Pastor Nate continues his study through the bible in the book of 1 John.
[00:00:04] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey podcast.
[00:00:07] Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit
[00:00:11] NateHoldridge.com for additional Bible teaching from our senior pastor,
[00:00:16] Nate Holdridge.
[00:00:18] One of my least favorite spaces on earth is the crawl space above our garage.
[00:00:27] That's one of my least favorite spaces. Partly because I'm not a small person
[00:00:32] and to try to rummage around up there, you know, it's just difficult for me. Also,
[00:00:36] there's no ventilation there whatsoever and it's right up against the roof. So if you go in there
[00:00:41] at the wrong time of day, I run hot already. So to get up there, it's just a hard experience.
[00:00:47] But it's a useful space as long as you bring a light with you.
[00:00:51] You know, we can store lots of things there and, you know, we put all our
[00:00:54] decorations throughout the year there and I usually try to have them lined up.
[00:00:58] You know, there's the spring decorations, the fall decorations, the Christmas decorations
[00:01:05] that just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year.
[00:01:08] But you know, as we go through the different seasons, I'll pack everything up and it's my
[00:01:13] job to go up into that attic or that crawl space and take the stuff down that we need
[00:01:17] and put the stuff that we don't need for that season back up. And it's real clear that I
[00:01:22] don't like going up there because sometimes there will be boxes sitting on the floor of
[00:01:26] the garage for two or three or four months waiting for the time where I feel conditions are perfect
[00:01:32] for me to go up into that crawl space. But like I said, it's useful as long as there's a light,
[00:01:39] as long as I bring a light. If there's no light, there's no natural light in that space and so
[00:01:45] it serves no purpose. But once things are revealed, once things are seen, once I can look at
[00:01:51] the labels of boxes and begin moving things around, it's a useful space. I tell that story because
[00:01:59] John in this portion of the letter makes a big announcement about God. He says,
[00:02:05] God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now the reason he said that is very clear.
[00:02:15] There were false teachers that were floating around in his era who said that they were
[00:02:20] in fellowship with God. They said that they were enjoying God. They said that they were in spiritual
[00:02:27] union and in relationship with the living God. Now remember why John said he wanted to write this
[00:02:33] letter. Last week we saw it in the first four verses. He said, I want to tell you about the real
[00:02:38] Jesus. People are telling you about fake Jesus. I want to tell you about the real Jesus that
[00:02:42] I saw, I touched, I heard, I walked with, I lived my life with. And he said the reason I
[00:02:47] want to tell you about the true Jesus is so that you can connect to the apostles, not these
[00:02:53] false teachers, but so that you can connect to us and the truth that we're dispensing
[00:02:58] so that you can have a real relationship with the real God. Not the one that these
[00:03:05] false teachers are promoting. And he said, and I know that if that happens, then our joy
[00:03:12] will be complete. Our joy will be full. So really John is writing this to us so that
[00:03:17] we can know the real Jesus, be walking with the real God as revealed in scripture so that we can have
[00:03:24] total and complete joy in this life of ours. But the false teachers would have said, well John,
[00:03:31] you're going to tell your audience about walking with God, about enjoying God. But we
[00:03:37] enjoy God. We are walking with God. And for that reason, John wants to talk for a second here in
[00:03:44] verse five about who God is. You see, they had an improper understanding of who God even is in the
[00:03:52] first place. And he felt if he could show them who God is, that God is light and in him is no
[00:03:57] darkness at all, it would change completely their relationship with the living God. And so
[00:04:05] the first thing that we see in this passage is that God is light. Now notice in verse five, the way
[00:04:11] he says it though, he doesn't just say of his own accord, Hey, here's something I want to tell you,
[00:04:17] I've discovered that God is light. No, he says in verse five, this is the message we have heard
[00:04:23] from him and proclaimed to you. What he's saying is that he learned from Jesus that God
[00:04:31] is light. Now, if you took a Bible concordance or you went online and you began to search or you
[00:04:37] opened your Bible app and started searching for the phrase God is light, expecting to find it in Matthew,
[00:04:44] Mark, Luke or John, you wouldn't find it. Jesus, we don't have any record at least of him saying
[00:04:50] the words or giving the teaching God is light and Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Now it's
[00:04:55] possible that Jesus did say it. John himself said at the close of his Gospel, the last chapter
[00:05:03] of the Gospel of John, he said the things that Jesus did, the life that he lived, the whole world
[00:05:10] is not big enough to contain the books that could have been written about his life. So it's
[00:05:15] very possible that there was a point where Jesus sat his disciples down and taught them and said,
[00:05:19] here's something you need to know about God. God is light. But I think it's probable that what John
[00:05:26] is talking about is not what Jesus said but the life that Jesus lived. You see in the Bible,
[00:05:33] light is used in two very distinct ways. First of all, light is used to describe that which
[00:05:40] illuminates what was previously darkened. Listen to a couple of verses like these, Psalm 119,
[00:05:49] verse 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path or John chapter 1, verse 4 and 5,
[00:05:59] in him Jesus was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and
[00:06:05] the darkness has not overcome it. Or one more, John 12 verse 46, I have come into the world as light
[00:06:13] so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. And all of those uses of light that I
[00:06:20] just read to you are talking about how there's something there about God either in his word or
[00:06:27] in his presence that reveals us, shows us the truth, shows us the way that we should go,
[00:06:33] or shows us the darker corners of our lives, the darker corners of our hearts. His presence
[00:06:39] reveals us so to speak. But another way that light is used throughout the Bible is to talk
[00:06:47] about the reason why God's presence reveals us, that he is holy, that he is righteous,
[00:06:54] that he is so pure that it is the emanating of light that comes from him. One passage that
[00:07:00] you see this is actually in the book of Revelation where a description is given of heaven and it tells
[00:07:06] us that in heaven there's no need for sun or moon because God himself and the Lamb himself,
[00:07:13] they provide the light. In other words, the glory, the holiness that emanates from them
[00:07:19] will illuminate that very real space. So have those ideas about light in your mind when you
[00:07:25] read that God is light? It's as if what John is saying is that as he lived with this front row seat
[00:07:35] watching Jesus, he just discovered the truth that God is light. He'd watch Jesus walk into a room of
[00:07:44] people and he'd watch people's hearts exposed as Jesus interacted with them. He'd listen to Jesus'
[00:07:51] teaching and he'd watch the truth become revealed as Jesus opened his mouth and he'd watch Jesus'
[00:08:00] actions the way he treated the religious leaders or the way that he treated sinners and tax collectors
[00:08:06] and he'd see the heart of God revealed as he watched the life of Jesus. I think that John with
[00:08:12] this front row seat to Jesus just came to the conclusion God is light and in him is no darkness
[00:08:22] at all. In other words, for John he felt that a walk with God just completely exposed the person
[00:08:30] who was walking with God. He felt that a walk with God would reveal cracks in the armor, would
[00:08:36] reveal fleshly and sinful tendencies and would draw a person into deeper holiness. And when he
[00:08:44] looked at the false teachers, he did not see those attributes. He saw people who wanted to persist
[00:08:50] in sin. He saw people who wanted to persist in walking in the darkness. And so his conclusion
[00:08:56] was that they were not walking with God who is light. And so he announces to them,
[00:09:01] hey you guys need to know about God. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now I just want
[00:09:10] to say this because as we go through this passage, we're going to discover that there are dangers
[00:09:18] to resisting the light of God. There are going to be three teachings that John is going to
[00:09:26] reference. He's going to start each one of them by saying if we say it's kind of this passage is
[00:09:31] kind of like a preacher's dream because the outline is already there for you because three times he's
[00:09:36] going to say if we say and then he'll give the claim that these false teachers make and then he'll
[00:09:41] say the result of living that way. Now before we look at the phrases or the assertions they
[00:09:48] made, I want to put on the screen for you the results of living this way. First of all,
[00:09:54] notice in verse 6 of chapter 1, one result of buying into the lie or resisting God's light is he says we
[00:10:02] lie and do not practice the truth. In other words, our life is incongruent. It's like your
[00:10:14] relationship with others is in the dark. You're lying to others if you walk in the dark yet
[00:10:20] you have a relationship with God. But also in verse 8 he says even further he says we deceive
[00:10:27] ourselves if we could put verse 8 up there, 1 John 1 verse 8, we deceive ourselves and the truth
[00:10:34] is not in us. So in the first one we're lying to others but in the second one we are deceiving
[00:10:40] ourselves so we're corrupting relationships with others but we're also corrupting our
[00:10:45] relationship with ourselves. I'm sure it's not hard for you to imagine or even just call to mind a
[00:10:50] person that you know who is walking in the darkness and they're walking in a self-deception. They can't
[00:10:56] even see the error of their ways. They can't even see the negative effect they're having on other
[00:11:01] people. And then thirdly in verse 10 he says to live this way is to make God or make him
[00:11:10] a liar. It's to accuse God of being a liar. So what you see there is that to resist God as the one
[00:11:17] who is light and to refuse to walk with God as the great revealer, the great holy one,
[00:11:23] what it does is it puts you in a position where you're harming your relationship
[00:11:28] with others, you're harming your relationship with yourself and you're harming your relationship
[00:11:34] with God. It's far better to just walk in the light with God where he is and to let honesty
[00:11:41] and introspection and truth come into your life and that's what we're going to look at in this
[00:11:46] passage. So I hope I'm selling it big time that it is good for us to know that God is light in
[00:11:52] him is no darkness at all and to walk with him as such. Alright so because of that let's just
[00:11:58] think about three things. What are the three things that John is going to show us that God's
[00:12:03] light can produce in our lives if we'll let him? Number one it's this. God's light produces
[00:12:11] fellowship and sanctification. Let's read verse six and seven together where we get this truth.
[00:12:17] He says, you guys with me read verse six and seven with me put your head down.
[00:12:23] Look at your Bible. I know they'll put it on the screen too but he says if we say we have
[00:12:28] fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth. That's the
[00:12:34] first claim that these people made. They were saying they had fellowship with God but they were
[00:12:39] also simultaneously walking in darkness so they were saying you know hey we're good us and God
[00:12:48] we're good but their life was a life of darkness so John says if we do that we lie and do
[00:12:54] not practice the truth. But verse seven if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have
[00:13:01] fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin so the
[00:13:08] result of walking in the light is that we actually have fellowship with each other
[00:13:13] and then we get the cleansing effect of the blood of Jesus upon our lives. We'll talk about
[00:13:19] that in a moment but notice first John talks here about those who walk in darkness. I want to define
[00:13:25] this for a second because some of John's statements to be honest can be rather scary at first glance.
[00:13:32] You know you might think of the person who walks in darkness as opposite to the person whose life
[00:13:39] is morally perfect but that's not how John sees things. Later in this very passage John is
[00:13:45] going to teach us that though we have the opportunity to have victory over sin he fully expects that there
[00:13:51] will be moments in our lives where we stumble, where we're not successful in the battle against
[00:13:57] temptation. And in those moments he's going to tell us to confess our sins to the Lord.
[00:14:02] He's going to tell us we have an advocate to the Father or with the Father Jesus Christ
[00:14:08] the righteous. So in John's mind when he says look there are people out there who say they
[00:14:13] have friendship with God but they're actually walking in darkness. He's not talking about people who from
[00:14:18] time to time fall to temptation. No he's talking about people whose habit and practice is to be
[00:14:25] out of the light of God. They're living a life of rebellion against the Lord. I think you could
[00:14:31] say it like this, this person that he's describing they have tried as hard as they can to turn
[00:14:38] off the light of God. You think about the light of God how does God illuminate a life?
[00:14:47] His word is one way that he illuminates a life so a person walking in darkness they want nothing
[00:14:52] to do with God's word. They twist it and turn it. They manipulate it to say what they wanted to
[00:14:58] say. They refuse to read it honestly and genuinely they don't like listening to it taught
[00:15:04] and proclaimed they tried to get the Bible out of their lives. Another thing that God does to give
[00:15:12] his light to human beings is he produces Christian fellowship. I mean sometimes it's like our
[00:15:18] relationship to each other it's like walking around with a bunch of mirrors. Have you ever had
[00:15:23] that experience where you're with a bunch of believers that are they love the Lord they're
[00:15:27] doing well and they're just talking about their lives and it's like what they're talking about
[00:15:32] is a mirror to your own soul. You're seeing yourself in a different way as you look at the way that they
[00:15:39] are walking with the living God but this person doesn't want that light so they remove themselves
[00:15:46] from fellowship maybe at first in an emotional or mental kind of way but then eventually in a
[00:15:52] physical way they remove themselves from true Christian fellowship and another way that God's
[00:15:58] light likes to shine in a human's life is when we pray when we cry out to God but a person who's
[00:16:04] walking in darkness they find an ineffectiveness in their life of prayer because there's a lack of
[00:16:09] honesty before the living God. This life John says he calls it in verse six a lie it's a sad
[00:16:18] myth of a life to say I have fellowship with God yet to walk in darkness now hopefully I've
[00:16:24] just freaked you out about that kind of life because in verse seven we get the better side of
[00:16:29] things he says if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship and that means
[00:16:36] with each other and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sin. Now to walk in the light
[00:16:42] like I said it's not a moral perfection you know it's not that somebody lives a life that is
[00:16:48] totally perfect on this side of eternity but it does mean that we live in a way that we're allowing
[00:16:55] the light of God to shine into our lives where we're letting the word of God expose the weaknesses
[00:17:01] that are there the sinful tendencies where we're allowing Christian fellowship to shape us
[00:17:06] and mold us and other people who we know and trust are able to speak into our lives
[00:17:11] and where we're crying out to the Lord praying to him asking that he would cleanse us and
[00:17:16] shape us. But let me just say like this I think it is miserable to walk in the darkness.
[00:17:24] There's many examples of this in the Bible but one example that comes to mind is
[00:17:31] from the book of Joshua when the people of Israel went and battled against Jericho.
[00:17:37] God had promised the land of Canaan to the people of Israel and he also was using the
[00:17:43] people of Israel to judge the citizens of Canaan for long decades worth of abhorrent practices that
[00:17:52] they would not repent of. And so God sent his people into the promised land being led by Joshua.
[00:17:58] One thing that God said to them he said look all of this belongs to you and you can have all of
[00:18:02] their houses and livestock and all their garments and possessions and all of that but
[00:18:08] the first city that I give to you, the first victory that I win for you, you don't get any of that.
[00:18:14] It all belongs to me. It's supposed to be consecrated to me and offering to me. So they went in,
[00:18:23] God gave them a victory over Jericho but there was a man named Achan who didn't like the command
[00:18:29] of God. And as they were going through the ruins of Jericho he saw a Babylonian garment and he
[00:18:34] saw a wedge of gold and he took them for himself and he hid them inside of his tent. Now eventually
[00:18:42] Achan was caught, the Lord pointed out his sin and actually his sin held back the nation of Israel
[00:18:48] from further victory for a period of time. It wasn't until he was outed that they began to have
[00:18:55] victory again but I just imagine Achan living in absolute misery during that time that he
[00:19:01] was walking in darkness. I imagine him going to his life group for example and people asking him,
[00:19:07] you know, hey Achan how's it going in your life? How's your walk with God? You know what's happening?
[00:19:13] I imagine him sitting there with his Babylonian jacket on and everybody's looking at him like
[00:19:18] where'd you get that and just feeling miserable about where his life was at. I imagine him
[00:19:25] wanting so badly to get back into the light. You see that life in darkness it breaks fellowship
[00:19:32] with other believers. That's why he says when you come into the light, you have fellowship. We have
[00:19:37] fellowship with one another. That clean life, that life in the light, it allows us to walk
[00:19:43] with each other but notice also he says there in verse 7, the blood of Jesus his son cleanses
[00:19:50] us from all sin. Now all through this passage what John is talking about is sanctification.
[00:19:57] He's not implying that to walk in the light somehow earns your salvation. He's not saying
[00:20:04] that walking in the light saves us but he means that it sanctifies us. In other words in John's
[00:20:10] view of things and the New Testament view of things people who are believers they are
[00:20:14] positionally clean before God but to walk in the light gives us practical experience of God's cleansing
[00:20:21] in this life that we're in. And we should have this hope, this hope that since walking in the
[00:20:29] darkness damages our relationship with others that we should crave this cleansing of sin so
[00:20:35] that it can produce victory in our lives. There's a little verse that I like from Proverbs
[00:20:40] 4 verse 18. It says this, it says, but the path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn
[00:20:47] which shines brighter and brighter until the full day. His way of describing a righteous life
[00:20:55] is he says it's like the first half of the day. You know the sun comes up and it continues to
[00:21:02] rise and the righteous life is like that. So for us the way we could think about it is
[00:21:09] when you first got saved it was like the dawning of the day. You know the light began to shine.
[00:21:17] The Lord was working in your life but things weren't still fully seen or revealed but then the sun
[00:21:23] continues to rise and the sun continues to reveal and shadows begin to run and flee.
[00:21:30] But then when the sun is at full strength that speaks of, he's saying, that full glorification,
[00:21:37] that full walk with the Lord, that life that says, man look this is what God has done inside of my life.
[00:21:43] And of course we know that this will fully come when Jesus appears. John said in 1 John 3 verse 2
[00:21:50] and we know that when he appears we'll be like him because we will see him as he is. But that's
[00:21:57] where we're going. We're going to the full day, the full noon day sun where we're just like
[00:22:04] Jesus pure and clean and practically as well as positionally of course holy like he is. But our
[00:22:11] walk with him today is producing that in our lives. Okay what else does God's light produce?
[00:22:17] Secondly, number two, God's light produces a chain reaction of grace. It produces a chain
[00:22:26] reaction of grace. Let me show you what I'm talking about in verse 8 and 9. It says,
[00:22:31] if we say we have no sin, remember that phrase he's already used it in verse 6. If we say we have
[00:22:36] no sin here's the second one. If we say, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the
[00:22:45] truth is not in us. If we confess our sins verse 9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
[00:22:52] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Just an absolutely beautiful verse. All right so
[00:22:58] he mentions in verse 8 a claim that these false teachers made. Some of them went around saying
[00:23:06] not just that they had friendship with God though they were walking in darkness but here secondly
[00:23:11] they say we have no sin. Now I don't know if you've ever known anybody like this
[00:23:18] but it's a really frustrating experience. You are never right, you are always wrong
[00:23:26] when a person feels this way about themselves. This person, we don't know exactly what it was that
[00:23:34] these people were claiming they might have been saying that they thought that they could somehow
[00:23:38] become morally perfect. I think it's probable that an early Gnostic error had come into the church
[00:23:46] and in Gnosticism you would say we have a deeper knowledge of things and one thing that we
[00:23:51] know is that God does not care about the physical but only the spiritual. So probably these people
[00:23:57] were going around saying we're doing things in the physical realm that you might call sins but
[00:24:02] God doesn't care about them. In the spiritual realm we have no sin and we're good with God
[00:24:09] but whatever it was they were saying we have no sin. And in our day of course
[00:24:15] we might not say the same exact thing but we have other creative ways for denying we have a
[00:24:22] sin problem. One thing we like to do is reclassify or soften words that describe sin. So adultery
[00:24:31] becomes cheating or to be greedy is to be a penny pincher or to have sex with your girlfriend
[00:24:39] is to sleep with your girlfriend. And there are all kinds of different things that we do to sort of
[00:24:44] soften what sin actually is and we also like to defend or excuse our sin. We say things like
[00:24:52] nobody's perfect after all or in comparison to them or I'm no Hitler or things like that
[00:25:00] and we definitely don't want to call it sin in this age that we're living in.
[00:25:05] We don't like passages like Romans 3 verse 9 to 11 where Paul said all both Jews and Greeks are
[00:25:12] under sin. As it is written no one is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God.
[00:25:22] This person was denying all of these truths. They would not believe that they had a sin problem
[00:25:30] but when you're walking with God who is light you're just going to come face to face with the
[00:25:36] reality that you do struggle with sin. And when that happens what do you do? Well he sells us in
[00:25:44] verse 9. He says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
[00:25:53] and it cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Now I love this from John. This is so filled with hope.
[00:26:00] He just announces to us look you can't say that you have no sin and when you're walking with God
[00:26:06] and his light reveals sin in your life here's what you should do with it he says you must confess
[00:26:12] your sins. Now the idea of this passage is that we should confess our sins to God. And the
[00:26:19] reason that it's that's the idea is because he then goes on to say because God is faithful and just
[00:26:25] to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God here is the target
[00:26:31] of our confession. Now some of you might be sitting here saying to yourself I can handle that because
[00:26:36] if I have to confess to somebody else the stuff I've been doing that just freaks me out but
[00:26:42] I'll talk to God in private about it and that'll kind of be as far as it goes. But James
[00:26:47] does not let us off the hook so easily. He says in his book chapter 5 verse 16 therefore confess
[00:26:55] your sins to one another and pray for one another. In fact it's at times our confession
[00:27:04] to other believers that helps us to actually walk in the light in the first place and then
[00:27:10] have the accountability to stay in the light to say this is what I'm struggling with this is
[00:27:15] what I'm battling with this is what's going on in my life but here John is saying we should confess
[00:27:20] our sins to God. He also means that we should confess the sins that are discovered are known
[00:27:27] sins. I mean the reality is I could never confess every sin that I've ever committed.
[00:27:35] I don't even think it would be possible for me to confess every sin that I've committed
[00:27:40] just today. I mean the reality is there's things that I just don't even know that I've done.
[00:27:46] There's things that haven't even come across my radar yet but when we know that we've committed it
[00:27:53] when we know that we've entered into it we must confess it before the Lord. We must
[00:27:59] have courage call it a sin and tell God that we hate what we've done and if we do
[00:28:05] He's faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now like I've been saying this
[00:28:11] doesn't mean that you're forgiven positionally for the very first time. You know if you discover a sin
[00:28:17] you confess it you get saved and then a new sin you confess it you get saved again. Then a new
[00:28:24] sin you confess it you get saved again and on and on we go in a process of losing your salvation
[00:28:31] and then getting your salvation back again. That's not what John is talking about. Now in his mind
[00:28:36] he's talking about becoming more like Jesus a person that's already positionally forgiven receiving
[00:28:43] the practical cleansing of their lives so that they become more like Christ forgiven and cleansed
[00:28:50] from all unrighteousness. Now you might be scared to confess your sin to the Lord
[00:28:57] but I don't think we have any reason to fear. I remember when I was a little boy
[00:29:04] there was this time you know you're a little kid you're confused about things you don't
[00:29:07] understand how much stuff is worth and I remember this one time I was playing in our
[00:29:11] backyard and I was goofing around on one of the trees that was in our yard a kind of a center
[00:29:17] piece kind of tree and I was goofing around doing something I shouldn't do and one of the
[00:29:22] main branches it was a smaller tree I ripped it off you know just my body weight just tore it off
[00:29:27] and I felt so badly and I kind of hid what I did I can't remember how I hid it I might have just
[00:29:32] put it like back in the tree you know hoping that nobody would notice. And then a separate
[00:29:38] incident happened about a month later where I was playing again and and I broke a clay pot that
[00:29:45] was in my mother's garden and I was pretty sure that that clay pot probably cost her about a million
[00:29:50] dollars you know and I felt really badly about but I did the same thing I kind of put it back
[00:29:55] together again and turned it so you couldn't notice and just walked away and about a month later
[00:30:01] I remember my mom saying to me and I and I felt terrible about this I had a tender little
[00:30:06] conscience I would look out the window into the yard and see if anybody was near the pot you
[00:30:10] know I mean I just felt terrible I was in I was in walking in real darkness and it just was bad
[00:30:17] for my walk with the Lord but my mom said to me one day she said hey Nathan I found this broken pot
[00:30:23] in the yard did you break this pot you know and I just thought oh man here it is she's found out
[00:30:29] I'm gonna be grounded till college like this is gonna be horrible and but I admitted it I said yeah
[00:30:36] I did it and she said well and I and I just was crying and she's like well that's fine
[00:30:43] it's no big deal I forgive you and when I saw how cool she was about it I just immediately said
[00:30:48] and I also broke the branch in the tree I saw that she was predisposed to give grace to give
[00:30:58] forgiveness look when we look at the cross of Jesus Christ what what should we see we should see the
[00:31:04] predisposition of God to forgive the predisposition of God to cleanse
[00:31:11] so when we come across sin in our relationship with the Lord as his light shines upon our lives
[00:31:18] we should not be afraid of confessing our sin to him but don't make excuses for yourself
[00:31:24] won't try to make yourself seem better than you really are on the side of God he's not fooled by
[00:31:29] any of that stuff just be honest with him and say Lord I confess this to you would you cleanse
[00:31:36] me would you wash my life would you help me all right let's look at the last thing that God's light
[00:31:44] can produce number three God's light produces real help for everyone produces real help
[00:31:55] for everyone you know we've already seen that walking with God honestly truthfully in the
[00:32:00] light it produces fellowship with other Christians and it produces cleansing sanctification from the
[00:32:07] Lord and then we've also seen that walking in the light it produces a chain reaction of grace you
[00:32:15] know where you're walking with God something in his word or something in a sermon or something in
[00:32:21] an interaction with another Christian or in your prayer life it just helps you see okay here's
[00:32:27] here's where I've been walking in error an attitude I've had that isn't right or a judgmental spirit
[00:32:32] I've had and it just starts this chain reaction of God's grace where there's his light he reveals it
[00:32:38] you then confess it and he starts cleansing you from that thing and that judgmental spirit as
[00:32:44] an example it just decreases it grows less and less and you're gaining victory in your life
[00:32:50] but a third thing here is that God's light produces real help real actual help for everyone
[00:32:57] let's read about it in verse 10 all the way through verse 2 of chapter 2 he says if we say
[00:33:03] we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us now here's the third claim
[00:33:13] you know if we say and this claim is we have not sinned first person says you know I'm walking in
[00:33:22] darkness but I but I have God I'm walking with God but they're in darkness the second person says
[00:33:28] I don't have any sin and this person says we have not sinned maybe they mean the same thing as
[00:33:35] the previous people maybe it's a there's some nuance to it maybe they're claiming that they
[00:33:41] had no sin nature or maybe they're saying yeah I do have a sin nature but I won't act out on it
[00:33:46] I'll walk in complete victory but again experiencing people like this is difficult
[00:33:56] God's word is not in them they're accusing God of being a liar they're saying God might say that I
[00:34:03] have a struggle with sin but it's not true well John says no you make him a liar your his word
[00:34:10] is not inside of you you see God says things like this all throughout his word passages like 1st
[00:34:16] Corinthians 10 verse 13 which says no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man
[00:34:23] God is faithful and he'll not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he
[00:34:28] will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it verses like this are all over
[00:34:33] the New Testament it's implied throughout them that temptation is a very real experience that
[00:34:40] Christians go through and that they actually have the capacity to enter in to the temptation
[00:34:47] I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to any of us but these people were saying no I disagree with
[00:34:53] God I have no sin they're making God a liar his word is not in them so John says in verse 1 of
[00:34:59] chapter 2 my little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin but
[00:35:07] if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous he is the
[00:35:13] propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world
[00:35:24] it seems that at this point John felt that he needed to make something really clear
[00:35:31] because here he is saying look you can't say that you don't have sin
[00:35:36] you can't say that you don't struggle with sin and the thing there was a little bit of hesitation in
[00:35:41] this heart like okay they're hearing me I'm saying even Christians are going to battle with sin
[00:35:48] in this life I think he was a little bit worried that his readers might say to themselves okay
[00:35:54] man John's making a really big deal about how we're gonna struggle with sin it's gonna be
[00:35:58] there it's gonna be a battle we're gonna be tempted and sometimes we're gonna give into
[00:36:03] it and we need to confess it to the Lord when we do and I think maybe he's kind of sitting there
[00:36:08] going they might get the wrong idea that I'm kind of saying like hey it's just what we do
[00:36:15] and that the readers might say like man John really thinks we're gonna sin a lot so like let's
[00:36:20] let's let's back him up on his belief let's go to Vegas you know like let's do the thing
[00:36:27] that he thinks we're gonna do so much of so he makes it clear he says look little children
[00:36:34] you know like a father he speaks to them and says I'm writing these things to you so that you may not
[00:36:39] sin you see John believes like Paul like James like others he believes in the power of the cross
[00:36:49] of Christ he believes that Jesus Christ through his death burial and resurrection sets a person
[00:36:56] free from sin that he pays the penalty and then endures upon them a new nature and gives to them
[00:37:03] his holy spirit so John is confident that though there will be temptation and though we will
[00:37:09] struggle and though we will from time to time slip into sin he believes that we can more
[00:37:16] and more ever increasingly gain victory over the flesh that's why he says it this way I'm writing
[00:37:23] these things to you so that you may not sin I want to help you enjoy the freedom that Jesus Christ
[00:37:29] won for you he believed that victory is possible but then I just love John because in the same
[00:37:36] breath he says but if anyone does sin you know it's just so grace-filled look I'm writing to
[00:37:43] you so that you won't sin I'm writing to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin
[00:37:51] like we don't need to take a show of hands today but we've all felt this and there's victory in Jesus
[00:37:59] I'm free in Jesus we sing songs like we did today about my chains are gone you know they've
[00:38:05] they fled they're not on me anymore I've been set free and then we go pick up our kids from
[00:38:11] children's ministry and they ask for something nine times in a row without us answering and we
[00:38:16] snap back at them and we realize man I thought I was free but man this is a real problem in my life
[00:38:24] so John with such grace says I'm writing so that you would not sin but if you do
[00:38:30] here's what you have you have an advocate he says with the father Jesus Christ the righteous
[00:38:38] that word advocate is a word that could be used to say lawyer we have we have a lawyer on our side
[00:38:46] who is fighting for us and defending us who is stating our case now I don't want you to get a
[00:38:51] wrong idea about what's happening when you hear that word lawyer because you might think of God
[00:38:58] the righteous judge seated upon his bench in his courtroom predisposed to drop
[00:39:07] a sentence down upon us but Jesus interceding for us is saying oh father please don't bring that into
[00:39:15] our lives but what we have to remember and this is made possible by the doctrine of the trinity or
[00:39:21] the triunity of God is that you cannot separate father son and spirit in that kind of way the
[00:39:28] father himself is also predisposed to hear a case on our behalf and the case that Jesus brings is father
[00:39:39] I just want to remind the triune godhead that this person who is covered by the blood
[00:39:48] who I propitiated for I know that's a big word but it's in verse two it's a word that means
[00:39:54] I satisfied the just requirement I satisfied the wrath of God for he says that person they are
[00:40:05] covered by my blood they are ours they belong to us and though they have sinned I want you to remember
[00:40:14] who they are I know I'm not saying it right I know that doesn't accurately represent exactly what's
[00:40:20] happening with the mysterious triune godhead but we must know that God is for us if we are in
[00:40:28] Christ Jesus this is why he says there that our advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous this means
[00:40:40] that it's his righteousness that we receive it's not Nate Holdridge the righteous or Jeff Buck
[00:40:48] the righteous or Mike Casey the righteous or even the apostle John the righteous no none of us get
[00:40:55] righteousness from ourselves but we get it deposited into our account by Jesus Christ himself
[00:41:02] you see in the midst of all of this walking in the light we must remember our great advocate
[00:41:09] Jesus Christ he is a help he provides help for everyone that's why he's the propitiation not
[00:41:16] just for our sins but for the sins of the whole world you see any person that believes in him
[00:41:21] any person that trusts in him Jesus Christ shed his blood so that they might have life and you
[00:41:27] might be here this morning and you've yet to believe in Jesus Christ you've yet to ask him
[00:41:31] to forgive you of your sins he died on the cross in your place to take your judgment from God
[00:41:38] into his body and what you need to do today right now well it's still daytime is to say Lord
[00:41:44] forgive me of my sin and come into my life and you do that right in your seat right now with meaning
[00:41:50] from your heart you will the bible teaches be saved but Jesus he's the one he's the hero
[00:41:59] you see so many times we want to walk around acting like these deceivers like we're these really
[00:42:05] godly people like we've got it all together like we are the light but God is the light
[00:42:13] and Jesus is our great hero that we're leaning upon in a couple of weeks i'm going to teach at a men's
[00:42:19] conference and they usually at men's conferences will pick a theme and as a guest speaker or
[00:42:27] teacher you try your best to find something that resonates with you that's in you know step with
[00:42:33] the theme and all of that and the theme that they're gonna use at this conference i'm teaching
[00:42:39] at in a couple of weeks it's from Ezekiel 22 verse 30 and it's it's actually a very depressing verse
[00:42:46] it says in a time in israel's history where there was a lot of godlessness going on he says i i sought
[00:42:53] for a man this is god speaking i sought for a man among them who should build up the wall
[00:42:59] and stand in the breach before me for the land that i should not destroy it but i found none
[00:43:04] and like i said it's a sad verse god looked for a godly person a godly man to pray to stand in the gap
[00:43:12] but he couldn't find anybody and usually in a men's conference setting the reason why verse like this is
[00:43:17] chosen is so that we can encourage each other to be godly people so we can encourage each other
[00:43:23] to stand in the gap to be men of prayer to be the godly men that god could not find in that
[00:43:30] era of israel's history but really one of the big points of the bible is that god was always
[00:43:38] looking and could never find but that jesus christ is the one who stood in the gap
[00:43:47] and it begins with him and so john brings us back to that when we sin we have an advocate
[00:43:54] with the father jesus christ the righteous he's the one who intercedes for us he's the one
[00:44:01] who gives us victory all right i've been doing this since i got back from sabbatical and i don't
[00:44:05] know if i'm going to do it forever but let's keep my streak alive i'm going to give you some
[00:44:09] applications in closing for this passage number one i think i'm going to put it on the screen
[00:44:19] because i think my notes are different stop blaming god you know the bible teaches here that god is
[00:44:28] light and in him is no darkness at all but many people will find error in god in fact many of
[00:44:32] the religions of the earth teach that god is capable of both he's capable or of good or evil
[00:44:40] but god is not capable of evil so stop blaming him stop finding fault in him
[00:44:45] him also go places his light is found go places his light is found if god is light and in him is no
[00:44:54] darkness at all then go places where his light can shine crack open that bible get into christian
[00:45:00] fellowship spend time in prayer go places where his light is found because he'll do a work in your
[00:45:06] life as you interact with him you ever had a best friend where you guys just like influence each
[00:45:11] other and you change each other i mean after time it's like you're just so similar that's not at all
[00:45:16] what it's like to have a relationship with god you don't change him at all but he changes you
[00:45:22] you become like him practice confession to god and others you know take time tomorrow morning
[00:45:32] and if you pray start out your prayer time just say the lord i want to i want to confess
[00:45:38] some sin to you and just take a moment and think about what happened in the previous week
[00:45:47] think about your reactions to things think about your fears and insecurities think about
[00:45:51] different sin things that have affected you and confess them to the lord set sanctification as a
[00:45:58] strong desire and hope you know in this whole passage it's just like bleeding out of john's heart
[00:46:05] let's grow let's let the blood of jesus cleanse us from all our sin it's like a major goal in heart
[00:46:12] and desire in the new testament and from john that we would grow into christ likeness and i'm
[00:46:19] sure many of you would agree with me that it's really sad in the modern church in the west it
[00:46:24] seems like so many people have such a low desire to be sanctified it's like barely a thing at all
[00:46:30] like okay i'm in i'm in the family that's all that matters but john and i think godly folks have
[00:46:36] a strong desire for it believe jesus died for the sins of the whole world that's in this passage
[00:46:42] that jesus died not just for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world
[00:46:46] and go to the father knowing you are fully advocated for you know when you go to the
[00:46:52] lord remember that jesus is for you and pursue christ because he will be the one
[00:46:57] to transform your life thank you for listening if you like more teachings and information about
[00:47:04] calvary monorail please visit calvary dot com you can also find books teaching through the bible
[00:47:09] and articles from our senior pastor at nate holdridge dot com thanks again for tuning in see you next week