Things That Hinder Fellowship | Part 2

Do you need to restore your faith to God? We are here to give you a very wonderful fellowship with God.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding. If you feel distant from God today, it could be due to sin. Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers said, our sins are the secret faults that cause moral earthquakes. When we're born again, God dealt with our sins judicially.

They were forgiven under the blood of Jesus, saved by grace through faith. But our fellowship with God can be strained if we don't deal with our day-to-day lives. First John addresses the things that hinder our fellowship with God.

If you have your Bible, turn to 1 John chapter 1 as Adrian Rogers shares more about the things that hinder fellowship. It is most likely sin. It is secret faults that cause moral earthquakes. And we're going to be talking today about secret faults, hidden sins. You know, the Bible is the only book in the world that has the answer to the problem of sin. And the way to deal with sin primarily, with specificity, is to recognize sin for what it is. We have a generation today that doesn't even like the word sin. The word sin is sin. Out of date about the only sin today is to call sin, sin.

We want to call sin anything. We want to call it a mistake, a misjudgment. But Jesus did not die for errors. He did not die for mistakes.

He did not die for misjudgments. Jesus died for sin. If you think that sin is merely a problem to be fixed, you're going to be looking for a cure rather than forgiveness and cleansing. You're going to try to compensate for sin or commiserate with sin. And that tells us how to deal with the sin problem and to have fellowship with God. Now, how does God deal with sin? Well, when I receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, when I repent of my sin, I trust Him.

I receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ. I am born again. And then as a result of that, sin judicially, judicially, now listen to the word, judicially, legally, is dealt with forever and ever. Hebrews 8 verse 12, merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more. When you get saved, every sin past, present, and future is buried in the grave of God's forgetfulness.

Now, you need to understand that. Now, that's the way God deals with us judicially. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. If God were to put one half of one sin on my judicial record, one half of one sin would be enough to damn me and do me forever. Therefore, I cannot behave my way into heaven. If I'm going to be saved, I've got to be saved by the grace of God.

You agree with that? Now, that's the way God deals with our sins judicially. But then how does God deal with our sins day by day? If I'm saved by grace and kept by grace, and no sin will ever be brought up against me anymore, and my sin is buried in the grave of God's forgetfulness, how does God deal with me, Adrian, day by day, when I'm proud or arrogant or when I tell a lie, when I exaggerate, when I have a lustful look?

How does God deal with me day by day? Not as judge, but as Father, as Father. Now, we're not talking about legal judgment, but we're talking about, in this chapter, God dealing with us in a parental way. You see, we have two vital relationships as a Christian. One is sonship. When I'm born into the family of God, sonship is established, and sonship will never change. But there's another relationship that can change, and that is called fellowship. Now, John here is not talking about sonship. John here is talking about fellowship.

Sonship is established by birth. Relationship, fellowship rather, by conduct. Now, what John is talking about here in this book and the forgiveness of sin and the cleansing of our daily sins, he's not dealing with us as judge, but he is dealing with us as Father.

This is the way that the Father deals with his son. For example, look, if you will, in verse 3, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. So he's not talking about judicial or legal forgiveness here. He's talking about parental forgiveness. Even as Jesus Christ taught us when he taught us to pray, our Father will give us our trespasses. You see, this is a family prayer. We're talking now about how to have fellowship with God. Many of you are saved.

How the Father convicts of sin. Notice in verse 5, look at it, 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 is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. Now, what he's saying is this. We're saying one thing and doing another. We are pretending here. And what he's talking about here is what I want to call the evolution of a lie.

Now, notice what he says here. Look at the next step here in verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. When you set out to deceive somebody else, do you know who you're going to deceive most of all? You are going to deceive yourself. And there are many of you who have begun to say to yourself after you've stonewalled God for a while and after you have moved in and out of the fellowship and nothing seems to happen, you still sing in the choir, you still teach the Sunday school class, you still are in the congregation, you still shake hands, you still buddy with all the people.

What do you say? Well, maybe it's not sin at all. Maybe I'm all right. Maybe it was just an error. Maybe it's psychological idiosyncrasy. Or maybe God doesn't call that a sin.

And maybe I am a pretty good fellow. And so you begin to smooth over your sin. And the second step in the evolution of a lie, first of all, we deceive others. Then we deceive ourselves. And then finally, we lie to God. We lie to others. Then we lie to ourselves. And then we lie to God. Look, if you will, here, down in verse 10. He says here, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Well, you see, when we call God a liar, we're the ones who's lying.

Isn't that true? Because God cannot lie. Now, when we do that, fellowship is completely broken. It is gone. We've stepped out of the light. We're over in the darkness. Now, how does God bring us back? Well, God will not bring us back unless we expose ourselves to the light.

You stay over here in the darkness, there will never be any conviction. But if you as a child of God will just step back into the light, God will shine the light of His holiness upon your life. And God will bring you under conviction. Now, it is very important, very important, listen to me, it is very, very, very important as a child of God that you learn the difference between Holy Spirit conviction and satanic accusation. Now, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. The Holy Spirit is the one who loves us and convicts us.

And so many times people do not know the difference between Holy Spirit conviction and satanic accusation. Now, the devil is very clever. Before you sin, do you know what the devil tells you? The devil says, go ahead and do it. You can get away with it. And after you sin, you know what the devil tells you? You'll never get away with it. That's exactly what he'll do. He will entice you to sin and then condemn you because you did. Oh, you can get away with it.

You'll never get away with it. That's accusation. That's accusation. Now, it's not the Holy Spirit of God. Let me tell you how the Holy Spirit of God convicts you. When the Holy Spirit of God shines that light upon you and there's nothing purer than light, God is light. And when the Holy Spirit of God, who is light, shines upon you, you will come under conviction as a child of God.

If you will just turn to the light of the light and face up to the light, he will pull the veil of darkness back of those lies that you've been telling others and telling yourself and telling God. He will expose that sin. Now, let me tell you how the Holy Spirit of God will convict you. First of all, the Holy Spirit of God will convict you legitimately.

Legitimately. Now, you say, what do you mean by that, Pastor? He will never convict you over any sin that has been confessed and cleansed. It is not the Holy Spirit of God doing that. It is the devil who is going back into your past, bringing up some sin that has been cleansed, forgotten, and put in the grave of God's forgetfulness, and he brings it up again. One man told his pastor, Pastor, I can't get peace.

Why? Well, I did a terrible, horrible thing. Pastor said, have you confessed it to God? He said, I've confessed it a thousand times.

He said, that's 999 times too many. Confess it once, praise him a thousand times. If it comes up again, it is the devil trying to bring you into double jeopardy, and the devil will accuse you of sin already forgiven and cleansed. The Holy Spirit will convict you legitimately.

He'll never come into your past and deal with something that's already been dealt with. And if that happens to you, you just tell the devil, I'm not going to take that stuff. Number two, not only will the Holy Spirit of God convict you legitimately, but the Holy Spirit of God will convict you.

Specifically. Now, if the devil can't go into your past and drag up something that's already been dealt with, the devil will just convict you vaguely, just make you feel bad, just make you feel unworthy, just make you feel no good. So many times you hear Christians pray, I know I'm just a poor, unworthy sinner.

Where'd you get that? You're not some poor, unworthy sinner. You're the righteousness of God in Christ. You're God. You're a prince and a king. You're next of kin to the Holy Trinity.

Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brothers. The devil wants to just make you feel that you're no good, that you're unworthy. You feel bad mostly all over. That's just accusation.

You don't have to take it. Let me tell you how the Holy Spirit of God will convict you. The Holy Spirit of God will convict you with specificity. If you do something and it has not been cleansed and forgotten and buried in the grave of God's forgetfulness, the Holy Spirit will say, hey, that was a lie you just told. Hey, Adrian, you were rude to Joyce just then.

No, yes you were. And he, like a good doctor, will put his finger on the sore spot and push. Does it hurt there?

Believe me, it hurts right there. See, that's the way the Holy Spirit of God does. With legitimacy and with specificity, he will convict you of that particular thing. That's Holy Spirit conviction. But not only will he convict you legitimately and with specificity, but he will convict you redemptively. Do you know what accusation does?

It discourages. Accusation drives you away from God. Accusation says, there's no way, woe is me, I'm done for. I might as well quit. I'm finished.

I've had it. Holy Spirit conviction says, here's what you've done. But if you come to Jesus, he'll forgive you and cleanse you and come on back into the fellowship you're loved. That, my friend, is the way that God convicts of sin. And you don't have to take this mess from the devil, who is the accuser of the brethren, who is accusing you night and day before the throne and is accusing you to your own face.

That dirty devil. Thank God for the precious Holy Spirit who is light. Now, we're talking about the conviction of sin. Let's say, let's talk a little bit more about the cleansing of sin. Once the Holy Spirit of God shows you this particular sin in your heart and in your life, and he does it now with specificity and he does it legitimately and not condemningly to draw you to Jesus. Now, notice what he says here in verse 9.

Take your Bibles and look at it. If, here's another if. You notice he says, if we say, if we say, if we say.

But now he says another if. If we confess our sins, not sin. Not stonewall God, not deny our sins. But if we confess our sins, he, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, notice this is not the judicial cleansing that we got when we were saved. This is talking about fellowship with God.

This is talking about God dealing with us as children. Now, we confess our sins. Now, the word confess is an interesting word. It is the Greek word homo legao, which means to say the same. To say the same. That's literally what the word means, to say the same.

Two words, one word meaning to say and the other word homo meaning the same, to say the same. A confession of sin is an agreement with God. It is saying with God what God says about that sin.

It is not just saying, well, I did it, okay. That's not a confession. That is an admission. A confession of sin is to say about that sin what God says about that sin. How should I confess my sin? I need to confess my sin.

I need to confess my sin immediately. If we confess our sin, that in the Greek language is in the present tense. It's not talking about something that you have done. It is something that you do. I looked it up in one translation and it literally says if we are continually confessing our sins. That is, it is to be a habit of our lives. You don't just confess your sins at the end of the day, much less at the end of the week. Much less during the annual revival meeting. If you get a speck of dust in your eye, when do you try to get it out at the end of the week?

No, immediately. Be sensitive to sin. Now, you know what many of us do? Many of us, we're down here living on such a low plane way down here. And then somehow we hear Adrian preacher, we'll get in a revival meeting or we'll read a book and we get right with God and we have, oh, we have a religious spasm. We're up here for a while and then that lasts about that time and we get down here. We're in the valley again. We're riding in the valley and then we come up again and then we're down again. Have you ever ridden that roller coaster? Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down.

Oh, yes, Lord. But most of the time you're down more than you're up. That's not the Spirit-filled life.

Get off that roller coaster. Let me tell you what the Spirit-filled life is. Let me tell you what the victorious life is. The victorious life is not living without any temptation, any fault, any failure.

We all sin. That's what John is telling us. But here's the victorious life. We learn the truths that we're talking about today. We get up here on a higher plane. We get right with God.

We're walking in the light. And when we're walking in the light, the minute we sin, the Holy Spirit says, you did wrong. That moment, what do you do? Confess it. That moment. The moment that happens. At that time, that moment, that selfsame moment, you confess your sin. Do it immediately. Nobody else may even know you've done it. I mean, you may be at the dinner table and said something or done something. You just say, oh, God.

In the name of Jesus, forgive me. He does. He does. You do it immediately. And number two, you do it specifically.

Specifically. You see, look, He says, if we confess our sins, not our sin, our sins, He puts it in the plural. We're not talking about the sin nature. We're not talking about the whole body of sin. We're talking about what you did particularly.

Call it by name. That's the whole body of sin. That's the painful part. You know, in these prayer meetings, they say, Lord, if we sin, forgive us. Lord, forgive us all our sins.

From my opinion, you're just wasting your breath to pray that kind of a prayer. I tell you, if you want to do business with God, you say, God, forgive me for reading that dirty book. I dishonored you. I dishonored my wife. I dishonored my own body.

God, I put filth in my mind. I'm so sorry, God. I shouldn't have done it. God, I won't do it again. Forgive me.

He will. Forgive me, Lord, for that lie. Forgive me, Lord, for that selfishness. Forgive me, Lord, for that pride.

You name it and nail it. Let me tell you another thing. You do it confidently.

Confidently. Look, if you will, in verse 9. He would be a liar and a crook. He would be unfaithful and unjust.

If you agree with God, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not some. All, all, all, all. A-double-L-all. You like that?

I do. Sometimes the devil tell you, you've done something so bad now you can't get forgiveness. That's a lie out of hell. There's no sin that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cleanse.

Listen. Listen to what the Bible says. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. That's verse 7. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I have that confidence. Thank God for the precious double detergent of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because not only does He forgive, He cleanses. He cleanses. He washes out the stain. He takes the inward part. It is gone. Forgotten. Washed whiter.

Then snow. Look in chapter 2, verse 1. Do you think because cleansing and forgiveness is by grace and all you have to do is ask for it, that God is just encouraging us to sin by writing this down? No, He's not encouraging us to sin. He is encouraging us not to sin.

Look at it. My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. He's not saying to sin. He's saying don't sin. But He says if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And that word advocate, that's just a fancy word for lawyer. I have a Savior who's interceding from me. And the Bible says He ever lives to make intercession for us, presenting His precious blood. Thank God for that. Hallelujah for that. And the Bible says and He is the propitiation for our sin and not for ours only but also for the sin of the whole world. That's the reason I don't believe in any limited atonement. He died for everybody.

Everybody. The whole world He died for. He is the propitiation for our sin.

What does that word propitiation mean? It means He's the satisfaction for it. He satisfies the demands of a righteous and a holy God and that's the reason He says in verse 9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Why? Because He is the satisfaction. He is the propitiation for those sins He died.

Thank God for that. But He isn't saying therefore just to be light and cavalier about your sins. You read on down there a few more verses. He talks about when we live with Him in us the love of God is perfected. A slave serves because he has to.

An employee serves because he needs to. A child of God serves because he wants to. I mean there's the love of God that God would save me to begin with and then cleanse me. Do you think that encourages me to sin? No, my friend. The desire of my heart is never to sin again. I mean never.

Never again. But if I sin, thank God I have an advocate and He's the propitiation for my sin. What a Savior that we have. You know it seems to me if people understand what we have in Jesus you couldn't keep them away with a machine gun.

But yet those stubborn hearts of so many people just stonewall themselves against God. John is saying in verse 4 chapter 1 I'm writing this that you might have fullness of joy. That you might have fellowship with God and fellowship with one another. The sweetest fellowship this side of heaven.

And what an encouraging word to end this powerful message. You know at Love Worth Finding we love hearing how this ministry and the messages of Adrian Rogers have inspired you in your faith journey. If you can would you go online to LWF.org slash my LWF story. You can submit your testimony. You can read others who have shared their stories with us. I think it'll be encouraging to you. We often select stories to be shared throughout our Love Worth Finding community and we'll always protect your privacy if you desire that. Let us hear from you today.

LWF.org slash my LWF story. Now if you'd like to order a copy of today's message request one by the title Things That Hinder Fellowship. Call 1-877-Love-God to order. This message is also part of the insightful series Sweetest Fellowship This Side of Heaven. For the complete collection all 11 powerful messages. Call that number 877-Love-God or go online to order at LWF.org slash radio.

Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding box 38600 Memphis Tennessee 38183. Has God convicted you of any sin in your life? Obey the Holy Spirit and confess your sins immediately specifically and confidently. He is faithful to forgive and cleanse you so that your fellowship with God will be restored. And join us next time for more from Adrian Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding. I thank God for how He has used this ministry to show me my lost condition and my need for a Savior. The way God has blessed Adrian Rogers with wisdom and understanding is hard to find. May God continue to broadcast and use Love Worth Finding to bring people to Christ and draw us close to Him. continue to broadcast and use love worth finding to bring people to Christ and draw us close to Him. Well, thank you for sending that powerful and encouraging word to us. We are continually inspired by your testimonies, your prayers, and your gifts. And to say thank you for your support right now, we wanna send you our God's Word Booklet Collection. How can you know the Bible is the Word of God? How can you keep your spiritual fire burning in the mundane times? This bundle answers these questions and more through the profound teaching of Adrian Rogers. Request the God's Word Booklet Collection when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVE-GOD.