Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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First John chapter one. First John chapter one, verse 7.
If we say that we 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 that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now I'd like to turn back to Numbers chapter 19. Numbers chapter 19, you're gonna get the first verse.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish in upon which never came yoke.
And he shall give her unto Eliezer the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face.
Nellies of the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the Tabernacle of the congregation 7 times.
One shall burn the flash of the heifer, burn the heifer in his sight, her skin and her flesh and her blood with her tongue shall he burn.
And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. And the priest shall be unclean until even.
He that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until even.
And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, And it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation. It is a purification for sin.
And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.
And it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sovereigneth among them for a statute forever.
He that toucheth a dead body of any man shall be unclean 7 days. He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the 7th day he shall be clean.
But if you purify not himself the third day, then the 7th day he shall not be clean.
Whosoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead, of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the Tabernacle of the Lord. That soul shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet upon him. This is the law. When a man dieth in a tent, all that come into the tent and all that is in the tent shall be uncleaned.
Seven days. And every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open field, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean. 7 Days. And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification. For sin. And running water shall be put thereto in a vessel, and a clean person shall take his.
And dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the 7th day. And on the 7th day he shall purify himself and wash his clothes, bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.
And the man that shall be unclean.
And shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation, because he hath befiled the sanctuary of the Lord.
The water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him. He is unclean, And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinketh the water of separation shall wash his clothes. And he that touched the water of separation shall be unclean, until even and whatsoever the unclean person cut.
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Shall be unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even. This may seem like somewhat difficult chapter, but I believe with the Lord's help we can learn some very wonderful lessons from this portion of God's word. The reason I read in the first epistle of John because I believe it's very important for us to distinguish between what we often speak of as our standing and our state.
Now that is when you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your Savior, you're brought into a perfect standing before God. It never will be and never could be any more perfect than it is. And that's why it says in the seventh verse of first John one. 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.
That's where the believer is brought. He's brought into the light.
This is not conditional, it's a contrast was saved and unsaved. The unsaved man, he's in the darkness and He's darkness itself. But you and I are children of light. We have been brought into the light. But wouldn't you be very uncomfortable in a bright light? If your clothes were filthy dirty, you would feel very unhappy, I'm sure, because it would show up everything. But God brings us into the unsullied light of His Holy Presence, and then he tells us that He has made us perfectly.
Fit for it to be there. As someone has said, he's brought us into the light, and the light shows how perfect is our standing and all that the light reveals has been cleansed in the blood. Oh, how wonderful it is to be brought into that standing. And I want to say at the very beginning of this meeting that how important it is that everyone who has received the Lord Jesus should be in the enjoyment of this, should realize his perfect.
Thing but you know, after we have been brought into this position and it can never be changed. It's permanent, it's forever by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. It is needful that we go on in fellowship with the Lord and particularly what I'd like to speak of is how God desires and surely our renewed hearts desire that we should have fellowship with him and with one another. That's where we have been.
Brought mentions in the third verse of this chapter. The end of the verse.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And then in the seventh verse, fellowship one with another. So we see then what? What is fellowship? Well, the word fellowship and communion in the original are the same. And it just simply means common thoughts, oneness of mind. And so isn't it, blessed brethren, that you and I can have the very thoughts of God that we can enter.
And enjoy what's in the heart of God. He's made himself known, and he's fitted us to be in his presence. He's also fitted us so that we could enjoy, in common with other believers, those things that belong to us in Christ. And what a privilege this is. But it's possible for a real Christian, one who has been cleansed in the blood, to get out of fellowship with the Lord and out of fellowship with his brethren too. And so God desires that we should.
Walk in the enjoyment of this fellowship.
There might be somebody you love very much, but if there's a breach comes between, you may still think as much of that person as before, but there's something that's lacking. You don't enjoy their company just the same. And there's a way that you can be restored and go on happily together. And so I wish to say again that we need to start with this very important point that every believer has a perfect standing before God.
We are made.
The righteousness of God, in him we're fitted for the life, and we won't have a better standing when we get to heaven than we have right now when we receive the Lord Jesus.
But then it goes on in this eighth verse, it says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US. I want you to notice here that the word sin here is in the in the singular. And that is if I were to stand here tonight and say to you, Mala, I don't have any sinful fallen nature within, no tendency within me to do what was wrong.
It says we deceive ourselves because if we're honest with.
Ourselves and with God. We know that even since we have been saved, we still have that fallen nature within. It's still there, and if we're not watchful, it may act in our lives, and it'll break fellowship with the Lord and with one another.
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And so it tells us here, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
You know, forgiveness in the Bible spoken of in different ways. When we are saved, we receive what might be called judicial forgiveness before we're saved. We have the thought before us, and properly too, of meeting God as a judge. And it's a solemn thing. There's anyone here that's not saved. You're going to have to meet God as a judge. And how solemn that will be to hear those awful words depart from the cursed into everlasting fire prepared.
The devil and his angels, how solemn. But when we are saved, then we don't have to do with God as a judge anymore. We have to do with God as our Father and and in that relationship we can lose the enjoyment of the relationship. So God has made provision for our restoration.
I want you to notice too that the verse doesn't say if we ask forgiveness. Some Christians say, well when I fail, I ask the Lord to forgive me. But you notice what the verse says. It says if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession is different from asking forgiveness. Let me put it very simply. If I were to do something wrong to you, and I come and say, will you forgive me? I'm raising the question about whether you're going to say yes or no. But if I come to you and say I'm sorry for what I did, you say, well, I've had forgiveness in my heart long before, and I'm glad to forgive you. Why? That's a different thing, isn't it?
And you know, through the work of Christ, God has laid a righteous basis for forgiveness. But it isn't until we confess our sin that we are restored to fellowship. Just like with that, when I do something wrong and I come and tell you I'm sorry and immediately there's a relationship and the enjoyment, I should say, of a relationship restored. And so this is the place in which we stand before God.
In Christ, but the fellowship.
The enjoyment of it can be spoiled by failure, and if we don't confess our sins by we can be out of communion.
Jacob was out of communion for 20 years. The sun set on him, he schemed his own life and it wasn't till 20 years later that he had it out with the Lord and then the sun rose upon him. He was a believer all the time, but he was out of fellowship and he didn't attempt to make.
Right with the Lord, until he had it out that night with him.
And then too, I just want you to notice also that says he's faithful and just he's faithful because as we see in the 2nd chapter, he lives above it as our advocate with the Father.
And he's just because the sin was paid for at the cross of Calvary. And so it says.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The 10th verse. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. I've met Christians and I believe they perhaps were real Christians who might tell you that they hadn't sinned since they were saved. But that's not true. The Bible says in many things we all offend.
But it's best to keep short accounts with the Lord, And if we learn, brethren, to judge the little things, they don't grow into the great things. Just like in our garden, if we pull out the little weeds, we'll never have great weeds in our garden. But if we don't buy, then the little things grow into great things, and they can lead to the ruination of our Christian testimony, because we haven't judged a little things that creep in the little.
That spoil the vines. But now just to mention here about this second chapter in the first verse.
My little children, these things write down to you that ye sin not.
The Bible never makes excuse for our sin. It makes provision for God never says to us as a believer, it's all right for you to sin occasionally, but not too often. No, never. He's made provisions. The help is available all that we need from the one who is our great high priest there at the right hand of God. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
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And notice the way there's.
Is worded an advocate Jesus Christ the righteous first with the Father, because we're still children in the family, but disobedient children.
And then Jesus Christ the righteous, if I were to break one of the laws of this province and I was brought up and charged in court, if I'm really guilty, how could it be possible for me to get off?
I might be able to get an advocate who could in some way get me declared innocent, but in my heart I know I'm still guilty. But my advocate, he doesn't pass over the sin at all. My advocate, when I sin, he has paid for that sin. He himself paid for it. So he's faithful. He lives there as our advocate and he's just God never passes over sin. But I'd like to think that when the believers sin, it says.
The Lord Jesus in the presence of God could say I paid for that sin. It was paid for at Calvary. So he's faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. The righteous God, I say, never looks upon sin lightly, even in the life of a believer.
I just mentioned one more thing before we go on with numbers, and that is to notice this little expression. It doesn't say if any man confesses sin, but if any man sin. And this is very beautiful, because before you have confessed the sin, there's one at the right hand of God on your behalf to maintain you there in that perfect standing which is the result of the work that He accomplished.
If I can illustrate it like this, supposing you had a very good lawyer who's looking after all your affairs and you make some flip in your business, that may cause a great deal of problems.
And a week later you find out about it and you go to him and say, I've made a very serious mistake that may create a problem. Well, he said, I saw that when you did it and I've already corrected it. But I'm very glad that you came and told me about it. Now your mind is at ease. But he acted on your behalf before. Oh, isn't it wonderful? Brethren, we have a Savior who paid for our sin. We have an advocate before the Father. The.
It is there, but we don't enjoy this fellowship. We are not restored until we have come and owned it before the Lord. And I believe if we look at the portion in numbers, we'll see how this in a picture way is brought before us because.
Sometimes when we get careless in our lives, why there needs to be not only the sin itself that is judged, but the root. You could take the top off a weed, but it'll grow again if you root it out by then.