Walk in the Light

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Please turn in your Bibles to the first epistle of John in chapter 1 Going to read all ten verses of the chapter this is

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God's holy and infallible word That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes

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Which we have looked upon in our hands have handled of the word of life For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life

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Which was with the Father and was manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you may also have fellowship with us and Truly our fellowship is with the

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Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And these things right we unto you that your joy may be full

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This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light

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And in him is no darkness at all If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth

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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 cleanseth us from all sin

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We say that we have no sin We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins

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He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word

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It's not in us May the Lord be pleased with our

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Consideration of his most excellent word, please pray with me Oh Lord we know that you dwell in unapproachable light

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And we ask O Lord that you would grant us the faculty to walk in your light

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To live as Christians in a thorough and comprehensive way that the entirety of our lives

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Would bear the reflection of the light and glory of your grace. We ask all this in Jesus name

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Amen, please be seated Today we will be considering verses 5 through 7 of this first chapter in 1st.

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John And for those of you who are in need of an outline I have three Divisions for you.

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The first is the perfections of God God is light the perfections of God second the necessity of gospel transformation the necessity of gospel

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Transformation and finally Jesus is the light of the world and His gospel light cleanses us from all sin really quickly again

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The perfections of God God is light To the necessity of a gospel transformation and third

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Jesus is the light of the world His gospel light cleanses us from all sin

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It's been a couple weeks since we've been in 1st. John's want to remind you of the very grand way that John introduces his epistle as an eyewitness as an apostle as in a band of Apostles he says that which was from the beginning referring to Christ Declaring Jesus Christ to be the second person of the

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Trinity the agent of creation It is a grand entrance into the epistle

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He said we have heard from him. We've seen with our eyes. We've looked upon him.

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We've handled him concerning the word of life This life

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Jesus was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show you that eternal life which was with the

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Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen he says and heard we proclaim declare preach to you

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That you may have fellowship with us Truly our fellowship is with the

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Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and children I want you to look very closely at verse 4

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John's purpose is that you would experience as the Christian the fullness of joy.

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We write these things That your joy may be full

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Let's consider verse 5 This is the message

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This is the grand announcement This is the precept that you must lay hold of This is the message that we preach this is the message we declare to you that God is light

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And in him is no darkness at all There's a message.

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It's an announcement. It's a proclamation. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ The Apostle says that we have heard and all of his people have heard his voice his sheep

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Hear his voice We have comprehended by hearing

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We have heard God's voice to the point in which it prompts him to grant us birth in faith within in Christ That we would believe upon Jesus Christ that we would believe in him as our only

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Savior this is the grand message and then he gives us this incredible declaration about the perfection of Who God is?

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that God is light the light of God is the manifestation of God's self -existent life

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That follows nicely with our Sunday school lesson this morning Self -existence the

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God of Aseity We can't go back any further he exists in himself and This light is the divine

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Illumination that reveals and imparts life through Jesus Christ So the argumentation is incredible from John here he says the man who we know as Jesus is

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The second person of the Trinity and in fact, he's the agent of creation he is the embodiment corporeally of the divine wisdom of God and This one has come to bring light and truth and holiness and purity and salvation to his people

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God is light And what is amazing to think about Is that in this the consummate majesty of this principle is?

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Inaccessible to human comprehension What an amazing thing to consider He dwells in unapproachable light but now with the revelation of Jesus Christ That which is inaccessible

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That majesty which is beyond human comprehension has now been accessible made so by Christ and Comprehensible in Christ The glory that would burn our retinas out the people of God can stand in that presence because of the mediation of Christ This is a spectacular thing that has happened men can now approach the bright shining holy light of God in Christ This idea of light is also used of that heavenly state

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Free from every imperfection to which the true disciples of Christ will be exalted

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Colossians 1 12 says we give thanks unto the Father which has made us to be partakers of the inheritance of the

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Saints in the light We have to ask the question

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Where does this biblical doctrine of light? He's he's saying something that there seems to be a knowledge of background and understanding for among the people who are the recipients of this letter

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Genesis begins in verse chapter 1 verse 3 let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness

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Now I want to point out something here to you That will have some significance

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Later, and we have a couple of messages referring to the light in chapter 2 that will be coming, but I'm going to introduce this idea now

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The light that is here described is not the light from the Sun This is the light that proceeds from God on The last day in the consummation of the kingdom

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There's going to be no need of Sun or stars because his lights going to shine

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So he before there's a Sun and before the calendar of time a six -day creation starts.

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There's light proceeding from God There's a period of history and it's going to reach its end and it's it's important Middle is the

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Lord Jesus Christ the light of the world at the end of the period of history There's going to be no need of Sun or stars because the glory of God is going to shine about his people

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God is light We get to verse 16. He creates the natural order of things.

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He creates two great lights The greater light to rule the day the Sun the lesser light to rule the night the stars

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So there's three ways. I want us to think about this biblical doctrine of light first Light proceeds from God first and foremost and from natural sources that he created second and here's where the physical and the spiritual begin to begin to be integrated and Light illumines that which would otherwise be in darkness

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Light illumines that which would be otherwise in darkness and then third light is

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Critical to life not only physical life on the planet but to spiritual life in Christ Light comes from God it proceeds from God There are three

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Theophanies that I want to point out to you and this is going to have some importance to us at the end of the message the first is

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Of course, of course the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3 There is a bush that burns and shines

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But it is not consumed and the mouth the voice I should say of God proceeds from it and talks with Moses The burning bush a theophany and these theophanies these appearances of God Pre -incarnate

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Christ are accompanied by light Next this is gonna be very important at the end of our message say the pillar of fire in the wilderness in Exodus 13

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Light comes from God the people of God Followed the pillar of fire

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It was the presence of God typified and shown and revealed in this theophany of a pillar of fire at night supplying both light and heat and third the glory

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At that meeting place where God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock in Exodus 33

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You can only see the backside of God's glory has to cover his face To his glory his brightness is shining is another picture of this radiant light that proceeds from God There are over 300 uses in the

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Old Testament of light and a hundred in direct relation To this idea in 1st

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John that God is light The next principle of light again, we're trying to understand this biblical doctrine of light is

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That light illumines that which would otherwise be dark the light shines in the darkness

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You go to your house tonight and you flip the light switch Your room was dark when you flip the switch on light permeates and fills the room.

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The darkness is obliterated. It's pushed out it enables people to see and not only physically but Spiritually the light reveals hidden things

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It shows us the way to go psalm 43 psalm 119 Conversely when light is withheld people are unable to see

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Deuteronomy 28 they're cursed Hidden things are not revealed

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Job 24 People stumble around in the darkness.

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They do not know which way to go psalm 82 And maybe most profound in this illustration from Exodus 10.

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Sometimes God shines light in one place and not another

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Sometimes he Withholds it. I want you to think about this for a minute. We generally think of Light as being the absence of darkness

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But sometimes can you imagine positively God imposing darkness?

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How great that darkness must be it's not just the absence of light.

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It's the imposition of God Darkness upon the wicked and the reprobate you'll remember in Exodus 10 that he sent a plague of darkness on to the

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Egyptians and in the same time he supplied light to the

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Hebrews in The Egyptian dwellings they couldn't trim any lamps they couldn't light any fires

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They couldn't light any torches, but the children of God Children of Israel had light in their dwellings

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God Concealed his light to one and shows it reveals it to another children some of you have studied the idea of photosynthesis how plants take

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Sunlight and co2 and water and soil and nutrients and nitrogen and they they grow

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Light is obviously critical to life plant animal human life cannot be

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Sustainable without it You imagine if the Sun went out today? One of you homeschool children could maybe calculate how long would it take

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If the Sun just turned off we'd freeze to death In a very short period of time

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This broad God is light Designation seems to be revealed in these three categories the presence of God is light

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Because light proceeds from him Spiritual illumination is light from God if there be spiritual illumination

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It means God has shown his light upon a sinner And third righteous living is light from God God is both the source and sender of light

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It's even embedded in the Aaronic blessing, isn't it? The Lord bless thee and keep thee the

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Lord make his face shine upon you And be gracious to you the

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Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace

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God is light. He's the source of light. He possesses it within himself

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And conversely in him look at our text again is No darkness at all he is

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Thrice holy holy holy Holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is filled with his glory

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There is no unrighteousness in him He is light. There can be no darkness in him in the scripture in the

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New Testament it refers primarily it seems to spiritual darkness and spiritual darkness is ignorance of divine things

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And if you're ignorant of divine things and the light of the glory and gospel of Jesus Christ is not shined upon you then there is a wickedness that accompanies it

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John chapter 3 probably the most famous chapter in the Bible well known

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Jesus says and this is the condemnation That light has come into the world

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But men have loved darkness rather than light Because their deeds were evil

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Paul and the the great description of the Church of Jesus Christ and of the book of Ephesians says

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For you were once darkness Ephesians 5 But now you are light in the

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Lord We have been conveyed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light in Christ Walk as children of light

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The fruit of this spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth

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Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them

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For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light for whatever makes manifest is light

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Therefore he says awake you who sleep Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light

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Hebrews chapter 4 It says there is no creature hidden from his sight

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But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him of whom we must give

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Account I want to pause here for just a moment we're in that section now where we're talking about the transformative power of the gospel to change lives, but there's something that I Have to ask us.

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Why are we so dull about this particular thing? We hide and conceal our sin from one another

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But it's all laid bare before Christ It's it's a ridiculous thing

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Many years ago. My daughter Susanna was a little baby, and I don't remember the offense but she was under two years old and I remember

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I was looking for her to charge her with the crime and She was standing behind a post like the one that's here by mr.

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Lemke And she was hiding from me, but her little rear end was poking out from the bar.

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I could see her diaper. I Can see the bloomers I can see she's right there The folly of a little girl who's hiding from her parents in her sin.

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It's not a big sin a little sin But the folly of it, but that's what we do. We pretend that the

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God of light doesn't see And he sees it all So we have to live as the children of light who are willing to have our lives exposed because they already are

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And God and his mercy and love with all of those secrets he loves us and Bids us to come and draw near to him

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This light is so filled with truth and love and purity and holiness. It conquers the darkness in human souls

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We have to let the light of Christ shine in in our lives Be honest about our sin and confess it knowing that we are accepted in the beloved

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Knowing that we have a Savior who is Christ the Lord who will forgive us we need to take responsibility for our sin and shine the bright light of God and his truth and his holiness in our lives and Reveal it and repent of it knowing we have salvation and the one who's come to Be the light of men

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We need not fear coming to our God as sinners.

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He has made provision for that in Christ With that in mind we have to acknowledge in the most basic sense light and darkness are antithetical to one another

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God is light and there is no darkness in him since this is true It requires attentiveness and action on our part

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If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness We lie and do not the truth

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To have fellowship with him and walking in darkness is completely in Incompatible walking in ignorance of the divine personage of God is revealed in Christ It denies that the salvation that can only be found in Christ It fails to recognize that Christ is the light of the world and has revealed salvation in himself

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It it makes men recipients of his salvation by virtue of their union with him the efficacy of his sacrifice

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The wonders of his grace The new nature that results the

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Transformation that occurs if a man has had the light of God and Christ has shown upon him

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His life is irrevocably changed Because this divine in birthing and the power of his

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Holy Spirit To have fellowship deep fellowship with Christ in one another a one -flesh union with Christ Makes walking in darkness completely at odds with the new nature

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There's a call here to action If there be any walking in darkness in your life today

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Repent and turn from it Do not cherish it any longer

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We don't want to walk in darkness. We're the people of the light

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We have fellowship with Christ. He has Been pleased to shine his love on us

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We don't want to contradict the truth we affirm with our lips with a life of inconsistency

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There is freedom and liberty and joy and Thanksgiving and walking in the light

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You're a wretched sinner and God knows it and he said my son has come to pay the penalty of your sin

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Do not conceal it any longer Bring it into the light of day that you might be forgiven well, it takes us to our last verse it says

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If we walk in the light As he is in the light

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We have fellowship with one another in 1st

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John there are three major errors and that helps us understand this passage a little bit better Prominent errors one is heresy that cut off the people of God from the light and caused them to walk in darkness

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Doesn't represent all the possibilities of walking in darkness, but it in context

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Internal evidence gives us some real Help, there's a specific context that John writes in and it helps us understand the sum of this text

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Here are the the three grave errors and there's a fourth It's kind of attached to the second one

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And this is kind of the basis of John's argument and why he's arguing for these things here in chapter 1 first there is a want of Agape love and that is a self -sacrificing love for the brethren

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It is utterly astonishing how many times John says love one another in this book

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And the love that he calls us to is very different from the love of the world

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More on this in chapter 3 when I preach on it, but this love is

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Self -sacrificing and friends. This is very rare and even the

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Christian life We give to get We love to be loved

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This agape love is not self -seeking it's Self -sacrificing and John calls us to that.

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It's gonna be further teased out in the epistle in the coming weeks That's the first Problem.

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There's a want of this deep fellowship and love for the brethren the

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Christian is to be known by his love for Christ his people and Confounding even their enemies

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According to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount that's found in chapter 2 verses 7 through 11 Second again, these are the errors

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That accompany walking in darkness in the first epistle of John disordered loves

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The Christian is known by his love the unbeliever the reprobate is also known by his love his love for the world

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The things of the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life

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The cosmos here is that evil world system Which we prayed against today under the run and reign of the devil

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It sets itself in opposition to God To be under the sway of the evil one

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Those two are very real for us There's worldliness here in the Christian Church There's a want of that agape love here.

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I hope there's no number three and That's a denial of Christ as the

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Messiah That's why he starts so strong in chapter 1 about who Christ is the second person of the

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Trinity the creator and all those things And this idea includes the idea that Christ alone is

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Salvation they deny that they say that he is not the incarnate one.

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There's some teachers there We're coming into the churches The eternal word didn't come in the flesh the fully

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God and fully man didn't come to bring salvation, of course There's no hope of salvation.

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You can't have the father apart from the son or the son apart from the father

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It's found in verses 21 through 23 of chapter 2 But fourth,

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I think it's connected to the worldliness and the love of the world is a laxity and obedience

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There's an incipient antinomianism in the church everyone that does righteousness is

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Born of him and that the implication is that not everyone is performing the righteousness chapter 2

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Verse 21 these are characteristics of those who walk in darkness now what

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John is doing is He's not kicking us out of the church and excommunicating us

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He's saying that every Christian has a root of agape love for the brethren

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Every Christian is at war against sin and the love for the world and love for the things of the world

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He's at war with that. He may be lax in his obedience, but he has a desire to be obedient.

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So John is Encouraging us to better and greater things as we walk in the light

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The idea of walking in the Hebrew Understanding has an ethical sense to it.

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I conduct my life and I live in such a way that Is out in the open in the light of Christ The Christian abides in the light of Christ the light of Christ and his gospel

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Regulates the Christian life and governs his conduct the

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Christians Deportment his manner the way he carries himself is a reflection of Christ's love

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And if this is true, we have been brought into fellowship with Christ and his people we are united to Christ and members of The body

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I want us to go now and this will be the last section to explain number three

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Once to go to the gospel of John We're gonna look in two places there and this is going to help us

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Wrap this up in the coming weeks. We're gonna have a couple more light oriented messages in first John the prologue to John's gospel

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You'll hear a fuller treatment here than what we see in His first epistle, but there's great crossover

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John is the apostle of Christ in his divinity He is the

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Christology Apostle It says in the beginning was the

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Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God He's declaring the divine Logos to be

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Jesus Christ That he himself is God. He is uncreated. He's begotten of the

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Father. He was there when there was a beginning Speaking to his pre -existent eternality as a member of the

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Godhead It says in verse 2 that he was in the beginning with God and listen what it says all things were made by him

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And without him nothing was made that was made Jesus Christ is the creator of the universe when

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God said let there be light Jesus Christ was saying let there be light and So what we have is this grand drama of redemption the creator himself is going to come who is light

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And he's going to come and shine in the darkness to bring salvation to his people

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The creator is going to rescue his creation from darkness and corruption

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It says in verse 5 the light shines in darkness The darkness

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Comprehended it not in Context I think part of what

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John is doing here Maybe to a degree that we have not appreciated like we ought

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He is saying the Jewish people for example knew

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Who God was they had theophanies? They had the oracles of God the very scriptures and Jesus comes and shines and they're shrouded in darkness

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They don't lay hold that God is light in the person of Christ look what it says in verse 7.

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There's a man sent from God. His name was John Listen what it says the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light

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That all men through him might believe he was not that light but was sent to bear

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Witness of that light referring to Christ verse 9 That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world

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Salvation has come in Jesus Christ now

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I'm very excited about this. I hope you're as excited as I am. Let's turn it over to John chapter 8

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We are in the

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Yohannine corpus trying to understand God is light

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Fleeing the darkness the person of Christ and how all this goes together in context

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Jesus and his disciples have come to Jerusalem to observe the

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Feast of Tabernacles Indicate to us the very beginning of John chapter 7.

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That's why he's in Jerusalem He's come for the feast This week -long feast included daily lighting rituals that involve tall lamps

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Candelabras in the temple courts. I want you to imagine there's no electricity

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People live by lamps and torches and candlelight and These massive candelabras are here in the city for the

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Feast of Tabernacles Commemorating and remembering when God was the pillar of fire leading them in the wilderness

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This is the occasion that this all happens This is the backdrop the flames are dancing and Illuminating the holy city that the flames are popping and crackling.

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I can hear it almost The dark city is illuminated with this brightness by the temple courts commemorating

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God's presence The pillar of fire revealed God's presence

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He was with the Israelites in a visible way and when the pillar of fire moved the

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Israelites followed it The pillar of fire guided them

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Against this backdrop. I want you to go with me to verse 12 It says this is

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John 8 chapter 8 verse 12 then Jesus spoke again unto them saying

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I Am the light of the world Do you understand what's happening they've come to celebrate a theophany and The light of the world is standing in their midst the true light from heaven

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The glorious one He's there. He says I am the light of the world what an amazing backdrop what an incredible piece of drama in this redemptive history

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He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life

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The theophany of light in the wilderness and the pillar

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The fire is now eclipsed by the glory of Christ in his revelation God was in their presence

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The light of God the light of life was there bringing his people salvation the types and shadows

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Are now Overtaken by a brighter light the glorious light of Jesus Christ This biblical theme of light which is

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Comprehensive and vast from Genesis all the way through to this point Now reaches its crescendo and climax

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Jesus Christ is the light of the world

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Time will permit us but at the end of chapter 8 and there's a connection to Exodus 3

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Moses asked the question who shall I say I spoke with this is I am that I am

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Jesus at the end of chapter 8 of John's gospel says before Abraham was

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I am Now the Jewish people they knew genealogy This man's not even 50 years old

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Moses is our very ancient patriarch father The ancient of days has come in the flesh to rescue and save his people to be a light that would shine in the darkness

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Well, what should we do? We should walk in the light

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We should bask in the glow of Christ and his salvation We should love as he has loved we should emulate his manner of life

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And we can do this because we are clothed in his righteousness And as faithful followers of Christ, we need to heed his teaching from the

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Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 Christian you are a

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Light -bearer The glory that shines out of Christ it has shown upon us

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Jesus is the light of the world. You are his light -bearers. He says in Matthew 5.

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You are the light of the world a City set on a hill that cannot be hidden Neither do man light a candle and put it under a basket but on a candlestick and it gives light to all that are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and Glorify your father which is in heaven

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The Christian has I'll stop here.

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I always thought carrying the Olympic torch would be one of the coolest things it starts somewhere in Greece or wherever and they run it all the places all the way to the place where the

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Olympics will be held The divine light of heaven has come down and the

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Christian Church has Passed the torch one to another and we carry the bright shining light of Christ with us

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Wherever we go and we hand it off We light other people on fire

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May the Lord set our hearts ablaze for the glory of Christ that that his glory might shine through us that his

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Radiance might be reflected in every corner of our live and all of our vocations all of our callings in all of our

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Doings may they see the glory of Christ the light of the world in us

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Amen Let's pray together Lord we pause and we think

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Surely you are the light of the world and We rejoice that you have

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Shined in the darkness of our hearts and the hearts of our family and all the people in this church and every church

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Everywhere you have made us alive in Christ your light has

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Given life its truth and it's powerful and it's beautiful and it's holy and it's filled with glory

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Lord, I pray that this would be a cause of our worship and Thanksgiving today Lord that we would count it a privilege

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To walk in your light and we would see the impediment of sin to this very grand purpose for which we were created and redeemed

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To have communion with you and to be your light bearers in the world Oh Lord, I pray in the power of your spirit that we would put sin to death that we would mortify it

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That we would expose our guilt before a loving Savior and there find forgiveness and salvation in Christ and also

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Lord I pray that we'd be able to do this with one another that we might have that depth of agape love and Fellowship with one another to bear each other's burdens to spur each other on That we would live as a

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Christian people together for your glory and namesake We ask all this in Jesus name