MY ONE DEFENSE; MY RIGHTEOUSNESS
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 133 viewsNotes
Transcript
Good Morning, good to see everyone this morning! hope you all are doing well this morning!
Turn with me in your Bible this morning to 1 John 2 this morning we are going to come to a section in Johns letter where he discusses sin in the believers life.
He discusses the reality of sin in the believers life and the relief of sin in the believers life.
I want to focus on 1 John 2:1-2
But I want to remind you of what has already been said to give you the proper context for this passage:
If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS ONE:
(Let’s pray together)
We are going to focus in on the word advocate this word is used and refers to a defender, or to even more specific a defense attorney!
Jesus is our ONE DEFENSE!
As I was writing this my mind went to a song,
LORD I COME I CONFESS
BOWING HERE I FIND MY REST
WITHOUT YOU I a fall apart
YOU’RE THE ONE WHO GUIDES MY HEART
LORD I NEED YOU OH I NEED YOU!
EVERY HOUR I NEED YOU
MY ONE DEFENSE MY RIGHTEOUSNESS
OH GOD HOW I NEED YOU!
WHERE SIN RUNS DEEP
YOUR GRACE IS MORE GRACE IS FOUND IN WHERE YOU
WHERE YOU ARE LORD I AM FREE HOLINESS IS CHRIST IN ME!
We have talked at length about the fact that as a Christian your heart is much like a garden, there is always going to be fruit to cultivate and weeds to pull.
There will always be spiritual fruit to cultivate and fleshly weeds of sin to rid yourself of.
SO the reality is that there will be sin in the Christians life but this does not mean that we just kind of lazily accept that and not deal with sin, but rather the true Christian will deal with sin, because they understand that God is grieved by the sin in our lives.
The apostle John writes here to young believers in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now at this time John was probably one of the last if not the last apostle alive. He is writing to Christians because James, Peter, Thomas, Matthew they had all passed away the pillars of ancient Christianity was gone and John was all that was left.
But the gospel was spreading like wildfire in those days because of the faithful obedience of the early church. We have to think about John at this point as a Senior pastor who has many congregations under his teaching. He was the only pillar left and he is writing predominantly to young Christians who have just recently repented and confessed Jesus Christ as Lord.
Which is why he addresses the readers in this way:
“My Little Children…”
He is sounding alot like Jesus bc even Jesus referred to His disciples as little children
“Children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for Me, and just as I told the Jews, ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ so now I tell you.
John became known for his great love for Jesus and for other Christians. Because of that love and bc of his own advanced age at the time of the writing, he refers to his readers as little children.
John wanted his readers who were young in the faith as well as those who might have been struggling with false teaching creeping into the church, and he wants us to know today some core truths to remember when we sin.
Jesus is our advocate when we sin!
Jesus is our advocate when we sin!
My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.
He says I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin,
What are these things?
He is probably referring to 5-10 where he says whoever loves God keeps his commands.
This might have concerned the Christians in the early church because they might have looked at thier life and saw areas they were not being obedient, and they may have began questioning whether or not they were truly saved.
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever been in the place where you hear “The one who says I have come to know Him and yet does not keep his commands is a liar and the truth is not in him” and it scares you?
I have been!
It hurts when I see areas of my life where I fail Him!
To hear those words can really burden the heart of someone who knows Jesus but who may not be 100 percent perfected yet which is all of us.
But John writes us some encouraging news
WHEN WE ARE FAITHLESS HE IS FAITHFUL!
When we don’t have the strength to fight anymore our God fights for us!
When we are weary from the good fight of faith, Jesus Himself is fighting for us in the spiritual realm!
He writes this statement to remind us how serious we should take sin, that we shouldn’t think that we are free to do whatever we want to do, some people may have the idea “well I have liberty and freedom and I am always going to sin so I will be forgiven”
John writes those words to let us know that we should strive not to sin! But John is a realist He knows those weeds are going to pop up from time to time bc even though we are free from the power of sin, we are not free from the presence of sin!
We still live in the flesh, and John knows there will be sin present in the Christians life and that we will always be at war with sin in our lives.
Which is why gives us this hope if we sin!
My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.
There are times when sin is readily seen in the believers life, however the beautiful part of this passage is found in the word BUT IF ANYONE DOES SIN WE HAVE HELP, WE HAVE ASSURANCE, NOT BECAUSE WE DESERVE IT FOR WE DID NOT DESERVE SALVATION BUT GOD WHO IS RICH IN MERCY AND GRACE HAS PROVIDED FOR US NOT ONLY THE LORD TO BRING US SALVATION, BUT GOD THE FATHER HAS BROUGHT US THE ONE WHO CAN KEEP US SAVED AMEN!
Now what I want you to to do is to think back to this word advocate. We have discovered that it means defender, or defense attorney. This implies that one day everyone will face a sort of divine court in session. Imagine with me if you will a Heavenly court and it is in session, and all deeds thoughts and intentions are laid bare for all to see.
Gods law book is opened...
How many of those laws do you imagine you have broken?
How many times do you believe you have broken them?
Probably far too many to count, so were standing there guilty before our almighty Soverign God, this is Gods hall of justice, the accused sinner comes before the bar of God and Jesus Christ comes as the sinners defense attorney. This shows us something about salvation, salvation is about divine justice.
When we think of salvation we think of it as an act of divine grace we think of it as divine mercy.
But salvation has to do with justice God the righteous judge dealing with sin!
Sin is dealt with at the cross of Jesus Christ where Jesus pays the penalty of our sin, where he died once for all, and for those who trust in Him their sin is dealt with justly.
God cannot remain a righteous judge if he does not punish sin, but he cannot be loving of he does not provide an opportunity for people who were born in sin, to be set free from that sin. in the cross of Jesus Christ He does both he deals with sin and offers grace and mercy for those sinners who will turn to him and repent!
So in this grand court room that will take place in eternity future, we will stand in the presence of perfect holiness and in that moment we will see ourselves as we are. I can just imagine standing there as the memories of my sin rush into my mind my heart begins to beat faster I have fallen short I have not lived the best way I could have.
Right when I begin to have tears roll down my face in dissapointment, THERE COMES JESUS HE WALKS INTO THE COURT ROOM AND SAYS FATHER THIS ONE IS MINE! KYLE IS RIGHTEOUS BECAUSE I AM RIGHTEOUS!
IN that moment shocked will be the understatement of the century.
Because I see my shortcomings, I know my sin, but in that moment to end all moments my defense attorney will come to my rescue once again NOT BC I DESERVE IT NOT BC I AM WORTHY BUT BECAUSE HE IS GOOD AND HIS NAME IS WORTHY OT BE PRAISED !!!!
HE IS MY ONE DEFENSE MY RIGHTEOUSNESS AND EVERY HOUR I DO NEED YOU JESUS!!!
I NEED YOU IN THE HOUR OF MY SALVATION AND I NEED YOU IN MY DAY TO DAY LIFE AND LORD I NEED YOU ON THAT LAST DAY EVERYDAY I NEED YOU JESUS DON’T EVER FORGET THAT CHURCH!
Jesus didn’t save you to leave you He saved you to keep you!
When you become Jesus in Gods eyes His righteousness becomes our righteousness!
Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now i am found was blind but now I see.
Oh to grace how great a debtor DAILY IM CONSTRAINED TO BE!
I am telling you Jesus is the hope of staning on that great day of justice HE is the only hope we have!
Jesus is the propitiation for our sin!
Jesus is the propitiation for our sin!
He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
This verse shows us why Jesus is uniquely qualified to be our defense attorney!
Jesus is the only one in the universe who can be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is the one who through His death on the cross satisfies the honor and justice of God the Father.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.
One man Adam brought the curse of sin into the world and only one man, the god man can break the curse of sin and death.
Jesus was fully god and fully man!
He was fully God in that he could remain sinless from birth, He was fully man in that he felt the pain and agony of the cross in our place and His love and mercy broke the curse of sin and death!
THANK YOU JESUS!!
IT is vital to understand what John means when he uses the word propitiation, it is an uncommon word you dont hear every day. It is also uncommon in the Bible used only 4 times. Jesus is able to be our advocate for sin because he became the sacrifice for our sin.
To explain the meaning of propitiation think about 4 words
. wrath
. justice
. holiness
. love
God cannot wave his magic wand and say your sins are forgiven, he is a God of love but He is also a God of justice. He had to punish sin!
This is why on the cross Jesus yelled IT IS FINISHED!!!
THE DEBT WAS PAID, THE DEAL WAS DONE, THE AGREEMENT BINDING
This is why we can rejoice OH DEATH WHERE IS YOUR STING OH SIN WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?
THEY HAVE BEEN SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY!!
BC MY JESUS AIN’T DEAD HE IS ALIVE TODAY!!
HE rose to prove God the father accepted His payment!!
At the cross Gods wrath, love, justice and holiness met together!
God treated Jesus like we should have been treated in order to treat us like Jesus CAN YOU FATHOM THAT KIND OF LOVE?
DON’T EVER TELL ME YOU DON’T MATTER, DON’T EVER TELL ME YOUR ARE NOT LOVED!
YOU ARE LOVED MORE THAN YOU COUD EVER UNDERSTAND IN THE EYES OF GOD!
But he is not just our propitiation He is the propitiation for the who world!
When we look at the world and see the whole world walking in darkness and wickedness the answer is not in social justice, It is not in politics or ending world hunger…
THE ANSWER IS JESUS
I PRAY DAILY LORD JESUS SEND REVIVAL FORGIVE US WHERE WE HAVE FAILED YOU LORD BUT WE NEED YOU, THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW YOU LORD!!!
John Newton wrote this:
“I saw ONe hanging on a tree
in agony and blood
who fixed his languid eyes on me
as near the cross I stood
Sure never, till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look
It seemed to charge me with his death
Tho not a word was spoke
Alas! I knew not what I did
BUt now my tears are in vain
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!
A second look he gave that said
I FREELY ALL FORGIVE
this blood is for thy ransom paid
I die that thou may live
Thus while his death my sin displays
in all its blackest hue
Such is the mystery of grace
it seals my pardon too.