for the messages that were preached
here while I was gone. Brother Greg and Christoph came
over Thursday night and we watched your service here and heard the
message Brother Kevin brought. I appreciate you bringing that
for us. And I was blessed on the way
back by the messages that Brother Bob brought. And I've never been
so thankful for a horsefly and some mosquitoes. I was very,
very blessed by those messages. Before I forget, Sunday, Lord
willing, we'll observe the Lord's table and have a meal together
after service. Alright, 1 John chapter 2. 1
John chapter 2. Verse 1 begins, My little children,
These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. Now believer,
make it your aim not to sin. Endeavor not to sin. Our Savior commands that. You
remember the impotent man that the Lord healed at the pool of
Bethesda. Afterward, Jesus found him in
the temple, and he said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole,
sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. And then the
woman that was caught in adultery, Scripture says when Jesus raised
up from the ground and he saw nobody standing there but the
woman, he said, Woman, where are thine accusers? Hath no man
condemned thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And
Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin
no more. We do nothing to make ourselves
righteous or holy or accepted of God. But we endeavor to honor
our Lord in our walk because He has already made us righteous
and holy and accepted. We do it out of gratitude. The
love of Christ constraineth us. Because we thus judge, if one
died for all, then we're all dead. That means all for whom
Christ died, our body of sin was destroyed. Our old man was
crucified, Him with the affections and with the lust. Now why did
He do that for us? Scripture says, He died for all
that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto Him which died for them and rose again. He did it so
that we live unto Him. We live unto Him. It's a wonderful
thing when you think about it. He's taken the law out of the
way, fulfilled it perfectly, given it perfect righteousness
for us, taken it out of the way so that now we can actually live
unto Him and be received by Him. And so Christ Himself is speaking
here and He's speaking through the Apostle John and He says
to you and I who believe, My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. That you sin not. So, as believers,
we're wearing Christ's name in the midst of a sin-cursed world.
And so, let us endeavor to walk by faith according to the gospel
He's taught us, and let us endeavor not to sin. But also know this,
believers are sinners still. It says there in 1 John 2.1,
and if any man sin, you know that word if would be better
translated win. and when any man sin. It's our desire to never sin. But due to the sinful flesh that's
still with us, we do sin. We do sin. There's not a just
man upon earth that is a man that God has justified by the
blood of His Son and accepted in Christ. There's not a just
man on this earth that doeth good and sinneth not. We sin
in our very best deeds. When I pray, I sin. There was enough sin in me praying
just a moment ago to send us all to hell. When I sing praises
to God, I sin. When I'm preaching, I sin. When
I try to walk before Him, I sin. Not to mention my faults. And this is so of us. In our
best deeds, we sin. That's why when God promised
salvation, we saw in Romans 4, He promised it through faith
in Christ. He said that it might be by grace
to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. If He left it to us to fulfill
the law and keep the law in righteousness with no sin either before or
after our conversion, salvation wouldn't be sure for any of us.
It would not be sure for any of us. But because He put it
all in the hands of Christ, and made our salvation to be through
faith in Christ, it's sure for all God's elect. Because in Christ,
all the promises of God are yes and amen unto the glory of God.
So it's sure to all God's elect by Christ. Now, because He saves
by grace, He says here, we have an advocate. He says in 1 John
2.1, And when any man sins, We have an advocate with the Father. We have an advocate with the
Father. Now, notice here that the judge
who hears our case in heaven is God our Father. That's who
the judge is. That's who's going to hear our
case is God our Father. And He is... the one that Christ
comes to and the one who hears. And now we know too that judgment's
been committed to Christ. So he is the judge of the whole
earth. But the point he's making to
us is here, when any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father. And that's our subject tonight.
We have an advocate. An advocate represents a lawbreaker
before a judge. That's what an advocate does.
He represents a lawbreaker before a judge. When believers sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Let's read the whole text. 1 John 2.1. And when 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. The first thing
I want us to see here is that our sins do not forfeit the blessing
that he's talking about here. Our sins do not separate us so
that we don't have this blessing anymore. He says, when any man
sins, we have an advocate. We do have an advocate. That's
why God promised salvation through faith in Christ. We have this
advocate and nothing will ever change that. We have this advocate
in Christ. It's by grace through faith that
it might be sure because all those promises are sure in Christ.
So God saves by grace so that we know our sins will never separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ. When we sin, we
have an advocate. We have an advocate. Now look
at the second thing. Notice with whom Christ is our
advocate. Verse 1. And when any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. Now the judge who hears
our case in heaven is God our Father. He's the one who's hearing
the intercession of His Son. It's God our Father. Now that
gives a believer great comfort. But it's not for the reason that
an unregenerate man would think it would give us comfort. It
would be natural for you to think, well, since the judge is my father,
I'm going to get special treatment. That's not why that's a comfort
to us. It's a comfort to us because we know that the just judge of
heaven and earth is no respecter of persons. He does not respect
persons. He spared not his own son but
delivered him up for all his people. It's not going to be
just the mere fact that He's our Father and we're His children
that's going to make the difference when we sin. He's no respecter
of person. He spared not His own Son when
He was made sin for us. Why is that comforting? Because
it tells us the just Judge of heaven and earth shall do right. He shall do right. Now be sure to get this and I
want you to think about this and I want everybody here to
get this. The most important thing on the
cross, the most important thing on the cross is the manifestation
of God's righteousness. That's the most important thing
on the cross. Now Satan is a master deceiver
and he'll beguile folks into denying that Christ was made
sin in defense of Christ's glory as the just and innocent one.
And that sounds honorable, to deny Christ made sin in defense
of Christ being the Holy Spotless Lamb of God. But be careful,
brethren, because in declaring Christ's sinlessness, be careful
that we don't deny God's glory in why He sent His Son to the
cross. It was to manifest His righteousness.
That's the most important thing on the cross, the manifestation
of God's righteousness. That's Christ's chief glory in
that He manifests the righteousness of God. He is that righteousness. Now indeed, Christ Himself knew
no sin. He did no sin. And even when
He hung on the cross, He remained faithful from a holy heart, looking
to His Father, trusting the promise of His Father. There's no doubt
about that. But it's also true that Christ
was sent to manifest the righteousness of God. That's why He was sent. He was sent to manifest the righteousness
of God. And God is so righteous, He will
not impute sin and pour out justice on anyone unless they've been
made sin under the law. He won't do it. You and I know
that's not righteous if a judge charged someone with sin who
was not guilty. That wouldn't be just. That wouldn't
manifest righteousness. And God will not pour out justice
on anybody who's not been made sin under the law. He will not
do it. And therefore, Scriptures declares,
now listen to this, He made him sin for us Who knew no sin? Both those statements are important.
God made him bear the sin of His people so that God would
manifest His righteousness and be just to pour out wrath on
Christ in place of His people. And by doing so, He justified
His people. He upheld His law. He magnified
His law. He showed His righteousness.
He will not clear the guilty. But at the same time, Christ
perfectly established the law looking to the Father in perfect
faith and fidelity to the Father. Both those things were absolutely
necessary. He had to be made sin for God
to pour out wrath upon Him. And so by doing that, He declared
God's righteousness, He upheld His law, and He justified His
people, making us the righteousness of God in Him. When we behold
now this righteousness of God our Father, that He's perfect,
He will not pour out wrath on an innocent man. He will not
do it. And we see He didn't do that
with His Son. He made His Son bear the sin of His people before
He poured out wrath on Him. And seeing that and understanding
that, when we hear that we have an advocate with the Father,
It's not so much that he's our father and we're his child that
gives us comfort. It's the fact that we know that
judge is just. He didn't spare his own son.
So now justice will not allow him to pour out wrath on us. We know what justice demands
he do for us now. How shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Justice is our friend. And so,
We can know this, we have an advocate with the Father and
that's comforting because as John said it back in chapter
1 and verse 9, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just
to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So
it's good to see it's our Father who's the judge. Now look at
this next thing. Look at the name and the office
of our advocate. He says, Jesus Christ the righteous. There's a lot in a name. And
Jesus here means Savior. For He shall save His people
from their sins. When we see the name Jesus as
our advocate, it's reminding us that our advocate is a man
just like us. He's a man like us. He's one
with His people. He was and He is touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. He knows we're dust. He knows
it. He knows the flesh is weak. He
knows that. And when we see this name Jesus,
it reminds us that our advocate is our everlasting Father. He's our head and our representative
in whom we're accepted by our Father the Judge. Adam was the
father of all his children, but he wasn't an everlasting father.
Christ came forth and He is eternal. And what He did for us will never
end. And so for all His children, He is our everlasting Head, our
everlasting Father. And when you think about it in
those terms, that He is our Father, and you start thinking about
earthly relationships, what I thought about was, when you read the
name Jesus, it means He is our elder brother. He is the one
to whom our Father, the Judge, committed the care of his whole
estate. That was the significance of
the firstborn son. He committed the care of his
entire estate, including all his people, to Christ his son. And that one's our elder brother.
Jesus, our Lord, our elder brother, is our advocate with the Father.
It's his charge to take care of all God the Father's children.
And then Christ, when I read He's Jesus, it also reminds me
He's our husband and we're His bride. And we're not just any
bride. His elect is not just any bride.
We're the bride that our Father the Judge chose for Christ our
Advocate. And gave to Him. And entrusted
Christ to bring us to the Father, holy and without blame. That's
just in the name Jesus. And it means also that our Advocate
is the second person in the Trinity. Because He's the God-Man Mediator. It means He's the Son of God. The Son of God our Father. The
Son of the Judge. He's the well-beloved Son of
God. He's the only begotten Son of God. He's co-partner in God's
majesty and glory. That's who our Advocate is. And
look at this next name. This is his office, Christ. That
means anointed of God. Anointed of God. So our advocate,
you think about you going into a court of law and you are going
to have to stand before a judge. And your lawyer, your advocate,
is the choice of that very judge before whom you stand. Our advocate
is God's choice. He's the one He chose and He
anointed to be our advocate. The judge before whom we stand
chose our advocate himself to represent us and He delights
in him. You hear folks all the time complaining
about having a court-appointed lawyer. This is the time when
you want a court-appointed lawyer. when God the Father is the one
who appointed him. The judge himself said of Christ
our advocate, he shall not fail till he set judgment in the earth.
He said, the Lord's well pleased for his righteousness sake. And
now, since it's in the past tense, he can say, he magnified the
law and he made it honorable. This is what our judge, that
we have to stand before, this is what he says of the advocate
who's representing us, who he chose and anointed to be our
advocate. And then look at this word, the righteous. That means
our Advocate is Himself the righteousness of God our Judge. He is the righteousness
of our Father the Judge. Our Advocate is Himself the righteousness
of the law that our Father as a Judge enforces. The righteousness
of the law that our Father the Judge is enforcing, that righteousness
of that law is our Advocate. Our advocate is the righteous
one in whom our judge is just and justifier. Our advocate,
he is the one that makes the judge a just judge and a justifier of all his people. In other words, our advocate
is the righteousness that our judge himself provided for us
to establish his law and to be our righteousness before him.
The judge, when we sin, We have an advocate with the Father.
And that advocate is the one that the Judge chose to be our
righteousness so we could stand before Him. Now could it get
any better than that? It does get better. Look, 1 John
2, 2. And He is the propitiation for
our sins. That means our advocate prevails
with the Father on behalf of God's elect because our advocate
is himself the perpetuatory sacrifice that the Judge provided for us
because He loved us. He's the perpetuatory sacrifice
that the Judge provided for us because He loved us. 1 John 4.10,
it says herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sin. Could you imagine a criminal
coming into a court of law and the judge chooses his own son
to be his advocate and he chooses his own son to be the one the
one to pay everything the judge requires, pay it all so that
no debt can be charged to this criminal because the judge loved
that criminal. That's it. Because God the Father
loved His elect, He sent His Son to be the perpetuatory sacrifice
for our sins. This is the judge before whom
we stand. Now what does that mean, the perpetuation for our
sins? It means our advocate is himself the sacrifice that made
atonement with God the Father for our sins. He made atonement. He accomplished making atonement
with the judge for all the sins of his people past, present,
and future. He made atonement so that no
condemnation can fall upon us from the judge. because He is
that sacrifice that made atonement. It means the judge won't pour
out wrath on us because our propitiation already bore it. God won't pour
out wrath on us. By that one offering, He removed
that estrangement between God and His people. We were estranged.
God wouldn't have anything to do with us because we're sinners.
But by His one offering, as that propitiatory sacrifice, He's
reconciled us to God. Now God has fellowship with His
people in Christ. He's the propitiation for our
sins, meaning our advocate is Himself the mercy seat where
God, our judge, promises He will meet with the believer in peace. That's why we just sang from
every stormy wind that blows. Our mercy seat is Christ. And
that mercy seat, that propitiation was chosen by our Father the
Judge. And now, he says here, Christ
is the advocate and the propitiation for God's elect all over the
world. He says there in 1 John 2.1, and not for ours only, not
1 John 2.2. He's not only the propitiation
for John's sins and for the elect in John's day who were all Jews,
He's also God's propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Now do you remember, I preached
on this one time, do you remember how you determine who the whole
world means in this verse? You determine who the whole world
is by by who Christ is and what He accomplished. That's who you
can tell who the whole world is. The whole world are those
for whom Christ accomplished propitiation. The whole world
are those for whom Christ made atonement. For those for whom
He put away our sin and brought us into reconciliation with God
and made us one with God so that we'll never ever be charged with
a sin again. That's how you determine who
the world are. They're those Christ brings to faith in Christ
to rest in Him by His grace. And they're those He preserves
and will never let perish. So you judge who the world is.
If you ever come to Scripture and you can't figure out who
that's talking about. It says all or it says the world.
One thing to do is remember what Christ accomplished. And having heard what Christ
accomplished, you know that can't mean every person in the world
without exception. Because He don't do this for
every person in the world without exception. But see, if John hadn't
said that, you know you and me sitting here tonight wouldn't
have any hope. Because we're not Jews. And John, he's writing this,
and the Jews thought that no Gentiles, who they called the
world, They called Gentiles the world. You and I are Gentile.
They called us the world. And they said there's no Gentiles,
there's none of those who are of the world who are God's elect.
And John says Christ is not only the advocate for us elect Jews,
but for His elect Gentiles scattered in the four corners of the world
too. So He brought us into it. He brought you and me who are
not Jews by nature. He brought us into this and said
He's this advocate for all His elect. Now, lastly, I want us
to see all of this put together in the court of heaven. Go with
me back over there to Zechariah 3. God was gracious enough to show
us a picture here of a courtroom. His courtroom. And this is where
an advocate is going to be standing for his people. Now let's see,
first of all, here's a believer. He's redeemed by the blood of
Christ. He's been brought to faith in
Christ. And yet he sinned. And here he is, Zechariah 3.1.
And he showed me Joshua the high priest. There he is. He's a believer,
redeemed by Christ, his surety, but he sinned. Alright, here's
our advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous and
he's standing before God our Father, the judge. I saw Joshua
the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. That's
Christ our advocate. That's Christ our advocate. The
angel of the Lord. He's the Lord of the angels.
That's who he is. And here's the prosecuting attorney,
here's the accuser of the brethren, and Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him. Every courtroom is going to have
a judge, you're going to have an advocate, you're going to
have a prosecutor, and you're going to have the guilty. So
there we all are. Now Jude tells us that Satan
was using the body of Moses to dispute with our Lord. to resist
our Lord. And what he meant by that was
he was using the law of Moses. He was using the law of Moses.
The same way now that the devil will plead for Christ's honor
to try to beguile men into denying God's righteousness, he'll also
use God's law. But he's not trying to defend
God's law, he's trying to reject Christ and what he accomplished
for his people and accuse God's people. That's what he's doing.
So, here's the picture of the courtroom now. We got the father,
our judge, seated on the bench. Christ is standing as our advocate. Satan is the prosecutor. And
you and I who believe are the accused. Now listen to our advocate
plead our case. Zechariah 3.2. And the Lord said
unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. We didn't open our mouths. Joshua
didn't say a word. You don't say anything when you're
being represented by an advocate in a court of law. You just keep
your mouth shut. That's why you got him. We didn't say nothing. Now watch this. Even the Lord
that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this a brand plucked
out of the fire? You know what Christ pled right
there? First of all, He pled God's grace. His electing grace. The Lord
that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. That tells us when Christ
intercedes for us, brethren, He is interceding for His Father's
honor. He's interceding for us for His
Father's honor. His Father would be tarnished
if just one perished that God the Father chose and gave to
Christ. He's pleading for the Father's
honor and He's interceding for His Father's glory. If He fails,
if Christ fails to represent each and every one of God's elect
to the Father, there won't be any praise going to the Father
in heaven. This is for His glory. And He
intercedes for His great love wherewith He loves His elect. The Lord's rebuking Satan because
of His chosen people who He's everlastingly loved, His body,
the church, who is the fullness of Him. This is what He pleads
for God. And then look at this. Our advocate
also pleads accomplished redemption. Is not this a bran plucked out
of the fire? Our advocates pleading God's
righteousness. You know the Lord doesn't have
to do this. You know the Lord is just standing before the Father.
He's just with the Father. But I'm trying to paint this
so we can get a picture of this. Our Lord Jesus Christ approaches
the bench and opens the book to the articles of the covenant
of grace. and says, ìYour Honor, the Judge,
Father, remember this promise made between you and I?î Here
it is, Rob, this is what you were quoting. ìWhen thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he
shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand.î He shall see of the travail of his soul, and
shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoiled with the strong, with his people, because he has poured
out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors,
and he bear the sin of many, and he made intercession for
the transgressors." Our advocate pleads His covenant promise and
God the Father's covenant promise and the fact that He fulfilled
it when He cried out on the cross, it is finished. And that's His
covenant. That's His covenant promise.
And Christ calls justice and He calls truth to take the witness
stand. And justice and truth comes up
and they sit on the witness stand and our Lord questions justice
and truth and justice and truth says, it's absolutely so. He
has given me everything I demand. And it would be unjust, I would
no longer be just now if I poured out justice a second time, first
on this substitute and then again on those that he died for. And
so justice and truth bear witness. Yes, the advocate has fulfilled
everything you sent him to fulfill. Judge, he's upheld the law. He's given the law everything.
He's magnified it, honored it. And he's also justified this
poor sinner that's standing right here. I can't find any sin in
him. I flipped him up and down, backwards
and forwards, and all I see is a perfect man. And so the Lord tells justice
and truth. You can sit down. No more witnesses. I don't need
any more. I don't need to call any more witnesses. Justice and
truth have spoken. And so all is silent in the courtroom. Everything is silent. Everybody
is waiting on the judge's sentence. And the judge gives the sentence.
There is therefore now no condemnation to this poor sinner that's in
Christ Jesus. Absolutely none. And, as John
said, if we confess our sins, He's not only faithful to do
this, He's just to do it. He's just to forgive us our sins,
because they've all been paid for by Christ. But there's something
else He does here, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, now this is all in in
the court of heaven and we're forgiven. He's not going to lay
any charge to us. We've come to Him, we've confessed
our sin, we've stood before Him and Christ has been our advocate
and interceded for us. But we still have the sin that
made us filthy. Whatever it is we fell into,
whatever it is, whatever. And we've got to be turned from
that. Our flesh is going to have to be mortified. And we are going
to have to be made to walk after the Lord and be turned from our
sin and our flesh. How is he going to do that? Well,
the judge says, now cleanse him. He is forgiven. Now cleanse him.
I am faithful and just to cleanse him. Now cleanse him from this
unrighteousness. So look here at Zechariah 3. Now Joshua was
clothed with filthy garments and he stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him,
saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto Joshua
Christ said, Behold... Now here's how He mortifies our
flesh. Right here. It's through this
Gospel. And Christ speaks into our hearts
declaring what He's done for us. Look at what He said. I've
caused an iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a
change of raiment. I'm going to give you my righteousness.
And I said, let them set a fair miter upon His head. Because
not only has He made us priests unto God, He made us kings unto
God too. We're going to reign with Him.
We are reigning with Him. And we're able to come to God
and offer up spiritual sacrifices to praise of our lips. We're
kings and priests through Christ's blood. And He says, so they set
that fair miter upon His head and they clothed Him with the
garments. And that's how our sins are forgiven. And that's
how we're cleansed by Christ our Advocate. according to the
sentence of the judge our Father, so that our hearts are now constrained
by His love for us to turn from our sin and follow Him. Well,
what if we sin again? You mean when we sin again? Look
at the last part of verse 5. And the angel of the Lord stood
by. All that was done. He was declared
forgiven and he was robed in that, he was stripped of those
filthy garments and he was cleansed and he was robed in the righteousness
of Christ. And a fair miter was put on his
head. But the advocate still stood by him. Why? He's going
to sin again. He's going to sin again. And
here's what he's telling us. He's saying, my little children,
these things write out unto you that you sin not. And when you
do, We have an advocate standing by. Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for
our sins. And not for ours only, but for
His elect that are going to be in a little town called Ewing,
New Jersey, 2018 years from now. He's their advocate too. He'll
still be advocating for His people then. And He won't stop. to at least brought them all
home. Every one of them. Don't look anywhere else. Come
to Him and confess your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins because of Christ our Advocate. And you that don't
know Him and don't believe Him, you believe on Him and this Christ
our Advocate will be your Advocate. This perpetuatory sacrifice will
be yours. And they'll never ever be anyone
that can ever lay a charge to your account. Christ won't. He won't allow it. And God's
justice won't permit it. Isn't that good news? We have
an advocate. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. We thank You that You've redeemed us and that You've
sent Your Son and that right now He's seated at Your right
hand. that there'll never, ever, ever be one for whom He died
that'll come into condemnation. Lord, make us hear this. Make
us to hear tonight this Word that You've done for Your people
and make us see that You've taken away our filthy garments and
You've robed us in Your robe of righteousness and mortify
our flesh. Turn away every sinner here,
Lord, from the sinful flesh and make us walk after You and honor
You and endeavor to sin not. Make us see that it's all due
to Your great love for us. And motivate us by that love.
Constrain us by that love, Lord. How we do thank You. In Christ's
precious name we pray. Amen. Alright, Brother Art.