You open your Bibles with me
now to the book of 1st John, the scripture which Brother Cecil
Roach read a moment ago, and immediately you can see why
I entitled the message, Fellowship, the Gift of God's Grace. Fellowship,
the Gift of God's Grace, because here in this first chapter, The Apostle John uses the word
fellowship four times. In verse 3 he said, that which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may
have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And then in verse 6 he says,
if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. But verse 7, if we walk in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Fellowship with God. This is
what we're talking about here. All four of these references
to fellowship do not have reference to a fellowship between believers,
although if we have fellowship with God, we have fellowship
with believers. But every time he talks about
it here, he says we preach that you might have fellowship with
us in our fellowship with God, in our fellowship with Him. In
verse 7, that fellowship one with another is fellowship with
God. Now, fellowship with God, fellowship, communion, accord,
oneness, with God was the richest privilege of unfallen man. I
wrote that sentence down, then I looked at it again. Holiness,
freedom from sin, dominion over the earth, perfect health, no
death. These are things Adam had, but
I still believe that the richest privilege of unfallen man is
fellowship with God. Adam walked with God. I believe
before the fall that Adam actually walked and talked with God. He
walked with God as a man walks and talks with a friend. They
were in agreement. Adam enjoyed sweet, precious,
unbroken communion and fellowship with the living God. But sin
entered his heart and sin banished And I don't think we know just
how far sin did banish us from God. I don't think it's dawned
upon most of us, but sin not only banished Adam from the garden
and from his state of perfection and his state of holiness and
his state of health and his state of happiness, but sin banished
him from the presence of God. And from that moment, from the
time that sin entered this world, Our faces have been against God. Not against our idea of God,
or against the God of our imagination, but against the living God. Our
faces are against God. Man hates God. And one of the
most difficult things you'll get any human being to admit
is that he hates God. But the natural mind is enmity
against God, it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can it be. Men, by nature, hate God. And when God revealed Himself
down here on the earth in the person of His Son, that hatred
was shown. They despised Him, they hated
Him, and they nailed Him to a cross. Men hate God. And if Jesus Christ
had come two hundred, two thousand years before He came, or a thousand
years before He came, Or if he'd have come a thousand years after
he came, the results would have been the same. It wasn't just
that generation that hated God. All generations hate God. And
except for God's grace and God's mercy to us, you and I would
hate God. We love him because he loved
us. There's no love for God in our
hearts by nature. Love is not produced from the
human heart, it's shed abroad in the heart by the power of
God. Men hate God, and not only that, and I may shock you here,
but God's angry with the creature too. Since that fall, since that
rebellion in the Garden of Eden, God's face has been turned against
us. And the wrath of God is upon
the creature. He that hath not the Son of God,
the wrath of God abideth on him. Now these are two things that
men today, religious and otherwise, do not understand and do not
comprehend. And I think if you and I as believers
comprehended it like we should, our hearts would be just thrilled
to death right now and cold chills would break out on the back of
our necks and we'd tremble for joy. Natural man is banished
from God's presence. And there's no need for the man
in trouble, the natural man, to say, oh, God, have mercy.
God's not going to have mercy except in Christ. God's not going
to hear him except in Christ. God's not going to deal with
him except in Christ, that is, in mercy. Brother Scott Richardson
makes this statement. He makes it at least once out
of every three times he preaches, and I think it's one of the most
sound and rich and full statements that can be made from the pulpit,
and I don't think I don't think one out of 1,000 people understand
what he's saying. He says, Charlie, God will not
speak to nor be spoken to by any sinner. He will not speak
to any sinner nor be spoken to by any sinner apart from the
mediator. And the reason for that is there's
enmity between God and men. There's enmity both ways. Men
hate God and God's angry. God's angry with the wicked.
God, now watch this, and if this wasn't in the Bible, I wouldn't
say it. God hates the workers of iniquity. Scripture says that. I better let you turn to that.
Somebody go out here and say, I say God hates sinners. Well,
let's read it here in Psalm 5, verse 5. Psalm 5, verse 5. Let's look at it. What I'm saying
is this. Man, in his unfallen state, had
fellowship with God. He walked with God and talked
with God. There was a warmth and an accord,
a concord of hearts. There was a sweet fellowship. There was an agreement. But when
man sinned, the door was shut. Man was separated from God. He
died spiritually. He has no knowledge of God, no
understanding of God, no desire for God. There's none that seeketh
after God. They're all gone astray. They're
all together become unprofitable. God, look at it. The foolish
shall not stand in his sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Turn to Psalms chapter 7, verse
11. God judges. God's a righteous judge. God
judges the righteous. That is, God's a righteous judge.
And God's angry. God's angry with the wicked every
day. He that believeth not on the
Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. Oh, I wish I could lay
the foundation here like it ought to be laid, like it should be
laid. would, as in the days of Jonathan
Edwards, grab hold of the few in front of them and beg God
not to let them slip into hell before they have a chance to
repeat. God's angry. Nearly every one of you in your
high school days were made to read that sermon by Jonathan
Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. You remember
it? Read that in high school literature. Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God. Teacher may have made fun of
it, But I'll tell you, God used it to bring revival in that church.
But Christ came. Now watch this. Christ came into
this world to restore unto us that lost fellowship. Man in
his unfallen state had perfect, sweet, unbroken fellowship. Fellowship. Communion with God. He walked with God and talked
with God. Keep me safe, Mike was singing
in the hollow of thy hand. He was. He was saved in the hollow
of God's hand. But sin came. And sin separated
you and your God. Sin, like the clouds, has separated
you and your God. We've been separated from God.
We're angry with God. We're enmity with God. God's
judgment and wrath and condemnation is upon us, but Christ came from
God. He's not an ambassador from this
direction. We weren't suing for peace. We
weren't negotiating for peace. We weren't even seeking for peace. We were content in our rebellion. But our God's not content. He
must show mercy. He must love. He is love. We're
not love. He is love. He must reveal his
love. He must manifest his love. He must evidence and demonstrate
his love. So he sent Christ and the great
object, the great object of Christ's coming, the great object of Christ's
coming was to restore that fellowship. It was to restore that fellowship.
The angel stood on that hillside that night and he said to those
shepherds, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace,
goodwill toward men. I know that the emotionalist
and the sentimentalist and the religionist has put out their
Christmas cards and all intimating that that peace on earth, goodwill
toward men was between men, between nations. between this, that,
and the other. But when that angel made that
announcement to the shepherd, he wasn't talking about an agreement
between Russia and America. He wasn't talking about the Japanese
and Americans laying down their arms in rebellion. He's talking
about God Almighty, in His sovereign purpose and plan, had decided
through His Son to establish a way of peace toward me. That's
what he's talking about. Peace on earth, goodwill toward
men. Goodwill from God. Peace from
God. To reconcile. Let me show you
that. 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. This is the gospel that is not
being preached. In 1979. These are things that
men and women in the churches do not know. And not knowing
them, they do not know the gospel. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5.
Verse 19, to which namely, namely, verse 18, all things are of God. All redemption is of God. All
love is of God. All grace is of God. All efforts
at peace are of God. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He hath reconciled us
to himself. We didn't have anything to do
with it. not imputing our trespasses unto us, and hath committed unto
us this message, this gospel, this word of reconciliation to
preach to every nation. Now then, because God hath reconciled
the world unto himself, And given us this message, we are ambassadors
for Jesus Christ. We represent the Son of God,
as though God did beseech you by us, as if God was speaking
right now through me. We pray you and Christ said,
be ye reconciled to God. Verse 19, God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself. That's what it's all about. God
was reconciling the world. This thing, this sacrifice, as
Ronnie Lewis said tonight in the study, this sacrifice which
Christ made was not toward a sinner. It was on the behalf of sinners.
It was in the stead of sinners. It was for the redemption of
sinners, but this sacrifice which Christ made on the cross was
toward the Father. It was to satisfy His justice
and His demand. You see that? Turn to Ephesians 2, same thing,
said over here in Ephesians 2, Christ came into the world by
the Father's will and by the Father's good pleasure. Because
the Father's going to put an end to this war. The Father's
going to restore peace. The Father's going to reconcile
some folks to himself. In Ephesians 2, 16, and that
he might reconcile both. Who's the both here, Jew and
Gentile? that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by
the cross, one church, one body, one family, having slain the
enmity. What enmity is he talking about?
My brother, he's talking about that wrath from heaven, that
enmity from heaven, that judgment, that curse of the broken law
that rests upon us from having slain the enmity. He came and
preached peace. He came and preached peace to
you that, well, you don't know how far off you were. I mean
far off. I mean way out yonder infinity. That's how far off we were. Gentiles,
the Jews, they were nigh. They had a little gospel. They
had some prophets and some types and shadows and examples and
pictures, but we didn't have nothing. Turn to Colossians 1.21.
Listen to this. Colossians 1.21. Look at verse, let's start with
verse 19, have to go back to verse 19, Colossians 1, 19. And
it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, he made peace through the blood of the
cross. The power of that blood, all the merits of that blood,
it settled the issue, it reconciled us to God. It made peace. It blotted out every stain. It
wiped out every transgression. It cleansed us from all sin.
Oh, the power of that blood. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. He reconciled us to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they're
in earth or in heaven. And you that were at one time
alienated, enemies, in your minds. That's where it all starts. By
your wicked works hath he now reconciled to whom? To himself,
in the body of his flesh through death, to present you, holy and
unblamable, unreprovable, in his sight, to present you in
his sight. Christ, the enmity, all the fellowship,
all is cut off. Man's down here wallowing in
his cesspool of iniquity and wallowed in his wrath and hatred
and ignorance of God and caught his judgment and wrath upon the
rebel, upon the fallen creature. And in his mercy and grace he
sent his son down here to do something for that rebel and
to reconcile that rebel under himself and to put away the enmity. Now listen to me. When Christ
died on that cross, In his hands were the names of his elect,
like the priest of old on his breastplate. He reconciled us
to God. Now, wait a minute. When he died,
he didn't perform a reconciliation in this heart. The enmity against
God was still in my heart and in yours. I was born in sin. I was brought up in sin. But
the Holy Spirit came in time and brought this gospel. And
you see, He reconciled me. Be ye reconciled to God. That's
our message. You see, God's already reconciled.
God's already pacified. God's already satisfied. God's
not angry with you anymore. You're not under the judgment
and wrath and condemnation of God because you're in Christ.
Saul of Tarsus. I see Saul standing there, and
the name of Jesus Christ falls from the lips of Stephen, that
great deacon in the early church. And Saul of Tarsus says, stone
him. I'll hold you, coach. Stone him. Oh, how Saul hates
Christ. Christ doesn't hate Saul. Oh,
how Saul hates the name of a God of substitution and a God of
grace and a God of mercy, even the Gentiles, how he hates that
name. But God doesn't hate you, Saul.
God loves you. Christ died for you and reconciled
you to God. But the Holy Spirit had to do
something in Saul's heart to reconcile his heart and mind
toward God. He admitted Christ by his blood
and sacrifice put away. But the enmity in here has to
be put away by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the preaching
of the gospel, by the giving of faith, by the understanding
of the mind, by the opening of the eyes, by the opening of the
ears, by the illumination of the heart, by the breaking of
the will, by the stripping of self-righteousness, by the destruction
of human pride. I walked contrary to God in my
natural state. But God was not contrary to me.
If he had been, I'd have gone on to hell. He stopped me. I didn't stop myself. And by
Christ's redemption, now listen to me, by Christ's redemption,
by Christ's sacrifice, we have a position, now watch this, as
believers, we have a position, not equal to Adam, Sometimes
we think about Adam walking with God and talking with God and
fellowshipping, communion with God, and we think, oh, how sweet
that would be. Brethren, in Christ, I have something
not equal to what Adam had, but superior to what he had. I, in
my state right now, I'm far superior as far as position, as far as
blessing, as far as exaltation than Adam ever was. Why? Because
I cannot fall, he could. I cannot be separated from God,
he could. I cannot perish, he could. I cannot die, he can't. That's
what Paul said in Romans 8. He said, if God be for me, who
can be against me? Who can lay anything to my charge?
Who can condemn me? Who can separate me from the
love of Christ? I wouldn't trade places with
Adam before the fall. You build your garden of Eden,
I don't want any part of it. I want to walk in the garden
of Christ. That place that he's gone to prepare. So Christ removed
every obstacle to our being accepted of God and made holy before God. His obedience honored the law,
his sacrifice satisfied justice, and his regenerating spirit gave
us a holy nature. The life of God has been restored. All right, five questions. And
there'll be just short ones. But let's look at our text. How
was this fellowship restored? Verse 1 through 3. Here it is. How was it restored? That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen,
which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon, our
hands have handled of the word of life. What's he talking about
here? He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who came into
the world. to reconcile us to God, to justify
us, to redeem us. He was from the beginning. That
is, Jesus Christ is God. He's not just a messenger of
God or a son of God. He is the Son of God. Now, brethren,
there are a whole lot of verses in the Bible that refer to the
deity and eternality of Christ. This is one, that which was from
the beginning. That which was from the beginning.
The infinite, the ancient of days, we have touched and seen
and heard and handled. Cecil read and prayed, we ate
with him, walked with him, talked with him. God became a man. There are a lot of verses in
the Bible. Let me give you a few key ones, just by memory. John 1, 1 and 2. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Here's another one in John 10, 30. Christ said, I and my Father
are one. And those people knew what he
was saying. They picked up stones to stone him. And they said,
you're a man, you can't be God. Acts 20, verse 28, Paul preaching
to the elders of the church said, feed the church of God, which
he purchased with his own blood, God's own blood. Hebrews 1, 8,
unto the Father, unto the Son, the Father said unto the Son,
Thy throne, O God, is forever." There's so many through the Bible,
but John said he was, verse 2, that life, he is the fountain
of life, he is the source of life, he is life itself, in him
was life. As the Father hath life in himself,
so hath the Son life in himself, and quickeneth whom he will.
Jesus Christ is life. And that life, that eternal life,
was manifested, was revealed, was incarnate, and we saw him. See, after the second time he
said we saw him, verse 1 he said, that which we've seen. Verse
2 said, that which we've seen. Verse 3, that which we've seen.
He keeps on repeating that. We saw him! The great God of
glory. We saw him, that which was from
the beginning. No man had seen God at any time,
the scripture says. Not God as a spirit, but the
invisible became visible. And John said, we saw him. We
saw him. And we heard him, he says that
three times. We heard him. We touched him. We are eyewitnesses and earwitnesses. The word John wrote in John 1.14
was made flesh. I don't understand it. I just
know it's so. and dwelt among us, God and man
in one person." God and man in one person. Verse 3, here's the
third time, that which we've seen and heard. The life was
manifested and revealed and we saw Him and heard Him and we
declare Him unto you. We declare Him unto you. Why?
Two reasons. Two reasons. We don't declare
him under you so we can win more souls in the church down the
street. We don't declare him under you so the preacher can
get a raise. We don't declare him under you
so that we can have more in attendance than anybody else. We don't declare
him under you because it's our duty. We declare him under you
for two reasons, that you may have fellowship with us and our
fellowship with the Father. Oh, John said, I want you to
have his fellowship. this fellowship which Adam lost,
this fellowship which Christ has restored, this communion,
this sweet unbroken fellowship with God. I want you to have
it, John said. I want you to be in our circle. I want you to be in our family. I want you to be in our body.
You just don't know what it's like to have fellowship with
God. I want you to have Fellowship
with God that's why I declared unto you in the second reason
verse 4 I write these things to you about the word becoming
flesh and dwelling among us that your joy may be full What's true happiness what's
joy unspeakable and full of glory that fellowship with God I Want you to turn to the little
book of Habakkuk The little book of Habakkuk, and I'm going to
give you a minute to find it, because I can't find it either.
The book of Habakkuk. And I want you to look at chapter
3 of Habakkuk. Boy, I'll tell you, when our
health is good and our children are in the fold, and given us
no problems, and when our bills are paid, and when our jobs are
secure, and when our nation's at peace, it's easy to praise
the Lord. Isn't it? You know, uh, I announced a while ago, I announced
to you three months ago tonight, the birth of our little boy,
and I announced about Sherry's little boy. What if I'd have
had to say it was dead? Could we still have adjoiced
in the Lord? No. That's sad about us, but
we can't, we... Why don't you listen to her back,
huh? In Habakkuk 3.17, although the fig tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive
shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, and the flocks
shall be cut off from the fold, and no herd in the stalls. Now,
he's in bad shape, isn't he? He doesn't have anything. Yet,
I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. That's the joy we're talking
about. John said that's the joy I'd love to see you have. That
joy that knows no summit or valley, but knows a constant fellowship,
a constant, constant awareness. That's the joy. That's the reason
I want you to know Christ. That your joy may be full. That
your joy, real joy, unspeakable joy, full of glory, When whatever
happens, you can rejoice. That's what he said. That's the
reason I want you to know Christ. That's the reason I'm preaching
to you. And then, what is this fellowship? He said back in verse
3, and truly our fellowship with the Father. Truly. This is no dream. I know, I read
that over in the back and you say, uh-uh, ain't no way. Yeah,
there is, too. There's a way. Christ is the
way. Yeah, there's a way. Truly, our fellowship, there's
no dream, there's no fancy, there's no idle claim. This is a certainty. Our fellowship is with God. This is a certainty. We're not
playing religion. We're not playing church. It's
a fellowship with God and with His Son. We have a fellowship,
truly, not a profession, a fellowship, an agreement, a communion, a
sweet accord. Two don't walk together unless
they agree, they won't walk together long. What is this fellowship? I'll
give you five things. It's a sweet agreement with God
in his eternal purposes. Brethren, our God, in his sovereign
purpose and wisdom, chose to redeem a people. I'm in total
agreement with that. My God, back in eternity, made
Christ the surety of his bride and body and family. I'm in agreement. Our God, back in eternity, established
the role of the Redeemer, the book which he'd written before
the foundation of the world. I wouldn't change it for good.
Would you? Would you change it? See, this
fellowship is an agreement. It's an agreement with his purpose.
That's what our Lord Jesus said. I thank you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, you've hid these things from the wise and
prudent and revealed them to babes because it seemed good
in your sight. I'm in total agreement with what
seemed good in your sight. That's what Eli said. Lord's gonna kill your son. It's
the Lord. Let him do what he will. That's
fellowship. I'm in total agreement. Why don't you curse God and die?
Job's wife said. Job said, it's the Lord. Though
he slay me, I'll trust him. That's agreement. All right.
Secondly, it's sweet agreement with God in his purpose to glorify
Christ. His object's my object. He said
that in all things Christ might have the preeminence. This religious
world is at odds with God on that point right there. Every
believer in crowns and jewels and rewards and stars and these
things is not in agreement with God on that. They are out of
fellowship. They're looking for some praise.
They're looking for some credit. They're looking for some glory.
They're looking for some recognition for themselves. And God said
that in all things He might have the preeminence. God hath exalted
Him and given Him a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
He's Lord in heaven and earth and hell. That's all right by
me. Is that all right by you? Lay
all the crowns at His feet. not a one on your head, all at
his feet. That's God's purpose. That in
the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
toward us in Christ Jesus. That in the ages dispensation
of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things
in Christ. I'm in agreement. That's fellowship. Thirdly, it is agreement with
the means of his grace. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them born under the law, that we might be made, might receive
the adoption of sons. That's God's means of grace,
Christ and Christ alone. There's no other way. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ the Lord. My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. I'm in agreement with God's means of grace. I'm in
agreement with the atonement of the Son of God. What is this
fellowship? Fourthly, it is fellowship with
him in the objects of his love. He that loveth the one that begat
loves those that have begotten. That's what Christ said, by this
shall all men know you're my disciples if you love one another.
You love God's children or you don't love God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God. This fellowship with God is fellowship
with Him in the objects of His love. And then it's fellowship
with Him in communication. We have access. Let us come boldly. When you pray, say, Our Father.
It's communication. You're not in fellowship with
someone to whom you don't speak. You're not in fellowship with
someone with whom you don't converse. You're not in fellowship with
someone whose presence you don't ever look, seek, or desire. You're in sweet, precious, unbroken
fellowship with him whose presence delights your soul. And you always
enjoy being in his presence. That's the fellowship. And truly,
truly, John says, our fellowship is with him, with him, and with
his son. in perfect agreement with his
purpose, in perfect agreement with his sovereignty, in perfect
agreement with his atonement, in perfect agreement with his
objects of love and grace, and in perfect fellowship of communication. And John says in verse 5, and
this is the message which we heard from Christ. That's where
we got it. We heard it from him. It wasn't
man-made, it wasn't tradition, it wasn't handed down by word
of mouth. We got it straight from Him.
And we declare it to you. Now watch this. That in God,
that God is light, and in God no darkness. Now hang on a minute.
I'm gonna tell you something here. This is the message, this
is the promise, this is the gospel we've heard of God. We've heard
of Christ, and we declare it to you. God's light. Now brethren, God is holy, perfectly holy. God is pure, perfectly pure.
Our God is righteous, perfectly righteous. Our God is truth,
perfect truth. Our God is justice, perfect justice. And in Him, there is no compromise,
there is no alloy, there is no darkness. Not a shade, not a
faint, not a shadow of darkness. Pure, holy, unapproachable life
When you hear somebody say well, I haven't been So awful bad. I believe I believe God will
show mercy. Uh-huh No, sir In God, there's
no darkness. There's no compromise There's
no meeting anybody not halfway not a quarter of the way not
an eighth of the way not a 32nd of the way Not one ten millionth
of the way God stays right away You brought to him God Almighty requires perfection. He can require no more. He can
be satisfied with no less. And if we say, verse 6, if we
say we have fellowship with Him, that we are accepted of Him,
that we are received of Him, that we are brought into His
very presence, into communion with Him, if we say that and
walk in darkness, we are liars and we do not do the truth. That's
an impossibility. Acceptance with God is on the
basis and the grounds of a perfect holiness and a perfect righteousness
and a perfect justice Christ is all one who could do that
for us There's no way to God but by Christ There's no way
I don't care whether it's Jew or Gentile where it's Muslim
or Islam or whatever it is There's no way to God except through
Christ And this man out here says I believe in the God of
Abraham. This is the Muslims and I believe in the God of Abraham,
I believe in the God of Ishmael, I believe in the God of Isaac.
And I pray, and I fast, and I give alms, and I live right, and I
do these things, and God will have mercy, I'm sorry. In God
there is no darkness, and no compromise, and no alloy. The
only way that the enmity can be removed, and the only way
a sinner, whoever that sinner is, can be reconciled to God
is through the perfect righteousness and obedience and death and satisfaction
of his Son, who did for that sinner what he cannot do for
himself. And if we say we have fellowship with God, and we're
ignorant of Christ, we walk in the darkness of ignorance, or
self-righteousness, or the darkness of another profession, or the
darkness of no faith in Christ, we're liars. There's no truth
in that. God cannot compromise his righteousness. He cannot
compromise his truth, his justice. It's not possible. This is the message that we heard
from him. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. If you die in your sins, you
cannot come where I am. That's what Christ said. I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. I am the door by me if any man enter in shall be saved.
I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth on me shall never die. Brethren, there's
God in God. There's no darkness. There's
no alloy. There's no compromise. Nothing. He stands on his throne of justice. that's made by Christ the throne
of grace, but outside of Christ there is no grace for any creature. That's according to this book.
And if we say we have fellowship with God, and we walk the tenor
of our lives, that the direction and bent of our will is ignorance
and darkness, we're liars. That's all there is to it. Now
the last three verses, are we dealing honestly with God? If
we say, but he says if we walk in the light, let me give you
that just briefly. I was going to skip that, but I've got to
give you that. True believers do not walk in
darkness. They may for a time walk in the
darkness of sorrow. They may for a time walk in the
darkness of doubt. They may for a time walk in the
darkness of failure. They may for a time fall into
the darkness of a personal fall, but their tenor of life, the
bend of their will, their daily walk, the direction of their
lives is the light of the Lord. What light? The light of grace,
the light of the atonement, the light of sincerity, the light
of his revealed will, the light of his holiness, and the light
of his perseverance. Enoch is a type of the believer,
he walked with God. He walked with God and God took
him. He just walked right on in the
glory. And that's the believer's life. He just walks with God
right on in the glory. A lot of things that take place
on this walk, on this path. But that's his direction. That's
the bend of his will. That's the tenor of his life.
He's walking with God. He started walking with God when
he was restored to fellowship by Christ and by faith. And he
just kept on walking with God. Persevering. But dealing honestly
with God. Look at verse 8, 9, and 10. If
we say we have no sin, We deceive ourselves. No man
without sin. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. All that's sinning comes short
of the glory of God. My friend, listen to me. I ran across this
today. I think it's quite good. We'd be well to learn this. There's
so much veneer about us by nature. A whole lot of illustrations
of that. But listen, God deals with things
as they are, as they are. If we could just learn this,
God deals with things as they are. Now man, man deals in fiction. God deals in fact. Man, man regards things as they
appear. God regards things as they are.
The dress, the outward dress impresses us. Scripture says
all things are naked in His eyes with whom we have to open. Man
looks on the outward, countenance. God looks on the heart. In God,
everything about us, our profession, our religion, our faith, our
doctrine, our claims, our submission, our rebellion, everything is
seen in reality just like it is, better than we can see. So
we better watch out here. If we say we have no sin, if
we say we're not sinners, as Cecil said, we're not born in
sin, we have no root of sin, no nature of sin, we're deceiving
ourselves. It's not God that's deceiving
us. And brethren, let me tell you something. Satan's at the
root of it, but he's not the one deceiving us. We're deceiving
ourselves. It's too plain right here. We
don't want to believe what we see. We don't want to believe
what we're told. We don't want to believe what's right there
in front of our faces. The truth's not in us, and therefore
we don't want to believe. But, if we'll confess our sins
in sincerity, in truth, in humility, in repentance, in faith, looking
to Christ, if we'll just confess them, God's faithful, faithful
to his promise, faithful to his word, Faithful to his purpose.
Faithful to his son. And God's just. That is, God's
been justified. God doesn't forgive us in a manner
contrary to his justice, but his justice has been satisfied.
He's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not our sins before we're saved,
or our sins before we confess them, or our sins... Brethren,
we need to confess our sins that we don't even confess. We need
to confess sins that we don't even know about. We need to confess
sins that we don't even see, we don't even understand. We
sin against God in ways of which we're not even aware. Did you
know that? Omission and commission. Confess our S-I-N-S, not our
sin, our sins! There's so many of them. But
verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, We're blaspheming God. It's a serious matter to claim
purity and perfection. If we say we have not sinned,
we make God a liar. There's no more serious charge
that you could bring against any man than to call him a liar.
A liar. It'd be better to be a thief
than be a liar. Yes, it would. A liar is a man with a weakness
of character that cannot be remedied. A liar. And you've made God a
liar if you say you don't have any sin. Thank God for Christ the Reconciler. Christ the Reconciler.