First John chapter 1, we're going to be looking at verses 5-7 this morning. There is a Bible in your pew. If you don't have one, you're welcome to use it. 1 John 1, verse 5. I'll give you a second to get there. A little illustration here, How to Live in Pure Fellowship is the title of this morning's message. And we looked at the condition for darkness last week. And one Adrian Rogers says, as a younger preacher, I used to pastor a church in Florida on the edge of the Everglades. And there was a sugar mill out there in the little town of Felsmere. A wonderful little village. We had a delightful time and it's our joy, Joyce and I, to serve the Lord in that little church. I had a deacon out there who would hunt frogs for a living. He was a professional frogger. He would go out at nighttime on one of those airboats and jig frogs. And he made a handsome living hunting frogs in the swamp. He told me a story one time I'll never forget. He said, before I was saved, Not only did we have frogs, but we poached alligators. He said, actually, if you got a big alligator, his hide was worth more than anything you could get that night for frog legs. He said, we didn't shoot the alligators, but actually, we would shine our headlights on them, and then he bore a light between his eyes, a very powerful beam. We'd see the gator's eyes, and then we'd take our boat and come alongside him, keeping that light right on his eyes. He would stay there on the top of the water, and, he said, we kept a big hammer beneath the seat. These men sat up high in that boat on a seat. That's about that high off the floor of the boat, and he said we keep a hammer under there. We come alongside that alligator and hit him between the eyes with a hammer. We didn't shoot him because if you shot him, the guard, the game warden would hear in the game warden would come. So he said we just hit him real hard with that hammer. This deacon, Brother Neil, said to me, he said, Pastor, I saw the biggest alligator I believe I've ever seen. I knew he was very valuable. I didn't want to miss him. So he said, I idled my motor and came up right alongside this alligator. And he said, I took my hammer, a ball peen hammer, that I had under my seat. And he said, I gave a mighty swing. Now you'd have to know Neil. He's a small guy, wiry, muscular. He said, I gave a mighty swing, he said. But when I did. I missed the alligator's head. And he said, the force of that hammer coming all the way around flipped me out of the boat, straddled the alligator. This part tickled me, he said. Pastor, I got back in that boat without getting wet. I can't believe it. I can believe that. I can believe that. I've often thought about that story and thought, It's so much like a Christian. You know, a Christian can slip and fall into sin, but I believe a true child of God would fear sin as much as that man feared that alligator. A true child of God, though he may slip and fall, he desires a quick recovery just like Brother Neil did so long ago. I don't want to get in that water. I want to talk to you about the recovery, getting back in the light of God's fellowship, or staying in fellowship with Him this morning. What happens when we slip? What happens when we fall? What happens when we find ourselves straddling an alligator? Here in 1 John 1, verses 5-7, I trust you found your place there. Verse 5 of chapter 1, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. What a wonderful truth. Last week we talked about people walking in darkness and some of the ways. When we walk in darkness, we stumble. We begin to go about life and not knowing why things are happening in our life. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, the Bible tells us, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. It's the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine in them. And Satan hates the light, and his desire is to get every person, whether believer or not, outside of the light of God. And a result of that darkness, as John 11, 10 tells us, But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth because there is no light in him. As I mentioned last week, if we go away from truth, things happen in our lives and we don't understand why they're occurring, but we've gotten away from truth. And the light bearing is normal Christianity. And as disciples of Christ, we ought to earnestly seek to please the Lord. This ought to be our genuine passion. You see, light bearing, as we see here, it brings fellowship with the Lord and other sanctified believers. We must have a life above reproach by having nothing to do with the darkness and only holding bright the light of Christ to a world in need. We'll talk more about this. Let's go and pray and ask the Lord for his blessing upon this time. Our dear, heavenly and gracious Father, Lord, I thank you for your goodness and mercy. Lord, I thank you for loving us and caring for us. And Father, how good you've been. Lord, as the message is delivered this morning, I pray, Lord, that you'd give me the exact words to speak to your people. For those who are watching, God, I pray, and if there's anyone here this morning that has never come to a recognition of their sinfulness before a perfect and holy God, that today would be the day of salvation. Our Father, I pray that those of us as Christians, that we would desire to live in pure fellowship with you. And Lord, it would radiate the glory of Christ. Father, I thank you for your grace and mercy you bestowed upon us. In Jesus' precious name I pray, amen. The condition for darkness, we look here and if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, I spoke about that last week. An individual that begins to go away from truth and there's things happening in their lives and it can get them weary and it can get them just unsettled in their mind because they begin to go away from that which is truth. A result of the darkness, as I mentioned, a man walking in the night, he stumbleth. And I gave the analogy of at night, if you walk, and especially if you have little kids, and they leave their toys out, and you begin to stub your toe, or the dog's laying where you're not used to the dog laying, and you trip and fall, and then you hit pans, and things are clank, bang, bang, you know, all over the place, and you're making noise, and you're like, ah, I was trying to be quiet at the night, but you find yourself making a lot of noise, because you're walking in the dark. And that happens where the condition for darkness is, I make a decision. I'm going to leave truth for my own ideas. I'm going to do it my way. There's also a self-deceived lie that we find in our world today that our governments are leading from a position of darkness. I'd like to show you that in Psalm 82, verse 5. I will be talking about the fellowship and the light, but I just want to kind of finish up where I left off last week and continue that study. But in Psalm 82.5, here as they progress in Psalm 82.5, they know not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I want to ask you today, do you think our governments are doing well? Do you think that our politicians are on the up and up? They're living lives that are ethical and moral and living with integrity. I would say it's quite contrary in many, many instances. They progress from one crisis to another. The news is always giving us something new about this politician, this politician, or this policy, or this policy, and depending upon what side of the spectrum you're on, it's always igniting the passions of the citizens. A good snapshot of the news network today, one crisis, one scandal, one noteworthy misdeed to another, and after another, and after another, and the news makes lots of money, but the government leads from a position of darkness. We're not leading from the light of the Bible. We also see something else, religion, apart from Christ and his word, that people can just get into the motions of go to church, and in particular churches, you stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, recite this, do this, give a small liturgy, and you leave, and you've done your actions for the week, you've done your tradition for the week, but yet you've never entered through the light of Christ. Hypocrisy, says one in this book called Handfuls of Purpose, James Smith and Robert Lee, society so-called often has its times of masquerade. They love to disguise themselves so that they may participate in some new pleasure that they could not have without the mask. In matters of religion, how many are only masquerading? putting on the disguise for some selfish pleasure, deceiving and being deceived. The time is coming when every mask must be torn off and every hidden thing revealed. You know, we can be one thing at church, but when we are out in public, how are we? The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter six, verses seven through nine, be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. If we begin to sow things that are in darkness in our lives, I begin to go in a direction against what God wants in my life, I will sow, I will reap, what I've sown. If I'm sowing to myself, sowing into selfishness, sowing all for me, I'm going to reap selfish actions. And the thing we find here is Jesus would call the religious leaders, the Pharisees, blind leaders of the blind. In fact, in John chapter 8, he says, you have your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. And abode not in the truth. See, the fact is, when we go away from truth, and I am the authority for how I live my life, I'm going to continue to repeat things in my life. I'm going to continue to repeat the same mistakes. I'm going to, essentially, I want to move forward, but it's like banging your head on a wall, expecting a change in circumstances, but I keep banging my head on the same wall. It's only gonna hurt, and it's gonna hurt worse the more you bang your head on it. These Pharisees and these Sadducees and religious people, 1 Timothy 4, 2, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. You see, they believe that because I'm religious, because I have a belief that there's a God, that I'm okay. But just because we have a belief there's a God doesn't mean I'm okay. Just because I have a belief in a particular politician that I say, oh, I believe that they exist, doesn't mean that I know them, doesn't mean that they're necessarily a good candidate for the office. Why do you think those who are caught in sin and then try out these dead churches and find no power of God over their sin, or they go to churches that masquerade God's light behind the charms and empty promises of faith, only for the glimmer to wear off and leave with empty promises and hopes? God's desire for our lives is to have light, a hope, a joy inside. God's desire. And this is why the light matters. And one gentleman, he writes, the Bible tells us that before Christ came into our lives, our existence was in darkness. Thankfully, God had a plan. In Pulpit Digest, this gentleman, Bob Woods, tells the story of a couple who took their son, 11 years old, and daughter, 7 years old, to the Carlsbad Caverns. It was down in New Mexico. As always, when the tour reached the deepest point of the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights and dramatized How completely dark and silent it is below the earth's surface. Suddenly, enveloped in utter darkness, the little girl was frightened and began to cry. Immediately, she heard the voice of her brother. Don't cry. Somebody here knows how to turn on the lights. In a real sense, this is the gospel's message. Light is available, even when the darkness seems overwhelming in your life. The Bible is the light switch to turn on for the answers for life. And the call to the light the Bible gives us, verse 7 of 1 John 1, but if we walk in the light. Do you realize this, that light and light in relationship with God are equated with life? Look with me in your Bibles at Psalm 56. We'll look at a couple passages here in the Psalms. Psalm 56 this morning. Light and a relationship with God, light is also truth, and a relationship with God equals life. And I'm telling you, a life that you're living is not for yourselves. You're living not out of just mere rituals. You're not living, just doing what you've always done. You're doing it because you're moving, you're desirous of truth. You see, if I don't want truth in my life, I'm going to go into my own way. I'm gonna resist the truth for what feels good. But when I begin to stumble and things happen in my life, it's going, I'm gonna like, oh, why is all this happening? God, you've abandoned me. No, I have decided to leave truth. Psalm 56, verse 13. Psalm 56, verse 13, Notice that death, sin, and distance from God are all symbolized by darkness, or death, as it says here. The light of God is authentic living accompanied by true companionship with the Lord. He says, wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling? Ever feel like your feet are falling in life? Ever feel like decisions in the direction you're going is leading me away from hope? You see, the idea of walking in the light of God's countenance is in Psalm 89, verse 15. Would you turn with me here in your Bibles this morning? Psalm 89, verse 15. The idea of walking in the light of God's countenance, His demeanor, it's going to change my demeanor. Verse 15 of Psalm 89, blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. Knowing and understanding the truth of God and then walking therein will bring the blessing of God. The light of his countenance is a metaphor referring to him being pleased. God is pleased with how you're living. As a young child, when your parents are pleased with what you're doing and oftentimes are dottled, Daddy, Daddy, what do you think? And you know, she's waiting for a high five. She's waiting for a hug. She's waiting for some affirmation from Daddy that I'm pleased with what she's just done. In the same way, we ought to have a desire in our hearts that my actions are pleasing before God who made me, the Savior who died for me. We can walk in such a way as to be pleased in the Lord and step with His will and desire for your life and mine. And look with me at Psalm 97, 11, just a couple chapters over here in Psalm 97, verse 11. Verse 11, light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Light is sown for the righteous. Think about this idea of a farmer sowing seed, or if you have a little garden and you're putting seeds in your garden bed. You're sowing it, and the desire is that light is sown for the righteous. God says, listen, if you live right, you live with the desire to please me, you'll have light in your life. If you have a desire to live for yourself, live on how I follow my emotions, follow my feelings, then I'm going to turn from that. Light and gladness, it tells us here. You see, God gives light, direction, and guidance to those who live righteously, pleasing to him. Your life, your decisions you make, it matters to the Lord. In Isaiah 2, verse 5, the Christian's life is to walk in the steps and the purity of the Lord. It says, O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. It is a whole lot better to walk in the daytime than it is to walk at night. If you're going to go out to the bush, as they were there, I've been in the Carlsbad Caverns. It doesn't smell very good. There's a whole bunch of bats up there. And at night, at certain times of night, they don't release the bats, but the bats are just there. And the bats come out of the cave, and there's droppings of the bats all over. It kind of stinks as you're walking in. But anyways, it's a beautiful sight down there. But if those lights turn off, or if you've been in the mine here, and those lights turn off, it is a thick, darkness it's I mean it's just pitch pitch black the idea is that when that light comes on it's almost like a relief because now I know where I'm going when that light goes off all of our sentences are all of our senses they begin to just I mean they're just like through the roof like You're hearing, you're listening, you're trying to, you know, you're like, if I try to walk, everything is significantly slowed because you don't know where you're going. Look with me at John chapter 12, verse 46. And God's desire for you, God's desire for me is to not be in the dark. And I've often, I emphasize it here at the church, why, I mean I emphasize this morning with the verse app, if that's something you so desire to do. Many times people have their phones with them, they're looking at certain things on their phone, why not put a verses on there, you know, amen. But God does not want humanity in the dark. I've emphasized also, just meditating on God's word, that's not just reading your Bible. Because just reading your Bible, at least for me, maybe you're not that way, but for me, when I'm reading my Bible, my mind's thinking about all the things I have to do that day. I'm reading, but I'm not necessarily comprehending. It's not registering. And I'm writing down my thoughts as I'm reading this book. In John chapter 12, verse 46, the Bible tells us, I am come, a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. God doesn't want us in the dark. God doesn't want us to continue to move forward in our lives in a direction and in a fashion where I'm trying to figure out why do I keep doing this? God wants to give us answers. And the answers that God gives us are truth and they're light. You see, light is truth from God. And truth equals light. Look with me at John chapter 3 verse 21. John chapter 3 verse 21 this morning. see truth equals light and the Bible tells us that in verse 21 of John chapter 3, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. He that does truth comes to the light. If you want truth in your life, you will come to God and open up and expose yourself and say, God, whatever the deeds I've done wrong, I wanna know what they are and I'm willing to make them right. Truth equals light. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5, 8, For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light, and the Lord walketh as children of light. Before we had a relationship, if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, that person is walking in the dark. But when someone acknowledges Jesus Christ as the Savior, the one who forgives all of their sins, all of their transgressions, all of their actions that are an offense against God, When they recognize and they accept by faith in Christ alone, we step from being children of the darkness to being children of the light. And I can walk in the light of Him. You see, it's a choice. I want you to look with me at Romans 13, 12. It is a choice to leave the darkness. It is a choice to pursue truth. You can choose it. God doesn't force anyone to have truth. God doesn't force anyone. Now He makes it available. He makes it available through His believers. You know our desire as Christians that we walk in pure fellowship to be that child of light so that others would be drawn to the truth of God. Just last night I was here at the church a little bit later and I saw a gentleman walking by and he said it's funny you kind of talk with me. He said, I had a partner that had passed on and given me some descriptions, and my mother is not doing well. And I just started talking with him, and I said, you should come on inside. He said, I can't come inside because I'm coping right now, and I'm self-medicating with alcohol. He said, I don't want to go into church. I was just gonna chat with him a little bit more last night, but it was raining, and he carried on his way, but the choice is this idea of trying to self-medicate with something that is darkness will only produce more darkness. You can't take darkness and expect another dark object. It might be a little bit less dark, but you can't take a dark object with another dark object and expect to have light. You have to get light to expose the darkness. What happens when light shines? The darkness flees. Romans chapter 13 verse 12, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. This idea here, cast off, is a personal choice. This last week I was there at the fire and I got back home and I was drenched in sweat. I was drenched. It was hot. I got home and man, I wanted to take a shower. I was stinky. And I wanted to cast off those clothes and get cleaned up. Cast it off. And there's a personal choice that someone has to say in each of our lives, I'm done with walking in darkness and I'm ready to walk in the light. And whatever the truth is, I will do it. In the book of 2 John, there's only one chapter, I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. The apostle John, he says, I rejoiced that I found the children walking in truth. In 3 John, one chapter in there as well, verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. And I tell you, as a parent, if you have children, man, you want your child to succeed. And if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you want your child to love Jesus. You want your child to walk in the truth of Jesus and whatever God has for their lives. My daughter was just recently, I want to do this for a job. I'm like, well, if that's what God wants for you, great, we'll be behind you. If God wants you to do that, she said something else. I said, great, if that's what God wants you to do, we're behind you, it doesn't matter. I don't know what God's will is for her life. I just want to be behind her, that she loves the Lord. God's desire for each and every one of us is to walk in truth, walk in the light. Because if I choose to go my own direction, go my own ideas, go my own thinking, you're going to be walking in the dark, and you'll stumble, you'll fall, you'll hurt yourself more than you would have if you just walk in truth. Can I tell you something else? The continuation in God's light is a fellowship with him. This verse five of 1 John 1, going on to my next point, that God's light, his character, and his person, this then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light. And in Him is no darkness at all. his character, his person, and one little illustration here, implied is not only his truth, but also his righteousness and purity of life. This is made possible in the first place because the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Our relationship and fellowship are predicated, or they're based upon, the fact that Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin. Significant is the truth that it is the blood of Christ which cleanses us from sin. The predicate or the prerequisite for fellowship with the Holy God is having been cleansed through the precious blood of Christ. It is not baptism in any mode, way, or significance which cleanses from sin, only the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I want you to look at several things here that in him is no darkness at all in Hebrews chapter nine. When you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, you're not found in, it's not some empty mechanical exercises. How do I get right with God? How do I guarantee my eternity with him? How do I get out of the darkness I'm in in my life? And it starts with, what do you do with Jesus? In Hebrews 9, verse 13, this morning, our Bible tells us in Hebrews 9, 13, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 13 this morning the Bible tells us for if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify it Set up word sanctify. It is like setting apart to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God and purge your conscience from dead works and serve the living God. He says, listen, the blood of bulls, the blood of goats, the sacrifices that they did in the Old Testament, there's still some people today in some belief systems, they do sacrifices of animals, but they said, it can't, it cannot wash away, it can't purify the flesh. The only thing, how much more shall the blood of Christ, the sacrifices, we have a symbol of what Jesus did on a cross, how much more shall that one time act of a man without, purge your conscience, himself without spot. There was nothing, he was completely pure. A human without no spot, nothing wrong with him, complete light. He died in my place and yours. It wasn't in some mechanical, and the Bible's telling here, religious exercises will not get you. Many people that I've talked to said, if you were to pass from this life into the next, how do you know you're gonna get into heaven? They said, well, I've done my good works outweigh my bad works. But the Bible here is not showing us it's my good works outweighing my bad works because we've all done bad. There's bad we've done. We've all committed things we shouldn't be doing. It's not found in some exercises. I could do, you know, if I've done something to my wife and I try to do a whole bunch of, just buy things for her, it's not gonna remedy the situation. I have to recognize and as I, that relationship and forgiveness is there and she has to make a choice. God makes a choice, I'm going to forgive you, but the sentence that you're deserving of needs to be paid for. But you can't pay for it because you're guilty and I'm guilty. And that's where Jesus steps in. That's why the Bible calls it a gift of God's eternal life. If you turn with me to Titus chapter 2, all the T books are together, so 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. So if you go to Hebrews and go back two books, or go towards Genesis two books, and Titus chapter 2 verse 14. The thing that he did for us is he, as it says, in him is no darkness at all. In verse 14 of Titus chapter two, who gave, this is verse 14 of Titus two, who gave himself for us. that he might redeem us. That word redeem is to buy back. They used to have slave traders and those kind of things. If someone's on the slave market, someone buys them out from the slave market, they pay the price to the slave masters, they buy the person out of the slave market, and then they say, you're free. You've been redeemed. that he might redeem us from all iniquity. That means all the guiltiness, every bad thing I've ever done. He says, I wanna buy you out because you have a penalty, because you're under the shackles of doing what is natural. You know, all young children are going to be selfish. You're going to teach them, you're going to have to teach them how to not be selfish, how to share, how to be nice, and there's other things that come, but redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Jesus says, listen, I'm buying you out of a position of darkness. I'm buying you out of this area that where you have been shackled in an area and a mindset of thinking. Just this week, we were talking with someone. I was talking with them about salvation. They said, it's interesting that after salvation, they said, I can't go to the boys and talk with them about the same things that I used to talk with because it just doesn't feel right. They said, the movies I used to watch, they don't feel right anymore. They accepted Christ as their Savior, and God did something. As 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. As they try to watch the stuff they used to watch, it just bothers them, because the Spirit of God, the light is inside, and the light doesn't like darkness. That it might redeem us from all iniquity. God says, I want to purify you on the inside. I want to do something on the inside. For every person here that has accepted Jesus Christ by faith, God did something on the inside. It's not just a reformation. It's not just a, I've changed my life. No, it's God changed the heart. Look with me at Revelation, the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter one, verse five. I won't finish the sermon this morning. I still have only about halfway through, so. Revelation chapter 1, verse 5. Can I tell you, God doesn't want you in the dark. Christian, God doesn't want you in the dark. God wants to lead you. He's not there to try to lead us to have a miserable life. And again, that's the way I used to think when I was a Christian. I was at a church, this particular church, and the ways we were going through it, I was just like, oh, I can't do this and that and this and that and da-da-da. But I didn't know the reasons. I didn't know the heart. I didn't know why I was doing it. I'm just like, oh, God said I can't do this. I can't do this. And it just becomes misery if you're just trying to follow a whole bunch of rules. And I tell you, for our daughter, I try to, when I give her an explanation on certain things, I try to tell her, you know, the reason, the heart behind why we do it, because I want her to, it's not just that I'm trying to be, you know, like, you can't do this, or you can do this, it's, here's the reason, because we don't want you to get hurt, or we want you to, you know, this isn't good for you. Because the heart behind it in God's desire is, listen, I want you to walk. There's no darkness in God. He says, follow me in the truth. Stop stumbling in your life. Why don't you just make a decision that I'm going to follow truth? Revelation 1, verse 5, it says, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, and to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. This morning, every one of you, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Bible says we're priests with God. I have direct access. Every one of us are priests with God. Washed us from our own sins, he says you're clean. That's the overwhelming statement that when someone accepts Christ, you're clean on the inside. There's light. God does something. In Revelation 7, verse 14, I'll finish up here and then next week I'll give a definition of fellowship and some more statements there. But in Revelation 7, verse 14, And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, have washed their robes, made them white, excuse me, in the blood of the Lamb. Here are some individuals, they're wearing these white robes. And they had lives, just like the great tribulation is future, we're not gonna go through it if you know Christ today is your Savior, you've been born again. But we have been washed clean. You can pillow your head at night and feel guilty for how you've acted. You can feel shame for the decisions you've made in life. You can say, God could never use me. Or I could never be welcome there, or whatever the thing can be. But God says you've been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. That sacrificial act that Christ did gave you this choice. The light is here, the light is on, the lighthouse is there, and he says, listen, will you receive the truth that you have dirty robes, that you have a dirty heart, that you have sinned, you've offended God by how you've lived, and that you ask him to forgive you and be your savior? And he says, you're pure white. We're actually gonna talk a story tonight in Joshua there about Rahab, an unlikely believer, a woman that was a prostitute that would end up becoming, entering into the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ as a grandmother, a great-grandmother of King David. Can I tell you that God alone is the only one that can wash you on the inside and do something amazing in your life? If we are willing to live in pure fellowship, If we are willing to say, God, I will follow truth, even if I don't understand, if it says it in the Bible, I want to follow it because I want to walk in the light. I don't want to walk in the dark. I don't want to stumble. I'm tired of stumbling. Can I tell you this morning, God wants to do something in every one of you and every one of your lives, your family's lives. but we have to make a dedicated decision that I will walk in truth. Otherwise, you'll continue to stumble and fall. I'm telling you, God loves us. God's desire is to live in pure fellowship. There is something that happens when you accept Christ Jesus as your Savior. Can I tell you, when I accepted Christ, April 30th, 1986, I asked Him to be my Savior, it was like the load, the weight of sin came off. God did something. And God wants to do something in your life. If you've never been saved this morning as we tie this up in the conclusion and bring it to invitation, I want to challenge you. Have you been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ? Have you been freed? Have you been forgiven by God? And it's simply an act of just asking him. that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The Bible is very clear, you just have to ask God to forgive you of your sins. You say, that's easy! I mean, with all your heart, you ask him to forgive and you'll be cleansed, pure, and you can walk in the light of God. Or Christian, maybe you've made decisions to walk outside of truth, and you've stumbled and fallen, God says, get back up and walk in light, walk in truth, and you'll not stumble. You can stay upright. You can have fellowship with God. And that idea of fellowship here is just that companionship with God and other believers. And I trust this morning, if you've never accepted Christ, number one, you'd accept him as your personal savior. Number two, if you are a Christian, Maybe you've gone a direction outside of light. I trust that this morning you'd make a decision to say, I'm willing, Lord, forgive me, and I wanna walk in the light of Christ. We're gonna have the music play here. I want to just give you some time to just talk with the Lord, however he may have spoken to your heart this morning. Number one, if you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you couldn't tell me, Pastor, I have a Bible reason, I know I'm on my way to heaven. You couldn't give me that. I'd love to meet you after the service and show you how you could know for sure. And Christian, if you're struggling or you have questions, I'd also love to meet with you. But it's the Bible that says that we can live in pure fellowship and walk with God, and walk in truth, and God will work in your lives. And we can carry the countenance of God. As the music plays this morning with all heads bowed and eyes closed, I trust that you just pray and talk with God. However, he may have spoken to your heart this morning.