First John 1:7-8 God is light and our fellowship with Him II

All right, what we're gonna do today is we're gonna read the first 10 verses of 1 John, and that's all the verses in 1 John. And our title today is, God is Light and Our Fellowship with Him, number two. Andrea did number one last week. Okay, verse one, that which was from the beginning, which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and our hands have handled, the word of life. parenthesis, for the life was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness and show unto you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Closed paragraph. That, close parenthesis, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that he also may have fellowship with us.

And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we've heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And if we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Wow, a lot of meat here, huh? All right. Let's begin to see what Andrew covered last week and see what we can conclude from the discussion that we had last week.

First of all, God's light versus darkness. What did we learn about that discussion? Don't everybody speak at once? Well, what we learned was that He is the light. right, which is declared throughout the Gospel of John and declared again in the Epistle of John. To lead on then, contrasting this to darkness, can someone be saved and walk present active, meaning now, in darkness? And we had a fairly vibrant discussion last week. Jim, what are your recollections of that discussion? Let me turn my mic on. A Christian can walk in dark. That doesn't mean he's not saved. Okay. Basically, that was the gist of it. Positionally, he's saved. You got your mic on, honey? It is on. Okay, good. Okay. Positionally, the person is saved.

But conditionally, we can all walk in darkness. We can turn our backs. We can go down the wrong road. But that doesn't mean we're not saved. Okay. What do we think of when we think of walking? Is that falling short at times? I mean, we're going to get to that today a little bit. No, it's not. It's the entire life that's reflecting darkness.

Does anybody know anybody like that? I do. Patty's shaking her head, David's shaking his head. Wayne doesn't know anybody like that. He just hangs around believers all the time, right? I don't know anybody that isn't like that. Are you putting a metric on performance? Is that what you're doing, Wayne? All right. So I think we answered that last week and Andrew coached us through that.

Can someone be saved and walk in darkness? The answer is yes. Although, you know, in terms of the contrast between light and darkness, that's black and white. And remember, John thinks in black and white a lot. So we got to put that in perspective. But yes, someone could come to salvation and totally ignore their faith for decades even. So it's possible. And the third question I have from last week, if so, what are the consequences of walking with darkness? It's a one-word answer. Fellowship. Fellowship. Loss of fellowship. Okay, three words, loss of fellowship.

All right, so we've summarized last week, so I think we're in good shape to take on verses 7 and 8. Jim, did you have another comment? It seemed like you wanted to say something. No, well, you know, I actually did think, you know, I really like what Zane We lost, we lost the church temporarily. Oh, Roy, yeah, did it freeze up on you too?

Yeah, uh-huh. Okay. Hopefully it'll not bad. The one thing I, Well, I'll wait and see if he can pop back before I say anything. Hopefully we'll get reconnected. Here it comes. Looks like they're trying. Oh, they are? Okay. I can see the breeze. There it is. Okay. Can you hear us? Can you hear us all right? Yep. Yes. Okay. Did you hear what Jim said? No. Jim, repeat it please. Okay. Zane Hodges was saying, can you still hear me now? Yeah. Can you hear him? Yes. Good. Go ahead Jim. Zane Hodges pointed out in his book, A better word to translate practice is to act consistently with the truth. We discussed this after the study last week.

To act consistently with the truth basically is to walk in the light, or to walk by the Spirit. Whereas if you act inconsistently with the truth, then you're not walking in the Spirit. Your fellowship is broken with God. Well, that's right, and I think that's really kind of a Sumerian comment about 1 John 1, the entire chapter. But, you know, I think this over-analysis of am I walking in the light or in darkness, we all want to walk in the light.

That's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in us, right? And we were talking, does any man say that he doesn't sin? We're going to come to that today. That's one of the topics before us. But nevertheless, we all fall short of times. We confess our sins as verse 9 says and we move on, right? We restore that fellowship we've lost by the darkness. But I I think what's implied here by the text is walking is a life that's full of darkness. I mean, it's a life that doesn't reflect the light in which we've been born again into. So, all right, good. So, Let's see, how can I get you guys off the screen here? So I guess I'm gonna have to go to the other screen. Okay, here we go.

So 1 John 1, 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. What does it mean if we walk? That's a third class condition, present subjunctive, or in the light. What does it mean if we walk in the light? Again, a life that's really based on the light in which we've been born again into. It might help Bob to know that these are all third class conditions here.

Yes. They are if and it is a if that it is possible or if and it could not be possible. Right. And one of the things grammatically is the we being used. is we're talking with believers. Those two key issues help us understand, I think. All right, good. That's a good answer. Thanks very much, Roy. Is this fellowship with God or is it with one another in the church?

What are your thoughts here? Both. I'll tell you, this is highly debated. I must have looked at five, six, seven commentaries here. Some people think because if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we lose fellowship with one another, that actually the relationship between the believer and God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many people who take that position. I would say the majority of people think it relates to both, but not just to one another like the church. So it's kind of interesting, and I decided not to share all these opinions because there's a mixed bag about how to interpret this.

I think it probably relates to both, since the first part of the verse says, as we walk in the light and he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. In the previous verse, you know, really related to our loss of fellowship, we walk in darkness. That's with the Lord. It's not with one another. Don't you think what it implies there If we walk in the light as He's in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. But if we aren't walking in the light with Him as He is light, we don't have fellowship with one another.

Well, that deals with the next question, Margaret, and you don't have the handout before you, but how does our fellowship with one another relate to verse 6? And exactly it says that, doesn't it? It says that if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth, right?

Other comments or thoughts about these series of questions? I'm putting the class to work today. I've got a lot of questions for you. Bob, do you have slides up? I do. You're not seeing them? Wayne, could you? I'm thinking of Wayne because he's in the back and kind of looking like he needs something to do back there. No, Bill, we'll get Bill to arrest you.

And now what I see on the screen as I see a picture of all you on the screen that blocks my handout on the right side of the screen. And I can't do anything about that. At least I'm not sure how to do anything about it. So bear with me a second as we continue with all the issues that come up here today. So the next bullet point on my slide says this, but what if we don't walk in the light as he is in the light?

Does the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanse us from all sin? It's a done deal. Well, you're a mature believer, right? You don't have to be a mature believer, because that's a fact. If you become a believer at age 10, and you're a believer, it's not complicated. All you have to do is believe that he's the son of God, and he saved you. That's all you have to believe. It's not complicated.

There are many people who are born-again believers who think they can lose their salvation. It's a lack of security. And many churches think, they're really preaching, you know, to some extent, the covenant theology breathes into that. That ultimately, you know, my walk is dependent on my salvation. If I'm not walking, if I walk in darkness, I'm not saved anymore. Hey, Nick.

After a period of time, yeah. They don't distinguish from that period of time either. Yeah, they can't see the slides. Can you see the slides now? It's a share of the screen, I think. No. Come on. Here we go. Not yet. I see a palm tree. There it goes. Now we got it. There you go. Yeah. Hey, Nick. To the rescue. Okay, so as I have at the bottom of the screen and this may be helpful a little bit, may not be, both is, the verb is and cleanses are present active indicative.

Is this important? Yeah, durative, isn't it? Is this important? What are the thoughts? The fact that this is present active means that if we don't walk in the light as he is in the light, does the blood of Jesus Christ, and by the way, Christ is in parentheses in the original translation, is Jesus, his son, which I think relates to his earthly time, does it still cleanse us from all sin? Margaret says yes, and I think we all agree with this, but what do you make about the present tense?

What's the theme of this section of scripture? fellowship. Yes, thank you, Roy. It's fellowship. So, when we're walking in darkness and and we ultimately are not walking in the light, we lose that fellowship. It's not that the sin isn't paid for. It's that our fellowship with the father is lost and I think in verse nine, we'll come to that in terms of having our when we confess our sins, we restore our fellowship. It doesn't change our position. as born-again believers in heavenly places. It simply relates that our sins are forgiven, but in our darkness we don't have that fellowship that continues.

Any comments or further thoughts about that? One of the things that we need to keep in mind is John walked with our Savior intimately. He knows intimately the fellowship with God. here on earth, manifest in the flesh. He's talking about that. He wants people to experience it and share that fellowship. I think that is the key to understanding all of the rest of the book. Well Roy, that's one reason I began with verse 1. This is someone he touched, and he felt, and he saw, and he listened to. Anyway, all the things that preceded this really relate to that earthly relationship that John had with the Lord Jesus Christ.

All right, let me go back to the other to advance this, okay. Hebert says, the standard and pattern of the walk is not left to believers to determine, but is determined by his nature as he himself is in the light. Kind of an interesting summary and kind of gets to the point. A few verses to kind of exemplify this.

Romans 6.10, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

First John 2.12 will come to that in the near future. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. And another verse, 1 Corinthians 6, 11, and such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God.

There's no question about the security of our salvation. So even though it says it in the present tense that our sins are not forgiven, that's our perception because of the lack of fellowship. Any other thoughts? All right, then why is cleanses in the present active tense, and I think we've discussed that, I'll go ahead. Is not this sanctification? What's the term sanctification mean? Set apart. Okay, set apart in the light, right? Light and darkness. We're set apart in light, not in darkness. Go ahead, Barbara. Well, I was just going to say, and it's an ongoing, continuous process, you know?

Let's look at some scripture here to support this. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. We're sanctified to our salvation. And by the way, a three-tenths verb of being saved. I was saved. We're being saved day in and day out, and we will be saved into the glory of the Lord.

John 12, 35, Then Jesus said to them, A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he's going. Nice prophecy there by the Lord himself. In other words, Ephesians 5, 8, for you were once darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. And so walk as the children of light. And 1 John 2, 6, he who says he abides in himself also to walk just as he walked. So again, this walk is really a process of sanctification that continues to make us exist in light and not in darkness. And sometimes we fall out of that. Yeah, go ahead.

But cleanses, I don't think, is sanctification, is it? Isn't cleanses, when he cleanses us from all sin, that's, that's That talks about salvation. Well, I'm talking about the walk now, dismissing cleansing. I think we covered that pretty well. Once saved, it's once and for all. Now we're talking about the walk, and the walk relates to light manifested in our lives versus darkness.

That's what I tried to say, that's the process of sanctification. And finally, one of my favorite verses, for me to live is Christ, right? And of course, there's another part there. One of the parallels we might find is in the foot washing, when our Lord washed the disciples' feet. That is a picture of this verse that you're dealing with, in that when we walk in the light, His blood continually cleanses us from our sins.

And that's where I think I introduced the term sanctification. We're constantly being sanctified or set apart in the light, versus the darkness that John relates to. I'm sorry, go ahead. But we don't even know it. I mean, we're sinning the sins we don't know about. He knows about them and he cleanses us of those. But the cleansing is a once-and-for-all deal. Our fellowship in the incorporation of that once-and-for-all event sometimes gets lost when we're in darkness. And I don't think we're schizophrenic and, gee, was that darkness or was that light?

You're led by the Holy Spirit to live and let the light be demonstrated. Gee, was that spirit led or not? I think you go crazy when you're doing that. We're called to walk in light. Roy, you had something else to say. The only thing I would add to that is that this is not position, this is condition. This is our walk. And in our walk, we get dirty feet. We need to be cleansed. That's an ongoing process, isn't it? It relates to our fellowship. Okay, let's go ahead. Get my pointer here. Then, what did Paul mean when he stated the following? Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. What did Paul mean by that? Some translations say be followers of me as I also am of Christ.

We had a long discussion Monday night at the Bible study about this. Why is this in Scripture, if in fact we have a new life in Christ Jesus? Well, Paul followed it by faith and believed the things that he understood about God. That was his condition, and that's what he's asking you to imitate, is to trust and believe what God has revealed about himself.

Perfect answer, Roy, that's where I wanted to take us here in this. The reason I brought this up is because Paul was just like us, an earthly body born in sin and saved by grace, right? Paul and I, we have a lot in common. But why has God put so much emphasis in Paul in terms of the foundation we have in New Testament teaching? he actually walked with Christ. His life was filled with light, was it not?

And that was by faith, as Roy said. We're called to live by faith that what God has revealed impacts us on a day-to-day basis. And imitating Paul is not to walk in Paul's shoes and be like him. And he's not walking in Jesus's shoes. He has a Christ based life. And that's, that's what this is best interpreted for. So I put that in not as a distraction, this kind of say, the human experience is not anything we need to pay attention to, we could look horizontally.

I think the Lord has given us Paul is a tremendous example of what the New Testament believer's life should look like. But that's not because Paul was in his flesh walking this path, or putting his feet in his Christ, footprints, but also his imitation of Christ is the Christ life that exists in each and every one of us.

And how's this process of sanctification going in each one of us? I think we can all ask that. We're not putting a metric on this in terms of measuring it. But ultimately, I think as we fellowship together, as we are in the Word of God, and we're not being sanctified, then something's wrong someplace. I mean, that's a process that we're all about. You know, Paul near the end of his life said, I'm the greatest among all sinners. Paul saying, well, he's just like us. We're all the greatest among all sinners as we see the lack of value that each of us bring individually. But we're saved by grace through faith. Okay, good. On to verse eight, are we ready for verse eight? Okay, if we say that we have no sin, boy, this is so incredibly important. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Why is this verse so very important? And again, think Paul. And remember, I said previously that the epistles of John are right before a revelation, or with Jude kind of interspaced, because I think to be founded in Paul is very critical before we read John. So why is this verse so important?

Well, I think- Because the sin nature has not been annihilated. then we have to realize that we still have a sin nature, and we do sin. Yeah, so I think it has a relationship then to those who think they could lose their salvation, right? Because they're walking really in darkness. They don't perceive that necessarily, but when they fall short, that's one impression they have.

Let's look at a few verses, and we can come back and discuss this further, and I think, Jim, you're on the right track. Romans 6, 5, and 6, we have been united together in the likeness of his death. Four, if we've been united together in likeness, it says, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, but the body of sin might be done away with, the body of sin, right? Our co-crucifixion, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. at 611 that follows this very importantly, likewise you also need to consider or reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's positional truth. I think what's lacking when in fact we, you know, need to really emphasize the importance of this verse is there are people who feel that they're one natures now that they've been born again, that Basically, those are bad habits. People say they aren't sins. Those are just habits. And ultimately, positional truth is absolutely their condition. What do they do with this verse then?

Yeah, I don't know what they do with it. They're discouraged. I mean, I've known believers through the years who they absolutely can't reconcile that they're really saved. Because if I'm really saved, why do I keep doing this sin over here that I'm trying to get rid of? I'm trying my best to not sin, but yet I'm still doing it. So I must not be saved. And it's like this vicious cycle. Margaret, that leads into my next bullet point here. Sin here is singular.

And it's a nature, not our past sins. We need to distinguish sins from the sin nature. And isn't that the foundation that we come to Hallelujah for, positional truth? And I think without an understanding of our position, we're gonna be flawed in our walk in light. Because our walk in light, the sanctification process is entirely contingent on being positioned at the right hand of God the Father.

And Bob, I think that one important fact here you just mentioned, this is sin singular noun, not a verb. It has to do with the nature of sin that we have. We can't deny that. Thanks, Roy. Okay, and you know, a verse that I've often mentioned in this class from other teachings over the years is that here is one of the solid, solid foundational verses in terms of our salvation. For He made Him who knew no sin, singular, to be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Lord, talk about a positional verse. He hath made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made righteous before him.

Isn't that great? All right, so Smith gives a comment on this, and I'll read this. The heresy of perfectionism, some might not say with the antinomians, that they were absolved from the obligation of the moral law, but they maintained that they were done with sin and had no more sinful propensities and committed no more sinful acts. And there are people who are one natures that I've heard actually teach on Christian radio years gone by that really think that the position is our condition and these things are just bad habits, like I mentioned earlier. No. The importance to understand, and in fact, what a comfort it is to know that the sin nature was crucified so that positionally secures us.

But that old man is still there. The sin nature is still there. And that kind of comforts you because if you're walking by metrics of performance and the flesh is what's doing it, that's like wood, hay, and stubble, don't you think? And so I think that's what John's building on. He's building on the theology that Paul has already established. And Bob, one important thing here is the verb action is that we possess sin here. I think that that is overlooked by many who look at this verse.

We possess a sin nature. If we say that we don't possess a sin nature, you know, that we're pure, that we're holy, that we're righteous now, that we're perfect. That's just contrary to reality. Well, right, Roy, and what it does is it allows us some comfort, doesn't it? I mean, we all have bad thoughts at times. We all have things we should have done that we didn't.

I mean, welcome to the earthly existence, but it's a soft pillow for a tired head to know that we've been made righteous in Him. and positionally we're in place. That doesn't license the sins that we do from the sin nature, but they're forgiven and when we confess them, as we're gonna cover next week, ultimately we have fellowship restored. Yes, Wayne. That's because we are a new creation, brand new, not just a fixed up old creation. Amen. We're a brand new creation.

You know, if you're seeing it fixed up on there, I mean, you'll sort of fixed up. I'm also teased with Mike about this and that if you show up in an emergency room and you're seen being seen for psychiatric issues, and you tell the psychiatrist, no, that was my old nature, not my new nature. This could not go over too well. That guy works on the flesh.

Well, that's true. Margaret and I last night, just kind of a rabbit trail here for a second, she wanted me to watch What About Bob. Does anybody remember that? Bob's psychiatrist became the psychiatric patient, actually. But anyway, hold on, I'm sorry. It was kind of a fun, fun thing to watch. I love that movie. Of course she tells me all the time, what about Bob? As if I'm supposed to identify with this psychiatric patient. It's sort of like Weekend with Bernie.

So what should we make here about the truth not being in us? Well, in truth, We're, you know, our sin has been taken care of. So if we continue to, you know, sin, then the truth, that's not who we are. And we're not living out who we are. I would extend that to say it's a poor understanding of our positional relationship. in addition to what you said, Margaret. So let me quote. This is a long quote from our friend, Garby. So I'll take a minute here. We walk thus in the light.

The moral rule of our will is God himself, God known. The thoughts that sway the heart come from himself and are formed upon the revelation of himself. The apostle puts these things always in an abstract way. Thus he says, he cannot sin because he is born of God. And that maintains the moral rule of this life. It is its nature. It is the truth inasmuch as the man is born of God.

We cannot have any other measure of it. Any other would be false. It does not follow, alas, that we are always consistent, but we are inconsistent if we are not in this state. We are not walking according to the nature that we possess. We are out of our true condition according to that nature. So a lot of words to say what we've been saying, basically. When we think of this, perhaps it would help, and maybe you can correct me if this is not clear, that this should be read, the truth is not in us, is the way my version reads there. Would it not be true, based on what John has already said, The truth is not abiding in us. It doesn't have its home in us anymore.

We're lying to ourselves. Yeah, I think that's good, Roy. The truth not being in us, I think, relates to the circumstances that John is describing here. Yes. So it's like he wants you to remember what he's already said. Yes. Yes. It's like a shorthand of speaking or something.

Well, because Roger's enjoying his cruise in the Caribbean, he's not here to remind me that we need to quit. So I'm going to go on for a few more minutes. We love you, Roger, Bonnie. Anyway, so we're not going to spend much additional time. But you know, one thing that comes up about our sin nature and sins, the thing I mentioned to Margaret briefly coming down that, you know, But what about the pride of life?

And 1 John 2.16 deals with this. We'll be coming to this. But for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father. but of the world. Think about this as a sin that we don't even think about being a sin.

And you see it all the time, people defending themselves and their position or their acts or their deeds, not necessarily thinking they're doing anything other than building up their own ego, their earthly ego. And I have a few more verses that I'm gonna share with you and see what your thoughts are.

Galatians 6.3, for if anyone thinks of himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

1 Corinthians 4.7, for who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if you didn't receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? Oh, boy. So, anyway, I just am bringing that up.

You know, we're self-serving in a lot of ways, sometimes unconsciously, aren't we? But the fact that John will consider the lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh, that covers a lot, lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh, but the pride of life. And it's a dangerous shortcoming of walking in the light is the pride of life, kind of the self-serving, you know, pleasing the world and the world around us. And I must admit, it's something that the Spirit needs to continue to conduct itself in terms of bringing glory to ourselves and not to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet the truth is perceived for who it is. And who it is, is ultimately in 3 John 1, 3. For I rejoice greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. And so what's the truth? Jesus Christ is the truth.

Everything is about him. And Margaret, why don't you share what Tom shared with you on the phone yesterday about the Old Testament and the New Testament. Yeah, Tom called yesterday. He was so cute. And he said, I just have one thing to say to you. I want you to pass it on to Bob. I said, OK, OK. He said, get a pen. You've got to write it down.

He said, the Old Testament is the concealed, is the concealment of the New Testament. And the New Testament is the reflection of the revelation of the Old Testament. But it's all about Jesus Christ. We see him in Genesis, don't we, and we see him all the way to the end of Revelation.

So I didn't ask him if that was his own thought. Tom's conversations are quite brief. I know a few other people's who are not so brief actually. This was on his mind and so he wanted to just let you know right now what that was. He was so cute. All right, well, thanks for being with us this morning. Any final comments about these two verses today? Really critically important verses. Of course, welcome to scripture, right? Yeah.

Hey Bob, I have just quick question is in verse eight, and I don't know if you looked at it or Roy knows, but is there a, then a, if we say we have no sin, is there a definite article in front of sin? If we have, if we say we have no the sin, that's an interesting. I don't recall that I looked at that, Andrew, but I put it in context to say that it's the sin nature, if we say. The nature, yeah, which would put a definite article there, I think.

I'll look at it, too, but that's interesting. Roy, do you have a comment on that? Do you have your Bible open to the Greek? No, I don't at the moment. It would take me a few minutes to find it, I'm sorry. We'll do it as homework this week and get back to each other next week. Simple homework, anyway. Thanks, Andrew. Who's teaching next week? I didn't look at the schedule. I think it's me. I'm teaching on the most famous verse probably in the Bible, right? And it's a challenge because everyone knows it so well. So Andrew, in terms of who's teaching next week, you need to be walking in the light, not darkness.