First John 2.1. My little children, 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 one who doesn't sin. who didn't, doesn't, and won't. You see, it's important we see
the context of things like that and how who he's called here
relates to what's being taught, what's being said. If we sin,
we need the one who didn't to stand for us, to plead for us. But John here, first of all,
let's consider this. He tells us one of the reasons
he wrote this epistle. I don't believe it's the only
reason, but I believe it's one of them. It's an important one. So that
you and I will stop sinning. Is that what he said? And it
may come as a bit of a shock, considering especially what he
just wrote. If any man says they don't sin, He's not saying in
there when he says, if we say we have not sinned, he's not
just talking about the past. He's talking about if you ever
say that, if you ever say, I haven't sinned. You're a liar. And you
make God a liar. But he said, I'm writing to this,
this to you so that you won't sin. So this is interesting. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. That's our sin nature. You saw
that in, In verse 8 of chapter 1, if we
say that we have no sin, sin, no plural, that's our sin nature. If we say we have no sin, no
sin nature, we're just deceiving ourselves. Well, I've done some
bad things, but I've done some good things too. You're deceiving
yourself. Your whole nature is sin. Everything you do is sin
by nature. We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us But also if we say that we have not sinned
that's our acting out of our nature So both are taught there
that's in verse 10 That's our behavior We make God a liar And
his word Is not in us Now, I'm writing this to you so that you
sin not. Is he saying then that although
we have a sin nature and we sin constantly, that somehow we can
change that and achieve sinlessness in this life? Well, if you didn't
read anything else but that one verse, you might be able to get
away with that. But we have the whole Bible, so we know that's
not what he's saying. We know that you can't do that.
Paul, as a believer, was more wretched in his own sight than
he ever was before. In Romans chapter 7. We have a sin nature, and we
sin continually. And that's not going to change. That's not going to change. All
of scripture shows that we cannot change that. A leopard can't
change his spots. Ethiopian can't change his skin.
You can't change what you are. Now we do have a new nature in
Christ. We're gonna have a new heart. If you be in Christ Jesus,
he's a new creation. You must be born from above,
and we are. And that nature is created in
righteousness and true holiness according to God. And we know
that, but that doesn't mean that we're not sinners anymore. We
still sin constantly because we still have that sin nature
also. So we can't say that, even if we could, even if we could
stop right now, if we could stop sinning right now and not ever
commit another sin, would that add anything to your righteousness
before God? It's kind of too late, isn't
it? Kind of too late. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Already, we're condemned already
because we believe not. But we've sinned before God.
who were vile in His sight, and we're not going to please Him
in ourselves. But it wouldn't add anything
to our righteousness. And we wouldn't want it to, would
we? I don't want God to receive me
on the basis of anything I do or don't do. That's what Paul
said, not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness of God
which is in Christ. If I could stop sinning now,
I wouldn't present anything that I ever did after that before
God to please him. Christ is my full and complete,
perfect righteousness before God. He himself is. And I don't
add or take anything away from him before God. Paul said, for
a very good reason, I don't want my own righteousness. But we must have his. Isaiah
said, even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Even as a
believer, when we do good works, they're evil. They're full of sin. The best
we can ever do is sin in the sight of God. Paul said, as a
believer, that he did the things that he would not, and did not
the things that he would, and that even when, he said, I would
do good, even when I would do good, Evil is present with me. Anybody else like that? He cried for deliverance from
this flesh, because as long as we are in this flesh, we are
wretched and sinful and vile. Paul took comfort there in Romans
7 at the end of the chapter in the fact that through Jesus Christ
our Lord, we shall be delivered. Even from the presence. We're
already delivered from the penalty of sin. And we're delivered from
the power of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. One day we'll be delivered even
from the presence of sin. And then, after that, after Romans
7, I do the things I wouldn't do, I don't do the things I would
do, I'm wretched, I'm vile, I'm sold under sin. As a believer,
I still can't do anything good. But then he wrote Romans 8, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. You see, at the end of chapter
7, he cries for future deliverance. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? But even now, Romans 8, even
now, there's no condemnation of God upon me because of Christ
and what he came to do. What the law could not do, God
sent his son to do it, and he did it. And because of him, there
is no condemnation upon me. Bless God. And so that's what
John is doing here. He's also taking comfort in Christ. Is he not? Don't sin, he said. Don't sin. Stop sinning. But
when you do, we have an advocate. His hope was the same as Paul's. Paul said, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Oh, bless God through Jesus Christ. I thank my God. through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And John said, if you say you're
not wicked and vile and wretched, you're a liar and you're calling
God a liar. Now stop sinning, and when you sin, look to the
one advocate for sinners, Jesus Christ the righteous, the same
one Paul hoped in, the same one he rested in and trusted in.
And that's what he's doing here. But why then does he say at all,
sin not? Knowing that we're going to,
why does he say, don't sin, stop sinning? Because that's our desire. That's our desire, isn't it?
Oh, that's our desire. This is the spirit lusting against
the flesh. We know all about the flesh lusting
against the spirit, don't we? But what do we know about the
spirit lusting against the flesh? The spirit wants to honor him. The spirit wants to obey him,
wants to please him, wants to serve him, wants to love him
more and worship him better. This is what this is. The spirit
lusteth against the flesh. And we do. And John is saying
here, don't sin, don't dishonor him. Don't lie on God. Don't be lackadaisical in his
service. Don't neglect his worship. Don't
sin anymore. The Spirit truly is willing. Right? That's what the Lord said.
The Spirit truly is willing. He said that in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when even though they couldn't watch with him
for one hour, our Lord said this, the Spirit wants to. The Spirit's willing. Willing
to do what? To honor Him. To stand by Him. To stand with Him in everything.
To do what Peter said He would do. Lord, I won't forsake You
no matter what. I'll go to death with You. That's
what the Spirit wants to do. That's what Paul said, the things
that I would do. There's some things I would do.
That's one of them. I want to honor Him. I want to serve Him. I want to be faithful to Him.
Don't you? And that's what this is. That's why he said what he
did. Willing to do that, to obey God, to honor God, to always
do those things that please Him. We have the spirit and mind of
Christ who said that, I do always those things that please the
Father. Well, I don't. He did. He's my righteousness.
I don't, but I sure do want to. We can never achieve sinlessness.
We sure do want to. Our Lord wants us to aim for
it, even knowing that we're going to fall short. Now, we know we
will. We know that we must in this flesh. But our Lord, He teaches us to aim for it,
doesn't He? The woman taken in adultery in John 8, 11. You remember that story? There
were those that brought this woman that they caught red-handed
in the act of adultery somehow or another and brought her to
the Lord and said, Moses said, we should stone her. And the
Lord stooped down and wrote something on the ground and stood up and
said, let him among you who has no sin cast the first stone. And they all started walking
away. I don't know what he wrote on the ground, but he said, Somebody suggested he wrote dates
and places. I don't know what he wrote. But
after he wrote it, he said, whichever one of you has no sin, go ahead
and pick up a rock and you get this thing started. And they
all started walking away. He said to her, does any man
accuse you? Where are your accusers? Is there
anybody left to accuse you? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus
said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go, you remember what he
said next? And don't sin anymore. We spoke recently about having
the law of God written on our hearts, as opposed to just on
tables of stone. And in the word, the letter of
the word of God, we have his word written, his law written.
But part of the promise of the covenant was God said, I'll write
it on your heart. And that's what this is. That's
exactly what this is, because his law, his will, his righteousness, his character, his word, and
his gospel is written on our hearts. It's not just something
that we study and can recite some facts about. It's something
that's changed us. It's written on our hearts. And
because it's written on our hearts, I know I can't keep it. That's
part of it, too, and I know I can't keep it. If it's just written
on paper and not on your heart, you'll presume to be able to
measure up. But if God ever writes it on your heart, you'll say
what Paul did, a sin reviving, I died. He said, I was alive
without the law once. That is, he trusted his own keeping
of it and being able to live by that. But he was without the
law in the sense that he didn't understand its spiritual nature.
But he said, when the commandment came and God brought it home
to my heart, he said, sin revived and I died. When the commandment
came to his heart in power, you see, he had the commandment before
that. He lived by the commandments. That was his righteousness. But
when the commandment came to his heart in power, he knew what
he was. And the old him that could ever think he was righteous
in himself died that day. He died that day. But because the law is now written
on our hearts, not only do we know what it says and we know
we can never measure up to it, but we also want to keep it. We want to honor him. Paul said
the things that I would do, I do not. But don't just focus on
the I do not part. He wanted to. That's something,
isn't it? Not something to brag on Paul
about, but something to praise the name of the Savior about.
Because Paul never wanted to before. Not to honor Christ. He wanted to be self-righteous,
but he didn't want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he does.
He says, I don't do them, but I would do them. That's the law
written on the heart. And we honor God's law, not with
our best efforts, but by honoring and exalting Christ as our righteousness. We don't honor God's law by keeping
it or by presuming that we measure up to it. We honor the law of
God by exalting Christ as our righteousness. Romans 8, no condemnation,
how? In Christ. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them that Want to keep the law? No. To
them which are in Christ Jesus, you see. It doesn't matter whether
you want to keep the law or don't want to keep the law, you don't
keep the law. So if there's going to be no condemnation, you're
going to have to be in Christ Jesus. Thank God that we do want
to, but we don't. So we got to be in Him. He's
our righteousness. When God's holy standard When
we see it as his children, we want to measure up, but we also
see how badly we fail and how badly we need the Savior. The
desire to please God may cause a believer to do good works.
It will do so. God has before ordained that
we should walk in the But it will never cause a believer to
trust in them. God has not ordained that we
should trust in them, but only that we should walk in them.
You see the difference? Big difference. The desire to please God will
cause a believer to cling to Christ. and to own Him as our
righteousness and sin of Him, because we do want to please
Him, we do want to honor Him, and we know that's the only way
to do it. Not with our filthy rags righteousnesses,
but by Christ, through Him, through His shed blood. So the Spirit
is willing to honor Him in all things, always, and to always
please Him, and to never sin again. When do you ever say,
I want to sin, as a believer? Never, but the flesh is weak.
And so it's important to remember the next part. If any man seen. We've said this before. He's
not saying that there's any doubt about it. Well, you know if you
see it. He just got through saying if
you ever say you haven't, you're lying. So we're going to. We do, we have, we do, and we
will. But we have an advocate. Those who believe in the ability,
and there are some who believe in the ability of the believer
to achieve sinlessness. Then why in the world did God
give us an advocate? Because he said here, you don't
need one until you sin. If you sin, You don't need an
advocate. And bless God, He's given us
one because He knows us. You don't need an advocate if
you don't sin. What a wonderful promise this is. When we sin,
we have an advocate. And notice that it does not say,
if any man sin, we have an example. This is important now. And I say that not desiring to
make light of the fact that the Lord is our example. As we do
walk in his light. What does that mean? Well, it's
Christ. To walk with him, to walk like
him, to be like him. He is our example. No question
about that. I don't want to make light of
that. He's our great and perfect example
in all things. And we should all desire to be
like him. But we're past that now in this
verse. We're not talking about that
now. We're beyond that. You've sinned now. You've sinned.
You've already failed. If any man sin, if any man stand
before a holy, the holy God, sinful. You don't need an example now. You need an advocate. You need the advocate. We need more than an example
when we sin. We're standing before God having
sinned. And it doesn't say if any man sin, we have some things
we can do to make up for it. And I say that not to be ridiculous. You know, that's ridiculous.
But you'd be surprised how many people believe that, that we've
sinned. But what that means is we just
need to go count some beads or, you know, do something for God
to make up for it. No. We don't have that, we have
an advocate. Past that now too, you see, we're
beyond it. Because the more you do, the
more you sin. What we need is two things, an
advocate and a sin offering. And that's the next word, Christ
is both. We have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Oh, and by the way, he's our sin offering. We have an advocate. There's one advocate. Why is
that important? Because millions upon millions
of people are calling upon other advocates than the Lord Jesus
Christ. They just are. You'd think that
they wouldn't. based on the Word of God. But
they are, they do, they will. Not Mary, not one of the saints. We have an advocate with God,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God
and one mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. You see how simple and basic
that is? There's one God, and then there's us, and there's
one in between. There's one mediator. There's
one advocate, the man, Christ Jesus. There's just one. The scripture
is not unclear about that now, is it? And yet, what do people
do? We lean to our own understanding,
we trust in our idols, and we go our own way. That's what we
do, until God reels us in and reveals his son to us, and then
we see there's just one. There's just one. You see, Peter
wanted to raise a monument to. Elijah, Moses and, you know,
the Lord to. Within the Lord spoke to him. And after that, he saw Jesus
only. And that's when we are going to see Christ only. When
God speaks in power. It reveals to us that there is
just one. If you have sinned, this is so
simple and yet so glorious. If you have sinned, if you have
ever sinned, if you have sinned today, if you are a sinner, if
you have come short of the glory of God There's not but one advocate. You're shut up to Christ. But you just need one. You don't
need to go anywhere else. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. How many saviors
do you need? How many advocates do you need? I guess it depends on who they
are. But seeing that our advocate
is Jesus Christ, the righteous, the sinless one, he's the only
one we need. And he also is the propitiation
for our sins. An advocate is one who pleads
another's cause before a judge. This reminds us of our legal
standing before God. And our advocate, when we have
sinned, is one who has not sinned. That's important. I can't be
your advocate because I'm just as guilty as you. This is vital
because not only is he our lawyer, he's the one that pleads for
us, pleads our case, but it is his own righteousness that he
pleads. He doesn't plead, Father, they're
going to do better, or Father, they didn't know You know, ignorance
of the law is not an excuse. Even if we were ignorant, it
wouldn't change what we are. But if you plead ignorance, you're
lying. Because God said when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God. That's all of us. God has revealed,
he shed light, he's given his word. He's given us a conscience
to know right from wrong, Romans chapter 1. He's given us his
very creation that declares the glory of God. Knowing who he
is we deny him and refuse to glorify him. So we're all guilty
before him The law didn't make us guilty. It just showed it
showed us our guilt before God It was written that all men should
shut their mouths and become declared their guilt before God
admit their guilt before God So Jesus Christ the righteous
must plead for us Righteously, but he also pleads his righteousness
and We've sinned willfully, so he can't plead ignorance. He
can't plead, well, we've done our best, because that's not
true either. We've sinned willfully. Adam
knew what he was doing, and we know what we're doing when we
sin. He cannot plead that we will
pay or do better, because we cannot. We have nothing to pay,
and we can't do any better. We won't do good until the Ethiopian
changes his skin. We're gonna sin with our last
breath. You realize that? Besides, if we could do better,
how's that gonna make up for murdering God? We must have an advocate who
is righteous, and he must plead his own righteousness, because
he can't plead ours. Our advocate, notice this too,
is with the Father. He's with the Father. God the
Father is the one who must be satisfied, because it is against
God and God only that we have sinned. I can do you wrong, I
can do you an injustice, but I'm sinning against God, not
you. All sin is against God and Him only. And Christ, our advocate,
is with the Father. Now that means a lot of things. But it means this, He knows what
it takes to satisfy the Father. The Father is the one who retained
our advocate on our behalf. And we have Him. Isn't that good? We just kind
of skipped over that. We have an advocate. He's not saying there's an advocate
available. He's talking to God sheep. He
said, you have an advocate. His name is God with us. Our text said he's with the father,
but his very name declares him to be also with us. He's on God's
side. Well, yeah, but he's also on
my side. Everybody wins with this advocate. And that's how a true mediator
is. He doesn't plead one party's
case at the expense of another. He pleads the case of both parties
perfectly. And only Christ the righteous
can do that. He is with us because he is for
us. And if he be for us, who can
be against us? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect when the advocate, the righteous one,
is for us? He's with us and for us. Do you
remember from Romans chapter eight why nobody can bring a
charge against us? I'm gonna remind you of this
as long as I have breath, I pray. I pray the Lord will enable me
to do that. Well, nobody can bring a charge
against us, according to Romans chapter eight, because God has
justified us. It is God that justifies. But
why does God justify us? Because it is Christ that died.
Yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God the Father, who also maketh what? Intercession for us. He's our advocate. That's verse
two now look at verse two. He is the propitiation for our
sins And not just for yours But anywhere in the world where
there's sin There's an advocate there's propitiation there's
a sin offering you see not only is the one who pleads for my
case, the Lord, the righteous one himself. But he does so he
pleads my case on the basis of his perfect righteousness. And
also he pleads for me on the basis of a sacrifice provided. And that word has to do with
appeasement and appeasement made. And this makes reference to what
John said in chapter one. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to do what? To cleanse us. And what is it
that cleanses us, John? The blood, verse 7, of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. When you sin, We have an advocate,
and he's our perpetuation. He's the one whose precious blood
cleanses us from sin. You see that? He establishes
up front our desire. I don't want to dishonor God. But if we say we haven't ever,
we're lying. So look to him who is righteous
and who stands before God for you. pleads his own righteousness
and his precious sin-cleansing blood for your sins. The only offering for sin, the
only basis upon which God can and will and does justify a sinner
is the blood of Jesus Christ, our propitiation. Do you believe
in his blood? Does that sound like a strange
way to say that? Do you believe in His blood? That's what propitiation
is all about. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. He's our sin offering. Do you
believe in His blood? Turn to Romans chapter 3. I'll
be through. And I want you to see something
here Romans 3 23 just a few verses here. Okay, and I'll be through
I know you're tired. I am too But let's let's concentrate on
this just for just for five or ten minutes and we'll be through
and this is going to be a blessing now, I believe You look and see
if Romans 3 23 through 26 doesn't look like Paul is preaching from
our text when he wrote this, or vice versa.
Maybe John is preaching from Romans 3. But here's the truth
of it. They both just trusted the same
Savior. That's just what, that's what it is. They just preach
the same gospel. But you look at Romans 3, 23,
for all have sinned. You see that? That's our text.
If any man sin, well, here it is, all have. And we're going
to, we do. And come short of the glory of
God, being justified. You know what justified is? That's
a legal term. You know what advocate is? That's a legal term. Being
justified. This is why we need an advocate
because we must be justified. You will either be justified
or you will be condemned before God. And if you're going to be
justified, you're going to have to have an advocate. Being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption That is in Christ
Jesus. This is exactly what John is
teaching. Exactly. Through the redeemed whom God
has set forth to be. Here's our word. Propitiation. He's preaching John's message,
isn't he? Or John preached Paul's message. They both preached.
You know why they preaching the same thing? Because the message
is a person. Propitiation through Faith in
His life. He's the propitiation for sin,
and He's the propitiation for the whole world in this sense.
Not just for the Jew, not just for the ones that John was writing
to, but anywhere in the world. If you're going to have a sin
offering, it's going to be Him. He's the only one. And that's
true for everybody, Jew or Gentile. Now, how does the Lord apply
that to an individual? How does an individual have the
blood of Jesus Christ as his sin offering? Well, you remember
that publican that came and beat upon his brass. He couldn't so
much as lift up his eyes into heaven. You remember when he
said, God be merciful. You look that word up, it's propitiation.
Be propitious to me, the sinner. It's through faith in his blood.
Believe that there's one hope for a wretch like you, and that's
the precious blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from sin, thereby
justifying you freely before God, and you're saved. That's
how you're gonna know whether you got in on that or not. You're
gonna want it more than anything else in this world. You're going
to see the absolute necessity of it, and you're going to come
begging God for it. That's what that man, he's a
mercy beggar, wasn't he? And all of those who are washed
in the blood are mercy beggars. Through faith in his precious,
do you believe in his blood? to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past. Jesus Christ, the righteous,
is our advocate, and his righteousness better be my righteousness, or
I don't have any righteousness. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that God might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Trust him and his precious shed
blood. for salvation through faith in his blood when Christ
died. Did he die for me? He's the perpetuation for the
whole world. That doesn't mean he redeemed
the whole world. We know better than that. You can't read this
book and believe that. Because we know from the book
of Hebrews that he perfected forever those whom he sanctified.
Whoever he sanctified are perfect forever. Whoever he died for,
whoever he shed his precious blood for are perfected forever
by his Redeeming what so it doesn't mean he sanctified the whole
world, but no matter who you are where you're from He is the
only propitiation that God will accept for you But did he offer
himself from my sin I've got to know that do you does it matter
to you that much I Know this it's through faith
in his blood. I Do you believe in his blood? Do you know, do you know and
embrace and bow to the truth that the only way you can be
justified before God is if he died for you? And more than that,
that if he died for you, you are justified before God. Is
that your hope? Is he your hope? Do you trust
him alone as your righteousness, your righteous advocate? your
righteousness before God and your sin offering. It's very
simple and plain. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And if you have been saved by
Christ alone without the works of the law, quit sinning. Quit sinning. And while you're quitting sinning, Praise God we have an advocate,
in whom is no sin. Because while you're quitting
sinning, you're full of sin. And we need him every hour. Every
hour. Let's pray.