If you have a few Bibles, it's
on page 1328. 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2. My little children.
We looked at that a few months ago or so. I found out that that literally
means my little darlings. My little darlings. These things
write I 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. My little darlings,
this shows the deep affection these apostles had for these
churches that they were writing to. Some of the churches that
they pastored, that when they wrote these letters to them,
they wrote with such deep, deep affection. My little children,
my little ones, my little darling. You often find this affection
in the epistles of the Apostle Paul. He wrote to churches that
had erred. He wrote to some who had fallen.
And he said, I write to you with tears. Can you imagine this great
Apostle Paul writing and dictating letters and tears are flowing
down his face? He had such affection for the
people that he wrote to. This is what he said to the Corinthian
church. And we know some of the awful,
awful difficulties that they were having. He said, Out of
much affliction and anguish of my heart I wrote unto you with
many tears, not that you would be grieved, but that you might
know the love I have more abundantly to you. He was speaking to the
Ephesian elders and he said this to them, He encouraged them to
watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease
not to warn every man day and night with tears, with tears
of affection and concern. He was writing to the Thessalonica
church and here's what he said concerning them and to them.
What is my hope? What is my joy? What is my crown
of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence
of the Lord Jesus at His coming? When Christ comes, what's my
joy going to be? It's seeing you there in His
presence. John Bunyan wrote The Great Pilgrim's
Progress. He said, When anyone left his
ministry and went back into their sins, it was almost like taking
red-hot pinchers and pulling the flesh from his body. That's
the affections that the men of God have for those that they
preach to. In Lamentations, Jeremiah the
weeping prophet, he said, My eyes do fail with tears, my bowels
are troubled, my liver is poured out upon the earth for the destruction
of the daughter of my people. When the Lord saves an individual,
He makes him realize he has a soul, doesn't He? Isn't it strange
that we go through this life, dead in sins, and we've got this
precious soul and we don't even know it? Until the Lord awakens
us to make us know that we are indeed a precious soul worth
more than the entire world. And then when He makes us to
know that, then sometimes He calls a poor man to preach the
gospel to other people, and then that appreciation, that concern
and knowledge of the soul intensifies. It gets deeper. And that's what
we see here in John's writing. My little darlings. Charles Spurgeon said, we don't
love the souls of others until we love our own souls. And if
a man doesn't love the souls of others, he probably doesn't
love his own soul. The souls become precious. When we read this in the Old
Testament, two times, darling is used in the Old Testament,
and both times it applies to the soul. Listen to how David
said it in Psalms 35, 17, Lord, how long Well, thou look on. Rescue my
soul from destruction, my darling from the lions. My soul is my
darling. It's my darling. What makes it
a darling? Because it's precious. It's precious
to me. Another time this is used in
Psalm 22, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is speaking it. He's
prophesying of the cross. And he prays and says, deliver
my soul from the sword, my darling. And the margin says, precious
life. Deliver my precious life from
the power of the dogs. My darling. My soul is my darling. Things aren't darling. Possessions
aren't darlings. This world's not a darling. It's
a fleeting thing. If a man gained the whole world
and loses soul, the world's not a darling. There is but one darling,
and this is what makes it darling, and that's our souls are precious. We only have one of them. What
makes the Lord Jesus Christ so precious? What makes Him a darling? There's only one of Him. There's
one Savior. There's one life. We have one
soul to be saved or lost. And that soul must be saved for
all eternity or be lost for all eternity. My little darlings,
how would you describe your soul this morning? Your being, your
life, you only have one essential life. How would you estimate
the value of your soul? How would you do that? How do
you estimate the preciousness of a soul? You cannot. We attempt
to by comparing it to the world. We attempt to by comparing it
to the awful sufferings if the soul is not saved. We attempt
to by looking at the cross and saying how valued the soul must
be because of the tremendous price. But we can't estimate
it, can we? Oh, my little darling. My little
darlings, the Bible teaches that when you
and I die, the body goes back to the dust, but the soul goes
to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. And departed saints there will
live much better than they live here. To be with Christ is far
better. The knowledge of Him and the
knowledge the saints have there in heaven is far greater than
what they have here. The communion is much deeper
than it is here. And there it's uninterrupted.
And can you imagine loving souls of people here? Can you imagine
how the affection, the deep affection is going to be manifested there?
If we love one another, hear and speak so affectionately of
one another to say, ìMy little darlings.î How would they speak
of one another there in heaven? ìMy little darlings.î ìMy little
darlings.î Thatís the way he addresses these believers. And secondly, he goes on and
says this to them, ìThese things, my little darlings, I write unto
you That you sin not. That you sin not. He's right
into the little darlings, isn't He? Notice who John gives instructions
to. Not to the world. Not to the
unsaved. He's not talking to the unbelievers.
He's talking to His little darlings. My little children. And what
does this remind us of? First of all is this. That the
children of God have the capacity still to sin. If they didn't, why waste his
breath and ink writing these things I write unto you that
you sin not? In chapter 1, John had said three
things concerning our sins. Look back in chapter 1 and look
in verse 8. He says three things concerning
our sin. Look in chapter 1 and verse 8.
If we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. God has not saved us from the
being of sin. We are still sinners. We still
have this old flesh, this old nature abiding with us. And if
a man does not know himself to be yet a sinner, then I wonder
if God has ever really taught him because he has deceived himself. John said we are yet sinners.
In verse 9, look what he says, if we confess our sins, we've
committed something and we're conscious of it, and if we confess
that sin, God is faithful. Wayne taught us about that this
morning. Oh, the faithfulness of God. Upon every sin that's
confessed, for Christ's sake, God is faithful to forgive that
sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then in
verse 10, He says if we deny that we have committed a sin,
if we refuse to confess that we have sinned, then we make
God a liar. And His Word is not in us because
His Word says we have sinned. How do you know you are a sinner?
I know it two ways. And you know it two ways. One
way, you know by experience. You know by experience. God has
taught you. A sinner, Mr. Hart said, is a
precious thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
That is, the Holy Ghost has taught him of his sin. The second way
we know our sin is by the Word of God. He tells us all have
sinned. And you know, you go through
the Bible and he reads of the different kinds of sin. There's
sin against God's law. And if we broke one commandment,
he said we're guilty of all. There's sins against God. There's
sins against the Son of God. There's sins against the Spirit
of God. There's sins against light. There's
sins against one another. There's sins of thought. Their
sense of motives, their sense of the words, the words that
come from our tongue, the deeds that we do. It's amazing that even the little
children could live in this world and not sin any more than they
do. But the Word of God tells us
that we're not without sin. That it's possible that we can
sin. And when we do, we're to confess
that sin. Thirdly, let's consider this.
Why should the little children guard against sinning? That's the first thing John emphasizes
to us here. My little children, sin not. He first emphasizes that you
and I must guard against sinning against God. Why is that? Let me give you some things to
think about. Sin is a deceitful thing. And when it goes unrecognized
and unconfessed and unforsaken, It has a tendency to harden the
heart. Sin is a hardening thing. It
deceives and it hardens. Listen to Hebrews 3.13. Exhort
one another, encourage one another daily while it is called today,
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Harden. Sin is committed. And if it is not recognized and
confessed and forsaken, it has a tendency to harden a man's
heart. You remember David. He is a perfect
example. We often use him when he sinned
that awful sin with Bathsheba. He went for a whole year, seemingly
unrecognizing the awfulness of His sin. It must have deceived
Him. You say, Bruce, how could a man
commit adultery, physical adultery? How could he lie and commit murder
and not really know it? I don't know. But I bet you there
are some sins that you've committed and I've committed that has deceived
us as far as the awfulness of those sins. I've had some awful
thoughts. And just swept them away and
never give them another throw. Until a few days later, I was
reminded how awful, how vulgar you were thinking. David went
for a year. Can you see him going in to the
tabernacle and gathering with the Lord's people? And he got
his hymn book out and he led in songs? And he prayed and he
read and he gave? And all the time he had done
this awful sin, but it had deceived him and it had hardened his heart. That is what the Apostle warns
us of. Sin not. Why? Because it is a hardening
thing. It is a deceiving thing. Secondly,
sin not for this reason. If sin goes unchecked, It almost
always spreads to other people. It almost always involves other
people. Where did David's sin begin?
In his heart. He saw Bathsheba and he lusted
after her. If he had put a check to that
sin there, If he had confessed that sin and said, Lord, forgive
me for this look of lust, all would have been well, and it
would have spread no further. But he didn't do that, did he?
And notice how that sin spread. It spread from him to those men
he sent to get Bathsheba. They got involved in his sin.
And then he involved Bathsheba in his sins. She came to him
and lay with him. And then he got Joab involved
in his sin. He sent Joab a message to have
Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, killed. And then those men who withdrew
from her husband during the battle, they were involved in it. Sin
is like leprosy, isn't it? They found one little spot on
the arm. And a week later it spread everywhere. That's the way sin is. Little
children, sin not. Because today your sin may involve
you. Tomorrow it may be your children. Tomorrow it may be your spouse.
Tomorrow it may spread all through your family. My little children,
sin not. The very nature of sin is a spreading
thing. Thirdly, think of this, sin not
for this reason, because sin robs us, it has the potential
to rob us of things that we've gained. Boy, look how much some
of us have gained. We've been walking with the Lord
for years and we've gained a measure of peace and joy, assurance,
contentment, You know the Lord rewards those
who seek Him. The Bible says he that comes
to God must believe that He is and must believe that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Everybody who diligently
seeks God in Christ are told they'll find Him and that He
will reward them for their seeking Him. That's a promise of His
Word. As we follow Him and diligently
seek Him, believe Him, we're careful to come to the throne
of grace to find mercy and grace to help in the time of need.
Oh, we're gainers. Let a man seek the Lord and be
diligent in his life and he'll be a gainer for it. I guarantee
you that. He'll be a gainer for it. But
if we get slothful and neglectful and sin, We can lose so much
of that which we've gained. Listen to how John says it in
his second epistle. He said, Look to yourselves,
be careful, be sober, be watchful against sinning, that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. What might we lose? Boy, I tell
you, look what David lost. David was just a little boy,
and boy, he trusted in the Lord with all of his heart, stayed
near to the Lord, followed Him, kept His ear, boy, pinned right
down to the throne of grace. Oh, that spiritual heart was
pounding after the Lord. He slew the bear, remember that,
killed the lion, killed a giant, killed thousands of Philistines,
He said, I'll lay me down and sleep right in the midst of my
enemies. I won't be afraid. Why? Because
the Lord, He sustains me. He's my table. He sets my table
in the midst of my enemies. Oh, the peace of heart that man
had. The joy that he had in the Lord. But boy, you read Psalms
51. Read Psalms 51, that Psalms that
he wrote after he had sinned against the Lord. And there you
can't help but see that he had lost a measure of his confidence. Take not your Holy Spirit from
me. Now we know good and well that
the Lord seals a man with His Holy Spirit until the day of
redemption. But David had this fear that
the Spirit would not be manifest to him, that He'd just recess
into his heart and not manifest Himself. And David said, I can't
live like that. Take not the joy of Your salvation
from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy
salvation. Boy, you can see there, can't
you? Because of his sinning, he lost something. He lost something. Did he later gain it back? I'm
sure he did. I don't want to lose it. Do you?
By an afflicted conscience. Oh, my soul. Afflicted conscience. Fourthly, consider this, my little
children. These things I write unto you
that you sin not. For this reason, boy, think of
the chastening hand of the Heavenly Father. Sin not, because those
whom God loves, He chastens. And He scourges every son whom
He receiveth. No chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but it's grievous. It's grievous. Rebuke me not in your anger,
neither chasten me in your hot displeasure, for your swords It's in me. It sticks in me. Can you imagine having somebody
to bring a spear and sticking it in your side? A sword and
punching your side with it? That's how chastening feels sometimes.
And the Lord chastens those whom He loves. I don't say that all
weakness and all sickness and all death of God's children are
chastening. I would never say that because
it's not so. But you know sometimes, The Lord's
little children are weak and they're sickly. And some of them
even die because God is chastening them for their sins. If we would judge ourselves,
if we recognize our sins and confess our sins and forsake
our sins, then He won't judge us. But when we don't judge ourselves,
we're judged of the Lord, and we're chastened of Him, so we
won't be condemned with the world. I don't know what kind of parents
you have, but I had a father. Buddy, he laid the rod to me
when he thought I needed it. And I remember two or three whippings.
I remember one from a switch that drawed the blood from my
legs, and I remember one from a belt that left some bruises
on my backside. And it hurts. Do you remember
that? They do that now, they put you in jail, wouldn't they?
Well, maybe so. But God hurts. Boy, His chasteness,
He still whips, doesn't He? He still has His rod. My little
darlings, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. You know what the Lord may do
to a man? And He does this. John Bunyan was writing about
this chastening of the Lord, and he was writing the same thing
I'm speaking to you about this morning, about being careful
about our sinning. What an awful serious thing it
is. We should watch against sin. And he said, the Lord may save
a man and save him for all eternity too. And if He saves a man, He
saves for all eternity. But listen, he said, He may save
a man and yet let him die with this afflicted conscience. Let
him die in darkness in his own conscience and take him to heaven. I don't want to die like that,
do you? I don't want to die with a guilt on my conscience of my
neglect and sloppiness. My little darlings, here he says
this, these things I write unto you. that you sin not. And what he's saying here is
these things that I have been writing to you in chapter 1,
let these things that I've been writing to you about be a motive
to keep you from sinning. These things I write unto you
as a motive to keep you from sinning. Think about chapter
1 he said that I've been writing to you. And this will be a motive. What have you been writing to
him about? Well, in chapter 1, in verses 1 through 4, he's talking
about the coming of the Son of God. Look what he said, "...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." Who is that? That's
the Son of God. That's Jesus manifested in their
humanity. And He said, we saw Him, we heard
Him, and we handled Him. 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 you may have fellowship with us and
truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ." He said meditate upon this. Set your affections
on Jesus Christ being revealed in the flesh and all that He's
done on your behalf, all that He's accomplished, set your affections
upon Him. This will motivate you and keep
you from sinning. And then he goes on in the next
verse and says this, these things are written to you that your
joy may be full. This then is the message, look
at this, which we have heard of Him and declared unto you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we are fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. He represents God to them. And
he does it like this. He said, God is pure white light. And in Him is no speck of darkness. And when we think about the God
that we walk with in His purity and His holiness, won't this
make us and won't this keep us from sinning? We cannot live a life of sinning.
and walk with a God like this. You can't, can you? They're too
contrary. I was listening to a radio program
yesterday and people was calling in and boy, they were down on
church members. And I got to listening to them for, oh, a
few minutes and I got to notice that not a one of them attended
service anywhere. But they were down on those who
do. And almost all of them were saying
this, I walk with God. You don't attend the worship
of God. You're down on those who do. And yet you think you're
walking with this God that the Scripture says is pure white
light? It's impossible. It's utterly
impossible to walk with the God of the Bible and live in sin,
have a sinning lifestyle. It's utterly impossible. Impossible. John said, think about this.
These things that I've been writing to you, and they will help you. They'll motivate you. Now, we come to this. If any man sin, if any man sin,
boy, there's that potential for every man in it. You know, there's
only been one man ever in this world, one real man that never
sinned. He could not think of sinning.
It was not possible for him to sin. And that was the Lord Jesus
Christ. Only one man. Everybody else. If any man sinned, Noah was over
400 years old when he got drunk. Wouldn't you think a man 400
years old knew better than that? But he's a man. You'd think a man that had reached
the position of the King of Israel would not sin. But that's when
David sinned, when he was a king. Moses was the greatest prophet
that ever lived, and yet he sinned. Aaron was the first high priest
of God, and yet he sinned. If any man sinned, just the time
when we think, that we've got it conquered, that we'll never
do it again, that's when we're going to do it. That's when we're
going to do it. Yeah, look on it with distaste,
guard against it, watch against it, and if this Word follows,
if you sin. And couldn't we say this when If I was writing this today,
I'd probably interpret it like the amplifier. When you sin. When you sin. We're a man. Any man sin. We haven't an advocate. We're the Father. Jesus Christ
the righteous and He is the perpetuation for our sins. Jesus Christ holds
the office. as the only Mediator between
God and man. The Mediator. That's His office. In that office as a Mediator,
He holds other offices that comes and is within that office as
a Mediator. As a Mediator, He's a high priest.
And as a Mediator, He is the only door, the only way for any
man to approach back unto God and to be accepted of God for
lost people. There is one mediator between
God and man, not only for saved people, but for lost people.
And if a man desires to be accepted of God, he must come through
Jesus Christ, the only mediator. God has set him there. He's the
only one that's able to take hold of a holy God who is light
and take hold of a sinner that is darkness and bring them together
and reconcile them in fellowship. That's his business as a mediator,
to make reconciliation. And within that office of a mediator,
which Christ holds, he has this office of an advocate. Now, an advocate is not for everybody. An advocate is just for one group
of people, and that's the little children. Little children, if
you sin, you have an advocate with the Father. One dictionary just finds advocate
as a counselor. We know them as lawyers, don't
we? You're going to court, you better get an advocate. You better
get a counselor or lawyer. Good luck with that. If I believe
in luck, you're going to need luck. One who pleads the cause
of another in the court of civil law to plead in favor of, to
defend by argument before a tribunal to support or vindicate. My little children. If you sin,
you have one to argue, to plead, to vindicate you before God. Now, notice some things here
that John says. I hope this is a blessing to
you. Almost finished. But first of all, he says this
about this advocate, that we have. If any man sin, we have. We have. Now why is that important? Well,
you may be in trouble if you have to go looking for one. The
blessing is that Jesus Christ is there already. He's on retention. It's though the Father is saying,
My son, listen, the little children are still weak. They're still
in the world of sin. They're apt to sin at any time. So I'm retaining you to sit here
always and represent them before Me." Sometimes, and this is a good
idea, if nothing else, just to keep people off your back. If
you've got some company that's harassing you or somebody threatening
to take you to court, just say this, I have retained an attorney. I've said that before when I
hadn't really and I had to repent of it. But that got people off
my back, you see. Sometimes you can retain an attorney
and they won't charge you anything just when you have to call them.
So it's good to find you an attorney and say, can I retain you? Because
I may need you at any time. And if I'm threatened, I'm going
to say, well, I haven't an attorney. Retain an attorney. Oh, you know
we have an attorney. He's on retention 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, for God's little children who have sinned. We have. We have. And I tell
you, when you call on Him, you won't get His secretary saying,
He can't talk to you now. He's too busy right now. He'll
have to get back with you. He's there now. We have. Secondly, notice how John says
this, He is with the Father. We have an advocate with the
Father. He's with the Father. The disciples
were so concerned about the Lord going away, they were so troubled. And Peter said, Lord, let me
go with you. And all of them said, let us go with you. But
he says, it's profitable for you that I go away. If I go not
away, I can't go to my Father and your Father. He is with the
Father. This very instant He is in heaven
in the presence of God. You may get a lawyer down here
and go to court and him not even show up. That's a scary thing. I went to court one time in my
life and I don't want to go back. And the judge just kept talking
to me. And he wouldn't let the lawyer hardly talk. Mr. Crabtree,
do you realize? Mr. Crabtree, do you know the
penalty? And I kept thinking, why don't you say something?
Won't you object? We have a lawyer. And he is with
the father. Now he's with him. He's not going
to be late. He is with Him always. And see, and thirdly is this,
He is with the Father. He is with the Father. You know when we sin, when a
child of God sins, it is ultimately against His Father. It is a family
matter, isn't it? And the Lord Jesus said, I am
ascending to My Father and Your Father. Isn't it wonderful to
know that your elder brother is your advocate? And he not
only pleads with the judge of all the earth, but the judge
of all the earth is his father. His father. I was reading a story
one time. There was a man back in Abraham
Lincoln's day, and you could just stand at the door and wait
till Lincoln had some time, and you could walk in and talk to
him, the President of the United States. But there was a long
line, and this fellow couldn't get in. And he said, I just know
that it's going to be too late. And he got to siphon around out
the side of the house, and the White House, and there was this
little kid back there playing. And he went around there and
introduced himself, and the little kid said, what are you doing
here at my dad's house? He said, well, I really, really
need to speak to your dad. It's so urgent. But he said,
I can't get in. The line's too long. And he said,
come with me. And he tucked him in the back
door. And he walked him up and said, Daddy, some man is here
to talk with you. We have an advocate. And he is with the Father. His Father and our Father. It's a family matter. How comforting
that is for an afflicted conscience. Notice what else John says about
it. He is Jesus Christ the Righteous. The Righteous. Now, what does
that mean? Well, He's the only man that ever worked His way
up to heaven. Everybody else gets there through
the merits of this man, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. And boy, when such a man as this
speaks, He has such character about Him,
such holiness, such wisdom, that when He speaks, everybody else
shuts up. And all ears are bent in His
direction. Even the angels, when they look
upon Him, they hide their faces. Everybody in heaven bows before
this Lamb of God, this Advocate, because He is perfectly righteous. And boy, when the Father looks
upon Him, the Father says to Him as His Son, the Man Christ
Jesus, I love You. I love You. Oh, I glory in You. You are what man is supposed
to be. You're holy, you're just, you're good. And then the Father
says this to him, you ask of me and I'll give you the desires
of your heart and I will never withhold the request of your
lips. Why? Because of who you are.
You're righteous. You're righteous. But not only is He righteous,
for here, look at this, and He is the propitiation for our sins. And the best I can find out about
that word here, propitiation, only John uses it. It's an atoning
sacrifice for our sins. David asked the Lord Jesus to
plead His cause. He said, Oh Lord, plead my cause. He was talking to Jesus Christ.
What does Jesus Christ plead? When a poor little child, one
of His little children have sinned, and there they are, they own
their sins, and they don't excuse it. They don't sweep it under
the rug, and He don't either. How does He bring them off then
from their guilt? How does He bring them off from
the condemnation that they feel in their conscience? How does
He clear them before the court of heaven? He's the atoning victim. He pleads Himself. What would you plead if you stood
before God? It'd be awful, wouldn't it? It'd
be a shame. You talk about objections would be coming from everyone.
I'll never do it again. Yeah, right. How many times have
you done it before? Oh, I promise this time. Yeah,
how many of you broke them before? I'll do better. I'll mend my
ways. Oh, have mercy, have mercy. No, that's not good enough. Justice
must be satisfied at the court of heaven. So the Lord Jesus
pleads His blood. He pleads His death. That justifies
justice. Can you see mercy standing there
on one side of the throne and justice standing on the other
side? And here a little child of God has confessed its sins.
And the Lord Jesus stands to plead its cause and declare that
soul of any condemnation. And mercy is standing there.
Oh, mercy is so anxious. Mercy is wanting to manifest
itself to the conscience in cleaning the conscience and comforting
the poor little child. But here Justice is standing
over there with a stern face until Jesus says, Behold my hand. Behold my side. And Justice says,
Go to them, Mercy. Go to the conscience, Mercy.
and tell them, Jesus Emmanuel has pleaded their cause. And
the court of heaven holds nothing against them. And you know something? Jesus
only pleads the cause of the guilty. How do you know that He is your
Advocate? Do you use Him? Do you go to Him when you sin?
and say, Lord Jesus, my Advocate, plead my cause with the Father? And do you believe that He does?
While you stand there and wait with nothing to say on your own
behalf? Oh, brothers and sisters, don't
sin. Fight against it. Struggle against
it. Pray against it. Watch against it. But when you
sin, you have an Advocate with the Father. Don't get in despair. Don't get discouraged. Don't
go off into darkness in your conscience. You have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And God set Him
there. God put Him there for that purpose. The Lord bless His Word. Let us pray.