We have sufficiently gone over
several portions of 1 John 1, verses 1 through 6. And we will
now begin to work through verses 7 and following. And we're going
to be dealing with two categories, as you see in your outline, the
light and the blood. That's the title of this particular
portion of scripture, the light and the blood. And this will
pertain to the qualitative nature of our fellowship. as well as
the grounds and source of it. And then we will deal with the
idea of confession, a very popular concept in religion. I don't
think it's altogether properly understood. So over the course
of this week and next week, we will begin to work through what
Christian confession really is. And so I'm going to read 1 John
1, verse 7. through verse 10 and we'll back
up and deal with our outline and the premise of these forthcoming
verses. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Verses 7 through
10 are fairly clear. And I use both of those words
advisedly. Whenever someone says fairly
clear, what they are saying is they say what they say, but they
also say more than what they are saying. So fairly clear doesn't
mean that you have plumbed the depths. But if you are looking
at the verses for what they say, in essence, you will grasp what
they are meaning. But there are particular nuances
and details that need to be fleshed out for us to grasp really what
John is getting at. When John says in verse seven,
but if we walk in the light, you see that first line, he is
establishing what is called a subjunctive. This is a condition or a hypothesis,
a premise that is laid down. It is assuming something. It's really predicating what's
been going on in the previous verses. And you'll notice that
he is using, again, the first person plural. If we say, you
guys see that, right? if we are saying that we have
fellowship with him. So you know that verses one through
five or six rather has already established that there is a kind
of fellowship that's established between God and at least the
apostles and those whom the apostles have now in the blessing of the
gospel brought into union with themselves. That there is a fellowship
with God that has been based upon the gospel preached by the
apostles And so John now is moving from that established fact. We have fellowship with God.
Our fellowship is true and authentic. That's verse three. And your
fellowship is with us. And our fellowship is based upon
both the light of God's nature and the blood that God has brought
into existence through his son, Jesus Christ, which establishes
the ground of our fellowship thus. If we are saying this in
what we call the present indicative verb form, if we are going about
saying that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness
as verse six, we are lying. That is actually the Greek term.
I told you pseudo meta. We are actually practicing falsehood
and we are not doing the truth. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, We have fellowship with one another and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. So we have three
lines there that are worth marking. The first is if we actually have
fellowship with God, then we have fellowship with God in the
what? Life. light. True fellowship
with God is fellowship in light. We talked about that extensively
over the last couple of weeks. Let it be a foregone conclusion
to have right fellowship with God. It has to be fellowship
in the light. The light is a synonym for the
word of God. It is a synonym for the spirit
of God. It is a synonym for the gospel. It is also a synonym for the
truth. But in that it is talking in
metaphorical terms about light. What is talking about is exposure
of things as they really are. When a person has genuine fellowship
with God, they are walking in the truth according to God. When a person has Koinonia, fellowship,
we talked about that. Fellowship, that is a genuine
partnership of God, constituting equal parties, possessors of
that which is the outcome and distribution of the primary executor
of the covenant. When you say that you have fellowship
with God, there is a kind of relationship. That's the word
that is prominent here. There's a kind of relationship
which makes you like God. When you say you have fellowship
with God, you are brought into a fellow status. fellow status, like two verses
actually come to mind when I use that term fellow. But the word
fellow is a word that means kind or like. There is a similarity
there. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? There's a similarity when you have a fellow. He is
my fellow. They are my fellow brethren.
The idea of having a fellow is having someone like you. Now,
obviously, God is not like us in his ontological nature. Which
means God is other, he's different than his creatures. He's holy,
right? Separate, transcendent, perfect and impeccable. How then
can we have fellowship with God? By virtue of God establishing
and decreeing us being created in his image. and therefore we
bear attributes of God that are called communicable attributes.
We can have fellowship with God because we are like God in the
fact that God is just, God is righteous, God is merciful, God
is kind, God is intelligent, God is rational, God is a God
who is able to speak and talk and deliberate and engage in
reciprocally with his creature, mankind. We are like God in that
he made us in his image, but we are really truly like God
in the fellowship sense, in the koinonia sense, in that the bridge
between God and us is his son, Jesus. The idea of fellowship
then, as we are about to see, incorporates the concept of the
incarnation. We talked about that last week.
You really can't truly have fellowship with God unless you have fellowship
with the father through the what? Son. Because fellowship with
God constitutes a union that requires him becoming like us
in order for us to have fellowship with him. So the underlying assumption
when John says, if we walk in the light as he, that is Christ
is in the light, we have fellowship also with one another. This is
a quite interesting concept because what John is saying is when we
go about telling people that we have fellowship, that fellowship
has to actually be based upon common views and common agreements
wherein we have similarity. And according to the gospel,
people who have fellowship are people who agree with God together. So to be very honest, you and
I cannot have authentic fellowship if you and I do not agree together
with regards to the word of God and what it says about God. If
I view God as one way and you view God as another way, it destroys
any authentic fellowship because the grounds of our fellowship
is a proper view of God in agreement. How can two walk together except
they be what? And so when John says, if we
are walking in the light, what we are doing is we're being subject
to the word. We're being subject to the spirit. We're being subject
to the gospel. And that is the gospel truth.
We'll get into that in a moment. And that revelation, the gospel
truth by the spirit, which is God's word made plain to us in
Christ, establishes our fellowship. We are told that we are brought
into union with God through Christ. And therefore we have been made
to be partakers of the what? Divine nature. That's first Peter
chapter one. So if we are partakers, that's
what the word fellowship means. partaker of the divine nature,
then we are talking about being partakers of God. God has provided a way by which
you and I could enter into fellowship with him to be his fellow, to
be kind of like God, like God, similar to God, a partaker of
the divine nature. And really the key is his son. Christ is the basis upon which
you and I have fellowship with God. And so when John says we
have fellowship with one another, if through the word of God and
the gospel of God, by the spirit of God, we recognize the triune
God and we recognize the centrality of Jesus Christ as the word made
flesh dwelling among us and the grounds by which we are brought
into fellowship with God. If, and see, this is the whole
tenor of what John is going to argue through the book of first
John is this. If we say that Christ has not
come in the flesh, then we are lying because we are denying
what the word says, what the spirit rocks in the heart of
believers, what the gospel truth has proclaimed. We are lying
about God's whole revelation for the purpose and scheme of
redemption. So we have to acknowledge the essential revelation of God
in the incarnation of Christ. It's critical to our fellowship. If we say that we have fellowship
with God, then we are walking in the light. We have fellowship
with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sin. So work with me now with the
in your outline, the light and the blood. Points a B and C. They're gonna we're gonna run
through these relatively quickly But I want to establish these
propositions in your mind because they are helpful the quality
of the relationship between God and the believer is rooted in
what true the quality of the relationship between God and
the believer is rooted in true the quality of the relationship
between between God and the believers rooted in truth. Therefore, there
cannot be a relationship with God qualitatively if there is
no truth. Am I making some sense? So that
proposition has to be understood that when a person says they
have a relationship with God, it means that you have settled
with and have been brought into agreement with the truth. With
the truth. This actually exponentially raises
the level and nature of the term fellowship from the idea of hamburgers,
hot dogs, cokes in a conversation, right? And I'm taking my time
to actually expand this because I want you to start to become
more sensitive to terminology because in the Christian church,
terminology becomes so shallow that it means anything and everything
but what it should mean. And so when we talk about fellowship,
what we are really talking about is what God has done in his infinite
nature to bridge the gap between his holiness and our sinfulness
to make it that we can be in communion with God. And that
was no small task. Therefore, fellowship is a huge
concept. It's a huge concept. The qualitative
nature of the relationship between the believer and God is rooted
in truth. It's also rooted in honesty.
And it's based upon knowledge. Now, if you were a part again
of our rules of engagement series, our marriage series last year,
when we went through 13, 14 classes on the biblical concept of marriage,
and we were dealing with the five positions that constitute
the relationship. The first position in the marriage
relationship is the position that we call what? Face to face. That in the biblical concept
of marriage, an authentic relationship constitutes a man and a woman
face-to-face first and foremost that when God created Adam out
of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life and had decreed that he would replenish and be
fruitful and multiplying the earth he always anticipated bringing
about a woman who would be his helpmate and compliment and actually
help him fulfill that task and so we read in Genesis chapter
2 around verse 23 or so where God put Adam into a deep sleep
and took from his side and created a woman and he brought the woman
to Adam. Position number one. The moment
he opened his eyes from that deep sleep, he was looking into
the face of his bride. That's what we call position
one. That was something God did. Adam didn't do that. Eve didn't
do that. God awakened Adam into what we call position number
one. Position number one is a position
of face to face where you actually deal with your spouse truthfully
and honestly looking at one another. Am I making some sense? We have
talked extensively about the danger of position number two,
which is an essential and critical position that was part of the
call of Adam and Eve, go forth, be fruitful, multiply, subdue
this world, have dominion over it. Position number two is the
working together side by side in harmony and in unity, achieving
the goals for which God created you. Are you guys with me? but
position number two is not equal to or superior to position number
one. This is not true in the marriage
relationship on this temporal level in the physical world,
neither is it true in the spiritual dimension between us and God. If we are the body of Christ
or the bride of Christ and Christ is our head, position number
one is critical, is it not? Position number one is critical.
I must see God and God must see me and we must be in a very spiritual
and mystical sense both naked That's what the word honest means
and they were naked and not what ashamed that means in the context
of truth and honesty There was provision made by which Adam
and Eve did not have to hide from each other anything And
in the context of fellowship with God, God has made it so
that we who are his people do not have to hide anything from
God. And God has revealed his glory
to us in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. We saw this last
week, second Corinthians chapter four, verses four through six,
that God has commanded the light to shine out of darkness, having
shown in our hearts to give us the light. There's the word again
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. So to see Jesus is to see God,
right? To have a view of Jesus is to
have the face of God revealed to you. Thus, God is smiling
on you because he has established with you position number one.
When you see Christ for who he is, you know then that you have
achieved the wife status in the Koinonia Fellowship. Position
number one. Position number two is another
thing. Going to work for Jesus is one thing. Being married to
him is another. Are you guys with me so far?
This is very critical to an understanding of the gospel and an understanding
of where we're going. So when we say in our outline,
The quality of the relationship is rooted in truth, honesty,
and based upon knowledge. I want you to look at a couple
of verses. John chapter 17, verse three. We'll be coming back here,
but I want to take you to a few verses. John 17. This is what
Jesus said. I want you to hear it. And I'm
going to share with you the intent of the passage. And I want you
to go to John chapter eight. We're going to work our way through
this tonight. Here's what Jesus said in his high priestly prayer.
The one prayer wherein he actually exerted his own will. The only
time he ever exerted his own will, independent of the will
of his father, because of his great desire to be with his father
and for us to enter into the benefits of the covenant, he
tells his father, I want them to be with me where I am. Now
that's, that's loving a wife, isn't it? That you would say
to the father, the preeminent one within the ranks of the triune
Godhead, I want her to be with me. What a prayer. I want her to behold my glory.
I want her to know my love. I want her to be one even as
we are one. I want them to enter into the
kind of communion that we have. What kind of love is that? Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? And so he says in John 17 three,
and this is what? Life eternal. Here we go. This is what we call an exegetical.
Tell me what life eternal is. that they might know. See the
word no, it's a Greek word, epigenoski, from which we get the term covenant
knowledge, intimate knowledge, knowledge on a par of marital
conjugation, the intimacy that is exclusive to a husband and
a wife. Are you guys hearing me? It's
the intimacy that's exclusive to a husband and wife. Here's
what Christ is saying. Eternal life is not what people say. but what they experience in terms
of the fusion between God and man through the person of Christ.
And watch this. And this is eternal life that
they may know you in the present ongoing indicative sense. It's
a continuous knowledge. It doesn't start an end. It starts
and continues and goes on and on and on into glory. This is
where I was talking to you last week, maybe, about the preposition
in. It's a penetrating preposition
that has an object, pursues the object, makes contact with the
object, becomes one with the object, and experiences all that
the object is. So in the sexual relationship
between the man and the woman, the word gnosis means to come
into full and deep and profound knowledge. Is anybody hearing
what I'm saying? Now I expect you single people
to not have an idea what I'm talking about. And even you who have experienced
fornication, you still don't know this intimacy because the
difference between covenant intimacy and fornication is still so profound
that the mystery is stripped away from the fornicator. Are
you hearing me? And so when Jesus says in John
chapter 17, three, When he says in 17.3, Father, I want them
to know us. He's talking about bringing them
into full, deep, profound, perpetual, unending knowledge of God. That means when God saves you
by His grace and Christ enters into your life, the knowledge
of God is a progressive, unending, abounding, increasing knowledge. Never ever think that you have
a sufficient knowledge of God Never think that. Never think
for a moment that down here, your knowledge will be sufficient.
And in fact, this is how you know that the knowledge that
you have is authentic because when the Spirit of God has brought
you into communion with Christ, you want more. Can I leave it right there? Did
you hear what I just said? You want more. You want more
of him. This is what Paul said in Philippians
chapter 3. Oh that I might know him He wasn't
saying I don't know him He's saying oh that I might know him
more and more and more and more and more that I might experience
the power of his resurrection one day just explode into the
reality of his resurrection power He's on his way He's already
penetrated into the Godhead's nature by faith. He's already
experiencing the dynamic of resurrection power in regeneration. He's experiencing
it in sanctification. He's dying to the flesh. He's
being quickened in the Spirit. The outer man is perishing. The
inner man is abounding day by day. He is headed to glory. He's
pressing toward the mark. Are you guys hearing me? He's
longing for Christ. He's longing for more of Christ
because the reason for which God made you was to behold his
glory. So how do I know that I am in
communion with God? Because I want to know him more.
You get a taste and you want more. You get a taste and you
want more. And this is what Christ is saying.
Those who are partakers of the divine nature want more. and this is eternal life, that
they might know you continually, know you continually, the true
God. And Jesus Christ, whom God said,
notice now, there's no knowing the true and authentic God apart
from Christ, right? So this isn't an evangelical
knowledge. This is a knowledge of God through
the gospel. There's only one way into a true
knowledge of God, and that's through the gospel. No one knows
the father, but the son, and no one knows the son, but the
father, and he to whom the son will reveal in Matthew chapter
11. So there is no intimate conjugal covenant knowledge of God apart
from Christ. Got it? Got it? This is so critically
important. So down in the core of our being,
we want to know him more and more. It's a qualitative relationship.
It's rooted in the truth. Go with me to John chapter 8.
I want you to see this now. John 8. Now here's where we're
going to enter into what we call the transformative nature of
the fellowship. The transformative nature of
the fellowship. John chapter 8. This is important. John chapter
8. I'm gonna read in verse 34 through 36, these words that
our Lord is rendering when he speaks to the rulers of the church
who did not know God because they did not know Christ, who
proclaimed that they were free, but they were actually still
slaves. Remember what we are learning. Christianity is not
what you say. You guys remember that? To tell someone you are a Christian,
It's not to witness. Well, that jacked you up right
there, didn't it? I remember the last statement
my little sister made last week, you know, about witnessing the
people. And I said, I need to I want to make sure that we get
this when we talk about when I make the statement to us, don't
go around telling people you are a Christian. I am not saying
don't witness. What I am saying is don't think
you are witnessing because you tell someone you are a Christian.
Did you guys get that? To witness to someone is not
to say, hey, I'm a Christian. To witness to someone is to bear
record to the truth of the gospel concerning Christ. To witness
to someone is to not point them to you, is to point them to Christ. to bear record of the truth that's
in Christ, if we are doing that present indicative, if we are
doing that, we are now confessing that we are what? Christians.
Y'all got that? See, there's one thing to say
I'm a Christian and don't even talk about Christ. Well, now
you just cut your own confession off. But if a person hears you
enthralled with and delighted in and knowledgeable of and able
to communicate biblical truth concerning Christ and the Spirit,
that individual will conclude without having to have you say
you are a Christian. Let another man praise you and
not your own lips. Isn't that what the prophet said? That's
what I said. You don't have to tell a person
you're a Christian. So here's what Jesus says in John chapter
8. Watch this now. They answered him, we be Abraham's
seed and were never in bondage to any man. How says thou, you
shall be made free. His proposition, Jesus' proposition
in verse 31 is when he said, if you continue in my word, you
see what he says in verse 31. If you continue in my word, then
are you my what? Disciples. Indeed, the word disciple
means a student learner. those who are being educated
in the mysteries of God. If you continue in my word, then
are you my disciple in truth, and you shall know the truth.
See it? And the truth shall make you
free. Here's the process. If you are a disciple, you will
continue in my word. Continuous in the word is continuance
in the light. Continuous in the light is continuance
in the truth. Continuous in the truth is experiencing
the liberty that comes with knowing God. That's what he's saying. There's a liberty, isn't there,
in God. Isn't that right? We have to
deal with what we call the ancillary and the byproducts of truth.
There's a liberty in knowing God. This is why you have to
go deep. Otherwise, we can produce and develop falsehood around
the superficiality of terms. But if we penetrate into those
terms and understand the implications of those terms, then we can come
to know the truth. What the scriptures are plainly
saying is, If you and I have experienced the Word, the Word
has gotten a hold of us by the Spirit of God, and that Word
is gospel truth, and that's the only true gospel truth, it brings
us into an experience of light and understanding that has the
capacity to liberate us from darkness and ignorance. So, freedom
begins to take place where knowledge abounds. Is that true? Freedom
begins to take place if we allow its process to work. Verse 34. Verily, I say unto
you, whosoever is committing sin is a servant of sin. See
verse 34? See, Jesus was one of those politically
incorrect preachers that would actually tell you you're a sinner.
But we don't get that today. Christ says, if a man or woman
is practicing sin, they're a slave of sin. You know what that's
called? Telling the truth and walking
in the light. See, this here is one of the
foundational premises of the whole book of First John. See,
John listened to the master very well. When John listened to the
master, you know what he didn't do? He didn't take the master's
words and deconstruct them and reconstruct them to fabricate
his own sort of conclusions. He simply heard what the master
said and received what the master said. And if you read First John
carefully, you know what he did? He echoed what the master said. Now, that's a disciple. You don't
take what the master says, deconstruct it and reframe it according to
your own notions and ideas and propensities and your likings. You simply echo what he said,
even if it hurts. I've told many of you to be careful
not to not to hold more important your reasoning than the word
of God. When you and I come into contact with the word of God
and it confronts us with propositions that do not feel good, Accept
it Because this is the process of liberation. It's called true
and whether you know it or not Nine times out of ten truth does
not feel good Okay, it just does not it always
alarms all of us it apprehends all of us because at the core
of our fallen nature we're liars all men are liars and So when
truth comes, authenticity comes, when right comes, when that which
is plain comes, it throws us on our heels because we're vulnerable. Are we vulnerable? But that's
appropriate when you come into the presence of God. You should
be vulnerable. Listen, whosoever commits sin is a servant of sin.
And the servant Abided not in the house forever. Do you see
that now? I want you to mark the connection
here because we can rebuild this on the concept of fellowship
what Jesus is saying in John chapter 8 Really has to do with
the false claims of the leaders of the church Thinking that they
actually have keys to the kingdom and they actually have fellowship
with God And what Jesus is saying is wait a minute. Let me help
you understand a fundamental rule what's required in order
to have fellowship with God is sonship and not servanthood status. The servant does not abide in
the house forever. Only the son does. He was putting
them on watch. He was warning them that their
position with God was merely based on employment, not relationship. Whoa. Did you get that? that he was saying to the rulers
of the church that you really don't have a relationship with
God, your blood lineage to Abraham does not constitute nor affirm
that you have any part in the covenant. You don't demonstrate
sonship for if you demonstrated sonship, that is to have actual
fellowship with the father, you would recognize that I am the
son. But because you don't recognize that I am the son, you don't
demonstrate sonship. And if you don't demonstrate
sonship, the only thing you could have in terms of relationship
with the father is a slave status. And a slave never has any inheritance
in the home. Did that make some sense to you
guys? I want you to get that. Jesus is plainly telling the
rulers of the church, the grounds upon which you have confidence
that you are God is really based upon a lie. And so he goes on
to say, and the servant abides not in the house forever, but
the son does. You see that? If the son therefore shall make
you free You shall be free indeed. See, the vehicle are the means
we call it. The instrumental means of freedom
is a relationship with the sun. They are denying the sun and
they are actually denying a true confession of a relationship
with God. Jesus is actually plainly saying, you guys don't have any
part in the kingdom. That's what he's saying, because what is
required for true and authentic fellowship with God is true.
And here the truth is before them in the person of Christ,
and they are rejecting that truth. You guys see that? And so our
Lord is making it very plain, affirming our first proposition
in 1 John 1, 7. The quality of relationship that's
required between God and the believer is rooted in truth.
It's rooted in honesty, and it's based upon knowledge. It's based
upon a knowledge of God's Word. That word has to penetrate our
being by the spirit of God and when it has done its work it
will reveal to us Who christ is and how we need him which
brings us to our next point in our outline point number b Fighting
against falsehood. Do you see that in your in your
outline? Okay, that's important. This this would be sort of the
opposite side of pursuing truth So I want you to get this now
if I am a pursuer of the truth We're going to look at some verses
here in a moment What that really means in the negative is that
I am fraying or opposing and resisting error. You cannot be
in pursuit of truth and not be in opposition to error. You can't
say I love true and I love error at the same time. They are mutually
exclusive. So here is here is a real Conundrum
in the church today, which is a product of Foggy thinking and
it is rooted in what we call a pluralistic ideology It's called
relativism and that is the ability for people to operate out of
a cognitive dissonance And that is to on the one hand say I'm
in pursuit of the truth But at the same time either be indifferent
towards our embracing of error at the same time. Are you guys
hearing me? and see what biblical truth does
is demolishes the presupposition that a person can be in pursuit
of light and darkness at the same time, of truth and error
at the same time. That you can say you believe
in the one true God and yet open the door for a polytheistic ideology
where other gods are acceptable too. This is just not possible. It's not possible. Are you hearing
me? And so it's important for us to understand that when we
are, and this is where John's argument comes in back in first
John through the syllogistic logic, that if we are walking
in the light, but we are also walking in darkness, we are not
doing the truth. Now I want you to mark what we
mean. Fighting against falsehood affirms
the value of both the relationships in its quality, but also its
ground or source. I want you to get this. If I
love my wife and I know that the health and strength of our
relationship is true, then I'm going to be building a foundation
of truth to inculcate and reinforce the relationship. Is that true?
At the same time, I am going to be building a wall of reinforcement
against everything that is non-true that can threaten the truth that
constitutes our relationship. As my wife sees me building a
foundation of truth and a wall against error, I am affirming
the quality of our relationship, which is based on truth. I am
letting her know that I value the qualitative nature of our
relationship. When I say, I love you, and I
act that way, I am affirming the value of love, which is a
quality in our relationship. If I say I love you, but I act
otherwise, I am destroying what I say I am building up, and I
am demonstrating that I do not value the quality of the relationship. I think I'm making myself plain.
And as I am saying this, what I am getting across in terms
of the relationship with the believer is that the effect and
impact of the gospel when it's revealed to us in truth should
motivate us to be that way with God. That we should not be careless
and indifferent, apathetic and cold towards God and that we
are willing to engage in falsehood and error and allow whatever
might threaten the relationship to coexist with us in God. In
other words, ye who love the Lord hate evil. Isn't that what the book says? More than once, huh? So this
is what we try to get across. Don't tell me you are a lover
of the truth when you have a casual, comfortable relationship with
evil. Those two are mutually exclusive again. And this is
the argument of First John. And see here here watch this
thing. So I want to get this the foundation and it has always
been the foundation of relationship From God's perspective with all
of his creatures is always love The foundation from God's perspective
with all of his creatures is always love. It's always love
It's always love Now all you need to do is get a right definition
of love and you in Aaron through the front door Don't twist or
distort or buy into a humanistic definition of love. Get a sound
definition of love. And once you do, then you will
understand the predication or the premise or the antecedent,
the grounds upon which God says you and I can have a relationship.
This is why I said last week, and I've said it so many times
before he sent the disciples out, he modeled for them the
foundation of their relationship. In John 13, when he said, you
may not understand what I'm doing, but afterwards you will. After
they have partaken of the Lord's table, which we're about to get
into as a metaphor, he took off his clothes, he put on a towel,
he took a basin of water, and he began to wash the feet of
his disciples, wash their feet. And they were humiliated by it.
They were humiliated because, you know, the bishop don't wash
the saints' feet. That's what the church thinks.
And our master said, but if I don't wash your feet, we have no relationship.
You know what he said now, will you do you understand what that
means that love is a law That love is a law It's not a it's
not a negotiable factor That love is a law in the kingdom
of God that that from the king on down love must be the foundation
of the relationship He will have nothing less God will not have
less than love as the basis of the motive for your relationship
with him. You can't do God's commandment
under any other premise than love. You can't do his commandments
for obedience. I mean, for merit. You can't
do his commandments for reward. You can't do God's commandments
for the pride of people saying, look at you. You can't serve
God for your own aggrandizement. The grounds upon which you serve
God has to be love. God won't have you apart from
him loving you. He won't have anything less.
Do you guys see that? This is critical, a critical
component to obedience. And where love is absent, I want
you to hear this now, where love is absent in obedience, also
the power to enjoy the fruits of obedience will be absent too.
You will be laboring to merit favor and approval with God in
the absence of love. And you will be utterly disappointed
because God will never reward you for your obedience, absent
of love, because it would be a flawed premise. You would be
assuming that you could buy God's favor and then God's a prostitute. Let's see. Can I work this for
a minute? So you husbands get all jacked
up in your relationship with your wife, right? We had that
happen every now and then. And you think you can just go
out and buy her something. This will work. I know this is
going to work. You go home and you give her
the gift and she doesn't even blink and you get all upset,
right? It's not the gift. It was the
motive. Cause you assume that you could
fix things based upon an act of performance that would cause
her to reciprocate absent of love. If you messed up, Oh, we're
getting ready to get into it. Say, I'm sorry. And then give
her the flowers, right? It's the same way. Cause otherwise
you're building on a flawed foundation. It is this meritocritous it's
now building on merit and you'll never win that way. Once you
start a reciprocal relationship with someone based upon merit,
now we are all prostitutes. Ooh, did you get that? If you get your wife responding
to you about how much money you give her, brother, you jacked
up. And if she starts going for it, you really jacked up. Fighting against falsehood affirms
the value of both the relationship and its quality, but also its
ground and source. This is where we're getting ready
to get into it. Go back to 1 John 1, verse 8. I want you to see
this, verse 7, and then I want you to see this, what I mean
by the source of our fellowship with God. This is the part that's
going to be driven home by a number of verses. This is going to launch
us or compel us, propel us into the next thought, and that is
the idea of confession. But I want you to get this. This
is critical. Here's what John says, verse seven. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. That's an assumed
response to walking in the light, fellowship with one another.
And then he says, and the blood, do you guys see that? Of Jesus
Christ, your son, cleanses us from all sin. What has John now
introduced into the equation? The source and grounds of our
fellowship. Stay with me now. This is where
we're going to work. The grounds upon which the believer
has fellowship with God, the source, the means, the efficient
means upon which we have fellowship with God is the blood of Jesus
Christ. Now we're getting ready to work
through this concept of the blood in a way I believe that will
help us understand how God expects you and I in our present condition
prior to us coming into a full knowledge of God when he returns
to walk. I am asserting that the relationship
of the believer is based upon are the source of that relationship
is based upon the blood of Christ. We're getting ready to learn
a number of things with this. When we talk about the blood
of Christ, when we talk about our fellowship being based upon
blood, and this has been revealed to us by the light of God's word,
the word reveals that, is that true? The blood is the basis
and source of our relationship with God. And I actually spoke
to this in your previous outline. This way in your previous outline,
we spoke to, let me see here. No, I can stay, I can stay in
our outline here. I can stay with our outline here. The blood
is the ground and source of our relationship. Well, no, it wasn't
your previous outline. You got to look at your previous.
Do you have your previous outline? Let me see. Here it is. No. Oh, no, it's the same outline,
isn't it? Yeah, no, it's the same outline. I'm sorry. You
don't have to go there. Stay in this outline here, the light
and the blood. Look down at the bottom of your outline all the
way down under the term forgiveness. Do you see that? Now watch this.
The grounds of our relationship with God, the source of our relationship
with God is the blood of Jesus Christ. because the blood is
the grounds of our first justification. You guys see that justification. We'll get a chance to work this
through. As we start meditating on the term, the blood, the blood
is the actual price of our redemption. Are you guys with me so far?
So when we use the term blood, we are talking about the grounds
of our justification, how we are made right with God. We are
made right with God, as we'll see through the blood, our redemption,
the price that God paid to purchase us back was the blood. We were
purchased through the blood. Is that OK? The grounds and source
of our fellowship with God is The blood of Christ is the grounds
of our justification, the price of our redemption. It's the power
of our cleansing. Are you with me so far? We will
work that through as we deal with what we call the process
and dynamics of confession. It's the cause of our commitment. So if we, when we talk about
the blood being the source and grounds of our relationship with
God, we're talking about what God did to justify us, what God
did to redeem us, what God did to sanctify us. and ultimately
what God did to glorify us, to bring us to glory. When we talk
about the blood, we are not merely talking about sort of a biological
or plasmic idea that's often implied in using the blood in
church, like I plead the blood. You know, I plead the blood over
this. I plead the blood over that. What do you mean when you
say you plead the blood? Do you visually see some red plasma
of what you plead? Are you guys understanding what
I'm saying? So now when the scripture uses the term the blood and when
it uses here in verse seven, if we're walking in the light
as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and
the blood of Jesus Christ continues to cleanse us from all sin. a huge component in the sustaining
of the relationship between the believer and God. It may be viewed
this way. Without the blood, we can be
sure that no relationship can be started with God, nor sustained,
nor perfected. Are you hearing me? Without the
blood of Christ, we have no grounds to enter into his presence because
we've got a problem. Without the blood of Christ,
we have no basis to fix whatever might be interrupted or flawed
or broken in terms of our continued sustained fellowship with God
without the blood. Without the blood of Christ,
we have no security in terms of our ultimate entrance into
a state of glory. The blood plays a major role
in it all. So when we talk about the blood,
here's what you can write down. We are talking about the doctrine
of first, the incarnation. When we are saying the blood
of Christ cleanses us from all sin, we are assuming the understanding
that there is an incarnation that was required in order for
God to bring us into fellowship with him. Are you guys hearing
me? So a person that would argue that Christ didn't come in the
flesh, he is by that fact denying several important teachings relative
to who we are and who God is. If you deny that Christ came
in the flesh, you are denying the means by which God obtains
the blood necessary to atone for your sins. Ooh, did you get
that? So let me work with that. This
is why I say you gotta do more than just buy into shallow quip
terms in religion, because otherwise you'll be just exercising what
we call pagan empty rhetoric. When we use the term the blood,
we are affirming the incarnation. We are affirming a physical body,
the hypostatic union between God and man, the possession of
a body. Remember, the life is in the what? The life is in the
blood. That's Leviticus 17 11. And without
the blood, there is no remission of what? So don't tell me that
Christ didn't come in the flesh. For if you say that, I still
have a sin problem because God has not yet achieved what is
necessary for the putting away of sin if he has not acquired
a blood pure enough. to satisfy justice. Because the
incarnation now qualifies God to deal with the matter of sin
on a legal term, on legal grounds, as well as relational grounds.
So the incarnation now leads us to these other essential doctrines
that the church somehow is shy to talk about today, like the
doctrine of justification. Are you hearing me? Well, we
don't need to use that big old word in church. Don't you understand
how often the word justification is used all through the New Testament?
You better understand that justification is the critical act of God by
which any sinner can be made right with God. It is a stupendous
act whose antecedent is the incarnation. If Christ had not assumed the
human nature, he could not be God's object of appeasement and
propitiation by which justification now can be rendered for the sinner.
Are you guys with me? It's a shame that in our churches
we will act like the way I'm talking is highfalutin theology
that belongs to the scholars, when this is fundamental theological
doctrine critical to your security. When I talk about the blood,
I'm talking about the love of God for my soul. So I can get
existential with it because ultimately the blood is the greatest act
of God in terms of what was necessary for him to retrieve me from hell.
but underneath the rubric of the blood are all of these other
critical doctrines. Him becoming a baby, Him growing
up, Him living a perfect life, Him now becoming the Lamb without
spot and blemish, so that God now could execute His justice
on the Son of God by putting Him to death. so that he might
forgive me of my sins. Are you guys with me so far?
See, now we're getting to now the grounds and source of our
fellowship. How is it that the sinner can
be brought into right relationship with God? It's through the blood.
It's because God assumed the human nature. Remember what he
told the disciples in the upper room after he rose again from
the dead. Having already shed his blood,
they're wondering how he is standing there in his post-resurrection
status. He's not yet glorified, but he
is resurrected. He says, stick your hand in my
side. You will notice that flesh and bone spirit does not have
flesh and bone as I do. That means he rose again from
the dead bodily. We agree with the resurrection
of the body, but there was no blood in his body. The blood
had poured out. He was not operating in what
we call the first Adamic principle. The first man is a living soul.
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The body
requires blood to live on this natural dimension. When Christ
rose from the dead, he had put an end to that natural dimension
and the Spirit of God was now sustaining his body. Why? Because
he had already made atonement for the sins of his elect. Are
you guys hearing me? Are you hearing me? The blood was poured out. The
Holy Ghost witnessed it. So did the centurions. And so
did all of those religious crooks on that day when he said it is
finished. The debt is paid. God has justified his people.
There is therefore now no need for other sacrifices. This is
what we're going to get into next week when we get into the
confession thing and we properly understand to whom do we confess.
and what do we confess and how we confess. Fighting against
falsehood then affirms both the relationship in its qualitative
nature, but also its grounds and source, which is the blood
of Christ. So go with me in your Bible, a couple of verses here.
I want to look at a few more things. I want to get to, I want
to affirm points A, B, and C, and then just start talking about
confession a little bit tonight before we open the floor for
questions. Go with me to Psalm 51. Verse
six, here's what David said. Now, as you are going there,
I'm just gonna actually put this caveat out there to you, of which
I hear frequently in religious circles. This is so very important.
It is assumed by a lot of people that the salvation of the New
Testament church is different than the salvation of the Old
Testament church. That the saints in the Old Testament were saved
in a different way than we in the New Testament. That argument
is flawed in many ways, but it's a basic fallacy of understanding
the nature of God in the scheme of redemption. Let me make this
very clear. Adam, Abel, Methuselah, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all their wives, all the matriarchs and
patriarchs of the Old Testament, David and Solomon and all who
believed in God were saved just like you and I are saved by faith
in Christ apart from works Their salvation was put in the same
place our salvation was in the person of Christ Are you guys
hearing me? This is what makes salvation
by faith Do you hear me? Faith is the substance of things
what? Hoped for. The evidence of things what?
Not seen. Faith is where God takes away
from you and I the capacity to boast of having achieved a right
relationship with God based on what we do. Because faith is
antithetical to words. Is anybody hearing what I'm saying?
See, when you claim faith, what you are claiming is an empty-handed
belief in something God did for you apart from you. When you
claim faith, what you are claiming is to simply believe what God
says. The Old Testament saints would
be able to, by the revelation of Scripture and the prophetic
word, look to the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of
the world and understand that the grounds of their justification
was in Christ who was to come, just like we, the New Testament
church, can look to the Lamb of God who was slain and understand
that the grounds of my justification is in Christ who had already
come. Am I making some sense? So if anything, The central figure
of both the Old Testament church and the New Testament church
is the person of Christ. They look to him by faith. We
look to him by faith. They look forward. We look backwards.
But the forwards backwards thing is only historical. In terms
of efficacy with God, Christ was slain from before the foundation
of the world. so he could impute to Adam and
Abel and Noah and Methuselah and all who believed the righteousness
of Christ by faith because he knew that Christ infallibly would
accomplish eternal redemption when he came. This is the God
that can speak those things that are not as if they were because
he sees the end from the beginning and because God can't lie, God
can't change, God can't fail, God can act as if it was because
with God it is. Are you guys hearing me? And
what it does is it strips you and it strips me of any boasting
because it takes, listen, it takes the whole work of our redemption
completely outside of the scope of our capacity to do anything.
It renders us helpless in ourselves and shut up to believing God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? It renders us helpless in ourselves and shut up to believing
God. There is essentially no significant advantage between
the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints either
way. The New Testament saints do not
have any advantage over the Old Testament saints in terms of
the efficacy of the cross, even though Christ has come and accomplished
it, other than we have a fuller revelation than what they had,
but that fuller revelation did not change the benefits. They
were able to be saved, walk by faith, live by faith, die in
faith, just like we are. Otherwise, we don't have any
significant meaning in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, which
says they all lived by faith and they all died in faith. And
guess what else it says? They won't be perfected until
we all together come into the presence of God on the last day
and are perfected together. So with God, the spectrum of
time, what we call this time-space continuum, is really a matter
of God testifying to His eternal Godhead and purpose in Christ.
We get to now enjoy the unfolding of redemptive history, but it's
never in danger. Are you hearing me? Redemptive
history has never been in danger. The Old Testament saints could
not thwart or disannul or stop Redemptive history the New Testament
Saints can't disannul cut short or hinder redemptive history
This is the reason he has given us the book of Revelation The
book of Revelation tells us it's done He's shown us the end from
the beginning 2,000 years ago. He said I'll tell you what I'm
gonna do at the end of the first century I'm gonna give them the
last book so that they can know that is done because they're
gonna be around for a minute And they're going to be asking
every hundred years, how long? Oh, Lord, how long? But we have
a book that already gives us a conclusion. And if God was
faithful in the old, God is also faithful in the new. And the
grounds upon which we can be sure of that is this. Just as
he said he was going to come the first time and he did. We can be sure he's coming a
second time. Are you hearing me? And so this is critical to
our understanding. Give me a few more minutes and
then we'll close here. In Psalm 51, this is critical.
Listen to what David says. I'm gonna read verses one through
six, talking about verse seven of first John. If we say we have
fellowship with God and he is in the light, then we also will
be walking in the light and we will understand the significance
of the perpetual unending relevance of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Verses one through six. See if you can, Understand the
benefit here. It really runs all the way through
the song, but I certainly want you to see it through verses
1 through 6 Are you there have mercy upon me? Oh God. Have you
ever said that in your life? Watch this according to your
loving-kindness According to the multitude of your tender
mercies here it is. You ready blot out my transgression
now if David didn't understand something about the source and
grounds of the fellowship between him and God, I don't know what
this verse means. For when he talks about blotting
out transgressions, he is inferring the blood that has the power
to put away his sins and return him to a status of rightness
with God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my what? So we begin to see two components
here now. We see justification in verse
one. We see sanctification in verse
two. The blood not only justifies us, but the blood also what?
Sanctifies. Are you guys with me? Put away
my sins. Wash me. Do you see it? Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Here
it is, verse 3. For I acknowledge my what? And my sin is what? Now this
here is going to be a regulative principle that is going to help
us work through 1 John chapter 1 verses 7 through 9 because
what John is going to teach us is you can't be a true believer
and not acknowledge both a sin nature and the presence of sin
in your life For to do so is to deny the necessity of the
blood atoning work of Christ and the efficacy of Christ, not
only to justify you, but to sanctify you. It seems to me, therefore,
that David had a good handle on the blood. Are you with me? It seems to
me that David had a very good handle on the blood, that David
understood the grounds and source of his fellowship with God. And
David understood the necessity of walking in the light, didn't
he? It seems to me that David didn't even countenance the idea
that he didn't have a sin nature Nor that he did not sin nor that
he did not need to confess his sin. Whoa So here's a radical concept For
you to contemplate you can learn a lot from David about how to
walk with God Here it is again For I acknowledge my transgression,
my sin is ever before me against you, and you only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. It wasn't my mommy, it wasn't
my daddy, it wasn't my culture, it wasn't the church, it wasn't
the preacher, it wasn't my wife, it wasn't my children, it wasn't
my job, it wasn't my boss. See, psychology blames it on
your mom and your daddy. Theology blames it on your sin
nature. Do you hear me? Psychology calls
it bad upbringing. Theology calls it sin. Are you
with me so far? It's very important to know the
difference when a person goes to psychologizing. When they
go to psychologizing, they won't tell you that the problem actually
starts with you and you need God. They'll tell you the problem
starts with the other person. It's powerful, isn't it? Listen to it. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you might be
Justified when you speak and be clear when you judge see verse
4, you know what he's doing. He's allowing the truth to abide
in him You see what he just said Against you have I sinned and
done this evil in your sight? I know because I know what your
word says and I'm submitting to your word I'm not gonna throw
your word off I'm not going to deny what your word says. It's
going to prevail now and it's going to prevail on judgment
day. I mean, people can fight against your word all they want
to, but the Bible tells me that the whole world, every mouth
will be stopped and the whole world will become guilty before
God on that last day. I'm going, I'm going to become
guilty before you today. So I won't be there on the last
day. Do you see that? And it means that he understands
the utilitarian nature of the blood. He understands the efficacy
of confession and mark this. I want to help you. His confession
is not to his priest or his preacher or his boyfriend or his girlfriend.
It's to God. We'll get into that more next
week though. Do you know you can't get much relief? I'm going
to help you. This is a, this is anti-psychological,
but it's true. You can't get much relief from
your sin by confessing your sin to your partner. Did you confessing
your sin to your buddies and your girlfriends and all that
doesn't do a thing for you. You know, it might mess their
head up and make them feel better than you, but it's not going
to do a thing for your soul. Do you hear me? David said against
you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in myself
now watch this verse 5 I want you to see this behold. I was
shaping an iniquity see verse 5. This is what we call original
sin and In sin did my mother conceive me. This is what we
call the propagation of sin Behold you desire truth where this is
called walking in the light. I Am I making some sense now? You see how David understands
1st John chapter 1 verse 7 thus far? He knows what it means to
walk in the light. He knows that God won't stand for him to play
games with God and to walk in falsehood and to deny when he
actually has actually stepped off of the road of authentic
face-to-faith honesty with God. He understands that that won't
work. And here is the appeal to us. I'm going to stop right
here. We'll come back and pick this up next week. Is there any
doubt that for a person to think that they can manipulate God
with words and phrases that amounts to walking in darkness, where
they are basically compromising their conduct and justifying
their sin. Is there any doubt that that
individual does not ultimately comport with what John is saying
in first John chapters one verses one through nine, and that is
they are deceiving themselves and the truth is not in them.
Are you guys hearing me? See what John wants us to understand
is God has made full provision for us to be able to walk with
God. And there is no problem that God can't handle so long
as we're willing to tell the truth and understand the significance
of the blood in relationship to our walk with God. Isn't that
good? And this is important for people
because if you don't understand who God is, you will lie on God. And if you don't understand what
God did, you will be naturally driven to putting on fig leaves
like Adam and Eve, because it had not been revealed to Adam
and Eve yet what the process of recovery would be. Are you
guys hearing me? They fail. They said, what do
we do now? There was no revelation coming
because they didn't cry out to God. They were left to themselves
and they started sowing fig leaves because they had no other way
out until God had come to them and revealed how the blood was
necessary for the restoration of the relationship. So we'll
leave it right there. Anybody got any questions before
we close it in prayer? Hands up if you got any question,
no questions. We're all good. Anybody, we all
good? Okay. Oh, back here. All right. I need a jogger. There we go. Randolph will do
it. Right back there. I told you when we were doing
the study, you need to be thinking, make sure you get your questions
out. Don't come up and ask me about questions later on. You
know what I'll do? We'll get one or two in the audience and then
20 people come up after we pray. I was just thinking. Good evening,
Pastor. How you doing, brother? Good.
When you made the statement about confessing to buddies doesn't
do much good, can you connect that to James 5, 16, when he
says, therefore, confess your sins to each other? What does
it say? Therefore, confess your sins
to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Is that what it says? James 5 and 16? Yes, sir, in
this Bible I have. Therefore, confess your sins.
This is the full life study Bible. Oh, that's a jacked up translation.
Okay. That's what I thought. Yeah.
All right. Let's go there for a second.
And I'm getting ready. That's, that's James. The book
of James is before John is after Hebrews and it's, uh, it's before
Peter. Actually, this question is gonna
get into the functional aspect of the study next week, and we'll
definitely work this through. But since I did poke fun at the
psychological sort of therapeutic approach that takes place in
our churches today, where people actually think it's all right
to tell other people who are sinful like you, whose minds
are vulnerable like yours, who are subject to problems like
you and aren't necessarily qualified to actually help extricate you
from your problem, that you would dump your sin on them. James
chapter 5, notice what it says in verse 16. Are you there? Confess your faults
one to another and pray for one another that you may be what?
You. Do you guys see that? When we
talk about confessing our faults one to another and praying for
one another, what we are talking about is not going around seeking
to let people know what kind of internal sin struggles we
are having. What we are talking about is acknowledging when we
have offended our brother, our sister in the process of our
koinonia. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
That's radically different than saying, Hey man, can you sit
down for a moment and open yourself up like a garbage can so I can
dump on you all of my evil, wicked thoughts. Are you hearing me? That's just the first functional
thing the the the text is talking about the fact that we cannot
avoid Offending one another in our practical everyday goings
and we need to be sensitive to that reality And therefore as
the Spirit of God will work and bring in about a sensitivity
in us I am more than willing to say, you know I think I might
have said that the wrong way to you if I hurt your feelings.
I'm sorry. I Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? See that we're
talking about walking in the spirit and being sensitive to
the human dynamic, the human element that plays a major role
in the functional part of the church. But it does not mean,
listen carefully to me, it does not mean that if I'm lusting
after a sister that I have to go to that sister, hey sis, I
need to tell you how I was thinking about you. Now watch this. Some brother said something and
pride rose up in me. And I just really, I just felt
like taking an ax to his head. So I'm going to go to him and
say, man, you just don't know what I was thinking. I got to
tell you what, I'm sorry, man, but this is the way I was thinking.
No, see, I'm giving you sort of, uh, observed, uh, examples,
but that's what begins to happen in churches where they have this
horizontal practice of confessing their sins to each other. Really
what it's talking about is an atmosphere of fellowship that
respects each other. It's an atmosphere of fellowship
that respects each other and are quick and ready to simply
say, I'm sorry if I did something wrong to you. It's not plain,
as it were, psych and therapist. Are you hearing me? It's very
important that you know this, very important that that's not
the atmosphere that we're establishing. Secondly, I'm gonna help you
with a very, this here's a very important principle in the context
of an authentic fellowship that is able to overcome our weaknesses
and our human inclinations to be offended by people or offend
people. When you have a proper understanding
of the grounds upon which you stand before God and the enormous
grace that God has extended to you in your life, that you are
an object of grace and mercy. Your natural disposition in relationship
to the saints is that God is glorious. God is great. God is
gracious. I am weak. I am naturally sinful. I don't ever do anything perfect.
That's a, that's a fundamental tenant of who we are. So just
as a premise of the gospel, we walk in the light of this reality
that our perfection is in Christ and that we are headed that way.
And that in the meanwhile, it is a foregone conclusion that
I'm going to forgive you. It is just as fundamental as
it is again in our marriage series, Rules of Engagement, that the
way a man and a woman make it from, I do, to the grave is a
cross-centered, Bible-based, Holy Ghost-filled relationship
where the cross is prominent in the relationship and we're
going to Calvary for each other all the time. It becomes an assumption
that my wife need my prayers. It's an assumption on her part
that I need her prayers. Forgiveness is going to be a
natural reciprocal dynamic between us. We're not going to have to
necessarily go through the static technical form of saying, you
know, I forgive you either every time. Why? Because she may do
something wrong to me for which it hurt me. But because the cross
is so large in my understanding for me, I'm going to be praying
for her and not even bring that thing up. because I need the
cross just like she needs the cross and I know tomorrow she's
gonna be better than she is today because I believe in the efficacy
of the gospel in her life and she does in mine too. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? So what we are talking about
is being able to operate in the context of forgiveness not based
upon whether or not she acknowledges her sin but whether or not God
is gonna be gracious to both of us to get us down the road
of grace and grow us and mature us as he said he would. It becomes
a natural part of our fellowship to forgive one another. It's
not an assumption. It's just part of who we are.
We're not taking each other for granted. We're not, you know,
hurting each other. Listen, I forgive you as a foundation
to our relationship. I've got to. If I don't forgive
my wife, I'm not forgiving myself. Since we become one flesh. Am
I making some sense?