Father, we come before Thee,
thankful that You have brought us again together to hear a message
from Thy Word, O Lord. I pray that You'd fill me with
Thy Holy Spirit and give me an unction from on high to proclaim
boldly Your Scriptures, O Lord, that the Word might go forth
with power and that it might be effectual to your people.
And, O Lord, may we rejoice in the wonderful truths that we
read about tonight and that we hear about tonight. May we rejoice
in the fact that you've revealed these things to us and that you've
revealed our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to us, Father.
We love you. We praise you. We thank you for
allowing us to gather together. It's a privilege that we don't
take lightly. to be able to come and hear Thy gospel, the one
true gospel preached and proclaimed. We love You. We thank You for
Your mercy and grace towards us at all times. In Jesus' name,
Amen. Open up your Bibles, if you would,
to 1 John. 1 John. 1 John will be in Chapter
2 tonight. Starting a new chapter in this
study of this wonderful book. First John. We're going to actually
start in chapter 1 and then we'll read all the way to chapter 2
verses 1 and 2 along with our text. The name of the message tonight
is called The Advocate. The Advocate. Let's start in verse 5 of chapter
1. This then is a message which
we have heard of Him. And declare unto you
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all
sin. If we say 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. If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our
sins and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Tonight we'll be looking at the
first verse of chapter two, where we see It plainly stated in the
scriptures that God's people have an advocate. We have an
advocate. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the righteous one. Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now what is an advocate? What
is an advocate? An advocate is a mediator. An
advocate is a lawyer. An advocate is one that pleads
your case and who pleads your cause. God's people have an advocate
with the Father. We have an advocate with the
Father. The scripture plainly declares that here. We have a
mediator, beloved. And praise God, we do have a
mediator. Because in our own natural state and who we are,
we could never approach God. He's holy and we're unholy. He's sinless and we're sinners. We need an advocate, don't we?
We need someone to go to the Father for us. We need an advocate. When we sin, look it, when we
sin, beloved, we have somebody who can go to the Father for
us. And what's his name again? Jesus Christ the righteous. My
little children, and remember John's writing to God's born-again
blood-bought people, isn't he? That's who he's writing to. He's
writing to God's people. He's not writing to everybody
in the world. We know that. This is a letter addressed to
God's people. My little children, he calls them here. 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 propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. And let's look at
these wonderful words here. And I know we're seeing, like
we always see when we look in Scripture, good news for sinners. This is good news for sinners.
Good news. A lot of people had a lot of
talks with different preachers this week. A lot of people just
do not think they're sinners. They just don't. And you've heard
me say this many times, and I'm sure it's true of you, too, before
the Lord saved you. You didn't think you were a bad
person at all. Oh, but we were, weren't we?
We were wicked, but we didn't think we were. But when God shows
us what we are, which is a sinner, and God shows us that even after
we're saved, we still sin, don't we? To our shame, we shouldn't,
but we do because we're sinners. We wish we could never sin again.
That's what we desire, that we would never sin again. And one day we will never sin
again when we're in his presence. But look what it says here, though.
It says, my little children, these things write unto you that
you sin not, That's the perfect situation, right? And there's also something else
being implied there, too, that we just don't willingly sin.
We don't set out to, you know, we used to drink sin-like water.
We don't desire that anymore. Even though we are sinners still,
we repent over our sin now when we never did before. That you sin not, and if any
man sin, no, right? We have an advocate with the
Father. Now he's the one who we've sinned
against. We have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world. So marvel, marvel at these
wonderful words. Marvel, my little children, these
things write onto you that you sin not, but when you sin, remember
this. Always remember this. When we
sin, remember this. We have an advocate. When the Holy Spirit convicts
you of your sin, He often does, doesn't He? You know, I can sit
in my chair and think things. You know, we all can, can't we? But when we're convicted, we
go to Christ, don't we? We have an advocate. We who are
the blood-bought people of God, we have an advocate, don't we?
We have an advocate with the Father. The born-again, blood-bought
believer has a mediator. And our mediator is right now,
right now, right this second. And the next second it'll pass
until it's all over. God's people have an advocate
in heaven. And when we're in glory, we'll
see the advocate. We'll see our advocate face to
face. But the saints that are still here on earth while we're
in glory, they have an advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. He's
the advocate of his people right now. We have a great high priest
right now who's our advocate right now, right this second.
We have a savior right now. We have a justifier right now.
And he's with the Father, beloved. He's at God's right hand. He's
in the very presence of our great God. And think of this. His very presence before God,
now let this just hit home. His very presence before God
is our acceptance. You ever think of that? His very presence at the Father's
side is our acceptance. Because we're in Him, right?
He's the head, we're the body. So for the sinner whom Christ
represents, and that sinner whom Christ represents, for us to
be accepted of the Father, do you know Christ doesn't have
to say anything? You ever hear people say, oh, he's up there,
he's just pleading, he's just pleading for us. Do you know he doesn't
have to say a word? He doesn't even have to say a
word. The Bible says this, he maketh
intercession for us, he ever liveth to make intercession for
us. In Romans 8.34, the scriptures proclaim, who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. I want you to listen to what John Gill says about this, and
I think this is just absolutely wonderful. Listen to what John
Gill says. about this intercession that
Christ is interceding for his people, that he's our advocate,
listen to this, which is done not by a vocal prayer as in the
days of his flesh on earth, or supplicating an angry judge,
or as challenging a point in the court of heaven, but by the
appearance of his person for us. His appearance before God
is our intercession, because we are accepted in him. We're
accepted in Him. His very presence before God
is our acceptance. He doesn't even have to say a
word, beloved. Not a word. Gil goes on to say this. By the
presentation of His sacrifice, by offering up the prayers and
praises of His people, by declaring it as His will, that such and
such blessing be bestowed upon them by seeing to it that the
benefits of his death are applied to those for whom they were designed,
which intercession of Christ proceeds upon the foot of satisfaction
made. Christ's intercession is based
upon the satisfaction that he made for us before God." That
is wonderful news. Wonderful news for sinners. So
all our acceptance before God is in Christ. It's not based
upon anything in us at all. It's all based upon Christ. He's
our advocate and he continues to be our advocate and he will
always be our advocate. Always. He's our savior. One day we're going to behold
him and that'll be glorious, won't it? That'll be glorious
to drop this veil of flesh and to see our savior face to face
and to be done with the trials and tribulations of this world.
Oh, it'll be glorious, won't it? It'll be absolutely glorious. No more heartache, no more pain,
no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, no more suffering. Oh, to be in the presence of
the Almighty. All the Lord Jesus Christ has
to do, Brother Mahan says, make intercession for us is to be
where He is, in the Father's presence. To be in the Father's
presence. He's the head, and we're the
body, and we're in Him. And the believer in Christ is
accepted in Him. Accepted in Christ. God has accepted
His sacrifice, and He's seated at the right hand of the Father.
Therefore, God accepts us in Christ. He's our advocate. Now, when we sin, again, the
Father does not look upon us. No, He doesn't look upon you
or me for perfection because we're imperfect, aren't we? We're
imperfect. He don't look to us for perfection.
No. No, He looks at our representative.
And what's his name? Jesus Christ, the righteous. The righteous, singular. The
righteous. He's our righteousness, isn't
he? The scripture says that he's the Lord, our righteousness.
That's what he is. And he's the righteous one. There's
no one else that's righteous, right? Because we're all born,
the scripture says, out of all the sons and daughters of Adam,
there's none righteous, no, not one. But note the scripture calls
Christ the righteous. Because he's perfect. He's the
seed of the woman, he's sinless. Oh, my. Wonder of wonders, beloved. Wonder of wonders. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. And who is this advocate? Well,
the answer is Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, the scriptures
here declare. The righteous. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Who is he? Well, he's God incarnate in the
flesh. He's not just an ordinary man. No. He's perfect in thought. He's perfect in word. He's perfect
in deed. He goes about and does the Father's
will. And what's the Father's will?
For Him to save His people from their sins. He's the substitute. He's the great substitute. Turn,
if you would, to Matthew 1, verse 21. Keep your finger, though,
there in 1 John, because we'll be going back. Where do you find the word Jesus
mentioned in one of the first places in the New Testament?
Well, this very familiar verse is one of the first places where
we see his name. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
which means Savior, doesn't it? Right? He shall save His people
from their sins. It doesn't say, here's Savior
from your sins with a little help from you. It doesn't. It
doesn't say that at all. It says, He shall save His people
from their sins. And He does it alone. Praise
God. We're going to look at the mercy
of God in Sunday school this week, and one of the things I'm
going to open up with is, aren't we thankful that the mercy of
God towards us is not based upon our doing? I'd be in a heap of
trouble. No, the mercy of God towards
us comes in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. He's our acceptance. He's our
advocate. And He saves His people from
their sins. And notice there's no doubt in that verse, is there?
There's no, well, He might, you know, if people let Him. There's
nothing like that. And these little words, we've
got to look at these little... Thou shalt call His name Jesus, He
shall, without a doubt, save His people from their sins. And
we as believers can say, we know the truth of that verse, don't
we? Because He saved me. all by His almighty power. He
did it all. He did it all. Hallelujah. What
a Savior. The believer proclaims that He's
our advocate, too, don't we? The Scriptures proclaim that,
and we proclaim that, too. We proclaim that He's our advocate.
He's my mediator. Is He yours? And His name is
Jesus Christ the righteous. And He's the one who came to
save His people from their sins, the Scriptures say. God incarnate in the flesh, Emmanuel. Wonder of wonders, God himself
became a man. Why? To save his people from
their sins. And that's who our advocate is,
brother. Never forget, that's who our advocate is. God himself. Is it any wonder then the scripture
says, who can condemn us? Who can bring any charge then
to God's elect if we're justified by God Himself? Well, no charge can be brought
against us, can it? No. Emmanuel, God with us, He is
the Anointed One. And He also, remember this too,
He's the appointed advocate, beloved. He's the appointed Savior,
and bring it home, He's my appointed advocate. Is He yours? Oh my! It's appointed by God that He
be my advocate. And if you're a believer, it's
appointed by God that He be your advocate. That's glorious! That's absolutely
glorious. And he's the approved one, isn't
he? Isn't he? In God's eyes, we're not approved
in our flesh, are we? But he's the approved one. He's
the one who satisfied God's justice and law in our place. He's approved
by God. And he's the Messiah. He's the
sent one. He's the one the scriptures proclaim
in the Old Testament. Remember what we saw on Saturday,
this day, or Sunday, I mean, Sunday, Saturday, Sunday, this
day, the scriptures fulfilled in your ears. Oh, my. In your ears. He's he and he alone is the one
God sent in every blood bought child of God proclaims that he
is my me. He's my advocate. And what's
his name? Jesus Christ the righteous. That's my advocate. And think
of it, the Lord Jesus Christ, had he not come here to die in
the place of his people, then none of us would be saved. Ever
pondered that? If he hadn't left heaven, if
he hadn't been sent by God, none of us would be saved. But
praise God, He purposed and planned in eternity to save a people,
didn't He? Otherwise, not one of us would be saved. Why? Well, because the Father
only accepts one who is holy and righteous, and one who is
without sin. Well, the Father accepts us in
Him because He's holy, and He's righteous, and He's without sin. And again, all our acceptance
before God is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nowhere else. Meditate
upon the personal and particular fitness and suitability of the
Lord Jesus Christ to this office as our advocate. And what we
have looked at alone so far, and the fact that He alone is
righteous. He alone is righteous. Think
of this, we are by nature sinners, because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's what the scripture says.
Therefore, we're in desperate need of an advocate, aren't we?
We're in desperate need of an advocate. We're in desperate
need of a savior. Therefore, he who undertakes
to be the advocate for sinners himself must be sinless, right?
He must be. In order for us to be in God's
presence, He who undertakes to be our advocate, the advocate
for sinners must be sinless himself. And marvel at what the Scriptures
proclaim right here in our text. 1 John 2.1, 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. If any man sin, this is written
to believers, we have an advocate who is with the Father. The scriptures here before us
proclaim that there's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Savior of his people, the Messiah, the sent one. He alone is righteous. He alone. He alone is the sinless
one. And look at these words closely.
Don't just read them and go, I know that. Marvel at these.
My little children, these things right unto you. That she sinned
not, but if any man sinned, we have an advocate. Look at these
words. If any man sinned, we have an advocate. We have an
advocate before God. We have a mediator. The scriptures
do not proclaim, if any man sinned, he's lost. It doesn't say that,
does it? And this I mean in the context of believers, because
we know this is written to believers. This text doesn't say if any
man sinned, being a believer, he's lost. It doesn't say that.
Now we know lost men are lost. And left in their sin, they'll
always be lost. Because we were there. It does
not say if any man sinned, he'll have to get re-saved, does it?
For believers. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say, if any man sin,
he's forfeited his place in the kingdom. It doesn't say that,
does it? And it doesn't say, if any man
sin, he no longer has a mediator. It doesn't say that, does it? Marvel at what the scriptures
here say. If any man sin, being, now this again is written to
believers. And all those statements I meant, right there, are all
to believers. Right? If any man sin, he has
an advocate. My! He has an advocate. You know who needs an advocate
with the Father, beloved? Sinners. Sinners. Sinners need an advocate. Sinners need an advocate. A man
who is not a sinner doesn't need an advocate before God. A man who's not a sinner in their
minds feels like they don't need an advocate. A man who feels like they're
not a sinner doesn't need a media. The question is, are you a sinner? Has God shown you that you're
a sinner? A lot of people do not believe
they're sinners, but you know, they are sinners. God's people, we know we're sinners. We know we're sinners. We've
been shown, as the old timers used to say, we've been shown
our sinnership. The old preachers used to say
that. I like that, because that's what it's true, isn't it? We've
been shown our centership. We've been shown that we need
an advocate. We've been shown that we need a mediator. And
praise God, by His grace, we have one. We who are His people,
we who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God, we have one.
And His name is Jesus Christ the righteous. It says we have
an advocate. You know, so many people are
trying to find salvation in a church or in a profession they made.
Or in their baptism or something they do or something they have
to continue to do. But you know who they're not
looking at? They're not looking at Christ. They're looking to their own
works. They're looking to themselves. But this fellow here before you is a sinner. I need an advocate. I need an advocate. I need a
mediator. Do you? Look again at this wonderful
text. 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. Now, the
Apostle John here desires to steer God's people to look to
Christ and Christ alone. He's doing what every preacher
does. He's pointing the believers to Christ. My little children,
these things write I unto you that you sin not. This shows
that we don't have a license to just go and do whatever we
want. This speaks against antinomianism.
And note though John, knowing we are sinners and by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, he brings forth that we are not to despair
in our sin. We're not to despair in our sin.
As one grace preacher said, we repent. and confess our sin,
and we look to Christ, and we move on. We move on. We carry on. John does not hold
out the possibility here that any man can be totally free from
sin. We know that. Let's go back in chapter 1. We
know that no man can be totally free from sin, or woman. This
would be contrary to his own words, which he spoke in verse
8, 9, and 10. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he's 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. But we don't live in sin, do
we? It's not the trend of our lives. We've looked at that in
the first chapter, didn't we? It's not the trend of our lives.
We're not to indulge the flesh. We're not to walk in disobedience. We're not to behave like the
world of unregenerate men. And the true grace of God in
the believer's heart does not condone or excuse his own sin. But it condemns it, doesn't it? We own our sin. You ever notice the flesh always
wants to pass it on to someone else? It's someone else's fault.
But the believer says, no, that's my sin. And we confess it before
our Lord, don't we? And when the Holy Spirit convicts
us, we bow down in prayer and cry out to our God, don't we? And we have a continuous desire
to be like Christ, don't we? And to glorify our Lord. True believers mourn over their
sins, don't we? Do you mourn over your sin? I
mourn over mine all the time. We confess them and we seek to
avoid them. As I mentioned earlier, we repent
and confess our sins before God and we look to Christ and we
carry on. Because we have an advocate, beloved. Jesus Christ,
the righteous, who is the one who paid for all our sins. All
our sins. And note the text does not say
if any man... It doesn't say if any man's holy, does it? No.
It doesn't say if any man's holy, he has an advocate. It doesn't
say that. It doesn't say if any man's perfect, he has an advocate.
No. The scriptures bring comfort
to God's people who are saved sinners. Does this not bring
comfort to you? It brings comfort to this old
safe sinner. It sure does. To read this. It fills my lips
with praise to know that if any man sinned, and that's me, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I
have an advocate. Oh, praise God for the advocate. Praise God for the Lord Jesus
Christ. And a little note here. I want
us to note something here too. Look at this. If any man sinned,
we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. Remember, who's writing this?
Who's writing this epistle? It's John the Beloved, right?
It's the disciple who laid his head on Jesus' breast. It's one
of the three in the inner circle. And some say he was probably
the closest to the Lord. Note there. Note this. This is
marvelous. Note this. If any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, righteous. John
uses the little word, we. We. Have you noticed that? We. The beloved disciple includes
himself. He includes himself. Note the
humility that's brought forth here, beloved. He's writing to
the saints of God, right? He's writing to the saints of
God. When I was in religion, I heard
preachers that you thought, these men must be sinless the way they
talk. And we're all just a bunch of unworthy sinners. Well, I
found out he's just like me. Even though he didn't put himself
across that way. This is John the Apostle, and he's included
himself by using the word we. He's not talking from some superior
position, is he? He's not lording himself over
the saints of God. The beloved disciple is saying,
we have an advocate. We. We sinners. See, sometimes we take these
men that we read of in the scriptures and we put them on pedestals.
But notice the humility here. We, we have an advocate with
the Father Jesus Christ righteous. He's not looking down on his
brothers and sister. He places himself on the same
level as they are. My, and always remember, beloved,
a way for us to always remember this truth is to never forget
the pit we were in when the Lord pulled us out of that. The pit
we were in. We couldn't save ourselves, could
we? But He saved us. He saved us. Oh, remember the
pit the Lord took you out of, the pit of sin. And always remember
this, that we're but safe sinners. Always remember, we're but safe
sinners. We need a mediator, every one of us. Even John here,
the beloved disciple says, we have an advocate. Oh my. John therefore brings forth,
and also remember this too, John here brings forth the personal
need for all believers of a mediator. That includes the apostles, all
the believers who have ever lived, all the preachers, every single
one of God's beloved people. We're on the same level, beloved.
We have an advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. I
think that's important for us to note because this is, again,
the beloved apostle and he does not vault himself over the saints
of God. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. John knew
that he could not be a mediator for anyone. He couldn't even
be a mediator for himself. John knew this. And if anyone
thinks they are a mediator between God and man, they are lying to
themselves and they're lying to the people that they're saying
that they're a mediator for. There's only one mediator between
God and man. A man, Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all. And that all means his people.
Same as what we're seeing in verse 2 there. That propitiation
sacrifice is only for the elect of God. Only for God's people. So marvel at the humility that's
being brought forth here. John did not say, you have an
advocate when speaking to the saints of God. He didn't say,
you have an advocate. He said, we have an advocate.
We have an advocate. Again, putting themselves on
the same level. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 7. The same level as the saints of God. All the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God have one mediator. Jesus Christ the
righteous. Just one. Just one. Your mediator,
if you're a born-again believer, is the same mediator as mine.
Jesus Christ the righteous. It's wonderful. Hebrews 7 verses
25 to 27 says this, wherefore he is able, he is able, oh let
that sink in, he is able, also to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. For such a high priest became
us who is holy, oh he's holy, he's harmless, he's undefiled,
he's perfect. He's separate from sinners and
made higher than the heavens. That's our Savior. Who needeth
not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for
his own sins? No. No, because he's sinless.
He's offering himself up as sacrifice for the sins of his people. And
then for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. Oh, what an advocate we have,
beloved. Jesus Christ the righteous. So who needs an advocate? Well,
it's plainly proclaimed that sinners need an advocate. And
that's what we are by birth, that's what we are by nature,
from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. And think
upon this blessed truth, you who have Christ as your advocate.
The Redeemer's claim to this office of an advocate, as the
only advocate of God's people, who are sinners by birth, is
founded on the call of Jehovah. founded on the call of Jehovah.
Hebrews chapter 5 verse 5 says this, and this is talking about
the appointment of God. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made an high priest but He that said unto him, Thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. In Hebrews 5, 6, as he
saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. So Christ is our advocate by
appointment of the Father. By appointment of the Father.
And we have an advocate with the Father. We have a high priest,
beloved, who makes intercession for us. He's made intercession
for us, right? Because he's made full satisfaction.
He's made full satisfaction before God for all His people, because
it's He who has purchased us with His own precious blood.
And because of His perfect sacrifice in our place, our sins, now let
this sink in, because of His perfect sacrifice in our place,
our sins are not laid to our charge. They're not laid to our charge. He's the advocate with the Father.
And always remember that it is against the Father whom all our
sin is committed. Right? And to whom satisfaction is made.
God, Christ died a sacrifice for us before God. Because He's
the one who had to be satisfied. His law had to be appeased. His
justice must be satisfied. And it's God who we sinned against.
And this is marvelous. We have an advocate with the
Father. With the very one we sinned against. His name is Jesus
Christ, the righteous. And remember, it is Christ in
the office of priest that he's our advocate. He's our mediator. He's our God. And God ordained
this to be so, that Christ would be our advocate. So the believer
can marvel then that God purposed, God planned for us, for we who
are his people, that he purposed and he planned that Christ, Jesus
Christ the righteous would be our advocate. My, and he did
it all in eternity. He purposed and planned all that
in eternity. My goodness. You who are the blood-bought
saints of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is your
advocate. He's your sworn advocate. And
Christ is our advocate. He's fully appointed to this
office by Jehovah. By the Father. And how precious
this is to the believer. How wondrous this is to the believer
in Christ. What comfort this can bring God's
people. Although we are saved, yet we
are still sinners, but we have an advocate, beloved. Jesus Christ
the righteous. And He's the believer's advocate
constantly. Constantly. Constantly. We have Him as long as life endures,
and then we have Him in eternity. Oh my! And the believer in Christ
proclaims what? That this is all by God's grace.
Never forget that. This is all by God's grace. Let's
read verses 1 and 2 again and marvel at the wonderful truth
that's set here before us again. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we,
again I love that, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
advocate for His people. He's our propitiation. He's the
propitiation for our sins. And propitiation means to cover,
to atone, to pardon, and reconcile. We'll look at that a little more
in depth next week, but think of this. God's wrath for our
sins has been appeased. It's being appeased in Christ.
I remember hearing an old preacher one time, he said, God's law
and justice against his people was extinguished at Calvary's
Cross. You ever think of that? You're
raging fire and it gets extinguished. Why? The fury of God's wrath
extinguished in Christ. Oh my! The wrath of God is being appeased by the Lord Jesus Christ in the
place of his people against their sins. He died as our substitute on
Calvary's cross. And he died not only for the
Jewish believer we see here, but also for the Gentile, which
is the reference to the world. He died for the Jewish believer
in Christ, and he died for the Gentile believer in Christ. And He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
17. John chapter 17. And marvel at
this. Marvel again at the truth set
here before us. The Lord Jesus Christ in His
office as our great High Priest is our advocate. He's our advocate. He's the mediator. He's the propitiation
of all of God's elect. out of every generation. Our
Lord has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And He is the propitiation for
our sins before God. Look at this in John 17, we'll
read verses 5 to 11, we'll see that He's not the advocate or
mediator for unbelievers, though. Neither is He the propitiation
for unbelievers, for those who are non-elect. But for His people, for those
who were given to Him by the Father in eternity, He is our
propitiation, beloved. Look at verse 5. And now, O Father,
glorify Thou me. with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them, I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine." He's praying for his people. and all are mine, and all mine
are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now
I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I
come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Now let's go back to 1 John, Chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll
read this again with that in mind, with what we just read
there. 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. Remember,
this is written to God's people. And look what our Lord, what's
said about our Lord here. He's called Jesus Christ the
righteous. marvel again here, set before
us the grace of God, that it's God himself, the Word of God,
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, who was numbered with the
transgressors, and who bore the sin of many, and who made intercession
for the transgressors. He is called Jesus Christ, the
righteous. And he was righteous in his life,
and he was righteous in his death, and he's righteous right now.
Because he's God. He doesn't change. He doesn't
change, beloved. Now think upon our text which
proclaims one of the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is right here, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Now the Greek word
here for righteous means this, righteous, observing divine laws
in a wide sense, upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands
of God. Innocent. Faultless. Innocent,
faultless, guiltless. Used of him, being Christ, or
used of him whose way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly
conformed to the will of God. That only speaks of Christ, doesn't
it? Only Christ. And therefore needs no rectification
in the heart or life. And then the last sub-meaning
is this. Approved of or acceptable of
God. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
That's who he is. That's who he is. And all those
things that I just read can only be said of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now think of this, as I was just
looking at this, it says innocent, faultless, guiltless. Now marvel
at this. It said that he presents us faultless
before his throne. Because we're in him! Because
we're in Christ, beloved. Because we're in Him who is faultless. Oh my. So all these things can
only be said of Christ. He's the only one who's the righteous
one. He's the only one. We all come out of the womb sinners. But Christ is the seed of the
woman. He was conceived in the womb by the Holy Spirit of God.
He had no earthly father. Turn over if you would to Isaiah
chapter 53. Isaiah 53. And we'll look at verses 11 and
12, and then we're close, shortly after that. Isaiah 53, verses
11 and 12. Consider what is spoken of the
Messiah here, in verses 11 and 12. He shall see the travail
of his soul, God shall see the travail of his soul, and shall
be satisfied. Remember what Brother Henry Mayerhen
used to always say, if you get two words out of every message
a gospel preacher preaches, this is what we have. Substitution
and satisfaction. Christ is the sinner's substitute
and God is satisfied with the substitution of Christ. So look
at this. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. It doesn't say all, but it says
many. And we know that many is a number
that no man can number. Oh, many. For he shall bear their
iniquities. That's what Christ did for us.
That's what He did for us. The sinless one bore our iniquities.
Paid for everything God demanded. Sinless, spotless sacrifice. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the small with the
strong. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors. And He bared the sin of many
and made intercession for transgressors. Aren't you thankful He made intercession
for us? Aren't you thankful He's our
advocate right now? Oh, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. I'm reminded daily how much of
a sinner I am. And I'm so thankful that I have
an advocate. Oh, I have an advocate. Do you?
Oh, I pray if you don't that God make it so. Oh, my. And here we see once again that
Christ is the fulfillment of that promise that we just read
there. Truly all the promises of God are in Christ, yea and
amen. And He is Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the one
who gave Himself as the sinner's surety. And He is the offering and sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor for His people. And the character
of the advocate, think of this too, we're going to close scene
here. The character of the advocate is in His name. The character
of the advocate is in His name. He's called Jesus Christ the
righteous. He's righteous. He's righteous in the view of
Christians in every part of His character, isn't He? We look
at Christ and in every single part of His character we see
His righteousness. We see His holiness. We see His
suitability, and the only suitable Savior of sinners is the Lord
Jesus Christ. But His character is in His title
here, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He's righteous before God, and
He's our righteousness before God. He's perfectly approved
by God. God will see the travail of His
soul and shall be what? Satisfied. Satisfied. And He is righteous in the views
of Christians, again, in every part of His character. He is
the Lord, our righteousness. And He is the object of our worship,
isn't He? And our adoration. And He alone
is righteous in all that He says and all that He does. And this
is the believer's hope, right here. Set before us is the believer's
hope. He alone is the believer's rest.
And His title before us sums up who He is. He alone is holy. He alone is sinless. He alone
is the Lamb of God, and His name is Jesus Christ, the Righteous. Righteous. God's people say,
praise His mighty name. That's my Savior. That's my Savior. Heavenly Father, we thank You
again for allowing us to gather together, allowing us to look
into Thy Word. And oh, wonder of wonders, oh
Lord. You who are God, incarnate in the flesh, You are the righteous
one. It's you who is our advocate.
We who are sinners, we who are your people, we're but safe sinners,
oh Lord. But you are our advocate. You
are our mediator before God, and we praise your mighty name
for allowing us. allowing us and for saving us,
allowing us to worship You, allowing us to cling to You, O Lord, because
You have revealed Yourself to us. You're the one who's made
us will in the day of Thy power. What a privilege and honor it
is for the believer to say, Christ is my advocate. And we only say
that because You have made it so, Lord. We love You and praise
You and thank You for Your goodness and mercy and grace towards us,
in and through Christ Jesus, our Lord.