Thank you, sweetheart. Let's take our Bibles now, and we will turn to the book of 1 John. The book of 1 John, in chapter one. We'll begin reading then in verse one of 1 John chapter one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you may also have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with our Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Well, I'm sorry, right at the beginning of, this is May, so I'm sorry about that. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 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 that we have fellowship with him and we 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 one with the other, 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 is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. and his word is not in us. My little children, these things are right to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation of our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Father, we thank you for your wonderful We thank you, Lord, that we can come to it and receive instruction. and counsel and rebuke, comfort and joy as you reveal yourself through your word to us. So Lord, we pray this morning that you would open our hearts and our minds that we may behold great things out of your word this morning. Lord, may we understand the joy of fellowship with you and that we may fear falling out of fellowship with you. Lord, may we enjoy the fellowship of the brethren as we seek your face. May we, Lord, enjoy the love of God, the fellowship and the love that we have with you in the heavenly host as a result and the Holy Spirit as we would come to you this morning. Oh Lord, comfort our hearts, convict our hearts. Fill our hearts, Lord, with your joy. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You know, we're living in a world where there's no absolutes, where, you know, what you say is, okay, that's your faith. Oh, but there's somebody else that believes this. And there's, oh, that's your God, but we have many gods or whatever. And so we're living in a very confused world where there's what is truth to you and what is right for you is not right for me. And there's really no absolutes. And yet we see in this passage that there are, that God is absolute. As we see in verse, in him is life and there is no darkness at all. And so we see we have a standard. Now, there's nothing new under the sun. Back in the time that John is writing, which is at the end of the first century, somewhere around 90 AD, about 60 years after he had walked with the Lord Jesus, we see that he knew all these things that were coming in, all the Greek philosophies, all the ideas of who God is and was Jesus Christ. actually born in the flesh. And we saw last week the test. If someone doesn't believe that Jesus came and walked this earth and he died for our sins and rose bodily from the tomb, then they can't be saved. I mean, that's just the absolute. And that's a false teacher who says there's many different roads to heaven and you just pick one of them. No, John is the apostle of certainty. Over 38 times he says, these things have we written unto you that you may know. The word know, that is concrete knowledge, is 38 times in these three little epistles. that he writes. God wants us to know and he wants us to have the benefits of knowing what salvation is and the joy that comes from it. And so we see that he says that this is the message in verse five. This is the message which I received of him. I was the one who, he leaned on my breast. I mean, I touched him. I saw him. Don't tell me that he wasn't God. I mean, I saw him calm the waters. I saw him feed the 5,000. I saw him raise people from the dead. And I touched him after he was raised from the dead. Don't tell me that Jesus Christ wasn't God in the flesh. So he sets that up first of all, before he does anything, that which was from the beginning. And isn't it interesting, the Gospel of John begins with, that which was from the beginning, of course, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we, I, behold His glory, full of grace and truth. Now, so John is very definite in all the things he writes. And then at the very end of the book of John, he says, these things were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. So he tells you when he's writing in both the gospel of John and the epistles of John, he says, this is the reason I'm writing to you. This is my message. that Jesus Christ is like, He's our standard, folks. He's the standard of everything else. There is an absolute, and there is a God, and He is right, and in Him is no darkness at all. It is all black, white. It is all right, wrong. It is all righteousness, which is a straight line. And anything that is off that straight line is unrighteous. And all we like sheep have gone astray. We've gotten off that straight line and he has laid on him, Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all. And so the whole word, so we see that the Lord now is, and through John, is telling us that there is a standard by which we may adhere. Now in saying that, as Christians, we worship, and he's writing to these Christians, and he's giving, he's told them, he's, there's several tests. First of all, if someone says that, encounters that, and says that Jesus Christ wasn't in the flesh, don't even, that's a false teacher. Then he says there's a test of obedience, a person who says that they love Christ and they're not even trying to obey him, then put a big question mark there. And so we see these tests that he gives. And then another is fellowship. If someone says the test of fellowship, people that don't want to be around God's people. And we know that we pass from death to life because we love the brethren. He that loves not the brethren abideth in death. And so people that don't want to be around Christians, you put a big question mark there too, because there's a fellowship. And notice that's what John says here. He says that these things I've written to you, that truly we want to have fellowship with you. Folks, don't you want to have more people here fellowshipping with us? Isn't that what the gospel is all about? Is the spirit and the bride say, come, we want them here. And so the Spirit, of course, the Holy Spirit, and the church, which is the bride, we tell people that's our message, come. Well, as the Lord say, come unto me, all you that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And so it's interesting even in the, at the ark. I love that where we first see that word in the Bible is the Lord didn't tell Noah to go into the ark. He says, come into the ark. Where was the Lord? He was in the ark. And so we tell people to come to the Lord, come to the ark of safety, come to the Lord for your protection, for your purity, for your peace, for your joy. And so he is saying then, he says, truly, we won't have fellowship with you, but if you have fellowship with us, we're gonna point you to Christ. And that's the whole gist of the church. I hope that whenever we have fellowship around here, and when we greet each other, and once we left this place, we say it's been good to be in the house of the Lord because I feel closer to the Lord because I'm with God's people, and God's people love the Lord, and we just all rub off on one another. That's what it's all about. And so this is the message that he is writing, which we notice he says in verse five, that was the message which we have heard from him and declare unto you. That's our pattern. What we get from God, we want to pass on to others. What God has done for us, we want others to have. I want people to have what I have, don't you? I want them to have salvation. I want them to know that they're on the way to heaven. Not by virtue of righteousness, which I've done. Oh, you just think that, you just think you're holy because you're a preacher. No, I'm not, I'm not holy at all. In fact, the more I look at the Bible, I realize how unholy I am. But it's by God's grace that he saved me. And as a result of that, that now, it's not that I think that I have salvation, but that I know that I have salvation, because God says, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. And so I've been into the Bible, and I know God loves me, because the Bible tells me, and God reveals it through His Holy Spirit, that He loves me. And He tells me that if I've come unto Him, and I've accepted Him, then I have the authority to be called a child of God, not by anything that I've done, but he gives me authority to be called a child of God because I'm saved. Amen. Can you say amen to that this morning? If you can't, then we need to check up on your salvation. Because don't say, well, I'm just not sure. No, God says you can know that you know Jesus Christ is your personal savior and you're on your way to heaven. It's nothing that you've done, it's what he's done for you. And so this is what he says, I want you to know that. And now in saying that, I want to give you three tests. Now, three more tests. We've looked at the test of the incarnation. If you don't believe that, then you have problems. The test of obedience and the test of fellowship. Now, I want to give you three more tests. And he writes them all down in the passage, which we read this morning. And these tests, we want to be careful with them because either way we go too far. What I mean by that is that Jesus Christ, He's our standard, and in Him is no darkness at all. And so as a result, there are those who say, I just can never get quite there, and I'm always a sinner, and I'm always feeling so bad about being a sinner. Well, we should feel like that keeps us humble. But then there are others who say, but I'm saved by grace. And as a result, I'm free from the load of sin and I can live the way I want to because I'm saved by grace. And those are the great extremes that we have. And these are the tests that John now puts before us. That we want to stay, we want to realize that Christianity is a balance. A balance between the grace of God and of course our own will. and the understanding. So if God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, the first claim that many people have is, notice he says in verse six then, we're gonna see verse six, verse eight, and verse 10 are all tests. And they all begin with if. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, there's that word again. Remember last week we kept seeing that word lie and liar? Boy, John uses it a lot in this passage, or in this book. But he says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. First of all, notice the pronoun, we. So he's talking to Christians. So he's saying that if we say that we have fellowship with God, and we have known sin in our lives, and we are saying, well, you know, this is, you know, everybody's got sin. So we rationalize, and I'm just as good as anybody else here in church. Or, you know, there's a little problem here, or that, and I'm not always keeping a close account with the Lord, or keeping a short account with the Lord. then, you know, I'm as good as anybody else here. And anybody else, the rest of you can say, all of us can say that basically the same thing. I mean, we can rationalize, although the more, what scares me is I know how bad I am, but what scares me even more, God knows even more than I do about how bad I am. And so that keeps me humble. But at the same time, if I could start rationalizing, say, well, I've got this little thing, but nobody needs to know about it, then we're walking in darkness, and we're denying the very power of sin in our lives, because sin obstructs our view. First of all, the book of Proverbs says that, it talks about the wicked, and they don't know what they stumble. When we're not following the word, when we're not walking with the Lord in the light of his word and what a glory he sheds on our way, then we start stumbling all over the place and we start using our own wisdom and we are not going to his standard. As a result, we start tripping up and we start letting things pile up in our lives and we're losing fellowship with the Lord. And then, of course, it destroys not only our structure view, but also it destroys our fellowship with God, because he says, if I regard iniquity in my heart. The Lord will not hear me. Now, of course, you say, well, does God just turn his back on us? No, but it's like my wife at times, I'm listening to her, but I'm not hearing her. She'll say, are you listening to me? Yeah, and then she'll give me a test. Oh, what did I say? Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Now, I'm sure that none of you ladies have ever done that with your husband, but my wife didn't marry the smartest guy in the world. But there again is, I'm listening, but I'm not listening. But the Lord says, okay, it's going right over my, I'm hearing what you're saying, but it's passing right by me because you're not right with me. And so does God hear our prayers? Technically, yes. But does he listen to our prayers? Not until we get right with him. And so we see that it destroys our fellowship with him. And of course, the Holy Spirit is a comforter but he's also a convictor. And I know by personal experience, whenever I've got sin in my life and I'm not acknowledging it to the Lord, then I get cranky. I'm a miserable person. And what's even worse is if I let that go on, then it starts hardening me, and I'm comfortable with the feeling that I have. I was listening to someone this past week talking about chronic illness, and they were saying that people get so used to the chronic illness that when they're healed, they didn't even realize how bad they were until they felt better. And sometimes it's Christians. We get down there, and we grovel in the dark, and we get used to the dark. We get used to just walking that way, and since there's no cleansing, we don't realize what we're missing. And so we see that he tells us that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, and then he says also in James 4.1, he says, from which come wars and fightings among you? Do they not come from your own desires and pleasures? Why is the church, why were the churches or the people that James is writing to, why were they having all kinds of problems? You kill and desire to have, and you have not because you ask not. Why? Because it deprives you of your prayer. And also you're having all kinds of problems. You have bitter ending and strife. And he says where those things are, there's every evil work. And so why do we have wars and why do we destroy our fellowship one with another? You and I all know people that say, I won't go to church anymore because of, and they'll name something. What's happened? And so again, we see that standard is not to other people. Many times it's our own problem. As the old cartoon, Pogo, used to, one of the most famous cartoons of the 20th century was, we've met the enemy and he's us. And so many times it's our own problem that we have. And he tells us also sin destroys our peace. And how many times in the book of Isaiah did we say, there's no peace, saith the Lord to the wicked. With the Holy Spirit in our lives, what is there supposed to be? What's the test? We could test our spirituality by what? Love, joy, and peace. Are we, is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts? Do we sense the grace of God and Him working in our lives? Do we have the joy of the Lord? And do we have the peace that passes understanding that only comes from the Lord, the peace of God, as well as the peace with God? And so we see the Lord says, when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Now, of course, we're living in a time where it seems like we're getting shot at from every end, every side. But at the same time, should there not be that peace like a river that attendeth my way? When sorrows like the sea billows row, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say. it is well with my soul." That's the peace that God wants to give. That's the peace that we want to have in our lives. And so we see that, first of all, then we see that the negative, but notice the positive, that that he tells us, we don't practice the truth, but then he says, if, and then the next conjunction is, or the preposition or conjunction here, the preposition and the conjunction, but to verse seven, 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. Notice that word all. Now he's not saying that you get to the standard of perfection. But he is saying that if you're walking in the light, and of course the writer of the Psalms tells us, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so as I'm trying to walk with God and I'm letting him continually correct me with his word, like that spaceship going to the moon. It's on a gyro, and it's not going in a straight line. It's staying within a certain parameter, and it's knocking it around, and it's going like this. Well, folks, that's the way Christian life is, too, because I'm a sinner, and I'm always needing to be corrected by the Lord. I want the Lord to be able to kind of knock me back in line, kind of give me a spank on the whatever. But you know, there again, I'd rather for Him to do that than have to just haul it off and whop me to get me back in line, don't you? And so there it is. If I'm walking in the light, I'm not going to be perfect, but I'm always wanting to be right. But the balance is I can't be so worried about it. Oh, Lord, if you don't forgive me, then I don't know whether I'm right. No, that's not what God wants. He says, you just take care of what I tell you to do and I'll take care of the rest. I'll cleanse you from all your sin. You do what you know what to do, and I'll do the rest. Isn't that grace? And so he tells us, he says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, that's gonna take care of a lot of problems. And he says, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. So I don't have to worry about, oh Lord, man, I wanna partake of the communion this morning, but I'm afraid you're gonna strike me dead if I don't, I just can't remember it all. No, you just take care of what God gives you the memory for, and he'll take care of all the rest. Don't you have a great God? I mean, I serve a perfect Savior, but He knows I'm not perfect. And so don't go around just, oh man, I just can't, man, I'm not sure I'm saved because the preacher's preaching all this, and I don't have all this love and joy and peace, and I don't have, boy, my life's this bad. Boy, and you think of all the things you've done wrong, or the mistakes you made, or the silly things you've done, and you just feel like, man, I'll never be right. No. And I'm sure glad God has a sense of humor, because He had to put up with a lot of, I mean, He has to laugh at me so many times. But I hope that he says, you know, that guy down there, he is just, he's a real, he's a character, but I love him. And I'm gonna take care of all the rest. And so we see we don't have to worry about the things that we don't know about. Just take care of the things you know about. And you walk in the light, and you're striving for the Word. The preaching of the cross, the Word of the cross is basically what it says. To them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved, it's the power of salvation. And so we come to church to learn. We come to church to worship the Lord together and to have him reveal himself to us collectively. And oh, that we can have fellowship, notice, with one another and then with our Lord Jesus Christ. But then notice the next if in verse eight. And we see that he says, if we say that we have no sin. We deceive ourselves. There's that self-deception again. You know, the bad thing about self-deception is you're the last person who knows you're deceived. God knows you're deceived, and a lot of other people can see that you're not really right with the Lord. They might not be able to know why, but they know something's not right there, especially your loved ones. But you're thinking that you've hidden everything. But here the idea is of the negative is the presence of sin. Oh, you know, there again is, I'm a sinner, but if we walk in the light, excuse me, he says, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So there again, we get used to that sin. And you know, I'm a pretty good guy. And I know this is what the church says, but you know, a lot of other churches say this. And so I'm gonna choose what I want to believe rather than what God is telling you. I had a lady one time, she and her husband were coming. The kids were in our Christian school. And she was really enjoying it. She said, oh my, I mean, I've never been in a church that teaches the Bible while they're preaching. I thought that was both, you know, but whatever. And she was really enjoying it and so forth. But then we must have gotten on something that was private. I didn't know what it was, but it started irritating her. And it wasn't long before she just walked up to me and said, you know, I'm not coming in here anymore. You're too strict. It kind of stunned me. She says, I'm going to take my husband. We're going to go someplace else. I'm going, you know, what did I do? All I'm trying to do is preach the word. And now if I there's certain, you know, I try to stay off certain things. And if I think this is what we try to do to please the Lord, but not every church does it. We've done that. We've talked about things like that. you know, what's right and wrong. And there are certain things you stand that you can't, you can't. And then there's other churches that do. I think you understand what I'm saying there. But, but unfortunately, that lady, she left and it wasn't within a year. She and her husband were divorced. The kids were spread out. And the last time I saw one of her kids, she was working at a bank and so miserable. How sad. Oh, I'm just as good as anybody else. I mean, but once we say no to God, no, Lord, I want this sin in my life, and I don't care what the preacher says, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm gonna do it. And we don't say that consciously, but we just keep it in the back of our mind, you know. And then right there is where God is quit. You know, we're not going to grow any farther until we allow God to deal with that problem in our life. Like Corrie Ten Boom says, everything I put my hands on and hold on to, the Lord one by one loosens my fingers until I give it to him. Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross I cling. And so we see if we don't, you know, I'm pretty good. I'm not, yeah. And we're telling others that we have no sin, but they see it in our lives. And we're not willing. I mean, we think we've hidden it, but God says, no, the truth is not in us. And what does the Lord say? Sanctify them, that's cleanse us through thy truth. And what's the truth? The word of God. So if we're knowingly going against the word of God, and we think we're hiding it, then we have stopped the truth from controlling our lives. And He is truth, and in Him is what? No darkness at all. So if I want to walk in the light, whatever God tells me to do, I'm to do. Whatever He says I will do, wherever He sends I will go. And so here we see the idea of absolute surrender to the Lord and surrendering our wants and desires to him also. And so if we do, he says, if we don't do that, but notice the counterbalance to that. I love that again. He says, if we confess our sins, that's agreeing with God. He is faithful. God's always faithful. And he's just there he is, he's perfect. to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us from how many? All unrighteousness. There's that idea again. If we'll take care of the things that God tells us to do, and we'll be honest with Him, He'll take care of the rest. That's grace, isn't it? We don't have to go around saying, oh my, I'm not sure. No, if I will just do what God tells me to do, Later on in life, I'll look and say, you know, God really had a lot of patience because he could have hit me with a hundred things, but he just got that one, and then he got the other, and then he got the other. And you look back on your life and you see how patient God was with you and how that he had to bring you out of sin. And that's the reason if, when a person gets saved, we don't give them a list of a hundred things of do's and don'ts, the Calvary Baptist no-nos, and all those different, we don't do that. We ask God to start dealing in that life. Now we start preaching the word, and we're gonna tell things that are right from wrong, and try to, but there again, it's a free country. You don't have to follow us, and we can't burn you at the stake or anything else, and we're not. That's unscriptural. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So I don't have to worry about that sin that will send me to hell if I've taken care of the ones that he's told me that will send me to hell. You understand what I'm saying? And so, or that will destroy my fellowship with him. So we see if there's the balance. No, I don't want to live a life of deception where I'm deceiving myself and saying, I'm all right. No, I'm always going to inspect my life because I want to stay within that. I mean, I want to stay correct with the Lord. But at the same time, I'm not going to go around fearing that there's some hidden sin in my life that I can't remember, and that God's going to strike me dead because of it. I don't have to worry about that one either. But if I'll just walk, what does God want? He wants fellowship. If I'll just walk with Him. And walking is a lifestyle. Walking is taking one step at a time. And what happens, as we see, as we learn to walk with the Lord, and as we talk about babies and so forth, whenever they start walking, they stumble a while. But the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and though he fall, yet the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. God knows how to uphold us as we're walking with him. But pretty soon, you get used to walking with the Lord, and you don't even think about it anymore. I like even church member, why are you here this morning? You didn't even think about getting up and coming. I mean, that's just a part of walking with the Lord, right? And you start doing that with the decisions you make. You left that item in the cart at Walmart and you go out to your car and you don't even think about it, you just go back in. I did that the other day, I did that a couple months ago. I mean, here I brought something out. I stole it. No, I didn't steal it. I just didn't pay for it. So I went back in and I showed it to that Walmart greeter and he, you know, you bring it back in, you know, they have so much stealing going on there, you know, but no, it's not mine. And you just do that because you don't even think about it. Well, that's walking with the Lord, that's doing the right thing. And so and then you see that thing that's coming up and there's a radar that goes off in your mind, you realize if I go off that route, I'm really going to be off. And so you just stay right with the Lord. And so we see that he says, if we'll confess our sins, he'll take care of us as we walk with him in the light, as he is in the light. And his blood will cover us with all our sins or cleanse us from all of our sins. And so we see that he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's that word righteous. He's the righteous God, and He'll take care of, He'll get us back on line if we will just follow Him. But then the third thing we see is that if we say, as in verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. Now, this is the idea of calling and saying, well, I've really not done anything wrong, or the reason I've done things wrong is because my parents were unsaved, or because I didn't have the right upbringing. And we're seeing this in the world today. We call that, in psychological terms, blame shifting. And it was a method of psychology, I think, by Rogers or somebody. But it's the idea of if we could just change your environment, then you'll be a better person. But we're all basically good. And that's what unsaved man thinks. And if we just give everybody the right housing, progressive thought, if we could just make everything right. So first of all, we see back, it started back in the 1800s, of if the government could just provide good healthcare for everybody. And that stuff's been going on ever since Teddy Roosevelt and before. And so if we could just get everybody healed, then we'll make them better. And then, you know, Johnson came along with the great society. And if we could just give everybody a good house to live in, then there'll be good place. They call it, and I liked what one guy said, facetiously, he said, they call it bourbon renewal. One drop of bourbon and the whole town looks better. No, that's not what we're talking about. You know, urban renewal, remember all that? And now, and the reason I remember those type things is because I was in the service and I had a really intelligent fellow from Minnesota that we would go back and forth. He was a liberal on all this when it was going on. And he was talking about how that if we just, and I didn't really have all the answers for him, and I still don't, but he's a very intelligent person. But the idea, if we just change everybody's habitat, we'll make a better country. And of course now, after they did spend trillions of dollars on all that, you can go to some of those high rise places and if they know that you're working for the drug enforcement, you better have an umbrella because everything's piling out of those windows. Isn't it sad that no matter how, I mean, where you put a person, talk to some of those movie stars with all those mansions and see how happy they are. Why do they throw their lives away with drugs and all the rest? And so we see that's not going to take care of it. Education was going to take care of everything. I mean, if we just educate people and have them all smart like we are, then the world is going to be a better place. Have we seen what education has done to people in the last couple of weeks? How sad it is. Now these are educated people that are out there screaming and hollering. Here they've been given free education, free food. Isn't it sad? They've been so spoiled that they occupy a building and then tell people that we need food. I mean, we're really smart today, aren't we? So education's gonna take care of everything, right? No. Oh, if I just had grown up in the church, then I would be a whole lot better, then I'd be as good as you people. And really, the reason I'm a sinner is because I didn't have the advantages you had. Do we know a lot of people that grew up in the church and they are out in the world that I think of one man today, great nationally known preacher. I've read three or four of his books. And he's got a son that's on the Internet today that is one of the greatest atheists on the Internet. And because the more he knew, the more he became an atheist. How sad that is. I pray that that won't happen to my kids. I don't think it has because I think they're saved. You understand what I'm saying? Your environment won't save you. And there's no excuse. Just like Adam was in the perfect environment. And the Lord said, Adam, where are you? Lord, and have you eaten of the tree? Oh, it's that woman that caused my problem. And women can say, that's that man that caused me problems. So we have this back and forth. It's my husband that caused me, it's my wife, it's my family, it's my mother, my father. If I just had had a little bit better, whatever, then I'd be a pretty good person. No, you're still a sinner. It doesn't matter what background you come from. It doesn't matter who your parents are. It doesn't matter what church you went to, unless you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, realizing that you were a sinner in need of his grace. You're just as lost as anybody out there that's never heard of him. In fact, it might be even worse, because the Lord says, to whom much is given, much is required. So if you've had the opportunity time after time after time to accept the Lord Jesus Christ and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the more that you refuse, my friend, from what I understand the Bible says, that means that punishment in hell just gets that much worse. And so no one can say, you know, I'm as good as everybody else and I'm not really responsible for my sins. No, one of the greatest, one of the, and you hear this about dieting and everything else, just take responsibility, take charge of your body. Well, you got to take charge of your will. I am a sinner, not because of anybody else, but because I am a sinner. I have done bad things, yes, I've done bad things, but it's not because of anybody else. I have done bad things. And until we say, Lord Jesus, be merciful unto me, a sinner, then we can't come to the Lord and say, Lord, if you just hadn't made me this way, if you hadn't put me in this house, if you hadn't let me be born in this country, whatever else, you're not gonna be able to argue with God when you stand before the throne. So don't go around saying, I have not sinned and I don't have any responsibility for my sins. No, because God, what you're doing, you're saying, Lord, you don't know what you're talking about. Lord, you're a liar. No, the Bible says all have sinned come to the glory of God. That means you and me. And that's the word of God. So if you say that, no, that's not really doesn't apply to me. You've just made God a liar because that's what he's revealed to us. And so he says, the word is not in us. And thy word is a lamp unto my feet. The word is salvation. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by what? The word of God. And so we see, but then the positive, and there's that next, my little children, older men now talking to people. These things are written to you that you may not sin. So I'm writing these things because, you know, we need to learn how to walk with God. But he says, so you may not sin. And if anyone sins, So there's the out. Does anybody here sin? So here again, if we have sinned, it's God's will that we don't sin, but he knows we will. Oh, wretched man that I am. The Apostle Paul said that. And if the Apostle Paul says that, he says, you know, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, not that I was chief. But if I'm the chiefest of sinners, and that's Paul saying that, what am I? And so we see, he says, and if anyone sins, we have a lawyer. We've been, we've lawyered up folks, as they call it. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the, there he is. He's the standard. He says, Father, forgive them because they were pretty stupid in that situation. Aren't you glad you have an advocate in heaven that is advocating for you? And so he says, he's Jesus Christ the righteous. He himself, that's emphasis, whenever you see that in the Bible, he himself, who, Jesus Christ, is the propitiation. That's one of those great words that we need to understand. It means he is both the satisfier, he's the one who's paid the price. In fact, he's the lawyer who has paid the price And then he goes to the judge, the father, and says, the price has already been paid. Can we let him go? Is that a good God? Now, he won't do that until we ask him. But if we ask him, he's faithful and just. Is he not? And so he says, and he himself is a propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world. Now that is not universal fatherhood of God, that God's blessed the father of everybody, and everybody's saved, and everybody's gonna go to heaven. No, he's not saying that, but he is saying, Anybody in the world has the same conditions that you and I have. We can go to God, and whosoever comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. And God will save you, doesn't matter what country you're from, doesn't matter what ethnic group you're from, doesn't matter what social class you're from. God will save anyone who will come unto him, whosoever will may come. And so that's our message, the message we want to tell the world. God saved us, but we want him to save you too. And you have an advocate with the Father. If you'll come to him, he says, come into me, all you that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will give you rest for your souls. And isn't that why we want to experience ourselves? So I want to stay right with God. I want to walk in the light as he is in the light, so that he cleanses me from all my sin, so that I don't always have to go around with the burden of sin on my life, so that I can tell others, yes, I know that he is able. I know he is able to carry me through. We sing songs like that, but do we really mean them? but it's a no-so salvation. It's a no-so relationship. I know whom I believe and am convinced that he's able. Do you have a God like that? You have a God like that. Have you accessed your God like that? Have you allowed him to cleanse us of all sins? Whatever God tells me to do, whatever he says I'll do, wherever he sends I will go. I mean, that's just walking in his path, doing what he tells me to do. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. When we do his goodwill, he abides with us still and with all who will, what, trust and obey. So I want to pass those tests. Do I always? No. I'm like David. David went a whole year of sin, of hiding sin with Bathsheba and murder. And you look at Psalm 32, which we don't have time this morning. He went through a hell on earth because he was trying to hide sin. But even though he committed some sins that none of us ever commit, God forgave him. And God can forgive you. There's no sin. He can save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him. There's no sin in your life. Pastor, you don't know what I've done. God does. You take it to the Lord in prayer. And God has promised that he's faithful and just. and then he'll break the power of canceled sin and he'll set you free. Isn't that what we want? These things I've written unto you that your joy may be full. Folks, don't we have a great God? God wants us to live that joyful, free life, that powerful life to serve him. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we do come to you this morning, thanking you that you've forgiven us of our sins. And if there's someone within the sound of our voice that has never accepted you as God of their lives, as Lord of their lives, they have not realized or they have not come to you realizing they're a sinner and say, Lord, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. Lord, be merciful unto me, a sinner. Oh Lord, may that person Pray that this morning, seeking and begging your forgiveness and asking for you to come and to be Lord of their lives, that they can follow you and obey you and serve you and reap all the blessings that come from being called a child of God. Lord, we pray for us as Christians. as we walk with you in the light of your word. Lord, there are things in our lives many times that we get snagged on or snag us up. And Lord, we pray that we will give those things to you, even as we come to you in communion this morning. Lord, if there are things in our lives that you want to speak to us about, Lord, we pray that you will open our hearts and our minds that we may behold great things out of your word. And some of the great things you would teach us is about sin. So Lord, if there's something that we need to take care of, if there's some problem in the past that we have just taken lighthearted or lightly, Lord, speak to our hearts this morning and show us And Lord, may we be quick to ask your forgiveness in your grace, in your power, and to commit ourselves to following you to overcome that sin. Lord, we thank you that We've had to do that many times in our lives where we've had to bring the same sin back time after time. But oh Lord, we pray that you would forgive us, that you would cleanse us, that you would empower us, that the world will see the joy in our hearts, that you put a new song in our mouth, even praise unto the Lord that many shall see it and fear and shall trust in you. Bless, we pray, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's take our hymnals and close