I want you to open your Bibles
now to the book of 1 John, chapter 1. And at the beginning of this message,
let me call our attention to a phrase found in verse 5. I want you to look at verse 5
carefully. 1 John 1.5, this then is the message which
we've heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light. God is light
and in God is no darkness at all. God is purity, pure holiness. pure holiness. In God there is
no sin. There's no darkness. God is truth
and righteousness. He can have no communion with
pretense. He can have no communion with
hypocrisy. God is light. In Him there is
no darkness. There is no pretense. There is
no sham. There's not a hint, nor a taint,
nor a jot, nor a tittle, nor an atom of darkness in God. God is light. And God sees things and deals
with things not as they're said to be, but as they are, actually
are. He deals not in fiction, but
in absolute fact. Isn't that true? God is light,
in him there is no darkness. God does not deal with things
as we say they are or as they claim to be. He, God, deals with
things only as they are. God is light. Do you see that,
God? This is the message John sent, that we've heard from him,
and I declare unto you, that the living, eternal, omnipotent,
almighty God is light, light, blinding, brilliant, holy light,
only light. holiness, and in him there is
no darkness, not a glimmer of darkness. Now, we look on the
outward countenance. You're looking and listening
to me. You're seeing what I let you see. You're hearing what
I let you hear. That's true, isn't it? And I'm
looking at you, and I'm seeing what you let me see, and I'm
hearing what you let me hear. Man looks on the outward countenance,
not God, not God. And we may smile and roll our
eyes toward the heavens and lift our hands and all this sort of
thing that really impresses the multitude. God looks on the heart,
and he has a full, unobstructed view of it too. Brother Scott Richardson was
talking to me this week earlier, not about not only our actual
recognized known sins, but our awful sins of ignorance, sins
we don't even know about, the sins that our natures just will
not let us admit, that our positions will not let us admit. Man sees
things as they appear. This is the way it appears to
me. And God sees things as they are. Is that not true? God is
light. John said, I've heard this from
him, and this is the message that he gave me for you, that
he's light. When you talk about coming before
God and knowing God and dealing with God, you're talking about
the God of light. And in him there's no darkness.
And we see things as they appear to be. God sees them as they
are. For example, turn with me to Hebrews 4, chapter
4, verse 13. Now watch this. Hebrews 4, verse
13. Now don't read it. Let me say
something. Our bodies are clothed and covered, and we can take ugliness and
make it attractive with the right kind of clothing. And our thoughts are totally
hid. You don't have any idea at all what I'm thinking. Not
any idea. That loving companion sitting
next to you has no insight into your thoughts at all. You say
we're one, not that way. And our motives are totally secret.
Our motives are not known, not even often to ourselves. And our deeds are all covered. But I want you to look at verse
13 of Hebrews 4. Neither, listen to this, Hebrews
4, neither is there any creature, any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, manifest, open. All things are naked, absolutely
naked. and open unto the eyes of him
with whom we have to do, him who is light." That's staggering, isn't it?
God is light. I'm standing in front of this
blinding spotlight here. But that light is like a candle
by the sun compared to the light of God's holiness that searches
and knows my every thought and imagination. That's no light
at all, none whatsoever. And I'll tell you, in religion,
I told my class this morning, I believe in no other area or
all areas put together is there as much sham and hypocrisy and
pretense as there is in this thing called religion. The religious world is forever
trying to make things appear better and bigger and more brilliant
than they are. And the religious world deals
in lies and pretense. We can be praying. Somebody says,
Brother Smith, lead the congregation in prayer. And Brother Smith
can stand and lift his eyes to heaven and start talking, and
his heart might be in Timbuktu, but we wouldn't know it. He can
put on the most stylish, beautiful, holy prayer, but God knows it. That's what I'm saying. God knows
it. Everything is naked, naked and open with Him with whom we
have to do. And I'll tell you, that's kindergarten
and grade one foundation. If we're going, if this preacher
and these elders and this congregation If we're going to do business
with the living God, not with play-like gods, and not with
the God of present-day religion, but with the God of true mercy
and true grace, we're going to have to come to the light. Now,
that's all there is to it, because God is light. We're going to
have to come to him in nakedness, in full confession. in a full
openness of heart and spirit, because it says here in our text,
God is light. God is light, and in him there
is no darkness at all, at all, at all. God is light. Down here
in verse 7, it says if we walk in that light, as he is in that
light, then we're going to have communion with him. But we've
got to come to that light. We can't come to the altars of
religion, and we can't come to the denominations, and we can't
come to the preachers and the evangelists, we can't come to
a position, we can't come to a creed or a law, we've got to
come to the Light, to Him. God is Light. He's the Light
of Truth, He's the Light of Holiness, He's the Light of Revelation,
He's the Light of the Word, He's God, He's who He is. He's not
who we think He is, He's not who we say He is, God is who
he is. God is who he is. And God is
light. The full, brilliant light of
perfect holiness. Now, I can make up my mind whether
I'm going to go over this way and be satisfied with what I
have and go on and play the game and go on and carry on the pretense
and go on being outwardly what I'm not inwardly, deceiving and
being deceived, I can do that or I can come to the light now,
either one. I'm going to come to the light. I want to know
God. I feel like Paul of old who said,
Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. They said, What
about your past? I was born of Hebrew of Hebrews. I have the ancestry, I have the
heritage, I have the works, I have the law, I have the outward morality,
I have all, I count them, but dare that I may win Christ and
be found in Him, that I may know Him, know Him. I know what man's natural tendency
is and I know why it's that way. I know what we are and I know
why we are what we are. I know what we do and I know
why we do it. I know exactly what man's natural tendency is,
what women's natural tendency is, is to cover their infirmities
and cover their faults and cover their weaknesses and appear to
be what they're not. Now that's the natural tendency
of the human nature. There's no way, there's no way
that we want others to know our conflicts. There's no way we
want others to know our desires and our weaknesses and our infirmities. There's no way that we want others
looking into the windows of our imagination and our thoughts.
We make every effort, every effort, when we go out that door of our
home to, like the chiropractor worked on the man's back, said,
son, when you leave here, walk straight. When we go out in public, We
put on, it's like that mask, you know. Put on that mask. We appear to
be this, that, and the other. We want to appear to be spiritual.
We want to appear to be holy. And there's a reason for that.
I'll tell you the reason. I know the reason. It's threefold. The reason for pretense, and
the pretense is in this area right here. Here's where the
pretense is. It's in this area right here,
in this religious area. And the reason for the pretense
is this. Number one, we love approval. We love approval. We like approval. We love the kind words and the
complimentary, encouraging words. And we like folks to look up
to us. We like folks to praise us. We
like to be approved. We like to be considered somebody
in the kingdom of God. or in anybody's kingdom, but
we like to be somebody. We love approval. We love a pat
on the back. We love to be praised. We love to be praised. And secondly,
we fear censure. We don't want to be cut off.
We don't want folks talking about us. We don't want to be rebuked. We don't want to be reproved.
We fear that. We fear someone thinking less
of us than we think of ourselves. And then thirdly, as a reputation
at stake. I guarantee the people sitting
right here that are concerned about their relationship with
God. They're concerned that they've
never been saved, they've never come to the knowledge of Christ.
But they're not going to say anything about it. They're not
going to seek the Lord, they're not going to ask for prayer,
they're not going come before the congregation, they're not
going to go into that water right there. Because what would people
say? Like one person said to me one
time, well, I make a professional face, somebody's going to think
I've been sinning. You see, we work hard to build
our reputations. We work hard to build our positions.
We're where we are, and it took a lot of strength and effort,
and we're not going to endanger it. We're not going to become
ridiculed or the laughingstock, or we're not going to be talked
about, have fun poked at us. We're not going to be considered
a radical, a fanatical. I've come to where I am. I'm
in a position in society and in my work and other places that
people look up to me. I have a lot of strength and
influence, and I'm not going to be considered a religious
nut. Oh, I'll come listen to you preach, Brother Mahan, once
in a while, not all the time, but once in a while, because
it looks like you're preaching the Bible, and I am. But I'm
not going to be identified, not too closely, because it'll hurt
me and my business. Somebody says, where do you go
to church? 13th Street. Oh, this is the old Baptist church. I guarantee you, three times
out of four, that word will follow. Where do you go to church, 13th
Street? O. O. I'm not going to be identified
with that. See, I've got a disclosure, a disclosure of my heart and
true self would destroy me, and I don't plan to be destroyed.
Not here you don't. But there's a way that seemeth
right unto man, and the end is what? Destruction. Well, that's man's natural tendency,
and that's why. He loves approval, he fears censor,
and he's got a reputation that he's going to stand by it. He's not coming down. Don't you
know when Solid Tarsus was riding that horse, now he, I'm sure
he had the most beautiful horse in the whole company. He was
the leader, he was Saul of Tarsus. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a graduate of the University
of Gamaliel. He was the high priest's friend,
close friend. And God unhorsed him, blinded
him, and put his nose in the dust. And he got up and had to
have somebody lead him because he couldn't find his way. That
was embarrassing. But that was the most glorious
thing that ever happened to that man, when he was embarrassed
publicly and exalted spiritually. That'll be the best thing that
ever happens to you. When you come down, when you come down
publicly, and God Almighty is pleased to exalt you spiritually.
When you finally discover you are nothing, have nothing, and
know nothing, and I'm telling you, God is light. God already
knows it. I understand this cover-up in
reference to the world. I can understand that. I can
understand it. I can understand cover-up. We can't afford to let people
know everything we think. I don't advise that at all. I
don't advise public confessions of personal sins. John Wesley
did. But I don't. I really don't.
I think it's bad. I don't want people making a
garbage can out of my ears. That's right. I understand that, but this cannot
be the case before God. You see, in proportion, as we
cover ourselves, men are impressed. But in proportion, as we cover
our sins and are dishonest with God, the more we cut ourselves
off from God. That's right. In proportion,
as we play the game, the higher we can climb. In proportion as
we put on the show, people love a show, they love a vain show. And in proportion as you can
do that, if you can play the game of religion, if you can
play it consistently, if you can play it regularly, if you
can play it with some natural talent, if you can know the right
things to say at the right time to the right people, you can
climb. And you'll become impressive in this world. But I'm telling
you this. in proportion as you're dishonest
with God, you cut yourself off further and further and further
from any hope of being redeemed. One old pope, I read about the
history of the popes, and one of them made this statement,
I wish I could remember his name, but he said, when I was a lowly
priest, I had some hope of being saved. He said, when I became
a bishop, He said, I had little hope of being saved. And when
I became a Cardinal, the hope got smaller. And when I became
Pope, I lost all hope of ever knowing God. That was his own
personal testimony. You see, this is the thing. In
proportion as we are impressive and climb and become satisfied,
we impress people. Because people aren't hard to
impress, Ronnie. They're not hard to impress. The phonier
you are in American religion today, the more you can prosper. But in proportion, as we're dishonest
with God, we cut ourselves off from God. For God is light, and
in him there is no darkness. And I don't know how, and that's
the reason I'm preaching this message this morning, but somehow,
somehow, individually, personally, You and I are going to have to
come clean before God. We're going to have to deal honestly
with the living God who is light now, knowledge, holiness, and
purity, and before whom all things are naked. We're going to have
to deal honestly with God in matters of the soul or perish
now. Pretense and profession is fatal,
you see, dishonesty of heart. What I'm talking about this morning
may seem a very casual, little, light thing to many people, but
I tell you it has grave consequences. Let me show you right here in
chapter 1 of 1 John. Let me show you the grave consequences
of this fatal game, this religious game that's being played all
around us. In verse 6, chapter 1, if we
say we have fellowship with God, That's what we say, and we say
that by our profession and our decision. This is the day of
decision. This is your day of decision. So I make my decision,
and I say, I know God. I say I'm safe. We make professions. People are coming down the aisle.
Now you're safe. I'm safe. I'm safe. I say I walk with God. I say I belong to God. I say
I'm a child of God. And I say that, listen, and I
walk in darkness. My life is a life of hypocrisy
and sham. I'm not what I say I am. I'm
lying. Isn't that right? I'm lying. If we say we have communion with
God, if we say we have felt, I don't, I'm not saying if we
say we're religious, everybody's religious. I say I'm a Christian,
everybody's a Christian. I say I'm a church member, everybody's
a church member. I say I'm born again, everybody's
born again. But if I say I know God and I don't know God, I'm
lying. If I say I know God, that I have
fellowship with God, if I say that I have fellowship with God,
I say I'm safe, I'm saying peace when there is no peace, I'm saying
I'm alright when I'm not alright, then I'm lying. Is that right? I'm lying. Where does this lead? Oh, I'd look at verse 8. Now,
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. I know God,
my sins are put away. It's one thing to deceive others,
that can be set right with an apology. But warn to the man
who closes his eyes so long that he begins to believe the lie
and deceives himself. He says, I'm saved. Now he says,
I have no sin, and he's deceived himself. Now what's the next
step? Look at verse 10. If we say we have not sinned,
we make God a liar, and our false pride reaches the bottom of the
barrel now, for we bring the living God into the constant.
into the consequence of our hypocrisy. We got God in on it now. We say. Every one of these verses
start with if we say, we say, we say. And I'm aware that in this religious
world of decision, profession, and no soul salvation, no soul
salvation, this type of message is almost unpardonable. For it's
the unpardonable sin to question anybody's salvation. You know
that'll start a fight? Especially your own. You don't
dare, you know. It's the unpardonable sin to
question anybody's salvation. Why would anybody want to defend
a profession? What does it mean? Are you questioning
my salvation? I say back yonder, when I may,
are you questioning that? You ought to question it. If
you were wise, you would. The Bible says, examine yourselves
whether you be in the faith. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Christ dwelleth in you, except your reprobate? The word
of God says, my brethren, give dilligence to make your calling
and election sure. If you do these things, you'll
never fail. Every time we come to the Lord's table, we're told
to examine ourselves. What's wrong with that? Well,
it's anathema today. You don't dare. It's no longer
acceptable to seek the Lord. It's no longer acceptable to
lie at his feet as Mary. It's no longer acceptable to
talk about, I'm the chief of sinners. That's just not acceptable. It's no longer acceptable to
cry with David in Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, blot out my transgressions. Huh? Not in
this day. This is a day when everybody's
fixed up. They were fixed up in a revival
meeting years ago. They made their profession, they
got their name written in the last book of life, and now they're
playing the game. And you ask them if they're saved,
they'll keep taking you back to when it happened, when it
happened, when it happened. And I'm confident of this, that
anyone who has to go back even a day to prove they've saved
something wrong. Old John Newton, listen to this, listen to this
hymn, and this, most folks don't care for this hymn, this is one
of his that they've kind of put on the shelf. John Newton said,
it's a point I long to know, and often it gives me anxious
thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? Now, brethren, people aren't
going to follow a preacher that talks like that. That's good. They'd better follow the Lord. I tell you, this preacher is
not so proud that he's going to stand up and defend a profession
and defend a decision and miss Christ. I want to know Christ. John Newt went on, he said, if
I love, why am I this? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who never knew his name. Could my heart so hard remain? Do you ever feel that your heart
is hard? Prior a task and a burden prove, is prayer ever a task
for you? Is it easy for you to pray? Is
it easy for you to pray and study the word and cry before God?
Is that sometimes a burden or that's always easy? Every trifle gives me pain. Every
little thing agitates me. Would that be so if I knew the
Savior's love? When I turn my eyes within, all
is vain and dark and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Do you
have any unbelief? Have any sin? Can I call myself
God's child? Now, this is naked. This is that
come to the light now. But modern religion puts a veneer
over this. No honesty, no openness, no nakedness
before God, no cry before God, no seeking the mercy of God.
We got fixed up. And we don't want to embarrass
ourselves or embarrass our church or embarrass anybody else by
indicating that we have even the slightest conflict, within
or without. If I pray, if I hear, if I read,
sin is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed.
Is it that way with you? And yet, Newton says, I mourn
my stubborn will. I find my sin a grief and thrall. Would I grieve for what I feel
if I didn't love Christ at all, would I? Could I joy his saints
to meet, choose the way I once abhorred, find at times the promised
sweet if I didn't love the Lord? Lord, decide this doubtful case,
thou who art the people's son. shine upon this work of grace,
if indeed it has begun." Wouldn't it be horrible to stand at the
judgment and hear Christ say, I never knew you, depart from
me? Yeah, but I preach, don't you? Lord, I preach. And Lord,
I cast out demons. I did many wonderful works. I
helped them build a church. I did all these things. I never
knew you. That would be horrible. Too horrible to even imagine.
Why do we act like it can't be? It can be. He said many are going
to say that. Few there be that find it. And why do we get upset when
the preacher wants us to search and inquire and examine and give
diligence to not rest in a profession or a decision or a doctrine or
a position or a morality or a church membership and play the game
and give, give a token, token recognition to God along the
way. Oh God, he said, let me love thee
more and more. If I love thee at all, I pray.
But Lord, it is, if I haven't loved you before, let me love
you today. Huh? There's something wrong
with that. Ain't nothing wrong with that,
Bob. Ain't nothing wrong with that. We'd rather play the game. And
what makes, here's the thing, what makes all this religious
pretense and hypocrisy, what makes it folly, what makes it
folly is the fact that God delights to show mercy to sinners. He
delights to show mercy to sinners. One of the worst things that
a person could be called here this morning is a sinner. Somebody
walk up to you and say, you old sinner. And yet Christ died for
sinners. One of the worst things that
possibly could happen to you this morning is for somebody
to put a question mark on your morality or spirituality. And yet God delights to show
mercy to sinners. He died for the ungodly. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. I went through,
let me just read you a few verses, you don't need to turn, I can
find them faster and read them to you. Over here in Acts 5,
verse 31, listen. Him hath God exalted at his right
hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins. Listen to
this. It says, "...to him give all the prophets witness, that
through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive forgiveness
of sins." Listen to Paul in Acts 13. He says here in verse 38,
"...be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Is there
a sinner here? I've got good news. He forgives
sins. Listen to this one over here,
Paul talking before the great emperor, and he says here, and
he said to me, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And he said
to me, rise, stand up on your feet. I have appeared unto you
for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness, to
open their eyes, to turn them from darkness and from the power
of Satan. that they may receive forgiveness
of sin. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquity, who would stand? But, O Lord, there's what? Forgiveness
would be. I don't stand or fall before
men. I stand or fall before God, right?
Men shall not judge me. It's not the approval of men
or acceptance of men that I seek. My God's going to judge me. And
it's his acceptance I'm seeking. And so I'm not playing their
game. I'm not playing their game. I'm
a sinner seeking mercy in Jesus Christ. And he's plenteous in
mercy. I want to show you one other
thing and I'll close. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10,
Brother Richards and I were talking about this, and he suggested
this outline. The forgiveness of sin, the forgiveness
of sin. Our Lord said, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.
Oh, every one that thirsteth, come to the water. Out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. Though your sins be escorted,
I will make them white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. God, here I am, like Peter, who was grieved
in his heart when our Lord said, Do you love me? Do you really
love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. I'm open before you.
You know I love you. Not worthy of your love, not
worthy of your mercy, not worthy of your grace, but you know I
love you. Can you? Well, here we have in chapter
10 of Hebrews, the truth of forgiveness, the truth of forgiveness. God
said in verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in
their hearts and in their minds will I write them, and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That's the truth of
forgiveness. All sins, past, present, and future, all sins
degraded sins, degraded thoughts, degraded imaginations, all sins. All sins. He said, I will forget
them. I will not remember them anymore.
Isn't that good news? That's the truth of it. That's
the truth of it. Why hide them? Why cover them? Why pretend they're not there?
Let's come to God openly and boldly and humbly and honestly
and confess Because all things are naked to him anyway. That's
the truth of it. All right, watch second, the
basis of it, verse 14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected them that are sanctified. Verse 12. This man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God. Now, that's the basis of Christ. You see, God doesn't forgive
sin emotionally, sentimentally. God forgives sins on the basis
of judgment and justice being fully satisfied and honored by
Christ on the sinner's behalf in any state. God is just and
justified. That's the basis of it. Now the
truth of it, God said, I will forgive. And the basis of it
is Christ's righteousness and death. Not mine. Not mine. Not mine. Let's don't fall into
that pattern. I know we grow in grace and grow
in the knowledge of Christ, and I think there's some maturity
realized by believers, but a man at his best state is still vanity.
Still vanity. He's still vanity. He's nothing
to brag about. Don't look to him. He'll fail
you. You put him on a pedestal, God'll shoot him off. All right,
thirdly, here's the extent of it. the extent of it. Now verse
19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, God has put your
sin so far away that this God who is light, in him there's
no darkness, that you of all people, in the blood of Christ,
in the righteousness of the Son of God, can actually boldly You
don't have to slip around in a little old cage somewhere and
whisper your sins through a wire fence to some dumb man. And you don't have to buy your
candle, because when you come to the light, don't bring your
candle. And crawl on your knees and put your candle up here where
people for hundreds of years have been putting their pagan
candles. Come to the light. Huh? That's what it says, isn't
it? Boldly. Boldly. not brazenly, boldly,
openly, coming to the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Isn't
that something? Isn't that something? Oh, I tell you, not on our merits,
on the basis of… See, it says, which he consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh. My relationship with God
does not consist in or depend on what I do. If it did, I wouldn't
have any relationship with God. Depends on who Christ is and
what he did. And here's the style of it. He
says here in verse 17, I'll remember their sins no more. No more. That's a forgiveness that is
well worth inquiring into, isn't it? Somebody wake you up in the dead
of the night and say, come out, my car's broke down out here
somewhere north of Prestonsburg. All right, I'll be out there.
So you drive out there and help him get started. Well, I sure
appreciate you coming. Well, that's all right, but don't
let it happen again. Don't want to be doing this every day. God
will every day. He'll come get you where you
broke down every day. That's right. And he'll never
say anything about it. He said, I won't remember. There's
no variation. That's right. He will every day.
He'll come every day. I tell you this, don't lie to him. Be broke down. Stay broke down. Stay broke down. Can't make it
on your own. That's the honesty I'm talking
about in this message. Let's come clean before God.
Seek the Lord. All right, 168. Mike come lead
us in singing. 168. Even me. Even me.