May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
first epistle of John, the second chapter, and we'll read the first
two verses. The first epistle of John, the
second chapter, reading the first two verses. My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. We note how the Apostle John
addresses the church by these words, my little children. And such a phrase is used a number
of occasions in the word of God and the Lord himself used it. And how important it is that
in our spiritual life, We don't assume that we can suddenly start
in middle life. But we all need to come down
to be like this, a little child. And the benefit is that little
children are willing, usually, to learn. And they are pleased
to receive instruction. And so may that be true in our
spiritual life, as we come to the word of God, to be like little
children, desiring that the gracious God will instruct us and teach
us and reveal himself to us, as he does not unto the world
through his word. And so the apostle tells us,
my little children, these things write I unto you. He's writing
there. for our benefit, for our eternal
good. And what a wonderful thing it
is that Almighty God has ordained that we should have and possess
the Word of God in our language and are able to read it, the
wonderful words of life which it contains. And he says, these
things write I unto you that ye sin not. Well, we know of
course that we shall sin, but with a desire in our hearts to
not sin, and to turn away from sin. Whereas left to our own
nature of course, our nature enjoys sin, is involved in sin
and is happy to remain there. But the grace of God grants and
brings to us a different position so that we recognise that we
do sin against a holy God and those sins need to be paid for
and they need to be taken away. and they need to be removed because
nothing unholy can enter into glory. So unless we have received
the wonderful blessing of the remission of sins, then there
is no hope of eternal blessing for us. And then the word tells
us, and if any man sin, well of course we do sin. And what
are we to do? justify ourselves, because we're
sinners. And even in our very best things,
our best thoughts, we will find there's something hidden away
which produces some sinful desire or thought. Things like pride
which are very difficult to dig out, but as the Spirit of God
shows us, even in perhaps what we might think foolishly, our
best prayers, pride is tucked away in them. So how we need
the Holy Spirit to come to us and convince us of this truth. And then the word tells us, and
if any men sin, well, what are we to do? Well, we're told here,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Well, first of all, we might
ask what is an advocate? New young people may wonder what
an advocate is. Well, we can illustrate that
quite simply by our own courts, our own laws, that in court,
people who are under prosecution, they need someone to defend them. And those people who defend them
before the judge are called usually barristers or perhaps when they
advance to Queen's Council. And these barristers, what they
do, they present the case of the person, they are retained
by that person to present their case and to bring it in the best
light and to try and prove that they are perhaps not guilty.
And of course if they are guilty, well then that's not a wrong
thing to do, but sometimes they are not guilty and therefore
an advocate or a barrister is brought forth to present their
case. Well, we see then that here we
are, guilty sinners. And as it were, we're standing
before the judge of the whole earth, Almighty God, God the
Father. And if we stand there guilty
before a holy God, we cannot justify ourselves because we
know that God's law is just and therefore under that law we are
condemned. We can never say that we've not
sinned and therefore we stand guilty before a holy God. Well what a blessing then to
have someone to take up our case and to plead for us Now, that
pleading, what does it bring forth? The pleading of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is to his Father, as we have here,
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous,
and what does he plead? He pleads before his Father and
our Father, although we are guilty, and although we do deserve to
be condemned to eternal punishment, that he has taken our sins. That he has, in his perfect life,
paid that ransom price to deliver us from that place of condemnation. And we can see what a wonderful
advocate we have. And this advocate The Lord Jesus
Christ, he never fails. Naturally, natural barristers
sometimes fail in their quest to have a prisoner delivered. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he
never fails, because he has lived that perfect life. There's no
sin in the Saviour. And therefore, as the Lord presents
our case to his Father, there is that wonderful evidence that
the Lord has taken our sins upon himself. And what's he done?
Well, the Word of God explains it to us. And what he's actually
done, he's taken our sins and they've been imputed to him,
so that our sins no longer exist upon us. We are free from sin,
we are free from that condemnation, because the Lord Jesus Christ
has had them imputed unto himself. Now you see a natural barrister,
a natural advocate would not do that under normal circumstances,
but here we have this wonderful example of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is our heavenly advocate. And here we have this great statement,
if any man sin and we do sin, we have, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Well, I wonder
tonight, if by the Spirit of God, you have the evidence that
the Lord Jesus Christ has been your advocate. He has pleaded
your cause before his father and our father and that pleading
has been accepted. And what has occurred? Freedom,
liberty, deliverance. What a wonderful favour it is
to think that we're totally unworthy men and women, boys and girls
on this earth who offended Almighty God, who've turned against God,
who've disobeyed the gracious, true laws of God, so that we
are condemned and condemned to die to think that we have such
a Saviour who so willingly stands up for us. stands up for us and
presents our case to his father. And we won't be able to hide
the sins. They're there to be displayed.
They're all there known. You can't hide sin. But yet to
then realize that the Lord Jesus pleads on our behalf as he tells
his father what he has done, how he has paid the penalty instead. And we, by God's grace, are set
free. What a wonderful thing it is
then to have an advocate with the Father. Without it, without
this advocate, our case would be hopeless. There would be no
mercy, there would be no favour. We may say, well why should such
a situation have developed? Well, we have to realise it is
because of God's love and because of God's grace that he has chosen
us in eternity past. Not for any good that we've done,
but because he would love us. As he said when he spoke to his
disciples in the upper room, ye have not chosen me, By nature,
we never would. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit and your fruit should remain. What an amazing favour
that is, to think that out of the vast billions of mankind,
that in the great plan of salvation, in eternity past, the Lord singled
us out individually, individually. And he wrote that pardom upon
us through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was so willing
to come into this world and to die so that you and I might live
and live eternally. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Well may we truly tonight have
the wonderful evidence of this blessing in our souls. And really
the evidence of it is when our hearts have been touched and
moved by the Holy Spirit of God to acknowledge Him as our Saviour,
as our Lord and Master. It's really when the light has
shone into our hearts. We were born in sin, shaped in
iniquity, we were born in darkness. What a blessing if that light
of the glorious gospel has shone upon us. And of course that glorious
light shines only through and in the face of Jesus Christ. Without him, without his favour,
without his blessing, Without Him dying for us, we are eternally
lost. But if we have the wonderful
favour and blessing, and the evidence in our own hearts of
the light shining, to reveal to us what we are, and also what
we deserve, it will no doubt make us cry out as the Holy Spirit
shows us something of ourselves, can ever God dwell here in such
a heart as mine. Such a sinful heart. And yet to think that because
of his love toward us, he was willing to come and to suffer
so that we might receive this great, wonderful favour of sins
forgiven. Well, what a blessing tonight
then, to think that these words have a gracious application in
our hearts. We have an Advocate with the
Father. Now, if we have that, what will
it have produced? It will have produced a true
concern for our eternal state. It will have produced a true
concern that our sins might be forgiven. It would have produced
a true prayer in our hearts that the Lord will look upon us and
have mercy upon us. And of course, we've read together
those verses in the first chapter of this little epistle. And the
Lord tells us, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another. and the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So what
a blessing if the light has shone to show to us that we are sinners
and deep-dyed sinners and that we need forgiveness and therefore
the word goes on to tell us if We confess our sins. He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, it's a wonderful favour
to be blessed with true prayer seeking for the forgiveness of
our sins. And we only really come to that
position when the light has shone into our hearts to reveal something
of our true condition before a holy God. And in that light,
in that true condition, we'll realise what a need we have of
a saviour. And how without the favour and
blessing of God we are eternally lost. And that will be a real
concern, a real worry. Perhaps we haven't been able
to sleep. Perhaps sin has been so heavy
upon us and we've been so fearful of the outcome of it. Fearful
that if we go to sleep we might wake up in hell. Well, thank
God for conviction of sin. Because if the Spirit of God
grants that conviction, So that we do realise that we are guilty,
then we realise our need of a saviour. And then you see such a word
as this comes with sweetness that we, the truth is, we have. We have, if any man sin and we
put our hands up and say, that's me. We have. And advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We can't plead for
ourselves. All we can plead for is mercy. We can't plead for anything to
justify ourselves. But we have a great Saviour who
justifies us because of what He's done on our behalf. As we read in this verse, the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now, the blood of Christ and
the cleansing blood of Christ may have had no effect upon us,
we may have ignored it, we may have cast it aside as something
of no value, but what a blessing when the Spirit of God comes
and moves our heart to realise the need we have of such a Saviour,
such a Saviour who was so willing to die, so willing to die on
our behalf so that our sins might be taken away. The price had
to be paid. Our sins could not be just forgotten
about. God's law is just. God is just. Sin has to be paid for. You and I could not pay the price
required our sin. We have the picture in the Word
of God from Genesis to Revelation of what was required to atone
for sin, and it is the shed blood indicating the death of the offering,
the sacrifice, the shed blood. And so it was that the Lord Jesus
Christ, he came and he shed his blood, and how true this word
is, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all sin. Isn't that wonderful? All sin. Nothing left. All taken away. All washed away in the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, you see, he is
The only one that can argue our case, can plead our case, but
he is that just one. And he can present our case,
plead our case to his father because of what he has done so
that he died, that we might live. if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
you know, true confession is much harder than we may think. Because it means confessing and
admitting that we have sinned and that we do sin. And like
the apostles, had to say, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. We don't like to think we're
so bad as that, do we? But what a mercy it is when the
Spirit of God shows us how bad we are and directs us to himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we see how needful it
is that this gracious Saviour is our advocate. with the Father
and presents our case before him. And then what happens? Well, we are accepted in the
Beloved. Now, we might think, and it's
true, this position of being an advocate is really quite similar
in the Word of God as being an intercessor. But really, the
word intercessor means to entreat. And therefore we can think that
the Lord also entreats on our behalf. But being an advocate,
he actually pleads our case. He actually sets our case before
his father. And as we might say in his holy
ground, of course, to explain the situation that he has died
on our behalf and that he has paid the price for our sins. And it is, of course, true It's
not to be forgotten, it's not to be moved aside. And we might
think of the prayer indeed of the Saviour himself, when he
was on this earth, when he prayed that wonderful high priestly
prayer to his father. And part of it says, he says,
and all mine are thine. He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept. And none of them is lost, but
the son of perdition. And the scripture might be fulfilled."
Well, what a blessing it is then to realize that here we have
the words of the Savior himself. And to think and to meditate
upon such A truth is this. The Lord has been with us. The
Lord is with his people. The Lord does not leave us. He
does not forsake us. We may not always feel the nearness
that we would like to feel and love to know, but nonetheless,
the Lord is with us. He's round about us to preserve
us. and to think that we have this
same Jesus Christ who died upon that cross so many years ago,
and that death was on our behalf, if we are amongst those for whom
he shed his precious blood, the millions of people that he died
for, and to ponder the glory of salvation, to think that our
names were engraved on the palms of his hands, that he died for
our sins, and that he is our advocate in glory. And as the
Apostle again goes on, and he is the propitiation for our sins. The propitiation means that he
is the expiator, the one who takes away our sin. It's a word which is a very scriptural
and biblical word and it was coined by William Tiptaf when
he did his translation. But it's a very appropriate word
for he is the propitiation for our sins. No one else. No one
else can be the expiator of our sins, can take our sins away. It only is the Lord Jesus Christ. So, as we ponder such a truth,
how valuable is the Saviour? How valuable was His sinatonic
life and death? Because without that death, there
was no life for the Church of God. And He is. He is. The Word of God is so
gloriously positive, isn't it? To think of such a truth as this.
And He is. The propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. Of course, that doesn't mean
to say every single person in the world. Because it's really
referring to those who were not Jews, those who were among the
Gentiles. And that was proved really. The many writings which occurred
at this time of the Jewish people, they always referred to the whole
world as those who were outside of the Jewish nation, the Gentile
church. Of course, we are amongst, but
also for the sins of the whole world. What a mercy tonight it
is to think that this word is so true of us and it's through
his life and through his death that we are privileged to be
blessed with such a wonderful favour. You know when the Apostle
Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians and in the second chapter
we're told, and the Lord came and preached peace to you which
were afar off, and to them that were nigh. Well, how does peace
come? Peace by his cross, as Jesus
made. There's no peace outside of the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I say that, I mean true
spiritual peace, peace in our soul. And came and preached peace
to you which were afar off, and we were far off. What a blessing
if we're not now far off. And to them that were nigh, for
through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Access through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Apostle goes on and tells
us, because of that wonderful blessing, he says, Now therefore,
ye are no more strangers. Have we been a stranger? A stranger
to these great truths. They meant nothing to us. What
a mercy then, if this word is true. Now therefore ye are no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God. No more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with all those whom the Saviour is this
great and glorious Advocate. So there's that common bond,
there's that unity, the blessing to know that we all stand dependent
upon Christ being our Advocator, all standing dependent upon what
Christ has done and to be so thankful for it. And as the Apostle
tells us, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Yes, Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ himself, of course,
was the wonderful and glorious advocate for his people. And Peter, of course, knew these
great and glorious truths. And in his first epistle, he
tells us in the third chapter For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. We're unjust, and he died the
just for the unjust. That he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. What a mercy it is to have such
a great and glorious Saviour and what a blessing it is to
know that tonight the Holy Spirit comes and convinces us of our
sin and directs us to the suffering Saviour and shows to us the great
need we have of this advocate with the Father and then to be
blessed with that living faith to believe that the Lord did
come and He did die on our behalf and he is the propitiation for
our sins and therefore we are complete in him. We are not amongst
those who know nothing of these great truths. The Holy Spirit
conveys these truths into us, into our hearts. And what is
it? It's really the light of the great and glorious Gospel
shining into our hearts. Now we know and that there is
so much in this world today to turn us away. And the Word of
God tells us, if you read together, for all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And it's
easy to be sidetracked and find ourselves not listening to the
great truths of Scripture, but listening to the devil himself. Well, may the Holy Spirit show
to us, indeed as these words tell us, and the world passeth
away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. And then, again, the apostle
uses this phrase, little children. And what's he saying? It is the
last time. We're living in the last times
today. It was in these days and we're in the last times today.
And as you have heard, the Antichrist shall come even now. Are there
many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time? Well, as we're made conscious
that it is the last times, may we know the blessing of this
wonderful favour of having and advocate with the Father. It's very humbling, isn't it,
to perhaps ponder and think that the Lord Jesus Christ comes and
touches our heart and draws us to himself and shows us these
great truths of the Gospel. These are not things that you
and I will naturally go after. naturally enjoy it, but as the
Holy Spirit shows us our need and shows us the great and glorious
way of salvation, what a wonderful thing it is to know that He,
this Saviour, pleads our cause individually, individually before
His Father. It's not just a general situation. Each one of us need the Lord
Jesus to plead our case. before a holy God, how undeserving
we are, how undeserving we are. What a favour to think the Lord
has caused us to hear his voice, and it's because, as I said,
we are chosen in him, chosen in him before the foundation
of the world, and not at works, lest we should boast. But it's
all of His grace, all of His grace, and it's by faith which
the Lord gives to us to believe these great and glorious truths.
And so may we tonight thank God that we have such a word recorded
in the Word of God for our encouragement. And I mention these little children,
we come right down to the end of the second chapter, that we
read, and once again the Apostle says, And now, little children,
abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that
he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness
is born of him. amongst those who are waiting
and watching for his appearing." That's what the Apostle wrote
to Titus, waiting and watching for that great and glorious appearing
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Well, if we know him
as our advocate, if we've been given faith to believe that he
has pleaded our cause, that he has pleaded our cause with the
Saviour so that we have been brought into the glorious light
of the Gospel, then we can, by his grace, look forward to that
time in glory when we shall be with our Saviour, no more sin,
no more sorrow, but eternal happiness, and be able to praise and thank
him for that great and glorious work that he's done, for his
wonderful sacrifice, how willing was Jesus to die that we fellow
sinners might live. Oh, it will be a blessing to
be found, safe home at last, freed from sin, freed from all
the evil of it, and taken up with the blessings of glory,
and to be with Christ, as the Apostle says, which is far better. Well, my little children, these
things write I unto you, that ye sin not, And if any man sin,
we have and 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. Amen.