Well, my voice will be back next week, but it's kind of nice. You know, I don't get to sing bass that often, and so it helps me get down to those little notes. All right. Well, if you've got your Bibles, please open them up to 1 John, Chapter 1. All right, 1 John, Chapter 1. And we'll begin here at verse 5, and Lord willing, get down through chapter 2, verse 6, our text this morning. You know, wife, you've probably noticed that there's good news and there's bad news. Probably daily, there's good news and there's bad news. And sometimes, it depends on the person, I suppose, but some people will say, you'll give me the good news first. Other people will say, no, give me the bad news first. And really, a lot of times, it doesn't matter. It could be something like good news. You know, you won a trip to Europe. And that's great. Bad news is the flight left yesterday. It doesn't really matter there, does it? It could be bad news first. Bad news, the stock market dropped and you lost 2,000 pounds. Good news, you only had 2,000 pounds to lose. You can't lose anymore. And so sometimes, It doesn't matter what order the bad news or the good news comes in. This morning, as we look at the Word of God, I think it does matter. As we're going to look at these if statements that are in our text, and what you'll find is these if statements are bad news and good news. And the chronology, I think, is important this morning. And it actually rotates pretty consistently through the text until at the end, you can say, there's good news. It goes, good news, bad news, down to the end, or bad news, good news, down to the end. And then it has good news, and then the last one. I'm going to put good news. So I'm going to go good news, good news at the end, even though there's a little bit of bad in it, as you'll see when we get down there. But these ifs in our text this morning, what you'll find is they have to do with our walk with the Holy God. If you look with me at verse 5 of 1 John chapter 1, it says, This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." God is completely pure. Now, there's very things in life that are pure. You may not know this, you may not want to know this, but even your food is not pure. The FDA, I guess in the United States, I think it is Federal Drug Administration, or Federal You'll have to help me with what the acrostic stands for there. But they say that certain amount of even bug parts can be in your food. Did you know that? Like if they took your cereal or something, and it has so many spider legs or something like that, or so many fly wings, it's okay as long as it's not over so many bug parts per grams. Okay, that's true. I got a microscope the other day and we have a water purifier at our house and I said to my wife, it should be interesting to even take the water from the tap and then the water from the water purifier and to see what we're actually drinking. You know, you just take for granted it's pure water because you can't see those fine things that are even in the water. You might have seen sunshine come into a room and you thought you're breathing pure air, but that sunshine reveals the fact that in the air there's these little particles of dust that we're breathing in. And I'm not trying to gross this out this morning, but the reality is there's very little in life that is pure. But think about what John said. John said, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is perfectly pure without any darkness. The problem is this morning that you and I have darkness in us. We have sin that is in us, especially before we ever come to the light. And so man has a big problem when it comes to this idea of walking with God. And the problem is this, light and darkness cannot coexist. If we were able this morning to get all the light out of this room through the skylights and turn off the lights that we have and get all the light out, as soon as we introduced light to the room, darkness would flee. And see, that's the thing, isn't it? If we're darkness, and we introduce God, and God is light, either the darkness, the iniquity, has to be dispelled, or the darkness has to flee away from the light. And so it's very important this morning we consider these ifs that John speaks about because these ifs have to do with that idea of man's ability to walk with God. So to walk with God this morning, you must get rid of the bad ifs and obtain the good ifs, okay, in the statements that John gives, all right? Let's pray and we'll ask the Spirit of God to help us as we come to the Word of God this morning. I'm thankful for the spirit of God. I'm thankful for his ability to work in hearts. And that's our confidence this morning as we come to this message from your word. Father, it's not by might or by power, it's by your spirit. It's not something, Father, that we could do, but God, it's something that you must do. And Father, I would think this morning it might be difficult to listen to my voice because of the weakness of my voice this morning. But Father, I ask in Jesus' name that that not be a hindrance at all to our ability to listen to the Word of God. And Father, I know some of the kids have never sat in a church service, and that's a difficult thing for them to be here, and it might be a bit distracting perhaps to somebody that might be near them this morning. But I ask in Jesus' name as well that that not be the case. And Father, we're really looking to you this morning for your blessing. And Father, it's our desire this morning to have ears to hear. And so I pray, whether you speak to one heart or 10, I pray, God, that you'd speak. I pray, give us ears to hear, that we'd listen. And I pray, God, that you'd be glorified in this message. Thank you now for your help. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Alright, if we want to walk with God, and I hope you do want to walk with God, we've got to get rid of, this morning, the bad if of profession. Okay, and it's going to be in your text this morning if you want to follow along. But the bad if of professing, just professing Christ. Because the Word of God says in verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Okay, John's included himself in this. John is the Apostle, here's the writer, and girls, it would just help if you sat those down underneath your chair, okay? Until after church, and that would be great. John is the writer of this. He's including himself in the statement, as he said, if I say that I walk with God, but I'm walking in darkness, then I'm lying about that, and I do not the truth. And so there's people, the Word of God talks about, that would say, if you ask them, they would say, yes, I walk with God. Or they would say, yes, I'm a Christian. They would be people perhaps like Judas in the New Testament. And you look at Judas, and you would think a man that physically walked with God would spiritually walk with God. And if you ask Judas, Judas, do you have fellowship with God? Judas would probably say, yes, I do. But if you examine Judas's life, you'd have to come to the conclusion, Judas never walked with God. But think about Judas. He sat and he listened to the teaching of Jesus. So if you ask academically, you ask Judas, Judas, what did Jesus teach about this? Judas could answer the question academically and say, this is what Jesus taught. Judas would profess that Jesus was the Messiah. I mean, that was the common understanding of those that followed Jesus is that He was the Messiah. Judas would probably answer that question right, say, Jesus is the Messiah. You know, Judas looked like a good guy. If you looked at Judas, you'd think, well, I mean, that's a devout follower of Jesus Christ. We know that because the story in John 13, 21 When Jesus says, some one of you guys here is going to betray me, that means you're going to turn me over to the soldiers. He said, one of you is the guy. All the disciples looked at themselves and they were thinking, is it me? Is that treachery in my heart? They didn't look at Judas and think about him. And it says they doubted of whom he spake. But then it says, after the sop, Satan entered into him, Judas, then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus sent unto him by those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. You know what the bag was that Judas carried? It was a bag of money. That was the money of the disciples and the money of Jesus. And because he had the bag, when Jesus said, somebody here is going to betray me, when Judas left to betray Jesus, the other disciples just thought, well, Jesus must have sent Judas to go buy something. It never crossed their mind that Judas might be on his way to sell out the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas attended public worship services at the synagogue. I mean, he was there, in Old Testament church as it was, that if you looked at Judas, you'd say, Judas is a religious person. And Judas seemed to care about what Jesus was teaching, didn't he? I mean, after all, Judas' life was religion. He was dedicated, he was with Jesus all the time, and so you'd think that Judas, again, was a very religious person, but the thing about Judas was that Judas was walking in unrepentant sin and had never given his heart to God. So even though he looked like he was a follower of Jesus, and he would say, I walk with God, In his heart, Judas had unrepentant sin that he had never gotten rid of. We know that because the Bible says in John 12, verse 1, that Judas got upset when this lady came to Jesus. You know what this lady did? She took some perfume that was worth a whole year's wage. Well, somebody would get paid for working for a whole year. She took that perfume, she broke it, and she anointed the Lord Jesus Christ with it. It was a very loving thing to do. But you know, Judas and some of the disciples actually got upset about that and said, why is she wasting this? And so Judas speaks up and he says something about it. And he said, why was not the ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, let her alone against the day of my bearing, hath she kept this? For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always. Judas said, leave her be. Judas said, why wasn't it sold and given to the poor? Why did he care? Because he cared about the poor? No, because he's a thief. He's a thief. He's right there with Jesus all the time. He's a thief. He's taking the money that's the disciples' money, that's Jesus' money, and he's pocketing it. He's stealing it. You know, the Bible says here in our text, if I want to walk with God, I've got to get rid of the bad if of profession. Just saying, if I say that I walk with Him, if I'm professing that I walk with Him, But in reality, I've got hidden sin, I'm harboring sin, I've never come to the light. It's a lie. And so, we've got to get rid of that bad if of just professing. The second thing, and this is a good, okay, the good that we need to obtain, we need to obtain the good if of inspection. We've got to get rid of the bad if of just professing, just saying that I walk with God, when I don't. But I need to obtain the good if of inspection. Inspection. Verse 7 says, but if we walk in the light, I'm going to call that inspection. Here's why. Light illumines. Light reveals. If I walk in the light, I'm transparent. I'm willing to say to God, God, inspect me. God, look and see my heart. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. In the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's a wonderful thing today, if you're in a relationship with God, where you can say to God, God, I open my heart to you, whatever you want to examine in my heart is fine, because I have the good if of inspection in my life. I'm willing to, if we walk in the light, I'm willing to walk in the light today, because I've got nothing to hide in my heart. That's a great thing. The King David in the Bible had that idea in Psalm 139, 23, and 24, when he said to God, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. To think today, can I go to God and say, God, I'm just going to open my heart before you. And God, anything that the light of God reveals in my heart that is contrary to this book, God, I'll change it. Because I'm not scared of the light. See, the light reveals what's wrong. The light is a good thing. It examines my heart and it gets rid of this sin. But the problem is this, isn't it? A lot of people don't want to open their heart to God. A lot of people want to walk in darkness, the Bible says, because they don't want the light to examine. They don't want the light to expose. They don't want the light to reveal. Back when I was probably six years old, maybe five years old, we lived in an old house in Wisconsin. That's how you're supposed to say it if you're from there, Wisconsin. And our house, my mom was just telling me this, and I didn't remember this, but we had a basement or a cellar underneath our house. And the beams down there were actually so old, they were cut with the bark on. They had the bark on the beams. So for the United States, that's old. Probably 1800s. That's not old for here, but it's old for there. And so this house that we had, and my room was upstairs. Mama would come up at night, kiss us to bed. You always knew she, you know, before we went to bed, we always knew she was coming. Well, that night, I kind of had this bad habit when I was a kid. I kind of liked fire. or that kind of thing. And it got me in trouble a couple of times. Thankfully, never in a dangerous, dangerous way. But this time, I was playing with rubber bands on our radiators. And our radiators, I think, were electric radiators, not like the water radiation here, but electric, so hotter. And then a rubber band on those radios actually melts. And when a rubber band melts, it puts off a very strong, distinguishable odor. And even as a 5, 6-year-old, I thought, mom's going to smell this. So I had something to hide. So when mom starts to come up the stairs, I shimmied up my doorframe. It's kind of like a little monkey. You kids might do this occasionally. You put your hands and your feet on the door. You can actually go up the doorframe. I go up the doorframe. Mom's coming up the stairs. I'm going, night, Mommy. Love you, Mommy. And my mom, probably like most moms, she's pretty smart when it comes to that kind of thing. And she's like, what's up? comes in and finds me out. Why was I in the door? Why didn't I want the light of my mom to come into the room? Because I didn't want her to find out that I was disobedient because I knew what that meant. Punishment for me. You know the only reason today that people don't want to let God look at their life is because of sin? That's it. But if I want to walk with God, I have to be willing to say to God, God, examine my heart. God, look at my heart. See what the problem is. And again, there's people that say, but I don't want that. And here it is in the Bible. John 3.19 says, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, but it says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. And you think about the world as they have their sin, it might be drunkenness, it might be lying, it might be fornicating, it might be thievery, it might be any number of things, abuse of some sort, and there's an unwariness to let the Word of God examine their heart, and it's biblical, because their deeds are evil, and they're going to hold on to those deeds. But listen, if you hold on to your sin, can you walk with God? No. And so John says, you know what? If we walk in the light. He's encouraging us, saying, look, you want to walk with God? If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If I want to get my life right with God, I've got to be willing to say to God, God, it doesn't matter what it is, what you put your finger on here, as I go to church, or as I'm in the Bible, God, whatever it is, I'm just going to let you have your way with that. Because I want to walk in the light. So you get it. When I cover that up, when I harbor that, when I hide it, I'm staying in darkness and not walking in light, and I'm not walking with God. And so John challenges us to say, hey, obtain this good if of inspection. Not the bad if of just professing, saying, I walk with God, but walking in darkness. But get the good if of inspection and letting God examine you. And then we go to a bad if again here in the text. And we need to get rid of the bad if of deception. The bad if of deception. Verse 8. It says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, I don't know if you've ever read this passage or not, but sometimes when I've read this passage, especially when I was younger, it confused me a little bit. Because it says here, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And it would seem to me that every time in my life I've got to say, but I'm a sinner. But the Bible has already told us in the previous verse in 1 John 1.7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. And so I would teach my teens, when I was a youth pastor, you can be holy like God is holy, because the Word of God says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But I wrote that on something, I had a questionnaire that I wrote that on, and I had a good, well-meaning pastor sit me down and say, you're teaching sinless perfectionism. And I'm now 41 and I've been in the ministry a little bit longer. You know what? I still disagree with what he was saying with this verse. Because the Word of God does teach that if I deal with my sin, that God will completely take away my sin. And we've looked at the verse on Thursday night. There is no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that you are able, but will with that temptation also make way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. And the honest truth from the Word of God is that by God's grace, I can live holy. Not that I'll always succeed. Not that I'll never fail. But that by God's grace, I can be made righteous today like God is righteous. And that's what the Word of God does teach. He cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 3, 7. "'Little children, let no man deceive you. "'He that doeth righteousness is righteous.'" Now listen, even as he is righteous. God says, if I'm walking in obedience and I'm walking in the truth, that by God's grace and through the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am righteous like God is righteous. To Corinthians 5.21, "'For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, "'that we might be made the righteousness of God.'" In Him. It's not sinless perfectionism. Sinless perfectionism says that once that transaction takes place, I will never sin. But it is this, from the Word of God, by God's grace, when I'm right with God, I've been saved, the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away my sin, I've dealt with my sin, that I can be holy like God is holy. And so in our text, as we look at this and it says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And you might say, pastor, you're just saying that we could say that we have no sin. What then is the text speaking about? I believe it's speaking about this, not somebody that's walking the light, not somebody that's had the blood of Christ applied, but somebody that is not saved. Somebody that's never come to the light. is this person that says, I have no sin. It's deception. Somebody that is deceived. It's a statement that I hear all the time as I knock on doors and somebody will say this, but I'm a good person. I'm a good person. Well, let's look at a text, Luke chapter 18 and verse 10. Kayla, will you please get the doors for us? Yeah. Luke chapter 18 and verse 10. His name's Caleb and her name's Kaylee. They can both get one door. Alright? Luke 18, verse 10. It says, Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. He said, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Okay, the Pharisee, what has he just said? He pretends like he's praying. He's going to God, and he says, God, I'm so thankful that, listen, I have no sin. Do you see it? I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not like this publican. He has just done what the Word of God says here in 1 John 1 verse 8, where it says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And so as you think about this morning, deception is this, thinking that I have no sin to confess, I do not need the blood of Jesus Christ, I am good, I have my righteousness, before I got saved. I'm not talking this morning to somebody that's saved. I'm talking to those that are not born again and in that position saying, I do not have sin. That's deception. You know, the reality is this morning, you can't get saved without recognizing that you're a sinner. Nobody can accept Jesus Christ without acknowledging that they're a sinner that needs a Savior. In fact, Jesus Christ didn't come to die for good people. He came to die for sinners like you and like me. 1 Timothy 1.15 says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Romans 5.8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. See, Christ came to die for sinners. Christ came to save sinners. And if this morning I say, well, I'm not a sinner. Listen, Christ didn't come to die for you then. I mean, that's the reality of that statement. Because He came to die for sinners. And if I want to get saved, I've got to get rid of that deception that's in my heart. That pride in my life that would say, you know what? I'm a good person. Alright? So get rid of the bad if of deception. And as you do that, the way to do that, is to obtain the good if of confession. Don't worry, there's not going to be a test on this. I know we're going through some different words and stuff. We'll summarize it at the end. You might need to write it down if it helps you. But it's all following John's thought here. Obtain the good if of confession. Verse 9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Okay, say I'm the guy over here that I profess that I know God, but I walk in darkness. But I'm also somebody that defends myself saying, but I'm a good person. And I'm saying, I'm deceived thinking that I'm alright. If I'll get out of my deception and confess and say, that is sin that's wicked against God, and I come over here to you, God, and I confess my sin to you, then John has just told us that God, in His mercy, is willing to completely cleanse my heart and completely take away my sin. I shared a story on Thursday night in our Bible study, and several of you weren't here, I'll share it again, about an experience I had soon after I started driving. And I started driving when I was 15, working on getting my permit. At 16, I had my driver's license. And it was soon after that that we had a Sunday night service at our church. It was wintertime, and Wisconsin has very cold temperatures in the winter. It gets so cold, we tell people that snow squeaks. It's minus 20 Celsius, minus 30 Celsius sometimes. And you can't walk outside. And really, when you walk in the snow, it's like squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak when you're stepping on it. And you can sometimes hear it in your vehicle as you're driving on it squeaking as well. And so I got in our car. Our car was a big station wagon. It's an Oldsmobile custom cruiser wagon. It was probably like 20 feet long, big old boat of a car. and me and three friends. And it's in the garage. And so we put the garage door up, and I'm backing out. And I'm thinking, wow, the snow is really squeaky tonight, because I'm just hearing. And then Andre was sitting behind me. He goes, Ben, there's a car right beside us. And I didn't realize it. Some people that are very good friends of our family, Jim and Sue Sahlstrom, had pulled into our driveway that night after church started, and I'd forgotten that they parked in our driveway. And so, as I'm backing out what I was doing, I was putting a very fine scratch all the way down the side of Jim's new car that he had just gotten. I felt horrible. And we were going to some friend's house to just have some snacks and stuff after church. And I felt awful the whole time I was there. I mean, it was just on my mind. I've got to say something when I get home. They're at our house. And we get home. They're at our house. And I'm there. And I'm thinking, how am I going to tell Jim I put this big scratch down his car? And so I took my dad outside. I told dad. I said, dad, I was backing the car out. And I put a big scratch down Jim's car. And so we told Jim. Thankfully, Jim is a very gracious person, and Jim forgave me. He took my indebtedness away, and he took my guilt away. Now, if I had gone to bed that night, and by the way, Jim also let his daughter marry my brother, and so everything did work out fine. But if I had let that be unconfessed, what would it have been like that night when I went to bed? I'd have felt guilty. I'd have had a hard time sleeping, thinking Jim's going to find out. Jim's going to see that scratch. He's going to know something happened when he's at our house and I didn't say anything. It's going to look really bad. I mean, there's all these thoughts that could have been going through my heart. But because I confessed my sin, it wasn't really a sin, it was an accident, but my transgression, because I confessed that to Jim, I was able to go to sleep that night with a clean heart and forgiveness. Listen, the thing about it is, tonight, if you harbor your sin, and refuse to come to the light and let God take care of it. Tonight, as you go to bed, that weighs on your conscience and it's a burden. But it's a burden that God is willing to take away if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He says in Isaiah 118, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And God is saying this, even if your sin is like a big stain on you, come to me. And if you come to me, I will cleanse you. I will take that sin stain away. That's a very precious reality today about walking with God. If it wasn't for that mercy of God, we couldn't, any of us walk with God. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. So obtain the good if of confession. And then we got to go back to a bad one, one last time here. Get rid of the bad if of rejection. The bad if of rejection. Verse 10 says, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Okay, I'm calling that rejection because it's like this, the Word of God comes, and I reject it, and I say to God, God, you're a liar, because I'm really a good person. The Word of God comes and examines my heart, and it says, I find this fault in you, and again, you just go, no, no, I don't believe it, I reject it. Who are you rejecting? You're rejecting God. You're saying to God, God, you're a liar. It's basically like this, somebody saying, you know, I'm not a bad person. I only do unto others what I want done unto me. If God thinks I'm a bad person, I'll stand in judgment on Him. He's wrong. I'm right. It's like that, isn't it? The GSCE exams have been in the news lately. But imagine that you're a child that took those exams and you get it back and it said you failed. And your parents ask you, and they say, how did those GSE exams go? And you say, they went extremely well. I got extremely good marks. And they say, well, give me your exam paper or your document there that says how you did. And you hand it to them, and they look at you, and they say, this says that you failed. And you say, oh, no, that's not it at all. I did really well. And what are you saying? You're saying, I reject what that says, and I believe what I believe. Do you know there's a lot of people, it's kind of like this, the exam results are in regarding my goodness, and the reality is I haven't done as well as I think I've done. See God's Word says, in Romans 3.10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. Romans 3.20, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And yet there's people that stand over here and they say, well, I just really believe I'm a good person that someday I'm going to stand before God and God's going to accept me. But the problem is this, God has already said in His Word what their sin is. So for them to get to that point in their heart of rejecting the light, they're saying to God, God, you're a liar. And the Bible says His word's not in us. That's very sad today. There's people that are rejecting God. And so if we want to walk with God today, we've got to get rid of the bad if of rejection. Just two more here this morning. And they're both good. The second one, you'll see there's a little bit of bad or good in it. But this one, obtain the good if of reception. Reception. In chapter 2, in verse 1 and 2, it says, My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Okay. My little children, I write this unto you. If any man sin, I call this the good if of reception. What am I speaking about? If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Who? Jesus Christ. Who? The righteous. It's okay, we're all sinners. If in a man's sin, there's an answer to this need, the answer is Jesus Christ, who is perfectly righteous. He, the Bible says, is the propitiation for our sin, and I'll explain that, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. It's probably been a long time since you were talking and you used the term propitiation. It's not a term that we use. What a propitiation is, it's a covering or an atonement. Do you guys know the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Remember that? We're talking about it on our Thursday night meeting as we study the book of Genesis. But in Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve sinned against God, all of a sudden they realized that they were unclothed. And they were ashamed. Nakedness is a shame. The Bible says that very clearly and teaches that very clearly in that text. And that's why our world is so... You can see the godlessness of our world as they're not ashamed of their nakedness. But Adam and Eve, their conscience was soft and tender. They were ashamed of their nakedness. And you know what they did? They tried to hide themselves, didn't they? And they took and they put fig leaves together, sewed fig leaves together, and tried to cover themselves. But you know what? It wasn't adequate, was it? You know, that's like sin. A lot of times people think, I sinned against God, and so I'm going to try to cover my sin. I'm going to try to be a good person. I'm going to try to be religious. I'm going to try to put this clothing on of my own self-righteousness. But it's not good enough. And so what God had to do in the Garden of Eden, he had to take We believe a lamb, but an animal, the Bible says, he had to kill that animal to take the skin of that animal and to cover the nakedness and the shame of Adam and Eve so that they could again walk with God. Do you know what that is a picture of? That's a picture of propitiation. That's a picture of atonement. That is a picture of a sin covering that makes us, again, acceptable in God's sight. So here it is this morning. Jesus Christ is the sin covering that you need. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, did God force them to wear the clothes that he made? No. So how did they get the clothes? God brought the clothes to them, but what did they have to do? They had to take the clothing from God and put it on. Once they did, they had an atonement for their sin. You know, it's the same for you this morning. It's the same for me this morning that if I'm not saved, I need to go to God and say, God, I need that sin covering that you give. I need that perfect righteousness that Jesus possesses to come and to be upon me as my atonement to cover my sin. That's the only way today I can walk with God. If I don't deal with my sin and have my sin covered, I cannot walk with God. And so today, if you want to walk with God, you've got to obtain the good if of reception. And then the last thing this morning is that we need to obtain the good if of submission. The good if of submission. Verse 3. says, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But who is the keeper of this word? In him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. What's it saying? It's saying if we want to walk with God, then we've got to submit ourselves to God. Hereby we do know, if we know him, what? If we keep his commandments. Kind of goes back to our first one, doesn't it? If I say this morning, you know, I'm walking with God, how am I assured in my heart that that's true? I'm assured by knowing that, you know what, I'm walking in obedience to God. God said to get saved, I got saved. God said to get baptized, I got baptized. God said to get rid of sin, I got rid of sin. God said to give the gospel, I give the gospel. We do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. And that's why a lot of times I suppose there's people that struggle with their salvation, whether or not they're saved. Am I saved? Am I not saved? Am I saved? Am I not saved? And that a lot of times the reason they don't know that they're saved is because after they trusted Christ, they continued in sin, and continuing in sin contradicts the life that they profess to believe. And that inconsistency in their life causes turmoil. Am I saved? Am I not saved? Listen, if you walk in the light, if you keep His commandments, you know that you're in Him. It's kind of like this. Remember John Newton, the hymn writer? What was John Newton before he got saved? He was a slave trader. He had a ship. He was a ship's captain, a slave trader. You know, after John Newton got saved, he was no longer a slave trader? Because his life changed. The Apostle Paul, what was he before he got saved? Well, he was a persecutor of Christians, but after he got saved, he was a preacher of righteousness. He stood and preached Jesus. I've told the story about George Minsik, who was in Al Capone's gang in Chicago. After George Minsik got saved, he became a street sweeper in Chicago. His life changed. He was no longer in the gang. He became a preacher. He started going to prisons preaching. Why? Because he was a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wanted to walk with God, so his life changed. It could be this morning, you might have gotten saved, but if your life doesn't change, you can't walk with God either. And so how important these things are, as John speaks about it, if we want to walk with God, God is light and Him is no darkness at all. So how is it possible? Because, Lord, I know there's darkness that has been in my life at times, or mankind in their natural state, they're in darkness. How can we then walk with God? John explains it really well. He said to get rid of the bad ifs and obtain the good ifs. And so what are the bad ifs this morning, according to the Word of God? The first one was profession. Profession. And so the question would be, are you lying about your walk with God and continuing to walk in darkness? See, if I say, I've got fellowship with God, but I'm walking in darkness, I lie, and I do not have the truth. His truth is not in me. But it could be this as well, we've got to get rid of the bad if of deception. Those that would say, I'm a good person, I don't have any sin to confess. That's just a deception of the heart to say, I'm fine, I don't need Christ. Or the bad if of rejection. Rejecting God saying, God, you're a liar. You're a liar. I am a good person. I know I'm a good person. You're a liar. And the Word of God's not in you. But we also have to obtain the good ifs. The good if of inspection. Inspection. You know, you're willing to say to God today, God, whatever you want to examine in my heart is fine. Or is there a secrecy in your heart where you say, God, I don't want you to look in my life. I don't want you to examine my life because there's things there that I don't want you to see because I know what you think about those things. Inspection. We need to obtain the good of confession that we would say to God, God, if you, find anything in my life that's contrary to you, then God, I'll get rid of it. I'll get rid of it. And then we need the good if of reception as well. Jesus, you're the only hope, you are the propitiation, you are the sin covering. And so, Jesus, I need you, I need to receive you into my heart as my sin covering. And then lastly, the good if of submission. Submission, saying to God, God, I'm going to walk where you walk. If I'm going to profess that, I follow you, then I've got to walk where you walk and keep the commandments of God. And so you see this morning as we looked at this, There's good ifs and there's bad ifs. But God gave the bad and the good here to bring us to a good walk with Him. And I hope this morning, you know, this is maybe too much mental exercise for Sunday morning. I hope not. I hope not. There's, I think, plenty in this passage that's very plain. And I believe the Spirit of God would help us to make decisions based upon what we heard. And so it might be in your heart this morning, you just have to go to God and say, God, I'm sorry. I haven't been willing to come to the light. I haven't been willing to submit to you. God, I haven't received your propitiation. God, if you want me to do that this morning, I'd do that just now. And I challenge you to obey God as God speaks to your heart. Let's pray. Father, I pray, may the Spirit of God challenge our hearts here this morning. And I'm thankful for the Word of God. And Father, I pray that we'd let it work in our hearts and our lives. Give us grace to receive it. And may we be glorified to do a good work, even through our time together here this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.