Back to our text, if a man say,
if a man say, this is the sixth time in this epistle, John says,
if a man says, look in first John chapter one, verse six. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. and do not the truth. Verse eight, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse
10, if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and
his word is not in us. Look in chapter two, verse four,
he that saith, I know him. and keepeth not his commandments,
he is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Verse 9. Chapter 2, he that saith, he
is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness even until
now. And then our text in 1 John chapter
4, if a man say, I love God and hates his brother. He is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"
Now, I've entitled this message, If We Say. If We Say. Now, a true believer
can say all of these things truthfully and legitimately. All six of
those statements, I have fellowship with God. The infinite, eternal God, the
creator of the universe, the God of glory, the one whom the
heavens cannot contain, the one who is holy, the one who's absolutely
sovereign, I have fellowship with him. I have communion with
him. I'm by his grace and able to
speak to him to where he hears. He knows who I am. And I hear
him speak from his word and I have fellowship. I have communion
with the living God. I have something in common with
the living God. I've been born of the Spirit.
Now that means I've got a spiritual nature, a nature that comes from
God, a nature that cannot sin, a nature that's fit for communion
with God. Every believer can say, I have
fellowship with God. Something we have very much in
common. I say that carefully. But God the father knows his
son is all. You know what? I know that too. I have fellowship. Every believer
has fellowship, communion with the living God. What he says
in verse eight of chapter one, if we say that we have no sin, If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, that
being said, and I'm going to say this carefully, it's only
in light of the gospel, but every believer can say, I have no sin. He was manifested to take away
our sins. In him is no sin. I'm in Him
I have no sin, none at all. I'm justified. That's what it
means to be justified. It's to have no sin. That wonderful
biblical term, justification. I have no sin. He bore my sin in his own body
on the tree and oh how he suffered for my sin and he put away my
sin. And I have no sin. If I'm a believer, that's true
of me. If you're a believer, it's true of you. You have no
sin. This is glorious. Look in verse 10. If we say that we've not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. You see, here the
word sinned is a verb. It's talking about any action
we have. If we say we've not sinned, I
don't care what it is. If I did it, it's sin. If we
say we've not sinned, we make him a liar because he says we
have. and his word is not in us. Now, there is also a very
real sense just from this epistle where we can say we've not sinned. We've not sinned. Look in 1 John
3, verse 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. He does not commit sin. That's exactly what that means.
Somebody says that doesn't, that means he doesn't practice sin.
No, it means he doesn't sin period. That's the only way that language
can be understood. Anything else is dishonest looking
at it. He does not sin. Look at verse nine. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed, God's seed,
the new man remains in him. And he cannot sin, he lacks the
ability to sin because he's born of God. Now I want you to think
about what takes place in the new birth. This is mysterious,
it's just something we believe but we don't understand. God
births his children. Something, the Spirit of God,
born of the Spirit, that which is born of God. Can something
that comes from God sin? No, no. And he that's born of
God doth not commit sin. The new man does not commit sin. This is that same one that Peter
spoke of when he talked about the hidden man of the heart which
is not corruptible, a meek and a quiet spirit. That's the same
thing Paul talked about when he said I delight in the law
of God after the inner man, the new man. This is the man that
does not commit sin. Look in chapter 2, verse 4. He that saith, I know
him. Now, listen to this. When I say things like this,
I think I can't even believe I'm saying them. It's more really
in a way, it's easier to believe it than to say it, but I know
God. I know him. I know the living God and he
knows me. There is a relationship. I know
the living God and he knows me and that's not bold presumption.
And just because just as it says we love him because he first
loved us. We know him because he first
knew us. That's why we know him. He made himself known and every
one of his people knows him. Now, this is more than knowing
things about him. You can have accurate information about a
person and not know him, can't you? You can know all the right
things and true things about a person and not really know
him. And I want to say this. You can have your doctrine right
and not know him. But hold on. Hold on before I
got to thinking about that. If you really have your doctrine
right, you know him. If you really know that you're
totally depraved and you really believe that, you've got your
doctrine right. And the only reason you know
that's because you know Him. So there's a danger. When I say
you can have your doctrine right and know Him and not know Him,
and somebody starts saying, well, I've got my doctrine right, but
I'm afraid I don't know Him. Well, I understand that fear,
but if I If I really believe that what God says in his word,
if I believe the doctrine of Christ, I know him. But the point
is, memorizing some facts, you can have all those down, accurate,
be able to quote them and not know him. This is more than knowing
about him. This is more than knowing accurate
things about him. This is talking about him really
knowing me and me knowing him. I love that scripture where it
says with regard To Moses, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh with his friend. Abraham is called the friend
of God. And listen to me, everybody in
this room, there's no reason, if you're a believer, you're
God's friend. God counts you as his friend. Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. But it's true. I know him. And
I know him to this extent. I know when what I'm hearing
is not him because I know him. You have to know him to discern
when the one being preached is not him. Well, I know it when
it's not him because I know him. I know God. Every believer knows
the living God. And I'm not just talking about
a cognitive knowledge. I'm talking about a relationship.
1 John 2, 9. He that saith he is in the light.
Well, I'm in the light. I am in the light. The light of John chapter 8 verse
12 where the Lord said, I am the light of the world. Now that
light is speaking of having an understanding and a knowledge
of how God can have something to do with me and embrace me.
You think there in John chapter eight, where that woman was taken
in adultery in the very act? I mean, she was guilty. There
was no question about it. She was taken in the very act. Everybody knew it. And yet the
Lord looks at her and says, woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no man condemned thee? And
she said, no man, Lord. Now. The Lord said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. I'm the light
of the world. I'm the light as to how that
can take place. You see, God can look at this
sinner talking to you and see someone who is without sin and
nothing to condemn me for. Because my sin became Christ's
sin. He took it upon himself. He put
it away. He gives me his perfect righteousness.
And now God can look at me, Christ can look at me and say, where
are your accusers? Has no man condemned thee? No man, Lord.
Who is he that condemns? That Christ hath died. Now, I
have light. Do you have that light? There's
such a thing as light. Look in 1 John 4, our text. Verse 20. If any man say, I love
God, and I do love him, me, I do love him. And I realize that
it arises out of that 19th verse. We love Him because He first
loved us. And everybody He loves will love
Him in return. He's not going to have unreciprocated
love. Everybody He loves is going to love Him in return. It's impossible for someone to
not love Him who He has loved. And we do love Him. I love everything about Him.
I love all of His glorious attributes. I love His holiness. I love His
absolute sovereignty. It makes me excited to think
everybody and everything is in His hands and His will is always
done. I love His absolute justice,
how He'll never let any sin go unpunished. How He'll by no means
clear the guilty. How I love His grace, all the
favor, Moses says, if I found grace in your sight, that's what
I need. I need grace. And I love his grace. I love
his independence, how he has no needs. I love His immutability,
how He never changes. Whatever He was yesterday, He
is now. Whatever He is now, He always will be. Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today, and forever. I love His eternality,
how He never began to be. That blows my mind, but I love
it. I love this about concerning
Him. I love Him. The Lord said to Peter, you love
me?" Peter said, Lord you know everything. You know everything. You know I don't love you like
I should love you, and you know I don't love you like I would
love you, and you know that I don't love you like I will love you.
But you know, I love your person. I love everything about you.
I wouldn't change anything about you if I could. I love who you
are. I love how you saved. Now, a man that the Lord has
saved can truly say, I have fellowship with him. I have communion, intimate
communion with him. I hear his voice in his word.
I've heard the voice of God in his word. You read in that Psalm
29, the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, the voice of the
Lord maketh the hinds to calf and makes things live. I have
fellowship with God. Every believer can make that
claim. And I don't have any sin. That's the only way I can have
fellowship with God is if I don't have any sin. You see, Christ
took it all away. And I stand before God without
sin, without guilt. And I can say I haven't sinned.
The new man hadn't. I understand it's only the new
man, but you know, the new man's the real me. The one that sinned,
that's him. The real man is the new man.
And I have never sinned. I know God. I know him. It's not name dropping. The only
way I know him is if he knows me. Would he say, I don't, I
never knew you? No, not, not to any of his people.
Not to everybody else who say, I never knew you, depart from
me. But all of his people know him because he knows them. And I'm in the light. All of
God's people are in the light. We have the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. have a fitness to dwell in the
inheritance of the saints in light. We have that, we have
the light of the gospel. I understand, I believe, I sort
of understand, but I really believe how God can actually embrace
me and love me and accept me and see me as beautiful and perfect
and holy through the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got that light,
what light that is. And I do love it. Lord knows whether
that's true, but I do love him. And this thing of being saved
by his grace is real, isn't it? It's real. But it's equally true
that a man can say all of these things and it not be real. It can be a lie. self-deception,
arrogant presumption, speaking lies in hypocrisy, phony and
insincere. He can make all of those statements
and it can be phony and insincere and not real. Go back to 1 John
1, verse 6. If we say, that we have fellowship with
him. And a lot of people make that claim, don't we? I fellowship
with God. I pray. He hears me. I hear his voice. I walk with him. If we say we
have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. Now, what is this thing of walking
in darkness? Is it to claim fellowship with him and yet to practice
secret sin in the dark that nobody knows anything about? Well, if
that is what it means, nobody in this room is saved and no
one outside of this room is saved. You believe that? It's so. Moses said, thou has set our
iniquities before thee and our secret sins in the light. of thy countenance. David said,
Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Every believer has secret sins
that beat him to death. A thorn in their flesh, they
hate him and they pray for deliverance continually. But this is not
talking about claiming to have fellowship with him and yet practicing
secret sin, sins that nobody can see. This is talking about
walking in the darkness of salvation by works. This is talking about
the darkness of free will. This is talking about the darkness
of the resolutions I make to be better and to do good and
to not do that anymore. And it never works. This is talking
about salvation by works. That's all it's talking about.
the darkness of salvation by works. If you claim fellowship
with God and you don't believe the gospel of God's grace and
are walking in the darkness of human religion, you're a liar
and you do not the truth. You've lost all credibility if
that's the case. And look at verse eight. 1 John 1 verse 8. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. You cannot make the claim of
having no sin right now if you have some awareness of having
right now a sinful nature. And that's what he's talking
about right now. The word sin is not a verb, it's a noun. It's talking about a sinful nature. Now, turn with me to John chapter
9. Verse 39. And Jesus said, for judgment
I am coming to this world that they which see not might see. And that they which see might
be made blind. Now he's not talking about physical
sight. And he's not talking about physical blindness. Somebody
who says, seeing my own sinfulness I cannot see why God would ever
have mercy on me. I can't see why he'd ever have
favor on me. Just looking at myself, I can't
find one reason in myself that God could ever extend his favor
toward me. I really believe that about myself.
Now that person is going to be given sight. You're going to
be given sight as to how God can save you for Christ's sake. That person who says, I can see.
I can see why God would save me. Why I fill in the blank.
I did this. I did that. I stopped doing this.
I started doing that. I changed this. I can see why
God would save me. You've been sentenced to judicial
blindness. If that's where you're at. Look
in verse 40. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? Jesus said unto them, if you are blind, what's it say next? You should
have what? No sin. If you were blind and
you couldn't see anything in yourself, you'd have no sin. But now you say, we see. I see why God would have mercy
on me. Look what I've done. What about
that person? Your sin remaineth. It's still there. Now, if I don't see, at all times
that I have this sinful nature. There's no way I can ever see
where Christ put it away and how it's gone. So if we say,
if a man say, I have no sin, he deceives himself. And the
truth is not in him. Now look in verse 10. If we say that we've not sinned,
And that is a verb. It's with regard to a single
action, any single action. Now, everybody knows that lying
is sin. You know that, don't you? Everybody
knows that adultery is sin. Everybody knows that stealing
is sin. Everybody knows that murder is
sin. Everybody knows that stuff. And
that's why when people talk about we need to teach people how to
live, people already know how to live. You know you're supposed
to pay your bills. You know you're not supposed
to mistreat people. You know you're not... Everybody already
knows that kind of stuff. Do you know that whatever you
do is sin? A lost man knows murder is sin,
but do I know everything that I do is sin? Every action I have,
everything I do is sin. If I did it, it is a sin committed. If I did it, This sermon I'm
preaching. For Christ's sake, I trust the
Lord will bless his word, but there's so much sin in everything
I say and everything I do. Even the way I read scriptures,
I read it in a way that it could be charged with sin. Doesn't
matter what it is, what it is. And that's what he says. If we
say we've not sinned with regard to any action we've done, we
make God a liar because God says, We have. Now, the reason people can think any
action, like I could go five seconds without seeing, is because
they don't have a holy nature. That's the only reason. If you
have a holy nature, you recognize Your old nature. You can see
it for what it is. And you see it's nothing but
sin. And when a man can make a statement
regarding anything he does, I don't care what it is. No sin in that. It's okay. He proves he doesn't
have any understanding of sin, nor the holiness of God. If we
say we've not sinned, we make him a liar. That's what we're
doing. We're calling God a liar because that's what he, that's
his testimony about us. Remember what God said in John 6, 5 or
Genesis 6, 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great on the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's God's testimony. And
if somebody says, well, I haven't sinned. God says you have. First John chapter two, verse
four. that saith, verse four, he that
saith, I know him. Once again, this is what a man
says. He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments. He's a liar and the truth is
not in him. Now there are Hundreds of millions,
billions of people who make this claim, I know God. I know it. Do you know God? Yes, I do. But if I make that
claim and do not actually, positively, really keep his commandments,
I am a liar. And I do not know God, and he
does not know me. You know, it is only the man
that keeps his commandments that truly knows the living God. Now, turn to 1 John chapter 3. John lets us know what he means
by keeping his commandments, because if that's talking about
the Ten Commandments, there's only, there's two ways of looking
at the Ten Commandments, and really the same. One is, I've
broken every one of them every time, and I haven't kept one
once. And the other way of looking at it is, I've kept all of them.
Because when Christ kept the law, I kept the law. But John is not really talking
about that in the first place. He's not talking about, well,
you need to keep the Ten Commandments. In Christ, I have kept them.
And if he means I personally have kept them myself, well,
if Christ did, I personally did. But if it's without Christ, me
doing something, I've kept one commandment one time. But here
are the commandments John is speaking of. Look in verse 23,
1 John chapter 3. And this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. Not to believe
on his name is to have some understanding of nevertheless, he saved them
for his name's sake. Do you understand that? He saved
them, not for anything in them, for His name's sake. Little children, your sins are
forgiven for His name's sake. I am relying on Judgment Day. He will answer for me. That's what it is to believe
on His name. I believe that His name is why
I will be granted entrance into glory because of His name. This is the same faith as the
thief. You know, people talk about the
thief and they say, they try to use him as an example of how
little you need to know. That's foolishness. He knew he
was the Lord. What else? You'd know everything
if you know that. He knew he was a mighty king. He was gonna
come back as a conquering king. Nobody else knew it at this time.
I love what John Calvin said about the thief. He said, this
is the greatest instance of faith the world has ever seen. Everybody
else thought he was a defeated person, but he looked up and
he said, he's the Lord. He's the Lord. He's gonna come
back as a mighty reigning king. He's not gonna stay dead. He's
gonna be raised from the dead. He knew. How'd he know? Same way you do, revelation.
God made himself known to him. He revealed himself to him and
he knew who the Lord was. But listen to this prayer. Lord,
remember me. when you come into your kingdom.
And that's my prayer right now. Lord, remember me. If you remember my name, if you
own my name before your father, everything's going to be fine.
Everything's going to be that you believe. Here's his commandment. And this is his commandment to
you to believe on his name, to believe that his name is all
that's needed to make you everything that a believer is perfect, righteous,
holy, accepted in the beloved. And this is his commandment,
that we love one another. He that loveth him that begat,
loveth him that's begotten of him. Look in chapter five, verse
one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him
that begat, that birthed, that gave life, loveth also him that
is begotten of him. You see, a child of God loves
every other child of God. I mean, it's a true love. It's
a true love. They might have many differences
on a human level, but they believe the same gospel, they love the
same God, and it's real. It is there. Now, if I fail to keep his commandments,
my claim of knowing him is a lie. He that saith, I know him, he
keeps the commandments of the gospel. And then finally in 1
John chapter four, verse 20. If a man say, I love God and hates his brother. Now, what
do you got to do to hate your brother? Fail to love him. It's that simple. To fail to
love. If any man says, I love God and
he hates his brother, he fails to love him, he's a liar. For a man to say, I love God,
it doesn't make him love his brother. He doesn't love God
or he'd love his brother. And if he doesn't love his brother,
his claims of loving God are nothing but a lie. They're not
real. They're not true. If a man say I love God and hates
his brother, he's a liar. He that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
It's impossible. You cannot love God and not love
somebody that God loves. Amen. It's true. It's the truth. You can't love
God and not love somebody that he loves. Now, you take the dearest
person to you on a human level. If that person, you love that
person. If somebody doesn't love that
person, what do you think of that person? You don't like them,
do you? Well, that goes without saying. So there is, for a believer,
a genuine, I fellowship with God, I had no sin. He bore it away.
I've not seen my new Manhattan. I know him. I mean, I know the
living God. He knows me. It's on name dropping.
He knows me. And I'm in the light, the light
of how God saves sinners. And I do love him. And I love
his people. And there is the other side.
I can make those claims. I can make all six of those claims.
I have fellowship with God, but if I'm walking in the darkness
of salvation by works, it's all phony. It's not real. I'm a liar. I've lost all credibility. If
I say I have no sinful nature, if I say I have no sin, I'm a
liar. The truth is not in me. If I
say I've not sinned with regard to any action, why make God a
liar? Because he says I have with regard
to every action. If I say I know him and don't
keep his commandments, don't believe his gospel, once again,
I'm lying. If I say I walk in the light, how exactly does that go? Chapter
two, verse nine. He that saith he's in the light
and hates his brother, He's in darkness even until now. He doesn't
really have any light. What he has believed hasn't done
a thing for him. And if I say I love God and fail to love my
brother and hate my brother, it is not real. James chapter
2. I'm going to close with this
verse of scripture. If a man say, look what it says
here in verse 12, James chapter 2 verse 12, so speak ye and so
do. I like that, don't you? So speak
ye and so do as they that shall be judged. by the law of liberty. That's
what the gospel is. The law of liberty. I'm going
to be judged by the law of liberty. You know what? I'm going to be
found totally free. Let's pray. Lord, how thankful we are that
through thy blessed son, We truly can have fellowship with you
that you've taken care of all of our sin and put it away and
given us a new birth and a new nature. How we thank you for the grace
to actually know you, to have the light of the gospel and to
love you. Lord, make these things most
real in the heart of each person here according to your will.
In Christ's name we pray, amen. Rich Cummings, closing in.