The Lord's promise to his people
never to leave nor forsake is one of those exceeding great
and precious promises that we have in the Word of God. And
I believe that promise is given seven times in the scripture.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Let's turn now, if you
will, in our Bibles to 1 John chapter 2. We're looking at the first two
verses in this chapter tonight. First John chapter two. My little children, these things
write 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 a propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but
also for the sins of the whole world. The title of my message
tonight is simply our advocate and propitiation. The apostle
John, We believe when he wrote this letter was an older man,
and he writes to little children, my little children. You know,
John himself, the Apostle John himself, along with the other
apostles of the Lord, had also one time been addressed by Christ
with these same words, my little children, in John chapter 13
and verse 33. We read, little children, these
are the words of Christ to his disciples. Little children, yet
a little while I am with you. You shall seek me, and as I said
unto the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say
unto you. The Apostle Paul, he used this
terminology also in the letter of Galatians. Writing to believers,
he said, my little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you. And also in Galatians, remember
he said, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. That is every child of God, every
believer, everyone who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
are all the children of God by faith in Christ. What a blessing. You just stop and think about
that, to be a child of God. What a blessing, right? Tonight,
those of us who know him as our Lord and Savior, to be one of
his children, one of God's children. You know, in the chapter three,
the chapter that follows this, it begins with these words, behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. And I like that American
Standard Version translation of that verse. It reads, behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God, and such we are. Don't you like that? and such
we are. These things, John said, these
things I write unto you that you sin not. Now what would be
included in these things? What has he written to this point?
These things I write unto you that you sin not. What would be included in these
things? Well, we know he had written
unto them that God is light, that God is holy, and that life,
life, eternal life was manifested. That is, the Son of God came
into this world. He joined to his deity that body
and soul prepared him by God the Holy Spirit. Life, eternal
life was manifested. Something is manifested. You
can see it. And John said, we saw, we, we
touched, we handled, and we heard that life, which was manifested. And it was, he was manifested.
John has written that we might have fellowship with the father.
He was manifested. The Lord Jesus Christ was manifested. He came into this world as a
man. so that we might have fellowship with the Father who is light. And then he also had said, if
we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie. Just that simple. If we say we
have fellowship with him who is the light and walk in darkness,
we lie. We are to walk in the light.
But listen, that doesn't mean that we can live without sin. We can and we should strive to
live without sin. But no child of God is able in
this world to live without sin. You say, why is that? Doesn't
he save his people from their sins? Absolutely. saves us from
the penalty of sin, that is hell, and yes, he also saves us from
the power of sin. And one day he shall save us
from the very presence of sin. But as long as we are in this
world, we still have what we call the flesh, the world, and
Satan against us. I want you to look back to Galatians
just a moment. And I know this is familiar with
all of us, but It doesn't hurt to be reminded again. In Galatians
chapter 5, in verse 16, the apostle said, this
I say then, walk in the spirit. Now to walk in the spirit and
you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit. Now the flesh is that old man.
Has several names in the New Testament, doesn't it? Body of
sin, the Apostle Paul called it. The old man, we most often
call it the old nature. But that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ said. And we've all been
born of the flesh. And if we've been born again,
that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And so the Spirit
lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit. That is, these two principles,
or two natures, the old man and the new man, they lust against
each other. There's always that tension in
the child of God, between the flesh and the spirit, that new
nature, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Someone
has said, and I point this out to us, the flesh cannot do always
what it would do. What would the flesh always do?
Live in sin, wallow in sin. Nor can the spirit do what it
would always do. What would the spirit do? Live
without sin, live above sin. But neither one, neither the
flesh nor the spirit is able to control the believer all the
time. And so when John writes here
in this epistle that we're looking at, These things I write unto
you that you sin not. Well, he had just written, turn
back to 1 John, you remember this. He had just written that
if we deny that we have sinned, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. But, and this is something that
you might take notice of, In verse 5 of 1 John 1, he said,
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.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. Now notice, but if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
that is, we have fellowship with the Father. And now notice, even
though we're walking in the light and have fellowship with the
Father, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us
from all sin. See, the point is, we will never,
as long as we have the old man part of us, we will never live
in this world without sin. Now, these wonderful truths,
that are given to us here, they're not given to suggest to us it
doesn't matter how we live. I mentioned last week that at
Ephesus, in that letter in Revelation chapter two that was directed
to the church at Ephesus, the Lord said that they hated, that
is that church hated what he also hated, and that was the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And many people believe that
doctrine was simply that it doesn't matter how you live, that you're
saved now and nothing is sin to you now. No, John said, these
things write unto you that you sin not. And these wonderful
truths that he has written, when applied by the Holy Spirit in
a saving way, sets the believer against sin. I think of the words
of Joseph back in Genesis. And he certainly didn't have
the light. He didn't have the scriptures.
He didn't have the blessings that we have today. But yet he
was able to say when tempted to sin, how can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God? So, yes, we're to strive against
sin. John said, I write these things
unto you that you sin not. That should be our goal, that
should be our aim, to live without sin. We should always have that
in mind. But what happens when a believer
does sin? And we know that we do. Well,
John tells us here that the believer has, the child of God has, these
two wonderful truths when we do sin. And I want you to notice
this, John includes himself. He was an apostle. He was an
apostle of the Lord. But notice he said, my little
children, these things right unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we, not just
you, you regular believers, but we, all believers, apostles included,
we, and he mentions two wonderful truths that every believer knows
or should know that we have. First of all, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Notice that in
verse one again. And if any man sin, or when a
man sins, a child of God, when he sins, does he lose his salvation? Must he be saved again? Of course
not. No. The eternal security of the
believer is a wonderful truth, isn't it? He said, my sheep,
he has his sheep in his hand. And no one is able to pluck one
of his sheep out of his hand. But what happens when a believer
sins? And we do sin, we know that.
We've already made that point. What happens? Well, let us know
this. When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, Let me say a few words about
this matter of him being an advocate. This is the only place, this
is the only scripture where we have this English word in our
Bible, advocate. You can look in your concordance
and you will not find it in any other scripture. But the word
which is translated, the Greek word which is translated advocate,
is found in other places, primarily in the Gospel of John chapter
14 and chapter 16. It's not translated there as
an advocate, but it's always translated there as comforter. Comforter. And it has reference,
of course, to God the Holy Spirit. In every other place, it has
reference to God, the Holy Spirit. And he is their promise. Remember
the Lord said, I will not leave you orphans. I'm not gonna leave
you in this world without a comforter, without a helper. And that's
really what the word means. A helper, literally it means
one who comes and stands alongside. One who comes and stands alongside
to aid, to help, the comforter. He comes and he stands alongside. Now in this context, the translators,
and I certainly agree with them, that they translated it here,
advocate, and it has reference not to God the Holy Spirit, but
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, I think it may help to understand
what we have here if we think of this like a courtroom. Just
picture a big courtroom, and in that courtroom we know we
have a judge, we have an accuser, that is a prosecutor, we have
the person who's on trial, And we have the advocate, the lawyer,
who comes alongside of him. God the Father is the judge in
this courtroom that we are imagining. God the Father is the judge and
the prosecutor is Satan. And in Revelation chapter 12,
he is called the accuser of the brethren. And when we sin, he
accuses us unto the father. The child of God, he's charged
with sin, and then Jesus Christ, the righteous, is his advocate. He comes alongside as his advocate. He's like a lawyer who answers
for the accused. The accused doesn't say anything.
His lawyer does the talking for him. Consider this about this picture
as a court of law, and this is beautiful when you think about
it. If you think of this in that picture I've just described,
there's a judge, an accuser, the accused, and the advocate. Think about this. The advocate
is the son of the judge. The judge has already said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. As well as the
accused. Now the advocate is the judge's
son by eternal generation. He's always been the son of the
father. He's the eternal son of God,
made flesh. But those who are accused, the
children of God, We too are the children of the judge, but not
by eternal generation, but rather by adoption, we've been brought
into the family of God. What a sight, right, when you
think of it like that. Here's the advocate, he's the
son of the judge. Here's the accused, he's also
the son of the judge. How do you think this is gonna
turn out? if we think of it like a courtroom.
How do you think it's going to turn out? Well, we recognize
that this picture quickly breaks down. In a court of law, in a
human court of law, a man's lawyer will first of all try to prove
his client is innocent. And if his client is proven to
be guilty and convicted as guilty, then the place of the lawyer
is only to make sure the sentencing is just according to the law. But in thinking of Christ as
our advocate, representing us when we sin and we are accused,
things are altogether different. He's not there to prove our innocence,
not at all. Christ, as the child of God's
advocate, does not deny his client's guilt, his guilt. He's guilty. There's no doubt about that.
He admits to sin. He admits to guilt. But what
he does plead is this, that his sin that he's being accused of
is not to be imputed to him because that sin was laid upon me. That sin that you are accusing
him of now was laid upon me, was imputed unto me, was charged
to my account, and I've paid for that sin with my own life,
with my blood. He should be pardoned. Not to pardon him would be what
we call today double jeopardy. It would be double jeopardy.
for the same sin to be punished in the advocate and then punished
in the accused. I forget, I think it was Augustus
Toplady, one of his hymns when he speaks about, can justice
twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand, And then again
at mine. Justice, God's justice will not
do that. The sin's already been paid for.
And justice, it's only just now that the sin not be imputed unto
him. It's already been imputed to
me, the advocate would say. He shed his blood for the remission
of our sins. And you know, sometimes people
say, well, that's past sin. When the Lord Jesus Christ died,
every sin that you and I have ever committed, they were all
future. Isn't that so? They were all future. He died
for all our sins. His blood cleanses all our sins. And we like to think of past,
present, and future. He took them all away. All away. They should be forgiven. The
client, the accused, should be set free. Why? Because the sin
has already been punished once, and it's not going to be punished
again. The judge would not be just if
he were to do that. That's a wonderful truth, isn't
it? That we have an advocate with the Father. When we sin,
you say, well, that'll cause people to go out and sin, will
it? I don't think so. I think it'll make God's people
try even harder to live without sin, to know that we have such
a kind and gracious and wonderful and good Father who loves us
and gave His Son for us. Now, the second truth, Notice
here, we have this truth, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous. But the second truth is we have
a propitiation for our sins. And he is, notice he is the propitiation
for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. Now, this word propitiation,
We have that English word three times in the Bible. We have it
here in this text, and if you turn over to chapter four, 1
John chapter four and verse 10, we have it again. Here in his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then we have it
one other time In Romans, Romans chapter 3. I believe it's verse 25, 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. So we have this word
propitiation three times, but I want to mention the fact that
it's not always the same Greek word. It's the same Greek word
in both texts here in 1st John, but the word that is translated
propitiation there in Romans 3.25 is a different word and
it's found one other time in the New Testament, but it's not
translated there propitiation, it's translated there mercy seat,
mercy seat. That's interesting, isn't it?
When God gave Moses instructions concerning the mercy seat, and
this is all I will say about it, he said, there, there's that
mercy seat on that Ark of the Covenant. Two cherubims made
into the mercy seat, looking down upon, looking at each other
down upon it, and the glory, the Shekinah, the manifest presence
of God dwelling there between the cherubim. And that mercy
seed, the scripture is the same that's translated propitiation.
There I will meet with thee and commune with thee from above
the mercy seed. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
the mercy seed. Just as he is the propitiation,
he is the mercy seed. And that just reminds us that
God, now this is just so, this is just so. I know people today,
they don't want to hear this, but it's still true. It's so. God will only, only commune with
men in and through the mercy seat, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. He's the one, the only mediator
between God and man. No man, he said, comes to the
Father but by me. The mercy seat. With this word,
propitiation, he is the propitiatory sacrifice In Philip Henry, in
his book on Christ is All, he gives seven truths about Jesus
as the propitiation. And I just want to give you these
quickly. Number one, he is appointed of
God to be the propitiation, just like in Hebrews We're told that
no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called
of God. A person just didn't go to school
one day and they had a career day and someone said, you know
what, I think I'd like to be a high priest. That's the career
I'm going to go after. Oh no, no. Man didn't just decide
to be a high priest. He had to be appointed of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ not
only was appointed of God to be the high priest, but he was
appointed of God to be the propitiatory sacrifice. And number two, he
is accepted of God as the propitiation. He offered himself as a sacrifice,
as a propitiation, and God accepted it. God accepted his sacrifice. Say, how do you know that? He
raised him from the dead. Third, he's a spotless propitiation. All those animals in the Old
Testament that served as a sin offering, they had to be without
blemish. They had to be without spot.
Because they were picturing the spotless, holy Lamb of God. He was the spotless propitiation. Number four, he's a slain propitiation. He had to be slain, didn't he?
He had to be crucified, nailed to a tree, and die, shed his
blood. And he's a voluntary propitiation. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. I lay it down of myself. And
number six, he is a universal propitiation. And this might
confuse some people, I don't think so. Notice John said he's
not only the propitiation for our sins, that is Jewish believers,
but also for the sins of the whole world. He's talking about
Gentiles. He's a universal propitiatory. There's only one sacrifice. He's
the sacrifice for His chosen people among the Jews as well
as among the Gentiles. And the seventh thing, the last
thing, he's a complete, complete propitiation. Don't need another. And he doesn't need to be offered
again either, because by that one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. I pray the Lord would Bless these
thoughts and words to all of us here tonight. My little children,
these things write unto you. It's hard to get past that, isn't
it? To be a child of God. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called a son
of God, and such we are. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. And if or when any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father. It's not all over. It's not all
lost. You know, when Peter lied and
said he didn't know the man, don't you know he felt like that
was the end? That was it. I would imagine he probably thought
I must be a reprobate. I had a person call me just a
couple of weeks ago from California, and they started off asking me
what I knew about reprobation. I said, why are we talking about
reprobation? Let's be talking about believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Why would you want to talk about
that? You know, that's one of the tools that Satan uses, I
believe, to try to deceive people and get them off course. And
no, Peter probably felt, I must be a reprobate after what I've
done. But you know what? He had an
advocate with the Father. He had a propitiatory sacrifice
that took away his sin. And he was restored. And that's
one of the things that this person brought up to me. They said,
well, I've been told that if you go away from the gospel,
you never can come back. I said, well, I don't believe
that. I don't see that in the scripture. No. The scripture still says, look
unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am
God and there is none other. As long as you're in this world
breathing, look unto Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Amen. Brother Bill, come and
lead us in a hymn.