Open your Bibles, if you would, the book of 1 John, chapter 1. Our text will be specifically taken from verse 6 to verse 10. But as a basis, or as a beginning point, let us read chapter 1 down to and including chapter 2 and verse 2. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, We have looked upon and our hands have handled the Word of Life. For the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shown to you that eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 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. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not 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 Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us 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. 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. Verse 6 is one of those verses that, from the child of God, should cause fear and trembling. Verse 6 should be words that we do not just read over lightly and pass on. The words of verse 6 should give us pause and cause us to ask some questions about ourselves. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, or if we say that we have communion with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Now, that's not talking to the general public. That is not talking to the world at large. That's talking to men and women like I'm understanding is the majority of the people here this morning. I feel pretty safe in saying that most people here this morning would say that I have fellowship, I have communion with Him. Then you must, upon that declaration, ask yourself Do I walk in darkness? For if I do, I lie and do not the truth. We may make a profession. We may say, I believe I have faith in Christ. I have communion with Christ. I am in this together with Christ. and we can make that profession of a lie. Look at verse two of our chapter. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us. We see it. Do you see the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and is now made visible and clear. So, you see it. If you say, yes, I do, and walk in darkness, rely on His Word is right in us. I don't want to rush over that fact. I don't want to just run past that contradiction. Because if there is a problem that you have, that you recognize in you, I do not want you to just rush past it. I want your fellowship to be true. I want your fellowship to be sweet. I want your fellowship with Christ to be real. Not just simple practice and observance of religious rituals. in the first service, your pastor spoke of this work for salvation. Things that we can do that give us a sense or an idea in our mind that we have something that we do not really have. Our salvation is faith in, it is secured by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and our union with Him. Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ said, saw his day and was glad in it. The faith of the Lord Jesus Christ is essential for true and lasting salvation. That religion. There is no such thing in the world as one who is in Christ, who is the light of God, the light of salvation, the light of the world, and continue to walk in darkness." Notice if you would, verse 5, "...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 I see imputation here. The light of the world is Christ. We have that light. There is no darkness in God whatsoever. When the Father looks at us, He sees us in Christ. He sees us in light. not darkness. But what we're talking about here is practical day-to-day life. We're talking about a walk, a daily getting up, going about our daily routine. And there cannot be any darkness in it. There is no, well, I'm in Christ today, but I'm not tomorrow. I believe in Christ today, but I don't believe tomorrow. This is a new life. There's no darkness with God. There's no variable with God. There's no changing with God. There's no shadow with God. We like shadows. We like variables. We like places where it's not really clear and sure and set that we can kind of have some maneuvering room Understand something, ladies and gentlemen. There is no maneuvering room. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. You can't have it both ways. In a few moments, I will make it clear to you that we're not talking about here that you have to live a perfect life before God. But you can't. You can't do that. But because you can't do that does not give you license to do whatever you good and well please. You cannot in this new life that we have been given by God in Christ walk as you once did. You're a new man. old things have passed away, the old, old things come new. If that's true, then be not like the dog that returns to his vomit, or the pig that returns to his miter. There's no place for that with us. That's not what we have here. I don't know for real, in truth, what your state is with God. I don't know where you stand with God as it pertains to Christ. The only person I know of for sure is me. The people around you, your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, they may see what outwardly you want them to see. But you know, in reality, what is inside of you. Do not be inclined to take John's letter, these first chapter and two verses, and say, was it talking to someone else? Or was it talking to the whole group? John did write a letter to a group of people, and this is it. But the application of that letter, you must make applicable to you individually. Not just a universal blanket letter thrown out there that because everyone else lives up to it, I do. It doesn't work that way. This is individual. You knowing you. if you are truly have fellowship with Christ and walk in the light of God. Only you know about that. I want to ask five questions of you this morning. Let me ask you, what do you see? When you look into yourself, do you see belief or unbelief? Do you see faith, or do you see doubt? Do you see works, or do you see faith in Christ? There's a lot of religious people today that are walking around in unbelief. They look good on the outside, but on the inside, they're full of dead men's bones. You must know that you are in faith. Are you in ignorance? Question number two. Do you see yourself, or are you ignorant of your real and true sinfulness? Look, if you would, at the Book of Romans, Chapter 3, for just a moment. Romans chapter 3, all I want to look at is verse 10 through 12. Romans chapter 3 verse 10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. There are not out of the way, there are all I'm sorry, they are together, become unstoppable, there is none that do us good, no, not one. Do you recognize? Do you understand that that is referring to you? Or are you wanting to say, well, that goes for someone else? I'm not that bad. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. The rich young ruler came to Christ and he said, good master. Christ said, why call upon me good? There's none good but God. Are you calling me God? Well, if there's none good but God, then God must be the standard of what is good. And if God is a standard of what is good, if God is a standard of righteousness and holiness and justice, do you recognize and see yourself as being completely and totally devoid of is-one-ness? There's no goodness in you. Do you see that, or are you ignorant of that fact? Are you hiding your eyes from the fact? Are you aware? of God's righteousness, and His sovereign demand and utter authority to exercise His will over you. You recognize that. We, as sovereign great doctors, are oftentimes accused of saying that God makes puppets out of His people. He just kind of pulls them along and forces them to do what He wants them to do. No we don't. But we do say that God changes the hearts of His people. And they then want to do what He wants done. He makes them willing in the day of His power, not by coercion, but by regeneration. Giving them a new heart. a new understanding, a new desire to please Him, to live according to the faith of the Lord, and submission to His utter and complete authority. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, for the last, not my will, Do those words make you recoil? Do those words stifle you? Do those words make you feel like you're less than a man and out of control? It doesn't matter to you if you're walking in darkness, or you're walking in light. Because ladies and gentlemen, the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, has absolute sovereign authority. over this earth, whether we want it to happen or not. And there's now a circumstance under him, what do we do now? He's sovereign. The question is, do you recognize it? Or do you fight it? Do you resist it? Because the people of the light don't resist it. In your bulletin, there's a question on the front, Do you have the right to be angry with God? I mean, let's admit that we oftentimes do question and get angry. Why did he do this? But that shouldn't last for very long. That should be very momental, a very small point of time that we ask those questions. And then we must say, as Job did, the Lord give us, the Lord take us away, blessed be the name of the Lord. The children of light will do that. Number four. Are you aware of, or are you ignorant to, your imminent danger of God's wrath? The book of Psalms, the seventh chapter, the seventh Psalm, verse 10 through 12, makes it very clear that God is angry with the wicked all day long, all of the time. If you are not in the light, then understand, God is not pleased with you. If you do not stand before God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is not pleased with you. And you can do nothing to please Him. We like to think that God grays on the curve, or God kind of lets things Go. He does not. We do that. See, we weaken standards because we realize we can't live up to them. God's standards are always the same. That's one of the things that makes God so needful. It's because He is always the same. We have got to wonder, well, what does God want today? What does He want tomorrow? It's always the same thing. God has never changed. In His standards, what He wanted, we are freed with. Fifth question. Have you let the practice of religion lead you into gross deception? Go back to our text in 1 John. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we are fellowship unto another, and the blood of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Have we allowed religion to replace the truth of God's Word. I'm afraid that this is a gross and a major problem in the world at large in the religious community. They've replaced religious practice with the truth of God's Word. Because we want to say that these things don't apply to me. Those five questions that I've asked, we want to say, well, that's not me. Folks, it better be you. There better be a point in a time, or that point in time that's yet to come, that you realize that you are in the danger. If God does have absolute and total authority over you, you've got to realize that, and you better submit to it. You must bring yourself under that authority, and His dominion over you. We don't work, we don't walk, in order to get something. Our walk as is spoken up here in our text, is not for the purpose of earning God's favor. It is not for the purpose of having salvation. It is an outcome from salvation. Our new walk is not to get a new life. Our new walk is because of a new life. We must walk in the light. We must order our life in full knowledge and permission to apply questions I ask you. Complete and total. Again, we like variables. We like shadows. We like places to hide. We like to look for loopholes. You're not finding loopholes in the Word of God. You do find a source of refuge, the person of Christ. When you see yourself as the natural-born sinner that you are, how displeased God is with you at every single moment. I trust that you will see that there's a refuge in the person of Christ. And we flee to that refuge. We flee to that light. And we long for that fellowship. We long to be cleansed. Notice our text, verse 7. and the blood of Jesus Christ is God cleansing us from all sin." See, it's not a problem. There is no danger in recognizing your sinfulness. There is no danger in recognizing God's sovereignty. There is no danger in recognizing your imminent danger of the wrath of God. There's no danger of that at all. There's never fear. Because only when you realize the danger that you are in do you seek help. And the only help that you have is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He shall, will, and doth cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But you can't have that. And you cannot have the assurance of that if you still walk in the darkness. If you were the book of Romans, chapter 5, I'd like you to notice the 8th verse. Again, we have this idea that we have to do a little something. We have to do and make ourselves better to get to God. In Romans chapter 5, verse 8, I want you to notice. But God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Not that we made ourselves better. Not when we quit sinning. Not when we turned our life around. He didn't commend the Lord Jesus Christ to us. He recommended love to us in Christ. He didn't send Christ across in Calvary for us after we made ourselves better. When we get finished, Christ dies for us. So the Father could give us new life. that He can give us a light, that we can sing, that we can have fellowship, that He can impute to us. So, that's the Christ. See, there's that imputation again. The Father sent the Son to the cross because He placed our sin on Him. And then He impurged. credited to our account, the righteousness of Christ. But it was not without the death of Christ. Christ had to die. The blood had to be shed. It pleased the Father to bruise Him, to crush Him for our benefit. Light for darkness. It's not about religion for us. It's not about walking and living right. It's about walking and living in the person of Christ. That's the only way to be done right. We must stand before God and Christ as if we never sinned because that's how God sees us in Christ. You know, the work actually ends then. In Christ, the work stops. Now, that does not mean that we don't have responsibility to God. It does not. But now, the work that we do is not for salvation, but because of it. It is not because we want to please Him. It is not because we want to pacify Him. It is because we want now to do for Him because we owe Him. This is a deadline. God has got to get what we're indebted to Him. And the most that we do, the most that we can do, is the least that we can do. But it's not work for salvation, it's work because of it. And that distinction needs to be made. It needs to be understood that we do not serve God to get something. We serve God because we have been given something. We want in the light of Christ not to earn something, but because God has given us something in Christ. We have the light. I want you to notice verse 8, 9, and 10 of our text. If we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, it is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to turn us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And that goes for today. If I stand before you and tell you I don't have any sin, I don't sin, I'm deceiving myself, and there's no truth in me. But if I say that I have sin, and I come into agreement with God of my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive me all of my sin and to cleanse me from all of my unrighteousness, how? And if we say that we never have sinned, we may become a liar and his words might end us. Ladies and gentlemen, it is essential that we have a proper understanding of how we stand before God. It is essential that we understand the best that we are is sinners saved by the grace of God. We'll never work our way to heaven. John says in chapter 2, verse 1, if my little children, these things I write unto you that you send out, to enlighten We should desire not to sin. Because of our standing in Christ, we should desire not to sin. We do not want to offend God. Our place in Christ does not give us license to sin. It does not give us opportunity or give us excuse to sin. For in truth, if it were possible, John says, I'm writing this, I knew that you said not. If any man sins, he, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have an advocate. We have someone that stands in our stead before God. In the light. If we walk in the light, we walk with one that walks before us. An advocate. A friend. A helper. We have one that's set up as a right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for us. Again, that does not say, well, you go on out and sin, do whatever you want to do. God will forgive you. Now, this is an attitude that a lot of people have. They say, well, always save, one saves, always saves, I'm going to do whatever I want to, whatever I please to do. If that's your attitude, you're walking in darkness. If what I'm reading to you this morning gives you the idea that you can sin and live any way you please, you're in darkness. Because, folks, you can't see Christ being our advocate. and not realize the necessity for an advocate. And if we need an advocate, that means that we're missing something. Because in verse 2 he goes on and says, and he is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So, propitiation means that Christ pleased God. satisfied God's justice, God's just demand. Every demand that God rightfully made upon us, Christ satisfied. And now we are able to have fellowship with God through Christ. Now we are accepted in the Beloved because God was in Christ, reconciling us unto He gives us a new standing before Him. We now stand before God whole, complete, redeemed, just, righteous, pleasing in Christ. But that's only for those that walk in the light. That's only for those that have come into agreement with God about their sin. And they have fled to Christ as their propitiation. It's like Christ pleads the Father for me, because I can't do it. My granddaughter has no time for me whatsoever. I come near her, she runs behind her father to hide. Well, folks, we have to be like my granddaughter at a point in time. And we have to run behind Christ to hide. But not to hide, but that His righteousness be ours. We must stand in Christ, or we will stand before God and be judged accordingly. See, Christ has been judged for us already. He's met all the demands. Our guilt is to give it to Him. It could have been done. So, the last question I want to ask you. Your character spoke this morning of a battle between work and faith. I want to ask you about another battle. Is there a battle raging inside of you as Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 7. For that which he would do, he does not. That which he would not do, that he does. Because he realizes there's two natures warring inside of him. He desires to please God always. But this flesh keeps hindering him. But he says, alas, in the new man I do serve as a warrior. Is there a battle going on inside of you? And this is important for a battle. I struggle every single day for the two natures of that. That old man, that old nature that loves his sins is still there. But the new nature that loves God and wants to please God, it says, If we walk in the light, we have that balance. It's got to be there. Because we have to recognize that this old nature feel like sin. And that's why it is so important that we confess our sins. Because we have a limit to make intercession for our sins. But there's no struggle. If you don't wrestle with the fact that you so often do not please God, if that doesn't bother you, if you not grieve when you hear yourself say the things you often say, or think the things that you think, desire the things that you desire, you may very well still be in darkness. And you have no fellowship. because the children of God struggle every single day. But we know that we have an advocate. We know we have one that has appeased God. We have one that has justified us before God. We have one that has redeemed us through God. And we know that because of Christ, The Father would never deny us. But the question comes back, folks, are you walking in darkness or are you walking in light? You can't do both. You cannot walk in the darkness of the old nature until you have fellowship with the Son or with the Father. So, if there's struggles going on inside of you, As hard as it is to do, as hard as it is to live with, be glad for that struggle. Because that struggle may very well be telling you, I have that new nature. I can't give you any assurance of how to walk or how to talk, a lot of things. But I can say, have this Word said anything to you? Is this word warning you? Has this word scared you? Has this word caused you to think about yourself? And ask yourself, am I in the light or am I in the darkness? That's the best I can do for you. I can't give you the assurance, but I can show you that the Word of God gives assurance. And to all those that are in agreement with God about their sin, That's what the word confession means, to be in agreement with. Do you agree with God about your sin and your sinfulness? Have you fled to Christ for forgiveness? If so, I praise God for you. If not, I pray that God will cause you to see your true state and the only hope and the only remedy that you have that is found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's your only hope.