Notice the last word of verse
29 and verse 30. It's the word continually. Continually. I've entitled this
message, the continual priest. the continual priest. How grateful I am that salvation
is all of grace. I'm so thankful. I love that
verse of Scripture in Romans chapter three, verse 24, when
Paul says being justified freely. I love that word. That means
without a cause. God didn't have to find any reason
in me to justify me. He did so freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He justifies
the ungodly by His grace. Turn to Romans chapter 5 for
just a moment. Romans chapter 5. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, in that
place where sin overflowed, grace did much more abound. that as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Aren't
you thankful for that? You know, I can tell what a man
believes about grace by what he believes about election. That's
really the bottom line in grace. What you believe about election
will tell what you really believe about grace. Now, everybody's
going to have to admit elections in the Bible, but do you believe
it's unconditional or conditional? Do you believe his choice of
you is because of something he saw in you that you would do
or would not do? Or do you think it is without
reference to you? Romans 9, 11 says for the children
being not yet born. neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." And then in verse one of chapter
six in Romans, we read, what shall we say then to this glorious
truth that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound? What
do we say about that? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Now, I want you to listen to
this very, very carefully. Grace is not a license to sin. And let me repeat that. Grace
is not a license to sin. Turn with me to 1 John 2. Verse 1. My little children. These things
write I unto you. Why? That you sin not. That's John's reason for writing.
He says, I'm writing these things to you that you sin not. Now, let's be real specifically.
What is he talking about when he talks about sin, when he says
these things right unto you that you sin not? What does he mean
by sin? Well, look in chapter three,
verse four. Whosoever. Committed sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law." Now,
what he's referring to is the law that Moses gave, that God
gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. You can read about it in Exodus
chapters 20 through 24, but it can be summarized by the Ten
Commandments. Now, these things write I unto
you that you sin not. Now, turn to Exodus chapter 20.
Here's what he said, Exodus chapter 20, verse 1, And God spake all these
words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Don't ever put anything before
God. He's a jealous God, and he will
not tolerate rivals. Never, ever again put anything
before God. Don't sin. What's he say next? Verse four, thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image. or any likeness of anything that's
in heaven above, or that's in the earth beneath, or that's
in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow thyself to
them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."
Don't commit idolatry. It's based and rooted in hatred
for God as He is. Don't make any likeness. Don't
commit idolatry. These things write I unto you,
that you say not. Look in verse 7. And thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, flippantly,
without due care. For the Lord will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in vain. There is to be a reverence
for his name. and for his person. Don't ever
use his name flippantly. Don't use it conversationally.
Fear when you use his name. Tremble when you use his name.
Even be afraid to use his name. His name is holy. Have a proper
reverence and don't ever, ever be irreverent toward the Lord
again. Then he says in verse 8, remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and
do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all
that in them is. And he rested the seventh day. Wherefore, the
Lord blessed the Sabbath, and hallowed it." Now, you remember
the Sabbath to keep it holy. Now, what is the Sabbath all
about? It's about not working. Don't do any work at all. Rest. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There remaineth a rest for the people of God, for he that's
entered into his rest has ceased from his own works, as God did
from his. Now, don't you dare do anything
that rests in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you dare commit
the sin of trying to work in order to obtain his favor. Don't do that anymore. It's an insult to Christ. It's
an insult to God. Rest in Christ. Verse 12, Honor
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the
land which the Lord God giveth thee. Honor your parents. Honor
all authority, all God-placed authority. Don't disrespect your
parents. Don't disrespect God-placed authority
in any way. Have the right attitude towards
authority. Don't ever have a wrong attitude
toward authority. again. These things write unto
you that you sin not. And then he says in verse 13,
Thou shalt not kill. Don't murder anybody. Don't murder their character
by gossip and slander and innuendo. If you do not have something
good to say about somebody, don't say it at all. Never murder someone's
character again. Never speak in a wrong, distasteful
way about anybody. You know, when we say something
about others to somebody else, we leave that person always thinking
that. So don't do it. Don't do it. I love this rule
for everything we say, and it's a good rule. Regarding anything
we say, it ought to pass through these three things. Is it true?
Is it necessary? Was there any point in saying
it? Was any good served in saying it? And is it kind? Everything
we say ought to pass through that gate. Don't murder people's
character. You know, the Lord said if you're
angry with somebody without a cause, you're guilty of murder. Just
being jealous of them or envious of them, that's murder. Somebody
said, well, I haven't killed anybody. Yeah, you have. Yeah,
you have. Plenty of powers. You commit
murder a lot. Don't do it anymore. These things write I unto you
that you sin not. Verse 14 says, Thou shalt not
commit adultery. He's talking about all forms
of sexual sin. No, not even in your heart. You
know, in this society we live in where the thing is sex sales. Oh, may the Lord deliver us from
that. Don't commit adultery. Don't do it. No, not in your
heart. And then he says in verse 15,
thou shalt not steal. You're not to shoplift. You're
not to be lazy at work and steal your employer's time. You're
not to be slacking on the job. You're not to be slacking on
the home and your responsibilities. That's stealing. If you defraud
your spouse of that which is due them, you are stealing from
them. If you fail to give God all the
glory and give something to yourself which should have gone to him,
you're stealing. Don't steal! These things right unto you that
you sin not, don't steal anymore. Then he says in verse 16, Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor. Don't lie. Tell the truth. You know, a lot of times when
people say, I just want to be honest, what they mean is I want
to be cruel. A lot of times it's better to just don't say anything.
But tell the truth. Don't bear false witness against
your neighbor when you try to Even say something true, but
you're making it to where if you can make them look a little
darker will make your life shine a little brighter. That's bearing
false witness. That's lying. Don't do that anymore. Verse 17, thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor
anything that is thy neighbor's. Don't covet. Be totally satisfied
with Christ, where you don't want anything else. You're just
plumb satisfied with Him. Don't covet. If you're content
with Christ, that's where you don't covet. Don't covet these
things, write I unto you that you sin not. Make it your aim. Make it your objective right
now to never sin again. Now go back to 1 John chapter
2. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not. There's never an excuse
for sin. Grace is not a license to sin. Make it your objective to never
sin again in any way. And look at this next line. And
if any man sin. See that word if. Turn over to
1 John chapter 3 verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear. See that word when? That's the
exact same word translated if in our text. It doesn't say if
he shall appear, when he shall appear. So you can just as easily
read 1 John Chapter 2, verse 1, and when any man sin, when any man sin, don't sin. There's no excuse for it. It's
contrary to grace. It's evil. Don't sin. But when you do, which is all
the time. And that's just the fact of the
matter. When you do, which is all the
time, there's never a time in my and your experience when we
do not sin. Look back in chapter one, verse
eight, you're familiar with this. If we say that we have no sin,
and there, I've said before, that word is a noun. It's not
talking about an action. It's talking about a nature.
At all times, I have this sinful nature. If we say we have no
sin, what? We deceive ourselves. Self-deception. Well, that's scary, isn't it?
I'm afraid of self-deception because I can see where I can
deceive myself so many times. I'm amazed. I tell myself a lie
and believe it. And no, it's a lie. You've done
that too. Deceiving yourself. Look in verse
10. If we say that we've not sinned.
Now there, that is a verb regarding anything we do. Any gift we give,
any prayer we pray, anything we do, if we're in it, there's
sin in it. It is a sin. Now, do you see? That's the teaching of Scripture.
If you believe you've kept one commandment one time, all you
prove is how you have no understanding of God's holy law and you have
no understanding of who you are. That really is dogmatic about
that. If you believe you've kept one
commandment one time, you demonstrate from that you have no understanding
of God's holy law. You bring it down to your level
and you have no understanding of yourself. Now, when you sin,
there's no excuse for sin. Make it your aim to never sin
again. How can you say all we do is sin and we're not supposed
to sin anymore? Well, I don't know. The Bible does. The Bible
does. I'm not going to apologize. We
ought not sin anymore. We really shouldn't. But when
you do, when you do, we have an advocate
with the Father. And notice the absence of the
little word. If. It does not say we have an advocate
with the father, if. If we do this or if we do that. Couldn't say that at all. It
says we have an advocate with the father. Now, what inspired
this message was I was reading about the clothing of the priest,
particularly his breastplate. And I thought of the way the
breastplate of the high priest was called the breastplate of
judgment. Judgment. And another word that
I found so attractive when I was thinking about this breastplate,
it said that the high priest would bear the names of the children
of Israel continually. That means their names were born
before the Lord in the breastplate of the great high priest. Before
the sin was committed. during the commission of the
sin, and after the sin was committed. We have an advocate with the
Father. Not we will if we're real sorry. Not we will if we promise to
never do it again. Not we will if we make restitution.
Not we will if we do penance. We have Right now, we had it
before the sin, we have it during the sin, and we have it after
the sin. And I say that, I'm saying that,
it scares me to talk like that. But it's so. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, whose names
were on the high priest's breastplate? Any Amorites? What about the
Jebusites or the Amalekites or the Canaanites? No, only the
names of the children of Israel were on that great high priest's
breastplate. There were 12 stones with each
stone the name of one of the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes
of Israel. Turn to John chapter 17. John chapter 17, I want us to
notice who the Lord prayed for. You know, before I before I read
this passage of scripture. When the Lord said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. Did
the father forgive those people he prayed for? Or was that just
some kind of generic prayer? And you know better than that.
Everybody he prayed for, the Father forgave. He must answer
his son. When he said to Peter, Peter,
I prayed for you, that your faith fail not. You know what? His
faith didn't fail. Now, he failed, but his faith
didn't fail. Because whatever the Lord asks,
he has. Now, when he prays as our great
high priest, look in John Chapter 17, verses 1 and 2, these words
spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father,
the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou has given him power, authority
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to who? As many as thou has given him. Verse 6, I've manifested thy
name unto the men. which thou gavest me out of the
world." Verse 9, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. The only people he prayed for
was his elect. You see, his prayers are effectual.
If he prays for you, you must be saved. It's a divine necessity
for you. If he represents your name before
the Father, you must be saved. Look in verse 11, and now I'm
no more in the world, but these are in the world. I come to thee,
Holy Father. Keep to thine own name those
whom thou hast given me. Verse 12. While I was with him
in the world, I kept him in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me, I kept. Verse 24. Father, I will that
they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. Now, who did Christ pray
for? The elect. His people, just as the high
priest represented Israel and not the rest of the world. And
the reason this is important for us to understand this is
if he's praying for somebody and representing somebody and
they end up not being saved, his priesthood is no good. Everybody
he represents must be saved. And the breastplate was called
a breastplate of judgment because a way has been made for that
lawbreaker to be pardoned. And yet the sentence of the law
carried out and executed so that all sin is punished. But yet
the lawbreaker is pardoned in a way that glorifies God's justice
and righteousness. It's how God has been. This is
the great mystery of the gospel, how God has made a way. My great
high priest has made a way for my sin, my evil, vile sin, my
breaking of God's law. He's made it a way for God to
be just. in pardoning me. Not just merciful,
not just gracious, but I've got it coming. He's made a way for
me to deserve God's favor. Now, that's what a priest he
is. Back to sin that I feel so guilty
about and that I feel ashamed to come into God's presence with. And then I come creeping into
my closet thinking, what is wrong with me? Am I even a believer?
Do you know that God has made a way for that sin to not be
and that he rewards me salvation in a way that honors his justice? It's called the breastplate of
righteousness, rightness and justice. Now, back to our to
first John, chapter two. I want to see what he says next. Now, 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. He's no crooked lawyer. And He
is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only. but also
the sins of the whole world. Now, I know some people would
take that verse of scripture and say, well, does that mean
that he put away everybody's sins that ever lived? Well, he
wouldn't have been. Not just us Jews, Gentiles also.
That's what he means. All types of men. Not just for
us. You see, if he put away everybody's
sins and if he paid for everybody's sins, that statement would be
unnecessary, wouldn't it? You wouldn't even need to say anything like
that. Of course he did. But he's the propitiation for
our sins and not for our sins only, but also the sins of the
whole world. Now, what is this thing of propitiation?
It means the reason for his anger has been removed because the
sin has been removed. Look in 1 John 3, verse 4, once
again. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. That means, beloved, that if
I'm in him, that sin that I feel so ashamed of, is non-existent. It's not there. It's been put
away. In him is no sin. Whoso abideth
in him sinneth not. It doesn't say that whoso abideth
in him doesn't have his sin charged to him. It says that person has
no sin. They do not sin. And that's what propitiation
is. He is the propitiation for our sins. And also on that breastplate
that we read about were two stones set in ounces of gold called
the Urim and the Thummim. The Urim and the Thummim. And so much has been written
about these, but the only way we can really understand what
these are is by their definitions. Urim means lights. lights. Thummen means completeness, perfection. He is the light. He's the light
of how God can embrace me and say, you have no sin. You're
perfect in my sight. You're without guilt. He's the
light as to how that can be. And he is my completeness. He is my perfection. You are complete. You don't lack
anything. You are utterly complete in Him. Oh, the Urim and the Thurman
on His breastplate. And our Advocate, Jesus Christ
the Righteous, our Great High Priest, bears our name continually
on His heart before the Father. There's never time when my name
is not born before the Father from my great high priest. Don't sin. And I'm not, that's not just talk. Don't sin when you do. We have always, continually,
an advocate with the Father. And when someone went to the
high priest, why did he come to the high priest? Because of
sin. That's why he came in the first place. He wanted to sacrifice.
And that high priest would represent him in the Holy of Holies, representing
the presence of God. He would come into the presence
of God in behalf of that person. Now, several times, David made
this statement in the Psalms. Plead my cause. Isn't that what an advocate does?
He pleads our cause. I never will forget one time
Bruce Crabtree was preaching here and he was talking about
his experience. He said he was at his wits end. He felt like
it was all over for him. And he said, I just thought I'd
been reprobated. It was over for me. He said,
while I was falling on my bed, In utter dejection, I said, plead
my cause. And he said, by the time I hit
the bed, I had perfect peace. If he pleads my cause. We're
going to close by looking at Luke chapter 23. Verse 39. And one of the malefactors, which
was hanged, railed on him. And we know from the other accounts,
before this, both of the malefactors were railing on him. And one
of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying,
If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other. And you think of the world of
pain this man was in. He was nailed to a cross, too.
It would be hard to concentrate, wouldn't it? He was nailed to
a cross just like the Lord was in a world of pain and in a world
of fear, knowing that he would soon stand before God. He knew
it was over for him. But look what he says. But the
other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God? That one you are rebuking is
nobody less than God. Don't you fear God? How do you
know that? Same way you know it if you know
it. It was revealed to him. Christ told him. Seeing thou art in the same condemnation,
he believed Christ was God and he believed they were guilty
and in a world of trouble. He says, And we indeed justly,
for we receive the due reward of our deeds. We're getting exactly
what we have coming. He believed in his own sinfulness,
and he believed in the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
man had done nothing amiss. He never sinned. He believed
that about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 42, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. He knew that Jesus was the Lord.
He knew he was a mighty king, the Lord of lords and king of
kings. He knew he wouldn't stay dead.
He knew he would return as a ruling, reigning king. He knew that. People talk about the thief like,
well, he didn't believe in it. He believed the whole gospel.
We see it right here. He knew the Lord could not be
unsuccessful. He knew he would return as a
ruling, reigning king. And he says, Lord, remember me. Plead my cause. Same thing. Can you pray that prayer? Lord,
remember me. Plead my cause. And what did
our Lord say to that fellow? He gave him assurance. I don't know if there's a, you
know, something I read somewhere or somebody said this was the
greatest instance of faith in the Bible. where this fellow
looked at the Lord while he was nailed to a cross, seemingly
defeated, getting ready to die, didn't have a friend in the world,
forsaken by God, forsaken by man, and he knew he was the Lord.
He said, this is the greatest instance of faith in all the
Bible. But not only that, this is the greatest instance of the
Lord giving somebody assurance. He said to this poor, helpless,
dying thief, today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Our continual Great High Priest,
with the breastplate of judgment, with the Urim and the Thummim,
bearing my worthless name continually before the Lord on His heart. Let's pray.