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Thou Holy One and true our hearts and Thee confide, and in the circle of Thy love as brethren we abide. Hymn #22 in the appendix.
This is down in our chapter, but I'd like to suggest we could read from the first just to get the context better and maybe down the 1St 6 verses of chapter 2.
First John, chapter one.
That eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
These things right way unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness.
We lie and do not the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins. 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. Chapter 2 my little children, these things right eye unto you that you send not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Here by we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith I know Him and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.
But whosoever keepeth His word, in Him barely is the love of God perfected thereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith, He abideth in Him ought also Himself to walk, even as He walked.
That and it's helpful that John and his writings speaks about the family of God, Paul and his writings speaks about the Church of God and Peter speaks about the Kingdom of God. And so as we read these.
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Chapters.
Keep in mind that we're talking about the family of God.
And one thing that is normal in a family is fellowship.
But his fellows what his fellowship?
Our like word is communion.
Sometimes people have said fellowship is fellows on the same ship, but sometimes shipmates fight, so it's not exactly the right definition.
But is having common thoughts, having the same interests, fellowship. And it's based on the revelation, as we were saying the other day, of what we have been given by the apostles in the Scriptures, that which we have seen and heard, declaring unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Wonderful.
Fellowship rather than that's normal.
But fellowship is a thing that is extremely delicate.
You can't lose salvation if you truly have it.
But fellowship you can lose at a moment's notice.
I'm walking in fellowship with my Lord.
And I tell a lie.
The Lord still beside me, but is there fellowship?
Can't happen.
It isn't so. So fellowship is something that is very delicate and that's why we need to have sensitive consciences.
I love the Apostle Paul in the book of the Acts. Who says herein.
Do I exercise myself always to have a conscience?
Void of offense toward God and toward men.
He doesn't say I always have a good conscience. No, he says, I exercise myself. And brethren, that is a daily, constant exercise. We need to be sensitive in our consciences. I liked, uh, an illustration a brother gave at a conference, uh, some time ago.
And he likened it to driving down the highway. You're driving down the highway, you got your hand on the steering wheel.
Constant corrections in the steering might be just small, but it's important to make sure you stay on course. You'll have to constantly be correcting, and that's the way it is in our life if you want to live in fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with one another too. Brethren, may the Lord gives us sensitivity in our consciences that we might walk in fellowship.
With the Lord Himself, with God as Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then as a result, with one another, the Lord help us.
In cultivating fellowship, it's not easy. It takes time, takes reading the Word, it takes prayer, and we need to be deliberate about those things. In reading the Word. He speaks to us in prayer, we speak to Him, and that is important in fellowship. You can't neglect it and continue in fellowship doesn't work.
And I see so many that neglect the Scriptures. They don't read on a consistent basis, the word of God. How can you maintain fellowship? It's a tough time. It's we're passing through a tough world.
And we need that constant correction.
In walking with the Lord to make sure we are in line in fellowship with Him.
We've had the fact that in previous reading meetings that having eternal life gives us the capacity to share thoughts with God as he thinks and feels and might also say, I don't think it was mentioned before, it gives us a desire as well. It gives us the wish and the wants to have that fellowship and interaction with God that were made capable of doing.
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But there is a condition that's laid out here immediately following that fact. That is the basis on which we can have that fellowship. And so John immediately brings it up. He said this is the message that we have heard of him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with Him.
God cannot have fellowship with anything that is inconsistent.
With himself and so we're told and brought out immediately.
God is light, and the only condition in which we may have fellowship with God is an absolute light.
Nothing hidden, nothing inconsistent with himself. And as Bob said, that you can lose it instantly if the flesh works. Because when I tell a lie, is that consistent or inconsistent with God?
We know it's inconsistent with his nature. It's an offense to him.
And as such, it immediately breaks the condition in which we can have fellowship together.
And so, as in the last meeting, it was mentioned the importance of purity.
And purity in particular areas were emphasized, but in truth, that purity has to extend to everything that is exposed to light, and everything is with God out in the light. There's no way around it. God desires it, but He can only have it with us, consistent with what He is Himself.
And that's why it's brought out immediately. Here we say we have fellowship and walk in darkness. We lie.
We lie because it's impossible to have true fellowship with God.
And walk in darkness. The two are incompatible because God is separated the light from the darkness, and he calls the light good. And it's in that that we may have fellowship with God. And so we have the revelation to our souls in the person of the Lord Jesus, the display to us in that of what's light. And to know him, to enter in to what is revealed to us in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Gives us that which is pleasing to God, and that which brings fullness of joy to us if we walk in it.
Bring out the subject of what is consistent with the nature of God, and that was the apostle John. The apostle John was the one who was known for his intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus. And so because of that nearness that he has to the Lord Jesus, he could best describe to us the nature of God.
As he had seen in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this relates to us in this very same way, that if we walk in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, we will become familiar with His nature.
And as we become familiar with his nature, we will be changed into his image. And that new life that we have will delight in the same things that, uh, God delights in. Uh, it is the, the, the, the new life that we have has appetites, It has desires. And if we walk in fellowship.
With the Lord Jesus we will come to to know and understand, as the Apostle John did, what light is, what this holiness in the presence of God is.
And that will have an effect upon our we are in the light positionally, every one of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are in the light. And in Ephesians 5, it tells us that those of us who were once in darkness, now are ye light in the Lord. Then it says, after confirming our position, it says, now walk as children of light.
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And so our position and our condition may be two very different things, but we are in the light and that's what's brought out here. We we are in the light. We are brought into a place of fellowship with divine persons and as a result, with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ is the basis for it. But as we've been saying, the practical application of this in our lives may be, may be very different. And I think it's important.
Too in John's ministry to realize that we have a series of tests.
As to whether we are real or not, and we have one of them just mentioned here later on, he says we know we've passed from death unto life. Why? Because we love the brethren. And as you go through the epistle, there are these series of tests.
Are we real? Are we really? Do we really have the nature of God? Are we, have we really been brought into the light? Are our sins taken care of in the blood of Christ? Now here's a series of tests to show whether we're real or not. And if we fail the tests, we may well question in our own soul whether there's really been a work of God in US and in US, and whether we really have been partakers of the divine nature, whether we really have been.
Have eternal life, whether we really have been brought in into the light. But I I just say this too about fellowship in connection with what Bob said. Fellowship really too is joint participation with himself. And fellowship is the enjoyment. I'm speaking in a practical way now. Fellowship is the enjoyment, first of all, in our own souls of the person and work of Christ in the measure in which we enjoy fellowship with himself.
In the measure in which we enjoy fellowship with God as to the person and work of Christ.
In that measure, then, we can enjoy practical fellowship one with another.
And let's be very careful, brethren, that we don't confound 2 words that we often use.
Interchangeably. But they are different. One is activity and the other is fellowship. Now, don't misunderstand me. Activity is good. Tomorrow, Lord willing, if we're left here, we're gonna have an activity. After these meetings, we're gonna go out to the park and we're gonna have a picnic and the young people are gonna play some ball. That's wonderful. I I'm all for activity and especially activity with our fellow believers, but activity in itself is not fellowship.
It may be active, good activity, it may be wonderful to be together, but that in itself is not fellowship. Now we can have fellowship around activities. We get together, we have a ball game, we have a picnic, we get together in our home on a Saturday night and we have some activities. Great.
But let's remember that true fellowship is our enjoyment first of all of Christ in our own souls and then sharing Christ with with one another. And when we have activity, let's be exercised that we have some fellowship with that activity. Now sometimes, and I have to hang my own head. I've come away from activity an evening together with fellow Christians and I've had to say, you know, there really wasn't true much true fellowship. Nice to be together wonderful.
But why isn't there often the sharing of Christ one with another like there ought to be? Well, it's because we haven't enjoyed Christ in our own souls if we enjoy Christ in our own souls. If we're enjoying fellowship with the Father and the Son, we can't help but enjoy the fellowship, the fellowship of the Father and the Son with one another. We can't help but share Christ with one another if Christ is the enjoyment of our own souls.
When we come to meetings like this, we often speak meetings. I think that rather misses the point. Even though this is Paul's doctrine rather than John's, we gave expression. The first and foremost expression of our Christian fellowship was expressed this morning in the remembrance of the Lord.
John here is speaking more of that fellowship that we can enjoy together as children in the family of faith. It would be very strange indeed to meet another Christian.
That have absolutely no interest in Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean to say that when we meet other Christians that there has to be the sole content of our conversation, but if it came up about the Lord it would be extremely strange if the other Christian didn't want to have anything to say.
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On that subject, that would be an odd thing indeed, because the basis of our fellowship has spoken of here is that life that we possess, that life that is now in common.
And and just wanna disconnected thought, but it it it was I found it helpful in these verses to recognize that it says, but if we walk in the light, it could have been written. But if we should say that we walk in the light, it's not a question. This verse of walking according to the light, it's of walking in the light. And so, as Jim said, it's a test primarily. And because the apostle John here was countering encountering error, he was encountering those that said that they had new light.
And, uh, that they had something to offer. And so there's these practical tests that these ones that were saying that they had light, Well, how did they walk? They weren't walking in light at all. They were walking in darkness. And so it really reflected their position.
So in verse five, if we're going to have fellowship with God, brethren, it has to be in the light. It can be in no other way. And I enjoy the definition that the Scriptures themselves give of light. In Ephesians 5, Jim mentioned the verse there, but I want to read another verse in that chapter. It's verse 13.
It says but all things Ephesians 513.
Are reproved that are reproved, are made manifest by the light, for whatever whatsoever doth make manifest is light. There is a definition, a scriptural definition of light, that which makes everything manifest. So if you want to have fellowship with God, brethren, there can be.
No hidden pockets in your life. It's all out in the light. And I have been amazed brother, and how that gives liberty when we are willing to come clean and not be hiding things. That only hinders fellowship to hide things. You know the Samaritan woman has been mentioned and how she came to see the Lord Jesus.
And how he so graciously LED her along and spoke of the living water and then she asked for it. And then he said, go call thy husband and come hit her. And she was a little bit perhaps uncomfortable and just said hoping that it would cover over the reality of the situation. I have no husband.
And the Lord graciously says.
Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands.
And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that, since thou truly.
All of a sudden she realized here was somebody that knew every detail of her life, that nothing was hidden, it was all out in the light. And little later she leaves her water pot and goes into the city. And what does she say?
To the men of the city, come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Did he tell her everything she had ever done? No, but she felt she was so in the light that everything was exposed to the point that she could say told me everything I ever did. To me that is most wonderful brother, and I say that is the secret of walking in fellowship.
As walking in the light you cannot enjoy fellowship with God, since God is light.
There can be no hidden parts of our lives. May the Lord help us in that, dear brethren, because sometimes you see that outwardly it appears that they're in fellowship, but there is an underlying current. Why is that?
Everything is not out in the open, brethren. It doesn't mean that we have to drag everything out in into the open, but it means that we can't be hiding things in our lives. May the Lord help us in that brethren, is so important. Then in verse six, it says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. It's true. We are in the light.
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But why does it say we walk in darkness here? This is what Nick was saying the other day.
Is an illustration of the abstract truth that we have.
In the epistle of John, he's talking of what is characteristic. Perhaps that's a better word.
Rather than abstract. Abstract is unapplied, but what is characteristic. If you are in darkness, you really aren't a believer at all.
And so it's a searching thing. Brethren, do we accommodate a little lie in our life? Do you? Come on now, let's get it out into the light. God knows all about it. It's you that's hiding it. And that little detail that you're hiding is hindering the full fellowship with the Father and His Son, and it is robbing you of the joy.
That you could have. Oh brethren, may the Lord help us to walk in the full enjoyment of that place that is ours, truly ours in the Lord Jesus, in the family of God. Then he says, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
If I walk in the light, you walk in the light. We meet together and we find that there's fellowship one with another. And then, as you said, Brother Jim, the end of verse 7 is a verse we use many times in the gospel, but it's not written really to unbelievers. It's written to believers. And there's another illustration of abstract truth, the blood.
Of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. It's a statement of fact.
That which hinders fellowship, how can it be dealt with?
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. That's characteristic of the blood of Christ.
So that which hinders fellowship has been dealt with by God.
To take it completely out of the way so that we can enjoy fellowship with God.
Now, if you and I don't enjoy fellowship, who's at fault? Is it God's fault? No, brethren.
May the Lord help us to walk in fellowship with Him.
That God has brought out in Scripture from the very beginning, and that is that fellowship is based on the death and the shedding of blood of an innocent victim.
When Adam sinned in the garden, the measure of communion that he enjoyed with his Creator was immediately broken.
But God immediately came in and clothed out him and Eve with coats of skin.
Which necessitated the death of an innocent victim or victim we find with.
Later on when Abraham enjoyed fellowship with his Lord and the other two men that came to him in the tent door.
They the calf was killed and they ate of it together, showing that again fellowship with based on the death and the shedding of blood of an innocent victim.
And that's what those sacrifices all through the Old Testament portrayed.
To the heart of God, because how could God enjoy a measure of nearness? I know it was never like in Christianity.
But a measure of nearness and fellowship with his people. The animal had to be killed, the sacrifice had to be killed, the blood had to be shed. But I was thinking of it particularly in connection with the Prodigal son.
Because when the prodigal son returned in repentance to the father's house.
They sat down in fellowship together in a way they had never enjoyed previously.
They sat down at the Father's table to enjoy fellowship, but there had to be the fatted calf.
Again, the death of an innocent victim. And they enjoyed the feast there as the fat. They enjoyed the fatted calf. The fatted calf speaks.
Of the death of Christ And what is the basis for our fellowship? How is it that God has been able to bring us?
Into a fellowship, a communion, a circle of blessing and nearness that was never known before.
It's because of the blood of Jesus Christ the sacrifice has been made.
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The blood has been shed and I I used to wonder as I learned this verse as a boy in school, the last part of this seventh verse and then got a little older. I used to think this verse is a little out of place, just seems out of context. But as you say, Bob, it's the basis for everything, isn't it? And brethren, we don't want to ever forget it. This this is something for our hearts really. You know, this morning we had a cup on the table given separate from the loaf as it was instituted by the Lord Jesus, the separation.
Of the blood from the body was the proof of death, and we never want to forget the value of the blood of Christ.
It's going to be our eternal theme in a coming day. We're gonna sing of it for all eternity. Does it mean something to your heart and mind? Now, in the measure in which we enjoy the value and appreciation of the blood of Christ, I suggest we'll enjoy more practical fellowship with Himself, with the Father, and with the Son, and then as a result, with one another. But what a blessed thing to go back and never forget. That's why we needed the remembrance this morning. That's why we need to go back every day of our lives to the work of Calvary and the blood of Christ.
It says it's never lost its luster and value to God. You know when it says the precious blood of Christ?
That's not my estimation. That's not your value. That's God's value.
Aren't you thankful that our fellowship, our communion, isn't based on our appreciation of the blood of Christ?
My appreciation of the blood of Christ is feeble at best, but it does depend on God's value, God's appreciation. He says it's precious. He says it cleanses from all sin and and so on. What a wonderful theme it is to just stop for a moment and meditate on the blood of Christ, the basis of it all.
Possible for people. In fact, it's common for people to have fellowship.
That's not of God.
God doesn't participate in it.
Umm 2 men that decide to rob a bank. They've got fellowship.
They have common interest, common intention, common behavior, common action, perhaps even common motive, and their fellowship in it. And so they do what they do and.
It's possible for us in this room, maybe not robbing a bank, I hope we wouldn't. But it's easy for us in this room to sit down and have a fellowship with each other in which God doesn't participate.
It's not along the interest of God. It may not be in the light, but we can have it. We have a nature, not the new nature, but we have it. We're born with a nature in which we can have fellowship, and in spiritual things, that's true as well. We can choose something that we're going to join together in what we call a spiritual matter.
But it may not be fellowship with God in it. It may be, we might claim it to be, but if it's not according to the truth of God, it's not a fellowship connected with God. And so in the seventh verse it says, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. John is bringing it before us here into the character of the only fellowship that the believer really ought to want.
We ought not to want any foundation of personal fellowship.
Or group fellowship that is inconsistent with that fellowship that we can have with God in it. And so it's very important. And a little comment on the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. A practical application. When I was a boy at the table, my mother had a pretty strong rule that we were to come to the table only after we washed our hands.
That was just the way it was in our house and my mother was strong in it. And sometimes when we would get to the table, mom would say, have you washed your hands?
And uh, we were to answer. I lost some fellowship with my mother that she didn't know a few times when under my breath that she couldn't hear. I said yes yesterday and, and that was a dishonesty, but it immediately brought within me a guilt feeling. Even though the sin was against my mother as well as God, it brought a guilt feeling which spoiled the meal sometimes for me.
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Because I didn't want to confess it afterwards, but I couldn't be happy in her presence.
After having said that under my breath. But it's a wonderful thing that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanse us.
So that we can have fellowship with God without something immoral, impure, or inconsistent with God that holds us from it. And so that's a the blood of Jesus Christ, we know is the blood of atonement, and it has its atoning character, but in a practical sense as well the application of it in our souls.
Is that which we can say thank God he cleanses us.
From all sin. Otherwise we would never feel comfortable to be in his presence, even if we knew that we had common interest with God. And so we are made 5th. As Bob said, we're fit for fellowship, and the foundation of which we're fit for it is the work of Christ and the shedding of His precious blood. But it's important for us to realize that in a practical sense as well.
In these verses three times, if we say it's easy to talk, brethren, but sometimes the reality is not what we're saying, it's different. And so there's tests here. Verse 6, verse 8, verse 10, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth, He paints it.
In black and white, no Shades of Grey. With John, he puts it out there and you have to determine where you stand in relation to what he's saying. That's abstract in that sense. Notice verse 8. Now if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.
Notice the comparison with verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in US. Those two verses are somewhat similar.
But there's a difference, and I think it is an important difference to recognize. Verse 8 says if we have no sin, and it's talking about the sin nature.
Verse 10 says if we have, if we say that we have not sinned.
That's the act of sin, and so God addresses both those things.
The act and the root that produced that sin.
And we have. If we wanna be restored when we lose fellowship, there should be the recognition not only that we've done wrong, but why we did wrong was because we allowed that sinful nature to act.
And if we don't recognize it, it's a hindrance to us. It's important, brethren, in the question of restoration because I think these last three verses deal with how to get back into fellowship with the Lord when we have lost that fellowship. And as we mentioned previously, it is something that is so very delicate and we need to learn to keep short accounts with the Lord.
If we would judge ourselves in the small things, we wouldn't have to judge big matters. But the enemy is subtle and he gets us off in a very small little thing. He puts in the wedge. You know, the wedge goes in where it's very thin and that's the way the wedge gets in and then it starts opening the breach and then.
The serious things fit in, so the Lord help us to judge not only that we have done wrong, but why did we do wrong. Sometimes we're very fast in blaming somebody else. Yeah, I recognize I did something wrong, but it was because that brother provoked me.
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Yeah, that might be true. He provoked me, but I sinned because I gave place to my flesh. And I have to recognize that if I really want to be restored fully to the Lord.
And then comes verse 9, which our brother spoke about in the previous meeting. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
What do we do?
Confess.
What's the difference between confession?
And asking for forgiveness.
So often I hear people say all you have to do is ask God to forgive you.
It's interesting in the New Testament, if you look carefully, brethren, you never have after the Lord died and paid the price of our redemption, anywhere that says that we are to ask for forgiveness.
It does say that through the Lord Jesus we can have.
Forgiveness of sins by the riches of His grace.
And it's God is offering it as a free gift.
And you don't have to ask for it. All you have to do is accept it. He's offering it to you. It's a wonderful thing to get a hold of.
But confession is different, a little different than asking for forgiveness.
Give an illustration. My brother Bruce over there. Maybe I do something bad to him.
And I look at him, he's kind of not very friendly toward me, and I'd rather he would be friendly toward me. So I say, Bruce, forgive me when I say that I'm not thinking of the bad thing I did. I'm thinking that he's not very friendly toward me. I'd prefer he would be. So I when I say forgive me, I'm asking for his disposition to be changed toward me. Rather we don't have to ask God to be.
Supposed to forgive us, He already is on the grounds of what Jesus did on the cross.
But confession is a different focus. If I confess, I think of the bad thing that I did and say so. I say, Brother Bruce, what I did I recognized was wrong. And that's what God wants is not asking for forgiveness, but confession. Whatever you did, if it's a lie or if you got angry, tell him.
Tell it all out. He knows it, but He wants you to tell Him. That's confession, and that's the part that we have in verse nine. If we confess, the rest of the verse is what He does. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I think that's such an important point, brother.
To not only forgive us, and that is not, I should point out, that is not judicial forgiveness.
Because that's what we have. Judicial forgiveness of all our sins is what we have when we accept the Lord as our Savior once and for all.
What we have here is governmental forgiveness.
And that is important. It's conditional. It's conditioned upon my confession, recognition and confession of what I've done wrong.
Sometimes give the illustration if I tell my son who lives at home.
Don't you go out tonight.
And he understands me, but he goes right out that door in disobedience.
And a little later he comes back in again and he sees that I'm not happy with him.
And so he comes up to me and he says, Dad, if I did anything wrong, forgive me.
You think that's gonna satisfy me? No.
What he needs to do is say, Dad, you told me not to go out tonight and I did. I disobeyed you. I'm sorry. That's confession, and that's what's necessary to get back into fellowship with the Lord. I've seen so many young people, older ones too, that are away from the Lord in their fellowship for a long time because they don't understand.
00:45:27
What we're talking about here, the importance of fellowship, of confession to restore fellowship. It's when my son confesses what he's done wrong that there is the basis to have fellowship again. That is what is called governmental for forgiveness, and that is something that is in the family of God. Important points to think about.
In the ninth verse is as well to cleanse.
From all unrighteousness. In other words, there's two things here that are connected with the F. The first one Bob has been speaking about to forgive, and the second one is to cleanse. If there is unconfessed sin in my life.
It will lead to other things to avoid.
Detection.
Or righteous behavior.
Anybody ever told a lie and then your behavior after the lie was conditioned by?
Cover up unrighteousness.
And and and that character of not walking openly and righteously with God someone.
Does something and you hear about it, but your reaction and your behavior connected with it is maybe inconsistent because you've done it and it's not known that you've done it, and so you support something that's unrighteous.
Because it's still connected with the fact that there is something in your life that is unconfessed with God and dealt with. But confession and having things out with God, you might say, clears the matter with God to clean you, to cleanse you from those other things that are unrighteous in their character but are consequences of trying to manage.
That matter which is not open and out with God and at times with man and so it's important for us. The confession of sin to God is also something that is the condition placed upon God saying and I'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
I'd like to just to illustrate that this has nothing to do with the security that we have in Christ as far as our sins being forgiven and we being on our way to heaven.
We are the possessors of eternal life. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance or irrevocable. We have eternal life as we as we as John brings out so beautifully, we are in the light and so on. But it has and so it has nothing to do with our eternal security, as we often say. And what was an illustration that was helpful to me when I was younger was given by my uncle.
Who was overseas in the Army in the days before wireless communication was as prevalent as it is today? We're so used to.
Picking up a cell phone today being on the Internet wireless communication now we at 500 miles an hour over the.
United States, we can pick up Wi-Fi on some planes and so on. But this was quite a few years ago when these things were not as as prevalent as they are today. And he used to tell the story when they were overseas. He was on board a Navy ship and they would pull into various ports and when they would pull into port, there were ropes came out from the side of that ship that secured that ship to the Wharf. And those were ropes. Ropes were great ropes and strong and.
They secured the ship and that's like our salvation. It's securing Christ. Nothing can change that.
But then he said there was a communication cabin on the ship and there would be a wire run from the communication cabin on the ship to somewhere on the shore so that ship to shore communication could be established. But some quite often that ship to shore communication would be broken and it didn't always take much to break it. The ship moved a little bit didn't mean it came united from the Wharf. It was secured to the Wharf, but it would move a little bit with the movement of the water.
00:50:28
Sometimes there's something as simple as a bird landing on that wire would cause the wire to come loose on one end or the other.
Something would bump that wire, maybe a strong wind. It didn't always take much for the communication to be broken, and that's really what we're talking about, isn't it? It's that communication or fellowship, and it doesn't take much sometimes for it to be broken.
There are things that come into our lives that are not, as we've been saying, in keeping with the holy character of God.
There are things that dull our affections and chill our souls, and those are the things that break that fellowship and communion.
And so my uncle told me they would. As soon as that happened, there would be an immediate effort to reattach that wire where it had come loose.
So that the communication could be re established. And when I was growing up I used to hear the older brethren say.
We need to keep short accounts with God. What did they mean? When we allow something in our lives that breaks that fellowship or communion, get into the presence of the Lord and as Brother Bob has said, confess it. Not ask for forgiveness, but confess it. And that's what David did when his sin was brought before him in the Old Testament. And I like to just say a word or two about that, if you'll bear with me, because I believe, brethren, that the great.
Tendency today.
Perhaps it's always been, but even more so today is that we get desensitized or used to sin.
We don't even realize what sin is. It's it's in our face every day almost seems like you can hardly drive down the highway or stand in the checkout line at the store to see something that defiles something that corrupts the mind. It goes through the eye, it goes through the ear, it defiles. And if we don't keep in the presence of God, if we don't maintain fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
With the Father and with the Son we become desensitized to sin.
Can I be very frank, brethren?
We sit in front of the Internet, we sit in front of a television. You know what desensitizes us to sin? And it's interesting what David said in the 51St Psalm and read it carefully, where you have David's confession. When his sin is brought before him, he immediately gets into the presence of God. And one of the statements he makes is in verse 11. If you notice in Mr. Darby's translation, he says.
Take not the spirit of holiness from me. What is he saying? Lord, don't let me get used to sin. Don't let me get desensitized to sin. And I believe that's a good prayer for all of us, for myself. We see, we hear things. They're so commonplace in the world today. We're they're all about us. We need to pray. Lord, don't let me get used to sin. But you know what if we don't get into the presence of a holy God.
If we don't get into the presence of the Lord Jesus and confess those little things that have been allowed in our lives, we're going to get desensitized. We're going to get used to sin. Another thing that David mentions there, and we've we've alluded to it, he says wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. He says create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. You know, when we sin, we don't have to, as we've been saying, ask for the forgiveness of sins. And it's not that in a judicial way. The blood of Jesus has to wash our sins away. My sins are gone as far as the east is from the West.
He's blotted out my transgressions from me, and so on. They're gone, and they're gone forever in the blood of Christ.
But what was David talking about the cleansing that we have here in these verses that that follow. There's a cleansing that needs to take effect when we allow those things that defile in in our lives. And David desired that. I know we use that little expression. What can wash away my sins and and oh precious is the flow that washes white as snow. And that's fine. That's a that's a wonderful application. But in its true context, it's a cleansing effect that comes from getting into the presence of God, into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
00:55:20
And confessing as believers those sins in our lives and in our verses here, he says not only does he cleanse when we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Can I make it very simple, brethren, if we can put it this simple, and to keep us from going any further in that path, you know, if we don't confess the little things, they're gonna add up to big things.
One thing has been brought out in the meetings today. It leads to another. And what started out smaller as the thin edge of the wedge becomes the thick edge of the wedge. But when we get into his presence and confess it, he's able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, from going in the in an unrighteous way, in a wrong way, and to put us on back on the path of righteousness so that we will walk in a path of practical righteousness.
According to his holy standard.
M19 in connection with what's just been said, it's.
The progression that's been mentioned several times.
Umm, Psalm 19 describes it.
David is speaking in the Psalm and he says in Psalm 19 verse 12. Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let them not have dominion over me, Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
So he starts with seek his errors.
The first thing, we're not always conscious that we're not, that something in our life is not according to the light. Who of us is is conscious completely that every detail of our life is consistent with the light. None of us are. And so David had this desire. And what is it that makes us aware of it? It's the light, the word. And so he's saying, who can understand his errors?
Maybe others see it before we do, but the point is there is that need to be in the presence of God under this His Word and its application to our souls to make us at times aware of that which is an error in us, inside of us. And then the next, if you will step in it is secret faults. There may be things going on in our soul and in our heart that haven't broken out in actions.
But we're aware of it.
It's secret because nobody else sees it, at least they don't see it directly, but it's going on in US. And when we're not in the under the presence of the Word of God and in a daily, hourly sense of seeking his mind and will, then the secret things develop in the inside of us. But what happens if they're not judged? Well, he then says verse 13.
Keep from presumptuous sins, that is, they become.
Actions that are external.
And, uh, they become action that is of the direct character, not called a, a fault, but what scripture, the deed done in the body and, uh, that which, what happens next? If that's not dealt with properly, then he says, uh, let them not have dominion over me.
Unjudged sin and its action, if it is not dealt with before the Lord, gradually takes control of the life and it it it dominates the soul and the life of the person. And then he says of that, then I shall be upright. That is, if he followed these steps, but if he didn't, there was the danger of the great transgression.
And so there can be those things that are characterized here as a great transgression.
01:00:02
Something that in this life, can never.
Be properly taken care of completely, it has its effect upon the rest of the life.
Umm, me. And I say that I immediately think of people that I interact with in prison and some of them are in prison for life and they're guilty of a great transgression. And in this life they'll never be able to make it right among men. And uh, one told me more than once.
He said. And it's an interesting statement. It's worth pondering without making quick judgments about it, he said. I know concerning.
Transgression, murder. I know that God has forgiven me.
But I don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself in this life.
That was the effect. I'm not saying it's a right or wrong effect necessarily, but it is a statement of where the great transgression can bring the soul in its own personal life with having to deal with something that in a certain serious way can never be made right.
And so God is saying to us, let those errors be the the stopping point, if you will, and let the Word of God have its cleansing effect upon us as we read it and heed it, that God is able to cleanse us from things that were not even aware.
Are inconsistent.
We thank God for that. Go ahead.
There was there was an error in David's soul and a restlessness and he was up wandering around on the roof of his of his house and not out to battle, which would have been appropriate for him at that time. And so there was errors and wasn't brought to his attention. And then you know, not to to prolong it. It went from one thing to another. And as you say, Don in a few minutes ago.
Sin doesn't always travel solo. It goes in couplets or triplets because it it perpetuates itself and.
So he, he sins in the matter of, of, of taking Uriah's wife. And then what happens? He tries to cover it up and it gets even worse. And he has Uriah the Hittite basically murdered. And so it's, it's wonderful that in, despite David's hardness, the Lord loved him and the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to, to, to penetrate his heart. And you know this, he put that analogy before him and it ends with thou art command and.
And and David woke up and any, any confessed, he confessed his sin. I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan graciously communicates that that God has forgiven your sin. Thou shalt not die. But then he goes through this process, a process that went for a for a few days or a period of time. And so it's helpful to see that confession isn't the end of something and nor is forgiveness necessarily the end of the matter.
It's wonderful to be forgiven as, as you outline, but there's a process of repentance in our soul that can go on for a long time, decades, and it should, and a process of restoration in our soul, depending on what the matter is. And so with Jacob in his life and, and all the, the failures that characterize his early days, I'm sure Jacob had many, many years to ponder those things. And it, it, it brought a sweetness, uh, a sweetness so, so nice that it was worship as he leaned upon the top of his staff at the end of his life.
And so it's not just that we confess things and we experience and receive forgiveness, but we need to get the benefit of these things. And the Lord will work with us and lead us through this process of repentance and restore us into a place that is far better than we were before. But it's sobering to think Mr. Lundin, when he was with us, used to say, you can never set a moral sin, right.
Can't do it. It's like water spilled on the ground. And he also said to us when we were younger, you always lose through sin. I, I, I think of those two comments that he made in sobering. And so in David's life, as the parable illustrated, he had to pay a terrible penalty, penalty for that, even though he was forgiven in the loss of those sons in his life.
01:05:11
That in David's life, in that situation, when Nathan comes to David.
David.
Says he has to restore 4 fold.
And the Lord in his proper government in David's life, he lost four sons as a result of it. And he had taken someone else's son, if you will, by his sin. And then he was told, he pronounces is really the government of God upon himself. And he says that he he should restore 4 fold. And David loses four sons and the fourth son is on even after David has died.
And so the effect of it was not only for David for the rest of his life, but it went on into the next generation that was affected by what David had done in that specific situation. And he still speaks about it in his last address when he says, even though my house be not so with God, It is a reference to that in David's life and the consequences of it upon him.
That he felt, even though, as we say, he was repentant, he was restored he and continued and happy fellowship with God, but there was a terrible consequences in the government of God upon him in the great transgression of his life.
In the next chapter, and not to skip anything here that connects with what we've been saying, says if any man sitting, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
UMM and others can speak on this.
But I just passed this comment that sometimes we view the advocacy of Christ as if he's our lawyer that we invoke to set everything right with God. We don't invoke the advocacy of Christ.
It's the Father here, notice that begins my little children, these things I run into you. The Father has an interest in his children. And Christ will be our advocate, not to set things right with God, but to bring us to repentance. And so we see that beautifully in Peter's life. And it began when the Lord looked at Peter.
Looked at Peter, it's not to smooth things over, it's to bring us to a place of repentance and repent. When we brought through a place of repentance, at that point we're ready to accept the consequence of our sin. Not to say, oh, I don't want the consequences, but when we really repent of something, then we're ready to accept the consequences of them.
Advocate with the Father and I, I just say this on a practical note that sometimes I know sometimes our young people here at school and at work well from their Christian friends. Well, if we sin, we lose our salvation. Well, if it said we had an advocate with God, we might well wonder our high priestly, his high priestly work is in connection with God. You get that in Hebrews because that's power to preserve us in the past and to keep us from from falling. But his advocacy is not with God, it's with the Father.
Showing that when I sin, in no way is the family relationship broken. When one of my children went against me, it wasn't that they were brought up to the judge or that my, our family relationship was severed, but they did have to do with me as a, as a father. And I've sometimes said to those who try to promote the uh, that you can lose your salvation or whatever. I sometimes said to me, this is one of the clearest verses on eternal security when I sin.
I have to do with my father because the relationship is not severed.
So I just say that if someone comes along and says, well, if you're sin or you backslide, you're going to lose your salvation. You're not no longer a child of God, Turn them to this verse and say, oh, I have an advocate with my Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Into the second, uh, chapter and our dwelling tomorrow we'll have a chance to get into it more fully. So times about gone, but I'd like to just make a comment that helps to understand this chapter. It's if you look in Mr. Darby's translation, the beginning, it says my in the King James, my little children. But in Mr. Darby's translations, it's my children.
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And he's in that expression addressing the whole family of God. It's repeated in verse 12 when he says I write to you children. It's repeated again in verse 28. And now children, each of those three times when he uses the word children, he's embracing the whole family of God.
Later on in this chapter we have the different steps of or measures of growth in the family of God. You have fathers, you have young men, and you have little children. There it is addressing different measures of spiritual development in the family of God, and it's quite helpful, but I think it is helpful to see in verse one and verse 12.
And verse 28 he says children and it embraces.
The whole family of God.
#275 the 1St 2 verses.
Sound a little strange and #277 the whole hidden.
Uh, thank you, Sir.
Uh, OK, so on your.
Pray for life, for our good life, every small.
Light generator.