WWUTT 392 In the Light as He is In the Light?

Walking in the Light Versus Walking in Darkness

If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So, if we are in the light of Jesus Christ, it will be evident by our obedience when we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

The Apostolic Witness and Fellowship in 1 John 1

Thank you, Becky. Once again, as we continue our study of 1 John 1 this week, we'll read the entire chapter, all 10 verses. John begins, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard. We proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

So as we've talked about in this letter so far, John opens up by saying that which we've heard, that which we've seen, that which we looked upon and touched with our own hands, we as apostles were there.

We saw the ministry of Christ. We witnessed the miracles from His baptism, to His arrest, to His crucifixion, to His resurrection from the grave, to His ascension into heaven. We heard this, saw this, touched it with our own hands, observed it with our own eyes.

And then John says that which we've seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, verse 3, so that you too may have fellowship with us. Though we did not see these things, we did not observe them the way that the apostles did, yet it is the desire of the apostles and also the desire of Christ as He prays about this in John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer in which we are mentioned.

We're mentioned in that prayer. It is their desire that we would know fellowship with the Father and with the Son and we would have this through the message that has been proclaimed to us, the message of the gospel.

As I've mentioned over and over again, Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So we came into this faith. We came into this fellowship. We turned from sin and worldly desires and passions and began to pursue the holiness and the righteousness of Christ because of the gospel that was proclaimed to us.

So though we don't observe and see these things with our own eyes, we are fellow partakers in the same things that the apostles are partakers in because we heard the gospel and we believed. This is the message, John says in verse 5, and that was what we were talking about yesterday, mainly just got as far as verse 5.

This is the message that we've heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And so as I mentioned yesterday, if we're going to be in the light, if we're going to have the light of Christ shining within us, then we should not partake in any dark way, in any sin, in any worldly pursuits.

We should stay away from the fruitless works of darkness and instead aspiring to the fruitful work of Christ, no longer sinning, but living in the righteousness of Christ. So it can be verified by those who hear us proclaim this gospel message that we live the very thing that we preach, the thing that we say that we believe.

Church Discipline and the Call to Orthopraxy

Verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. This is something that I talked about with my congregation this past Sunday as we were going through 1 Corinthians 5, a very difficult chapter, very hard-hitting chapter, only 13 verses long, so I only dedicated one Sunday to it, and then we're going to move on into chapter 6 this coming Sunday.

But there Paul is saying to the Corinthians, you have this man in your congregation who is doing sin that even the pagans consider shameful, and your reputation for this sin is known. There are people in Corinth that know of this man who is in your midst, and the gospel has lost its power, its impact, because they're looking at you who say that you follow Jesus and they are seeing in your behavior no change from the way the rest of the world acts.

In fact, you're even being very proud, some of you laughing about this man's sexual conquests. And so Paul says you need to purge the evil person from among you. Turn this man over to Satan so he will learn not to gratify the desires of the flesh.

The reason why you would remove a person from the congregation that way is to give them like a small taste of hell, so that they will know what it's like to be out of fellowship with God and with his people.

So they will mourn over their sin, and they will desire to turn from their sin and return to the fellowship of God and his people. They feel totally unprotected and exposed on enemy lines when they are not in fellowship with the body of Christ.

And the reason why they are removed from the church and placed in open enemy territory like that is because they're acting like the enemy, and they need to know that this is not acceptable for the people of God.

We as the church in America, we will tend to have this idea that it's better for a person to be in church than not, which is true, it is. But there are some people who in their sin cannot be fellowshiped with and associated with in such a way as though to affirm that behavior is being acceptable.

God accepts that just fine. We accept you because God accepts you. That would be essentially what we would be saying to a person that is living in that kind of sin, particularly the sexual sin that is being confronted there in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

But it's not the only sin that Paul lists. He also mentions the greedy, the idolaters, the swindlers and the drunkards. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, he throws in the lazy and those who refuse to follow the instructions of the apostles.

In 1 Timothy, he talks about Hymenaeus and Alexander who have been blaspheming God. And so Paul has removed them from the church so that they would learn not to blaspheme. So the sins that are listed there in 1 Corinthians 5, it's not just limited to those sins, but those are the sins that he points out to the Corinthians.

If there is anybody who is guilty of this, take note of that person and have nothing to do with them so that they would learn not to blaspheme God in this way. The way Paul puts it with the Thessalonians, he says, do not treat him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

And we do this in loving submission to the word and the command of God, not trying to lord ourselves over somebody else, trying to say, I'm holier than you are. I do this right and you do this wrong. I know better than you.

And so here, I'm going to give you the boot. We do this in love. We mourn for this person, which is part of the instruction that Paul gives to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5, that they would mourn over the fact that there is a person who is living in that kind of sin in the body of Christ.

They need to be taught. They need to learn. They need to be disciplined, just as any of us do, who break the rules and disobey and rebel. And so this is the punishment that must be inflicted upon that person so that they would learn not to live in this way, that they would learn not to accept dark things and walk in darkness while at the same time claiming to be walking in the light.

If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. This is orthopraxy that goes with our orthodoxy. You know what I mean by that? So orthodoxy is right teaching.

Orthopraxy is the right exercise of that teaching. So it's not just enough that you hear sound doctrine and nod your head and say, amen, I agree with that. You must then take that doctrine and put it into practice.

And the evidence that you believe that doctrine will be manifest in your life of faith, that you are actually walking the talk, so to speak. So a true belief will manifest itself in obedience. If you truly believe God, you will obey God and you will not fellowship with darkness, but fellowship with Christ in the light as he is in the light.

Walking as Children of Light in Ephesians 5

Let's go to Ephesians chapter five, where Paul talks about this here as well. He says in chapter five, verse six, Ephesians five, verse six, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes against the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. And there's some hearkening back to Ephesians two here going on as Paul is writing in Ephesians five.

We can go back to Ephesians two. We see similar language. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

So all of us before coming to Christ, we were sons of disobedience. We were children of the devil following the prince of the power of the air walking in darkness. And so Paul comes back to that again here in Ephesians chapter five, where he says that you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

So he says, walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. And how do we do that? How do we discern what is pleasing to the Lord?

By reading his word and knowing what it is that he has asked of us to do what he has commanded of us to do. Paul goes on in verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, awake, O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And how do we know what the will of the Lord is? It is his exposed will, his revealed will as given in the word of God. You read God's word.

You understand the will of God. How do you know the mind of God? By reading his word. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is according to what is written in his word.

And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. In other words, don't be filled with temporary things, the effects of which will not last. And when it is a worldly fulfillment, it also clouds your judgment.

So you contrast being filled with wine with being filled with the spirit. Wine represents a worldly debauchery. It represents a satisfaction that doesn't truly satisfy, and it also impairs our senses.

We are not in control of our faculties whenever we get drunk, but when we are filled with the spirit, we're filled with something that is eternal, not temporary. And our mind is actually clearer than it was before we had the spirit of God.

We're able to look with the mind of God and see the difference between what is right and what is wrong. And our heart is convicted of sin, and we desire not the things of this world, but the heavenly things of God.

So look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, not getting drunk with wine, being filled with temporary pleasures of sin in this world for that is debauchery, but be filled with the eternal things of God that is his spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we come back again here to 1 John. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, then we lie and we do not practice the truth. We must be in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

Those of you who are children of the 90s who grew up as Christians in the 90s, it's probably difficult for you to hear 1 John 1 7 and not hear the DC talk song in the light going through your head, which, by the way, before that was a DC talk song, it was a Charlie Peacock song.

DC talk was covering that tune from Charlie Peacock. Let's go to John chapter three, because the things that John is talking about here in 1 John 1, very similar to things that he talks about in John chapter three.

This is one of those sections that I encourage young Christians in particular to memorize, because John chapter three verses one through twenty one is a great tool to use when it comes to evangelism, the way that Jesus evangelizes to Nicodemus.

But in particular, I point out verses 16 through 21, where Jesus says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Has anybody ever had fun turning over rocks and watching the bugs scatter or just even finding what kind of bugs you can find under those rocks? Anybody ever done that? I'm sure it's mostly my male listeners that are nodding their heads going, Oh, yeah, yeah.

I love kicking over rocks and seeing the bugs or grabbing the earthworms or something like that. You notice whenever you turn over those big stones, the bugs scatter. They'll either try to bury themselves further in the ground or they might try to find the edge of the rock that's still turned on its side and get out from under the light.

Or maybe they'll scurry off into the grass wherever they can find shade because they've been exposed by the light. And those who are in darkness who love darkness because they don't want their evil deeds exposed by the light of Christ.

This is what happens whenever the light of the gospel is presented to them. They flee from the light of that gospel message and try to run back into the shadows, try to escape back into the darkness because they know their evil deeds have been exposed by the light.

But those who are in the light, those who love the light, desire to have their works exposed. So it will be seen that the things that they have done have been carried out in God. Whenever that light is first presented to us by the gospel of Jesus Christ, we do feel exposed.

But by the conviction of the Spirit in our hearts, we realize that we need to be cleansed from that darkness that is in our souls. And so we will listen to this gospel message of Christ who died on the cross for our sins so that all who are in him who call upon his name will be forgiven their sins.

Their garments will be washed white and we will have right standing with God. We will now be able to stand before the judge of the entire universe and not fear the judgment or the wrath of God because it has been satisfied by Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins.

Then the works that we do will be works that are done in Christ and we'll want those works to be seen by the whole world, not ashamed of the things that we are doing so that the world will see that the things that we do are carried out in God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

So if we are in the light of Christ, we must walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship with one another, other saints who walk in the light and the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sin.

Grace That Trains Us to Renounce Ungodliness

One more passage that I want to read for you here and then we'll wrap up on this. This is from Titus chapter two. I didn't have this one marked so I'm turning back to it here. Titus chapter two. I should have this one memorized.

I've quoted it enough times. For the grace of God has appeared. This is Titus 2 .11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. So turn from sin. No longer be pursuing the passions of the flesh and instead pursue the righteous things of God. And if you have trouble understanding the difference between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, then just go to Galatians chapter five where we are told that the works of the flesh are opposed to the fruit of the spirit.

These things cannot work together. The works of the flesh are evident, Paul says, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires and desire instead the light of Jesus Christ. Now go and sin no more.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.