All right, let's read this 139th
Psalm together. O Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-setting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou can pastest my path and
my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. Whither shall I flee from Thy
Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend
up into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me. and thy right hand shall hold
me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night
shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike. I read that today, and I thought,
Oh, how glorious God is that He knows everything there is
to know about me. He knows what I think. Ain't
no place you can go where He's not at. That fills my heart with
such peace and comfort that God, wherever I'm at, whatever I've
done, whatever I've thought, He sees it and He knows it. I
love that about Him. I love that about Him. No hiding. No hiding. Oh, I love it about
Him. Our Father, with me over in John
chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. The Lord Jesus, our propitiation,
our advocate. I'm going to start reading down
here in verse 8 of chapter 1 and read down to verse 2 of chapter
2. 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. And He is the perpetuation for
our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has
many titles, many titles. He's called the Wonderful, the
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. He's called the Ensign of His
people. He's called the Light of His people. He's called the
Savior. That's what His name means, Jehovah
Savior. Jesus means Savior. He's called
a high priest. He's called a lamb. He's called
an offering. He's called many things. But
His titles and His names and His offices God gave to Him tell
what it is that He does. All of these titles and offices
and names that the Lord has given Him tells us what He does. It reveals His work on the behalf
of His elect sinners. And here he's called an advocate
in verse 1 and he's called a propitiation in verse 2. And both of those
things talk about the work that he does, the work that he did
do and the work he's doing now for his people, for his dear
people. And this word advocate here would
And my little children these things are right unto you that
you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate That's the
same word as comforter. He said I'm not leaving you comfortless
I'm not leave you comfort the same word is comforter advocate
a comforter and This is the only place in the scripture that he's
called an advocate and an advocate also means a lawyer now in England
That's what they call them advocates and barristers And the lawyer
is one who comforts us before a judge. If you've got a good
lawyer, you get comfort before the judge. And why in the world
do we need an advocate? Well, look what he says down
in verse eight of chapter one. This is, you know, if we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, truth ain't in us. to say that we have no
sin, have not sinned, do not sin. He said, the truth's not
in us, we deceive ourselves. But he says, if we confess our
sins, and I believe believers do that. I mean, I confess sin
today. I confess my sin. And he says
here, he is faithful and just. And you notice there that word
just, that means that the forgiveness of our sins The forgiveness of
our sins and our acceptance before God is as much on the justice
of God as it is on the grace of God. He's faithful and just.
On what basis can he be just? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ here
is called a propitiation. a mercy seat, a place where the
blood's applied, where the sacrifice is offered there on the behalf
of his elect that covers up the mercy seat. So he's an advocate. So God is just to forgive us
our sins. And he's just to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. And if we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and he's worth not in us. So, oh, why do we
need an advocate? That tells us why. And then he
turns around and says, my little children. He said, if this is
the way you are, my little children. Maybe begotten of him, he calls
them little children, maybe he begot them by the gospel. Maybe
he said, you're my children because I begot you by the gospel. Paul
called people that he was begotten under his gospel, he called them
his children, beloved. And maybe he calls them little
children because they're dear and precious to him. These people,
he's right to them, they're dear and precious to him, just like
a father's children are dear and precious to them. And he
says, my little children, he cares for them. He wants them
to be instructed. He wants them to know the truth.
He wants them to deal with, he wants them to understand the
relationship that man can have with God and on what basis. And
then look what he says, these things write unto you. These
things that I've wrote up to you up to this point, I write
unto you. You say you have no sin, you're
deceived if we say we have not sinned. These things write unto
you that you sin not. That you sin not. I read several
messages on this today. And I read a couple of them where
it says that believers can actually come to the place where they
don't sin. And when He says, I write unto you that you sin
not. And He says that if we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And He says, if we confess them.
And what He means by this is, if any man, I write unto you
that you sin not. You know, our Lord Jesus told
that woman that after, in John 8, after all everybody left there
was nobody there but him and her our lord jesus christ says
neither do i condemn thee go and sin no more does that mean
she's not going to sin anymore is john saying here that we're
not going to sin anymore but what he's telling us is that
we don't have to sin that we have a nature but we don't have
to sin and then if and when he says this sin not if his blood
cleanses us if we confess our sins Then when we do sin, we
can sin without fear, without importunity. He says, sin not,
you don't have to sin. Look with me over in Romans 6,
1. I want you to see this. This is, this is, this is the,
you know, they accuse us of this, but in Romans 6, 1, and he says,
you know, sin not. And when we confess our sins,
we can sin without fear and without impunity, that God's not going
to just destroy us because we do sin. But little children,
I run unto you that you sin not. Don't go out here and act like
because Christ died for you. And don't be like these Gnostics
that you only sin with the body. You don't sin with your mind.
You don't sin with your soul. You don't sin against God. And
there's people who thought that sin was only something you could
do with the hand and something you could do with the body. But
our Lord Jesus Christ told us if you even get angry with somebody
without a cause, if you look He says the very thought of hurting
a man and killing a man is the same thing as murder. So you
see, it has to do with the mind as much as it has to do with
the body. It has to do with the heart as much as it has to do
with the desire. And so look what he said here
in Romans 6.1. What shall we say then? Since
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So what shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Well, if God's gonna give us
an abundance of grace, the more we, you know, if sin abounded
and grace did much more abound, well, if we sin more, then he'll
cause grace to abound towards us more. And what did Paul say?
God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? And he says, you don't have to
sin. Back over here in our text, you don't need to sin. And don't
sin just because you've shown grace. And I would say that when
I said sin not, now you don't have to tell me this, but I'd
say that when I said, little children, I write unto you that
you sin not. Some of you, me included, When I need it, begin
to make excuses. Begin to prepare arguments in
your mind as to why you cannot not sin. But all if, he says,
if any man, I write unto you if any man sin, if any man sin. Now I'm gonna give you three
ifs here. I hope I can make them understandable.
There is an if of certainty. There is an if of certainty,
cause and effect. You know, if you tell a feller,
keep your hand out of the fire, it'll burn you. If you'll keep
your hand out of that fire, you won't get burned. The cause,
sticking your finger in the fire, the effect is you're burned.
And then there's an if of maybe. It may happen. It just might
happen. There's that kind of if. And
there's an if it may not. You don't have to. And he said,
if any man sins, But this is the situation we have. We admit to being sinners. Ain't
that what he says? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves? That's one thing I'm not deceived
about, that I'm not a sinner. I'm not deceived in that. I may
be deceived in a lot of things, deceived about myself in a lot
of ways, but I'm not deceived in believing that I'm not a sinner.
I'm not deceived in that way. And I tell you, if we say we
have not sinned, I never would say that I have not sinned because
I don't want to make God a liar. So when he says that, if we have
to admit being sinners, but here's the difference. We are saved
sinners, saved by the grace of God. And here's the difference.
We no longer love sin. We didn't know anything about
sin until God saved us. Until God began to work in our
hearts and in our souls, we didn't care anything about sin. We didn't
even know what it was. And then God comes along and
He begins to deal with us and teach us and open our hearts
and He makes sin exceeding sinful. And we don't love, we no longer
love sin. We've been saved from the power
of sin. He says we're grace, you know,
He said we're not under law but under grace. Now grace, law don't
reign over us, grace reigns over us. Now I'll tell you something
else about us when He says if any man sin. And we have to admit
being sinners. We don't boast about our sin.
I tell you, you hear lost people, they boast about their sin. They
boast about their exploits. They boast about their accomplishments
in sin, how drunk they got, and who they was out with last night,
and all the things that they've done, and the things that they've
stole, and the lies that they've told. We don't boast of our sin. Oh, listen, their glory is their
shame. I want you to look at two verses
of Scripture with me about this shame. We are ashamed of our
sin. I'm ashamed of sin. I'm ashamed
of my life. Until God said, I was ashamed
of it. Romans 6.21. I've heard folks talk about,
you know, and that's one thing that testimony services used
to do. Everybody would get up and brag about how bad they was
and they quit being that bad. How sinful they was and they're
not that bad anymore. Oh, listen, I tell you what,
I'm ashamed of the life that I lived. There's times in my
mind, I go back to when I was 14 years old or 16 years old
or 17 years old or 19 years old and there's certain things that
happened and certain things that I did and I just, oh, I just
cringe. I'm just so ashamed. that I would
have done that thing and I would have even thought of doing it
and naturally did and that's what he says we don't boast in
our sin we didn't boast in our past life we're ashamed of our
lives before look in Romans 6 21 what fruit had you then and what
fruit had you then and those things were of you now are ashamed
what fruit did you have in your sinful life What fruit did you
have of what those things were of you're now ashamed? For the
end of those things is death. And you don't want to die. You
don't want to perish. Look at Ephesians five. Look
at Ephesians five, talking about being ashamed. This is the, if
any man sin, and we're ashamed of our, we have to admit being
sinners. In Ephesians five, in verse eight, You know, it talks
about people whose glory is their shame. What they glory in is
the shame. It's a shame, but they glory
in it. We're ashamed of our sin. And oh, look what he said here
in verse eight. Ephesians 5, for you were sometimes
darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Now listen to this,
walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Now listen, for
it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of
them in secret. Oh, we ain't gonna tell the things
that we've done. We're not gonna get up here and
tell our sins. I remember Scott telling this
one time. Somebody's come in to see him and sit down in front
of his desk and Came in see him and said, you know The Bible
says we're to confess our sins one to another And I think it'd
be good for us people here at Katie Baptist Church start confessing
our sins one to another And Oh Scott in his in his wisdom. He said Well, let's start with
you Let's start with you. You started you tell us you confess. I I tried that one time just
for myself. I sat down and I wrote out, I
just started, I sat there and I said, well, what? And by the
time I got through, I had a whole sheet of paper. And I believe
I put it in a bulletin one time of all the things that I found
that I'd have to confess. And oh, you see, beloved, if
the Lord don't save us, we're not going to be saved. That's
why he says we have an advocate with the Father. That's why he
says Jesus Christ is righteous. That's why he says he's our propitiation.
And I tell you something else we don't do. We don't sin with
deliberation. God's people don't sin with deliberation. They don't get up and say, well,
I'm going to sin today. I'm going to deliberately do
this thing. I'm going to deliberately commit
this sin. I'm going to deliberately go
against the scriptures. I'm going to deliberately go against the
Holy Spirit. I'm going to deliberately go against my conscience. I'm
going to deliberately go against the light God gave me. We don't
plan our sin or our sins. And I'll tell you something else.
We never find enjoyment in our sin. That's why when you do sin,
you know what you do? You go to your advocate. Oh,
we never find enjoyment in our sin. And I'll tell you, if you
find yourself enjoying sin, you found somebody that don't know
the Lord. If you find somebody that really enjoys their sin,
and delights in their sin, I'm afraid for them. And not only
do we not have enjoyment in our sin, we don't excuse it. When
we do, we don't justify it or we don't condone it. Ain't that
right? Paul says, when I would do good,
evil's present with me. I find this war in my members. With my mind, I serve the law
of God, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. And that's why
it says, you know, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh, and you cannot do the things
that you would. You cannot do it. And oh, we're
different. Not only that, but we're different
in the habits of sin. What do you, what I mean by that?
There's people, Herman had a brother-in-law. He used to go out on Friday nights.
He'd say, boy, I hate to do it, but somebody's just got to go
out and get drunk. And he'd go out every Friday
night and get drunk. He planned it. It was his habit.
And he wouldn't come home till Saturday morning. He just, that's
what he'd say. I just hate to do it. Somebody's
got to do it. And that's what he's saying. But we're different
in the habits of sin. You see, they habitually sin. They plan their sin. They deliberately
sin. But beloved, when a believer
sins, he falls. The scripture talks about us
falling into sin. Or sin overtakes us, but we don't
abide in sin. And that's why he says that the
righteous fall at seven times, but the Lord holdeth him up.
Now my foot had well nigh slipped, but the mercies of the Lord caught
me and kept me. And what did David do when he
sinned? He said, O Lord, according to
your tender mercies and loving kindness, have mercy on me. Cleanse thou me from my secret,
for cleanse me, wash me whiter than snow. Oh, he grieved over
his sin. And that's why he says here,
if we say, you know, if we say we have fellowship and walk in
darkness, we do lie. And that's the difference in
sheep and hogs. A sheep may get caught in mud,
but he'll bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep till somebody gets him
out. And a hog, he's gonna make him a mud hole if he can. And
that's the difference in a duck. A duck loves water. He's going
to stay in the water. But swallows, and we've got to
have all kinds of swallows at the house all summer. I mean,
they're there by the droves. And a swallow, they come out,
and they'll dip down into the pond and just barely scrape it
and get them a little water, take it and build them a nest.
And that's the way a believer is. He's like the swallow. He
may just barely touch the water, but he ain't a duck. He soars. He soars. And oh, beloved, we're
new creatures. God's in us. Christ is in us.
Christ, the hope of glory. And our imperfect nature, our
imperfect nature is why we're sinners. And as long as Adam
dwells in us, until the dirt, until we draw our last breath,
as long as Adam's in us, We cannot but sin. That's what he means.
That's what he says, if we sin and have not sinned. If there's
not in sin in what we do, that's what he means by that. You know,
sin mars everything we do. Sin mars everything we do. And
this is a grief to a believer. It hurts him, in his heart, in
his soul. Sin is an attitude, it's a nature.
It marrs everything we do. It marrs our prayers. It marrs
our repentance. It marrs our Bible readings.
It marrs our prayers. It marrs our worship. This old
flesh, does it not do that? Does sin not marr things that
we do? Sin not marr our worship here
tonight? Because this old flesh... If
you don't believe me, just pick up your Bible and start trying
to read it sometimes when you can. Oh my, you know, it ain't that
the strangest thing. You'll pick up the Bible, start
reading it, your mind will start thinking all the things you ought
to be doing, you need to be doing. But you can pick up a fashion
magazine, just sit there and flip page after page after page.
And I can pick up something from the co-op or something like that
and just flip the page after page. But that's what, you know
what causes that? S-I-N. One of these days we're gonna
be done with it. And all beloved, we leave off
what we should and do what we shouldn't. Sin is not only in
what we do, but in what we don't do. James said it like this,
if a man knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Sinner is my name, sinner is
my nature. But thank God I'm a safe sinner. That's the difference. Look over
in 1 John 3, 9 with me here. Oh, now do you see why we need
an advocate? Thank God for an advocate. Oh,
look what it says here. And this, I love this right here.
Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin. Whosoever is
born of God. Well, who's born of God? Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. Who's born of God? God's
people are. Priest on a Sunday, the new birth.
For his seed, what seed? Christ's seed, the word, the
living word, the word of God, the seed, the incorruptible seed,
for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's
born of God. That new nature, bless God for
this, praise his holy name, that new nature that's in us, That's
what makes us a poor sin. And that new nature in us cannot
sin. You know why? Because it's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And Christ in you cannot sin. And that's what makes sin so
terrible to us because of that new nature that's in us. And
that new nature, that new nature, if it could, would absolutely
destroy this flesh and never have nothing to do with it if
it could. Oh, but look back here in verse 2 of chapter 2 again. Look what he says now. We have
an advocate. My little childish things are right unto thee, sin
not. If any man sin, we have an advocate. We have an advocate.
And the advocate is the same word as comforter or lawyer. And oh, we have an advocate.
An advocate has to do with law and a judge in a court. Oh listen,
God's the judge of all the earth and he's going to do right. And
the law has to do and an advocate has to do with when you've got
an adversary, when somebody's accusing you of something. That's
when we need an advocate. When someone, we have an adversary,
when we have someone to accuse us, and when the law comes against
us. And that's this advocate that
I'm talking about, the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous. What are
his qualifications? Oh, is he qualified to be our
advocate? Is he qualified to be our lawyer?
Is he qualified to be our comforter? And I do know this, everybody
who gets in trouble, if they can afford it, they want the
best lawyer they can get. The greater the charge against
you, the greater need of having a great lawyer. Who is this that's
our advocate? Look what he says in verse 2.
First of all, he's the propitiation for our sins. Not only is he
our advocate and our lawyer before God in the courts up there, but
he's the propitiation. He is the atoning victim that
reconciled us to God, that put away our sins. He's that mercy
seat. He's where that blood was spread. He's where that mercy seat. God set him forth to be a perpetuation,
a mercy seat. And those high priests, when
he went to that mercy seat, and that blood was sprinkled on that
mercy seat, God said, I accept them. And it's a gold mercy seat. Christ is gold. He's deity. And He is our propitiation, our
mercy seat. And when that blood was there,
He reconciled us to God. He slew the enmity that was between
us and God. And oh, He was the atoning victim
to pay debt to justice. That's why God is just to forgive
us our sin. And look what else it says. He's
with the Father. You know where He's at? He's
with the Father. oh father give me the glory i
had with you for the world was well that's where he's at right
now he's with the father he's one with him always loved of
him always with him and not only is he with the father but look
what it says here and it says not only is he but he's jesus
christ the righteous He's righteous. You ain't gonna
find no righteous judge or no righteous lawyer in this world,
but we have one in the next world. And He is righteous. He is righteous
in His life. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. He's righteous
in His life as the Lord Jesus Christ. He is righteous in His
life as a man. And then not only that, but He's
righteous as God. He was the very righteousness
of God that was in this world. And bless His name, the righteousness
of God is revealed in the gospel. That's where we see righteousness
revealed in the gospel, the righteousness of God. And that righteousness
of God becomes ours in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I read a fellow
today on this very thing here, and all he could say was, This
is a legal transaction. We're legally justified. Legally
have our sins put away. Legally accepted of the Father.
If all it's done is a legal act, then, beloved, there ain't nothing
about a new birth. There ain't nothing about a new
nature. There's nothing about an advocate if it's just a legal
transaction. Don't talk about, you know, Christ being an advocate.
He's a legal advocate. He's just there for us legally.
We got a legal, sins just legally charged to Christ. Righteousness
legally charged to us. That's what Scott mean when he
said this old pasted on righteousness. That's what a pasted on righteousness
is. Don't say, do you know Jesus Christ the righteous? Huh? He
is righteous as God. God revealed His righteousness
in the Gospel. The righteousness that He gives
and the righteousness He demands. And what He demands, He gives.
No, beloved, here in court, you're here in this world, you may in
court have an unjust lawyer. He may not be worth a nickel,
but yet he pleads a just cause and he wins. And Christ is just,
Christ is righteous. And you know what? He only deals
with people who are guilty. That's why it didn't make that
what he says. If we confess our sins, you're
gonna confess. He only, he only, he only reference,
our Lord Jesus Christ only advocates for people who are guilty. Huh?
He's the only one who can practice or plead in heaven itself. Not
Angel Cain, Michael Cain, Gabriel Cain. The only person that can
plead in heaven, the only person who has the Father's ear, the
only person who sits at the right hand of God with all power and
vested in him in this universe is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the only one who's got the Father's ear. Now, and I'll tell you what,
as our advocate, I'll tell you something, as a believer's advocate,
he's never ever ever lost one whom he represented. Nobody lost
the first one. Huh? No, he never asked. Did
he lose Simon Peter when Simon Peter denied him three times?
No. Did he lose David when David
took Bathsheba and then he had her husband murdered? No. Oh,
no, no, no. Huh? And he's the only advocate
who takes only guilty cases. Don't come to the presence of
God. Don't come up there and start talking about how good
you are, what you haven't done, what you've done. Don't do like
a Pharisee. Well, I have not, I have not, I have not, and I
do, and I do, and I do. Oh, no, no. You got to come up
there and say, I confess. And I tell you not only that,
but he will not advocate for you or plead for you unless you
are guilty. Why in the world would he plead
for somebody that's not guilty? And here's another thing, bless
his name. He always, always makes his clients before the judge
and before the court innocent and righteous and proves that
they can walk out of that courtroom justified. They ain't gonna come
back and bring you back and say, well, we made a mistake. That
ain't gonna happen. And you know, how in the world does he get
them all clear to their guilt? How did he clear us of our guilt?
He pleads his own propitiation. He pleads himself. He pleads
his righteousness. He pleads his righteousness.
He pleads his obedience. He pleads his death. And he pleads
his righteousness for us. And he says, the judge said,
well, give me some evidence. I want some evidence. Evidence
that these people here, that you was their propitiation, that
you made them righteous. Give me the evidence. You know
what he does? He don't say, well, old Joe McSherry,
he's been faithful all these years, and he's been a wonderful
church member. He's generous, and he's kind,
and he's a hard worker. He ain't gonna say none of those
things. No, that's not the way it works. And then he don't turn
around and say, boy, he's the sorriest fellow to ever draw
the breath. That's not the way it works. But I'm going to forgive
him just because I will. No, no. You know what he does?
He says, father, you know, he said, I was the good shepherd
who laid down my life for these sheep. Look at my hands. That's
what that that's the evidence. That's the evidence. Look at
my hands. Look at my feet. Look here. Look at my righteousness. Look
at my obedience. Here, Father, is proof. Proof
that I have by my suffering, that I have by my death, already
bore their punishment as their perpetuation, as their sacrifice. And you know what the judge says?
They're accepted. Oh, they're accepted. I don't
see anything wrong with them. And that's the way it is. That's
the kind of That's the kind of advocate we have. And he's Jesus
Christ the righteous. Ain't that a one? Listen, that's
what we, he only takes guilty. I'm guilty
of a thousand things, but his blood cleanses from all sins
and God's just to forgive us because he's our propitiation
and he's our advocate and he pleads himself Never us. Because if he ever takes us there,
the way we are, in the flesh, be no hope for us. But he takes
us there in himself. Stands for us in himself. Oh, bless your name, Lord Jesus.
How holy and blessed and glorious you are. Thank you, Lord, for
being our advocate, our propitiation. And you're the righteous one.
You're righteous. You're with the Father before
the Father. And Lord, help us to not sin. Oh God, we don't
want to sin. And oh Lord, it'd be wonderful
if you'd give us the grace and the strength and the ability
to not sin. But thank you for being our advocate
when we do. God bless these dear saints.
Lord bless Danny's mama. May the surgery go well for her. Shirley's mother and dad, have
mercy upon them. See them safe travels tomorrow.
God bless you, dear saints and those who are not with us again.
We pray for them in Christ's name. Amen.