Thanks Be to God for His Gift of Salvation — Oswald J. Smith

And Father, we give Thee thanks that the impossibilities that we see are possible with Thee. We are a thankful people for Jesus Christ and for His love and for the privilege of being here this morning.

And we pray that You would bless this service, bless Dr. Smith as he delivers the message, and Father, most of all, may Thy Spirit show forth the glory of Jesus Christ. For it's in His name we pray. Amen.

Would you take your hymn books, please, to a thankful people singing number 126. Number 126. It's our prayer time when we bring the needs of our church to the Lord and when we particularly remember our sick ones.

Now, you will know that on our notice boards we post the names of those who are sick in hospital and we urge you to go and look at that list and take some of them to your heart and remember them in prayer.

We'd like you to especially pray for Mr. Jack Vince in Wellesley Hospital and Mrs. Kunze in the Toronto General Hospital. And then we need to remember Mr. Blake Allen, whose wife went to be with her Lord last week.

And now shall we just unite our hearts in prayer. Our loving Father, we just thank Thee that we come so boldly into Thy presence, into the presence of a living, eternal God, Creator of heaven and earth, and yet with the same time as our Father.

And we ask Thee, Lord, for these who are sick, that Thou would be very near to them and pour Thy healing virtues into their body. We pray, our Father, for the one who is bereaved, that Thou would be very near to him and especially dear to him at this time.

And may he rejoice in the wonderful salvation into whose fullness his wife has just come. And then, our Father, we bring to Thee the ministry of our church. We think of this time of Dr. Paul. We ask Thee that Thou would enable him and endure him with power from on high.

We ask Thee, Lord, for our own service here, that Thou would bless our founders, He brings the word from Thee, that our own hearts would be prepared to receive it. Then we bring to Thee our ranch, our Sunday school, our day school, our missionary effort.

Lord, all these things we commit to Thee. Most of all we pray, Lord, that in our own hearts the Lord Jesus would become increasingly precious and that He might have the preeminence in all things. We pray for our country.

We ask Thee, Lord, if it please Thee to preserve its unity and to give great grace and wisdom to those who deal with these affairs. For we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

I want to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Thanksgiving Sunday service of the People's Church.

We have a lot to be thankful for today. First of all, I guess we can thank the Lord for being dry in a dry auditorium. No one has drowned, I trust, this past week. But we praise the Lord for what He's done for us.

And I think we ought to be—there are those this morning, I'm sure, that we're all aware that are suffering from the moisture. And we ought to pray for those that God will undertake for them at this time.

Now we want to draw your attention this morning to the bulletin that's put in your hands for your convenience so that you will know what's going on in the church day after day throughout the days of this week.

There are a couple things that I want to draw your attention to. Of course, we do not have time to go into detail this morning. But in the bulletin was a talent survey that we would like all of you, if you were not here last Sunday and did not fill one out, if you'd take just a moment now to take it and to fill it out and then to put it on the offering plate as it will be coming around just in a few moments.

But if you can help us in one of these areas—in music, in Sunday school, in the bus ministry, in the upkeep of the building and the premises here—or if you are of a profession that you feel from time to time that you could volunteer some of your work, we'd appreciate knowing about it.

Please make sure that you fill in the bottom quite completely—your name, phone number and address—so that we can get in touch with you whenever the need arises. This will help us so much here in the People's Church as more and more we're depending upon our own people to help keep the work going.

Now the big announcement, of course, this morning is tonight's service. At 7 p .m., Dr. John D. DeBrine will be beginning the October Sunday evening evangelistic crusade. Throughout all the Sunday evenings of October, Dr. DeBrine will be here speaking and then showing a film each night as well in connection with his message.

Now tonight, Dr. DeBrine will be speaking on the subject, Tragedies That Are Guaranteed. Now I'm not sure just exactly how you could take that, with the exception if you did read in the bulletin, you would understand exactly what he means by that.

Tragedies that are guaranteed. Everyone, Dr. DeBrine tells us, faces six tragedies in life. I for one will be interested in finding out what those tragedies are so that I can overcome them or stay away from them, if possible.

It doesn't sound like I can stay away from them. Did you hear about the man one time who said, you know, I would give $10 ,000 just to find the place where I was going to die? The fellow thought that was rather strange and he said, well, why on earth would you give so much just to find the place?

I would think you'd be more interested as to when the date would be. And the fellow said, well, if I knew the place, I'd never go near it. Well tonight, in order to help you with these tragedies, you must know what they are, first of all, and then secondly, Dr. DeBrine will be telling us how we can handle them to the glory of God.

And that's tonight's service, along with the message, of course, we'll be showing a film entitled Disaster. And the film tells about a young man who was born blind. But in spite of all this, how he was able to deal with the problem of blindness and today, along with that tragedy, they tell us he water skis, rides a bicycle, and plays basketball.

But more important, he's in full-time Christian service. That should be an exciting film tonight. And all of this is at 7 p .m. right here in the auditorium of the People's Church. And connection with that message, and I'm not sure just exactly what the connection is, but we're having a film entitled We Saw the Ark.

Now, in my strongest imaginations, I can't make a connection there. But we all have been blessed, I'm sure, right here in the auditorium of the People's Church in months gone by, of the Search for Noah's Ark.

And this is along this line, and I'm sure it will be a real help and blessing to you. If you know someone who is a little bit skeptical about the Bible, the miracles of the Bible, and what have you, then this would be a great time for you to bring them next Sunday night at 7 p .m.

That's all the announcements we want to remind you with this morning. We're going to ask the men, if they will, to come forward at this time as we wait upon you for your Sunday morning offering and gifts unto the ministry of God here at the People's Church.

How thankful we are for what God is doing in the ministry of this church. By His mercy and His grace, we don't often understand why or how, but God does it. And if you want to have a part in the blessing during these days in particular, if you have some of God's money, then get in on the action.

Have a part at least in this much of it, and I know God will bless you for it. But shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Our loving and most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the manifold blessings on this Thanksgiving Sunday that Thou hast poured out upon us this past twelve months.

Lord, we realize that it's all been of Thy mercy and of Thy grace. We do not deserve all the blessings that Thou hast given to us, but we praise Thee and we thank Thee for it. And Father, on this day, we pray that Thou wilt help us to lift our hearts and our voices in adoration and praise and thanksgiving to You, for not only what Thou hast done, but who Thou art, and the fact that Thou art still the Savior of all those who come to trust Thee as their own personal Savior.

Father, speak to hearts today, we pray, in Jesus' name and for His sake, Amen. Thank you choir very much, and David Williams, can you relate to the message of that song? I hope you can this morning. I've been thinking of here of what all we have to thank God today for, and not the least of which, and probably the greatest thing of all, is to thank God for saving our souls.

And I wonder this morning, just before Dr. Smith comes to bring us the message that God has laid upon his heart, that you'll take your hymn books and turn to number 50. Number 50, and with hearts full of joy this morning, and thanksgiving and praise unto our God.

Salvation Through Jesus Christ

Let's sing this gospel song, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Shall we stand together and sing verses 1 and 2, please? Thank you. Shall we be seated? And will you turn with me to the first epistle of John, a little bit after Hebrews, a little bit before the book of Revelation.

John's first epistle, and the first chapter. Now, I know this is Thanksgiving. I realize that perhaps we ought to have an entire sermon on the thankfulness, the gratitude of our hearts for all that God has done.

But I think the greatest thing for which we can thank God is his salvation provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, I'm going to speak along that line this morning. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.

God Is Light and Sin Is Darkness

The first chapter of John, of 1 John, 1 John, and the fifth verse, we'll commence to read at verse 5. This then is the message which we have heard of him. Now, here is God's message. And declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

We are told by other passages of Scripture that there will be no darkness in heaven. There will be no night there. It will be daylight, 24 hours of the day. No darkness, no night. Light, the light of God.

That light will shine not from the sun, nor from the moon, nor from the stars, but that light will shine from God, because God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Verse 6, if we say. Have you noticed the number of times that the word if is used in this passage in 1 John?

Sixth verse, if we say. Seventh verse, if we walk. The eighth verse, if we say. The ninth verse, if we confess. The tenth verse, if we say. The second verse of the second chapter, if any man sin. Six times the word if is used in this passage with which we're dealing this morning.

If, if, if. And then also the word we. It's very striking to note the number of times that the word we is used in this passage. Verse 6, if we. Verse 7, if we. Verse 8, if we. Verse 9, if we. Verse 10, if we.

And verse 2, verse 1 in the second chapter, we. Again and again that pronoun we is used. What does that mean? That means that John is writing this epistle to the people of God. He is not writing it to the world.

He is not writing it to the unsaved. He is writing it to God's own people. And so he intrudes himself and he uses the pronoun we again and again and again. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

God is light. Therefore, if we walk in darkness, if we walk in sin, then we lie. Two things follow. We lie and in the second place, we do not the truth. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, are we walking in the center of the will of God or are we walking in darkness?

Walking in the Light and Cleansing from Sin

God is light. And if we are not walking in the light, we are walking in darkness. And if we walk in darkness, then we do not have the truth and we are not walking in God's light. The seventh verse, but if we walk in the light, if we live in the light as he is in the light, there again we have the statement that God is in the light, that God is light.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then there are two things that follow. First, we have fellowship with one another. And second, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.

Now, if we want to have fellowship as Christians, if we want to have fellowship with one another, then we've got to walk in the light as God is in the light. And if we do that, we have fellowship one with another.

And in the second place, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. I used to have an idea when I was a boy that if I should be suddenly killed, if I had not had time to confess the last sin I had committed, that I would be lost.

And therefore, I made up my mind that if I should suddenly be killed, just the moment before death, I would cry to God to forgive me for the last sin I had committed, that I might not be lost. That was a real experience with me as a boy.

I'll never forget it. But that is not what God says. He says here, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us. And that cleanseth is in the present progressive tense. And it means that he continues to cleanse.

He keeps on cleansing, cleanseth us from all sin, so that if we know Jesus Christ is our own personal Savior, and if we're walking in the light, then even though we happen to fail God, and even though we happen to sin, God says we're cleansed, because the blood is continually cleansing from all sin, cleanseth us from all sin.

And this verse states distinctly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the one and only begotten Son of the living God. But look at verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Sin Interrupts Fellowship but Not Relationship

I hold in my hand a Schofield reference Bible, the Bible that I have used nearly all my life in connection with my own private devotions and my ministry. And there's a footnote at the bottom of this page, page 1342, having to do with verse 7.

Verse 7 reads, 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. Dr. Schofield puts in this note, sin interrupts fellowship, but cannot change relationship.

The more you read that, the more amazing it becomes. Sin interrupts fellowship. Your fellowship with God is interrupted when you sin. You're not in fellowship with God any longer, but it does not change relationship.

You are still God's child, even though you have sinned. If you have been saved, if you have been born again, you are still the child of God, even though you may have failed and sinned. Sin does not change relationship, but it interrupts fellowship, and that's something you and I need to keep in mind.

I remember when I was a boy, I did something displeasing to my father, and he thrashed me for it. And I received two thrashings when I was a boy that I'll never forget as long as I live. I want to tell you they were powerful, they were effective, they did the job, and I'll never forget them.

Two things I did that I ought not to have done. One was disobedience. I sinned against my father by disobeying him. I displeased him on two different occasions, and he thrashed me for it. Now, I didn't enjoy it at the time, but I've been grateful ever since, and I thank God that he took me in hand and punished me when I needed to be punished.

But listen, even though my fellowship with my father was broken, and even though he had to punish me, and even though he did punish me severely, my relationship with my father remained unchanged. I was still my father's son.

I was still my father's son. My relationship had not been broken, even though my fellowship had been interrupted. And so it is with the child of God. Your relationship with God will never be changed. Your fellowship with God will be changed when you sin against him.

Therein lies the difference. And Dr. Schofield points that out as he deals with this verse. He says, sin interrupts fellowship, but cannot change relationship. Confession restores. Fellowship and immediate confession keeps the fellowship unbroken.

And that's a wonderful thing to realize, that even though you fail God, even though you do something that displeases your Lord, your relationship has not been changed. But your fellowship has been interrupted, and you're no longer in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, but you are still in the same relationship you were before.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Two things happen when we declare that we have no sin, no sinful nature. Every man has a sinful nature. Every man born into this world, even after he is saved, he still has a sinful nature, as well as a God nature.

And this verse says that two things happen. If we say that we have no sin, first we deceive ourselves. We don't deceive anyone else. We do not deceive God, but we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Confession and Forgiveness Through Christ's Atonement

Now we come to that great ninth verse that has been such a blessing to so many tens of thousands of people all down through the years, that I've turned to again and again for comfort when I fail God. The ninth verse.

If we confess our sins, what happens? He is faithful. Why? Because he promised. God has promised to forgive sin, therefore he's faithful. He keeps his promise. He is faithful and just. How can he be just?

Because he atoned. And when Jesus Christ atoned for your sin and my sin on Calvary's cross, he was able to forgive us our sins, because our sins had been atoned for on Calvary's cross. Our business is to confess our sins, and the moment a Christian commits sin, he ought to go directly to God without a moment's hesitation, and he ought to confess that sin to God.

And if he does, the fellowship will remain unbroken. It will be maintained, and he'll be forgiven. Now, they're one of two places that confession must take place, either here or before the judgment seat of Christ.

If you commit sin as a Christian, and you do not confess it here, then you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and you will have to confess it publicly before his judgment seat. You'll be forgiven, but you'll be punished, and you'll have to bear the consequences, and you'll lose your reward.

The reward that should have been yours will be lost because you have sinned, and you failed to confess your sin while you were upon earth. Now you have to face it before the judgment seat of Christ and confess it publicly before everyone and lose your reward.

If we confess our sins, listen to what it says, he is faithful, as it says, because he promised, and just because he atoned to forgive us our sins. And every Christian can be forgiven his sin right here and now if he will confess it.

But if he refuses to confess it, he'll have to face it at the judgment seat of Christ. Not at the great white throne judgment. No Christian will ever stand before the judgment of the great white throne one thousand years later after the millennium, but he'll have to face the judgment seat of Christ before the millennium and confess his sin then and lose the reward that might have been his.

He'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He'll cleanse us, those of us who are Christians, will be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Thus you can live a righteous life by confessing your sin immediately at once and being forgiven.

Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned. If there is anyone who declares that he does not sin ever and that he never has sinned since he was saved, if any Christian makes that kind of a claim, then God says very distinctly, we make him a liar because he says we have.

He declares that we have sinned even though we're Christians and his word is not in us. My little children, the Scotch word there is barrens. My little barrens. It's a very affectionate word. It's a relationship between God and his children.

God and those who have been saved. My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. Now God's highest ideal for us is that we live without sinning. Now he's talking about deliberate sin.

He's talking about conscious sin. He's not talking about sins of which we're unconscious. He's talking about sins that we know are sins. Conscious sins. And he says here, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.

And I want to say very frankly and very definitely this morning that there is no reason why any Christian should commit deliberate sin. Known sin. He is not without sin. There are sins of which he's unconscious.

When it comes to conscious sin, deliberate sin, then he's held guilty. And so he says here, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. No reason why you and I should commit deliberate sin.

Why we should commit conscious sin. We can live in Jesus Christ in a place where we do not yield to conscious known sin. Even though we may be guilty of unconscious sins. We need not be guilty of conscious sins.

Christ as Advocate and Propitiation

And if any man sin, if we do commit a conscious sin, if we do commit a known sin, and I wonder if there are any here this morning who can honestly say, I've never committed a conscious sin since I've been saved.

I've never committed a known sin since I've been saved. I'm sure there is no one here this morning who could make such a claim. Sometime or other since we were saved, we have committed known sin. Conscious sin.

And what happens to us? What is the result? What is the outcome? He says here, and if any man sin, and he knows that he has sinned, we have an advocate. There's the provision for the Christian who commits a conscious known sin or any other sin.

We have an advocate. We have a lawyer. We have someone to plead our cause. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So Jesus Christ takes our cause, and he pleads it before his Father God if we commit a conscious known sin.

We have a lawyer, and he'll plead on our behalf with God the Father. And he is the propitiation. He is the mercy seat. Propitiation simply means mercy seat. Mercy seat means a place where God and man meet.

There where man and God meet each other, there is forgiveness. There is pardon. And God says here very plainly, and he is the propitiation, the meeting place for our sins. And God will meet us at the mercy seat and forgive us our sins if we confess them to him.

And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. That doesn't mean that the sins of the whole world are going to be forgiven. Because before a man can be forgiven, he has to confess that he's a sinner.

He has to confess that he has sinned against God. And he has to receive Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior. The vast majority of people in this world of ours may not be conscious of their sins. But whether they're conscious or not, they have to confess that they are sinners.

And they have to get right with God. And the vast majority will not. Because those who are out of Christ are greater in number than those who are in Christ. The vast majority of people throughout the entire world do not belong to God.

And this verse does not mean that the entire world is going to be saved and everybody in it. But it does mean that there is salvation for the entire world. And all that the man of the world has to do is to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior.

Examining Ourselves Before Communion

And if he'll do that, he'll be forgiven by God. His sins will be pardoned. He'll become God's child. And he'll be saved for time and for eternity. Where do you stand this morning? You claim to be a Christian.

Have you committed a sin that you haven't confessed? If so, then if I were you, I would confess that sin this morning before partaking of the communion. If I were in your place and I knew I had committed a sin against God, I would confess it this morning.

And I would ask Him to forgive me. And I would get right with God. Because you have no right to partake of the communion if there is conscious, known sin in your life that you have never confessed and of which you have never been forgiven.

But if you have confessed your sin, that conscious sin, that known sin, if you have confessed it to God and God has forgiven you, then you have every right to sit this morning at the Lord's table and partake of the communion.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. Where are you this morning? Are you right with God? Have you confessed every known conscious sin? Or is there some sin about which you have not dealt? A sin that must be dealt with before God and forgiven if you are going to be right with God.

You can be right. You can remain right with God. But if there ever is a sin in your life, that sin must be immediately confessed and put away. And thus, you will be kept right with God and sin will be forgiven.

Shall we bow together in prayer? With every head bowed and every eye closed this morning, as this message has spoken to our hearts, Dr. Smith has hit us just where we live today. And just as before we take our communion service, I want to give this opportunity to those today who feel that they have a need, they have an unconfessed sin in their life, they have a problem that they want God to deal with, they want God to forgive, and they want to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

And I wonder just before we close this service in prayer just now, with every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, I wonder if you have that type of need right now. The Word of God says, let a man examine himself.

I hope you'll make an altar out of that seat that you're sitting on just now and examine your life. And you find something there that you believe God needs to cleanse you from. I wonder if with this closing part of the service that you might slip up your hand right where you are.

Yes, God bless you. Yes. Yes. Yes. Who else this morning? Yes, God bless you. Downstairs? Yes, God bless you. My left. Quickly, quietly. Many of us, in fact most of us, could probably slip up our hands this morning.

God looks down and sees you and sees your heart this morning. Yes, God bless you. Let's take these and all others who needed to raise their hands or for some reason did not, let's pray before the throne of grace.

Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that through the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, all of our sins can be forgiven. We can thank Thee this morning that we can walk from this place. Lord, we don't understand it all.

But we thank Thee, Lord, that through the cleansing power of Jesus Christ that we can walk from here with lives as white as snow. Father, how we praise Thee for this fact. And Father, we pray for these who raised their hands this morning and for those, Lord, who did not raise their hands but in perhaps some other way have indicated that they have a need, that there is something there that they need forgiveness, that they need cleansing.

And Father, as we examine our lives and our hearts today and are about to partake in remembrance of You, the Lord's Supper, God, we pray that Thou would help us just now in the quietness right there in our seat that we may confess to You that sin.

And then believe You and thank You for cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Father, how grateful, how thankful we are for that we have this wonderful process, the forgiveness of our sins to be completed right here and now through the name of Jesus Christ.

And in His name we do pray. Amen. Let us take our songbooks, if you will, please, and sing in closing. Dr. Edwin Orr's hymn, Cleanse Me. Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, and know my thoughts, I pray.

We're going to stand and sing and after singing we're going to go right into our communion time this morning. Let's make this a prayer unto God. While we're singing, the ushers will be coming in and making the arrangements.

But dear friend, continue your communion with God this morning as we stand together and sing, please.