As we work our way through First John, First John being a fairly short book toward the end of the Bible. First John, of course, is showing up right before Second John, which you probably knew already. As we begin our study or continue our study, we've entitled this study of First John. There are five chapters in First John, and we are in Chapter One, the series I've entitled How Does a Believer Grow? How Does a Believer Grow? And some of you may have gotten a little handout when I was with you a couple months ago. And next time I'm here, I'll make sure that I make some extras. But if you have that, you can use that. If not, I will make sure we have some for next occasion. As we look at First John chapter one and continue our study there this morning, we will be looking at verses five through ten. So I invite you to follow as I read these verses, First John chapter one, verses five through ten. And John writes, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, We make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. Let's pray together, shall we? Father, we thank you this morning for your word and that you have given us your word that we might grow in grace and not grown in disgrace. Thank you that you are in the business of producing Christ-like sons and daughters. And Lord, may we cooperate with that process. We thank you that we who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ are forgiven, not because of good works that we've done, not because of church attendance, not because we strive to do right things. We're forgiven by His finished work at that place called Calvary. But, Father, you know that each day that we as believers face, we come in contact with influences and temptations. to turn away, to forget who we are, and to make choices that not only dishonor you but hurt us. Father, thank you for your provision for us, this provision for forgiveness of our failures. Lord, would you encourage us by your spirit this morning, guide us as we study this text together, that indeed we might be quick to confess and that we might find true joy in knowing that we are living for you. And at the same time, Father, we pray that as that happens, our hearts might be expanded and our eyes might be opened to a lost world that needs to know the gospel. Encourage us in this hour, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. We began to study a couple of months ago, how does a believer grow and spent a little bit of time talking about the issue of spiritual growth or Christian growth. and talked about what we mean by that term, and then discussed the question, what are some ways in which Christians are guaranteed not to grow and had learned, that was particularly in Sunday school before the eleven o'clock service, that simply showing up is not, will not bring automatic growth. I grew up in a small assembly in Burlington, North Carolina, and as I recall, I had perfect attendance pins that went from my chest down my leg down the aisle, but I didn't grow. You see, you can simply be there, and that's not enough. There is no such thing as spiritual osmosis. Osmosis was the term we followed used in biology whenever Mrs. Jones called on us. We knew that the biology teacher was always looking for the word osmosis. That's when things just Sleep in. They don't just sleep in. I was part of a church a number of years ago up in New Jersey where my wife is from. I believe the Lord has forgiven me for marrying a Yankee. I guess I won't find out until I get to heaven, but my wife Linda is from New Jersey. We've been married twenty-nine years and thank the Lord for the good gifts that he's given to us. But I recall being in a church there for a few years where they use the expression that we need to invite our neighbors out to church so that they will be under the sound of the word. You ever heard that? We have all our phrases that we use as Christians. Some of them are good, and some of them maybe aren't so good. And there's a good side to that phrase. We need to invite people. If we believe this is a good place for them to come, we need to invite them that they would be under the sound of the word of God. But you know what? For many people, that sound of his ear drums and bounces off. Does it make any difference? How does a follower of Jesus Christ grow? We have seen from chapter one that we grow by having a firm foundation. And that firm foundation is laid out for us in chapter one. As John has dealt with the facts of our faith, we notice in verses one and two. John emphasizes the fact that we have every reason to believe in Jesus Christ. He says, we heard him. We've seen him with our eyes. We've looked at him. Our hands have touched him. This is the word of life. John is saying in almost every sensory test that we could give, this one passed the test. God became flesh and dwelt among us, John says. We have heard him. We have seen him. We have touched him. And all of that sensory input is evidence. that we have believed the truth about the word of life. He then spends some time, we notice in verses three and four, and talks about the focus of our fellowship. And there we saw an amazing statement by John where he says, we proclaim verse three, what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And we noticed two months ago when we first began this study that that's a rather surprising thing. We would think he would have said, we write these things to you so that you may have fellowship with God or with Jesus. But that's not what John said. John is very strong in this epistle on the absolute cruciality of the local church, of the body of believers. And he says, we're communicating these things to you that you might have fellowship with us. And then he quickly adds, In verse three, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Sometimes we act as if the church were an option. Kind of in the cafeteria of life, we can pick this and that, but we don't have to pick church. The biblical picture is if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, we will want to be involved in a local congregation of bereaved. And John says the focus of our fellowship is with one another. And as we fellowship with one another, we discover what we have in common, and that is the greatest thing of all, which isn't a thing, but is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then even more astounding, if you'll notice in verse four, I'm reviewing here. Can you pick that up? I'm a seminary teacher. I believe in reviewing a lot. I also believe in exams. But we probably won't have one of those during this series, okay? I'm reviewing. Notice he says in verse four, we write this to make our joy complete. Some of you have Bibles that read, we write this in order that your joy might be made complete. And I went into a long explanation last time I was here about the families of Greek manuscripts that stand behind our New Testament and how some have the word your and others have the word our, and it is quite a task to decide which one goes there. And I've suggested that you could take either one. That is, there's evidence for either side, and perhaps John is saying, we're writing these things to you in order that your joy might be made complete. That when we share the good news about Jesus Christ with others, we are giving them the possibility of moving into full joy. I'm recommending that the translation I use, which is the NIV, also has some good reasons to say our joy. that as we communicate Jesus Christ not only with a lost world, but as we communicate him to other believers and we share what we know, we will benefit as we do that. There is something in it for me when I share Jesus Christ with others. And that's about as far as we went last time, as I recall. this morning we're going to move on from the facts of our faith verses one and two the focus of our fellowship verses three and four and spend our time on verses five through ten what i call the forgiveness of our failures the forgiveness of our failures and here we're going to be dealing with a very important issue the issue of sin and forgiveness read about one lady who wrote in a book She wrote a book called After Every Wedding Comes a Marriage, The Following. She said, I used to gather up my husband Fred's faults with the fervor of a child-picking berry. I had a whole shelf of overflowing baskets before the concept of forgiveness fell heavily upon me. To be spiritual, I plucked out a few of Fred's faults and forgave them, but I didn't want to clear the whole shelf. Where would I go for future reference material? Aren't you glad that because you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, His shells are empty? He doesn't go there for reference material. He has forgiven your sins. Aren't you glad about that? Isn't it great to be forgiven? You know, the world has no clue what we enjoy as Christians. And maybe part of the reason they sometimes have no clue is because we don't enjoy what we have as much as we should. We don't talk about it with us. We don't let it reflect in our faces and in our lives the fact that we have been forgiven. I'm reminded of the story by Donald Gray Barnhouse, I think it was, who had a group of young men he was teaching to preach. And he said, young men, when you preach about the wonderful subject of heaven, Then let your face just glow with the glories of God in the presence of the holy angels and the music and they excite. And young men, when you preach about hell, your everyday face will do. The problem is some of us look like that, don't we? Our faces don't reflect the joy of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. As one preacher puts it, a lot of us walk around. looking like we've been baptized in lemon juice. We don't need to be sour saints. We've been forgiven. As we'll find in verses five through ten, John has so much to say about this issue of forgiveness. I preached in a church a number of years ago, and I did something kind of strange. Cheer up, I won't do it here, but what I did was they gave out blank index cards to everybody that was there at the midweek kind of prayer meeting. maybe about forty people there gave everybody a blank index card and I said on this blank index card I don't put your name I said I'd like you to write down the date of the last sin you confess just write down the date you don't have to even tell me what sin it is just write down the date gave me about ten minutes collected the cards looked through real quick can you guess some of the answers I got it was amazing I was blown away I had very few people put down, well, last night or this morning or today. I had a lot of people write down on that card, the last time I confessed sin was when I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I'm thinking, what are we teaching people? You see, sin separates us from God. Absolutely. But once we're in the family of God, sin does not separate us from the family. Aren't you glad? Most of you would have been gone already. I'm about the only one who wouldn't have been left. You know what I mean? Once we're in his family, he doesn't kick us out for sin. Friends, if he did, we wouldn't stay a millisecond. Sin doesn't get us kicked out of God's family, but it does break fellowship. And that's why we have to confess sin. We'll discover, as we look at particularly First John chapter one, verse nine, that we need God's forgiveness so we're restored to a situation of fellowship with God. Even though I think First John one, nine can be used in presenting the gospel frequently, frequently. We fail to see that confession and forgiveness, forgiveness restores us to a situation of close fellowship with the Lord. So I was alarmed when I got those cards back, people thinking that the moment they trusted Christ when they got saved was when they stopped sinning. As a teacher in seminary, once in a while I have a student that holds to a view that's called sinless perfectionism. Maybe you've heard of this. Sometimes those who come from a Wesleyan or Methodist background, John Wesley held to a view that was called sinless perfectionism. It's a very interesting kind of thing. But there are those who, there are a few people who think that the Christian can reach a stage in his or her life when they no longer commit any known sin, that they become perfect. Now, I happen to believe the Bible doesn't teach that. And I think the verses that we're looking at this morning, verses five through ten, will challenge that point of view. But when I have a student who comes to me and says, Dr. Dixon, I think that I've reached that stage. I haven't had many. I don't laugh at them. That's not a cool thing to do, seminary professor to seminary students. But I usually say something like this, young man, are you married? And inevitably they'll say, well, no. And I'll say, listen, when you get married and maybe just a few weeks after you got married, would you come back and see me? Because I'd like to ask you. about your sinless perfectionism. But even more important than that, I'd love to interview your spouse and to say, you know, someone thinks he's reached the level or she's reached the level of sinless perfectionism and that spouse will say, real. How would they would say, Dr. Dixon, how would you like their sins, his sins listed chronologically or alphabetically? Are we to strive for holiness? Absolutely. Be holy as I am holy. It is a goal. I don't believe the Bible teaches it's a goal that can be attained this side of glory. In fact, I believe that even first John himself says, we'll find it in chapter three when we get there, that he will say that the process of God making us perfect and holy like his son will not be completed until we see him face to face. We will see him as he is, John says, and we will be like him. We will be like him. in the in-between time we who know the Lord are on a kind of continuum or we are in a in a process of becoming holy each day as we make choices to do what God wants us to do that we might be the kind of people that he wants us to be and when we see him when that day comes that process will be completed for some believers it will be a large last step maybe for others it will not be that large a step but we're to be working driving, pursuing righteous. Not in order that we would be saved or find more favor with God. You can't be more than his child, can you? But in order that we might please him, that we might do those things that bring joy to his heart. John is very clear on this issue of sin and forgiveness. Sometimes we're not as clear. We were talking a little bit in Sunday school this morning. If you missed Sunday school, we had a pretty good time. There were no fist fights, but we did break down into couples and looked over a couple of study questions and talked about definition of sin, talked about some of the issues as to how Christians actually, how we Christians often look at sin, what are some of our attitudes towards sin. And one of the points that we didn't get to is the fact that we often compare ourselves with others. We define sin as the things we don't do, but it's the sins that other people do. And we get into this kind of comparison game. You may have heard the story about two brothers who lived in a town and they were the meanest people in the entire town. They were guilty of all kinds of crimes, including murder and stealing and so on. Everybody was scared to death of these two brothers and they were afraid for very good reasons. These were mean guys. One of the brothers died and they were getting ready to have a funeral and the older brother went to the town's pastor and said this. He said, Reverend, I know that you're always looking for money for your church. Reverend, if you will do one thing for me, I will make a substantial contribution to your building program. He said, if you'll take my brother's funeral and in his funeral service, if you'll just once, and I don't care in what context you say it, if just once you'll refer to my brother as a saint, I will make a substantial contribution to your church. Pastor thought about it for a while, and then he agreed to take the funeral. And when he went into the funeral service, he moved into the area known as the eulogy. That's when you're supposed to say nice things about people. And he said this. He said the man in this coffin today was reprobate. He was a murderer. He was a thief. He was an awful man. He was an adulterer. He was terrible. But you know, compared to his brother who's still living, he was a saint. We often define sin in comparison. to what others are doing. But when we look at the Bible, what we discover is God never challenges us to compare ourselves with others of his children. Rather, he says, here's my standard. It's a standard of absolute holiness, total righteousness. That's the standard. Aren't you glad he provides confession and forgiveness? Let's look at verses five through ten and notice some of the things that John gives us as he talks about this issue of forgiveness for our failures. Forgiveness for our failures. Notice in verse five, he begins the discussion by saying something very important about the very nature of God. He says, this is the message we've heard from him and declared to you. God is light in him. There is no darkness there. at all. I might have mentioned last time I was here that one of the courses I love to teach at Columbia Biblical Seminary is a summer course. It is six weeks of what's called Kamakazi Koine New Testament Greek. Did I mention that last time I was here? And those students meet with me for six weeks from eight the morning to about three in the afternoon, five days a week, and they have five to six to seven hours of homework every single night. Aren't you glad you're not in that course? I can see it on your face. Well, I have a theory that when we get to heaven, God's going to make all of you take Greek from me for the first six weeks. That's just my theory. I have no verses. But as those students work hard at learning Greek grammar and Greek vocabulary so they can translate the New Testament, eventually, after the first three of those six weeks, we finally break open a Greek New Testament and they can begin to read a little bit. Because Greek's a hard language. Guess what book we use? First John. First John has some of the simplest Greek in all the New Testament. And when they get to verse five, here's what they discover. My translation reads, this is the message we've heard from him and declared to you, God is light in him. There is no darkness at all. What they discover is this. They discover that the Greek language can multiply negatives and still come out of negatives. Now, if we say, I don't have no cookies, what do we really say in English? I have cookies, right? Double negatives in English equal a positive, unless you're the Rolling Stones and you sing, I can't get no satisfaction. And they were confused anyway when they wrote that song. Greek is different than English. Greek can multiply negatives and still come out of negatives. That's what John, if I lost you, your eyes are looking kind of glazed. The moment I mentioned Greek grammar, you were gone, right? You're thinking of Darlington. There's a race there. When John says in verse five, God is light. He then says, there's no darkness in him. No, none at all. That's what he said. The language is very powerful there. He's saying any concept that there is even the smallest bit of darkness in God is ruled out because there isn't it. There's no darkness in God. That's how it starts. Does that scare you? If it weren't for the first time, one night, it would scare me a lot. Because Jesus himself says, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are easy. Friends, if God is absolute light, and by nature and by practice, we perform deeds of darkness, we are in a lot of trouble. But because of what Christ has done for us, we're forgiven. and can continue to be forgiven as we confess our sin. John says in verse five, God is light. There's no darkness in him. No, none at all. Verse six, if we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. If you can kind of picture a circle, and in that circle write the words, God is light. John then says this in verse six, if we claim we have fellowship with him, where is he, by the way, if you follow my diagram, he's in that circle, isn't he? He's in that circle that's only light. And John says in verse six, if we claim that we have fellowship with him, where ought we to be? In the light. He says, if we claim to have fellowship with him, verse six, yet we walk in the darkness. Where's the darkness? It's outside that circle somewhere. Here's the problem. John says, you're claiming one thing with your lips, but your life is saying something dramatically different. Somebody said, so live your life today that your pastor won't have to lie about you at your funeral. You see, our lives need to back up what our lips say. And John says in verse six, if we claim to have fellowship with him, yet we walk in the darkness, we lie and we do not live by the truth. One of the important questions to deal with in First John is the question, is John writing to believers or unbelievers? Is he, for example, here in verse six, is he writing to say that if you claim you walk with God in the light, but you're really walking in the darkness, you are lying and you are not living by the truth. You are unsaved. It is a possibility. There's some who take that position. The more I've studied First John, I think John is really writing to believers. I'm sure it's a mixed congregation, but he's writing to believers and he's saying, here is the normal Christian life. The normal Christian life is that our conduct backs up our claims, that we claim to know God. We'll walk in the light. If we discover that we're in the darkness, then we get down to First John one nine and we get to confess. and we get forgiven, and we get to start over, as it were. So you may have a different perspective on First John, and I certainly will defend to my death your right to be wrong, but I think First John is written primarily to say to Christians, be what you claim to be. If you claim to know God, then demonstrate it by your life. And when you fail, and when you fall, quickly confess it. Get it right. Get it straightened out. move on from that point. If we think about this issue of forgiveness and the issue of sin, John is saying in verse six, the normal Christian life is to have fellowship with God who is only light and to walk in a way that pleases him, verse six, and to live by the truth, to live by the truth. Notice what he says in verse seven. Verse seven, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with God. Is that what your Bible reads? Are you still in first John? Okay. Let me read again. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that what your Bible says? What kind of Bible you got? We got a cheap Bible. They sell us what? What is your saying? Your Bible says that. So does mine. Beware of preachers who sneak in wrong words in translation. I've said to my students on many occasions, I sometimes wish that I could be a pastor of a small church, but it had to be under my principles. One of my principles would be, once a month I'm going to preach a heretical sermon. You have to figure out when it is. I think that'd be fun. You're looking so shocked at me. You're not catching the drift of this. The problem is many of us who sit in church just believe what anybody who's behind a wooden pulpit with a wireless mic says. The Bible says we're to be like the Bereans in Acts, who examine the Scriptures daily to see what the Apostle Paul was saying was really true. Beware of people who simply say things and you don't check it out with Scripture. Notice what verse. I'm not preaching heresy here. Trust me. No, examine the scriptures. Okay, examine the scriptures. Notice verse seven. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Does that surprise you? It should because most of us would have said we have fellowship with God or we have fellowship with Jesus. Notice how John is putting the emphasis upon the local congregation. That is having fellowship with God's people. John is emphasizing the fact that if we walk in the light, then we have fellowship with God's people. Very important. And then he emphasizes the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sins. Aren't you glad that we have that promise of purification from God? That as we walk in the light, as we confess our sins, as we live with God's people, God forgives us. and cleanses us and purifies us. He'll make it even clearer, as we'll notice in just a moment. I understand that Frederick William I was the king of Prussia, and I'm told he was the brother-in-law of King George in England, and Frederick William I was on his deathbed, and his pastor came in to see him and said these words, He said, Your Majesty, it is important that you forgive everyone who has ever sinned against you. Frederick William I said, does that mean that I have to forgive my brother-in-law, the King George of England? The pastor says, well, yes, for soon you will have to stand before the judge of the universe. Then Frederick William I called his wife to his bedside, and he said these words. He said, when I am dead, call your brother-in-law, call your brother, and tell him that I forgive him. but make sure first that I am dead. Sometimes we act that way, don't we? It's Christian. That we will not forgive each other until we are on our deathbed. God is saying no. Forgiving each other ought to be a daily thing. Because that's how God treats us. He purifies us. Verse seven, from all sins. as we're seeking to walk in the light, emphasizing the fact that he wants to forgive his people. It's an old story, but it bears repeating about a particular father in, I believe it was in Spain, and the name Paca, P-A-C-A, is a fairly common male name there, and there was an ad in a Barcelona newspaper From a father that said this, he said, Dear Paca, your father loves you and he forgives you. Please meet me at five o'clock tomorrow afternoon in front of the cathedral. The next day, five hundred Pacas showed up thinking that maybe it was their father. We've got a heavenly father who longs to forgive us, who wants us to be forgiven, who wants to purify us. And yet we sometimes play so many strange and destructive games, we begin to redefine sin. We act as if we've not sinned. We act as if we don't need to confess. We act as if confession, when we first got saved, was enough for the whole Christian life. We act as if our sins are not that important. We come up with new words for sin. We flipped. We made a mistake. Instead, it's calling sin sin. God longs to forgive us. Let's look at verses eight through ten. And John writes in these verses as follows, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Do you notice that John says we do not deceive God? God is not deceived. John says in verse eight, if we claim to be without sin, we may deceive everybody in the world and ourselves, but we do not deceive God. In fact, his emphasis is on the fact that we deceive ourselves. By the way, here's a puzzling question. How do you know when you deceive yourself? It is, man, a strange question. How do you know when you deceive yourself? I think the only answer to that is somebody loves you enough to tell you. Can you see the genius of the local church the way God intended it to operate? It ought to be a loving environment where we care so much about each other that we will see the truth in love. And when you see that I've deceived myself, you love me enough to challenge the things that I say or the things that I think or the way that I live. And I love you enough that I will do the same thing. How do you know yourself to see? I think the answer is you only know when somebody outside of yourself loves you enough to tell you. John says, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. Notice verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. What a marvelous verse. Now, not for the moment would I suggest that we not use that verse with non-Christians. I think about some of the people that I'm getting to know in our neighborhood. Most of them are younger than my wife and me. They are upperly mobile. They're making good money. They're starting their families and they're lost. The school I teach is world renowned for its mission program. We get missionaries that come off the field and furlough and come and pursue a master's degree at CIU. Someone made a comment the other day that, yes, we ought to be concerned about global evangelism and world missions, but for many people in South Carolina, they are just as lost. They don't understand the gospel. So often people think they're saved by being good church members, by being religious, by being in a Christian family, instead of understanding that it's by believing and trusting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think about some of the people my wife and I are getting to know. And the bottom line is they need to hear First John one nine. They need to hear that God is a God who wants to forgive sin. But he can forgive sins only when sins are confessed. And the word confessed means to say the same thing about my sin as God says about it. A person can't be saved without confession and repentance. There must be an acknowledgement of that sin so that it can be forgiven. Notice that John says very clearly, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. Erwin Lutzer in one of his books says this. He says, God is able to forget our past. Why can't we? He throws our sins into the depths of the sea and puts up a sign on the shore which reads, no fishing. No fishing. God forgives. God longs to forgive. Someone has said that forgiveness is not a case of holy amnesia that wipes out the past. Instead, forgiveness is the experience of healing that drains the poison from the wound. That's what God does. He drains that poison. He forgives us as we come and confess that sin before Him. What you notice, by the way, that John picks some very special terms when he talks about forgiveness. He says, if we confess our sins, God is... Faithful and just. Why did he pick those two words? He could have said God is good and holy. Or God is kind and merciful, couldn't he? I mean, he's led by the Spirit of God and what he was writing. Why did he pick those two words? If we confess our sins, he is faithful. Faithful. Think about it for a minute. How is God faithful when he forgives sin? I think the answer is God has promised to forgive all who come to him through Christ. How is he faithful? He keeps his word. He's promised. He is faithful to himself. And he said, the one who comes to me, I will in no wise turn away. We confess our sins. He is faithful. Notice John picks a second word. He is faithful. That's not all that John wants to say. He is faithful and just or righteous. Why that word? I think the answer goes all the way back to Romans three. You might want to look at it sometime that says that God, in giving his son Jesus to die for our sins, did it in order that he might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Here's the answer, I think. We confess our sins He is faithful and just. He is faithful to Himself. He keeps His Word and He is just or righteous. He forgives us on a righteous basis. The only righteous faith. There is no other righteous faith. He can forgive us because of the finished work of Christ. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. And notice it doesn't stop there. and will purify us from all unrighteous. Have you received his forgiveness? I think most of you here this morning have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me expand it a little bit beyond conversion, because I think that's what John does. You see, we need daily confession. We need to acknowledge to the Lord where we sin by word or deed or thought, where we sin not only the things that we do, but the things that we don't do. Sin is not just doing wrong things, it's failing to do right things. It's not loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Have you found forgiveness for that? There are certain church traditions that have confession times. I wonder sometimes if we evangelicals have completely missed the importance of confessing one to another. Those who were in Sunday school this morning might have gotten to James five, sixteen. That talks about confessing your faults one to another that you might be healed. That there is a benefit in being part of a body, part of a family that we can confess to each other and each other can affirm the forgiveness of God to us. John says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and he will forgive us our sins. and purify us from all unrighteous. You see, the bottom line is that sin enslaves us, and God does not want us to be enslaved by sin. He wants us free to do his will and to become the people that we need to be. Story is told of a little boy who was visiting his grandparents, and they gave him his first slingshot. I'm not sure I'd get any child a slingshot these days. How about you? He practiced in the woods and he could never hit his target. And as he came back to his grandma's backyard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse, he took aim and let fly. The stone hit and the duck fell dead. The boy panicked. Desperately, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all. but she said nothing. After lunch that day, Grandma said, Sally, let's wash the dishes. But Sally said, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today, didn't you, Johnny? And she whispered to him, Remember the duck. So Johnny did the dishes. Later, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, I'm sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper. Sally smiled and said, That's all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it. And again, she whispered, remember the duck. Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing. After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's, finally he couldn't stand it any longer. He confessed to Grandma that he killed the duck. I know Johnny, she said, giving him a hug. I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I just wondered how long you'd let Sally make a slave out of you. God doesn't want us to be slaves to sin, to unforgiveness, to bitterness toward other believers. He wants to free us. Because that's the kind of God we belong to. Let's pray, Sally. Father, thank you for your love to us today. Thank you for that forgiveness that's provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, help us to be faithful to your word in a world that thinks it can create its own way to God. Help us to be faithful to your teaching that there is salvation in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. But Father, for those of us who know him, who have been privileged with becoming members of your family, help us to see. the ugliness of sin and how it not only hurts our fellowship and communion with you and hurts us in the body of Christ, but it begins that enslavement process. Thank you for the freedom that we have when we confess. Thank you for your quickness to forgive and to purify. Lord, encourage us this week that we might indeed show by our words and our lives A joy in knowing you and in knowing your forgiveness. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.