We've all rationalized it. Just this once, no one will know. It's not that big of a deal.

A little deception on your taxes, a betrayal, a compromise no one sees.

But hidden sin has a way of refusing to stay hidden,

and when it surfaces, the fallout can be devastating. Today, on Insight for Living,

Chuck's Wendall dives into an ancient story with shocking modern relevance. One man's secret choice

brought an entire nation to its knees. We'll discover why that

nagging absence of peace won't go away, and how confession, however difficult, is always less

painful than exposure. I want to speak on a rather serious subject for the next few minutes.

It has to do with sin.

I've never been one to categorize sin into too many compartments, because sin is sin.

It always grieves the heart of God. It always takes its toll on us.

Occasionally, as we shall learn in this particular study, it takes a toll on others as well.

But sin is simply missing the mark. It is acting disobediently. It can even occur in one's thought life in the realm of the unknown to other people, but nevertheless,

it takes its toll.

My Bible is open right now to 1 John, chapter 1, verses 5 through 9, which, like few other passages of scripture, sort of put sin in a series of

categories that help us get a handle on it. Let me read these verses of 1 John 1 5 through 9,

and then let me make a few opening comments before we get specific about what I have on my mind today.

And this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light,

and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as He himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

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