For our scripture reading tonight, will you turn with me to the first epistle of John? John's first epistle. And while you're turning to that, I'll just like to do a little advertising. I brought along, I just only, only have two of these left. Uh, it's a recording by two of the young brethren out in Oklahoma, and it's hymns taken from the hymns of worship and remembrance, which is very similar to The Little Clock. And I have two of these in the cassette tape, and I have about three left that are in the CDs. If you have a CD, got exactly the same hymns on it, and they're all hymns that are taken from our hymns of worship. And the reason I brought these is because if you go to the bookstore, I'm sure you won't find this in it, and I think they're very, very nice, and uh, I just mentioned that in passing, so if any are interested, just let me know. We're going to read in First John chapter one, and we begin with verse, verse six. 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 is in the light, we have one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that 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 that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him if we can keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he. I suppose one of the biggest insults that you could give to anybody if you just flat out call them a liar. Well, John uses that expression at least six times in this lovely letter of his. Some years ago, I was up in Waynesboro, Georgia, maybe fifteen or sixteen years ago, and a brother got up in one of the meetings there, and he, they had just sung the hymn, and one of the verses said something like this. Too soon we rise, the symbol. And he made this comment, I think we ought to write another verse to that, he said, uh, too late we come. And after the meeting, one of the brethren came up to Brother Bill McCartney, and he said, you know, you were looking right at me when you said, too late we come. Well, this brother had the habit of always dragging in about ten or fifteen minutes late. And Bill McCartney said to him, well, brother, I can honestly say I wasn't looking at you when I said that, but my advice to you is this. If the shoe fits, you put it on. And I want to think with you tonight about what John has to say. He's the disciple, the Bible says, whom Jesus loved. He was very zealous for the Lord's honor. James and John, the two brothers, they were partners. And James, as you know, was executed by Herod, and probably because he was so forthright in his witness for Christ. John was himself, because you remember it says, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they were amazed. James was executed, and Peter was executed, but John escaped being executed. These three, Peter, James, and John, were the three intimates of our Lord Jesus Christ, not the three favorites necessarily, because his love is unchanging, changeably the same for all of his own, but certainly his intimates, because we read that on three occasions, those three alone were with the Lord. They were in the Lord, with the Lord when Jairus' daughter was raised to life. They were with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter spoke of that. He said, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. When there came such a voice from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son. How could they ever forget that? They were the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he sweated as where great drops of blood falling to the ground. We get some idea of what kind of people James and John were because the Lord Jesus there named them Boanerges, which means the sons of thunder. And when you read this epistle, you realize that John doesn't pull any punches. He tells it like it is. On one occasion we read that James and John, they were with the Lord in a certain village of the Samaritans, and they didn't receive the Lord, and they were highly offended that they hadn't received the Lord. They said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven? Just like Elijah did. These fellas didn't see, believe in pussyfooting around. They were outspoken for the Lord, zealous for his honor. Well, in the Gospel of John, the great emphasis is on the love of God. The love of God himself in giving his son is mentioned first, and then the love of the Lord Jesus. That Jesus, having loved his own, which in the world he loved them unto the end. The epistle of John, they're permeated with the importance of love to Christ. And it says of the Lord in John's gospel, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that no lies of the truth, they are diametrically opposite. Grace and truth and, and love hates a lie, especially about the one that is loved. No lies of the truth. And I want to notice with you tonight, tonight the six instances in which this question is suggested. Who's a liar? First of all, in First John one and verse six. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. It says if we're walking in the darkness away from God and say that we're in fellowship with him, it says we're liars. That's a very strong statement. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. The Bible says he is in the light, and it says in him there is no darkness at all. The Lord Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. In other words, this is telling us we cannot walk in forbidden paths and say truthfully, as we often say, is he in fellowship or is she in fellowship? But this passage says we can have fellowship with God if we're walking in darkness. But if we walk in the light, this is what it says, as he is in the light, we have fellowship, not only with him, but with one another. And it's evident that the blood of Jesus Christ has such a claim upon us that it cleanses us from all sin. We have been bought with a price, and therefore, as a result of that, we glorify God. And if there's one thing that this passage is telling us, you cannot cling to your savior and your sin. You can have one or the other, but you can't have both. They are diametrically opposed. And the Bible says the first thing that the grace of God in a man's life does for him is this, it teaches him to say no. The grace of God, which bringeth salvation to all men as a fear, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. It teaches us to say no. That we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, it says, in this present evil age. It used to be a popular song years ago, and there's a lot of scriptural sense in it, even though it wasn't a scriptural song. Bing Crosby, some of you older folks will remember a fellow named Bing Crosby. He used to sing it. It went something like this. You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don't mess with in Mr. In Between. God puts it in a little reverse order. He says that you eliminate the negative, and then you accentuate the positive. This is the way it puts it. Let the wicked forsake his way to say no, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, that's no. And let him return to the Lord, that's saying yes. No to this, and yes to him. It's put that same way right at the opening of the Bible, it says God told Adam he was to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. Goodbye to home. No. And yes to this new relationship that God had brought him into. Blessed is the man, the scripture says, that walks not. He's distinguished by what he doesn't do, first of all. He walks not in the counsel of ungodly. He doesn't stand in the way of sinners. That's a negative. But the positive is his delight is in the law of the Lord, law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Secondly, in First John one and verse ten we read, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. If we say that we haven't sinned at all, we're saying that God is a liar. Why is that? Simply because God has said, there is none righteous, no, not one. All we like sheep have gone astray. There's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And yet there are people, I've met a few, maybe you have, who say that they don't sin, they don't have any sin. They haven't sinned. As far as they're concerned, they're content. But if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And God's response to that is this: Let God be true, but every man a liar. Either the man is lying who says he has not sinned, or God is lying. That's the only two choices that we have. Scripture says God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. As he said it, and shall he not make good. To deny our sin, as some do, is to, in fact, say that God is a liar. Whosoever offends in one point, God says, you know, I was commit every sin in the book, is guilty of all. Thirdly, we read in First John two and verse four, and we read that, he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. That's a big test, isn't it? If the habit of your life is disobedience to the word of God, you can't say that you know him. Because the mark of a believer's life is not that he's sinless, but the mark of his life is habitually he is keeping his commandments. That's the pattern of his life. Whoso keepeth his word, the Bible says, and his word says, love one another. Whoso keepeth his word, in him the, the love of God is perfected. God, by his Holy Spirit, has taken up his residence in the life of every believer, and God is doing a perfecting work in our lives so that the love of God, not his love to me, but his love in and through me, the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. The operation of the Spirit of God is to reproduce Christ in our lives. In Galatians chapter five we read that the fruit of the Spirit is, in one word, love. He uses nine expressions, but they're all indicative of the love of God being spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Someone has said, love indwelling. And joy is love rejoicing, and peace is love resting, and so forth. Every one of them are aspects of the love of God, a reproduction of Christ in our lives. And the Bible says, if we love him, we will keep his commandments. The Lord Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my words. We're not saved because we obey the word of God, but because we are saved, the habit of our life is to be in obedience to the word of God. And if we say we know him and yet refuse to obey him, this is what the scripture says, we're liars. In other words, it's not what we say, it's whether we obey or not. It's made abundantly clear in John five twenty four. we become, uh, believers, we become Christians simply because we believe God's word, the record that he's given of his son. The Lord Jesus stated it very clearly in John five and verse twenty four when he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me hath everlasting life. No maybes about it. And shall not come into judgment, but is passed out of death to life. That's the way we make the trip. The way we pass from death into life, w- the way we become a new creature in Christ Jesus. But the way that we show that we're a new creature in Christ Jesus ba- is by our behavior. Ephesians chapter two, it says, by grace are we being saved through faith, that not of ourselves, the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. We read in Philippians chapter two, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. In many respects, the Christian life is very simple. Not easy, but very simple. Because we have only one to please. Even Christ pleased not himself. We have only one to please, and we're told to walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing. The great objective of life is to please him. Fourthly, in First John chapter 2 in verse twenty two, you read these words. Who is a liar, but he that denieth Jesus is the Christ. In our Lord's day, they refused to recognize him as the Messiah, the Christ, the one that God had sent. They didn't believe that he was the one, and that's the reason why he was re- rejected and nailed to a cross. But this text says, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? And John tells us that the reason he, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, wrote the gospel was this. He says, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, that believing you might have life through his name. So it's a very fundamental thing. And then it goes on to say he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son, because if you reject the Son, you can't have the Father. It says in verse twenty three, whosoever denieth the Son, the same has not the Father. You cannot reject the Son of God and know the Father of God. You cannot become a child of God except through the Lord Jesus. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father. But by me. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well, he said, the Father seeketh worshippers, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John four twenty three. John five twenty three says, all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. The Lord Jesus claimed equal honors with the Father. He claimed that he was to be worshipped. And seven times over in the Gospel of Matthew, you read in one way or another, they worshiped him, they worshiped him, they worshiped him. And when Thomas fell at his feet and said, my Lord and my God, the Lord Jesus did not deny that. He said, blessed art thou, thou Simon Barjona, flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee. You didn't know it by looking at me. This is what he said to Peter, but my Father, which is in heaven. Blessed art thou, he said to, just not to, uh, uh, Thomas. Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. That's what he said. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. In First John four and verse twenty, it says, if a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar. Did anyone bump into a Christian and say, I, I just hate him? Have you heard anybody say that? I have. Well, this text says, if a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar. That's a contradiction in terms. It says, for he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? I thought that was one of the strangest things in the world when I first read that. You know, I look at my brother, and he's a pain in the neck. I can see a lot of reasons why I shouldn't love him, but that's the scripture says, if I say I love God and hate my brother, I'm a liar. For if I don't love my brother whom I have seen, how can I love God whom I have not seen? God tests the reality of my love for him, for my love for my brother. It says this commandment, verse thirty one says, we have from God that he who loves God love his brother also. I'm under obligation, I'm under the command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love my brother. Strange. Scripture says that when the Lord died for us, didn't see anything in us to love. Christ died for the ungodly. Says when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. He loved us not because of anything, reason that he saw in us to love us. The love came from him regardless of the merits or demerits of those he loved. He loved us not because of what we brought, but what he brought, for love is of God. And the hymn writer says, and it's true, concerning our own personal life, scarce one thought or look of love to thee I've ever brought. But I can come and come again to thee with this, the needy sinner's only plea, thou lovest me. And John says here, and he makes very emphatic, says everyone that loves him that begat, and that's God, everyone that loves him that begat loveth him also who is begotten of him. Isn't that a strange statement? He says, if I love God, I will love all his children. Paul, when he writes to the Colossians, speaks of your faith in Christ Jesus, the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, and love for some of the saints. That's not what he says. And love for all the saints. In other words, if I'm a child of God, I am duty-bound, and what the Lord commands me to do, he enables me to do, to love every other member of the family, no matter where they are, no matter what the circumstances may be. Alfred Gibbs often used to quote a little quatrain that went like this: To dwell above with the saints we love, that will be grace and glory, but to live below with the saints we know, that's a different story. And so often we find a real difficulty as we look at one another with all our faults and failings. The Lord looks at us, and he loves us just the, just the same. This commandment, first John four twenty one, this commandment we have from him, that he who loveth is God, loveth his, his brother also. What a tremendous responsibility we have, brothers and sisters in Christ. And it just seems to me that First Epistle of John is really just an enlargement of our Lord's own words to his disciples on the very night in which he was betrayed. You remember how he knelt at their feet and he washed all the disciples' feet, and Peter tried to beg off, but the Lord insisted on washing his feet. Judas' feet as well, he washed them all. And then he said, a new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you. And he says, the thing that will mark you out as my people is simply this, that you obey this. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. And the scripture enlarges on that in so many ways. It speaks of different ways that we are to love one another. It says we're to forgive one another, even as Christ forgave us, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. It says we're to edify one another, build one another up in our most holy faith. We're to forbear one another. It, it just enumerates different ways that we express our love and concern, the one for the other. And God's purpose, I believe, is simply this. He set us people apart from the world. Says we're not of the world. He said they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He set us apart, a people for himself. It says, you remember, in uh, in Titus, the grace of God which brings salvation to all men has appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, which is lived soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. Why? That he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify unto himself a people zealous of good works. And his purpose is that Christians have such a love and a care and a concern for one another that the world outside, they just long to be in a family like we're in, the family of God. And what a testimony we can be in this old world, which largely is marred by just a care and concern for number one on the hit parade, and very much li- little concern for others. Love one another, he says, as I've loved you. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, ye have love one for another. In First John five verses nine and ten you read something like this. If we receive the witness or the testimony of men, the witness of God is greater. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that not believeth not God as made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave his son. In other words, what he's saying is, if you're here tonight and you've heard the witness of God concerning his son, and you reject that message, what you're doing is calling God a liar. Because God says... in this chapter, First John chapter five, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness of the testimony in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record of testimony. It's the same word. The word is translated record, it's the same word as witness, exactly the same word. This is the witness that God has given to us eternal life. This life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now, either you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you've accepted the testimony of God, or you're in effect saying that God's alive. I'd like to say this, that God hasn't left himself without a witness, and God is going to hold everybody responsible for what they've done with his word. It doesn't make any difference what sin you may have committed in your life. You could be a murderer, you could be an adulterer, you could be a thief. And God will forgive you if you trust Christ as your Savior. But the Lord Jesus said himself that the witness of the Spirit of God is given, and we have the witness of the Spirit of God here in this word because what we have in the word of God is the word that was written by the power of the Spirit of God. Holy men of God spoke, the Bible says, as they were moved or motivated by the Holy Ghost, so that we have the word of God. Through these men. And the Lord Jesus said to those of his day that if you refuse to believe the message of the Spirit of God, he says you have never forgiveness, not only in this life, but in that which is to come. It's a solemn thing to turn your back on the Word of God. To hear the Word of God and to shut your heart to it is a sin that God will never forgive. That's what the scripture says. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. I often think when we open the word of God, we should realize how vital it is not only to hear the word of God, but to keep it. It's a wonderful thing to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, I believe God. I believe God. It shall be, even as was told. To say, as he said on another occasion, I know whom I am believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. We sing in one of our hymns, Trust and Obey. For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know thus saith the Lord. Who is a liar? John doesn't pull any punches, and six times over in his very short epistle, he calls men liars. It all depends on what we do with the word of God. God has made us responsible, fellow believer, not only to love him, but to demonstrate our love for him by loving one another. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. The last command he gave just before he went to the cross was this: Love one another as I have loved you. May God help us, for his name's sake. Let's look to the Lord in word prayer, and then we'll sing a closing hymn. Our Father, we pray that that which was sown in weakness, now it's raised in power. We're thankful that we're not left to pick our way uncertainly through life. We have thy word to guide, to guard us, to challenge us. And we're thankful for these challenges from the pen of the Apostle John, as he considered the vital necessity of Christians collectively demonstrating our love for thee and for thy word by our love for one another. We're thankful for this local testimony of thy people. We pray, Father, that thou woulds draw the hearts of thy people close to thee and to one another. If there's that in any of our lives which is in any way be divisive, we pray that we may seek grace from thee to guard the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, that the world around may become jealous of the love that we have from thee to share with one another, because thou, by thy spirit, hast implanted thy love in our hearts. Thy word says thy love is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Use thy word to help and to challenge and to encourage us, we pray, and we thank thee for it in that worthy name of thy beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, and for his glory. Amen.