Would you please open in God's Word
to 1 John 1:1.
1 John 1:1.
"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 testify to it
and proclaimed 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."
Brothers and sisters,
when we read John's Gospel -
not this first epistle, but his Gospel -
John is pretty plain to tell us
who he's addressing.
Let me just quote John.
John 20:30.
You don't need to turn there but listen.
This comes from John's Gospel.
It gives us John's own reason
for writing the Gospel.
"Now Jesus," he says,
"did many other signs
in the presence of His disciples
which are not written in this book."
The book is the Gospel of John.
"But these are written,"
here he is going to tell us the reason why,
"so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing you may have life
in His name."
John writes his Gospel to the lost,
so that they might believe.
But when we come to John's first epistle,
John is not seeking to convince the lost
in hopes that they will believe.
John distinctly writes this letter
to those who are already Christian
and I want to show you this.
Let your eyes go down to 1 John 2:1.
"My little children,"
he's writing to Christians,
"I'm writing these things--"
what "these things"?
All of chapter one.
"To you so that,"
well all of chapter one and all of the epistle.
"But I'm writing these things to you..."
to who? To "little children."
1 John 2:7:
"Beloved."
You use beloved because they're beloved of God.
"I'm writing you,"
that's who he is writing too.
1 John 2:12:
"I'm writing to you little children..."
who are these little children?
Well, they're the ones whose sins are forgiven
for His namesake.
He says in verse 13,
"I'm writing to you fathers because you know Him."
These are people that know God.
If you go to 1 John 2:18:
"Children."
1 John 2:21:
"I write to you," who?
"Not because you do not know the truth but because you know it."
These are people that know the truth.
1 John 3:1: "See what kind of love
the Father has given to us."
John's including himself with his audience.
That what?
"We should be called the children of God."
That's who this is to and for.
And so we are.
We're the children of God.
If you go to 1 John 3:2,
"Beloved, we are God's children..."
That's who this is written to.
1 John 3:7,
"Little children;"
1 John 3:13,
"Do not be surprised, brothers..."
1 John 3:18,
"Little children."
1 John 3:21,
"Beloved;"
1 John 4:1,
"Beloved."
I mean what you see is:
"Little children,"
"beloved,"
"God's children."
You see this kind of terminology
literally every few verses.
1 John 4:11,
"Beloved."
1 John 5:13,
"I write these things to you who believe."
That's who he's writing to.
1 John 5:21, the book ends:
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
I think you get the idea.
1 John is not written for the same purpose
as John's Gospel.
It's not written to unbelievers
that they might believe.
This epistle is specifically targeting
God's children.
It's not like James
You remember when David went through James?
I mean when I read James
I try to follow,
"Ok, is he talking to a believer here?"
"Is he talking to an unbeliever?"
When you were going through it, I always thought,
"How's David going to handle this?"
Because with James,
you're just not certain a lot of the times.
But there is no doubt with John in this epistle
who he's writing to.
There's no doubt whatsoever.
Now that doesn't mean the lost can't read it
and even, you know, perhaps get saved
through exposure to its truths.
But the principle audience
John has in mind are Christians.
Now there is a reason I am emphasizing this.
I emphasize this
because it helps us recognize
what's going on back up in 1 John 1:3.
When you hear this,
"So that you too--"
he's saying we "proclaim this truth
about this Christ whom we felt,
and heard, and saw.
We proclaimed this 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 don't want to imagine
that these words are aimed
primarily at unbelievers.
Listen.
1 John 2:13
"I am writing to you, fathers." Why?
"Because you know Him."
These are people that do know Him.
They do have some intimacy with Him.
Again in verse 13.
of chapter 2.
"I write to you children
because you know the Father."
There's some level of intimacy there.
Verse 14,
"I write to you fathers because you know Him
who is from the beginning."
Look, John speaks about fellowship
to these people much the same way
and in much the same manner
as he speaks to them about abiding in Christ.
You go to 1 John 2:28,
What does it say?
"Little children, abide in Him."
Now let's think about that truth,
"abiding in Christ".
Do you know that John tells us
in John 15
that if you don't abide in Christ
what happens to you?
"If anyone does not abide in Christ
he is thrown away like a branch and withers,
and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned."
Here's the truth:
does every Christian abide in Christ?
Yeah!
Well if they do,
I mean if that's part of the essence
of what it is to be a Christian,
why do you tell the little children
to abide in Him?
Brethren, that's just consistent with the way
Scripture operates.
Scripture all over the place,
gives us these indicatives, these truths.
This is the way it is.
And then it comes right around
and gives us the imperatives.
And it commands us to do the very things
that over here it tells us
will always be true of the Christian.
Over here it tells us to do those things
that are always true of the Christian.
That's the way it is.
"Little children, abide in Him."
And it's the same with fellowship.
John presses us into the inner circle
of this fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
Why?
Not because he thinks we are on the outside
of those windows out there looking in,
wishing, well, you know
we could have a part with the people of God.
That's not it. But because we, as Christians,
need to be pressed.
We need to be pressed to continue
more and more in this fellowship
and to dive further and further in!
In fact I want you to notice
what John says in 1 John 2:1.
Now we looked at it
but I want you to look at it more closely.
"My little children,
I'm writing these things to you
so that you may not sin."
Now notice three things about this verse.
First, again, who's John specifically writing to?
Believers!
"My little children."
Second.
What's his purpose for writing to them?
That they may not sin.
But third,
what are "these things?"
that he writes to them that they may not sin.
I mean if someone just got done writing
to you, and they just wrote
a couple paragraphs
and you're reading through the letter
from them to you
and you've read a couple paragraphs
and then you come to where it says,
"I'm writing these things so that you may not sin;"
it's pretty normal and naturally intuitive
to think that "these things"
are the things he just got done writing to you.
Now that doesn't mean that there's not application to the whole letter.
But certainly he's talking about chapter 1!
Chapter one is in view here.
And chapter one is about fellowship.
Listen, fellowship gets mentioned
four times in chapter one.
Fellowship with God is certainly a major incentive
to not sin, is it not?
Isn't fellowship with God
an incentive not to sin?
Maybe you're not making the connection.
Why is fellowship with God an incentive not to sin?
Well, obviously because sin is the major
disturber of fellowship with God.
But again, my point that I'm making to you
is that I want you to see that John
is addressing Christians in chapter 1.
He tells us that
by the very thing that he says in 1 John 2:1.
You know what John's doing?
He's coming alongside us believers,
in 1 John 2:1,
and he's encouraging purity.
I mean he's saying, "I'm writing these things..."
the encouragement to purity
is in the things that he's writing. But he says,
"I write these things to you that you might not sin."
Now yes, there may be failure,
and if so we have an advocate,
Jesus Christ the Righteous.
But we're to be pressing towards
more and more purity.
I'll tell you this,
fellowship with God
and purity go hand and in hand.
There's a real connection there.
Now, if we fail, there's blood.
If we fail, we can confess.
But they go hand in hand,
and he's encouraging purity and progress.
He's pressing us onward and inward
fighting to maintain fellowship,
striving to abide in Christ.
And so, I come to the question of the hour.
How is your fellowship with God?
That's the question that I want us to think about.
Every Christian ought to be able to say -
doesn't John say it so boldly?
He says, "Our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ."
I mean are we all able to say that?
Can we say that boldly?
Can you come in here today and say that,
"Yes! I know it!"
"That is my life!"
"My life is one of fellowship
with the Father and with His Son.
I know it!"
"Since I've been saved, that is true!"
That is normative of my life.
That is descriptive of my life.
That is true!
I see it!
Oh it's not where I want it to be!
Some days, I can't find Him the way that I want to find Him.
But as a rule,
I have walked with the Lord,
and I know what that is.
And it's heaven on earth.
It's as best as it gets here.
And the little bit that I've tasted
I would not turn back from the world."
Can you say that?
Can you say that dogmatically
like he says it?
Or are you seized by hesitation?
Does conscience hold back?
And look you know what I'm talking about here.
John hit on it.
We're not talking doctrine here.
We're not talking just the knowledge,
a head knowledge.
I'm not talking about whether you made it to church on Sunday.
I'm talking about this, can you say
"I walk with the Lord"?
Can you say that?
Are you walking with Him?
Jesus Christ died to purchase us
the privilege to walk with God.
That's what He died for.
That's what this is all about.
So let's think about this relationship with God.
Let's put our minds there.
Let's think about how we nurture this.
And I want to give you some thoughts this morning.
Maybe that's what we'll call it,
"Some Thoughts on Walking with God."
That's the title.
Here's the first point that I want to make.
Fellowship with God takes effort.
Look if I were to ask you this,
"Does God want your love?"
I mean you can think about the chiefest of all commandments.
Are we to love the Father?
Are we to love the Son?
Well, any of you that are married
for any amount of time,
you're past your honeymoon,
is love always easy?
I mean, fellowship with the Father
and with the Son is not automatic.
And it is not effortless.
Any relationship in this world
that has any sort of real depth or value
takes time.
And it takes effort.
I mean you answer this,
do good marriages happen spontaneously?
I hear "no's."
I mean does anybody raise their hand
and says, "yes mine happens spontaneously."
Della.
She's laughing, so I take that as a no.
There's effort there. Effort!
Look, you know what you know.
if you look over and you see a good marriage -
I mean it's good.
You can see, they are happily married.
You can be certain about this.
You can be certain that somewhere
in that good marriage,
you're going to find somebody
who's doing something to keep
that marriage close, warm, healthy.
Are you not?
I mean somebody in there
is working to communicate.
Somebody is working to keep
the kind of words and actions that tend
to cause distance.
They're working at that.
They're working to keep those things out of there.
They're going after them.
Somebody is committed to battling through hard situations
and hurt feelings and suspicion
and anger that crops up
and distrust and hostility and grudges
and resentment and offenses.
I mean somebody there
is making an effort.
And look, the thing is God regards Himself
as our Husband.
This is a relationship that we're in.
The Lord is our Husband.
Is this any different? Yes.
In some ways it is different.
He is invisible to my naked eye.
He is high and He is holy.
And He is lifted up.
And that is true.
But you remember this,
we have a personal God.
Scripture tells us He feels.
Scripture tell us He is sensitive.
That's what it tells us.
And I recognize that this is different about the relationship too,
one of us -
one of us is perfect.
And it's not me.
That's different.
And you know what that means.
It means that whenever my relationship with Him
becomes strained or there's distance,
it's never His fault.
It's mine.
That I know.
It's always my fault.
But it is a relationship.
And it's one that we have to work at and make time for.
Listen, any relationship in your life that's healthy,
you need to work at it.
And we need to work.
There's priorities.
This walk with the Lord needs to be a priority.
It needs to be something that we are giving thought to,
that we are giving our mind, our heart to.
There has to be a prioritization.
We must make choices
that nurture this relationship.
We must turn away from the things
that create distance between us and God.
Priority! Priority!
This takes effort!
This takes time!
There's going to be an exertion.
It doesn't happen for free.
Oh yeah you get into it for free.
But there's effort.
That's the thing we need to recognize.
There is effort.
Did James not say, "draw near to God."
God says that to us,
"draw near to Me
and I will draw near to you."
When you think about fighting the good fight of faith,
fighting the good fight of faith,
I mean one of the points of that fight
is just staying where we trust God.
That's what faith is all about.
We're fighting to trust Him.
We're fighting to keep our hope in Him.
We're fighting for that.
There's a battle in this.
You have all manner of enemies
that are moving at you
to distract you away.
And to take your time away.
And to take your eyes off.
To move you away from this relationship.
You've got to fight for this relationship.
A man will fight for his marriage.
We got to fight for this.
This is the chiefest of all relationships.
We've got to fight for it!
That means priorities in your life!
Is it a priority in your life?
You know, if you hesitated,
your conscience wouldn't let you say,
"Yes, I can boldly say
my fellowship is with the Father and with His Son!"
One of the reasons you may have hesitated
is because you don't have your priorities right.
And your conscience knows it.
Your walk with God is not what it ought to be
because your priorities are not what they ought to be.
Effort brethren!
Effort!
The second thing.
Worship and honor are essential
to this relationship.
Now John was telling us in the Sunday school about missions.
And he's calling us, you know, to give ourselves
to one another in love
and help encourage one another
so that we might see this church grow
and people being able to be launched forth.
But you just remember this,
missions is never the end.
Missions is not the goal.
What does God want most?
He wants our heart.
He wants our love.
He wants our worship.
This thing is about worship, by and large.
That's the chief thing.
Piper said it in his book on missions.
You know the reason we launch
off to those foreign coasts
is because there isn't worship there.
That's what we're after.
That's what we're longing for.
Now look, I want you to all turn to over to Malachi 1.
Some of you, you're familiar with this.
But I want you to see this,
I want you to feel this.
We're talking about
some thoughts on walking with God
and we're going to let the Lord Himself
speak to us about some things that,
to Him, are of chief importance
in this walk that we have with Him.
If you go to Malachi 1:6.
Watch this. Last book in the Old Testament,
if you're looking for it.
Right before Matthew.
"A son honors his Father
and a servant his master.
If then, I am a Father, where is My honor?"
God wants honor.
God deserves honor.
God is worthy of honor!
"If I am a master, where is my fear?"
Now you see, intimacy - yes.
But you need to remember this,
the one that we are in relationship with here
is God Almighty.
And there needs to be a fear on our part
and there needs to be an honor.
We are not equals.
"'Where is My fear?'
says the Lord of Hosts,
'To you, O priests who despise My name.'
But you say,
'How have we despised your name?'"
And you know what that happens to many of us.
If God could speak to you right now -
well, He can.
But if He did speak to you audibly
or in written word through a prophet
just like this,
He may say the same things about you.
"You despise Me."
And for many of you who do despise Him,
you would say, "Where do I despise Him?"
"Well, by offering polluted food upon My altar."
Now look, we offer sacrifices
as New Testament believers.
Our sacrifices are good works.
Our sacrifices are sharing what we have.
Our sacrifices are the praise of our lips.
You get many texts in the New Testament
that talk about the sacrifices that we offer.
But you say,
"How have we polluted you?"
"By saying that the Lord's table may be despised."
Now watch this,
"When you offer blind animals in sacrfice
is that not evil?"
Now here's the thing.
Here's a thing that I want you to see.
These priests were making the offering.
You say, you know, I do this.
I do that. I'm at church! Right?
I mean I'm there.
God looks at the quality
because the quality has a lot to do with
where your heart is.
He says, when you're offering
substandard sacrifices
God says, "Is that not evil?"
And He's looking for
an answer that you all know.
Yes, it is evil when you offer
substandard sacrifices to God.
"When you offer those that are lame
or sick is that not evil?"
Present that to your governor.
You know when I think about worship,
I think, oh, I want to be in my seat
when God's word begins to be preached.
I want to be in my seat
when they begin to sing His--
I want to hear from Him.
I want to be ready.
You know,
the problem with this whole setup here is
everybody that walks in late
you all see it.
And you know, the thing is
would you guys walk into work like that?
Offer it to your governor!
Offer it to your boss!
Will he accept it?
And I'm not saying
that whether you make it on time
is the pinnacle of all this.
But I can tell you this,
when somebody's walking with the Lord
and their heart - their heart is hungry,
Oh, I want to be there when the Word's opened up.
I don't want to miss any of it.
I want to be there when they sing. I don't want to miss any of it.
Where are your priorities?
You see this has to do with walking with God,
not just appeasing those who are watching.
But as what are you offering to Him?
What are you offering?
Are you giving?
And I know some are.
There's sacrifice.
But when you walk with the Lord,
He watches to see the qualtity.
Why? Because the quality matters.
Men, you come to this woman
and you say, "will you marry me?"
And then she finds out you got the ring from a pawn shop,
Is she going to be affected by that?
Well, some might not be.
But some might just be prudent,
"Well I'm glad he did that."
He saved a bunch of money,
now we can get into a house sooner.
Ask her first if that's ok.
But look, the reality is,
I mean he might as well say
not just your governor,
would your wife accept that?
I mean the truth is,
that we become negligent
with the way that we serve God.
We give Him the leftovers.
You wake up in the morning
and boy, the best part of your day,
and what do you do with it?
Well you wake up fifteen minutes before you got to be at work,
and so the best part of your day,
those first hours
you give to your employer.
Or you hit the weights.
Or you turn on the news.
Not all of you do that.
But are you giving God the best?
I mean when you walk with Him,
He's mindful of that.
You can see it right here in the Scriptures.
I mean He says,
"Present that to your governor,
will he accept you or show you favor?"
says the Lord of Hosts.
I mean, come on!
Don't give to God
what you wouldn't give to your parents!
Don't give to God what you wouldn't give to your spouse.
Don't give to God what you wouldn't give to your boss.
Or to your governor.
Don't do that!
God is worthy of your best.
Walk with Him this way.
He's says,
"For from the rising of the sun to its setting
My name will be great among the nations."
Do you all remember when David -
remember David did a foolish thing,
and he went and he numbered the people.
And you remember the prophet came to him and said,
"Well God sent me with a message.
David, you got to pick one of three bad things.
I mean you're either going to get
three days, three months, or three years
of some really horrible stuff."
And David said,
"I don't want God to turn me over into the hands of men;
let God do it."
And He brought three days of pestilence.
And you may remember what happened there.
In the end of that whole scenario,
he was to go to this man Araunah.
To his threshing floor.
Araunah saw him coming and said,
"I am coming and I have to build
an altar and make a sacrifice here."
And Araunah said, "David, it's all yours."
Do you remember what David said?
He said, "I will not give to the Lord
that which cost me nothing."
Are you giving to the Lord that which costs you nothing.
The lame thing,
You see when they brought the blind thing,
what did that say?
Well, it was the lamb they didn't want!
Don't do that to God? David wouldn't do it.
He was a man after God's own heart.
Imitate David in this.
You remember what was said in the days of Eli?
That God honors those who honor Him.
Just that's the second thing.
Worship and honor are essential to this relationship.
The third thing I would say.
Sin wrecks intimacy.
And here we might go back to 1 John 2:1
where it says, "My little children
I am writing these things to you
so that you may not sin."
Remember one of the things he's written to them
or he's mentioned four times
in that first chapter
which is clearly an emphasis to him
is he's talking to Christians
about fellowship with God.
It's the perfect thing to talk to God's children about,
who you want to encourage not to sin.
And why?
Is the danger that they're going to go to hell?
Perish forever?
Well, not for God's true children
who are trusting in Christ alone.
Who are clinging to His cross work
as their only hope.
For the true Christian,
sin - there's no condemnation.
And we have an Advocate.
That's what he's assuring us of.
But it ruins close fellowship and intimacy.
Brethren!
Throughout history, the men and the women
who have, among God's children,
who have had the privileges
to ascend that hill of the Lord
into the secret places
of God's most glorious manifest presence.
Brethren, throughout the age of man,
there have been those that had been invited
most closely into manifestations of God.
And I'll guarantee you this,
you're hard pressed to find
that it's ever been the spiritually sloppy.
We have too many professing Christians
who sin cheap!
You just sell it for a song!
Walking with Him.
Some of you need to stop and think
before you do and say the things you do and say!
You need to count the cost
of the intimacy with God
that's going to be lost
for doing those very things
that some of you do
and some of you say.
Brethren, we have to walk
recognizing God is sensitive.
Our sin hurts closeness.
And I know, the Lord is gracious.
And I know that there are times
that when we do stupid and foolish things,
and we are expecting Him
to turn His back on us
or to take the rod to us,
and He just lavishes us with hugs and kisses.
I know that, but listen,
the innermost regions of fellowship with God
goes beyond anything in this world.
It's glorious without description.
Those that have tasted of it
can barely put words together
to describe to other people.
But it's a very sensitive place to walk.
Very delicate.
Martin Lloyd-Jones,
I came across this,
I don't even know where I got this from,
but he said,
"The air here in this region--"
these innermost regions,
he said, "it's very pure and very rarified
and slight changes are immediately felt."
You know we can grieve God.
Ephesians chapter four warns us
against grieving the Holy Spirit.
Brethren you think about grieving the Spirit
We don't have a God who is
cold and indifferent
and distant and disinterested.
Brethren, grief.
You think about grief.
Who has the greatest ability to cause you grief?
I mean, you think about it.
If John happens to be walking over
somewhere in Mozambique or in Nepal,
and somebody, you know,
somebody just said,
"I hate you Christians!"
Well, John just shakes that off.
If his wife said that to him...
Who has the greatest ability to cause you grief?
And here we have God,
He's bidding us not to grieve Him.
The more one person loves another
the more the person doing the loving is affected by
any coldness or any distance
or any failure
on the part of the one who they're
extending their love to.
Brother. Sister.
Would you suppose that your sins
don't grieve God?
I mean do read that text and say,
"Well, that's for somebody else
it's certainly not for me when I sin."
Brethren, that's given to common
brothers and sisters at Ephesus.
People just like you and just like me.
I mean did Jesus not say -
speaking of His manifest presence -
He said this,
"I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
Who is that?
Well, "whoever has My commandments."
You see this is a person that's walking in truth.
This a person walking in righteousness.
They are walking in obedience.
"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them,
he it is who loves Me,
and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father
and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
Look, are you going to forsake
a closer walk with Him
for some cheap sin?
Is Jesus not making it clear
that our fellowship with God
is clearly impacted by our obedience?
I mean look, the doctrine of justification
is a wonderful doctrine.
But the reason some of you walk around
with a cloud hanging over your head all the time
is because you sin way too easily.
Yeah, the doctrine of justification is wonderful,
but if you're living an impure life -
you're regularly giving God
the off-scouring, the leftovers;
if you're walking like that,
brethren, it's not surprising
that you're not enjoying
the manifestations of God
the way others are.
I mean the more we humbly obey Him,
empowered by His Spirit,
helped by His grace,
the more intimate is our fellowship
with the Father and the Son.
I mean ask yourself this,
(incomplete thought)
Choices.
Sin.
Intimacy.
Do I want this empty, fleeting pleasure
of this sin, or do I want
the unsearchable riches
of what this fellowship
with the Father and with His Son
is going to be.
John tells in chapter 1
how this deeper walk with God
can become a reality.
What did he say?
He said, "Walk in God's light."
Bring all your words,
bring all your actions into the light.
Bring your sin into the light.
Be honest about your sins.
Confess them to God for forgiveness and cleansing.
But press on brethren.
Walking in the light.
Walk in the light.
That's where your fellowship with God is.
It's in the light.
And he says, "I write these things to you that you sin not.
Well, that's the third thing.
Sin wrecks intimacy.
Let's move on even into the realm
where we're not talking specifically about sin.
I would say fourthly,
beware of distractions.
Of course sin always hinders fellowship.
But so often our problem is not with sin.
It's with the things that are permissible.
And you remember how Paul said it.
He said, "All things are lawful," but what?
He said it various ways.
But what?
Not all things are profitable.
Not all things edify.
Not all things build up.
Beware!
Beware of the things that pull you
away from the Lord!
I'll tell you this, the devil
will happily have you doing lawful things
if it keeps you away from
intimacy with God.
Be sure of it.
Be sure!
How many professing Christians
squander precious time?
O brethren!
If we could have all the time
from every one of you that has been
spent foolishly in social media!
And we can just put it together
that precious time like gold
and take it back from Facebook
and whatever other things they got out there now.
They're just inviting new ones one after another.
They're just time absorbers for Christians.
How many professing Christians squander
that precious time spent with the Lord
not just on social media but
laying in bed!
Or, TV.
Or movies, music, and clothes,
and houses and gardens and yards,
and hobbies.
There's all this stuff that just chews up.
If you live a life
where you regularly make choices
allowing other things,
it just becomes a pattern.
You're making these choices.
Constantly making choices that crowd out
time spent with the living God
and in His Word,
and talking with Him,
and in meditation;
You're not going to grow closer.
You're not going to grow more intimate.
Brethren, the place where the glory comes;
the place of transformation,
Paul tells us is when you behold His glory.
And that doesn't mean,
oh, you wake up in the morning
and five minutes you're there
and then you're out.
That's all you gave God.
The best of your time you've given to the world.
You've given to other stuff.
You think that is just going to emblazon
the image of Christ on you?
No!
You do not have a quality walk with God,
any less then you can have a quality walk with a wife
if it's just five minutes.
That doesn't work.
Beware of the distractions.
Beware! Beware! Beware!
Brethren, if you can put on spiritual glasses
and but see and look with me
at the Song of Solomon.
Go back there.
Right after the Proverbs.
You have this Song of Solomon
after the Psalms
and after the Proverbs.
Like I say if you can put the spiritual glasses on,
did Christ not tell us
that Scripture is all about Him
and I believe the Song of Solomon
is not just a story about Solomon
and one of his earthly wives.
I believe that this is a picture,
as many of the forefathers
have down through history
believed that this is a picture
of Christ and His Church.
And if you look at the Song of Solomon 5:2
the church is saying this,
"I slept, but my heart was awake."
I mean this is a person who's thinking on Christ.
"...the sound;
my Beloved is knocking."
Christ has come knocking.
"Open to Me, My sister."
This is Christ calling out to the church.
My sister open.
I want even a greater closeness.
"My love, My dove, My perfect one,
for My head is wet with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night."
How the church responded,
with an excuse.
That's all this is.
"Well, I've put off my garment,
how can I put it on again?"
I've bathed my feet;
I'm going to get them dirty if I go on the floor.
And do you known what this moment
of hesitation cost her?
My Beloved put His hand to the latch
and my heart was thrilled within me.
I arose to open to my Beloved,
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
on the handles of the bolt.
I opened to my Beloved,
but my Beloved had turned and gone.
Brethren, there are times when the Lord
is bidding us to come.
You feel prompted to pray.
You feel prompted to get alone.
And you don't do it.
You know what?
It's not even that she didn't do it.
She did it.
She just took too much time
thinking about it.
Give yourself freely to Christ.
Oh, be ready when He prompts, to go.
To you who are young,
you're full of health and strength.
We need to stop and think.
What are all those things that you're trading
for time with Christ?
What are they? You tell me!
What real rest have they brought to your soul?
What real joy have they brought to you?
What quietness in your spirit?
What true satisfaction?
You know it. You know it as well as I do.
Their pleasures are fleeting
and they're quickly hollow.
But Christ is never that way.
He's truly satisfying.
Do those things that you trade,
I mean are they really fit
objects for your highest love?
Think about what you're giving your life to?
You're walking with God.
Christ bought us the privilege!
Don't squander this in idleness
and foolishness,
wasting your precious time!
I can remember reading -
I think Spurgeon tells this story
about a man who was in his eighties,
and he got converted.
Yeah, I think he got converted in a meeting,
and in the very same meeting
he just wailed.
Seeking to console him,
"You've been saved."
He just wailed because
he had wasted his life.
It was gone.
I mean Isaiah says it,
"Why spend your money for that
which is not bread?"
And I would say fifthly this,
prayer is vital to this fellowship.
Prayer.
Listen to this again in Song of Solomon.
If you're still there look at 2:14.
Song of Solomon 2:14.
This is Christ speaking to His church again,
"O My dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crannies of the cliff,
let Me see your face,
let Me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely."
It's like Christ is saying to His people,
"Don't go hide
in the cracks and crevices.
Come out and speak to Me.
I want to hear your voice."
I mean sometimes we feel like
oh, we can hardly pray.
All it is groans and sighs.
But Jesus is saying,
"Your voice to Me is sweet.
Come out to Me in all your weakness."
I mean, it's like a parent whose child
struggles to get these words out.
The child is not despised by his parents.
Christ is saying,
"Your sighing and groaning is sweet to Me.
I'm not going to mock at it.
I'm not going to mock at your weakness."
Look, you won't enjoy
the deepest of fellowship with God
unless you learn to speak
with your Beloved in prayer and praise.
I mean, brethren, we need
seasons of prayer.
We need seasons where we talk.
I would say sixthly,
God's Word is vital to this fellowship.
I mean you know this text well,
most of you, Isaiah 66:2.
Don't turn there. But God says,
"This is the one to whom I will look..."
who does God look to?
He looks to those who are
humble and contrite in spirit
and tremble at His Word.
Coming to His Word.
Trembling at His Word.
"To them I'll look."
That look of God.
That means He'll look on them with favor.
It means, it's a look that is very desirable.
It's not only that God needs to be hearing our voice,
we must hear the voice of God in our souls.
You're never going to enjoy fellowship with Him
unless your ear is trained to hear His voice.
It's in the Word, yes.
It comes from pulpits, yes.
We see that the Psalmist says,
"The heavens declare it."
It's in the creation.
God speaks to us by His Providence.
He speaks to us in creation.
He speaks to us through His preachers.
He speaks to us in His book.
He speaks to us in promptings of the Holy Spirit.
He speaks to us in conscience.
He's given Himself a voice
through many means.
We need ears,
not just that are trained to hear,
but take time to hear.
O, when you got all the noise coming!
That's one of the things
about all the technology today
it just bombs us with noise!
I would say seventhly, meditation.
Close, sweet communion with God
is kept up by meditation.
You remember there in Genesis 24.
Remember what Isaac was doing?
Here comes his bride-to-be.
And what was he doing?
He was walking in the fields.
Oh, if there is a time to walk in the fields -
sunrise and sunset.
Especially here in hot Texas.
But there's a time to get out.
I don't know, maybe not all of you need to walk.
But oh, walking outside is the place
for me to meditate.
I know
you know Charles and John Wesley's mother,
hers was under an apron.
The place isn't what's most important.
But Isaac was out there meditating.
Meditation is giving real time
to think and chew,
to contemplate God's works,
and His wonders, and His glory,
and His beauty, and what He says
in His word.
And what our needs are, our wants,
it's how He's working.
Meditation just rivets the mind
to biblical truths, and it brings
God and the soul close together.
Those of you that know something about meditation,
you know that's true.
Meditation tends to open our eyes
to the invisible glory of God.
Brethren, I'll tell you, there have been times -
Yes, you go in the Word.
Yes, you have some time in prayer.
But you walk and you walk,
and you linger in prayer,
and just communing with God
and meditating.
And you get into that
maybe a half hour, an hour,
an hour and a half
and suddenly God comes!
If you only did that for ten minutes
it wouldn't have happened.
Meditation, brethren.
Oh, Psalm 63:6, we read there today.
"I remember You upon my bed
and meditate on You in the watches of the night."
And I would end with this last point.
Number 8.
Christian,
Scripture says that you are God's garden.
That is a such a picture for fellowship.
If you're still there in Song of Solomon
I want you to turn to chapter 4.
Scripture describes you as God's garden,
which means it's a place He wants to come
and delight Himself in the beauty.
It's a place God delights to walk.
I mean, what this is
is it's God telling His people,
"I want fellowship with you.
I want to find the sweetness there.
I want to enjoy it.
I want to delight in it."
If you look at the Song of Solomon 4:10.
Look what Christ says.
Christ says this to His church,
"How beautiful is your love
My sister, My bride!
How much better is your love than wine
and the fragrance of your oils
than any spice!
Your lips drip nectar, My bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the fragrance of your garments
is like the fragrance of Lebanon."
He says this in verse 12.
"A garden locked is My sister, My bride."
And then you go to verse 16.
And the church says,
"Awake, O north wind, and come O south wind!
Blow upon my garden,
let its spices flow.
Let my Beloved come to His garden
and eat its choicest fruits."
And then you go to 5:1
and Christ responds,
"I came to My garden, My sister, My bride
I gathered My myrrh with My spice.
I ate My honeycomb with My honey,
I drank My wine with My milk.
Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!"
I just ask you this,
I mean this is a picture of Christ
wanting to come and enjoy
the delights of His garden.
We really need to see the Lord desiring that.
I think sometimes we have this distant,
austere idea.
We don't see God really wanting
this fellowship.
Desiring it.
So I ask you this, how you would you
rate your fellowship with God?
We're going to move on in 1 John after this.
But as we leave this topic,
at least for now,
how would you rate your fellowship with God?
Is it distant?
Is it sloppy?
Disrespectful?
Casual?
Is it close?
Is it precious to you?
I mean, can you really say that?
Walking with the Lord is precious.
How would you rate it?
Is it intimate?
Are you the sort of garden
where God comes looking for fruit
and He finds it?
Delights in it?
I mean this, brethren, this is heaven on earth
for the lover of God.
It really is.
And no matter how long
that you have been a child of God,
you've got to protect this.
You've got to make efforts at this.
This has to be a priority.
We all make choices.
We all have priorities.
We all get up in the morning
with the same number of hours in a day.
Those who walk close with God
have the same number of hours.
How do we spend them?
What are we doing with them?
You need to guard
your relationship with the Father
and with the Son
and with the Holy Spirit.
I mean brethren, ask yourself this.
Ask, "When was the last time
you had a sweet time with the Lord?"
Where your heart jumped because He came!
Oh, maybe it was overwhelming.
Maybe it was just that still, small voice.
He just came.
He thrilled your souls.
You felt your soul melt because His Word
came to you personally.
I mean, you know when that happens,
"He spoke to me!"
I mean you're in the Word and it's for me!
Or you're out in prayer and He comes and He says,
"I'm going to give you what you just asked."
And you know it!
Or you're just mediating on something
and suddenly you are so blown away by His glory.
And it's because His Spirit has come
and opened your mind
and your understanding
and just swept you away.
Brethren, when has that happened?
Look, I'm not talking about
knowing God in theory.
I'm not talking about
just knowing in theory that He loves you.
Do you personally drink the love
of the Father and the Son?
Manifestly?
I'm not talking about just
diving into the theology book.
Do you know this?
Brethren!
Do you know this?
I mean, we have a Husband.
Didn't He give us that picture in Hosea?
But we're like Gomer.
What a name! Gomer.
But we're like her!
I always think of Gomer Pyle.
It's like a ridiculous name.
But, Gomer.
She's unfaithful.
And Hosea is like Christ.
Brethren, He comes along to a bunch of prostitutes.
That's what we are.
That's what we were.
You'd say that's what
some of us are now.
That's what many of us were before.
Just prostitutes!
Just these unfaithful -
we were harlots.
We just gave ourselves freely
to our whoredom out there.
And He comes along
and He buys us off the slave block.
Is that not what He did?
He says, "I pay for you with My blood."
And now, I want you for Me.
I don't want you going and giving yourself
to all your other lovers anymore.
I want you for Me.
Brethren, that's a picture of the gospel.
That's what this is all about.
He wants us for Him.
He's bought us with a price.
Calls us to leave our other lovers
and surrender to His love.
To be that garden that He delights in.
If you all you ever heard is Christianity is
just be saved from your sin and saved from hell.
Brethren, this goes much deeper.
This thing is beautiful and precious to the uttermost.
Don't sell it for a song.
Brethren, priorities.
Priorities.
Choices.
May God help us.
Father, we ask for Your grace.
We ask for the power
of the Spirit of God.
Make this a reality.
Oh Lord, we know that you want us
to walk with you in worship, in honor,
in praise, in love.
We know that this is indeed the chief thing.
Giving our lives to You.
Giving ourselves entirely;
a sacrifice upon the altar of God
to be consumed
by Your fire of love for Your people.
Lord, I pray for the grace for this church.
That above all things
no matter what you do with us,
Lord, I pray,
pray that you would make this church,
at whatever cost necessary;
whatever you have to bring,
whatever fire to purify,
whatever comforts to help,
whatever is necessary, Lord.
I pray that You would make this church
what You want it to be.
Fruitful, beautiful in your sight.
Lord, spare us nothing
that you've given to your elect people
through the ages.
Spare us nothing
that will propel us forward
into these degrees of glory.
That will propel us forward
into a deeper intimacy
and knowing you with that knowledge,
that oh, that is so sweet and so valuable.
Help us, Lord,
we pray in Christ's name.
Amen.