WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.960 ideal friendship, the ideal relationship, would be one in which there was never any lies, 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:13.700 there was always complete openness, there were no dark secrets. We saw last week, Genesis 1 and 2, 00:00:13.780 --> 00:00:18.900 that we were made, God made Adam and Eve for friendship that was perfect, and there was that 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:24.699 kind of openness, there was that kind of honesty, both with one another and with God. But then we 00:00:24.699 --> 00:00:32.299 saw in Genesis 3, and we understand this in our own lives, that friendships can be lost, can be spoiled 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:40.079 because of sin. There are things that we do that can harm our relationships, and therefore, 00:00:40.820 --> 00:00:48.420 in that situation where we live in a fallen and a broken world, one of the essential aspects of 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:55.980 honesty that we need, and the Bible directs us to, is we need honest confession, honest confession 00:00:55.980 --> 00:01:05.799 of sin. If we were perfect, that kind of confession would not be necessary. We are talking in particular 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:14.240 this morning about friendship with God, and if you look at verse 5, see how God is described by John. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:21.280 This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:28.799 darkness at all. God is absolute truth. In Him, there is nothing false. God is absolutely pure. 00:01:29.179 --> 00:01:37.560 There is no stain on His character. God is completely good. There is nothing evil in Him. Therefore, God has 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:49.420 no need of confession. But for the rest of us, we do. Today, I want us to think about the importance of 00:01:49.420 --> 00:01:59.460 being honest about our sin, and honestly confessing that sin. That John tells us here that it's vital 00:01:59.460 --> 00:02:06.240 to friendship, to fellowship with God. But as we go, we'll also see that these truths apply to 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:15.620 our own friendships with one another. We're going to see this big truth that sin is a barrier to 00:02:15.620 --> 00:02:24.139 friendship. And we'll also see that confession and trusting in Jesus is a bridge to restored 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:32.759 friendship with God. So, let's begin thinking about that. Let's recognize with John that sin is a barrier 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:42.620 to friendship. Three ways he speaks about it. In verse 6, if we claim to have fellowship with God, 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:52.199 yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. To put that another way, here is a way of 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:59.799 thinking that my sin doesn't affect my relationship with God. Or in human terms, my sin doesn't affect my 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:04.439 relationship with other people. One of the things that John likes to do in his writings is he likes 00:03:04.439 --> 00:03:10.140 to use opposites, dark and light, truth and lies. And one of the reasons that he does that, especially 00:03:10.140 --> 00:03:16.220 with darkness and light, is to remind us that there are opposites that cannot exist together. 00:03:17.200 --> 00:03:22.220 So, place yourself in a completely dark room. The blinds shut, the curtains are closed. There is 00:03:22.220 --> 00:03:28.460 darkness. But the moment the blinds go up, the curtains are open, what happens? Light floods in, 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:38.439 darkness is dispelled. Light and darkness cannot exist together. And so, there is a lie that we can 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:48.460 tell ourselves in verse 6 if we disconnect what we believe with how we behave. We believe in a God who 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:56.439 is perfectly holy, who is absolute light. So, we misrepresent Him if we think we can do whatever we 00:03:56.439 --> 00:04:07.219 please and it's no big deal. It was Jesus who said, if you love me, you will obey my commands. What we 00:04:07.219 --> 00:04:14.460 believe should influence our behavior. We need to walk in the light, he will say, in order to maintain 00:04:14.460 --> 00:04:23.300 fellowship with God. So, sin is a barrier to fellowship with God always. In verse 8, 00:04:23.300 --> 00:04:32.560 puts it another way. Here's another false claim. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:43.540 and the truth is not in us. So, here is the danger, the danger that lies in your heart and in my heart, 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:52.200 and it's the temptation when we've done something wrong to blame someone else. Or there's that 00:04:52.200 --> 00:05:02.439 temptation to minimize, to justify ourselves and our actions. So, we do something wrong and we say, 00:05:02.520 --> 00:05:10.080 well, that's just who I am. Or that other person, they provoked me, so I had no choice. Or perhaps we 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:15.060 say, well, it didn't hurt anybody else, therefore, it's not really a big deal. 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:25.039 We can deceive ourselves thinking that we didn't do anything wrong. We are experts at lying to 00:05:25.039 --> 00:05:31.959 ourselves. Now, one of the ways that Jesus teaches us that is He says to people, we can be like 00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:38.259 hypocrites. You know, we can be great at seeing the speck, the tiny problem in somebody else's eye, 00:05:38.259 --> 00:05:43.319 in somebody else's life. Well, we're missing the great, whacking great log in our own eye. We're 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:51.360 really good at diagnosing others, but we're really poor sometimes at seeing the sin in our own lives. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:06:01.740 Why is that? This week, we've been playing a game at home, a spy game. So, again, make the room 00:06:01.740 --> 00:06:09.079 completely dark. And then I would have a small torch, and the boys would hide. And basically, 00:06:09.340 --> 00:06:13.900 we'd wander around in the darkness with a torch, and they would spend the whole time trying to hide, 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:20.480 trying to evade capture. Teaching important spy craft at an early age. 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:29.340 God's Word, the Bible says, God's Word is like a searchlight. So, God's Word is like that torch. 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:37.399 It reveals truth. It exposes sin and darkness in our hearts and our lives. But what do we do? 00:06:38.679 --> 00:06:45.679 Sometimes we choose to run and hide from that Word of truth. We don't want to be confronted with 00:06:45.679 --> 00:06:50.839 the darkness in our hearts, so we pretend that it's not a problem. So, we keep far away from God 00:06:50.839 --> 00:07:00.519 and His Word. We deceive ourselves. Again, verse 10, there's a third false claim. 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:11.599 If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His Word has no place in our lives. 00:07:12.559 --> 00:07:20.039 Some people in John's day were saying, I don't have a problem with sin, full stop. There was this really 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:28.900 dangerous false teaching that was saying that it was possible to be perfect in this life, which is 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:36.720 going to add a crushing weight of expectation that actually nobody could ever achieve. The teaching went 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:44.200 that, well, since Jesus has defeated sin, therefore the Christian can live a life of complete victory. 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:53.979 We can be perfect. Sin is no longer a problem for me. Now, we need to think, what's the reality? What does 00:07:53.979 --> 00:08:02.319 the Bible teach about what happened at the cross? The Bible is very clear that at the cross, Jesus has 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:10.899 won the decisive battle with sin and the devil at the cross. The devil is now a defeated enemy. 00:08:10.899 --> 00:08:18.819 So, for Christians, it's absolutely true to say that because of our faith in Jesus, we are free from 00:08:18.819 --> 00:08:26.939 the penalty of sin. We will not be condemned because Jesus took the penalty in our place. That's true. 00:08:27.679 --> 00:08:34.720 We are also free from the power of sin in the sense that sin is no longer the master that controls us. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:41.600 We have a new master. His name is Jesus. We're now able to say no to sin. So, those things are true, 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:49.540 but it's not true to say that we're free from the presence of sin. Sin is still in our hearts. There is 00:08:49.540 --> 00:09:00.160 still this spiritual battle that goes on and will go on until glory. John gives hope to the church. In 1 John 3, 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:08.240 let's just flick over a page. 1 John 3 and verse 2, we're pointed forward to the wonderful time when 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:14.339 we will be free from the presence of sin. So, 1 John 3 verse 2, dear friends, now we are children 00:09:14.339 --> 00:09:20.759 of God. That's a wonderful truth. Right now, if our faith is in Jesus, we are children of God, 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:25.699 and what we will be has not yet been made known. There's more wonderful things to come, 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:34.980 but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:41.400 Everyone has this hope in Him, purifies himself just as He is pure. So, one day we'll be like Him. 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:47.680 One day we'll be free from the presence of sin, but not in this life. And John says that people who 00:09:47.680 --> 00:09:52.960 are teaching that, people who are believing that, are actually calling God a liar. How are they calling 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:59.580 God a liar? Because the Bible clearly teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:07.420 We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. And the Bible is also 00:10:07.420 --> 00:10:15.420 clear on that spiritual warfare that everybody who is in Christ will experience. So, to say that we don't 00:10:15.420 --> 00:10:21.019 have a problem with sin is to deny the clear testimony of the Bible. It's actually to deny, 00:10:21.019 --> 00:10:27.379 I would imagine, what's going on in people's consciences, and it's to deny the reality of our 00:10:27.379 --> 00:10:35.120 lived out experience. So, this is really dangerous. So, what he's done in three different ways, he said 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:43.480 to the church really clearly, sin is a barrier to fellowship. Let's apply this together for a few 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:49.500 moments. A very basic level, I think the teaching of John and the teaching of the Bible says to us, 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:55.860 friendship always requires honesty. Whether we're thinking about friendship with God or friendship 00:10:55.860 --> 00:11:03.779 at the human level, we need to be those who are willing to recognize and admit the impact of our sin 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:11.019 on our relationships. Now, that's something that's going to be painful for us, but it's something that's 00:11:11.019 --> 00:11:20.379 necessary to us. I may especially at this moment just ask ourselves, those of us who are parents, 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:27.639 and we, I imagine, spend a lot of time encouraging our children to say sorry, to confess, and to put 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:33.600 things right. But I wonder, is that something that we also are modeling to them? Do they hear us say 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:43.000 sorry when we ourselves mess up? But at a general level, we are being taught that it's important for 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:52.060 us to own our sin and to confess it and to deal with it. Another thing that the Bible teaches here 00:11:52.060 --> 00:11:59.700 is that it's important for us to examine our friendships under God's spotlight. So, on Wednesday, 00:11:59.700 --> 00:12:05.220 in our community groups, we started looking at a new book by Ed Welch called Caring for One Another. 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:10.840 He was talking about humility. But one of the things he was saying is it's really important to be able to 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:19.240 apply biblical truth to our problems. That the voice that we need to hear, it is God's voice. We need to 00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:26.700 hear God's truth. So, when we think about the problems that our sin causes in relationships, whether that's 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:34.379 anger or jealousy or lies or gossip, wherever it might be, we need to listen to the Bible, 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:41.960 and we also need to seek out other Christians who will apply the truth, who will pray the truth 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:52.100 into our lives. There are lots of relationship gurus. There are lots of voices that we could listen to 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:59.659 about the way we relate to one another. John is reminding us it's really important for Christians 00:12:59.659 --> 00:13:07.460 to live under the rule of God's Word in our relationships. And the third thing at this 00:13:07.460 --> 00:13:19.320 point is to remind ourselves that Christianity needs honest confession. We cannot begin to live as a 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:29.140 Christian until we come to that point of humbling ourselves, seeing ourselves as guilty sinners before 00:13:29.140 --> 00:13:38.260 a holy God, and coming to Him to seek the forgiveness that He freely offers through the death of His Son Jesus. 00:13:39.540 --> 00:13:46.320 So, we need to confess our sin, and we need to confess our need of a Savior in order to begin 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:53.879 the Christian life. But honest confession isn't just for the beginning of the Christian life. We need it for 00:13:53.879 --> 00:14:05.320 all of our Christian experience, because sin always creates a barrier to fellowship with God. And so, we want to be 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:16.140 pursuing restoration, and that involves confessing our sin to Jesus, to God our Father. So, sin is a barrier 00:14:16.139 --> 00:14:24.980 to friendship with God. And then let's see how Jesus is the bridge to friendship with God. And we're going to see that 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:34.720 John is calling Christians towards certain behaviors, but underpinning those behaviors stands the finished work of Jesus. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:48.560 So, verse 7, the first way that we see this bridge to friendship with God, and we are called to walk in the light as He is in the light. 00:14:48.560 --> 00:14:56.540 And 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, 00:14:56.539 --> 00:15:04.899 purifies us from all sin. So, we are to walk in the light. Now, what does that look like? 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:14.659 John gives us some helpful instruction in chapter 2. For example, in verse number 3, we see, 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:21.379 we know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. One of the things about this letter is, 00:15:21.379 --> 00:15:28.700 John says, Christians are those who obey God and His commands. To walk in the light is to obey God. 00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:39.200 Then in verse 6, whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. So, here we are being reminded that Jesus is our 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:45.379 model. Jesus is our pattern. He is the perfect human being. He is the only one who has ever lived a perfect relationship 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:52.320 relationship with the people around Him and with God, and we are told to follow His example. 00:15:53.139 --> 00:15:59.659 And then in verse 10, another way to walk in the light. Or verse 9, anyone who claims to be in the 00:15:59.659 --> 00:16:05.419 light but hates his brother, brother or sister in Christ, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:15.360 brother lives in the light. So, by loving one another, we're walking in the light. Again, just to scale 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:23.680 back, Psalm 119 as an example, we talk about the Bible as being a light for our path, a way of guiding us 00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:33.759 as to how to live well. So, our goal in all of our relationships is to let God's truth, God's character, 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:40.620 God's values, those things that we see in the life of Jesus, we want those to set our course. That's the 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:50.620 pattern that we are to follow after. Will we do that perfectly as Christians? No, we won't. But should 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:59.159 we aim for that? Absolutely, yes, we should. We should aspire to walk in the light of God's truth. 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:06.759 But here's the good news. Here's where Jesus comes in. What does Jesus do for us when we fail in this? 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:19.720 Verse 7. The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. God has made provision for his people for our 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:28.000 ongoing sin that spoils our friendship with God. So, again, here we are reminded that relying on the 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:36.240 death of Jesus isn't just for the start of the Christian life, it's for all of our Christian life. 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:43.180 I read a book before Christmas on the theme of friendship, which really turned out to be more 00:17:43.180 --> 00:17:48.859 about the importance of repentance and friendship. It was written by a lady by the name of Catherine 00:17:48.859 --> 00:17:54.539 Parks. The book was called Real, a very helpful book. But she says this, she says, 00:17:54.539 --> 00:18:02.720 church should not be a place where people cover their sin, but a community of forgiven sinners 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:12.420 walking in the light together. So, there's that phrase, walking in the light, and we do so 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:21.120 as forgiven sinners. And we're being reminded that Jesus is the one who brings us together. 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:25.160 Did you notice that? If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:30.759 Think about it. Think about it in the summertime, when you switch on a light and the flies and the 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:38.620 moths gather around. Well, like moths to a flame, Christians are drawn together to Jesus, the light 00:18:38.620 --> 00:18:47.660 of the world. What draws us close to one another? It is the fact that we are drawn together in our love 00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:58.480 for the Lord Jesus and the love that He has for us, for His church. Jesus is the foundation of our shared 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:06.620 life together. And one of the wonderful things about that is, therefore, that the church should 00:19:06.620 --> 00:19:12.200 be a place where people can be real about weakness and struggle and sin. It should be a place where we 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:20.640 don't need to wear masks. Which takes us to the second thing that John points us to. In verse number 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:28.720 nine, he says that we are to be those who confess our sin. When we're thinking about confession as a 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:36.259 bridge to friendship. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins 00:19:36.259 --> 00:19:45.839 and purify us from all unrighteousness. So again, let's use the spotlight image. God's spotlight shines 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:53.379 on our lives and it reveals dirt and darkness. It exposes guilt and things that we have done wrong. 00:19:53.859 --> 00:20:00.359 What are we to do at that point? Our natural response, perhaps, is to try and hide away from that, 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:09.439 to try and minimize or justify. John says what we must do, do what David did. We must confess our sin. 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:20.419 We must identify what we have done wrong, to accept responsibility for what we have done wrong, 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:27.439 and to seek forgiveness and the mercy of God because we have done wrong. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:36.539 In a sense, I guess it's the pattern that is, as parents, we try and teach to our children. 00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:47.120 When we see, perhaps, brothers and sisters fighting, you know, we'll maybe call one or both of them aside 00:20:47.120 --> 00:20:57.240 and we'll ask them what it is that they need to say. Sorry. What is it that you need to say? 00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:04.620 Sorry for. Sorry for fighting with my brother and my sister. And then we ask them, what is it that you need to do 00:21:04.620 --> 00:21:10.620 to put things right? And we aim for them to pursue reconciliation and restoration, don't we? 00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:20.940 It's a biblical pattern. To restore relationship with God, we are to confess our sin, to admit that we have done wrong, 00:21:20.940 --> 00:21:27.740 to take responsibility and to seek forgiveness. And again, this is painful. It's not just for kids that it's a painful process. 00:21:27.860 --> 00:21:34.600 It's painful for us in our lives. It humbles us. But it's the path to healing and restoration 00:21:34.600 --> 00:21:39.600 in any friendship that's been broken, whether we're talking about God or another person. 00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:45.519 And again, one of the wonderful things about the gospel and where Jesus comes into this 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:57.379 is that the gospel reminds us that God knows the very worst about us. Sometimes we think we're really bad 00:21:57.379 --> 00:22:03.879 and there's darkness. God knows sins in our lives that we're not even aware of, 00:22:03.880 --> 00:22:13.260 and yet He chooses to love and forgive and to welcome us. In other words, when our faith is in Jesus, 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:24.980 we have a secure love. We have a God who sees us as we are and still chooses to call us His children. 00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:31.520 So that gives us security, therefore, to confess quickly and to confess honestly to the God who already knows 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:37.420 and who is willing to forgive. And I think as Christians, because we're secure in that relationship, 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:42.019 because we know we've got that forgiveness and we've been reconciled, we should be quick to seek 00:22:42.019 --> 00:22:51.779 to make things right with one another. John draws out the hope that God gives us through Jesus in verse 9. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:23:00.139 If we confess our sins, God is what? God is faithful. What is it that He is faithful to? 00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:08.920 Well, He is faithful to that new covenant promise that He made. In Jeremiah 31, there was this promise 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:14.640 that a new covenant would be established between God and His people where He would forgive their sins 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:26.060 and remember them no more. God is faithful to that promise. God is also just in forgiving our sins. 00:23:26.059 --> 00:23:33.740 God is faithful to that promise. It's striking. That moral debt that we have before God because of our failure 00:23:33.740 --> 00:23:40.819 to live right, our failure to love well. God is just to forgive that in the lives of His people. How? 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:53.980 Because the justice of God fell on Jesus at the cross on our behalf. Jesus paid for our moral debt 00:23:53.980 --> 00:24:00.440 and our shame on our shame on the cross so that we might be purified from all unrighteousness. 00:24:02.059 --> 00:24:05.799 That our slate might be wiped clean. 00:24:07.700 --> 00:24:11.079 It's what we'll remember today when we share the Lord's Supper. 00:24:11.799 --> 00:24:18.579 We will remember the cost to God, the cost to Jesus in forgiving us, 00:24:18.579 --> 00:24:29.899 in bringing us to God. Last thing to say is, in terms of bridges to friendship with God, 00:24:30.220 --> 00:24:40.179 we are invited in this section to run to Jesus. Chapter 2 and verse 1, we see John is both optimistic 00:24:40.180 --> 00:24:47.480 about the Christian life and realistic. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:54.160 not sin. So it's possible for a believer, because we're led by the Spirit, because Jesus is our master, 00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:00.779 to say no to sin. That's something new for us when our life is in Christ. But, so there's optimism, 00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:09.380 but here's the realism. But if anybody does sin, bearing in mind that this battle with sin still rages, 00:25:09.380 --> 00:25:16.120 when we're pulled into a sin that spoils our friendship with God, what hope do we have? 00:25:16.740 --> 00:25:26.320 We run to Him, because we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. 00:25:26.600 --> 00:25:31.760 So here's the picture. Here's our hope. Jesus is our advocate. So now we're in the courtroom. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:38.840 God the Father, He's the judge. And we're in the dock. We're being tried for things that we have done. 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:46.839 Our sin. And we have Jesus. Jesus, our advocate. Jesus, our defense lawyer. And He's making a case 00:25:46.839 --> 00:25:56.019 before the Father. Now, His case is not that person in the dock is innocent. He's not saying, 00:25:56.259 --> 00:26:04.839 James Ross, he's innocent. He's never done anything wrong. Jesus is saying, yes, James is a sinner, 00:26:04.839 --> 00:26:13.419 but I have paid the price on the cross for His forgiveness and for His acceptance. 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:25.000 That's our hope. Jesus is pleading our cause, and He has served as, verse 2, the atoning sacrifice 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:35.779 for our sins. That's part of Jesus' case. I have performed that function. I am the atoning sacrifice. 00:26:35.779 --> 00:26:45.460 What does that mean? That He has faced the verdict for our sin, God's righteous anger against sin 00:26:45.460 --> 00:26:55.420 and rebellion that should fall on us. God in His love sent Jesus. Jesus, in love, took that punishment 00:26:55.420 --> 00:27:04.100 for us so that we might be forgiven. And that remains our only hope for forgiveness and fellowship 00:27:04.100 --> 00:27:12.319 with God, that objective fact that Jesus died for us. Notice at the end of verse 2 who this is for. 00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:18.639 This is open to anyone. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for 00:27:18.639 --> 00:27:27.519 the sins of the whole world. This is an invitation to anyone. How do we know this love and friendship 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:34.919 that the Bible says we were made for? How do we, as sinful, guilty people, come into friendship with 00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:43.259 God? Well, John says it begins with humble confession, recognizing I am a sinner, and it involves trust 00:27:43.259 --> 00:27:55.200 that He, Jesus, died for me. Now, to apply this to our life and to our friendships, there is a Scottish 00:27:55.200 --> 00:28:04.320 proverb that says open confession is good for the soul. Biblical truth. Often, when people are getting 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:11.960 married, they'll get advice that says you should keep short accounts with one another. Don't let the sun 00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:18.720 go down on your anger. Now, that's good advice, not just for a marriage, but for any friendship, whether 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:27.059 that's a human friendship or a friendship with God. To be humble, to recognize there are things that we do, 00:28:27.059 --> 00:28:34.740 things that we say, attitudes in our heart that spoil the relationships that we have. And so, at a human 00:28:34.740 --> 00:28:43.039 level, we need at times to confess, but it's absolutely vital before a holy God who's all light 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:51.819 and no darkness that we humbly confess our sin to Him. Another thing we are reminded of by John is that 00:28:51.819 --> 00:29:00.379 Christian friendship, in particular, grows in the light. When we gather together as a church, we're not 00:29:00.379 --> 00:29:05.799 gathering as a social club. We're not gathering because we come from the same place and we share 00:29:05.799 --> 00:29:14.419 the same kind of interest. Our shared life is rooted in the love that God has for us, that He's shown to us 00:29:14.420 --> 00:29:23.400 in Jesus. Our shared life is rooted in the worship of God, in hearing the Word of God together, in prayer 00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:31.800 together. And so, if it is the case that Christian friendship grows in the light, let's be praying to 00:29:31.800 --> 00:29:39.539 God that we would be those kind of friends. Let's be making sure that in our own lives, we're moving 00:29:39.539 --> 00:29:45.720 towards God, we're moving to build our fellowship with the Lord Jesus so that we would be a good 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:52.139 Christian friend to others, that we'd be sharing God's Word, we'd be sharing prayer, we'd be bearing 00:29:52.139 --> 00:30:02.839 burdens together. And the last thing, and the wonderful thing that John reminds us of, is that Jesus offers us 00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:11.579 the kind of friendship that in our hearts we all dream of? What makes us in our relationships at times 00:30:11.579 --> 00:30:21.419 really insecure? Or why is it that at times we struggle to confess our sin and our failure? Why are we trying 00:30:21.419 --> 00:30:30.500 to project a certain kind of image where we have everything together and we are absolutely complete? 00:30:30.500 --> 00:30:40.819 sometimes it's because at heart we are deeply, deeply afraid. What if that person finds out the real 00:30:40.819 --> 00:30:49.440 truth about me and they no longer want anything to do with me? What if it turns out that I can't live 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:58.240 up to the standard of expectation that this other person has of me? So we can find ourselves really 00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:03.660 insecure in friendships. But what about when we think about friendship with Jesus? 00:31:05.319 --> 00:31:15.539 When we hear the gospel, we hear that Jesus knows everything about us. The good, the bad, the ugly, He knows it all. 00:31:16.980 --> 00:31:23.440 That shame that we carry, that stuff that we're desperately afraid that someone else will find out 00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:32.440 about Jesus knows. And He doesn't just know, He goes to the cross and bears the shame and the guilt of it for us. 00:31:33.660 --> 00:31:43.180 And then He welcomes us in. Then He welcomes us into the family of God, that we could be adopted, 00:31:43.700 --> 00:31:49.059 that we could enjoy a friendship that's not just for now, but is forever. 00:31:49.059 --> 00:31:56.059 Let's pray together. Lord God, thank you for this wonderful...