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Sin in our lives, will cause a break in fellowship with our Father.
That is why we have an advocate.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Righteous, is our advocate with the Father.
We have to recognize that our salvation rests entirely on what Christ has done for us on the rugged tree of Calvary.
He finished the work of our redemption when He hung and suffered and died in our deserved place. He shed His precious blood on the cruel rugged tree of Calvary so that He could redeemed us from the slave market of sin.
He paid the penalty of our sin, and we are "accepted in the Beloved."
He has made us joint-heirs with Himself.
There is nothing at all that we can ever add to our salvation.
Someone has put it like this.
Upon a life I did not live,
Upon a death I did not die,
Another's life, Another's death,
I stake my whole eternity.
It is finished, Yes, Indeed;
Finished, Every jot!
Sinner, this is all you need!
Tell me, Is it not?
Author unknown.
However, if we are going to have fellowship with the Father, we have to cleanse ourselves.
2 Corinthians 7:1 "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
We have an advocate with the Father.
The word for "advocate" is from the Greek, parakletos. The same word which is translated comforter, in John's gospel.
The Holy Spirit is our Comforter down here and the Lord Jesus is our Comforter up in heaven.
He is our Helper, He will come to our side at our time of need.
Satan is constantly accusing us before the Father.
Revelation 12:10 "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ; FOR THE ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN IS CAST DOWN, who accused them before our God day and night."
Our advocate is far greater than our accuser.
Christ is our propitiation.
He is our mercy seat.
He is the meeting place between God and man.
Propitiation means that our sins have been paid for, in full, by the suffering of another.
That is if we have accepted Him, as our personal Saviour.
Then at the very moment that we sin, even before we repent,
He makes intercession for us.
He represents us before God.
It is because of the Lord Jesus Christ's faithful advocacy, that the Holy Spirit, then brings conviction to us and we are, through Him, able to confess our sin before our heavenly Father.
To confess, means that I get on God's side and I see my sin from His viewpoint.
I confess that what I have said or done or thought is sin.
I have fallen short.
I am guilty before Holy, Righteous and Just God.
When I have confessed my sin before Him, He restores to me the absolute JOY of my salvation and oh how I PRAISE HIM for the Lord Jesus who is my Saviour and for His death, and resurrection. He has - once for all paid the price of all my sin.
That nailed Him to the tree
To die in agony
For all my sin.
For my own guilt and blame
The Great Redeemer came,
Willing to bear the shame
Of all my sin.
Chorus.
Oh, what a Savior is mine!
In Him God's mercies combine;
His love can never decline,
And He loves me.
Verse 2
To Calvary's hill one day
The Lord was led away;
None else the price could pay
For all my sin.
He on the cross was slain,
Yielding His life in pain,
He felt the bitter strain
For all my sin.
Verse 3.
Was ever love so strong?
Was ever crime so wrong
When Jesus suffered long
For all my sin?
He saw my greatest need,
Became my Friend indeed;
Through Him I have been freed
Of all my sin.
AMEN.
The more that we see ourselves in the light of God's Word, the more we see how far we fall short of His glory and the more we love the Lord Jesus. We realize just what it COST HIM, to leave heavens glory, in our behalf, and come down to this earth in a human body, to suffer, to bleed and to die. He bore our sin in His own body on the tree.
And know my heart today:
Try me, O Lord, And know my thoughts I pray:
See if there be some wicked way in me,
Cleanse me from every sin and set me free.
I praise Thee, Lord, For cleansing me from sin;
Fulfill Thy Word, And make me pure within;
Fill me with fire, Where once I burned with shame
Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.
Lord, Take my life, And make it wholly Thine;
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine;
Take all my will, My passion, Self and pride;
I now surrender - Lord, In me abide.
O Holy Ghost, Revival comes from Thee;
Send a revival - Start the work in me:
Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;
For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly plead.
Words by: J. Edwin Orr.
Sung by Losinda.
1 John 2:3 "And by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments."
John is talking about the assurance of our salvation. Assurance comes to us when we keep His commandments. Here John is not talking about the Ten Commandments. They were given to the nation Israel and of course they are for any civilized nation to uphold. The Ten Commandments, are actually for the unsaved, they are to bring us to God. They are our schoolmaster.
Apostle John is here talking about the family of God.
God has something to say to His little children.
1 Thessalonians 4:2 "For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus."
In the last chapter of Thessalonians the apostle Paul gives us a list of some of those those commands. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. Quench not the Spirit and so on.
We simply cannot know in our hearts that we are the children of God, if we disobey Him. This is what the Word of God tells us quite plainly.
Obedience to Christ is essential and it is the very basis of our assurance of salvation.
Anyone can bluff their way through being a child of God but the real deep assurance of salvation is in the heart and we simply cannot bluff ourselves.
The question really is,
Do you believe that the Lord Jesus is very God?
Do you believe that the Bible is His inspired Word?
D you know the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Saviour?
THESE ARE THE TRUTHS THAT WILL BRING US BOLDLY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD.
1 John 2:4 "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
This is very plain talk.
Disobedience to Christ proves that we do not know Him.
The true child of God has a new nature, the nature of His Father, and that new nature cries out to God for fellowship and desires to obey God.
The new nature we have desires to do God's will and desires to fulfill His purpose in this world.
There are many people in the local church today that do not have this experience of regeneration in their lives.
This is clearly seen as there is no real joy in their lives.
They do not know the Great Comforter.
They constantly seek for man to uplift them and thank them for what they do and they need to be continually told how wonderful they are. Actually, they want to be praised.
They do not take their troubles to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Great Physician.
They do not trust Him to work out whatever problem they are going through.
They do not, actually, believe that God will work out their problem for their good.
Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."
The reason is that they do not know Him personally. They do not love Him personally and they do not know that they have been called according to His purpose.
They want a God, whom they can see. One they can feel. They do not want to know Christ's comfort through the diligent study of His Word. The study of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Word to us, especially in the Book of Psalms which is a Him Book because it is all about Him, will produce JOY in the believers life.
The Old Testament spells Christ and the New Testament spells Jesus.
Apostle John makes it very clear to us that we know that we know Him because we keep His commandments. The truth is not in a man who claims to be a child of God but does not keep His commandments.
The Lord Jesus said in
John 14:15 "If ye love Me keep my commandments."
And in
John 14:23 "If a man love Me, he will keep My Words ....."
The only way that we are able to have true fellowship with the Father, and real joy in our lives, is when we are obedient to His Word. His Word tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way that we are able to come into His Holy Presence. His Word tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Truth and the Life.
Now, when we are obedient to His Word, we will accept that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only Saviour of this world, and that He is very God. The Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to us and once we accept that He is who He says He is,
Hebrews 11:6 " .. for he that cometh to God must believe that He is .... " we will realize - through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that we are indeed as the Word of God says,
"dead in trespasses and sins."
Ephesians 2:1 "And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
The Devil takes the dead material (those dead in trespasses and sins) and he energizes it.
The false religions in this world put the Christians to shame because of their great zeal.
The devil is energizing them and he is able to duplicate many of the miracles that are actually scriptural miracles.
Think about the magicians of Egypt who duplicated many of the miracles of Moses.
The devil today is able to delude, and deceive, and lead many people astray.
He is very convincing in the cults and "isms" of this world.
Adam died spiritually the day that he disobeyed God.
He died to God and the things of God.
He lost his capacity and his longing for God.
He was separated from God - death is separation from God.
All death is separation, physical death is the separation of the spirit and the soul from the body, and spiritual death is the separation of the spirit and the soul from God.
After Adam died spiritually he could still go on living physically and mentally, but he was spiritually dead.
Adam passed his sinful nature on to us - his offspring.
Today it is only the convincing work of the Holy Spirit that can prick the conscience of a person.
You and I cannot do it.
Only the Holy Spirit can do it.
The Lord Jesus told the disciples that He would send the Comforter to them, and that
John 16:8 "He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."
We are living in a grave yard.
Men and women "are dead in trespasses and sins."
Adam committed a trespass.
A trespass is to step over the bounds of God.
Sin means to miss the mark.
We just do not come up to God's standard at all, we
"are dead in trespasses and sins,"
and actually, before we are saved, energized by Satan.
That is our description and it is not very pretty - "we walked according to the course of this world."
We took on the life-style of the world - we walked according to the flesh,
"according to the prince of the power of the air."
You see, Satan takes people and he leads them around.
Christians talk of being separated from the world as far as physical sins are concerned but what about the spiritual sins?
Are they not far worse?
Unbelief is an awful sin.
1 John 5:10-12 "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
When you do not believe God, you add to your sins by calling God a liar.
God says, we are to trust Christ and He will save us.
John 5:11 "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
Will you make a decision to trust the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour even right now?
The Word of God tells us in,
2 Corinthians 6:2 " ... Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation."
The very second we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour we are born-again, we are immediately baptized by the Holy Spirit (not with water) and we are placed in the body of believers.
Now once we have been baptized into the body of believers, we are a part of the only true church - the new creation and the only way that we are able to enjoy fellowship with God our Father and all the other believers is through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
WE ARE TO WALK IN THE LIGHT.
We are only shadows of His light when we are born- again.
THE LORD JESUS ALONE, IS THE LIGHT OF THIS WORLD.
We have the Lord Jesus living in us, but we ought never to become buddy buddy with Him.
HE IS GOD OF VERY GOD.
HE IS HOLY, RIGHTEOUS, UNDEFILED AND SEPARATE FROM SINNERS. (Hebrews7:26).
1John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Chorus.
The light of Christ has come into the world.
The light of Christ has come into the world;
All men must be born again
To see the Kingdom of God;
The water and the Spirit bring new life
In God's love.
God gave up His only Son
Out of love for the world,
So that all men who believe in Him
Will live for ever.
The light of God has come to us
So that we might have salvation;
From the darkness of our sins we walk
Into glory with Christ Jesus.
Played by Losinda.
AMEN.
Reply to Caryl@cherith.co.za.
THIS PAGE UPDATED: 12-2-2008.