Jerry Jones - "God Is Light"

my last Bible study for this year I want to turn to the Epistle of first John I'm going to begin in the very first verse the fifth jobs are the fifth verse the very first verse after the prologue the first chapter the first four verses are John's introduction of himself and who he is that he with his own eyes saw Jesus Christ with his own hands he touched him with his own ears he heard him and then beginning in verse 5 he gives the reason for his writing this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we can fess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us I'm going to talk about the light the light God is light god bless you thank you please be seated they caught the pastor out of town they knew he wasn't there to counter what they were doing so they started spreading their insidious teachings in the church they preyed on those less knowledgeable impressive less skilled in persuasion and debate and argument and they split the church not content with splitting the church and Ephesus they branched out and began to preach their teachings in churches daughter works and sister works around Asia Minor I think they thought the pastor would never come home but they were wrong he heard what was happening and the bishop was not happy modern the latest of scholarship has begun to insist that the order of John's writings are not what we had thought for many many centuries in fact John is the only New Testament writer who left us all three major genre or types of writings he gave us a gospel he gave us an apocalypse and he gave us three epistles now the epistles were written because of this event that I just described and they say now some of the newer scholarship says that that the order of writing was not what has often been thought that the the gospel then the Epistle z' and then the revelation but rather the revelation was first while John was out of town on the Isle of Patmos then he years of the church split and the false doctrine and he writes the three ax pistols then afterward when he's come back to Ephesus that's when God gives him the gospel well if that's true then that clears up a few things one is people have often wondered about the difference in writing style and language choice between the epistles and the gospel although there is a direct connection and we'll explore a little of that today between particularly first John and the Gospel of John even some of the languages the same in the prologue John talks about the logo taste is ouais the word of life connecting with the language of the gospel in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was the word of life now here's the problem the the style is different between the epistles and the gospel the Gospel of John is one of the great masterpieces if you want to call it literature it's one of the great masterpieces ever produced in the history of the world it is beyond Shakespeare beyond Dickens beyond any writer its elegance and the power of its logic and the beauty of its rhythmic language has never been surpassed in history but now the Epistle not so much the language is a little little rockier the word choice is a little harsher it's logic some call it spiraling logic it's a little more difficult to follow than the Gospels now now people who study it have kind of had different ideas why some say well it was written earlier so John was just learning how some say well you know it was written when he was older and so he was kind of losing it a little bit some have even gone so far as to say it's two different John's I don't think so let me tell you what I think it is he was mad when he wrote those letters he wasn't trying to produce a literary masterpiece he wasn't carefully choosing every word it was a cannon blast my friend it lion's roar they had messed with his people they have deceived his Saints and the pastor was standing up and saying how dare you jesus said you messed with my children you split my church you fight the hierarchy the leadership why you'd be better off to tie a bunch of cinder blocks around your neck and jump off in the ocean when you face me you'd be better to have never been born than to lead my people away from my truths and Bishop John pastor John he's in that same vein he starts out by saying we're the ones who knew him I'm one of the ones who said these eyes saw him don't come now and tell me what you think about him I touched him I shook his hand I hugged his neck I heard him taste blessed said are then come now and try to tell me about Jesus in fact it's a little shocking he said you want to have fellowship with the father you gotta come through us he said we have fellowship with the father and if you want to have fellowship with the father you're gonna have to have fellowship with us well that doesn't play too good today this but the pastor was upset who are these people most about most of what we know about them we know from these three letters in other words we know about them because of what pastor said about them God didn't put their side of the argument in the scripture he didn't think it much mattered what excuses they used because they weren't the truth so all we have is what the pastor said about them and it wasn't good scholars call them secessionists I call him backsliders they had begun promoting what if that Bruce calls especially attractive line of teaching which was represented as an advance on anything that Christians had been taught thus far we're smarter than the elders we've seen things they never saw we're gonna we're gonna show you something they they've never shown you well they they don't understand but they're okay but but we're gonna take it a little bit further in fact this was couched it was presented with a certain intellectual arrogance and pride mixed with a disdain even a hatred John says for those who are not as enlightened in other words who refused to follow them okay here comes the tricky part seems they had gotten a little education now I have to tell you I'm not against education I don't want you to think I am I'm not in fact I've gotten a little bit lately myself not against education but I am like Bishop tinny he says get a good education and then get over it I'm gonna tell you your old pastor that knows how to pray and knows how to touch God and understands the deed workings of the Spirit who has poured over that old book for all of his life who has faced devils and thought he filled people and has stood for truth when it was ridiculed and mocked and made fun of let me tell you something he knows more than a college professor will know for the rest of that professors life education isn't just what you get in a classroom education is a life experience and I'd rather have someone with a degree in knee ology [Music] now again I'm not against education you almost have to have it today whether you're a preacher or not you need all the advantage you can people are more educated they're dumber but they're more educated don't look at me like that read a book written in 1875 or 1888 you have a hard time getting through it because you were taught at an eighth grade level those people had real college degrees I'm just saying education is fine but if it leads you away from the truth it is a curse in your life sorry enough of that do you understand what I said okay seems they had gotten some exposure to Greek philosophy you see it in John's descriptions the philosophical constructs of the Greeks had swept through the world when Alexander brought Greek hegemony to the entire world he didn't just conquer kings and countries he conquered cultures and thinking and the whole world had become Hellenistic and Greek philosophy was the foundation of most sophisticates thinking and it seems because they had gotten exposure to Greek philosophy that they were presenting their ideas as a way to be more relevant to their culture we're not gonna win the smart people unless we change the way we talk that I'll run and stuff that offends educated people that leaping and dancing' carrying on and preachers that say God will never win the edge and you know insisting on Jesus name baptism you just gotta cool it a little bit and the Holy Ghost that's a wonderful thing and everybody ought to have it but to insist that without it you're not going to heaven isn't that a little extreme and all holiness you know people today don't relate to that they don't connect with that so suddenly they were presenting their ideas as a way of packaging the gospel in a more palatable way to the sophisticated of their day in reality they were wanting to shed the truth of the elements they did not like [Applause] we're just trying to win the more sophisticated you less educated Christians you wouldn't understand what we're doing so if you want to be with the cool crowd sit at the cool kids table if you want to be seen as sophisticated erudite educated then you need to start thinking like we do you know the poor the uneducated the Hicks the hillbillies they can go on believing what the apostle's taught but you know we're gonna package it a little different let me tell you something what the apostille spot was the truth and no church council and no college and no educational level has ever changed the truth John said we saw him we touched him and Greek philosophy has nothing to do with it and modern sophistication cannot change the timeless truth of the word of God the Apostles are good men I can hear him say that they were a good man they loved the Lord you know and for their day oh they were awesome they connected you know we were we Pentecost was it was all poor people country people you know that's the first lie it wasn't all poor people in country people nothing wrong with that Pentecost was a city experience in it's big Azusa Street wasn't out in the woods Topeka and Houston and Indianapolis and st. Louis they are small places thank God there was a reach into the country places where most of us wouldn't be here but to but to project the idea that Pentecost appeals to the unwashed the unlearning the uneducated is a lie Paul was educated at the feet of Gamaliel he is rated by historians as the third most influential man who ever lived he wrote words that Peter said I have trouble following him but let me tell you he preached the same message that Simon Peter preached on the day of Pentecost I got a hurry I'm kind of getting hung up here a little bit but you know those apostles good men knew God what would Jesus but they weren't very well educated they were kind of you know fishermen they were mainly from the country and you know the thing is they didn't face what we face why is it every generation thinks their experience is unique and it's either worse or better depending on what you Tom out that's crazy but it's human we're all like times of chase you know it ain't the 1940s anymore it ain't the fifties it's not the sixties we're in the 21st century and we're gonna have to preach differently if it's gonna work here so I'm gonna get my knife out and I'm gonna slice this part out cuz it doesn't work today people won't take that today so let's slice this since when do the people decide the church is not a democracy it's a theocracy we have a king who is the king of kings and lords you can food on what color the carpet is and what color to paint the walls of the new church but you don't vote on the Bible you don't vote on acts 2:38 you don't vote on the oneness of God we don't let the people decide that doctrine then I can't get off this point that they were good men in Pastor John all men John was something but John didn't face what we're facing John didn't have to deal with the people we have to do it so we're gonna change things we're gonna reach a higher sophisticated level of people john meant well but he didn't understand everything he saw we do so you listen to us now we're gonna shed a lot of old-fashioned ideas but there was one thing they didn't count on John showed back up they figured when he got sent to Padma's that old man he can't make it no they'll kill him they'll work him to death he won't be back so we'll make our move now the elders are gone we're in charge of the church now it's our day now now evidently again according to them some of the latest scholarship evidently John began hearing what was going on in Ephesus while he was still on Patmos he had finished the revelation God had revealed to him the march of time into the future and he hears that they're tearing up the church and they're not satisfied with emphasis they're going after the other churches and the pastor gets released the Emperor dies thank you Jesus and they get a new emperor and the new emperor says I'm feeling so good about ascending to the throne I'm gonna let all political prisoners go and they open the gates and the old pastor walked out and maybe his step was slower and maybe his shoulders were stooped but there was a fire in his eyes and you know he can't even wait to get to Ephesus thank God for us on the way to Ephesus he starts writing I'm gonna send a couple of three letters out I'm gonna kind of soften up the ground cuz when I get there it's gonna be war and these are the three of pistols we call first second and third John they grow increasingly increasingly personal and increasingly directed to individuals in the third one he even names a guy he says I'm going to take care of him when I get there me and hims gonna have a talk what was it that they believed what was it that they talk well they seem from the best we can tell from John's dealing with their error that they taught two basic things that veered off truth and he ended up splitting the church the first was their Christology it was about Jesus they began teaching some stuff about Jesus that was new and based in imagination and human preference rather than the Word of God they say some when you start getting off the beam and you start wanting stuff in your flesh that the Bible won't allow and the church has decided is not best let me tell you you're gonna get messed up about Jesus before it's over because you can't accept the Jesus of the Bible and veer off and other things the Bible teaches so sooner or later you're gonna have an imaginary Jesus and uncle in the sky a pantry in the sky are all forgiving all understanding loving regardless of the situation Jesus that makes you feel good about your sins you see Greek philosophy taught and I don't want to get too deep in this because I'll get lost myself so Greek philosophy taught that this physical world this world you and I live in is just a front it's not real that the real world is out there somewhere usually they say behind it it's behind a curtain you can't see it you can't reach it that's the real world and we're living in a shadow world a fake world a world that isn't in itself good it's evil it's dirty it's irredeemable we're talking not about people alone but we're talking about the entire world itself the sunrise and sunset and the snow-capped peaks and the rushing rivers and the flower-strewn meadows they are only an illusion the world is dark and filthy and irredeemable and it also taught and they adopted that because this is true no self-respecting God would ever come here therefore Jesus was not real he was not flesh not human flesh he was an image a copy something we might call a hologram therefore there was no suffering on the cross there was no real death on the cross his entire ministry his life and death were a play they were simply a representation his resurrection never really happened there was no real blood shed for us since Jesus was a distant hologram there is no real effect on our lives all you need to do is say well God cared enough to show us his love through this movie so I'm gonna believe that and then it doesn't matter how I live it doesn't matter other things I believe there's room in the big tent for any concept or any idea or any lifestyle because none of it is real Christianity is a persuasion it's an ideology it's no better nor worse than any other persuasion Allah Buddha are all the same expression for the same God call him Jehovah or call him Jesus or call him Allah and it doesn't matter we're all going to the same place anyway so let's all just get along that was their teaching and of course it leaked into lifestyle since the world is not really real but only a darker dirtier shadow of the hidden real world how I live here doesn't matter change is not required if I'm an adulterer I can continue my adultery if I'm a fornicator I can continue my fornication if I'm a liar if I'm a cheater if I'm a thief I can continue my lifestyle because it's not really real anyway they felt they were beyond mere concepts of morality modesty doesn't matter dress like the world says dress everybody dresses like this so it must be alright and besides God doesn't care Bruce says this new teaching thus combines a new theology with a new morality it shouldn't surprise us when your theology gets wrong in almost all affects your lifestyle when oneness doesn't matter nothing else eventually matters when acts 2:38 is an option then so is everything else and the vice-versa is true when your lifestyle gets wrong your doctrine will follow hang on scare it up another one I'm gonna tell you I love you I've lost some friends that are so far out there they didn't intend to go that far I've lost family members that once told me we're just rethinking holiness we're still gonna be oneness and we're still gonna be acts 2:38 but you know we're just gonna kind of rethink some of these 1940s and 50s standards but I shall never forget when he looked me in the eye and he said you know I I'm just not persuaded that God's gonna send somebody to hell just because they haven't been baptized in Jesus name and who cares about Trinity or oneness anymore that's just semantics anyhow I don't preach that anymore you cannot there you say there is a there is a synergy there's a connection there is a lifeblood that flows between what you believe in how you live and if you change either side of that connection you will change the other side I am a one God apostolic Jesus name tongue and him clapping shouting Pentecostal apostolic and that isn't just my doctrine it affects how I live how I conduct myself be careful when you start rethinking what the church has taught us what the elders valued ah be careful when you start taking your knife and slicing off parts of your heritage and your inheritance I don't tear the fence down until you know why it was put there in the first place because you will destroy that was true then and it's true now their doctrine got wrong in their lifestyle got wrong I'm not sure which came first but it doesn't much matter because they're connected John scalded their hides now if you're a young preacher young pastor I don't want you misunderstand what I'm saying beating up people isn't the answer being mean from the pulpit is not the solution you ain't John [Applause] but he was dealing with sophisticated educated debaters who were persuading innocent people to fall into error and he blew him out of the water oh ho ho yes he did he said because they walk in darkness while claiming to have fellowship with God they're liars they live in sin and say they walk with a righteous God they're lying to you because they claim to have no sin you see the reason they could live like they live as God doesn't care about sin sins not real so John writes because they say they have no sin they're fooling themselves and because they say they have never sinned they're calling God a liar because he says all have sinned he says because they tried to walk in the light but hate their brother they are in darkness and they don't know where they're going because they're blind hang on he saved the best for last he said because they deny that Jesus is the Christ and that he has come literally in the flesh they are antichrists did you know this is the only place that word appears in the entire Bible it's not talking about the Beast it's not talking about a leader in the book of Revelation it's talking about people who get their Christology their theology of Jesus wrong Antichrist doesn't always mean against Christ it can mean accepting a substitute Christ a Christ that is not the Christ of the Bible but the Christ that fits me better that fits my beliefs better that fits how I want to live better and so I'll take this other Jesus listen there is no cafeteria where you go down the line and pick what doctrine you believe and pick what Jesus you're gonna follow there is one Lord there is one faith and there is one God [Applause] this is why so much of a letter that's usually thought of out in the in the in the scholarly world is dealing with bolts Christology actually deals with the results of that error of false Christology that a false teaching of Jesus leads to a false teaching about righteousness and leads its adherents to walk in darkness didn't I they have sin be filled with hatred for those who will not say they're okay and they come and take Christ's themselves I told you the pastor was upset I've taken too much time in this part because John's only purpose was not to scald those people causing the trouble not to point out their errors not to tell others how wrong they were his main purpose in writing first John was to encourage and reassure those who though they're confused and though their faith has been undermined they have held on to the teachings of the apostle's they're not sure about all those arguments they sound pretty good sometimes they like brother so-and-so he preached some powerful sermons and they're touched and moved and even confused by how many people have followed them perhaps even family members and friends have abandoned the church and followed this false teaching and they're confused but they know John knew Jesus they know pastor preach truth and so they're hanging on by their fingernails and John is writing to encourage and strengthen them you're not wrong little bit like when John the Baptist sent a message to Jesus and said are you the one his faith had been undermined you know it's one thing to say he must increase but I must decrease when the crowds are still coming to hear you preach but when you've been sitting in jail and it looks like nobody cares and your followers have shrunk to a handful of disciples hanging around the window of your cell and there is no deliverance and there is no way out and you are facing certain death it is easy to get discouraged let's don't judge rather John are you the one or am I gonna look for another so Jesus unleashes a whirlwind of his faith and power he heals the sick he opens blind eyes he makes deaf ears to hear and dumb tongues are to speak and the weak leap for joy and then Jesus says somebody go tell John that I'm still who I said I was you were not you're not wrong to stay with the truth you're not wrong two priests acts 2:38 you're not wrong to stand for righteousness you're not wrong to stay with the UPC on you're not wrong to preach what the elders preached you're not wrong to stand in the heritage that you have received from godly men and women wrong John I am who you said I was and this is what John's doing and he does it in a very dramatic imagery after introducing the foundation of his insistence his bona fides if you will elana barkas rocky Coleman oh he'll rock Herman he is saying what we saw with our eyes what we touched with our hands what we heard with our ears the Word of Life that doctrine that we have shared with you was not dreamed up by 12 men sitting around a campfire it was given to us by the God who came in flesh to this world and here's his first imagery of hope than I have to hurry he said for God is in him there is no darkness you see what he's doing here he's dividing the whole world into there is light and there is darkness there is no middle ground there is no gray area for in God there is no shadow there is no gray area and there's no turning in God he isn't gonna wake up one morning and say acts 2:38 you know that was good that was good for the first 2,000 years but now we're in the 21st century so we won't change that there's no shadow of turning God doesn't even start to turn there is no millimeter of turning there is no nanosecond of turning God is God he has always been God and what he declares us is the truth was the truth when he declared it and it shall be the truth when the earth is burned up and the Sun has ceased to shine God is not changing it is Jesus Christ the same yesterday today oh I got a hurry we got to compare what John wrote in his gospel when he was a little calmer when he had salvaged the church and the other churches of Asia Minor when he had dealt with the so-called secessionist backsliders and he starts delving into this concept John nine four Jesus says I must work the works of him that sent me while it is dead the night cometh when no man can work light makes positive action possible without light no valuable work can be done when you abandon light you can attract a crowd but you will not build a church you can do good for people attract them to your personal commit charisma and to your ministerial skill but you will not bring them to Jesus Christ because positive work cannot be done in darkness John 1:11 9 and 10 jesus answered are there not twelve hours in the day If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world but if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in yeah you don't carry your own little truth around with you oh but you don't understand uh I just can't see God doing I just don't you know my personal belief my opinion what I think please pardon my crudité but who cares what you think so so you got to get in the light you can't get your own flashlight and make it through there is one light and God is that light and there is no darkness in him in other words not only can no positive work be done in darkness but in the darkness we cannot personally properly we will stumble our intentions will not save us our hopes will not save us our training will not save us our indoctrination will not save us our opinions will not save us if we're walking in the darkness we will stumble john 12:35 then jesus said unto them yet a little while it is the light with you walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not where he is going in darkness you cannot know you cannot understand your direction north is indiscernible south is undeterminable east and west cannot be located there are no landmarks there are no connections you don't know your direction when you are walking in the darkness we've all met people who want to live better lives they want to make better choices but they don't know how Paul said I wanted to do good but how to do that which was good I found not who then who shall liberate me shall save me from this body of death now thanks be unto God Oh hallelujah for they that are in Christ have no condemnation why because the light is shining and they can say their direction John brings the same idea in the first John 2 and 11 but he that hated his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not all three of Jesus statements find their way into the letter that John is writing and he bases it on our relationships with our brothers and our sisters because that darkness have blinded his eyes John is saying that stay in the darkness long enough and the darkness will blind you or even if you chance to stumble on accident into the light you won't know it because you have chosen darkness so long that you can no longer see let me skip to my final point since God is light and not darkness he is seeable he is knowable he ever been out in the dark I don't know about you but daddy would on occasion send me out to the barn something we forgot to do or something barn wasn't that far away is about 30 miles it felt in the darkness just cross the road but Lord it was a long way and you know wasn't so bad headin out it's when you turned your back on the darkness I've been chased by worl wolves you didn't watch them on movies I watched when we were not in the church I never worried about a bear I worried about the Creature from the Black Lagoon Frankenstein and Dracula and you could walk out but buddy use running coming in yeah the only good thing about darkness is nobody could see you and how scared you were let me tell you something I could see the house perfectly what porch light was on I could see the cracks in the air in the asbestos siding I could see the curtains through the windows the glass in the door I knew where I was going because I was headed toward the light when you start moving toward the God who is light you can know him you can see him at work when you're coming out of darkness and moving toward him he doesn't hide himself you don't have to wonder where he's at you don't have to figure out which go I got my eyes on him I'm scared now what's behind me but there is the light toward the light God is the light not Hollywood not a political party not a website not the media God is the light he is the only way out of darkness ah he is the only destination worse pursuing a God is light John writes to them in the second chapter third verse hereby we do know that we know him you don't have to wonder if you know God you don't have to hope that you know God if you step into the light you will know that you know him stand with me I'm quittin Paul's desire is not some unreachable wish that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the Fellowship of his sufferings and John helps them he encourages and strengthen them he says you want new Commandments you want new teaching new doctrine okay here's your one again the new commandment I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shine and I close with John's greatest point first John 1:7 but if we walk it comes the moment you're not pursuing the light anymore you're not in the darkness running full out toward the light there comes that moment when you step in the when truth is all that matters when you stop the debate when you're no longer wondering if this is really so if the elders really knew what they were talking about when you settle the issue when you lay the foundation when you quit tearing up the foundation you'll never build the building if you keep tearing up the foundation there comes that moment when you step in the light and that's enough when you step in the light in your home when you step in the light and there's no more attraction from the darkness when you step in the light and then of strange powerful glorious beautiful phenomenon you walk in the light this is not some spotlight shining out of heaven that we spend our lives struggling to stay within its being this is broad open lowlands where the Sun shines and the light pours all around us it is an a Vista so vast we will never explore its reaches it is a light that shines so purely and truly that we see for ever and ever and ever and may be the most beautiful but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another it's about the church it's about what God is doing in the world it's about bringing others into the light that we might know and have fellowship if we walk in the light we don't break fellowship we don't hate the Brethren have no respect for elders split churches not if we're walking in the light we have fellowship one with another for God is not the author of confusion but he is the God of peace and fellowship and amazingly this fellowship is not just with one another but it is the god of light this keen ania fellowship is a theme throughout these letters John the pastor is refuting the error of those who would cause division and split but he never forgets why it's for the Quintanilla it's for the fellowship it's because that is precious for the fellowship he said we have and he means the apostle's we have fellowship with the father and you can have fellowship with us and by us joining together we join with him your relationship with God is not a long ranger relationship it flows through the church it flows through one another our relationship with God connects with everyone full of the Holy Ghost everyone baptized in Jesus name everyone turning from this world and following him and walking in the light and together we connect with him and oh with him fellowship based on truth and on light let's lift our hands let's praise him let's love him God is light let's praise him would you let's let him I feel his presence maybe reach out and take the hand of a brother or sister and let's fellowship together let's braise together let's walk together let's love God together let's preach truth together let's reach this world together let's walk in the light as he is in the light and have fellowship I love you Jesus I pray

Channel: Hallelujah Anyhow

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Keywords: rferf, reverend jerry jones, jerry jones preaching, jerry jones upci preaching, jerry jones upci, god is light, louisiana camp meeting, louisiana camp meeting 2017, louisiana camp meeting upci, pentecostal, pentecostal preaching, pentecostal church, pentecostal worship, apostolic preaching 2018, apostolic pentecostal preaching, apostolic pentecostal church, apostolic pentecostal worship, apostolic pentecostal sermons, apostolic pentecostal preaching videos

Id: b-RgG2AdWqM

Length: 59min 46sec (3586 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 14 2018