Studies in 1 John 01 Australia Conference — William W. Campbell

Walking in the Light: Opening Prayer and the Word of God

With a 59, 459, when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. 459. The welcome we believe in thy holy presence. We come without thanksgiving, conscious that we are daily receiving tokens of thy bountiful care over us.

Each new day that we spend fresh evidence of thy love for us. And we thank thee for the stream of thy mercies that fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. We thank thee too for the spiritual heritage thou hast given to us in thy son.

An inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfailing. Preserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready to be redeemed. We thank thee for thy tender care over us this day as we have gone about our daily duties of home or business.

We thank thee for every thought of thyself that has arisen in our hearts and for every note of praise and worship as we have bowed our hearts in thy presence and acknowledged thy goodness and thy grace to us in Christ.

We thank thee for thy word. We have met together that we may look into the sacred page. We thank thee for giving it to us. Not only in inspiring thy servants of long ago to write it, but we thank thee for all those who have translated it and all those who have stood for it down through the centuries so that against the hostility of the evil one thy word may win us now in our time, in our mother's time, so that we may read it and be profited by it.

We thank thee too for all those whom thou hast raised up, either orally or by written ministry to expound thy word. We thank thee for the wonderful heritage we enter into in the English language of available helps for all those who would acquaint themselves with thy holy truth.

And we ask thee too, our Father, that in thy great mercy now thou wouldst bless to all thy people who have gathered here in thy presence the spoken minister of thy word, that it may come with freshness and with holy ghost vigor, and that there may be given to all of us an awareness that thou art here and that thou art speaking to us through thy word, that thy word is a living word, and that we shall one day be confronted by thy word if we fail to obey its injunction or carry up its precept.

We pray for those who are absent of the many who would love to be here, some who are unwell, and others who are caring for those who are sick. For those who are aging and infirm and who dare not venture out on a night like this, and for all thy dear children who are kept away and who would love to be here, we commend them to thee and to thy tender care, and that they may have, as they think of us, some thoughts of thyself flooding into their spirit that will do them good.

And should there be any who know of our gatherings and who are well able to come but who have lost the taste for thy holy word, should it be that there are those, we pray, O Lord, that they may be granted now the spirit of renewal, and that they may rediscover the bindness of being away from thee and the fruitfulness of returning to thee.

So we commit this to thee with all our very needs, and we pray that thy holy word may cast some light, some health, some fresh interest upon our way so that we may be better Christians through having met and spent an hour around thy holy word.

In our Lord Jesus Christ name we ask thee. Warm welcome to you all on this cold wintery night, and it's nice to see so many here to hear the word of God. As you know, we are looking at some passages in John's first epistle, and last night we considered the testimony that is borne in this epistle to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we go on to consider now the subject, Walking in the Light, and we shall read from the first epistle by John, from verse 5, chapter 1, verse 5, verse 11.

1 John 1:5–2:11: The Test of Walking in the Light

We are reading it from the divine version, John 1, verse 5. And this is the message which we have heard from him and announced unto you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, these things I say unto you, that ye may not sin. And if any of you sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sin, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

And hereby know we that we know him, if we keep his commandment. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandment, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily, hath the love of God been perfected.

Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he avoideth in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walked. The love is no new commandment, write I unto you, but an old commandment, which he had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the work which he hath. Again, a new commandment, write I unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines.

He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in the darkness, even until now. He that loveth his brother, avoideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eye.

May God bless to us this reading from his holy word. Four verses of chapter one is the introduction to the epistle, and in verse five of chapter one we enter upon the first division of the epistle, which extends to verse twenty-eight of chapter two, and in that section the subject is walking in the light, tested by righteousness, love, and belief.

There is, however, a two-fold digression in the section at verse twelve, extending to verse seventeen, and that two-fold digression will be part of our study tomorrow night. That two-fold digression refers to the family of God, their relationship to the world.

The passage we have read, extending from one five, deals with walking in the light, tested by righteousness and love, and walking in the light is tested by belief. From verse eighteen of chapter two, right on to twenty-eight of the same chapter, that section we will not be considering during these studies, is the privilege of every child of God to walk in the light, to walk in fellowship with God.

God Is Light and Reveals Sin

The message the apostles brought, the message that Jesus himself brought, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, is the pivot, the root, if you like, from which our study branches out into its various parts.

This is the character of God, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. This light is, first of all, revealing. It is because God is of such a character that he makes him. There would be no revelation if God were a God who hid himself in his pure darkness, who could never find God out.

The Bible is not a book of discovery, so much as a book of revelation. It is a declaration, an unfolding of the character and will of God. But the fact that God is light not only reveals the character of God, his resplendent holiness, his purity, his righteousness, but that God is light also reveals the character of all those who come into touch with him.

And so it was when our Lord Jesus Christ was announced, at sin, except I had done the works that I have done, his works, his works uncovered sin. When the Jews and inquired, stating that Moses said that such should be stoned, what did he say?

He said, he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. And in the presence of one who was the true light that had come into the world, and in the presence of Christ's holiness, his purity, they went out from his presence.

And the Lord said, hath no man condemned thee? The woman said, no man, Lord. How could they? When he who was infinite holiness made the condition of throwing the first stone, that it should be thrown by a sinless person.

But not only does the light register of God, and the character of all those who come into touch with God, but the light dispels dark. For God who is light shines into our hearts to give to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We were by nature in darkness as others, but God has dispelled the darkness, and we have become children of light. And the Lord Jesus said, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

So that to walk in the light is to walk in the revealed character of God. To walk in the light is to walk in the revealed will of God. To walk in the light is not something mystical. To walk in the light is to walk in fellowship with the God who is infinitely pure and holy.

Sin, Fellowship, and the Cleansing Blood of Christ

Like this, our great privilege is our own sin. Take in chapter one to in chapter two, there are three deaths concerning sin, suspecting which there are misconceptions. We have also God's complete answer to man's need.

Three times we have the statement, if we say, at verse six, verse eight, and at verse ten, at faith bound to witch hunting, but it is a warning, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Chapter one is of having fellowship with God, and the deception concerning sin is regarding its results in our relationship with God. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

Sin has insignificance, which was done in the first century, and it is done in the twentieth century, and at the same time, claim to have fellowship with God is to walk in darkness, to lie, and do not the truth.

It is not a presumption to claim to have fellowship with God, but it is a presumption to claim to have fellowship with God and walk in the darkness. Who does so? In a very real way, it would make fellowship with a holy God utterly impossible if God had no answer to our need as sinners, and the answer, of course, is justice.

In verse seven, the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. We spoke last night of the Gnostic heresy, against which, the background of which is the background against which John witnesses, concerning the person of Christ.

The Lord Jesus came not only by water, but he came by blood, not only by his baptism, but by his cross. The Gnostics said he only came by his baptism, that when he died upon the cross, he was only Jesus of Nazareth.

Well, not only did they take from our blessed Savior the crown of deity, but they took from him the crown of Redeemer, because if he were not the Son of God when he died on the cross, his precious blood shed there, his perfect holy sacrifice, would be unavailable for our needs.

They not only deprived him of his deity, they deprived him of his crown right as Redeemer, and John asserts here, the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. John says in verse seven, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, with one another, one with another, of thought, I urge, when he says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him, when he doesn't say so.

He says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. That is to say, we have fellowship with men and women who share with us the joyous privilege of having been forgiven, of knowing the glorious salvation that is in Jesus Christ our Lord, who know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin.

Indeed, these are the only people who can possibly know this fellowship. The fellowship of the redeemed. That, then, was the first deception. The deception that men could sin, but it would not influence or affect in any way their fellowship with God.

John says, the contrary, that they have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, they lie and do not the truth. The passage we are considering, to treat sin lightly. The next deception concerning sin is found in verse eight.

If we say we have no sin, that is, to deny that sin originates in our nature. That the sins that are seen in our conduct, from sin being in our nature. There may be a further deception of those who took the attitude then as they do now, that sin, when it is done, it is done with.

That it does not adhere to the person in the form of guilt. John certainly uses sin in his writings in this way. For instance, at the end of chapter nine, Gospel by John, you remember, is the story of the healing of the man born blind.

And towards the end of the argument that Jesus had with the Pharisees, they say to him, are we also blind? And the Lord said, if he were blind, you would have no sin. Now, he wasn't saying, if you were blind, you would be sinless.

He was saying, if you were blind, you would have no sin in the sense of guilt. You claim to see your sin, that is, your guilt, prevailing. And it may be that we have a double deception here. Not only a denial of sin originating in the nature, but also a denial of sin in the form of guilt.

A responsibility to a holy, all seeing and perceiving themselves, is not in them. So, what is the refuge of the child of God when sin in the nature issues in sin in the conduct? What is the refuge? How do we act?

Do we treat it as insignificant, unimportant, inevitable? Oh no. The refuge is in verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now, observe what it says. It does not say, if we confess our sins, singular. It says, if we confess our sins, not sin in general, but sins in particular. It isn't that we come into the presence of God and acknowledge that we are sinners.

But it does mean that we come into the presence of God and we confess actual sins, of which we are guilty and which have disturbed and broken our fellowship with God. We can't walk in the light and go on without making regularly our confession of sins.

If we confess our temper, we confess that. If we are irritable and unreasonable, we confess that. If we are uncharitable, we confess that. If we are slanderous without cause, we confess that. If we are impure and unholy thoughts, we confess that.

It isn't enough to say, as in water, face answer to face, so the heart of man to man, and we are all the same. We are not the same. We have been called to walk in the light, to walk in fellowship with a holy God.

And we are called upon, if we are going to do this, we must confess our sins. Sin is one. Sin is never an isolated act. If we regard it in that way, we shall never understand the seriousness of it. We might well say, why did I fall for that temptation?

Why did I repeat that particular sin? Why did I? Well, the reason, of course, springs not from the sins in the conduct which are visible, which are seen like a speck, eyelet, on the ocean, but they are only the uprising of the submerged continent below.

If there was no submerged continent in our nature, there would be no uprising of sins in our conduct. It is from the nature below that the sins appear. Now, if we, as the children of God, confess our sins, and that is what we are called upon to do, and it is the only refuge for us, if we are to know anything about walking in the light and having true fellowship with God, this is our only refuge.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so fellowship is restored. Faithful and righteous describes not only the character of God in general, but it describes His action in this particular instance.

He is faithful and righteous when He does precisely this in response to our confession of our sins. He is faithful and righteous when He does this. In verse 10, the deception is in denying the fact of sin in the conduct.

If we say we have not sinned, a plain denial of universal human experience. But more seriously, such an attitude makes God a liar. For He declares that all who have sinned and come short of His glory be exalted into a virtue and let God's wonderful provision for our sin become an encouragement.

Christ Our Advocate and Propitiation

John adds two further statements concerning sin in verse 1 of chapter 2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin, and if any man sin, that ye may not sin, if any man sin.

These verbs are in the Greek Aorist tense and not a life of sin. My little children, that you may not live your lives in sin, if you do that you're not Christian. Christians don't do that. No Christian lives in sin.

He's been gloriously delivered from that. John is not saying that, but he is saying, my little children, these things write I unto you, write I unto you, that you may not sin even once. Sin, as inevitable, is entirely a wrong and un-Christian attitude to sin.

Regard sin in the light of redemption. Sin vanquished. When we see Him, then we shall be righteous as He is righteous. We shall not take the sin into His presence then. And we must always have that in our mind.

That is the end. That is the ideal. This is the glorious confirmation of our salvation, to be sinless, to treat sin as inevitable. That's a sure way of forming into sin, that you may not sin once. What is far more common in human experience, He says, if any man sin, Him to follow on by saying, if any man sin, he has an advocate.

But He doesn't do that. He says, if any man sin, we have an advocate. And He associates Himself with the man who has fallen into sin, acknowledging that He shares the common experience of failure that is throughout the human race.

If any man sin, we are the righteous. The experience of forgiveness follows our confession. If we confess, He forgives. But the work of our advocate follows our sin, not our confession. Our blessed Lord doesn't wait until we confess before He is engaged in our interest.

If any man sin, we have an advocate. Jesus Christ, the righteous. Finlay, in one of his books, says in the picture of a righteous pleading with the Father, it is not love pleading with justice, rather the opposite.

It is justice pleading with love. An advocate does not plead any extenuating circumstances. To excuse as an advocate on earth would have a necessity to do if he were to get his client off. Our Lord acknowledges guilt on behalf of His client, and He presents His vicarious work as the ground of acquittal.

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. Intercession is the continual application of His death to our salvation, an unceasing work which our blessed Lord does.

Notice it says in verse two, He is the propitiation for our sins. It doesn't say He made propitiation for our sins. He did that. But that's not what John says. John says He is the propitiation. He is that because of the work that He did.

And what He is, He is forever our unchanging Lord, unchanging propitiation. He is that, and throughout eternal days He will be the propitiation. Not only sin, there is a positive side to all this. Not only to be set free from, and then our lives left in a sort of spiritual vacuum are going to be filled, filled with happy living.

The searchlight of the Word of God upon these more positive qualities that are to be displayed in the lives of those who walk in the light. At verses three and five, we have statements of fact. Hereby know we that we know Him.

Christ says, Hereby know we that we are in Him. Hereby know we that we know Him. Hereby know we that we are in Him. Evidence that walking in the light is also walking in the truth, in the light of the self-revealing God who imparts to us the knowledge of Himself.

Obedience as the Ground of Assurance

Hereby know we that we know Him if we keep His commandments. That is to say, obedience is the ground of assurance, is the ground. This knowledge of God is thoroughly ethical to possess, is the experience of those who keep His.

Their mouth follows the phrase, He that saith, in verse four of chapter two. At verse six, He that saith, and then again at verse nine, He that saith. Between these three occurrences in chapter one of if we say, and He that saith, a question of entirely different association.

If we say is of general application. He that saith is very much more particular. John is not firing a shot at random. He is on target. There is someone specifically in mind when he says, He that saith.

The story of a preacher who accompanied a friend to a shooting range as they watched the marksman, never getting to the bull's eye, but always getting round about it. The friend of the preacher rather maliciously said to the preacher, John, that's very much like your preaching.

You never draw blood. Well, the Apostle John, he was on target. He knew exactly whom he had in mind. And three times he said, that saith. The Gnostic teachers of the first century boasted in their knowledge of God, but they paid scant attention to practical righteousness.

Indeed, they thought that the deeds of the body were insignificant, and did not disturb the spiritual fellowship into which they had been brought. The test which John abides is one of practical righteousness, and the conclusion is stated unambiguously, that the man who affirms he knows God and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

He knows God. Here is the way in which he has to be proved. Not only proved to ourselves as the ground of our personal assurance, but proved to others who observe us as those who claim to walk in the light.

That is obedience to God's commandment. His method of writing, anyway, likened to a spiral staircase, moving around the same center, around the same force, but always coming to them at a higher level.

Keeping God's Word and Abiding in Christ

In Scripture, we have an illustration of that note. Walking in the light is now tested positively by the light that is pleasing to God. But whereas verses three and four speak of keeping his commandments, we now move on to keeping his word.

He is moving slightly higher. Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. The commandments of God are not a multiplicity of unrelated bylaws. The commandments of God are unity, and they are unified in his word.

In verse, and in verse three as well, is a word used of madness. Watchful, observant care may have an influence on navigation, and it is that kind of observant obedience that is suggested by the word keep.

To keep God's commandments, to keep his word, is the obedience of careful observance, lest we in any way offend and disturb this wonderful privilege into which we have been brought in fellowship with God.

This watchful, observant obedience to the word of God. God says, in such a person, the love of God has been perfected. The idea of the love of God being perfected is that it is brought to its true purpose.

This is its true end in our relationship with God. God's love, its whole purpose in our relationship with himself, is to bring us with observant care, direct our plan to the obedience of his commandments, and the keeping of his word, lest we in any way offend our loving, gracious Heavenly Father.

And when this happens, the love of God in our case, it is brought to its consummation, to its end, its chief design, hereby knowing that we are in him. That is, in union with Christ, that the love of God is brought to its fulfillment in our case.

Then we know that we are in union with Christ, incorporated into him, in union with him, not by any mystical experience, but by the obedience of heart, whose greatest desire it is to please God. Does this assurance come?

That we are in union with Christ. Our very great mystery, indeed, is therefore verified in experience by practical righteousness. In verse six, the test of righteousness is applied to those who made easy and unsupported claims of abiding in Christ.

The test is to walk even as he walked. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. Here is the way in which union with Christ, here is the way in which in our experience, not by merely putting your finger on a vest in the Bible where it is stated, but to know that Christ dwells in you by his Spirit and is living his life through you.

So that you are able to say, like Paul, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and when he liveth in us, then we shall walk even as he walked. His pathway will be reproduced in our lives, bearing our cross.

We shall be marked as he was. This man went about doing good, we shall be marked by this. Because he is living in us, we are in union with Christ. And day by day, and week by week, and month by month, and year by year, there will be given to us an ever deepening experience of what it is to be in union with our living, loving Lord Jesus Christ.

The New Commandment to Love One Another

And then verses 7 to 11, we have, walking in the light, tested by love, by the Lord's endearing title, Beloved, no new commandment did I unto you from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which he had.

I think it is quite clear from the context that it is the Lord's commandment of John 13, 34. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Now this commandment is both old and new. It is spoken of in verse 7 as an old commandment. That is to say, it is not novel. It is that which he had from the beginning. There we have our phrase again, that we were considerate.

Last night, it speaks of the things that are unchanging. And this commandment is one of the unchanging things. You had it from the beginning. It's not new in the sense that it is novel. It is rooted in the teaching of Christ.

These first century Christians, from the very beginning, ate it. It is called a new commandment, him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines. It was old doctrinally, but it was new experimentally.

It was old, but it was fresh and fragrant in every light where it was received doctrinally. It's always old, it's always new, it's old, to love one another in the hearts of God's people, where it is received and obeyed.

It's true, that is true as opposed to false, in him and in you. Darkness is passing away, and the true, that is the genuine, a different word, because the genuine, the real light, the world, his love for the church, his love for us as individuals, all undeserved, that the commandment is true in him, is beyond.

The commandment is true in us as well, if we are really God's people, if we're really obedient, if we're really walking in the light, if we are in fellowship with God, then the commandment is true in us, true as opposed to false, that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, and we seek by God's grace to love others, to care for others, even as God in Christ has loved us.

It's true in us, it can only be a question of degree of course, and we long to see that it should be increased in measure, but it's true in us. And why? Because the darkness, that is the darkness of the world, the moral darkness, all that is opposed to God, is passing away.

By faith, John sees the victory coming, and all the things that stand against God, they're passing away, they belong to the realm of darkness, they're passing away, and the true light, Jesus our Lord, the true light already shined.

In the prologue of John's gospel, the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness overcame it not. In the whole of the text. Now when John wrote this, the Lord Jesus was back in heaven, but he says the darkness didn't overcome the light.

When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, the light didn't go out. He says the light shined it in the darkness. When he wrote his gospel, it was true, the light shined it. And when he writes his epistle, he says the darkness is passing away, because the true light, already shined, of love is applied.

Love in Deed: The Church for Deaf and Dumb People

Jesus says he is in the light, and he that is loved is in the darkness, even until now. There were very obviously instances of this kind in the first century church. If I were to say to any of you, love your brother, it would not be sufficient for you.

Of neutrality. Indeed, there is no place of neutrality between light and darkness, or life and death, or love or hate. John only knows whites and blacks. He doesn't know anything at all about grays. Love or hate is by positively loving.

There is no other way. And so he goes on to say, he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. Loving our brother is not something merely that we sit at home and feel ever so warm in our hearts towards those who will not.

It's when we get up sitting at the warm fire, and go out into the cold night, perhaps make a call upon the brother that we had this war of affection for, sitting by our fire, that we do something about it.

Of addresses my dad in Aberdeen, just over two years ago, and in one of these addresses he was dealing with the first and great commandment, a passage in Mark, and an illustration that he used down in London for a weekend preaching.

He was living in a home where there were a number of boarders, and one lady, she was a member of a church just opposite the house where they were living, and it was a church, not only for people with all their faculties, but also for deaf and dumb people.

So the preacher had to preach two ways. He had to preach with his mouth, and he had also to preach with his hand. The lady came back from the service. My brother asked her how the service went. She said, well, we didn't have our usual preacher.

He was a young man, and she went on, rather inexperienced, he forgot the actions and only said the words, so that only those who had hearing got the message, and there were some blanks in the message for those who didn't hear.

He had the words, but not the actions. If we love like that, there will be many occasions of stumbling in us if we love with the words, but not with the actions. Our love must be not in word, but in deed, and in truth.

If that be true of us, then there will be no occasion of stumbling in us. People won't find it difficult to believe that God is a God of love if we are motivated by love for others. Our whole life was demonstrated.

There will be no occasion of stumbling in us. Do you think, my dear friend, that there are those who know you best who find it more difficult to believe in God because of what they see in you? That could be possible.

It would be a dreadful tragedy. God's desire is that the witness of people should be such that those who see the most and know the best shall find it more easy to believe in God and in Jesus Christ, his Son.

Hatred, Spiritual Darkness, and Practical Obedience

And the last verse is a verse of dreadful darkness. He that hath his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.

What a dreadful condition! The dreadful spiritual state of him who hates his brother is graphically depicted. He is in darkness, and he walketh in darkness. He knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Only a faithless response to Jesus Christ, the victorious Redeemer, can deliver. May the Lord bless to us his word, and grant us we may truly walk in the light, and may it be attested by our practical obedience, by our true moral righteousness, and by our display of true love in word and in deed for his name.

O God, our Father, we thank thee for this time spent together, and for thy word, and for all that we have considered and spoken of, and we pray now that thou, by thy Holy Spirit, may sort it out in our minds, and grant, Lord, that those parts that are most relevant to our particular state may be emphasized by the Holy Spirit in our consciences, that we may turn from all those ways and attitudes of mind and heart and conduct that would in any way disarm our fellowship with thee, so that we may truly walk in the light and have fellowship one with another, knowing in our hearts that the blood of Jesus thy Son cleantheth from all sin, that thou dost meet our deep need, and make fellowship possible.

We bless thy holy name, and we seek now thy blessing as we celebrate in our Lord Jesus Christ's worthy name. Amen.