If…

It's God's desire to walk in light with us and for us to experience His fullness of joy. How is that possible? Open with me to First John, chapter one. If you don't have a Bible today, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in the New Testament book of First John. If you don't know where that is, it's near the very end of your Bible. Open to the very last book of the Bible, which is called Revelation, and then just turn a few books to the left. You'll find First, Second, and Third John, followed by Jude and then Revelation.

So, First John is where we are right now in our studies, and we're going to pick it up today in chapter one, starting at verse five. There, the Apostle John writes, "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 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. 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. God, we are grateful today for the power, Lord, the sufficiency, the greatness of Your grace, and Your love and 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, similar to Gallup, 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 there is some higher transcendent being or force, whatever they want to call it.

The same research study found that 97% of those 80%, so 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 all of them. That is the general consensus of most of the people in our nation. Eight out of ten Americans will generally describe God, if you ask them to tell you what God is like, 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. 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 people, Americans polled about the afterlife, show that the majority believe that 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...

When people are presented with the biblical descriptions of death, judgment, and hell, many of those same individuals will look at you with a strange expression on their faces. The passage of Scripture that we are in brings up the word "sin" quite a bit. It mentions sin, having not sinned, and anyone who sins repeatedly.

When you start to talk with people about God, they will often nod in agreement, saying, "Yes, I believe in that. He is good, and He is going to accept all people." However, when you transition into a discussion of sin and the judgment of God, people may begin to slow down in their nodding. They might start to look confused, as if they are no longer following along with the topic of sin.

Sin, as the Bible describes it, is lawlessness, wickedness, and evil—anything that is against the nature of God and His commands. Most secular-minded people in our culture will agree that sin is something that other people do. However, if you make the statement to a person, "You are a sinner," they will often take personal offense. Even if you try to preface it by saying, "Well, I'm a sinner too," as soon as you start to talk about sin, they will respond, "Yes, those other people are sinners, but not me. I am not a sinner."

Most people view themselves as good individuals. 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 they have God within them in some way.

One of the things you often hear people talk about is the "divine spark" that every human being possesses. The way they discuss it sounds more like the Star Wars universe than the Bible. They might say, "We all have the force within us," as if there is something magical or mystical in all of us. This sort of thinking is not new; some might say it sounds new agey, but it has been present in our culture for quite some time.

Nation and the new age are not new when you start to look back at ancient texts, like the one before us here in First John. You find that this way of thinking was pervasive 2,000 years ago during the time in which the Apostle John wrote this letter. He wrote this letter to challenge this mindset, which was beginning to grow and really starting to move forward at that time.

John wrote this near the end of the first century AD. Not only was this the vibe of the culture in which he was ministering, but he was also in what was then called Asia Minor; today, it would be southwestern coastal Turkey, in a city called Ephesus. This mindset was prevalent among many people, and it was not just limited to those outside the church; it was starting to infiltrate the church as well.

John is writing to challenge this worldview, this mindset that was pervasive in his day. He was trying to speak against this false view of God and this false view of ourselves. As we discover in the section we read just a moment ago, First John chapter 1, verses 5 and onward, we see that John is directly addressing three false views of a group of false teachers who were speaking in his day. The three false views are found in First 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 directly 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 were 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 who were saying, "No, no, no, no, we're all connected to God. All of us 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 is preaching the gospel and saying, "You are disconnected from God because of sin, and you need to come back."

Into connection to God through the gospel, people were objecting and saying, "Hold on one second, I'm not a sinner, and I'm connected to God already." If we say that we have fellowship with Him, that word "fellowship" means communion or connection with Him. Then, in verse eight, if we say we have no sin, the general consensus of the people of his day was that they didn't have any sin. They believed they had no sin because, in verse ten, if we say that we have not sinned, we don't have any sin because we have not sinned. They considered themselves to be very good people.

Does this sound familiar? If you have a spiritual conversation, as it is dubbed in our day, with a neighbor or a co-worker, 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 say, "Yeah, I hope so." Why? Because they believe they are pretty good people.

John was dealing with that same thinking, which helps us recognize that since John is addressing this mindset, even though it was 2,000 years ago, the words written then still have application and relevance for us today. We will interact with people who have the exact same worldview: "I'm connected to God; I don't have any sin because I have not sinned." This thinking had not only affected the world around John outside the church, but it was also coming into the church. This became the major conflict in the second century AD, as the church was challenged and fought against the Gnostic worldview that had infiltrated it.

The Gnostic belief was that we all have a divine spark, we are all connected to God, and there is no such thing as sin. However, John says, "No, listen, that's not the message that we brought to you." We read here in 1 John chapter 1, verse 5: "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 teaching a false message that conflicted with the message John was proclaiming. So, John does something really wise here; he wisely appeals to authority.

You see, there is a message that was being preached: we don't sin, we have not sinned, and we have no sin. We are in connection with God, and we will always be in fellowship with Him. 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, you have two different messages.

What do you do when you have two conflicting messages? John wisely appeals to authority. He says, "This is not a message I made up; this is a message that we received from Him." In 1 John 1:5, he states, "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." He emphasizes that their message came from God. Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God incarnate, gave them this message. The implication is, where did your message come from? By what authority do you have this view that you have no sin and have not sinned, and that you are in connection with God?

I know it sounds good and feels good, but just because the message sounds good and feels good does not mean it is good. John says, "I'm going to appeal to the authority; God gave us this message."

John is 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 they 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 thoughts on how we should write this thing. Maybe we should make Him from Bethlehem." They didn't think, "That's too close to religious powerlessness; maybe we should make it so He's also from Nazareth." 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 is the propositional statement of the church: this is not a message we made up; it came from God. That is 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. This is a revealed message that we have from God: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. We have a divine spark within us; we all have that light. What's that called? That's a pantheistic view—God is in everything; He is everything. It's the view of the philosophy of Star Wars. It really is. But it was not just the view of George Lucas and all the guys who wrote Star Wars in our generation; it was also the view in a galaxy far, far away and long ago.

John says that the problem is that the message you came up with, however you came up with it, 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 was being said and as is said, that we have fellowship with Him, and at the same time we 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 (light) and that which is immoral, wicked, evil, fallen, and sinful (darkness). If we say that we have a connection, that we are united in communion with God, and yet we also walk in darkness and wickedness, then something 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 it is seen and viewed that America is a Christian nation; there are a lot of people who say they are.

Connected to God, when you ask them what God knows, well, the God of the Bible, the Judeo-Christian God. So, you must be a Christian. 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 with what comes from our mouths. The practice of our lives must align with our profession.

John's assessment of the individuals of his day reveals an issue. As he looked at these people who were espousing their connection to God, he noted that their lives were not representing that connection. They were still involved in all the practices of the day. What were the practices of the day in Asia Minor? It was the seat of the worship of a pagan deity, a false god called Diana. Diana was worshipped in various ways, chiefly through temple prostitution, which is quite immoral, if you ask me.

These individuals were also engaged in other debaucherous activities. They bowed down and worshipped a god called Bacchus, who was worshipped through drunkenness. They had that one down really well. Sexuality and drunkenness—does that sound familiar? We may not have the same temples or images, but we have the same issues. Here were these people claiming to be connected to God, yet they were also connected to idols. They were attached to all these other things, and that influence was seeping into the church as well.

Some believed that it was acceptable to say they had God within them, so they could just eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. There was a pervasive Epicureanism in that day, a view that encouraged living it up because this life is all there is. This mindset had infiltrated the church. There were those professing with their lips that they were followers of God, that they had a relationship with Him, but their lives did not match that profession.

What becomes very clear to us—not just from the study of ancient history but also from observing contemporary culture—is that it is relatively easy to say with our lips that we are followers of God and connected to Him. Anyone can do that. It takes no effort and very little commitment to declare belief in Jesus and claim a connection to God. However, the sad reality is that there may be those who do not truly embody that belief in their lives.

Within the followers, those apparently connected to God within the church, there may be individuals whose words do not match their lives. This discrepancy causes a major problem. In fact, Jesus speaks of it in what is called the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 7, we find some of the most striking and challenging words that Jesus ever spoke.

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

This is a heavy verse. In verse 22 of Matthew chapter 7, Jesus continues, "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; depart

The great lawgiver Moses, at the same time that the people were going to the temple and offering offerings to God, was observing Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. They were doing all these different things, yet they were also worshipping in other places through sexual immorality and offering their children as sacrifices to the god Molech. Isaiah the prophet comes and says that these two things don't go together; it's not possible. He says to the people in Isaiah chapter 2, verse 5, "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 whom 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, which Isaiah also emphasized, is that if you say with your mouth that you are a follower of Jesus but continue to live in an immoral lifestyle, the call is to come and walk in the light of the Lord.

As we walk in the light of the Lord, what happens? When we walk in the light as He is in the light, 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, intended for us to be in communion with Him and with one another. Life in connection with God and with one another is how God originally intended for us to live. He stated it clearly in the book of Genesis: "It is not good that man would be alone."

We realize that we are the most connected technologically of any time in history, yet we are witnessing a rapid rise in our nation of people feeling extremely lonely. It is not good for man to be alone. God created us to be in connection with one another.

What ultimately causes this disconnection? Genesis chapter 3 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 deep desire within us to be rejoined with one another, and we try to achieve that through various social engagements or sinful practices, whatever it may be. We strive to bring that connection back.

Connection back, but there's only one place where we experience fellowship with one another, and it's as we walk in the light. Not only do we experience what God originally intended as we walk in the light, but there we also experience that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sins. If we come into the light, His blood deals with our problem.

Now, John introduces this new concept. He says His blood cleanses us from all sin, and you can immediately hear the objection of those of his day who were opposing 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; 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.

Point number two: 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. As 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—guys who were part of groups like the Sadducees, the scribes, and the Pharisees. They would come and challenge what He was teaching.

Seeing these groups, particularly the Pharisees who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, Jesus told a story. He said, "Two men went up to the temple at the hour of prayer to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector." 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, the most wicked people. They grouped them with prostitutes and drunkards.

So, Jesus said, "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, the Pharisee boasted, "I fast twice a week and I give of myself to the poor. I thank You that I am not like other men." In contrast, the tax collector stood afar off, beating his chest and crying out, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus was teaching this to a multitude, with the Pharisees present. 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 clearly saw his need and his problem. The Pharisee, the religious man who fasted twice a week and was not like extortioners, adulterers, drunkards, and tax collectors, was walking in darkness. He could not see his sin. The same group of Pharisees did not like that Jesus had meals with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. They challenged Him, and He responded, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

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 a man's sin? The Pharisee was no less a sinner. Yes, he had all the trappings of religion, but he was still a sinner. He could not see his sin because of his religion; he was blind in darkness to his sin.

But light has come into the world in the man Jesus Christ. He has come to reveal the reality of who we are and to show 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—those people practicing homosexuality, those people who are pedophiles, those people who are drunkards and drug users." They thank God that they are not like those people. They give up things, fast, give, and 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 who 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 9. 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 clean.

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 into thinking that our efforts are sufficient and enough. So, we try to hide our sinfulness because, as Jesus said, men love darkness rather than light. They don't want to come to the light lest their deeds be exposed and revealed.

But the reality is that 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, dealing with our sin. If we confess our sin and bring it out in the open before God, He is faithful and just to forgive—that is, to pardon—and to cleanse 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, "But I'm good! I'm a good person. I do good things. I'm not like those other people out there." So, verse 10 of 1 John 1:10 states, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar."

His word is not in us. Point number four: 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 truly had an encounter with God is to call them a sinner. If you are interacting with a person who has had a real, genuine encounter with the God of the Bible and you call them a sinner, you know what they'll say? "You're right, and thank God for His grace."

However, a person who has not truly encountered the God of the Bible will respond differently. When you call them a sinner, they might say, "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? Just ask them or tell them they are a sinner. If they haven't, they are likely to get mad at you, so be careful. If you call them a sinner, they might get upset—most likely, they will.

This is an instant test to determine whether this person has had a genuine encounter with the God of the Bible. Now, that’s not to say that a person who has had a genuine encounter will respond perfectly when called a sinner. They might say, "You're right, I'm a sinner," but they may not know the solution to the problem. It is simply an indication that they recognize their true nature, who they really are, and it can be a frightening thing to see your true nature.

One of the outcomes of reading through the Scriptures, getting to know God through the Bible, and 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 is 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.

As it says in the Scriptures, if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. How do we make God a liar? We make Him a liar because God and His Word say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

God, if we say we have not sinned, then we are saying You are a liar. I realize this is a heavy text; in fact, this is just one in a series of heavy messages that have been going on for the last several weeks as we've stepped into this challenging book. However, we need to back up just a tiny bit and understand that this text is not written to shame or browbeat us.

This text was written to remind us of where we came from. In 1 John 1:4, it says, "And these things we write to you so that your joy may be full." There is a statement that says ignorance is bliss, but I suggest that is not true. To walk in darkness and not be aware of your own sinfulness might feel okay, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They do not want to come to the light lest their deeds should be exposed.

You might feel like everything is just fine, but the problem is that if you are walking in ignorance, it is like walking on the 15 Freeway without a good plan. There is a semi coming, and all of us are pointed to die once, and then comes the judgment. There will come a day when we all will stand before God for judgment; that is the declaration of Scripture.

In that moment, when we stand before God for judgment, 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 presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. John wants us to know that this joy is eternal, not just the momentary bliss of not realizing our own sinfulness.

He writes these things so that we would know this. Look at 1 John 2:1: "My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin." I want you to walk in righteousness.

Holiness means that you would not sin. However, if anyone does sin, 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 of this verse: "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours but also for those of the whole world."

Point number five: the humble receive grace and atonement for their sin. Atonement is not a word that we use very often, so we may not know its meaning. The word is actually an Old Covenant term. 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. However, this 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 the 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.

My little children, I write these things so that you may not sin. But if you do 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 us to a repentant humility, moving away from self-deceived, self-righteous, self-important blindness and walking in darkness. We often think everything is okay, that we have a connection with God and that we have not done anything bad—certainly not as bad as those other people. He is calling us to a repentant humility from that self-deception to experience the propitiation of Jesus and 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 2, and he says that His grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and to walk in righteousness. God desires that we would walk in 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, and 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 to be slaves to righteousness.

Paul wrote it like this in Romans chapter 6, 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. For 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. For 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 have been set free by the grace of God to walk with Him in righteousness. By His grace, the proof of our freedom in Christ is that we no longer walk as slaves to sin. We are 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: "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."

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

Amen. Just 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 are afraid we will be exposed for who we really are, Jesus, You want us to come into the light. 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. Enlighten us so that we may come before You and bring our fallenness, our sin, like the tax collector in the temple, and say, "God, be merciful to us; we are sinners. Forgive us." Lord, help us to rejoice in Your forgiving grace today. We praise You, Jesus.

It may be that as we are standing here right now 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—that are in conflict with the nature 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. Anyone else? Lift it up high. God bless you in the very back. I see you up here in the 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.

Forgiveness is 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, help me to follow You in righteousness. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's praise the Lord who forgives.