Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. And if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles
with the message, I'm going to be preaching from 1 John, chapter
2. 1 John, chapter 2. And the title of this message
is Jesus Christ the Righteous. Jesus Christ the Righteous. That
comes from verse 1 of chapter 2, where the Apostle John, writing
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, my little children,
And that identifies who he's speaking of here. Children of
God, believers, sinners saved by grace. That's who he's speaking
of. Who walk in the light of truth.
He dealt with that in first John chapter one, the light. We walk
in light as Christ and as the Lord is in the light. And in
him is no darkness at all. And that's the light of Christ,
it's the light of truth. And he says, my little children,
these things write I unto you that you sin not. Now, I'm gonna
make some distinctions here because of that statement there. And that's the goal of a believer,
fighting sin. Paul wrote about that in Romans
7. He said, what I desire to do,
I cannot do. Well, what was it that Paul,
the apostle, desired to do that he couldn't do. Well, he wanted
to be perfect in himself. He wanted to be sinlessly perfect.
He wanted to be like Christ. He wanted to follow Christ. And
so, John is saying here is that I'm encouraging you by this message,
these things I write unto you, that you sin not. In other words,
the grace of God never encourages sin. Now the grace of God gives
sinners, those who are sinners, who are sinners saved by grace,
it gives them comfort of salvation by grace. But that's not an encouragement
to sin. Now salvation is never conditioned
on our sinning not. In other words, somebody might
say, well, I'm no longer a sinner because I'm a believer. Well,
no, we're all sinners. And he says this, look at verse
one again. And if any man sin, now the if there is not just
in case you do sin, we are all sinners. And we need to understand
this. There's only two kinds of people
on this earth. I've said this so many times,
but if we read the Bible, this is the way it is. Now, we have
a lot of differences, but basically in this idea of sin, and what
is sin? It's falling short of the glory
of God, and the glory of God is revealed in Christ. So whatever
I'm trying to do by way of obedience, it falls short of the perfection
of the law that can only be found in Christ. And he is my righteousness
before God. But I'll get to that in just
a moment. But when he says, and if any man sin, he doesn't mean
just in case you do. We all sin. And there's only
two types of people. There's sinners saved by grace,
perfect in Christ based upon his righteousness imputed or
charged, to my account, but very imperfect in myself. I'm still
a weak person, a sinner saved by grace, perfect in Christ,
but not in myself. My best efforts to keep, to obey
Christ fall short of the perfection that I can only claim and find
in Him before God. And the second types of people
on this earth are sinners lost in their sins. Now there's a
lot of difference between those two groups and everything. We
can talk about that, but you're either a sinner saved by grace,
washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness
alone, or you're a sinner that's lost in your sins. and still
without hope. And so if any man sin, some translation
says since we sin or whatever, but here's the point, and this
is the point of this message. In our state on earth as sinners
saved by grace, we have an advocate with the Father. That advocate
is one who stands in our place representing us and that advocate
with the father. See, if we didn't have that advocate,
we'd be on our own, lost in our sins, charged with our sins,
you see, and we could not claim God as our father. He'd be our
judge, and he must punish sinners to whom sin is charged, to whom
sin is imputed. That's why it's such a blessing
when we read passages of Scripture like Romans 8.34 that says, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justified. In Romans 4 and verse 6, which
speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputes
righteousness without works. You see, I need to, my only hope
of coming to God as a loving father who loves me and who means
everything towards me as far as goodness and glory is to be
found in Christ. Outside of Christ, God is a righteous
judge who will damn me for my sins. And so we have an advocate. Now he's talking to believers
here. This does not apply to everybody without exception.
Understand that. And I'm gonna show you that,
especially in the next verse. But he says, we have an advocate
with the Father. And who is that advocate? Well,
it's not just some mere man, because a mere man would be a
sinner like me. And he could not be my advocate.
He could not plead my cause. He wouldn't have anything upon
which to base my defense if He was just a mere man. But who
is He? He's the God-man, Jesus Christ
the Righteous. Now that's comforting to a believer.
Jesus Christ the Just One. Jesus Christ who is not only
the Righteous in Himself, which He is, but Jesus Christ who is
the advocate of His people. God's elect, that's who He's
talking about now. He's not talking about everybody
without exception. See, this is not some kind of
a conditional salvation that God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody and if you'll just do your part and accept
Him, accept the gift, then it kicks in and works for you. No.
This is Jesus Christ the righteous who is the surety of his people. That means that before the foundation
of the world, in the everlasting covenant of grace, God the Father
chose and appointed God the Son, the second person of the Trinity,
to be this advocate, to be my surety, to take responsibility
for my sins in a legal way. My sin's being charged to him. You know what a surety is. If
you become surety for somebody who's taking out a loan, let's
say buying a home or a car, and if you say, well, I'll be surety
for him, that means you cosign and you guarantee the bank or
the loan institution, you guarantee them that if that person fails
to pay the debt, you'll pay it. You will pay it. In other words,
the debt is charged to you. Well, when it comes to salvation
of sinners, there never has been a time in God's plan and purpose
of salvation that the ones whom he chose to save could pay the
debt, the sin debt. I have never been able to pay
my sin debt. And so from the very beginning,
God charged my debt to Christ. Now how do you know which sinners
that God charged that debt to Christ? It's those who come to
faith in Christ. It is to those who believe it.
Believing is a gift from God. So Christ is my surety. Now this
is what, when you read that word advocate, That means Jesus Christ
stands on the side of and even in the place of His people, His
church, His sheep, all who are brought to faith in Christ. And
He pleads a meritorious work before the Father that ensures
their salvation. Well, what is that meritorious
work? It's the complete payment of
their debt by Christ alone, what He did. And so as our surety,
as the surety of His people, He took their debt, and that
demanded that He do what is required to pay the debt. Now, what was
required? Well, His obedience unto death. The Bible says He was obedient
even unto death, the death of the cross. That's why He died. He didn't die just to be a martyr. He didn't die just to be an example. He did not die just as an expression
of love. It was God's expression of love,
I'll show you that in just a moment, to His people. Not to all without
exception, but to His people. And He died to pay the debt. That's why it's called redemption. A redemption price had to be
paid. And what was that debt? His blood. Well, God cannot die. God absolutely
considered. God the Son. So what did He have
to do? He had to be made flesh. Perfect,
sinless, human flesh. And unite Himself to that human
body and soul created for Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary
by the Holy Spirit And he became God-man, God manifest in the
flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
two that it behooved him. That's the Greek word for debt,
that word behooved. It means he was obligated by
a debt to be made like unto his brethren. And who are his brethren?
The children here, the children of God. You see, if we're children
of God, sinners saved by grace, who have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, we're in a brotherhood, a spiritual
family. And that's what he spoke of in
John chapter one. Our fellowship is with the Father
and the Son, and we have fellowship one with another. We walk in
the light, the light of the gospel, the light of Christ. He is the
light of the world. Now he doesn't enlighten everybody
without exception to the gospel, but he enlightens his people.
You say, well, how do I know if I'm one of them? Do you want
salvation God's way? And that's what you need to understand.
Everybody wants to be saved. Everybody wants to live forever.
But do you want it God's way and not your own way? You see,
the gospel is salvation conditioned on Jesus Christ the righteous,
who fulfilled all those conditions to ensure the complete salvation
of all for whom he died. There will not be anyone perishing
in eternal death for whom Jesus Christ is advocate, Jesus Christ
the righteous for whom he died. Understand that. So He's my surety,
took responsibility to pay my debt to the law and justice of
God. He's my substitute as God in
human flesh. He obeyed the law perfectly. He suffered unto death. and died
the death of the cross, putting away my sins, redeeming me by
His blood. He's a ransom. Job said it, or
Elihu said it, and Job agreed, I have found a ransom. And that
ransom is Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is my sin bearer. He is my debt bearer. He was
made sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21 means. How was he made sin? He
was never a sinner. He was never contaminated or
corrupted within because of my sin. He was never a sinner. He was the perfect God man, but
my sins were imputed to him. He's the Lamb, sacrificial Lamb
of God, who died for my sins. And His name is Jesus Christ
the Righteous. Now, my surety, my substitute,
and He is my Redeemer. Jesus Christ the Righteous. He
paid the full redemption price. We sing a hymn at our church,
Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. He paid it
all. He didn't just die for my past
sins. He doesn't just die for my present
sins. He didn't just die for my future
sins. He died for all sin. Back in 1 John 1, it says in
verse 7, First John 1 said when we read
this, but if we walk in the light, or since we walk in the light.
Now again, the if there is not a condition that you must meet
in order to obtain this blessing, it's an evidence. of having already
obtained the blessing by Jesus Christ. So if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
the children of God, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son,
cleanseth us from all sin. Past sins, present sins, future
sins, sins of commission, sins of omission, the sin of Adam
in our fall, He died for all sin, his blood. Hebrews 10, 14
says, by one offering, his one offering as the substitute of
his people, by one offering, he hath perfected, completed
forever them that are sanctified, those whom God set apart and
gave to him before the foundation of the world. He cried on the
cross, he says, it, is finished. What was finished? The redemptive
work. Now, there were a lot of other
things finished, but in our context here, it's the redemptive work
of Christ. He paid it all. And He's Jesus
Christ the righteous. I have no righteousness within
myself. Now, I have spiritual life. a new heart, eyes to see, they
were gifts from God given by Christ through the Holy Spirit
in my new birth, but I'm still not yet perfect in myself. The
only time that I will be able to say that I'm perfect in myself,
in my thoughts, in my motives and goals and everything, is
when I leave this body of death and go to be with Christ. But
here's the point. Right now, as I sit here and
preach to you, I am perfect in Christ, based upon His righteousness,
imputed, charged, accounted to me. Now that's a legal matter. Some people don't like to talk
about it being, as they say, merely legal. My friend, there's
nothing merely about this legal righteousness. It is a powerful
thing. It's the ground upon which God
justifies sinners. Think about that. God forgives
all of my sins based upon the blood of Christ. That's a legal
matter, forgiveness. And God declares me to be righteous
in His sight, in Christ, based upon His righteousness imputed.
And that is so powerful. that it always leads to spiritual
life within. Those whom God legally declares
righteous and forgiven based upon the blood of Christ, they
will be born again. Because this righteousness, Jesus
Christ the righteous, he is not only the ground of my justification
before God, he's also the source and the power of my sanctification
by the Spirit, the new birth. So all whom God has justified
legally will be raised from the dead spiritually, they'll be
born again from above. Now look at verse two of 1 John
1, or 1 John 2. Now we have the advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he says in verse
two, and he is the propitiation for our sins. Now that word propitiation,
That's such an important word. It's only found in the King James
Version of the Bible. The actual translation of the
word, English translation of propitiation is only found three
times. But the idea, the truth of it
is all through both Old Testament and New Testament. And here's
what a propitiation is. It is satisfaction to the justice
of God. satisfaction to the justice of
God. And it says Christ, Jesus Christ,
the righteous, is the satisfaction to the justice of God for the
sins of His people. You can look at propitiation
this way. It is a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction
to the justice of God. And that's Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now, he is the propitiation for our sins. Now, whose sins is
Christ the propitiation for? Well, it's all the elect of God.
And who are they? They are all those who are brought
by God to seek the Lord and believe in Him, given faith. But now
let me show you the passages back over in Romans chapter three,
this word propitiation. Let me show you two other places
that the word is used. In Romans chapter three, the
Apostle Paul up to verse 20 here, is bringing in all people as
sinners who are deserving of death and hell. And he goes back,
he says there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
seeketh after God. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that doeth good. That's the state of mankind as
fallen in Adam and born into this world spiritually dead in
trespasses and sins. And so there is absolutely no
way, he says, that we can be saved, that we can be forgiven,
that we who are sinful can be justified, declared righteous,
by our works. And he says that, verse 20, therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified. That is forgiven and declared
righteous in God's sight. for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But he goes on in verse 21, now listen, but now the righteousness
of God without the law, that is without our obedience, is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now
what is this righteousness of God? It's Jesus Christ the righteous. He's spoken of this righteousness
of God back in Romans one and verse 17 as that which is revealed
in the gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of
God? It is the entire merit of the obedience unto death of Jesus
Christ as the propitiation of his people. And so that's made
manifest, it's made known in the preaching of the gospel.
He says in verse 22 of Romans 3, even the righteousness of
God which is by faith of, now that's not faith in Christ, that's
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, unto all, that is preached unto
all, and upon all them that believe. It's imputed to those who believe.
Now, it's not imputed because they believe, it's not imputed
based upon their believing, It's imputed and they're believing
evidences that God has imputed or charged it to them. For there's
no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. He says in verse 24, being justified freely, unconditionally,
without a cause. So you see, it cannot be based
upon anything a sinner does or is enabled to do. They're justified
freely, unconditionally, without a cause, by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It's based upon the redemptive
work of Christ. And look at verse 25. Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. He
is the satisfaction. And therefore, when we believe,
we believe in not only His person, but also His redemptive work,
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, that's the Old Testament saying, through the forbearance
of God. Propitiation. Let me show you
one other passage where that's used. It's in 1 John 4, and it's
speaking of the love of God. It says in 1 John 4 and verse
10, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved
us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. You see that the love of God
is to those for whom Christ was a propitiation. But now back
in verse two, 1 John 2 and verse two, he says, and he is the propitiation
for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. Now, my friend, what I'm going
to tell you, I know a lot of people don't like to hear this,
what does John mean the whole world? Does he mean everybody
without exception? Well, no, he does not mean everybody
without exception in the whole world. He's talking about the
whole world of God's elect, both Jew and Gentile. And that's the
point that John is making. That was a major point in the
gospel of John, that salvation, does not come to any person because
that person is a Jew or a physical descendant of Abraham. God has
a people all over this whole world, both Jew and Gentile,
who will be saved. And let me show you that. Over
in 1 John chapter five, listen to this. 1 John is a polemic. It's talking
about ideas that are totally opposite. Like the North Pole
and the South Pole, they're on opposite ends of the globe. They're
those who walk in light and those who walk in darkness. And here
he says in verse 19 of 1 John 5, and we know that we are of
God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Now you know he's
not speaking of everybody without exception there. The whole world,
in 1 John 2 too, are those for whom Christ is an advocate. Those for whom Christ made propitiation. They are those who are justified,
forgiven of their sins, and declared righteous before God. And they
know this, that's evidenced by God-given faith, believing in
Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.