Good evening, brethren. I'm going to be reading from
1st John, chapter 1. 1st John 1. Beginning in verse 1. 1 John 1 chapter 1. That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace, your wonderful grace, which is given to us in
the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, whom you've sent to save us from
our sins, to deliver us from unrighteousness, from wickedness,
from ignorance and darkness. Lord, we thank you for your grace
and your power. We thank you for the many spiritual
blessings, all spiritual blessings given to us in your darling Son,
Jesus Christ. Lord, what a joy, what a peace,
what a What a glory that we should be called the sons and daughters
of the Most High God. Lord, thank you for this grace.
Thank you for gathering this people here tonight to hear your
word and to worship you, the true and living God, in spirit
and in truth, through faith, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in obedience to your word, in accordance with your will and
your purpose for your people. Lord, thank you for this salvation. Lord, we pray that you would
bless your people here tonight, that you would give us your spirit,
that you would open our hearts to receive your word, that you
would open our ears to hear your word, and that it would sink
down and and bear fruit in us unto the praise, glory, and honor
of your name. Lord, you know all things. You
know the various struggles and sicknesses and diseases of your
people. Lord, you know those things which
trouble us and are a burden to us. Lord, we ask that you would
use these things to draw your people closer to you. to seek
you and to trust you in it and to look for your hand of grace
in all things. We pray for those that wanted
to be here with us, that you would be with them and, Lord,
strengthen them and help them, that they would be able to come
and be with us again soon, Lord, to praise you, to worship you,
to hear your word, to be strengthened and nourished in the new man.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right. Let's sing hymn 70, which is
holy, holy, holy. Hymn 70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity, Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, Which word and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All Thy works shall praise Thy name In earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Our text is found in 1 John,
but we'll be in chapter 2, verse 1. John 2, verse 1. Let's read this verse. 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. Now the
Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 6 verse 6 that our old man is
crucified with Christ. that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." We should
not serve sin, and that word serve means to obey it, to submit
to it, to yield ourselves to it, in the sense that this flesh
is full of lusts, and we're not to submit to those lusts, he
tells us. We're not to be a slave to sin
and to obey it in all its lusts. We've been saved. You that believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, we've been saved by Christ so that
our sins are put away. They're not imputed to us. They're put away and we have
the forgiveness of sins. and the righteousness of Christ
is imputed unto us. We are righteous before the true
and living God. We are a new creation, we're
told. We're a new creature now in the
Lord Jesus Christ by his grace and power. And so he tells us
who hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches that henceforth
We should not serve sin any longer. Let's read that verse again,
1 John 2, 1. 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. So I want to speak to you tonight
concerning John's words where he tells us that ye sin not. and then these words, and if
any man sin. So those will be our two points,
sin not, and if any man sin. John begins very tenderly, he
is speaking to the church, he's speaking to the body of believers
who are covered, purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he says very tender words as you would say to your children,
my little children. he heard Christ say those words
to him. And John, I don't remember if
it's 13 or 14, but when he's speaking to them that night before
going to the garden and being led away to be crucified, he
calls them little children, little children. And now John, the aged
apostle, the apostle of love, calls the church here, my little
children. It's a very tender address. And this is really how the whole
epistle should be read when you read these words. Remember, he's
speaking very tenderly to his people. He's not addressing the
world who hates God and hates his Christ and hates the gospel. He's speaking to the church of
God, you that confess Christ, you that believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. The church is beloved of God,
beloved of God. And it's something I'm reminded
of all the time when I'm studying and preparing a message that
I'm speaking to the people of God. You're precious to Him. You're tender to Him. You're
His little children. You're His little children. So
John speaks with love and he instructs and teaches the children
of God here. He's leading them. He's speaking
to them because God leads us gently. He brings us to the truth. He shows us and teaches us. He is sovereign, but He takes
His time with us in a way that leads us unto the truth. In a
way that brings us to know the truth. And so, these are believers
now, born of the Spirit of God, made new creatures, given an
ear to hear what the Spirit says. New creatures. And because we're
the children of God, that means we have the spirit of God. We
are led of the spirit of God, enabled to hear these things.
God purposes for us to hear these very words. You know, as children,
when I was a child, I've been thinking about my mother a lot
lately, because here's another illustration of it. But when
I was a child, I would ask my mother if I could have permission
to do something. Because my dad worked often three
jobs to provide for us. So I'd ask my mother for permission,
and she'd tell me, no, no, you can't do that. And I'd say, well,
I'd try and come at it with this way. I'd say, well, Peter's mom's
letting him do that. And she would say to me, well,
I'm not Peter's mom, I'm your mom. And I said, no. And that
would be the end of it because there was really, I couldn't
think of any further rebuttal to that. So that was the end
of it. But the point is, is that we
are the Lord's children and he speaks to us. The world doesn't
hear these things, but you that are his children, you hear them. He's speaking these words to
you as the adopted sons and daughters of the Most High God. So John
says, little children, these things write I unto you, that
ye sin not." God our Father is telling us, do not sin. Sin not. I want to give you four
things, four things on sinning not that I pray the Lord gives
us an ear to hear his word, to receive his word. And again,
these are spoken specifically to believers, these four things. So first, it must be said that
while we remain in this flesh, We're never going to be free
of the presence of sin in our members so long as we're here
in this flesh. We're going to see sin in our
thoughts, our heart, our words, our deed. It'll be present with
us, it'll be a trouble to us until the day this flesh is laid
in the grave. That's the first thing. We're
going to see sin in our members. We saw that in John chapter 1. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we have sin, that's the first
thing. The second thing is, we are,
in Christ, we are delivered from the punishment and death of sin. Our Savior has delivered us out
from under the law. We're not under the law of Moses. That's not the believer's rule
of life. The gospel is the believer's rule of life. Faith is the believer's
rule of life. The just shall live by faith. That's how we live, under that. Paul says the law wasn't made
for a righteous man, but for the unrighteous, for the disobedient.
You that are walking in the spirit, there's no law against that.
The Spirit teaches you, and the Spirit guides you, and the Spirit
corrects you, and the Lord chastens you and keeps you. We're delivered
out from the law of Moses and under the covenant of grace whereby
we live by the Spirit, by faith, being led of the Spirit of Christ.
We have that. And Christ, we're taught and
shown that he has fulfilled all righteousness. We're not trying
or striving or spending or laboring to establish a righteousness
for ourselves. the righteousness of Jesus Christ
is imputed unto us. He is our very righteousness. He is our acceptance with the
true and living God. And he's established us under
the covenant of grace. Under the covenant of grace,
where we are afforded or given many blessings, many spiritual
blessings, all spiritual blessings. Now, does that mean that we are
given license to sin? No. No. In fact, Paul addresses
this in Romans 6, and I'll read, and you can turn there, but Romans
6 in verses 1 through 3, he addresses that very thing because some
thought that because we're under grace that it doesn't matter
what we do. It doesn't matter if we sin.
And Paul says, no, that's not what we're saved for. It's not
so that we would go and sin and fulfill the lusts of our flesh. And it's not just Paul, it's
Peter says it. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims that ye abstain from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul. But Paul says, Romans 6.1, what
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may bound? If God is glorified and we see
the grace of God as sinners, where God forgives us and the
blood of Christ covers us of our sins and removes our sins,
should we sin more that grace may bound? Absolutely not. No. No. God forbid, how shall we
that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death? Not that baptism saves, but it's
a testimony of our faith in Christ. And we've followed him in baptism. And the picture is that we died
with Christ. And our old man is laid in the
grave. And that which is risen up is
a picture and testimony of the new man of grace, the spirit
raising us up and dwelling in us. And in addition to that,
this word death, signifies and means that the dominion of sin,
the body of sin is dead. He goes through that in Romans
6. The body of sin is dead. Its power, its authority, its
dominion, its rule over us is severed. That headship of the
serpent is severed. so that we're not under that
dominion and under that rule and reign, we're under the rule
and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's given us his spirit, who's
blessed us with all spiritual blessings that we may hear this
word. So we're not to continue in sin
that grace may abound and just disregard the fact that we are
sinners. And it also signifies that we're
delivered from the wrath of God. That body of death being put
to death, it means that we're delivered from the wrath of God. We're delivered from that inheritance
which the flesh of Adam, which that body in Adam receives. Sinners
who are under the law, they're under the wrath of God. That's
their inheritance. We're saved from that inheritance. That's
not ours. Our inheritance is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
stand in Him. That's our hope. That's what
we have in Christ Jesus. So, the dominion and rule of
sin over us is put away and we are under the lordship of the
Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. For
he that is dead is freed from sin. We live under Christ now. We hear Him. Now let me go into
the third point here about sin not. Our Lord reveals what His
will is for His people. In His word, He's revealing to
us His will and purpose for us in Christ, which is that we would
not live in sin, that we would not go on in ignorance that we
lived in before we heard the truth, received his spirit, and
lived unto God. We're not to continue in that
ignorance. Turn over to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, and let's begin
in verse 14. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. That does not mean that we now
are able to go and be holy and make ourselves holy. But what
the Lord is showing us is that this is His will and purpose
for us in Christ. He's making known to us His will
so that we are now made aware to know what God has saved us
for, what he's done in us by the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he is working in us, how that he is delivering us from this
world and the lust of this world and the passions of this world
and turning us to Christ and giving us a heart for Christ. to hear Him, to desire Him, to
want to walk in the light of Christ. And so, He's making known,
this is what I'm working in you, I've saved you for this purpose,
to reveal My Son in you, to reveal My Word in you. And so, when
He says, be ye holy, So, for I am holy, or he that, let me
just read it. But as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. He's
showing, he's declaring, this is what I'm working in you. I've made you righteous in Christ,
and I'm fitting you in the body. I'm fitting you in the body of
Christ, and calling you to what I will do and work in you. And so, if you're God's chosen
child, you're going to learn his will and purpose for you.
You're gonna hear it. He's showing you. It's not that
we can do it of ourselves, we cannot. But he's saying, this
is my purpose. This is what I'm working in you.
This is what I'm doing in you. And so, it's worked in us by his spirit
and power. Here's another example in Philippians
2, verse 15 and 16. that ye may be blameless, here's
God's will and purpose, be ye holy as I am holy, that ye may
be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye
shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run
in vain, neither labored in vain. And what it says is that He'll
teach us. He gives you His Word. He gathers
you here to hear His Word. He gives you His Spirit. He gives
you His Word and makes His Word effectual in you. He makes His
Word to find a place in your heart to hear it, to desire it,
to see there's a gap. And what I am and what his perfection
is, Lord have mercy upon me, Lord keep me, Lord fill me with
your grace, Lord give me faith to hear and to walk according
to your word. He'll correct us, he'll chasten
us appropriately as we have need of it that we might hear his
word and walk in faith trusting him. And so, this is what he
does and he tells us this so that we would know him and know
his purpose for us and understand this is what he's doing. He's
called us to walk faithfully in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then fourth, our Lord gives us instruction in what perfect obedience
looks like. And we see that in love to God
and in love to our brethren. love to God and in love to our
brethren even as Christ loved us. So when we when we see when
we're walking in faith looking to the Lord seeking to to hear
him and loving him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and loving our neighbor as ourselves, we see how sin is contrary to
that very thing. He's making us to know that it's
contrary to it, so that we know it in truth, so that we do desire
to not do those things that are contrary to what it is to love
my brethren and what it is to love the true and living God.
Let me turn over to Matthew 22 so we could see where the Lord
tells us. He's answering, if I remember
correctly, a Pharisee about who asked and which is the greatest
commandment. Lord, and in Matthew 22, verse
37, our Lord begins there. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets." All right, there's no law against
these things. If you walk in love toward God
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and you love your
neighbor as yourself, there's no law, there's no yoke of the
law put upon that. Love them. And the Lord adds
in John 13, 34 and 35, He said, A new commandment I give unto
you that ye love one another as I have loved you. Well, how has Christ loved you?
Well, we can begin at the cross and consider how that the Lord
went to the cross Doing what? To serve for his bride who was
given to him. He went to the cross to serve
for his bride, to labor in this wilderness, to receive unto him
a bride spotless, perfect, pure, holy, righteous, a garment made
for her by the righteousness of Christ. we see in the sacrifice
of himself for us on the tree. So that's how Christ loved us.
And he says, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. And this is love that can only
be done in the new man. It can only be done in the new
man. It's not this flesh that loves unconditionally. It's the
Spirit of God that dwells in us, whereby we love our brethren. follow him." Again, John 15 12
through 14, this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I
have loved you. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are
my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Now, When we reflect
and examine ourselves, we see how we taint things with our
hands, with our thoughts, with our words. We are often well-meaning
and it's very easy before we know it, we've said something
wrong or we've done something wrong and just tainted it. But
he's telling us to love one another. Love one another because we know
what we are, we know our weaknesses and yet, It's a blessed desire
that the Lord gives His people that we want to love Him, and
we want to love our brethren. We want to do that which is pleasing
to Him, and we want to be a help to our brethren. And again, He's
making this known to us, not because it's easy for us to do
it, not because we can do it perfectly, but we know, Lord,
this is Your will, and we seek Him for it. We are then made
to seek Him for His grace and for His power and to help us
to do it. And really the only reason why
someone would not want to love their brethren, that wouldn't
want to do this, is because they're being carnal minded and they're
walking in the flesh. Why wouldn't we, if you're Christ,
why wouldn't you want to love your brethren? and receive them
in joy and in peace and in the truth, we would want to. But
I know that there are some people that at times, in the church
so-called, that won't forgive or won't be kind to some people,
but that should not be named among us. We shouldn't do that.
We should want to. be open and willing to fellowship
with all of the Lord's people and receive them in truth. And so the Lord shows us this,
and the reason why I'm bringing this out is because sin works
contrary to love. And when the Lord gives you a
heart to love Him and a heart to love your brethren, sin is
exaggerated more. You see a more greatly against
the backdrop of, well, Lord, you call me to love and you call
me to serve and you call me to trust you and you say in your
word to be holy and I see what I am and so sin shows as a greater
contrast of my weakness and how far I am from the truth so that
I am humbled and I do seek the Lord. I just know that when Peter says,
abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul, I know, and I pray to say it
right, but when it comes to sins or just
doing foolish things, let's take procrastination. It's my nature. I'm a procrastinator by nature. I don't get around to doing things
as timely as I should do them. It's just something I struggle
with all the time. When it comes to the Word, when
I see that procrastination in me, it burdens me, it bothers
me, because I know, as I said in the beginning, you're the
people of God. I pray and want to bring a faithful word of my
Savior to you to feed you, to nourish you, to encourage you,
to comfort you, to put your eyes upon Christ, to look to Him. And so when I see me procrastinating,
like I do by nature, it's a burden to me. And I don't want to because
I want to love my brethren. and be timely, get to the word.
And so that's an example of what I mean by when we want to love
our brethren, we see those sins that contradict that, that come
in the way of that. I hope that illustration helps. And so it's a worthy cause, it's
a worthy desire that the Lord gives us to love our brethren. to walk faithfully in Him, that
we might serve and love our brethren and our Lord faithfully in what
He's called us to do. Now, having addressed that we
are sinners and that it's God's will for us not to live in sin,
what are we to do when we do sin? What are we to do? Well, the word of the Lord is
very clear, telling us that this flesh is not gonna fix it. He
doesn't turn us back to Mount Sinai. He doesn't turn us back
to the yoke of the law. He doesn't turn us to certain
religious deeds to try and fix it and make penance or something
like that to work it off or to to cleanse ourselves, the blood
of bulls and goats is not going to do it. Those sacrifices that
we would make. But let me give you four things
again that if any man sin, this is what the Lord tells us to
do or to know. So first, we're to look to Christ. Look to Christ. If any man sin,
look to Christ. Turn to Him for forgiveness. Turn to Him for grace. Confess
your sin and seek the Lord for His grace and mercy. In 1 John
2, 1, 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. And so
the truth is that the best of us are sinners still. We are still sinners in need
of salvation, which our God has provided for us. Otherwise, brethren,
we would be in despair and hopeless. once we sinned. Once we confessed
Christ and then sinned, we would be in utter hopelessness and
despair. You know, 1 John 3, 8, we'll
get to this eventually, but it says, he that committed sin is
of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. And if that
was the end of it, it would be terrifying to us. He that sinneth
is of the devil. That's just so. But it goes on
saying, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. So that that fear
which he held over us, where we labored in darkness and strove
to try and put away our sin, that's destroyed. And I'll show
you that in Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. yeah verse 14 for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself
likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Before we knew the truth, we
were subject to bondage. And when our conscience was struck
and awakened, and we knew we were under the wrath, we were
afraid and labored, labored in that bondage, labored under that
heavy burden of the law, because we were still yet in darkness. But when Christ came, He destroys
that because He shows us it's not through these religious works
that you do that you're saved. It's not by this sacrifice or
doing this that you're saved. We're saved by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ takes our eyes
off of this flesh and puts them on Himself. And so our Lord is
showing us that that He's given us Christ. He's our fire. He's our light. He's our warmth. He's our all. Go to Isaiah 50. Isaiah 50, at the end of the
chapter, there's two verses there that contrast this. I mean, this is contrary to how
the natural man thinks. The natural man thinks that in
verse 10 it's talking about the wicked, and that the righteous
are spoken of in verse 11, but it's the exact opposite. Isaiah
50 verse 10, Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth
the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath
no light? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God." So, you that are in darkness,
you that are troubled, you that struggle, At the thought of your
sin, He's telling you, walk by faith, continue in Christ, trust
Christ, trust the blood of Christ, that His blood avails, that His
blood prevails, that His blood has put away your sin. And then he goes on, Behold,
all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with
sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks
that ye have kindled, this shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall
lie down in sorrow. So in other words, He's telling
the one who walks in darkness, you walk in faith, you trust
the Lord, but you that do not trust the Lord, who think that
your work saved you and that what you do is going to kindle
a fire for you and keep you warm and give you light and provide
food and sustenance and nourishment for you, because that's what
fire does, right? It provides in those things. He's saying
you trust those things, you're going to lie down in sorrow.
But if you trust the Lord, you that trust the Lord, you have
eternal life. Stay upon the Lord. Trust Him
to work this in you, to deliver you from death. You trust in
Him. And so, the Lord is telling us
that Christ Jesus is our advocate. He is our intercessor. He loves his people. He gave
his life for his people. He purchased us with his own
blood. He, therefore, takes up our cause
and pleads our cause to the Father for our forgiveness. And that
brings us to our second thing. It's not that we are without
sin. In fact, the Lord allows for
the fact that we are sinners. It's not that he's saying don't
admit to being a sinner. I remember working with some
people in a factory many, many decades ago, in a factory, and
they wouldn't even admit that they were sinners, and they would
say, well, no, I didn't sin, it was a mistake. Because again,
they were trusting in the fact that they now were not sinners. They stopped that, they put that
away, because that was their hope, is in what they did or
did not do. But the Lord is saying we are
sinners in this flesh. He allows for the fact that sinners
come to Him. This man receiveth sinners. And so don't think that we must
put away our sin first before we come to Him because it won't
happen. It won't happen. Christ is the
advocate for sinners, so that all who come to Him for forgiveness
of their sins, confessing their sins to Him and confessing, Lord,
You are Christ. You're the one who saved Your
people. You're the one who put away our sins. Save me, Lord. Have mercy upon me. His blood
covers their sin. His blood pleads for them. His
blood delivers them from death. Because His blood is a sweet
savor unto the Father, all for whom He died. For whom He died,
we are a sweet savor in Christ. And so Christ, though, understand,
He's not an advocate for sin, but He's an advocate for sinners,
that their sin not be imputed to them, and that God would forgive
them and heal them who come to Him for forgiveness. He bore
them in His own body, on the tree, making satisfaction unto
the Father for our sins." And so, because of Him, our sin is
not laid to our charge. He bore it and put it away. And
then third, to you that look to Christ, He is your advocate. You that trust Christ, you that
believe Him, you that come to Him for forgiveness, He is your
advocate. He's not the advocate for everyone
in the world who does not believe and does not obey Him, who does
not hear His word or trust Him. He's not their advocate. We know
who He's the advocate of because He calls them by His gospel. Now, maybe they don't believe
yet. We are kind to people. We declare the truth to people
in the hopes that they would hear it, but we know whom the
Lord did this for when they are finally come, believing Christ. And all who believe Him, He is
their advocate. 2 Thessalonians 2 14, Whereunto
He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, I say this only so that
you that say I believe, you that say I'm a sinner, you that say
I need His salvation, but I don't know if He did this for me, if
you believe, if it's of the Lord, you're one of His, you are one
for whom He did this. Come, believe Him, venture wholly
upon Him, trust Him, cast all your care upon Him, for He careth
for you, and he'll prove it out. He'll keep you walking by faith
in him. If you're his, you will not fall away. You will continue
in Christ to the obtaining of him. And then fourth, Christ
is our advocate, and as our advocate, he gives us another advocate
whom he calls the Comforter. And that's the same word. Advocate
and Comforter is the same word here. It speaks of Christ, our
advocate, In other words, he's our comforter and he gives the
Holy Spirit, who's our comforter and advocate. And I'll read Romans
8 and turn there because I'll show you one other verse in a
minute, but Romans 8 in verse 14 through 16. Verse 14, for
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Through the burden of sin, through
those trials, when we see our sin and we cry out to God, our
Lord is showing us that He is a faithful advocate. That He
hears our cries, that He keeps us, that He teaches us, that
He recovers us. He's faithful. We're burdened,
we're troubled by our sin because we are the Lord's. And we see
it in His turning us and giving us repentance and turning us
from our sins. It's His mercy and love that
does that. It's not us that does it. He's
doing that. And it should encourage us all
the more to come to Him with our sin and cast it and cry before
Him to lift that burden and to forgive us and cover us of our
sin. Now look at Romans 8 31 down
at verse 31. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. And Paul adds in another place,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so brethren, our scriptures
give us great confidence Come to the Advocate. You that believe
Him when you sin, come to Christ. Confess your sin. Don't carry
that burden on you. You can't whip yourself or beat
yourself or cry enough to ever remove that sin. It's by His
grace that that sin is lifted and removed. And we experience
that forgiveness once again. Confess your sins to Him. Lay
Him at His feet. And trust Him to heal that wounded,
broken spirit, that contrite spirit that He gives. He's the
one that heals us. He comforts us. And I think of
this sweet verse of a prayer that Christ, our High Priest,
said to His Father and our Heavenly Father in John 17, 25. And I'll
close with this. He said, O righteous Father,
the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee. and these
have known that thou hast sent me." That's a precious thing. You that know that the Father
has sent the Son to save us from our sins, to do for us what we
could not do, that's precious. And we have that advocate for
us in the heavens at the right hand of the throne of God. You
that sin. John says these things that ye
sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father. Go to Him, believe Him, trust Him. To provide for us,
and to keep us, and to turn us from sin as we have need of it. He's wonderful, and gracious,
and a merciful Savior. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we do thank
You for Your grace, and Lord, I pray that you take these words
that, Lord though I be weak, I pray that you take that which
is precious and true and perfect and right and lay it to the hearts
of your people to see Christ our Savior, to believe Him, to
trust Him, to walk by faith in Christ, that we sin not, And
if any man sin, Lord, remind us, show us, turn our thoughts
and heart and our eye of faith upon Christ our Advocate, and
to trust Him to save us and deliver us. Lord, we pray this in Christ's
name, Amen. Alright brethren, let's close
with hymn number 118. 118 when I surveyed the wondrous
cross. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My riches gained, I count
but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands,
His feet. Sorrow and love flow mingled
down? Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, O'er thorns composed so rich a crown? were the whole realm of nature
mine. That were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, Demands
my soul, my life, my all.