Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Well, there's no thought of any personal worthiness that any of us have, because we don't have any in ourselves.
Are standing before God is only through the work of Christ and the thought here is in an unworthy manner. It's not the thought of personal worthiness. I say again, but there is an unworthy manner and perhaps a simple little illustration will help in this supposing that.
And I've been very careless with my affairs and run up some great debts.
And someone kindly comes along and says, well, I'll pay up all those debts for you.
And so I appreciate what they have done and they pay all the debts for me. And a couple of weeks later I go over to their home especially to thank them for what they have done for me and paying these debts. But now that all my debts have been paid, I'm a little more free, I think, well, I can go out and buy a few more things and I go into debt a little bit more.
And I go over to this person's house.
And I tell them how very much I appreciate what they have done for me in paying all my debts.
And here I am in the two weeks that followed.
I have been mounting up some other debts and I'm telling them how much I appreciate it. Do you think that's a very worthy kind of Thanksgiving to give? Wouldn't they be very likely to say, well, you're guilty of the very things that caused me all that trouble in the 1St place, that I had to pay all your debts off?
And now there's no question that the Lord Jesus at Calvary's crossed once for all, paid the debt of our sins. And so in that sense, the illustration doesn't perfectly fit. But I come to remember the Lord Jesus in his death, to express my appreciation for what he did at Calvary in glorifying God and in meeting my need.
And here I am, going on with the very things in my life.
Life that caused him all the suffering that I come to professedly remember. And in that sense, brethren, we are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. He had to give his body in death and shed his blood for those very things that I'm going on with unjudged in my life. And that's a very solemn thing. It makes it very clear in the verses that follow. We'll never be condemned with the world.
World, but we will come under the government of the House.
And so.
If I came over and I acknowledged that I had been very, very careless, and I'm sorry, that would be a different matter. And so that's why it comes in here. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. Now, that is as soon as I realize that there is something in my life that I have allowed as a believer.
That caused the Lord Jesus all that agony and suffering when He endures.
And bore my sins in his own body on the tree. Why then in His presence I seek to judge that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so we get before Him, I get before Him, I own it. I am restored in His presence. I lay it bare.
I acknowledge that it has come into my.
Life and then in the knowledge that he has restored me, I come to remember him. Now I'm not Speaking of those things that may call for the discipline of the assembly, but there are so many little things and let's remember this, brethren, big sins in our life never come suddenly. They are the result of a lack of self judgment in little things. There's no such thing as.
Weed springing up in our garden overnight. It's because we didn't pull out the little ones that they finally grew to be big ones and this is the thing that is being brought before us.
That if we form the habit of self judgment in little things.
Then they won't come into those big things that may call for the government of God or even, as we have in the 1St Corinthians 5, the discipline of the assembly, so that.
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Just to emphasize this thought, it's no thought of any personal worthiness. Everyone who loves the Lord Jesus should desire to remember Him. But it seems to me it's a tremendously solemn thing to go on with things in our lives unjudged, and then come and professedly tell the Lord that we appreciate what He did for us in bearing those very things.
What a serious thing guilty of.
The body and blood of the Lord means that we are allowing those things that caused him that suffering unjudged in our lives. But it's no thought of being condemned with the world. It's no, it's not talking of an unbeliever here. It's a real believer who has become careless and has not realized what the remembrance of the Lord really is.
I have enjoyed the thought that the simplest verses in the scripture about self judgment, for that's what we have brought before us here. And I might say that self judgment is really applying the Word of God to our lives. Just like in Numbers chapter 19. There's no thought of the person being re cleansed in the blood.
Brethren, that's once for all. There's no second application of the blood.
But there is the necessity that there should be that water of separation sprinkled upon us, and we need also to get to the root of what the difficulty is and judge it before the Lord. Not only the act, but what was it that caused it? That is, was there some self-confidence like with Peter? What caused him to deny the Lord?
Basically it was because he was self confident and thought he was better than the rest.
And we'll usually find in our lives that the reason for failure is something that we have allowed in our hearts, and then it it comes out in some action that takes place.
And so these verses about self judgment, I say, are in connection with the Lord's Supper and to my heart. Isn't it a lovely thing that the thought of self judgment is associated with the wondrous love of my Savior in going to Calvary to settle a question of my sins once for all? And so when I think of what it cost him, how could it help but produce self judgment in my life?
It's not a formal thing.
It's the thought, and that's the lovely thought. I think I'm going to tell the Lord how I appreciate what He did for me. You know, there's a little whisper within that says, but is there something that you've done that caused him that suffering? And you haven't judged it, You haven't owned it to him. Well, it tells us in numbers 19 where the water of separation is brought before us.
That the man was sprinkled on the third day.
And he was clean on the 7th.
And we ought not to confess sins lightly, but rather in the sense of what the meaning of the third day is. And that is, what did the Lord have to go through to put it away? And if we confess it in the thought of what it cost him to put it away, there will be a real restoration. If on the other hand, we say, well, I guess everybody fails sometimes, it wasn't really that serious.
There won't really be a proper restoration.
It needs to be in view of what the Lord went through to put sin away, and that's why it's associated here with the Lord's Supper. Self judgment is always, if properly done, in the light of what the Lord went through for our sins.