Somebody in the church here told me a
while back Growing older is necessary, but growing
up is optional.
So I've chosen to rest on that statement
and Not grew up.
We want to spend a few moments together
just in the Word of God before we
celebrate communion or the Lord's table together and
It's the Lord's table Anyone who knows the
Lord Jesus as Savior is most welcome to
participate at the table I want to read
the first chapter of 1st John a little
book toward the end of our Bible just
10 verses in the chapter and We want
to think upon a part of it primarily
this morning Just in preparing ourselves for meeting
the Lord in celebration 1st John chapter 1
Says that which was from the beginning which
we have heard which we have seen with
our eyes Which we looked upon and have
touched with our hands concerning the Word of
Life the life was made manifest and we
have seen it and testified to it and
Proclaim to you the eternal life, which was
with the Father and was made manifest to
us That which we have seen and heard
we proclaim also to you So that you
too may have fellowship with us and indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with
His Son Jesus Christ We are writing these
things So that our joy may be complete
This is the message.
We have heard from him and proclaim to
you that God is light and in him
is no darkness at all If we say
we have fellowship with him while we walk
in darkness we lie And do not practice
the truth But if we walk in the
light as he is in the light We
have fellowship with one another and the blood
of Jesus his son cleanses 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 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
If we say we have not sinned we
make him a liar and his word is
not in us father this is indeed your
word and We're so grateful for it because
it is a guide for life And it
is so much more and so this morning
as we come to your word We're thankful
for its record and for its truth Pray
that you would speak to our hearts and
strengthen us And as we come then to
the table may it indeed be done in
remembrance of Jesus of his life his death
his resurrection Because it is in Jesus name
that we ask it Amen, so as we
Think about this short chapter.
Let me just begin by saying this Sometimes
people say to me.
I don't know if there is a God
or not and I don't know that it
really matters and So I'd title this Brad'll
be shocked because I never put a title
on the message, but here it is true
and false Let me say this if there
is a God Nothing could be of greater
importance than to know him and to be
in a right relationship with him Because we
could have all things in this world and
end up in eternity with absolutely nothing And
so as you read these verses with me
this morning You see the Apostle John who
was the youngest of those men who walked
with Jesus is in a situation as he
writes He says the things that I have
known and seen and heard and I know
that they're true I share them with you
So that you can have fellowship with God
And you know, it's a wonderful thing to
be in fellowship with God That is to
say to know that there's nothing between you
and him and that you are forgiven and
free because of what Jesus did on the
cross for you and for me and As
we look in this text we see he's
really talking a great deal about what is
true and And Oftentimes, you know, we don't
really want to accept the fact that Jesus
died for me It's okay if he died
for the whole world, but I'm not so
bad or I'm not so good and I
don't want to personalize that truth You know
when big fella six-foot-four but like
Michael here Tom Johnston would talk to me
about Jesus I ran away from it as
much as I could because I didn't want
to face the reality that what he was
saying is actually true that there is a
God and he wants to be in your
life and in mine and to be known
as Savior and to be followed as Lord
And as you look at these few verses
just this morning for a short time with
me I want you just to think about
this Are you in fellowship?
with God Do you know?
his salvation Are you free from those things
that would separate you from God?
You see my Bible teaches me that there
is only one answer for guilt and Guilt
makes us do all kinds of foolish things
It drives us to violence and it Causes
all sorts of things in our lives and
if only we could get rid of it
and start all over again And that's exactly
what the gospel of the Lord.
Jesus is a bind That's why John says
I share this with you so that our
joy might be complete Because when someone trusts
in Christ the joy of the Lord becomes
their strength and they know there's nothing anymore
between them and The one who is the
creator and sustainer of all things So as
I think about this true or false thing,
I wanted just for a few moments this
morning to get us to think about the
second half of this first chapter and It's
talking to those who have Trusted Christ and
who have fellowship with him and did you
ever ask yourself?
Why did Jesus?
give us communion and You know, he did
I've been preaching from the gospel of Luke
and in Luke 22 There's the inauguration of
the communion service Jesus is Conducting a time
with his disciples called the Passover feast But
you know, he ends the feast and he
institutes or inaugurates this Service that we call
communion Why would I say that?
Because in Luke 22 17, it says Jesus
took the cup and he gave it to
them and said Share this among you.
That's a McGregor paraphrase.
You can check it out in your own
version and then just three verses later It
says After this, he took the cup and
you see the first cup that he offers
in Luke 22 is the end of the
Passover There's no longer any need for it
because the real Passover lamb The Lord Jesus
Christ is about to allow people to nail
him to a cross so that forgiveness and
the dealing with human guilt can be Finalized
and that's why you'll find his last words
on that cross.
So enlightening it is finished and so when
we say salvation is a free gift we're
saying it because Jesus did everything that was
necessary to pay the price for our sin
and our guilt and to give us true
and wonderful forgiveness Just in case you were
going to sleep on me He gave us
this service because he knows us.
Oh so well and He knows we live
in these human bodies and he knows that
we have our moments Did anybody live this
past week perfectly?
Jeremy just give me that No, not one
of us.
That's why Jesus gave to us this table
Knowing our nature and our need That in
our nature we would fail we would make
mistakes and our need is for forgiveness because
we hurt each other and we hurt ourselves
and we Need a way to deal with
those things and that's exactly what he's given
to us here so very quickly Let me
just outline a few things here from verses
6 through 10 You see knowing our nature
and our need If you look at verse
6 it says if we say we have
fellowship with him while we walk in darkness
We lie and do not practice the truth
Remember my title?
truth true or false And here's something that
we can do We can lie Ever done
that?
Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is
no guile Yeah, you know the most common
lie, don't you the checks in the mail?
But in verse 6 it tells us we
can lie about God When we say that
we have fellowship that we're walking with him
and we're actually not then That's a lie
and you'll find great biblical examples Samson walked
with God served God, but when he disobeyed
God and You remember the incident his hair
was cut off his strength was gone It
says Samson got up as at other times
and he was gonna clean house, but he
had no strength left What was it?
It was the lie that I'm really walking
with God but God had stepped back hadn't
he?
Samson had Taken that step of disobedience and
there was no strong fellowship there.
And I think about Simon the magician in
Acts chapter 8.
He had professed.
Yes I know Jesus and let me be
baptized but When he says to Peter listen,
I got a few bucks here somewhere.
Give me the gift of the Holy Spirit
Peter says to him your money perished with
you.
You thought you could buy the gift of
God Well, that's pretty strong talk, isn't it?
But you see what was happening is he
was living a lie He was saying well,
I've gone through the motions.
Therefore Everything must be okay But the scriptures
are so clear going through the motions Don't
do anything it's when God changes the heart
That we know we are saved and in
fellowship with him It's when God changes the
heart that we know I can't be mad
at that person anymore I can't be desiring
my own way anymore.
I Got to give this up and make
this right and Be right with God first
of all King Saul would be another illustration
of it.
You remember him?
He did almost what God said but almost
is not quite and Probably my favorites in
this whole area of how we can lie
about God are some guys in the Acts
of the Apostles called the sons of Sceva
and They're a great family unit They're working
for God and they're saying in the name
of Jesus whom Paul preaches we command you
evil spirits to come out and The person
that they are trying to work at Loses
it jumps on them beats them up rips
off their clothes and they go home naked
and wounded Wouldn't you think that a victory?
But I missed a little piece of the
story didn't I?
The demonic spirit within them that person said
Jesus I know and Paul I know But
who are you you see things have to
be right between us and God There has
to be that peace that forgiveness that cleansing
Otherwise, we're gonna squabble with one another and
we're gonna squabble with life in general and
nothing will ever be right It's about Daily
worship and nearness and the presence of God
ruling in our hearts and lives It's about
just walking with God Moment by moment.
So can I ask in my little Irish
way this morning is Jesus real in your
heart.
I Love what an old preacher used to
ask people he would say what has Jesus
done for you?
And you know, the answer is not Just
that he died on the cross, but that
he cleansed me and he's changed me and
he is changing me So it is possible
as verse 6 says that we can lie
about God let's go to Just read through
verse 7 and verse 8 if we walk
in the light as he is in the
light We have fellowship with one another and
the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us
from all sin You see how important it
is just to walk with God And to
walk with him day by day and moment
by moment because in that there is Cleansing
from all sin You mean those hidden lies
yeah You mean those hidden things that nobody
knows about he will cleanse.
Yeah You mean there is an answer for
the way that I feel about myself.
Yeah, he cleanses Indeed, that's what that table
was set up to remind us of that
His body is given as a sacrifice in
your place and mine and his blood is
shed so that we might be cleansed and
free and To be able to walk in
that sense of freedom verse 8 Says if
we say we have no sin we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us
So the second thing about true or false
is We can lie to ourselves Ever done
that when we say there is no sin.
It says the truth is not in us
and deceit of deceiving self is one of
those worst things to deal with so hard
to deal with I was Preaching many years
ago.
And in fact, I was reminded of it
a couple of nights ago because I I
have some VHS videos that got a bit
damp in our wet summer and spring and
whatever and Before I threw them out.
I checked what would run and what wouldn't
and I was watching this younger version of
McGregor preaching in 1990 in Pennsylvania in a
tent and It reminded me of a man
who was there.
He was an usher Henry Donaldson He was
there every day every night at these meetings
and I said to his pastor.
He he's so faithful And he said yeah,
but he doesn't know the Lord I went
to his house and had lunch with that
man and Saw he had citations from the
US Army for his service in the Second
World War And as I talked to him
about it, he cannot just clammed up as
often veterans do they don't want to talk
about those incidents from the past and eventually
I asked him about an incident that was
cited on the citation and I said to
him Henry Did you liberate the camp at
Butch and Walt?
Yeah, I'm a little bit of a history
buff So I said Henry How many guys
survived the action out of your unit?
He said Just me You know Henry believed
he couldn't come to Christ Because he carried
the guilt of walking away when others didn't
And he all those years in between had
lied to himself That Jesus would save anybody
but not him and in those wonderful moments
of sharing Jesus with him, I Just said
to him You can't be more righteous than
God and he says in verse 9 that
if you come and confess your sin He'll
forgive it And you know that night Henry
walked to the altar in the middle of
that meeting and The choir quit singing and
the people just stood and kind of Because
he'd always said I'm glad it's for those
others, but it's not for me But it
is for you We can lie to ourselves
and we we can do that in Durban
in South Africa in August, I shared a
message with a group of 27 or 28
Anglican clergy and One of the clergy came
to me afterwards and said you were talking
just about me.
I'm just going through the motions see This
table is about a real Savior Who answers
real needs?
we can say You know that it doesn't
matter if we keep our anger or lust
or lies or rebellion or envy or Selfish
ambition or drunkenness or any of those things?
But it does he came to cleanse he
came to make that new beginning possible he
came to save and as he saves he
also Draws us into that lovely fellowship with
himself Verse 10 Says if we say we
have not sinned we make him a liar
and his word is not in us So
we can lie about God and we can
lie to ourselves But we can also call
God a liar Imagine doing that And yet
it happens And when we fail to live
for God when we live in defeat It's
like we're saying God is not enough But
Jesus is enough that's the whole point And
we can spend so much energy looking and
looking and ah if I can just get
this And it comes out just like dry
dust that falls through our hands and every
dream and every longing that we had just
evaporates But all my friends What a marvelous
thing it is to be able to get
up in the morning and say Lord Let
me put my hand in your hand today
Where are we going today Jesus?
What is it that you want to do
in me?
In this day Wow, there's a last thing
I want to mention before we meet at
the table We can just confess Who we
are and what we are Don't you love
verse 9 if we confess our sins He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all of it
That's another what kind of moment when you
know, there's nothing that the Lord can't deal
with But that every part of it He's
willing to cleanse and to deal with he
will forgive He's faithful to do that he
will cleanse he will give us all that
we need in him you say yeah, but
that's okay for those religious people and and
you know, it's okay for preachers and elders
and people who are kind of special, you
know, but but nobody knows about my circumstances
and No, I love this little thing.
I'll just read it to you It's kind
of a snapshot picture of the disciples and
if you read Luke 22 You'll see that
right after the Lord has given them the
Lord's Supper.
They have a fight.
Who's the greatest?
Who's the most important?
So, you know, it's not about how perfect
we are it's about how perfect he is
and that is the truth Memo to Jesus
son of Joseph from the Jordan management consultants
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the
12 men.
You've selected for management positions in your new
organization sounds reasonable All of them have now
taken our battery of tests and we've run
the results through our computer We've arranged for
each to have personality Interviews with our psychologists
and vocational aptitude consultants the complete profile on
each is included for your careful study It
is our staffs opinion that most of your
nominees are lacking in background education and vocational
aptitude For the type of work you are
undertaking They do not demonstrate a team concept.
We would recommend that you search for people
of experience in managerial ability and proven capabilities
Simon Peter is Emotionally unstable and given to
an offensive temper, but Jesus met him at
the table Andrew has absolutely no qualities of
leadership How'd he get in there brothers James
and John sons of Zebedee plays personal interest
above company loyalty Frankly, they're mama's boys You
remember mama said listen, I want one on
the right hand one on the left, right?
Thomas Demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend
to undermine morale.
That's why we call him doubting Thomas We
feel it is our duty to tell you
that Matthew has been blacklisted by our greater
Jerusalem better business bureau James the son of
Alpheus and Thaddeus have definite leanings toward the
radical and register high on the manic depressive
scale One of the candidates does however show
great potential He's a man of ability and
resourcefulness meets people well It has a keen
business mind It's highly motivated and as well
as ambitious and responsible We recommend Judas Iscariot
as your controller and right-hand man Now
I've read that before I know But what
a picture it gives us It's the Lord's
table and it's the place where we Sometimes
failing human beings as we are find forgiveness
find truth find cleansing and so this morning
let's just go quietly for a moment or
two of prayer and As we go to
prayer, do you know that your sins are
forgiven?
Has Jesus done that work of salvation in
your heart and in your life There's only
one way to find out if it's true
Will he really forgive and give me a
new life?
The only way you'll know is to go
to Jesus and to ask him And just
quietly in your heart this morning if you
don't know him Right where you are from
your heart to his you could say God
Are you real Would you forgive me Would
you cleanse my life Would you come Lord
And live in me And certainly for most
of us this morning.
There's been that moment when we've done that
But this is also a moment where you
can just come before the Lord and say
father I Don't want to lie about you.
I don't want to lie to myself.
I want to live the truth I Want
to know that there's nothing between you and
me and nothing between me and my brothers
and sisters So Lord, I just ask you
to touch my heart afresh and anew with
your spirit In Jesus name we pray