The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-09-19
Gull Text of a Sermon Preached
by Rev. Joseph H. Smith.
a FREE AND FULL CONFESSION
OF OUR SINS WILL RESULT IN
OUR FORGIVENESS BY A Low
ING SAVIOUR, WHO WILL
CLEANSE Us FROM ALL UN-
RIGHTEOUSNESS A COMFORT.
ING ASSURANCE TO ALL WHO
BELIEVE IN HIM.


pentecostal meeting at Salem, on Friday,
September 10.
MT. Smith took as his text: eff we con-
Tess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us out sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousuess." ~ 1 John, 10
This text will strike you with some in
terest when call you to ncte that it is
mt de up of couplets. 1t goes for the
most part by two's. There is, first, he
ana we; there is, second our sins and on,
unrlghteousness; there is, third, two of his
attributes, faithful and just and there IS,
touTth, two OF his great gifts of grace,
forgive and cleanse. Tine text IS made up
OIL couplets-He and we; sins (plurnD.
rnrighteousness-( singular); faithful and
Just; forgive and cleanse
And with that little analysis before
your minds, just let ne remind you--you
would be i'll no danger would YOU, of
confounding "he'' and "we?" You would
be in no danger, would you, of confountl-
ing faithfulness and justice. They are
TWO distinct attributes. So let me advise
you not to confound the other pairs OF
terms. Do not confound "sius'' with
,nnrlghieo"sness' DO not confound
forgiveness" with Cleansing" They
are as different as faithful and Just.
They are rs different as re aud we
1t is of these truths that want TO talk
to you tonight, and by way of rapid in
troductcn, let me state II historical fact
or two, thnt .maybe will throw light on
the screen on which Truth is pictured.
There was then (and there have always
been so far AZ we know, and there are
now, persons who deny the fact OF sin
There were persons who denied that we
were sinners in the sense that God nc
counts us sinners, and there were persons
who denied that we were sinful in the
way that the scriptures reveal us to he
sinful. And so, there are persons to lav
with the same ideas. l recollect when
was very little hoy the yearly meeting
of the HiNite Quakers. The Hixites are
the Unitarian branch of Quakers. Itw was
to Dc hela two or three squares from
where we lived. l was curious aud
begged my mother to let me go and ut.
tend Quaker meeting She at last con-
sented on promise that ! would behave
and be good boy, and I went and,
though little fellow, heard some strange
things Heard, for instance, n woman of
very great ABILITY as aspreacher. / have
learned since she was I.ucret,a Martin.
heard her preach sermon Of perhaps an
hours length. She said several things
that startled me, which ] have never
forgotten. One was this, she believed
nothing much in the Old Testament and
believed she had no faith whatever in the
doctrine that man was depraved, that he
had sin in his heart. Now | heard tn Mt
when little boy. Beloved. in the time
of John there were PERSONS promugating
the same doctrine. The first epistle OF
John, parts o: it ut least, is to be inter
eted ~ IL REPUTATION of the errors John
was dealing with. He was dealing with
persons who said: eve have not sinned
and we haze no need OF cleansing, no need
of blood. us you say, of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to cleanse our unrighteousnesS. -
And then there were persons who denied
accountability for the sins they had com
United, denied that they were under con
dem nation for them, were sinners. Now,
alluding TO two other texts in this chan
ter John says: eff we say that we have
not siuned, we make Him n liar, and
His word is not in lis.n "If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in u.s." Our own CON
sciences should have convicted us of sin.
We have been sinful in our inward de-
prhvity, inward lusts and desires and
passions, ana IL now. on some theoretical,
philosophical basis, we declare that we
have no sin, and have no need for the
cleansing power of Christ, that we are
free men-bea1 in mind, If we say that
we have nc sin-we deceive ourselves
Now then he says: ''If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and (when was a boy and
went to school and leaned grammar. the
teacher taught me that the conjunction
and introduced something additional.
something to follow)to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." This is the text of
this hour. This is the truth that ,John is
bringing. before the people. Now, If we
say that we have not sinned. we deceive
ourselves. Our own heart, would tell us
better than that. But if we make IA clean
breast Of the matter and submit to God s
plan of salvation, He will forgive MS for
past sins and cleanse our hearts of un-
righteousness.
Suppose we step into the heart of the
text and look ut sins and unri2hteous
ness. You will notice one i'm the plural
form and one ia the singular form, and
this is not exceptional, incidental or acct
dental. Our actual sins aie almost al
ways referred to in the Scriptures in the
plural number. and there is good reason
for that, for Il man who ls.a sinner has
usually sinneh more than once, violated
Gods law more than once; and not only
so, but violation of one commandment
is transgression of the whole law. Now
the other form of sin is spoken OF Hs un-
righteousness, and it without exception
is always..spoNen of in the Bible in the
singular numner-the carnal mind, the
flesh the old man, ETC., all representing
this fnct that sin in our heart is Il INIT,
single unit. principle of evil, which
"f course manifest itself in many, many
different ways; but there is one root OF
iniquity, one seat Of evil, one body of sin,
there is one carna. mind When you
speak of your mind, you always speak of
it in the singular number, notwithstand-