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Sweet.
Change.
Gracious.
Last year.
You are.
Nervous, she said. Nervous.
Our gracious, loving God and Father, we are here gathered together. You have a word from Thee. We pray that the Spirit of God might have liberty to use whosoever He will in order to bring out those things from Thy Word, which is food convenient for each one of us. All of us have different needs, and we just pray that those needs might be met by Thy grace.
And we pray that we, first of all, would sit in the seat of the learner and we might have our hearts opened so that we might receive, that we're so that we would be on distracted, that we would concentrate upon those things that are spiritual or are good for our building up or comfort, exportation, edification, whatever the need might be. So we commend these things to thee. Pray for those who take part.
Who might be led by the Spirit of God? Pray in Jesus worthy precious name.
Amen.
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Perhaps I could make a suggestion for a chapter that we might look at.
Many years ago now, back in the 1800s, a well taught brother amongst us on his deathbed made the remark, Let not John's ministry be neglected in favor of Paul's.
Which was a good remark, and I wonder if the brethren would consider taking up a second chapter of First John.
It's a chapter that brings before us our relationship to God as children.
We're all children and it addresses us as such, but then it also addresses those who are in different stages of Christian maturity, with instructions for each one.
That command itself.
First John, chapter 2.
My little children, these things right eye unto you, that ye sin not if any man sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.
And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
And hereby we do know that we know him, that we keep his commandments. And he saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments.
Is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoso keepeth his word in him, verily as the love of God perfected, hereby know we that we are in Him, and he that saith the abideth in him on himself also, so to walk even as he walked.
President, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. Again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness has passed, and the true light now shining. He that saith he is in the light and hated his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling intent but he that hated his brothers in darkness and walketh in darkness.
And knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness, that darkness has blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake. I read unto you, fathers, because you have known Him, that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known Him, that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you're strong.
And the Word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lusts thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.
They went out from us, but they were not of us, For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. But you have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ.
His Antichrist.
That denies the father and the Son.
Whosoever denied the Son, the same hath not the Father, that he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He have promised us, even eternal life, These things that I've written on to you concerning them that seduce you.
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But the anointing which He had received of Him abideth in you, and He need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and His truth, and is no lie. And even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. And now little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If He know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him.
We might just make a couple of remarks as an introduction to this chapter.
First of all, we need to remember that John doesn't write the way Paul does. John doesn't give us the truth of the assembly. In fact, I'm not aware that in his ministry he ever mentions the church.
In its broad character, where it includes every believer.
Maybe a local assembly. He does mention that once or twice, but the church in the sense in which Paul consider considers it, John doesn't even mention it. Rather he looks at us more as part of the family of God. So it's a different line of ministry. He gives us the that new life which was of course displayed perfectly in Christ when he was here on earth, and then, as it ought to be displayed in US.
And also John often writes in the abstract.
So that he just makes a statement without all the if we could use a common expression, all the if ands, buts. Maybe he just simply makes a statement as to the character of things without any corollaries that might be connected with it. So we have to understand that and realize that when John writes that way, we have to see it from his point of view.
But having said that, it's beautiful to see how that all believers are addressed here as children.
That expression? Little children.
Is really not properly translated. In the first verse here it should simply read My children. So also in the 12Th verse it should read My children and also toward the end of the chapter, verse 28. And now children abide in him, that is, every believer is looked upon.
As a child of God in John's eyes.
But then of course there is, as we mentioned earlier, the expression.
In verse 13, at the end of the verse, little children, and that is correctly translated, and in the beginning of verse 18, little children, meaning those who are young believers, new believers, not necessarily in age but in their Christian maturity.
So it's important to realize those things and enjoying John's ministry, but at the same time, it's wonderful to see how that God has given us a new life in Christ, eternal life to be lived out in the power of the Spirit of God. And John simply says, here it is and here is the display of it as it should be.
In you and in me, in this world.
It's good to notice, too, that John is the last writer in the New Testament of the New Testament epistles and Revelation as well. So he wrote the Gospel and then first, second and third John, and then the Book of Revelation. So he writes.
After Jerusalem was destroyed and after Judaism ceased really in essence to exist and cease to be practiced, and he looks upon the Christian profession.
As a mixture and those that professed to know Christ and those that were real all mixed together. And so he gives different tests in these passages that we read. I think there's seven of them. I don't know if I have them all here, but.
That he notes those tests of reality. You say you're a Christian, you say you belong to Christ, notes those tests by some little expressions. And so in verse chapter one, verse six, he says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness.
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While he's giving a test and if there's darkness, darkness is the absence of light, the absence of true light. And then he says in verse eight, another profession, he says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. So there were those that claim that they didn't have a sin nature. And he said, you can I'll tell you how to how to how to identify one who is a professing believer but not real.
He says he's he no longer sins. He has reached sinless perfection. And then in verse 10, chapter one, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And then a little further on in chapter two, he that say it, I know him and keepeth not his commandments as a liar, and the truth is not in him. Then verse six, he that say it, he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. And then a little later on, verse 9.
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness.
Even until now. And so there, as you say, very abstract statements, But God used the apostle John to show that there was such a thing as professing to be a believer, professing reality, but really not having any light at all, not being a real believer. And so John's ministry shows the absolute distinction between a believer that does have life is part of that new creation race in Paul's terminology.
But those that are not real are identified.
Might be helpful too to say that Paul terminology he uses different terms and John uses perhaps the same word but it doesn't mean the same thing. And I was just thinking of Ephesians chapter one and just as an example.
Ephesians chapter 2 we could look at verse two. We're in in time past he walked.
According to the course of this world. So that's practical walk and we walk in a practical way. And Paul takes that word up in the practical sense of the our testimony and how we walk through this world. Well, John uses it a little bit differently. He says in verse seven of chapter one, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with another. So he says in essence that.
If we are in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. So he's not really talking of practical, the practical fact of walking in communion, but being in the light, being in the place, in the position of being a believer and being in the position of being in the light and knowing the light. And so there's some distinctions and you'll get confused if you try to apply Paul's terminology to John's ministry.
I remember there was a brother years ago that used to tell us about various keys to various epistles, and I've enjoyed.
In first John chapter 2 There where it says in the eighth verse which thing is true in him and in you as being sort of the key to the epistle, because in John's Gospel we have what's true of him, right?
But then in the epistle of John we have what was true of him should be true in US. And so I have enjoyed that little expression which thing is true in him and you as being sort of a key to what John is bringing out in this epistle.
Yes, you could summarize John's ministry in a simple way by saying that.
John's Gospel is the eternal life come down to earth in the person of Christ, and that of course is also referred to in the first verses of this epistle. And then John's epistles are the blessed results for those who accept Christ.
The revelation is the awful judgment on those who reject them.
And I think it's very important what Robert has mentioned, because by the time John wrote his ministry, probably around 30 years after the Apostle Paul had passed off the scene or at least was practically finished his ministry, things were already starting to show their signs of declension and, sad to say their word, mixtures of believers and unbelievers.
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Christian profession, it was amazing how quickly the truth was given up after the apostles passed off the scene. And John's ministry recognizes that. But I think it's important too to realize the proper use of the word if in John's ministry. I think that's what Robert was alluding to in the English language. Not to get complicated about it, but.
There's the if you might say if condition. I can say, for example, to use something that's very appropriate At the moment, if I go to the general meetings in Truro, I won't be able to go to the general meetings in Kirkland. That's the if of condition, because I can't be in two places at the same time.
But I might also say if I am a Christian, I ought to act this way. It's not implying that I'm not a Christian. It could simply say, in other words, since I am a Christian, there is a way that I ought to act. And it's that that is the case in the seventh verse of the first chapter. Since we walk in the light, every believer is in the light. But then there's the if of condition in the seven verses that.
Brother Robert was mentioning and I have to ask myself and apply those tests, am I real or is there merely outward profession and a going on with something that has no inward reality?
On the ninth verse of chapter one, we have a nip of obedience there, don't we?
If we're obedient and we have sinned, we're going to confess that sin.
If we have sinned and we're not obedient, we don't confess it.
But.
The blessing is in the confessing of the sin were forgiven.
The blood of Jesus Christ is cleanse. Cleanse us from all sins already cleanse, but for our communion with the Lord is evil for the sin to be confessed. And we have a choice. We can either confess it or not confess it. But the blessing comes through confessing it. So it's an if of obedience or disobedience.
Choice is like saying A level of choice.
Not to spend too much time on it, but that ninth verse of the first chapter, in its broad sense is really a general statement. One who was an unbeliever could read that verse and be saved through it. He could say, yes, if I come to Christ and confess that I'm a Sinner.
Then there's forgiveness for me.
And also I can be cleansed from all unrighteousness. That is the work of Christ not only cleanses me from my sins, but there's also deliverance from the power of sin. But as Enos is mentioning, those of us that are believers read that verse and we can see in it restoration to communion with the Lord and not merely restoration to communion for that time.
But the dealing with the roof that caused me to do it in the first place.
Very often when we come to Christ and confess a sin, it's a good thing. But perhaps I speak to my own heart. I hesitate to deal with the root cause of the problem. That allows me to do it again, to deal with the root. Then I'm not so likely to do it again.
But in the first verse of our second chapter.
In connection with that, we have Christ as our advocate.
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And that's a large subject, which could entail the rest of the reading reading if we took all of that time. But the word advocate in Scripture is really the same word as is translated comforter in John's Gospel. And anyone can look this up because I'm not a Greek scholar. But the word has no definite equivalent in the English language. It has the thought of one who takes charge of.
And looks after all of your affairs. And what a wonderful thing that is. The Spirit of God is here on earth to look after everything for us. Christ is up there in glory looking after everything for us. And the same word is applied to both of them.
And this the Lord never assumes that we're going to sin. But as we had brought out, if we try and pretend that we don't sin anymore, we're only deceiving ourselves.
And we never need to sin, but how thankful we can be that there is one who is our advocate, who is there to restore us. And in Hebrews chapter 4, we're told to approach the throne of grace because there's a high priest.
There, who is there to keep us from sin?
But it's beautiful to see that we do not have to come and ask the Lord Jesus to act as our advocate, because if we sin, we're not usually in a state to think we need help. We're away from the Lord. We sin.
But the Lord acts for us without our asking Him in order to restore us. He saw it coming. He saw us getting away from Him.
If I could speak to my own heart, He saw wrong thoughts being entertained in my mind. He saw those thoughts being turned over and matured, and he saw the tendencies to where that translated itself into an act of sin. But before all of that happened, the Lord is working to restore them, to bring me back to Himself. Sad to say, sometimes it takes a while. It doesn't always happen instantaneously.
But He's there on behalf of us with the Father, in order to restore us to communion. How beautiful that is.
We would never be restored to communion if it depended upon ourselves. No, but the fact that.
When we sin and we have to acknowledge that we do it, the Lord's advocacy comes into into operation for us and leads us to confessional that sin. That's right, there is a ministry about advocate and.
They they liken it to a lawyer.
That an old earthly lawyer, that word is used to advocate, but nervous lawyer, they will take on somebody's case and we know a question of his guilt and they'll try to get him off with whatever he did, try to get the sentence reduced or he would try to get him off completely from the crime that he committed. Well, that advocacy here is not.
That way with the Lord.
If we do something wrong, the Lord isn't there to plead for us that he might get us off with it. Whatever we did. He knows what we did. He knows we're guilty. He's there to plead with God that God may bring circumstances into our lives that we repent of that which we've done so that we can be restored. So the Lord Jesus is there to restore us, but He doesn't make excuses for our sin. So it's different than a earthly lawyer.
I think that's why Brother Bill mentioned it, that it'd be good to maybe read Mr. Darby's note on it. It's very clear because he uses a different word in the translation.
He says that he may not sin and if anyone sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so as you say, he's not going to gloss it over, but he says in his note, he gives the Greek word and then as comforter John 14 verse 16261526167. Christ manages all our affairs. Forest above, the Holy Spirit below.
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I use patrons in the sense rather of the Roman patron.
Who maintain the interest of his clients in every way. So Christ on high the spirit here for the Saints. And so there's a difference. As you say, it's really not an equivalent to think that an advocate is similar to a lawyer goes way beyond and none of us, as has already been said, would ever confess our sin except that Christ advocates for us.
And the reason we confess is because he did.
For us and he does exercises as to the need to repent and So what we have in verse nine of chapter one is really restorative or governmental forgiveness. There are different types of forgiveness in the in the Bible and so at the cross of Christ at the cross the Lord Jesus or the judgment governmentally, judicially God dealt with Christ judicially for my sins and so God.
The Lord Jesus faced God as it were as and God as a judge. God judges sin and so judicially I am forgiven forever for all of my sins. My sins were dealt with on the cross. God dealt with the Lord Jesus about my sins. So judicially I'm forgiven. But there's he speaks of brotherly forgiveness. I think that's different passage of scripture, but you can look at Matthew chapter 18. It's one of the similitudes of the Kingdom.
And here really it's governmental or restorative forgiveness. And so if we sin and we refuse to confess it, we refuse to admit it, the Lord may have to exercise some discipline upon us to bring us to our knees to be able to to want to confess it. And so we have examples in the Old Testament, don't we, of how David sinned in connection with Bathsheba. And he went on for quite some time.
But the Lord brought circumstances into play so that David bowed the knee and David confessed his sin, and David was restored. And so that sin was dealt with. And so there's restorative forgiveness. And we also have the forgiveness of the assembly, don't we, in connection with the administrative decisions that are made in the assembly and in the fear of God for His glory to maintain cleanliness in the assembly.
Why there may be sin that needs to be dealt with and sin bound upon a person. And then when there's repentance and there seems to be personal restoration and those that are in oversight and assembly particularly notice this and become exercise, then the assembly itself is responsible to forgive. And so there's administrative forgiveness. So here it's the entrance. It's necessary for us to identify when it speaks of forgiveness.
In the scriptures as to which type, I might just say this as well. When it speaks of forgiveness, it speaks of no longer being guilty before God. On that matter, isn't that nice? The children of Israel, they could offer a sacrifice for sin. One sacrifice for one sin.
We could read it in Leviticus chapter 41. Sin one sacrifice, another sin another sacrifice. They were never finished.
But you and I are judicially forgiven. We are forgiven. We are no longer guilty before God. All of our sins are cleansed.
In the precious blood of Christ.
They only had atonement and so the blood covered the sin.
And so, on the one hand, the work of the Advocate is to bring us to the time or the place of repentance and to exercise our souls about what we have done.
On the other hand, it says Jesus Christ the righteous, He goes before God righteously as an advocate. Why? Because as we've already heard, judicially, the sin has already been paid for, and so the advocate can go before God.
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In the person of Christ and plead our case, if we could use the thought, and it is, it is a good thought. The word avocado is the Latin word for a lawyer.
And.
He can go before God and plead our case on the grounds of what He has done on Calvary's crops. But then there's there's need for that. There ought to be the exercise before God. How serious it is for me to sin in the presence of grace. How serious it is for me to go and commit a sin when I consider the price that was paid for my redemption. That means you brought before me, doesn't it?
But then I find out that the grace of God is greater than all my sin because He knew ahead of time that I would do that.
And He saved me anyway. And so that brings the grace of God only in the even greater way. And that I believe, ties in with verse two because it magnifies the grace of God, because not only did the Lord Jesus suffer the punishment, as you might say, my substitute on Calvary's cross, but He made propitiation, which is a big word but.
It satisfied the claims of God's holy nature.
So that God can come out and offer a free salvation to whosoever will. And in that way our King James translation is somewhat remiss because the last clause of the verse and in my Bible the words the sins of are in italics and they should be. It should read. And He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only.
But also for the whole world.
It's erroneous and wrong to say that Christ bore the sins of the whole world.
If that were true, God would be unrighteous to put anyone in hell if the penalty had been paid. And that is not true. But God made propitiation for the whole world so that a gospel preacher can go and say to anyone, Christ died for you, You may come and be saved because Christ has satisfied all the claims of God's holy nature by his work on the cross.
And you may now come and be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
After we're saved, we learned that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, but on the grounds not merely of having paid for my sins as an individual, but having satisfied the claims of God's holy nature of God or God in Christ. Or we better say it this way, Christ can go before God as our advocate.
And plead our case and say I have done everything in order that this individual.
Might be able to be restored to community. What a blessing thing that is. No Israelite, as we've just heard, ever had anything like that.
Brother Bill, is there a connection between?
Pricing propitiation for the whole world and the failed the temple being ranked in the top to bottom whereas Nanny now has access to God through Christ. I believe so yes, I believe that the rending of that veil showed that.
God could now come out in blessing to man, and man could go in. Whosoever will may come is the ground of is on the ground of propitiation. Yes, this is perhaps what John was saying in the middle of verse 2. Not for ours only.
But also for the whole world. So it's not only applicable to the Jewish nation and to those that were in outward relationship with him as the children of Abraham, but it was really for all of the nations as well. So the whole door was open. We might look at Hebrews Chapter 9 and verse 26. It's a little bit, you might say that of a definition of.
Propitiation verse 26 down to verse 28. For then must he often have suffered?
Since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world or the end of the age, he had appeared to put away sin for the by the sacrifice of himself. So he's satisfied the righteous claims of God.
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Because of the sacrifice on the cross. And so sin is done, dealt with, the root has been dealt with and is appointed under man wants to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
Now he can go out to you and I in blessing unto them that look for him. He shall ye appear the second time without sin or without dealing with the sin question unto salvation. So we're going to be saved from if that's our final salvation that's being spoken up there. So salvation also is spoken of in different ways in the Scriptures. We have the salvation of our souls very few times the word of God mentions that particular aspect of things, but the salvation of our.
Uh, bodies, the final salvation of our bodies at the resurrection and at the call, at the shout will be finally saved from the power of sin. Our bodies will no longer be subject to the ailments and well, our bodies will be glorified, will finally be delivered, will be saved from the effects of sin and the presence of sin. So yes, we've saved from the penalty of sin.
In the work of Calvary.
Received from the power of sin as we walked in obedience to the Word of God.
And keep the old nature in the place of death where God is put it. We're not saved from the presence of sin in this world. We're going to have that old nature as long as we're in the body and the results of it. Some of us are part of, we're all part of the groaning creation, and we feel it more as we get older. So the presence of sin will be completely obliterated.
When the Lord returned and we got to receive.
Not a new body, but a body of Lord by Christ.
The word propitiation is connected to.
The sacrifice for sin.
And when the Lord Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, the temple bell was ran from top to bottom.
There was a finally a sacrifice that satisfied the holiness of God.
Against sin in the person of the Son, we read about the Old Testament, a little bit about officiation.
Really means mercy seat and so.
When the high priest went in with the blood.
He had to go in and make atonement for himself and then for the people. He spread the blood on the mercy seat, and atonement in the Old Testament means covering, so it covered the sins of the people.
For a time, but then it had to be repainted every year.
So it was never a complete atonement or a complete covering, but the blood of Christ did more than that. It not only covered her sins, but it cleansed them away from the sight of God. So there's a one time cleansing that took place.
Upon her sins by Christ for all time. That's that's the beauty here. So I like to look at that word officiation if he does put cleansing in there.
That makes it clear because that's what it really did. The blood of Christ upon the mercy seat cleanse us from all sins, and that's how we're looked at today by God in this present day. That blood has made that atonement and that cleansing were covered for all eternity by that that one sacrifice.
Might be helpful to look at Romans 325. There are two aspects to propitiation though. 1 Satisfies 1 aspect. Gods, holy and righteous claims.
Are satisfied, but then it allows God to go forth and grace to the Sinner. So you have both, I believe in Romans 325, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation or could be a mercy seat. I believe that's how Mr. Darby translates it set forth to be a mercy seat through faith in his blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. So as you say, those Old Testament Saints, they sinned against God. They knew that they sinned and they hoped that God would not hold them accountable for those things. They didn't know how it would be possible.
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And they wondered if they offered enough sacrifices. Job offered sacrifices for his sons and so on. They had no security, no sense of peace with God, no purged conscience. But you and I, we have purged conscience. We know that our sins are gone. God will never. The Lord Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ will never point to you and say, well, you know that one sin. I want to talk about that sin.
And no, he's going to review our lives. He's going to give us the rewards that are due and so on that he sees from his perspective, he'll review our lives. But our sins are gone, absolutely gone. So the IT was according to his righteousness for the remission of sins or the forgiveness of sins that the they're gone. Those sins are forgiven. You're no longer guilty. God looks at you now is no longer being guilty.
But on a righteous basis, God's holy claims have been satisfied. Now God can go forth for the Sinner. And so it was through the forbearance of God that he could go on with the children of Israel. And he was looking forward to the cross, to the work that would be done in the blood would be applied and their sins would be gone, would be dealt with. And so the blood, as you say, the atonement in the Old Testament was a covering. The sins were not gone. They were still there. The God on credit could say I'm looking forward to the cross.
You don't know about it, but I'm looking forward to the crop. No sins are going to be dealt with. David didn't know. Abraham didn't know, but you know.
How it should reduce praise and Thanksgiving in our hearts to think that God looks at you where you're sitting today, he says. Not guilty.
He looks at you and says you're not guilty. He doesn't see you as a Sinner. He sees you as a Saint of God, blessed as a son, and as we're reading here in first John, as one that is in relationship with him as a child of God, blessed.
Is there a thought in this second verse also that might be connected with original sin? Let's go back to Adam, sin and sense of being the mercy seat of appreciation for the whole world that there will be none and lost eternity because of Adam's sin, right? What we, we are sinners by birth. We sin because we're sinners. So it goes back to heaven that way, but none of us will be a lost eternity because of that.
I don't seem at our own, so is there a thought that that was taken out of the way here?
The door opened. I wasn't worried like we were all captives. I think it's amazing. Is it the thought maybe that he's made provision that all of our sins could be dealt with and so.
It's on.
I don't think so brother. I don't think that's what comes in there. Thought it would be and said God, God has sinned, have been paid for.
No.
What Adam did still results in there being the old man. You and I by grace have put off the old man, having put off the old man with his deeds, but that remains. I believe now the work of Christ will eventually result in that according to the verse Robert read in Hebrews 9, will result in sin being removed from this entire universe in the coming day.
No sin at all in the eternal state, it's all gone. No sin will ever rear its head again. But that is not strictly Speaking of appreciation.
Is cleansing with appreciation. The cleansing is only for those that accept price that has gone out to the whole world as an invitation. Whosoever believeth on on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.
But not everyone accepts that gift. It goes out. The blood of Christ is powerful enough to cleanse the sins of everyone in this world.
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It's powerful enough to do so, but.
The responsibility lies with each individual to take advantage of that offering the crisis made to us.
Anyone has to consider themselves and either accept it or reject it. So perhaps grown in three.
Verse 22.
Like The Doctors 3 verse 22.
Of God, which is by faith that Jesus Christ, I'm too old, and upon all that the police.
Is available to all, but it's only effective on.
That precious, you know, because when we preach the gospel, the grace of God is already being said. We need to be careful not to say that Christ died and paid for all of the sins for all those that are in the world. You just need to accept it. No, He didn't bear the judgment for all of the sins of all that are in the world because God would be unrighteous then to cast any into the lake of fire, but He made provision for all.
You know, the Jew, he was told he couldn't go outside the nation of Israel, he couldn't eat with the Gentiles, he couldn't do those things. But you and I don't have those restrictions.
There's not a soul on the face of the earth that you and I couldn't go to, don't have the liberty to go to and present Christ as the only Savior for sinners, and that God has made provision for you that you could have your sins forgiven because Christ went to the cross of Calvary to make provision for you if you would accept it.
You can have your sin forgiven. And so if an individual thing, God saves souls individually. And so he was dealing with Israel as a nation and it showed that even under perfect conditions that they would never receive it as a nation and as a company. So that's why he said in verse 2, not for ours only, but also for the whole world. What grace, what love and so.
We need to be accurate and to just present the gospel of the grace of God to individuals. God has made provision for you as an individual if you will accept Christ, isn't it Marcus?
It says in the verses we're looking at in Romans verse.
Where it says that he sent him forth a propitiation, it says through faith in his life. And in verse 26 it says to declare, I say at this time his righteousness, that he might be Jobs.
And the justifier of him which believeth on Jesus.
So what it's saying is that the propitiation enabled God to be just when he justified us who believed.
And so it's what the propitiation is, what made God Johnson. It is pouring out and flowing out Grays and forgiving us, giving us new life. All these things were based on that particulation. Is that right? Yes, and I asked a further question on Hebrews 2.
Let's verify first the Hebrews 2 and the ninth verse.
The end of the verse really don't read the old verse. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, called the suffering of death crown of glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should face death for every man. How does that come into play?
Well, that should read everything.
And the thought there is that again, through the death of Christ, God has made a way that sin will be forever removed from this world. John the Baptist proclaimed it when he said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. I don't believe John the Baptist entered into it all as to the significance because I doubt if he realized everything that was going to happen, including the eternal state that had to wait for Paul's ministry.
But in essence, the work of Christ on the cross and the Lord Jesus going into death has resulted in God being able not only to come out in blessing to you and to me, but eventually, as we get in Romans 8, for the creature to be.
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Taken out of the ******* of corruption. And in the millennial day we'll see that blessing come about. But then in the eternal state, we'll see the entire removal of sin.
So in that sense, Christ tasted death for everyone. That's the thought. And behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
That is in its broad sense, that.
That every race of sin from this universe will be obliterated forever.
Through the work of Christ, I had to stand up and speak sometimes.
Every trace of sins marvelous to concentrate every trace of sin and all the results of it in the creation. The creation is is defiled by sin. Now the heavens are not even cleaned, but through the work of Christ.
Every particle of sin will be put away.
On the ground of his finished work, on the ground of the work of Kelvin. We don't have to wait to eternity to have that.
Truth, do we? When the Lord Jesus returns, maybe even this day, we know that we'll be with him and like him and glory. That old nature that causes so much trouble with us now will be gone completely then, so we'll be in the full enjoyment of that sinless creation.
But it's going to take another thousand years after that, or before the world will realize that work of crisis.
Has obliterated sin for for once and for all, but we'll have the enjoyment of it as soon as we leave this scene.
Well, the thing that we that we notice now, of course, is the feebleness of her bodies and the old nature that is within us. Both of those things will disappear when Christ calls us home. We will receive a change body fashioned on the like, His glorious body.
And that old nature will be gone. What a day that will be for us when we're finally home with the Lord, and those things will be a reality for us.
Wonder if might help to make clear propitiation. Also if we look at it someone could tell us where is when the wards talk about the tube that came before God and one was a Pharisee and he prayed and said I do this and that and then he said the other one you know.
Beat on himself and what he said there was be propitiated.
And I think if we look at that, it might help a little for us to understand what it was he was asking. Say forgiveness isn't what he said. He said if you. I think that the proper translation is deprivation. Luke 17.
18 storage.
Luke 18 and verse 10.
Yeah, here it says Divergent have some cash on me, but I believe the literal translation would be proficient and which also brings in in this translation. But it really is for God to be asking that God would be satisfied regarding his send his state whole thing that God would be.
Would be satisfied in that regard. So that's what's officiation does. It satisfies the righteous requirements of God concerning sin.
It's not, it's not a matter of individual forgiveness or any of those other things that's been brought out, but it is on God's side. God has been paid. The initial aspect has been taken care of and all of we receive of God is because of that.
It has to do with believing in your blood, believing that the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse my sins. The moment that you were you heard the gospel of the grace of God, or you were alone in your room, and you said Christ died for me in the blood of Jesus Christ.
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His Son, His blood was sufficient to cleanse me from all sin. You immediately were sealed with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God came to dwell within you.
You received a spiritual gift at the time and the work was finished, were sealed with the Spirit and you have a a clear conscience as to the fact that sin has been dealt with and your sins are gone. We might just turn to Hebrews again. I think it's Chapter 9, verse 26. It's something that is a blessing that you and I have that the Old Testament Saints didn't have.
So Hebrews Chapter 9 and verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God?
Purge your conscience from dead work to serve the living God.
You have a purged conscience. You recognize that your sins are gone and it's the blood of Christ that has dealt with those sins.
And so you're not relying on your feelings as to whether you're, you feel saved today, you are saved by the grace of God. The blood has shed, was shed and the blood has dealt with your sins, your cleanse. And so the judicial, judicial, your sins have been dealt with, but now you're justified. I know we're going a little beyond, we're going to Paul's doctrine here, but justified God put you into a new legal position, a new legal standing before him.
You're now no longer guilty of all those sins forgiven, but now you have a new standing before him.
And he sees you in that new standing as a Saint of God. He does not see you as a Sinner. Yes, you do have the old nature. And his brother Bill pointed out, in a future day he will take away the sin of the world, and there is going to be a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. But during the tribulation, during the Millennium, there will still be sin, and it will be judged.
And but the Lord Jesus made provision at the cross that God's holy righteous character would be vindicated, and that all sin might be on a righteous basis put away from holy God, and that you and I could exist, live in His presence, and sin would never ever disturb us for all eternity. But a good conscience is not the same as a purge conscious. But Robert has been speaking about that.
A purge conscience is the judicial aspect of the work of Christ, no doubt. But I can have a first conscience and yet not have a good conscience because I'm not walking in self judgment.
Maybe something in my life that I'm allowing that is dishonoring for the war and I have a bad conscience, but in God's side I have a first conscience. Is that right to do? I think we better get back to our chapter.
Not that it's wrong to get straight on propitiation, but we could go on all all meaning out of this verse three says and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
And then, as we've said before, there's a test. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
We don't have commandments in the New Testament as we did under law in the Old, but the New Testament commandments are simply.
The thoughts of one with whom we have been brought into relationship as to what would please him.
Let me use an illustration.
I read some time ago that there was a young man who got married and.
They moved into a home that they purchased. It wasn't a new home, but they moved into it. And one of the first things his wife said to him was deer. Would you paint the kitchen white for me?
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What's that a thing that he would have said to you? Well now, dear, is that a request or is that a command?
Of course it was a request, but it had the force of a command. And he painted the kitchen white. Porter.
That was that's a little illustration of how the commandments of God are. It says in this same epistle of John, his commandments are not grievous. Why? Because we now have a new life that delights, depletes him.
But this third verse, I believe, brings before us that.
In walking before the Lord and in doing that which He has revealed to us will please Him, we have the sense, the enjoyment, the inner knowledge that we are in that relationship. Nor are we always in that relationship in the true sense of the word. Of course we are. I can't get out of it.
Unless I apostatize and go off into a false religion or something which would prove that I was never truly saved at all. But if I am a true believer in one sense, I can never leave the blessed position into which Christ has brought, but I live in the conscious knowledge and enjoyment of it. By doing those things which God has shown you will please him.
How important that is and how nice it is. Now, does that mean, though, in verse four, that a believer can never do something that displeases the Lord? And if a believer does something that displeases the Lord, does that mean he's an absolute liar and that the truth isn't in him? Again, John talks to the abstract. He talks of what is normal and properly characteristic of a believer.
What is characteristic of a believer that he keeps his commandments? What is characteristic of the family of the devil? They're liars and they break his commandments. They don't do what pleases the Lord. They have no interest in it. And so John gives us what is characteristic in order that I can judge my heart on that basis.
Very sensitive what he said, you know, that's the Lord's commandments, what he said to do. And you know, he said to somebody says, why do you, why do you call me Lord? Lord, don't do what I say.
I mean, to keep his commandments is to do what he said. That's pretty simple.
It wouldn't be over something fine, but it just to say that.
As it says here in verse 5, keepeth His word.
Commandments are words that that we have that that were given.
Given to us to keep and what I would think it would include all of the word of God.
I thought of it as divine instruction. The Lord gave instructions. He, he didn't hide what would please Him. He told us what would please Him. And there are principles that apply from 1 dispensation to another. The principles that were given in the Old Testament are the same principles morally that we have in the New Testament and so on. We know what pleases Him, We have His word. And so Brother Gordon, he used to remind us oftentimes when we're young.
But obedient to the word of God and happiness go together. You cannot have a happy life and set aside the word of God. It's not possible. And so here he's bringing this out. I was just going to refer to John 14. John speaks this way in his gospel as well. And John 14 verse 21, he says he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me.
That's evidence of our love. We're expressing our love to the Lord Jesus by keeping His word, by loving His Word, keeping his. He that loveth me shall be loved with my Father. Now we have a relationship brought in with the Father. I will love him and will manifest myself to him. So there's a sweetness of communion that comes in if we have a high regard for the Word of God, a love for the Word of God.
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The commandments I mean. Even in the whole testament he starts by saying first commandment.
Your dog, that's where it all starts and it all flows from that. And it shouldn't be difficult for us to understand that love breeds trust. And if you trust that, you obey, you don't question, you know, if you're told what to do, you just do it because that's what love would do.
Trust and obey. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
I would suggest though here there is a deeper thought which we need to grasp.
Keeping His word goes further than keeping His commandments, and that's why there's a distinction made. God doesn't repeat Himself just for emphasis. In this case, keeping His commandments, I believe, entails doing that which is explicitly set. To go back to my illustration, the wife asked particularly that her new husband painted the kitchen white.
She asked for more than that, by the way. She asked later on that he trimmed it in yellow. He didn't like yellow, but he turned it in yellow because it was her kitchen and because he loved her. But keeping his word. Not to get into Greek because I'm not a Greek scholar, but the word here used.
Translated word I believe is logos, and it goes much deeper than simply the actual thing said.
It goes behind the scene.
To everything that is implied and no one in that word. Not only what is said or what is written down, but about the person.
So that for example.
If I were to ask a husband who had been married in a good marriage for 25 years if I could do something for his wife?
In many cases, he would not say, let me ask her, what would he say? He would probably say no. I don't think she'd care for that. How does he know? Because he's lived with her. He knows her. He doesn't have to ask her. She doesn't have to say no, dear, I don't like that. I don't think that would be good.
He knows what would please her.
And God has left many things outside the pale of a direct command in the New Testament. The Old Testament was a book of law. Everything was laid out in black and white. You simply did it, whether you understood why. In most cases, they didn't know why. But in the New Testament we have principles that have to be carried out and lived out in communion with the Lord, because now we're involved with the Spirit of God.
Now we can know the one who is the commandments, not merely know what the commandment is. And I believe the thought of keeping his word.
Entails the full knowledge of the Lord in the sense that we understand what would please him. Even if we can't point to a definite scripture that says that's the way we should do it. We know from knowing him and knowing what his Word says and the whole tone of Scripture. He say no, I don't think, I feel I don't think that would be a good thing to do. Is that commend itself?
Yeah, we're pleasing a person. The motive is exactly person. And so that's what they lacked, didn't they? In the Old Testament? It was. They had to obey the law. They had to obey.
The commandment, and in most and many of the commandments, I think there was something like 613 of them, some of them you disobeyed. The consequence was dead. It wasn't very there was.
There was no wiggle room, we'd say in today's terminology. But now you and I have a person before us, and if He's won our heart, he's told us what pleases him, and we have a sense of what is due to his honor, to his glory, then would you like to give him the joy in the conduct and our conduct and how we communicate and how we interface with one another and all sorts of things? And so the person.
He's given us a motive now.
Just add two questions that I really appreciate going through this chapter and just looking at it from the context of relationship that has been brought out many times. I think back to the Gospel of John where Mary Lord addresses Mary after those directions says I ascend to my father and your father's something that was new there as you brought out Robert. And as we go through these verses, there's something when I was in my early 20s, the vagina, they were taking up this doctor and I had been recently discussing.
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Internal security with a Christian friend who has become very good friends with and one of the verses just meant so much to me was this passage of any man saying we have an advocate with the father. The relationship is still there. It can't be broken. When we talk about propitiation a very complicated topic and we spend a lot of time on it this morning, but.
The complete coverage that our sins are completely covered when we talk about commandments. You know, I think about this as a father myself.
You get into difficult conversations with your children. It doesn't bring me any satisfaction as a father just to force my child in what I say to ask them to do something. I want them to want to do that because they're my child. The same thing is true in our relationship with the word. These verses can be cold if we look at it just from a commandment or from a technical definition or but if we look at all of these verses in the context of relationship has been brought up in many times this morning, it becomes incredibly rude. People, I can't I can't lose that position.
Behold, their love, her Father hath be so upon us that we should be called the Son of God. That is just. It is incredibly powerful thing that flows through all of these verses in the chapter and as we'll find out later in the chapter as well.
And that's why it says in that fifth verse, in him, verily, is the love of God perfected. Could we doubt the love of God after we take a look at Calvary's cross? No, I don't believe we could. How could anyone look at the cross and doubt the love that is there? But to have the love perfected is to know the one who died on Calvary's trust.
And as you mentioned, Mark, to know God is our Father. What was the first thing the Lord said to Mary Magdalene? I ascend unto my fault, your Father to my God. And your God, yes, he was still gone, but primarily now he was fought. And so the Lord brings us into that relationship with God as Father and with himself, and we have that love perfected in US in the sense that we know Him.
And if we could say it, I trust in my own soul with all humility. It's a challenge to all of us. How much do I really know though? I can go through the motions of the Christian life. I can even read the Word of God. I can even seek to carry it out. I can know the truth and I can seek to walk in it. But do I really have an ongoing?
Relationship which I am enjoying.
With the Lord, that all depends on keeping His word, doesn't it?
In the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John.
John chapter 8 and verse 7.
So it's 29 going to 329. The word Jesus says I do always those things that please.
Can't please support it?
So I'm back to.
The illustration that Bill gave us, the husband knew what was major way, so he did it. Now the word Jesus himself, it was impossible for him to do anything.
Other than losing father.
But the light that the Lord Jesus had had, He has now given us in our new nature.
So our new natures that we have can't do anything else but please over here is the father.
If I start to.
If I start to try to do my own will or question what the Lord has asked me to do or what or anything along that along that kind of Rd. then it's my old nature that during that question. If I if I know the word Jesus is my Savior and then I know my new nature knows that will only do what is pleasing to actually.
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Say that someone's word carries weight, right, We use that expression and if you love someone and where it carries weight with you, it's these scriptures, as it's been mentioned are we are being challenged to ask ourselves right and.
So if the Lord's word doesn't carry a lot of weight with you.
That's something you gotta pay attention to.
That's what's been brought out is. It doesn't even matter whether it's a direct command or not.
As Bill pointed out, is if you love someone, their word, their every word, bears wait with you and you pay attention to what they said.
They don't have to say, you know, I'm bring me some supper. It's enough to say I'm hungry.
It's an illustration in the Old Testament they were commanded to eat the Passover. There was no option. You had to eat the Passover. But in Christianity it's the heart is appealed to the infections, the motives to please him and he says this dude in remembrance of me, he doesn't say I command you to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. He says let us therefore go forth unto him because we can't.
Very good approach. He doesn't say I command you to worship. He says, let us offer therefore the sacrifice of praise and Thanksgiving and God continually. And so there's the appeal to the heart so that to use bills illustration, the brother didn't say, well, how white do you want it? Like is this white enough?
One coat of paint, or two, or three.
I just enjoyed the, you know, forgive me for for saying it the further Norman Berry.
Used to use a little illustration, a little expression that he had used to say the day you got saved, you gave up your right to choose.
He said you acknowledge the Lord Jesus as Savior, you took him as Savior, you acknowledge him as Lord. He has the right to choose. And so we don't, often times we just say I have a right, I have rights, and I want to choose, I have rights. And we try to exercise our own wills. Well, the Lord Jesus never exercises will. And So what? John's praying before us is a characteristic of new life, of one who is real.
Is that he does keep his word.
In him, verily the love of God is perfect that you can identify a Christian. You can identify someone who has new life, life determined in the fact that the word of God carries weight with him and he's not trying to get wiggle room. He's he's wanting to please the one who gave him life.
I'm wondering if the perfecting year has to do with our response.
A person may show love to me in a very kind way, but I don't respond.
They make sacrifices for me. They express in a tangible way.
Their love. I don't respond.
Isn't that the fact that love is not perfected? It regards me. It's not my friend who's showing love.
But I'm not responding to it. Is that the thought? Said Bill.
Well, I believe that's included in it. It's perfected, It says in him. So God's love is always perfect, isn't it? There never needs to be any change in his love. But my love is in, as you say, in response to his. That's why it says later on in this same Thistle, we love him because He first loved us or it should read to Him, shouldn't be there. We love because He first loved us.
And then it translates just to finish up in the sixth verse, because our time is nearly gone. But then there's a walk. It's one thing to have in a relationship with the Lord, but my walk is that which is observed by others. It's observed by first of all, other believers. Secondly, it's observed by the world around and.
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It says ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.
Which one of us would like to stand up and say, and I've arrived.
I'm there.
I don't think any of us could say that, nor will we ever get that to that point till we get to the glory. But God never ever sets any example before us less than His beloved Son. Christ is the standard. Do we attain her? No, and it humbles us when we realize how far we fall short. But abiding in Him will give us the ability to walk.
Even as he walked. And there had been those whose character was like that.
I understand that there was one man who knew one of our dear brethren and well instructed writers in the 1800s, George B Wigram, who as I say, was well known by another individual. And he said, you know, every time I see that man or I am in his company, I am reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Quite a commendation.
Another man whom I never knew, but he lived in Ontario, gathered to the Lord's name and apparently when he was in his coffin in the Funeral Home, one of his neighbors came in and in conversation with some there pointed to his body in the casket and said, you know that man, he never sinned.
Well, of course we know it wasn't true, but what a what a commendation to come from one's neighbor who had obviously known him and lived beside him, or at least close to him fairly well. So there is a character that you and I are to display to this world.
Is it something we try to do? Scripture never uses that word in connection with the Christian walk.
It is simply letting that new light which Christ has given us, which God has given us in Christ, to display itself. That's what it takes. All I have to do is remove all the hindrances to it and let that new light be the actuating force in my walk down here.
Thing #61.
This commander sounds our God and Father, We come before you this morning and we thank thee for the meditations that we have had before us. We thank thee that we are members of thy family. We thank thee, blessed God, that we can probably our Father. We thank thee for thy beloved Son, that one who is not only our intercessor but also our advocate.
Lord Jesus, we would just pray that as we wait for Thee to come, it might be our desire to walk in obedience to Thy precious word when we think of Thy love and what that was done for each one of us, that it might be the motive to walk in the path. That's blatantly not arguing as to whether something is right or wrong, but Lord to discern my mind. So He asked me for these things. Bless our time together.
In the name of all our Jesus Christ.