Latest / LifeAudio / The Bible Study Podcast - #996 - 1 John 1 - Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

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The Bible Study Podcast - #996 - 1 John 1 - Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness · LifeAudio

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. The Bible Study Podcast, Episode 996. Today, the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast starts a new study with the book
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  Speaker 1: of 1 John. Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Chris Christensen. I mentioned that we might take
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  Speaker 1: a break from the Old Testament, from the Torah and
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  Speaker 1: And we're going to do so. We're going to do
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  Speaker 1: a little palate cleanser and study 1 John. But first,
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  Speaker 1: a word from this sponsor. 1 John is a short book.
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  Speaker 1: This is a series of three different chapters here written
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  Speaker 1: by the Apostle John, written by John, the son of Zebedee,
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  Speaker 1: the brother of James, one of Jesus' favorite disciples, one
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  Speaker 1: of his key disciples, and the longest living of the disciples,
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  Speaker 1: who ends up writing the Gospel, the book of Revelation,
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  Speaker 1: and three different epistles, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to study 1st John, and then we're going to
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  Speaker 1: jump back into the Torah for the book of Leviticus.
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  Speaker 1: 1st John, chapter 1, the incarnation of the word of life.
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  Speaker 1: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
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  Speaker 1: which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
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  Speaker 1: looked at, and our hands have touched, this we proclaim
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  Speaker 1: concerning the word of life. The life appeared, we have
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  Speaker 1: seen it and testify to it, And we proclaim to
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  Speaker 1: you the eternal life, which was with the Father and
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  Speaker 1: has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we
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  Speaker 1: have seen and heard, so you also may have fellowship
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  Speaker 1: with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and
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  Speaker 1: with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make
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  Speaker 1: our joy complete. So John is writing this later in life.
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  Speaker 1: We generally put this authorship of this book around 85
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  Speaker 1: to 100 AD. And that means it's after the fall
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  Speaker 1: of the temple, it's after the war between Israel, between
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people and Rome, the Masada, all of that
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  Speaker 1: has happened. It also then is likely that John is
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  Speaker 1: writing this when he is the only living, the only
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  Speaker 1: surviving one of the apostles. And so of all of
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  Speaker 1: the apostles, of all of the 12, Judas, of course,
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  Speaker 1: dies in early before the resurrection of Jesus. And then
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  Speaker 1: James is the next one to die in the book
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  Speaker 1: of Acts. And except for John, all of the other
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  Speaker 1: apostles are martyred. And so John is at this point
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  Speaker 1: one of the only remaining eyewitnesses. And it's important for him,
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  Speaker 1: obviously he's written the gospel already, his story, but there
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  Speaker 1: are still some issues that he wants to deal with.
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  Speaker 1: And so he writes this book And he emphasizes that
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  Speaker 1: he saw these things, he touched these things, he is
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  Speaker 1: an eyewitness, he is not talking about things that he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't there for. Now, that is obviously not true of me.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about things that I was born more than
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  Speaker 1: 1900 years later. And so John has this special, and
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  Speaker 1: as the last of the apostles alive, this special authority
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  Speaker 1: And we ought to listen to him for that reason.
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  Speaker 1: And he says, why he's writing it is to make
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  Speaker 1: our joy complete. Now, we don't know what's going to
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  Speaker 1: make his joy complete just yet, but I'm hoping we
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  Speaker 1: get a clue as we go through this book. So
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  Speaker 1: he's talking about proclaiming what he has seen and heard
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  Speaker 1: so that we also might have fellowship, so that you
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  Speaker 1: may also have fellowship with us. So he's writing to
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  Speaker 1: people so that they can come to belief in the Father,
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  Speaker 1: and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So he continues, light
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  Speaker 1: and darkness, sin and forgiveness. This is the message we
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  Speaker 1: have heard from him and declare to you, God is light,
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  Speaker 1: in him there is no darkness at all. If we
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  Speaker 1: claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in
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  Speaker 1: the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
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  Speaker 1: But if we walk in the light as he is
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  Speaker 1: in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and
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  Speaker 1: the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Now,
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  Speaker 1: these words are familiar to me because I grew up
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  Speaker 1: in a liturgical tradition, meaning that when we go to
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  Speaker 1: church and we go through the service, there are some
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  Speaker 1: parts of the service that are prescripted, if you will.
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  Speaker 1: And so some church traditions are this way and some
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  Speaker 1: are not. The church that I have, some of the
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  Speaker 1: words that we use for communion and some of the
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  Speaker 1: words that we use for confession are here from the
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  Speaker 1: book of 1 John. and especially this next section here,
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  Speaker 1: if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves
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  Speaker 1: and the truth is not in us. If we confess
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  Speaker 1: our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive
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  Speaker 1: us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If
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  Speaker 1: we claim we have not sinned, we make him out
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  Speaker 1: to be a liar and his word is not in us.
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  Speaker 1: So these are familiar words to me. And There's something
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  Speaker 1: that we remind each other of in my church on Sundays,
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  Speaker 1: because John is telling us that this, we were cleansed
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  Speaker 1: by Jesus on the cross, while it's true, it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: mean we never screw up after that. We still are
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  Speaker 1: both saint and sinner, as Luther said. We are still sinners.
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  Speaker 1: We will still fall short of God's expectation. And John
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  Speaker 1: says there's a solution to that, which is don't pretend
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  Speaker 1: to be something else. If you say you are without sin,
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  Speaker 1: we deceive ourselves. Or we're trying to deceive somebody else.
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  Speaker 1: But we're not. We're not perfect. We don't always measure up.
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  Speaker 1: And it may not be in outward signs. It might
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  Speaker 1: just be in my thoughts. It might just be what
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  Speaker 1: I say in my inner room when you're not listening,
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  Speaker 1: when the microphones are off and my wife's off at work.
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  Speaker 1: It might be what I say to my neighbor or
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  Speaker 1: what I say at work or what I'm thinking or
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  Speaker 1: how I act, but we're not perfect. And John says,
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  Speaker 1: that's okay. That's human. So what we do with that
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  Speaker 1: is we confess. We say, I want to be better.
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  Speaker 1: This was not the person I want to be. And God,
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  Speaker 1: who is faithful and just, will forgive us, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: and then purify us. We'll remove that barrier of sin
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  Speaker 1: that gets in the way of us and God. But
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  Speaker 1: we can't get there if we don't admit we've got
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  Speaker 1: a problem. If we claim we have not sinned, we
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  Speaker 1: make him out to be a liar and his word
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  Speaker 1: is not in us. If there were perfect people, the
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  Speaker 1: Father wouldn't have needed to send Jesus to the cross.
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  Speaker 1: He just would have worked with those perfect people. But
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  Speaker 1: we're not. God is light in him, there is no darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Light will be something that comes up in this book,
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  Speaker 1: I believe, multiple times. And if we claim to have
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  Speaker 1: fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and
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  Speaker 1: do not live out the truth. What does it mean
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  Speaker 1: to walk in light? What does it mean to walk
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  Speaker 1: in darkness? One of the things I think of is,
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  Speaker 1: do you want the way you live the way you think,
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  Speaker 1: the way you behave in private to be known. If
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  Speaker 1: we walk in light, it wouldn't be a problem at all.
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  Speaker 1: Or I guess the opposite is, if we just have
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  Speaker 1: no sense of shame, it wouldn't be a problem at all,
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  Speaker 1: except that's a big problem, because that gets into the
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  Speaker 1: if we claim to be without sin part at the
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  Speaker 1: bottom part. But if we walk in the light, if
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  Speaker 1: we live as Jesus would have us live, That is
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  Speaker 1: walking in the light. And we have fellowship one another
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  Speaker 1: in the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us from
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  Speaker 1: all sin. And again, John's talking about here, not just once. Jesus'
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice is once for all, but again, we will screw up.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how often, daily, hourly, weekly, but we
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  Speaker 1: will need to come back again and confess and move on.
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  Speaker 1: With that, we're going to end this first chapter here
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  Speaker 1: of 1 John, if you have any questions, send an
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  Speaker 1: email to chris2x at gmail.com, or better yet, leave a
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  Speaker 1: comment on this episode at thebiblestudypodcast.com. And as always, thanks
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  Speaker 1: so much for listening. I want to take just a
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  Speaker 1: second to thank the team at Life Audio for their
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  Speaker 1: partnership with us on this podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com,
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  Speaker 1: you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network.
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  Speaker 1: They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.