Thank you for listening to our Emanuel Baptist Church podcast sermon series by Pastor Sean Cole. Emanuel exists to display God's glory, declare God's gospel, and to disciple for God's great commission. If you have any questions about this message or would like more information about our church, you can visit our website at www.ebc-online.org. Now here's Pastor Sean. Most of you, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to the book of 1 John. We started this last week. 1 John is where we are this morning. Two weeks ago, I was shocked to hear about the moral failure of the famous preacher Stephen Lawson. Many of you have been blessed by the ministry of Stephen Lawson. Some of our growth groups have done his Attributes of God study. Pastor Dustin and I last year around this time went to the G3 Conference in Atlanta, got to hear Stephen Lawson preach twice. A powerful preacher of God's word. He was the head of the doctoral program at John MacArthur's Master's Seminary. He was a teaching fellow at R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries. He was a preaching pastor to church in Dallas. But here's the issue. Stephen Lawson had a five year romantic relationship with a young woman in her 20s. He's in his early 70s. Evidently her father found out and threatened to go to the elders of his church unless Steve went there first. And so he went and confessed it to his elders and Lawson was immediately fired from all of his preaching responsibilities. He was relieved of all of his duties at Master Seminary, at Ligonier, all the ministries, all the speaking engagements, pretty much has been let go of everything. And to my knowledge, he has not yet made a direct public statement of confession of sin or repentance. Now does this mean that Steve Lawson is not a Christian? Has he abandoned the faith? Not necessarily. We don't know his heart. But it does reveal something to us. It does reveal that there are some who claim to walk with Jesus and yet can live in darkness and sin. And things like this show the depth of hypocrisy and secrecy that believers can sometimes engage in. It makes us discouraged, it makes us frustrated, it makes us angry. Now it's easy to pick on Steve Lawson this morning because he's a famous pastor who's fallen. but I want us to think about ourselves. I was telling this to Don earlier this week. Sometimes when you hear sermons, I think the natural tendency is for you to think about this. So and so needed to be here today to hear that. I'm glad my husband's here to hear this. I'm glad my wife is here, she needs to hear this. Oftentimes we think about who needs to be here to hear this and we don't often stop to think, well maybe I need to hear this. So today, we all need to hear this message from 1 John. So let's read it together. We're gonna start in chapter one, verse five, through the end of the chapter. 1 John chapter one, starting in verse five. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus 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 of 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. So if we could distill this passage down to one main idea, What's the big idea? What's the central thrust of this passage? It's simply this. True believers cannot remain in habitual, unrepentant sin. True believers cannot remain in habitual, unrepentant sin. And I've chosen those words carefully. True believers cannot remain in habitual, unrepentant sin. Now, this does not mean that we will never sin. This does not mean that we as Christians won't do grievous things, or that we'll never disobey God's will. But I wanna ask a question this morning. Can someone who merely professes faith in Christ be spiritually self-deceived? Or let me ask it a different way. Is there a difference between a mere profession of faith and possession of faith? Is there a difference? Can those who think they are saved actually lie to themselves and have faulty thinking and unrepentant behavior? Well, the Bible has some things to say about self-deception. Jeremiah 17.9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Can you understand your own heart? Galatians 6.3, if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. It's very easy to be self-deceived. Now we started 1 John last week, and if you remember, I said the structure of the book is around these three tests. There's the theology test, what I believe, There's the relational test, how I relate to others, how I love others, and there's the moral test, how I live. And so today, John's gonna focus in on the moral test, how do I live? And so we see this passage unfold before us in three primary ways. So let's explore these ways together that come directly from the text of Scripture. So first, we see the theological foundation that God is light. We see that in verse 5. Here's the message that we have heard and proclaimed to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. What does it mean that God is light? Well, it means God is spotless. He's perfect. He's absolute purity. He has perfect knowledge of all things, including the deep recesses of our own hearts. God is light. He's absolutely holy. He's blazing in perfection. He shines forth in his glory. He is absolutely morally perfect in all ways. Think about the Old Testament for a moment. How did God lead the people of Israel and how did he show up often in the Old Testament? In light. Even back when he made that covenant with Abraham, remember when he put Abraham in a deep sleep? And those torches of light passed through the dead bodies. He led the nation of Israel in a pillar of fire. And then if you remember, the Shekinah cloud glory, the light, the shining brilliance of God rested on the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle. God is light. Listen to some scriptures that teach this truth. Isaiah 57-15, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. And also with him who is of contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. God inhabits eternity. Psalm 27-1, the Lord is my light, In my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 104, one through two, blessed the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. Okay, what does the New Testament have to say about God being light? 1 Timothy 6, 15 through 16, he, who is the blessed and only Savior, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. James 1, 17. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow due to change. In him there's no darkness, at all. Hebrews 12, 28-29, Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. And what did Jesus say about himself? In John 8, 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Now what does light do? Light brings things out into the open. It shows the true character of things. Light is penetrating, but light is also invigorating. Usually light comes with heat. How many of you here want to sit in a cold, dark room, or do you want to sit in a light, bright room? Light's also joyful. What happens after a dark thunderstorm? The light comes out and we see the rainbow, the many prisms of light. It brings joy and relief. Light's invigorating. Light's penetrating. Light can bring joy, but light can also be disquieting to those who want to hide in darkness. Now why does John start with the theological foundation that God is light? Why does he start there? Well, here's the answer. What you believe about God will determine how you live. Who God is determines how you live. Or to put it very simply, theology impacts morality. Now, it's very interesting because later on in John chapter four, we'll find out that God is love. But why does John start here with God is light? He could have started with God is love, but he started with God is light, and both of those are absolutely true. But why does he start with God is light? Sometimes we are tempted to focus more on God's love and mercy, which we should, but we oftentimes neglect His holiness and His righteousness and His justice. And we must never pit one attribute of God above another. We must never elevate His love over His holiness or His holiness over His love. But the tendency among the human heart is to always focus on God's love and not on His holiness. And so God is absolutely holy. And from the very beginning here, John is laying a theological foundation. God is light. He's holy. He cannot tolerate sin. In Him there is no darkness at all. Psalm chapter 5 verse 4, Before we understand how to live, For God, we need to understand who God is. He is light. He is absolutely holy. He's blazing in all of his glory. He's absolutely morally perfect in all ways. And if that's true, and it is, it should impact how we live as children of the God who is light. Which leads us to the second aspect of this passage of scripture. What John lays before us are three false claims that show self-deception. You see it in verse six, you see it in verse eight, you see it in verse 10. And how do you know? Because John says, if we say. If we say dot, dot, dot, and then he gives these falsehoods, these false claims. What are these false claims? Well, there's three of them. The first one is in verse six, false claim number one, a hypocritical lifestyle. What does verse six say? A hypocritical lifestyle. If we say or if we claim we have fellowship with him while walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. Verb tenses in John's epistle are very important. The word there, walk, is in the present tense. The word there, lie, is in the present tense, and the word there, practice, is in the present tense. You say, what's the point of it being in the present tense, Pastor Sean? It makes it very important. Because what the present tense verb in the original language means is ongoing, habitual, lifestyle actions. In other words, if you say you have a relationship with God and you continually, habitually walk in darkness, you are habitually lying to yourselves and you're habitually not practicing the truth. It's not just a one time slip up. Walking in darkness means a continual pattern in your life, a lifestyle of disobedience with no evidence of repentance whatsoever. Job 24.13 says this, there are those who rebel against the light who are not acquainted with its ways and do not stay in its paths. You've rebelled against the light. You're continually walking in darkness. Have you ever met someone who says they're spiritual or they're religious? and yet is outrageously immoral and has a lifestyle that is totally out of control, but they think they're okay with God and God's okay with them. They're spiritual. They're religious. Hey, I have a relationship with God. What does John say here? If we say with our mouths we have fellowship with Him, but yet continually walk in darkness, we're liars. We're lying to ourselves. And the truth is not in us. This is what Russell read to us earlier during our time of confession. It's from the Gospel of John. It's the words of Jesus. In John 3, 19-21. I'm sure the Apostle John was listening intently when Jesus taught this because he wrote it in the Gospel of John and he reiterates it here in 1 John. But listen to John 3, 19-21. This is the judgment. The light has come into the world. That's Jesus. And people loved the darkness rather than the light. Think about that, they loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed, but whoever does what is true comes to the light that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out by God. Now let me ask you a very deeply theological question, okay? What happens to a cockroach when you turn on the light? It's not a trick question. Do cockroaches like light? No. They have developed over many years an aversion to light. What do cockroaches like to do? Hide out in the dark, eat bacteria, and do a bunch of gross stuff. And then when the lights turned on, what do cockroaches do? Ah! They get crazy. They run for their lives. They hate the light. because they love to live in darkness. And this is the same imagery that Jesus is using here. There are people that would rather feast on the grossness of this world and darkness because they love it, and when the light of the gospel shined upon them, they flee, they scatter, they can't stand the light like a cockroach when the light's turned on, they scatter. And Paul addresses this in the book of Ephesians. He says in Ephesians 4, 17 through 20, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Okay, what is that, Paul? In the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them. Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that's not the way you learned Christ. The non-Christians live in darkness. The non-Christians have become hardened. The non-Christians live in the futility of their minds, but that's not the way we live as Christians. That's not how you learn Christ, Paul says. Because Paul goes on in Colossians 1, 13 through 14, he's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. God's delivered us from darkness. And 2 Corinthians 6, 14 says this. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness? John Stott has wisely written this. He says this, quote, we are right to be suspicious of those who claim a close relationship with God and yet walk in the darkness of error and sin, paying no attention to an all-holy God." And I like what he says. He closes it out with this statement, Christianity without morality is an illusion. Christianity without morality is an illusion. Now, notice what John says in verse 7. We're to imitate God. In verse 7, he says, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, Remember, God is light. So we are to imitate God by walking in the light, walking as God. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians 5.1, therefore be imitators of God as dearly beloved children. Imitate God, walk in the light. Be like your God, who is light. And then later on in that passage of scripture, Paul makes it even more emphatic in Ephesians 5.8. He says that for one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Jesus tells us that, Paul tells us this, John tells us, it's a recurring theme in the Bible, walk as children of light. What about Peter? 1 Peter 1, 15-16, but he who has 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 again, there in verse 7, walk is in the present tense. Your lifestyle is one of walking in the darkness. I mean walking in the light instead of in the darkness. So what does it mean to walk in the light? Does it mean like you kind of turn the lights on and walk where there's light? No. Walk in the light means this. You begin to see things from God's perspective. You begin to see things from God's perspective. You begin to see sin the way God sees sin. You begin to bring sin out into the open. You begin to see where you fall short. You begin to measure yourself against God's word. Proverbs 4.18 says this, But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The path of the righteous. Now, do you realize that your sin negatively impacts Christian fellowship? You'd be surprised at what John says here. Look at verse 7. You would think that John would say in verse 7, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with God. You'd think that's what he would say, right? But that's not what your Bible says, right? What does it say? Verse 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with what? One another. One another. Think about the destructive, sinful lifestyle and how they mess up relationships in the life of the church. Remember last week I talked about that false teacher, Sorenthus, and his followers. They basically argued you could live however you want without repentance, and this group of spiritually elite troublemakers had left the church and looked down on others, and they basically destroyed the church because of their sin. So your individual sin impacts the fellowship of the church. That's false claim number one, this hypocrisy. If you claim to be a Christian, if you claim to have fellowship with God, but you're continually living in unrepentant sin, in a lifestyle of darkness, you're basically lying to yourself. Okay, here's false claim number two. A denial of our sinful nature. Okay, this is verse eight. I want you to notice, if we say we have no sin, singular, not plural, but no sin, This is not saying that you don't commit any sins, but what it's saying is that you're denying original sin inherited from Adam. You're basically saying, I don't have a sin nature. I haven't inherited sin from Adam. I have no sin in my life as far as it's a nature. Now, where did sin come from in the world? What came from Adam? Romans 5.12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Adam, the one man, brought sin into the world, and all of us have inherited his sin, his sin nature, okay? Verse eight is what I call the Pelagian heresy. And you're like, what in the world is a Pelagian heresy? I put it up there so you'd know how to spell it, okay? Pelagian heresy, it comes from a British monk in the 400s, A.D., whose name was Pelagius. And here's what Pelagius taught, and it's alive and well today. Pelagius basically taught that we are born a blank slate, we are born morally neutral, you don't inherit any sin from Adam, you don't inherit anything from Adam, you basically are a product of your environment, you can choose to sin, you can choose to not sin, and actually you can choose to live a perfect life if you so desire to do so. This has been deemed a heresy by not only the Protestant church, but the Roman Catholic church as well. It is a downright heresy. You cannot be perfect. All of us are born with sin. You can't just say, I have no sin in my life because of what Adam did in the garden. His sin becomes your sin. You're born with it. We've got to deal with it. We can blame Adam, but that's the way God worked it out. And what does verse 8 say? If we say we have no sin or sin nature, What do we do? We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We're deceiving ourselves again. We're being self-deceptive. We've committed the ancient heresy of Pelagianism by saying, I don't really have a sin nature. Okay, the third false claim is probably the worst. False claim number three, the heresy of sinless perfectionism. You see this in verse 10. If we say, we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. That verb tense there, that we have not sinned, is in a tense that basically makes it sound like in the original language you've never committed a sin ever. That there's a point where not only do you not have a sin nature, But there's a point where I'm never ever gonna sin. It's impossible for me to sin. And why it's worse than the other two is because it says it makes God out to be a liar. Not just that you're a liar, but God is a liar. His word is not in you. Many years ago, and I don't recommend this, just for your own spiritual health, please don't do this. don't watch TVN or any of these Christian broadcasting stations at all, but I was watching it late at night many years ago, and I came across a televangelist. I'm like, I wanna hear what this televangelist has to say. What false heresy is he gonna be spouting? Because I'm interested in stuff like this. Well, he began to basically chide and get on his congregation because they sinned. And basically what he said, he says, I've learned to never ever sin again. I've stopped sinning. And he basically said, I feel sorry for you if you sin. Because when the devil, when he comes close to me, the devil knows not to mess with me because he knows that I don't sin. So he doesn't even mess with me, he messes with you poor people. Because I've gotten to the point where I never sin. And I watched the TV and I thought, hmm, when's lightning gonna come strike this dude? Because you sinned right then by lying. You just broke verse 10, okay? If we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So God is light. He's absolutely holy. And as followers of Jesus, we must walk in the light. Now, this doesn't mean that we're sinless. Okay. There's a difference between being sinless. The issue is consistency. So let me ask it this way, is your life marked by ongoing habitual obedience or is your life marked by ongoing habitual disobedience? It's a simple question. I'm not saying do you slip up from time to time. I'm not saying do you ever sin. I'm saying the overall pattern of your life, ongoing, habitual, progressive, lifestyle, is it marked by repentance, obedience, or is it marked by a lack of repentance and disobedience? If it's the second, and you claim to be a Christian, what John is saying is you better examine yourself, because you may actually be lying to yourself. Okay, so we looked at the first two things in this passage of scripture. We've seen the theological foundation that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And the second thing we've seen are these three false claims that were probably circulating in the church, probably Sorenthes and his followers were actually saying these things, and John's combating it by saying, no, these are falsehoods. These things are false. But then there's major hope in this passage, and here's the third thing that I want us to focus on. We see the only hope in our struggle with sin. And we see this in verses seven and nine. What's the only hope in your struggle with sin? Is Jesus teaching that you're never gonna sin? Or what happens if you do sin? What happens if you blow it big time? Well look at verse seven. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and here's the hope. The blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Now it's very interesting because the word cleanses there is also in the present tense. I thought, Pastor Sean, when Jesus died on the cross, it was finished. Yes, when Jesus died on the cross, he cried out, it is finished. He paid for your sins, past, present, and future. All the sins you would ever commit, all the sins you have committed, past, present, and future, all your sins were paid for by Jesus on the cross when he cried out, it is finished. But the reason why it's in the present tense here cleanses. is because in that moment when you sin, you receive a fresh supply of grace that is felt experientially that God loves you, that God cares about you, that God forgives you in that moment. It's a present reality, it's a present assurance that I'm forgiven, I'm assured, I'm loved, I'm accepted, even when I don't feel like it. When you feel guilty, when you feel dirty, When you feel stained, Jesus' blood gives us that immediate, deep in our heart, sense of washing and cleansing that gives us immediate joy. And in that moment, we know experientially that his blood cleanses us and that we are loved by a holy God. Hebrews 9.14 says, Now what does verse 7 say? The blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from some of our sins, right? What does your Bible say? All sins. Not just some sins. All sins. The blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sins. Okay, let's look at verse 9. Because there's a way to appropriate that. There's a way to understand that, to experience that. In verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, there's that word used twice, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Okay, what does it mean to confess? The original language helps us here because the word confess in the original language means to say the same thing as. You could put it this way, to agree with God. to say the same thing as God says about your sin, to agree with God that what you're doing is sinful. It's also in the present tense. So it means if we're continually confessing our sins, it's not just a one-time confession, but it's ongoing confession, ongoing acknowledgement, ongoing coming before God. It's keeping short accounts with God. And notice it's confessing our sins, plural. You know, confession of sin needs to be very specific, not generic. It's okay to say, Lord, please forgive me for my sins, but where the rubber really meets the road is when you say, Lord, please forgive me for the sin of dot, dot, dot, fill in the blank of what you've personally committed against a holy God. Remember King David? He was a wonderful man of God, right, a man after God's own heart. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, and had her husband Uriah murdered. And David deserved the death penalty for being a murderer and adulterer. And he pens two Psalms where he confesses his sin. And I want you to hear the heart of King David and what it means to confess. Psalm 32 is the first one. Psalm 32, three through five. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. When David hit it, when he was quiet about it, he felt like really physically sick. He felt that pressure, that weight. But then when he let the floodgates open and he confessed, he didn't hide it, he felt that immediate forgiveness. And then Psalm 51 is the other place where he writes about this episode. In Psalm 51, three through four, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgments. I know my transgression. I'm gonna agree that what I've done is evil. I'm confessing before a holy God. And then Proverbs 28, 13 says this. Whoever conceals or hides his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. It does us no good to hide our sins. Why? Because God knows about them anyway. Our confessing sins is not to give God information he doesn't have. Our confessing sins is for our benefit to agree with God and to come open and to bear our heart before him and to receive that cleansing in the moment to know that he can forgive our sins. Because it says there, God is faithful and just. Now that word faithful is very close to what the Old Testament chesed word is that we use all the time. He's faithful to his promise. But I want you to also notice he's just. That may surprise you that he's just. He's faithful and just. Now, just, when we think about just, we can think about it this way. God is under no obligation to forgive you. If God were just entirely, all of us would suffer eternity in hell. But God's justice and his faithfulness go hand in hand because God has poured out his justice on Jesus in our place. Because God is faithful to us in his covenant, and because God is just in pouring out that wrath upon Jesus, he can then forgive us because of what Christ has done, because God is bound to us in that covenant loyalty. The justice has been met by Christ's death on the cross. His shed blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Now what's the difference between forgiveness and cleansing? He says if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us. What's the difference between forgiveness and cleansing? They go hand in hand. I don't know if there's a great difference, but think about it this way. Forgiveness refers more to the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin. That sense of guilt and shame that you're under the penalty of sin. God forgives you from that. Cleansing refers more to the power of sin, that feeling of dirtiness and filthiness that you have after sinning. Isaiah 118, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. So here's the connection that I'm making in this passage. I hope you see it. To walk in the light means to confess your sins. To walk in the light means you're always confessing your sins. It doesn't mean perfection. It doesn't mean that you'll never sin, but it means that you're striving by the power of the Holy Spirit to live a consistently, habitually holy life, and that when you do sin, you're bothered by it, and you immediately, quickly confess that sin and go before Jesus to receive that immediate cleansing from His blood. Now this passage should impact you in two ways this morning, depending on where you are with Jesus. It should impact you two ways. The first way this passage of scripture should impact you is as a warning to those of you who think you are okay with God, but you're living in habitual, unrepentant sin. It's a warning to those that are deceiving themselves. And if you're deceiving yourself this morning, you need to quickly confess. You need to stop living the delusion of walking in darkness. You need to come into the light right away. You need to stop walking in darkness. Stop messing around, stop fooling around, stop fooling yourself, stop deceiving yourself. It's a warning to those. But secondly, it's gospel hope. Because here's the beauty. There is no sin that's too big that Jesus can't forgive it. There's nobody in this room that sinned so grievously that Jesus can't cleanse you of all unrighteousness. I don't want anybody in this room to ever think that Jesus can't cleanse me. Well, Pastor Sean, you don't know what I've done. Well, maybe I don't, but God does, and Jesus paid for all sin. No matter how grievous, no matter how heinous, no matter how secret, A sin that maybe you've been living with that you've never told anybody and you're struggling with, can God forgive me? And the answer is yes. Now sin is a big deal to God. It's so much so a big deal to God that he sent Jesus to die in our place as a substitute to take the wrath that we deserve. And sin's a big deal because how does this passage start? It starts with the holiness of God. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So God doesn't just sweep our sin under the carpet, God is light, God is holy. But he also sent Jesus to die for us. For every individual sin that we would ever commit in thought, word, or deed. And when we confess our sins, when we bring it out in the open, when we come before this holy God who is light and we confess, the promise is that he's faithful and just to give immediate cleansing, immediate forgiveness to the depth of your soul to know that you can be forgiven. So here's the fundamental question for you this morning. Do you have fellowship with God through his son, Jesus Christ? Do you have fellowship? That's this whole thing. If you say you have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, you're living a lie. So how can you know that you're saved? How can you know that you have fellowship with God? And here's the answer from this passage of scripture. You walk in the light. You're quick to confess your sins. You constantly run to Jesus for cleansing. You cling to the old rugged cross as we sang earlier. You cast yourself at His mercy, and this is the consistent, habitual pattern of your life. What's the opposite? You walk in darkness. You hide your sins. You're walking in guilt and shame. You're trusting in yourself, you're living for pleasure, you run away from Jesus instead of toward him. And this too is the consistent habitual pattern of your life. So if you're running into darkness this morning, I beg you today, walk into the light of God's grace Find Jesus a perfect savior who stands ready, willing, and able to forgive you of all your sins. What better way to thank Jesus for his forgiveness, the cleansing of his blood, the shedding of his blood, than to celebrate the Lord's Supper. So as we observe communion this morning, let us praise Jesus for his cleansing blood. His amazing forgiveness. Let's spend some time this morning praising Him for the fellowship. That's what really what the word communion means, fellowship. The fellowship we have with God and the fellowship we have with one another. We have fellowship with God, we have fellowship with one another. Why? Because of the cleansing blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all our sin, not just some, but all of our sins. And so today, let this not be a time where you live in fear, but let this be a time of cleansing, a time of confession, a time of joy to know that there is no sin so great that Jesus cannot save you, cleanse you, and forgive you. And the Lord's Supper is a visible reminder that we can receive His grace upon grace to be forgiven. So let me ask you to bow your heads this morning as we prepare to take Lord's Supper together as a church family. And would you just spend a few moments confessing your sins and receiving the cleansing and the pardon and the forgiveness that comes from a God who's faithful and just to do that. We worship you this morning because as the scripture says here, you are light. God is light. In whom there is no darkness at all. Father, you are absolutely holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. You are absolutely perfect in majesty, blazing in glory, morally perfect in all ways. And Father, we look at our lives and we realize that we are sinners and we fall short and we need grace. And Father, I'm so thankful that this passage of Scripture did not tell us to look within ourselves, it didn't tell us to go to some priest, it didn't tell us to do a bunch of steps, it didn't tell us to become more spiritual or try harder, it tells us to confess our sins directly to you and receive that immediate cleansing. Lord, help us to do that this morning. Help us to claim that promise that if we confess our sins, you're faithful and just to cleanse us and to forgive us. of all our sin. So Lord, as we come to your table to partake of the bread and the cup that represent your body and your blood, may we do so with joy, may we do so with peace in our hearts that we have been forgiven, and Lord, may we do so in a posture of confession. Thank you for your cleansing blood that cleanses us of all our sin. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.