In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God is willing to forgive the sins of anyone who comes to Him. The focus is on the fact that Christ died for our sins, and there is no emphasis on any other means of salvation. The preacher uses the analogy of the Passover in the land of Egypt to illustrate that anyone who wanted to be part of the Passover could do so by seeking shelter under the shed blood of the lamb. The sermon also highlights the importance of confessing our sins and seeking cleansing through the Word of God.

Now, tonight, shall we return to our first letter of John, 1st John, chapter 1. I intimated this morning that we would consider tonight the two cleansings in the first chapter, perhaps early in chapter 2, the propitiatory work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and perhaps in another chapter, if time permits, something about this change in the Christian's life. 1 John, chapter 1, verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Chapter 2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. I think it's one of the cardinal principles of studying the New Testament in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that when you have an application or a benefit of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ implied, there is a very direct reference to an Old Testament title. You and I in this age, being in the Church, and learning the truths relating to the Church in the epistles of Paul, very often read Scripture in the light of later truth, forgetting that when it was written, it was based upon what the people knew of the Old Testament. These to whom these New Testament books were written were largely Jews. They were men who were well-grounded in the truth of Scripture, and that's the Old Testament in their day. But you and I have neglected that study of the Old Testament to such a point that when there is distinct and definite reference to a type, we either don't know what the type is, or we misunderstand its application. So, in the seventh verse of our first chapter, there's a definite cleansing by blood. One would not want to make an individual an offender for a word, but there is no such thing as a fountain filled with blood by which an individual may be cleansed from his sins. The fountain that's opened for Israel in the coming day for sin in the book of Zechariah is not a fountain of blood, but a fountain of water. It refers not to the seventh verse of our first chapter, but to the ninth verse. And if it sounds terribly confusing just now, just wait a while. It will be worse before we're through. I do hope that we'll be able to get that far tonight and make clear what I have in mind. But when the apostle says we are cleansed, our sins, from all of them, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has in mind very definitely an occasion in the Old Testament in which sins were cleansed by blood. But as far as the individual being washed in the blood, no such thing is found in the word of God. What the song is in Revelation chapter 1 is unto him that loveth and looseth from our sins in his own blood. You and I are not in that sense of the word washed in the blood. We are washed in water, and that's something different. But our sins are cleansed, purged, put away. We are cleansed by virtue of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're going back tonight, Lord willing, as time permits, into some of the types in the Old Testament to which John refers in this first chapter, Beyond the Thousand. But there are four main types in the Old Testament that refer to the person and work of Christ, and it's essential that we understand these four to understand what is based on them, or what refers to them in the New Testament. The first is the Passover. The second is the ordinance of the covenant in Exodus 24. The third is the day of atonement in Leviticus 16. And the fourth is the ordinance of the red hat, for so little mention and so much misunderstood, in Numbers chapter 19. And those four form the basis of the economy of the whole nation of Israel and its relationship to God, and these are referred to constantly in the New Testament, over and over again by the writers of the epistles of the New Testament. Hebrews is four, and if you don't understand the Passover, the covenant, the day of atonement, and the red hat, much of Hebrews must be a clouded book to the individual who reads it. By the way, let me say this, as brother suggested, I'll see you when you read and study the epistles of the Hebrews. Where the apostle begins in the epistles of the Hebrews is with the ordinance of the covenant of Exodus chapter 24. But briefly, let me run through this. In Exodus chapter 12, when you have the Passover, it speaks of redemption. Peter very definitely refers to when we were redeemed with the precious blood of a lamb, and without spot and without blemish. Redemption was for anybody, and for everybody. It was the application of blood, and any who would could come within the house that was covered with that blood and not be shunned. The only instruction was that that lamb was to be slain, the blood was to be coughed, and applied on the outside of the post of the door. And all within that house, regardless of whom they might be, regardless of their moral condition, anyone who accepted the invitation of God and came within the safety of a blood-covered house, that individual was free from the penalty of death that was in the land of Egypt that night. And all the gospel of the New Testament to the unsaved is touched in the language of the Passover. The gospel the apostle tells the Corinthians that he preached is that Christ died for our sins, and there's no emphasis upon that word for in the gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. What was proclaimed as you read through the book of Acts was simply this, that Jesus Christ the Son of God has come, he was crucified upon the cross, his blood was shed, he was raised bodily the third day from the dead, and now God has made this same Jesus Lord in Christ. To the Gentiles in the house of Corinthians the message went out, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins. That's all. The message was proclaimed that on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God was willing to forgive the sin of any who would come to him. I want to repeat, there was no emphasis upon that real proposition for when Christ died for our sins, there was no emphasis upon that point. It's simply the declaration that on behalf of sin, Christ died, and because of the death of Christ, because of his shed blood, God has offered amnesty and pardon, and the forgiveness of sins to any who will come within the shelter of the Passover in the land that he is. If an Egyptian wished to have part in the Passover that night, he was perfectly free to do so. If he wanted to obey him, tell him of the protection. There were no restrictions and no limits to those who could be sheltered by the blood of the lamb in the Passover on that night in Egypt, and so it is with the gospel that we proclaim tonight. The shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ offers pardon and protection for any who will come within the pale of its protection. Any who are willing to come to the Lord Jesus Christ in simple faith may find the protection of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That offer goes out to whosoever without distinction. God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That blood is sufficient to include any within the scope of its benefit, any who will come. And the gospel is always couched in the language of the Passover. But now, the instant you leave Exodus 12, you've got to redeem people. They were redeemed by the blood of the Passover that night in the land of Egypt. They went through the Red Sea, their separation from the land of Egypt, and they come out on the other side of the Red Sea a redeemed nation. Now, I'm not talking about their individual salvation before God. It's as a nation they were redeemed that night in Egypt, but many of them doubtless are in a lost eternity today. It has nothing to do with their individual salvation before God, but these are physical pictures of spiritual reality. And Israel was a redeemed nation. Everything that happened to them ever after that was to a redeemed people, and it's essential to keep that in mind. The covenant was for a redeemed people. The Day of Atonement was for a redeemed people. The ordinance of the Red Heifer was for a redeemed people. Now, when you come to the Day of Atonement in Leviticus chapter 16, one of the acts of that Day of Atonement was that the high priest confessed upon the head of a scapegoat the sins, plural, of the nation of Israel. And that scapegoat carried them off into a wilderness. And you do not come to the definite imputation of sins to a substitute until you have a redeemed people. You have the same truth in 1 Peter. Chapter 1, we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Alright, when you read chapter 1, you've got a redeemed people. What do you come to chapter 2? Who his own self bore our sins, and his own body on the tree. In chapter 1, you have the Passover. In chapter 2, the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was for a people who had come within the scope of the benefits of the Passover. In plain language, what I'm driving at is that I have no right to tell an unsaved man, Jesus Christ bore every one of your sins that you have ever committed or ever will commit when he died on the cross. I have no right to tell him that. The only thing I have a right to tell him is that on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God is willing to forgive your sins. If he accepts it, then I can tell him, Jesus Christ bore your sins on the cross. Every last one of them has been borne by the Lord Jesus. And if you'll take the language of Scripture, it always heeds to that line. Always. I don't want to go into the argument of that tonight, or the difficulties you may get into or should get into if you reverse it. But all the difficulty about a limited atonement, about Arminianism and Calvinism, stems from this very thing. The failure to see the distinction between the Passover and the Day of Atonement. Those who hold a limited atonement preach the Day of Atonement for the world. It was never given to the world. It was given to a redeemed people. And those who believe you can lose your salvation once you are saved have never realized that the Day of Atonement was for a redeemed people. And I'm not by any means saying when you come to the Day of Atonement that you reach the limited atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not at all. I'm simply stating that is never given to the world always to a redeemed people. And not until an outsider had been circumcised and come within the scope of the nation of Israel could he benefit from the Day of Atonement. Anybody circumcised or uncircumcised could have had the benefit of the Passover on the night of the funeral anointing, but only the nation of Israel would realize the benefits of the Day of Atonement. Now, what the Apostle has referenced to in 1 John 1, 7, I believe, is the Day of Atonement. Go back to the book of Exodus, or the book of Leviticus, please, chapter 16. And you'll find very similar language to what we've read in the 7th verse of the first chapter of 1 John. Leviticus chapter 16. Now listen, folks, I hope what I've just said hasn't upset you, and I hope it hasn't confused you, but I believe it's essential for an understanding of the doctrines of the gospel. Could I recommend for you, for you who, as to Robert Anderson's The Gospel in its Ministry, which for the good of God's people has been reprinted. You can get it at a very inexpensive rate. If you want to study the doctrines of the gospel, that would be an excellent book for you to purchase. Now, Leviticus chapter 16. Just for the sake of time, the 30th verse. The day will come from that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. And it was the application of blood on the Day of Atonement to cleanse them from all their sins, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleansed us from every sin. To cleanse you, God said through Moses, who? A redeemed people. A redeemed people. And those of us who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior find this blessed truth, that we've been cleansed by his precious blood. Now, the blood on the Day of Atonement never touched the people of Israel. It did on the ordinance of the covenant, but it never did on the Day of Atonement. That blood was sprinkled on them before the mercy seat as a witness to God of the sacrifice that had been offered for the sins of Israel. And God sees the value of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by virtue of what he sees in the blood of Christ, he cleanses me from all my sins. It's not that that blood touches me, in that sense of the word, that I am washed in the blood. Not at all. That blood stands before God as a witness to the value of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of that blood, God cleanses me. And in that sense, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from every sin. So here on the Day of Atonement, the blood of that animal never touched the people of Israel. It was there as a witness before God on and before the mercy seat, and by virtue of that blood, they were cleansed from all their sins. And that's what John is talking about in 1 John 1.7. It's our position, I say again, not our condition, if we walk in the light where we are, by virtue of that blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Let me repeat again, for those of you who may not have been here the other night, if it were our condition, our state, how I lived before God, then the wording ought to be in 1 John 1.7, if we walked according to the light. But if I walked according to the light, I wouldn't need the blood that cleansed me, because I wouldn't have any sin. No, it's that I've been brought into the light by virtue of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. How did the high priest stand in the presence of God once on the Day of Atonement? Actually twice, once for himself and his own family, and once for the people of Israel. How did he get in there? He had two things. He had blood in a basin, and he had incense. Incense, oh the person of Christ, blood, the work of Christ, and that's how he stood in the light before God. God was there, and that priest went into the holiest and the very presence of God, who is light, once a year, with that which spoke of the person and work of Christ. Now that was temporary, but you and I have the same privilege today indeed, we're brought into the holiest of all. And how can I stand in the light? The same way that high priest stood there for a moment, by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It did not depend upon the moral fitness of the high priest, it depended solely on what he brought into the presence of God. Maybe even a Baidu entered to their tombs, because they had no rights there, and they were not bringing in what God demanded. And any man, no matter how moral or religious, the presence of God, a part of him, will come into the presence of God only through his own sins. But we are in the light. We, John says, the children of God are in the light, because of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, very often you hear a man's prayer, an individual's prayer. We have it so often sometimes in our individual or our private prayer meetings, just the men together, and I never say anything about it, the individual, that as we confess our sins, we come and put it under the blood, every time a Christian confesses a sin. Well, that again is confusing the day of atonement and the ordinance of the Reheb. No, you don't bring your sins to the blood, and you don't come back to the blood when a Christian confesses his sins. If there must be a re-application of blood to cleanse from sin, then there's only one reason for that re-application, and the apostle makes it as clear as crystal in the Tenth of Hebrews, the only reason for a re-application of blood is because of the failure of the sacrifice whose blood we shed. How often did this day of atonement have to be repeated? Every year! Why? Because they couldn't find a sacrifice that would do the job forever. If I must return to the blood of Christ in that expression, then I myself am saying, whether I realize it or not, that when I came the first time, the blood of Jesus Christ wasn't sufficient to do the whole job, and I've got to come back to it. No, my friend, no, no. If a sacrifice could have been found in Israel sufficient to put their sins away, the ordinance of the day of atonement would never have been repeated. The only reason it was repeated was because the sacrifice was not sufficient to do the job the first time. The only reason blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat more than once is because it could not avail when it was sprinkled the first time. But our Lord Jesus Christ had offered one sacrifice, shed his blood once, and I come within the good of that blood once, and once forever, because of the value of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who offered himself upon the cross for our sins. And that is never repeated. He, by that blood, obtained an eternal redemption, and he entered in once into the holy place. Once, and that's all. The high priest entered every year. The Lord Jesus entered once. The high priest entered every year because he couldn't bring a sacrifice that would keep him from entering again the next time with another one. The Lord Jesus entered once in virtue of a sacrifice that satisfies God forever. And by that blood we have been cleansed from all our sins. And so it is, our sins were laid upon him. You see, the language of Isaiah 53 is the language of the day of atonement. What did the priest do when he put his hands on the head of that scapegoat? He laid figuratively on the scapegoat the sins of the nation of Israel. And now that language is picked right out of Leviticus 16 and transferred to the reality of Isaiah 53, and Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Of us all! Who's that? All we like sheep! Not all we like hogs and dogs. All we like sheep. Actually he's writing to the peace that God has made. The time will not have permitted to delay on the subject. That's 1 John 1 7. The second is 1 John 1 9. If we, now we who have been cleansed from our sins in the 7th verse, what is this business? If we confess our sins, he's paid one just to forgive us our sins. Now do you notice it changes? It cleanses us from all unrighteousness. In the 7th verse you have cleansed from sin. In the 9th verse, cleansed from unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, how is this business then that if the blood of Jesus Christ his Son has cleansed me from all my sin, why is it then that sin must be cleansed again? Oh, it's the difference between the day of atonement and the ordinance of the red heifer. It's the difference between guilt and defilement. The guilt of my sin is taken care of by the day of atonement. But now here I am as a Christian, and I'm defiled by that sin. My communion is robbed. I can't have communion with God when I'm in sin and defiled by it. And so that sin is, the defilement of poverty is cleansed. And so John says if we, we Christians who have sinned, if we confess our sins, he's paid one just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Numbers chapter 19, briefly please. The 19th chapter of Numbers. For the sake of time, read the 18th verse. A clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And a clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean, on the third day, and on the seventh day. And on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean as evening. You know the ordinance of the Red Heifer, did you not? That animal was taken outside the camp and slain. It was burned outside the camp. Its ashes were gathered up after its blood had been sprinkled, and they were kept in a clean place outside the camp. Now when an individual israelite who touched the body of a dead person, or a tomb, or a grave, or entered into a tent where a person had died, or was defiled in any of these ways, then those ashes were taken, and running water was put over them. And then that water that had touched those ashes was taken and sprinkled on the first day, and the seventh day after his defilement, and that individual was cleaned. Now look here. This Israelite who was defiled, came in the good of a Passover redemption. He was in the good of a day of atonement, but he had been defiled. And unless he was cleansed, he was not permitted into the benefits of being a member of the nation of Israel. He could not come to the sanctuary with his offering. He could not participate in the festival days of that nation because of his defilement. He was cut off from all these things, is the language of this time. You and I who are saved are eternally told before God because of the value of the work of the Lord Jesus. And we're redeemed. Our sins have been laid upon the Lord Jesus. And let me say, I don't practice what I preach. I'm sorry. It's always that way. It's the idols all got a clay seat. It's awfully hard sometimes. You know, you're so used to mixing up Scripture, you just go ahead and mix it up. You're just going to have to overlook my human frailty. So don't look along. But you and I have been redeemed. Our sins, by virtue of what applies to the Day of Atonement, have been laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. But now I, as a Christian, commit sin. That does not change the value of the Day of Atonement. That does not change the value of the Passover. But it does very much affect my enjoyment of the benefits of those things. Think you I can now come into the presence of God and sing a song of praise and worship? Not at all. Do you think I can bend the knee and intercede for the unsaved? Not on your life. Do you think I can pick up the Word of God and have the Spirit of God feed me on the things of Christ and not on your life? What's the matter? I'm unpleased. I'm unpleased. And what's the only thing that will remove that unpleasance? Oh, his passion. And then he cleanses us. And so here in Numbers chapter 19, the individual who goes through the ordinance of the red heifer has been cleansed once more, cleansed from his defilement, that he can travel by coming in sight. Now I don't want to dwell tonight on how we come in contact with these things that are mentioned in Numbers 19. I want to get the essential thought of this ordinance. Now that water gained its value from having become in contact with the ashes of the red heifer. And the ninth verse of 1 John gains its value from the seventh verse. It's because his blood has been shed that he can now cleanse us from sin when we sin. And that water was applied to the individual. So the Spirit of God symbolized in that running walk now takes the Word of God and he lays it home to my heart. And I realize what I've been doing is sin. The only thing I can do is get into the presence of God and confess that sin that I'm Now there's one more point in this ordinance of the red heifer here in Numbers chapter 19. And that's that interesting expression at the close of the 19th verse. He shall wash his foot, bathe himself in water, and shall be cleaned even. Now I'm taking completely the other side of the picture from what we've been looking at in the morning. That is the complete and free grace of God apart from law. Now we're coming to the response. He shall bathe himself. Now what is the symbolism of this bathing? Well you'll find a verse, and I want you to turn to it, in the first chapter of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 1 and the 16th verse. For God is appealing to these people who have turned their backs on him and gone into sin. Isaiah 1 16. Wash you. Make you clean. Now that's exactly what the individual did after he'd been sprinkled with the water of the red heifer. Wash you. Make you clean. How? Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. And that's the individual bathing himself at even before he could come back into the tent. Now, oh dear Christians, there's no use in my getting on my knees and telling God that I am confessing my sin unless there is in my heart that desire to turn away from the thing that is defiling. I haven't confessed the thing at all. I may have said words with my lips, but it hasn't been confession. Along with the sprinkling of the water of that red heifer, there had to be the individual bathing himself. And here's the meaning of it. Turn from that iniquity. And I repeat, I haven't confessed that sin unless there is the desire down here to get rid of it and to turn from it, and not to be guilty of it again. Now that doesn't necessarily prevent my falling into it again. But unless there has been the desire to get rid of that thing and to be free from it, I say there hasn't been the confession of the thing open and honest in the presence of God. And only if we confess our sins are we going to have them cleaned. Now you have this same thing of this water of the red heifer in the Epistles of the Hebrews. I'm back to this book again. We can't stay out of it this week. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 13, a verse with which you're doubtless very familiar. Hebrews 9, 13. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify it to the purifying of the flesh. Now let's stop right there. The only thing that ordinance of the Old Testament could do was sanctify the flesh. And what I mean by that is this. Here is an Israelite who has come into the value of the redemptive sacrifice of the Passover. He's participated in the benefits of the Day of Atonement. He's within the scope of the covenant of Exodus 24. And now he gets defiled. Outwardly, we'll say a loved one dies in the tent. And he puts his hand upon that body, of course, in order to bury it. And by touching that dead person, he himself has been defiled. Now that man could be completely restored to all the benefits of the nation of Israel by going through the ordinances of the red heifer. But his heart may be as estranged from God as any Gentile. Those ordinances could not touch the heart of man. They sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, and of the flesh only. It sets them apart as a nation physically. But it had nothing to do with their hearts. Nothing to do. And there may have been men and women who were redeemed by the Passover, who were as strangers to God as the Egyptians around them who perished, because it depended upon their heart's faith in what God had said. And there may be those who stood on the day of atonement and heard their sins confessed over the head of the scapegoat, and their hearts were estranged from God. It meant nothing to them, but they came to them physically unspeakable. And here may have been an Israelite who had been defiled by touching the dead, and he goes through the ordinances of the red heifer, and be restored to the privileges of the nation of Israel in all the time his heart be estranged from God. Now, look here, I'm facing a vital reality. Here I, as an individual now not in connection with the nation of Israel, I have nothing to do with outward ordinances that touch my flesh. I have to do with the living God. And I've got a guilty conscience because of my sin before God. You can put all the ashes and water of any red heifer you want to on my flesh, and that has never touched my heart and conscience. I want something that's going to reach my conscience and give it to me. The ashes of a red heifer sprinkled only to sanctify and purify the flesh. Now go on with me. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without thought to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Ah, now I come to reality, thank God. Because of the value of the blood of Jesus Christ, I find on the authority of God's own Word that my sins are gone in my conscience, but your conscience will have rest only, only, only to me. This is the most beautiful case I have ever met with. And you can ask him, Mr. Solomon, what are you trusting? Oh, nothing. But that man is in abject misery night and day. He can't sleep. He can't get to eat. He can't do anything. He's afraid not to say his law. And that conscience of his is at him night and day. Oh, Mr. Anderson, he says, you don't know what a terrible sinner I've been since I professed salvation as a youngster way back yonder in Virginia 50 years ago. I made a profession, but oh, what a life I've led since then. I said, Mr. Collins, I'm not interested in what profession you made 50 years ago. Tell me, what are you trusting tonight for your salvation? Oh, nothing but the blood. And he comes to me with it. He says, I'm like that leper that came to the Lord Jesus. I know the Lord can forgive me. I know his blood can put away my sins, but I'm like that leper. Lord, if thou wilt, thou can make me clean. I said, Mr. Thomas, what did the Lord say to the leper? I will. Oh, yes, but you don't know me. You can't get anywhere with me. And why doesn't his conscience have rest? Because he cannot accept the testimony of the word of God that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to put his sins away. That's why he can't. No, my friend, that conscience of yours and mine can be purged and have rest because of the value of Jesus Christ's precious blood and the testimony of that blood that I find in the word of God. Notice the same thing in the 10th. Verse 19, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. How is this? Well, verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's it. The sprinkling of the organs of the red heifer only touched the flesh, but our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience. And what? Ah, now we come to the very practical style, that our bodies washed with pure water, the water of pure sin. My right into the presence of God is the blood of Jesus Christ, but I can only go there in enjoyment, as I have left those things I confess. Our bodies washed with pure water. And again, he's going back to the organs of the red heifer. All of this thing had this ramifications all through the scriptures. I'm persuaded when the Lord Jesus Christ said in Nicodemus, except the man be born of water and the spirit, in Ezekiel chapter 36 and 37, the only way Israel is going to get into the kingdom in a coming day is for God to sprinkle clean water on them. And what do you think it is that I would know about clean water being sprinkled on them? Why the organs of the red heifer? Immediately Nicodemus should have picked that up. And you have that in Ezekiel 36. Go and cleanse them from all their iniquities. The organs of the red heifer. And that's a picture of what you and I had the reality in 1 John 1.9. And the whole thing is based, the whole thing is based in 1 John chapter 2. Let's go there now. I think we'll get to this. 1 John 2. Now he's writing that we might not sin. We've seen that division of the epistle. But now, suppose we do sin. Now I know I shouldn't sin. And there shouldn't be any excuse for it. Let me say this. There is absolutely no excuse for sin in the life of a child of God. Now you understand me. I'm not teaching that you and I can't don't sin. I'm not teaching that sin was a sin. But there is no excuse for sin. The whole fault lies in us. There's no fault with the provision that God has made. The fault lies in us. Now he said, I'm writing this to you, you might not sin. But if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sin. Now propitiation, that's what that is. This is a propitiatory sacrifice. In Romans chapter 3 you have the mercy seat given again in Hebrews chapter 8. The very same word, mercy seat, mercy seat, mercy seat. And you know the language of the mercy seat. Need I go over it tonight? But now notice the language here. He is the propitiation for our sin. We always say in this scripture he made propitiation, but the scripture says he is the propitiation. What do you mean by that? Oh well he offered his sacrifices on the cross, but where is he? At the right hand of God. And he is the mercy seat. And there before God is the eternal witness of what he did on the cross. And right tonight he's the propitiation for our sin. How can God forgive my sins and cleanse me from that unrighteousness when I go to him in confession? Because right beside him is the one who is the eternal witness of the value of his own work on the cross. He is the propitiation. And if any man sins, we, oh not if any man sins, he has an advocate. No, we have an advocate all the time. The relationship is unchanged. Jesus Christ the righteous. I've never been in court, and I may be all along what I'm about to say, but I understand that he's got to, so that he can pick out any extenuating circumstances and weave your story around to give it the best light to present at his accordance. In other words, he wants to present your case to the best of his ability so that you can go free. Now the Lord Jesus is our defense law. But no, he can't do that. Because you and I just ain't got a case. There is no reason for our sinning. And if the Lord Jesus Christ were to plead my case, he wouldn't have any case to plead. But he doesn't plead my case. He pleads his own. And that's a perfect case. He's got an air type defense. He's got a perfect case for me. He pleads his own. Jesus Christ the one, the righteous. He's the one interceding for me. No matter how often Satan may hurl his accusations against me before the throne of God. The Lord Jesus Christ pleads only his own precious blood. He pleads his own case. And on that basis, and on that basis alone, I'm clean. But now we come to this subject of sin and the Christian's life. All that, I don't know whether we'd better touch this now. Well, I'll just take chapter 3, verse 6, and with this we'll close. Whosoever abideth in sin, sin is not. That's simple, isn't it? Whosoever abideth in sin. Ah, why do we get into all this difficulty? Why is it that I've just come in the language of the ninth verse of that first chapter and confessed sin? Because I haven't been abiding in Christ. Why is it that Satan gets an advantage off me? Why is it that I'm tripped up by the lusts of the flesh? Why is it that the world gets any hold upon my heart? I haven't been abiding in Christ, and that's the whole difference. I know in my own experience, and I've proven it this week again, any morning that I don't begin with the Lord in his word and in his presence, I'm bound to fall and fail. I have absolutely ensured my own, and it has never yet failed in my history. It's that constant abiding in Christ. I don't care what you call it. Practice the presence of God, or whatever you want. You may think that that's something for a bunch of mystics. No, it's not. It's exceedingly practical. Abiding in Christ. If it's for mystics, then I would regard all of us as mystics. Abiding in Christ. The consciousness of his presence in everything I do. Oh, dear Christians. This is it. If we abide in Christ. I know if you're here tonight, if I'm here, and God knows my heart. If you're here as a child of God tonight, and you don't have that subtlety with him, then there's only one thing to do, and that's then beginning right there. Abide in him. Don't be afraid.