BY HAROLD LEE
Please turn over to John chapter 1. I’d like to start there. As Mr. Staggs had mentioned, we were only two weeks away from the Passover, two weeks from last night. And I would like to in the same manner as him to follow on with some of the things that he had talked about. But let’s start off in John 1 and verse 1. These are Scriptures that we are very familiar with but they are just packed with very deep meaning. And sometime maybe familiarity causes us to skip over some of this, but I would really like to dig out some of the real deep meaning of these.
John 1:1, it says
John 1:1. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) He was in the beginning with God.
And again, it’s repeated. That’s the second time. It’s really emphasized.
John 1:3. All things were
made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In other words, this is identifying the Word as the Creator of all things.
John 1:4. In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men.
The New Revised Standard says, “light of all people.”
The title for today’s sermon is The Light Of Men.
Verse 5.
John 1:5. And the light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Skip down to verse 9.
John 1:9. That was the true
Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10) He was in the world, and the world was
made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
And that word “know” is one that we’ve talked about. It’s ginosko, Strong’s 1097. And that means to have a relationship with Him, not just to have heard the name, not just to know about.
But it says, “the world did not know Him.” It did not have a intimate or a close relationship with Him.
Continuing on it says
John 1:11. He came to His
own, and His own did not receive Him.
I’m going to ask you in your own Bible study to look up this word. It’s Strong’s 2398. “His own” that’s from a single word, idios. And also perhaps look, if you have An Englishman’s Concordance where it shows all of the occurrences of that word, to also look at the other places. I think if you look at it, you’ll find that it means a far closer relationship than just a national heritage. I’ve read that many times, “He came to His own,” and you think He was born among the Jews. He witnessed to the Jews and they rejected Him. And that is true. But John 13—and don’t turn there—John 13:1 uses the same word and I’ll just read this to you. This is the typical meaning of “His own.” It says
John 13:1. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
The word there “His own” implies by the usage of it throughout the New Testament—again, I’ll ask you to look at it yourself—it implies a smaller intimate group. In almost every case, it’s used to describe a small circle of friends, His disciples. That word can also mean Him by Himself. In other words, where it talks about Him going off to pray, that same word “His own” and it can mean His own self. But anytime it’s talking about a larger group, it is modified by His own people, or His own language. But when it’s just used like this, “to His own,” it really does—again and I’m going to ask you to determine that in your study—it implies a smaller group.
John 1:11. He came to His
own, and His own did not receive Him.
Again, a word that we have spent some time with, “receive,” paralambano. You’ve heard it before. It means to take to, to receive closely. Zodhiates’ Word Study and it’s speaking specifically about John 1:11 and I just want to read this.
The word paralambano is also used in relation to a teacher, to receive
knowledge, to embrace, or to follow instruction.
So when it says, “receive Him,” it doesn’t just mean, “Hi,” it means to receive Him and what He stands for, to receive His teaching.
As also can be the meaning of lambano
Of course, para, we use that word paramedic or paratrooper. That means close to but
…lambano means to take a person or receive him as a friend or a
guest into one’s house or society.
So in other words, not only to receive a person’s teaching or what they stand for—but I’m going to use some words you’ve heard before—to invite one into one’s house, into one’s life. And that’s what that’s talking about. It says “His own” did not do that. They did not receive Him.
I’m going to speculate here for a moment and that’s all it
is is speculation. We know that the
apostle John lived—of course, he was the longest living apostle—he lived well
into the 90’s AD. He wrote the Gospel of
John, the three epistles known as 1, 2 and 3 John. He was the author of the book of
Revelation. The scholars date this
gospel to be written about the end of his life and we know, of course, he was a
prisoner on the Isle of Patmos, after that lived out his final years in
But consider that John personally witnessed the Church, the birth of the beginnings of the Church, the problems over the sixty year period. He was alive for the destruction of the temple, saw the end of the Levitical priesthood that whole system come to an end. He was the one, remember, that was told to write the seven letters to the Churches that were on the mail route. And I’ve mentioned this before that all the issues that are mentioned in those letters had to exist during that time for those letters to have been true. And they did because, again, these congregations were a microcosm of the overall Church not only in geography but we understand over time. In other words, those particular what we now call eras but with these dominant things.
And now for the speculation and I’ll just form it as in the form of a question. Could this also be a reference to the Church when it says “He came to His own and His own did not receive Him?” We’ve read this Scripture. And, again, all we’ve said was, “Well, He went to the Jews. His primary activities were directed to the Jews,” and by the way, I do think that is accurate. But could there be more to it? Could there be a deeper meaning when it says, “He came to His own and His own did not receive Him?”
Don’t turn there.
Revelation
Continuing on in John 1:12, it says
John 1:12. But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become [the] children of God, to
those who believe in His name:
I’ll quote Revelation 3:21.
Revelation 3:21. “To him who
overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat
down with My Father on His throne.
These two final verses of John are almost a paraphrase of Revelation 3:20 and Revelation 3:21. We’ve read and we’ve covered the letter to the Laodiceans many times recently. I believe there’s a very personal, very direct, very important information that’s contained in this letter that we, Brethren, can use during this time of self-examination leading up to the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, again, just two weeks from last night.
Our prayers to God should include the request for Him to help us see our faults, to see our sins more clearly, and to make the changes in our lives and root out those things that we need to. And we also know that one way that God speaks to us when we ask Him these is through His Word, through His written Word. We can make requests to God and then we read His Word.
If we believe that the letters of the Churches apply to us—and I believe they do—and the letter to the Laodiceans has a great deal of relevance to us today, then perhaps it would be a good place to go and help us get some very personal information which can help us in the process of our self-examination. Turn over now to Revelation 3 and we’ll start in verse 14. It says
Revelation 3:14. “And to the
angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the
Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
I’d just like to have a side note there. This seems to say and there’s some that say, “Well, Christ was the first of the creation indicating that God created Him. That He was a created Being.” And this “the Beginning of the creation of God” is not translated very well. The word translated “Beginning” is the Greek word, Strong’s 746, arche, and it means the origin or the beginning, the person or thing that commences, the first person or a thing in a series, the leader, that by which anything begins to be the origin, the active cause. And another definition, the first place, the principality, the rule or the majesty.
Notice the word “Beginning”—in The New King James anyway—is capitalized as it is in The New American Standard. It’s a title. Let me read that from some other translations to give you the flavor of.
The NIV says, “the Ruler of God’s creation.”
The New Jerusalem Bible says, “the Principal of God’s creation.”
The New Living Translation, “the Ruler of God’s creation.”
Young’s Living Translation, “the Chief of the creation of God.” In other words, the overseer.
The Bible In Basic English—and I think this is probably the very plain—that’s published in 1949. It says, “the Head of God’s new order.”
So when it says He’s “the Beginning” of His creation, it didn’t mean the first thing He created. It means the Supreme Ruler over His creation.
Skip down to verse 15.
He says—I just want to establish the author of this letter. In verse 15, He says
Revelation 3:15. “I know
your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or
hot. 16) “So then, because you are
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17) “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have
become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—
In other words, your statement, your self-assessment—if I can put it in more modern terms—is that you are rich. That you are spiritually wealthy. That you have everything that you need. Basically—again, if I can project that—“You’re just waiting for Me to show up. You’re growth is done. You’ve got all that you need to be in My Family and now you’re wondering why I haven’t returned yet.”
And then He goes on to say
Revelation 3:17b. and do not
know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
Now let’s consider for a minute. Here’s the Head of God’s creation, Jesus Christ, and He’s telling us that we consider ourselves to be spiritually wealthy. That we think we have everything we need. That we’re okay. And the reality is—and that’s what He’s saying—the reality is we’ve deceived ourselves into this illusion because we’re blind and we don’t know it. And this blindness obscures our true condition. He says, “You’re literally wretched and poor and naked and you don’t know it because you’re blinded.” Or we’re blinded to our spiritual condition, our true spiritual condition.
Now if we realize our spiritual condition so that we can take steps to correct it, the first step is to identify our blindness so we can take steps to correct that. In other words, if we were going to start looking through this list, where would you start? We would have to start at the blindness because without that we can’t have the discernment to say, “Are we poor and wretched and naked?” And what makes it very difficult is this blindness is not known by those that are blind.
Those of you that have been around blind people can very
quickly determine that they’re blind.
Many times a blind person will have a service dog. We used to call them Seeing Eye dogs. I think now they’re more correctly called a
service dog. I remember when we lived in
People that are blind, you can see people that have a white cane that they use as they’re walking and they will make tap and based on the echoes they are hearing—which is usually more acute—they can help to guide them. Sometime you will see a person in a crowd with their hand on another person’s shoulder being led somewhere and you can tell by the way they’re being led because they’re not looking around that they’re blind.
I remember two—having come out of that age—two entertainers, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, were two blind musicians. Perhaps many of you are familiar with them. But you could tell by their mannerisms and their actions that they were blind. You could watch them for just a few seconds and you could tell that they were blind.
One thing that all blind people have in common is they know they’re blind. Most have taken steps, either training, guide dogs, but most have taken steps to deal with it. But the bottom line is they know their condition.
The most insidious thing about spiritual blindness is the blindness causes one to lack the very thing they need to discern the blindness, spiritual discernment. Brethren, the Light that came into the world is the only thing that will allow us to see. And if we’ve backed away from that Light, and, of course, remember if you’ve gone camping and you’ve lit your little lantern, it gives light. And you set it outside and you zip up your tent, you’re in the dark. And Christ is pictured as being the Light as being outside. When that happens, there’s darkness.
We in God’s Church that have been given His Truth that have been given eyes to see can become blinded by moving away from the only source of illumination. When we’re not in the light, we’re in the darkness and we’re blind and we probably do not even know it.
Some people are born blind. There’s some genetic problem. There’s some disease. Stevie Wonder was born. He was a premature baby. They put him in an incubator and they had the oxygen level too high in the incubator and that caused him to go blind, that high oxygen level, again, before he was even nine months from gestation age. Some are born blind and later in life they lose it. Ray Charles was normally sighted, was a normal child. About six or seven he started losing his eyesight. A period of about two years, he lost his eyesight. They think it was due to glaucoma. He was from a very poor family, did not receive medical attention, but became blind later on. Helen Keller, many of you, she either had meningitis or scarlet fever at about 19 or 20 months of age and that, we know, robbed her not only of her eyesight but her hearing.
Regardless of that though, everyone that is physically blind knows it. And they can take steps to compensate for it. Those that are spiritually blind lack the ability to see that blindness.
What I’d like to do today, I’d like to focus on the subject of spiritual blindness. First, let’s define it. Let’s see what causes it. Let’s see what we can use to evaluate it. And finally, let’s ask and answer the question, “Is there a cure? Is it something we must accept?” If in our examination, we find that in our lives—and, Brethren, I believe all of us will to some degree—can it be cured? Can this be something that we can deal with or do we just accept it?
Let’s continue on reading in Revelation chapter 3 verse 18.
Revelation 3:18. “I counsel
you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire,
So, we’re to buy this gold. And that’s been covered.
Revelation 3:18b. that you
may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; [Notice!] and
anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Brethren, we can see that there is a cure for spiritual blindness which the Head of God’s creation calls “eye salve.” We’re not given an impossible task.
First, let’s define what this blindness is. Look over in John chapter 9. The entire chapter of John 9 is a discourse of the physical blindness of a man leading to a spiritual application. In other words, to me John 9 is the bridge from physical blindness to spiritual blindness. And I think it’s important that we cover that to realize that. John chapter 9 and it just occurred to me, as I mentioned John penned the Gospel, the three epistles, and Revelation, that’s where we’re probably going to spend most of our time today. So most of it is in reading what John was at least credited with writing under inspiration in the Bible. John 9 verse 1, it says
John 9:1. Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was
blind from birth. 2) And His disciples
asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was
born blind?”
We know that if we look at the spiritual side of it, the majority of the world, in fact, almost all but a precious few were born blind.
John 9:3. Jesus answered,
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, [And this is important!] but that the
works of God should be revealed in him.
Here’s a man—and we know from the reply later on. We’re not going to read it. When he was having to give his testimony to the Pharisees, and his parents said, “Well, he’s of age. You can ask him,” because they were afraid of losing their seat in the synagogue. They said, “You go ask him.” So we know he was an adult, was at least twenty-one, was considered an adult and perhaps was in his late twenties or thirties. But he could speak for himself and here he was his entire life being blind—and if I could just borrow a phrase from Revelation—for the hour of the day of the month of the year that Jesus Christ would come along and heal him. Notice the purpose of this was to declare God’s works. It was to glorify God.
We’ve said many times that there’s questions we want to ask the patriarchs in the future. I want to ask David about this or I want to ask Abraham about this or something. We all have those questions. How about this guy? I’ve wondered because if we look at the spiritual, how do you view your blindness after your healing? How would we ask him, “Would you have preferred to have been sighted from birth and never had this encounter with Jesus Christ, be healed both physically and spiritually?” What do you think he would say? “I just wished I had sight all my life.” Do you think that he said, “Well, I just never could understand”? And yet, Christ said, “The purpose of this wasn’t that he sinned or his family. It was to glorify God and show God’s works in him.” And I will bet you—
Hold your finger there. Go over to Philippians chapter 3. I submit to you that he would have answered—because, Brethren, remember we all sometime wish perhaps, and I hope it’s very fleeting, that you weren’t called. That perhaps because of some of the sore trials that we go through at a time we wished. Look what Paul said, Philippians 3, how he felt about his condition before and after. And remember his condition after, shipwrecked, stoned, flogged. Philippians 3 verse 8.
Philippians 3:8. Yet indeed
I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them
as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Now I do believe there are times, again, that we go through very sore trials and we go, “Why me? Why was I called?” God understands our frame. He knows that we’re just dust. Our Advocate, Jesus Christ, knows we’re limited.
You don’t have to turn there but Job in chapter 3 verses 1 through 4. Remember he told God he wished he wasn’t born. “Why did I ever see the light of day?” He cursed the day of his birth because of the sore trials. God didn’t hold that against him.
Part of our examination for spiritual blindness must be that we consider our calling, our tribulation, and see beyond that because I believe this person would have said, “The best thing that ever happened to me was that I was born blind because not only did it glorify God, it gave me a relationship with God and that was priceless. And nothing could have taken the place of that.”
Brethren, let’s spend time honestly considering this, considering ourselves, and asking God to help us with that.
Okay back to John 9 and verse 4. It says
John 9:4. “I must work the
works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the
night is coming when no one can work. 5)
“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6) When He had said these things, He spat on
the ground, and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the
blind man with the clay.
There’s three times that during Jesus’ ministry that He used saliva. Two were with blind people and the third was with a deaf person. He used that to open his ears. And, of course, to me you just think, “Oh, He spit on His hands or He put it in their ears.” I wondered is it possible that there was some other way to read this or way to understand it. So, I did a little research. And, again, this is totally off the subject but it was interesting enough. The word “saliva” or “spit” is from the Greek word—and this is a word that— You know we have words in English that the word really describes that. The Greek word for spit, it’s transliterated ptoo. [Laughter.] There is no way to misunderstand that. But that’s the Greek word for spit, ptoo. And it’s used three times and, again, in all three cases it was when He was healing them. So, again, that will be a question that we can ask Him, “Why did you use spit?” I don’t know maybe some of you are smarter than me and know it. But I can’t quite figure it out but I know it was something that was consistent and there was a reason. Anyway.
It says
John 9:6b. He spat on the
ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man
with the clay. 7) And He said to him,
“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
Verse 17, skip down. I’m sorry verse 16. And, of course, this is. We’re going to skip through some.
John 9:16. Therefore some of
the Pharisees said, “This Man [talking about Jesus here] is not from God,
because He does not keep the Sabbath.”
And the implication is “Like we Pharisees do,” according to their standards which they used to measure everyone else.
John 9:16b. Others said,
“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”
And [of course] there was division among them.
Verse 32, I thought this was interesting.
John 9:32. “Since the world
began [they were saying] it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of
one who was born blind.
This was totally unique in the history, at least, of man.
John 9:33. “If this Man were
not from God, He could do nothing.” 34)
They answered and said to him,
Now this “him” that they’re talking of the man who was healed.
John 9:34b. “You were
completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. 35) Jesus heard that they had cast him out;
and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”
Remember this man had his eyes opened.
John 9:36. He answered and
said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37) And Jesus said to him, “You have both
seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.”
This man that was blind, first Jesus opened his eyes and then revealed Himself to this person. He didn’t find Him. Remember he was a blind man.
John 9:38. Then he said [the
blind man], “Lord,
And that word is kurios. It means my Lord, my Master. He didn’t say “Rabbi” or “Teacher.” He said, “Kurios, my Lord, the sovereign One over my life.”
John 9:38b. “Lord, I
believe!” And he worshiped Him. 39) And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come
into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may
be made blind.” 40) Then some of the
Pharisees who were with Him heard these words and said to Him, “Are we blind
also?” 41) Jesus said to them, “If you
were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
In other words, they were self-righteous. They took on themselves the righteousness.
Here we see a man blind from birth being healed and receiving his sight, physically and spiritually. Because he became a disciple he was spiritually healed and received his spiritual sight. And the Pharisees on the other hand were spiritually blind and didn’t know it. In fact, chose to remain in their blindness in that deceived state and they were unable to see their blindness or their need to change.
Look over in Psalm 146. Brethren, it doesn’t make any difference who we are, what we have, how smart we are, how many whatever you can say. There is nothing that a man can do that he can give himself eyesight spiritually. Chapter 146, Psalm 146 verse 8, it says
Psalm 146:8. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord
raises those who are bowed down; the Lord
loves the righteous.
Turn over to Mark chapter 8. There’s another instance of Jesus healing a blind person and I’d like to examine that before we move on because there is, I believe, a lesson in it. As you’re turning over, I want to lay a little groundwork for what we’re going to read in Mark chapter 8.
And on the north shore, there were two places that during His three and a half year ministry, He spent probably two thirds to three fourths of His time and that was Bethsaida which was on the east side of the Jordan. And then there was Chorazin which was on the west side. It was up in the hills a little bit. And if you go through—and I could give you the Scriptures—He actually—the commentaries call it retreats. There were four times during His three and a half year ministry that He took His disciples and sort of went to one of these places to just kind of spend time with them personally but also performed a lot of miracles there because He was teaching them and they were to see that. And this was, this incident we’re going to read about was on the fourth and the final—and, again, I’m going to use the word—retreat or retirement. I like retirement. Yeah! But anyway.
But
Anyway He spent a lot of time there. And I don’t want you to turn there but if
you’ll remember—you can look this up later—Luke 10:13. He made a strong indictment because He had
spent so much time there and performed so many miracles there. Remember or again, refresh in your mind Luke
10:13. He said, “Woe to you,
Chorazin! Woe to you,
And Matthew
Anyway Mark 8 and start in verse 22. It said
Mark
So this person wanted to be healed.
Mark
We could do a whole sermon on that because here, as the true Shepherd was, He took this blind man and led him. He didn’t send him. He didn’t tell them, “Take him.” He personally led him. And actually in the Old Testament there’s quite a bit of not only in the blessings and cursings but also in some of the other writings about caring for the blind. And, in fact, Job at one time when he was trying to tell God how he was, he said, “I was eyes for the blind and I was legs for the lame.” In other words, it was a sign of a very humble person that would have led him out of town.
It says
Mark
Notice He restored his sight but the blind man didn’t clearly see at first.
Verse 25.
Mark
Although it doesn’t specifically state it, in the first instance He spit on the dirt and made clay and had him go and wash in the Pool of Siloam and that was when his sight was restored. So again, there was not just the one thing. In this case, his sight was not completely restored until He placed His hands on his eyes the second time. Now did this mean that Jesus was limited in His powers and it took two treatments? Think about what happened. Was that because He just couldn’t quite, He didn’t quite have the power to do it and He had to do it twice? I don’t think so. I think there’s a lesson in this for us, Brethren.
I think receiving our spiritual eyesight is not a single event. It’s a process. I don’t think the moment that we are baptized and we receive God’s Spirit and we invite and receive Christ into our lives, we have perfect spiritual vision. I think it’s a process. And I think as we continue to examine this, we’ll see it’s true. Remember Paul in Corinthians 13 said, “We see in a mirror dimly”? Perhaps we see men like trees walking spiritually. We all like to think we’re big mature—I don’t know what the spiritual analogy of hairy chested, macho—but perhaps we just have a glimpse. Perhaps our spiritual eyesight is very imperfect and it’s something that we develop. And perhaps it’s not going to be perfectly restored until we’re changed into spirit or, as Paul said, “But then face to face.”
If spiritual blindness cannot be discerned by a blind person, how can we determine our level of spiritual awareness? It’s a quandary. I don’t have eyes to see that I don’t have eyes to see. How do you ever—how do you get around that? Since it’s spiritual and we’re physical, how is it discerned? Has God left us at a disadvantage in this area? Is there a way for us to evaluate ourselves? And the answer is yes.
There’s a technique in the scientific community for determining and measuring things that are not discerned. For example: no one has ever seen a black hole. You can look out into space and there’s not a neon sign that says, “Black Hole Here.” You can’t see them. It’s the absence of any light. But the way they can see a black hole is the effect that that gravitational pull has on objects around them. And when they look through where a black hole is, that even it bends the light waves as it goes close to it and forms a lens. And they can observe a black hole which is not able to be seen by looking at things they can see around it and how that’s affected by that black hole.
There are these huge invisible masses of energy in the universe. The astronomers have called them “quark stars.” They can’t be seen and they can’t be measured but they know they exist because the gravitational effects they have on other stars. They can measure from—they can look at a star and tell the wobble of that star because if it’s in its orbit, it’s attracted toward that quark. So they can look around it and see the wobble of the orbits of those around it and they can determine the size of it and everything else.
So they can see things that don’t exist by seeing how those things affect physical things that they can. I hope I didn’t confuse you. It’s called the Chiral Perturbation Theory. A simple—it is to determine the characteristics of something we can’t directly measure by measuring the effects of something that we can see. A greatly oversimplified one would be measuring the wind. We can’t see the wind but we can see the tree that gets bent over as it blows and we can actually measure the tree. We can tell the direction of the wind, how far it gets bent over and you can tell how strong it’s blowing. So again, it’s not completely a foreign concept. I hope you get the picture.
Spiritual discernment is sort of like that. We can’t see it. But spiritual blindness has an effect on our lives. And if we can understand those effects, and we can evaluate those things in our lives, we can determine our spiritual blindness. We can apply that concept by something that we can.
Look over in 1 John chapter 2. Let’s look at 1 John chapter 2. Again, we cannot directly measure our spiritual blindness because it’s spiritually discerned. 1 John 2 verse 1, it says
1 John 2:1. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2) And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 3) Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4) He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5) But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God [And I want you to remember that.] is perfected in Him.
1 John 2:5. But whoever
keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in Him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6) He who says he abides in Him ought himself
also to walk just as He walked. 7)
Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you
have had from the beginning. The old
commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8) Again, a new commandment I write to you,
We’re going to come back to 1 John 1 so if you want to, set a marker, or you can turn there. Let’s see what this new commandment that really isn’t a new commandment is. Look over in John 13. You probably don’t even need to turn to this. It’s a very familiar Scripture to you. This took place during that final Passover. John 13 verse 33, it says
John 13:33. “Little
children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews,
‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. 34) “A new commandment I give to you, that
you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Now we read in 1 John 1 that John was not referring to a new commandment, but one they had heard from the beginning.
Remember when the lawyer first came to Christ? Turn over to Matthew 22. He asked Him about the commandments and he wanted Him to tell him the greatest of them. Matthew 22 and verse 35, it says
Matthew 22:35. Then one of
them, a lawyer, asked Him a question,
testing Him, and saying, 36) “Teacher,
which is the great commandment in the
law?” 37) Jesus said to him, “’You shall
love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38) “This is the first and great
commandment. 39) “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’
Now that was before this that took place in Luke 3. This was already understood. He said, “You shall love” and that word “love” is agape. We’ve done many sermons over the past several years on the subject of agape love. But it’s critical, Brethren. It’s not something the disciples had first heard on the Passover evening. It was something they had been taught during their entire association with Christ.
Look over in 2 John 1 verse 5. It says—John’s writing. We’re just breaking into a thought.
2 John 1:5. And now I plead
with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which
we have had from the beginning: that we
love one another.
That we agape one another.
2 John 1:6. This is love,
that we walk according to His commandments.
This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you
should walk in it.
Brethren, we’re going to see clearly as we continue the degree that we have and develop the godlike agape love for one another is the same amount of spiritual vision that we have. We can’t tell if we’re spiritually blind. We can’t discern that. But we can tell with our relationships with one another if we have love for one another. And there is a direct proportion to that love and our spiritual eyesight. A lack of it, a lack of it—and we’re going to establish that—a lack of love results in blindness.
Let’s go back to 1 John 1 and we’ll see this. 1 John—well actually 1 John 2—and 8.
1 John 2:8. Again, a new
commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the
darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. 9) He who says he is in the light, and hates
his brother, is in darkness until now.
He’s blind! The word “hates” there—of course, we think of what hate—it’s from the Greek word miseo and let me just quote from The Complete Word Study of the New Testament. Again, this is the Zodhiates’ Word Study. And I’m quoting this. He said
Specifically as the opposite of agapao or love or phileo, to be a friend to.
It is equivalent to not loving, to love less, or to slight.
So it doesn’t mean you want to hate to murder. It just means you love less. You don’t love your neighbor, your brother as yourself. And it says if you do not have that love, you’re in darkness. There is a direct correlation to spiritual eyesight and love. John was saying here that someone who doesn’t love his brother is spiritually blind. He’s walking in darkness.
Verse 10.
1 John 2:10. He who loves
[That is agapao.] his brother
[Notice!] abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11) But he who hates his brother is in
darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, [Notice!]
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
There is a direct correlation to our spiritual eyesight and agape love that we have for one another. And that’s right out of the Bible. That’s not Harold’s philosophy. That’s right out of the Bible. We can’t determine. We can’t discern our level of spiritual visual acuity. But, Brethren, we can discern the love that we have for one another.
He asked a question: Can a person have a relationship with God and not have love for his brother? We just read that a person that does not have agape love is blinded. What does this mean? And, again, we can’t determine our visual eyesight because we can’t tell. But we can evaluate our love for one another. And to the degree that we love, we will be able to spiritually see.
Look over in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 15. Ephesians 1 verse 15, it says
Ephesians 1:15. Therefore I
also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love of all
the saints,
I want you to underline, if you mark your Bible, the word “all.” This is not easy. It’s easy for me to love some of the saints. It’s easy for me to love most of the saints. All the saints! There’s just no wiggle room in this, Brethren. We don’t get to pick and choose who they are either. God does.
It says
Ephesians 1:15. Therefore I
also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love of all
the saints, [or for all the saints] 16)
Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17) That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, 18) The eyes of your
understanding being enlightened; that you may know what the hope of His
calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
It was their love of all of the saints that gave them the eyes of their understanding of being lightened, of being in the light. Ephesians 1 gives us that correlation, that bridge, between their love of the saints and the spiritual discernment, spiritual wisdom, revelation, knowledge, and understanding.
Have you ever considered that God looks at someone that does not have this agape love for his brother as a murderer? They’re in the same category. God doesn’t distinguish them. Can I have love—can I not have love for the Brethren and still have a future with God and with Jesus Christ? Look over in 1 John 3 and verse 10. It says
1 John 3:10. In this the
children of God and the children of the devil are manifest:
In other words, in this test that we’re going to write about this is how we can discern the children of God and the children of Satan.
1 John 3:10b. whoever does
not practice righteousness is not of God,
In other words, someone that as their habit is breaks God’s commandments is not of God. Notice this!
1 John
1 John 3:10. In this the
children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is
not of God, nor is he who does not
love his brother [is of God].
There’s no other way to take that.
1 John 3:11. For this is the
message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one
another, 12) Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered
his brother. And why did he murder
him? Because his works were evil and his
brother’s righteous. 13) Do not marvel,
my brethren, if the world hates you.
Is there any wiggle room in that? Is there any way that we can get around it? Lack of love for our brother is a capital offense. We can be put to death for not loving our brother.
Verse 14.
1 John 3:14. We know [Notice
this!] that we have passed from death to life,
Did you ever wonder if you’re going to make it? That you’re going to pass from that eternal death to life? How do we know?
1 John 3:14b. because we
love the brethren.
These are pretty strong indictments that we, again, because love is something I’ve got to search in myself but I can use these as a gauge of how well I can see spiritually. And if I don’t have that love, Brethren, I am blind. And not only am I blind, I’m under a penalty of death.
1 John
In other words, the realm that we’re in is either toward life or toward death. And here it says the big thing is how we treat one another.
1 John 3:15. Whoever hates
And, again, that’s that word miseo. It’s to not have agape.
1 John 3:15. Whoever [does
not have agape] his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Again, these are not, these are not cleverly crafted words. These are very plain words from God’s Word. Lacking love, Brethren, is a capital offense. The problem is is we become deceived of ourselves and we lose our spiritual vision to understand that it’s a capital offense. We don’t know it because we’ve deceived ourselves. But we will just not be in God’s Family if we don’t have love for one another.
Now let me just ask something and real quickly because there was a time that we all went before God, that we repented, that we were baptized, that we started down that path. Can you do that and then somehow become blind just like some people are born blind but some become blind later in life?
Matthew 24 verse 11, very familiar Scripture.
Matthew 24:11. “Then many
false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12) “And because lawlessness will abound, the [agapao] love of many will grow cold.
And, of course, that word “lawlessness,” the condition of without law because of violation, contempt and violation of the law, iniquity or wickedness.
1 John 3 and verse 4. It says in 1 John 3:4
1 John 3:4. Whoever commits
And the word there is poeio. It’s Strong’s 4160. It doesn’t mean that you’ve done it once. It means to make a practice of. In fact, The English Standard Version of the Bible says, “Whoever makes a practice of.”
1 John 3:4b. sin also
commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
The New American Standard says
1 John 3:4. Everyone who
practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
Brethren, at the end time because of what’s going on, we can actually have lost something that we once had. That’s the pressure on the end time Church and that is because of what goes on not just in the world but I think the biggest influence is what happens among the Brethren and we see. And that can cause us to just give up, to say, “What’s the use?” To start practicing lawlessness. And when we do that, our love grows cold. And when our love grows cold, we become spiritually blind. So the answer is yes, we can become blinded later in life.
Let’s go back to 1 John 3. I should have told you to hold your finger there. Back to 1 John 3 and verse 16. I’m going to ask you the question and then we’ll read it. How do we manifest that love that we have to have? How do we show that? Verse 16, 1 John 3.
1 John 3:16. By this we know
love, because He laid down His life for us.
And we also ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. 17) But
whosoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up
his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18) My little children, let us not love in
word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
19) And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our
hearts before Him. 20) For if our heart
condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21) Beloved, if our heart does not condemn
us, we have confidence toward God. 22)
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments
And those commandments, remember, are love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
1 John 3:22b. and do those
things that are pleasing in His sight.
23) And this is His commandment that we should believe on the name of
His Son Jesus Christ [Notice!] and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24) Now he who keeps His commandments abides
in Him, and He in him. And by this we
know that He abides in us, by the Spirit [that] He has given us.
1 John 4 verse 7, it says
1 John 4:7. Beloved, let us
love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born
That word is gennao. It’s begotten.
1 John 4:7b. and everyone
who loves is [gennao or begotten] of
God and knows God. 8) He who does not
love
And he’s talking about one another as we just read in verse 1.
1 John 4:8. He who does not
love does not know God, for God is love.
How could one not know God? Because he’s spiritually blind because he lacks love.
1 John 4:9. In this the love
of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into
the world, that we might live through Him.
God demonstrated His love. It’s not just words on God’s part. He’s not sending us or telling us to do something that not only has He not done but Jesus Christ has not done.
1 John 4:10. In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. 11) Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another. 12)
No one has seen God at any time. If we
love one another, God abides in us,
Again, because it’s spiritual and we can’t measure it. The way we can tell how much God abides in us is by the love we have for one another.
1 John 4:12b. and His love
has been perfected in us.
Verse 16.
1 John 4:16. And we have
known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides
in God, and God in him.
Remember in Revelation, Jesus said if we open the door for Them, in essence invite Them into our lives, They will abide with us. If we lack love for one another and that causes us to be spiritually blind, I believe that that love, I think the eye salve is love. It has to come from God. He said, “These are the things you obtain from Me.” The only way that we can see spiritually—I believe we’ve clearly established—is to have that love. And that love in my mind that gives us the spiritual vision has to be agape love that we develop for one another. And again, my personal opinion is the eye salve is that love that we develop.
Verse 17.
1 John 4:17. Love has been
perfected among us in this: that we may
have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this
world. 18) There is no fear in love; but
perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in
love. 19) We love Him because He first
loved us.
I think it’s relatively easy to say, “We love God,” because we need Him. We have to rely on Him kind of like a child that looks to a parent. But what about one another? God is perfect. And it’s easy to say, “We love God.” But what about other people that are laden with flaws and weaknesses just like we are? Surely, God wouldn’t demand that we have the same love for them as we would for Him, would He?
Verse 20.
1 John 4:20. If someone
says, “I love God,” and hates
And again, that’s miseo, that loves less, that does not have agape.
1 John 4:20b. his brother,
he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he
love God whom he has not seen? 21) And
this commandment we have from Him:
Not a suggestion. Not a nice to have. Not a “Hey, if you really want to do it.” It’s a commandment.
1 John 4:21b. that he who
loves God [And, Brethren, this nails it down!] must love his brother also.
Let me repeat that because it’s not a suggestion. It’s a commandment.
1 John 4:21b. He who loves
God must love his brother also.
Brethren, God accepts us with all of our shortcomings, all of our warts. Now to be sure He expects us to change, to cut off those things. He calls us in the middle of a mess that we’re living in in this society and He’s willing to overlook that because He sees to the end. He sees what we’re to become not just what we are because He sees us through the lens of His Son. He sees us through the perfection that His Son represents because He is our sacrifice. He is our High Priest. And God is willing to overlook that.
Would He expect any less of us to one another? Can we love the Brethren despite their shortcomings? Despite their, my warts? And, Brethren, the answer is: We must! To love your brother is to love God. And to disdain your brother is to disdain God and to put Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to shame because in effect what we’re saying is, ‘What He did can’t cover their faults. It can’t cover their sins. It did mine.” It’s not just against our brother, it’s against God and it’s against Jesus Christ who made us and called us and forgave us. Brethren, if we do not have love for the Brethren, we’re in danger of losing our eternal salvation and we are blind to it.
Hebrews chapter 6.
As we go through this next two weeks, let’s evaluate our spiritual blindness by evaluating the love that we have for one another. Are we laying down our lives for one another? Do we consider one another? Because while we can’t tell our spiritual eyesight, we can tell by what God has given us and that is one another. What a blessing we have to have one another! Who—I haven’t thought through this so if it’s—who would want to be the only one that would make it? That to me is just—it would be foreign. It would almost be a “Who cares?” If we can’t be as a Family, I just don’t think it would be fun if Harold was the only one that made it into God’s Family. Who would I play ball with? Ha, ha, ha. I don’t know what spirit beings do. But who would I talk to? God the Father and Jesus Christ and those Beings. I don’t know. Think about one another though and how important every one that God is dealing with and will deal with is to filling out that Family.
Hebrews 6 verse 4.
Hebrews 6:4. For it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of
the Holy Spirit, 5) And have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6) If they fall away, to renew them again to
repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Brethren, two weeks from last night, we’re going to come before God and Jesus Christ to reaffirm that incalculable priceless sacrifice that was made for me and you. And the only way we can properly approach it is to have the spiritual vision to see what was done for us. And the only way we can have that spiritual vision is to apply the eye salve of agape love that we must have one for another. In the time between now and then, we should all be on our knees in examination and asking God for help, for repentance and coming up short, requests for the strengthening of and the appreciation of the love that God has offered to each one of us. If we do that—and it’s a process—and if we haven’t started, it’s never too soon to start and it’s an ongoing process that will go on long beyond the Spring Holy Days. But if we do that, we will demonstrate to God the real love that we have for Him. And that love is shown and we can measure it by the love that we have and demonstrate for each other. We are to be a living sacrifice. We are to give up our lives for one another.
Final Scripture, Matthew 25 and verse 34.
Matthew 25:34. “Then the
King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35) ‘For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I
was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36) ‘I was
naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and
you came to Me.’ 37) “Then the righteous
will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38) ‘When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
39) ‘Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40) “And the King will answer and say to
them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
Transcribed by kb