade, kindred man. That's Christ. We're going to
be going back here in a minute to eat together. But whether
or not we have fellowship depends on if I'm in Him or not. It don't
depend on us getting together to eat a sandwich. It's whether
or not I'm in Him. If I'm in Him, we have fellowship.
We have fellowship. And I want to read you one more
verse and I'll quit. He said in verse 3, 1 John 1
verse 3, That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,
that ye also may have fellowship with us. Now watch this. And
truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ. Now I don't say if I believe
in the like, It doesn't even say if I rejoice in the light.
It doesn't say if I stand in the light. It says if I walk
in the light, as He is the light. Can I walk in the light of His
mercy? In the light of His wisdom? Can I walk in the light of His
love? In the light of His grace? If I can, I have fellowship with
the Father. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I have fellowship with the Father,
I have fellowship with the Spirit, I have fellowship with the Son,
and I have fellowship with every believing saint. Because I'm
in the ship. I'm in the ship. When old Noah
got in that ark, wasn't anywhere else to visit, was there? They
had fellowship. They had fellowship. May God
be pleased to reveal this to your hearts today.