1,293. Be reading 1 Peter 1 verses 13 through 25. In 1 Peter 1 verses 13 through 25, hear the word of our God. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls. but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Again, this is the word of our God. We're continuing our new sermon series in the book of 1 John. Our text for this morning will be 1 John chapter one, verses five through 10. You'll find this on page 1,301 in your Pew Bible, 1,301. Hear the word of our God. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while 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 with one another. In the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say 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 our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask his blessing in the preaching of his word. Our Father, we marvel that you are a God who speaks to us, your creatures. For the you who sit enthroned in the heavens, you who are our creator, who spoke all things into existence, who have all power and authority. Lord, you have spoken to us, your people. You have made your will known in the pages of your word. And Father, we thank you for this and we pray this morning that through your word that you might speak to us again. that you would be our teacher, that you would enable us to hear your voice and to follow that voice. And I pray that you would use me as your servant. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, these verses that we're looking at this morning in 1 John include the statement or the claim that is almost hard to believe. It's a claim that John makes in verse 9. John says this, that if we confess our sins, he says, that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Brothers and sisters, this is one of those glorious verses in scripture that presents to us the great gospel promise And if we're willing to come to God, if we're willing to acknowledge that we are sinners, we can find grace in Him. That He is a God who forgives and even heals the sickness of our sin. But this is what I hope you understand. The hard thing about that promise is that it calls us to do something that we don't like to do. We actually don't like to confess our sin. We don't like for our sin to be exposed. We don't even like to think about sin. We don't like to think that we do bad things, things that are wrong. But you see what John says to us in these verses is that we can't have fellowship with God any other way. Brothers and sisters, to understand this, we have to begin this morning where John begins. John doesn't actually begin in verse 9. He begins in verse 5 by telling us here about the character of God. This is the first of three things that John wants us to think about if we're to have fellowship with God. We've got to think about the character of God. You see, John makes another statement in verse five. It's a statement about God. It's rather simple, but at the same time, it's quite profound. He says this, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. You may remember from last week that John, in his introduction, is telling us what he's doing in this letter. And what he tells us that he's doing is that he's testifying to everything that he had seen and heard. You see, he was an eyewitness of Jesus. He had been with Jesus, he tells us. He had seen Jesus. He had heard Jesus. He even tells us that he had touched Jesus. And that what he's actually proclaiming to us is everything that Jesus had actually taught him. And what he says here at the beginning of verse five is that an essential part of this message that Jesus had taught to him, this message that he's now bringing to us is this idea that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. And brothers and sisters, the question we have to ask is, what does this mean? What is John teaching us here? What does this mean that God is light? Well, it's important to understand that in the Bible, the image of light is actually used in a few different ways. It can refer, for instance, to knowledge. We speak of it this way. We speak of being enlightened, right? It means that we've received some sort of knowledge. And of course, when it comes to God, God is light in this way because God reveals truth to us. You see, Jesus is the light of the world because he comes to reveal the gospel. He reveals the glory of God. But you see, this image of light doesn't just refer to knowledge in scripture. It also refers in places to life. In John's gospel, in the first chapter, he says this about Jesus. He says, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. You see, when Jesus comes as the light of the world, he doesn't just come to reveal the gospel, he comes to bring us life. You see, when the Bible says that God shines the light of the glory of the gospel in the face of Christ into our hearts, it's not just saying that God gives us knowledge, but God gives us new life. But there's another sense in which the Bible uses this image of light. It can also refer to moral purity. You see, light is the very opposite of the darkness of sin and evil that the Bible so often refers to. And this is really what John has in mind here in 1 John 1. The context makes this clear. You see, John is talking to us in these verses about sin, which he describes to us as walking in darkness. And you see, in contrast to this, John says that God is light because God has no sin. You see, what John is focused on here is the holiness of God. Brothers and sisters, God is light because he is the very essence of everything that is good and right and true. The God that we worship, the God who is our creator, John wants us to know that that God is a holy God. You see, as James says, God cannot be tempted with evil, that he himself tempts no one. You see, there's nothing corrupt in God. There's nothing evil about him. He is worthy to be praised, not only for what he has done, but also for who he is. You see, God shines with a purity. that you and I cannot even imagine or conceive. The Bible says that he is glorious in his holiness. It means he is truly spotless. God is without blemish. He's the very fountain or the source of perfect life and perfect love and perfect righteousness. Brothers and sisters, there is nothing out of place with God. And brothers and sisters, what this also means, and this is important to understand, is that God is also the moral standard for all human actions. You see, it's actually by his light, the light of his holiness, that we actually know the difference between light and darkness. It's how we know what sin really is. I don't think I have to convince you that we're living in a deeply divided society. I hope you know this. Certainly our recent elections made this even more clear. This is what I want you to think about. If we took some of the sort of hot-button issues that are talked about in our society today, things like abortion and the legalization of abortion, gay marriage, or even transgenderism, the idea that you can choose your own gender, if you went around and you talked to people about these things, you would hear two very different views about these issues. There would be one group who would say this to you, that these things, and particularly the acceptance of these things, is really a sign of a kind of enlightenment, that we as a society are beginning finally to see the light. We're finally shaking off the shackles of antiquated moral ideas. You see, we're actually moving now in the right direction, the direction of love and peace. There's actually hope for mankind because these things have been made legal in our society. But you see, there would be another group that would say to you the very opposite, something entirely different. They would say that these things are a sign that we're actually stumbling in darkness, that we've actually lost our way. We're not on the right path, the path of love and peace. We're actually on a path that will lead to the downfall of our own nation and society. Think about that, how different those views are on the same issues. This is what's going on in our world and in our culture today. The question is, who's right? How do you know? How do we know as human beings what is truly good for us? How do you know what is right and wrong? How do we know what the path of life really looks like? I imagine if you're here and you're a Christian, you would say, as many Christians say, we know because God has revealed it to us in the Bible. But brothers and sisters, this is what's important to understand. If the Bible is the revealed will of God, as we as Christians claim that it is, it means that it is rooted in his own character. Everything the Bible reveals, the law of God, the commandments of God, the instructions of God, are rooted in his own character. It's by the light of God's holiness, the light of who he is, that we know what darkness really is. You see, if God is the essence of everything that is good and right and true, it means that everything else, everything that is not in keeping with his character, is darkness. Everything else is not good. You see, it's the light of God's holiness that exposes what darkness really is. Brothers and sisters, this is what I want you to think about this morning. I want you to think about the fact that this is the way that John begins the body of his letter. He had the introduction, but as soon as he begins the body of his letter, how does he begin? He begins by telling us about the holiness of God, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Think about that as we looked at last week. John wants us to have fellowship with God. This is what he's inviting us to do. He wants you to have deeper fellowship with God. He wants you to live in fellowship with God. And to that end, think about how John begins. He begins by telling you about the supreme and pure holiness of God. Brothers and sisters, many people would say today, in effect, that John is making a terrible mistake here in doing this. We might even be tempted to want to, if we could, to take John aside and say, John, you know, we could really straighten you out here. We might want to tell John, John, we know that you want to present Christianity to people, and this is a good thing, but there's a better way to do it than this, John. We might want to say to him, if you really want people to enjoy fellowship with God, if you want them to come to God and experience the fellowship that God has provided in Jesus Christ, John, you can't begin this way. You can't begin with the holiness of God. That will only turn people away. You've got to begin with the love of God. You've got to begin with the grace of God. You see, this is how people think today. In fact, the holiness of God isn't even preached in many churches today. We don't talk about the holiness of God. We don't talk about sin because we think that if we want people to really experience fellowship with God, we've got to only talk about the love of God and the grace of God. Brothers and sisters, this isn't how John begins. He doesn't begin that way. And what's so interesting about it is that the book of 1 John actually has quite a lot to say about the love of God. In fact, in chapter 4, John makes another simple and yet profound statement about God. He actually says that God is love. But this is not how John begins when he wants to invite us into fellowship with God. John actually begins with the holiness of God, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And the reason he does this, brothers and sisters, is because you cannot understand the love of God and the grace of God unless you understand the holiness of God. You cannot actually be changed by God unless you're willing to behold the glory of his holiness. This is where John begins. He says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. What he wants you to take hold of and grasp is that God is pure radiance. There is no sin in him. It's by his light that darkness is actually exposed for what it really is. It's by the pure light of God that we see sin for what it really is. And brothers and sisters, what we also need to understand in this is that this presents a kind of problem to us when it comes to fellowship with God. This is actually the second thing that John wants us to think about We've thought about the character of God, but we've got to think for a minute now about our own character. You see, this presents a problem to us, and we've got to think about our problem. You see, our problem is this, that we're sinners, that we don't exhibit the character of God, that we walk in darkness. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 5, Paul doesn't just say that we walk in darkness. Paul says that we are darkness. You see, we're lovers of sin. But you see, this is what I want you to understand this morning. Our problem is actually worse than this. It's not just that we're sinners, we're darkness and God is light. The problem is this, is that we don't like to acknowledge that truth. We don't like to actually admit that we're sinners, that God is light and that we are darkness. We don't like our sin to be exposed in the light of God's holiness. You see, God's light reveals our darkness. We don't like this. We don't like having our sin revealed. And this is actually what keeps us, John's saying, from living in fellowship with God. Brothers and sisters, this is why so many people don't come to Jesus Christ. It's why they don't experience the salvation that God has provided in him, why they don't find new life in him, why they don't experience the cleansing and forgiveness that John talks about later in this passage. because they don't want to acknowledge their sin. You see, we don't like this. We don't like to come before a holy God because his holiness reveals our own darkness. But you see, John's not focused here on our coming to Christ. He's not focused on our first believing in Christ. John's writing to Christians here, and he wants them to live in fellowship with God. He says in verse seven that he wants them to walk in the light as God is in the light. John is encouraging us to grow in holiness, to grow in deeper fellowship with God. And you see, if we're gonna have fellowship with God, if we're gonna experience life in Christ, you see, we have to walk in the light, John's saying. We have to actually turn from darkness. We have to grow in the character of God because darkness and light, John's saying, are incompatible. You see, if you're gonna actually experience fellowship with God who's light, you have to be walking in the light. You can't still be walking in darkness. And this is what's important to understand. This presents to us the same problem. You see, if we're gonna walk in the light, if we're gonna grow in holiness, we have to come into the light. We have to allow the light of God's holiness to expose our sin. And as I said earlier, even as Christians, this is the very thing that we don't like to do. We don't like to have our sin revealed. Think about it, brothers and sisters. I would say that this is true. It's certainly true of me. I hope it's true of you, actually. The holiness of God, even as Christians, unsettles us. We're unsettled by the holiness of God because it forces us to see ourselves as we really are. Think about it for a minute. We love the power of God when it's exercised for our benefit. We love when God answers our prayers. We love when he provides for us, when he protects us. But brothers and sisters, we don't really know what to do with the holiness of God. It's as if we almost wish that God were just a little less holy than he really is. We almost want to make God in our own image. We wish that God was a little more like us, a little flawed in some ways. We don't know what to do with the holiness of God. We want to actually run away from his holiness. because it forces us to deal with the reality of our sin. It forces us to actually see ourselves in the way that God sees us. When I was in seminary some years ago, I had a professor. He was an older man, and he was a very godly man, one of the most godly men I have met. He just exuded this sort of zeal for Christ and this love for the Lord. He was a patient man. He was loving. He was wise and winsome. And the Lord had used him to lead, actually, many people to the Lord Jesus Christ and to salvation in Christ. And I had this opportunity one summer. I thought this would be great. I had this opportunity to take this special class with him. And it was one of these classes where they kind of shrink everything down in the summer. What would be three months in a normal semester is like in two weeks. So it was this intensive class with him, five to six hours a day for two weeks being taught by this professor. And I thought, this is great because I really want to learn from this man. And I remember going to this class. And after about two days in that class, I literally felt like I couldn't take it anymore. to be in his presence, to see his love for the Lord, his zeal for Christ. It exposed every way that I didn't have zeal for Christ, that I wasn't really the good Christian that I thought that I was. It was almost hard to go to the class. I remember having a sort of mixed reaction, getting up in the morning and there was a part of me, you just wanted to go because you wanted to have what he had. There was something beautiful about it. Yet there was another part of me that just wanted to run the other direction, to sit six more hours there. I would go home at night and feel like I had to spend two hours praying and repenting before I could go back to class again the next day. Brothers and sisters, this is what God's holiness does to us. It exposes us, it shows the way that we fall short. And at times we feel almost like we can't take it. And what we do, we might not even admit, but we're tempted actually to run away from fellowship with God. We're not running often to fellowship with God because fellowship with God involves exposing our sin. John is inviting us, but the problem we have is that we run away. We don't seek fellowship with God because fellowship with God forces us to deal with our sin. What John presents to us in these verses, he presents three hypothetical situations. Each one begins with these words, if we say, that describe how people deal with this problem, how people tend to avoid the light of God's holiness. The first one comes in verse six. John says this, if we say that we have fellowship with God, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. What John describes here is an all too common way that we avoid the holiness of God and the exposure of that holiness. We simply say that we have fellowship with God when we really are not having fellowship with God. You see, we're really unchanged. We're not really walking in the light. John says here that this person is actually walking in darkness. But you see, we say that we're having fellowship with God. And the reason we do that is because it's far easier to simply say that you're having fellowship with God than actually do what it takes to have fellowship with God, to come before a holy God. You see, this sort of person thinks that they can walk with God and at the same time continue to enjoy all the pleasures of sin. Brothers and sisters, in our world today, this takes the form often of a focus on feelings. People will say what matters most is how you feel about God. If you feel that you're having fellowship with God, if you feel that you're near to God, then that's really all that matters. It matters little whether you're actually changing as a person, whether your life exhibits the character of God, whether you're walking in the light, whether you reflect God's glory in any way. That doesn't matter as long as you feel that you're in fellowship with God. But you see, John says all of this is simply a lie. You see, light and darkness are actually incompatible. You can't have fellowship with God and walk in darkness. Brothers and sisters, I hope you understand this. You cannot have fellowship with God and not be changed by him. This is what the scripture clearly teaches. Brothers and sisters, John says that the person who does this does not practice the truth. You see, the truth is that we can have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, that God has made this possible. But you see, this sort of person is not putting that truth into practice. They're not really embracing the fellowship with God that is possible through Jesus Christ. They're simply pretending to have fellowship with God. Well, there's a second example that John gives in verse eight. John says this, that if we say that we have no sin, he says, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Well, there's two ways that this could actually be understood. First of all, this could be a denial here of original sin, denial that we're actually born in sin as human beings, that we actually have sinful natures. And brothers and sisters, this is actually the prevailing view in our world today. The prevailing view is that mankind is good. that people do evil things not because they're evil or sinful in and of themselves, but because of things that they experience, things like poverty, systemic problems in our society, a lack of education. But what's interesting is while so many people think this way, the evidence doesn't really bear this out. You see, even wealthy people, people with the best opportunities in life still do evil things. And despite all of our education, of course, sin still abounds. But brothers and sisters, this is how people think. That we are not sinful, our natures are not sinful, we are actually the opposite, inherently good. And the reason we wanna think this way is because it seems to solve the problem, you see, of the holiness of God. You see, you can avoid having your sin exposed by simply denying that you're a sinner, that you're really guilty before God, that you're really at fault. But you see, John says that this is only a kind of self-deception. You see, think about it for a minute. You can make yourself feel better about who you are. You can try to build up your self-esteem by simply denying that sin exists, by denying that you are a sinner. But the problem with this is that it actually brings you no closer to fellowship with God. You can deny you're a sinner, but it doesn't bring any transformation to your life. It doesn't enable you to walk in the light. In fact, what John says is it actually keeps you from that light. Well, I said there were two ways that this could be understood. The other way that this could be understood is that John here is describing a person who thinks that they've ceased to sin. They would admit that they formerly were sinful. But you see, now that they're a Christian, that sin is no longer a problem for them. And this may actually come from a misunderstanding of these images of light and darkness that John uses, not only here in 1 John, but in the Gospel of John as well. You see, his readers may be thinking this, if light and darkness are incompatible, and if God is light, and if I'm now a Christian, so I know God, I must be in the light, and therefore, I must no longer have any sin. Sin must not be a problem for me anymore. Well, brothers and sisters, we probably wouldn't go so far as to say that we have all ceased from sin. But I want you to think about this. Practically, many Christians actually live as if this is the case. They live as if sin is not something they really have to deal with. We can actually go for long stretches of our Christian lives without really even thinking about our sin or confessing that sin to the Lord. And this, too, seems to avoid the problem of God's holiness You see, we can think that we know God, that sin is no longer a problem for us. You see, but it doesn't really solve the problem. Because in reality, we all struggle with sin. And when we deny this, what we're doing is we're keeping ourselves from actually growing in holiness. We're keeping ourselves from actually walking in the light as God is in the light. We're actually keeping ourselves from deeper fellowship with God. Well, there's a third example that John uses in verse 10. John says this. That if we say that we have not sinned, John says, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Now this is very similar to the example that we just went over in verse eight, but I think it's different in this way. In verse eight, John speaks of one who denies that they're born in sin, that they have a sinful nature, or one who thinks that they've ceased to sin. But here in verse 10, John is describing someone who when it comes to their practical life denies that certain actions they do are actually sinful. You see, they accept that they have a sinful nature. They'll admit that they're not inherently good. But you see, on a daily basis, they also ignore and deny that they really commit sin. And brothers and sisters, it's easy for us to fall into this as well. As Christians, we can accept the theological idea that we are sinners, that we were born in sin, that we need to be saved from that sin in Christ. But when it comes to the actual way that we live, we can avoid actually dealing with sin and allowing our sin to be exposed. And the way that we often do this is simply to view our life with rose-colored glasses. We're not really willing to admit that many of our actions are actually wrong in the sight of God. Brothers and sisters, what I hope you understand is that all of the examples that John uses here are ways that we really avoid being exposed by the light of God's holiness. As I said before, God's holiness unsettles us. God's holiness is like a piercing light that exposes who we really are. And you see, we're tempted to think that we would be better off, we would be happier if we could just simply deny that we really had a problem of sin. But you see, the problem we have is not just that we're sinners and that we're unholy. As I said, the problem's even worse than that. The problem is that we hate to actually acknowledge that truth. We hate to actually come clean. See, just like I was before my seminary professor, we don't like anything that actually exposes who we really are. And what John's warning us about here is that what we can end up doing, because we don't like to be exposed, is that we can end up living a lie. We can end up falling into patterns of deception, where we're really pretending to be better than we are. We're saying that we're really following God when our life can actually demonstrate little of the growth and change that would be present if we were really living in fellowship with God. And brothers and sisters, what John wants you to realize is that this problem is the very thing that keeps you from what you need the most, the very thing that could bring lasting change in your life, and that's fellowship with God. You see, this keeps you from actually growing in holiness. It keeps you from being transformed into God's own likeness. The fact that we want to run away from the holiness of God, the fact that we don't want to admit our sin, the fact that we don't like to come into the light, the light of God's holiness, you see, this actually keeps us, John is saying, from walking in the light as God is in the light. Well, the question then is this, what is the solution? How is it that we can actually grow in deeper fellowship with God? Well, this is the third thing, then, that we need to think about. We've thought about the character of God. We've thought about our own problem, the problem of our sin, and particularly how we avoid having that sin exposed. Now, John wants us to think about a better option. You see, if God is holy and pure and righteous, if we are sinners and we're unholy, and if even as Christians we avoid acknowledging our sin, we try to hide from the holiness of God, you see, all of this keeps us From fellowship with God, it keeps us from true transformation. And the question is, what are we to do? How is it that we can actually live in fellowship with God? Well, this is what John says to us in these verses. What we need to do is the very opposite thing that we want to do. We need to come into the light and allow our sin to be exposed. You see, brothers and sisters, this is the very thing that we're tempted, even as believers in Christ, to constantly avoid. But John is saying this is actually what you need the most. You need to come into the light so that you can walk in the light as God is in the light, and so that you can grow in holiness and in exhibiting his own character. Think about it. What's the point of pretending that you walk with God? What's the point of denying your sin? It doesn't really bring any change to you. John says there's a better option to turn from sin and to pursue holiness through Christ. You see, this is what John is actually calling us to do here. And brothers and sisters, this is what is possible through Jesus Christ. It's because of what Christ has done for us. It's because of who we are in Christ that we no longer have to avoid the holiness of God. We no longer have to avoid our sin. We can actually make progress in holiness through the work of Jesus Christ. This is what John begins to tell us about in verse 7, and it's interesting, he begins that verse with the word but. It shows that he's making a contrast here between everything that he said in verse 6. You see, rather than simply saying that we have fellowship with God when we're really walking in darkness, which is what he said in verse 6, what John says in verse 7, what we need to do is to seek to walk in the light as God is in the light. In effect, what John's saying is what we need to do is to stop running away from the holiness of God, and what we actually need to do is desire the holiness of God. Brothers and sisters, this is possible through Jesus Christ. You see, John has already told us the way that Christ came, that he was willing to take on our own flesh. And the very reason that Jesus did this, the reason that God sent his own son for us, is so that we could walk in newness of life. so that we could actually be conformed to his own likeness. And John is saying that this is what we should desire. This is what we should pursue in Jesus Christ, not to avoid the holiness of God, but to seek the holiness of God. And what's interesting here in 1 John is that before John tells us how we're to do this, John actually tells us two results that come from walking in the light in verse seven. He says that if we stop avoiding holiness and we start pursuing holiness, the two things will happen to us. First he says that if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, he says we have fellowship with one another. Now this is somewhat unexpected on John's part. This is a sort of unexpected statement. We expect him to say that if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then we'll have fellowship with God. But he doesn't say this. He says we have fellowship with one another. See, the point John's making here is that when we are actually growing in holiness, when we're taking on the character of God, when we're actually living in fellowship with God and transformation is happening to us, this is when we're actually able to have true fellowship with one another. And the reason for this, of course, is because it's our sin that keeps us from fellowship. Think about it. What keeps us from truly loving each other as Christ has loved us in the church? It's our sin. It's because we're still sinners. It's because we're in darkness. It's because we're not growing into the likeness of Christ. And when this is the case in our life, you see, we can't exhibit fellowship with one another as God calls us to, because that fellowship flows from our fellowship with God and our fellowship with Christ. But you see, when you're living in fellowship with God and with Christ, and when that fellowship is bringing transformation to your life, you see, then we're able, John's saying, to actually have fellowship with one another. There's a second thing that John says results. He says if we walk in the light as he is in the light, he says that the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. You see what John's making clear here is that walking in the light does not refer to moral perfection. You see, even as you seek holiness, as John is calling you to do, John knows that you are gonna struggle with sin. In fact, part of walking in the light, as verse nine makes clear, involves us acknowledging sin and confessing it to the Lord. And you see, as you seek to walk in the light, your sin is going to be exposed. And what John wants you to know is that as your sin is exposed, God has made provision for that sin, that it will be cleansed. And that provision, John said, is the blood of Jesus. You see, it's his death, it's everything that his death accomplished for us. You see, the same blood that saved you, the same blood that justified you, the same blood that made you right with God, John wants you to know that it's this same blood that will cleanse and purify you from all of the sin that you continue to struggle with as that sin is exposed by the light of God's own holiness. Brothers and sisters, what John is inviting us to do, inviting us to here, is to pursue holiness. He's inviting us to walk in the light as God is in the light. And I ask you this question, do you want to do this? Do you want to walk in the light as God is in the light? Do you want to grow into holiness? Do you want to exhibit the character of God? Do you want to have deeper fellowship with God? This is the question that John is asking you. I ask you this morning, Are you tired of managing your sin? Are you tired of trying to cover it up? Are you tired of denying it? Are you tired of living a life where you know that you're professing one thing, but your life doesn't really match up to it? John's inviting you to something better. He's inviting you to come into the light, to pursue the holiness that only God can provide for you. And when we get to verse nine, John tells us how to pursue this. How is it that we can live in fellowship with God? How is it that we can walk in the light? How is it that you can make progress in holiness? Well, John answers this in this wonderful verse that I said in the beginning of this message is almost too good to believe. John says this, that if you confess your sins, that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Think about that. How is it that we can live in greater fellowship with God? John tells us here, it's by living a life of confession. It's not by denying our sin, brothers and sisters, it's by confessing our sin. It's not by avoiding the light of God's holiness, but it's actually by coming into that light and allowing the light of God's holiness to expose our sin, and then acknowledging that sin to the Lord. The way you grow in holiness is actually by ongoing, particular, and daily confession. This is how you make progress in reflecting God's own character. And what I hope you understand, what John wants you to understand is that the reason that you can do this is because God has promised us lasting forgiveness in Christ. John has promised us a well of forgiveness that will never run dry. Think about what John says in this verse. He says that God is faithful and just. This is also somewhat unexpected. We might expect John to say that if we confess our sins, that God is merciful to forgive us our sins, or that God is loving to forgive us our sins. But John doesn't say that. He says that God is faithful and just. He wants you to know that if you are in Christ, God could never actually count your sin against you because he is faithful to all that he has promised and all that he has already accomplished through his son. You see, Christ has already satisfied the demands of God's justice on the cross, and it would be unjust for God to punish us now for his sin when he has already punished that sin in the person of his own son. And what John wants you to know is that because of this, you can be assured of God's forgiveness, that God will not treat you as your sins deserve. And John doesn't just say here that if you confess your sin, that God will forgive you. John goes on to say that God will cleanse you and purify you. You see, the light of God's holiness doesn't just expose our sin, brothers and sisters, it actually eradicates it. And this is what God promises to do as part of his grace to us in Jesus Christ. God doesn't just forgive us. He doesn't just say that he won't count our sin against us. God actually makes us clean and purifies us. You see, if we come into the light of God's holiness, God is able to chase away the darkness of our sin. He's able to bring lasting change and transformation to our lives. But brothers and sisters, if that's good news, the good news gets even better if we make one final observation about this wonderful verse. It's an observation that Charles Spurgeon himself made. And it's this, that the most amazing word in this verse, the word that we should praise God for continually, is one of the smallest words. It's the three-letter word, all. Think about that. John says that if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Brothers and sisters, it doesn't say that God will cleanse you from some unrighteousness. It doesn't say that God will cleanse you and forgive you up to a point. It doesn't say that God will forgive you if you're not that bad, if you don't cross certain boundaries. It doesn't say that. It says that God will forgive you from all of your unrighteousness. It's not as if I come to God over and over with my sin, and then God says to me, Pastor Lloyd, you just keep coming with that sin. Well, I've had enough now. I was willing to forgive, but you just keep coming and you keep coming. You're supposed to be a Christian, and I just can't keep forgiving you like this. Now, we might be tempted to think that maybe God would be like that, that maybe God would be like us, but John tells us he's not. John tells us that God has provided a fountain of grace for us in Jesus Christ that can never run dry. And brothers and sisters, it's the person who truly believes this who will walk in the light as God is in the light. It's the person that truly believes that promise, that will make progress in holiness, that will enter into deeper and deeper fellowship with God because they will be willing to come into the light and confess their own sin. And brothers and sisters, this is what God calls us to do. This is actually what we need the most. This is what John's telling us. We need to stop avoiding the light of God's holiness. We need to stop making excuses for our sin. We need to stop denying that the problem is really as big as it is. We need to stop pointing to other people. It's this that made me sin or that person that made me sin. Though John says we need to come into the light, we need to see ourselves as God sees us, but we need to do this believing that there is lasting grace for us in Jesus Christ, mercy and forgiveness that will never run out. And brothers and sisters, we make the mistake sometimes in thinking that the godly person will be a person who has to confess less. that as we grow in godliness and holiness, that confession will become less and less necessary. It's very easy to think that that's the case, but it isn't. It's actually the opposites that's the true. It's as you grow in fellowship with God and as you grow in holiness that you will confess more and more because you will have the desire for holiness and you will know that the only way that you can grow in that holiness is by coming into the light of God's holiness and allowing it to expose your sin. I want to end this morning by simply reminding you of the simple truths that John has taught us in this passage. He teaches us that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. He is pure holiness, brothers and sisters. And he is the one, the standard for all human behavior. It's his light that exposes darkness for what it really is. And John says this, that if we think that we can have fellowship with him without dealing with our sin, without really being changed by him, we're deceived. You see, God calls us to walk in the light as he is in the light. This is the only way that we can have fellowship with him. And the way that we do this is by coming into the light, acknowledging our sin for what it is, confessing that to the Lord. But brothers and sisters, the only way that any human being, you and me included, will do that is if you believe the great promise of 1 John 1, 9, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us pray. Our Father, we know, as John teaches us here, that we cannot really enjoy fellowship with you and walk in darkness. We might try to do it sometimes, we might almost convince ourselves, but we know that darkness and light are incompatible. And we know that if we are gonna come into the light, Father, our sin is going to be exposed. Father, we don't like this. We admit it to you. We often run away from you and your holiness. We actually run away from the very thing we need the most, fellowship with you, fellowship with Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would help us to believe the great truth of the gospel, that there is grace for us as sinners that never runs out, that you are a God who will forgive us, Lord, who has paid for all of our sin, past, present, and future, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. our Redeemer. And Father, that through this great truth, Father, that we would be a people who are willing to see our sin exposed because we desire to live in holiness, to live in fellowship with you, that you will enable us to do that, to not make excuses for our sin, to not run in the other direction, to not blame others, but to come and to live a life of confession, acknowledging our sin and believing that we are truly forgiven in Jesus Christ. Father mold us into a holy people. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.