Christians and Light

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Monday, October the twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. It is currently nine thirty seven am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I probably shouldn't have used the word good because I was avoiding the use of that word basically in this entire series. Now, of course, if you're just listening right now, you don't know what series this is a part of, especially if you're listening live, Well, let me remind you of kind of what series I am referring to. It all started because a very very very well known pastor fell into sin.

0:54 And then we started watching all the Christians respond to this pastor, the new that this pastor falling into sin, and all of the things that they were saying. And I decided, well, instead of just you know, mentioning the pastor's name and saying, well, I heard this, and I heard this, and I think this, and he probably did this, and I don't think this, and I think that, and speculate and possibly bear false witness and just add gossip and slander and accusation, and then I could stand I think the God that I'm not like him, and we could just do all of the typical thing that has happened with the situation. Instead of doing that, I'm like, well, someone fell into sin. Okay, well let's talk about a very unpleasant reality. Let's talk about something that no one wants to acknowledge, and that is Christianity at large seems to have a very difficult time with the reality of sin.

1:54 They hate to really acknowledge it, and they don't know how to deal with it. And when someone falls what they simply want I want to do is delete them, remove them, move on from them them, and just say, well, they failed, they probably weren't even a Christian. Let's move on. I didn't like them anyway, right that That's basically the way it works. And everybody just kind of moves on, washes their hands of the person, and everyone just moves on down the road. And while the person who fell into sin just lays in the middle of the road, beaten, bloodied, broken, and everyone just kind of steps around them, over them, and moves on with their Christian life and we're always like, okay, well on to the next thing. And I know that's probably not an accurate representation of what happens, but it's pretty close. So instead of doing some of those things, I decided, well, let's talk about this the reality. The reality is, and I know no one wants to admit this.

2:47 You sin every single day. I sin every single day. You're in a perpetual state of sin. I'm in a perpetual state of sin. So how do we understand sin? Because here is the reality. Here are the facts that we establish. God calls you to perfection internally and externally. He says, be ye holy as he is holy. He says, be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. You are never perfect, You are never holy. You are in a perpetual state of sin. You sin in thought word. Indeed, you sin by what you do and by what you don't do. You sin over and over and over again.

3:28 You're in a perpetual state of sin. Now, Christians don't like to sell it that way, right, we don't like to admit that. We're like, no, when I become a Christian, I basically stop sinning. No, you don't. We like to tell everyone when you become a Christian, you're a new creature. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. Even though that's not true in a practical sense, that's true in a positional sense. In fact, it seems that when it comes to sin, many Christians have seemed to forgotten I don't know the whole idea of imputed righteousness, because we really want to believe it some form of an infused righteousness. So we've been we you know, that that's the reality. So I wanted to really, you know, double down on that reality and talk about it and discuss it. And we've we've discussed so many things in this series related to this, so we've looked at it from so many different perspectives. There's been so many kind of related issues to it. But in the midst of all of this, I stumbled upon a book that supposedly gives us the secrets of the Christian Life, Six Secrets of the Christian Life, six secrets that you and I need.

4:42 And what we did was, We're like, well, maybe this book has the secrets to help us understand the Christian life and understand this reality of sin, and so that we can possibly overcome sin or or we can at least figure something out. And so we started looking at these six secrets. I remember, as we started looking at these six secrets, we found ourselves in a very kind of weird location. Does everyone remember remember how it all started. This is Patrol one. Come in headquarters, headquarters. This is Patrol one. Please come in Patrol one. This is headquarters. Go ahead. Yes, I'm at the first Baptist Church and we have made a horrible discovery. We have found three hundred dead bodies. What should we do? What is the solution? Remember?

5:38 I created this whole little kind of scene to just to try to really emphasize that inside every church there's in a sense all these dead bodies, because well we're all sinners, and because in this book, the Six Secrets of the Christian Life, it starts off with a really weird premise. Right, basically, this is the way, this is what we've kind of dead. According to the Six Secrets of the Christian Life, the Christian body is dead. It's dead spiritually. The body is dead. Right, the body is dead. However, everything inside of you, your nature, your heart has been completely transformed and completely changed. So the body is supposedly dead according to this perspective, but inside everything is transformed, everything is changed. Now, to be fair, this is not this is not really that, and it's not really that uncommon.

6:39 Most Christians believe that, oh, you have a new heart, you have a new spirit. Everything's been changed, everything's been transformed. That's why they basically believe we should stop sinning, even though they can't admit the fact that we constantly sin. It's really weird how Christians handle this. So it's not that uncommon for Christians to teach that we've been completely transformed on the inside. But if we and completely transformed on the inside, then where does sin come from? Well, then that's why Christians usually run around yelling and screaming about everything like Netflix, you know, video games, because it's always something outside of us is the fault, instead of acknowledging, no, we still have sin inside of us. But okay, I digress. The Sixth Secrets put forth this idea that the body is dead, but inside everything has been completely changed and transformed, and nowhere where's the problem. According to them, the problem is that the body can't respond to the new nature.

7:33 So we got a new nature, saying, let's live for God. Let's serve God. But the body just kind of sits there, and it's like, can't do anything. The body can't respond to it. The body, the body can't respond to the new nature. It just it just sits there. Well, then how do we get the body to act in accordance with the new nature. Well, according to them, we need a resurrection of the body. If the body is resurrected, then and everything will be an agreement, everything will be in accordance with one another, and everything should be well, I mean, at that point you almost have to agree that everything would be perfect. Right if you're if your body has been completely you know, resurrected, and your nature is completely transformed, then your body in nature would be in perfect agreement. Well, then you would have to acknowledge you can be absolutely perfect. Now, the book never acknowledged that we could be perfect, because well, every solution Christians come up with the only thing it would it would always mean that we would be perfect. But they never then they always have some way to get you know, some way to get around it. But so this is this is the weird part. So the body needs a resurrection, but the resurrection they're talking about is not a resurrection that happens in say, glorification, where we get a new body. Now, the body that we currently have needs a resurrection, and it needs to happen now while we're here on earth.

8:53 And if we can get that resurrection, then our body and nature in agreement. So then therefore you know, well, I mean, of course logically we should just stop sending that. They don't say that, but I mean that's the only logical conclusion one could arrive at. So how do you get the body to be resurrected? How do we get this resurrection to occur? This is where it gets weird, and I mean, the whole thing is weird. But so what we need is to use a mirror. So basically we hold up the Bible to our I guess our face. We read it and we study it, and I guess this somehow brings about a and then this is weird. They go from a resurrection and they kind of backtrack, and so then you keep looking into the Bible and then it kind of slowly I guess, kind of I guess what you do is you kind of then what you when you look in the mirror, what you see is you see what you are on the inside, and then this allows part of your body to then start being resurrected. But then they don't really call it resurrection.

9:54 They kind of call it being changed. But the change is somehow aggressive, it's not it's like a resurrection is not a progressive thing, but then they kind of turn it into a progressive thing. So when I look into the Bible, what I'm supposed to see is how good I am on the inside. And when I see how good I am on the inside, that'll get my body to wake up and go, oh, I want to be good like I am on the inside. I know that's very much an oversimplification of it, but it's really a basically that ridiculous when you when you start breaking it down. And so we were like, what in the world is going on? Then we were told basically get a knife because then we have to try to figure out so wait, and is it my heart? Is it my body? Is it my soul? Is it my spirit? And we got into all that weird discussion and how to break it down, and it got all confusing and confounding. Right then we then we basically were told, hey, be what you are, Just be what you are, like you're you're perfect on the inside, just be that and that that. That didn't really help either, So we kind of worked through all of that. I know, this kind of a somewhat of a lengthy review, but it's just been a I mean, that's why I stopped using the word good. I mean, it just became so discouraging and depressing and confusing, and everything was just so discombobulated. What in the world is all of this? So then I started trying to take

11:24 some you know, I tried to take a step away from some all some from some of this, and the next thing, you know, then we got into the floating axe head and now we're in Isaiah. We got the Isaiah forty three controversy. Now we're working on Isaiah forty to fifty five because I had to step away from some of this because it just it's just so there were no answers, right because no matter what people say, they look, people can come up with all of their solutions. They can throw out half of the they can throw everyone out of the Kingdom of God, they can say whatever they want. Here again, facts are I don't care what theory you come up with. Here is the facts.

12:05 God demands perfection. You're not perfect. Therefore you are in a perpetual state of sin. For whatever sin you think you've conquered for however you measure it and say, well, I'm sinning less. I don't know how you measure that. You're sinning less? How do you measure that? Because you're in a perpetual state of sin? Be holy as he is holy, You're never holy, you're twenty four to seven, and sin be perfect as you're having like Father is perfect. You're never You are in a perpetual state of sin. So how do you measure well, I'm sinning less. If you're guilty of one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. So this really comes down to just how do you even deal with this subject? So there's a part of me that says, look, I told everyone about the book. I told everyone out you know where they could look on Amazon get the book. It's only like three or four dollars. I told everyone to read it. I didn't really hear much from anyone about it.

13:02 I didn't really get very many emails. So I'm like, you know, maybe I should just move on. Maybe we just focus on Isaiah forty through fifty five and just say we did what we could here, but I have to I we got to try to at least do something to bring this to some kind of a conclusion, right, I mean, don't you think so? I've got the book open and we are at chapter four, the next secret of the six Secrets of the Christian Life. I think this is secret number four, and this will time. Well, we need a light. We need a light, not like a you know, a cigarette light or an actual light. We need a light. And somehow light is the solution.

13:47 Now the mirror did with it. I mean, so far none of this has really worked. I mean, none of this even makes any sense. But okay, so we're gonna get into this. How much of this I look, I'm just gonna kind of jump around in the book. I just want you to at least know what the next secret is. Then we only have two left. Maybe we will look, I'm gonna try to bring this to some kind of conclusion and then maybe maybe then we'll step back and try to do some kind of summary of everything that we've learned. I don't know, it's just been wild, So let's just see what happens is I don't know what else to do here? Right? I feel kind of trapped because it just just kind of like it's not so much that the series fell apart, the subject just falls apart because at some point you're just like, you just listen to Christian's talk and it's just like, how long do y'all play this game? How long are y'all going to be so deluded and so just deceived and thinking that you're better than you really are and pretending all this stuff that's just not true from a practical standpoint.

14:59 How long are you guys just gonna mess around and forget the idea of imputed righteousness and really return to a Catholic idea? How long? And it's like, at some point you just can't even have the discussion with Christians, But here we are. So are you ready? Six Secrets of the Christian Life? Chapter four. The chapter is entitled living in the Light. Oh boy, So maybe the goal is you, hey, just live in the light. Now. Remember their whole concept is, wait, my body is dead, everything on the inside's perfect. I just got to get my body to wake up. You think that that was their basic thesis. So there are other the all the other chapters you think would set up how we get the body to wake up. But they've not done a very good job in telling me how to get the body to wake up. And wake up is not even a good idea. It needs a full blown resurrection. And again, if the body can be resurrected in this life and the nature is already completely trans then there would be basically no sin. But they haven't even acknowledged that. So here we go, all right, as we have seen, this is how this chapter begins. As we have seen, the Word of God is a brilliant source of spiritual light.

16:21 I think we can all agree the Bible is a brilliant source of spiritual light. Now here's where I would argue. It's a spiritual light. But you know what it reveals. See, it doesn't reveal how perfect you are on the inside. It doesn't reveal how good you are on the outside. It's a spiritual light that reveals on the inside and on the outside you are a sinner. You will be a sinner, and you will continue to sin, and you will continue to fall short until glorification. It will reveal to you that you are in a perpetual state of sin.

17:07 But let's see what they say. They go on to say, the splendor of our Lord, the Savior, Jesus Christ shines brightly on its pages. Okay, well, Jesus may shine brightly on its pages. But the more he shines brightly, then the more it reveals to me how I am a sinner. Okay. I'm just going to continue to emphasize that the more you read the Bible, the more you realize how far you are, how far you fall short. The more you read, the more you're exposed to scripture, the more it should bring you to the point of totally just disillusionment, discouragement, despondency, depression, defeat, You're broken. The more you read the Bible, the more you realize, I don't do this, I don't do this, I don't do this, I don't do this because the Bible is filled with law. Every scripture that says do this, don't do this, do this is law, and it reveals to you you are a sinner. It condemns you. And then the scriptures that says what God has done on your behalf, that's gospel. And then you realize your only hope is what Christ has done for you, not in what you can do. Because whatever you do will always be corrupted by sin. But I do believe that the Bible is this light. I just believe it works in a way differently than the way other people may put forth.

18:27 It goes on to say, but on those same pages there glows a captivating image of our new inner self that is created in the likeness of God's Son. Now see, they put forth a completely different They have a completely different philosophy, a completely different hypothesis. What they believe is the more you read the Bible, the more you find out how perfect you are on the inside. I completely reject this outright. The more I read the Bible, I don't realize how great I am on the inside. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize how messed up I am on the inside. Look, if I'm so perfect on the inside, then then you what you're telling me is all my desires, all my wants, all my motivations are perfect. They are right. That is just not true. What you discover, if you're even remotely honest with yourself, is in your heart. Inside of you, you are a selfish, narcissistic, self seeking jerk who only wants things your way. You're prideful, you're arrogant, you put other people, you put yourself before other people. You hold on to grudges, you're unforgiving, you have bitterness, you're coveteous, you're jealous on and you're so much going on inside all of us.

19:54 But we're not. What they're saying is no, the more you read the Bible, the more you find out how perfect you are on the inside. That's just that is, that's like some fantasy land. Let me read this to you again. On those same pages the Bible, there glows a captivating image of our new inner self that is created in the likeness of God's son. Both Paul and James teach us that we should live lives that are profoundly affected by what we see in God's mirror. Now again, when they say we look into God's mirror, we are supposed to see our perfection, were supposed to see we have a new heart. Again, a complete taking Ezequiel thirty six out of its proper context. We've already talked about this a million times, but I completely disagree. See, and this is the weird thing. This creates, this weird dilemma that you could have two people sitting in a church, the Bible is read, the Bible is tied. Person says, oh, I see how amazing I am on the inside. I see that I have been transformed, I have been renewed on the inside. I am perfect on the inside. I have been created as in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

21:13 I see how good I am on the inside. And person be sits there and they're like, I don't see the goodness inside of me. I see the sin inside of me? Do you see the weird? Like? How do both of those can't be true? So who's right? Does the Bible reveal how messed up we are in the inside? Ers? Is the Bible show us how perfect we are in the inside? I'm going with it. Look, if we're that perfect on the inside, then you go to your explanation of why we can't be so perfect on the outside is simply because my body is dead. Just makes no sense.

21:59 What can rolls what my body does? Is it not inside of me? Right? I mean? I see this is where the brain comes into play. How much this gets This is where it gets all convoluted? Is it the brain? Is it? The heart? Is it? But the point is if everything on the inside is perfect, then all of our wants and desires and thoughts and motivations should be pure. And if you think for a second that your inner thoughts and your inner desires, and your inner motivations are pure, at that point, I just don't even know if we're with we're in the same religion anymore. All right, So that's just paragraph one, And I don't even know what do we even do with paragraph one. It's it's creating a completely different Basically, you have two forms of Christianity.

22:55 Christianity one says that you're perfect on the inside, and when you read the Bible you see your perfection. Christianity number two, you're not perfect on the inside. You're still a sinner. You still have a sinful nature, you still have a sinful heart. You are a sinner, And the more you read the Bible, the more that sinful nature is revealed. Those are not Do we even say that those are the same religion. Now, both sides would say that the Bible supports their view. Then this comes back to all the hermoneutical issues we've been having. Next paragraph, it follows, therefore, that God calls us to live and the light of the truth that Scripture reveals to us, and what they mean by that is, okay, Hey, now you need to live in light of how perfect you are on the inside. See how perfect you are in the inside. Just live in light of that. I wish I could. I wish I could just read the Bible and go like, man, I got a new heart, I got a new spirit, I got a new mind, perfect on the inside. Okay, now I'm just gonna live in light of that. It's okay. They continue that is, we are to live in the consciousness of what He is and of what we are and will be by His grace. Again, what do we do? Their theory is, you just read the Bible, you see how perfect you are, and you

24:25 just start living in light of that. You just start living in agreement with it. Well wait a minute, I can't just live in agreement with it unless my body is resurrected. See, this is the whole weird thing about this book. The whole hypothesis of the book is I'm perfect on the inside, but my body is dead. I've got to get a resurrection. But they yet to tell me how I get my body resurrected. But now it's just basically, hey, just live in accordance with what you are. You're perfect on the inside, and go be perfect. Okay, two thousand years of church history, you think someone would have figured out I'm perfect on the inside, so I'm going to be perfect on the outside, it says, But this will mean living with our hearts open to God's word, or, as the apostle John writes, we must walk in the light.

25:13 The words of John on this point are absolutely fundamental to Christian living. He writes, if we say we have fellowship with Him and 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 Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. First John one, First John, Chapter one, verses six through seven. Now, somehow they take from this verse obviously the walking in the light means walking in accordance with what you are on the inside. Their entire presupposition is that you're perfect on the inside. Now they classify what they've just said as an extremely crucial truth for the Christian life, that this is an extremely crucial truth, And I guess it is walk in the light. The light means God's word, and God's word reveals how perfect you are in the inside, and so now you just live in accordance with the perfection inside of you. Now they kind it's going to sound like they pivot a little bit here. You follow.

26:33 You tell me if you think they pivot here. If this seems to flow in English, they now switch to now kind of a discussion about a specific word here. In English, the word fellowship is one of those squishy words that means different things to different people. Frequently, fellowship is associated with occasions where two or more people have a good time together as they chat or they engage in some common activity. And that's how churches use it. You know how I hate that work. Fellowship. We're gonna have fellowship. This is that thing that Christians do that drive me, drives me almost to the point of insanity.

27:14 We love to spiritualize anything. So if you have if you have people who live across the street from you and they get together, they have a bunch of people over, they have food, they have fun. They don't call it fellowship because you know, they're not Christians. But if Christians get together and we just shove some food down our throat and talk about the weather. We're like, we had a good, sweet time of fellowship. You got together, hung out and fed your face. But it's fellowship because see, we make it sound so spiritual. Fellowship. You got together and talked and ate food. Atheists do that, Agnostics do that, Mormons do that, Jehovah's witnesses do that. Anybody can do that. Oh, but it's fellowship because it makes it sound like that.

27:58 You know, we're not just getting together to you know, please our flesh. We're doing something spiritual. It's such as Oh, it's such it drives me crazy. Just see, we're gonna get together and have some food and have fun. Now, I guess if you want to try to where we're gonna call it fellowship, Well, if you're gonna call it fellowship, then everyone can call it fellowship. But that's typically how it choosed, right. They go on to say, it says, this kind of pleasure and laughter often associated with the experience of fellowship with others. All right, getting together, doing these things, it's associated with fellowship. I think the Church has done that more than anybody else. Less frequently, fellowship is viewed as cooperating with one another at work or as sharing some unpleasant task. In fact, more than not, more often than not, Christians perceive fellowship and somewhat of a superficial sense. Oh you think now, say I would agree with this part of the book. Christians do view fellowship in the most superficial, just mindless, meaningless way. But hey, if you don't want to be a part of their little reindeer games, you're something wrong with you spiritually. You should want to be having fellowship so I can hang out with people who talk about things that I have nothing in common with. Zero. I don't care about that they bought a new gun. I don't care that they shot Bambi. I don't care that they have a new truck.

29:20 I don't care about ninety I. I'm not interested in any of those things. And guess what, they're not interested in the things that I'm interested in. Now, what always confused me as a Christian was we get together for so called fellowship and nobody's talking about the sermon, no one's talking about theology, no one's talking about the Bible, and it's like, so I just got to get together to talk about all the things they like. Okay, wonder it's such a superficial thing. It's just so superficial, right or hear there their political takes. Yeah, got to hear how they think that they've found the solution to all the problems in the world. It usually it just turns into just and look at it. I know you're going to say you sound like a jerk. Well maybe I am being a jerk. The point is that's not fellowship, that's just getting together. It's we've made it so superficial. However, the Greek word translated fellowship in first John one six through seven. Now, the book is going to give me the Greek word, but I'm just going to look for it myself because I always like to verify everything. Going to the Blue Letter Bible app. I'm going to click on New Testament on John one, verse six. If we say that we have fellowship with him going to the anti linear fellowship, it's this Greek word. You know, this Greek word. You've heard it preached a million times in

30:51 church strong g coin onea quoinnea. You've heard that stated so many times. Cooinnanea. You've heard it mentioned over and over and over and over. Right, koiynania. Now that's what are they going to do with the Greek word. Well, this is what they say about the Greek word. However, the Greek word translated fellowship cornanea has the simple basic meaning of sharing. Needless to say, many things can be shared by human beings with one another and even with God and the Bible. When this word is used, the context determines what is shared. And first John one six through seven, the sharing is a sharing of the light.

31:36 In fact, John has just stated that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Therefore, it follows that if we walk in darkness, we cannot be having fellowship with God, even if we say we have. The reason is simple, God will not share this darkness with us, all right, So we're going to see where they're going to take this. Now, this is where it leads some people to kind of a lordship view. Hey, if you if you're in basically, if you're in darkness, or if you're in sin, you basically you're not saved or you never were saved. And I'm oversimplifying it. Let's see where they're going to go. But just so that you know that the idea of corn and ea is something. It's a sharing, it's I think it's something we have in common. Now, what people want to do is say, well, we're having a common mill together, so it's fellowship. I think that's so superficial to me. My understanding would be, when Christians come together, what do we have in common? Well, I can't speak for you. Most Christians I know I have very little in common with very little if you, if you take the things I like, my hobbies, my interests, I have very little in common with not probably ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven percent of Christians I've ever met.

32:50 I have very little in common with. But what are we supposed to have in common? Right? You hear that the Bible are faith in Christ, a desire for biblical knowledge, theology, church history, doctrine, exegesus. Right, it should be that. But what I've always found is no, no, no, when you come together with Christians, that we don't discuss this. Now, what I have always found I if you're in a church and you've got men who feel called the ministry, you can go find them and they're going to be talking about the sermon. They're going to be talking about what they've read, They're going to be talking about what they've studied. So yeah, But if you don't have if you just go to the average person in the church when they get time to fellowship, they're not They don't really want to be talking about doctrine, theology, church history.

33:38 They just start talking about all this other stuff. Well, that's great. It's wonderful that they want to share their hobbies, about their job, about their grandkids, about the weather, their views on you know, geopolitics, whatever the case may be. That's wonderful. But the thing is is, well, I have zero in common with homele I usually disagree with their political stances, and I usually don't have anything in common. Now, sometimes there'll be someone who will, you know, maybe watch sports like I watch sports, So okay, we may have that in common. There may be some things. But I'm just saying, for me, the thing about the church is not that we have all the other stuff in common. We don't have all the other stuff in common, and it's irrelevant because we have our faith in Christ in common.

34:23 That's what we share. So that's where I think fellowship is supposed to occur. But let's see what they're going to do with this, all right, of course we are talking about experience here. Naturally, the child of God shares at all times the possession of God's life, eternal life, just as a child shares the genes of his human parents. But children who are out of touch with their parents and live elsewhere are not sharing anything with their parents experientially, all right, So now they're getting ready to do it. Now, this is where it's going to get weird. Okay, so just follow this. You got to follow that. I told you this could get really hard to follow. Just stay with me. According to their theory, when we read the Bible, we see how perfect we are on the inside, because we're perfect on the inside, and then we're just supposed to live in accordance with how perfect we are. Now they're gonna kind of start drawing a little bit of distinction, right, Okay, So on one hand, positionally they don't use the word positionally.

35:23 We are always in possession of God's life. We always have it. Everything is great experientially or practically. There's times we're not well. We're not living in accordance with this. There's a disconnect and a sense between our position and our practice. Now this I would agree with. Now, what I'm confused by is why is there Why is there a disagreement between our position and our practice? If you're saying, practically, everything on the inside of me is perfect, that's where it's going to get confusing. I don't know if they're going to address this, but let's see where they take this. In the same way, a Christian who walks in darkness is living in a place where his heavenly Father does not live. What he experiences there he experiences apart from God sharing in the sense John means must occur in the light. So they're saying, okay, when we walk in darkness, now we're somewhat separated from God experientially or practically, not positionally. Positionally, we're still perfect with God because well of imputed righteousness.

36:31 So I would agree with this. What I'm confused about is, well, wait a minute, you've already made the claim that I'm completely perfect on the inside practically. In fact, you didn't even bother to deal with imputed righteousness. You just went to, inside of me is perfectly righteous. Well, if inside of me is perfectly righteous, why is there any disagreement with my practice? Well, then they've tried to argue because the body is dead and it needs to be resurrected, but they haven't told us how to resurmera the body. So it's just like it's a lot of words that really go nowhere. So let's see what they do here. Fellowship, the Apostle assures us, takes place if we walk in the light as He is in the light. The light, therefore, is the fundamental common denominator of all fellowship with God.

37:19 Whatever else may may experience, whatever else we may experientially share with him, we always share it in the light, because that is where he is. However, one may ask this question, even when we are in the light, how can God have fellowship with such sit with such sinful beings as we are? Now? Wait a minute, okay, so now they're arguing, even if we are in the light, we're still sinful. Wait okay. I love the fact that they're drawing a distinction somehow. Now they don't necessarily use the words, but between our position and our experience are our practice? Okay, they are drawing that distinction. Great, they are acknowledging this idea that we have. In a sense, everything's perfect with us positionally, but practically things can be messed up. How we can in a sense be out of fellowship with God, all right, But now it's saying that even if we're walking in the light, we're still sinful.

38:19 Wait a minute, how are we still sinful? Because their entire argument has been we're completely transformed on the inside. So they go on with this, as born again Christians, we know we are justified before God's judgment bar but we also know that a lot of real sin remains in us. Wait a minute, how does real sin remain in us? If we've been completely transformed on the inside. See this is where Oh, this is the stuff that drives me crazy about Christianity. Christianity wants to run around and go, hey, you've been completely transformed. You're a new creature. Whole things are passed away, whole thing that become new. However, however, wait a minute, wait a minute, there's still sin. If I've come completely transformed, the old is completely gone and everything is new, where does sin reside? If you say that on the inside, I've been completely transformed, and I have a new heart and a new spirit and a new mind, then where does sin reside? They go on to say, there is a lot of sin, real sin that remains in us. Even in our most spiritual state.

39:36 So now they're kind of backtracking. Hey, even if you're perfectly walking in the light, even if you're in your in the most spiritual state you can be, there's still sin. Where is the sin? In fact, drawing closer to God makes us more conscious of our own feelings. Now I completely agree. But remember their argument is no, no, no. The more I read the Bible, the more I see how perfect I am on the inside. Now they're saying, the closer I get to God, the more I will realize how much I fail. How can they be like, this is the most discombobulated, inconsistent mess I've ever read in my life. This is just all over the place.

40:18 I can't even keep track of it. How can Then they go on to say, how then can a perfectly holy God have fellowship with us? Well, how is that possible? How can a perfect God have fellowship with me if, even in my most spiritual state, I'm still a sinner Because ladies and gentlemen, everything is based off imputed righteousness, the whole point of the Reformation. But this is what they say. The answer appears in John's words and first John one to seven. First John one seven one John one seven. 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. So they're gonna say, here is the solution.

41:21 Are you ready? John Wright said, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. But this is not all, the Apostle adds, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. In other words, our fellowship with one another is made possible on an ongoing basis by the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Here, of course, one another does not refer to our fellowship with other Christians. This is not what John is discussing. Instead, he is talking about our fellowship with God and His with us. Now, that is an interesting point, but the point is what they We can get into the argument here and how should we read this, But just let's not get caught up in that. The point is, how do we have fellowship with God? How do we maintain fellowship with God? How is it possible? Because of the blood of Jesus Christ. We are constantly being cleansed. We are being forgiven by the blood of Christ. That's how we maintain fellowship. So is fellowship maintained by what I do?

42:21 Or is it maintained by what Christ did for me? Well, what you're saying is that even if I'm spiritual, I'm still sinful, so therefore I need something else. But that seems to contradict their argument that we're actually perfect on the inside. Let's see if they offer any if they fix this. They go on to say, in other words, our fellowship with one another is made possible on an ongoing basis by the cleansing power of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Here, of course, one another does not refer to our fellowship with other Christians. This is not what John is discussing. Instead, he is talking about our fellowship with God and His with us. And it's important to note that John does not say that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin, but that it does cleanse us present tense cleanses. Thus, this cleansing action is something that takes place while we walk in the light. A simple but profound truth follows from this.

43:15 It is true that the blood of God's son provides the basis on which every believer is eternally saved. But as John's words show, it also provides the basis on which God and we may have fellowship with one another. And this is true even when we are walking in the light. To put it another way, not a moment of fellowship with God ever occurs without the cleansing action also occurring. If we think there is any moment when we do not need cleansing, we deceive ourselves because there is no moment in which we can claim that we have no sin. So they acknowledge that there is no moment when we can say we have no sin. So we're perpetually in a state of sin. So then what's our hope. Well, the blood of Christ is constantly cleansing us from that sin, cleansing us positionally or cleansing and cleansing us practically. Well, if it was cleansing us practically, then there at some point we would stop sinning. Right.

44:12 But the fact that we continue to sin and we're perpetually innocent, perpetually in sin, and there's no moment that we're not sinning, well, then the cleansing is obviously a positional cleansing. Right, But they have claimed that we're perfect on the inside. Therefore, by the power of the death of Christ, every Christian can have fellowship with an infinitely holy God. And the light of this truth, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, wonderfully makes this possible. All right, Well, I okay, great, I'm a sinner. My hope, my fellowship, my relationship with God is based off the blood of Jesus Christ. Or we could argue and his imputed righteousness.

44:58 You need both. You need the a blood decleanse Us, and you need the imputed righteousness to declare me to be holy, imperfect before God because of the righteousness of Christ. But none of this helps us with what they supposed we're trying to fix that we're still that, we still sin. According to them, we've been made perfect on the inside. We just need a resurrection. This does not help me with a resurrection. This does not fix anything. They go on to say. This leads to another question, what does it mean to walk in the light? Well? A close inspection of the immediate context shows that John is stressing the importance of honesty and facing reality. That is a crucial consideration. The apostle warns that if we claim fellowship with God while walking in darkness, we are lying. Moreover, if we are so foolish as to sincerely claim to have no sin, then we're deceiving ourselves. On the other hand, if we confess our sins, that is, if we acknowledge them honestly to God, we obtain his forgiveness. But suppose that instead of confessing some particular sins, we actually deny that we committed the sin. What then, and that case we are contradicting his word that has shown us our sin, and effect we are calling him a liar. Thus, John's discussion revolves around spiritual integrity. So they're really making an argument, how do we walk in the light. We walk in the light by acknowledging that we constantly sin. Well, I'm in agreement with that. I just don't understand how this fits the overall our argument, because their overall argument is

46:30 that we're perfect on the inside. Our problem is that our body is dead. We just need to resurrect our body. This is saying no. This seems to be saying your body's never going to be resurrected. You're going to be in a perpetual status in and what's your hope the blood of Jesus Christ? And how do you walk in the light by acknowledging that you're in a perpetual status? In it is noteworthy that the Apostle does not call on us to walk according to the light. Instead, we are to walk in the light. If we stop and think about that, we could never really walk according to the light, since, as John insists, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Clearly we could not. We would Clearly we would have to be completely sinless to walk according to that kind of light. But we are not completely sinless. Yes, we can walk, Yet we can walk in the light. Basically, Therefore, to walk in to walk in it is to walk exposed to anything and everything that the light makes visible. And other words, to walk in the light is to live open to the light and to all that it can reveal to us.

47:36 Now this seems I look, I agree with this. We're not walking according to the light, we're walking in it. What does it mean to walk in it? We walk in it allowing it to demonstrate what we actually are, and what we are is not perfect on the inside, as this book is claimed in previous chapters. No, to walk in the light is to be to be open to the light that reveals our end perfection. So the walk in the light is you walking acknowledging how utterly messed up you are. To be sure, a newly save believer can be seen as clearly in the light as can a mature believer. Or hang, I'm sorry to be sure, a newly say believer cannot see as clearly in the light as can a mature believer. His newly opened eyes must become accustomed to the light. This is to say he needs teaching. But openness to the light is a quality that can be possessed by those new in the faith as well by those who have been Christians for a long time. Any Christian can walk in the light, but without openness to God, no fellowship with Him can occur.

48:43 So the way they're understanding this is what's the secret here. Walk in the light, not walk according to it, walk in it. What does it mean to walk in it? Is that you walk in it and you are open to whatever it shows you. And what is it going to show you? What's going to show you? Your sin? Because work, there's never a moment in our life with that we're not sinning. All right, I'm completely agreement agreement with this and just contradicts everything else the book Us said. So we have seen three fundamental things that the light of God's word reveals. Okay, let me read this again. We have seen three fundamental things that the light of God's word reveals. Number one, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the face of our spiritual birth, and the presence of sin in our lives. All three of these realities are intertwined and significantly affect Christian living. So they're saying to walk in the light. What we have seen is that are when the light of God's word has revealed these the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we've seen the glory of God. Okay, great, I agree.

49:51 Now this is where I get confused. The face of our spiritual birth. Now what they seem to imply there is Hey, God's words shows that we're basically perfect on the inside, which I just completely disagree with. Number three, the presence of sin in our lives. I completely agree there. Sin is in our lives. We constantly see that. Now they go on here, I'm going to skip here and see if they can get to some kind of summary. All right, I'm going to go to the conclusion here. The Christian needs to maintain at all times a full openness to the truth of God's Word. I completely agree there.

50:34 We need to be opened to the truth of God's Word at all times. I'm in agreement. When this is done, confession of sin will take place whenever the Word reveals the need for it. All right, I completely agree. The more I read the Bible, the more I will see of my sin, and therefore I will need to confess and acknowledge to God that I accept that what he says is sin, and I see that sin in me. We're in a complete agreement there. As our walk in the light continues, we can see more and more of the glory of our Lord, and we can understand better and better what it means to have His life within us. I don't know what that's that's to me just nonsensical. Hey, the more I the more I walk in the light, then the more I'm going to see the glory of God, and then I'm going to know what it means to have His life within me. What does it mean to have His life within me? What does that mean? Well, most Christians mean that means I can basically stop sinning, but I can't stop sinning. Why can't I stop sinning?

51:36 Like that's that's the question that nobody will answer. Of course, all real perception of God's truth depends on the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Okay, well, I would have some issues with this. His work, as always is indispensable to Christian transformation, but He does not do this work in the dark, and the dark God may chasten and correct us, but the work of transformation takes place only as we walk in the light, fully exposing to anything God wishes to show us. Thus, the fourth secret of the Christian life may be expressed like this. It is living with our hearts open to God's truth. So the fourth secret is live your life with your heart open to God's truth. That's supposedly the fourth secret. I did that help you at all. It's so contradictory to everything.

52:36 Their entire hypotheses is, Hey, hey, you've been completely transformed on the inside. You're perfect on the inside. Your body just won't respond to it. So what we got to do is we got to get it the body resurrected. Then the body being resurrected will be a perfect agreement with the inside, and then basically you can be perfect. Well, they never acknowledge that we can be perfect. Now they come along and basically, well, see, the more we read the Bible, the more we'll see how perfect we are in the inndide. Now they're saying, no, the more we get closer to God, the more we'll realize how we're not perfect on the inside. But we can then trust on the blood of Jesus Christ and confess our sins and they'll be forgiveness. Why do we continue to sin? Why are we in a perpetual state of sin? Why they've yet to answer that question. They've not given us a solution. They've not done anything. It's the common thing that you hear in sermon after sermon after sermon. This weird double speak. Right, Hey, you're a new creature. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. Well wait, wait, wait, you still got to fight the flesh. You still got to put off the old man. What am I putting off?

53:47 What am I fighting? If I'm a new creature, old things are passed away, all things have become new. There's nothing to fight there's nothing to mortify, there's nothing to put off, there's nothing to put on. You've been you have a brand new heart. Well you've got to fight the sin in your heart. What what if I got a new heart? What sin am I fighting? You have a new mind? Well if I have a new mind, And why do I have to constantly be renewing my mind? It's this weird like double speak. Hey, you've been completely changed on the inside. Well, I mean you still have sin on the inside. How can I have sin on the inside if I've been completely changed on the inside.

54:37 I don't know what to say. It's like, this is why whenever I listen to sermons on this stuff, this is why I just basically by the time the sermon is over, I'm just like, bah bah bah blah blah, I'm losing my mind. I'm ready to go to the liquor store because I'm like, this is just it's just a lot of words that and everybody and when people hear it, it's what's the weirdest the it's the reaction of all the other Christians. Oh oh this spoke to my heart. Oh this was so amazing. Oh And I'm like, what explain it to me. And then when they start explaining that, I'm like, you're just talking in circles. You don't even hear your own contradiction. Here's the reality. We started with, this reality, we will end with this reality.

55:21 God demands perfection. He demands it. He demands that you be holy as He is holy. He demands you be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. You can not do that. You never will be that. So therefore you're in a perpetual state of sin. If God's standard is holiness, you're never going to be perfectly holy. You're in a perpetual stat of sin. Yeah, I mean, and if you violate one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. You're in a perpetual state of being guilty of all of God's law. You cannot keep the law of God. It demands perfection. You cannot keep it. Now. I know Christians will say, no, we can. Well, if we can, then we can be perfect. Well, no, you can't be perfect. Then that means you can't keep it.

56:03 And if you can't keep it, that means you're in a perpetual state of sin. Because if you're guilty of one point of the law, You're guilty of all of it. That's the reality. You say, Well, I'm a new creature. You're a new creature positionally, not practically, because if you're a new creature practically, you would be perfect. So therefore we're in a perpetual state of sin. Now, our hope is that we're saved by an imputed righteousness. But when it comes to looking at the Christian life, it's just your sinning. I'm sinning. You may not be committing my sin today. I may not be committing your sin today, but I guarantee your sinning, and I'm sinning. So how do Christians process this? Well, we try to come up with all these weird solutions that are just a lot of double speak. Their whole argument in this book is you're perfect on the inside, but your body is dead and your body can't respond to it. You just get your body to resurrect. And if you get a resurrected body, then they don't acknowledge this, but well then you would be obviously perfect. Well, they can't tell us how to get the resurrected body. Even this doesn't tell us how to get the resurrected body. This just tells me hey, live your life with hearts open to God's truth. There you go. And what they've implied here is when you live your life open to God's truth, to his word, what you're going to see is that you sin sin, sin, sin, sin.

57:28 But they didn't explain why we sin, sin, sin sin. If we're supposedly perfect on the inside, and Christians love to say we're free from sin, Well, if I'm free from sin, i can be perfect. Well, no, you can't be perfect. Whatever's keeping me from perfection, I'm not free from. Okay. If something's keeping me from being perfect, that thing I'm not free from. It has power. It's controlling me. Now, I was fifty eight minutes of possibly just my numbing confusion, my numbings talking in circles. But in this particular case, I'm not gonna take the blame for it. Is that mind numbing confusion, that my numbing, never ending circles and circular reasoning and circular logic is the hallmark of Christianity.

58:34 And what does this create. It creates a situation where, oh, no, someone fell in sin. What do we do? Get rid of them? Delete them, throw them out. They're not now able to do anything and let's all move on pretending how good we are instead of going, man, you messed up. You messed up bad, all right, dude, But I'm right there with you. I messed up in a different way. Now, we got to see what we got to do here? How do we move forward in this Every situation is different? How do we move forward in this situation? How can there be reconciliation? How can there be you know, being? How can things be made right? How can you be you know restored? How can you be fixed? How can you be repaired? How can you be useful? Moving forward?

59:23 We just want to start writing a list of well, now you can't do the following fifteen things that we just make up on our own. We try to borrow scripture from it, which never makes any sense. Well, David couldn't do David couldn't do what what could David not do? He literally, after his horrible sin, wrote scripture. He literally wrote scripture so he wasn't allowed to build the temple. Wait a minute, he was told he was not going to build a temple because God was going to give him something better, which was the Davidic covenant. And then look who built the temple? A serial adulterer, a serial politic, a miss and an idolator named Solomon. So back off with all of that. Oh who also wrote inspired scripture.

1:00:13 We like to come in and say, well, you can't I understand that in certain situations for a period of time. Yeah, you may not be able to do something. I understand that. But you're telling me there's no hope of restoration, even when the Bible says restore those who've been overtaken in a fault, there's no hope for restoration. There's no hope for anything. Yeah, and all the people saying that person is done, that person is all the people who are who are declaring their judgment on someone whoever they may be pastor or not. It doesn't matter. When you point your finger to judge anyone and say you can't do this, and they can't do this, and they can't do this and this, and whatever judgment you may you mented, you just need to go look in a mirror because you're a sinner. You're in a perpetual state of sin. When Christians judge Christians, or when Christians judge the world, we are sinners. Were in a perpetual state of sin. Who cannot keep the law of God, who somehow think we're good enough to judge everyone else from a purely philological perspective, that's ridiculous. I'm gonna judge you even though I'm a perpetual state of sin. God tells me to be holy.

1:01:25 I'm not holy. God tells me to be perfect. I'm not perfect. And if I'm guilty one point of the law, I guilty of all the law. But guess what, I'm gonna come and say you're wrong, and you're I'm gonna judge you, and I'm gonna judge you, and I'm gonna judge you, and I'm gonna judge you, and I'm gonna judge you, and I'm gonna judge you. Sometimes our judging of people and wanting people held accountable, are people being destroyed is simply because we don't like them, or we ticked off, or we have our own agenda, we don't like their theology, or whatever the case may be. Now, I'm not saying we excuse sin, not saying we excuse sin. I'm just saying, when you're pointing out someone else's sin, you better not forget you are a sinner, and so am I. That's why I constantly say, this podcast is hosted by a sinner with a microphone. That's all I am is a sinner. I'm a narcissistic, self seeking jerk.

1:02:30 I'm a sinner who falls short twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Who I have a Bible a microphone, and I'm just trying to figure out the Christian life. And you may sit there feeling morally superior, but you're a sinner as well. That has nothing to do with me wanting to justify any sin I've ever committed or will commit. That's just me acknowledging a thiological reality. Be holy as He is holy, will never be that meaning. I'm in a perpetual state of sin. Be holy as He is holy. I will never do that. Perpetual state of sin. Love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. I will never do that. Perpetual state of sin.

1:03:12 Love your neighbor as yourself. Probably I never will do that in any meaningful way. So I'm a perpetual state of sin. Do all things without complaining and grumbling. I can go love your enemy, turn the other cheek over. And the more I walk in the light of God's word, the more sinful. I realize that I am. We should live with our hearts open to God's truth. I just think when we live ourself, when we walk in the light and we're open to God's truth, we will simply see how far we fall short. Then should drive us to the cross and say not anything I can do.

1:03:55 It's what Christ did for me, and I cling to the cross, his death, his blood, and his perfect righteousness being imputed to my account. That's my only hope. Not excusing the practical sin, but the practical sin is going to be there in some way, shape or form, no matter what you do, no matter how victorious you think, you're going to be. All right, there's secret number four. These secrets aren't really helping much, are they, because yeah, I think you know what. I think. The secret is.

1:04:41 There aren't any secrets to the Christian life. It's sinners trying to live out the Christian life, and our only hope is the imputed righteousness of Christ. But all right, thanks for listening. I'll stop there. Don't know what else to do. I knew that this was my fear when I did this, This is why I've been avoiding it. I knew when I went through this chapter, I was just gonna end up like, well, what what do I say? What do I do? I don't have anything for you because it's just a bunch of circular reasoning. So all right, thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless