In introducing this epistle of
John to the people, I said that there are many themes throughout
this book. It deals with many different
things. Primarily, it deals with the
deity and the glory of Jesus Christ. It speaks also of the
love of God for us. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, greater loveth no man than this,
and so forth. The love of God for us, it talks about the love of God
shed abroad in our hearts, and how the people of God love God,
love Christ, love the gospel, love each other. and how this
is an evidence of true discipleship, love, love. And in it speaks
of, in reproof, John speaks many words of reproof and correction
and admonition. He talks about a sinful lifestyle,
being the evidence of of a hypocrite. Look at chapter 3. Turn over
there with me. Chapter 3. He says, he's talking
about sin as a way of life, or a lifestyle. But that's the evidence
of an unregenerated person, an unsaved person. God doesn't leave
a man in his old lifestyle. He saves him from that, her from
that. Chapter 3, verses 6 through 8,
he said, Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth
hath not seen him, neither hath known him. Little children, let
no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, as he is righteous. He that committeth sins of the
devil, the devil sinneth on the beginning. For this purpose was
the Son of God, and the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil. Now, this has a twofold meaning
here, people. twofold meaning, and we'll deal
with it in depth when we get to it. But primarily, this is
talking about if any man be in Christ. Christ died for that person. He is represented by Christ.
He is accepted in the Beloved. That God hath made Christ to
be sin for him. God, are you in Christ? That
is, when Christ died, he died for you. When Christ lived, he
lived for you. Any man be in Christ, he's born
again, this new creature, he does not sin. Why? Because Christ does not sin,
you see. Verse 5, look at the last line
in verse 5. In him is no sin. See that? If we're in Christ, God finds
no sin on us. Right? We're in Christ by faith,
because as He is, so are we. Right? How is He? That's what
chapter 4, verse 17 said. As He is, so are we in this world. How is He? He's holy. He's righteous. He's accepted with God. Well,
as He is, so are we. If we're in him, right? So that's
what it means, primarily, and that's that's primary meaning
of chapter three. You follow that? Now, that's
good news. That's real good news to an old
sinner. Right? That's good news. It's also talking about the word
he that committeth. And whosoever sinneth. That tense
of that verb is a continual thing. Right, Vicki? You know something
about English language. Sinneth, commiteth, or continueth
in a certain manner or lifestyle. That's not what God leaves a
man or a woman in. Now, turn back to chapter 1.
Do you remember my pastor dealing with his walk? Do you remember
him talking about the believer's walk? Chapter 1, verse 6, look
at it. Remember him dealing with this?
He said, if we say, now it's easy to talk the talk, isn't
it? It's easy to talk the talk. I
didn't even walk the walk. That's what, I know that's an
old saying, but it's true nonetheless. He says, if we say, now it's
real easy to talk religion. It's another thing to live it.
And this is what verse 6 says, if we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, and truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with the Son and with each other and around the
gospel and the things of God. And yet if man say he has fellowship
and he walks in lights, verse 7, if we walk in lights, he is
in light. If we say that these things are
all and in all, yet we continue in a course of pursuing the darkness
of this world, the sin of this world, and the depravity of this
world, and continue, and we walk in darkness. If we say we're
in light, and we walk, and we're our life, our tenor, our life
is our course, our direction, the bend of our will is for this
world, which is darkness, we're lying. Right? That's just easy to say and plain
to say. So a believer has his will change. A believer has his want to change.
A believer, child of God, has the tenor, the bent of his will
and his mind and his heart and his life change. He's not without
sin. Doesn't mean he doesn't ever
sin from there on out. Now, what that's talking about?
Well, he sure doesn't. You know, a believer will fall.
A believer will sin. As long as he won't stay wallowing
in it. The Lord picks him up out of
it. Right? David sinned. The Lord
granted him repentance from it. And I believe he didn't do it
again. The confession of sin. Look at verse 8. In chapter one,
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We deceive
ourselves. The truth is not in us. We say
that we're just not, you know, that we did not take part in
Adam's sin, original sin. We deceive ourselves. We haven't
read the scriptures. The truth is not in us. That's
the first thing God instills in his people when he teaches
them. And in Adam, all die. sin, by one man's sin. Death passed upon all of you,
for all have sinned. We say we didn't take part in
that, we have no part in that, we deceive ourselves. Truth's
not in it. Verse 9, if we confess our sins, actual transgressions,
we confess. What is it to confess our sin?
Repentance. What is repentance? Well, the
word repentance means what? It basically means one thing.
Change. Is that right, Ed? That's what
it means. Repentance. Change. And it starts
in the heart and the mind with a desire to change. That's the
reason God has to give repentance. It's the goodness of God that
leads a man to repentance. Because nobody's going to change
his old sinful hearts and minds except God, right? See, God alone
must make us willing to change. He gives us a desire to change.
I was, before the Lord dealt with me, I was perfectly happy
to continue the lifestyle I was living. I was really happy doing
what I was doing, and pursuing it with all the gusto I had.
Right, John? So the Lord came and instilled
within me a desire to change. I didn't change myself. You see,
that's when the change began. He began the change. But nevertheless,
he instilled in me, I don't like this anymore. I don't like where
I'm headed. I don't like who I'm headed there
with. I don't like what I'm doing. I don't like what they're doing.
Now, I like what they're doing, talking about the people of God,
and I like where they're headed. Because that's the grace of God. Spirit of God will bring about
a change. And that's where I want to go, and that's what I want
to do. It's a change, a desire to change,
a will to change, and an actual change takes place, an actual
change. Now, I'm not what I want to be.
I'm not satisfied with myself. I'm not what I want to be. I'm
not even close to what I want to be. Are you? I want to be
like Christ. I ain't even close. Are you? Tell me, do you feel like you've
made any progress? Walked a few years with him.
Do you feel like you've made one step toward that goal of
being like Christ? No, I'm not what I want to be.
I'm not what I'm going to be. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. Why? Because we're so far from
it. Right? But thank God I'm not what I
used to be. And my old cronies that see me
now, they see a drastic change. And not just in my hairline. It's actually in me. Remember
me telling you that my wife's brother, he was one of my cronies.
We ran around together. And I began to take a little
interest in his sister, and I started going to church, and with all
the wrong reasons, you know, I wanted a girl. So I started
going to church. That's really basically the only reason I started
going, I wanted a girl. Thank God, you know, he had a
mind for me. And he brought me there. He brought me there. I was there
for all the wrong reasons, but in God's reason, God's purpose,
He brought me there. And before long, I started hearing
and getting interested in the message and forgot the girl was
sitting beside me. And I actually, actually, literally,
a change began to take place. and partying and carrying on
and running around and all that was just not, just wasn't the
direction I wanted to go. I was actually interested in
this, actually interested in going to church. And I remember
her brother, her brother told you this. He said, I was about
21 at the time, you know they say you change every seven years.
And it's what he said, he said, he's just going through some
kind of change. He said it won't last. It won't last. Well, nearly 19
years later, 18 years later. You see, that actual change takes
place. Repentance is change. It's change. Goodness of God leads a man to
that change. Right? That repentant desire
to do so, will to do so. And we bring forth fruit, meat,
for repentance. We bring forth fruit, meat, or
feeding for a change. And what it says, if we confess
our sins, and we still commit sins, verse 9, he's faithful
and just to forgive our sins. He's faithful, he's ready, he's
willing, he's able, he's just. Because sin has been paid for.
It's just. To forgive our sin, the blood
of Jesus Christ, that's how, cleanses us. It's the blood of
Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Verse 10,
we say we have not sinned. We make him a liar. I want you
to turn over and look at something with me. Luke chapter 7. Luke
chapter 7. And one that, Jeanette, didn't
some lady say to you one time, your preacher, your pastor, talks
too much about sin. Didn't she say that? He dwells
on the negative too much, talks about sin too much. Well, people,
the Word of God, 2 Timothy says the Word of God, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God, is possible for doctrine, for
reproof, correction. instruction in righteousness.
The Word of God convicts us before it comforts us, right? There's no real comfort unless
you first get convicted. The Word of God shows us our
guilt first, because then and then only does pardon mean anything,
right? The gospel doesn't mean anything
to a righteous person, a goody two-shoes. of the now-religious,
self-righteous person, the gospel doesn't mean a thing. The blood
and the righteousness of Christ doesn't mean a thing. It's not
sweet to him. Boy, when God's Word convicts
you of your sin, then the gospel means something to you. The Word
of God admonishes us before it comforts us. It's a two-edged
sword, you see. It's a two-edged sword. It wounds
us before it heals us. Unless there's a wound, there's
nothing to heal. Right? The Word of God primarily, the
first thing it does is break us. You know that? The Word of
God is designed to break our hearts
because God is nigh unto them that are of a broken and a contrite
heart. The Word of God is designed to make us tremble in fear of
God because To this man will I look, God said, in mercy, in
love, in grace. To him that is poor and of a
contrite heart, and trembleth at my word." The Word of God convicts before
it accomplishes. Look at Luke 7, verse 29. It
says, "...all the people heard him." Joe, this is another place
where it says, "...the common people heard him gladly." The
people, who's he talking about? Sinners, street people, gutter
snipes, out in that blue collar, you know. Harlots and publicans
and so on. They heard him. Publicans, listen
to it. Luke verse 29, listen to it.
Justified God. What's that talking about? Henry,
I bet there ain't a religious man in this town that knows what
that's talking about. A self-righteous religious man, that is. Justified
God with being baptized with the baptism of John. What's that?
Repentance. Conviction of sin. Justified
God. In other words, what they said
was, God, you're true. Everything you say about me is
true. I am as bad as you say I am. But those thirty Pharisees and
lawyers rejected, listen to it, rejected the counsel or the word
of God against themselves, refusing to be baptized of John. John said, repent. They said,
we don't have anything to repent of. We'd be not sinners. And they rejected. We're not
sinners. Forget it. Common people say,
we are, and they justify God in condemning themselves. The Word of God condemned them,
and they said, that's right, that's what we are. So that's
what the Word of God is sent to do. All right, now back to
the text. Back to the text in 1 John 2. See, believers don't
justify themselves. They condemn themselves. Believers
don't cavil at the word of God, they tremble at the word of God.
Whatever the word of God says to a believer, that's the reason
you can't, you can't, you can't offend the sinner. You can't
offend him. Call him what you will, a worm,
a dog. Try to think of something just
as low, a dead dog. And he won't be offended. He'll
even smile. He'll even smile. Why are you
smiling, Henry? Because you know all dogs go
to heaven. That's why it gives you a right
to the promise, doesn't it? Dogs get a few crumbs from the
master table. Believers They condemn themselves. Whatever God's word says, it
condemns them. They say, It's true, Lord. True,
Lord. And they tremble at the word
of God, and they repent, confess their sins, and the blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses them. Now, look at chapter 2,
verse 1. John says, My little children,
these things write on to you. These things, talking about Christ's
omniscience? He's the light. He's the light. God is not mocked, right? What Christ said, whatever man
sows, that's what God is not mocked. Christ is the light. And in another place, Christ
said, listen to this, Christ said, if I can quote it, if I
can find it, he said, he said, we come to the light. Yeah, he
that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be
made manifest. It's what Christ said to Nicodemus
in chapter 3 of John. He said, he that doeth truth,
or that is, believeth Christ who is the truth, comes to the
light. Who's that? Christ is the light.
He knows all, sees all. He knows your heart. Peter said,
depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. Remember that? When Peter
found out who Christ was. God, and he could read his thoughts. Peter said, Oh, my Lord, depart
from me. I'm a sinful man. The Lord said,
No, that's why I came, Peter. Don't come unto me. Your deeds
might be made manifest, your sins might be made manifest,
and it might be made manifest to you that I'll pull them away.
Well, little children These things I write unto you, Christ is life,
and walking in the light, and fellowship one with another,
and conviction of sin, and repentance, and faith, and so forth. Read
on. These things I write unto you, that you sin not. Don't sin like any good parent, responsible
parent, John, spiritual father here, he says, don't sin. Like
we would tell our son or daughter, don't do that. Peter said, put
off the old man. Put that away. Put that down. Stop that. Cut that out. That's
what he said. Don't do that, honey. I said,
don't do that. Quit that. Right? That's what he said. Don't sin. Our God says that. Come out from
among them. Touch not the unclean thing.
Be ye separate. That's what he said, doesn't
he, Terry? Touch not the unclean. Be ye holy. I'm holy. Isn't that
what he said? Salvation is from sin. It's not
in sin. God didn't just save us so we
can miss hell. Salvation is from being dead
in sin, saved from being dead in sin, to rise to walk in newness
of life. Right? Salvation is to be made
like Christ, not just to be saved by Christ. Right? Sure. And don't look down in
the face, anybody, because this is what the believer desires,
isn't it? I don't want to just be saved from hell. I want to
be like Christ. I don't want Christ just to save
me. I want him to change me. Don't you, John? And it's God's design. Isn't
it what he said in 1 Thessalonians 4-3? This is the will of God,
even your sanctification. And that's what I want. That's
what you want if you're a believer. It's what every true believer
wants. Lord, and we say, and this is a little play on words,
Lord, take away the first and establish the second. Take away
the first man, the old man, and establish the new man. Right? Lord, take away my sin and impart
your holiness. Right, Vicki? What you want? Little children, these things
around you, don't do that. Don't sin. bus and. Read all. And. Now these things
I write on you don't do that don't say it and. If any man sinned. I told you
not to do that didn't John said and you did it anyway. What's
going to happen. Well we have an advocate. If
any man sinned and. You did, John. Suzy, you went
and sinned, didn't you? And he doesn't upbraid us here.
He sends a blessed promise. Isn't that the goodness of God?
That's how merciful and gracious and ready to pardon our God is. He doesn't upbraid us. He tells
us, don't sin. And we sin anyway. Before Hannah grows up completely
mature, we'll tell her a million times not to do something. And
she'll do some things anyway, won't she? What am I going to do? Kick her
out? I'm going to disown her? What
am I going to say? Honey, I told you the last time,
I'm not going to tell you again. No, I'll tell her again. I'll tell her again. What am
I going to do? I'm going to kick her out and find another daughter.
No. She's my daughter. I think I'll keep her. I think I'll keep her. If she
sins, she still has a father. I'm not going to kick her out.
And if we sin, we have an advocate. And really, the word here is
not if. It's when. Isn't it? It's not if. Well, if I just happen to sin,
no, it's when. It's tonight. It's right now. It's tonight's in the morning.
When, if any man sin, when any man sin, and we do, and we will,
we have, we have an advocate with the Father. The word advocate
there means a lawyer. That's the title of this message,
Tara. I changed it. It's the Sinner's Advocate. That's
the title of it. We have an advocate. Sinners
have a lawyer. You need one? Sinners have a court-appointed
lawyer. You know an old scroungy old
fellow, a drug addict or whatever, is caught stealing or whatever
and he appears before the judge. You know that they appoint, they
ask him, do you have counsel, do you have counsel for the defendant,
do you have a lawyer? He said, no. I said, why do I
need a lawyer for? He caught me red-handed, caught
me with it. What do I need a lawyer for?
I'm guilty. They don't say that, but they answer. But nevertheless,
a guilty man caught red-handed, the judge himself says, get him
a lawyer. The court appoints him a lawyer.
They're called public defenders. Well, we have a publican defender,
one who defends publicans, the rest. A court-appointed lawyer. One who takes every, and this
is the only case he'll take, this lawyer. He won't take the
case of those who say, I've been framed, I've been framed. Are
you guilty, he says. Somebody says, no, no, I wouldn't,
those other fellas, they did it. I just happened to be there
around, and I, you know, guilt by associate. He won't take those
cases. The only cases he'll take are
hopeless ones. Right? Hopeless case. Are you guilty? Caught red-handed. I'll take your case. What's the
point? He wins every hopeless case.
He's never lost one of them. He takes every hopeless case.
Every guilty case. He takes it. Every one. And he wins them all. He wins
them all. He wins them all. The word advocate
means intercessor, go-between, daismon, umpire, one to lay his
hand on the judge and the accused or the guilty and bring the parties
together. Umpire, daismon, the twixtus,
a mediator, someone to plead our cause with God. If any man
sin, we need somebody to plead before holy God, don't we? Scripture says we have an advocate.
Where is he? Look at it. Read. We have an
advocate. Where is he? Well, he's in Rome. He's got a funny looking hat
on his head, and he's a shriveled up little white fellow. They
can't talk plain English. And he's got this pole and gold
and just... What would you want with a fella
that couldn't speak plain English? Huh? Plead my case. What are
you saying? Talk plain so I can understand.
Where is he? He ain't in the room. He's seated with the Father.
Huh? That one, he's, he's poke, want
to call him that, potentate Jesus Christ. That's who he is. He's
seated with the Father. He's not seated in Rome in some
building made with hands. He's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high. He's seated on the throne. He's
seated on the seat of judgment. He's sitting on the judgment
seat. Now, wait a minute. Think about this. Our advocate, our lawyer, is
the judge. Our case sounds pretty good now,
doesn't it? Sounds better all the time, doesn't
it? How would you like, what if the
judge said, you're guilty, aren't you? You need a lawyer? Yeah,
but what's the use? Who would take my case, and what
good would it do anyway? The judge says, well, I'll give
you one. I'll give you a lawyer. Who's it going to be? Me. But you're the judge. I'm also your lawyer. Oh, boy. Where is he? He's with the Father. Well, who
is he? Read on. We have an advocate. He's with the Father. Who is
he? Jesus Christ, the righteous. Not St. John, not St. Paul, not
St. Peter, not St. Christopher, not
St. Mary. No, 1 Timothy 2.5 says
there's one God and one mediator between God and men, and it ain't
no woman, it's a man. You want to talk to your Catholic
friends, there's one verse will do. 1 Timothy 2.5 will do. That's all you need to tell them. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Mary was a sinner, and no sinner can plead for Mary. She said,
she talked about, she rejoiced in God her Savior, didn't she? Didn't Mary do that when the
Lord appeared to her and said, You're going to bear a son, and
he's going to be God? And she cried out in her prayer,
I rejoice in God my Savior. Now what. Who needs a savior
but sinners. Mary was a sinner. She saved
the same way you and I are saved. And she had the same one mediate
for her that you and I need to mediate for us. Jesus Christ
the righteous. He's the only one. He's the only
one. We don't pray to Saint whoever,
Saint Nicholas or whoever. They've got a saint for everything,
don't they? There's one mediator, the man
Christ Jesus. And look at it, it says he's
Jesus Christ the righteous. That's what it's saying. We need
a holy, sinless mediator. He's the righteous one. He's
the righteousness of God. He's the right man on the right
hand of God. There's a man in glory who pleads
my case, the Holy One of God. And like I said, only the guilty
need an advocate. Right? Only the guilty need an advocate.
Righteous, self-righteous are looking for an alibi. We're looking
for an advocate. You know, here's the difference
between God's justice and man's so-called justice. There ain't
no justice today. It's a farce. It's absolutely
ridiculous. It's absurd. Why do we have courts?
I don't understand it. The average murderer is out in
seven years. Seven years. They sentence them
to life, Stan. That's their life. They say two
life terms, right? You got one life, how can you
have two life terms? I don't understand that. Justice?
Oh, it's beyond me. Too deep for me. It's better
to be able to say it. Bible's my poor little mouth.
Two life sentences ain't going to serve one life. There ain't
no justice today. God does. God is just. God says a soul that sins must
surely die. See, our justice today says a
man is innocent until proven guilty, doesn't it? Isn't that
what it says? That's the Arminian gospel, isn't
it? That's the false gospel. We're
all basically good and innocent, and we're not sinners at all.
We're innocent until you can absolutely prove They were guilty. That's not what the Bible says.
That's not the justice of God. The justice of God says a man
is guilty until declared innocent. And that's what it means to be
justified by Christ. You see, all guilty. What sort of things did the law
say? It said to them to run to the law. Who said it? Everybody.
That every man may be stopped and all the world become guilty. guilty till declared innocent. How can you declare an innocent
person guilty? How can you declare a guilty
person innocent? That's what my advocate does. He says, I take every case of
every guilty sinner. Are you guilty? Well, I ain't
that bad. I'm not going to take your case. I didn't come to call the righteous.
Got any guilty people out there? Guilty of gross, just an out-and-out,
hell-deserving sinner? Anybody out there? Christ says,
come unto me, I'm an advocate. I've ruled your case. I presented
every single guilty, bonafide, hell-deserving, wretched, vile
sinner innocent before God. I presented them, made them holy,
unblameable, unretrievable in God's eye. Any guilty out there? I don't know about you. You just
made me. Well, I'm even looking like Donnie
Bell now, aren't I? Don't tell him I did that. He takes all guilty people, not
the innocent. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, Pharisees, religious, goody-two-shoes, people who just
need a little help out. I've come to call the helpless.
I've come to call sinners. I've come to help the helpless.
I've come to save sinners. And he takes all guilty, all
guilty, to a proven innocent. Now, here's how my advocate plays,
okay? Here's the scene. My lawyer says
to God, before the court, my lawyer says, let this man go. Every sinner that he represents,
Christ says, let my people go. But the law says, wait a minute. He's guilty. He's been caught. He's guilty. He's broken the
law. On what grounds can we let this
man, this woman, go? My advocate says, on the grounds
that justice has been satisfied. Terry, who doesn't make excuses
for our sins, He doesn't say, well, he's basically a good boy,
and he won't do it again. Yeah, he will do it again. He
doesn't say that, does he? He doesn't say that. He says,
here's what he pleads. I tell you, the truth is unchanging. Liberty is relative. Truth is
unchanging. Christ, by the way, it says,
justice has been satisfied, sentence has been carried out, sins have
been punished. This man has paid for this crime.
He's guilty. And the crime has, and he, and
sentence has been carried out. He's been punished for this crime. That isn't according to the laws
of the world. Wait a minute. He's living. Yeah, but Christ
said, yeah, but I died. I died. And the law and the court says,
well, what's the proof? What proof? What evidence? It
shows, you always have evidence in the court, and evidence today
doesn't, I mean, they could catch a man actually red-handed, with
blood on his hands. And they throw it out as inadmissible.
Why? The policeman didn't say, cross
every dot, or I, cross every T and jot every dot. But my advocate
says, I've got evidence, undeniable, irrefutable, unchangeable evidence
to prove that this man has paid for these sins. He's been punished. And you can't punish a man twice
for the same sins. Well, what are they? What are
the evidences? And he shows the law and shows
God. What are they? Scars. I'm going to be looking for scars
up in heaven. Whoever is wearing them is my
advocate. That's the evidence. That's what's going to set me
free. He shows him his side. Five bleeding wounds he bears. Received on Calvary. They pour
effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Shows him his feet. Sorry for
the man. Christ said, I was crucified. I took this man's place, this
woman's place. I was made sin for him, I who
knew no sin, that he might be made the righteousness of God
in me. I took his place. I bore the wrath of God against
him that was supposed to be his for him. I paid for his sins. A soul that sins must surely
die. I died for this man. Turn him loose. A ransom's been
found. Let my people go. You know what
the law says, Terry? Can't condemn them. Can't condemn
them. And the accuser says, but, but,
but, but, you know, the jury, you know, Satan in the audience,
why, why, why, why, why, shut up! My law, you're saying, doesn't
it? Who's he that condemns? God justifies the judge is. Innocent of all. Letting go. Punishments. He's a dead man. He's a dead man. He was crucified
with Christ. But, but, but, but, shut up.
Who's he that condemns? God justifies. Who shall lay the thing to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. It's Christ that died. And verse 2 says he's a propitiation
for our sin. That's what that means. It means
bloody covering. He's a propitiation for our sin.
And I wanted you to turn to Leviticus, but I won't have you do it. It's
the first mention of this thing of propitiation. It's when the
blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat and covered the law. Blood
sprinkled on the mercy seat. That's what Paul says in Romans
3, and that's what he says here. He's the propitiation. He's the
bloody covering. Pitch. There's a good way to
remember this word, what it means. Just take out one little word
in it. Pitch. That ark that Noah rode in was
pitched with in and out. It was covered. It wasn't going
to spring a leak. The rain wasn't going to hit
Noah, and Noah wasn't going to get out. It was covered. And so are we,
covered in the blood. Covered in the blood. And he
says in verse 2, and let me try to clear this up a little bit,
in case you're unclear on it. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. There's nothing more common in
Jewish writings. Now, who was writing here? John,
a Jew. Where was John when he was writing
this? John wrote this. He was a Jew, and his ministry
was to the Jews. Paul was an apostle to a Gentile. John was writing to Jews here,
believing Jews. That's who he's speaking to.
And there's nothing more common in Jewish writings than to call
Gentiles the world. The Jews considered Jews to be
human beings and Gentiles dogs. There's us men and then there's
dogs. There's Jews and then there's the world, he said. That's who
Christ was dealing with, Nicodemus, that Jewish Pharisee in John
3. And that's when he said, Nicodemus,
God so loved the world, not just Jews, the world. God so loved the world, the world
of people, out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue.
That's what Christ said to Nicodemus. That's what Christ said that
made the Jews mad. Remember that? Made the Jews
mad when Christ said there are many widows in the day of famine,
but God saved one of them, a widow of Serepta, a Gentile. They got
mad. And when Christ said there were
many lepers in the days of Naaman, that he said, God saved one.
Naaman, Assyria. That made them mad, didn't it?
We're Jews. We're God's people. They're the
world. We're Jews. So there's nothing
more common in Jewish writings than for them to talk about the
Jews, and then there's the world, the Gentiles. But the scripture
says Christ is the Savior of the Jew first. Right? And so he came to, wasn't he,
Terry? He came to the Jew. He came to his own. The Jew. To the Jew first. And the Gentile. The world. The world also. Christ is the advocate, the mediator,
the intercessor, the propitiation, the Savior of the whole world.
Jew and Gentile. Old and young. Black and white.
That'd make some Southerners mad, wouldn't it? There's us
white folks, and then there's them, you know what? Oh no, black
and white. Black and white, red and yellow.
Male and female. Christ is the advocate. He's
the Savior of the whole world, and the only one. He's the only
one. Not Mohammed, not Buddha. If any red man is saved, he won't
be saved through Buddha. Any yellow man saved, it won't
be through Confucius. Any brown man saved, it won't
be through Mohammed. Any white man saved, it won't
be through whoever. It'll be through Jesus Christ.
One mediator, Jesus Christ. One way, one faith, one Lord,
one advocate for all sinners. You see, he's the propitiation
for our sin. Jews, he said, John. And not
for ours only, but for the whole world. He's the only one. He's
the only one, the only Savior, the only Advocate that a man
can have. The only one. Jesus Christ the
righteous, sinner's Advocate. All right. Stand with me now.
This message is in front of you.