First Epistle of John, verses seven. But if we walk in the light, that's chapter one, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleansed 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, these things write unto you that he sinned not. and or but if any man sinned, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. And here is a prophetic reason for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. I want to speak this morning on the blood of Christ. There are two lines of truth that ought to be emphasized repeatedly. And we seek to refer to them in almost every one of our messages, one way or another. and that our kinsons will spend the whole time on the subject. And that is the second coming of Christ and the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this morning I want to speak entirely, taking all my time on this most important subject, the precious blood of Christ. If the Lord is willing, if the Lord is willing, we may continue it for two or three Sundays. First of all, we have the need for our cleansing. The need for His blood. The need for it is because of sin. Has sin not endured the benignal necessity for Christ coming into the world? The benignal necessity for Him going to the cross, and sinning expresses blood in which sinning had not entered. Sin brought the requirement for the coming and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and the cleansing, efficacy and power of his precious blood. And so sin brings the need for this sacrifice. You have sin in its root and sin in its root. For instance, you'll notice in our passage, you have sin in verse eight. If we say that we have no sin, now he's referring to the ninth principle. But then in verse Ten, he says, There is no sin that you have not sin nor is the fruit of that fruit. And so you have both brought before you here the root and the fruit. You know there is no such thing as the eradication of the root principle sin. There are some people, and they try to tell us, that they have a change in immunity from sin. That is absolutely an impossibility in this word. There are four solemn words directed to such people who claim to be free entirely from sin. I've had some people who had the nerve to tell me that they have no sin in them. They told me, take it out. It's been a reality. Well, I'd like them to notice four things in these texts we read. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. That's the first thing, and you're about the only one you deceive. Ah, the other. That's the second. Third, we make God a liar. We don't call him a liar. We make him a liar. Those people who claim to be free from sin wouldn't call God a liar, no. They think that's terrible. But they make him a liar. And the fourth thing is, his word is not anything. There is no such thing taught in the Bible as the eradication of sin. If a man were only in this life would be free from sin, and had the root principle taken out of him, he would never be sick. Nor would he ever die, because sin bringeth forth sickness and eventually death. Sin the Bible says is working in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Some of those hard evidences of sin in your body, such as graying hair, wrinkles appearing, tea needing to be extracted, and any sickness that you have is the result of sin working in your members. And it's a strange thing to me that I had people try to tell me that they were free from sin. They had no sin in them. They've got false teeth. They've got glasses. And they've got their hair. A little of it. Some of them. And what they do have, they'd like they have it colored. And yet they try and tell me they're free from sin. When all the evidence in the world arrived before me that they've got sin working in their numbers. Now the Bible certainly tells us that there's a counteraction against it. For the Christian, after you're saved, you still have that old nature, that old sinful principle that's working daily, daily, daily, and will continue to work until you're either a corpse and go to heaven by way of the grave, or the Lord comes and catches you up. For the Christian has another nature. He has a sinless nature. When the Bible says the flesh blessed against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other. And the fourth of that word, they lust against each other. It means an eye is entrenched, just like two eyes entrenched, and they're fighting one another. So it is, with a born-again Christian, he's got the old nature and he's got the new. And in the measure we feed the new life in Christ and stay in fellowship with the Lord, we can get the victory over the old sinful nature. And so you have that plainly taught in your word. And for the Christian... When sin comes out, the sun goes in. If you as a child of God allows sin to come out in your life, the sun of fellowship just goes in. The sun set. The two can't abide together. Sin has a root. You know that root principle was in you when you were born. David says, Behold, I was shaken iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. It's not an accident that you have sin in you, nor is it a mistake. It is not weakness. It's a fallen nature. It's something you receive from Adam, from your parents, but directly right back to Adam. You read that in Romans chapter three, or chapter five and twelve. For as by one man, Adam sinned every day of the world, and to death by sin, and death has passed upon all men, for all of sin. The illustration we sometimes use in speaking to children to simplify is an apple. And I'm glad that they've certainly checked the worms invading apples. When I was a boy, it was a rarity to pick up an apple that didn't have a wormhole in it. So today you can get lots of apples. They've been able to correct that situation considerably by insecticides and something else. Well, when I was a boy, many a time I'd get into an apple. And sometimes you'd catch the worm in there. There's only one thing worse than that, and that's the fine apple one. But now I want to ask this question. Did that worm eat its way into that apple? Or did it eat its way out? It ate its way out. When that apple was just a little blossom on the apple tree, a little insect, maybe a butterfly, deposited a tiny little egg in that blossom. And the blossom just closed around it, as you know, and you'll find that tiny little knob there at the leaves the blossom fall off, and that eventually develops into the apple. And inside that little heart, there is a little egg. It begins as the apple grows and finally as the apple softens, apple softens, out it comes. It eats its way up. It's hatched. It eats its way up. Everything there from the beginning. And that soon that tiny little baby that's in the crib, only a few days old, Jane, it was born with that little seed sitting in its heart. The Bible says they go astray as soon as they be born. speaking lives. And you parents know very well that your children are not perfect. You think they are. But you see many evidence that they've got something inside them that's rebellious. You know, I've had a lot of parents, especially grandparents, say to me. I'm not saying it's because it's my child, but that's the smartest young in the world. I've heard that once I've heard that a thousand times. There are a lot of smart youngs in this world. And they all talk about their youngs, being so smart. I've asked some of them, is he or she without sin? Oh, well, no, I wouldn't say that. Well, it's a sinner then. You know, Baxter says things sometimes when they shouldn't. They rush inward, angels fear to tread. A young couple one time had a cute little baby, and they were showing it off to me, and I was ticking its chin and so on. I said, do you know what that is? No, what is it? I said, that's just a lump of undeveloped iniquity. Well, the mother was soft, but I'm glad she was a Christian, and she saw my point. Do you know that's true? The worst criminal that ever lived was once the little darling of its mother's arms. On all the delinquents we have today, the criminals, The world's treasures we have in the world were once innocent-looking, tiny little babes in Mother's Ark. They were just undeveloped and naked. And just as the apple becomes older and sottened, it comes out. It comes out mightier, showing that sin is in every human heart. Now what's to be done with it? Here you have sin as a root. A fallen nature in man. Then you have sinfulness is the character. You'll notice this and those two words I've pointed out here, sin and sin. That nature in children, in babies, sometimes it's more or less corrected in a measure and controlled by the home, the environment. And this is why God says, parents bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Because that evil nature is going to take over as soon as it can. And if you don't do something about it, you're going to have trouble on your hands. And do you know the best thing for that fallen nature in children is to keep them under the influence of this blessed book and let them know about the Lord Jesus Christ as soon as you can in their life. That's really the only grace you can put upon that uncontrollable nature in children. The home environment has a lot to do, an awful lot to do. Someone was asking me just yesterday about some children. They said, Mr. Wilson, why do you think they do these things? Well, simply the fallen nature is in them to begin with. And in some homes they don't need much encouragement. And when a child comes from a broken home, a home where it's insecure, That child begins to realize early in life he's going to have to fight for what he gets. He's got trouble right away. And it comes soon. That accounts for our tragic, delinquent situation in the world. In other words, the best environment is the Sunday school, a Christian home, and the moral influence of this blessed book. I don't know where I would have been today had God not saved me. I had that potential in me. And I trembled a thing of what I had turned out to be, had God not in His grace saved me. The youngest player on the hockey team, still in my teams, traveling with a team of older players around the country, living in hotels. The first thing that came out and we got in the big hotel was a whiskey box. My mother and father had warned me against that. I had been warned against the use of tobacco. I wasn't a Christian. I'd been warned about loose morals. I wasn't a Christian. But as I traveled with that hockey team and when they came round with a big bottle, I was able to shake my head. Why was that? If I'd have been brought up in the summer homes, I'd have taken. And I'd have turned out like some of those fellas, and I'd have hardly known one today who's not in this grave. I wasn't a Christian. For what gave me the fortitude to say no? I was brought up under the influence of this book. This book was read at the table. Grace was set. And even though it was a mile to church and a mile back home, we went three times on Sunday. And we didn't even have so much as a Model T Ford. We used our legs in those days. Getting up in the morning, going to church, back home for dinner, out to Sunday school three o'clock in the afternoon, home again, out at night, home again, and that's six months. Mother and dad with their little children, six of them, four girls and two boys, that was the Sunday procedure. But I can say this, not one of our families in your hindrance. Not one of them's a drunk, not one of them's a addict. One of them's not a Christian. But what is it that seems to shelter them from going in for these things? The Word of God's the only answer. Even apart from you being saved, the Word of God has a wonderful moral influence upon people, and it puts the brakes on. That's the only answer for the outbreak of sin in young life. sinfulness. Sinfulness is more or less a character develops into that. We're sinners not because we sin. No, we sin because we are sinners to begin with. A teacher said one time addressing a group of children, how many sins have you got to commit to be a sinner? Well, three or four little hands went up and the teacher said, what do you say? One. Little girl, she says, one. Finally, one little fellow had his hand up. The teacher says, what do you think? How many sins have you got to sin to be a sinner? How many sins have you got to commit to be a sinner? He says, not any. Why, he says, he says, he says, we're sinners to begin with. He says, that, boys, that, that's the truth. We sin because we're sinners, just like a dog box because it's a dog. It doesn't become a dog the first time it boxed. An apple tree doesn't become an apple tree when apples appear in its branches. If you see the apple on the branches because it was an apple tree. Sin produces sin. The root produces the fruit. And you were born into this world with sin, a fallen nature. Remember, it's sin that makes us sinners. And God's got to dig down and deal with that sin root, too. thank God he has a remedy. So what do you sin? Sin is really breaking God's law. Sin is rebellion. You speaking a little, was it last Sunday night on rebellion? I think it was. Kind of amused me when I went to a home visiting the next day. Last Sunday night I was talking about rebellion appearing in a little child. Some of you will recall how at this meeting why The little fellow was jumping up and down, disturbing the meeting, and the mother just took him up and plumped him down, good and hard, just about made his teeth shatter. She said, now, you sit still. If you get up again, I'll take you outside and work on you. She said, I may be sitting down, but I'm standing up inside. That's rebellion, that's sin. And I spoke about the mother taking him out and working on him. You know, it's remarkable what even children get out of a man's sermon. A little girl went home and said, boy, the preacher really gave that little boy, didn't he? That little boy really got a spank. You see, they got that much. Well, friend, if you take home this much, that you've got a rebellious heart, you'll take home a whole lot. A rebellious heart. Oh, we're rebels. We resent not having our own way, even though your child does that. A little babe, all you've got to do is spoil it, is pick it up whenever it cries. You've got to spoil it. And it won't be picked up every time it cries. It cries because you won't pick it up. It's not having its own way. It's rebellion. That's the tendency of the human heart. The human heart is a rebel. So rebellion against God is sin, moral impurity, evil thoughts, evil words, evil deeds, sin. unbelieved. What do you read in John chapter six, sixteen? The Lord Jesus Christ says that the Spirit of God came into the world to convict the world of sin. And what did he say that sin is? They believe not on me. And that's the sin, friend, that's taking people to hell. It's not drunkenness. It's not even murder. It's not adultery. These are not the sins that are taking people to hell. The sin that's taking people to hell is rejecting Jesus Christ. He says, sin because they believe not only that's the principle there that produces these other sins. Why is it people commit these other sins? Because they're not born again. They haven't received Jesus Christ into their heart. Now they may be a church member, but they haven't been born again. They haven't that new life in Christ. That's why they do these others. And so God says that we can only correct this. Then these other things won't happen. But here you have sinfulness becomes a real character. And sin is breaking God's law. It's rebellion against God. It's immoral impurity. It's evil thoughts, words and deeds. And it is unbelief. Sin is universal. The Bible says all have sinned and comes short to the glory of God. That little word all is quite comprehensive. All embracing. All have sinned. I don't care who the man or woman is or the boy or the girl. God says all have sinned. None are exempt. And he says we have all gone astray. we've all together become unprofitable there is none that do with good no not one oh if you could only get that across to the people those nineteen indictments in romans chapter three where the human race was brought into the court and here these indictments against the human race and i'll tell you it's certainly searching and friend god has already brought you as an individual before him And he's already referred to what's in your heart. You're a sinner. You're a rebel. You're ungodly. You're unjust. You've altogether become unprofitable. There's not one that's done good. No, not one. You say, I've done a lot of good in my life. You may have, in a charitable way, done good to your fellow men. But before God, you haven't done one thing good yet unless you have been born again. You read Romans chapter three for yourself when you go home and you'll find what I've been quoting. We're sinners and we need to be born again. That's what the Bible teaches. None that do us good. My, I've met some strange people in my life. I've asked some people, have you done any good in your life? Well, they've stayed back wanting to be spoken to, showing how to be saved. Oh, sure, I've done a lot of good in my life. I don't take the hat. Well, I have. But now the Bible says there is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now God says that. Would you contradict God? No, but I had done a lot of good about it. Now let's see what the Bible says. God says there is none that doeth good, no not one. He's speaking about the person who is not born again. Would you like me to put in there, there is none that doeth good, no not one, except Mrs. Jones? You wouldn't want me to change the Bible like that, wouldn't you? God makes one sweeping statement. He says there is none that doeth good, no not one. And he sums up all those indictments by saying, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned. Sin is universal. Sin is attractive. The Bible says the pleasures of sin. Moses speaks of the pleasures of sin. He would rather suffer affliction with the children of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin. For it is, I grant you sin has its pleasures. Oh, certainly. Otherwise people wouldn't be engaged in sin does have its pleasures. And the Bible distinctly says there are those, and they would rather have pleasure than God. They would sooner have those enjoyments, those entertainment, those good things. Men love darkness rather than light because their need to read. They don't want God because if they had God in their heart, that is in a true sense, they couldn't do some of the things they do. They like the pleasures of sin which are but for the season, meaning simply this, they're limited. They're limited. I don't look at TV very much unless it's something I think might be constructive now and again. I look at the program, but it's not my practice. I don't have one in my house because I don't want the temptation around. But nevertheless, I did see the other night about Bob Hope and his trip at Christmas to our armed forces. Well, I thought when it started that he would sing some carols and there'd be something about christ and christmas about his program but you know i looked at the whole thing and some jitterbug of a singer got up there and sang something about the whole world in his hand well you could have danced fox talk to it the way she sang it there wasn't any reverence at all about the whole thing and at the close just at the final song a girl was singing a christmas carol And they interrupted her by the closing announcement. I thought to myself, what did he leave behind to all those soldier boys? I know their homesick, the monotony of life, he left behind a good laugh. How long does it last? Wouldn't it have been nice if he had left something more solid behind, something that would have lasted? Then they come to die, and some of those boys likely are dead now. Did they get any consolation out of knowing Bob Hope was here and made it last? He can't die on that diet. Far better to know that Jesus Christ was here and died for my sins on the cross. What does God say about a laugh? He says, a laughter of fools is the crackling of a thorns under the pot. And the reference is to taking a handful of corn and throwing it under a pot where there's a burning fire and there are a lot of sparks in it all over. That's how God sums up a good laugh. It's pretty thin. It just doesn't laugh. It's entertaining. But it's only three. Pleasures of sin, which are but for a moment. That's what the Bible says. has its blessing. Then again you can say this, that, you know, as far as sin being attractive, even religion can be attractive, and sin can be dressed up in the garb of religion. What about nineteen hundred years ago? Who is it clamoring for the death of Jesus Christ God's Son? The scribes and the Pharisees religious leaders of that day who could make long prayers. They had their finest faces. They were very religious. They were very rigid. They wouldn't do this, and they wouldn't do that. You wouldn't get them to gamble, drink, smoke, or swear an oath. They had their long religious robes on, spent most of their time in the temple or her earning Hebrew. Ah, yes, very religious. They're the ones who are saying away with this man, we don't want him to reign over us. Sin is dressed up in the robes of religion. Let me tell you something. I don't care how sincere a person may be. I care not what a religion has in the way of its moral standard. Any religion in this world that doesn't center around the work of Christ and His precious blood upon the cross is S-I-N. Sin. Now you can put down under that heading anything you wish. Sin is attractive. The religions in the world, my some religions are very attractive. You can have a wail of a time and then slip over the next morning and confess it to a man and it's all forgiven. and he'd go out and live like the devil again. For a few pennies and get a man to say, a dog a tea, you're okay. No, friend, that doesn't pass. It's a more serious subject than that. And any religion that doesn't sit around the person at a crossword in the precious blood of Jesus Christ is end. That's what the Bible said. It was sin dressed up in religious attire that clamored for the blood of Jesus Christ. Sin can become very attractive. Sin can become very convincing. A lot of these false cults can come around your door, and they have a very convincing argument. But they sin. Their doctrine is sin because it's not based on the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Sin can be very attractive, even to a religious person, not only referring to pleasure being attractive for a non-religious person, but there's all kinds of sin in the world that dressed up in religious guise. It's very attractive. It's very convincing. Why, some of them, they do away with eternal punishment. Some of them say, all men eventually are going to be saved. Very attractive. I'm sure Hitler and Stalin would like to have heard that. They make it very apparent. All men are going to be saved. No one's going to belong. Sounds good, then. It's not according to this book. Just do the best you can. Live a good life. Join the church and be sure to send in your money. You're okay. Sounds good. It's not according to this book. blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleansed us from all sin, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin." That's what the Bible says. Without the shedding of blood, God says there is no remission, there is no forgiveness, absolutely none of sin without the precious blood of Christ. So sin certainly can be very even in a religious sense. You know sin is like a magnet. Here you've got a floor and there's sawdust on the floor and you see some steel shavings among the sawdust. Now hold a strong magnet over that floor. What will respond to the magnet, the steel shaving? What will remain unattractive, the wooden saw them. Sin is like a mighty magnet. It's got drawing power. And the sinner, the person who's not saved, he responds to it. He responds to it. Every person born into this world has got a nature within him that responds to sin. The only one who didn't have a nature that responded to sin was Jesus Christ. He had no fallen nature. He was not born of Adam's race. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin. He had no more fallen nature. He was without sin. That's why he could do no sin. And there was nothing in Jesus Christ to respond to sin. But there is something in every one of you and in me too, as we're born into this world, that does respond to sin. But you know, when you're born again, this makes all the difference. You become, your new life in Christ causes you to become like the wooden sawdust. That doesn't respond. That's the Christ life. It doesn't respond. Sick. But every Christian has these two nations. That which responds immediately to sin or what sin suggests, and that which says no. It's no attraction to me. It's no attraction to me. Some of you this morning, you know the power of sin. You've been drawn to it. Just like a magnet, it picks up that pin. My, it's so hard to break that pin away from that magnet. You know how hard it is to break from sin, Lord. Oh, sin's got power. It's a mighty magnet. And it's mighty hard to get away from that once you're caught by it. And so the Christian, the one born again, has got something that counteracts that sinful nature. He has Christ. And he's got the indwelling Holy Spirit that enables him to say, no, that has no attraction for me. It used to. Not now. I'm a born-again Christian. I have Christ in me. and that doesn't appeal to me anymore my old nature would like but the new life in Christ says no therefore I stay where I belong as a Christian in the will of God unattractive and undrawn by the power of sin I wonder if you know something obvious you know the simple and The fallen nature in man seeks sin, really. It seeks it. But the new life in Christ seeks righteousness. It's quite a difference. For the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleansed us from all sin. That's why we read the close of verse seven. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And if anything comes in, we're walking in the light. And anything comes in to interrupt that fellowship. with God's sin does, then how do you handle it? The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleansed us from all sin. A.W.A. I don't care what that sin may be. Maybe the sin of lying. Maybe the sin of drunkenness. Maybe the sin of adultery. It may even be murdered. The blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse from all sin. Every sin. past, present, and future, every sin can be put away for the blood of Christ. There's not a sin in the world that can't reach, that this blood can't reach and put away. I'll guarantee you this. The man who commits murder may have to pay the penalty in the electric chair to satisfy the laws of the land, but that's justice, making it demand. But that murderer, after he committed that murder, can become a Christian, and many have. That person can accept Jesus Christ and be born again and go to heaven. He paid a penalty for his sin on earth, but his true penalty, his sin against God, has been washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleansed us from all sin. you know all your sins are forgiven this morning he says in chapter two verse twelve i write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name says they are forgiven oh how wonderful to know all your sins are forgiven the night i was saved in the age of nineteen i went up to my bedroom and i could hardly believe it but my sins were all every one of them. I didn't have the word of man for it. I had the word of God for it. My sins were all gone, but I knew it. The gold of peace and the rest that was in my heart. The gold of the blood of Jesus Christ was away all my sins. Napoleon, the great French general, said after the Battle of Waterloo, at that time the map of the world was spread out and followed. And as you know, the British nation and her territories were always identified on a world map by the little scarlet color, the scarlet rock. There's that little island across the channel from the continent. Napoleon put his finger on that little scarlet spot. He said, I would have conquered the world had it not been for that spot. The devil puts his finger on another scarlet spot, Calvary, where Jesus shed his blood. The devil says, I would conquer the world were it not for that spot. But it's not for that blood. Friend, let me tell you, sin and Satan would have conquered me long ago, where it's not for that precious blood. That's the only thing that's going to keep the devil from conquering this world. is the precious blood of Christ. In the book of Revelation, it says, they overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb. Sin will conquer you. Death will conquer you. Satan will conquer you. Heaven will conquer you. Unless you know something of the cleansing, the sheltering of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, lends it up. All sin. Your good life won't put your sins away because there's no blood in it. Your church membership won't put sin away. There's no blood in it. The Ten Commandments can't put sin away and there's no blood in it. All the money in the world can't put your sins away. There's no blood in it. Then how can you have your sins put away? God says the blood of Jesus Christ, my son, And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. You can't get rid of your sins any other way, except through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Precious, precious blood of Jesus shed on Calvary. Shed for rebels, shed for sinners, shed for me. Precious blood which after deemed that all the price is paid. Perfect pardon. Peace is offered. Peace is made. really trust in the precious blood of Christ this morning, and leave here with that blessed, absolute assurance tucked away in your heart, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, at the end of these all days. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy holy word. We thank thee, we are able to treat it, and thou hast given it to us. We ask thee to bless you. We thank thee for those this morning who have now known the power, the effort,