You think you're okay when really all you've done is gotten used to the darkness. Dr. Tony Evans says it's time to bring some light into your situation. You can't claim fellowship with God while operating in a dark sphere. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
Whether you're threading a needle or performing surgery, working in the dark practically guarantees failure. Well, today Dr. Evans explains why the same is true when it comes to getting our life on track. Let's join him. A man one day was riding in the car with his wife and she said, when we were dating we were so close and now we sit so far apart to which the man said, well, I haven't moved. In other words, if we're apart it's because you've slid over.
I haven't moved. I'd like to suggest to you that whatever breach is existing in your walk with God, it's not because God has moved, that He is in the same spot. In 1 John chapter 1 verse 3 John says, what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
These things we write so that our joy may be complete. Now the problem in John's writing is the problem that you and I have today. The people he is writing are removed from the personal, physical experience with Jesus Christ. They haven't met Jesus. They haven't talked verbally to Jesus. They haven't visibly seen Jesus Christ. They didn't do what the disciples did when they walked with Jesus.
That was not their experience. John says, I am writing to you that the fellowship we had with Him, you have with Him too. Even though you've not talked to Him, haven't seen Him and haven't walked with Him like we did, you still can have the same fellowship that we had and your joy can be full. One of the ways you know that the fellowship with God is real is that the joy is full.
What is this joy? This joy is the tangible, grabbable realization that you are experiencing the life of God within. In verses 5 to 10, John lays out the most graphic, substantive, potent, powerful description of how we experience the reality of God, how that reality is activated in our experience through this koinonia or fellowship or shared experience with God that you can find anywhere in the Bible. My concern today is that you clearly understand these verses because verses 5 through 10 will give you the key to activating the cross in your experience today. He begins by letting you and I know that in order to have this reality activated in our lives as Christians, because he's writing to Christians, he says that throughout the book, he calls them my little children, that is fellow believers. Verse 5, this is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you, God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.
In case we missed that, let me say that again. John said, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If you and I are going to experience God, we must understand the God we wish to experience.
He says, let me explain God to you so that there is no misunderstanding here. God is light. How much light? So much light that there is no room for any darkness at all.
It is complete, comprehensive light. Paul calls it unapproachable light. For God, it's always 12 o'clock noon.
It's never 12 o'clock midnight. He only exists in light. Now, stick with me. That may not make sense quite yet, but walk with me through this. God only exists in light, which means He only operates in the realm in which He only exists. He only exists in light. That's His field of operation.
Let me put it that way. He exists everywhere, but I'm telling you, His field of operation is Himself, and He is light. The contrast to that is Satan, who only operates in darkness. God only operates in light. Light, in its essence, is pure, uncontaminated, clear, and clean.
It simultaneously exposes what is contaminated, what is unclear, and what is not clean. Because light is free from any defect or impurity, God is therefore free from any impurity or defect. And therefore, to see God clearly, you must see Him in the context of the light in which He operates.
This is where He operates, because this is who He is. God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. That's why He says in verse 6, if we say we have fellowship, we hold in common with God, with Him, and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. He says, if you say we have fellowship with Him, and yet we walk in darkness, He says, you are confused.
We lie. He says, I don't know what you think you're experiencing, but it isn't God. You can't claim, I can't claim fellowship with God while operating in a dark sphere.
We leave the room where God is. God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. If we say, me and God are doing fine, but we're operating in the realm of darkness, you are lying. You and God are not doing fine. The problem is, you can get so used to living in darkness that you think it's light, because you're operating in that sphere.
And if you operate a certain way long enough, you think that's normal. Verse 7, but if we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Now, let me explain. The one another is not believer to believer. The one another is us and God, because that's the fellowship He's talking about. He is saying, we have something in common with God.
What is the thing we have in common with God? Light. God is light. He operates in light. So when we walk in light, we have fellowship with the one who is light.
We have fellowship with one another. It comes to verse 8. If we say we have no sin, if we think being in the light means there's no sin, we don't understand the light. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. When He uses the phrase, the truth is not in us, it means we're not operating by truth, we're living by a lie. Any of you know any people who live out a lie? In other words, lying is as real to them as the truth. They even believe the lie is the truth.
Okay? See, we are prone. We are prone to gravitate to the lie if the lie is more comfortable for us. It's the middle of the night, you wake up, you've got to use the restroom. And you say, I don't need the light, because I've been living here long enough, I know where the bathroom is. I don't need the light. But your little pinky toe misjudged the edge of the bed because you didn't need the light. Or you left something out you forgot, only to discover you didn't hurt your toe, you didn't trip over something, you didn't walk into something, because you felt you could handle the darkness. The reason why you got a nightstand with a lamp is because it's too far to go to the switch.
You see, the design of the light is to show you where the edge of that bed is, to show you whether something's been left out. But if you say, I haven't left anything out, I know where the edge of the bed is, I can make this forward and back on my own, he says, you lie. You do not the truth. You're not operating in the truth. You think everything's all right. You think you don't have a problem, or at least not one that God calls sin.
Here is the resolution, verse 9. If we confess our sins, what sins that were revealed while you were walking in the light? I'm walking in fellowship with God, and I know I am, because he is exposing me to me. He is letting me see things about me that I didn't think were there. He's letting me experience things that's revealing things in my heart that now have come out of my mouth.
He's revealing me, and I don't like what I see. Now, I have a choice. I can run to the darkness and say, didn't happen, not real. Or, I can remain in the light of the exposure and confess. The Greek word confess means to say the same thing. The Greek word confess, homologia, says to say the same thing. So to confess something is to agree with God about what he says it is. It's to say the same thing that God says about it, which means if God calls it sin, you can't call it something else, because it means to say the same thing. If God calls it sin, you can't reduce it to a mistake. If God calls it sin, you can't reduce it to a bad habit. If God calls it sin, you can't say, this is my personality. If God calls it sin, you can't say, I was raised this way. If God calls it sin, you can't say, I can't help it. If God calls it sin, you can't say, everybody does it. If God calls it sin, you must say the same thing. You must agree with God that it is sin. Because you're in the light, and the moment you call it anything other than what God calls it, you went to your own private room. The language I just used is sin. The stuff I'm looking at on the computer is sin. See, you've got to call it what God calls it, because the moment you reduce it, you don't have to deal with it like God says deal with it, because it's not that bad. So how does God want us to deal with sin?
Dr. Evans will have the answer for us when he continues in just a moment. First, though, the message we're hearing today is part of Tony's powerful 14-part series, Returning to the Cross. In these lessons, Dr. Evans unpacks the deep significance of the Lord's sacrifice and how it unlocks the blessings, power, and purpose God has for us. This life-changing collection is available on CD or digital download. And for a limited time, we'll send you all 14 messages along with Tony's book, The Power of the Cross, as our thank-you gift when you support this ministry.
These resources will help you grasp the true impact of the Cross and how to apply its power in your daily life. Request your copy today when you visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222, where our team is available 24-7 to assist you. That's tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information for you after part two of today's message and this.
I urge you to take this course. Dr. Craig Evans, renowned expert on the New Testament, serves as the special guest lecturer for the Tony Evans Training Center course on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible. That covers very important ground, what they are and what they're not. One of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide unparalleled insights into the accuracy of the Bible. These ancient manuscripts offer a treasure trove of historical and spiritual significance. They preserve for us the Hebrew Bible and shed light on the teaching of Jesus and the major contributors to the New Testament. The scrolls open a vivid window into the life and beliefs of the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. You will understand the Bible and Jesus and Christian origins better than you ever have before. Take your first step as an honorary amateur archaeologist. Dive into the Dead Sea Scrolls with special guest lecturer, Dr. Craig Evans. Discover this and other fascinating biblical studies at tonyevanstraining.org.
Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. If we confess our sins, he's used the word sin and he's made it now plural. The best way to understand this is by your wash. You pick up your wash, you put it in the clothes basket, you take it to the washroom because these are dirty clothes. I suspect what you don't do with the dirty clothes is take the basket, open the washer, and just flip the basket over.
You probably take it out piece by piece because in order to make sure they all get clean, they need to get separated as you put them in because if they're all intertangled up and you just pour them over, the flow won't get to each individual piece like it needs to. So God don't want you to group sins. He don't want you to start your day off with, forgive me for all my sins. Let me just collect them all and dump them and hope it's all right.
No. If we confess the sins, that is the individual things that he reveals, not, Lord, I confess everything bad I said yesterday, uh-uh, that's throwing it all in the wash. No. This is what I said.
This is what I felt. This is how I acted and that is against your light. If we confess our sins, now please notice what he didn't say in that verse. He didn't say if we metanoia our sins.
Metanoia is the Greek word for repent. He didn't say if we repent of our sins, he said if we confess our sins. So the question is, what's the difference between confession and repentance? Confession is to say the same thing. So God shows me something that I have done that is not consistent with his character based on the light that he shines on me, and I agree. You know, God, what I just did, said, thought, or acted, I agree with you that that is sin.
Bam. The blood of Jesus Christ has now been activated. You know when we used to wear, I told you this before, when we used to wear the jerry curl, okay, got a few old schoolers still wearing it, but remember, we used to wear the jerry curl, and you got your hair relaxed enough, you know, and then, but the thing would dry out on you, so you'd have to go buy a curl activator, remember a curl activator? Oh, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about.
You'd have to go buy a curl activator, and you'd wipe the activator in, and wipe it into your hair so that dead, dry look will start to live again. Well, if you live in darkness, stuff dries out, but once you come to the light, the blood of Jesus Christ starts flowing, and when you agree with God, the blood forgives your sin. Repentance is different. Oh, it's deeper.
Let me put it that way. Repentance comes when there needs to be a change of direction. Repentance means to reverse course. Repentance happens because there has been a pattern established, and you need to reverse your way on the highway.
Confession is needed when there has not been a pattern established that needs to be an action corrected. In other words, I did this, this needs to be changed, that I do now, but repentance is required, because now there has been a direction taken, there is a direction taken. In other words, if I'm driving down the street and I miss the first street I'm supposed to turn on, I missed that street. I should have turned on that street.
I confess I missed that street, but I turn on the next street that will take me back to where I was going, okay? That was an action taken that I acknowledge that was immediately responded to. All in that case is needed is confession. Repentance is, I'd have gone 10 miles out of the way, the wrong direction on the highway, been going this way for days, months, and years, so I need to do a whole course reversal, okay?
So confession is an action that is responded to immediately. Repentance is a new direction in life that needs to be taken, okay? So because he's not dealing with repentance, he's dealing in this church with abiding, staying on course, not reversing a course, he tells them if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Okay, we're winding down here. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. What sin? The sins we confess.
But then he says, I'll throw in a bonus. I'll not only take care of the things you confess, I, with the blood of Jesus Christ, the cross of Christ, will cleanse you from stuff you forgot, stuff you didn't even know was there, I'm going to give you a package deal. If you bring to me in the light the stuff you know about, I'll take care of the stuff you don't know about or forgot to confess. So if you operate in the light, I got the blood, so working in the light, it'll take care of the known and the unknown, the obvious and the forgotten, why? So I can keep you in the light. I don't want you going back to the darkness.
I want you staying in the light because that's where the power of the cross is activated. He closes with this statement in verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the word is not in us. If he shows you something in the light and you say nothing wrong with it, if he shows you in the light and you say it's not that bad, if he shows you in the light and you say everybody does it, if he shows you in the light and you say, well, that's not, you know, there's nothing wrong with me, that's just my background.
History and personality. He says, you just told God, God, you are a bold-faced cosmic liar. Now I don't know who big enough or bad enough to go up in the God's grill and to tell him you ain't nothing but a liar, been a liar, come from a liar, are a liar, will be a liar, God, you just a liar, you just, you just, he says, you call God a liar. Now how is God gonna have fellowship with folk up in his face telling him he a liar? He says it's sin, you call it something else, God is, oh, you calling me a liar? You saying I'm lying? He says if you say I have not sinned, you make God a liar, the truth is not in you, you're operating in darkness, and therefore, chapter two, verse one and two won't be your experience.
I'll close with that. My little children, Christians, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. I'm not telling you to go sin, but if you do sin, we have an advocate. The word advocate means lawyer with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, which is why the blood keeps flowing, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. He says if you will acknowledge what I say about a thing, the lawyer will stand up in the courtroom. Jesus Christ the advocate, who died on the cross, and say, God, they just acknowledged to you that what you said about them is right, and that they were wrong, so I stand up in the court, since I'm your son, you're going to pay me attention, since I'm righteous, I'm qualified to stand here, and I want to let you know I have already dealt with what they just confessed. I want you to remove that and throw in some extra stuff too, all their sin and unrighteousness, so that you can now keep fellowship with them, keep working with them, keep empowering them, keep blessing them.
I'm now in the courtroom. He says, you said you were guilty, but my son just stood up for you, and I can't ignore my son, so I got to relieve you from your guilt, so you and I can keep having fellowship with one another. He says that's the way the cross is activated in keeping us in fellowship with the living God. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about the importance of triggering the reality of God's presence in our lives. Today's lesson comes from his current teaching series, Returning to the Cross, a two-volume collection focusing on the most important concept of the Christian faith. You can receive all 14 full-length messages in this series as our gift when you make a donation and request them at tonyevans.org. And as a reminder, we'll also include a copy of Tony's companion book for this series called The Power of the Cross. Request this special package when you visit tonyevans.org today or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Pretending that a problem doesn't exist won't make it go away, but it can make it go from bad to worse. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explore how the truth really can set us free. Be sure to join us for that.
