Turn with me tonight to 1 John. We'll begin reading in chapter
1. 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. That which was
from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled
of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. That you
may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with
the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And these things,
right? We unto you that your joy may
be full. This then is the 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 cleanseth
us from all sin. 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. Now, John has presented
us with the clearest, most emphatic testimony possible of the full
and absolute forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ the
Lord. He doesn't stop there. He goes on to say, my little
children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He says,
now, everything that I've written to you, about God being light,
the revelation of God to us in Christ, our fellowship with the
Father and with one another, everything I've written to you
about the absolute, full, free forgiveness of sin through the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. I've written to you that you
sin not. My object, my desire, my goal
for you and for me is that you cease from sin. That you sin
not. And then it says, and, and. Doesn't begin with but, it begins
with and. And. If any man sin, we've lost our
advocate. That's not what it says. Oh,
bless God. That's not what it says. John's
object is that we sin not. His goal is to restrain sin in
the daily life of God's elect. That you sin not. Don't sin. Don't sin. And when you do sin,
you can write that word if, in the smallest possible letters,
quite literally John is saying, when you who are God's Do sin,
don't despair. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. When you do sin, nothing has
changed. When you do sin, nothing has
changed. We still have the same advocate
with the father and the same hope before God. We have an advocate
with the Father. His name is Jesus Christ the
righteous, and he is the propitiation, the justice satisfying atonement
for our sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. Quite literally, he is the justice
satisfying atonement for our sins and for the sins of God's
elect, wherever they're found, throughout the ages of time,
throughout the whole world. Turn over to Jude for a moment. Just a couple of pages over the
book of Jude. In these two verses of inspiration,
1 John chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, John tells us that the children
of God God's people in this world, you who believe God are sinners
in need of an advocate. And Christ Jesus is the advocate
you need. Now, with such an assurance,
there is always a certain element among religious people, a certain
group of religious people who say you cannot preach such things
as this. You cannot declare the absolute,
unconditional forgiveness of all sin to anybody. If you do,
that opens the floodgates to iniquity. That'll make folks
want to go out and live in licentiousness. Jude warns us of just those people. Look here in Jude, verse 4. There
are certain men crept in unawares. They sneak in in a cloak of righteousness. who were before ordained to this
condemnation. They're not beyond God's control.
They were before ordained to this condemnation. Paul said,
heresies also must come so that those who are approved may be
made manifest. These men were ordained of God
to this condemnation. Watch this. Ungodly men. They claim to be righteous men.
They claim to live by the law. They claim to live in holiness
and righteousness. They're ungodly men. Who? Turning the grace of God, our
God, into lasciviousness. Turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness. If you preach absolute forgiveness. If you preach sure forgiveness,
if you tell sinners that God Almighty has forgiven them and
will not charge them with sin, then you will promote ungodliness,
licentiousness, lasciviousness. John says these self-righteous
legalists turn the grace of God into lasciviousness and thereby
deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They tell us that absolute free
grace leads to licentiousness and thereby they deny God and
our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a strong, strong declaration
and a strong, strong warning. doesn't back off. John declares,
my little children, these things write I unto you that you 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. Some time ago, I read that we
have to be careful here. We dare not stress the advocacy
of Christ. Too much. It's possible to overstate,
to exaggerate the advocacy of Christ. I'm of another mind. I'm here tonight to declare to
you as fully, as frankly, as distinctly as I possibly can,
as God the Holy Spirit will enable me, the absolute certain forgiveness
of sins for all who look to Christ as Savior. And the basis of that
forgiveness is the advocacy of our Redeemer in heaven for us. Now, I want you to see three
things in this text. I'll give you my outline and
then I'll give you my message. Understand this first. All God's
children in this world are sinners still. Number two, our sins do not deprive us of our interest
in Christ. Number three, God has provided
his son, the Lord Jesus, as the advocate for his sinning people. All right, let's look at the
first. All God's children in this world are sinners still. My little children, these things
write I unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin, this
phrase John uses in addressing these people to whom he's writing
immediately and addressing us is interesting. He says, my little
children. Because many to whom he was writing,
they had been converted under John's ministry. John had been
the instrument in God's hands by which they heard the gospel
and by which they believed the gospel. He was to them a father
in Israel. And he looked upon those who
were trusted to his care as a pastor and a preacher, as his children
in the faith, his little children, little children needing constant
nurture, needing constant direction, needing constant instruction,
needing constant care. My little children. But at the
same time, as he uses this tender, fatherly expression, he is indicating
to these to whom he is writing, indicating to you and I, for
after all this is written to us, the weakness of our nature. We are but children. We are but
children. We are but children. Children
in the grace of God. Children in the kingdom of God.
Children of God in this world. Children are weak. Children need
constant care. Children need continual discipline. Children need constant guidance. Children, children. Now, John
says, I'm writing to you that you send not. Everything I've told you about
the blood of Christ. God's faithfulness. God's truth. Everything I've told you about
our union with the Lord Jesus and our fellowship with the triune
God in Christ and our fellowship with one another. Everything
I have said, I said to you because I want you not to say it. But now he says. And if any man
say it, if any man say it, the gentle hand of this beloved disciple
uses mild, tender terms. He puts the matter as a possible
supposition. He writes as though it were an
astonishing thing that someone who has experienced God's grace,
who's experienced so much mercy, love and kindness from God should
sin against him. And yet John very well knew that
all God's saints do sin. He's already declared if we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. Now, understand. Understand my brothers and sisters
what the Spirit of God here teaches us Though we are washed in the precious
blood of Christ Though we are born again by God's Holy Spirit
Given a new nature made new creatures in Christ Jesus though all believing
men and women all who trust the Lord Jesus are No matter how
young, no matter how old, no matter how young in the faith
or how experienced in the faith, all who are born of God, all
who are washed in the blood of Christ are completely justified,
sanctified, accepted of God. Nothing can change that. And
yet sinners still. I don't have to prove that to
you. I don't have to prove that to
you. Nobody has to prove it to you. I'm just going to remind
you of it. Yes. God's people are different
from others. For the Bob read back in the
office, first Corinthians chapter six, and Paul speaks of those
who will not inherit the kingdom of God, effeminate abuses of
themselves, of mankind, thieves, covetous idolaters, adulterers,
and so on. And then he uses a rather strange
phrase for Paul. He says, and such were some of
you. That's where we were when God
saved us by his grace. That's what we were when he called
us. But Brother Don, you keep telling us we're sinners still.
Yes, but sinners somewhat different from those who do not know God.
And I want to talk to you a little bit about the difference. And
then I'll come back to this matter of us recognizing that we are
sinners still. God's children, unlike the unbelieving,
no longer love sin. Sin to the believer is not a
light trifling thing. It is not something we think
of lightly, something we experience lightly or something we speak
of lightly. Sin with the believer. Is the
greatest horror of our soul. It is not dejected from our nature,
but it is despised. Sin fights for dominion constantly,
but can never again sit on the throne of the renewed heart.
John Bunyan put it this way. Sin haunts the town of man's
soul. And lurks in the dens and in
the corners to do mischief, but it's no longer honored in the
streets, nor pampered in the palace. The stump remains, but
Dagon's head and hands are broken before the Ark of God. Sin with
the believer is not something that is indulged in with the
brazenness with which the unbeliever indulges in iniquity. Others
wallow in iniquity. They glory in their shame. When
the believer falls into sin, aware of his evil, he's vexed
like Lot in Sodom and mournful. Sinners go to their lust with
unblushed faces, but sin always brings shame to God's saints. The believer's heart's broken
within him. His sin causes him pain. David said, in that time
when God had left him to himself, after the matter of Uriah the
Hittite, he said, my bones waxed old through my crying all the
day long. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. The evil, the consideration of
what I'd done, brings horrid, indescribable pain and shame. The believer doesn't transgress
like the unbeliever with fullness of deliberation and determination.
The wicked devise evil and wickedness upon their beds at night, and
when the sun arises, they perform the evil deed. The believer is
of another mold. He takes poison to his mouth
in his weakness. But he finds no sweetness as
he rolls the morsel over his tongue. God's children do not,
as we might say, chew the cud of their sin. Sin may be sweet
in the mouth, but it's quickly bitter in our stomachs. Unlike
other people, the believer doesn't find enjoyment in his sin, but
misery. He can't sin like others. Thank
God he can't. His conscience pricks him. Your
heart breaks. You bow your head with shame
before God. There's a half-heartedness in
our sins, the believer loves the righteousness that he finds
no strength to perform and hates the evil that he does so easily
and so quickly. And there's this difference. The child of God in the habit
of his life. Does not follow after sin and
rebellion and ungodliness. The ungodly live in the dress
of sin all the time with delight. Rebellion is his regular routine.
The child of God falls, and he may fall seven times or 7,000
times in a day, but the evil that he does is contrary to his
heart and his nature. And, you know, to the hog wallowing
in the mire is his pleasant way of life. Sheep can't stand it. The believer lives continually
in this world, in this evil nature of sin, and he can't stand what
he is and what he does. Now, let me return to what I
said in the beginning. At best. We are sinners still. We know ourselves to be sinners
from the imperfection and the wickedness of our nature. We
are, as Isaiah said, all together as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are but filthy rags. The best faith If I can
use such language, the highest degree of sanctification to which
any believer might attain, the most consecrated life, the most
devoted of men, the most devoted saint on this earth,
in all that he does and in all that he is, is fit for nothing
but hell. in himself. You and me too. You and me too. What's more,
we must acknowledge that we are constantly encumbered with this
mass of evil every day in the tenor of our lives. You see, Those overt acts of sin, those
things into which we fall, we find ourselves thinking sometimes, well, I couldn't
do that. And first thing you know, you
find yourself doing what you thought you couldn't do. Or you find yourself thinking
what you never dreamed you could think. and you're overwhelmed
with it. Anyone who says he's without
sin, however, at any moment, in any experience of his life,
is a liar. He's a liar. He's trying to deceive
himself. There is that old man in us that
loves sin. This is what we read of in Romans
chapter seven, when Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I am. Not oh, wretched man that I was.
Oh, wretched man that I am. And yet there is in every believer
a new nature. That which is born of God. A
new man created in righteousness and true holiness. That imparted
righteous nature created by God's grace in the new birth. That
holy thing that's in you that cannot see it. And this new nature,
which cannot sin, this which is born of God, is constantly
at war with the old man, the old man constantly at war with
the new man. So we're like the church as expresses
itself in the song of Solomon. And I'm as two armies, two armies. I've been reading the biography
of John A. Broadus, who started the Louisville
Seminary back in the 1800s and in the midst of Describing Broadus's
life, the writer, Tom Nettles, spends a good bit of time discussing
the history of the Confederacy. Our nation, one continent. Here we are living together now.
Suddenly the nation is two armies, each seeking for dominance, each
seeking for control. Constantly war brother against
brother father against son at war with one another what a horrid
horrid Shedding of blood there was because of that war civil
war. Oh But there's civil war in my
soul every day with myself war with my nature the new nature
and the old and each of us Have our own distinct, peculiar infirmities. That which Alan Kidby may not
be as much inclined to may roar like a lion in Don Fortner and
just the other way around. We constantly struggle with this
old man called Sid. David said, he said, I looked
at my neighbor. His eyes bug out with fatness.
He never has any sickness. His children are all sitting
at his table, his sons and his daughters-in-law and his grandchildren
and great-grandchildren. Everything's wonderful for him.
And here I am, God's servant. My house is full of rebels. And
I have constant grief. And I said to myself, I've washed my hands in innocence.
And let me give you a paraphrase of that. What good does it do
me to serve God? What benefit is it? Look at him. His eyes bug out with fatness.
And here I am with leanness of soul. And he said, I would have
said that, but I didn't dare, lest I offend against the generation
of God's children. And then I went into the house
of God. And I saw that God set my neighbor in slippery places. He fattened him like a stalled
ox to be slaughtered. I was envious at the prosperity
of the weak. And he turned to God and said,
I have been as a beast before you. As a beast before you. Whom have
I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. When my heart and my flesh fail
me, the Lord takes me up. Oh, what wicked resides in you
and in me. I stress this for myself and
for you because you and I need to be reminded all the time. Merle Hart sends your name, sends
your game, sends your shame. Same is true of Don Fort. my wife and yours. That's it. See. Well, why is this so heavily
stressed in scripture? Why are we constantly reminded
of this? To teach us that salvation is by God's free grace alone. To teach us. To be kind, tender,
sympathetic, and understanding to our fallen, erring brothers
and sisters. God, forgive the harshness with
which we treat your blood-bought children. Forgive the harshness
with which we think of your redeemed people. Forgive the harshness
with which we speak of those who are loved of God with an
everlasting love. Well, he ought not to have done
that. Well, when he does, you need
to go pick him up and help him. When your brother falls, he doesn't
need to be kicked by you. He needs to be picked up by you. He doesn't need to be spoken
of evil by you. He needs to be spoken to tenderly
by you. These things are given to us
constantly. To make us know salvation by God's free grace. To teach
us to be kind, gentle, compassionate with fallen brothers and sisters.
And to teach us that we need an advocate with the Father.
To teach us that we need an intercessor in heaven. All right, here's
the second thing. I'll speak briefly about this,
but it's full of comfort. Hear me well. Our sins do not
deprive us of our interest in Christ. Let me put it a little more clearly. Our sins, be they ever so grievous,
ever so vile, ever so horrid, Our sins deprive us of nothing
in our Savior. Oh, you can't tell people that.
If you do, it'll make them want to go out and live like hell.
Do you know the only people in the world who think like that
are lost religious folks? The only people in the world.
The only people in the world, I don't know a better illustration
of what I'm saying. I've told you this before, but
I don't know a better illustration. I've just got the one daughter.
And Rex, when all said and done, I was a pretty good daddy. I
was a pretty good daddy. There's not anything on this
earth I wouldn't do for that girl. I'd lay down my life for her
without thinking about it. Don't have any question about
that. I devoted my life to her good. I spent my life taking
care of her, training her, helping her. She knows, she knows my
love for her. Don't have any question about
that. Suppose she were to say to you, you're sitting down at
her table sometime, Mark, your wife and Doug and Faith sitting
down and just chatting and she's, well, you know, my daddy loves
me so much. have always behaved pretty good,
but I think I'm going to start doing what I can to break his heart,
to shame his name, bring reproach on him. If you're smart, you'd
call somebody and have it put in a loony bin. No human being
thinks like that, except a self-righteous religionist who thinks he's good
and righteous. And the reason he thinks as he
does is he's motivated not by the love of Christ that constrains
God's elect, but by the fear of the law and the terror of
judgment and the hope of reward. And he betrays his own heart
when he says, well, if that's the case, I can go out and live
like I want to. Oh, that's how you want to live. Not me. Not me. Now, Jonathan, I'm either
telling you the truth or I'm lying to you through these teeth.
No in between ground. I don't want to see it. Not inwardly, not outwardly,
not inward, not in thought, not indeed. My greatest aspiration
My greatest aspiration is freedom from sin. Freedom from what I am by nature. But this I fully understand. If any man said. We have an advocate. With the father. We fall and we may fall into
dreadful, sorrowful transgressions, but there cannot by any possibility
be anything to tear us from our savior's love. Nothing can tear us from his
hands. Nothing can tear us from his
heart. Repeated crimes awake our fears
and justice hard with frowns appears. But in the Savior's
loving face, sweet mercy smiles and all is grace. These are certain characters,
certain characters by which our Lord Jesus is revealed. and you
take away or deny the fact that I'm a sinner, I cannot claim
Christ as mine. It's only as a sinner that I
can look to Christ as my advocate. It's only as a sinner that I
can trust Christ as my savior. It's only as a sinner that I
can trust Christ as my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. I tell you plainly, The Lord
Jesus Christ will not forsake his fallen sheep. He will not
leave his erring child. God forbid that we should sin.
But when we sin, this is what he says. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. Yes, I'm a sinner. But my brother,
the Lord Jesus, Said go tell my brethren Go tell my brethren. I'm risen from the dead and I'll
meet them by Galilee. Like I said, I would I'm a sinner,
but Christ my husband is my husband still and he says Israel hath
gone a whoring from me but return return For I'm married unto you
I'm a sinner But I'm still a member of his body. He's still my head. I still live in union with him.
Blessed be God. When the members of Christ's
mystical body are diseased, diseased with sin, he doesn't
amputate them. He washes them and heals them. He, in his body, bear our sicknesses
and our diseases. I've looked at that passage in
Matthew so many times, I wonder what does that mean? I know one
thing for sure it means. The Lord God, our Savior. Looks
upon the sins of his people in this world. Not as crimes to
be punished. but as sicknesses and diseases
to be healed. Wondrous grace. Wondrous mercy. Mark it down. This is a fact
revealed in scripture. Revealed everywhere in scripture.
Sinners though we are, we are perfectly justified. Perfectly
sanctified. Perfectly accepted. In Christ
the Beloved, nothing has changed. Oh yes, He hides His face from
us to show us that He frowns upon sin. Yes, He brings us through
times of darkness and trial and heartache to make us know that
the evil that's in us is so contrary to him. But nothing changes in
our relationship with God, our savior. You see, he did not love
us because he saw something good in us. He loved us freely, knowing
full well all that we would be before ever we were born in this
world. He did not call us as holy people. He called us as a sinful people,
knowing full well that there would be nothing in us that he
could look upon with pleasure, except he himself create it and
sustain it. Our God did not redeem us as
a holy people, but as a sinful people, knowing full well that
we could never be made holy, but by the sacrifice of his son. Sin, yes, it mars our enjoyment
of Christ, but it can never do anything to destroy our union
with Christ. And can never deprive us of anything
won for us by Christ Jesus. But how can these things be?
How can that be? How can it be true? that we are
set in steel, and our sin cannot and does not, it does not and
it cannot deprive us of any interest in Christ Jesus. We have an advocate
with the Father. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for
our sins. Oh, my soul rejoice in the mercy
of our God. Christ is our advocate. Advocate. What is that? An advocate
is one who is called alongside of another. He's called alongside
of the one so that he might comfort and help him. An advocate is
a lawyer in court who pleads the cause of the one he represents
in court. The judge with whom our advocate
pleads is the father, his father and ours. But that doesn't change
the court. God's just and as just as he
will not be it. A crime is argued against us, a crime deserving the sentence
of death. and the advocate steps forward and he intercedes. He takes up
the calls of his client and pleads the cause. Our advocate is one
in our nature, one in our flesh, so he takes up the calls with
sympathy, with passion, with love for his own. Our advocate
is the Christ, God's anointed one. The one that God provides,
the one God appointed, the one God accepted. He is Jesus Christ,
the righteous. He. He performed righteousness
for us. By his obedience to the law of
God, as our representative, he brought in everlasting righteousness. And that righteousness he freely
bestows upon us and creates in us in the new birth. And when
he pleads for us, he cannot plead our innocence. He cannot plead the extenuating
circumstances of our transgressions. But what then does he plead?
His righteousness. His propitiation. He pleads for
the non-imputation of sin. He pleads for us continually.
He pleads for us on a point of justice the court cannot deny. Thy bleeding wounds He bears. They pour effectual prayers. He's our advocate. Look here,
Father. Justice has been satisfied. Sin has been punished. Atonement
has been made. And the Lord God smiles on us
continually for His plea is always effectual. His plea is just for
me. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The
bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my
surety stands, my name is written on his hands. And he is the propitiation
for our sins. The propitiation. The justice
satisfying sacrifice. That word propitiation is found
three times in the New Testament. It's found here and it's found
in Romans chapter 3. It's found in Hebrews chapter
9. In the other two places, it's translated mercy seat. But why
is it translated propitiation here? Because the mercy seat
was that place between the sinner and God where blood was sprinkled,
covering God's broken law. And the blood propitiated God. The blood propitiated an angry
God. The blood satisfied offended
justice. The blood God looks at and says,
enough. Enough. Enough. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the justice satisfying
atonement for our sins. Amen.