Remember those who requested
a prayer? I had a prayer list of Debra Lindsey's family. I
think she has a sister living, right? Did you say? A brother
living. And also the family of Gabe Crow.
I think they're looking for him up on the mountain. No? Asheville, a little more than
Asheville, okay. Remember these folks in your prayers. Also,
I have a... I don't want to call her. She
was married to my nephew, so she's my niece-in-law, I guess. Remember her name is Dana Jane.
She's had some difficulties. So remember her in your prayers. Her husband was the one that
got the COVID and they put him on a respirator and he died.
He was 40 in his 40s. So remember her in your prayers. Let's begin our worship service
with one of hymn number 50. Hymn number 50, Fairest Lord Jesus.
? Cherished Lord Jesus ? ? Ruler
of all nations ? ? O thou of God and man the Son ? ? Thee
will I cherish forevermore ? will I honor thou my soul's glory,
joy, and crown. Fair are the meadows, fairer
still the woodlands, robed in the blooming of Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
who makes the woeful heart to sing. ? There is the sunshine ? There
is still the moonlight ? And all the twinkling starry hosts
? Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines brighter Beautiful Savior, Lord of all
nations, Son of God and Son of Man. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 52, Majestic Sweetness Sits in Throne. Have
your Bibles turned to the first epistle of John, 1 John. Chapter 1. I'll be taking my text from verses
7 and 9 this morning. The title of my message is Walking
and Talking. that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that he also
may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with
the father and with his son Jesus Christ. These things write we
unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the message
which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is
light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have
fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
the truth. But if we walk in the light as
He had done the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say
we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in
us. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you for the clear declaration of the scripture that set forth
Christ as all in all, declares him to be the light of this world. We are thankful, Father, that
we can speak of such things, for we know in ourselves that
we are sinners and are thankful sinners, for we have been saved
by your grace and mercy. Father, we pray for those who've
lost loved ones and those who are sick. We ask, Lord, you be
with them and watch over them. Pray for ourselves this hour
that you might be pleased to give us true worship as we consider
these words before us. enable me to declare the gospel
of Jesus Christ clearly and plainly. Cause me to say right things
concerning thee. Help us to hear and to heed and
to hearken unto your word. We pray this in Christ's name
and for his glory. Amen. Hymn number 52, Majestic
Sweetness Sits Enthroned Upon My Saber's Brow. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
upon the Savior's brow His head with radiant glories crowned
His lips with grace are flowed His lips with grace are flowed
More to can with him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is he than all the fair
who fill the air. who filled the heavenly train. He saw me plunged in deep distress
and flew to my relief. For me he bore the shameful cross
And carried my grief And carried all my grief To him I owe my
life and breath And all the joys I have He makes me triumph over
death ? And saves me from the grave ? ? And saves me from the
grave ? Stan and Stu, not Stan, Stan, Stan and Stu. Stu's Stan's brother. Stan and
Steve, would you ever sit down? You was looking around for Stu,
weren't you? Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come
again in the name of Jesus Christ, seeking mercy and grace in our
time of need. We are thankful that we have
such an opportunity that you have privileged your children
to be a part of the preaching of the gospel here and in other
places. Pray for our missionaries as they stand in foreign countries
and declare the glories of your grace. Help us, Lord, to remember
them. And we are thankful that you
have given us this great privilege. Help us now to worship you in
this manner, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Thank you, thank you. Can I get
an Eve from back there? The Apostle John, in the Gospel of John, the book
of Revelation, the Isle of Patmos, and three letters to the churches,
this being the first, was called the Beloved Disciple, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was a disciple who laid his
head on the bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote more about
love than anybody else. in all the book. And in this first chapter of
John, he sets forth some very serious and absolute principles. Twice he said that Jesus Christ,
or the light of the world, or God the Father, was manifested
unto him. Over in chapter 3 of 1 John,
he says he was manifested to take away our sin. That word
manifested the same word as revelation, the Greek word apocalypto, which
means the apocalypse or revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
significance in the fact that you don't know God and know anything
about God truly, spiritually, apart from the revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the God we know. He's the
God who's revealed and declared the Father. He's the God who
died in our room instead and secured our salvation on Calvary's
tree. Twice in this passage we find
that, or three times we find the word fellowship. Fellowship
means those who are of like mind and love the same thing. If you're
a Shakespearean fellow or belong to a Shakespearean fellowship
that means you've read them all You can quote them, and you love
them, and you like to talk with people about them. If you have
fellowship with God the Father, you love Him, and you love those
who love Him, and you like to gather with them and talk about
Him. That's what it means to have
fellowship. Those who say they have fellowship with God but
walk in darkness are liars, are liars, for God is light. In verse
8 it says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. So
to walk in darkness is to deny original sin. We deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. So Christ is not in us. Also to walk in darkness is to
deny actual sins, our activities in sin. And generally that, not
generally, it always leads to the idea of personal righteousness. In verse 10 it says, If we say
we have not sinned, we make God a liar. Why? Because God says
we have and do and are. And His Word is not in us. They do not have the fellowship
that they claim to have. They say they have fellowship
with God. But it says in verse six, if
we say that we have fellowship with God, with Him, and walk
in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. I want us to consider
this morning two verses that set forth the basis of true fellowship. True fellowship with God the
Father, God the Son, and the people of God. And they are shown
to produce the same result The result of both these verses is
cleansing. It says in verse 7, If we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Then in verse 9 it says, If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Cleansing is set forth. The result
in both these verses is cleansing so we can surmise that walking
in the light and confession of sin are alike and they are the
same thing because context is the interpretation of text always.
Both these things that are mentioned in verse 7 and verse 9 end up
with cleansing. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship with God the Father, and the
blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. If we confess our sins,
God is just, faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Now, false religion has a heyday
with these verses. They just go nuts on them by
defining what it is to walk in darkness defining their different
ideas and views of sin and how you get forgiveness of
sin. They use the Old Testament narrative
and the Old Testament language to get it. They have God waiting
to do something for you, ready to forgive your sin, ready to
pardon, which is Old Testament language, but it was under the
Old Covenant, and He did, under that covenant, wait on repentance
to forgive. He did. That was part of the
conditional covenant. If my people, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, then I'll heal their
land. If they don't, I won't. That's Old Testament language.
He is a God ready to pardon. That's Old Testament language.
We'll look at that in our lesson this afternoon. To cleanse us means the same
thing in most verses. However, this word cleanse is
the same word, but it has different tenses and voices and moods. These are different in both of
these instances. In verse 7, he cleanses us from all sin,
has one, is the same word as verse 9, but it has a different
language applied to it. In verse 7, the verb is in the
present tense. The active voice, and the indicative
mood. This means this cleansing, or
cleanseth, is in actual time. It's going on now. It's going
on now. It is the blood of Christ that
cleanses us. That's an active thing, and it's
a simple statement of fact. It's indicative. That's the tense
or the voice. Now, in the Greek, the present
tense may also be important for what's called historical present,
which means that the recipient views a historical act as a present
experience, as a present experience. This then could read, as the
believer walks in the light, which is the gospel, he views
the finished work of Christ as the present ongoing cleansing
of his sin. It's a historical act that's
viewed as a present active thing. In verse 9, the verb cleanse
is in the Eroist tense, an active voice and subjunctive mood. The
cleansing here is a one-time act that embraces inception,
completion, and present existence. The English equivalent would
be the past tense, the past tense suggesting that any employment
would have to refer to one time finished event which took place
on Calvary and be addressed in a report of the event which is
the gospel. It's a thing that happened and
must be reported or is reported, this cleansing. It is God who
does the cleansing. That's the active voice. The
subjunctive mood means that the action cleansing, the actor God,
act on a conditional basis. The action occurs because a required
condition has been met. The condition for cleansing is
not the confession, but rather that God is just. It's not the
confession that causes the cleansing. It's that God is just. He's faithful. He's faithful. God is faithful.
Paul told Timothy that even when we don't believe, He abideth
faithful. He cannot deny Himself. So He's
faithful and just to forgive us of all sin. The condition of clemency is
not confession, but rather that God is just in forgiving sins
and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. To cleanse us from all unrighteousness
is to declare us to be righteousness, the very righteousness of God,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. In other words, God
cleanses us because He's been just in having cleansed us. He cleanses us because He's cleansed
us and done it justly so. And walking in the light is believing
the gospel. Nothing more, nothing less. And
confession of sin is also believing the gospel. The report of what
has taken place. This is what we do when we preach
the gospel. We're declaring something has
happened. It's news. It's come down the
pike as something that's occurred. And we report it. I'm not telling
anything new. I'm not coming up with new ways
and new ideas or new inventions. When I stand up here, I'm telling
you something has happened. Something wonderful, something
glorious, something majestic has taken place. And here is
the report of it. The report of it is that 2,000
years ago on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem called Golgotha, The
Lord, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was hung on a tree. He said He would be back in Psalm
22. He was pierced in His hands and
His feet. And in that moment, in those
hours on the cross, He suffered the humiliation, humiliation
and punishment that was due our sin. for our sins were made to
meet upon him by imputation. God charged him with our sins
and then punished our sins. He laid stripes on our transgressions
according to Psalm 89. He laid stripes on our transgressions
and in that hour in that glorious time our lord after he had suffered
hell for us and all that was due us in those hours of darkness
he came out on the other side alive and declared what had happened
when he was made sin the father had to turn his back on him for
god's eyes are too pure to behold evil the sun moon and stars are
not pure in his sight This is the report. Well, what did that
do? After he did that, he said, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Then it says, he
said, I thirst, and he gave up the ghost. He died voluntarily.
He who is life, and the author of life, and the creator of life
and humanity, gave up his life. Now he didn't, he was not killed.
Our sins laid on him. But they didn't kill him. The
punishment of God from God for our sin did not kill him. Those
who stood in the courtyard and said, crucify him, crucify him,
did not kill him. Pilate and the Roman soldiers
who slew him did not kill him. He voluntarily, vicariously died
in the room instead of his people. He said, I die. Why? What happened? What happened when he died? When
he died, the sin debt that was owed by those people for whom
he died was forever expunged. They were justified. That means
just as if they had never sinned, they were cleansed and God made
Him to be their righteousness before Him. He did not make them
righteous. You are not righteous and neither
am I. He made us a thing that we can't even define. Righteousness.
Made unto us righteousness, wisdom, sanctification. He was made to
be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him, the righteousness of God. Sin was put away. His people were redeemed. And
that has nothing to do with what's happening now. It's not happening
now. We preach Christ and Him crucified. The way that's set up chronologically
is right. We preach Christ, where is He?
He's at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for His people. Why is He at the right hand?
Because He was obedient even to the death of the cross, wherefore
God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name. And in His
name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess He's Lord
to the glory of the Father. That's what happened. You're
nothing new. When I preach the gospel, I'm
not telling you there's something for you to do or something you
can do or some possibility or some probability that I'm laying
out there. I'm not doing that. When I'm
preaching the gospel, I'm telling you something has happened that
had consequences, that had results, and the results of what happened
2,000 years ago is Jesus Christ redeemed His people from their
sin. That's the report. That's the
report. It's a historical fact, but believing
it is a gift of God. And we look at that historical
fact and say it is presently cleansing us from sin. It is
presently. The ordinance is given to the
church and the activities of the church are themselves confession
of sin. Why are you here this morning? why did you come all
the way? Why? Why did you come all the
way from Hennessey? You've come to worship God. Why? Because he's done something.
Something wonderful and amazing and you can't seem to get over
it. He's done something. And what
do you do when you step in these things? You're saying what he
did, he did for sinners. is a confession of sin to worship
God. The Lord's table is a confession
of sin because it shows forth the necessity of Christ's death
to put away our sin, His blood and His body slain for us. Baptism
is a confession of sin, of the necessity of that death, and
it is accounted as our death, of imputation, a picture of it. Worship under the gospel preaching
is a confession of sin, confession of Christ's worthiness in his
perfect offering of redemption. The song of heaven is a confession
of sin. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
that has redeemed us by his blood out of every kindred nation.
Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Why was he slain for our sins? That's the song of heaven. That's the song of heaven. Faith
believes the report of Christ and what he accomplished in his
death, the satisfaction of justice, death for sin, the forgiveness
of our sin. Death is the punishment for sin.
Fellowship with one another is a confession of our sin and that
we have equal footing with our brethren. We come here not in
classes and degrees. We come here as poor, wretched
sinners, all the same, all having exactly the same footing, all
in the same boat. all exactly alike, sinners who
deserve hell, saved by grace. Saved, redeemed, and sanctified.
Everybody's the same in that glorious work. We walk in the
light. We confess our sins in that light. and acknowledge that God is just
to cleanse us from our sin because the required condition for justice,
death for sin, has been fully met by the blood of Christ. That's
why we confess our sin. That's why He's just to forgive
us. Why? Because the requirement's
been met. If we were just a bunch of people out here who had no
interest in Jesus Christ, if Christ did not die for us, would
He do any good for us to confess our sin? No. God would not be
just to justify us if our sin debt had not been paid. That's
what he says in Romans 3, 23 through 25. Some time ago, after I preached
at a conference on the subject of Christ putting away our sins,
that was the end of them. Afterward, a lady asked me, if
our sins are gone, why are we told to confess our sins? If
our sins are gone, that's a good question. That's a logical, isn't
it? It's a reasonable question. I told her I'd think about it,
and I'd give her an answer later, because I hadn't really thought
about it. It never crossed my mind. She
was smarter than I was, evidently. She was able to do some thinking
that I wasn't able to do. I thought about it for a while,
read it over and over again, asked the Lord to help me find
out what it meant, why that was so, and the first answer, or
the only answer, is really the matter of perspective. Who's
looking at the sin? who see in the sin. From the
perspective of God, and that's how it is and forever will be,
our sins are gone. He said that. They're clean gone. They're cast behind His back.
This is metaphorical language. All things are before God. There's
no back side to Him, but to show that our sins are gone, they're
cast behind His back. They're separated from us as
far as the east is from the west. They're buried in the bottom
of the sea and erased from his own memory. He said, I will remember
their sins no more. Now, that's God's perspective,
and that's how it is. To believe the gospel is to rejoice
and rest in that truth that God sees us without sin. we don't
hold the sword of Damocles over people's heads and say, if you
mess up, God's standing around the corner hiding, waiting to
thump you on the head. He's not. If you're a child of God, you
know what God's face is for you, always a smile, always accepted,
always welcoming. You say, but you know, I sent...
He doesn't remember it. He's able to do that. I can't
forget nothing, but he don't. He can't. to believe the gospel
is to rejoice and rest there. However, God has fixed it by
not removing our carnal nature, that as He will never remember
our sins, we, as long as we exist here or in eternity, will never
forget our sins. We'll never forget them. Every aspect of that truth is
continually rehearsed in our life, as we walk in the light
of the gospel. For to believe the gospel is
to believe first that I'm a sinner and that Christ has saved me.
Now first thing, first thing, every aspect of that truth is
continually rehearsed in our life. We being constantly reminded
of what we are by nature, find in ourselves likewise a constant
and consistent need to confess what we are. The darkness within us makes
us gravitate to the light. In that fact, or in fact, walking
in the light, the gospel is a sure disclosure of the darkness and
is likewise the disappearance of it while the light does its
work. We confess our sins because believing the gospel is a disclosure
of our sins. The gospel is not good news for
anybody but sinners. Not good news for anybody but
sinners. We feel the need for forgiveness
because of the knowledge that God has forgiven us. It's a wondrous
thing, isn't it? We know God is forgiveness, so
we feel the need for forgiveness. Why? Because God's forgiveness
of us, of what? Our sin. Our sin. We set our eyes upon Christ and
we confess our sins and we are reminded that Christ died for
our sins. Therefore, God is just to forgive them, has been just
to do so. because of the cross of Jesus Christ. We confess our
sins because part and parcel with the gospel is the knowledge
that our sins and our inabilities and our frailties do nothing. But they necessitated a death. They necessitated for us to be
right with God. For us, the answer for our sin
must be a death. And that death will be either
ours or in a substitute. But the gospel says it was in
a substitute. Because of what we yet are, we
feel the need for forgiveness, for clemency. So we go to him
who is just and therefore has forgiven them. We confess our
sins because we know that our sins have been justly put away.
It's a wondrous thing. We walk in the light of the gospel
and truly only in that light are we made aware of our sin.
Confession reminds us of what God has done for us. In that
light, confession is an opportunity for us to glory in the grace
and to praise him for the finished work of Jesus Christ and to acknowledge
that it is our sin that nailed Christ to the cross. The light
covers it all. Walking in the light is a rehearsal
of our salvation. confessing our sin is a rehearsal
of our salvation. We confess our sins. And He is
faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all
unrighteousness. God has wrought that. And our
understanding of it and acknowledgement of it is that we are sinners
to the wondrous acknowledgement that God is just to forgive us.
only God could come up with something like this only God could come
up with this wondrous thing how he could look at someone who
is like us and see us in his son and see us without sin is
a wondrous thing and he said in Romans chapter 3 that he declared
his righteousness in the salvation of his people How is him putting
away my sin the declaration of his righteousness? What he's
saying there in Romans chapter 3 is that Sylvester, when Christ
died for you and saved your soul, God said that's the right thing
to do. That was the equitable, right thing to do for him to
save you. It don't hardly seem so, but
it is. He declared his righteousness.
God does not remember our sins. We have five because of the perfect
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's perfected forever them that
are sanctified, written in laws or His word in their hearts,
and remembers their sin no more. Where these sins are remitted,
there is no more sacrifice. He remembers their sin no more.
Part of the covenant promise back in Jeremiah 31. Remember
their sins no more. And we never forget them. Ever. Our song in heaven will be the
gospel. The angels will go forth preaching the everlasting gospel
in the glories of heaven. It'll still be good news. Paul
said, before I was a persecutor, God was merciful to me. And this
is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
came into this world to save sinners. of whom I not was, of
whom I am the chief. I'm the chief. Confession of
sin is not for God. It's for us. That's why we do
it. It's for us. When we confess,
we are declaring the proportionate dealings of Christ's great work
on our behalf. That's what we're declaring.
We confess our sins. acknowledging that he's faithful and just to
forgive him. We're saying what Christ did on Calvary's tree
is what cleanses us daily. He was made to be sin for us.
He knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Now a lot of people spend a lot
of time trying to figure out what that means. Here's what
I know it means. And Jesus Christ became the payer
of my sin debt when He was made to be seen. And because of His
work, God has made me righteousness. And again, not a righteous, righteousness. Essentially, what a thing. Somebody
says, you righteous? No. I'm righteousness. That's what God said. That's
the report. And when you feel the necessity
to bow your head as you lay on your pillow at night and say,
Father, forgive me for what I am, for what I do,
and what I think. You do it knowing this, that
He's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Father, bless this to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name.