1 John 1:6

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you: that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Father, that final statement there is so important: the work that You did on the cross 2,000 years ago, which we celebrated a couple of weeks ago on Good Friday, is sufficient for cleansing, forgiveness, righteousness, and grace—not just for us, but for anyone who would trust in You.

So God, we are grateful today for the power, Lord, the sufficiency, the greatness of Your grace, and Your love and Your sacrifice for us. We pray, God, that we would rejoice in that and that we would begin, as we go through this text, to more fully comprehend what that really means—the depth, the breadth, the width of this great love and this great grace.

So God, speak to us today by Your Holy Spirit, through Your Holy Word. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen. You may be seated.

Research conducted by a polling group, kind of like Gallup, but this group was called Pew Research, found in December of 2017 that 80% of Americans believe in God.

Or some higher power. That's pretty significant when you think about it. Eight out of ten people that you will interact with—neighbors, co-workers, family members, friends—will agree with the statement that there is a God or some higher transcendent being, force, or whatever they want to call it. So, 80%.

The same research study found that 97% of those 80%, nearly all of those people who believe that there is a God or a higher power, believe that that God loves all people regardless of their faults and accepts them, all of them, regardless of their faults. That is the general consensus of most of the people in our nation. Those who believe in God, eight out of ten Americans, will generally describe God as an omnibenevolent force, an all-loving force that will magnanimously overlook every bad thing that we've ever done and accept all of us.

That's the general statement: He is good, and He is going to accept everybody. There is nobody that He rejects, which is generally the way that people look at Him, and He will bring us all into an afterlife. We don't know exactly what that afterlife is, but there is some form of an afterlife. The same Americans polled about the afterlife found that the majority believe there is some form of heaven after this life.

However, when people in our culture are presented with the concept of what the Bible calls sin, and when they are presented with the biblical descriptions of death, judgment, and hell, many of those same people will look at you with a strange look on their face. The passage of Scripture that we're in brings up this word quite a bit: sin, and have not sinned, and have sins, and anybody sins. It just comes up over and over again.

So, when you start to talk with people about God, they'll nod in agreement, saying, "Yes, I believe in that, and He is good, and He is going to accept all people." Then, when you transition from that into the discussion of sin and the judgment of God, people may start to slow down in their nodding, and then maybe they'll begin to look uncertain. They might think, "I don't know that I'm following along with you any longer about this whole thing of sin."

Sin, as the Bible describes it, is lawlessness, wickedness, evil—anything that is against the nature of God and the command of God. Most secularly minded people in our culture, when you begin to discuss this, will react differently.

To talk about sin, people will often agree that it is something that others do. However, if you make the statement to a person, "You are a sinner," they will be personally offended by that statement. Even if you try to preface it by saying, "Well, I'm a sinner too," as soon as you start to talk about sin, it becomes a different matter. Yes, those other people are sinners, but not me. Most people view themselves as good people.

Not only do they see themselves as good, but they also believe they are the type of person that God would want to be around, someone with whom God would want to have a connection. Many of the people we interact with will claim that they have a connection with God and that God is somehow within them. One of the things you often hear is that every human being has a "divine spark." The way they talk about it sounds more like the Star Wars universe than the Bible. They might say, "We all have the force within us; metachlorians or something is in all of us, and we have it. I have the divine spark in me."

This sort of thinking is not new. Some might say it sounds new agey and that it has come to our nation in recent times, but it is not a new concept. When you look back at ancient texts, like the one before us in 1 John, you find that this way of thinking was pervasive 2,000 years ago during the time the Apostle John wrote this letter. He wrote to challenge this mindset, which was beginning to grow and gain traction at that time.

John wrote this near the end of the first century AD. The culture in which he was ministering was in what was then called Asia Minor, today known as southwestern coastal Turkey, specifically in a city called Ephesus. This mindset was prevalent among many people, not just those outside the church; it was starting to infiltrate the church as well. Therefore, John is writing to challenge this worldview, this mindset that was widespread in his day, and he aims to speak against this false view of God and this false view of ourselves.

As we discover the section we read just a moment ago, 1 John 1, verses 5 and onward, we see that John is directly addressing three false views of a group of false teachers that were present in his day. The three false views are found in 1 John 1:6, 1:8, and 1:10. When he opens with the words "if we say," many Bible teachers, myself included, think that John is actually addressing the things that were being said by these people in his day and those false teachers in his church.

In verse 6, he says, "if we say we have fellowship with him." The general view of many people in that day, as John was going around preaching the gospel, was that the gospel was a message about connection with God. We are all disconnected from God because of sin and fallenness, and we can be restored and reconciled back to God through the gospel. This is the message that he was preaching. However, there were people saying, "No, no, no, no, no. We're all connected to God. All of us. We all have the divine spark." In fact, that phrase "divine spark" originated in the second century in Asia Minor from a group of people we refer to today as the Gnostics. So it's not a new way of thinking.

John was preaching the gospel and saying that we are disconnected from God because of sin and that we need to come back into connection with God through the gospel. They were objecting, saying, "Hold on one second. I'm not a sinner, and I'm connected to God already." So, if we say that we have fellowship with him, that word "fellowship" means communion or connection with him.

Then in verse 8, he states, "if we say we have no sin." The general consensus of the people of his day was that they did not have any sin. They believed this because, in verse 10, he writes, "if we say that we have not sinned." They thought they were actually very good people. Does that sound familiar? If you have a spiritual conversation, as it is dubbed in our day, with a neighbor or a coworker, and you begin to talk about the things of Scripture, you might hear them say, "Well, no, I'm a pretty good person." If you ask someone, "If you died, do you think you would go to heaven?" they will probably respond, "Yeah, I hope so. Why? Because I'm a pretty good person."

John was dealing with that same thinking, which helps us recognize that even though it was 2,000 years ago, the words he wrote still resonate today.

Years ago, the teachings of the Bible still have application and relevance for us today because we are going to interact with people who have the exact same worldview. Some may say, "I'm connected to God. I don't have any sin because I have not sinned." This thinking has not just affected or infected the world around John outside the church; it was coming into the church. This became the major conflict in the second hundred-year period of the church. The second century AD was really challenged with and fighting against this Gnostic worldview that had infiltrated the church.

The Gnostic belief asserts that we all have a divine spark, that we are all connected to God, and that we have not sinned. They claim there is no such thing as sin. However, John counters this by stating, "No, listen, that's not the message that we brought to you." We read in First John, chapter one, verse five, "This is the message which we have heard from him, and we declare to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

In John's day, there were false teachers promoting a false message. They were declaring a message that conflicted with the one John was preaching. John does something really wise here; he appeals to authority. There was a message being preached that said, "We don't sin. We have not sinned. We have no sin. We are in connection with God. We will always be in fellowship with God." That is one message. Then there is the message that John was preaching, the message of the gospel: "We all have sinned, are separated from God, and need to be restored and reconciled back to him."

So, what do you do when you have two conflicting messages? John wisely appeals to authority. He states, "This is not a message I made up. This is a message that we received from him." In First John, chapter one, verse five, he reiterates, "This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

John emphasizes that they have these two conflicting messages. The one he preaches came from God. Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God incarnate, gave them this message. The implication is clear: where did your message come from? By what authority do you claim that you have no sin, have not sinned, and are in connection with God? Where did you get that?

While it may sound good and feel good, just because a message sounds good and feels good does not mean it is good. John asserts, "I'm going to appeal to the authority. God gave us this message."

Now, John's not the only one who does this. As you read through the New Testament, you find that many of the New Testament writers also do the very same thing. This is not a message that we made up. They didn't get together in a writing meeting and sit down to throw out some thoughts. They didn't say, "Hey, let's get some ideas on how we should write this thing. Maybe we should make him from Bethlehem." They didn't do that. It was a message given to them, revealed—what we call revelation.

Paul the Apostle, in the book of Galatians, chapter one, says, "I make known to you the gospel. It is not of men. Neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came by revelation. I received it by revelation from God." That's the propositional statement of the church: this is not a message we made up; it came from God. That's what John says here in 1 John 1:5. Paul reiterated this in 1 Corinthians 11:23, where he says, "I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you." Again, in 1 Corinthians 15:3, he states, "I delivered to you that which I also received." In Ephesians 3:3, he emphasizes that this message came by revelation. He made known to me the mystery of the message by revelation.

So, this is a revealed message that we have from God. What is the message? God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Some might argue that we have a divine spark within us, that we all have that light. What's that called? That's a pantheistic view: God is in everything; He is everything. It's the philosophy of Star Wars. However, this view was not just held by George Lucas and the writers of Star Wars in our generation; it was also prevalent in a galaxy far, far away and long ago.

John points out that the problem is that the message you came up with, however it was conceived, is in conflict with the message that has been revealed to us: that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

Now, what's the implication of this revealed message? The implication that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all is found in verse six. If we say, as has been said, that we have fellowship with Him and at the same time walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. We have previously considered that these metaphors, light and darkness, deal with...

That which is pure, holy, good, true, and right is light, while that which is immoral, wicked, evil, fallen, and sinful is darkness. If we say that we have a connection and are united in communion with God, having fellowship with Him, but we also walk in darkness and wickedness, then there is something that is not right. There is a conflict. John's statement is clear: we lie and do not practice the truth.

Point number one: those who talk of their connection to God must walk in accordance with their profession. If we say we have fellowship with Him, this was the saying of the day. The false teachers proclaimed themselves to be connected to God. They appeared, by their profession, to be Christians. This is why America is often viewed as a Christian nation; many people claim to be connected to God. When you ask them who God is, they respond with the God of the Bible, the Judeo-Christian God. They might say, "I guess I'm a Christian because I'm connected to that God."

But does your life align with that profession? There needs to be an alignment between what comes from our mouths and the practice of our lives. John's assessment of the individuals of his day revealed an issue: they claimed to be connected to God, but their lives did not represent that connection. They were still involved in all the practices of the day.

What were those practices in Asia Minor? It was the seat of worship for a pagan deity, a false god called Diana. Diana was worshipped in various immoral ways, chiefly through temple prostitution. This was a morally questionable practice, to say the least. Additionally, they were involved in other debaucherous activities, such as bowing down to a god called Bacchus, who was worshipped through drunkenness. They had that practice down really well.

Sexuality and drunkenness—does that sound familiar? We may not have the same temples or images, but we certainly have the same issues. Here were these people claiming to be connected to God, yet they were also connected to these immoral practices.

To idols. They were connected to all these other things attached to idols, and that was coming into the church as well. No, no, no, you're connected to God. It's okay. You have God within you, so you can just eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. There was a pervasive Epicureanism in the day. Epicureanism is the view that you should just live it up; this is it.

This mindset had come into the church, and there were those who were professing with their lips that they were followers of God, that they had God within them, and that they had a relationship with God, but their lives did not match that. What becomes very clear to us, and it's not just something that we find in the study of ancient history, but also in observing the culture of the day, is that it's easy—relatively easy—to say with our lips that we are followers of God and connected to God. Anybody can do that. It takes no effort and very little commitment to declare belief in Jesus and that you're connected to God.

The sad reality is that there may be those among the followers, those apparently connected to God within the church, whose words do not match their lives, and that causes a major problem. In fact, Jesus speaks of it like this in what's called the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7. This may be one of the most striking and challenging words that Jesus ever spoke.

In Matthew chapter 7, verse 21, He says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father." So, not everybody who makes the profession that Jesus is Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father. The words and the walk need to align.

This is the heavy verse, verse 22 of Matthew chapter 7: "Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name?' And I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; you who practice lawlessness, depart from me.'" Our talk and our walk must align.

There were those in John's day who spoke of a connection to God, a fellowship with God, but they walked in darkness. Their actions betrayed their words. If it walks like a horse and it sounds like a horse, it probably produces a lot of manure, right?

So what's the answer? How do we deal with this? Well, look at 1 John 1:7. It says, "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, cleanses us from all sin."

More than 2,700 years ago, there was a prophet to the nation of Israel, the people God had called to be His people, to be priests, and to carry the good news of God to all the world. At the time of Isaiah, the people of Israel lived in the land of Israel, which is the land of Israel today. They had the temple in Jerusalem, and they would go to the temple regularly to offer offerings to God. They followed all the feast days and the different things that God had instructed them to do through the great lawgiver Moses.

However, at the same time that they were going to the temple and offering sacrifices to God, observing Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, they were also engaging in worship in other places through sexual immorality and by offering their children as sacrifices to the god Molech. Isaiah, the prophet, came and said that these two things don't go together; it's not possible.

In Isaiah 2:5, he says to the people, "Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Come out of that darkness. Come out of those shadows. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord." The people he was speaking to professed to be followers of God. They performed all the offerings that God commanded, but there was a major disconnect.

What John is putting forward here, and what Isaiah also emphasized, is that if you say with your mouth that you're a follower of Jesus but continue to live in an immoral lifestyle, the call is to come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. As we walk in the light as He is in the light, what happens? We have fellowship with one another. We are joined to one another, which may not seem like a really important thing to you, but God, in His original creation, created us to be in communion with Him and with one another, to have life in connection with God and with each other.

That's how God originally intended that we would live. He said it like this in the book of Genesis: "It's not good that man would be alone." We realize that we are the most connected technologically of any time, in any place, and yet we are seeing a very quick rise in our nation of people feeling extremely lonely. It is not good that man would be alone. God created us to be in connection with one another.

But what ultimately causes this disconnection? Genesis chapter three tells us that sin, disobedience to God's command, and conflict with His nature entered into this world through us. Now we are split apart from one another. There is a desire deep within us to be rejoined with one another. We try to achieve that connection through all kinds of different social engagements or sinful practices, whatever it may be. However, there is only one place where we experience true fellowship with one another, and that is when we walk in the light.

Not only do we experience what God originally intended as we walk in the light, but we also find that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we come into the light, His blood addresses our problem. John introduces this new concept: His blood cleanses us from all sin. You can immediately hear the objection of those in his day who espoused a different mindset. They would say, "Well, hold on. What is this whole sin thing?"

In 1 John 1:8, it states, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." That was the ruling philosophy of the day: "Sin? What sin? I've got no sin. I'm not a sinner. Sinners, those are those other people. Not me." But if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; the truth is not in us.

Furthermore, those who boast of their own righteousness are self-deceived. Jesus was in the city of Jerusalem, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18. While He was ministering to people and sharing the good news of the Gospel, He was constantly being accosted by the religious leaders of the day—individuals who were part of groups like the Sadducees, the scribes, and the Pharisees.

And they would come and challenge what He was teaching. Jesus, seeing these groups and specifically the Pharisees, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, told a story. He said that two men went up to the temple at the hour of prayer to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector.

Now, back in that day, it's hard to imagine, but they really didn't like tax collectors very much. They figured that all tax collectors were not just doing a job; they were sinners, considered to be some of the most wicked people. They lumped sinners in with prostitutes and drunkards. So, prostitutes, drunkards, tax collectors—yes, there you go.

Jesus said that two men went up to the temple at the time to pray: one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, when he got to the temple, stood and prayed. Luke chapter 18 says he said, "God, I thank You that I'm not like other men—not like extortioners, adulterers, and tax collectors like that one over there. I fast twice a week, and I give of myself to the poor. I thank You that I'm not like other men."

The tax collector, Jesus said, stood afar off, beat his chest, and said, "God, be merciful to me. I am a sinner." Jesus was giving this teaching to a multitude, but the Pharisees were there. He said, "I tell you the truth, this man went home justified that day, not the other."

This was a challenging rebuke to the religious establishment. The sinful tax collector was walking in the light; he saw clearly his need and his problem. The Pharisee, the religious man who fasted twice a week and was not like extortioners, adulterers, and drunkards, was walking in darkness. He could not see his sin.

This same group, the Pharisees, did not like that Jesus had meals with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. They challenged Him, and He said, "I have not come to those who are well; the physician has come to those who are sick." The tax collectors recognized their need, crying out, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." In that call for mercy, he was justified.

What is justification but God dealing with the man's sin? The Pharisee was no less a sinner. Yes, he had all the trappings of religion, but he was still a sinner, yet he could not see it.

He was blind in darkness to a sin because of his religion, but light has come into the world in the man, Jesus Christ. He has come to do what? To show the reality of who we are and to reveal our need. That story of Jesus is very challenging because here we are at the temple, so to speak, the gathering place of the people of God. There are at least two different kinds of people who come: those who trust in themselves that they are righteous and say, "I'm so thankful I'm not like all those other people out there."

These are the people practicing homosexuality, those who are pedophiles, drunkards, and drug users. They say, "I thank you that I'm not like those people. I give up things, I fast, I give, I serve." Then there are those who, in the light of God, realize their brokenness and say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." I tell you the truth, there is one that goes home justified.

So what do we do? Church attendance doesn't save you. The things that you give up, like fasting, won't make you holy. The money you give won't buy you a place with God. So what do we do? Well, look at verse nine. I love this verse: 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Point number three on your outline: those who come to the light and confess their unrighteousness are forgiven and cleansed. There is something in our fallen nature that causes us to want to put up masks to hide the reality of our brokenness. I believe the Bible describes an enemy, the adversary, the devil. I believe he loves nothing more than to tempt us to think that hiding our sinfulness is sufficient and enough.

As Jesus said, men love darkness rather than light. They don't want to come to the light lest their deeds would be exposed and revealed. So we try to hide it. But the reality is, if we step into the light, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we are given the opportunity to be in fellowship with one another. There, we are given the opportunity to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. He is the propitiation for our sin, to deal with our sin.

If we confess our sin and bring it out in the open before God, He is faithful and just to forgive us. That means He pardons and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. His response to the humble heart that confesses their sin is forgiving grace and cleansing sanctification.

However, the hard-hearted, proud Pharisee will object, saying, "But I'm good. I'm a good person. I do good things. I'm not like those other people out there." In 1 John 1:10, it states, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

Pride hardens our hearts and hinders His forgiving grace. Those who have truly encountered Christ have a humble assessment and evaluation of themselves. The quickest way to find out if a person has had a genuine encounter with God is to call them a sinner.

If you are interacting with someone who has had a real encounter with the God of the Bible and you call them a sinner, they will likely respond, "You're right, and thank God for His grace." In contrast, a person who has not truly encountered the God of the Bible will respond defensively, saying, "I'm not a sinner. Those people are sinners. I'm a good person."

This serves as an immediate litmus test: Has this person had an encounter with the God of the Bible? If they haven't, they may get mad at you. So, be careful when you call them a sinner; they might get upset. It will be an instant test of whether they have had a genuine encounter with the God of the Bible.

That said, just because a person acknowledges they are a sinner does not necessarily mean they have had a genuine encounter with God. They may respond correctly by saying, "You're right, I'm a sinner," but they might not know the solution to the problem. It simply indicates that they recognize their true nature and who they really are.

It is a frightening thing to see your true nature. One of the outcomes of reading through the Scriptures and getting to know God through the Bible, as well as spending time with other believers, is that you begin to realize just how wicked you really are. When you see it, it's frightening because it's very easy for us to point the finger at wicked people—those who have committed atrocious acts—and say, "How dare they?" What we often fail to recognize is just how much that same wickedness resides in our own hearts.

The Scripture states, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar." How do we make God a liar? We do so because God, in His Word, says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, if we claim we have not sinned, we are essentially saying, "You're a liar, God."

I realize this is a heavy text. In fact, it is just one in a series of heavy messages that have been ongoing for the last several weeks as we delve into this challenging book. However, we need to back up just a bit and understand that this text is not written to shame or browbeat us. It was written for a purpose. Look back at 1 John 1:4: "And these things we write to you so that your joy may be full."

There is a statement that says ignorance is bliss. I suggest to you that this is not true. To walk in darkness and be unaware of your own sinfulness might make you feel okay. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, and they do not want to come to the light lest their deeds be exposed. You might feel like everything is just fine, but the problem is that if you are walking in ignorance and you find yourself on the 15 Freeway, that is not a good plan.

There is a semi coming. The Scripture points out that all people are destined to die once, and then comes judgment. There will come a day when we all will stand before God for judgment; this is the declaration of Scripture. In that moment, when we stand before God, our church attendance will not save us. The things we gave up for God will not save us. The money that we gave will not save us. Being pretty good people in comparison to others who are not as good will not save us.

John says, "I want you to experience fullness of joy, and not just for a moment. I want you to experience fullness of joy forever." The Scriptures say, "In His presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). In His right hand are pleasures forevermore. John emphasizes that he wants us to know this forever, not just the momentary bliss of not realizing our own sinfulness.

He writes, "I have written these things that you would know." In chapter two, verse one, he continues, "My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin." John desires for us to walk in holiness, that we would not sin. However, he acknowledges, "If anyone sins," which we will, because we are fallen, "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." He is the one who goes before God on our behalf.

How does He have the opportunity to advocate for us? He is the mediator, the intercessor. Why does He get to do that? Because, as stated in verse two, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world."

In verse five, we learn that the humble receive grace and atonement for their sin. Atonement is not a word we use very often, so we may not fully understand it. It is actually an old covenant word. In the Bible, we have the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is under the old covenant of the law of God through Moses. In that context, if you sin, which we all do, you must atone for your own sin by bringing an animal sacrifice, which can never fully take away sin. It is an insufficient payment.

It's like having a big credit card bill, which you probably do, and only making the minimum payment. How long will you be paying that minimum payment? Forever. It is an insufficient payment; it is not enough. But Jesus paid it all. He is the propitiation, the atonement, the full payment for our sin.

The humble receive grace and atonement for their sin. John reiterates, "My little children, I write these things so that you may not sin. But if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who deals with our sin according to His perfect work."

John's goal is to call people, us, to a repentant humility from self-deceived, self-righteous, self-important blindness and walking in darkness where we think everything's okay. We may believe we have a connection with God and that we haven't done anything bad, not nearly as bad as those other people. He is calling us to a repentant humility from that self-deceived, self-righteous, self-important blindness to experience the propitiation of Jesus, the grace of Christ Jesus.

When we receive the grace of Christ Jesus, His grace begins to work in us. Paul writes to Titus in Titus chapter two, stating that His grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and to walk in righteousness. God desires that we would live a life where there is no sin continually practiced in our lives. How is that even possible? Well, He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. God wants to work righteousness in us.

Once we become righteous through Christ Jesus, His righteousness is imputed and placed on our account. Then He gives us the ability, by His grace, to walk in righteousness because He has set us free from our slavery to sin, allowing us to be slaves to righteousness. Paul wrote it like this in Romans chapter six, verse 15: "What then shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Certainly not!"

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you, the gospel. Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of the flesh. Just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members, your life, your body, as slaves of righteousness for holiness. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have the fruit of holiness, and in the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is everlasting life in Christ Jesus.

We've been set free by the grace of God to walk with Him in righteousness. The proof of our freedom in Christ is that we no longer walk as slaves to sin. We're set free; we don't have to walk any longer in that. We can now walk in righteousness by His grace.

Here's the amazing thing that happens after a person comes to walk in the light with God and allows His Word to enlighten their path. After two years, five years, or ten years of walking in the light, that person begins to look back and see that they are no longer walking in those things they once practiced, which dominated their life and brought such shame, guilt, and fear, causing them to hide in darkness. God's grace sets us free. That's what He wants to do in your life: to set you free to walk with Him in righteousness. That's why this message is called the gospel—good news.

Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, I thank You today that even though our fallen nature is so fearful to step into the light because we're afraid of being exposed for what we really are, Jesus, You want us to come into the light because You want to bring healing, forgiveness, grace, and cleansing sanctification.

So, God, I pray that if in any way our lives are living in the shadows today, Your light would shine into our hearts, that You would enlighten us, and that we would come before You and bring our fallenness, our sin, like the tax collector in the temple. We would say, "God, be merciful to us. We're sinners. Forgive us."

Lord, help us to rejoice in Your forgiving grace today. We praise You, Jesus. It may be that as we stand here right now this morning in prayer, you recognize your need for God's forgiveness today. You see areas of your life where there is sin, where there are things you have been doing, thinking, or looking at—whatever it may be—that is in conflict with the nature of God.

And command of God. You want to bring it out into the light and confess it today to receive His forgiveness. We just read 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."

If you want to receive His forgiveness and His cleansing today, I want to lead you in a prayer of confession. If that's you, would you just lift up your hand high so I can see it? Anyone here? I see it. God bless you there in the back. I bless you in the very back. I see you up here in front. Praise the Lord. Over here to my left.

If that's you, would you just pray with me? It's a simple prayer of confession and forgiveness, receiving His forgiveness.

Dear Jesus, I know I need Your grace. Be merciful to me; I am a sinner. Would You come into my life and forgive me by Your grace and help me to follow You in righteousness. In Jesus' name, Amen.