let us turn to God's words and
turn into the first general epistle of John the first epistle of John in
chapter 2 and I direct you for a while this evening to the words
that we have here in the opening verse 1 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
Righteous. I really want to consider the
second part of this verse, those words, and if any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. To think then of Him who is the
Advocate for sinners, Here in England we don't tend
to use the word advocate it's more common of course in Scotland
where they use that term in reference to a man whom we would refer
to as a barrister. So I want to begin by saying
something with regards to advocacy not in the legal sense that we
might have some familiarity with it in our own legal system, but
to consider more particularly the word that is being used in
this verse. There is some profit, I believe,
in examining certain words in Holy Scripture. We do believe
in the verbal inspiration of the Word of God. It's not that
men were simply inspired in their thought patterns, and then in
their own words gave expression to how God had inspired their
thinking but in that strange doctrine of the inspiration of
Holy Scripture they were moved to write their own words but
those words were very much the words of the Holy Ghost and so
every word really carries some weight and significance and certainly
that's the case here If any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father. This is one of those compound
words in the original. In other words, there are two
parts to the word. And it's a word that has come
over into our English language. It's that word paraclete. And
of course we have it there in the opening verse of the hymn
that we just sang. A hymn very much centering on
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Descend from heaven celestial
dove, with flames of pure seraphic love, our ravished breasts inspire
a fountain of joy. Blessed paraclete, warm our cold
hearts with heavenly heat and set our souls on fire. And that word paraclete is the
transliteration of what we have here as an advocate. And as I said, it's a compound. There are two parts to it. The
first part of the word literally means to be beside, or to come
beside. It's the word para. And I suppose,
again, we are familiar with it in our own language because we
use the word para now. when we speak of parallel lines,
they're lines side by side. And then the other part of the
word, the latter part of the word, is derived from the verb
to call. And so, if we break the word
down, an advocate, a paraclete, is someone called to be beside
another. and then to speak on behalf of
that person and so you can see how it is used in our English
language when we think of the law court the advocate is there
to represent someone else to speak up for them and we see
the idea of advocacy very much in scripture even going back
to the Old Testament Think of the plea that Job makes there
in Job chapter 16 and verse 21, or that one might plead with
God, he says, as a man pleadeth with his neighbor. He wanted
someone to plead his cause, his just cause, in the presence of
God. His friends were such poor comforters. And his whole situation, of course,
is a great mystery. and in the agonies of his soul
he cries out there in that 16th chapter that one might plead
with God on his behalf and again in the Old Testament think of
the language that we have there in the prophecy of Zachariah
in Zachariah chapter 3 and there in the opening words Zachariah
says and he showed me Joshua The high priest, these are the
days of Ezra, they're rebuilding the temple, and Joshua was then
the high priest, historically. And Zechariah was the prophet.
And he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before
the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to
resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuked thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuketh thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? Now, the Lord is there then an
advocate against Satan who, of course, is the accuser of our
brethren, who accuseth them day and night before God. So there
we have the idea of what this advocacy is. It's the same as the paraclete,
one who is called to be beside another who speaks on their behalf. Now, the great advocate is the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's one of the titles that belongs
to him. He is the one who is spoken of
here, of course. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And Christ was very much an advocate
for his people whilst he was here upon the earth. Let me just
direct you to a couple of incidents where we see this. We see, for
example, in the 8th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, where we read of that woman
who had been taken in the very act of adultery. And she's accused
by the scribes and the Pharisees. But it is Christ who is the woman's
advocate. And now the Lord speaks on her
behalf. They come to him there at verse
4 in that chapter and say, Master, this woman was taken in adultery
in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they
said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But
Jesus stooped down and with his fingers wrote on the ground as
though he heard them not. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard
it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was
left alone. and the woman standing in the
midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the
woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No, my lord. And Jesus
said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more. How we see the Lord then, as
that one who is so gracious, in his advocacy for that poor
woman who the scribes and the Pharisees were so ready to condemn
those self-righteous men but the Lord speaks up on her behalf
and then in the next chapter in John chapter 9 we read of course
of the man that was born blind And Christ answers his disciples
on the behalf of that particular man there at the beginning of
that ninth chapter. As Jesus passed by, he saw a
man which was blind from his birth and his disciples asked
him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him." His disciples were reasoning falsely,
concluding that this man must be afflicted in this way because
of some sin in his parents, or something that he himself was
guilty of. But the Lord speaks up for the
man. And then later in that same chapter
we see how the Lord Jesus answers the Jews. because they had agreed
that if any man was to say that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ
he was to be put out of the temple and so they did excommunicate
that man, they put him out there in verse 34 of the chapter
they answered and said unto him thou wast altogether born in
sins and thus thou teach us and they cast him out Jesus heard
that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said
unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and
said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Or they
cast him out, that the Lord goes and finds him. He is that one
who comes, of course, to seek and to save them that are lost. But how we see the Lord Jesus
Christ as that one who is ever ready to speak on the behalf
of the sinner. He is a merciful, He is a gracious
Savior. But we know that when Christ
came into this world there was a certain work that he came to
do the mystery is of course that
in his conception he is without original sin and he is free from
all sin throughout his life and in that sense his human nature
we might say was an immortal human nature he would never die
the soul that sinneth it shall die But there was nothing of
sin in the Lord Jesus. But he comes on a specific purpose. He comes, of course, to make
atonement for the sins of his people. He comes to satisfy the
strict justice of God, and that's what we read here in the remaining
parts of the sentence. This portion that we're looking
at at the end of verse 1 really is a sentence that doesn't finish
till we go to the end of the second verse. He's Jesus Christ
the righteous, it says, and He is the propitiation for our sins.
and not for us only, but also for the sins of the world." Christ
came then to do that very specific work, and He did accomplish that
work. He is the propitiation, and He
has made the great propitiatory sacrifice. He has satisfied the
justice of God in the room and stead of His people. And remember
when he comes to the end of his earthly ministry, he says there
in his great high priestly prayer to the Father, I have glorified
thee on the earth, I have finished the work that thou gavest me
to do. He's not just an advocate. He
is also that one who is the high priest who will make the sin-atoning
sacrifice. He's the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And when his work was done, he
then rose again from the dead, shows himself for 40 days by
all those infallible proofs, showing himself to his disciples
and then ascends to heaven. And so he is no more an advocate
here upon the earth. He was that in the course of
his earthly ministry in the gospel. But now Christ is an advocate
in heaven. And that is what's being spoken
of really in the words of the text. It's in the present tense,
if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. He is now in the very presence
of God the Father. is in heaven itself, and there
he appears as an advocate for all of his people. Now, thinking
again of the legal system, we know that in our own country,
for example, the moral character of the advocate or the barrister
is not really important. he might not be a particularly
good man, he might not even be really a just man, and yet he
may stand there pleading the just cause of another person. But what we thought concerning
this advocate, who is with the Father, he is Jesus Christ the
Righteous. And how important that is, how
important that is, because He's not just an advocate. We have to remember He's also
a surety and He's also that one who came to be a substitute. Such an High Priest became us,
we're told, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners
and made higher than the heavens. and he must be all of those things
if he's going to be the righteous one and so he is he is Jesus
Christ the righteous he is that one who has come to be the surety
of the better covenant he will stand for his people he is made
of a woman he is made under the law and in his life he honors
and he magnifies that Lord of God for his people he accomplishes
all righteousness He lives that life that is perfect, that's
the righteousness that is to be imputed to his people for
their salvation. But he's not only a surety in
the way in which he lives his life, he's also a substitute,
of course, when he comes to die. We see that great doctrine of
substitutionary atonement in the Scriptures, that Christ dies
in the sinner's place, He has suffered once for sin, says Peter,
the just for the unjust, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened in the Spirit. And as that one who dies for
the sins of others, so he himself must be the sinless one. He is
Jesus Christ the righteous. And this is the one who we have
as an advocate now in heaven. And who is it that he represents
in heaven? Well, as usual, of course, we
have to take account of the context. The context will often answer
the questions that we might put to any particular text. We should
always see it in its context. And we have to look at the end
of the previous chapter. because what we have at the beginning
of this second chapter flows from what has just been said
at the end of chapter 1. John writes, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 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." Well, it's also being described in verses 8, 9 and
10 at the end of that chapter that Christ is the Advocate for. He represents them, and He pleads
for such sinners as are referred to there. And what sort of sinners
are these? Well, they are not deceived. They're not deceived, but they
see and they feel something of the dreadful reality of their
sins. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, he says. And the truth is not in us. These are those in whom God's
truth has come. And they see themselves for what
they are in the light of that truth of God. And we see them
in Scripture, of course, in the experiences of the saints of
God recorded here on the sacred page. Think of Isaiah and the
Lord's dealings with him when he receives that call to be the
Lord's prophet in Isaiah chapter 6 and he cries out, Woe is mine
for I am undone because I am a man, a sinful man and I dwell
in the midst of a people of of sin, a man of unclean lips dwelling
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And now the angel has to
be sent to him with a call from up the brazen altar to apply
you to those sinful lips if he's going to be the Lord's spokesperson. Woe is me, he says, cry, because
I am a sinful man, O Lord. And we see the same in the New
Testament, in the Apostle Paul, where he cries out there at the
end of Romans 7, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? He feels himself to be a sinner. He is not deceived. He was deceived
when he was sold the Pharisee. He thought himself a righteous
man then. But no more when we see him there in Romans chapter
7. all these then that the Lord is representing they feel something
of what they are as sinners and he's not pleasant the hymn writer
says to cease in smart but slightly to own with lip confession is
easier still but all to feel cuts deep beyond expression but
they're not only those who are not deceived or have been undeceived,
they are those also who acknowledge the truth of God and they acknowledge
the words of God. There, at the end of that first
chapter, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar
and his words is not in us. Well, what does Paul say? Yea,
let God be true, and every man a liar. We're not to make God
a liar, or if His words is in us. In Scripture, God declares
the truth, and He declares the truth concerning man and man's
condition now since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. We
have that remarkable history of the fall of our first parents
so soon after the creation in Genesis chapter 3. And then we
come on a few chapters, and what do we read at the beginning of
chapter 6 there in Genesis? God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thought
of his heart was evil continually. Men don't like it, the truth
concerning themselves and their condition. Why the human heart
is deceitful above all things, says the Prophet, and desperately
wicked. I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the race to give to every man according to his ways and
to the fruit of his doing. Sin is there in man, and sin
is of man. God is not the author of sin.
Sin is of man, but that sense of sin can only come from God. new life from Him we must receive
before for sin we rightly grieve and that's the work of the Holy
Spirit and so now as I said Christ was once the advocate for his
people whilst he was here upon the earth he would speak up on
the behalf of sinners now he's finished his work he's ascended
on high He's entered heaven and there He is an Advocate. Even this Advocate that we read
of in the text, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the Righteous. But He is given one also to be
an Advocate here upon the earth. And that is the Holy Ghost. That
is the glorious ministry of God's the Holy Ghost and that was why
really I wanted to read that familiar passage at the beginning
of John chapter 14. You know the chapters we've previously
gone through these chapters on the Lord's Day some years ago
now but they're remarkable chapters 14, 15 and 16 where Christ He's preparing His disciples
for His leaving of them, and He speaks much of the coming
of the Holy Ghost. And He constantly uses this word
Comforter. There in that portion that we
read, John 14, 16, I will pray the Father, and He shall give
you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to you, says the
Lord Jesus Christ." Now, here is Christ's promise, and it is
really the promise of another advocate, because the word that
we have in verse 16, another comforter, is exactly
the same word as we've been looking at there in the opening verse
of 1 John chapter 2. It's that word from which we
have our English word paraclete. Remember the words of the hymn? Fountain of joy blessed paraclete,
blessed comforter. warm our cold heart with heavenly
heat, and set our souls on fire." It's the same word. But here,
in the wisdom of the translators of our authorized version, they
felt it was best to render the words comfort, because of the
comforts that come by and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And He is Christ's gift to the
church. Now Peter makes that quite plain on the day of Pentecost,
where he speaks of the exalted Christ who has shed forth that
which they see and hear, even the ministry of God, the Holy
Ghost. And there he comes very much
as the Spirit of Christ. The Lord says in verse 18 of
this 14th chapter, I will not leave you comfortless. I will
come to you now The word comfortless there is not related in any way
to the word comforter in verse 16. You might see in the margin
that we have the word orphans. I will not leave you orphans
is what the Lord literally says. In fact, it is the word, the
Greek word from which our word for an orphan is derived. Orphan is simply a transliteration
of this word. I will not leave you orphans
says the Lord I will come to you and how the Lord does come
time and again and he comes of course by and through the ministry
of the Holy Spirit and how the Lord speaks of him here in verse
17 even the spirit of truth he says whom the world cannot receive
whom the world cannot receive. Why is it that the world cannot
receive the ministry of the Holy Ghost? Well, I suppose there
are a number of reasons, but I think of this reason in particular,
isn't the world too full? It's full of rebellion. It's
full of ignorance. The world is full of hatred. prejudice, pride, self-righteousness,
unbelief. The world is full. It's full
of sin. The whole world, says John again
in that first general epistle, in chapter 5 and verse 19, the
whole world lieth in wickedness. I think the margin says lieth
in the wicked one. The whole world And so, again,
what does John say? Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. All the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost. because it's full of all manner
of evil the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to
do evil says the preacher in Ecclesiastes and the Lord himself during the
course of his ministry when he speaks to to the Jews he came
unto his own his own received him not remember they rejected
him in the main, how certainly the religious leaders, the scribes,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, all of them, all
these various sects, how they constantly rejected Christ. He says there in chapter 8 and
verse 37 of this gospel, My word hath no place in you. It's when the Spirit comes into
a man's heart, the truth of God's Word, that's the Spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? And how is the Spirit known?
How can we know if we have the Holy Spirit? We know Him as our
Advocate and our Comforter. Well, He is known by His works. He is known by the works that
He performs. I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth Him, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him. For He
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Well, if He is dwelling within
us, will we not experience something
of His ministry? something of His operations. And what is the ministry of the
Spirit? Well, Christ goes on to say much about that ministry.
He comes, says the Lord, as that One who is the Spirit of conviction. He comes to reprove, doesn't
He? As the Lord says in chapter 16, in verse 8, when He has come
He will reprove. the martin says convince the
world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because
they believe not on me of righteousness because I go to my father and
you see me no more of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged or if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves
the truth is not in us if we say that we have not sinned
we make God a liar his word is not in us This is one of the
works that the Spirit does. He convinces us of our sinnership. We're aware of what we are. But
it's not enough to know I'm a sinner. I need to know that there's salvation
for the sinner. We're not to come short. We're
not to think that because we have that sense of our sinnership
and we make our confessions, that's enough. We need to know
Him also and principally as that One who is the Spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord says that He will
not leave His children comfortless, orphans, that He'll come to them,
He'll minister to them. And see how He goes on in this
16th chapter to speak of that blessed ministry of the Holy
Ghost. there in verse 13, how be it
when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all
truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he
shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to
come he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you well the Lord speaks of him as that one
that bears witness the end of chapter 15 and verse 26 when the comforter is
come whom I will send unto you from the father even the spirit
of truth which proceeded from the father he shall testify of
me that's his ministry to speak
of Christ. He is God. He's God the Holy
Ghost. He's equal with the Son. He's
equal with the Father. But what a ministry, so self-effacing. He comes to make the things of
Christ real in the souls of sinners. He has a ministry to convince
of sin, but also to comfort. That's why He's the Comforter.
He comforts us with that gracious application of all the promises
of the Gospel. but then also thinking of him
as an advocate. Because that's the basic meaning
of this word, the paraclete. He is that one who is the spirit
of prayer. Romans 8.26, we're told how the
spirit also helpeth our infirmities. All our infirmities, we're so
feeble, so frail, sometimes we can scarce form a prayer. But he helps our infirmities.
He maketh intercession for us, says Paul, with groanings that
cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart,
that is God, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because
he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will
of God. What a blessed ministry! You
see, there is an Advocate. There is an Advocate still on
the earth, as there is an Advocate in heaven. And in a sense, although
the Advocate on the earth is God the Holy Ghost, He comes
very much as the Spirit of Christ, the same One who is the Advocate
in Heaven. If any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And now, as we
come to pray, of course, we need both of those ministries. An Advocate here, to be in our
hearts and advocate also to be in heaven before God himself. What does Paul say writing to
the Ephesians, there in Ephesians 2.18, through Him, he's speaking
of Christ, through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. There we have all the persons
in the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Through Christ we
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Well, the Lord help
us to come by Him who is our Advocate, even Jesus Christ the
Righteous. Let us, before we do turn to
the Lord in prayer, sing our second hymn, number
117. The tune is Sorely, 231. awake, sweet gratitude and seeing
the ascended Saviour's love, seeing how He lives to carry
on His people's cause above. 117, June 231.