Chapter 1: The concept of walking in light

Amen. Thank you, David. Uh, okay. So, here we are this morning, the Shabbat, and we’re talking about walking in the light. And I thought this would be an appropriate follow-up lesson to the discussion on discipleship that we had last week. There was some discussion last week as to confession and this this lesson will kind of pick up from there. Although, as you’ll see in the mo in a moment, the topic of walking in the light has dual meanings in scripture and we’re going to understand what those dual meanings are. But that’s why I’m doing the lesson because there’s some questions that have arisen as a result of last week’s discussion.

So let’s jump into this. Walking in the light carries a dual meaning within scripture. It first speaks of ordering one’s life by the light of God’s word since his truth shows us the path of righteousness and directs our every step. It also refers to living with transparency before God and before trusted brothers who can help us in our walk or sisters as it pertains to each person. As discussed last week, this includes acknowledging sin, confessing it openly in a one-on-one setting with someone that you trust, and refusing to conceal what must be brought into the light for genuine repentance and restoration.

In this way, walking in the light means allowing God’s word to guide your way and allowing godly community to share in the work of exposing and overcoming sin. So, in order for us to properly understand what it means to walk in the light as opposed to living in the darkness, we need to better define both realities. And that’s what we’re going to do. Now, the Hebrew term or and [clears throat] the Greek term fos

Chapter 2: Defining light and darkness

consistently signify God’s nature, his revelation, and the life that comes from him. Light represents God’s presence, his holiness, and his guidance through his word. It also signifies the ethical transformation of those who belong to him. Believers are called children of light because they now walk according to his revealed will. Light exposes what is hidden which is why walking in the light involves confession, repentance, and moral transparency. As we see John Psalm 27:1, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Quick side note here. This morning I got a text from somebody. I couldn’t tell who they were saying that they couldn’t couldn’t make it, but they were hoping to understand why it appears that God changed the name for light to day in the book of Genesis.

And that’s not what he did. Uh day is a word that describes light’s function for the period of time. So, whoever you were that uh sent that text and asked that question, I figured this would be a great spot to answer it. Maybe David, do you know who that was? Jeff Miller. It was Jeff. Okay. So, yes. So, the father did not change the name for light from or to yom, which is what day is in Hebrew. No, yom is just descriptive of its function. Again, side note, let’s look at the dark. The Hebrew tomb term koshek, is that how you say that, David?

Hosekk. And the Greek term scotos consistently signify separation from God, ignorance of his truth, moral evil, and the realm where sin is concealed. Darkness is the domain of those who reject his word and refuse correction. Many of these verses that you see me in uh quoting here in both of these sections we’re going to be looking at in the course of the lesson. It represents blindness to God’s revelation and the moral corruption that accompanies hidden sin. Darkness describes both the spiritual condition of the unregenerate and any practice that hides sin from exposure. Four, the way of the wicked is like darkness.

Chapter 3: Scriptural analysis of paths

Let’s look at a handful of verses that uh the Bible mentions that describes both. for the light. We see in Job 29:3, when his lamp shone upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness. Again, chapter 12, he recovers deep things out of darkness and brings the shadow of death to light. Psalm 36, for with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light. Psalm 43. Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Psalm 89. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound.

What’s the sound he’s talking about there, Glenn? Number two, the chauffear. They walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. And then I have these last two verses highlighted because I want to discuss them briefly. Psalm 97 says, “Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.” And then in Proverbs, but the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines even brighter unto the perfect day. So, I want to ask you, David, since I have you here, Psalm 97, when it says light is sown for the righteous, what do you think that means?

Or or maybe I should ask you to define the word sown in that first phrase? What What does it mean for light to be sown for the swn, planted, uh, spread, spread? So, yeah. Where else do we see that word sown in Bible? We see it in the parables, right? The parable of the sewer. Yep. Yep. So, when you think about the parable of the swer and how in our lesson about that, we described how to sew is to broadcast seed out into a field. And so here it says, “Light is sown for the righteous and the path is like the shining sun.”

This is a visual for what that means. And what do we see here? We see Yeshua swinging light onto the path of the believer. Light is sown for the righteous. And what is the sewing doing? The seowing is enlightening the believer’s path. The sewing is showing the believer the way of the path. Do you see that? This is why the Bible seemed to come alive the moment that you decided to obey all of the ways of the Lord. And isn’t that true for so many of us? Certainly, it was for me. The moment that I set my heart on obeying all of the council of Yehovah and not just the New Testament, but all of his ways.

I had what could be described as an explosion of understanding in my own personal Bible study. My New Testament seemed to come alive in ways that I had never known. The Old Testament, which I had ignored for most of my life, all of a sudden was this amazing thing that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. Why? Because he sws light for the righteous, for those who are are walking the path. Amen. Likewise, just go ahead, David. Just to add on to that, you know, Psalm 119 that many, I’m sure, know of just describes exactly what you’re saying. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

It’s exactly another of that exact concept. Yeah. You think I probably have that verse in this lesson somewhere? N [laughter] sure about that. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. That’s okay. You’re allowed to steal my thunder. I don’t mind. Uh, in the darkness, Proverbs 2, understanding will keep you from those who leave the path of a brightness to walk in the ways of darkness. Job 24, those who rebel against the light, they do not know its ways or abide in its paths. Psalm 82, they do not know, nor do they understand. They walk about in darkness. Job 12, they grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Proverbs 4, the way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. And like the first section, I have these last two verses highlighted because I want to talk about them for a moment. Obviously, he’s talking about people outside of the ways of the Lord. And he’s saying in Job and in Proverbs, they grope in the dark without the light. They don’t know what makes them stumble. So, I wanted to ask, how can we explain this in real life? What does this look like in real life? Glenn, number two, do you have a thought on that?

Well, what comes to mind is uh Hebrews talks about those uh those that are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God. And you know, without without the light, you don’t you can’t see the way. Nothing makes sense. Nothing makes sense. There was a time when I didn’t understand the Bible at all. And then Yehovah turned on the light. What about you, David? Any thoughts? No, I I think it’s a it’s a lack of understanding, ignorance, a lack of clarity that, you know, causes people to not understand and kind of grapple with what’s going on, why are things happening to me?

I was just going to say that it’s also, I think, a matter of timing. I think Yeshua calls who he calls. It’s a matter of faith. Okay. Glenn says, “Amen.” So, what this means is, at least to me, that you live a life without understanding, bad things happening that you just can’t figure out. A life of if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. And I think we can all relate to these moments in our life in the world when you are completely outside of covenant. This is exactly what Proverbs says. It’s like you’re trying to find your way in the dark.

You bump your toe, you hit your head, something happens in your life, some type of calamity, and you just don’t understand it. This is why you don’t understand the source of your troubles and pain. You live a life stumbling in the dark because you you reject the light. And there’s nothing to quote unquote blame for the bad things that are happening to you. You wish you could find something or someone to blame, but you can’t because you can’t really understand why your life is the way it is. You are groping in the dark. You are stumbling through the darkness.

Chapter 4: The narrow path illustration

Now, let’s look at this. What is this, Glenn? Number two, that’s a beam of light. That’s a beam of light. That’s the path. That’s our path that is sown by light by the father for those who serve him. How is it sown? How is it illuminated? Well, David has already shared Psalm 119 that his word is a lamp to our feet and for our path. So imagine that this beam of light that we’re seeing is a path and you and I are looking down on it from the sky. That’s our path. His word illuminates our path. Proverbs 4:25 says, “Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you.

Ponder the path of your feet, and let all of your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your feet from evil.” So I asked the question, why is the right or left not good? When you consider the image on the screen, it’s a narrow path. And and now if you go off of it, you’re in the darkness. It’s this is simple, right? It’s darkness. The right or the left is the darkness. It’s evil. So imagine if you will an individual who strays off the path. What what are they straying into? They’re straying into darkness and sin.

So hopefully this is a helpful illustration to help you have a better idea of what it’s like to not turning to the right or the left in our walk with God. Now, a personal note. When I was a young man, 27, 28, just newly married, my wife and I had come back from the missionary field and moved to Arizona, and we had a little baby girl, Alexa. We were given the responsibility to lead a campus ministry on the west side of town and we had um oh I don’t know six or seven brothers from DVI. We had a handful from the international school of business and a few more from the the the community college that was over there Glendel Community College.

All in all, we had about 15 students that we were leading and most of them were men. Well, one night I went over to their apartment near campus and I was hanging out with them and we were just doing what brothers do and we I decided, hey, you know what? Let’s go for a prayer walk. It was night and we said we all got up and went outside and started walking and we found ourselves down this the main one of the main streets there on the sidewalk. uh about eight of us and we were we were just talking and praying and discussing things.

We walked past this field and at some point in this field we noticed a brick fence and the brick fence met the sidewalk but where it met the sidewalk it was only about a foot tall. About 10 feet into the field it stepped up a foot and then another 10 feet it stepped up a foot and by then you couldn’t see it anymore in the darkness because it disappeared into this field. Well, I thought it would be a fun fun thing for us to get up on top this fence and walk along the top of it. It was a brick fence.

So, I said, “Come on, guys. Let’s walk this fence.” We didn’t know where it was. It was a new development that was going on. But we got up on this fence and by the time we got to the top, we were about 8 ft off the ground. And this image is what you’re seeing is basically what we saw. Once you got away from the city street lights, you could not see the bottom. As far as you were concerned, that drop was,000 ft. It was real only 8 ft and at the bottom was just a bunch of desert dirt, but we couldn’t see it.

The the moon had just illuminated the top of the fence just enough for us to see the path in front of us. When I thought of Psalm 119 and I started talking to the men about how this was so ideal, this this what we were doing right here was so ideal for walking the path. Now, ironically, back then, I had no idea what the path was. [laughter] Not like I do now, but I knew the verse. And I and I told them as we walk along this and we pray, imagine stepping off this path, not knowing what you’re going to hit on the way down, not knowing what’s going to happen to you if you step off the path.

Long story short, we walked this for about a quarter of a mile in the darkness. And the at the end of the fence was this canal that ran through town. And we all jumped off the fence and sat at the edge of this canal. And we started to pray. And one by one, as each one of the brothers started praying, they started breaking down in tears, just thinking about, the seriousness of walking this path, the seriousness of what leaving the path meant for them spiritually. The father wants us to be on the path with his word illuminating its existence. where to go, where not to go, what to do, what not to do.

And he’s doing it as a father does for his children.

Chapter 5: Lessons from Achan’s sin

Sin in the camp based on this image right here. Glenn number two or David, do you do you know what we’re getting ready to look at? Glenn’s nodding his head. Yes. What What are we getting ready to look at? Number two, I forget the guy’s name, but he’s the guy that took the silver and the stuff from Jericho. Yes. And Joshua 71. This is the story of Achan. There’s some very interesting things that we have to learn here. The children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the things. I have put that phrase in parenthesis because that’s not what it is in the in the Hebrew.

It’s acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things. So, we’ll get to that in a second. Let’s finish the verse. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding these things. For Achan, the son of Ki, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zarah, and of the tribe of Judah, took of the occursed things, the devoted things. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. So what does it mean that he acted unfaithfully in regarding the devoted things? I have to ask the question, devoted to who? Well, when you go back and you look in Joshua 6, we learn that all the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron that they took from Jericho were consecrated to the Lord.

They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So what’s happening here? Well, Achan was basically robbing Yah. Achan was this is one man’s sin but the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. So one man did this but the father was disciplining the entire nation. So I asked this question, David and Glenn, what does this tell us about the nature of sin? It’s associated with levan. It spreads. Levan, it spreads. Okay. I don’t know. Maybe there’s a thought that just comes to mind. Some type of communal responsibility to help people stay on this narrow path as well as expose those when it’s not when they’re not exactly walking out going to the path.

You you both are exactly right. Just expressed in two different ways. A little bit of leaven affects the whole dough and a little bit of sin has an impact on the entire body. In the world that we live in, we are so far removed from the communal nature of the people of Israel. Everything for us is on an individual basis. We don’t understand for the for the most part. I’m speaking for myself, but for the most part, we don’t understand what it means to be in a part of this kind of community. Unless you’re Native American and and you come from that type of tribal association or some other, you know, nationality that has a long history of that type of communal relationship with the body.

And so it’s strange to us when we look at this and we go, okay, Achan did this, but the anger burned against the children of Israel, all of them. So what happened as a result? Well, in verses 2-5, it says, “Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to I, which is beside the Beth Haven on the east side of Bethl, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country.” So the men went up and spied out I. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about 2 or 3,000 men go up and attack.

Do not uh weary all the people there, for the people of I are few.” H So about 3,000 men went up from the people, but they fled before the men of I. And the men of I struck down about 36 men. And they for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shabarium and struck them down on the descent. Therefore, the hearts of the people melted and became like water. What’s happening here? What’s happening here is that they were being defeated and they didn’t know why. As a result of Achan’s sin, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel.

And now all of Israel is being defeated by a people that they were certain they could defeat with a fraction of their population. And now they are being beaten and they are just like those people in Proverbs that said the wicked don’t know. And this is what’s happening to them. What was the issue? The issue for them was hidden sin. Hidden from who? Hidden from Yehovah. No. Hidden from Joshua. How do we know it wasn’t hidden from Yah? Well, because we’re going to see in the next verse that he was very much aware of it. And by the way, what can be hidden from Yehovah?

No, but the people didn’t know. Joshua didn’t know. So, a couple of things I I wanted to discuss here. The people’s hearts were melting in fear, failing and losing the war. Again, try to put this in uh our own lives. Try to see how this unfolds in our own lives. Living in such a way that our hearts are constantly melting in fear. We’re constantly failing at life. We’re losing every battle that we face. Of course, for them, the battles were real. For us, the battles can be financial. The battles can be maybe taxes or something else that we’re always seeming to be beaten by, but they were clueless to the reason.

Remember our verses from the previous slide where wickedness causes a person or a people to not know. their misery and sometimes our misery confounds them and confounds us when in fact there was sin in our camp and Yehovah was opposing us and not just sin because we all have sin from time to time. The difference was that the sin was hidden. Secondly, this was an intentionally hidden sin by Achan. He buried the things that he took under his tent like a treasure along with his silver, the rest of his personal belongings. And this is like something he wanted to keep to himself.

He was treasuring this. It made me think of Psalm 66 where David said, “If I regard,” and that word for regard, one of the definitions of the word for regard is cherished. If I cherished iniquity, if I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not hear. And in Proverbs 28, he who covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. So the question is for the de remainder of our discussion here

Chapter 6: Biblical perspective on confession

this morning, confess to whom? That’s a big question cuz I think some people struggle with the idea of confessing our sin to another human being. Partly due to the attitudes and feelings that people have about their Catholic past, partly because they don’t trust the individual that they’re trying to be open with. Partly because they don’t think it’s biblical. There’s a lot of different reasons why people have this fear, but we need to answer this from a biblical perspective. Joshua 7. So the Lord said to Joshua, “Get up. Why do you lie on your face?” This is one of my favorite verses for a whole lot of reasons.

There’s times when when we think the answer is prayer. And it’s not where the father is saying, “What are you doing on your face? Get up and do something. Something needs to be done.” In this case, it was repentance. Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. So again, Israel has sinned. This was Achan, one guy. And yet he’s applying it to the nation. Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have taken even some of these things and have both stolen and deceived. And they have also put it among their own stuff.

Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies. That’s a powerful verse right there. If you can’t stand before your enemies, there may be an issue of hidden sin in your life, but turn their backs before their enemies because they become doomed to destruction. Again, something else we have to pay attention here is what we have highlighted in blue. Neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the oursed thing from among you. Get up, sanctify the people, and say, “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an occursed thing in your midst, oh Israel.

You cannot stand before your enemies until it’s gone. In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. Then it shall be that he who is taken with the occursed thing shall be burned with fire. he in all that he has because he transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken.

He brought the clan of Judah and he took the family of the Zarites and he brought the family of the Zarites man by man and Zabdi was taken and he brought his household man by man and Achan the son of Cari the son of Zabi the son of Zarah of the tribe of Judah was taken. Imagine that moment when the tribe of Judah was taken. Can you imagine the relief of the other tribes that went and then not just the tribe of Judah, but the family of the Zar Heights. Can you imagine the family of the Zar Heights being selected out of that group?

Oh, the weight, the fear. Oh my goodness. And then man by man, man, man man by man until you get to Achan. And then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you. Give glory to the God of Israel and make confession to him and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” I found that to be a very interesting passage. One, Jo Joshua is saying, “Confess to God and me what you have done. Don’t hide it from me.” Why didn’t he say, “Don’t hide it from God.” Well, because you can’t hide anything from God.

That’s why we’re here in the first place at this moment. Because you tried to and failed. So make confession to him and tell me now what you have done. When you read that story, we see that he does end up confessing to Joshua. But nowhere do we see him making a separate confession to Yehovah. I thought that was striking. Confession in scripture is never limited to God alone, but extends to those within the covenant community who are affected by our actions. And I say we are either family under covenant or we are not. We are not individuals under covenant. Yes, we are.

But when you understand the scripture, you understand that it’s so much bigger than that. We are a family of people, a family of nations under covenant. Or we’re not. If hidden sin can curse an entire nation, it can curse your little group. or your little family. Yehovah obviously knew the sin. So why confess? Joshua says, “Make confession to him.” But obviously Yehovah already knew it. So why confess to Yehovah and why to uh to Joshua? Well, confession before God and men forces us into a position of humility and in some cases shame. It was last week, I think, that one of the sisters shared her story about the value of godly shame.

And she was absolutely right. It’s a little easier for us to confess things to the father. One, because we’re not looking at his face. Two, because we know he already knows what I did. It takes a different level of humil humility to look another brother in the eye and be honest about a sin. It forces us to be humble. It forces us to be submissive in in our hearts. Submissive to who? Well, submissive to God and submissive to another brother. Of course, rightful shame and not self-pity, two totally different things is a necessary response to sin because it leads us to repentance and res restoration.

We see it mentioned several times in scripture. Ezra 9, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you, my God. How many of us can share that we’ve actually had those thoughts or uttered those very same words? Maybe because in the past we’ve struggled with some sin that see to seem to repeat itself and you were just too ashamed to even look up or even to utter a word. Shame, right? Shame, godly shame, has its purpose. It creates humility. Jeremiah, were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? No, therefore they shall fall. So the father is looking for shame.

He gave us the ability to be shamed for the right reasons. That’s what the confession process brings to us. If I ever had to confess to say my wife that I was unfaithful to her, can you imagine the shame that would create in my heart? the devastation of having to look her in the eye to to confess this. Well, it’s not the same thing exactly, but that the same effect exists when I have to look at say Glenn number two in the eye and say, “Bro, I just need to confess this and get this off my heart. This is what I did.

This is how I did it.” It puts me in a in a humble position.

Chapter 7: Historical context of confession

Leviticus 5. It shall be when he is guilty of these matters that he shall confess what he has sinned in that thing. What’s happening here? Well, look at the picture. This is a picture of a man who is off making an offering on an altar and he was to lay his hands on the thing being sacrificed and confess his sins openly and loudly with the high priest standing there. That was the practice of Leviticus 5. So confession and atonement when the hand is laid upon the sin offerings yada shifts from praise he is to confess that sin. So most passages that command confession do not specify whether the confession is directed only to God or also to another person.

So, how can we determine how obedience to these commands about confession was actually carried out? Well, there’s a few ways. One, proper exit Jesus, which I’m hoping to do this morning. Two, common sense while reading the scripture. and three ask ourselves how were these commands interpreted by those who came before us and what was their response to them. So that’s what I wanted to do here very briefly in the Kuman the Dead Sea Scrolls at the section there mentioned in the rule of the community it says that people were required spoken confession of sin before the community. This is what the Dead Sea Scroll says.

Pho on his document on the virtues affirms confessing sins verbally and even to another person who could correct or help. Josephus likewise documents public confession as a known practice among Jews in the Essenes and the dedicay commands believers to confess their sins in the assembly. So these early church writings which are not scripture just want to make that clear. None of the above is scripture declare that confession to one another was the norm uh amongst uh earlier believers. So in the temple and tabernacle community and this this little section here let’s pay careful attention to in the temple and tabernacle community confession of sin was carried out within the covenant assembly with the covenant assembly all of them because sacrificial atonement required physical presence at the sanctuary.

The worshipper brought the sin offering to the priest, laid his hand upon the animal, and confessed the sin while the priest heard and performed the atoning ritual, which shows that confession occurred within the gathered community of Israel where God had placed his name. Under the new covenant, James commands believers to confess their sins to one another because atonement is no longer tied to a central sanctuary and the spirit has been poured out upon the dispersed people of God. Since the destruction of the temple and the global scattering of believers were already known in God’s redemptive plan, the spirit established a pattern in which confession would continue within the new covenant assembly wherever it gathers.

But to clarify, because the temple would be no more and because proper atonement required you personally there amongst the assembly, that’s why sin was confessed outwardly. Now that these things are gone, now that we have the spirit living inside of us, now that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, now that we are globally scattered, that practice continues not to the assembly, but to one another.

Chapter 8: Exposure to the light

Hopefully that’s making sense to to to some of you. Wow, we’re zeroing in on this lesson coming to an end a little faster than I thought. John, 1 John chapter 1, we’ll have some great discussion. 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’ve not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. If we say to whom? When I read that verse, it says twice, if we say that we have no sin.

If we say that we have not sinned, I ask if we say to whom would any of us dare tell Yehovah that we have no sin and have not sinned? Anyone would take that little challenge right there? No. I certainly don’t. I don’t think any of us would dare tell God that a we have no sin and b we have not sinned. However, would we do this with another person? Yes, we would. I gave an example of it just last week in my lesson where I lied to a man’s face when he asked me whether or not I was guilty of committing the the one sin that I was trying to hide.

So, yeah. for all kinds of different reasons. Guilt, shame, embarrassment, not wanting to be outed, not wanting someone to change their outlook on me. We would do this to another person. We would say we have no sin. We would say that we have not sinned if asked because we’re human. John 3, same author, different book. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.

This verse is one of those verses that for so many years I thought I had a pretty good understanding of. Lo and behold, that was not the case. The more I thought about this verse, the more I studied it, the more questions I asked myself. When you read this verse, you conclude that they hated the light for one reason. because their deeds were evil and they didn’t want those deeds exposed. Sorry for the typo. That’s the gist of the verse. So I ask, exposed to whom is it? Yah. Are you worried about exposing your deeds to Yah? Nothing can be exposed to Yehovah.

There is nothing hidden that he does not see ever. There is no such thing as exposing something to Yehovah. So then what does he mean when he says they didn’t want their deeds to be exposed? Who was John addressing here? Well, when you read carefully, he’s talking about men in the world practicing evil. It is those among the nations who fear having their deeds exposed because exposure reveals who they truly are beneath the image they work so hard to make others believe. And that hits all of us. All of us at some level or another wants to portray an image.

We want people to know what we want them to know about us. We want them to see us in a certain way. Uh certainly that was the motive behind my lying about my sin. I didn’t want to be that guy who dealt with this sin, who struggled with this perversity, whatever it is. But in this verse, John is talking initially about how the world does this. However, he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen and they’ve been done in God. Let’s think about that verse for a while. I took a new understanding of this single verse this week than I’ve had my entire life.

The Bible does not say the light came to him. The Bible says that those who do the truth comes to the light. They intentionally walk in to the light. Why? that his deeds may be clearly seen. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have made the mistake of believing that the deeds in reference here are good deeds. Why did I make that conclusion? Because the next verse says that they have been done in God. Well, surely that must mean that he’s talking about good deeds. Well, that’s problematic on a couple of levels. You don’t need good deeds to be exposed by the light.

You need bad deeds to be exposed by the light. You need bad deeds to be clearly seen. And that’s what we do when we come into the light. So, and this is just my way of saying this. The person walking in the way, walking according to the truth, intentionally comes in to the light, exposing his deeds, good and bad, that they have been done while serving God. That is the way that I would rephrase that statement in my own words. The person who does the truth, who’s walking in the way, intentionally steps into the light, exposing his deeds, whatever they are, so that they can be clearly seen that they have been done while serving God.

Now, let me ask a question to David and Glenn number two, and you don’t have to necessarily answer, [laughter] but if you if you have an answer, please do. I consider myself to be walking in the way. Glenn, number two, you consider yourself to be walking in the way. David, I’m sure you do. That’s how I think. I think we all are. I think everyone in this group is. But I also know that in while I’m walking in the way, I do stupid stuff. Yes, you did. [laughter] Glenn didn’t have to agree with me there so strongly. But I do stupid stuff.

I I can sin, but I’m coming into the light so that those deeds, good or bad, can be clearly seen. That I’ve done it while serving him. And let him sort out what’s what. And let him help me understand what’s what. And hopefully he’s doing that. So in this verse, John 3, Yeshua is drawing a sharp contrast between two kinds of people. Those who practice evil hide from the light because they don’t want their deeds exposed. While those who quote unquote do the truth come to the light so that nothing will be hidden. Both groups have deeds. One conceals them and the other brings them into full exposure.

When he says that such deeds are quote done in God, he means that the person is living in fellowship with Yehovah even though he falls from time to time. But when he falls, he does not fear being humbly honest with God and with man, walking in the light, walking according to his word that illuminates your path and walking in transparency. So, what have we learned? It’s time for the rest of you. I want your comments, your responses, your rebuttals, your rebukes. I want to hear them all.

Chapter 9: Discussion and community response

Really? Yes, I do. You really do? I really, really do. Glad David number one’s got his hands up first. So, go ahead, David. Christine, I’ll Christine will start and then I have another. Um, Ed, would you also suggest that there’s a third group? um those two groups that you discussed, but also the third group of the men and women that are not walking in the way. They are of the world and their deeds are evil, but they bring them to the light. They expose them. Um even though they’re not walking in the way, they want to choose the light so that they they come to the light.

Well, yeah, of course. somebody who is not in the way, someone who is outside of covenant, when they come to him, they are willingly offering their their ways to be seen and to be exposed. Um, and we quite honestly, we have to clarify what that means on a personal basis. There are some genuine concerns that we should address to do this properly. There’s a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this, right? Quite honestly, me, David, Christine, Tim, the garrisons, we all have experiences with the wrong way to do this. Yep. And maybe some of you, others do as well, and we can discuss that.

But this wasn’t necessarily a lesson about practice as much as it was about theory and and what u walking in the light means. So, I hope I answered that question properly. Amen. Amen. And I think that that distinction that you made towards the end, and I’m going to channel Glenn number two on this, and I don’t want to steal his thunder because he when he when he was asking do you really want to know he might say something here so I’ll just I’ll just throw a little bit out there and he can build on it really know but there’s there’s the element like you said of of how to go about it and with whom to do this right I think that some of the examples that you have have you know brought as examples um and and taking out of and and not with the exception of James, you

know, James 5:16 where we talk about confess to one another, but in other examples that you brought, whether it’s a high or the the the sacrificial sin, there was confession to a leader or a quote unquote priest or someone who’s in a position of authority, of personal responsibility for the community or a quote unquote trained representative of the clergy etc. Right. Uh so the you know the question is and maybe it needs to be dealt a little bit deeper is to to who are you confessing and like you said because of the potential of it being done in a in in in a way that not only uh brings about healing which is the main purpose of this but actually can cause a lot of damage.

And that’s again driven by human nature, the world that we live in uh and and practices of leadership and and things of that nature. Right? So I just wanted to put that out there that that maybe that’s where some additional clarity uh and biblical foundation uh regarding that are biblical instruction with respect to that. Amen. Thank you. Okay. Uh Glenn number two wants to share. I’m going to turn this camera Glenn number two for you so you can be go next. Yes. Okay. Well, good morning everybody. Shabbat shalom. Uh so glad to be here. Um brother Ed said he he wants some rebukes.

[laughter] Bring it on, bro. I’m open. I’m humble. you know, when the lesson started out and the scriptures that the stories that were told, uh, they’re all important and they all make some really good points, but I got to point out that they’re old covenant points. And, uh, we read Deuteronomy 28, and we know into the Old Covenant that we traded, uh, behavior for blessings. But we also know guys that if if you read Paul, unless you just want to rip Paul right out of the Bible, that’s not the way the new covenant works. In the new covenant, you walk in the light.

You do everything right, but you’ve got a target on your back. You’ve got an adversary that’s making everything go wrong all the time. We’re tried in the fire. And so by coming to a conclusion that, oh, things aren’t going right. So, you know, I’m I must be doing something wrong. Um, that’s, you know, that that’s not the new covenant. Um, in John where uh John 3 where it’s talking about the light came into the world. Well, what light came into the world? Well, that was Yeshua. Yeshua came into the world. Um we in the old covenant uh you know we were we talked about uh uh somebody bringing a sin offering to the priest.

Well, we have a high priest and that high priest is is Yeshua and we bring our sins to Yeshua and he he’s the one that can make us whole. He’s the one that can open our eyes. Um, somebody else mentioned, you know, you know, timing on on when people are called and and being called, you know, is not an all at once thing. It being called uh is is all you know, you get an interest in something. You start reading the word and you start acting on the word and Yehovah Yeshua uh opens our mind. Paul says we’re to continue to grow in grace and knowledge.

Um so anyway, that’s that that’s kind of my two cents on this thing. We we’re, you know, we’re not under the old covenant. We’re not trading behavior for blessings. Uh we’re doing our best to obey out of love because of what Yeshua did for us. And then we’re still going to have a whole lot of trials. But um you know God promises that he puts a limit on our trials and that he will be there with us to uh to take you know to help us through the trials. I’m going through trials right now. I’m sure you guys are too.

Um and there are sins where we commit a sin and what the negative thing that we’re experiencing is just a consequence of a sin. So that’s that’s absolutely right. you know, you you do bad. You know, it’s uh the consequences of center are like gravity. It’s you know, it’s going to happen. However, under the new covenant, we’re going to be exposed to a lot of trials that are just to try us just like Christ was tried. He and he was without sin. That’s all for now. Amen. Amen, brother. Thank you. So for for clarity purposes and I uh listening to Glenn share I probably should have made this a little clearer um during the lesson.

Sometimes in in the course of my teaching in my mind I’m targeting the world the lost somebody who might be you know come across this video and and see it and um and need to hear something. I happen to agree with what Glenn was saying in that um just because someone has something bad to them doesn’t mean that you’re in sin, especially if you’re a believer and you’re walking in the way. Uh that’s not the point that I was trying to make. I was trying to make the point that those in the world outside of covenant, God is using these bad things to get someone’s attention.

And quite honestly, he’s not above doing that for us as well in the way. There is a distinction though between bad things happening to those of us in the way and bad things happening to those of us outside the way. So, I hope I made that clear. Uh Glenn, if I didn’t, let me know. Okay, Richard Maxwell, go ahead, brother. Yeah, I want to thank you for your lesson this morning because it’s incredibly timely. As even as recently as this morning, I’ve had to deal with sin inside my own camp here in the house. And then as you’ve walked through this just the understanding the importance [clears throat] of discipleship and calling out that there’s a that just in the modern church there’s a drastic difference between a men’s Bible study group and true discipleship and how I submit to the accountability of my my brothers in the stable from

another ministry. But we have this dynamic to where we do or we’re supposed to uh bring our sins before the brothers in in our stable. And then just like my son had to offer accountability and confession to me, then I have to do the same within my discipleship group. So in a way, yes, the old covenant way does still come into effect because there could be attacks on my house because there’s sin inside the account. Now, I’m not saying this is sanctioned necessarily by Yehovah, but it’s the old adage of we don’t leave a window open or don’t leave a door open.

There’s things that can happen with inside the house because of the sin of one that is not confessed. Whereas me as the father, I can address that sin and help cover the family if I am aware of the sin. Amen, brother. Thank you. I appreciate that. Richard, uh, Super Samuel. Shabbat shalom. How’s everyone? Um, powerful lesson. Um, brother Ed, very powerful lesson. I I have to um I have to disagree with my my my brother Glenn too, my elder Glenn, too.

Um I don’t think that we’ve yet entered into the renewed covenant. We’re on our way. We’re on the road to to Zeon. And it’s and we’re taking our time. You know, the the the father allows or he causes. And I think a lot of times we tend to put too much on hassa time when really it’s us and we invite things into our lives. I can I can tell you from personal testimony because I I come from I come from a dark place having started out the road as a Christian but incorporating a lot of pagan practices that came from the south and my my wife my Isa um coming from the Caribbean um intermixing or synretizing certain ,

elements of um pagan tradition and Christian practice um that caused a lot of issues and problems in in our household. I can tell you that what happened to Acon and what happened to the children of Israel continues today to brothers and sisters in this assembly when we invite certain things into our lives. Um indeed um I think the reason why the the punishments that are enumerated within Deuteronomy 28, they’re ongoing because Israel has been scattered and dispersed.

They’ve never stopped. They’re still there. That’s why we’re not in the land now. We’re awaiting the point where we’re going to be fully redeemed and brought into the full covenant with our Messiah. That’s without a doubt. But what I would like to say though um in conclusion, you know, if you if you look at what was laid out by Apostle Paul, if you look at what’s laid out by all of the apostles, um and especially if you look at what is what is indicated or stated within the the epistles of of James, um we are to expect yes trials where we are to expect challenges that comes with the territory and we are to

find joy within those challenges because our desires are to be fully aligned with that of the father and the son. Um so all the tests that we get, we’re supposed to still be able to find praises and make offerings of thanksgiving to our father. Um but there are opportunities for us to receive um the blessings the barakim of the father through right action. You know when you’re walking in alignment with the father and with the son and when you are walking the path irrespective of the trials you go through you’re still able to find shalom.

You’re still able to find it. But when you’re off the path and you’re going through those trials, things are topsyturvy a lot more than not. And I think having, you know, fellowship like this and other fellowships and disciplehips helps us keep each other in line and keep us straight. We’re able to talk to each other um in love and understanding and give gentle rebukes um gentle correction um as necessary in order to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Um, so thank you for allowing me to share. Shabbat shalom. Amen, Samuel. Thanks for your thoughts and your insight as always. We appreciate you. Uh, let’s see. Brother Snow has his hand up. All right. I uh what I got out of it is um a lot. The first thing um David said something that is really interesting um about who you confess to. I’m I’m thinking about James. I think it’s James 5:16. It doesn’t really define it. It says to one another.

Um I think he and I came out of a a group culture that um there were that we’ve conf I’ve confessed to many hypocrites unknowingly. So I think that and yes, as we can all laugh and and smile and like realize God is still in control. And I think God’s going to look at our our hearts first. because of the shame that we have. Uh I remember one year um uh you ever sit, you know, sat in church as a under Christianity, you didn’t, you know, you didn’t deal with didn’t you, you know, you’re not dealing with something.

It was like for a whole year going through the motions, you know, and I remember I was like I was like, man, I need to confess my sin. Um, it was more of just u it wasn’t anything just jumping out of normal, but it was just it just I just needed to get open. So, I was like, you know, I’m going to confess to two guys every day. And I don’t know. I I think I said I’m just going to I’m just going to keep it going.

So, I I would and I I asked them. I said, “Hey guys, I I need I just need to be open about where I’m at. Um, can I even if I can leave that on a voicemail?” And they were like, “Great.” Great. And these guys were were close to me and stuff. So I did it. It was it was tough, you know, to to do that. I remember on the 15th day. Um I I I just I saw this guy that that ended up, you know, ended up becoming a Christian, you know, according to our, you know, standard at the time, you know, repenting before the Lord, all that stuff.

Not not about Shabbat, of course, but where we were at. And I just I’ll just never forget where my heart was, the the freedom in my heart of just, you know, after about seven days of just like I just finally got it out and I’m I’m changing. And I just think that everything always goes better when you confess it. Just life is just so much better when I confess. So that I just wanted to to share my personal experience.

Um, and number two is, um, Glenn Glenn said something about battles. Um, I I can relate to trials. I think a lot of us, probably every one of us is probably going through a trial. I’m going through a trial, too. Um, multiple trials. Um, but I think that [snorts] I have this thing in me that uh, you know, sometimes am I is there a sin in me somewhere? Is why all this bad stuff is happening to me?

I think it’s just insecure human nature, right? But um I’m I’m finally kind of slowly getting to the point where, you know, sometimes God allows battles. You know, not because we’re being punished. Um I think that heaven has confidence. God has confidence in us um to to allow that. Um our faith is going to push through, you know, the darkness that Ed had that slide up. And I think that’s love for God. I think that’s that’s that is a son and daughter of Abraham’s, you know, response.

And I So I’m I’m just thinking about, you know, because he didn’t tell Abraham, hey, this is well, let me explain why I’m telling you to do this. That’s not how God works. I’m not going to Sometimes he just doesn’t explain it. And I think that we just he is looking for that long-term faith. And so this is what I I kind of got out of it. Um, thanks for letting me share. Amen. Tim, um, in response to what you just said, I would like to, um, share something with you.

Let me see if I can do this again. Just give me a second. I’m not sharing the screen. Okay. Oh, yeah. Here we go. I was right there in the Okay. Can you all see this? Can you all see that? Someone say yes. Yes. Okay. Um, so this is this is uh Judges 3. Something I learned long time ago that really addresses what Tim is saying and what Glenn was saying. These are the nations which the Lord left that they were in battle, but he might test Israel by them.

that is all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan. This was only so that the generation of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it. And then he goes on to list the nations which he had left behind. What was the reason he left them behind? He left them behind as tools to teach Israel how to fight. Sometimes the things that we go through in life, as Tim said, as Glenn said, as Samuel said, are there for a reason.

like Israel, he’s using this stuff to teach you how to fight spiritual battles. Does that mean you’re in sin? Well, it might include some sin that he’s trying to weed out of you, but it might not. It might just be that he’s teaching you how to have thicker skin faith and faith in in your walk. So I hope that makes sense. Uh let’s see, Robert from Florida. Just I’m sorry, just another comment regarding that that in some cases also the lesson is not for you.

You are being used by God as a tool for someone else whether to get their attention to bring them to God or also you’re you potentially are being used to demonstrate and to show to the world who God is uh to glorify God himself as they were saying you know when when they were coming to Jesus says well uh with the with the blind child and said well have the parents sin right and say well no it’s not about the parents sin is because he was made blind so that then Jesus can heal him and the world can see.

Right? And you know there’s a lot of those kind of examples. We are we are jars of clay that are being used by God for specific purposes but ultimately for the purpose of glorifying him. So it’s not always when we when we do this thing. Yes, we can we can ask ourselves what is God trying to teach me? And that’s a great valid question that we should always keep at the forefront of our mind. But in some cases it may not be exposed to us.

We need to pray for wisdom and insight. But sometimes there’s a a different bigger reason that we may not never know or that as I said we’re being used by God to ultimately advance his kingdom and to glorify him. So just thought I’d throw it. And on that note, Robert, before you go, let me just say this. It’s important to pull trusted people into our lives when those things are going on. I commend Glenn number two just last week.

We meet, you know, weekly for breakfast and he was honest [clears throat] with me about something that he’s going through at this stage in his life and he brought me into it. Why is it helpful? Well, I’m thinking about it. I’m praying about it for him and praying that the things he’s seeking answers for are revealed. So again, you cannot eliminate the communal aspect of everything that we’re talking about here. Now, in Glenn’s case, he wasn’t talking about sin, but it doesn’t matter whether he was talking about sin or something else.

It’s it’s beneficial. Consider Job. Consider Job, Glenn says. Yeah. Yeah. He was righteous, but boy, he went through a lot. Yes. Okay, Robert. Okay. Hey. Yeah. Um my my take on uh on your lesson which I I appreciate. Um and uh I agree with both Glenn and Samuel. I believe um at the the last supper that um Yeshua has said this is the cup of the new covenant which I believe starts the new covenant or the new covenant but we’re in it but it’s not yet completed.

So I I believe both of them are right. Um, as for um what Glenn said and and and um Tim said about um the struggles we go through on our walk, I believe if we’re if we’re honest um we all strugg we all struggle with sins, specific sins in our life. Um, and they’re what we when we look at it and we step back and look at it from the father’s eyes, um, they’re a refinement to to to our walk.

Um, they’re the to their lessons to, uh, things that we have not yet let go of. Um, things that we’re supposed to learn because in the process of our walk, we’re being refined uh, to be like Yeshua. Um and that t that’s that refinement process takes time. It’s not instantaneously. Um and uh we learn things along the way. Um in that process I I have my own struggles like everybody else. Um but the battle with me most a lot of the times is in my mind between the flesh and the and the spirit.

um where thoughts pop in my mind and and it’s a a decision. Do you act them out or do you do you you know do you flee from them? Um as scripture tells us to do. Uh but I appreciate the lesson and thanks. Shabbat shalom. Thank you, brother Robert. Shabbat shalom. Well, guys, we’ve come to the end of another great time together. I hope and pray. See, Michael Grossman’s putting his hand up. Okay, Michael, last words.

Go ahead, brother. All right. Well, it’s a such a valuable subject, confession. And I have to think of the saying, excuse me, like God wants to make a message out of our messes. And when we can um walk in the light with our where we’re where our shortcomings are, where we fall short, it’s such a blessing. It’s such a relief, you know, among the family of God, but even like among this so-called unsaved.

I’m thinking of my my new Job, you know, it’s it’s a challenge after 17 years truck driving. Now I’m in security. And uh there’s such a valuable place at not walking with fig leaves, you know, walking not with the devices that we always did to cover ourselves to get by so to say, you know, the fig leaves of Adam and Eve. So when the boss was asking my uh asking us questions, the new new person’s coming onto the Job uh there he was asking, “What do you think?

how’s it going for you? I felt like I’m so not in my world with security guard and [snorts] I and I was letting the other guys answer first and um I was when it came to me I said I learned from these guys questions you know I was kind of just like humbling myself there humbling myself well [clears throat] and um everybody laughed you know but it there’s such a there’s a such a freedom it can’t be emphasized enough in having a family of God to to walk naked with so to say, you know, without those fig leaves.

And what always comes to mind with the concept of confession is somehow there’s such a freedom like in Greek it means something like say it the same as say it the same way as God would say it. Say it the same way. Something like this. I think that’s connected with yada in Hebrew, too. I’m not sure. So, it’s [clears throat] it’s so important how we confess what we say, whether we’re still covering oursel, you know, whether we’re still, you know, leaving half the fig leaf there, you know, something like that.

And um um it’s it’s it’s a gift really. It’s a gift and uh it’s a work in progress, I have to say, too. So, thank you Amen, brother. I appreciate you sharing, guys. We got to cut it off here. Um, listen. Um, one of the brothers, Sean Renault, who offered his help with the website that we built last year, we I think we’re finally going to be able to get up the slides, the transcripts, all that stuff to every lesson.

Yay. So, that’s coming. Um, but until then, let’s pray for each other. Let’s pray for those in need. Brothers like ASF and Sushil in these third world countries that that have needs. If you know, if we’re able to give to their efforts, that’s awesome. Um, have a great Shabbat, have a great weekend. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, have a great Thanksgiving. If not, have a great week. Um we’ll be back together next week uh and and have another time together.

So Shabbat shalom. Love you guys. Shalom. Shabbat shalom. Shalom everyone. Thank you. Thanks Ed. Shalom. Take care everyone. Shabbat shalom. Shabbat shalom. Shabbat shalom everyone.