If you would turn with me to
1 John, I thought it may be a good idea to go ahead and read chapter
1, even though we're actually doing the study in chapter 2.
Just 10 verses here. As we know, this was written
by the apostle John, the same apostle that wrote the Gospel
of John. And he starts out very much the
same way as he did in the gospel that bears his name. He says
in verse one of chapter one, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've
looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life,
the speaking of Christ. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and we bear witness, and we show unto you
that eternal life. Never forget salvation is in
a person. Salvation is in Christ. Him alone,
He is eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. And that which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you." That's the message of God's preachers
declaring the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation is in Him and Him
alone. That you may have also, may have
fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father. and with his son Jesus Christ. And these things write 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. And 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'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. In chapter 2, verse
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. That was the verse that we looked
at last week. Now we know that all men, by
nature, are in the same predicament. Certain men and women, the Scripture
declares that God chose before the foundation of the world and
made His own. And as God revealed to you, His
Son, He reveals to sinners that that's
exactly what they are. They come short of the glory
of God. And He gives them a desire for
a Redeemer. If God doesn't give you a desire
for a Redeemer, you'll perish in your sin. Last week we discussed
who it is that makes the difference. Who makes the difference? God
does. God always has. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do you have that you haven't received? And if
you've received it, why do you glory in it? Man has nothing
to glory in. Sin is the only thing that we
can call our own. We glory in the one who lived,
died, and rose again for our sin, Christ. And Him crucified
is our message. So we know that all have sinned
and come show the glory of God. So when John says here in chapter,
I mean, chapter two, verse one, he says, if any man sin, now
that, as we looked at last week, that, that he didn't write that
as if it should be a surprise if any man sinned. He had just
said in chapter one that we've all sinned. If we say we hadn't
sinned, we make God a liar. What he is saying here and what
that word in verse one means, if any man sinned, would probably
be better translated, though any man sinned, or in case any
man sinned, or even When we sin, we have an advocate. That's the meat of the message
right there. Who are the we in this verse?
Why, He calls us little children. This, like all the letters of
the New Testament, the epistles were written to believers. written
to little children, those who have like-minded precious faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice this, that we don't have
to search for an advocate. We don't have to search for one,
we have one. John says, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. An advocate is known by most
people as a legal representative, an attorney, so to speak, a lawyer. He's one who pleads the case
of another. Now there's no earthly advocate,
dear friends, who can rightly plead our case. All earthly advocates
are guilty. of the same things that we are.
No, our advocate is one of a kind. There's none like Him. He is
Jesus Christ, what the righteous. That's part of His name, right?
Jesus Christ, the righteous, the only righteous one. That little particular word,
the, that separates Him from all the rest. He is the righteous. You see, our crime is sin. Sin
is what we are. We sin because we're sinners.
And the scriptures are clear that the wages of sin is death. We have no righteousness. Matter of fact, the scripture
is clear on that. It says that our righteousness
is as filthy rags. Sure not worth speaking of, much
less trying to present before God as some kind of appeasement
of His justice. No, no. In God's court of justice,
first the law of God testifies against us. We looked at that
last week. I stand before a righteous judge
and the first to stand against me is the law of God. The law
of God says he's never kept me in his life. He's offended me
completely. Oh, he did okay in a few areas,
but he offended in several points, and you know if he offended in
even one point, he's guilty of the whole law. Well, then my
mind and my heart bear witness against me. They stand to testify
against me, and my heart says I'm desperately I'm wicked, I'm
deceitful above all things. And my mind says, I'm carnal
against the things of God. I can't be subject to it. Or
my case is not looking too good in God's divine court of justice. And then God Almighty Himself
stands and says, I must say before the court that against me and
me only has He sinned and done this evil in my sight. that I
might be justified when I speak against Him. He deserves nothing
but death, God Himself. Oh, I tell you, right as the
Lord is, God of heaven and earth is about to hammer that gavel
of justice and send me to my deserved end, which is death
and condemnation, my advocate stands. He stands and he says, Father,
I died for this man. I died for this man. And he says
those two words that I so longed to hear, not guilty, not guilty. You see, in order to be reconciled
to God, dear friends, we must have a perfect righteousness. Our advocate is that one. So much so that his name, as
I said, is called Jesus Christ, the righteous. The only way to
obtain the perfect righteousness we need is in the substitution
of the one who is perfectly righteous. What is that scripture we quote
most every time we meet? Our Lord who knew no sin. He
knew no sin. Was made to be sin for us. That we might be made what? The
righteousness of God in Him. That's my only hope. That's your
only hope as we stand before God Almighty. No one else can
plead our case. better than our advocate, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse two. He, Christ,
He's the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. Now the word propitiation
is defined as a means of appeasing. It means an atoning sacrifice. It means to cover, to pardon,
to reconcile, God's angry with the wicked every day, the scriptures
say. But in Christ, He is appeased. Our great advocate is appeased
God. He's satisfied God's justice.
The great advocate, our mediator, our substitute, He pleads our
case. And in order for the wrath of
God to be appeased, dear friend, His justice and His holiness
must be satisfied. Christ appeased and satisfied
God's justice. God's justice proclaims that
the guilty cannot go free. And yet Exodus 34 says, God will
by no means clear the guilty, yet he keeps mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. What a merciful God. What a merciful
God. The innocent one. The righteous
one. Jesus Christ lived, died, satisfied
all the claims of divine justice and rose again standing in His
people's place. This is how we the guilty are
cleared. It's not by works of righteousness
that we've done. It's in the substitution of the
righteous one. Only in Christ can God truly
forgive sin and be both just and justifier. That's amazing,
isn't it? God, His justice is not compromised. And yet, He justifies us just
as if I had never sinned. I stand perfectly holy and righteous
before God Almighty. And when John says Christ is
the propitiation for our sins, he first of all speaks as a Jew
to other Jews. But this salvation is not just
for the Jews. We've been studying Romans on
Sunday morning and we've seen very clearly that salvation and
the keeping of the law wasn't for the Jews. That it was by
mercy and grace and that the gospel was brought to the Gentiles
also. And I read several writers on
this, and according to Matthew Henry, nothing is more common
in the New Testament or in Jewish writings, I should say, than
to call the Gentiles the world. To call them the whole world
are the nations of the world. Salvation is not just for the
generation of John who wrote this. It's for Old Testament
believers. How were Old Testament believers
saved? The same way that we are. They saw Christ in types and
pictures. And salvation is for future generations. Those out of every people, tribe,
and kindred, and tongue that see Christ and Him alone as their
salvation. Now, Revelation 5-9, it says,
they sung a new song. Thou art worthy to take the book
and open the seals thereof, for thou was slain. That's our hope,
that Christ was slain in our place. And has redeemed us to
God by thy blood. And then it says these words,
out of, out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation.
Now, let me ask you, is Christ an advocate and a mediator for
unbelievers? Is he an advocate and a mediator
and a substitute for those that spit on him and say, I will not
have this man rule over me? If Christ died for the whole
world, will not the whole world be saved? And when he says here that he's
the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also the
sins of the whole world, does he mean the whole world here?
Did Christ die for everyone? If He did, there's no need of
hell. There's no one in hell for whom
Jesus Christ died. I can assure you of that. That
is blasphemy against God. And men want to say that Christ
died for everyone and it's the sinner's choice whether he goes
to heaven or hell, but men cannot come. Men will not come to Christ that
they might have life. And here, friends, the whole
world means the Gentiles and every generation of believers
who hears and trusts Christ and the Gospel. What did Christ say
in the garden in John 17? I pray not for the world, but
for the ones that Thou hast given Me. Oh, don't ignore the Scriptures,
dear friends. Christ chose a people before
the foundation of the world. He gave them to Christ. And our
Lord said, I won't lose a one. Won't lose a one. There are none
in hell for whom Christ died. Oh, they're lost sinners and
they're safe sinners. We're all sinners. We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. Scripture's playing about that,
isn't it? But as we will see in verses
three and four, they're lost sinners or safe sinners. Sinners,
nevertheless. Look at verse 3 of 1 John chapter
2, and hereby we do know that we know him. I had a friend ask
me one time, how do you know you know him? I said, I just
know that I know. But he goes on to say, if we
keep his commandments. Well, I thought you said it wasn't
by works. It's not. Not saved by works. Saved by grace through faith,
that's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. You see, an elect child of God,
a believer, a chosen sinner knows that he knows Christ when he
keeps His commandments out of joy and out of love and out of
admiration for the One who gave Himself for him. You see, throughout
our earthly journey, dear friends, we as believers, we struggle.
We struggle with inwards sin, outwards sin, doubts, fears,
trials, attacks from Satan. And we can sure identify with
those words of John Newton when he wrote, "'Tis a point I long
to know, often gives me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or
no? Am I His or am I not? Oh, I'd be lying to you to tell
you that I don't doubt myself every day. But friends, when
I look to Christ, it's not in my faithfulness. It's in His
faithfulness. And when I look to Him and Him
alone, there does my hope lie. There is my assurance. Christ
died for the ungodly. That's where my hope is. But
my problem is I take my eyes off Him like Peter did when he
started walking on that water. He took off real good and he
got his eyes off Christ and on the winds and the seas and he
began to sing. That's me most every day. But if I can by His grace keep
my eyes on Him, there does my assurance lie. The Apostle John
says we discern daily by experience that we're coming to know Him. Do we keep in mind honestly,
now let's be honest with ourselves, do we keep in mind and observe
and practice the words of Christ in regard of faith? What about love and forgiveness
and humility? How about works of charity and
kindness, giving, telling others about Him? Is that part of our
daily walk? You see, immediately when we
keep His commandments, we want to go back to the moral and ceremonial
law where we've got to do this and wash our hands and do this
right and that right and can't eat this, can't eat that, observe
certain things. That's not what this is talking
about. Christ said on these two commandments hangs the whole
law. You're trying to keep all the
law? You can't do it. The law was never given for you
to keep. It was given to show you the
knowledge of sin and your inability of keeping it. The law was given to bring you
to Christ. These hang the whole law. Love
the Lord thy God with all you have. and love your neighbor
as yourself. You want to keep His commandments?
Do those two first. Those two. Hang all the law and
the prophets. I'll tell you this, if we know
Him, He's the most important thing to us in our lives. Now I have to ask myself often,
are these the things of real value and urgency to me? Oh,
I'm so easily tossed to and fro. Let's just be honest with ourselves
for a moment. If we truly know Him, this is
the most important thing in our lives. So maybe it would be good for
us to ask ourselves again and again, do I really know Christ? Is His kingdom my chief desire? Is the furtherance of His gospel
the most important thing to me? Do I keep His commandments out
of love and admiration for Him? Or am I so wrapped up in me that
I can't think of anything else? And let me tell you this to give
you some hope. I'm not preaching a message of
condemnation. Christ gave Himself for you. And even in your sin and your
unfaithfulness and your unbelief, He died for you, the ungodly. Christ came to the world to save
who? Sinners. The word know, and I need to
hurry, the word know is used in scripture in several senses.
Sometimes it means to acknowledge. The sheep know His voice and
follow Him. That means they acknowledge His
voice as the voice of being their shepherd and they cheerfully
follow Him wherever He goes. The word know also means to believe. To know and to believe are sometimes
used in the Scripture as interchangeable words. To know Him. To believe Him. Same meaning. And in this sense, we must know
Christ. We must believe Him. We must
trust Him. We must attribute all to Him. All to Him. With all our heart,
soul, and strength. If we believe on Him, we'll lean
the whole burden of our everlasting destiny upon His finished work. Isn't that right? We know how
this thing is going to come out, don't we? To know Him is to acknowledge
Him and to believe in Him, on Him, trust Him. The word know
often means experience. It said of our Lord that He knew
no sin. And that is to say that He never
experienced sin, Ray. Never experienced it. He knew
no sin. He never was a sinner. Yet, He
was made to be sin for us. I can't understand that. That's
over my head. But I know this, He was made
to be sin for me, though He knew no sin, though He never sinned.
It is impossible for Him to sin as it is for me to do what's
right most of the time. He's made to be sin. Now listen,
salvation is not an experience. Salvation is in a person. I hear people say all the time,
I got saved. How do you know you got saved?
Well, I just, this feeling came over me. I heard a voice, a small still
voice. I saw something, I felt something,
I experienced something. Now believers will experience
some things, but let me tell you what they are. They'll experience
His power and pardoning. Have you ever experienced the
power of His pardoning of sin? Has God ever given you a glimpse
in your heart and showed you that before God you had no sin? Oh, that's an experience, isn't
it? His power of love over our heart,
have you experienced that? His reigning power in subduing
our passions, controlling our destiny. Have you ever experienced
His comforting power? His enlightening power in teaching
us more about His love and His grace for us as undeserving as
we are? Oh, those are experiences that
a man and woman don't forget. In chapter 5 of this book, in verse
3, it says, For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments,
and His commandments are not grievous. His commandments are
not grievous. His commandments are a delight.
We delight to do His commandments because of what He has done. Out of love, out of admiration. The love of Christ and the words
of Christ are our rule of life. And to know the Lord is to commune
with Him. Job 22 says, acquaint thyself
with God. Be at peace with Him. What does
that mean? Well, it means to commune with Him. It means to
get into a friendship and fellowship with Him. With God? Hey, we can
now come boldly into the throne of grace because of what Christ
has done for us. Greater love than this has no
man than he that lay down his life for the brethren. Does that
know what Christ has done for us? He's a friend closer than a friend. He's a brother closer than a
brother. And it's so needful, friends, that every believer
should know Christ intimately. That's what I desire. Every child
of God should acquaint themselves by speaking with Him in prayer. Praise by laying bare their heart
to His heart. You ever just get along with
God and just pour out your heart? There's nothing like it. God
hears prayer and He answers prayer according to His will and purpose.
Don't always give me what I want because that would be detrimental
to me. But He always gives me what's best. He works all things
after the counsel of His own will. And He causes all things
to work together for my good. We commune with Him and we confess
to Him our hidden sins and shame and disgust. And He's faithful
and just to forgive us is what 1 John 1-9 says. He shows us by divine revelation
that our sins are gone forever. Have you ever heard such good
news? And when you really, really think
about it, to know Christ is very much like truly knowing anyone
else, except infinitely more profitable to us. When we make
friends, we make a genuine effort to get to know them, don't we?
Some of you have become dear friends of mine. We've both made
a genuine effort to get to know one another better. And when
you truly know and truly care for someone, they're an intimate
friend to you. You trust them and you love them.
You can't trust and love somebody you don't know. You esteem them
and you're on good and confident terms with them. Ray, you tell
me something, I'll take it to the bank. I know you mean it.
I love you, brother. We not only wave and speak to
each other when we see each other out, but we go to each other's
homes and we sit down there in complete comfort and we're not
hesitant to share what's on our mind and on our hearts. We ask
for advice maybe on weighty matters. Why? Because we love one another. We care about one another. We're
confidants, aren't we? It seems that you and your friend
both care about each other more than you do yourselves. That's
the way true friends are. They're more concerned about
their friend than themselves. Do you have a friend like this?
Well, I'm attempting the best I know how to show you one tonight
that's infinitely above any and better than a friend that I could
ever be to Him. Oh, may God help us to see it
and to see it more. These are the terms that our
soul must be on with Christ our Lord. If not, we miss the boat.
My, what an intimate relationship we can have with Christ our Lord. Cast all your care on Him because
He careth for you. And you've heard me say this
before, that doesn't mean he just cares about you. That means
he cares for you. When my dad was dying, I didn't
only care about him, but I moved in and I cared for him. If he
needed something to eat, I made sure he had it. When he needed
his medicine, I made sure he got it. That's what that verse
means. He cares for you. Well, it's
just a bouchee cares for you. You see, we must not be merely
acquainted with Christ as a historic person of whom we read about
in the Scriptures. He's a real person. He's a real
man. And He's one whom we can speak
with in spirit and commune with in heart and be united with in
the bonds of love. Our friends, we must know him,
his very person, and trust him as a real Lord, a real brother,
and a real friend to us. We pour out our hearts to him. We ask for his help and his guidance. Do we in this sense know Him?
Well, I tell you, there's a great and a grave difference between
knowing about Christ and knowing Christ. We can know a lot about
many great men, can't we? And yet not know them personally.
May we not make that mistake. It'll never save a soul to know
about Christ without truly knowing Him personally. Truly entering
in to what He has done for the chosen of God. Why, He's my shepherd. I'm His sheep. He's the great
physician. I'm the one that's sick and needy.
He's my substitute. He did all for me that God required. To know Him. To know Him. In verse 4, and I'm done. He
that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him. You see, the person who says,
I know, and I'm acquainted with Christ in a saving way, but he
has no love for His teachings, for His commandments, for His
sayings. He's not telling the truth. And
the truth of the Gospel is not in him. There are many who say
that they love and know him, but they don't give any evidence
that it's so. And I can enter personally into
the words of John Newton that I read earlier. It tis a point
I long to know. And often does give me anxious
thought. Do I really love the Lord or
no? Am I His or am I not? Well, I
know this, I'll never be able to grab a hold of that like I
should unless I look to Him and Him alone, because that's where
my confidence lies. It's not at all in me. And if
any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new person.
2 Corinthians 5, 17. Old things have passed away and
behold, all things have become new. We're a bond slave to Christ,
and our whole life and desire is to become more deeply and
intimately acquainted personally with Him. That's our biggest
desire, that I might know Him and know Him more. And we're always going to fall
short this side of glory. If a man says that he's arrived
or attained perfection, he's a liar. Paul said, I haven't attained.
He said, but this thing I do. I press toward the mark of the
high calling in Christ. I press, and I press on, and
I press on. By God's grace, that's what we
do, isn't it? We press on. The beauty of salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ is the fact that though we sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. There's only one that can plead
the case of the sinner, and that's the sinless one. Christ the righteous. Oh, may God help us to see Him
and love Him more and more. Amen.