While you're turning there, I'm
very much looking forward to having Bruce Crabtree and Donnie
Bell with us tonight. The way this was set up, they
were going to come through here and we were going to go tomorrow
to visit with Brother Mahan for a day. And Brother Mahan said
he's just going to come up here and he'll be here tonight. And
I thought, well, since they're going to be here anyway, we'll
have them both preach. I'm really looking forward to that. Lynn
and Aubrey are at Paul and Mindy Mahan's this morning. They went
on a road trip, and they've been planning this for a long time.
But she made this statement to me. She said, I hate to miss
so bad. I said, well, Lynn, you've planned
this trip for months. She said, I know, but I'm afraid
of what I'll miss out on. And I love that attitude. I'm
afraid of what I miss out on. That ought to be our attitude
regarding every worship service. I'm afraid of what I'll miss
if I'm not there. 1 John 2, 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 propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we ask in Christ's name that You would be our Teacher and
our Savior. Bless this time for Christ's
sake. In His name we pray, Amen. Now the passage of Scripture
that I just read to you absolutely thrilled my soul. And it was almost like I had
read it for the first time. And I hope that I can, with God's
help, present this as God says it. And that you will be thrilled
with what God says. John says, My little children. What deep affection. My little children. These things I write unto you.
And he is talking about what he had written up to this point.
Everything that is said in chapter one. He says, These things have
I written unto you for this purpose, that you sin not. And that's why I wrote what I've
written to you. It was my purpose. It was my
goal. I have written this to you so
that you sin not. Now somebody's thinking, but
is sinless perfection possible? I mean, that's what he says,
I'm writing to you, so you do not sin. Is sinless perfection
possible? That's the wrong question. I've
asked that question when I looked at that passage of scripture,
but that is, listen to me carefully, that is the wrong question, our
goal Our objective is to be without sin. Our objective is to never
sin again. To be perfect. Now that's what he's saying.
These things write I unto you that you sin not. Now let's look
briefly at what he said. I sure want to know what he said
that had this goal or objective that we might sin no more. Let's
see what he said up to this point. Let's read the first chapter
briefly. John says in verse one. That
which was from the beginning. He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. 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, and I love the
way he says the life, for the life was manifested and we've
seen and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life. What is eternal life? Jesus Christ.
He is that eternal life. We 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. This is what we want. We want
you to truly have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, John
is saying we have fellowship with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. And we want you to also. I want
to too, don't you? I want to have fellowship with
God, whatever that means. I want to have fellowship with
God. He says in verse four, these things rightly unto you that
your joy may be full. Now, if God gives you and I the
grace to enter into what's being said, we are going to leave this
place in fullness of joy. I want that, don't you? fullness
of joy. Well, here is the message that
is going to bring about this fellowship. This is the message
that causes us to sin not, want not to sin. This then, verse
5, is the message which we've heard of Him declaring to you
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Our fellowship
and our joy is found in this message. God is light. And in
Him, there is no darkness at all. Verse 6, if we say that
we have fellowship with Him, you know all kinds of people
make that claim. I fellowship with God. I pray. I pray to Him,
He hears me. And He speaks to me. There's
all kinds of people that make that claim. I have fellowship
with God. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't surprise me if most
of the people that you come across would say, yes, I fellowship
with God. I'm a spiritual person. I pray he hears me. I hear what
he's got to say. We have fellowship. We have sweet
communion. If we say that we have fellowship with him. And
walk in darkness. We lie. And do not the truth. If we make that claim and walk
in darkness, we are liars. What does he mean by walking
in darkness? Well, he tells us in the next four verses. But
verse seven. If we walk in the light. As he
is in the light. We have fellowship one with another. And remember, John says our fellowship
with the father. We want you to have fellowship
with us, so we all have fellowship with the father. Now he says,
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, cleanses
us from all sin. Now, you don't walk in darkness
when you walk in the light. That's simple enough. What does
it mean? If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another. And notice it doesn't say we
don't sin anymore. It doesn't say that. It says
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, what is this thing
of walking in the light? I know exactly what it is. You
remember what our Lord said in John chapter 8, verse 12, I am
the light of the world? That's a powerful statement.
I am the light of the world. You have preceded that statement.
He said to that woman who was taken in adultery in the very
act, caught red-handed. There's no way you could remove
the fact that she was guilty. She was caught in the very act.
And you will remember, he says, hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Now, she was guilty. Yet he says,
I don't condemn you. How can that be? Christ Jesus
is the light of the world. He is the light as to how God
can be just and holy and yet justify somebody who is guilty
and make them not guilty. That's the light we're talking
about and that's the light we have fellowship with. Now, if
you believe that Jesus Christ the Lord is your justification
before God. You don't look at it as something
you've done, but you look at what He has done. You know, you
and I have fellowship together. There is a true bond, a bond
of love, fellowship around the gospel. Now, this is the light.
The light he's speaking of is the light of how God can be holy
and yet save and justify somebody like me. That's the light he's
talking about. When he's talking about walking
in darkness, he's not talking about sitting in the dark, although
that we shouldn't be doing that. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about the light of the gospel. Now, if
we walk in the light, how God saves sinners as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another in 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, it's
only the self deceived person that makes that claim. David
said my sin is ever before me. Verse 9. If we confess our sins. If we take side with God against
ourself and say he's right and we're wrong, we don't try to
hide our sins. We don't try to deny our sins.
We confess our sins. If we confess our sins, he He's
faithful, faithful to his covenant, faithful to his gospel, and he's
just to forgiveness of our sins. It doesn't say he's merciful
and gracious, although he is. It says he's faithful. Faithful
to his covenant. He's just. In other words, I've
got the forgiveness of sins coming. If Christ paid for my sins, I
don't have any. If his righteousness is mine,
it's coming to me. He's faithful and he's just.
to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if we say that we've not
sinned, and that's regarding any second that I'm alive, anything
I say, anything I do, anything I think, if I say there's no
sin in that, what do I do? I make God a liar. And that's
how ugly self-righteousness is. If I say I didn't see it there,
I'm being a hypocrite, I'm being a liar, I've deceived myself,
I'm also saying God is a liar in making that statement. Now,
that is strong language, isn't it? If we say we've not seen, we
make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now, I want you
to think about that statement. Verse eight, he says, when we
say we have no sin, at all times I have this sinful nature. At
all times. I'm never without it up to this
point. I'm not going to be without this
sinful nature until I'm dead. That's what I'm, when I lay this
body in the ground, that's what I'm going to be free from this
sinful nature. At all times I have this sinful nature, and at all
times, whatever I do, it's sin. If I did it, it's sin, because
my nature's involved in it. And my little children, verse
1, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. Do you know only the gospel can
create this desire that he's speaking of right now? These things write I unto you
that you sin not. Freedom. Now listen to me. Freedom
from the law. Makes you want to keep the law. Absolute freedom. from the law. The law has nothing to say to
me. I'm not guilty. It can't condemn
me. It can only justify me. It's
not my rule of life. It's not my law. I see it fulfilled
in Christ. It has nothing to say to me.
Thank God for that. Freedom from the law, you know
what it does to me? It makes me want to keep it. Sure does. These things write
I unto you, that you sin not. Paul said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. If you're under the law, you
know what it's going to do to you? It's just going to make
you want to break it. And so you put a man under the law,
and I'll guarantee you all he wants to do is break it. And
the harder you put him under it, the more that rebellion is
going to come out. It's only absolute freedom from the law
And you can't take that too far. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Freedom from the law makes a
man want to keep it. When he's talking about the law,
look over 1 John chapter 3 verse 4. Whoso committed sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now,
when I'm saying, when he says these things right out to you,
that you sin not, this is a reference to God's holy law. Sin is the
transgression of the law. I want to have no other gods
before him. That's the first commandment. I want to have no
other gods before him. I don't want to in any way commit
idolatry. I don't want to take his precious
holy name in vain. I want to truly keep the Sabbath,
not to work, but to simply rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to honor my mom and dad, and I want to honor all forms of
authority. I don't want to kill. I don't
want to be envious of anybody. I don't want to commit adultery,
literally or in my heart. I don't want to steal. I don't
want to lie. I don't want to covet. My objective is to never
sin again. right now. That's my objective,
to not sin anymore. It's only the man that is free
from the law that wants to keep the law. The legalist, now listen
to me, the legalist seeks to avoid the punishment of the law
or gain the benefits of keeping the law, but he has no true delight
in the law of God after the inward man. It's not there. He doesn't
love the law of God. But the believer does. Do you
love God's law? I delight, Paul said, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. Now he says, these things
write I unto you that you sin not. And sin has something to
do with the law, doesn't it? He says, now I'm writing these
things to you that you sin not. But let's go on reading. And
if any man see it. I stay there in verse one. If
any man seen. You see that word, if look over
in first John, chapter three, verse two. 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, you see
that word when that's the exact word translated if. In first
John, chapter two, verse one, so when he says when he shall
appear, he's not saying if maybe he will, maybe he won't. He's
saying when he does what John is saying, he says these things
I'm writing to you that you sin not when you do. When you do, we have an advocate with the
Father. Now, here's something that just
came in power to me. I guess I've seen it before,
but it's like I heard it for the first time. When you sin,
and here's what happens when sin is fresh on our conscience,
we think, well, I need to I need to be more sorry, or I need to
have some kind of period of waiting where I can work up my sorrow
and try to come into God's presence. I need to do this. I need to
do that to make it better. I need to... No. When you sin, beloved, listen
to me, you've already got an advocate with the Father. Nothing
you need to do to get Him to be your advocate. There's nothing
you need to feel or think or do. He's already your advocate. Now this is speaking to every
believer. He's speaking to his little children. He said, when
you sin, now these things I'm writing to you, that you sin
not. And every single one of us ought to make it our objective
to never sin again. You believe that? Don't give
in to sin. We ought to make it our objective
to never sin again. But when you do, and you know
that He doesn't say if, as if maybe you won't. When you do. We right now, present tense,
have this advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and
there's nothing we need to do to get him to be our advocate.
He is our advocate. And this is really sweet. Not
with our judge. He doesn't say we have an advocate
with the great judge. He says we have an advocate with
the Father. An advocate is a lawyer. An advocate is one who gives
aid. An advocate is one who pleads
another's cause. An advocate is an intercessor.
Now, when you see him, we have. Nothing you need to do to get
him. You already got him. We have. Oh, this thrills me. We
have an advocate. with the Father, an intercessor
with the Father. Peter said to the great intercessor,
Satan has desired to have you that he may turn you inside out
and sit you as wheat. But I pray for you that your faith fail not. Now
he didn't pray that he wouldn't fall. He needed to fall. He said,
I pray for you that your faith fail not. Did his faith fail? No. You see, if he prays for
you, the Father answers his prayer. When our Lord was hanging from
the cross, he said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they
do. Did the Father forgive the ones
he prayed for? This wasn't some general vague prayer that goes
unanswered. No, everybody he said, Father,
forgive him. Every single one of them were
forgiven because the Father always hears his prayer. See, he's the
great advocate. He's the great intercessor. You know, if the Lord wanted
to, he could have made it. to where we did not sin again. Couldn't he? He could have made
it when he saved me and converted me. He could have made it to
where I never sinned again. And here he's telling us these
things I write unto you that you sin not. But I'll tell you this. He didn't do that. He didn't
make it to where I never sinned again, and I know this. much
about it. This keeps me continually in
need of Jesus Christ the Lord. I am in constant need of Him,
His righteousness, His precious blood, His grace. Now when you
sin, not if, when you do, we have an advocate with the Father
Jesus Christ. The righteous. Think of his name, this advocate
with the father, Jesus. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. His name means Savior. They also
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus Christ. Christ means God's
anointed. This lawyer is not somebody I
hired. This advocate is not somebody
I hired. He was appointed for me by my father. God provided
him as my advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. He's
no crooked lawyer. He's Jesus Christ the righteous. He's altogether righteous. Now,
let me tell you a few things about my lawyer, this lawyer,
this advocate we have with the Father. Now, when you sin, I
say this carefully, but as the Lord is my witness, I wish I'd
never sinned again. I don't want to sin anymore.
I don't want to sin against my heavenly Father. I don't want
to sin against my Savior. I don't want to sin against this.
I don't want to sin. I want to be perfectly conformed
to the image of Christ. when you see him. That's not
excusing it, not looking for a way out of it, but when you
see him. We have this advocate, this lawyer, this intercessor
with the Father. Now, let me tell you something
about my advocate, the advocate of every believer, this lawyer.
He's never lost a case. Now, would you like to have a
lawyer like that? He's never lost a case. Furthermore, this lawyer is incapable
of losing a case. Not only has he never lost, he
never will lose. He's incapable of losing. He's
the son of God. Incapable of losing. Now, would
you like to have a lawyer like that for your representation?
Well, I sure do. I mean, he can't lose. Not only
has he never lost a case, the judge is his father. What a lawyer
he is. But he doesn't need loopholes. He doesn't need leverage. He doesn't plead extenuating
circumstances for his clients. He's altogether righteous. There's nothing corrupt about
this lawyer. He's altogether righteous. He is Jesus Christ
the righteous. This is no corrupt lawyer. This
is the righteous lawyer. Now here's what is amazing about
this righteous lawyer that I'm speaking of, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This advocate, you know what he makes you plead? Guilty. Guilty as charged. Every one of his clients, he
doesn't make them plead extenuating circumstances or temporary insanity
or all the different excuses and so on that lawyers try to
teach their clients. No, you plead guilty. But here is the mystery of this
great lawyer. Here is the glory of this great
lawyer. He makes you plead guilty. But
you know what the judge declares you to be? Not guilty. Justified. Cleared from all guilt. Now what kind of lawyer is that?
He's never lost a case. He's incapable of losing a case.
He's altogether righteous. He makes you plead guilty, and
He gets you off scot-free. Not guilty. I don't mean just
pardoned. I don't mean it's stuff covered up. I don't mean anything
unjust. He is Jesus Christ the righteous, and all of His people
are justified. How can you plead guilty and
be declared to be not guilty? Well, it's through His great
work of justifying the sinner. You know, God is called in Romans
chapter 4, verse 5, Now think of this title Paul gives the
Lord God. In Romans chapter 4, verse 5,
he's called Him that justifieth the ungodly. That's the name of the Lord.
Him that justifieth. Now justification means cleared
of all guilt. Not guilty. If I'm justified, I don't have
anything to feel guilty about. I've not broke the law. I'm perfect before the law. Him
that justifies the ungodly. What a name for our God that
has all that. Would you turn with me over to
Romans chapter 3? You want this law you're representing? Oh my. Listen to this. If you're
a believer, He is representing you. Right now. When you sin, this advocate was
your advocate before you sinned, during the sin, and after the
sin. Now what kind of representation
is that? What an advocate. Now look here in Romans chapter
3. This is what John is teaching here in Romans chapter 3. John
and Paul had the same message. Verse 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Now that's our state before God.
Guilty. Guilty as charged. Was there anything we can do
to get out of this mess? Verse 20, Therefore, by the deeds of
the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. No, there's nothing you
can do to get out of this mess. Not a thing. Your state before
God, my state before God, is that of guilt. And there's not
a thing I can do to change it. Does that mean there's no hope
at all? Doesn't mean that either. Let's go on reading. But now,
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Now does that mean that God just
gets rid of the law and figures out another way to say it? No,
when he says the righteousness of God without the law, what
that's a reference to is without my personal obedience to the
law. Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, and this isn't a fairy tale I'm
talking about. He said this is what is taught in the law and
the prophets. This is what is taught in the Old Testament Scriptures.
This isn't any new doctrine, Paul says. This has always been
the gospel. This is gospel of the Old Testament, gospel of
the New Testament. Remember there in Isaiah 54, 17, when he talks
about his people? He said, their righteousness,
their personal righteousness, is of me. This is what the truth
has always been. Now the righteousness of God
without the law, without my personal obedience to the law, is manifested.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, Even the righteousness,
let's go on reading, verse 22, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith, by the faithfulness, by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. Now this is
the righteousness he's speaking of. It's the righteousness, the
obedience of Jesus Christ, which is given to all who believe.
For there's no difference between men. All seem to come short of
the glory of God. Being justified. freely. And that could just as easily
and should read having been justified freely without any. God didn't
look for a reason you to justify you being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The redeeming work of Christ
on the cross, verse 25, whom God had set forth or ordained
for ordained Christ Jesus on the cross whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Now let's talk for a few moments
about that word propitiation. God set him forth to be a propitiation. What in the world is a propitiation? Good question. It is the act of God. And it's
very important, a propitiation is the act of God, it's not something
man does, it's what God does. Through the blood of Christ,
he removes our guilt. He removes his own reason for
anger. He appeases himself. He is propitiated. That's what the word mean. He
is appeased. He appeases himself. Now listen
to this real carefully. The blood of Jesus Christ was
not shed for you. It was shed for God. It was shed
to appease him, to make it to where he can embrace you. This is not an act That man does
to propitiate God, you can't appease God, you can't please
God, you can't propitiate God. This is the act of God himself. He gave his son to make a way
for him to embrace you. That's what that propitiation
is all about. He's made a way to be just and
justify him, which believes in Jesus. Now go back to our text
in 1 John chapter 2. Now we have this advocate with
the Father, verse 1, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, with what
I said about Romans 3 in mind, look at verse 2. And He is the
propitiation for our sins. Now here's how this advocate
can be righteous and get us off scot-free, justified with no
sin, even though he makes us plead guilty. Here's how all
this works. He is the propitiation for our
sins. Look over in 1 John chapter 4, verse 10. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Here's how he can be this glorious
advocate. He is the propitiation for our
sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world. Now, this verse of scripture
is used by the proponents of universal redemption to teach
that Jesus Christ died, obviously, for everybody and for all the
sins of the whole world. And I suppose, upon a glance
at that verse of Scripture, it almost seems to say that. Well,
it says not for us only, but also for the sins of the whole
world. But notice in our text, the sins of. Do you notice, if
you've got a King James Version Bible, it's in italics. It was supplied by the translators,
supposedly, to make the verse clearer. The sins of is not in
the original. Remember, when you when you have
those words in italics, it was not in the original manuscript. It was just placed there by the
translators in order, supposedly, to make it more understandable. But really, that confounds the
meaning of this. He's the propitiation for our
sins and not just for us Jews. Not just for the people that
I'm writing to, but Gentiles as well. The whole world, black,
white, rich, poor. The propitiation, the hope any
believer has is never modified. It's never changed. It never
evolves. It's the same hope. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the propitiation of our sins and not just for us. And you know, if what this was
talking about was universal redemption, it would be a meaningless statement.
It would be redundant at best. But it's not talking about universal
redemption. He's talking about the only hope
any sinner has in this world is the propitiation of Christ.
That never changes. That's never modified. You never
grow past that. You never get beyond that. Right
now. Right now. I stand in just as
great a need of his propitiation, of his sin-cleansing blood, of
the power of His blood, I stand just as much in need of it now
as I ever have. As a matter of fact, I'm more
aware of it now than I ever have been before. That's how bad I
need the Lord Jesus Christ. May God deliver me from ever
getting beyond that. Now, these things write unto
you that you sin not. And don't anybody in here say,
well, we can't help sin, we're only human and so on. No, make
it your goal. This entire afternoon. And the
rest of your life to sin no more. May God give us grace to do that.
Ask the Lord right now, Lord, give me grace to never sin again. I don't want to sin anymore,
do you? I don't want to sin again. When you do. Not if. When you do. Remember this. You already have an advocate
with the Father. Nothing you need to do to get
him to be your advocate. He is your advocate. We have
right now, present tense, an advocate with the Father. Jesus
Christ. the righteous, and what a lawyer
he is. And he is the propitiation for
our sins. That's how he can be this righteous
advocate, and not for ours only, but also the whole world. May God bless this message for
his glory, and our good. Let's pray together.