Welcome, welcome this morning to this service that the Lord has, in his good providence, brought us back to. We thank him for it, and we thank him for his tender mercy to us in every aspect of our lives, and most especially in enabling us to hear, once again, his gospel. I want you to turn to the book of Romans in chapter seven for our reading this morning. And as we are turning this morning, we pray that the Lord would help these among us that are sick.

I want to continue to remember Anthony and Shelby. Anthony started his chemo this week. We pray for him. Roger and Vicki. We want to pray remembering them. Billy has had surgery this week and we want to remember him. This morning he's having some pain and and Jewel. We're thankful that she's unable to be back with us. I want you to continue to pray for my wife who's having a difficult time at this Present, having to go about the house with a row later. I want you to pray for a family that's having some difficulties that are on my heart and I remember them.

The Lord knows who they are. I want to pray for the folks that in Wilmington, in Ancient Grace, Thankful to have Brother Paul visiting with us this morning. I'm gonna ask him after our reading to come and lead us in prayer this morning. We're thankful for the Lord's work there and pray that his spirit would be pleased to reveal the gospel to some sinners like us. down in Wilmington, and I'm sure there are some sinners.

I'm hoping there's some of them lost sinners that Christ came to save. Pray for me this morning, and look with me, if you would, to the book of Romans, chapter seven. Romans, chapter seven, and listen to Paul as he writes this as an apostle, as a child of God. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not.

But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. But then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would not, for the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, It is no more I that doeth, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law that is present, a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Oh, you come and lead us in prayer this morning. Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us in Christ Jesus. We thank you that although there is nothing good in us, within our flesh, and we are lawbreakers, we have spurned your law, we have trampled your commands, we have brought nothing to the table but sin. Lord, I pray for each one gathered this morning, that you would encourage, you would shine the light of your grace and your gospel upon our understanding. Lord, we pray for every wayward child. every one of your lost sheep, that you would bring them into your fold. We pray that you would be merciful to us, that you would show us again this morning afresh the mercy that has been given to us. in abundance in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you that although we are lawbreakers in this flesh, that Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness sake to everyone who believes. And we thank you that our believing is not left up to us. For if it were, dependent on our sincerity, our faithfulness, our perseverance, we would all be lost. But we thank you that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness sake to all who believe and that we who believe only do so according to your power, the same power that you showed forth in the raising of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and in the setting him at your own right hand in the heavenly places. This is the same power at work in all those who believe. So that those who believe have nothing in which to boast because we know that our believing is only in accordance with your great power.

Lord, I pray that you would show this power this morning and that only that which is true and only that which glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ would be spoken and believed and looked to, that we would look outside of ourselves and that by God-given faith we would gaze upon King Jesus, the Lord, who is our righteousness, our only righteousness.

Be merciful to us poor beggars. Let us feast at your table this morning by your spirit. I pray that you would bless each one here. Help us, Lord. If you don't help us, Lord, there's no hope for us. I pray that you would move upon the preacher this morning, that you would give him insight into your word. Bless us, I pray. We thank you.

We ask all these things in your good, strong, mighty name, Lord Jesus, amen. And your hymn was, once again, 412. 412, no other play. My grave has found a resting place, An indivisible creed. I trust Thee ever, ♪ I need no other, are you not? ♪ ♪ I need no other being.

♪ ♪ It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. ♪ ♪ It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. ♪ ♪ It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. ♪ ♪ It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. ♪ ♪ It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. ♪ ♪ It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.

♪ Yes, we are. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. for me. came to stay. All His precious blood shed, all His life He gave. I need no other ornament, I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.

Let me say one thing more. I forgot. I wanted to especially welcome a new visitor this morning. As a matter of fact, it's the first time she's ever been to church, I think. And that is Miss Evelyn Jean McLean. It was born to Kayla and Ian McLean, and we welcome her this morning. so So, ♪ so so ♪ The glory to Jesus begotten of God, the great and Creator, sustainer, the wonder of all, O Lamb of Calvary. To think that the guardian of planets in space, the shepherd of the stars, His tenderly leading, the church of his love, by hands with carols of scorn. King of all kings and Lord of all lords, he reigns in glory now. Someday he is coming, whose kingdom to claim, and every knee It's about time, don't you think?

Thank you, Betty. All glory to Jesus. Amen. I want you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the epistle of 1 John. 1 John chapter 2. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 40, the Lord instructs his servant to comfort his people. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak comfortably to them and tell them that their warfare is accomplished and that their iniquity is pardoned. But how can you comfort such people who are as Paul describes himself in Romans 7. Oh, wretched man that I am. That which I would do, I don't do. And that which I wouldn't do, that I do. So that I see in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

So the Spirit of God directs John in this letter to write to the people of God. First John 2, and the first verse. 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. You see this letter, this epistle, which the Holy Spirit moved John to write, it's for the Lord's people.

It's for those who believe the gospel of his grace. As a matter of fact, that's who all the Scriptures are for. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Literally, God breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And in this epistle, Paul writes, and as one said, he writes so that the people of God will neither presume to sin, nor despair if they did.

We have a natural tendency in this flesh to excuse or justify our sin. And then on the other hand, we have also the natural tendency to despair about our sin. Some in their efforts to emphasize one aspect or one doctrine of the scriptures, they do so at the exclusion or diminishing of others. Even God's preachers have this tendency sometimes. but it is a tendency that you do not find in the Bible.

Because often they are set forth clearly in these scriptures with no contradiction, things that to us seem contrary. Somebody said that a Christian, a true Christian is the happiest, most miserable creature in the world. He's so happy for the grace of God, so miserable yet for the sin that still plagues him. But rather than making these things contradictory to one another, we find these comforts and these instructions, arm and arm, oftentimes in the same verse in the scriptures, even in one verse, as the Apostle John writes here in our verse.

And there are some things that I want you this morning to notice with me. And the very first thing that we have to notice is that how he addresses these that he writes to in these verses. They're not just church members. They're not just religious folks. These he describes as little children. These words are not addressed to all men without exception.

They're addressed and written to these little children, little children, the children of God, God's elect, the redeemed. These are written to those who believe the gospel, who believe the truth. They're described here as little children. They're the children of God, and they are to be children in their attitudes. In Matthew, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." They're little children.

They're little children who have been born of God, born from on high, born of His Spirit. They're contrasted to those who are described also in Scripture as the children of the devil. That's what he told those Pharisees. You are of your father, the devil. No, these are the little children who are born of God.

And they are here also as those whom John was a spiritual father. They were like children to John because they were children of God who had believed the gospel that he preached. Paul describes those who heard him and believed the gospel as his children.

He was jealous over them. He said, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. That is, he had a concern for them as a parent has for his child. They're little children. He had compassion on them, and he loved them. He loved them even though they were sinners. I love sinners. Because as the man said, I are one. I love sinners. And I especially love these little children that are born of God.

And this is what He addresses all these things to. Look here in verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake. I'm not trying to do something to get you to be saved, as men use that term oftentimes. He's writing to those who are saved, who've been saved by the grace of God, who've been saved by the work of Christ. They're little children, and he writes to them these words because their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. And all through this epistle, in almost every chapter, he addresses them, these begotten of God, who he calls little children. Little children, that's who he writes to. And I want you to notice also the method that God uses to convey his instruction is true to us. Look at what He said, My little children, these things I write unto you. I write unto you.

They were to receive instruction, comfort from God by the things that He wrote unto them. not in some self-help book, because these things were written by the Spirit of God using John's mind and pen, not to convey John's personal opinion, but God's Word. You know, so many people turn to the same flesh to comfort them as the flesh by which they sin. We're going to have to find comfort somewhere outside of ourselves and outside of those who are just like us if we're to ever have any comfort. And that comfort must come to us, revealing this comfort that God alone can give and who he does and what he does give if you'll notice in first John 5 and verse 13 he says it again these things have i written unto you that believe on the name of the son of god that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

He didn't say God will give you a vision. He didn't say God will give you a funny feeling. He didn't say that an angel will visit you. He didn't say anything of any exterior or interior deliverance that might come from God except by the one thing that He has ordained which is His written word.

That's how God conveys everything. He's given us His Word. It is, as I said, God-bringing. He moved upon these men to write down these things which are an objective standard and revelation of God's truth. He says, For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Do you have any relief in the matter of sin especially?

If you have any comfort, if you have any revelation of God, if you have any hope, gonna come through the scriptures. The only hope I can give you is what God gives in the scriptures. The only Christ I can proclaim to you is the one I find in the scriptures. The only God that there is is the one who reveals himself in the scriptures.

And oftentimes, again and again we read, it is written. It is written. Peter saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And James and John saw Christ. They all saw Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they saw Him exalted and glorified and magnified on the Mount.

But listen to what Peter says. Peter says we were witnesses of His glory, but we have a more sure word of prophecy. a more secure, a more sure word of this revelation of God's word, a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. What's he talking about? He's talking about The Word, the written Word.

God's people are comforting. They are tall. They are encouraged. They find hope in the most hopeless situation, which is in their own selves and their sin. If they have any hope of eternal life, any hope of any relief whatsoever in the matter of sin, it's going to have to come from the Scriptures. Not from me standing up and saying this thing or that thing or being a cheerleader or something like that, but from the scriptures.

But as he writes, God has an unchanging standard. He's not going to sidetrack. who he is. He's not going to sidetrack what he's already said. He's not going to lower his standard. It will always be this. My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. That's always the standard. That's always the command. Those who believe, if you believe, I believe, we don't have another standard. We're not to excuse sin. We're not to regard it as nothing. We're not to regard it as not important. That standard and command is still there. I write unto you, little children, that you sin not. And this is so contrary to our natural way of thinking. I write unto you that you sin not.

And any who would lower this standard or disregard this command, they are absolutely blind. I heard a man tell me one time, I suppose a bit of believer, he said, I don't care a thing about what I do. Let me say first, what you do or don't do has no basis upon which, on how you're saved. But that still does not nullify this plain command of God.

We care about what we do because he said, I write unto you little children that you sin not. You say, that's impossible. That doesn't change anything. God gave the law when they were sinning right there at the bottom of the mountain, right then. The standard is not altered in any way. This is a plain command of God who is unchangeably holy.

Holy. Well, you say, we know the gospel. We believe the gospel now because God is love. God is grace. God is mercy. And God is holy. I write unto you, little children, that you sin not. And grace is never an excuse or license to sin. Sin is never little in God's sight. And sin, even forgiven, has a natural consequence.

You remember when David sinned, that great sin, with Bathsheba? He did all that he did, and God sent Nathan to speak tell him something that is vitally important. He said to David, when David was so outraged over that example he put before him, which was a picture of just what David had done, the first thing he says to David is this, your iniquity is pardoned. David's a child of God.

Your sins are pardoned. Nothing you do or can't do separates us from what we have by the grace of God in Christ. Your sins are pardoned. That's the first thing he told him. But then he said this, God hath put away your sin, but the sword will abide at your house. There is forgiveness of sin, but there's a consequence of sin. Paul, if you get so drunk you can't stagger home, you have a wreck, and you cut off your arm in the wreck, God will forgive you if you're His child. That doesn't alter our position in Christ whatsoever. But your arm's gone. God, at the price of Christ's blood, has forgiven us. God's infinitely holy.

He said, not only will the sword abide at your house, but you've given the enemies of God the opportunity to blast fame. You've shamed God before this world. You've given His enemies, the enemies of grace, the opportunity to blaspheme the name of God, the grace of God, the work of Christ, all together.

I write unto you little children, sin not. To you who believe, to me who believe, that still says that, doesn't it? My little children, these things that I write unto you, that you sin not. That's always the standard. Don't you ever make light of sin. Don't you ever diminish it. But that doesn't change the reality of what we do as sinners.

Look at what he says here. And if any man sin. That's really when. You see, there's no if. about whether or not we'll sin. We know it, if we know anything of the truth. As a matter of fact, everything we do is tainted with sin. And there certainly is no sinless perfection here. And when a man sins, look back over in chapter 1 and verse 8. You see what he says in chapter 2 is in line of what he's already said in chapter 1, 1 John 1 and verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

I was meeting with a bunch of preachers, and the discussion one time in Michigan was on the subject of progressive sanctification. A friend of mine asked the man that was defending the position, he said, can you say that since the Lord saved you, you are more holy or have sinned less since God saved you? And that young man looked, and he kind of, pondered it for just a second or two, and he said, yes. Yes.

I've never been able to say that. As a matter of fact, it seems like with God's people, the revelation and the knowledge of sin in the sight of God brings us to confess always that we've sinned more. More and more. And our sin is so much worse. Because the knowledge of God's grace to us. He's been so gracious to us. He's given us his son. He's put away our sin. He's done so much. And yet it seems like that we sin more and more. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness.

If we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. If I say I have not sinned today, if I say I have not sinned even in the last hour, I'm a liar, and the truth is not in me. There's enough sin in me, enough sin in my proclamation of what is true right now to send me to hell.

We sin. And that's what Paul's talking about in Romans 7. Though I have the knowledge not to sin, though I have the desire not to sin, that's all I do, is sin. All I do. And why would he say, sin not? if we didn't have the potential, if we didn't have the tendency, if we didn't have the nature to still sing. Oh, he said, I write unto you little children that you sin not, but when any man sins, and you will, you do, He gives us one hope, and if any man sin, we have an advocate. We have an advocate, one advocate.

We don't have an earthly priest. We don't have an earthly preacher. We don't have Mary. We don't have a pope. We don't have any of these things. We have one advocate. That means that we have one who will plead our cause. Just one. Jesus Christ. Well, I want to run to this preacher, and I want to go down the aisle and rededicate, or I want to ask him to pray for me that I don't see. That's what the flesh always wants to do. but only the one revealed in this book is the advocate. There's only one who pleads for the people of God in a continual intercession.

In the Lamentations, Jeremiah writes, O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul. Thou hast redeemed my life. There's only one who can play with you. Not the president, not the most influential person you know, not the most religious person you know, because they're all like you. You said, Preacher, you make it very narrow. I just read the words.

We have an advocate, singular, definite, one advocate. One who ever lives to make intercession for us. An old writer said, the figure is taken from a lawyer pleading the cause of a criminal and using his best endeavors to bring him off uninjured. But such advocacy may fail for two reasons. The incompetency of the advocate. or the badness of the cause. In other words, if you had a lawyer pleading your case, it wouldn't be much good if he was an inadequate lawyer. Or it wouldn't be so good if the case against you was really bad. Well, the real case against us is real bad. As a matter of fact, it's worse than you think. It's worse than you could know. It's worse that you could stand knowing. But the advocate, he's the only one with the credentials. He's the only one God the Father will accept. He's the only one that can and ever has entered his presence on the basis of his own self. But he's our advocate.

I've seen a lot of criminals kind of look smug because they knew they had the best lawyer. They knew that they weren't going to jail because their lawyer had a connection with the judge. Boy, do we have a connection with the judge. We have an advocate.

You see, the original word here is the same word that is rendered in John 14 and John 16, comforter. I really like that. The idea of advocacy, so sure and so accepted of God that we can find comforter. He comforts us in his advocacy. He pleads our cause, and he comforts us. That's what the Spirit of God, the comforter, I'll send the comforter to you, I'll send the advocate to you, and he'll comfort you through this word on the things that he reveals.

I've often said I love to read the Psalms when I'm just so befuddled over my sin and my life and everything, because I can identify with David when he writes the psalmist in the first verses. It's always my enemies and myself and my wretchedness and all that. And then as he goes on, he begins to see that efficacy. He begins to see and to know and to realize the grace of God.

Where can you find comfort? You find comfort in what the scriptures say about Christ. Not some inspirational book, not some cliche phrase that we find on Facebook, not all this junky stuff written by people who don't even know God. Find it when you go to the Word of God or hear somebody preach the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have an advocate. We God's people, God's children. We who in God's family have the family blessings, them that are justified, them that are sanctified, them that are in Christ, we have an advocate. There's one more thing I want you to notice, and that is the basic, the basis upon which he always advocates.

He's Jesus Christ the righteous. Jesus Christ the righteous. How? Well, first thing is he does it because he's alive. We have no dead advocate. And we know that he has established a righteousness, brought in the everlasting righteousness, which is not simply the righteousness he possesses as God manifests in the flesh, but the righteousness that he has established, the work of righteousness, he always advocates or pleads his case, not on our weakness or not on our frailty or not on our relationship, but on the basis that he, on our behalf, has established righteousness. He's our righteousness. But they have no righteousness. Oh, yes, they do. As a matter of fact, they do righteousness.

What is it to do righteousness, if in everything we've seen, that cannot ever be interpreted in something that we do in this flesh. Because nothing we do in this flesh, since it's done by a sinner, can ever be constituted or called righteousness. So how do we do righteousness?

That is to believe on Christ, the righteous. He's the only one that's righteous. And to do righteousness is to believe on Him. It says, Paul said, to be made the righteousness of God in Him. He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's the basis of his advocacy.

He himself and what he accomplished on our behalf, the Lord imputing to him the sins of all these children, charging him with our sins, holding him accountable for our sin, accepting his death as the full payment for our sin. And him imputing to us, accounting us. You know, some people do not like the idea that we have so many of these legal and mercantilish, as they call it, words in the scriptures.

But for me, for this old simple-minded sinner, it's a wonderful thing because here I am in the ledger book of God, and here is Christ in the ledger book of God. And God the Father takes my sin debt and moves it to his account and he pays that debt. And God takes his righteousness, his word, his blood, and moves it to my account and accounts me righteous. It's pretty simple, isn't it? Oh, you say there's a lot more. deep theological discussion that could do. And when you do that, there might be, but it's gonna be the same thing. God counting Christ for me. And God counting Christ as me.

That's why I love when we come to the book of Jeremiah, We have those two wonderful verses that describe his days, this gospel age in which we live, the days of Christ, the end times, if you will, from the first coming of Christ to the second, in his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. In this verse in chapter 33, virtually saying, in those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby she shall be called. Who? The bride of Christ. the children of God. This is the name whereby she, they're one flesh, one person in the sight of God. They're in Christ Jesus. They're in a union with Christ since before the world began. And we got his name. There's no ...

My wife's maiden name was Porter, Sheila Porter. That's what she was born with. But if she would have insisted on the name after marrying me, being Sheila Porter Shepard, I'd say it's off. because of what it represents to me. Before God, my name is not Gary Sinner, Gary Rich, though I'm all those things in myself, though I was born in sin and shaped in iniquity. But my name is Gary Shepherd Righteous, Gary Shepherd Christ, and we are complete in Married to him.

I always think of this illustration. I've used it so many times, but I was sitting in a Shoney's in Pikeville, Kentucky, and I looked. I was right next to the window, and I looked out the window, and there drove up Cadillac like I've never seen before. Every place on that car where there was supposed to be chrome was gold. Gold. I said, who in the world is that? And a lady got out of that car. And she was dressed as fine as you could buy with gold and rings and jewelry and hair all done.

And I thought, well, that must be some celebrity or something. And she came into the restaurant, sat down at the table near me. And when the waitress walked up to her and asked her what she would like or how she could help her, She opened her mouth up. And when she did, I knew that that gal came from the head of the holler.

She was as country. She was as hillbilly. She was as whatever you want to say. She was, in other words, everything she had, didn't match with who she really was. And I thought, well, I wonder how she got all that. And it came to my mind. She married into it. Her husband was one of those who hit the big time coal boom. And those houses on the hill. where she probably lived with the kind that had the helicopter pads in the backyard. That's the way we are as little children.

We have the righteousness of God in the one that we're one flesh with, complete with, the Lord Jesus. He's faithful and just to forgive us. Why? How can He be just? Because Christ has bore our sins in His own body. He satisfied the law, which demanded death in the case of sin. He died for us. He's become our propitiation.

Turn away the wrath of God. Look over in Romans chapter 8. I'll hush. Romans chapter 8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? His chosen children. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's little children? It is God that justifies. 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.

That's why in the book of Hebrews in the fourth chapter, it says, let us therefore come bold. We don't have a priest who's a sinner, but neither do we have a priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Sinless substitute. Therefore let us come boldly before the throne of grace to find grace, to find help in all our times of need. Oh, I write unto you little children that you sin not, but when you do, We have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous.

We've never been anything. He's always been everything. And he is the only comfort, the only true comfort, the only one that will comfort us. And he comforts us on the basis of what he tells us in this book. He won't come, the Spirit won't come tell you something that's contrary to this book.

May God help us to always be thankful for and always look to All right. Father, we thank you this morning for your grace to us. And we thank you for Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. We thank you for his intercession, that his eye never strays from us, but he looks upon us with compassion and care and love everlasting. that he pleased by his cross work, by that righteousness that he established in his death. We pray that our hearts might be thankful and that he might ascribe to him all the glory and all the praise. Thank you in Christ's name. Amen.