Radio Broadcast Wednesday 04/27/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P21 (04-27-22)

If We Are In Christ Jesus We Walk in Light

A child of God is always in the light. They can never be in darkness ever again.

In today’s lesson, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store

Just as a person’s physical growth is based on proper diet and exercise, so is the Christians’s spiritual growth dependent on regular feeding upon the word of God and application of its principles. With more false teaching, shifting opinions and general confusion in the world than ever before, Christians need a solid foundation upon which to base their beliefs and build their lives. The word of God declares that Jesus Christ is that foundation of truth. With that in mind, let’s now take A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ.

What we are doing in our study and if you are following along with us in your study guide under You’re a Brand New Creation on page 24, you see a passage of scripture there out of Ephesians and fifth chapter in the eighth verse, talking about the fact that once you were darkness, in other words for you were once darkness, but now, you are light in the Lord, live as children of Light. I think you could, as I look at us, sometimes at punctuation, which was not is not inerrant. Punctuation was put in by, by punctuationeners, the editors. The Greek didn’t have punctuation, but I could also look at that, it is just a statement for you were once darkness but now you are light. In the Lord live as children of light. So I think you could almost go either way. It’s just a little different emphasis. Therefore, you were, you were once darkness. Now your light. Now if you are light in the Lord, why then live as children light. If that’s who you are, go be who you are. And there is sometimes confusion in biblical interpretation because we don’t come to some conclusions in regard to proper premises.

As most of our people know who have heard the broadcast, we have probably answered a thousand times on the air in regard to 1st John, 1st John 1:9 and what we fail to realize is that you’re going to have to interpret those kind of passages in context, which is where you have to interpret every passage is in context. And what precedes that passage in John is light and darkness. And without exception, you’re not going to be able to interpret that passage properly if you don’t see the context of it. In 1st John 1:5 through seven, which precedes eight and nine. That’s interesting. It says, this is the message that you’ve heard from him and declared to you. God is light. And in Him, there is no darkness at all, in Him. Now what did we just get through talking about over here? You were once darkness, but now, you are light in the Lord. So He is light. And in Him is no darkness. Now, if I’m in the light, as He is in the light, well, that’s what this verse is talking about. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. And if we claim to have fellowship with Him, and yet walk in darkness, we lie and don’t live by the truth. Well, what do you mean to claim to have fellowship and yet walk in darkness? How can you walk in darkness, if you are light? You can’t. How can you walk in darkness if you’re dark, and darkness? Very easy. That’s the only place you can walk. If I am in darkness, the only place I can walk is in darkness. If I am light, not just in light, didn’t say that, it says, you are light. If I am in the light, there’s only one place for me to walk. In the light.

So in that passage of scripture, if we claim to have fellowship with Him and again fellowship is not everything’s okay. Fellowship is lost and saved. Fellowship is darkness and light. Fellowship is dead and alive. So if we claim to have fellowship with Him, in other words, why would I have fellowship with Him? Well, cause I’m saved. So if I’m claiming I’m saved and yet I’m walking in darkness, I’m not saved. Because you can’t walk in darkness if you’re saved. So if I’m claiming that there, that I am having fellowship with God, in other words, I’m saved and yet I’m walking in darkness. It says we lie and don’t live by the truth. We’re Liars. We don’t live by the truth. And Christ Jesus is that truth? We don’t live by. But if we walk in the light. As He is in the light. Now, what did you say about us? It just said, you are light. Once you were not in the darkness. Once you were darkness, I mean, you were in it so much you were part of it. It’s like being in the ocean and you can’t swim. You’re in it initially, then you’re of it. So and you may as well say you are ocean, because it is now engulfed you. Now if once you were what you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So it isn’t the case of just being in the light, you are light.

And so as it says there, if we walk in the light, which is the only place you can walk, if you’re saved, as He is in the light. There’s a result to that. We have fellowship with one another. We’re in the fellowship. Therefore we have fellowship. I am in the light therefore I walk in the light. I am in darkness, therefore I walk in the darkness. I am lost, therefore I walk in my darkness, in my lostness. I am saved, therefore walk in your salvation. Now I can walk stupid in my salvation or I can walk intelligent in my salvation. We have some options in that, but as a saved person, I have to walk and live in my salvation. That’s what I’m in. As a person who is in the light. I have to walk in the light. I can’t get in darkness. So I’ve asked people some places, as a Christian, well, where do you have to sin, in the darkness or in the light? And you think about it. Well in the light. Yeah, that’s where you got to do all your sinning in the light, and that’s why it isn’t as much fun. And we have to realize that you have to sin in the Light of Christ Jesus. That’s where we have to do our sinning.

Now if we walk in the light as he is in the light, there’s a byproduct of that. We have fellowship with Him. One another. You and Jesus and the blood of Jesus His Son purifies, keeps us, continually keeps on purifying us, from every sin imaginable. That’s His work. So as walking in the light is kind of like walking in a microwave, living in a microwave deal. Where the kind that every time, it begins to get grease out of it. It’s gone. It just disintegrates. So if that’s the job of the microwave that’s when it starts splattering, its the word I was searching for, splattering. Why it disintegrates. And so if you are in the light. There’s a byproduct of that, you’re going to have fellowship with Jesus, not because you’re acting good or not acting good. But because He’s in the light and you two are in the light and there’s a byproduct of that, you have fellowship with the One who’s in the light, and the blood of Jesus His Son. And He’s the one responsible for it is in a process of continually cleansing you of every sin imaginable. Now if when you sin it is the job of His Son and the blood of His Son to purify you from every sin imaginable. How could you ever get in the dark? And I said, well, he does that later. No, he doesn’t do it later. That’s a byproduct of being in the light. So a Christian can never walk in darkness. Lost person can walk in darkness. How come? Because he is darkness. But a saved person can never walk in darkness because He isn’t in darkness.

As we pick up where we left off on this and again, it’s so vitally important, especially in helping us to understand the 1st John 1:9 and say, why do we camp on that? Well, because everybody’s been encouraged to memorize it, and in the memorizing of it, we get involved in double talk, which is double mindedness and creates instability in all ways. A double minded man is unstable in all ways. We say out of one side of our mouth and say, Jesus took away all of our sins, never to see it again, and the other side of our mouth we say if we confess it, God will forgive us. One side of her mouth, we say, Jesus forgave all of our sins at the cross. Out the other side of our mouth we say, if we confess, he’ll forgive us. We sit down and say that Jesus paid It all. All of your sins, past present and future, pound the bible right down through the top of the pulpit. The other side of her mouth we say, if we confess, he’ll forgive us. So, in other words, our forgiveness is predicated upon us. It is God responds to us, rather than our responding to Him in praise and thanksgiving.

So we’re still living in regard to this forgiveness issue. We’re still living under the law. We’re still living quite frankly, under the old covenant. We just have changed and exchanged the day of atonement and all of the killing of the lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats on an altar. We’ve just moved our altar from Jerusalem to our 1st John 1:9. That’s all. Now some people move to, to a confession booth. And then the Protestants moved it to, just no, you just can have it any place you want to. So it’s kind of like hanging around your neck, that altar there, and the fact of the matter is, the Lord is up here in heaven yelling, hey guys, it’s finished! And so you’ve got people continually trying to complete what God said is already been made complete. How could I be made complete? Which I’m told I am. If it isn’t finished. Then if it didn’t finish. Why then how could I be complete? His work is incomplete, if it isn’t finished. If he is still in the process of forgiving me, why then his work is incomplete in my life. And so how could I be having been made complete? Which we’re told that we are. And so that’s where the understanding of these things can help so much. So as we approach that verse we have to approach it in context and the context of 1st John 1:8 and 9 is 5 through 7. And again, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, there’s a by-product that means you’re saved, and as a result of Him being in the light and you being in the light, meaning you’ve been transferred from darkness into light, salvation, that there’s a by-product to that and that is that you have fellowship with Christ. You’re in His fellowship forever and the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us from every sin imaginable.

Now, we go into 1st John 8 and 9 on the other hand, if we claim to be without sin, why, in other words, that’s the same person as the person claiming to have fellowship with Him and yet walking and darkness. What’s he say? Well, we lie and we don’t live by the truth. Now, if I claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So you’ve got, you’re not walking and how come? The truth isn’t in you, you’re not saved. We just have to understand that folks, that is, you’re just dealing with unsaved people. Here you are unsaved, lost people, not unsaved people, lost people. And so we have to come to grips with that. So, if we claim, these are all claims in 1st John, 5 and 7, we’re talking about, if we claim. What am I claiming? Well I claim I have fellowship with God, yet I walk in darkness. Well, what’s the result of that? You’re messed up. You lie. It says, you don’t live by the truth. You’re not, you’re not walking in truth. You’re not living by it. So I can’t sit around and claim that I am in fellowship with God and I’m saved. and yet literally, I’m walking in darkness. If I claim that, I’m lost now. It’s going to show in a moment what way you can prove whether you’re walking in darkness. And I now also, if I claim to be without sin, in which is the denial that I have a sin nature, why, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Not only am I not walking in living by the truth, the truth isn’t even in us. You’re lost.

See what you’re getting at, you can’t walk anything except where you are. If I’m in darkness and how to walk in it. If I’m light, I’ve got to walk in the light.

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So he’s talking to lost people and then goes ahead to say again, but if we agree with God concerning our sins, in what am I agreeing with concerning my sins? I got them and they need forgiven. I mean, it’s not just agreeing that I have sins. But if I am agreeing I have sins, I’ve got to do something with those sins. They need forgiveness or else ignored. Well, you can’t ignore them, they need forgiveness. You also are agreeing with God who provided that forgiveness. Jesus. How much of it? All of it. What do you do with them? He took them away. So, all of that’s a part of the agreement. So if we agree, if we agree with Him, concerning our sins, then what? He is faithful and just to do. Is He faithful and just to forgive and cleanse because I agree. No, He’s already been faithful and just to forgive and cleanse while we were yet enemies. Folks, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Now, what is reconciled? Taken away our sins, forgiven them, cleansed of all unrighteousness. When did that occur? When we were yet enemies, and lost is when that occurred.

So does my confession bring about His forgiveness and cleansing of unrighteousness? Why absolutely not. He is faithful and just to literally have forgiven your sins and have cleansed you of all unrighteousness. So not only has He purified me of all unrighteousness, but His continual action, blood, continues to purify me from every sin. In other words, that forgiveness issue is done, it’s ongoing. It’s done, and in my life it is ongoing. Well, He didn’t forgive me at the cross 2000 years ago, I’d have been standing there, because I was asking. Nobody asked Him to forgive us. He just, Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing. Well, if I didn’t know what I was doing, while I would ask him to forgive me, you know, please forgive me. I don’t know what I’m doing. What do you know what you’re doing? What are you asking for forgiveness for?

So no one was forgiven because of asking. It was forgiven because of His initiative. Now that same type of forgiveness is being experienced every day in our lives as a child of God. Not because I asked, but it’s just done, that I can know that as a child of God that when I sin, some most are too dumb to even know when I sin, but when I sin that the blood of Christ that died for me, 2,000 years ago, is still purifiing me of every sin.

So, I had to be cleansed of all of my unrighteousness that happened at the cross. I’ve never been in my righteousness. Oh, I never lost my righteousness. I never had any, and not only that, but I couldn’t have any of them and any of my righteousness before saved or after saved, that was self-righteousness, is perceived as a filthy rag. So I had to be cleansed once and for all at the cross of my own righteousness so that I could be indwelled by him and His righteousness. Now, today I don’t stand in mine. So I don’t need cleansed of unrighteousness. I will never be unrighteous again. I am not righteous because of what I did or didn’t do, and I can’t become unrighteous by what I do, or don’t do.

Do you get where we are talking and where is righteousness? Is a gift of God. I am not saved because of what I did by my works. I can’t be lost because of what I did. I am saved because of what He did. All I did was accepted that by faith. So when you are dealing with this whole issue of light and darkness, you’re talking lost and saved, claiming to be one thing and yet walk in the darkness. You’re deceived, claiming to be without sin, which is a lie. Deceived. Therefore if I’m without sin what do I need forgiveness for? If I agree with God, concerning my sins, evident that I do have a sin nature, then what can He be relied upon? He’s faithful. He’s just to have come forgiven my sin, to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. Not because of my asking, but because of what He’s already done. All I’m doing is at salvation, agreeing with God concerning my sins. Lord, I’m a sinner. Well, if you’re a sinner, what do you need to be? What do you need? You need to become a butterfly. You need to become a saint. Lord, I’m in darkness. I’m a sinner. I’m in darkness. What do you need? You need to go into the light. How do you go in the light? by faith, by coming to the One who is light. And in Him is no darkness at all. But what happens when I walk into that light? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you of every sin imaginable. It’s so simple. And we have complicated the saying so much, that it’s unbelievable.

But this understanding of light and darkness to me helps immensely in clearing this up. Now, to Ephasians 4:17 and 18, you’ll see another passage on lightness and darkness. I tell you this and insist on it. It says in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do. How do they live? In darkness, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. So where were you and I living before we were saved? In darkness separated from the life of God. How come? Because our hearts were hard. And we have to come to grips with that one as well.

1st Thessalonians 5,4 and 9 you brothers, it says, are not in darkness so that this day should not surprise you like a thief. Talking about end times, you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. Now, why don’t I belong to the night or to the darkness? Oh, because I no longer live in darkness. I have been transferred, translated from darkness into light. And the moment that I stepped out of Adam, out of darkness into salvation in the light, I became a child of the light and I do not belong to the night, nor do I belong to darkness, nor do I belong to lostness. Nor do I belong to Adam. Neither is my father, Satan. I don’t belong to any of that. I have a new identity, and I have a new citizenship.

As we carry along with our passage there in scripture, as it is talking about, for once we were darkness, now, you are light in the Lord live as children of light for the fruit of the light. In other words, the byproduct of living in the light, the by-product of living in Christ and Christ living in you, consists of all goodness of righteousness and truth. And where is that goodness? In Christ. Where is that righteousness? In Christ. Where is truth? In Christ. So living in the light means living in Christ, and find out what pleases the lord. Well, what does please the Lord? Anything that is not of faith, is what is said. So only by faith. Anyone without faith, it is impossible to what? Please God. So, what is pleasing to God? Walking by faith. Walking by faith in who the one who is truth, righteousness, and goodness. Who’s that? Jesus? Complicated isn’t it? (sarcasm). Now, it says, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Folks, you get some self-righteous people walking around. You don’t understand anything about anything only thing he understands their own self-righteousness and they read that and think that we’re supposed to walk around exposing people who are doing bad deeds, as if we never have done bad deeds then so they’re walking around in their self-righteousness exposing people. Well, it shows you how feeble people like, that’s understanding of the word of God. God is because it doesn’t talk about exposing people. It talks about exposing deeds of darkness. But what what are you doing when you’re exposing deeds of darkness? Well, you’re exposing what the Bible says is right and wrong.

The world comes along and says I and I’m just giving you some examples. I’m not camping on anyone’s sin, but the world comes along and says, all homosexuality is just an alternate lifestyle. You’re born that way and you come along and say, oh no, you’re not. That is not true. The Bible says, homosexuality is sin. What am I doing? I’m exposing deeds of darkness for what they are. Deeds of Darkness. Those are deeds that are done by people who are in darkness, who don’t think anything about doing it. You watch any kind of a television program or you listen to interviews sometimes if you’re unfortunate enough to do that, and you will hear people just talking about movie actresses, movie guys talking about, well, we didn’t get along real well, and we were living together, and this and that and living together. Why it’s just as commonplace as anything in the world?.

Amy and I were riding to Austin one time sitting next to a little, like a little co-ed. Just cute little girl. Just fresh looking sweet looking like, little girl next door, and maybe that type. I don’t know. But in the conversation, are you going down to school?, Amy ask her. No, I’m not going down to school down to Austin University of Texas. My boyfriend is going to University of Texas, and I’m going down and we’re going to live together down there and it was just like saying, could I have a Coke, please? Difference, I’d like a Coca-Cola. We’re going to go down live together. There’s no, there’s no difference. Why? Well, because the dark, the darkness is not aware that is a deed of darkness. People who are in darkness don’t even know that’s a sin. They don’t have a clue that that’s a lifestyle that’s going to eat their lunch someday. You can go on and on and on a person says, oh, I’m not, I’m not a drunk. I just am an alcoholic. I’m just sick. I got a sickness. Well, if I’m going to expose a deed of darkness, am I going to call drunkenness sickness? No, I’m going to call it what it is, a sin, not a bigger sin than what I do, but it’s a sin and I don’t want to sit around and call what I do, something else if it’s a sin.

So when you’re talking about exposing deeds of darkness, you’re not going around trying to trap somebody in a sin, like some kind of a snoopy Pharisee, that’s what they were doing. They were dragging. They drugged the girl caught in adultery here they were the nosey betters. Don’t know how they caught her in the act. Probably peaked it there. They drug her down to the town square in order to stone her to death and Jesus hit them right in between the eyes. Now is adultery a sin? Of course it’s a sin and you got exposed it for what it is. And Jesus didn’t sit there and say, oh that’s not a sin. And she just got a little sickness, just kind of born a little oversexed. He didn’t do that at all. Nothing, no question about it, what she was doing was a sin, but what they were doing was also a sin. So I said later on, hypocrite. He said, that’s what you are just nothing but a hypocrite, an actor. Before you take the speck out of your neighbors, I’d take the log out of your own. Said, yeah, you’re trying to take the speck out of that woman’s eye. You got a log in your own. And He asked a question. Have any of you sin, are you without sin? If you’re without sin, stone her, that’s what the law says. It says, if you’ve sinned, stone her. Now, let’s see you stone her. And Jesus with the capability of looking right inside a man’s heart and they knew He could see inside their heart what did they do? They dropped their little stones, and they went home and there was no one left there. Except Him. The only One without sin. The only One capable of stoning her. The only One who had the right to stone her was Jesus, the only Righteous One there.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.