Alright, 1 John chapter 2. Now today you might think I was
going to preach a Thanksgiving message since we're just a few
days from Thanksgiving. And I am, because this is something,
the greatest thing we have to be thankful for is what I'm about
to declare to you. Verse 1, 1 John 2.1, My little
children, These things write unto you that you sin not. And
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.
Brethren, our sins are against God the Father. Our sins are
against God the Father. That's what is most troubling
to God's saints is because our sins are against our Father.
The Father who chose us freely by His grace, the Father who
sent His only begotten Son to lay down His life for us. Our
sins are against our Father. For that reason, John says, my
little children, these things write unto you that you sin not. But here's God's way. This is
God's way. Here's God's thoughts toward
His people. This is what legal religion misses
right here. The way in which God strengthens
His child not to sin. It's not by threats. He doesn't
threaten you with condemnation in hell. and he doesn't promise
you rewards if you don't sin. That's not how he strengthens
his child not to sin. That's the Pharisee's way. That's
the legal religion's way, is to dangle a carrot in front of
you and whip you. Here's God's way. He said, if
any man sin, We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for his elect scattered
throughout the whole world. Legal religion says if you tell
believers that, it'll make them think they have a license to
sin. But the very thing that legal preachers say will make
believers think they have a license to sin is the gospel that God
declares to us to make us not want to sin. He says, I'm writing
this to you that you sin not. And then he gives you the gospel.
And if any man sin or when you do sin, We have an advocate with
the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous, and
he is the propitiation for our sin. That's what makes God's
child not want to sin. That's what makes you desire
not to sin, is knowing what Christ has done for you and is doing
at God's right hand for you. This is why God said, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. This is
exactly why if a man is sinned against, go with me to Isaiah
55, won't you, Sue? If a man is sinned against, you
or me, anybody, a man sinned against, but especially if it's
a self-righteous, self-sanctifying religious man that is sinned
against, Or if he finds out another has sinned and it's not even
against him. He just finds out somebody in
his congregation has sinned. His thoughts are against the
child of God. His way is to take vengeance. His way is to bring him before
a tribunal and discover his sin and uncover his sin and punish
him for his sin. Maybe even cast him out for his
sin. That's man's thoughts and man's
way. when you sin. But God's ways are not man's
ways, and his thoughts are not man's thoughts. For those he's
chosen, for those he's redeemed, for you he's made holy, sanctifying
you through the Holy Spirit, giving you faith in Christ. When
you fall, when you sin, here's what God says, Isaiah 55 verse
6, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, Call ye upon him
while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. This is somebody that needs to
repent, return unto the Lord. He's a believer that needs to
return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him.
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon him. For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the
Lord. See, the Lord's not going to
treat his child like man would treat, like legal religion treats
his child when they fall. God says, you return to me, and
I'll abundantly pardon you. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. In His sovereign, free, unchangeable
love and grace, God elected His people unto salvation. And that
same sovereign, free, unchangeable love and grace sent His only
begotten Son that we might live through Him. Not that we love God. Here's
love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to propitiation for our sin.
And Christ Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of God's elect because
he represented his people, he honored the law in perfection,
he went to the cross and bore all our sin and bore it away
and put it away forever, and it's settled. That is settled.
It is done. Christ has accomplished that.
And now he's at God's right hand, and God accepts his child in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're righteous before God in
Christ. With Christ dwelling in us, we see in him we're perfectly
holy. And therefore, God's thoughts
and God's ways are this. If any man sin, one of his blood-bought,
one of his chosen blood-bought regenerated children. If any
of you sin, or when you do sin, this is his ways, this is his
thought. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sin. God's not like us, is he? We're
sinning against, we're ready to take vengeance and cry it
out in fire where our thoughts start being, oh, that can't be
a child of God to treat somebody like that. God's thoughts are,
return to me. I'll abundantly pardon you. Because
you have an advocate. Jesus Christ, your righteousness,
who is the propitiation, the one who put all the sins of his
people completely away. Now that is what strengthens
the hearts of God's child and makes them not want to sin. That's
what keeps you trying to run this race and do it looking only
to the Lord Jesus. But as good as that news is,
here's what got me looking at this passage. This is what got
me really thinking on this passage. And it came so strongly to my
heart. When we sin, It's not only against God our Father,
our sins against our Lord Jesus Christ, our sins against him,
our sins against Christ Jesus, the very one who loved us and
gave himself for us, that's who our sin's against. And yet, this
is what just struck me so strongly, yet, God our Father commands
his child Go to the very one we have sinned against. Go to
him. And God promises that very one
you've sinned against, he will come to me and be an advocate
for you. An advocate's a lawyer. He'll
come and advocate for you on your behalf with me, God the
Father says. He'll be your righteousness before
me. The one you sinned against, the
one you sinned against, He'll be your righteousness with me. And He is your propitiation.
He's your mercy, place of mercy, your seat of mercy, who vicariously
bore your judgment and put all your sin away. God says, now
you come to this one you sinned against, you come to Him. And
He'll come before me on your behalf. You want to talk about something
that will make you fall down and just, Lord, I am so sorry
for my sin. I am so ashamed of my sin. You see what the Lord means when
he says, it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance.
It's God being so good to us and so gracious to us. It's what
makes you keep coming to Him and make you not want to sin
against Him. But this very one now, this very one we sin against,
Christ our Lord, God says, now you go to Him and He'll come
represent you to me and I'll accept you because of Him. Just
as Oh, it struck me this week just so profoundly. I really have a very simple message
and I'm going to try to be brief since I went a little long this
morning, but I just want to show you this illustrated two places
in the scripture. Go with me to Numbers chapter
12. Numbers chapter 12. First of
all, we see it illustrated between Moses and his brother and sister. Numbers 12 verse 1, And Miriam
and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman
whom he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian
woman. And they said, hath the Lord
indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. God raised
up Moses to be his minister. He raised him up to be his minister,
to lead his people out of Egypt, to lead them through the wilderness,
to lead them into Canaan. And God raised up Aaron, who
was his brother, and he raised up Miriam, who was his sister. The offices they were in both
picture Christ. Aaron was a high priest. Christ
is our high priest. Miriam led the congregation in
singing. Christ said, I will sing. In
the great congregation, I'll sing praises unto thee. He leads
us in singing. And Moses here as a prophet,
he's a picture of the prophet, the preacher, Christ Jesus. But
now Miriam's mentioned first here, and when you see that,
it always is important in the scripture. Miriam probably went
to Aaron and spoke critically of Moses to Aaron and brought
this up to Aaron. And she probably did that in
private. Then the two of them started speaking openly against
Moses. But the real problem was not
that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman. That wasn't the issue.
The issue was the heart, envy and strife in their heart. That
was the issue. Because God had given Moses all
this honor to preach the gospel and to lead his people, and he'd
given him far more honor in that than he had given to Aaron or
Miriam. He'd honored them greatly by even using them at all, but
he gave Moses the honor to lead his people and preach the gospel
to them. And we know that is what the
rub was because the Lord, when he's gonna address this here
in a moment, that's what he's gonna deal with, is the fact
he chose Moses to be his preacher. But Moses had married an Ethiopian
woman. He had married an Ethiopian woman.
Now before this, they didn't have the law of God. And Moses
had married this Ethiopian woman a long time ago before they ever
had the law of Sinai. They'd been married a while.
Zipporah was her name. He'd been married to her for
a long time. But now the Lord's given them the law at Sinai. And so now they knew God forbid
an Israelite to marry a Gentile. They knew it now. And so they
spake against Moses for Mary and this Ethiopian woman. Now,
learn from this, brethren, usually, usually, the issue is envy and
malice in the heart, which is the underlying issue regardless
of whatever men say the real issue is. The real issue is usually
envy and malice in the heart. The issue is always the heart.
regardless of what men say it is. But this is an example of
why we should not sin. We see this in Moses, an example
of why we should not sin. Though the real issue may be
in the heart and may be envy and strife and malice in the
heart, they're gonna use your sin to accuse you. That's another
reason why we should not sin. Men will use your sin. And brethren,
never speak critically of your brethren. To speak against one
Christ made righteous is earthly, it's sensual, and it's devilish,
according to the Lord, from James chapter three. That's what he
said. Here's why. Listen to James four. He said,
James 4 11, he said, speak not evil one of another, brethren.
He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother,
speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. He's talking
about not just the moral law, he's talking about the gospel.
And if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a
judge. There is one lawgiver who's able to save and destroy,
who art thou that judgest another? You see, to speak against one
that God made righteous in Christ, To speak against one God's made
righteous in Christ, that's to speak against the gospel of Christ. The law of God, that's what it
is. It's to speak against one Christ that the Father chose.
God chose Moses. Christ was the surety for Moses,
so Moses is righteous before God. That's why before God ever
even gave the law at Sinai, God chose Moses, God raised up Moses,
God knew he married this Ethiopian woman. And God chose him, and
God raised him up, and God was using him to lead his people.
God knew! but he was chosen of God in Christ
and righteous in Christ and God received him in Christ. God gave
him a heart to believe on Christ. God received him in Christ. And
so when the law entered in, it didn't change what he already
was in Christ. God already knew he was a sinner.
He was a sinner before God gave that Lord Sinai and that he had
married this Ethiopian woman, but he was a sinner long before
that because he fell in at him. And so when you speak against
somebody that God's given faith to trust Christ, you're saying,
you're speaking against the gospel. You're saying, you're speaking
evil against Christ and against the gospel and against God. That's
serious. That's serious. Here's the difference
in speaking against one of your brethren and speaking to help
your brother look to Christ. and help him when he falls. There's
a difference between the two. We should help one another and
look to Christ, but never speak against one another. Now it's
instructive what the Spirit of God says next in verse 3, in
the parenthesis. Now the man Moses was very meek
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Each
time someone among the children of Israel opposed Moses, you
know what Moses did? hit his face and beg God to defend
him, beg God to lead him, beg God to teach him, beg God to
have mercy on him. He trusted Christ to do the work
every time he was opposed. That's what meekness is. is hitting
your feet before the Lord and trusting Him to do the saving. You and your brethren. That's
true meekness. That's true meekness. And that's
what the Lord did for Moses. Now notice the Lord addresses
the real issue here, and He addresses the fact that it was the Lord
who had called Moses and made him His minister. Now look, verse
4. And the Lord spake suddenly unto
Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out, ye three, unto
the tabernacle of the congregation. The Lord heard it. He heard what
they said. And he spoke through them. He
said, you come out unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they
three came out. And the Lord came down on the
pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle.
And he called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forth. And
he said, hear now my words. The Lord says, you've been speaking
your words against my servant Moses. Now you hear my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision and
will speak unto him in a dream. That's how he used to speak to
his people. He said, my servant Moses is
not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak
mouth to mouth. from faith to faith. That's how
he speaks to his people now. He used to speak in visions and
dreams. Now hath he spoken to us by his son. And he speaks
from the throne in glory, through the gospel, by his voice like
we saw this morning, mouth to mouth. He comes in spirit and
truth into the heart of his people. He said, I have spoken to Moses
mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. And
the submittitude of the Lord shall he behold, Wherefore then
were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And
the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And look what happened when he
departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and
behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow. God does not infuse
sin into us. He doesn't have to do that. We
are sin. That's what we are. It's God's
presence that is our spiritual life. It's God's presence that
is our righteousness. It's God's presence that is our
holiness. Christ is everything that we
must be before God. And when he enters in, it's his
presence that is everything we need. He's our holiness. He's
our righteousness. He's our wisdom. He's our redemption. He's our acceptance for God.
He's the life within his people. When God spoke with Moses face
to face, his face shined. Remember when he came down out
of the mountain, his face was shining. Here, when God removed his presence,
Miriam became a leper. Just like that. If God removes his presence,
then all we are in ourselves is a sinful leper. That's it. That's it. Now catch this. We're looking at how when we
sin, God sends us to Christ our advocate, the one we've sinned
against. Aaron was the high priest, and
so it was his job to look upon a person who was a leper and
examine them and determine if they were a leper. That was the
law that God had given them in Mount Sinai. So this was his
responsibility to look upon Miriam to determine if she was a leper
or not. Verse 10 says, and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold,
she was leprous. Oh, get this now. Aaron was guilty.
Aaron is the one who had spoken against Moses. He spoke against
his brother. And yet, God didn't make him
leprous. He made Miriam leprous instead
of or in place of Aaron. And God chastened Aaron and corrected
Aaron by making him look upon this one that he loved who was
made a leper instead of him. Don't you know that broke his
heart? That he knew he was guilty and God made his sister a leper
in his place. And he went free. Aaron didn't
become a leper. You see, We're the one who commits
sin. You and me are. We commit the
sin. And we deserve justice. We deserve
for God to remove His presence from us and leave us just nothing
but a leper. That's what we deserve. But God chastens His child this
way. He brings us to look upon Christ
Just like Aaron was brought to look upon Miriam, and we look
upon Christ who was made sin in our room instead, instead
of us, and so that we go free. Aaron's standing there looking
at his sister, Leprous, and he was the one that did the sinning. She did too, but he knew he did
it, and yet she was made leprous and he wasn't. God said, I will pour upon the
house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced and shall mourn for him. That's why the spirit
declares through John that if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and he's the propitiation
for our sin. The legalist thinks the way to
deal with a fallen believer is you whip him with the law and
you threaten him with the law. God's way is to preach Christ
and Him crucified. God's way is to bring you, like
He brought Aaron, to look upon one made sin in your room instead,
in your place, bearing sin in your room instead. That's God's
way. That's how He chastens and corrects. To show you His goodness
and His grace and His love and His mercy. And so when we sin,
God sends His fallen child to call out to Christ to be our
advocate. He brings you, when He's brought
you to behold Christ bearing your sin, like Aaron was brought
to behold Miriam, made a leper, then God brings you to Christ
to call out to Him and beg Him, have mercy on me, Lord. Look
at the next word, verse 11. And Aaron said to Moses, Moses
is the one Aaron sinned against. Moses is the one he was speaking
against. Moses is the one he was saying, we're just as holy
and we can speak just as good as Moses. Now he's on his face
before Moses. And he says, alas, my Lord, I
beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we've done foolishly,
wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as one dead of
whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's
womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord and said, Healer now, O
God, I beseech thee. You see the picture? That's our
text. When any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ the right, the one we sinned against, we
go to Him and beg Him, Lord have mercy. Now the legalist might
latch on to this next verse. The next verse pictures the chastening
the Lord works in the heart. The next verse This is what he
does when he brings you to behold Christ bearing your sin and brings
you to behold Christ being your advocate and your righteousness
and your propitiation. He said in verse 14, And the
Lord said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should
she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the
camp seven days. But here's the good news. Here's
the good news due to Christ right here. God said, And after that,
let her be received again. If we confess our sins, John
said, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's not going to cast you out.
He's going to accept you. That's why I preach Christ rather
than whip you, brethren. That's why I preach Christ Jesus
because He's the cure no matter what it is. No matter what our
problem is, Christ is the cure for it. Chastening is only by
the Spirit of God making us look upon Christ who has made sin
in our place. Repentance is only by the Spirit
making us behold Christ advocating for us before the Father. And
faith is only by the Spirit making us behold God accepts us in Christ
because he is our propitiation. What a beautiful illustration.
Go with me to Job 42. There's one other place I want
to show you. Job 42. You can read your bulletin. I'm
going to be brief here. In the bulletin, I'm speaking
about it from Job's point of view, what God did for Job. But
Job's such a good picture of Christ. He's such a good picture
of Christ. God called him a perfect and
upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth, puts away
evil. That perfect man is the God,
man, Christ, Jesus. God gave the devil permission
to buffet Job. That's what God did when he made
Christ sin for his people. He gave him permission to touch
Job, to touch the Lord on the cross. The devil took all Job's
children and all his servants away. Christ suffered the cross
entirely alone. All his brethren and all his
servants left. The devil left Job's wife who
told him to curse God and die. The devil left the Pharisees
who told Christ the same exact thing. The devil took Job's health. He was covered in boils from
head to toe. Christ's visage was marred more
than any man. All this happened to Job in one
day. All this happened to Christ in one day too. Three hours.
But one thing Job didn't have to bear, he didn't have to bear
the curse and condemnation of God. That's because Christ bore
that on the cross. It was his surety. And it was
probably the devil who sent Job's friends to him. They took the part of the legalists
and they spoke against Job with contempt. Just like Aaron and
Miriam did Moses. They picture you and me. they
picture you and me. Aaron and Miriam picture you
and me. And these three contemptuous,
scornful friends picture you and me against Christ. God our Father who we sinned against, Christ
who we sinned against, Job 42, 7. And it was so that after the
Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz
the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy
two friends, for you have not spoken of me the thing that is
right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore, take unto you now
seven bullocks and seven lambs, and go to my servant Job. Go to Job. and offer up for yourselves
a burnt offering. In other words, Job's going to
make the offering on their behalf. They've just taken the rams there
and he's going to do the offering. And my servant Job shall pray
for you. For him will I accept, lest I
deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken to
me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. See how
that illustrates our text? We sin against our Lord Jesus
Christ, contemptuously, scornfully, just like they did against Job.
And then God brings us to the very one we sinned against, and
He says, for him I will accept, lest I deal with you after your
falling. Christ is our advocate with the
Father. He's our righteousness before the Father. He's the propitiation
who put away all our sin by His one offering. Verse nine says,
so Eliphaz the Timonite and Bildad the Shuite and Zophar the Naamathite
went and did according as the Lord commanded them. And the
Lord also accepted Job. He accepted them in Job. He accepted Job. He accepted
one, but they got in on it because he accepted Job. And looking
at Job as a believer, and all this contempt his friends had
showed him, and how they scorned him, Job was made to see his
sin toward the Lord Jesus. And so that's why Job was willing
to intercede for them and offer this offering for them, because
God made him see that's what Christ had done for him. Verse
10 says, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he
prayed for his friends. And also the Lord gave Job twice
as much as he had before. Brethren, I just want you to
see those two illustrations. That's the grace of our God.
That's His ways and His thoughts toward us when we sinned against
God our Father and against our Lord Jesus Christ. He sends us
to the very one we've sinned against. And that one we've sinned
against made the offering for us. He made the offering for
us that made us righteous. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich. And now He's there at God's right
hand. And when you sin, God says, now you come and you look upon
this one that was made sin for you. He says, you come to Him
and you ask Him to advocate for you. He says, you come to the
one you sinned against and He will advocate for you and He'll
be your righteousness with me and He'll be your propitiation. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. That doesn't make me want to
sin, to hear that. Does that make you want to sin?
That doesn't make me want to sin. but that sure does make
me not want to sin." Well, when you do, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's the propitiation for
our sin. God accepts His people and the
beloved, just like He accepted Job and accepted His friends
in Him. You go to Him, no matter who you are, where you are, He's
the Savior of His people all over this world. You go to Him
and pour out your heart to Him and He will advocate with you
on your behalf. I pray the Lord will bless that.
Amen.