Join us on the Bible Bus as we continue our exploration through the book of 1 John, Chapter 2. In this episode, we hear heartfelt voicemails from listeners like AJ and Denise, who remind us of the integral role faith plays in their lives. Dr. J. Vernon McGee takes us deeper into understanding family truth and what it means to walk in fellowship with God through love and light.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
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Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. As we continue our five-year journey through God’s entire Word, we arrive at the book of 1 John, Chapter 2. As you open your copy of God’s Word, let’s hear from some listeners who ride what Dr. McGee affectionately called the Bible bus. To start off, here’s a great voicemail from A.J.
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Shalom, shalom. I grew up in a small town in Banish, Georgia. It was in 1967. I remember when I first heard Dr. McGee’s voice. But actually with the singing, or the singing, the group that sang the song, I was like, man, those people are really singing, boy. But anyway, I did listen. I was seven years old. But I never really been like a faithful listener. But I’ve listened off and on throughout my lifetime. I’m now 64. Long story short, man, listen, you speak for yourself. It’s still going on. The Bible busts, man. I listened to the… Question and answers too sometimes. So, but anyway, my point is I’m gonna try to be faithful of getting on the bus and staying on. I’ve been on off and on throughout my life, but I still been blessed. And, uh, you’re not in doing this without a reason because you’re feeding us in more ways than, you know, definitely spiritual, but the knowledge and the wisdom that we get from, uh, Dr. McGee being a faithful servant unto the Lord. You know, we just all blessed, man. And we just want to thank the Bible bus. You can look for me doing more pretty soon, man, as the year begin by the grace of God, not just to be a financial supporter, but a spiritual supporter in prayer. Just thank y’all Bible bus people through the Bible right on time. Hey, God bless you. I live in Topeka, Kansas right now. I go by AJ, but I just, the foundation of my hearing this was in Bainbridge, Georgia. I will listen on 92.5 radio. Oh man.
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92.5.
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Hey, if you man bought radio has kept you guys right where you need to be right there in the heart of us. And just thank you, man. I don’t mean to ramble on, but you know, you get on here and you just, you just so excited and you know, you want to say more, but then you don’t want to be alone. God bless everyone. That is a part of the, through the Bible family. from the janitor to the one who unlocked the door, locked the door, you name it. If you’re a part of through the Bible, I bless you all in the name of the Lord. Peace be unto you all. May the grace, mercy, peace, favor of God be upon every last one of you until we meet in that great day. You know what I mean? You know, if we get to know each other, we’ll know that we’re brothers and sisters in Christ. But, you know, the Bible did say God making a new heaven and a new earth. So wherever we’ll be, One thing we do know, we’ll be with the Lord. God bless y’all. Peace.
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Well, thanks, AJ. I’ll be saving you a seat for sure. And this was a voicemail from Denise in Morro Bay, but our audio quality wasn’t good, so I’m going to share what she said. I was just stricken today by listening to a message in Hosea. He was talking about the worst sin being the sin against love. I was struck because he nailed every sin I’ve ever committed in my whole long life, beginning when I was around 14. It took me down to my knees and I’ll never forget it. Hosea is going to be an important book for me from now on. Well, that study in Hosea really is a great one. So thanks for calling, Denise. You know, we’d love to hear your story too. So why don’t you call us yourself and leave a voicemail at 1-800-65-BIBLE. You can also leave a note in our app, email us at biblebus at ttb.org or pop your note in the mail addressed to Through the Bible at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. Or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Let’s pray. Father, As we study, we ask that you would fill us with your joy and your peace and help us to learn how to live and love in a manner that pleases you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Here’s Dr. McGee with our study of 1 John 2 on Through the Bible.
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Now, friends, though we’ve come to a new chapter, we actually have not completed our subject that we began in the last chapter, which was… beginning with verse 3, how the little children may have fellowship with God. And we are now dealing with a family, and this is family truth. Now, we saw in the first chapter, it’s first by walking in the light. It’s not how you walk, but where you walk that is important. That’s the primary thing. You may feel like you’re walking in fellowship with God when you really are not, because you have to walk in the light, and it is therefore where you’re walking. And if you’re walking in the light, then you can have fellowship with him. And then the second thing that we must do if we’d have fellowship with our Heavenly Father is by confessing sin. When we walk in the light, we know the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin, but we know there is imperfection in our lives. And since there is, why we confess our sins. Now we come here in chapter 2, in the first two verses, to the third matter that is mentioned, and that is the advocacy, the advocacy of Christ. And as we come here, we see now the conclusion, which actually began with verse 5, when he said, this then is the message. What is the message? Well, this is the message of the gospel of the grace of God. that takes hell-doomed sinners and by simple faith in Christ bring them into the family of God where they are now heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And it’s a relationship with the Father that is all important now. And the thing that we have here as we open this is my little children These things write I unto you that ye sin not. And let’s stop there for just a moment. He writes these to us because God does not want his children to sin. And he has made ample and adequate provision for us not to sin. But our entrance into this is very imperfect, although he has provided us A perfect entrance. We never enter in perfectly because of our imperfection. And this first sentence could be better translated, My little children, these things write I unto you that you may not sin. He didn’t say that you can’t sin, but you may not sin, because God wants us to walk in a way that will be well-pleasing to him, actually in obedience to him. What we have here in the chapter preceding, and in this one, in the first two verses, is how we may have fellowship with the Father. Now, this is family truth, and the reason that we have emphasized that is because there is such an overweening emphasis today on what has been termed body-life truth. It’s the message of Ephesians, and it’s great, and it It’s well that it’s been emphasized because apparently a great many people didn’t seem to know very much about it. But they need to move on just a little bit farther into family truth. And that means that we are not just in a body where we’re to function more or less like an IBM computer, and you program a certain individual. And we’ve got so much of that today that if you follow a little ritual, a little regulation, and if you’re programmed right, and then you come to the end of the day, why, you feel that little Jack Horner that sat in a corner, He was eating, I think, a plum pie, reached in his thumb, pulled out a plum and said, what a smart boy am I. Well, we’ve got a lot of that going on in the church today. We follow this little ritual. We feel very good if we think we’ve been able to pull out a plum. We’ve lived according to that little ritual. And yet we may be walking out of fellowship with the Father and there’ll be no joy in our lives. And why? Why? Well, because of the fact that we need to recognize that we’re in a family. And in that family, the relationship is that which is all important. And that we need to have fellowship with the Father, our Heavenly Father. And therefore, family truth is very important. And this word here, my little children, is a very interesting word. In Greek, it should be translated, my little born ones. Or the Scots probably have the very best interpretation. They say, my little barns, my little born ones, my little born again ones. And these things I write unto you that you may not sin. Now, very few of us have reached that exalted plane. In fact, I’ve never met anyone that’s reached that exalted plane. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve really never met anyone I thought had reached the place of sinless perfection. Always think of that whimsical story about the man making a speech in an auditorium one evening, and he was emphasizing the fact nobody’s perfect. And finally, he became very dramatic and oratorical. And he said, is there anybody here that’s ever seen a perfect man? And nobody moved at all, except way back in the back, one little fellow, Mr. Milk Toast, put up his hand. And the speaker said, do you know a man that is perfect? And this little fellow stood up and he says, well, I don’t know him, but I’ve heard about him. Well, he says, who is he? Well, he says, it’s my wife’s first husband. May I say to you, I bet he’d heard about him a great deal. But the thing is that none of us have reached that exalted position. A speaker several years ago was telling this story about a family that were going to take a trip for a couple of days. They had a little girl in the family but didn’t want to take her along. And they left her with neighbors. And the neighbors had four boys. And so when they got back and got their daughter and were in their home, the little girl says, Daddy, there are four little boys in that house where I’ve been staying. And the father says, Yes, I knew that. And she said, Daddy, they have family worship there every night. And he said, Well, I’m glad to hear that. And she says, Well, Daddy, every night their father prays for those four little boys. And this man says, Well, that certainly is good to hear. And she says he prays, Daddy, that God will make them good boys and that they won’t do anything naughty. And he said, Well, that’s very fine. And she’s silent a moment. And then she added, But daddy, he hasn’t done it yet. Well, I think that most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to say God hasn’t done it yet. We haven’t reached that exalted plane. And so he says here, my little born ones, my little barns, these things write I unto you that ye should not be sinning, that you may not be sinning. God doesn’t want you to live in sin. And we are going to Find, however, that a little later on, he’s going to make the statement, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Well, I’m not going into that now, but that means does not practice sin, live in sin. The prodigal son got up out of the pig pen. He never stayed there. Why? Because he’s a son. But we need also to recognize, as Scripture says in Ecclesiastes 7.20, there’s not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And that you and I may be able to say, well, I don’t think I’ve done anything real bad. But how about doing good? You remember just not long ago, we were in James and we saw to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it’s sin. So there’s sins of commission, there’s sins of omission. and you and I need to walk in the light. Now, when we walk in the light, we see how far we have fallen short. Now, every sincere child of God wants to have fellowship with God, and yet he knows that in his own self, in his own life, that he’s falling far short, and that Sin in his life, be it ever so small, breaks communion with the Father. It breaks our fellowship with him. It is said of Spurgeon that he was crossing the street. stopped and looked like he was praying because he was praying. One of his deacons waited for him on the other side of the street because he saw him coming. And he said to him, oh, it wasn’t the day of the automobile. He said, you could have been run down by a carriage standing there. Says, what were you doing? Looked like you were praying. Spurgeon says, I was. Well, the man said, what was so important? Well, he said, a cloud came between me and my Savior. And I wanted to remove it even before I got across to the other side of the street. Well, today there are a great many Christians that are living a life. in which they are constantly disobeying God, and they wonder why they’re not having fellowship with God at all. Now, they need to recognize, and we need to recognize, that this has to do with fellowship and communion. It doesn’t mean that we’ve lost our salvation, because the next sentence in chapter 1 says, “…and if any man sin,” We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And if you’ll notice, it’s not an advocate with God. It’s with the Father. He’s still our Father when we sin. And therefore, we need to recognize that our salvation rests upon what Christ has done for us. And that’s a finished work. It’s been put like this. Upon a life I did not live. Upon a death, I did not die. Another’s life, another’s death. I stake my whole eternity. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished every job. Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not? Well, that’s all we need for salvation. But now, if you and I are going to have fellowship with him, we need to recognize something else now. If any man sin, what happens? Well, we have an advocate with the Father. And who is he? He’s Jesus Christ the righteous. He’s a comforter. That’s the word that’s really used. It’s spoken of the Holy Spirit. He’s our comforter down here, and Christ is our comforter up there. And this is a legal term, and has to do with the question of sins as believers. Because when we sin, we have a wonderful heavenly Father, and we don’t lose our salvation. But there’s somebody up there that wants us to lose it, and that’s Satan. And so, Satan is an accuser of the brethren, we are told. In Revelation 12, 10, it says, “…the accuser of our brethren, which accuse them before our God day and night.” And Satan is there to accuse. You remember, he sure found fault with Job. He said, if you let me get to him, I’ll show you how weak he is. Well, the Lord Jesus… is able to step in as our advocate. And he is the one that died for us. He says, he’s my child. Yet the accuser is there. And a great many people are disturbed about that. Well, we’ve got an advocate and he’s greater than the accuser. And as it’s been put again in very beautiful language, I hear the accuser roar of ills that I have done. I know them well and thousands more. Jehovah findeth none. Though the restless foe accuses, sins recounted like a flood. Every charge our God refuses, Christ has answered. with his blood. Now, he is the propitiation, we are told here, for our sins. Now, the word propitiation back in Romans meant mercy seat. Here, it’s just a little bit different, and it means actually expiation or atonement. And it means that sins have been paid for by the suffering of another. Now, Christ has died. And because he died for us, we’re God’s child, why he is the propitiation for our sins. It doesn’t say if any man repent. It doesn’t say that we have an advocate because of that. And it doesn’t say we have an advocate if any man confesses his sins. And it doesn’t say we have an advocate if a man weeps over his sin. And it doesn’t say we have an advocate if a man goes through a ceremony in order to get rid of the sins. No, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And it’s Jesus Christ that does that. The moment that you and I said that rather cruel, brutal word to someone and hurt them, The moment that you and I had that evil thought, the moment that you and I did that evil act, Jesus Christ was there to represent us. And the sincere child of God wants to please the Father. And he walks along with that in mind as the psalmist expressed it in Psalm 139, 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And every child of God wants, therefore, to please the Father. And thank God we have propitiation. Now, that means Christ is really our mercy seat. He is the one. Friends, you see, Christianity today is not a ritual. It’s not a ceremony. It’s not a system. And it’s not even the church. Christianity is a person, and that person is Christ. He is our mercy seat. Now, he’s a mercy seat for the whole world. I don’t care who you are listening today, as this little jingle we gave a few moments ago had it. Sinner, isn’t this enough for you to have a Savior that took care of the sin question for you? Therefore, you and I have an advocate. And since we have an advocate, we can have fellowship with God. What a marvelous provision that has been made. And all that he asks us to do is to confess our sins. And as we said before, to confess means that we get on God’s side and we say it from his viewpoint and as he wants it said. Dr. Ironside tells a story about his two boys. He admitted that they weren’t perfect, as my child wasn’t. And he had trouble one evening, one of the boys, and he sent him upstairs not to come down to supper until he had confessed the thing he had done that was wrong. He wouldn’t admit it at all. And the boy called him to come upstairs. And Dr. Ironside went up and he says, I want to go down to supper. And he says, well, that depends on you. Confess that you’re wrong. You may come down. Well, he says, if you think I’ve done anything wrong, I’m sorry. And Dr. Ironside says, I won’t do. And so the boy called him up again. And this time he changed his story a little. He says, well, since you and mother both think it’s wrong, I guess it is. And I want to come down to supper. Well, he said, that’s not enough. Then he went down and a little while he heard the boy almost weeping and he said to him, Daddy says, please forgive me. I know I’ve done wrong. Please forgive me. Then they came down and they had a wonderful dinner together. Fellowship, you see. We’re in a family. That’s the thing that’s important today. I don’t care about these little rules that you’re following and you think that somehow or another that you are going to live the Christian life like that, my friend. God doesn’t want you to be a programmed computer. He’s not trying to make that out of you. You’re a human being with your own free will, but you’re a member of his family, and he wants to have fellowship with you. And I think we can talk to him as we talk to no one else. That brings us now to the second point. major division that we have here in this little epistle, and that is God is love. And beginning at verse 3 now, and going all the way down through verse 21, while we’re dealing with a section, and the first part of it, the first 14 verses here, how the dear children may have fellowship with each other. Now, before it was walking in light. Now it’s going to be walking in love. And that’s the thing that he’s going to talk about. Now, will you notice verse 3? And by this, we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Now, let me say that this hasn’t anything to do with the security of the believer. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about assurance. We’re in a family. How do I feel now I’m a member of this family? I may be a child of God and I could be in a far country, but we want to sit down at the table with the Father. Now, how are we to have assurance? The way you can have assurance by keeping his commandments. Now, friends, we’re not talking about the Ten Commandments now. We’re not talking about that which is legal. We’re talking about a family. That which is legal, the Ten Commandments, were given to a nation. And on those, every civilized people have based their laws on the Ten Commandments. They are for the unsaved. Now, God has something for his family and their commandments for his family. You will find that mentioned, for instance, in the sixth chapter of Galatians. And I didn’t intend to turn there, but I think I shall. He says, bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We’re talking about the law of Christ now. When we were back in 1 Thessalonians not too long ago, I called attention to that. Verse 2 of chapter 4, “‘For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.'” Well, what are some of them? Well, in the last chapter, chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians, I have listed 22 commandments that are there. Listen to one or two of them. Verse 16 of chapter 5, “‘Rejoice evermore.'” He wants you to be a joyful Christian. Seventeenth, pray without ceasing. That is the attitude of prayer. It means to get off of your knees and still walk on your feet in a prayerful attitude. Praying is not all done on your knees. It’s done on your feet. It’s right down where the shoe leather is, friends. And we are told to quench not the spirit. And we’re to prove all things. These are commandments that the Lord Jesus has given to believers. And if we are to have fellowship with the Father and enjoy it and have an assurance in our own heart, we must keep his commandments. Don’t say that we are free to do as we please. A Christian doesn’t do as he pleases. He does as Christ pleases. And that’s all important. Now our time is up. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
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Are you longing for joy and assurance in your life? Well, use our app or visit ttb.org and click on How Can I Know God? I’ll look forward to seeing you here on the Bible Bus next time.
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All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
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We’re grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Through the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.
