Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): Making God's word plain. The Alliance of confessing Evangelicals presents God's eternal truths with Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse and the Bible.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: There will never be less need of confession as we grow in the Christian life. Rather, there will be a growing revelation of the reality of the evil one against whose hosts we wrestle. And continuing revelation of evil as God sees it. There will be, thank God, less and less of what the world might call outbreaks of sin. But some of the things which we did rather lightly as young Christians will now grieve us even if they do no more than come to tempt our hearts.

Guest (Male): With his friendly manner, vivid analogies and faithful exposition of the scriptures, Dr. Barnhouse makes the Bible relevant to modern man. His sermons are just as applicable today as when they were first preached decades ago. You can get clean and refreshed after a hot shower. But after a workout in the gym or time mowing the yard, you need to head back into the shower again. There is a sense in which the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from our sin once and for all. But as we stumble and fall into sin during our earthly pilgrimage, we need to be continually cleansed by his precious blood through confession, repentance and faith.

This week, we turn to 1 John chapter 2 and verses 1 and 2. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with his message cleansing part 2.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto the our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We ask thee that in this hour thou shalt speak to all of thy children. That everyone who has turned his face away from thee because of unconfessed sin may know what it is to go back to the cross, to look to thee and see once more thy smile. So take the truth to each heart in this hour. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In our last study, that of the subject of cleansing, we saw the difference between sin and sins.

We considered how God deals with the sins of an unbeliever and those of a believer. And how Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to cleanse from all sin. How God chastens the believer who does not confess and forsake his sin. Finally, we saw that the believer has two natures struggling within him. The flesh and the spirit. But that God has made provision for our continual cleansing from sin and our victory over the old nature. Today we shall study God's provision for cleansing, how we battle against our old natures and the forces of evil. And how God treats his sinning but repentant child.

First, the Bible teaches that God has made provision in advance for our daily, hourly cleansing from sin. So that the old nature can be held in check. Now some will immediately question whether or not I go too far in making such a statement. They fear that a full declaration of the love and grace of God will lead men to rush headlong into sin. Now in repudiation of such a horrible idea, the Apostle Paul writes, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

A man once expressed to me his fear that to teach that God offers pardon in advance for sin committed by the believer would cause some to take advantage of the grace of God. Have you known this truth very long? I asked him. Yes, he said, I I've been familiar with it for many years. Well, has it led you personally to accesses of sin? Well, to be frank, he answered me, it has caused me to weep before God. To weep that I have ever had to avail myself of the provision or cleansing which he has made.

Has not God himself told us that this knowledge of full provision for daily pardon and cleansing from sin was calculated to keep us from sinning? My little children, God tells us, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, now that does not mean any member of the human race as the context shows, but any member of the body of Christ, any believer, if any man, any believer sin, we believers have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, a believer's sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Full forgiveness in advance for any evil is exactly what God has provided in the arrangements he has made for our cleansing from sin. We must realize that nothing about us can astonish God. He has never been suddenly surprised by something we did. He knew long before he saved us exactly what we were. David in the Psalm says he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. In Romans 5 we read it was when we were yet without strength that in due time Christ died for the ungodly. In fact, in Romans 5 God recommends his love to us on the basis of the fact that it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.

Now as you come to know the Lord better, you will understand yourself better and will admit the potentialities of sin that are within your heart. In this lies the explanation of the strange progress of the knowledge of sin which Paul shows in the verses from his writings. Early in his Christian life, he looked out over the company of the apostles, compared himself with them and wrote to the Corinthians, I am the least of the apostles. I'm not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Several years later, he wrote to the Ephesian church saying, unto me, who am less than the least of all the saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

What progress is this? He puts himself, we might say, as number 13 in comparison with the apostles. And then he takes the position of number 500,000 let us say in the number of all the saints. And next, Paul is in prison in Rome and these days are numbered. He knows that the time of his departure is at hand. And in the very last of all his epistles, he writes to young Timothy, no longer comparing himself with apostles or saints, but declaring this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus is come into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

Now here we have one phase of the pilgrim's progress which is not often realized. Least of the apostles, less than the least of all the saints, chief of sinners. Now how did Paul arrive at this final estimate of the sinfulness of sin in his own life? The answer is that as he drew nearer to the Lord Jesus in his Christian life, he realized with increasing clarity how unlike the Lord he was. Let me give you an illustration. Suppose you're on your way to some evening function, you're walking down the street in the dark. On a rainy night, suddenly a car goes by and splashes you with mud from the gutter.

Oh, you say, I wonder if this is too bad for me to go on to my reception. Maybe it will do. Then you get a little nearer the street light and you say, oh, this is worse than I thought. Then finally you come right under the light and say, oh, I must turn around and go back home at once and change my clothing. This cannot be tolerated for this evening. Thus it is as we draw nearer the light of Christ. What seems not too important when we're far from him becomes deadly when we stand by him.

As we come nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, we see more and more that we have nothing of our own upon which we may rely. And as we know him better, we more readily adopt his verdict as to the evil character of our nature. Then and only then are we increasingly eager to avail ourselves of the way of cleansing which he has provided. There will never be less need of confession as we grow in the Christian life. Rather, there will be a growing revelation of the reality of the evil one against whose hosts we wrestle.

And continuing revelation of evil as God sees it. There will be, thank God, less and less of what the world might call outbreaks of sin. But some of the things which we did rather lightly as young Christians will now grieve us even if they do no more than come to tempt our hearts. Now it may readily be seen in the light of all this that an unbeliever might pass over certain manifestations of the old nature without questioning their right or wrong. The believer, however, with the sensitive presence of the Holy Spirit in his heart will be aware of the sinfulness of sin and will desire to clear away those earthborn clouds which hide his Lord even momentarily, which hide him from the eyes of faith.

And how will the believer come into the presence of God in confession of sin in order that fellowship and joy may be restored? It must be realized that Satan will bring up his heaviest reserves to resist the child of God at this point. If the enemy of our souls can keep us with unconfessed and unforgotten sin in our lives, he will succeed in making our Christian witness ineffective. If ever we wrestle against the principalities and powers, if ever we have to do with the rulers of this world's darkness, if ever we contend against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, it is when we seek the Lord for forgiveness and cleansing.

Someone has said that Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. That may be so. But trembling or not, Satan brings up his reinforcements. It may be answered that the Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. There's only half a verse and half a truth in that quotation. In practice, you will find that if you resist the devil in the matter of your own sin, he will advance towards you unless you obey the first half of that verse. Submit yourselves therefore unto God. Then you may resist the devil and he will flee from you.

This submission to God recognizes his lordship in your life. It includes confession of your sin, not sparing yourself as the fleshly nature likes to be spared. Abraham, for example, lied about Sarah then tried to pass it off by saying that after all there was a grain of truth in what he had said. He had taught her to say that she was his sister. And he explained it, well, she is my half sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. It was a half lie. And there must be none of this in our dealings with God.

David sinned against Bathsheba and against Uriah, her husband, whose life he took. He sinned against the families of all the men who were slain in battle because the defeat followed his sin. He sinned against the nation over which he ruled by staying at home upon the housetop of temptation in the days when as king he should have gone to battle. And yet when Nathan accused David, none of these phases of his sin entered in. He did not think about his sin against Bathsheba, his sin against Uriah, his sin against the soldiers and their families, his sin against the nation.

But he cried out against thee. Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Oh, it's difficult to record the passionate staccato cries that are like heartbeats. Sometimes the soul is so conscious of the warfare that is going on in our struggle that is in the heavenly places between the forces of Satan and the forces of God that one can do no more than lie panting awhile like a soldier who has made his sharp dash toward the enemy and who crouches behind some shelter until he can regain breath and courage to go on.

For as we approach God in any reality of power, the enemy would battle the strongest. But Christ crucified is our hope. And soon we find that we stand strong in him in the very presence of the Father. What holiness is here? How shall I speak to him? Eternal light, eternal light, how pure the soul must be when placed within thy searching sight it shrinks not. But with calm delight can live and look on thee. The spirits that surround thy throne may bear the burning bliss. But that is surely theirs alone since they have never never known a fallen world like this.

Oh, how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated beam? There is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode and offering in a sacrifice, a Holy Spirit's tender energies, an advocate with God. These these prepare us for the sight of holiness above. The sins of ignorance and night may ever dwell in the eternal light through the eternal love. You see, the accuser of the brethren charges us with the very things we come to confess. But the judge knows how to treat this disbarred accuser.

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God has justified us. There is no condemnation for the saint of God. Who is he that condemneth? Christ has died. Yes, rather he has risen again. And then it is that the father reveals his heart of love. I come before him. I try to tell him what I feel. But there are things that he will not let me say. Do you remember how the prodigal son rehearsed his speech on the way home? You can listen to him walking down the road. He said, I will arise and go to my father and I will say, father, I've sinned against heaven before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Make me as one of thy hired servants. Father, I have sinned against heaven before thee. No more worthy to be called thy son. Make me one as thy hired servants. Make me one of thy hired servants. Now say that over and over to yourself. Say it in the tone of a boy who is memorizing his lesson. Do I have it right? Shall I say it that way? And then the son arrived home. Oh, whoever attached the false title of the prodigal son to this parable did not know what they were talking about. This is not the parable of the prodigal son.

This is the parable of the forgiving father. The father sees the boy when he's a long distance off. He runs to meet him. The boy begins his well rehearsed speech. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But that's the moment where the father stops his mouth with a kiss. The boy never finishes the sentence. The father will not let him say, make me as one of thy hired servants. Oh, it's just as though that we today should get on our knees speaking to our heavenly father.

Father, I'm not worthy to be a saint. Just reduce me to an angel. If the Lord should ever demote one of his redeemed sons because of the manifestation of the sins of the old nature, he would reduce the value of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is written, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Oh, no. Back in the Old Testament, there's the vision of Zechariah that tells this story. The high priest of that day, one Joshua, stood before God in filthy garments and Satan stood there to resist him.

But the Lord Jesus said, Jehovah rebuke thee, oh Satan. Even Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? And the Lord spoke to those that stood before him saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment. So the change of raiment was brought. And they clothed him with clean garments. The cleansed miter was brought and placed upon his head. And he stood once more in the fellowship and joy of the Lord.

And so do we. Let us then go into the presence of God in the way that he has determined. And we shall know that our sins are forgiven, that fellowship with him has been restored and that God's power is provided for our victory. Our hearts, if God we seek to know, shall know him and rejoice. His coming like the morn shall be like morning songs, his voice. And we pray the our father that there may be many that will be willing to look thee straight in the eye this day and know first of all the fire of that glance and then its love.

As thou dost first point us to Jesus Christ and then draw us to thine own heart. Hear us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Jesus appeared to take away our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need to be continually cleansed and purified by his precious blood. You are listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Today's message is entitled cleansing part 2. Satan has many tools to entice people to commit sin. The Bible refers to him as our adversary. He is our great enemy and he has many devious tactics. Dr. Barnhouse shows us how we can employ scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat the evil one. Dr. Barnhouse's booklet temptation and how to meet it is our free gift to you.

Simply call 1-800-488-1888 or visit alliancenet.org. Like the Apostle Paul, Dr. Barnhouse presents Christ crucified to an unbelieving world. Knowing that while many may scoff, others will respond. Would you come alongside of us in prayer and financial support for this ministry of the word? You can make a single contribution or become a monthly donor. Make a tax deductible donation at alliancenet.org or call 1-800-488-1888 and our mailing address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is just one of a number of ministries of the Alliance of confessing Evangelicals. Connect and listen to other articulate reformed Bible teachers such as Dr.

James Montgomery Boice, Dr. Harry L. Reeder and Dr. Philip Graham Ryken at alliancenet.org. And again, if you would like to receive our free gift offer, Dr. Barnhouse's booklet temptation and how to meet it, call 1-800-488-1888. Join Dr. Barnhouse next week as he reminds us of that old gospel song. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. And the Apostle John agrees. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. That's next week on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Jesus appeared to take away our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We need to be continually cleansed and purified by his precious blood. You are listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Today's message is entitled cleansing part 2. Satan has many tools to entice people to commit sin. The Bible refers to him as our adversary. He is our great enemy and he has many devious tactics. Dr. Barnhouse shows us how we can employ scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat the evil one. Dr. Barnhouse's booklet temptation and how to meet it is our free gift to you. Simply call 1-800-488-1888 or visit alliancenet.org. Like the Apostle Paul, Dr.

Barnhouse presents Christ crucified to an unbelieving world. Knowing that while many may scoff, others will respond. Would you come alongside of us in prayer and financial support for this ministry of the word? You can make a single contribution or become a monthly donor. Make a tax deductible donation at alliancenet.org or call 1-800-488-1888 and our mailing address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is just one of a number of ministries of the Alliance of confessing Evangelicals. Connect and listen to other articulate reformed Bible teachers such as Dr. James Montgomery Boice, Dr.

Harry L. Reeder and Dr. Philip Graham Ryken at alliancenet. And again, if you would like to receive our free gift offer, Dr. Barnhouse's booklet temptation and how to meet it, call 1-800-488-1888. Join Dr. Barnhouse next week as he reminds us of that old gospel song. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. And the Apostle John agrees. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. That's next week on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.