We'll be in the book of First
John both hours this morning. First John chapter two. I'm gonna
look at one verse. First John chapter two and verse
12. John says, I write unto you little
children because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. I write unto you little children
because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. John tells us whom he's writing
to. He's telling us why he is writing to them. He says, little
children. Now, John would have viewed these
individuals as his children in the gospel, much like Timothy
to Paul was his son in the gospel. It's what Paul calls Timothy.
He would have viewed these individuals the same. But as we know, he
begins this by telling us that they are the beloved of God.
his elect, the ones whom the Lord loves, this is who he's
writing to, and he calls them little children. And he gives
us a precious promise and hope by saying the reason that he's
writing is because their sins are forgiven. He's not writing
so that their sins can be forgiven. He's not writing to show them
a way that their sins can be forgiven. He's writing because
their sins are already forgiven. They're forgiven for the Lord's
namesake. Now, he doesn't say if you let
them be forgiven, they're forgiven. He doesn't say if you do something,
they're gonna be forgiven. He says, I'm writing to you,
little children, because your sins are forgiven, because. Who did the forgiving? Well,
the Lord did. You and I certainly have no power
to have to forgive sin and ourself or to abolish sin or to purge
our sin. But the Lord does. He has all
the power to do that. He has all the power. He is the
one that forgives sin. How did he do that? Well, by
electing, adopting his chosen people in the covenant of grace,
his little children. and by his own blood purging
those sins. John's telling them, I'm writing
you because of what Christ has already done. Not to obligate
you to do something, not to encourage you to be better. I'm writing
unto you because your sins are forgiven. You've been washed
from every sin and stain. See, these are those that are
redeemed. These are the ones that's been bought with the price
of the blood of the lamb. These are the ones that have
justification. This is our hope, isn't it? Not that he's writing
to give us something to do. Not that he's writing to give
us some work or some law that we must keep in order for our
sin to be forgiven. No, he's writing us to tell us
because they're already forgiven. The Lord's already put them away.
I'm writing unto you little children because your sins are forgiven. What a thought to have our sins
forgiven. If you've ever seen the blackness
of your heart, if you've ever seen the depravity of yourself,
if you've ever seen your inability to do anything right, knowing
before God that you have no righteousness, what a thought that your sins
are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. Being
born in sin, being shaped into iniquity, that's what David said,
and yet he says here, I'm writing unto you, John says, because
your sins are forgiven. Your iniquity's been put away.
Your transgression's been made right. You're the very righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. John doesn't say some of your
sins are forgiven. John doesn't say most of your
sins are forgiven. That wouldn't help us, would
it? 99% of your sins are forgiven. There's still 1% I can't do anything
about. No, it's all of them, isn't it?
When he by himself purged all, his people's sin, he sat down.
All of them have been forgiven. Every single sin that separated
God's people from him, the Lord Jesus Christ bore in his own
body on the cross of Calvary and successfully put them away
by the sacrifice of himself, by the shedding of his precious
blood. Hebrews 1 says, who being the brightness of his glory and
the express image of his person and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of God. What does it mean that the Lord
sat down when his work was finished? The sins were put away. They
were gone. There's no more sin to be brought
up. The law has nothing to say against the beloved of God, against
the little children of the Lord. The Lord put them all away, purged
them. Purge them means he bore them.
Purged them means he abolished them. Purged means that he put
them away. He cleansed us. He by himself,
alone, with no help from any man, no help from the Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ purged our sin by himself. By himself. He went into the dark abyss of
God's wrath on his own. He endured God's justice on the
cross of Calvary by himself. He took our sin unto himself
and owned them, the scripture says, as his own. And when the
wrath of God fell, he absorbed the fiery wrath of God. And by
doing so, purged our sins and redeemed his people, his little
children. Little children, I write unto
you because your sins are forgiven. Because your sins are forgiven. Why are our sins forgiven? Well, he tells us for his namesake,
for his namesake. That's the second thing I want
to notice. They're not forgiven for your namesake. They're not
forgiven for what you do. They're forgiven for his namesake. First Samuel 12 says, for the
Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because
it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. No, it's not
our goodness why he made us his people. It's not our righteousness
why he made us his people. It's not our keeping of his law
why he made us his people. It was for his namesake. It's
for his goodness, for his goodness, not ours. For his great namesake,
Psalm 23 tells us he restores his people's soul. He leads his
people in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. for his name. What is the path of righteousness?
Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ himself? He is the way. He is
the path of righteousness. He leads us beside the still
waters of his restoring fountain of living water. That's what
our Lord does. Christ is that path of righteousness. Christ
is that fountain of living water. He did all this purging. He did
all this saving for his namesake. What's his name? Well, the scripture
tells one of his names is Jehovah Sitkinu. The Lord, our righteousness,
the Lord, our righteousness. That's his name. That's his name. That's his character. That's
his person. The Lord, our righteousness.
Is it not true that you and I have no righteousness before God other
than the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes. Is it not true we have no
righteousness in and of ourselves whatsoever? Yes. But the Lord
is our righteousness. Because that's his name. His
people's sins are forgiven. Call his name Jesus. Isn't that
what the angel said? Call his name Jesus. He didn't
say because He's going to try to save His people from their
sin. He didn't say that He's gonna
make an attempt to save His people from their sin. He didn't say
He's gonna make a way if you let Him save you from your sins. He's made a way, you have to
let Him. He says, He shall save His people from their sin. His
name is Jesus, therefore your sins are forgiven. His name is
Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, his people's
sins are forgiven because of who he is, because of what he
done, what he hath accomplished. Ezekiel 20, 44 says, and you
shall know that I am the Lord when I have wrought with you
for my namesake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according
to your corrupt doings. O ye house of Israel, sayeth
the Lord, but for my namesake. What a glorious thought that
our wickedness cannot stop his grace. Our wickedness cannot
stop his grace. Where sin doth abound, grace
did much more abound. Our corrupt doings cannot prevent
his sovereign will from coming to pass. We cannot constrain
him. Do we know what constrain means?
It means to obligate or to make him do something. I can't constrain
him. I can't make God do anything
and you can't either. That's a good thing. That's a
good thing. He's God. He does whatsoever he will. Can't
constrain him. And also, I can't restrain him.
I can't prevent his power. I can't prevent him from doing
anything. That's why he said, it's not according to your wicked
ways, nor according to your corrupt doings. This has nothing to do
with you. It's for my namesake. I'm going to purge your sins.
And he did. And he did. He doeth whatsoever
he pleases. And by his glorious grace, he
saved his people from their sin for his namesake. Ezekiel 36
says, therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the
Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, I do not this for your
sakes, but for my holy namesake, which you have profaned among
the heathen, whether you went. No matter what you have done,
No matter what you have done, my little children, I write unto
you because your sins are forgiven. No matter what you haven't done,
my little children, I write unto you because your sins are forgiven
for my namesake. See, God gave his word. God gave
his oath. God, when he could swear by no
greater, swore by himself. God cannot lie. God put away
the sin of his people on the cross of Calvary. Doesn't say
that your sins are going to be forgiven. Doesn't say that your
sins might be forgiven. Doesn't say your sins can be
forgiven if you let them. Your sins are. Already. There is now right now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. To them which are in Christ Jesus,
there is no condemnation. Kept every promise. That's why
John can say with certainty, your sins are forgiven. Your
sins are forgiven. Isaiah 40 says, comfort you,
comfort you, my people, saith your God. Speak you comfortably,
Jerusalem, and cry unto her. Tell her her warfare is accomplished.
Her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is already pardoned. Her iniquity is pardoned, and
she has received of the Lord's hands double, double for all
her sin. Is there any other comfort than
to hear that you've received a double cure for your sin, a
double cure? That's how to say he did a good
job. That would be. That's not a good
way to put it, but it's a double cure. It's it's it's exceeding
abundantly. Somebody said, you don't know
what I've done. You don't know how bad I am. That's saying that Christ's
blood is not sufficient in putting away your sin. No, it's double
sufficient. It's infinitely sufficient to
put away the sin of his people. And it did. And it did. We've
received a double cure, and we've received mercy, and we've received
grace. We've received grace upon grace.
We've received mercy upon mercy. That's what he's saying. Tell
her her warfare's accomplished, her iniquity's pardoned, and
she's received of the Lord's hand double. A double cure. My little children, I write unto
you because your sins are forgiven. For my namesake, for the Lord's
namesake. There's no more work to be done.
Because your sins are gone, your iniquity is pardoned. All for
his namesake. There's no more work to be done.
He did it all. He did it all by himself for
his namesake. Now the third thing I want you
to notice is the qualification of being the recipient of salvation.
What is the qualification? Well, the first thing we notice
is he says, I write unto you little children because your
sins are forgiven. That means number one, you have
to be a sinner. In order for your sins to be
forgiven, you have to be made a sinner. Those who never see
their sin don't have any need of a cure, do they? Those who
do not see that they're utterly sinful never need a remedy for
that sin. And the second thing is you must
come as a little child, a little child. Turn with me to Matthew
chapter 18. The disciples were arguing who
is the, or they weren't really arguing, they were asking who's
gonna be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and the Lord
It says this right here in Matthew 18 verse two. Jesus called a
little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and
said, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted and become
as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Understand that God only saves
sinners that come to him as a little child. God only saves sinners
that come to him as a little child, those who have been converted. Who does the converting? We can
never put the cart before the horse. Who does the converting?
Well, I was dead and you were dead in trespasses and in sin.
How can I be converted unless the Lord says live? He did the
converting. He did the converting. And we
come to him as a mercy-begging little child. And he said, I
want to know why I cast you out. I want to know why I cast you
out. God only saves sinners who come to Christ as a little child.
No one else. He doesn't save anyone else but
those who are made sinners that come to him mercy-begging as
a little child. Complete need of him. You're in first John chapter.
No, you're not. You're in Matthew 18. I just
took you there. First John chapter three, verse one says, behold,
what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Behold, what manner of love
the father hath bestowed upon us that we can, that, that word
sons, that's little children, isn't it? That's little children.
How were we the sons of God? Well, it was by His doing. It
was by His electing, by His redeeming. It was by Him bringing in salvation,
by His own blood. It's His calling, it's His keeping.
There is only salvation for His little children. That's why we
can approach Him, the scripture says, cry out unto Him. Whereby
we call, we cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. You know, there's
a lot of different religions that use the term father, and
the scripture actually forbids that in a sense of religion where
it's blasphemous, it's taking the place of God. But something
to mention about that was, is anybody that has children in
here, none of your children call me father, none of your children
call me daddy, because they're not my children. Only the people,
only the children that are yours call you mommy or call you daddy
because they're your children. The only way that we can call
God father, call him daddy if you will, as a need, Abba father,
that's what that means. That's a little child crying
out to their father. The only way we can do that is
if he is our father. And the only way he is our father
is by him choosing to be thus. Him choosing to do so for his
namesake. There's only salvation for his
little children. But oh, how great a salvation
it is. How great a salvation it is. Now we call him father. He's the only one that's our
father, isn't he? He's the only one that's our heavenly father. Final thing I want to think about
this hour. If I say in closing, I still have half a page of notes
to try to get through here, so I can't say in closing. I don't
want you to think it's five minutes. I'm still going to be up here
for a few more. He'll bear with me. The final thing I want you to
think about is this. What the Lord's impressed on my heart
to deliver into you is these words. The only thing stopping
you. The only thing stopping you from
coming to Christ as a child is you. The only thing stopping
you from coming to Christ as a child is you. Nothing else. Nothing else. Well, I thought
he had to do the calling first. I thought he had to call first.
He did. He does. He must call. He must call, indeed. But no child that has ever cried
out for mercy in the scripture, the Lord turned away. Not one.
Not one. Every child that came to Him,
every adult human being that came to Him as a child saying,
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. He never turned them away. The
only thing stopping you from coming to Christ is you. Come
to Christ right now. Don't move a muscle. Don't move
a muscle. We come to Christ through the
eyes of faith that He bestows. We come to Him as children begging
for His forgiveness, for His mercy. As a child, you know,
you remember your parents growing up. You knew when you done something
wrong. You knew that most of us knew
that whenever we disobeyed our parents, there was going to be
a consequence. So if I ever did anything, and my mom said, I'm
gonna tell your dad about that. What fear gripped me. I knew
I was gonna get the belt when he got home. I knew what the
consequence was. My only hope was mercy at that point. I had
been caught. I'd been caught. Dad had all the authority. Dad
had all the power. He could do whatsoever he wanted
to with me. I was just a little child. My
only hope was mercy. I'm going to tell you that a
lot of times my father didn't show mercy, but he's a good father.
He showed me the responsibility and respect that was needful
in life and unto the Lord. But whenever you come before
the Lord begging for mercy, knowing that you've been convicted, that
you've been condemned, not just for punishment but for death,
When you come before him as that mercy-begging child, he will
in no wise cast you out. Wrath cannot be enacted twice.
And Christ Jesus suffered the full wrath of God on the cross
of Calvary. When he looks at his children, he doesn't see
their sin. He sees them guiltless before his law. There is no punishment
anymore. Christ took that punishment.
He bore it himself, putting away the sin of his people for his
namesake. Come to Christ. Come to Christ,
beg him, Lord, have mercy on me right now. Lord have mercy. I'm a little child. Let me be
your little child. Let me come to you. I can't.
The only way that Christ can be received is with an empty
hand. with as empty vessels only empty
vessels can receive Christ and they come to Christ begging,
begging for this mercy. That's the only way we can't
bring nothing to him in my hand no price I bring simply to the
Lord Jesus Christ I cling. We know that this is all by his
faith that he gives. The only thing preventing you from drinking of the fountain
of living water is your pride. The only thing preventing you
from getting to God is your sin, but hear the glorious gospel
message. I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven. There's nothing separating you
from God anymore. Come to Christ. If we ever do think that You
don't know how bad I am. That's just limiting the blood
of Christ is all that's doing. There's sufficient. There's sufficient
pardon in his blood. There's sufficient pardon come
to Christ. Come to Christ as a little child
because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. We're not looking
for a feeling. We're not looking for an experience.
Well, I haven't felt this. I haven't experienced that yet. Scripture doesn't say you should
feel or experience anything. It says, come unto me, all you
that are labored and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Come to
Christ. That's the message. Don't wait
on a feeling. Feelings come and feelings go.
Don't wait on an experience. Our experience has changed from
day to day. No, faith has nothing to do with what you feel. Nothing
to do with what I feel. Faith believes God. Faith believes
the Lord Jesus Christ. What did the Lord say? What is
his promise? He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Somebody said, you're being presumptuous
thinking that anybody can come to Christ. He said, whosoever.
He said, whosoever. And I can't remember, but I think
I have this in my next set of notes for next hour, but I'm
going to go ahead and tell us anyways. I'm glad he said, whosoever.
And he didn't say Caleb Hickman. There's more than one Caleb Hickman.
I'm glad he didn't just say Steve Yerkes. Aren't you? There's more
than one Steve Yerkes. There's more than one Greg Fisher.
Well, if he said, if he said, if Greg Fisher comes to me, I'll
know why I cast him out. I'm glad it says whosoever, because
it may still be that I'm not the Greg Fisher he's talking
about, or the Caleb Hickman he's talking about. You understand
what I'm saying? No, he said whosoever. You're
qualified. You're a whosoever. Come to Christ.
Nothing is preventing you but yourself. Nothing. Nothing. He that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out. It's not presumption to believe
God, it's faith. It's faith, faith just believes
God. Coming to Christ is believing he accomplished salvation, he
left nothing to do, nothing for you to do. That's coming to Christ.
Coming to Christ is renouncing any righteousness that you have
before God whatsoever. Whatsoever, that's coming to
Christ. Coming to Christ is throwing your hands up in complete surrender
through the eyes of faith and said not unto us, O Lord, but
unto you goes all glory and honor and praise. That's coming to
Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
That's not a suggestion. That's a command. That's a command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Revelation 22, 17 says, the spirit
and the bride say, come and let him that heareth say, come and
let him that is a thirst and whosoever will, whosoever will
let him come take of the water of life freely. It's not an invitation. It's a command. We're going to
hear that next hour. God's command. That's what I've titled next
hour's message. It's a command to his people. Come to Christ,
come to Christ. We just take God at his word
and believe because of faith. We approach him pleading the
only thing that he is pleased with, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's coming to Christ. We approach God by pleading for
mercy, pleading for grace, pleading for the blood to cover our sin.
And what does he say? I write unto you because your
sins are already forgiven. They've already been put away.
Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Approaching him
means that we're looking to Christ as all our salvation and all
our righteousness. Complete confidence in his gospel.
That's the only hope we have is God's glorious gospel given
to his people. Last question I'm gonna ask us,
do you desire the Lord Jesus Christ? Not do you desire to
escape hell. You ask anybody, do you wanna
go to hell? And if they say yes, then they don't know what hell
is. They haven't entered into it. We're not coming to Christ to
escape hell. And we've been made sinners. Lord, I need you to. You're the
only remedy for what I am. I need an I need to escape myself.
I need to I need to come to Christ and be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but having his righteousness.
I'm not just trying to escape hell. I'm not just trying to
escape wrath, but he's been made beautiful to me. If you're his
people, he's been made beautiful to you. You come to Christ desiring
his goodness because you see your blackness. You desire his
light because you see your darkness. You desire his love because you
can't depend upon your love. You desire his faithfulness because
we're never faithful in one thing. You desire his law keeping because
we have never kept one law. You desire his precious blood
because our blood is polluted in our father Adam. If that is
what the Lord has made you see, come to Christ. Come to Christ. If you can see the bottomless pit
of your endless blackness, of the sin that you are, come to
Christ. There is sufficient remedy for your sin. Come to Christ
as little children, not so that your sins can be forgiven, but
believe that they are already because of what he's done. Believe
that, because they are. The only thing stopping you is
you, your pride. The Lord tells us clearly, come
unto me, all you that are labored and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find
rest to your soul. For my yoke is easy. and my burden
is light. It's the lightest burden you'll
ever carry. There's no work to be done. There's no work to be
done. Come to Christ as a little child,
and he will in no wise cast you out. That's our hope, isn't it?
Let's pray. Father, if we've never came to
you, cause it to be right now. Cause us to come to you as little
children. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.