How to Maintain Fellowship With God — Michael Durham

Father, we ask that You would look upon Your people now with divine favor, holy favor, gracious favor. You love us with an undying love. You've always loved us. And You have set us apart for Your own glory and pleasure.

Lord, we confess tonight our weakness. We feel so deeply our neediness. How do we please You? How do we honor? How do we glorify You? How do we lift up the name of our blessed Savior? How do we ever extol His greatness, tell of His magnificence, display His beauty?

Lord, we are not sufficient. Lord, I am truly incapable of doing so apart from You. But we have the hope and the promise that You have made us. Without me, You can do nothing. Abide in me and I abide in You.

And You said what You desire and ask, I will do that the Father may be glorified. Well, here's our desire that the heavens would open and we can see You and be transformed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.

In Your name we pray, amen. The text I pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us from is John's first epistle, chapter 1, verses 5 through 10. 1 John 1, verses 5 through 10. I want to speak on Christianity's certainties.

You could subtitle this How to Maintain Fellowship with God. 1 John 1, we're going to begin reading with verse 5. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with Him and 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 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's 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.

Christianity's Certainties and Fellowship With God

Tonight, I believe it is going to be a watershed evening for many of you. Those of you who are still lost in your sins, it is our prayer and firm belief in God that tonight some of you will see the beauty that you heretofore have never seen.

For those of you who have seen Him in His beauty and you have been captured by it, I believe for you tonight that you will never forget this evening because God will do things for you that you have prayed for, sought Him for, days, weeks, perhaps months.

That He will open your heart and your understanding to Christianity's certainties. Now, I don't say these things so boldly because I boast in me and my preaching. Oh no, not at all. My confidence is in Him that He is faithful to all His promises.

And He has promised His people, as we heard today, exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us. And He's at work here. He is here. I remind you once again, as I often do to most of my audiences, we are attended by royalty here tonight.

And it's not any of you, it's Him, King Jesus. And He loves you much and He wants to work in you. So, let me make a statement and spend the rest of the evening giving a defense and evidence for it. Here it is.

God's goal tonight for the rest of your life here and beyond this world is for you to rejoice in this fact that you are a sinner saved by grace. God wants that to be so central, so rooted in you so deeply that it revolutionizes your life.

Many of you will say, oh yes, I know I am a sinner, but I have also been sanctified. I don't know if anybody caught it last night, but our beloved brother Paul at one moment stopped and I can even see him in my mind's eye as he pointed and gestured and said, I am a sinner, present tense.

And I thought to myself, I'm sure at this moment there were a few squeamish ones here. Because some of you have come to the conclusion that you're no longer a sinner. You are a saint. You've been saved by grace.

You're a new creature in Christ. Old things have been passed away. Everything's become new. That's what you used to be. But now you are different. Well, that is true. You are a saint. You are a sanctified one.

You are one set apart, but you are still yet a sinner that needs nothing but grace. And my good news tonight is the God of all grace and comfort's here. Here to pour out that grace and comfort upon you.

So God's goal is that you can rejoice in that fact. There are four certainties about Christianity in this text that will fuel this joyous gladness in the grace of God to we sinners. These four facts are unchanging certainties on this side of heaven.

Three of the facts survive this world and are true in the world yet to come. The first stated here is that God is holy. Secondly, Christianity's essence is fellowship with God. Number three, John tells us that fellowship with God is based upon the death of our blessed Lord Jesus.

And fourth, Christians are light and yet there remains darkness in them. So let's look at the first one found in verse five. God is holy. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

God's Holiness and the Danger of Self-Centeredness

John starts with God and this is exactly where we need to begin tonight. American evangelicalism has run amok. It has changed the guiding theological star from God to man. God is our north star and everything rises or falls upon a correct knowledge and understanding of the Lord God.

Listen, dear child of God. I'm not talking at this moment to the lost individual but to the saved individual. All internal problems, not external, all internal problems flow out of a shift from God to you.

When a man becomes the center of his universe, that universe begins to heave and convulse until nothing is left in its created order. Life becomes something other than God's intended purpose and this compulsion to make everything about us still is in us.

Still there. And it hasn't left the church world or the Christian. It's still there. Well, you say, you're preaching to the wrong crowd. We already know that. We've understood that a long time and we've come out of that kind of evangelicalism.

We've come to see that God is the center of all things and our worldview has shifted from a man-centered view to a God-centered view. And so you are wasting my time now. Well, I dare say while your theological world has had a conversion, there's still this tendency to drift to self-centeredness.

There is within each one of us this constant pull to make ourselves the focal point of life. And you must not, listen carefully, you must not be so foolish to assume that your theological accuracy has translated into real experience.

Martin Lloyd-Jones said he spent half of his time in ministry trying to persuade people that doctrine was essential. And he spent the other half of his time in ministry trying to prove to people that doctrine was not enough.

I wouldn't give a dime for theological accuracy without experiential reality. But oh, the price of theological accuracy with experiences far above rubies and precious gold. That's what we need. That's what God saved you for.

So I want you to listen to your heart. Listen to what it says when challenges come, when life is disrupted with undesirable interruptions. What does it say to you? What do you think and say? Do you complain?

Why do you complain? Isn't it because like Israel of old in the wilderness, you feel you deserve better? What is that? Huh, self-centeredness. Do you worry? Does anxiety settle in like a cold front, chilling your heart and freezing your faith?

What is that? Well, it's self-centeredness. You see, you don't have the supply or the resources to confront your circumstances. Your resources are not enough to resolve the problem and now you're frightened.

Your eyes are on yourself. If you were looking to your elder brother, nothing could bully or intimidate you. If you were looking away from yourself to him, he would keep your heart at rest and your nerves steady.

Let me ask you another question. Is the Lord the center of every thought? Meaning, does every thought that strays in and out of your mind connect itself to Christ? Does those thoughts find its way to Christ or do they leave the mind strained from being stayed upon Jehovah?

Do you see what I mean? Every one of us has this constant battle dealing with this internal natural pool from self. Oh yes, many, if not most of us here tonight have God as our theological center, but that's where he remains in our theology books and in our confessions.

He's not the burning sun with which everything in our life revolves. So that's why I say we start with God tonight and why the apostle John starts with God when writing to saints. And what is the first thing John says about our God?

What is it? He's light. Again, verse five, this is the message. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. John ascribes the message to Christ. He summarizes our Lord's ministry and said this is what we learned from Him whom we handled, whom our eyes saw.

God's light. Now what does he mean when he says God is light? Well, he doesn't mean that God is a luminary, although He is. John's not referring to the fact that God gives forth light, although He does.

He's not talking about how many lumens God shines. He's not talking about some abstract idea of light shining, no. In the Greek grammar, when you do not have the definite article as the word light does not have, it speaks to the essence and the nature and the character of the thing that it's describing.

So therefore, John is describing to you and me the very essence of God, the nature of God, the character of God. He's telling you that God is holy. That's what he's saying. He's speaking of God's moral character.

God is holy and this is the way God is introduced from Genesis to Revelation, is it not? Think back to when Moses was confronted by this holy God. As the bush burned and was not consumed and Moses drew near and what did God say to him?

Do not draw near. Take off thy shoes from off thy feet for the ground wherein thou standest is holy ground. God is holy. God is separate. He's far above us. Oh yes, He shines with the brilliance that exceeds the noonday sun.

Yes, He is beauty so glorious that even the winged seraphim cover their eyes with two wings that they dare not look upon the glory of He who sits on the throne. Yes, if He was to appear right now, our bodies would begin to tremble and melt, disintegrate.

But He's not talking about some manifestation of light. He's dealing with who God is. God is holy. When He appears to Isaiah and that harmonic chorus of angels began to sing, what was their song? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

And as a result, Isaiah literally felt his body coming apart. Woe is me. Do you remember when Peter saw the light? They'd fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus tells them to go again. Go right, right back where you've been fishing and caught nothing.

And when the light of Christ was displayed, Peter saw it and what was his response? Do you remember? Depart from me for I am a sinner. Oh Lord. A few short years after that, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee named Saul was on his way to Damascus.

He saw the same light of the glory of Jesus Christ. He fell to the ground and what did he exclaim? Lord, what will thou have me to do? Now listen carefully, especially you who are not Christians. I don't mean that in a derogatory way.

It's just a fact. You're not a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Until you feel your lostness, you cannot be saved. Until you feel your lostness, I didn't say you know you're lost. I said until you feel it, until it is palatable, until you know it, you will never be saved.

One of the most shocking days with my youngest son was a day when I asked him, said son, what's God doing in your life? Here was his answer. Dad, I know I am a sinner. The Bible says I am. You tell me I am.

I know I am. But dad, I don't feel like I am a sinner. Do you know what happened to dad that afternoon? I began to become so frightened that I could not give God rest until He saved my sons. Why? Because I, for the first time, was confronted that my sons were going to hell.

All of those prayers that their mom and dad had prayed, the presumption that one day God would save them was now gone, evaporated. Why? Because God was not doing anything with him. God had abandoned him to his own self-righteousness.

It was the most frightening place to be. And dear friend, if that's where you are tonight, you cannot feel your sin, then please cry out to God and ask Him to make you to know it. Make you to know it.

I don't know much about conference decorum, but I would suggest if that's you tonight, you ought to be on your face on this floor right now, begging, I mean begging God. Because if God doesn't intervene and make you to know how lost you are, He's already starting judgment, the work of judgment.

We heard that last night. Maybe a little illustration might help. It's a poor one, that's all I come up with is poor ones. Many years ago, when I used to deer hunt, a friend of mine went out in the afternoon hunt to a place where he had leased many, several acres, all basically wooded acres.

In the mid-afternoon, he took me to deep into the woods. My European friends would call it a forest. And it was certainly that, it was everywhere, trees. And you know trees, they all kind of look alike.

But I carefully noted the path in which we went into the woods because I knew it was gonna be dark when I had to leave. And I tried to find any kind of landmarks that would help guide me out when the hunt was over.

Well, it was an uneventful day, like most of my hunting days were. And it's now 30 minutes past dark and I have to quit and come down out of the tree. And I gather my equipment and I said, okay, hmm, I think I'm pretty sure I know which direction to go and I start.

After five or 10 minutes, now it's even darker. There was no moon that night. It was pitch dark and in the middle of the woods, it's even darker. And at that moment, all the trees look alike. Even with my flashlight, I could not discern anything that I had seen coming in.

And well, I wasn't too panicked about it. I wasn't too alarmed. I thought, well, I've got a good sense of direction. I know which direction the truck is and we were supposed to meet at an appointed hour.

So I continued walking in the direction I thought I was supposed to go. Another five, 10 minutes. I should be at the truck by now, but I'm not. Hmm, something's not right. I guess I made a wrong turn somewhere.

But I once again believed that I could find my way out and I proceeded. After about 15 minutes of this, I had discovered I'm going in circles. It's true, it does happen. Now, I had one recourse. I had a walkie talkie.

My friend had a walkie talkie and I thought, well, there's no problem. I'm not lost. I can get out. I can find my way. And once again, I proceeded. And after another 10 minutes, now I know I've got a problem.

What if he comes looking for me and I'm not anywhere near where I was or where he thinks I am? And okay, I've got the walkie talkie, but what if his batteries are dead or mine is dead? So I checked the walkie talkie.

Now I continue for another 10 to 15 minutes and now it's getting very cold and my mind just kind of starts working with me. All I could see was the newspaper, local pastor freezes to death, dear honey.

But I still wouldn't pick up the walkie talkie until after another 10 minutes. I think, what if I'm a mile away and he'll never find me? And about that time, I reach into the pocket to get the walkie talkie.

And there I see a flashlight coming towards me. Walkie talkie goes back in the pocket. I'm right there, I'm almost there. I'll be right there just a moment. Now I know that's lighthearted, but I don't mean it to be lighthearted.

The application's real simple, isn't it? It's real clear. What kept me from reaching to the walkie talkie after the first five minutes, recognizing I'm probably lost? Pride. It's all it was. I didn't want to be seen as incapable of finding my way through the woods.

I wanted to be my friend to think that I was a good woodsman and it was pride. But what caused me to reach in my pocket finally and reach for the walkie talkie to call for help? What was it? I'd come to the conclusion that I was lost and I could not find my way out.

Friends, until you know your state before God, you will not look to Him. You say, but I don't feel lost. What criminal would dare to argue before the judge? Well, judge, I may have committed serial murders, but I don't feel guilty.

I felt like they all had it coming. What would he do? What kind of defense would that be? My friends, it would only make his crime more reprehensible. It would cause the judge to want to throw the book at him and give him the maximum penalty because he shows no remorse.

And so here you sit before God and you say tonight, I don't feel like I'm lost. I don't feel guilty. I don't feel like a sinner. My dear friend, do you realize the blasphemy that you are committing against God?

Telling Him that somehow He's impartial, He's unfair, that He's picking on you. He's picked you out and He's decided to deal with you in a very unfair way. No, God is light. And in Him, there is no darkness at all.

He does not play favorites. He does not wink at sin. He cannot do that. He is absolutely pure, moral excellence, par excellence. He is virtue and everything good. He must deal with you. You cannot win your way into His favor.

Fellowship With God as Christianity's Essence

God is holy and we start here because the gospel always begins with bad news. Good news always has to start with bad news. Number two, Christianity's essence is fellowship with God. I want you to look at verse six and two things I want you to note about this verse.

First, Christianity is at its core, restored fellowship with God. Look at verse six. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Do you see the phrase, if we say we have fellowship with Him?

Look at now verse seven. He continues this theme. But if we walk in the light, as He's in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

This is something He is continuing, which He started in verse three. Look at verse three. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Don't misread John. He's not telling you that, listen, if you accept our message that you and I can have some great times together in the Lord, we'll have some wonderful fellowship. That's not what He means, although that is a byproduct.

No, He is saying, if you believe the message that I give you, then you too can have the same kind of fellowship that I and the other apostles enjoy. Think of it. You can have the same kind of fellowship with God that John had, the Beloved.

Now, some of you don't believe that or you would be shouting right now. Your face would betray your heart and show joy. You can walk as close with Jesus as Paul the Apostle or Peter. That's what the text is saying.

You can have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Do you have fellowship with God? Do you enjoy God? Are you intimate with God? Is God the desire and the panting of your soul?

Do you have fellowship with God? We didn't ask you, are you right with God? That's not what John is saying here. He is saying that rightness with God is fellowship. Fellowship divine. It's more than being rightly related to God.

You know, I can be rightly related to someone but yet not have a relationship with that person. This is relationship language. It's the essence of what Christianity is. God saved you that you and He might be intimates.

What is the terrible penalty of sin? What is the terrible penalty of sin? And most evangelical Christians answer hell. Eternity lost without God. No, it isn't. What happened to Adam the day he sinned?

God said the day that thou eatest the fruit thereof thou shalt surely die. But Adam lived to be 930 years old. Was God threatening and didn't keep the threat? No. The moment Adam partook of the forbidden fruit something cataclysmic happened to him.

Something internal took place. His spirit was ripped from the spirit of God. And spiritual death took place. He was a walking dead man. And physical death was the result of the spiritual separation between he and God.

And eternal death is the ultimate spiritual death. To be absent of any good, any kindness, any grace of God. So friend, when Jesus died on the cross He did not die just to forgive you of your sins so that when you close your eyes in death you can awake in heaven.

He died that you here tonight, tonight, might know Him. As the word know is biblically used. It's often used between a husband and wife and the most intimate physical union. Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore a son.

Joseph did not know Mary until after she had delivered her first born son. What is he talking about? He's talking about intimacy. Just not knowing somebody's name or a few things or facts about them. No, God hangs on a cross so that you can climb into His heart and enjoy the rivers of delight that flow from that heart.

That's why you've been saved. Is that the passion? Is that the pursuit? Notice John parallels fellowship with God with practicing truth. Again, verse six. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

So John is equating fellowship with God with practicing truth. Now what does this word practicing the truth literally translated? I have to tell you all of your modern translations really are not as accurate as they could be.

In this case, as we were talking about this afternoon, the King James actually nails it on the head. It literally means do not the truth. Do not the truth. Yes, it means to live accordingly, to practice truth.

But there's a reason why I bring out this fact tonight. It's because this is common language to John. John says something like this in his gospel, chapter three, quoting our Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter three, beginning with verse 19.

You'll want to follow along. I'll be reading through verses 19 through 21. And this is the condemnation, said Jesus, that the light, here we are again with the motif of light and darkness, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

Don't forget this verse. It will come up later in the message. Men don't like the light because they're evil. And then he says, verse 20, for everyone practicing evil hates the light, does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.

But verse 21, here it is. Here's our word. He who does the truth, does. That's the same word in 1 John 1. Does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.

Now, what is this? At first sight, we could conclude that John is simply repeating another often repeated phrase, he that loveth me keepeth my commandments. That this is nothing more than legal adherence to commandments.

And if you do that, you keep the commandments, then you are in fellowship. You're doing the truth and therefore in fellowship with God. But that's not what he's suggesting here. Yes, commandments ought to be obeyed, but he's going deeper.

Listen carefully. This is not about obedience, outward obedience to commandments or regulations. This is dealing with your relationship to the truth. It's a little deeper. What's your relationship with the truth?

To see this, I want to take you back to the Old Testament, to Genesis 47. In the Greek Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures, our same word for do is right here in this text.

And I want you to see it. Genesis 47, 29, bear with me. No, this is a little technical, but you just prayed that you wanted to hear the word of God. This is the word of the Lord. Jacob's about ready to die, calls his son Joseph to him.

In the time drew nigh, Genesis 47, 29, that Israel must die. And he called his son Joseph and said to him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me.

Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. Do you see the words truly with me? That's the word, do the truth. It's the same word. Deal truly, to act faithfully, to act honorably, to put it in the negative. Don't be dishonest with me, Joseph.

Please keep your word. Deal truthfully with me. And so what this means, to do the truth or not do the truth, is describing your relationship to the truth. Do you love it? Do you desire it? You see, John is telling us that he who has fellowship with God, does the truth.

He loves the truth. He seeks it, he follows it, but more than this, this legalistic adherence to commandments. No, he comes to the light. He doesn't attempt to deceive himself or others. He deals honestly with his own soul, as well as with God and with others.

And he's willing, listen carefully, he's willing to know himself. And he aims to know himself. He desires to know the true state of his heart before God. That's why he comes to the light, said John, in John 3.

He comes to the light so that his deeds can be exposed as if they're from God or not. Why? Because that's what he wants. It's what she wants. He comes to the light to see what he does is by the power of God or not.

One of the questions that came up this afternoon, which I'm glad I didn't have to answer, was what about regrets? I'll tell you one regret. Preaching sermons. One of my biggest regrets. Looking at this time.

Looking at this sacred desk. Pumping out another sermon because it's Sunday again. Going through the motions. Preaching the truth. Not deviating from what the text means, but without the power of God.

I want to come to the light because I don't want to preach that way anymore. I despise this desk without God's help. And so the only way for me to be truthful with myself, I've got to go to the source of light so the light can expose my heart.

You need exposure tonight, church. Christians, children of God. We are to be lovers of light if we're lovers of God. If you want to walk with God, if you want to be intimate with God, you've got to be honest and transparent and open before God.

That's what He's saying here. There's a love of the light that translates into a transparency. He knows this. Are you listening? Say amen. If your neighbor didn't say amen, slap them a little bit and wake them up.

This is awesome truth. The child of light walks in the light because He knows an open heart means open communion with God. That's the fuel. That's the motive. It's not legal adherence. He or she loves the light because that's where God is.

Brother Michael, please. Brothers, would you come? Let's lay hands on our brother.

Christ's Death as the Basis of Fellowship

Let's continue. Is the passion for Christ still there? And most of us would say, I've talked to many of you these last few days. It's not what it once was. It's not there like it used to be. It's not there like it once was.

Well, here it is. You need the light. You need to come into the light. How many of you will die with heads filled with theology, but hearts empty of God? Number three, fellowship with God is based upon the death of our blessed Lord Jesus.

Look at verse 7. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now what does John mean if we walk in the light as He is in the light?

It simply means we live in the light of His holy character, meaning, namely, we're in agreement with God. It also means that we are in proximity, close proximity to God. God is light. He's in the light.

You're in the light. That means you are with Him. And the prophet's question, Amos' question comes to mind. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? And this word agreed will come up in verse 9.

This is what he is saying, that you are where God is and there's where your heart is. There's where you want to be in proximity. You want to be close to Christ. This is what revival really is. Revival is about returning.

Returning to first love. To have the heart that we once had. We're not necessarily talking about butterflies and emotions, although true faith in God will always produce the correct corresponding biblical emotions.

But that's not the concern right now. The concern is, are you in close proximity with God? How can you walk in light of God's blinding, staggering, sin-exposing, evil-quenching light? How do you do that?

Because again, God is light. He is holy. I'm not. How can I walk with God and be in His light and still have sin? And so the question comes, doesn't sin disrupt fellowship with God? How can we have, quote, present tense sin and still be in the light?

Look at verse 7, the last part. 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 cleanses us from all sin. Present tense. How can you walk in the light and there be present sin?

Your sin deserves the wrath of this holy God, right? And we ought to die for we are the guilty. Therefore, the knife of sacrifice ought to be plummeted deep within this heart, this corrupt heart. There's only one penalty for sin and it is death.

The soul that sins, it shall surely die. But here, the text draws our attention to the death of another. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son. These words are synonymous with our Savior's death. Jesus' blood was shed means He died.

And His death has continual effect. So what does that mean? Let me give you a biblical illustration. It's the same truth of the Passover lamb. For the Hebrews in bondage in Egypt, for that bondage to end, a new life had to begin and a life had to die for that new life to start.

For those whom the Paschal Lamb was slaughtered, they lived and they left Egypt. For those whom there was no death, they died and did not escape Egypt. So here's the fact. If you have had death, you have a death, you live.

If there's no death, then you die. That's what the Passover was all about. Listen carefully. Christ, the Holy Lamb of God was killed for us and in our place. Yes, we have a death. You say, once again, I know that.

Most of you don't. If you really possess the death of this dear Savior, you would not wallow in condemnation like many of you do when you sin against God. It tells me you don't understand. You've been given the death of the Son.

You have a death. Therefore, you can live. Blood has been shed. A life has been sacrificed on your behalf. It's not your life, it's His. Therefore, live. But I want you to look at the one who's bleeding on the cross.

It's truly the Holy One. It's the thrice-holy God who's hanging on that cross. God is light. God is holy. There He is on the cross. God who angels covered their eyes lest they look upon Him for they know they do not deserve to do so.

Now, now the sun closes its eyes and it will not look upon the greatest crime ever perpetrated. It's almost a shame to shine. The great light of a midday sun grows dark as the light of the world, Jesus Christ, and that life was snuffed out by the hands of cruel men.

But even though darkness settles on the sacrificial mount, we must do all that we can to do our best to look and see Him there on Calvary this evening. That's what I prayed for last night, the day before tonight, that God would help you climb Mount Calvary's rugged terrain and look upon Him who died for you.

I'm not trying to be melodramatic. I'm trying to present before you and ask Him the Holy Spirit to make it real. Why is He nailed to the tree? What crime did He do to place Him on the cross? His accusers said He made Himself equal with God.