How to Walk in the Light — Ernest O'Neill

Walking in the Light and Fellowship with God

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and In him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness. We lie and do not live according to 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 Cleanses us from all sin if We say we have no sin.

Confessing Sin and Receiving Cleansing

We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Christ as Advocate and Expiation

My little children I am writing this to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the expiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world and By this we may be sure that we know him if we keep his commandments.

Obedience as Evidence of Knowing Christ

He who says I know him but disobeys his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him.

Walking in the Way of Jesus

For he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. I remember the first time I Was in the company of people that I thought were holy people or were Christlike people and I remember the first thing I was aware of myself Was my own dirtiness and my own coarseness.

And of course it made me take a lot more care with what I said and in a way I wasn't really free. Because I was aware of how Christlike and how gentle and How pure they were in their hearts, and I was very aware that I was not at that time like them.

The Light of Heaven Reveals Everything

The way it will be in heaven. I was sitting down there with my wife. And I looked at the stage and it's interesting this stage has a lot more light hasn't it about it. Then when you're out there, this is bright Illumination it'll be like that.

It'll be like us all coming into bright bright light where nothing can be hidden and Where every blemish shows up, and it won't ever be a case of God Rejecting us it'll simply be that we cannot bear the light.

It'll be the same as I was with those dear people that I met. You'll just be so uncomfortable That we won't feel at home there unless We have allowed God's Spirit to fit us for that place and loved ones.

The Death of Jesus and Freedom from Sin

That's why tonight is such a dear feast for all of us who believe that in Jesus God Included all of our uncleanness all of our dirtiness all of our coarseness. This is a feast for us tonight. Because we realize again that there is nothing in us that is bad.

Nothing in us that is sinful nothing in us that is coarse that God has not Destroyed in his son Jesus and that we cannot be freed from tonight by the power of his Holy Spirit and that's why tonight is a Celebration for those of us who are children of God.

We believe that here is the Secret to all of life the death of our Lord Jesus. We believe with all our hearts the words of Scripture God made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him and There is no one here with a resentment in their hearts that they cannot get rid of.

There is no one here with a bitterness. At the bottom of their hearts that they cannot get rid of there is no one here With a mind filled with unclean thoughts that they cannot get rid of. But they can put all of those in Jesus by faith tonight and say Lord I believe you allowed these to be destroyed with you and Calvary and I want now to let these go.

The Holy Spirit's Work of Deliverance

Will you show me tonight? What I have to be willing for in my identification with you to be freed from this sin. And the Holy Spirit if you take that attitude will answer you and He will show you if it's resentment or sarcasm or if it's bitterness.

Or it's a critical spirit or it's uncleanness or selfish ambition or the drive to be the most important person in this situation. Whatever it is loved ones the Holy Spirit will speak to you this evening.

And will say to you. I want you to be willing to be treated like Jesus in this way. Or I want you to be willing to be identified with Jesus in this way. Or I want you to be quiet with Jesus in this way, and he'll explain it to you.

Then all you have to do. And I know it from my own experience. All you have to do is say yes from the bottom of your heart. And they'll come a clean spirit into you this evening the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Walking in the Light Through Obedience

Now what we have found a blessing in these evening Communions is if God has given you light during this past month. That's why I read those verses. The verses say if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another first of all and then secondly the blood of blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and Walking in the light means a readiness to call sin sin if God has shown you something that's wrong in your life call it sin and then walking in the light means a readiness to walk into obedience in regard to that area of your life and a readiness to have the Holy Spirit Melt you and mold you into Jesus on the cross in whatever way is necessary.

Sharing the Light God Has Given

So What God has used is when some of us have felt free just to come up to this open mic we'll leave it just like that for the next 10 or 15 minutes and Simply to share any light that the Holy Spirit has given you about your own walk and about your own life.

And If I could encourage you, I think that it will be two kinds of light. I Think with some of us it will be new light on a willful rebellious attitude that we have had and something that we have been Hiding in our hearts a bitterness towards some person or a resentment towards some person or a critical attitude towards some person that is it'll be an expression of our selfish will and Something that is keeping them for us from being crucified with Christ and loved ones.

Renouncing Willful Rebellion

If the Holy Spirit allows you to do it. I just share that and say I'm having done with that and I would encourage you not to tolerate that kind of thing and I would share my own experience. That God has taught me to be like a watchman with the telescope and if I see anything of that even approaching my life I fly from it.

I get it out before him. I confess it I declare it publicly and get rid of it if it's a selfish willful thing like that. Don't hesitate for a moment. Then there's another kind of light many of us have been crucified with Christ and have no more trouble with the good that I would I cannot do and the evil that I hate is the very thing I do we have no trouble with that.

Responding to New Light from the Holy Spirit

But the Holy Spirit still leads us into new light in our lives. And that's precious light to share because God can use it to light something up in some of our own hearts. Those of us who are listening.

So I'd encourage you above all not to hide anything and not to feel you're being Particularly humble by sharing it. All we're doing is responding to God's light and the more we do that The more light will be shed abroad here in this room.

So don't we'll just leave the mic open and Really just as the Holy Spirit guides you and certainly not apart from that. But just as he guides you and I'd encourage you just to share briefly if you would because that enables more of us to speak.