1 John 2. Let me read the text
again to you in verses 1 and 2. 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 perpetuation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. These things write
I unto you." And he refers us back, and this is so important
to understand this, to chapter 1. These things, he said, I'm
writing to you for a reason. And if you look back here in
chapter 1, in verse 3, that which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you. So, he is writing something to
these Christians, that He wants them to understand why He's writing
to them. And it really opens up our text
here in chapter 2 and verse 1. These things I write unto you,
and you see here in verse 1, let's go through this chapter
quickly, and look what He had written unto these Christians,
because it's so important. These things I write unto you.
Here in verses 1 and verse 2, he writes unto them of the incarnation
of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he says in
verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, with our naked eyes,
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word
of life. For the life was manifested,
manifested in the flesh, and we seen it, and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us." John said, the first thing that
I wrote unto you about was the incarnation of the Son of God.
That we are eyewitnesses of His taking to Himself our flesh. He had a real body and a real
soul. John said, I leaned on His breast. We handled Him. I
looked into His eyes. We heard His voice. And he calls
Him the Word of Life. Jesus of Nazareth that you can
handle and see Him. He said He's the Word of Life.
He was with the Father before the world was, before all worlds. He's from everlasting. And He
was made flesh. and tabernacled and dwelt among
us." And John tells them here in verse 3 now, he said, I'm
telling you this for two reasons. One, in verse 3, that which we've
seen and heard concerning this incarnation, we declare unto
you That you may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son. That you may have fellowship
with us. You may have communion with us. And not only with us, but with
the Father, whom we have communion and fellowship with. That's the
first reason, he said, that you may have this fellowship with
us. And notice the second thing in chapter 4. These things have
I written unto you, that your joy may be full, that you may
have fellowship with us, And that your joy may be full. The joy of the Lord may dwell
in your heart in its fullness. You know what joy is. Joy is
the product. Joy is a product. And it's a
product of knowledge. Knowledge that has been obtained
through faith. And what greater knowledge could
you and I have than this, that we have fellowship. with the
Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. List this passage
of Scripture. The Lord Jesus was speaking of
this fellowship and this communion, and here's what He said in John
chapter 14. He's talking about going away
and sending back the Spirit. And He said, "...in that day
you shall know..." You shall know. Now that's important. "...you
shall know that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in
you." You'll know that. What a blessed knowledge. That's
the fellowship that he's talking about. That's what brings joy. That's what brings the fullness
of joy, to live in this experience of fellowship. I'm in the Father,
and you're in Me, and I'm in you. He that hath My commandments
and keeps them, He it is that loves Me, And he that loves Me
shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him. I will openly
love him. I'll make him know that I love
him. I'll manifest it to his heart. I'll leave him without
any doubt. Though he's unworthy, I'll make
him to know. I love him. I'll show it to his
understanding. If a man loves Me, he will keep
My words, and listen to this, My Father will love him. And
what he's saying, I'm going to make you to know it. The Father
will love him in such a way and manifest it in such a way, there
will be no doubt about it. He'll know the Father loves him. And listen, we will come unto
him and make our abode with him. That's this fellowship. John
said our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. And
living in this experience, this fellowship, this communion, it
makes our hearts bubble over with joy. The joy of the Lord. John said, that's why I'm writing
to you about this incarnation, the Son of God. And now he goes
on in verse 5, and look at this. 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. When the Lord wants to reveal
Himself to us, when God wants to represent Himself to us, He
does it like this, God is light. And in Him is no darkness at
all. God is light. In His being, in
His nature, in His attributes, He is light. In truth, in love,
in wisdom, in knowledge, in justice, in His unchanging, unchangeable,
eternal being, God is pure white light. And in Him is not one
spot of darkness. That's our God. I don't think
John is saying here, God is like this. I don't think he's saying
this is a metaphor. I don't think he's saying I'm
speaking to you in symbolic terms. I don't think he's saying God
is like light. I think what he's saying, God
is light. He's pure light. If somebody should ask you what
God is like, what is God in His moral character? In His moral
nature. What's God like? What is He? He's pure light. He's holiness. He's glorious in holiness. There's
no spot in Him at all. What's He like in His truth?
Pure. He is truth. What's He like in
His integrity? There's no spot of hypocrisy
in Him. God is pure. white light. My goodness, what
a way to describe God. That's our God. These things
have I written unto you, John said. And then he goes on in
verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him, and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. It's sort of like we said this
morning about letting no man deceive you. If we profess to
know God, if we profess Him to be our God and our Father, and
yet we walk, and our walk is a walk of perpetual unbelief. Our character is one of immoral. Our understanding is darkened.
We have no idea what God is like in His moral character. We have
no understanding of what we are in our fallen state. We have
no understanding of Christ and salvation and life that's in
Him? Then we're in darkness, John
said, because God cannot fellowship with darkness. He's such a God
that He cannot. And if we say that we have fellowship
with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
He said in verse 7, 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 God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. God is light. Christ said, I'm light. He is
God. He is light. And John is saying
here, we walk in Him. We walk in that light. We walk
in Him. And then we walk in His light,
and His nature of light is within us. His light is within us. It's shining there. It's shining
in our hearts. Shining through His Word. Shining
through His Gospel. Shining by His Holy Spirit. And out of this walk, we have
these two things. This fellowship. and this intercourse. These things I write unto you,
that you may have fellowship with us." And our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. And
He said, I write this unto you for this reason, that you may
know this, that daily you are cleansed from all your sins. Now, ain't this amazing? If we
walk in the light as He is in the light, I want you to know
this. We have fellowship one with another.
I have fellowship with you. You have fellowship with me.
We love each other. We commune with each other. And
we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son. And the blood
of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us. I tell you, the Christians
are paradoxical. Here He is walking in the light.
He is walking with the living God. Communion with God and with
His Son. And yet John says here that even
though he's walking in the light, he's a poor sinner and daily
in need of being cleansed from his sin. Now that's a paradox,
isn't it? And here in chapter 1 in verses
8 through 10, he's going to tell us something about what it does
not mean to walk in the light. And one of the things it does
not mean to walk in the light, it doesn't mean we've reached
this state of absolute holiness and perfection. It doesn't mean
that somehow or another this old root of sin has been taken
out and cast out. John said it's right the opposite.
Now you would think if a man was walking with God who is pure
light, You would think somehow or another he would have been
made holy, I mean so holy. How can God fellowship with us?
Like we are. Well, some people say you've
got to reach a state of perfection. Some have been awful tempted.
Even John Wesley got off into that area at one time. that men
had this second benefit, this second work, and somehow or another
he had this root of sin and got rid of this nature altogether,
and now you could walk with God. John said it's right the opposite. If you think that, he said, you've
erred already. Look what he says in verse 8.
If we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. What does it mean to walk with
God in this light and commune with Him? Well, it doesn't mean
we're perfect. It doesn't mean we have no sin.
It doesn't mean we're not sinners anymore. In verse 9, if we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say we've not sinned,
We make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. If we're walking in the light,
we acknowledge that we're sinners. And we don't hesitate to confess
our sins. And we live in the faith that
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from sin. To walk in the light means we
are in absolute agreement with God on the way in which we, poor
sinners, can walk with Him, the living God, who is light. We're
sinners and He's holy. We walk with Him in Christ. And His blood cleanses us from
all sins. That's a wonderful experience,
isn't it? This is the way every child of God walks with the Father.
It's a wonderful experience. Now, chapter 2 and verse 1, these
things have I written unto you for this reason. All other reasons,
whatever motive I had in writing these things unto you, these
things I've written unto you. And I want you to use these things
as a motive. not to sin. See what he said? These things have I written unto
you that they may help you, motivate you not to sin. The Bible is an amazing book.
Did you know that? It deals with us honestly. It deals with us
sincerely and with tender consideration of our fallen and sinful state. It does that. But because it
does, it opens itself up to be abused by us if you and I aren't
honest and sincere within ourselves. He tells us here that you're
yet sinners. He says that you're not without
sin. If any man says that he has not sinned, the truth is
not in him. And then he encourages us to
confess our sins with the promise that we have forgiveness of.
And now he turns right around and he says, don't sin. Ain't that amazing? Strive against sin. Don't give
in to sin. Pray against sin. Watch against
sin. You and I have been walking in
this light, and if we have, as we've been talking about it here,
we know exactly what He's saying, don't we? We know exactly. I understand exactly what He's
saying. Even though He tells me that I'm still a sinner, and
He tells me to own up to it, He tells me to confess it, He
assures me that I have forgiveness of it, and then turns right around
and says, Don't sin. I understand what he's saying,
don't you? I don't have to explain that any further. You understand
perfectly what he's saying. Do you ever get ashamed that the
Lord has dealt with you in such tender consideration for your
depraved state? And you turn around and give
in to sin without a struggle? Without fighting against it?
without setting up a battle against it. No, John says this, and God knows,
brothers and sisters. God knows. He knows if we're
struggling against it. He knows if we're giving in too
much. God knows. John says, use what I'm telling
you for good motives. Use it to motivate you not to
sin. Let me give you three quick reasons
why you and I should not sin. These things I write unto you
that you sin not. Sin not. First of all, don't
sin for this reason. How often has sin, our sin, robbed
us of the assurance of our salvation? You and I have been talking about
walking in the light. Light and darkness, what that
light is, truth, honesty, sincerity, integrity, holiness. Light as
opposed to darkness. Could we earnestly walk in darkness? Could we fall into darkness and still maintain an assurance
of salvation? The old Puritans used to say
that That obedience and assurance were so vitally linked that you
couldn't separate them. And the Bible proves that out.
He's the author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him. Today,
if you will, hear His voice, harden not your heart. Don't harden your heart against
Him. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fat of the lamb.
See how obedience and assurance goes together. Don't see them. Don't see them. How many have had full assurance
and walked in the fullness of joy in their hearts, and because
of their sin, they lost that. They lost the joy. They lost
the assurance that they had. My sheep hear My voice, and they
follow Me. And if we're not following, or
if we're falling a long way off, and we haven't got our eyes fixed
upon Him where we can clearly see Him because we've drifted
too far behind, and He's not clearly set in the eyes of our
faith, yeah, we'll lose some of Sheriff. They just go hand
in hand, don't they? Secondly is this, don't sin for
this reason, because sin grieves the Holy Spirit. They rebelled
against Him and vexed His Holy Spirit. The sin that David committed
grieved the Lord. That's why you find him in Psalms
chapter 51, and this is what he's praying. Cast me not away
from Your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation." Oh, to grieve the Lord. Sin grieves
Him. The sin of His children grieves
Him. Don't sin. You and I aren't of those who
say you can be a child of God today and a child of the devil
tomorrow. We don't believe any such thing
as that. But we do believe this, that you and I can so sin against
the Lord and grieve Him and cause Him to hide His face from us
that we'll go so cast down, so discouraged with a loss of joy
and assurance if He's not pleased to reveal His face and pick us
up again. We may continue there a lifetime.
Sin not, brothers and sisters. Little children, these things
I write unto you. Sin not. Thirdly, sin not for
this reason. Well, I thought about this this
morning, this last morning, as Clarence read a portion of his
text this morning. It's on Solomon's chapter 5.
And I've been there and you probably have too. The Beloved comes to
the door of the heart. and says, Open to me, my sister,
my dove, my undefiled. And she answers from within,
saying, I've done put off my coat and my shoes. I'm just resting
right now. And she didn't get up and answer
the door. Finally, he puts in his hand through the holes in
the door, and sweet-smelling myrrh is dropping on the handles.
And, oh, she jumps up to open the door, but he's gone. I called
for Him, but He gave me no answer. I sought Him, but I could not
find Him. Sin. Sin. Don't sin, brother. Don't sin. It's not worth it.
It's not worth yielding to it. Endure temptation. Pray against
them. Don't yield. Don't sin. Thirdly
is this, sin not because of the Father's rod. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. He scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth." People have been scourged and it killed them.
Some people have died and went into shock out of scourging in
some of the old days in the old country. Boy, the Father's rod
can be severe. Do you know that? And here's
the thing about it. When He's determined to use it,
we can't stop it. We can't stop Him. That's the
most dreadful thing about His wrath. And you know, so much
of the time, not always, so much of the time, He determines how
severe it is, and He determines its duration. Sometimes He leaves
it up to us. Sometimes through quick repentance,
he lifts his rod quickly. And other times he says, no,
no, I've determined it's going to be severe and it's going to
be for a long, long time. Remember Lot? He made that decision
by the sight of his eyes and not by faith. Never got over that, did he?
Never got over that. The last time we see him, he
was in a cave with his two daughters. And his grandchildren were his
children. The rod of God. David sinned with Bathsheba.
All that sin that he fell into. The Lord said, My rod is going
to never leave your house. I'm going to bring a sword in
your house and it's never going to leave your house, David. It's
going to be severe and it's going to be lasting. He made mention
of it on his bed, didn't He? My family, He said. My poor family.
It ain't in my family like I wish it was. Why, David? It's your
fault. You sinned. And God's rod came. Look at Solomon. Look what he
did. One of the saddest stories in
all the Old Testament. Solomon in his old age, his heart
was led away with many strange women. And the Lord wrenched
right into the kingdom of Israel and tore it apart. Tucked the
northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, and as far as I know,
Larry, never brought them back together again because of his
sin. Solomon's sin. How many successful
preachers have ended a successful ministry because they've fallen
into sin? How many homes, Christian homes,
have been tore apart because of sin? How many churches have
split because of sin? How much good has been lost? How much fruit has been lost
in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ because of sin? There's
a good reason not to sin, because when God sends His rod, it's
severe. And sometimes it lasts long. Little children, these things
I write unto you, that you sin not. Aren't you glad He didn't
stop there? Everything that He said, everything
that I've said, listen to me, please listen, take heed to it.
Put it into practice. Watch against sin. But know this. This is the fact. The old flesh, the old self-righteous
flesh may rise up against it. But here's the fact of the matter.
Somewhere, sometime, for some reason, you're going to sin. It's not going to be something
you've done in your ignorance. It's going to be something you
know about. You know you've sinned, you've done something God says
do not do, or you've omitted something that He tells you to
do, and you know it. You've sinned against God, you've
sinned against His law, you've sinned against His Son, His Spirit,
His people, you've sinned against God. It may not be today, it
may not be tomorrow, but you will sin. Now you'll do it. You'll do it. While at the same
time John said, don't do it, he turns right around and says,
but if any man sin, if any man sin. And I'm glad he does that,
brothers and sisters. He's not excusing sin. He's done
told us not to do it. And he's given us motives to
refrain from it. But he turns right around and
now says, if any man sin, we have an advocate. with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous, an advocate. In the office of the
Lord Jesus Christ, as a high priest, He has this duty, this
special duty, within that office of being an advocate for us. Now, He's always a high priest.
We always go to the Father by Him. We have access to the Father
by Him. He makes our persons accepted.
He makes our prayers accepted. He makes our works accepted. And we always, we must have a
high priest. But Jesus Christ is not always
an advocate for us. He's only an advocate when we've
sinned. That's the only time you need
an advocate. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. What is an advocate? Well, if
you look up the definition, it's simply a lawyer. One who represents
you before the court, before the judge. And you'll notice
this. Everyone that Christ represents
is guilty. Ain't that wonderful? If any
man sin, we have an advocate. If you don't sin, you don't need
an advocate. But if you sin, you're guilty. And it's only the guilty who
have an advocate. Nobody else needs one. One man,
I was reading his account of this, and he says, make sure
your cause is good if you want Christ to plead. Is this a good
cause? I don't think it is, unless somebody
could argue that sin is good. If any man sins, we have an advocate. That's not a good cause. You
don't come to a lawyer and say, I want you to plead for me in
court because I've done some wonderful thing. No, I've been
accused. And I'm guilty. And I want you
to plead my cause before the judge. That's what Jesus Christ
is. He's a pleader before God to
those who have sinned. And brothers and sisters, little
children, somewhere or another you're going to need it. Somewhere or another you're going
to need an advocate to go before the Father and to plead for your
cause. Five quick things about Jesus
Christ as our advocate that I saw in this passage. First of all,
it's said of Him here in verse 1 that He is with the Father. That's an advocate I want. One
who is with the Father. Already with Him. I think all
of us have heard of people going to court, and there they sit. The client is there, and the
lawyer didn't show up. The client is sitting there.
The lawyer is going to plead against him is sitting over here.
The judge is sitting up there with a disappointing look on
his face, and something has happened to the man's lawyer. He's stuck
in traffic. He's overslept. He's got other
business, he's forgot about it, but he's not there. He's not
here to plead your cause. Aren't you glad that Jesus Christ
is ever with the Father? He's never absent from the Father.
He's right there now in the Father's house. He was with the Father
last night in the Father's house. He was in the judge's chamber
with Him. He's always there in the court
where the Father is. He is with the Father. Oh, that's wonderful, brothers
and sisters, to have a lawyer. I had to go to court one time.
The lawyer said, I'll meet you there. And I'll tell you one
thing that was on my mind. Will He be there when I get there?
This lawyer is already there. I send unto my Father, and your
Father. I'm going to heaven." And he's
seated there now at the right hand of God. This word, with
a Father, it simply means alongside. Alongside. Secondly, I notice
this about Jesus Christ as an advocate, and the name that John
uses here. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with a Father, Jesus Christ. Now, why does he use that? Willie
had already used it in chapter 1 and verse 3. Look at this,
"...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." Who is
Jesus Christ, our Advocate? We have an Advocate, Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God. The Son of God is our Lawyer.
And He's standing before the Father, the Judge. You know they
don't allow that in our court system. And you know why, don't
you? You know why. They couldn't allow
that here. It would be favoritism. The Judge,
listening to His Son plead the cause of another man? Is He going
to be prejudiced? Is He going to show favoritism? Our advocate is the Son of God
Himself. And when He pleads our cause,
He's pleading to His Father. Can you imagine the adversary
standing up and saying, I object? Can you imagine that? You object? This is my Son speaking. What
could you possibly object to? That's my Son. I love Him. I adore Him. I love those words
that proceed from His mouth. I'm the judge of all the earth,
and you object to Him? I wouldn't object, would you? Don't you think the devil is
just a little bit afraid too? This is the Son of God pleading
to His Father for one of His little children. I wouldn't object. The Father loves the Son. He
delights in His Son. And His Son is our Advocate.
But notice thirdly this about our Advocate. He's Jesus Christ,
the Righteous. The Righteous. That's a wonderful
thing. Lawyers pretend, and I know all
of it this way, and I'm not trying to paint them all with a broad
brush, but they've got the rules of ethics and things like that. But I'm telling you in general,
the lawyers are crooks. Woe be to you lawyers, you've
taken away a key of knowledge. They're the ones that write the
laws, you know. And you know how they write the
laws? They write the laws in all these gray areas. And you
know why they do that? So you'll have to hire them to
explain it. You hire them to plead that the
law is black. And somebody else hards the other
lawyer to plead that the law is white. So they come together
just to make all of this money. They're crooks, brothers and
sisters. That's just the crux of the matter. They're crooks.
There's a lot of innocent people that have been put in jail because
they didn't have the money to hire a lawyer. And there's a
lot of guilty people free because they did have the money to hire
a lawyer. The lawyers, for the most part,
aren't interested in truth. They're just interested in winning
the case. They're interested in seeing their name in a paper
or getting a higher office. Now that's just the facts of
it. They may or may not admit that, but that's the facts of
it. One of the mess our society is in right now is because of
lawyering. There's a simple way, a very
simple way, if they'd come together and had some character about
them, to say, let's get at the truth of this. Let's lay all
this other stuff aside. If this man is guilty, let us
see if he's guilty. If he's innocent, let us collect
the evidence and present it and get at the truth. They could
do that, couldn't they? But they don't want to do that.
They'd lose their jobs. You wouldn't need many of them. But here comes a lawyer. And
he enters the courtroom. And here sits the judge. And
when this lawyer enters the courtroom, the judge looks at him in admiration. Everybody stands. And they say,
my, what a breath of fresh air. We've never seen a lawyer like
this. He's righteous. He's the just
one. He's the holy one. He's not out
just to pull the wool over the juryman's eyes. He's not out
just to argue a case just to win it. No, he's first and foremost
seeking the truth. He's righteous. He's just. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that
wonderful? In that way, if he's able to
clear a man, he's done it in truth. Not because he's a better
talker or a deceiver. He's righteous. And whatever
he pleads, therefore, must be pleaded in such a way that justice
is satisfied with it. And the Father is pleased with
it. Jesus Christ the righteous. The righteous. And fourthly,
this is said about our Advocate, that He's with the Father, Jesus
Christ the Righteous, and in verse 2, and He is the perpetuation
for our sin. Yes, we've sinned. We've not denied it. If we denied
it, we make God a liar. No, we've sinned. We're guilty.
We're guilty. Christ is the perpetuation. He's
the atoning victim for our sin. And all the judge says to you
is this, how do you plead? And what do you say? I'm guilty. You don't say I'm guilty but...
You don't say I'm guilty but I've repented. You don't say
I'm guilty but I promised to do better. These buts that people don't
want to let go of are not a perpetuation for sins. When the Father says,
are you guilty? We say, guilty, and we shut up. We have nothing to plead. And then our Advocate stands. He's been set in, and now He
stands. And there He stands. And the
Father looks at Him. And he sees the pierced hands
and he sees the hole in his side. And it's as though those wounds
have just been freshly opened up and the blood's been poured
out. He's as a lamb as it had been slain. And the Father looks
to him and says, yes, he's guilty. But there's the pain. There's
the propitiation. There's the atoning victim. And all the charges are dismissed. And all the condemnation and
the guilt is gone. The advocate has pleaded your
cause. Ain't that wonderful? Over in
Zechariah chapter 3, you can go home and read this if you
want to. Joshua the high priest. He had
sinned. He had defiled himself. And he
stood in just the situation like I've explained to you. Stood
before the court of heaven. And he stood there in his filthy
garments. And there was the Lord Jesus
called the angel of God's presence. There he stood. And over here
sat the devil. He was going to plead against
Joshua. And Joshua never said a thing.
You read that whole scene, and Joshua never opens his mouth.
What can he say? The Scripture says he was clothed
in filthy garments. He had nothing to plead. He was
guilty. And then his advocate stood up, and Satan was pleading
against him. Look at him. Look at him. He's
guilty. He's vile. He stained his garment. He should be put in jail. And
all the advocates said, and I rebuke you saying, is this not a brand
plucked out of the burning? And he said, bring a matter and
put it on his head. You wash him and put clothes
on him. And you let him go free. Innocent. Not guilty. before the judge of all the earth.
We have an advocate for the Father. And lastly is this. I love what
he says here, last of all. Not only is he the propitiation,
the atoning victim for our sins, the sins of me, John said, the
sins of Peter and James, the sins of the Jews, But he's a
propitiation for the sins of the whole world, the whole wide
world. John was a Jew, and there was
a time when his understanding was very shallow about Christ
being the propitiation for sins. He thought it was just for the
Jewish nation. He had no idea that Christ was the propitiation
for the Gentile nations too. That's why they were afraid to
go to the Gentiles. What were they going to preach to them?
Christ didn't die for the Gentiles. And the Lord opened their hearts. He gave them understanding. And
here John says now, Christ is the propitiation for our sins
among the Jews, all God's elect among the Jews. And no matter
wherever you find His elect, the whole world, there's one
propitiation for them, too, and that's Christ. And you and I
here this evening, what, almost 2,000 years later, we're poor
dead dog Gentiles. John, we've sinned. Oh, I've
sinned. What can I do? You have an Advocate
for the Father, the same one that I have. Because He is the
propitiation for the sins of all the world. Oh, what a wonderful,
wonderful message. If you sin, brothers and sisters,
don't despair. Don't despair. Go to Him. Entertain Him as an advocate.
He pleads your cause and He'll bring you off from your guilt
and condemnation. Bless His holy name, and bless
the Father for knowing our great need, not leaving us without
one.