Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You know, it's it's it's interesting, and I always love
it when we have a service that that sort of
seems as choreographed as this one may seem, just because
of all of the themes that have come together. And
it's interesting, especially for those of us who are aware
of what we do as a church sort of reading
systematically through the scriptures. We're reading systematically through the Gospel
(00:28):
of John, and we just happened to be right there
in John three today as we're looking at first John one,
five through ten and this light and darkness theme. It's
amazing how how God uses all of those aspects even
when we just commit to doing things in a systematic way,
(00:48):
and even through our commitment to reading through Exodus and
systematically reading through Exodus. And here we see this picture
of the law, and they're the Sabbath law, and and
this this punishment of death for those who violate the
Sabbath law. It brings the reality of the law to bear.
It crushes any semblance of legalism. And that's why, you know,
(01:12):
that's why it's important because so many times you can
go to church for ten fifteen years and never read
through Exodus. But it's important for us to see the law,
to see how black and white the law is, to
see how serious God is about those who violate the law,
because it's only there that we understand appropriately and more
(01:36):
fully the grace of God that saves, and we understand
how foolish it is for us to try to attach
any legalistic tendencies.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
To the grace of God. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
For us to try to keep the law in a
way that would appease God when we understand the significance
of the law and the punishment required.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
For those who don't keep it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
The other thing that is amazing as we look at
the law is, again, as we've talked about it before,
the active obedience of Christ. We talked about this before,
We'll talk about it again because it's significant for the day,
the active and passive obedience of Christ in our redemption.
We're so familiar with the passive obedience of Christ, we're
so familiar with the fact that Christ died for our sins,
(02:33):
he allowed himself to be killed.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
For our sins. But that active obedience of Christ, he.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
As a man, the god man, where he kept the
whole law, and because of that, this principle of imputed
righteousness is made possible. So we look at Exodus chapter
thirty one, and it says you should be put to
death because of your violations just of the Sabbath, and
(03:07):
in Christ, because of his active obedience.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
We can say, yes, that's true.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
But in Christ, his righteousness is imputed to me, and
God looks at me as one who has kept that perfectly. Amen,
that's just good news, says It's also horrible news for
anyone expecting to stand before God and be justified for
having kept the law. It's horrible news because one of
(03:37):
the designs of the law, as we read in Galatians,
is to remind you time and time again that you
can't do what you're required to do. Somebody's got to
do it for you. And as we run up against
the law, that's what we run against. But here's the
other question. Do we then go toward antinomianism lawlessness as
(04:03):
a result of our understanding of this imputed righteousness of Christ?
Do we sin as Paul would say, so that grace
may abound all the more? His response, may it never be?
Where do those two things come together? I'm so glad
you asked, look with me, if you will first John
(04:27):
chapter one. We finally reached this second paragraph here, verses
five through ten. And let's look here at first John
chapter one, verses five through ten. Let's look at the
marks of the Kingdom of Light.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Verse five.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
This is the message we have heard from him and
proclaim to you. And again you follow back, and this
is what we just read earlier about hearing this message
and proclaiming this message. A matter fact, let's just go
back one. That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
(05:04):
we have looked upon and have touched with our hands.
Concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest,
and we have seen it and testified to it, and
proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the
Father and was made manifest to us. That which we
have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also so
that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son
(05:26):
Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that
our joy may be complete. Now he picks up the
same thing. This is the message we have heard from him,
and proclaim to you that God is light, and in
him there is no darkness at all. If we say
(05:46):
we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice 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.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
From all sin.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
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. These marks of
(06:20):
the Kingdom of Light. There are a couple of things
that are important to keep in mind as we look
at First John one five through ten. There are a
couple of things, a couple of rails, if you will,
some rails that will keep us from going off the
track as we look at First John, and really as
we look at all of this epistle of First John,
(06:41):
the first thing that we need to understand is that
John is speaking categorically here. That he's speaking categorically here,
he's talking about categories of individuals. That's very important to
remember that he's talking about categories of individuals. Because if
you don't remember that, then as we go through first John,
here's what will happen.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Say.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
If you're like this, you're in the kingdom. If you're
like that, you're not well. If you catch any one
of us on a bad day, guess what.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Ooh, I'm out. If you catch any one of us
on the bad day.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Matter of fact, truth be told, you catch any one
of us on a good day, Amen, somebody, and we're going, oh,
I'm out.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He's speaking categorically. He's talking about categories of individuals.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Remember, what he's doing is in part this polemic, if
you will, and apologetic for those within and without who've
been influenced by many different doctrinal heresies, perhaps the most
prominent of which is gnosticism. So what he's doing here
is he's drawing a line in the sand, and he's
basically saying, these individuals are teaching false doctrine, and here's why.
(07:55):
Here's their category, here's our category. So he's speaking categorically. Okay,
that's very important to keep in mind that he's speaking categorically,
And because of that, it's important to keep in mind
that he's talking about our character, our character. Remember that
(08:16):
he's talking about our character. That's the issue here. One
of the verbs that's used here in John, this Greek
verb petipateo to walk around the way that we walk,
is what he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So he's talking about our character.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
He's talking about who we are as individuals, not what
can sometimes happen in our lives, but who we are
as individuals. And here's the way that I like to
sort of explain that for people. I mean, imagine, if
you will, if we're talking about a child and an
obedient child versus a disobedient child.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
All children disobey.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
There should have been a whole bunch of little bitty
voices in the room going aymen.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Pastor body. All children disobey.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
But the difference between what we would call an obedient
child and what we would call a disobedient child. Again,
we're characterizing that child. Are they characterized generally by obedience
or are they characterized by disobedience.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So here's the difference.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
When a child that's characterized by obedience disobeys, because all
children disobey, it's different than when a child who's characterized
by disobedience disobeys. For example, if there's a child who's
characterized by obedience and that child disobeys, Let's just say,
you know one of my children. You look at one
of my children and you say, this particular child is
(09:42):
characterized by obedience. When that child, that child of pastor
vodies characterized by obedience, and all of a sudden one
day you see that child fangs out, veins in the neck,
pointing the finger at me, just going off. Well, if
that child's characterized by obedience, normally, if they're characterized by disobedience,
(10:06):
your response would be there they go again. But if
they're characterized by obedience, your response will probably be, Lord,
whatever demon that is that just possessed that child, would
you deliver them from it quickly because it would be
terrible to see them die. Today, it's important to understand
(10:29):
that that's what we're talking about here, talking about the.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Way we walk, the way we walk, who we are
as individuals.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And again, this will make more sense as we go along,
and you'll see why it's important that we take time
dealing with this. But as we look at this with
those rails to kind of keep us on the track,
look here at verse five. This is the message we
have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God
is light and in him is no darkness at all.
(11:01):
So when we talk about this kingdom of light, the
first thing that we recognize in this kingdom of light
is that the King is light.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
In the Kingdom of Light is light.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Here's the message that we proclaim to you that God
is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
First of all, God is.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
There's an apologetic here for God himself, for the existence
of God, and for the character of God. God is.
First of all, there is a God. Amen that there
is a God. So anyone who would come forth with
an idea of righteousness apart from God is already running
up against the argument here in one John, chapter one,
verse five, God is.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So that's where we start. We start with the existence
of God.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
When we start talking about character and what righteousness looks like,
we start with God, who is the very definition of character,
the very definition of righteousness.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
God is.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So we don't measure ourselves against the standard of other people.
We measure ourselves against the standard of the word. Amen,
we measure ourselves against the standard of God. Don't we
tell our children this all the time? Let pastor vote
do something that your mom and daddy do all the time. Kids,
your mom and daddy tell you all this all the time,
(12:26):
and you think it's just them. But let me just
tell you so that you'll know it's not just them.
They didn't just make it up, and here it is
because you think you're a good kid. And oftentimes sometimes
those of you who get a little bit older, you
have a tendency to say, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
But I'm not like so and so. You just mean
because I'm not like them, look at what they do. Newsflash.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
We are neither governed nor judged by the standard of
those use people. If you can't say amen, you ought
to say ouch. We're governed by the standard of the
Word of God. That's where we measure ourselves. We're governed
by the standard of the Word of God. Not is not?
(13:18):
Is my attitude and are my actions better than most
people out there? But the question is do they measure
up to the standard that we find in the Word
of God.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
God is and God is light. He's light.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
This idea of purity, this idea of holiness. That's who
our God is. By the way we see this throughout scripture.
You know, I've written down several verses here that I
just wanted to read. Listen to this and Psal I'm
thirty six nine. For with you is the fountain of life.
In your light, do we see light? Look at Psalm
(14:03):
eighty four eleven. For the Lord God is a sun
and shield Daniel two twenty two. He reveals deep and
hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and
the light dwells with him is in a John one four.
In him was life, and that life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. Look at John one six.
(14:27):
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to bear witness about the
light that all might believe through him. He was not
the light, but came to bear witness about what the light.
And then down in verse nine, the true light, which
enlightens everyone it was coming into the world John chapter
eight and verse twelve. Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,
(14:47):
I am.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
The Light of the world.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
John ninety five.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
As long as I am in the world, I am
the light of the world on Timothy six fifteen, He
who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings,
the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells
in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or
can see. To him, be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
(15:21):
Every good gift and every perfect gift, James one seventeen says,
is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow of change.
God is light, God is holy, God is righteous. God
(15:43):
is the standard by which we judge. Now, this is
very important when you look at gnosticism, especially for example,
when you look at modern day gnosticism, and for those
of you who haven't been with us, we talked about
the gnostics, and that word comes from the Greek word
for knowledge, gnosis. These individuals believe that that there was
the spiritual immaterial world, and then there was the physical world,
(16:04):
and that spiritual immaterial world that's the world of the divine,
and that as individuals we have to get in touch
with that spiritual immaterial world. They believed this so much
that they believed that Jesus was not actually a physical being.
He did not have a corporeal body. He was a
spirit who sort of walked around among men, and he
(16:25):
looked like he had a physical being. But because the
physical world is evil and the spiritual world is good,
there's no way that God could possibly taken on this
physical body. Just a brief synopsis of their teachings. Now
you think, okay, we don't have modern da nacissism. Of
course we have modern day gnosticism. Of course we have
(16:46):
these ideas. In fact, they take it even a step
further because the Gnostics had this idea of the spark
of the divine that was within us as individuals, and
as a result of that spark of the divine, we
were in part deity.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I want to read you a couple of excerpts from
a couple of books. This is.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Etkart Tole. Etcart Totley is a New York Times number
one best selling author. Let me read to your review
from his number one book, This is You review from
Don Whitney. Since I first heard of etcart Tole during
a medical examination after learning that I was a professor
of Biblical spirituality, The doctor asked, have you read etckart
(17:32):
Tole's The Power of Now? This is one of Oprah's
big book club books. So everybody, averybody, not everybody. Everybody
is reading Tola. Okay, that's beyond everybody, all right, everybody's
reading it. I said, no, I had not a brilliant,
multi talented man with a Catholic background. The physician began
to commend the book to me as insightful and profound.
(17:57):
Toley's work is insightful and profound. Oprah howner television programming
on our radio programs got millions upon millions upon multiplied
millions of people reading the works of eck Cartole. He
became familiar with the book, and he leafed through it
and eventually had to read it and write a review.
(18:17):
Here's a couple of things that you find in Toley's
earlier book, The Divine Life Essence. Recognize it as one
with your own essence.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There is only one absolute truth, and all other truths
emanate from it. Yes, you are the truth. If you
look for it elsewhere, will you will be deceived every time?
The very being that you are is truth. Jesus tried
to convey that when he said, I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life. Jesus speaks of the innermost.
(18:51):
I am theset, the essence, identity of every man and woman,
every life, form and fact.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
He speaks of the life that you are.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Jesus was making a statement that we all need to
learn how to make. I could read you more from
Toty's other bestseller, but I won't. Here's the other best seller,
by the way, This is the Secret. As far as
hardback books on the New York Times bestseller list, this
is number two. This is number two the hardback books.
(19:26):
It's been on the New York Times bestseller list for
seventy six weeks. Seventy six weeks, and it's still number two.
For a while, this book was number one. Number two
was the final installment of the Harry Potter series, and
number three was the audio version of this book. It's
(19:48):
huge and again, everybody's reading it, so what are they reading?
Pray tell well, it's the Secret and it's ultimately the
secret to life. Listen about Proctor, a philosopher, author, personal coach.
The Secret gives you anything you want, happiness, health, wealth.
(20:08):
Listen to this one doctor Joe Vitality metaphysician, marketing specialist
and author. You can have, do or be anything you want.
What kind of house do you want to live in?
Do you want to be a millionaire? What kind of
business do you want to have? Do you want more success?
What do you really want? Here's the premise of this book.
(20:30):
Everything out there in the world operates on frequencies and vibrations.
When you think about those things, you tune yourself, like
a radio to their frequencies. So if you want it,
think about it. That'll tune you to the frequency and
you'll attract it to yourself. It's called the law of attraction. Now,
why pray tell? Does this law of attraction work the
(20:52):
way it does? Here's why listen to her. You are
God in a physical body. You are Spirit and the flesh.
You are eternal life expressing itself as you. You are
a cosmic being. You are all power, You are al wisdom,
you are all intelligence. You are perfection, you are magnificence.
(21:12):
You are the creator, and you are creating the creation
of you on this planet. Three of the most popular
books in the world today and its modern day gnosticism
(21:36):
directly and completely at odds with the Word of God,
Directly at odds and completely at odds with the Word
of God. It's another category all in its own. What
does John say to this kind of thinking, This is
the message that we have heard and proclaim to you
(21:57):
that God is light and in him is no shadow
of darkness. There is no darkness in God at all.
God is light. There is a God.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
There's one of my favorite lines from a movie, from
any movie. It is a line from the movie Rudy.
Those of you who love movies and love football, you
love the movie Rudy. And if you don't keep praying,
God will make you more spiritual and you'll get there.
But in the movie Rudy, there's this time when you know,
(22:33):
Rudy's trying to get into Notre Dame, and Rudy's just
working really hard to get in Notre Dame.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
He can't get in Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
He goes and he talks to the priest there, and
he's trying to get some information from this priest. And
this priest looks at him and says, you know, there
are two things I know for sure. One there is
a God. Two I'm not him. That's not what the
modern day Gnostics say. The modern day Gnostics say, your
problem is you're God and you don't know it, John says,
(23:03):
here's where the message starts. God is light in him.
There is no darkness at all. You are not God,
You are not part of God. God is God all
by himself. And as we've said before, God is not
(23:23):
running for God. Amen. He was the only one around
when the votes were cast. There's never going to be
a recount or a reelection. God is God. He needs
no help being God. He's God, and there's no darkness
in him. Why is this important, Well, here's where we
(23:45):
get to the distinction between these two kingdoms. First of all,
we see that this first kingdom, that the king is light. Secondly,
his subjects are characterized by light. Look at the next
part of this. There are five if then statements that
follow this first statement, three negative, two positive, and they
(24:06):
alternate negative positive, negative, positive negative. These five if then statements,
and here they are. Listen to the first pair. If
we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's the first if then statement. The then is assumed.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Look at this if we have if we say we
have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, then
we lie and do not practice the truth. If my
mouth says I have fellowship with God. But my life,
my petipateeo, my walk, my lifestyle says that I walk
(24:49):
in darkness. Then ultimately, the fact of the matter is
there is no light in me.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I am a liar.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
If that's the case, I'm darkness and I can't, on
the one hand, with my lips confess that I belong
to the Kingdom of light, and I belong to the
King of light. And on the other hand, with my life,
live in a way that reflects darkness.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Because what's the truth? What's the reality?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
The reality is the way that I live, the way
that I'm characterized. Amen, didn't he just say if you
ever have a dark moment, that you're not in the kingdom.
That's not what he said. Okay, But is that the
way you're characterized? Is that who you are? Is that
the way you live? That's the question? Is that your walk?
(25:38):
Is that how your life is defined? If your lips
say one thing and your life says another, you are
a liar. It's that simple. How are you walking? How
are you living? That's the question? How are you walking?
(26:00):
Does your life look like light or does your life
look like darkness? That's the question. Here's the other side
of the coin. Here's the positive if then statement. But
if we walk in the light as he is in
the light, we have fellowship with one another first of all,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from
(26:21):
all sin. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light. First of all, we have fellowship
with one another. We talked about that last week, this
fellowship within this body of believers. And secondly, the blood
of Jesus washes us, cleanses us from all sin if
we walk in the light. Now, notice here's what's not
being said. We're not talking about works based salvation here.
(26:45):
Remember he's talking about in general, these two categories of
individual and he's talking about how we're characterized, the individuals
who are characterized by walking in the light. He's not
saying this, Well, if you're an individual who's characterized by
walking in the light, then the blood of Jesus will
cleanse you because you're walking in the light has earned
you cleansing.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
No, that's not the point at all.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
If you walk in the light, you walk in the
light because the blood of Jesus has cleansed you. By
the way, look at the passage we just read earlier today.
Look at the passage we just read earlier today. Look
at John chapter three, and look at beginning at verse nineteen.
(27:34):
Beginning verse nineteen of John chapter three. And this is
the judgment. The light has come into the world, and
people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and
does not come to the light lest his deeds should
(27:56):
be exposed. But whoever dues what is true comes to
the light so that it may be clearly seen that
his deeds have been carried out in God. Notice that
he comes to the light so that we can see
that his deeds have been carried out in God. In
(28:18):
other words, John is not saying in John chapter three,
if you walk in the light, you have earned forgiveness
from your sins. Knows he's saying in first John chapter one,
if you walk in the light, you.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Have earned salvation from your sins.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
No, if you walk in the light, you have evidenced
salvation from your sins. That's the only way you can
walk in the light. We see that in John three.
By the way, look at the Look at the last
part of that chapter. Let beginning verse thirty five, the
Father loves the son and has given all things into
his hands. Whoever believes in the Sun has eternal life.
(28:57):
Whoever does not here stop, Whoever believes in the sun
has eternal life. Now, the next phrase ought to be
whoever does not believe? Right when that makes sense if
there's a parallel here, if there's a contrast. Whoever believes
in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not believe
does not. But look at what he says verse thirty six.
(29:17):
Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does
not obey the Sun shall not see life, but the
wrath of God remains on him. How do you know
if somebody believes, they walk in the light, That's how
(29:39):
you know. How do you know somebody is cleansed, is washed,
they walk in the light. If any man is in Christ,
Paul says in Second Corinthians five, if any man is
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have
passed away the whole new things have come by the way.
This is from God. Amen, It's from God. So again
(30:05):
the legalist argument. Here's the legalist argument. The legalist argument says,
I must keep the law so that I can be
made right with God.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's the legalist argument.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
And if we read this and don't understand that he's
talking about categories of individuals and he's talking about the
character of these individuals, it's easy for us to sort
of fall into that. But that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about what we're characterized by. And those who
walk in the light are characterized by a couple of things. One,
these individuals are characterized by the unity that they have
(30:36):
with one another. Folks, when we're not walking in the light,
we don't have unity with people who are Amen. As
a matter of fact, when you start inching over towards sin.
Have you noticed this, When you start inching over towards sin,
you don't want to be around godly people.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Maybe that's just me. Maybe you guys have never had
that experience before in your life.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Maybe you've never been in a situation where all of
a sudden, a dark shadow is coming over you because
of some things that you've been about, or you've been
exposed to or whatever. And as this dark shadow comes
over you, last thing you want is those light people.
You can't say amen, You ought to say ouch. That's
the first thing that we're characterized by. Secondly, we're characterized
(31:24):
by the fact that we're washed in the blood of Jesus.
That's why, and that's how we walk in the light.
The blood of Jesus cleanses us. That's how we walk
in the light. That's why we walk in the light. Again,
the imputed righteousness of Christ, the blood of Jesus that
(31:46):
cleanses us from all sin. Christ died for sin, once
for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that
he might bring us back to God. This washing, this
cleansing that is ours, is what brings us to the
life light. Listen to this Isaiah chapter nine, verse two.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
(32:08):
Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on
them has light shined? Anybody claiming that in here as me. Amen,
listen to John twelve thirty five. So Jesus said to them,
the light is among you for a little while. Longer
walk while you have the light, lets darkness overtake you.
The one who walks in the darkness does not know
(32:29):
where he is going. While you have the light. Believe
in the light that you may become sons of light.
Believe in the light that you may become sons of life,
sons of light. How by believing, placing your faith in
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
We talk about it all the time. Repentance, faith, that's
how you become these children of light. You don't walk
in light so that you can become a child of light.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
You become a child of light by being adopted into
the family of the Father who is light.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing you thereby allowing
you and propelling you into walking in light. Don't we
see this as well in Ephesians. Look with me if
you will turn to Ephesians chapter two. For by grace
(33:32):
you have been saved through faith. And this is not
of your own doing. It is the gift of God,
not as a result of works, so that no one
may boast. And then verse ten, For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them. Whatever good work I'm
walking in, God prepared beforehand that I should walk in it.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
It is He who works in me, both to will
and to do his good pleasure. I walk in the
light because of the cleansing power.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Of Jesus Christ. I'm characterized by walking in the light.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
And because I'm characterized by that, when darkness comes, that
darkness is not who I am. When that darkness comes,
that's when I know I got a problem. Amen, When
I sin, the reason that that sin doesn't sit well
with me is because that's not who I am. And
(34:35):
as we walk, and as we are sanctified, we have
less and less of an appetite for those things that
we used to feast on. And that's good news. That's
good news because of the blood of Jesus that washes
us and cleanses us, that propels us to walking in
(34:58):
the light. Look at this Revelation twenty one twenty three,
and the city has no need of sun or moon
to shine on it, for the Glory of God gives
it light, and its lamp is the lamb. And again
Revelation twenty two and five. Night will be no more.
They will need no light of a lamp or sun,
(35:21):
for the Lord God will be their light, and they
will reign forever and ever. Amen. Amen, here's another thing
we're characterized by. We confess in we forsake darkness. Look
at the next part of our passage here in first John,
look at verse eight. Verses eight through ten kind of
(35:41):
make a sandwich. Eight and ten our almost direct repeats
of one another. He just says it more forcefully in
verse ten. But look at verse eight. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. Now you may be asking yourself, okay,
who would say that? Well, first of all, those modern
(36:03):
day gnostics would say that these books here, these books
that I just read for you from early earlier, these
books would say that these books would not acknowledge any
sin in you. Your only problem is you don't recognize
your divinity. Your only problem is you're not thinking on
the right wavelength, and therefore you're not attracting to yourself
(36:27):
the right things. That's your problem. Your problem's not sin.
But you know, the Gnostics also taught this. Listen to this,
since salvation is not dependent upon faith or works, but
upon the knowledge of one's true nature. Sound like King
just out of here. These are the Gnostics. Some Gnostics
(36:47):
indulged deliberately in licentious behavior. Carpocrates, for example, urged his
followers to sin, and his son Epiphanes taught that promisity
was God's law. Look at what John says. If we
(37:08):
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. There are also those who
teach perfectionism. Now, perfectionism is the idea that believers come
to a place of sinlessness, that sanctification is completed here
on earth, and that believers come to a place of sinlessness,
(37:32):
to which John says as well, if we say we
have no sin, we've deceived ourselves and the truth is
not in us.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
We do have sin. Here's the other side of it.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us for
all unrighteousness. Two categories of people sin deniers and sin confessors.
One category of people is a category of people who
say that they're no, not sinful, or not sinful enough
to matter. The other category of people is a group
of people who confess that that word, literally in the
(38:07):
Greek means to say the same thing as they say
about their sin, what God says about their sin. They acknowledge,
they announce, and they forsake their sin because it's displeasing
to God. And in verse ten, he comes back and
closes the door on it. If we say we have
not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. I want to spend a couple
of minutes on this from a theological perspective, because here's
(38:30):
how we have a tendency to look at this. Listen
to this from Charles Rray in Ryley's Study Bible. His
point about first tiwn one nine, forgiveness and fellowship within
the family of God is restored when we confess. Conversely,
if it's restored when we confess, it's taken away when
we sin. Our forgiveness is taken away when we sin.
(38:52):
Our fellowship is taken away when we sin. I don't
believe Rary means this in the way he says it,
because the way he says it makes it sound almost
like the Catholic concept of forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
For example, why do people have such a problem with
the idea of suicide?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Again, I have such a problem with is probably not
the best way to phrase it, but why do people
struggle so much with the idea of what happens to
a believer who is a believer for real, who committed suicide?
Here's why they have a problem. Your last act was
a sin for which you could not confess, and if
(39:40):
you couldn't confess, you couldn't receive forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Just like that, it's over.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Because you got to confess it in order to be
forgiven of it, right I mean, I mean it would
seem like that's what we're reading here. If it hadn't
been confessed, you have been forgive of it, and forgiveness
is removed and fellowship is removed.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Because you didn't confess. There's a couple of problems with
that idea.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
And again I'm not saying that this is what Rary
is trying to communicate, But here's the first problem with
that idea. Look at the scripture again contextually. Look at
verse nine and what verse nine says, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, all unrighteousness.
(40:38):
This is a reference to what Christ does in salvation.
This is a reference to that category of people who
are confessors of sins, who are born again because they
acknowledge their sin before God and they are cleansed and
they are forgiven for their sins.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
In Toto here's the second problem. If we hold to
this idea, if.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
We confess our sins, here, faithful and Justine give us
our sins and cleansess of all and righteousness. The other
side of that, of course, is if we commit a
sin and that particular sin is not confessed, then we
don't have forgiveness for that particular sin, and we don't
have any cleansing from that particular sin. What does that
do to the context of the rest of this paragraph?
Look at what he says. If we say we have
(41:27):
fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. If I do an
act of darkness, does that mean that I'm no longer
part of the Kingdom of light? Are we losing and
regaining our salvation over and over and over again? Is
that the case. No, that's not the case. That's not
(41:48):
the case here. That's not what's being spoken of here.
Let me give you three three comments on this passage
scripture to help us, and I think it's very important. Normally,
I don't like to sort of draw out a lot
of different comments from different common today on these sort
of subjects, But I think it's very important that we
understand the nuances here versus scripture, so that we can
be freedomp in this area. Listen to this one first
(42:13):
from Daniel Lachan. The claim to be without sin probably
arose from John's opponents understanding that fellowship with a holy
God required one to be sinless. Verses eight and ten
are essentially parallel. The heretics argued that the condition for
fellowship with the Father is sinlessness. Therefore they claimed to
be sinless. Yet in this very claim they rejected God's word,
(42:38):
deceived themselves, and made God out to be a liar.
Sinlessness is theirs by virtue of life in Christ alone.
It cannot be located merely within themselves. Fellowship with God
requires sinlessness. Therefore we're sinless. Now, fellowship with God requires sinlessness,
(42:58):
and the only way you get that is through the
imputed righteousness of Christ. Otherwise, you know, I die, and
I face God and he goes, I'm gonna What's that?
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (43:12):
The list of my sins that are under the blood. Now,
these are the ones that you forgot to confess. This
is why you can't come into my kingdom, because you
forgot to confess these right here and every last one
of us has millions upon millions upon multiplied millions of
sins that we forgot to confess. If that's the meaning
(43:39):
of this verse, we're in trouble. Well, here's how some
people deal with it. Lord, forgive me for my sins
and all those that I've forgotten. Listen to this one
from Calvin. He again promises to the faithful that God
(43:59):
will be propitious to them, provided they acknowledge themselves to
be sinners. I love that Calvin says, provided they acknowledge
themselves to be sinners. It is of great moment to
be fully persuaded that when we have sinned, there is
reconciliation with God ready and prepared for us. We shall
otherwise carry always a hell within us. Few indeed, consider
(44:23):
how miserable and wretched is a doubting conscience. But the
truth is that hell reigns where there is no peace
with God. There more than it becomes us to receive
with the whole heart this promise, which offers free pardon
to all who confess their sins. Again, Calvin is talking
about this in the broader sense, you confess your sinfulness.
(44:46):
In other words, this is what salvation is. We come
to a place of repentance and faith. We become sin confessors.
We acknowledge who we are. Yes, all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and I'm part
of all. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. I agree with
God that I am a sinner and that the only
(45:08):
answer for my sin problem is Jesus Christ, the righteous One.
He must wash me and I must have his righteousness.
He must take on him my sinfulness. And one final
one from John guil and this I believe puts perhaps
the finest, perhaps the finest point on it and helps
us grapple with this forgiveness of sin. Here intends not
(45:33):
the act of forgiveness as in God proceeding upon the
bloodshed and sacrifice of Christ, which is done at once
and includes all sin past, present and to come.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
That's very important. At salvation, we're.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Forgiven at once for all sin, past, present and future.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
That's what salvation is.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
We have eternal life as a present possession, and it's
not contingent upon anything.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
That I do or have done.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
So we got to read first John, chapter one and
verse nine in light of that overall theological reality. Okay,
but he says it's not that, but an application of
pardoning grace to a poor, sensible sinner humbled under a
sense of sin and confessing it before the Lord. And
confession of sin is not the cause or condition of pardon,
(46:30):
nor of the manifestation of it, but is descriptive of
the person and points him out to whom God will
and does make known his forgiveness and love.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Please don't miss that.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Gil says, this active confession is not what brings about
the pardon. This active confession is evidence of the pardon.
He confesses his sin because of who he is can
pfess is a sin because he knows God, and it
grieves him. For to whomever he grants repentance, he gives
(47:11):
the remission of sin and doing of which he is
faithful to his word of promise. Amen. So here's here's
what First John one nine doesn't say. First John one
nine does not teach that, first of all, a believer
(47:33):
in the Lord Jesus Christ, one who is born again,
one is truly regenerate, one who is truly saved, who
has come to repentance in faith. First John one nine
does not teach that there's another step that you have
to go through in order to make sure you get
to heaven. And the other step is you have to
make sure that you do the work of confession, because
if you don't do the work of confession, then the
work of Christ on the cross it's null and void
(47:54):
because it was not powerful enough to do that part
for you. Not what First John one nine teaches. Nor
does First John one nine teach the Catholic view that
somehow this removal is there until we perform this act
and then it's sort of restored. That's not what first
John one nine teaches. It doesn't, But it also doesn't
(48:18):
teach that we never again confess. Don't miss that part
of Gil's statement either. It doesn't teach that we never
again confess. Listen again, let me read again what Gil says.
But an application of pardoning grace to a poor, sensible
sinner humbled under a sense of sin and confessing it
(48:42):
before the Lord, and confession of sin is not the
cause or condition of pardon, nor of the manifestation of it,
but is descriptive of the person and points him out.
If you are truly converted, and you are truly born again,
and Jesus Christ has cleansed you and made you whole,
(49:04):
and He's washed away your sins, past, president and future.
You know, one of the things that will characterize you
when you sin and become aware of it, you'll confess it. Amen,
sin grieves you. You're washed in the blood of Christ,
and sin grieves you. And one of the marks of
(49:28):
those individuals is the confession of sin. God, that was sin.
I agree with you that that was sin. I know
that grieves you. It's one of the things for which
Christ had died. I plead his blood and forgiveness right now,
and thank you that He has provided for that. We
(49:54):
are perpetual confessors of sin. It is the part of
what marks us. But we've got to make sure that
we're careful and that we don't run off the reservation
to this place that has us shackled to what is,
in essence a work added to salvation. The confession of
(50:17):
sin is not a work added to salvation. Being a
sin confessor is part of what characterizes us as us
and not them, And being a sin confessor is part
and parcel of who we are and the way we live,
just like walking in the light. So we don't claim sinlessness.
(50:44):
On the one hand, so we don't look at our
actions and say our actions weren't sinful. And secondly, we
aren't characterized by callousness. We sin, and all of a
sudden we go, oh yeah, is under the blood? No,
absolutely not. Jesus Christ purchased my pardon with his blood.
(51:15):
When I sin, that must grieve me.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
It must.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
So as we look here at this first test, ask
yourself the pertinent questions, which of these characterizes you? Are
you one who walks in light or are you one
who walks in darkness? Which one is your way of life?
(51:48):
Are you a light liver or a darkness dweller? Which
is you? Where are you at home and the light
are in the dark? And second, what's your attitude towards sin?
Are you a sin denier or a sin confessor? Which
is you?
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Does sin delight you or does it grieve you? Which
is you?
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Because the way we answer these questions is indicative of
whose we are. But notice in both instances. I want
you to see this in both instances. First of all,
look at verse seven. We walk to the light as
he is in the light. We have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus's son cleanses Us from all sin.
(52:41):
How we cleanse the blood of Jesus and then verse
look at verse nine, we confess our sins. He is
faithful and Justine forgive us as our sins and cleanse
us of all unrighteousness. The only way to not be
a darkness dweller is through the cleansing work.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Of the Son of God.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
The only way to be a seening confessor instead of
a sin denier is through the cleansing work of Jesus Christ,
the son of the Living God. That's our only answer.
So here's what one John one five through ten is
not teaching. You better work harder, try to walk like
those light people are not those darkness people. You better
(53:31):
count your sins more carefully. It's not what it's teaching.
It's just asking a real simple question. And now a
real simple question. Is this, which one of these camps
do you belong to? And as you answer, answer from
your life and not your lips to which camp do
you belong? How is your life characterized? Who are you?
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (54:07):
His as is evidenced by the fruit born in your
life as a result of the cleansing blood of Jesus
Christ being applied to you through repentance and faith or
are you not, which is evidenced by darkness being the
(54:29):
place where you're at ease and sin being something that
you don't very much like to confess. There's always an excuse,
there's always an answer, there's always a reason. It's never
just flat out, bald face I sin. I agree with God.
(54:50):
It's not the product of the way I was raised.
It's not just a preference. It's not just something that
I'm inclined to. It's not a disease. It is sin,
pure and simple, and it is ugly, and I hate
it because God hates it, and I'm bringing it to
the throne.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
That's how we act towards sin and the Kingdom of Light.
Let's buy
You know, it's it's it's interesting, and I always love
it when we have a service that that sort of
seems as choreographed as this one may seem, just because
of all of the themes that have come together. And
it's interesting, especially for those of us who are aware
of what we do as a church sort of reading
systematically through the scriptures. We're reading systematically through the Gospel
(00:28):
of John, and we just happened to be right there
in John three today as we're looking at first John one,
five through ten and this light and darkness theme. It's
amazing how how God uses all of those aspects even
when we just commit to doing things in a systematic way,
(00:48):
and even through our commitment to reading through Exodus and
systematically reading through Exodus. And here we see this picture
of the law, and they're the Sabbath law, and and
this this punishment of death for those who violate the
Sabbath law. It brings the reality of the law to bear.
It crushes any semblance of legalism. And that's why, you know,
(01:12):
that's why it's important because so many times you can
go to church for ten fifteen years and never read
through Exodus. But it's important for us to see the law,
to see how black and white the law is, to
see how serious God is about those who violate the law,
because it's only there that we understand appropriately and more
(01:36):
fully the grace of God that saves, and we understand
how foolish it is for us to try to attach
any legalistic tendencies.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
To the grace of God. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
For us to try to keep the law in a
way that would appease God when we understand the significance
of the law and the punishment required.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
For those who don't keep it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
The other thing that is amazing as we look at
the law is, again, as we've talked about it before,
the active obedience of Christ. We talked about this before,
We'll talk about it again because it's significant for the day,
the active and passive obedience of Christ in our redemption.
We're so familiar with the passive obedience of Christ, we're
so familiar with the fact that Christ died for our sins,
(02:33):
he allowed himself to be killed.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
For our sins. But that active obedience of Christ, he.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
As a man, the god man, where he kept the
whole law, and because of that, this principle of imputed
righteousness is made possible. So we look at Exodus chapter
thirty one, and it says you should be put to
death because of your violations just of the Sabbath, and
(03:07):
in Christ, because of his active obedience.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
We can say, yes, that's true.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
But in Christ, his righteousness is imputed to me, and
God looks at me as one who has kept that perfectly. Amen,
that's just good news, says It's also horrible news for
anyone expecting to stand before God and be justified for
having kept the law. It's horrible news because one of
(03:37):
the designs of the law, as we read in Galatians,
is to remind you time and time again that you
can't do what you're required to do. Somebody's got to
do it for you. And as we run up against
the law, that's what we run against. But here's the
other question. Do we then go toward antinomianism lawlessness as
(04:03):
a result of our understanding of this imputed righteousness of Christ?
Do we sin as Paul would say, so that grace
may abound all the more? His response, may it never be?
Where do those two things come together? I'm so glad
you asked, look with me, if you will first John
(04:27):
chapter one. We finally reached this second paragraph here, verses
five through ten. And let's look here at first John
chapter one, verses five through ten. Let's look at the
marks of the Kingdom of Light.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Verse five.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
This is the message we have heard from him and
proclaim to you. And again you follow back, and this
is what we just read earlier about hearing this message
and proclaiming this message. A matter fact, let's just go
back one. That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
(05:04):
we have looked upon and have touched with our hands.
Concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest,
and we have seen it and testified to it, and
proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the
Father and was made manifest to us. That which we
have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also so
that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son
(05:26):
Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that
our joy may be complete. Now he picks up the
same thing. This is the message we have heard from him,
and proclaim to you that God is light, and in
him there is no darkness at all. If we say
(05:46):
we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice 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.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
From all sin.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
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. These marks of
(06:20):
the Kingdom of Light. There are a couple of things
that are important to keep in mind as we look
at First John one five through ten. There are a
couple of things, a couple of rails, if you will,
some rails that will keep us from going off the
track as we look at First John, and really as
we look at all of this epistle of First John,
(06:41):
the first thing that we need to understand is that
John is speaking categorically here. That he's speaking categorically here,
he's talking about categories of individuals. That's very important to
remember that he's talking about categories of individuals. Because if
you don't remember that, then as we go through first John,
here's what will happen.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Say.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
If you're like this, you're in the kingdom. If you're
like that, you're not well. If you catch any one
of us on a bad day, guess what.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Ooh, I'm out. If you catch any one of us
on the bad day.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Matter of fact, truth be told, you catch any one
of us on a good day, Amen, somebody, and we're going, oh,
I'm out.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He's speaking categorically. He's talking about categories of individuals.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Remember, what he's doing is in part this polemic, if
you will, and apologetic for those within and without who've
been influenced by many different doctrinal heresies, perhaps the most
prominent of which is gnosticism. So what he's doing here
is he's drawing a line in the sand, and he's
basically saying, these individuals are teaching false doctrine, and here's why.
(07:55):
Here's their category, here's our category. So he's speaking categorically. Okay,
that's very important to keep in mind that he's speaking categorically,
And because of that, it's important to keep in mind
that he's talking about our character, our character. Remember that
(08:16):
he's talking about our character. That's the issue here. One
of the verbs that's used here in John, this Greek
verb petipateo to walk around the way that we walk,
is what he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So he's talking about our character.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
He's talking about who we are as individuals, not what
can sometimes happen in our lives, but who we are
as individuals. And here's the way that I like to
sort of explain that for people. I mean, imagine, if
you will, if we're talking about a child and an
obedient child versus a disobedient child.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
All children disobey.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
There should have been a whole bunch of little bitty
voices in the room going aymen.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Pastor body. All children disobey.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
But the difference between what we would call an obedient
child and what we would call a disobedient child. Again,
we're characterizing that child. Are they characterized generally by obedience
or are they characterized by disobedience.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So here's the difference.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
When a child that's characterized by obedience disobeys, because all
children disobey, it's different than when a child who's characterized
by disobedience disobeys. For example, if there's a child who's
characterized by obedience and that child disobeys, Let's just say,
you know one of my children. You look at one
of my children and you say, this particular child is
(09:42):
characterized by obedience. When that child, that child of pastor
vodies characterized by obedience, and all of a sudden one
day you see that child fangs out, veins in the neck,
pointing the finger at me, just going off. Well, if
that child's characterized by obedience, normally, if they're characterized by disobedience,
(10:06):
your response would be there they go again. But if
they're characterized by obedience, your response will probably be, Lord,
whatever demon that is that just possessed that child, would
you deliver them from it quickly because it would be
terrible to see them die. Today, it's important to understand
(10:29):
that that's what we're talking about here, talking about the.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Way we walk, the way we walk, who we are
as individuals.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And again, this will make more sense as we go along,
and you'll see why it's important that we take time
dealing with this. But as we look at this with
those rails to kind of keep us on the track,
look here at verse five. This is the message we
have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God
is light and in him is no darkness at all.
(11:01):
So when we talk about this kingdom of light, the
first thing that we recognize in this kingdom of light
is that the King is light.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
In the Kingdom of Light is light.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Here's the message that we proclaim to you that God
is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
First of all, God is.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
There's an apologetic here for God himself, for the existence
of God, and for the character of God. God is.
First of all, there is a God. Amen that there
is a God. So anyone who would come forth with
an idea of righteousness apart from God is already running
up against the argument here in one John, chapter one,
verse five, God is.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So that's where we start. We start with the existence
of God.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
When we start talking about character and what righteousness looks like,
we start with God, who is the very definition of character,
the very definition of righteousness.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
God is.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So we don't measure ourselves against the standard of other people.
We measure ourselves against the standard of the word. Amen,
we measure ourselves against the standard of God. Don't we
tell our children this all the time? Let pastor vote
do something that your mom and daddy do all the time. Kids,
your mom and daddy tell you all this all the time,
(12:26):
and you think it's just them. But let me just
tell you so that you'll know it's not just them.
They didn't just make it up, and here it is
because you think you're a good kid. And oftentimes sometimes
those of you who get a little bit older, you
have a tendency to say, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
But I'm not like so and so. You just mean
because I'm not like them, look at what they do. Newsflash.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
We are neither governed nor judged by the standard of
those use people. If you can't say amen, you ought
to say ouch. We're governed by the standard of the
Word of God. That's where we measure ourselves. We're governed
by the standard of the Word of God. Not is not?
(13:18):
Is my attitude and are my actions better than most
people out there? But the question is do they measure
up to the standard that we find in the Word
of God.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
God is and God is light. He's light.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
This idea of purity, this idea of holiness. That's who
our God is. By the way we see this throughout scripture.
You know, I've written down several verses here that I
just wanted to read. Listen to this and Psal I'm
thirty six nine. For with you is the fountain of life.
In your light, do we see light? Look at Psalm
(14:03):
eighty four eleven. For the Lord God is a sun
and shield Daniel two twenty two. He reveals deep and
hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and
the light dwells with him is in a John one four.
In him was life, and that life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. Look at John one six.
(14:27):
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to bear witness about the
light that all might believe through him. He was not
the light, but came to bear witness about what the light.
And then down in verse nine, the true light, which
enlightens everyone it was coming into the world John chapter
eight and verse twelve. Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,
(14:47):
I am.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
The Light of the world.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
John ninety five.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
As long as I am in the world, I am
the light of the world on Timothy six fifteen, He
who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings,
the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells
in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or
can see. To him, be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
(15:21):
Every good gift and every perfect gift, James one seventeen says,
is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow of change.
God is light, God is holy, God is righteous. God
(15:43):
is the standard by which we judge. Now, this is
very important when you look at gnosticism, especially for example,
when you look at modern day gnosticism, and for those
of you who haven't been with us, we talked about
the gnostics, and that word comes from the Greek word
for knowledge, gnosis. These individuals believe that that there was
the spiritual immaterial world, and then there was the physical world,
(16:04):
and that spiritual immaterial world that's the world of the divine,
and that as individuals we have to get in touch
with that spiritual immaterial world. They believed this so much
that they believed that Jesus was not actually a physical being.
He did not have a corporeal body. He was a
spirit who sort of walked around among men, and he
(16:25):
looked like he had a physical being. But because the
physical world is evil and the spiritual world is good,
there's no way that God could possibly taken on this
physical body. Just a brief synopsis of their teachings. Now
you think, okay, we don't have modern da nacissism. Of
course we have modern day gnosticism. Of course we have
(16:46):
these ideas. In fact, they take it even a step
further because the Gnostics had this idea of the spark
of the divine that was within us as individuals, and
as a result of that spark of the divine, we
were in part deity.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I want to read you a couple of excerpts from
a couple of books. This is.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Etkart Tole. Etcart Totley is a New York Times number
one best selling author. Let me read to your review
from his number one book, This is You review from
Don Whitney. Since I first heard of etcart Tole during
a medical examination after learning that I was a professor
of Biblical spirituality, The doctor asked, have you read etckart
(17:32):
Tole's The Power of Now? This is one of Oprah's
big book club books. So everybody, averybody, not everybody. Everybody
is reading Tola. Okay, that's beyond everybody, all right, everybody's
reading it. I said, no, I had not a brilliant,
multi talented man with a Catholic background. The physician began
to commend the book to me as insightful and profound.
(17:57):
Toley's work is insightful and profound. Oprah howner television programming
on our radio programs got millions upon millions upon multiplied
millions of people reading the works of eck Cartole. He
became familiar with the book, and he leafed through it
and eventually had to read it and write a review.
(18:17):
Here's a couple of things that you find in Toley's
earlier book, The Divine Life Essence. Recognize it as one
with your own essence.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There is only one absolute truth, and all other truths
emanate from it. Yes, you are the truth. If you
look for it elsewhere, will you will be deceived every time?
The very being that you are is truth. Jesus tried
to convey that when he said, I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life. Jesus speaks of the innermost.
(18:51):
I am theset, the essence, identity of every man and woman,
every life, form and fact.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
He speaks of the life that you are.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Jesus was making a statement that we all need to
learn how to make. I could read you more from
Toty's other bestseller, but I won't. Here's the other best seller,
by the way, This is the Secret. As far as
hardback books on the New York Times bestseller list, this
is number two. This is number two the hardback books.
(19:26):
It's been on the New York Times bestseller list for
seventy six weeks. Seventy six weeks, and it's still number two.
For a while, this book was number one. Number two
was the final installment of the Harry Potter series, and
number three was the audio version of this book. It's
(19:48):
huge and again, everybody's reading it, so what are they reading?
Pray tell well, it's the Secret and it's ultimately the
secret to life. Listen about Proctor, a philosopher, author, personal coach.
The Secret gives you anything you want, happiness, health, wealth.
(20:08):
Listen to this one doctor Joe Vitality metaphysician, marketing specialist
and author. You can have, do or be anything you want.
What kind of house do you want to live in?
Do you want to be a millionaire? What kind of
business do you want to have? Do you want more success?
What do you really want? Here's the premise of this book.
(20:30):
Everything out there in the world operates on frequencies and vibrations.
When you think about those things, you tune yourself, like
a radio to their frequencies. So if you want it,
think about it. That'll tune you to the frequency and
you'll attract it to yourself. It's called the law of attraction. Now,
why pray tell? Does this law of attraction work the
(20:52):
way it does? Here's why listen to her. You are
God in a physical body. You are Spirit and the flesh.
You are eternal life expressing itself as you. You are
a cosmic being. You are all power, You are al wisdom,
you are all intelligence. You are perfection, you are magnificence.
(21:12):
You are the creator, and you are creating the creation
of you on this planet. Three of the most popular
books in the world today and its modern day gnosticism
(21:36):
directly and completely at odds with the Word of God,
Directly at odds and completely at odds with the Word
of God. It's another category all in its own. What
does John say to this kind of thinking, This is
the message that we have heard and proclaim to you
(21:57):
that God is light and in him is no shadow
of darkness. There is no darkness in God at all.
God is light. There is a God.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
There's one of my favorite lines from a movie, from
any movie. It is a line from the movie Rudy.
Those of you who love movies and love football, you
love the movie Rudy. And if you don't keep praying,
God will make you more spiritual and you'll get there.
But in the movie Rudy, there's this time when you know,
(22:33):
Rudy's trying to get into Notre Dame, and Rudy's just
working really hard to get in Notre Dame.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
He can't get in Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
He goes and he talks to the priest there, and
he's trying to get some information from this priest. And
this priest looks at him and says, you know, there
are two things I know for sure. One there is
a God. Two I'm not him. That's not what the
modern day Gnostics say. The modern day Gnostics say, your
problem is you're God and you don't know it, John says,
(23:03):
here's where the message starts. God is light in him.
There is no darkness at all. You are not God,
You are not part of God. God is God all
by himself. And as we've said before, God is not
(23:23):
running for God. Amen. He was the only one around
when the votes were cast. There's never going to be
a recount or a reelection. God is God. He needs
no help being God. He's God, and there's no darkness
in him. Why is this important, Well, here's where we
(23:45):
get to the distinction between these two kingdoms. First of all,
we see that this first kingdom, that the king is light. Secondly,
his subjects are characterized by light. Look at the next
part of this. There are five if then statements that
follow this first statement, three negative, two positive, and they
(24:06):
alternate negative positive, negative, positive negative. These five if then statements,
and here they are. Listen to the first pair. If
we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's the first if then statement. The then is assumed.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Look at this if we have if we say we
have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, then
we lie and do not practice the truth. If my
mouth says I have fellowship with God. But my life,
my petipateeo, my walk, my lifestyle says that I walk
(24:49):
in darkness. Then ultimately, the fact of the matter is
there is no light in me.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I am a liar.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
If that's the case, I'm darkness and I can't, on
the one hand, with my lips confess that I belong
to the Kingdom of light, and I belong to the
King of light. And on the other hand, with my life,
live in a way that reflects darkness.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Because what's the truth? What's the reality?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
The reality is the way that I live, the way
that I'm characterized. Amen, didn't he just say if you
ever have a dark moment, that you're not in the kingdom.
That's not what he said. Okay, But is that the
way you're characterized? Is that who you are? Is that
the way you live? That's the question? Is that your walk?
(25:38):
Is that how your life is defined? If your lips
say one thing and your life says another, you are
a liar. It's that simple. How are you walking? How
are you living? That's the question? How are you walking?
(26:00):
Does your life look like light or does your life
look like darkness? That's the question. Here's the other side
of the coin. Here's the positive if then statement. But
if we walk in the light as he is in
the light, we have fellowship with one another first of all,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from
(26:21):
all sin. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light. First of all, we have fellowship
with one another. We talked about that last week, this
fellowship within this body of believers. And secondly, the blood
of Jesus washes us, cleanses us from all sin if
we walk in the light. Now, notice here's what's not
being said. We're not talking about works based salvation here.
(26:45):
Remember he's talking about in general, these two categories of
individual and he's talking about how we're characterized, the individuals
who are characterized by walking in the light. He's not
saying this, Well, if you're an individual who's characterized by
walking in the light, then the blood of Jesus will
cleanse you because you're walking in the light has earned
you cleansing.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
No, that's not the point at all.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
If you walk in the light, you walk in the
light because the blood of Jesus has cleansed you. By
the way, look at the passage we just read earlier today.
Look at the passage we just read earlier today. Look
at John chapter three, and look at beginning at verse nineteen.
(27:34):
Beginning verse nineteen of John chapter three. And this is
the judgment. The light has come into the world, and
people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and
does not come to the light lest his deeds should
(27:56):
be exposed. But whoever dues what is true comes to
the light so that it may be clearly seen that
his deeds have been carried out in God. Notice that
he comes to the light so that we can see
that his deeds have been carried out in God. In
(28:18):
other words, John is not saying in John chapter three,
if you walk in the light, you have earned forgiveness
from your sins. Knows he's saying in first John chapter one,
if you walk in the light, you.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Have earned salvation from your sins.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
No, if you walk in the light, you have evidenced
salvation from your sins. That's the only way you can
walk in the light. We see that in John three.
By the way, look at the Look at the last
part of that chapter. Let beginning verse thirty five, the
Father loves the son and has given all things into
his hands. Whoever believes in the Sun has eternal life.
(28:57):
Whoever does not here stop, Whoever believes in the sun
has eternal life. Now, the next phrase ought to be
whoever does not believe? Right when that makes sense if
there's a parallel here, if there's a contrast. Whoever believes
in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not believe
does not. But look at what he says verse thirty six.
(29:17):
Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does
not obey the Sun shall not see life, but the
wrath of God remains on him. How do you know
if somebody believes, they walk in the light, That's how
(29:39):
you know. How do you know somebody is cleansed, is washed,
they walk in the light. If any man is in Christ,
Paul says in Second Corinthians five, if any man is
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have
passed away the whole new things have come by the way.
This is from God. Amen, It's from God. So again
(30:05):
the legalist argument. Here's the legalist argument. The legalist argument says,
I must keep the law so that I can be
made right with God.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's the legalist argument.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
And if we read this and don't understand that he's
talking about categories of individuals and he's talking about the
character of these individuals, it's easy for us to sort
of fall into that. But that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about what we're characterized by. And those who
walk in the light are characterized by a couple of things. One,
these individuals are characterized by the unity that they have
(30:36):
with one another. Folks, when we're not walking in the light,
we don't have unity with people who are Amen. As
a matter of fact, when you start inching over towards sin.
Have you noticed this, When you start inching over towards sin,
you don't want to be around godly people.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Maybe that's just me. Maybe you guys have never had
that experience before in your life.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Maybe you've never been in a situation where all of
a sudden, a dark shadow is coming over you because
of some things that you've been about, or you've been
exposed to or whatever. And as this dark shadow comes
over you, last thing you want is those light people.
You can't say amen, You ought to say ouch. That's
the first thing that we're characterized by. Secondly, we're characterized
(31:24):
by the fact that we're washed in the blood of Jesus.
That's why, and that's how we walk in the light.
The blood of Jesus cleanses us. That's how we walk
in the light. That's why we walk in the light. Again,
the imputed righteousness of Christ, the blood of Jesus that
(31:46):
cleanses us from all sin. Christ died for sin, once
for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that
he might bring us back to God. This washing, this
cleansing that is ours, is what brings us to the
life light. Listen to this Isaiah chapter nine, verse two.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
(32:08):
Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on
them has light shined? Anybody claiming that in here as me. Amen,
listen to John twelve thirty five. So Jesus said to them,
the light is among you for a little while. Longer
walk while you have the light, lets darkness overtake you.
The one who walks in the darkness does not know
(32:29):
where he is going. While you have the light. Believe
in the light that you may become sons of light.
Believe in the light that you may become sons of life,
sons of light. How by believing, placing your faith in
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
We talk about it all the time. Repentance, faith, that's
how you become these children of light. You don't walk
in light so that you can become a child of light.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
You become a child of light by being adopted into
the family of the Father who is light.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing you thereby allowing
you and propelling you into walking in light. Don't we
see this as well in Ephesians. Look with me if
you will turn to Ephesians chapter two. For by grace
(33:32):
you have been saved through faith. And this is not
of your own doing. It is the gift of God,
not as a result of works, so that no one
may boast. And then verse ten, For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them. Whatever good work I'm
walking in, God prepared beforehand that I should walk in it.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
It is He who works in me, both to will
and to do his good pleasure. I walk in the
light because of the cleansing power.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Of Jesus Christ. I'm characterized by walking in the light.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
And because I'm characterized by that, when darkness comes, that
darkness is not who I am. When that darkness comes,
that's when I know I got a problem. Amen, When
I sin, the reason that that sin doesn't sit well
with me is because that's not who I am. And
(34:35):
as we walk, and as we are sanctified, we have
less and less of an appetite for those things that
we used to feast on. And that's good news. That's
good news because of the blood of Jesus that washes
us and cleanses us, that propels us to walking in
(34:58):
the light. Look at this Revelation twenty one twenty three,
and the city has no need of sun or moon
to shine on it, for the Glory of God gives
it light, and its lamp is the lamb. And again
Revelation twenty two and five. Night will be no more.
They will need no light of a lamp or sun,
(35:21):
for the Lord God will be their light, and they
will reign forever and ever. Amen. Amen, here's another thing
we're characterized by. We confess in we forsake darkness. Look
at the next part of our passage here in first John,
look at verse eight. Verses eight through ten kind of
(35:41):
make a sandwich. Eight and ten our almost direct repeats
of one another. He just says it more forcefully in
verse ten. But look at verse eight. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. Now you may be asking yourself, okay,
who would say that? Well, first of all, those modern
(36:03):
day gnostics would say that these books here, these books
that I just read for you from early earlier, these
books would say that these books would not acknowledge any
sin in you. Your only problem is you don't recognize
your divinity. Your only problem is you're not thinking on
the right wavelength, and therefore you're not attracting to yourself
(36:27):
the right things. That's your problem. Your problem's not sin.
But you know, the Gnostics also taught this. Listen to this,
since salvation is not dependent upon faith or works, but
upon the knowledge of one's true nature. Sound like King
just out of here. These are the Gnostics. Some Gnostics
(36:47):
indulged deliberately in licentious behavior. Carpocrates, for example, urged his
followers to sin, and his son Epiphanes taught that promisity
was God's law. Look at what John says. If we
(37:08):
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. There are also those who
teach perfectionism. Now, perfectionism is the idea that believers come
to a place of sinlessness, that sanctification is completed here
on earth, and that believers come to a place of sinlessness,
(37:32):
to which John says as well, if we say we
have no sin, we've deceived ourselves and the truth is
not in us.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
We do have sin. Here's the other side of it.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us for
all unrighteousness. Two categories of people sin deniers and sin confessors.
One category of people is a category of people who
say that they're no, not sinful, or not sinful enough
to matter. The other category of people is a group
of people who confess that that word, literally in the
(38:07):
Greek means to say the same thing as they say
about their sin, what God says about their sin. They acknowledge,
they announce, and they forsake their sin because it's displeasing
to God. And in verse ten, he comes back and
closes the door on it. If we say we have
not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. I want to spend a couple
of minutes on this from a theological perspective, because here's
(38:30):
how we have a tendency to look at this. Listen
to this from Charles Rray in Ryley's Study Bible. His
point about first tiwn one nine, forgiveness and fellowship within
the family of God is restored when we confess. Conversely,
if it's restored when we confess, it's taken away when
we sin. Our forgiveness is taken away when we sin.
(38:52):
Our fellowship is taken away when we sin. I don't
believe Rary means this in the way he says it,
because the way he says it makes it sound almost
like the Catholic concept of forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
For example, why do people have such a problem with
the idea of suicide?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Again, I have such a problem with is probably not
the best way to phrase it, but why do people
struggle so much with the idea of what happens to
a believer who is a believer for real, who committed suicide?
Here's why they have a problem. Your last act was
a sin for which you could not confess, and if
(39:40):
you couldn't confess, you couldn't receive forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Just like that, it's over.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Because you got to confess it in order to be
forgiven of it, right I mean, I mean it would
seem like that's what we're reading here. If it hadn't
been confessed, you have been forgive of it, and forgiveness
is removed and fellowship is removed.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Because you didn't confess. There's a couple of problems with
that idea.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
And again I'm not saying that this is what Rary
is trying to communicate, But here's the first problem with
that idea. Look at the scripture again contextually. Look at
verse nine and what verse nine says, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, all unrighteousness.
(40:38):
This is a reference to what Christ does in salvation.
This is a reference to that category of people who
are confessors of sins, who are born again because they
acknowledge their sin before God and they are cleansed and
they are forgiven for their sins.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
In Toto here's the second problem. If we hold to
this idea, if.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
We confess our sins, here, faithful and Justine give us
our sins and cleansess of all and righteousness. The other
side of that, of course, is if we commit a
sin and that particular sin is not confessed, then we
don't have forgiveness for that particular sin, and we don't
have any cleansing from that particular sin. What does that
do to the context of the rest of this paragraph?
Look at what he says. If we say we have
(41:27):
fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. If I do an
act of darkness, does that mean that I'm no longer
part of the Kingdom of light? Are we losing and
regaining our salvation over and over and over again? Is
that the case. No, that's not the case. That's not
(41:48):
the case here. That's not what's being spoken of here.
Let me give you three three comments on this passage
scripture to help us, and I think it's very important. Normally,
I don't like to sort of draw out a lot
of different comments from different common today on these sort
of subjects, But I think it's very important that we
understand the nuances here versus scripture, so that we can
be freedomp in this area. Listen to this one first
(42:13):
from Daniel Lachan. The claim to be without sin probably
arose from John's opponents understanding that fellowship with a holy
God required one to be sinless. Verses eight and ten
are essentially parallel. The heretics argued that the condition for
fellowship with the Father is sinlessness. Therefore they claimed to
be sinless. Yet in this very claim they rejected God's word,
(42:38):
deceived themselves, and made God out to be a liar.
Sinlessness is theirs by virtue of life in Christ alone.
It cannot be located merely within themselves. Fellowship with God
requires sinlessness. Therefore we're sinless. Now, fellowship with God requires sinlessness,
(42:58):
and the only way you get that is through the
imputed righteousness of Christ. Otherwise, you know, I die, and
I face God and he goes, I'm gonna What's that?
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (43:12):
The list of my sins that are under the blood. Now,
these are the ones that you forgot to confess. This
is why you can't come into my kingdom, because you
forgot to confess these right here and every last one
of us has millions upon millions upon multiplied millions of
sins that we forgot to confess. If that's the meaning
(43:39):
of this verse, we're in trouble. Well, here's how some
people deal with it. Lord, forgive me for my sins
and all those that I've forgotten. Listen to this one
from Calvin. He again promises to the faithful that God
(43:59):
will be propitious to them, provided they acknowledge themselves to
be sinners. I love that Calvin says, provided they acknowledge
themselves to be sinners. It is of great moment to
be fully persuaded that when we have sinned, there is
reconciliation with God ready and prepared for us. We shall
otherwise carry always a hell within us. Few indeed, consider
(44:23):
how miserable and wretched is a doubting conscience. But the
truth is that hell reigns where there is no peace
with God. There more than it becomes us to receive
with the whole heart this promise, which offers free pardon
to all who confess their sins. Again, Calvin is talking
about this in the broader sense, you confess your sinfulness.
(44:46):
In other words, this is what salvation is. We come
to a place of repentance and faith. We become sin confessors.
We acknowledge who we are. Yes, all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and I'm part
of all. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. I agree with
God that I am a sinner and that the only
(45:08):
answer for my sin problem is Jesus Christ, the righteous One.
He must wash me and I must have his righteousness.
He must take on him my sinfulness. And one final
one from John guil and this I believe puts perhaps
the finest, perhaps the finest point on it and helps
us grapple with this forgiveness of sin. Here intends not
(45:33):
the act of forgiveness as in God proceeding upon the
bloodshed and sacrifice of Christ, which is done at once
and includes all sin past, present and to come.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
That's very important. At salvation, we're.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Forgiven at once for all sin, past, present and future.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
That's what salvation is.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
We have eternal life as a present possession, and it's
not contingent upon anything.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
That I do or have done.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
So we got to read first John, chapter one and
verse nine in light of that overall theological reality. Okay,
but he says it's not that, but an application of
pardoning grace to a poor, sensible sinner humbled under a
sense of sin and confessing it before the Lord. And
confession of sin is not the cause or condition of pardon,
(46:30):
nor of the manifestation of it, but is descriptive of
the person and points him out to whom God will
and does make known his forgiveness and love.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Please don't miss that.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Gil says, this active confession is not what brings about
the pardon. This active confession is evidence of the pardon.
He confesses his sin because of who he is can
pfess is a sin because he knows God, and it
grieves him. For to whomever he grants repentance, he gives
(47:11):
the remission of sin and doing of which he is
faithful to his word of promise. Amen. So here's here's
what First John one nine doesn't say. First John one
nine does not teach that, first of all, a believer
(47:33):
in the Lord Jesus Christ, one who is born again,
one is truly regenerate, one who is truly saved, who
has come to repentance in faith. First John one nine
does not teach that there's another step that you have
to go through in order to make sure you get
to heaven. And the other step is you have to
make sure that you do the work of confession, because
if you don't do the work of confession, then the
work of Christ on the cross it's null and void
(47:54):
because it was not powerful enough to do that part
for you. Not what First John one nine teaches. Nor
does First John one nine teach the Catholic view that
somehow this removal is there until we perform this act
and then it's sort of restored. That's not what first
John one nine teaches. It doesn't, But it also doesn't
(48:18):
teach that we never again confess. Don't miss that part
of Gil's statement either. It doesn't teach that we never
again confess. Listen again, let me read again what Gil says.
But an application of pardoning grace to a poor, sensible
sinner humbled under a sense of sin and confessing it
(48:42):
before the Lord, and confession of sin is not the
cause or condition of pardon, nor of the manifestation of it,
but is descriptive of the person and points him out.
If you are truly converted, and you are truly born again,
and Jesus Christ has cleansed you and made you whole,
(49:04):
and He's washed away your sins, past, president and future.
You know, one of the things that will characterize you
when you sin and become aware of it, you'll confess it. Amen,
sin grieves you. You're washed in the blood of Christ,
and sin grieves you. And one of the marks of
(49:28):
those individuals is the confession of sin. God, that was sin.
I agree with you that that was sin. I know
that grieves you. It's one of the things for which
Christ had died. I plead his blood and forgiveness right now,
and thank you that He has provided for that. We
(49:54):
are perpetual confessors of sin. It is the part of
what marks us. But we've got to make sure that
we're careful and that we don't run off the reservation
to this place that has us shackled to what is,
in essence a work added to salvation. The confession of
(50:17):
sin is not a work added to salvation. Being a
sin confessor is part of what characterizes us as us
and not them, And being a sin confessor is part
and parcel of who we are and the way we live,
just like walking in the light. So we don't claim sinlessness.
(50:44):
On the one hand, so we don't look at our
actions and say our actions weren't sinful. And secondly, we
aren't characterized by callousness. We sin, and all of a
sudden we go, oh yeah, is under the blood? No,
absolutely not. Jesus Christ purchased my pardon with his blood.
(51:15):
When I sin, that must grieve me.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
It must.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
So as we look here at this first test, ask
yourself the pertinent questions, which of these characterizes you? Are
you one who walks in light or are you one
who walks in darkness? Which one is your way of life?
(51:48):
Are you a light liver or a darkness dweller? Which
is you? Where are you at home and the light
are in the dark? And second, what's your attitude towards sin?
Are you a sin denier or a sin confessor? Which
is you?
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Does sin delight you or does it grieve you? Which
is you?
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Because the way we answer these questions is indicative of
whose we are. But notice in both instances. I want
you to see this in both instances. First of all,
look at verse seven. We walk to the light as
he is in the light. We have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus's son cleanses Us from all sin.
(52:41):
How we cleanse the blood of Jesus and then verse
look at verse nine, we confess our sins. He is
faithful and Justine forgive us as our sins and cleanse
us of all unrighteousness. The only way to not be
a darkness dweller is through the cleansing work.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Of the Son of God.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
The only way to be a seening confessor instead of
a sin denier is through the cleansing work of Jesus Christ,
the son of the Living God. That's our only answer.
So here's what one John one five through ten is
not teaching. You better work harder, try to walk like
those light people are not those darkness people. You better
(53:31):
count your sins more carefully. It's not what it's teaching.
It's just asking a real simple question. And now a
real simple question. Is this, which one of these camps
do you belong to? And as you answer, answer from
your life and not your lips to which camp do
you belong? How is your life characterized? Who are you?
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (54:07):
His as is evidenced by the fruit born in your
life as a result of the cleansing blood of Jesus
Christ being applied to you through repentance and faith or
are you not, which is evidenced by darkness being the
(54:29):
place where you're at ease and sin being something that
you don't very much like to confess. There's always an excuse,
there's always an answer, there's always a reason. It's never
just flat out, bald face I sin. I agree with God.
(54:50):
It's not the product of the way I was raised.
It's not just a preference. It's not just something that
I'm inclined to. It's not a disease. It is sin,
pure and simple, and it is ugly, and I hate
it because God hates it, and I'm bringing it to
the throne.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
That's how we act towards sin and the Kingdom of Light.
Let's buy
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!