Thank you so much. Appreciate
that. Good singing. Very good. All right. I want you to open
up your Bibles with me to the first epistle of John. So I'm not going to the gospel
of John, but I'm going to 1 John chapter 2. And I'd like for you
to turn there with me. Those of you who are watching
at your house or wherever you happen to be. I hope that you'll
avail yourself of a Bible and also look with me in 1 John chapter
2. And I'll read the text that I've
selected in just a few minutes. But I want you to get there and
then you can look this way. If you are a true believer, and
certainly that's a valid question for all of us, for me, do I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I trust Him for my salvation? I'm a soul that has a body. And
I know I'm going to live forever someday. And I want to dwell
in that land of the ransomed of God. Don't you? I want to
be with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe I will be. Because
I am trusting the Son of God. I have no other confidence. I
don't rely upon anything I have done, am doing, or ever shall
do for my acceptance with God. I say Christ Jesus is my hope. Is He your hope? Is He your confidence? This is a time for seriousness. We're just going through life,
and we're going to get to the end pretty quick. I got notified
just before I left the house this morning. A fellow that I
went to Bible college with, went out into eternity, had a massive
stroke. Well, I hope he's all right. I don't know anybody's heart. Don't halfway know mine. The heart's deceitful above all
things, the Bible says, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That's what Jeremiah says. But as best I can, based on my
understanding of the gospel of God's sovereign grace, I have
a Redeemer. I have a Savior. I have a righteousness
that puts me in good standing with God because it's a righteousness,
not one that I invented, but one that was imputed to me, charged
to me, reckoned to my account. I look to the crucified, buried,
risen, exalted Savior for my standing with God. What about
you now? What about you? And if you are a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have much in common with all
of the children of God scattered throughout the ages, beginning
with Abel, all the way to today, and all the way to the time when
the end of this age shall arrive. We have many things in common.
I know we have our differences, but on these issues, we don't
have differences. Number one, we bow and worship
God. We worship God in the Spirit.
Philippians 3, 3 says we worship God in the Spirit. True Israel
does, the people who know God. We worship God in Spirit. We
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the
flesh. And if you're a believer, you're
in total agreement with that. You worship God from your heart.
That's why we're here this morning is to worship God, to honor God. We're not here to honor you.
We're not going to congratulate you for coming to church, for
doing God a favor. for taking out of your busy week
a few minutes so you can come in here. Nobody's going to thank
you for that. You ought to thank God for the
privilege to be here and worship Him according to the truth. When I pastored up in Michigan,
and some of those folks are watching the Lord willing right now, we
had red carpet. I said one time, we don't throw
out the red carpet for anybody. Come think of it, we throw it
out for everybody. But we don't treat anybody special. There's only one who's special,
that's our God. And we come to worship Him. Worship
Him in spirit, in truth. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, the
only Savior. You say, preacher, I got so many
things going on in my life, I don't have much to rejoice about. You
can rejoice in Him, can't you? Rejoice in Christ Jesus, you
have no sins, you have a perfect standing before God. And we don't have any confidence
in the flesh. Well, we've got those things in common. And I'll
tell you something else we have in common. We all bow to the
authority, to the word of God. I don't bow to the authority
of the writings of men. I saw a bulletin. Somebody sent me a bulletin several
weeks ago of this church. Where was it? Washington, D.C.,
I believe it was. And they had a statement on there,
and it says, it's a Baptist church, and it said, we believe in baptism
that washes away our sins. I don't believe that. Why in
the world would you put that in a bulletin, unless that's
what you believe? Supposed to be a Baptist church. Baptism doesn't wash away sins.
The blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses us from all sin. I bow to the authority of the
Word of God that says salvation is by grace. It's by grace only. It's not by works, not by prayers,
not by tears, it's not by repentance, it's not by faith, it's not by
baptism, it's by grace that God himself has to give. And all of God's people have
that in common. We bow to the authority of the
Word of God. I don't want to read your church
catechisms or anything else unless what is written is just the Word
of God. We don't bow to denominational
pressures. We don't bow to Baptist writings. I bow to God's Word. What He
says is right. Whether I comprehend it, understand
it or not, it's still right. There's one authoritative book. It begins with, in the beginning,
God. Everything begins with God. We
all believe that who are true people of God. Creation began with God. It'll
end with God. Man's not going to destroy this
creation. Don't get all worked up because
you hear what these people are talking about, that we're destroying
the climate, we're destroying the environment. God's gonna
destroy this place. I tell you what you better concern
yourself with is that your soul's not destroyed forever in hell.
Don't worry about this other stuff. A lot of people wanna
keep you in fear. There's only one fear that matters,
and that's the fear of God. That's the beginning of wisdom
in it, brother. It's the beginning of knowledge. So all of God's
people have this in common. We bow to the word of God. And
I'll tell you something else we all have in common. We have
in common a great salvation. I'm talking about everybody who
believes the gospel now. In fact, turn over just a few
pages to the book of Jude. You know, Jude's only got one
chapter. Look at Jude 1. Jude, and look
at verse number 3, just three or four pages back. Jude says in verse 3, Beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the, he says,
the common salvation. And I tell you what, if you're
saved by the grace of God, There's something else we have in common.
We're saved with the same salvation. And this salvation originated
in the eternal council chambers of God. When Father, Son, and Spirit
joined together in an eternal convening, to set forth salvation, to ordain
salvation, and that was an eternal decree of God, because the decrees
of God are as old as God is Himself. And then He chose a Savior. And He chose a people to be saved. And He chose to create a world
upon which those people would live. a world in which He would
send His Son to die and redeem those people. And He chose the means whereby
His own justice would be satisfied in the death of His darling Son
in the stead of His elect people. He chose the time, He chose the
place, He chose the means of that substitutionary work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't Pilate, it wasn't Herod,
it wasn't the rest of the Romans, it wasn't the Jews who were in
charge at Calvary, it's God Almighty who's in charge and He ordained
what was done there for ever made the world. Because the only way He could
save the people of His choice was for the Savior that He chose
to satisfy divine justice for His people and be punished for
their sins. I tell you, we have a common
salvation. If you're a believer, we've got
that in common. And we were all called and quickened
by the same Holy Spirit. We were all forgiven of our sins
and declared to be made the righteousness of God in Christ. And I'll tell you something else
we've got in common. We're all kept by the power of
God through faith. God preserves us. God keeps us. The shepherd has never lost one
of his sheep and he never will. He says, I give to them eternal
life. We all have that in common. We're
safe. We're safe in the surety of the
shepherd, the good shepherd of our salvation. While his righteousness
puts us in good standing with God. His bloody death washed
our sins away. Divine justice is fully satisfied. We all got that in common. Everybody
who believes. And I'll add something else too.
We're all going to the same place. You say, we don't believe. Everybody's
going to the same place. I'm not talking about everybody.
I'm talking about people who believe the gospel. Didn't you
hear how I started this message? All who believe the gospel of
the grace of God, who were gifted with faith by the Holy Ghost,
who gave us spiritual life, all of us are going to the same place,
eternal glory, because we all have an equal inheritance in
the heavens. And we all have this in common.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is our portion. He's all we want. He's all we desire. David said,
I shall be satisfied. I shall be satisfied when I awaken
his likeness. And can you imagine this, all
of you who believe the gospel, you who are watching, all of
you here, people who are listening sometime in the future to this
message, can you imagine what it's gonna be like when we see
the Lord Jesus Christ face to face? What will that be like? Oh, how thrilling that will be
for us. We've got a lot in common. But
I'm going to give you one more thing that we've got in common. We're all still sinners. We've
got that in common, too. I'm a sinner saved by grace. The believer, no matter how long
he's been a believer, no matter how long she's been a believer,
is still sinful. We walk in the spirit of God,
we seek the things of God, but we still sin and we recognize
that fact. and we're honest with God about
our sinful condition even though we're saints of God in His sight. Go back there to 1 John and look
at what it says in chapter 1. Let me show you the last three
verses of chapter 1 of 1 John. If we say, Chapter one, verse
eight, 1 John. If we say we have no sin, what
he's talking about is no nature of sin, no principle of sin. If we say we have no sin, we're
just self-deceived. And in fact, the truth of God's
not in us. I know you're converted, you're
saved by the grace of God, But listen, there's still a very
serious principle within us that is against all of worship. It's against Christ. It's against
grace. It's sin. You see, sin isn't
just what you do, sin's what we are. It's a principle within. And I know Paul says in Romans
6, sin shall not have dominion over you, but it hadn't been
eradicated yet. And it causes us constant trouble
and turmoil within. Doesn't it for you? It does for
me. I hear people every once in a
while say, well, you know, I'm living above sin. No, sin is
living above you. You just don't realize because
sin has dominion over you if that's the way you feel. You see, sin isn't just an outward
act. It's an attitude. It's a principle. It's in the heart. It's in the
mind. In fact, it pollutes, now listen
to me, it pollutes the very best that you do. It pollutes it. The highest degree of goodness
that you can attain to, sin spoils it. And that's why
you need a mediator all the time. You see, and I hope you understand
this. I hope the people of God surely
understand this. We've committed enough sin during
this service that if it were not for our great
sovereign redeemer, and his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. We've
committed enough sin to more than make another devil. And
we've committed enough sin to put us in hell forever if it
weren't for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't be deceived. And he goes
on to say this, verse nine, he said, if we confess our sins,
If we own up to what God says we are and confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, not because we own
up to what we are. He's faithful and just to always
see the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like when God passed
through Egypt that night. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. That's why God passes over us
in judgment. His eye is always on the bloody
sacrifice of the Lamb of God. You say, Jim, I'm just a sinner. I know you are, but you got a
perfect Savior, and God sees you in His Son. That's why you're
accepted. What's it say in Ephesians 1,
6? We're accepted in the beloved. In the beloved. And our repentance, you say,
Jim, I'm sorry I repent. Good, but our repentance needs
to be repented of. And our tears need to be wept
over. I mean, we're just really sad
cases in ourselves. And we will be to the day we
die. Sin mocks us. Sin invades our
prayers. That time when you're by yourself
and your head's on your pillow and so you start praying at night. And then all of a sudden you
find you're not praying at all. You're thinking about something
else. That ever happen to you? Why does that happen? And it's as though suddenly your
mind is a million miles away from what you're praying about.
Why is that? That's because of sin. And we confess, Lord, forgive
us upon the basis of your justice satisfied in the death of Christ. And then he says this in verse
10, if we say we have not sinned, well, I hadn't sinned. Well,
God says you have, so you calling God a liar. And therefore his word didn't
end you. God's people deal honestly about
sin. We don't make excuses for it.
We just own up to it. Lord, it's what I am. There's
nothing to me. Let me tell you something. He
reads you like an open book. He knows exactly your state before
him. He knows your thoughts. Whatever
you're thinking right now, here, I don't know how many people
here, 75, 80 people, maybe something like that. Whatever thoughts
are going through your mind right now, He knew them before the
thoughts ever went through there. That's how great our God is.
So you can't fool Him. You can't deceive Him. And the
best thing to do is just be honest, come before Him honestly and
say, Lord, this is the mess I'm in. I need the Savior. I need Christ. I need the blood. Because Lord, you know, I'm no
good. But you see, he didn't save you
because of your goodness. He saved you because of his goodness.
He didn't save you because you're a kind person. He saved you because
he's kind. He's full of loving kindness
toward his people. He didn't save you because of
your works. He saved you because of the works
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the representative of poor sinners
like us. And therein is the good news.
Salvation in Christ. Now, let me read two verses here
that'll encourage you. 1 and 2, chapter 2, 1 John 1
and 2. These things write I unto you,
that ye sin not." Don't sin. That's what he said. And if, and the word really ought
to be, and though, though we sin, here's the good news. We have an advocate. We have
a lawyer. We have a go-between with the
Father. Who is that? Jesus Christ. Well,
what's his qualification? He's the righteous one. And then
he tells us in the second verse, and he is the propitiation, the
satisfaction of divine justice, that's what that word means,
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
a whole lot of people throughout the world. Now, this morning
I'm going to talk to you about Christ is our advocate. I'm gonna
talk to you now about Christ as our propitiation. I just asked you four quick questions. Number one, to whom is John speaking? He's speaking to my little children,
he says. He addresses us this way because
of our regeneration by the Holy Spirit and the grace of God.
We're the Lord's little children. And I suppose you can say that
John is also addressing people who were converted under his
ministry. But I think the broader scope
here is he's addressing all of God's little ones. Now, when
you think of little children, well, we do have some little
children back in the back, on the back pew, those sweet girls
back there. When you think of little children,
you think of neediness. You think, well, they're the
ones who need protection, need provision. They need parents
and other adults to do for them, parents and grandparents. Well,
you know, there's a reason John is led of the Holy Spirit to
address us as little children, because we're always in need
of help. We're just little children. Little children. And our attitude
ought to be something like this, Lord, I don't want you to wait
and take me by the hand when I get to the promised land. Take
me by the hand now and lead me through life. Isn't that your
attitude? I'm just a little child. I'm a little child. There's so
much, Lord, I don't know. And I can't protect myself. I'm weak. I'm weak as water. I don't know how to provide for
myself. I need my heavenly Father to
take care of this little child. Isn't that your attitude? That's
your attitude? It is for all of God's people.
Lord, I'm just a little child. That's all I am. And I don't
care how old you get in this life, you're still just a little
child with the Lord. fully dependent upon your parent,
the God of glory. He's speaking to my little children.
What this reminds us of is our weakness. And we have a multitude
of weaknesses. Now here's the second question.
Well, what is his admonition to these little children? He
says, sin not. Not that any of us could ever
be free of sin, but what he's saying is don't indulge sin. Continue to strive against sin. Seek those things which are above. Begin the day with, Lord, enable
me to keep my eyes of faith on Christ. And when my eyes are
taken off of him, as too often they are, and draw me back to
Him." That's a wonderful prayer request to begin every day. You
see, you're not going to go far wrong if you keep the eyes of
the soul upon the Savior. You won't worry, you won't doubt,
you won't be afraid. We're like Simon Peter when he
started walking across the water. Lord, if that's really you, bid
me walk to you. And Peter said, well, here I
come. Keeping his eyes on the master. Yeah. Well, I tell you, it's water
pretty deep here, isn't it? Yeah, and you're going under
right now. Because you took your eyes off the master. And you know, he said, save me
or I'll perish. The Lord didn't say to him, well,
you made your bed, now lie in it. He reached down. He always reaches down. How many
times has he pulled you up? Multitudes of times, just pulled
you up with his almighty hand. Well, what is an advocate? is one who is actually called
alongside of another to help them. An advocate is a lawyer. You see, we're dealing with God,
but we can't deal with God one-on-one because God is a consuming fire. So there has to be somebody between
this holy God who is a consuming fire and this pile of filth,
this sinner. There's got to be somebody between
me and God. I can't go to God as I am. He
can't come to me. If He comes to me, He's going
to destroy me. If I try to go to Him without
a mediator, without an advocate, without a lawyer, I'll be destroyed
then. Lord, I need somebody to stand
between us. Oh, we have an advocate. We have an advocate. See, who
needs an advocate? Somebody who broke the law. Somebody who's guilty. Somebody who can deal with God,
being God, and deal with me, being the God-man. He's the Son
of God, He's the Son of Man. That's the kind of advocate I
need. That's the kind of lawyer I need. He represents me before God. You know, Nancy's daddy, I think
I told you this, before Nancy's daddy had a farm, of course he
passed away several years ago, He had a farm in Virginia, about,
I don't know, 170-some acres, something like that. State came
along and said, we're going to split your farm in two, and we're
going to build a highway. And we're going to give you X
number of dollars for it. And he said, well, that's a pitiful
amount of money for cutting my farm in two. And so he took him
to court. And he had a lawyer. He had an
advocate. And the day of the court, day
of the trial, to see if they could get some more money for
them taking his farm, taking part of his farm, his advocate,
his lawyer, came up to him and said, I quit. I'm done. Well, just before it started,
And so Mr. Wright said, well, he told me
later, he said, well, I'll have to speak up for myself. So he's
sitting at the table by himself, and the judge come in, all stand,
all that sort of, and the honorable whoever it was presiding, be
seated. The judge looked down there at
him and said, Mr. Wright, where's your advocate? Where's your attorney? He said,
judge, your honor, he quit on me. Judge said, you know, man
who represents himself in this court's got a fool for a client. He said, well, I can't help it.
And judge said, well, you go ahead and represent yourself
then. And he did. And he got more money. Let me tell you something. The
judge we've got to deal with, it's not like that. You can't
represent yourself to him because what would you say in your defense? You see, you're not innocent.
You guilty. There's no doubt about that.
You can't plead, well, I'm innocent. These are false charges brought
against me. You can't plead that because
you're a sinner by birth, by practice, by nature. Who needs a advocate, a lawyer
before God? A sinner. A sinner. Christ is my advocate. He's my
lawyer. Well, what's his qualification?
What's his qualification to represent me before God? Well, number one,
he's God. He can deal with the judge. He
can look, and I'll put it this way, and you know that I'm speaking
figuratively, but he can look eye to eye with the judge. because
He Himself is also God. He's one of the Trinity. What's His qualification? He's
not guilty. He's not a sinner. See, a sinner
can't represent a sinner. The only one who can represent
a sinner has got to be as holy and as pure as God is. And he is, Christ is. But he
not only has to be God and holy, he's gotta be my brother. He's gotta be like me. He's gotta
be a man, but without sin. Christ is our advocate. He's
our advocate. And he has to be lawfully appointed
to that office. You see, Christ is our advocate. He is, Isaiah 9, 6, he's the
wonderful counselor. That's who he is. That's what
they call lawyers in counselor. Counselor. Christ is the wonderful
counselor. And he never loses a case. And
he only represents guilt. Isn't that wonderful? That's
the only once he'll represents the guilty. Well, Lord, I really
hadn't done any bad things. Well, what you're saying is you
don't need me to be an advocate for you. I'll tell you what,
you cast yourself at the feet of the sovereign Christ, the
advocate. Say, Lord, I've got nothing.
I've got nothing. I'm guilty through and through.
Would you represent me? I got news for you. He's been
representing you all along. You just didn't know about it.
He's always been standing between you and God's pure justice. Got somebody to represent you. Well, what does he plead then? How does he represent me? He
pleads the five wounds that he's got in redeeming me. Father, receive James Ferguson
Byrd because I bled and died for him. I paid his sin debt. I gave myself for his ransom. I bore the wrath of God due him. I bore it in my own body and
soul on the tree. I paid his debt. Father, receive
him. And I tell you what, he's never
lost a client yet. He pleads. A point of strict
justice. This man's debt's been paid. Paid in full. No charges against him. He's my advocate. He's my lawyer. Never has lost a case, never
will. Never will. And you who know
him not, flee to this wonderful counselor. He's saved by his mighty grace. He's our advocate. Let's sing a closing song. Number 50. Number 50, fairest Lord Jesus. Number 50, we'll sing the first
and the last stanzas.