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[443.56 --> 446.08] And when he's saying we, he talks about these are the false teachers. |
[446.08 --> 453.02] He writes, if we claim to have fellowship with him, that's God, and yet walk in the darkness, |
[453.88 --> 457.08] we lie and do not live out the truth. |
[457.94 --> 462.56] Now, what's happening here, and this is probably not so uncommon if we're honest, these teachers, |
[463.10 --> 467.06] these false teachers are saying, look, we've got a great relationship with God. |
[467.76 --> 470.22] We're experiencing this rich relationship with God. |
[470.32 --> 472.22] We know him, and we're being known by him. |
[472.22 --> 477.80] But what John is saying and seeing is that they're actually not living as followers of the way. |
[478.50 --> 481.08] They're not concerned with the teaching that has been revealed to them, |
[481.20 --> 483.00] and they're actually walking in darkness. |
[484.02 --> 485.58] And so their words don't match their deeds. |
[485.66 --> 488.52] And I think you can now see how this is a very relevant thing in our day today. |
[488.80 --> 491.66] They're speaking as though they're close to the Lord, but you look at their lives like, |
[492.08 --> 494.98] no, they are not walking in fellowship with the Lord. |
[495.18 --> 495.86] They're deceived. |
[496.82 --> 501.58] One commentator extends this point to not just our words and what we say about our relationship with God, |
[501.58 --> 502.68] but also how we feel. |
[503.76 --> 505.60] Our feelings can also betray us. |
[505.66 --> 507.22] We can feel like we're close to the Lord. |
[507.28 --> 510.30] We can feel somehow that we have this deep relationship when we're walking in darkness |
[510.30 --> 515.56] and not dealing with the way in which our ordinary daily life is at a sync with his ways. |
[516.12 --> 517.32] And so we're self-deceived. |
[518.16 --> 519.86] And John's got some strong words about that, right? |
[520.32 --> 522.94] If we walk in darkness but we think we have fellowship with him, |
[523.44 --> 526.32] we lie and do not live in the truth. |
[526.32 --> 532.64] It's really important at this point to highlight, and this is what John would want us to say. |
[533.58 --> 537.24] The only way you can know how to live in fellowship with God, |
[537.92 --> 543.50] the only way you can know how to walk in the light is by the scriptures that have been revealed to us. |
[544.18 --> 546.70] The teachings of Christ that we have before us in the Word. |
[546.92 --> 549.54] That's the only way you can say, okay, this is the way of life, |
[549.56 --> 551.40] because our hearts will always deceive us. |
[552.36 --> 555.52] Our imaginations will always lead us down, okay, I can do this but not that, |
[555.66 --> 558.76] and we can make ourselves think it's fine when it's not fine. |
[558.78 --> 560.76] And that's precisely what these teachers were doing. |
[561.30 --> 563.54] They were saying, you know, we've got this new spiritual experience. |
[563.76 --> 565.48] We have this new way of relating to God. |
[565.56 --> 566.38] We don't need the scriptures. |
[566.80 --> 570.30] And John's saying, no, you might think you have this close relationship, |
[570.42 --> 572.40] but you're walking in darkness. |
[572.54 --> 574.90] Your habits are far from the way of Jesus. |
[574.90 --> 578.60] You need to return to what has been given to us in the revealed Word. |
[578.60 --> 582.24] That's how we know what it looks like to walk in the light. |
[584.88 --> 588.56] Interestingly, I would expect John at the end of verse 6 to say, |
[588.68 --> 590.66] you know, if you walk in darkness, you deceive yourselves, |
[590.74 --> 591.82] and you do not live in the truth. |
[592.06 --> 593.84] But if you walk in the light, next verse, |
[593.94 --> 595.78] but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, |
[596.22 --> 597.80] we have fellowship with God. |
[597.92 --> 598.84] No, it doesn't say that. |
[599.10 --> 601.62] It says we have fellowship with one another. |
[602.48 --> 605.88] And the reason I point this out is because I expected John to say something else. |
[605.88 --> 609.62] But what he seems to emphasize in the place of having fellowship with God |
[609.62 --> 611.18] is fellowship with believers. |
[612.06 --> 614.34] And I want to highlight how important this is. |
[615.02 --> 617.38] For John, as it is for all the Christian writers, |
[617.94 --> 621.38] to have a relationship with God is to have a relationship with the church. |
[622.12 --> 623.18] Or as one writer puts it, |
[623.24 --> 626.42] you don't get to have God as your father without the church as your mother. |
[626.42 --> 630.98] And you can't have fellowship with God without fellowship with the body of Christ. |
[631.12 --> 635.94] And very much so, the body of Christ holds us in fellowship with the Father. |
[636.60 --> 638.08] As we live in a healthy relationship, |
[638.20 --> 640.96] you're going to have brothers and sisters who model the way of Jesus. |
[641.08 --> 643.68] They're going to show you as you grow what it looks like to follow him. |
[643.70 --> 645.64] And you're going to also have, if you've got a healthy church, |
[646.06 --> 647.74] people who will challenge you when you're not. |
[648.60 --> 650.40] People who will say, this is not the way of Christ. |
[650.58 --> 652.42] This is what it means to be in fellowship with Christ. |
[652.42 --> 655.02] This is how we live together as disciples of Jesus. |
[655.70 --> 658.76] And what's happening then, and this still happens all the time today, |
[659.26 --> 660.94] people get a really interesting idea. |
[661.76 --> 663.34] They have perhaps a spiritual experience. |
[663.60 --> 666.48] They have some new insight, they think, that's new to the church, |
[666.74 --> 667.60] new to the Christian faith. |
[667.74 --> 669.86] And they sort of pursue that as a way of life. |
[670.04 --> 671.84] And the church is like, well, where is that in the scriptures? |
[672.56 --> 673.98] Like, where is that in the history of the church? |
[674.04 --> 674.88] And like, well, this is new. |
[674.94 --> 676.06] It's my new thing. |
[676.34 --> 678.34] And then they eventually depart from the church. |
[678.76 --> 679.72] They depart from truth. |
[679.72 --> 681.42] And then they depart from fellowship with God. |
[681.42 --> 683.56] God, this is not an uncommon trajectory. |
[684.18 --> 688.02] And this, by the way, is how almost every sect and cult starts. |
[688.78 --> 690.92] It starts with someone often who is part of the church, like, |
[691.00 --> 692.60] oh, I've got this brilliant new idea. |
[692.90 --> 694.48] No one's ever thought of it before. |
[694.74 --> 697.54] Which, by the way, always be aware when someone says that. |
[697.64 --> 699.30] It's like, the church has been around for a while. |
[699.42 --> 700.88] There's a lot of stuff that's been thought about, |
[700.96 --> 701.78] reflected on the scriptures. |
[702.08 --> 704.42] When you as an individual have a brand new thought, |
[704.72 --> 706.44] you should be a little bit wary of that. |
[706.98 --> 708.22] But that's what's happening in the church then. |
[708.22 --> 712.00] These new insights, these new ideas that are departing people from fellowship with the church |
[712.00 --> 714.22] and departing them from fellowship with God himself. |
[715.96 --> 717.30] So that's the first claim. |
[717.82 --> 720.08] Let's take a look now at the second claim. |
[720.72 --> 721.80] Verse 8 and verse 10. |
[722.76 --> 728.28] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. |
[728.86 --> 729.44] Verse 10. |
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