All right, here we go. Well,
last week we looked at several verses that dealt with the efficacious
and the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ as our substitute. He not only actually substituted
for specific people, but that substitution actually produced
a result. If it does not produce a result,
then there was no actual substitution. So we dealt with that in length
and I hope that that message last week brought some encouragement
to you to know that when Jesus says, I will go and I will do
this for them, that he did it for everyone that he said he
was going to go do it for and that that salvation is secure,
that salvation is wrapped up. That's why we're not running
around here all crazy all over the world thinking people are
just perishing if we don't get to them in time. We know for
a fact that everyone for whom the Lord substituted that vicarious
Atonement will become efficacious or effectual, and I left the
definitions up there for you from last week so you can see
that. Today, I'd like to speak again. Brother Larry's been posting
my sermons on his audio sermon page. And I sent him the message
for last week. And in that, I told him, I said,
you know, this is what we talked about. And I told us that we
were having a conclusion to this topic of substitution. Probably
I shouldn't have said that. that now I'll probably have a
conclusion to my conclusion, but anyway. Today, I'd like us
to look at, because if you remember, we talked about Jesus being an
eternal substitute, and we've talked about his obedience, we've
talked about his death on the cross, we've talked about his
substitution in all these ways, but we also see that the substitution,
and my whole thing around every bit of this discussion has been
to show you that Jesus' substitution far exceeds past just that moment
on the cross. Now that's the center point of
it all. And that part right there is what cleanses us from all
our sin. But brethren, his substitution
has been from eternity and it reaches into eternity. And so
a lot of people don't, and at least I haven't heard very many
discussions on substitution prior to the cross or substitution
after the cross. And so as I study the scriptures
and I see his work for us, I see that all the offices of Jesus
Christ, his prophet, his priesthood, his kingliness, his mediatorial
work, his substitutionary work, all these works of atonement,
all these things are all really so melded together that it's
hard to separate them out and everything, and so when I say
Jesus is a substitute, yes, he took the place of us in the death
blow that was required of us because of our sin, but yet we
see that for him to be a mediator means he also needs to be a substitution. For him to be a priest, he also
needs to be a substitutor. So we see that this topic or
this doctrine of substitution, it covers almost every office
that Jesus I'm the good shepherd. For him to be the good shepherd,
he had to lay down his life for the sheep, that substitution.
So him to be our shepherd, he had to substitute. So we see
this in so many areas. And today, if you kind of hang
with me a little bit more on this topic and everything, I
would like to really go over some things about his present
substitution. What's he doing now? You know,
we talked a little bit about it in in the beginnings that
he is before the throne of God. But but let's talk a little bit
about his present substitution. And if you would turn with me
over to one john chapter 21 john chapter two. Now, Lord willing, we'll actually
conclude today the conclusion of the conclusion and whatever.
We're actually going to try to conclude. I'm going to speak
on these things for this study and, Lord willing, the next study.
And then next week, I think we will Go ahead and move into chapter
12. We've really not talked much
about 53 down to 57. I want to take a look at that
some this week and see if there's anything I can glean, if the
Lord is gracious enough to give me something in those. But we
may move into 12, but it's always a surprise. You never know. So
we'll look at that, Lord willing, next week. Look with me if you
would. 1 John chapter 2. And I want
to read a couple of verses here at the very beginning. John,
he's writing again. Now, me personally, I believe
that John is writing to the Jews. I believe that that's who his
original intended audience is. And of course, then it's also
for all of us as well who are children of God. But I always
love how John writes. He always speaks to us as little
children. Some people like to try to make
some kind of a dichotomy between mature Christians and immature
Christians and all this kind of stuff. He's speaking to us
as little children. We're God's little children.
Now, he might have even been in mind talking to those who
were disciples of his, like Paul called Timothy his son. This may be something as well.
I'll be honest with you, I really don't know. But when I read it,
I hear Mike, my little children, God speaking to us. My little
children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. Now, not really stopping here
long, but I believe every child of grace, that's their heart's
desires to not sin. Uh, they don't want to sin. They
hate sin. Uh, we still fight with it. We still deal with it. There's
the warfare that continues on in us, but we don't want to sin. And Jesus here are John by the
Holy spirit, speaking the words of Christ to us that you said
not, I write these things unto you that you said not. And if
any man sin, We have an advocate with the father. That word advocate
is a strong word. We have someone who is standing
for us, who is behind us, who is leading the charge for us. Whenever you go into court, your
lawyer is the guy with all the knowledge, with all the know-how,
with all the ins and outs of how the law works. and takes
you in and He takes lead and takes charge in your place and
speaks to the court on your behalf with all authority of the law
behind Him. And here Jesus Christ is said
to be our advocate. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. And I love how John puts
it here, the righteous. not just any mortal man, but
Jesus Christ, the righteous. The Bible declares from front
to back that every man born of Adam is unrighteous. No matter
how much of the law, quote unquote, that you think you can keep,
your unrighteousness, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Listen, even after we become
saints of God, after we've been born from above, after we have
been given life inside of us, we ourselves, apart from Christ,
do not become righteous. The flesh is flesh. It stays
flesh until the day that that corruptible dies completely,
and then God in his supernatural divine power raises an incorruptible. And so we are flesh, and until
flesh is put off, we sin. Until flesh is put off, we're
corrupt. until flesh is put off everything
about us as we are in Adam. is unrighteousness. The only
thing righteous about you is the living God in you. Is the
fact that Jesus Christ, the incorruptible seed, has been put in that fleshly,
sinful, earthen jar. That's the only thing that's
good about you. So whenever it says here we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, We know that the
one who stands before us is the only one who can stand before
God for us. See, my mother, my father, my
grandfather, my grandmother, my friends, my wife, nobody can
stand before God in my behalf. Now, I'm sure my grandmother
would love to get up and say, this is such a fine boy and a
good preacher and he's always been a blessing to my life, you
know, but grandma can't stand before God and plead my case. My mother loves me to death and
she would stand before God and probably try to plead the case
before God, but guess what? She can't do that. Two reasons. Number one, whenever we all come
before the presence of God, no one will lift their head as being
feeling worthy to stand up and say, I think I can plead the case. Second
of all, there's no one that can or will be allowed to step forward
and plead their case. Matter of fact, we see in Matthew,
whenever someone tried to plead their case, Oh Lord, Lord, have
we not done? What was the immediate reply?
Away from me, you doers of iniquity. I never knew you. There is no
pleading the case. So we need an advocate who goes
before the throne of the Father, why? Because even though legally
we have been purged of all of our sins, we've been cleansed
in the blood of Jesus Christ, and that blood has cleansed His
people of every sin that they have ever committed, are committing,
and ever will commit from now on. And so that blood has cleansed
us from that. And now the Bible says that Jesus
is that advocate before the father who pleads our case before the
throne of God, so that every time, as we see here in John,
if we do sin, we have that advocate before the father. We just sung
it in the hymn. Whenever we sin, we feel that
we can't come before a holy God because of our sinfulness. But
that next verse, I loved it. I wanted to stop and make highlight
of it. It started with the word, but,
but Jesus stands before him and God sees us. In Jesus, God sees
His righteousness. And so what is Jesus doing as
a present substitute? He's presently being an advocate
for us when we sin. Now does that mean that the sin
that we commit is not cleansed? No, it's cleansed. But Jesus
is there to say, oh, Brother Larry sinned today, but the blood
covered it. Sister Lori sinned today, but
the blood covered it. Now, I don't think, you know,
again, we're speaking in human terms. God knows who's been cleansed
and, you know, I don't know how the advocation is going. You
know, I don't think Jesus has to remind himself, that he has
cleansed everybody's sins, but these terms are given to us that
give us comfort. That's why John is writing these
things, is to comfort us in these times. Why? He knew full well,
just like Paul knew, we're going to battle with these issues.
We're going to battle with these sins. This warfare is raging
within us with the new man and the old man. And this raging
warfare is going to bring despair to some of God's little children
who think they're not good enough, who think they're not worthy
enough, who think they continue to sin until they're a castaway,
that they've lost their salvation, whatever the case might be. And
John here is to write and to tell them, listen, Now, I don't
want you to sin. Don't sin. But if you do sin,
don't despair. We have an Advocate with the
Father, the Righteous One. Jesus the Christ, the Righteous
One. Now, to some people, that doesn't
bring comfort because they're not resting in Christ alone for
righteousness. To the workmonger, to the one
who thinks that they have to continue in good works, who continues
in faithfulness, to continue in obedience, or else God will
turn His back on them and no longer have fellowship. That's
how I used to believe, that whenever we sin, God turned his back and
would break his fellowship with us and would say, I can't fellowship
with you anymore until you repent and ask for forgiveness. Brethren,
when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. The Father's
not gonna turn away and say, I'm not gonna have fellowship
because the advocate is saying, wait a minute, wait a minute,
the sin was clean. I paid for that sin, so that
sin don't count. That sin don't count. And so
God never breaks fellowship with us. God never turns His back
away from us. He pursues us in love constantly,
over and over and over again. That's why we see chastisement
not only in the times that we've sinned, but in all times. He's
pursuing us in love. And so, In this very first verse,
we see that Jesus' present substitution is as our advocate. He's going
before God and pleading the case of His little children who oft
times fall into sin. But look at verse 2. It says, "...and He is the propitiation
for our sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. Now this verse gets a lot of
people caught up and they think that Christ died for everybody
because of this verse. Again, remember the audience
to who John is writing to. He's writing to the Jews, primarily
to the Jews in this letter. A lot of times we forget that
these books of the Bible that we're reading here is written
to specific people, especially in the New Testament and the
epistles. They were letters written and sent to a specific church. They were sent to a specific
people. And so first and foremost, whenever
we interpret scripture, we must interpret it in the context in
which it was written to the people that it was written to. If we
don't get that understanding, then we're not gonna know what's
being said here. John is writing to these Jews,
and if you remember, the Jews thought they were the only ones
who were God's people, the only ones who would be saved by the
Messiah. And so during this time period, when Jesus came, and
all the way up here now until John, before he dies and he writes
these epistles, there is this continuum. Remember, hello, the
Jews were scattered early in Acts. They were dispersed. So the message of this Gentile
inclusion wasn't there at the very beginning. But after the
dispersion happened, they began to hear this message of the Gentile
inclusion, the grafting in of the Gentiles into the people
of God. See, that was foreign to their
understanding. So see, that's why it's important that we understand
the background of who's he writing to, because then we know, why
did he say that he's not only the propitiation for us, but
for the whole world? because He was letting them know,
listen, Jesus was not only the propitiation for the Jew, He
was the propitiation for the Gentile. And so He was corroborating
the message of Paul. He was corroborating the vision
of Peter whenever Peter's seeing the blanket come down out of
heaven with all the animals. And God said, don't call unclean
what I've called clean. That wasn't just talking about
eating things, okay? People get so hung up on some
of these things and don't understand that this is talking about God
give Peter, who at that time had an issue with Jews and Gentiles
still. Remember, Paul had to come to
his face and rebuke him to his face about how he was acting
one way with the Gentiles, one way whenever the circumcision
came, okay? Peter had an issue. God showed
him a vision. Don't call unclean what I've
called clean. Don't look at the Gentile as
scurvy dogs, okay? And so we see John corroborating
the story of the other two most prominent men in the New Testament,
Paul and Peter. And he says, he is the propitiation
for our sins, Jewish little children, but not just for our sins, but
for the sins of all the Gentile little children. Now, if you're
still in John chapter 11, remember what Caiaphas said. Believe it
or not, we still are in verse by verse exposition of John,
taking a big detour, but he said, And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation and not for that nation only, but that also
he should gather together in one the children of God, you
can put little children of God there if you want to, little
children of God that were scattered abroad. See, we're just like
seed. God scattered his children and
scattered them across all this plain. I forgot to change the
word in that last hymn that we sung, but it caught me off guard. I came up on it quick, but he
scattered that seed across all the earth, and he has people
in every city, every tribe, every language, and every tongue. You
see how that's broken down? Every nation, them are large. Every city, those are subsections
of nations. Every tribe, those are even more
subsections within the cities. Every language, more subsection. But even down to every tongue. You go over to England, I've
never been to England, but if you go over to England, I watch
enough British television to know, you can tell they're all
English, but they have several dialects of how their English
comes out. Some of you have more proper,
who speak more proper. And some of you have improper
English, you know. They have these different tones
to their English. They're all in the same area. I know my accents aren't very
good. You come here. You have some,
when Richard McCrory and Mike McInnis come up to meet with
us, they speak English, don't they? Well, kind of. They're
kind of like me. I kind of speak English. They
come and speak English, but it don't sound like how we talk.
Mike McInnis of mine, he has got an accent. Now, to them down there, we do.
Richard McCrory, he has a more Mississippi accent, more Delta
accent. We're all different. See how
God takes and how He scatters the seed and the seed is fallen
even down into the very mind. Listen, that's why the Bible
says that He's not a respecter of persons. He's not a respecter
of persons in the fact that He has propitiated for every nation,
tribe, language, tongue, all the way down through the mind.
There's gonna be someone represented from every likeness of all his
creation of man. He will have a seed in every
division that you can think of. Now, whatever it says that he's
not a respecter of persons, he is a respecter of persons in
the fact that he is sovereign to choose those whom he gives
this to and whom he doesn't. A lot of people want to use that
verse to say election's false because he's not a respecter
of persons. If they read the context of that,
he's not a respecter of persons and whether it be Jew or Gentile. And Gentiles cover every nationality,
every tribe, every tongue, every, all that. He is the propitiation
for our sins and not ours only, but also for the sins of the
world. Now, what does that word propitiation mean? That is a
big word. A lot of churches don't like
using those terms because people don't understand them and you're
just confusing them. Leave theology and the seminary's
preacher. That ain't, you know, we don't
have to talk. It's in the Bible, isn't it?
Should we not know our Bible? Should I dumb down this so that
my kids could understand that? No, number one, my kids ain't
gonna fully understand propitiation unless God gives them the understanding
of it anyway. Second of all, I'm to teach the
whole counsel of God and propitiation is something taught in the scriptures.
So if I'm to teach my kids the word of God, guess what? I'm
gonna teach them what propitiation means. If they can sit and play
some video game that has 5 or 10 buttons on it, and all their
fingers are doing this kind of thing, and they're doing multiple
things. Now my kids don't have a big
gaming system, they have the little tablets that they play
simpleton games on. I've seen them in front of these
TVs, and they've got, I've had them before, and they've got
like 12 buttons on this thing, and you're all doing all this
stuff, and it's making this lifelike deal. Listen, if they can do
that, they can understand what the word propitiation means. If they can memorize every cartoon
that ever comes on TV and be able to speak back all the conversations
on that, remember every name to every superhero and all that
stuff, listen, they can learn propitiation. Now this word propitiation,
it's actually a pretty neat thing here and actually, like I said,
it goes along with what we were talking about in who Jesus is
as a substitute and how it goes through so much of everything
that he does. And this word propitiation It
has a word there in the Greek, and I won't go into all that.
I probably won't even pronounce it correctly at all and everything.
But it has the meaning of atonement or expiation. That's another
big word or everything. But it means to appease. That's
a simple term, to appease. And you know, it's only used
a couple of times in the scriptures. And both times in the scriptures
where it's used, it speaks of appeasement. or turning away
of wrath. That's what an advocate is sent
into the court to do, right? Whenever you lawyer up, in today's
vernacular when they say lawyer up, okay, what are you lawyering
up for? To go before the judge in hopes
that your lawyer will turn the wrath of that judge away and
you go out scot-free, right? So that's propitiation. Your advocate is going before
the judge to hopefully appease his wrath and turn it away from
you. So propitiation, whenever we
look at the two or three places that that word is used, if you
look at just the whole word propitiation as two, if you look at that,
you'll see in their context, it's talking about a turning
away of wrath. In the Old Testament, it was
pictured as, if you'll remember, on the Ark of the Covenant, where
the priest would go and the sacrifice would be brought, on that ark,
there was a solid bar of gold that covered the Ark of the Covenant,
and it was called the mercy seat, and it stood between the cherubim.
And that mercy seat was on top of that, and that's where the
blood was spilled out. That's a picture of propitiation.
That's the picture of propitiation. That mercy seat is what turns
away God's wrath on us. And that's what Jesus as the
advocate is doing here. He was the propitiation. He was
the one who appeased by His atonement, by His substitutionary death,
His vicarious substitution, He appeased the wrath of God. That's why we see in Isaiah 53
where he says that he shall see the travail of his soul and be
satisfied. His wrath was appeased. He's
satisfied. God is satisfied. The law has
been satisfied. God's wrath and judgment has
been satisfied for his people because Jesus, the advocate,
the substitute, the sacrifice, the priest has went in and has
appeased the wrath of God. He's turned that wrath of God
away. He has shielded us from God's
wrath with his substitution on our behalf. And so we see this
word propitiation shouldn't be kicked out of our discussions
because it is so beautiful. What do we as sinners want to
hear? No more wrath. What do we as sinners want to
know? That God is not angry at us anymore. What do we want to
know? That we have been reconciled
to God. That we have fellowship with
God. That we are counted among the
beloved. That we are not castaways. That
we are not cast off. That we are not disapproved.
What do we want to know? We want to know that our sins
are not being remembered no more. And Jesus did that by as a substitutionary
advocate went before God and when God's wrath was ready to
be poured, now I'm saying this in human terms to get across
to us because I believe that before the foundation of the
world, God declared all these things and there's never been
wrath upon us, okay? But to show us what we, in our
understanding of how it happens, what we feel. See, whenever I
first come into conversion, when God opened up my understanding,
I felt these things. I felt wrath. That came in first. God's law came in and did its
due diligence of showing me that I'm a sinner. God's due diligence
came in and showed me that I couldn't measure up. God's law came in
and convicted me, convinced me of sin, convinced me that I'm
guilty, showed me that I am worthy of condemnation. Praise God,
the Gospel came in right behind it and said, good news to you
though. There's been one who has taken that wrath, that has
taken your guilt and placed it upon himself, and then that now
is an appeasement. God no longer looks at you in
wrath. See, that's how we understand
those things. But as we study more and more in Scripture, we
find out that blessed is the man unto whom God does not impute
sin. That He has never beheld iniquity
in Jacob or perverseness in Israel. That His eye has always been
on us in love. See, if ever God would look at
us in wrath, then He'd have to hate us. And God is not changing. He has loved us with an everlasting
love. And the way He loves us with
an everlasting love is because we have been in His Son from
before the foundation of the world. Seen in Christ Jesus,
received in Christ Jesus, counted in Christ Jesus, righteous in
Christ Jesus. And so even though we came in
the seed of Adam, And in the manifestation of time, we were
born. And we were born of a woman,
born in iniquity. And that passing on of sinfulness
and death in our physical flesh came to us from Adam. We also see that we actually
become sinners Whenever we come from the womb, we come forth
speaking lies. We come forth from the womb,
depraved, unable to do anything Godward, anything spiritual.
We come through loving our sin. And to the naked eye, it looks
like we're just like everybody else. Matter of fact, the Bible
says that in times past, we walked just like them, just like children
of wrath. But yet the Bible tells us that we were blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places before the foundation
of the world. That's the good news. That's
the gospel. Why is it good news? Because
it tells you you might feel that sin. You might feel that guilt. You might feel that wrath. But
the good news is there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, you are
in Christ Jesus. There is no wrath. Why? Because a substitute advocates
before the Father for you and propitiates or appeases the wrath
of God, and it's turned away. So why is John's message to these
little children a blessed message? Because them, just like us today,
continue to have sin, continue to feel, at times, guilt and
despair. How many times, brethren, have
you, in the course of your day, sinned against the Lord and your
heart is just broken? I hate this. Why do I continue to come back
to this sin? Why do I continue to do this?
If Christ is in me, why do I keep doing this? Why do we need to
hear the gospel over and over again? Now, I'm not a big Martin
Luther guy. I don't really read much of his
stuff. I don't really care for all his
business. He did say some good things,
like John Calvin, he did say a few good things. I'm gonna
throw the baby out with the bath water on them guys, okay? I think
they muddied the water more than they helped clear it. But Martin
Luther was asked one time whenever he was teaching his students,
and they did say, you know, teacher, how come you keep telling us
the gospel over and over and over? We're saved, we know, we're
saved. And why do you keep preaching the gospel to us? And he keeps
saying, until you start living like you know the gospel, I'll
keep preaching it. Why? Does he think that they
were gonna be made perfect? I don't know, Martin Luther may
have, I don't know. John Calvin might have, I don't know. But
I say that because getting down to everyday life, if you're like
me, I fail daily. And I need to be continually
told there's no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. and
that hope that has been supernaturally, divinely put in you, it doesn't
come from reading this, it doesn't come from doing good works, it
doesn't come from being born of a lineage of Christians, okay?
That hope is planted in you in the new birth that is something
that we can't explain. Hope that is seen is not hope.
It's something that is there that we can't describe. All we
do, all we can say is, I have it. Can't look to myself. If I look to myself, there is
no hope. But if I look to Christ alone, there is hope because
Christ said that those who look to Him shall be saved. Hope says,
if I look to Christ, Christ has taken away sin and has appeased
the Father. If I'm there, then there's no
wrath. And so hope keeps clinging to Christ alone and never looks
at external things here. So when we look at 1 John 2,
1 through 2, some people look at that as like, there you go. Christ has taken your sin, now
you better get out there and don't sin. They use that as a leveraging
tool. Christ's propitiation should make you want to get out there
and not sin. Brother, hey, I'm the first one to say, the Bible
does say, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. If we love
the fact that Jesus Christ died for us, we should be wanting
to obey him. But it's never a leveraging tool
saying, well, get in line. It's always a leveraging tool
saying those who are the child of grace, this has happened to
you and the child of grace responds, I love that and I want to obey. And as long as grace is given
to us and enabling us to do so, we will follow his commandments. He will walk in his commandments. Listen, brethren, his, His death,
the merit of His righteousness, the merit of His blood, that
is what has secured for us no condemnation. But it has also
secured for us an eternal good. Not just a present good, but
an eternal good. See, I love the fact that all
my past sins have been done away with. But what about now? What about now? And then whenever
I look to the future, how many more am I going to commit in
the days to come? See, Jesus is Merit and righteousness
doesn't just take place here. His merit and righteousness was
enough to cover all my sins. So that whenever I look ahead
in time, I see if I do, as John here says, but if we do sin,
if in the future you do encounter this place where you sinned before
God, the Advocate is there in the future pleading your case. And if another 50 years from
there, you're still here and you're still combating this sin
and you're alive, guess what? The advocate will be there. He'll
be there when you get there. He's there. What an amazing thing
about eternality. We only know time. I look down
the road, if God doesn't come back or kill me out one or the
other, you know, I look down the road 50 years, well, 50 years
is quite a long time, that'll make me 93. Let's make it more
realistic, let's cut another 30 years or 40 years, okay? 30, 40 years down the road, God
willing, I look down the road, how many sins am I gonna commit? in those 30 or 40 years. You
know, when I start thinking about that, I can despair. But then
I look here and I say, guess what? Even though today, May
the 29th or 30th, whatever day it is, I've lost track, 2016,
Mike sins. And if everything's like the
last 30 years, 40 years, Mike's gonna keep sinning. but yet Christ stands outside
of time, and he says, when you get there, you have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Not Jesus Christ,
the almost righteous. See, the Pharisees thought they
were all right, because they're almost righteous. They've done almost all that's
required. The rich young ruler, when he came to Jesus, he'd done
just about everything that he could. It still wasn't good enough. Matter of fact, Jesus said, if
you're like these, You're never going to enter into the kingdom.
There's going to be whores that's going to enter the kingdom of
heaven before these people do. No, you need the righteous one.
He's going to be there. So God's not going to charge
his elect with sin. The law is not going to come
down and convict them of wrongdoing because we have the
advocate. Today, tomorrow, the next day,
the next day. So today's the present, right?
I don't know what tomorrow holds. So Jesus is presently my substitute. When I get tomorrow, guess what? Jesus is presently my substitute. When I get to the next day, Jesus
is presently my substitute. It's always that, you know, I'll
do it tomorrow. Then when tomorrow gets there,
you say, well, you won't pay up. Well, I told you it'd be
tomorrow. Today's the day. Jesus is there today. And as
long as it is today, we have the promise. He is an advocate. If you awake tomorrow, you have
the promise today. He's their advocate. So every
time we wake up before our God, every time we come in conviction because of our sin
before God, we have an advocate, a substitute who has went before
us and has appeased the wrath of God. But now look, don't let
that be grounds for sin. I don't know how many times I
say that here. Don't let that be grounds for sin. Brethren,
there are a lot of sovereign grace believers who they say
the law is gone. We're no longer under the law.
Eat, drink, be merry and live however you want. It doesn't
matter because Jesus has paid for every sin and that there
is no restraints. Now that's not true either. That's
going from one extreme to another. We don't live by the law, but
we don't live lawless. We come and we find that this
is not a reason for sin. I don't know how many times as
a Baptist, we by the Pentecostal community especially, are deemed
as lawless people. Well, you just think that it's
okay to sin all you want and you're eternally secure. No,
that's not what, anyway, even in Southern Baptist watered-down
churches, that never was preached. They didn't ever preach that
kind of junk. So our substitute stands as an advocate before
the Father. So we don't need to sin, but
if we do, don't despair, and Jesus will continue day by day
to be your substitute. So we see that Jesus is our substitute
daily. Now, I just want to make clear,
I'm not trying to contradict Hebrews where it says that He
made a sacrifice once for all, that whenever it says in Hebrews
that He purged our sins and then He sat down at the right hand
of God, everything is finished. I'm not trying to contradict
that. I'm saying in our mind as our comfort, He's our comforter,
right? Jesus is our comforter. And He
comforts us with His words. And He's telling us that when
you sin, He didn't say, when you sinned, I was an advocate
for you. He's keeping it present tense.
that when you sin, we have an advocate with the Father. So
each time that takes place, we have an advocate. There's been
several times this week that I've had to go to the Lord and
I said, I'm sorry. I'm such a sorry guy. I continue
to sin and just forgive me. And of course, I know that we're
forgiven already, but you know, I like to say it. I like to ask. You know, forgive me once again,
even though it's already forgiven. He says, you know, he is faithful
and just and to forgive us if we confess it. So I'm confessing
I'm sinning and looking for that forgiveness. So we have that
as a everyday substitution for us. He's every day going before
the father as we look at it into the heavens, we see every day
an advocate before us. Jesus was an advocate once for
all, okay, on the cross, but yet the effects of that, the
efficaciousness of that, is that every day we can look and see
him advocating before the throne for us every time that we sin. Now, the last thing I'd like
to mention about substitution before we conclude on this, is
that Jesus has stood before God in our day of judgment. Okay? There is a day that is coming. Not that it has already happened.
There is a day that is coming that the Bible speaks of. Whenever
Christ will return, this earth will be destroyed, the dead will
be raised to life, and the quick and the dead will come before
God. I do not believe that there's
going to be a seven-year time period that separates that. I
don't believe that there's going to be a thousand-year time period
that's going to separate that. I believe that the next event
on God's calendar, if you would, is the imminent bodily return
of Jesus Christ for the end of time. The last day Now, let me
just say just a couple of things on here. I don't want to get
too much into eschatology, but I want to say something. The
Bible speaks often of the last day. The last day. If you'll notice, there is times
where it says the last day plural, but there are times that it speaks
of the last days, or excuse me, the last day singular, and it
speaks of the last days plural. The Bible says that from the
time Jesus died and was resurrected, the last days plural began. We are living in the last days. The dispensational premillennialists
will want to tell us that the last days are this period of
time right before a rapture and a seven-year tribulation, where
all the Christians will be taken out, the rest of the world will
go through all these horrible events for seven years, an antichrist
is going to come on the scene, a one-world government is going
to come into power, all this kind of stuff is going to take
place, and that's the last days. But the scripture is very clear
that the last days began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the last days, but yet
there's a place in the scripture that talks about the last day
singular and in that last day. We can look at that and see now
the dispensations want to say that last day. is when Jesus
comes and then after he comes, there's going to be a thousand
year reign and then there's going to be a loosening of Satan and
then there's going to be a deceiving again and then there's going
to be a big war and then there's going to be a triumph and then
there's going to be the eternal state. Well, brethren, The last day is exactly that. The last day. A day is a period
of time. Whether it talks about an expanded
period of time in the day of Noah, okay? That was a period
of time when Noah lived. But whenever it says that He
shall come in the last day, the trumpet, the last trump shall
sound, okay? That means there's been previous
days. That means there's been previous
trumpets. and that when He comes, it's
gonna be the last and the ending of days and the last and ending
of trumpets. So whenever you look at Revelation
and it's talking about these trumpets, guess what? That's
happening now. The trumps are happening now,
the bowls are happening now, okay? The voices that you hear
in Revelation are speaking of this time period now. But there's
going to come a day when the, and we sang it, did you pick
up on that in that song we sung? When that seventh trumpet sounds,
okay? That's the last trump. That's
the last day. Whenever that point comes, guess
what? There's no more day. There's
no more days. There's no more trumpets. It's
the end. So that's why I've come to believe
that there's a general return, there's a general resurrection,
a general judgment, And at that judgment, God is going to separate
the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares. In that
day, that's what I'm speaking of, in that day, God is going to judge all men.
God is going to present every one of His people before all
the reprobates, before all the angels, and God is going to present
His elect as the trophy of His glory. He's going to present
them not anything good that they've done, but He's going to present
them before all of creation as the evidence of the glory of
His grace and His mercy and His love and He will present all
the reprobates, whenever they are separated from the sheep,
when they are separated from the wheat, they will be presented
as vessels of dishonor. showing His wrath and His judgment
and His hatred, so that all the attributes, all the glory of
God will be revealed before man. Man will be judged in that he
could do nothing before God, But yet here are people that
even though they were made out of the same lump of clay, God
was able to glorify himself and to bring these people to a state
that these people could never have done. And God does that
at this judgment. At this judgment, God will show
that His people have been made holy, unblameable, that they
have been perfect and glorious before Him for all eternity. If you'll remember, Jesus, speaking
of these times, as a matter of fact, won't you turn with me
over to the passage Turn with me to Hebrews 2. Look
at verse 9 with me. We want to read verse 9. It says, but we see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death. Okay? He was made a little lower
than the angels, meaning that He took on human flesh. Okay? That's how He was made lower
than the angels. He didn't divest Himself of deity.
He didn't divest Himself of being God. but He took upon Himself
flesh and became like us. But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. There
was a purpose in why He was given flesh. And it says, crowned with glory
and honor that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man. And again, don't get hung up
on that every man business and think that He's talking about
every man, woman, and child that's ever been born. He's not talking
about that. Verse 10, for it became Him for
whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many
sons unto glory." See, brethren, right now, we are being brought
unto glory. Now, we're not talking about
glories in just heaven, okay? We always talk about, I'm going
on to glory, you know, in kind of slang talk. No, we are being
brought He says He's bringing many sons unto glory. He's bringing
them to the point where they are glorified. He's bringing
them to a place. That's why the Bible says, remember,
the chain of salvation. Those whom He foreknew. What
happens? They're justified. They're sanctified. They're glorified. Now, sanctified is not in there.
That's presumed because they're called, okay? They're called,
they're justified, they're glorified. I'm getting all mixed up here.
So we see here that He is bringing them unto glory And it says,
"...to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He
is not ashamed..." Here it is, "...to call them brethren." He's
not ashamed, brethren, to call us that. saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise
unto thee. And again, and here it is, the
verse I was wanting to get to specifically, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. Listen. When Jesus comes
before God at the end of days, in the last day, when the last
trump has sound, and all of the quick and the dead have been
raised and brought before the throne of God, Jesus is going
to stand and He's going to part the sheep from the goats, the
wheat from the tares, and He's going to say, Father, here are
all the ones that Thou hath given me. I've lost not one. Not one. He's going to say, these are
the children that you have given Me. You've given them to Me before
eternity. And here we are in eternity.
And all through time, not one was lost. Ain't that amazing? Why don't people speak about
eternal salvation? Why is the preaching and the
teaching of eternal salvation so damnable to so many people? to think that God, before the
foundation of the world, and then after the last day and last
trump, when eternity for everyone here begins to be felt and known,
that all this little swag, which we call time, lost not one person
that was given. That's a victor, guys. That is
a victor. Jesus went from eternity and
He went to eternity. And all down through time, Adam's
race destroyed the glory of God with their sin. But from the
time of Adam until the last trump, not one of that elect that was
in Christ Jesus was lost in all the vile mess. That is a victor. That's the Savior that I want. That's the Savior that I love,
that I want to preach about. I don't want to preach about
a Savior who God gave Him a people before the foundation of the
world and said, it's my pleasure that what you do for them is
going to succeed. And then Him come and die, and
then it not succeed. that whenever he gets there to
the last day and the last trumpet, and he separates the sheep and
the goats, and he says, well done, my good and faithful servants,
and then he looks over at the reprobates, and he tells the
reprobates, oh, how much I loved you, I died for you, I shed my
blood for you, I turned away God's wrath for you, I did everything
for you, and yet there's many of you there that I did that
for, and there you are. Then what does that speak of
Jesus? What does that speak of the Savior? He's no Savior. That Jesus is not a Savior. That
Jesus was not a substitute. If that was the case, those people
whom Jesus substituted for would be over here. See, He is a substitute in our
judgment. He stands there when we come
before God. And He doesn't leave us floundering
before God ourselves, pleading our case. No, whenever that day
comes, He's going to, out of the mass of humanity, He's going
to part the waters as it was. He's going to move all of us
to His right side. All the others to the left side.
And He's going to see there is a Savior. God is going to say,
you want to see a Savior? Here it is. Look at this throng
of people. Look at this innumerable amount
of people from every nation, tribe, tongue, every language. Look at them all. They were all cut from the same
lump as these. But He was mighty to save, and
save He did. I started before they ever fell
and gave them to Him here. I sent Adam, created of the earth,
earthy, and told him, don't do. And he
did. And everyone from that day forward
was in sin and death and could do nothing for God. These people were just like that.
These people were just like that. But because I give them to Christ,
He came and He saved them from that. And here they are. This is what a Savior can do.
This is what a Savior can do. And then He's going to look over
here and He says, this is what self-righteousness can do. This
is what self-righteousness can do. Without a Savior, this is
who you are. But with a Savior, this is where
you are. Without a Savior, this is where you stand. With a Savior,
this is where you stand. All glory and praise to the Lamb
who was slain, for He hath saved from every nation, language,
tribe, and tongue people unto God. They couldn't have done any more
than these people could have, but because He saved them, here
they are today. And the people on this side won't
have anything to say. They'll know. I believe they'll
know. And he will say to those on his
left hand, depart from me, you doers of iniquity. I never knew
you. God never gave them to me. God
never gave you to me. These I know. These I have died
for. These I have pled for. These
I have appeased God's wrath for. These I walked for 33 years in
perfect obedience so that my obedience would be their obedience.
These I went to the cross for and I was hammered with nails
and stabbed in the side, sweat drops of blood, crowns of thorns,
despised among men, rejected, beard plucked out, cast upon,
ridiculed, spit at, all this stuff. I did that, but there
was a moment in time where everything was quieted, the whole earth
darkened, and God Himself out of heaven poured all His wrath
upon me. And I took every bit of that
wrath for these people. And after taking that wrath for
those people, those people are considered justified because
I was good enough to be accepted. Some people may say, well, that's
an arrogant Jesus. No, that is a God. That is God. That is a Savior. Whenever a Savior comes in, whenever
David, we look in the Old Testament at David, whenever he came in
from battle, and all the things that David did. And he came in. Did he have to come in waving
a flag about how much of a king and how much of a slayer of people
he was? No. He came in and they cheered.
Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.
The people seen it and knew he was our Savior. He didn't have
to spout it all out. And brother, whenever we get
to that day, guess what? We're going to know whenever we look
at the people that He has saved, He was a Savior. He was a Savior. He wasn't making salvation possible. He was a Savior. Because everyone
on this side is going to know they were just like me. And everyone
on that side is going to know I was just like them. And the
only difference is right here in the middle, the Savior. He's going to be our substitute
in the day of judgment. Whenever it's time for these
people to come and give an account before God, all they're going
to be able to come and say is, Lord, Lord, did we not do? But
whenever these people come before the throne of God, all they're
going to say is He did. He done it. He done it. He done it. That's why I love to listen to
testimonies, people that come in and want to come to church
here or want to be baptized or whatever the case might be. And
a lot of times I'll ask them, you know, tell me about your
conversion experience. Tell me how you come to know
the Lord and things like that. There are many times I'll sit there
and I'll hear the most beautiful display of the Gospel and how Christ had saved them
brought them from all this stuff. But then I listen to many and
they'll say, I, I, I, well, I was so bad and then I. got to thinking
how bad things were, and I was ruining my family's life, I was
ruining my children's life, and so I went back to church, and
I listened to the preaching, and I was convicted, and so I
went down front, and I prayed with the preacher, and I made
a commitment to God, and I rededicated my life to the Lord, and then
I was baptized, and then I began to study the Bible, and I began
to try to obey as best as I could, and I, I, I. You know what, even
though it's nice to hear people that, and you know, there may
be even some ignorance in that, I don't know. And all they know
is what's happened and they don't know the full theological backing
behind that, I don't know. But I think a child of grace,
eventually, sometime comes to know it wasn't I, it was Him. And their testimony will change
from that to where the only I that's in there is all I know is I was
once lost and now I'm found. All I know is that He said it's
finished. All I know is He died, and if
ever I'm to be saved, it's because of Him. So I think the tenor
will change, but Jesus will become our substitute in eternity as
He stands before that whole throng and that whenever any charges
were ever to even be thought of being brought up, just think
of it, brethren, how many of your brothers and sisters, your
aunts, your uncles, your close friends that know you better
than anybody else that may be on this side, whenever they're
standing that day, may be able to say, well, hey, I know you
used to sneak around the schoolhouse and get drunk. You know, I know
you used to look at dirty pictures and dirty movies. I know you
used to cheat on your taxes. How many people are going to
come and have accusations? Hey, there's going to be plenty.
Listen, a lot of my old football buddies are going to have plenty
of accusations against me, you know. But you know what? The Bible
says who can bring any charge to God's elect? Whenever anybody
would even think about opening up their mouth to lay a charge
to God's elect, the substitute steps in. The advocate steps
in and shuts them down. And he says, I have redeemed
them for myself. Listen, in that great day, God's
going to judge all men and Jesus is going to say, behold, I and
the children that God has given me. Whenever God examines every
one of us, Every last man, every last woman, and listen, He is
going to examine with the strictest of judgment. Nothing is going
to get by Him. There's a lot of people that
think that they're going to slip through without being noticed. Listen, God's going to see. He
knows everything. And He judges in true righteousness,
true holiness, and the strictest of judgment. And He will find
spot and blemish where there is spot and blemish unless a substitute became a
spot or blemish for them. Whenever He looks at His people,
He will not find a spot. He will not find a blemish. He
will only see a Son who's substituted with a perfect righteousness
and obedience and washed away every sin. He will be our eternal
substitute in judgment. So brethren, turn with me if
you would over to Jeremiah 50. and verse 20. And I want to part
with this last passage here. Jeremiah 50 and verse 20. It says, in those days and in that
time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for."
Now you think my little analogy about your brothers and sisters
bring an accusation to you. Well, not only them, but who
does the Bible say is the biggest accuser of them all? Satan. Satan's going to come forth,
I believe, and he's going to point to every one of those people
that's on his right hand and say, every one of them, I know
every deed they've done. They're not worthy. They sinned. And he's going to probably even
bring accusation against God. Like he did with Job. The only
reason that Job loves you is because you've put a hedge around
him. He's going to say, the only reason these people are like
this is because you wouldn't let me at them. He wouldn't let
me get to Him. The only reason these people
are like that is because you accepted Jesus instead of them. He's going to say, I know every
one of them sinned. But Jesus is going to come forth
and say, God has laid upon me the sins of all these. And there
is no accusation to be made. The Father, as it were, is going
to look down and He says, I see no spot. I see no blemish in
Israel. But it says, in those days and
at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for and there shall be none. Not one. None. And the sins of
Judah and they shall not be found. for I will pardon them whom I,
here's the word, reserve. Now, when did He reserve them?
At the cross? No. When did He reserve them? What did Jesus say? He said,
thine they were and thou gavest them to me. The Bible says that
we are preserved in Christ Jesus. The words are
a little bit different but very similar. To preserve something
is to take it, to keep it, to hold it. To reserve something
is to set something aside and keep it for a time. Words are
pretty similar. Reserve is the action that was
done to us. The other is the action that
was done for us. We are being preserved because
we were reserved. When were we reserved? According
as God has chosen us before the foundation of the world. According as God has chosen us
before the foundation of the world. So from eternity, To eternity,
we have had a God-man substituting for us. We have had an advocate with
the Father. We have had a go-between. We
have had a Savior, a substitute. So whenever we trust Christ as
substitute, We can expect God to give us a hardy, not guilty,
not guilty. And as I said a while ago, he
will say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Come inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. That's what God's
going to say. Come and enjoy the kingdom that
was prepared for you before I ever made this kingdom of the world. So, brethren, I pray that this
look at substitution here has been a blessing to you, not because
I preached it or thought of it, but because God in His love told
you about it. Because God, in eternity, made
you a part of it. And that God, sometime in eternity
to come, is going to let you experience all of it. See, we're
just getting to experience a little bit of it now. We're going to
get to experience every bit of it. We will see our Savior face
to face. We will see the One who took
the Prince for us. We will see the One who took
the wrath for us. And oh, what a mighty day that
will be. We're not going to be strutting
heaven with a crown. We're going to be bowed before
His feet saying, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is filled with His glory. We have been redeemed and so
happy in Jesus, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through
His infinite mercy, His child, and now forever I am. Amen. All
right, let's stand and have a word up there.