That You May Not Sin - [1 John 1:5-2:2]

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the time in our lives and ministry when my wife and I were ministering in the New York City, my wife being a native
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New Yorker and I moved to New York to minister there. We're involved in many people's lives primarily in the area of discipleship, discipling men and women.
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I was discipling men, of course, and my wife was discipling women, of course nowadays you almost have to say that unfortunately, and we also worked with couples together.
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One of the ladies that my wife was discipling, she wanted to introduce us to a man that she was thinking of courting.
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He was from a Greek Orthodox background and so was this gal whom my wife was discipling. When God saved her, she realized her own sinfulness before a holy
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God and in her own admission realized that her
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Orthodox faith could not save her. So she turned to Jesus Christ alone. And so she wanted to somehow get my wife's approval,
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I guess, and my approval and she of this man who was still of an Orthodox faith.
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So she invited us to her parents house and invited him over and over dinner we had a pleasant conversation until we started talking about salvation.
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And I made a statement to him that completely shocked him and you'll understand in a second why coming from an
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Orthodox background. I told him that I was a hundred percent assured of my salvation.
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Not 99 .9 percent but a hundred percent assured knowing that when
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I was gonna die where I was headed. And coming from an Orthodox background that's a shocker because in the
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Orthodox faith that's being presumptuous of God. It's being arrogant.
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He actually told me in my face, he said you're quite arrogant. Actually I said quite the opposite. I said
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I in humility have simply taken God at his word. So I put the onus back on God.
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I knew God can handle that. So that's what I did. I said God is not a God of lies.
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He's faithful to his promises. He's true to his word. And when he says when I turn to his son in faith and repentance
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I will have eternal life. So I'm simply taking God at his word. Well the
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Orthodox faith is very similar to the Catholic faith in that you can never really have assurance of salvation, right?
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Why? Because it is a joint effort between man and God continuously throughout your whole lifetime.
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So there's always doubt until the very end. I'll take you through a brief history lesson of this issue of assurance of salvation.
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John Calvin because his fight was against Rome and the Roman Catholic system that emphasized you could never be assured of your salvation.
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John Calvin in contrast emphasized the possibility of immediate assurance. To John Calvin assurance was of the essence of faith.
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You have faith in Christ, you believe there's assurance. Later on the reformers had another battle to fight, the later reformers, and that was antinomianism.
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The idea that we are against God's law in the sense of I can believe, quote unquote, in Jesus and live my life as I want to with no spiritual fruit.
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So in fighting against that heresy, the later reformers emphasized the importance of practical evidences to be seen in the life of believers, to have assurance of salvation.
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What about the Puritans? To them, believers could not expect assurance until long after conversion and even after a prolonged time of extended faithfulness.
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And they were expecting believers to have such a high level of holiness that a lot of their congregations struggled and wrestled with this issue of assurance.
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And there was a widespread lack of assurance because of that. The Westminster Confession defines it this way.
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This infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it.
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And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election.
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Sure. End quote. The Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards faced this issue also in his ministry, the issue of assurance of salvation, and he wrote a couple of books.
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One of them was the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God. And he highlights five things that mark a true
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Christian, a true work of the Spirit of God. Number one, the exaltation of Jesus Christ.
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Number two, repentance from sin. Thirdly, a hunger for the word of God.
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Fourth, a grasp of sound doctrine and zeal to defend it against attacks. And fifthly, a love for God and man.
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He actually wrote something else called a treatise concerning the religious affections, where he talks in that work about what he terms holy affections.
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And he says the following concerning the Spirit of God, that he may sober, arrest, and convict men, and he may even, referring to the
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Spirit, bring them to what at first appears to be repentance and faith. Yet these influences fall short of inward saving renewal.
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And he continues in that treatise. Assurance is never to be enjoyed on the basis of a past experience.
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There is need of the present and continuing work of the Holy Spirit in giving assurance, end quote.
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And of course, as none other like Spurgeon, who can only put it the way he does, there's very strong words by the
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Prince of Preachers, but I think sometimes these are needed in our day today. He said the following, and he cuts to the chase, quote, if the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the
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Lord's will, but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumptions, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved, end quote.
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Through Spurgeon, there was not only assurance of salvation, but there was assurance of condemnation.
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Assure him the exact opposite, he said. But tonight, this evening, I want us to look at from the pen of the one who walked closely to Jesus, the
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Apostle John. So if you would turn with me to the epistle of 1 John, which we have been reading actually through in our morning services, the epistle of 1
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John, chapter 1. Before the reformers dealt with this issue, before Spurgeon or Jonathan Edwards or the
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Puritans, this was an issue addressed by the disciple, who himself refers to it as that way in the
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Gospel of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. John, as I remind you, was one of the inner core of the three, right?
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Peter, James, and John, who had certain experiences with our Lord Jesus Christ, with the other two that none of the rest of the 12 did.
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The Mount of Transfiguration, the raising of Jairus' daughter, the garden, in the
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Garden of Gethsemane, that moment for Jesus before the cross. So this is from the pen of the
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Apostle John. John, of course, was the author of a number of epistles, 1, 2, and 3
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John, and the Gospel and the Book of Revelation. And I love how Warren Worsby puts it.
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If the Gospel of John was believe, the Book of Revelation was be ready, then 1
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John is be sure, be sure. This is his overall aim.
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If you look in chapter 5 actually, verse 13, John gives us his purpose statement, his authorial intent, why he is writing this epistle.
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And he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the
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Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Who is his audience?
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Believers. He says it very clearly. I write these things to you who believe, in whom the object of their faith was none other than Jesus Christ in the name of the
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Son of God, that you may what? That you may hope to have eternal life, that you may think to have eternal life.
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No, that you may know assurance that you have eternal life.
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And in a number of ways in his epistle, John highlights this eternal life. There's four ways in which he highlights eternal life in this epistle, four phrases in terms that he takes actually from the
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Gospel. They're used in both books. Let me just list them for you. The first one is the term, know, to know.
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1 John 2, verse 3, for example, he says, by this we know that we have come to know him.
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And those are the same words that our Lord Jesus Christ used as recorded by the
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Apostle John in John 17, verse 3, his great high priestly prayer, where Jesus says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true
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God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So to have eternal life is to know God, the only
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God, and to know Jesus Christ. Secondly, to have eternal life is to be, as John puts it, to be born of God, to be born of God.
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Same chapter, 1 John 2, verse 29. We read this this morning. If you know that he,
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Christ, is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been what? Born of him.
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He uses that same term later in chapter 3, 1 John 3, verse 9. He talks about being born of God.
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This ought to remind you of Jesus's interaction with who? Nicodemus.
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To be born above, from above, anaphen is the Greek, to be born of God. Even John himself in the beginning of his gospel said in John 1, 13, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of who?
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Of God. It's a spiritual work, a divine work. That's what it means to have eternal life.
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There's not five steps to being born of God. It's a work of God. A third phrase in terms that John uses to describe eternal life is, children of God.
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Look at chapter 3 of 1 John, the beginning verse, verse 1. See what kind of love the
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Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. In verse 10 of that same chapter, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
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Interesting. Ought to remind us of John 8, where the people claim, well, no,
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Abraham is our father. Well, actually God is our father. Well, Jesus said in his very user -friendly manner, no, the devil is your father.
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Children of God or children of the devil? This is what John knew from the lips of our Lord. That's why even in John, the gospel, the first chapter, he said in verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
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And the fourth phrase that's highlighted here in his epistle that he also uses from his gospel, obviously picked up right from our
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Lord Jesus Christ, is the term passed out of death into life. We heard that this morning in John 5, where Jesus said, truly, truly,
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I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
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Well, John here in his epistle used that same phraseology. First John chapter 3, verse 14.
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We know assurance that we have passed out of death into life when we love the brethren.
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Eternal life to John was knowing God, knowing Jesus Christ.
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Eternal life to John was passing out of death into life. Eternal life to John was being a child of God.
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Eternal life to the apostle John was being born of God, being born from above.
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And this is why he's writing this epistle to give these believers assurance of eternal life, that they can be sure that they know
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God, that they can be sure that they have been born from above, that they can be sure that they've passed from death to life, and that they can be sure that they are children of God.
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Our text is from chapter 1, as I mentioned, and I'll read through that briefly. From verse 5 of chapter 1, continuing into chapter 2, verse 2.
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Remember, as we always say, the chapters are not inspired. But you'll see here, as I read this, I want you to pay attention to one particular word that's repeated nine times, and that's the user -friendly word, sin.
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Sin is repeated nine times, and it's interesting. As I read this, pay attention to where that term appears, because here is
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John, the closest of the three, the inner core, writing to believers about assurance of salvation, that they may know that they have eternal life.
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And what does he begin talking about? Sin. Really? Let's see.
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Verse 5 of chapter 1. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
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If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
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My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you may not sin.
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But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
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He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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No less, as I mentioned the nine times, John highlights the term sin here.
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Notice what he says in verse 1 of chapter 2. Within his overall purpose of assurance of salvation, that these believers may know that they have eternal life, he says here in verse 1,
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I am writing these things, the things that he just wrote here in chapter 1, why? So that you may not sin.
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That is his immediate purpose here, within the overall purpose of assurance of salvation.
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To help these believers be assured that they have eternal life, John is dealing with their relationship to sin.
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Because after all, what is salvation? Salvation is really in three tenses, right?
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Past tense, we were saved from the penalty of sin. Present tense, we are being saved from the power of sin.
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And future tense, we will be saved from the presence of sin.
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So that is why he deals with sin, even as he discusses assurance of salvation.
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And I want to highlight to you through this small text, three things that our assurance ought to be based upon.
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Number 1, our assurance is based upon abiding in the light.
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Abiding in the light, verses 5 through 7. Notice how he begins verse 5.
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This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you.
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Who is the we referring to? This is the message we, John is including himself, that we've heard from him and now we're proclaiming to you.
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What we know from the beginning of this epistle, beginning in verse 1. Notice what he says, how he describes himself.
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That which was from the beginning, which we have, what? Heard. Which we have seen with our eyes.
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Which we looked upon and have touched with our hands. Concerning the word of life.
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The life was made manifest. And we have seen it. And testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the
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Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you.
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He was an eyewitness, one who watched with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he wants to know from the outset to his audience, to these believers, who he is that's writing.
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And what is the message? If you are one of the twelve and actually one of the inner core of three. And you wanted to write about assurance of salvation and you're talking about sin.
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What is the initial message that you would proclaim? What does God John say here?
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God is light. He begins with the very nature.
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The essence and the character of God himself. God is light.
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He's going to the heart of the message. In scripture, light is used in one of two terms, two ways.
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In contrast to darkness. Light refers to truth. In contrast to darkness, which refers to error or falsehood.
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But also light can refer to holiness. In contrast to darkness, which represents sin.
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And we see from this context, we can conclude because of the emphasis John places on sin.
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That here, here he's trying to emphasize the holiness of God. When John says
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God is light, he is speaking of God's glory. He is speaking of God's radiance.
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Of his beauty. Of God's purity. Of his stainless holiness.
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He's in essence saying this as he's talking about sin to highlight that sin cannot exist in God's presence.
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In the same way that darkness cannot exist in the presence of physical light. The two are totally antithetical.
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And to make it even more clear. He continues and he says. And in him, in God, the one who is light, who is totally holy and pure and glorious.
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In him is no darkness at all. Literally in the Greek, it says there's not a single bit of darkness in him.
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As if to emphasize it even more. Not a single bit of darkness in him. This was brought to light.
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No pun intended. To me recently with my youngest daughter. We were sitting at the dining room table and we have the lights on and she's sitting on my lap.
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And as she's sitting on my lap, she begins to squirm. And I'm wondering why she's squirming and not to know this better.
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Because the light in the other room is not on. And she can sense the darkness behind her, even though the light in the kitchen is on.
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And that's why she wanted to get away from the darkness. Until I turn the light switch on.
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Light and darkness have absolutely nothing in common. The way the holy God, the thrice holy
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God of the universe has nothing to do with sin at all. What is the function of light?
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It dispels and exposes the darkness. So when John makes this initial proclamation, this initial message that God is light.
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In him there is not a single bit of darkness at all. Then he continues in verse 6 and 7 and makes a contrast.
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He's contrasting two types of people. And we know this from the term but that begins verse 7.
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Here he's contrasting in verse 6 those who walk in darkness versus those who walk in the light.
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And we said the light represents the light of God's holiness. Direct contrast, a stark contrast.
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It's no wonder that the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6 for a team. Question, what fellowship has light with darkness?
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None. None whatsoever. Those who walk in darkness, verse 6, and those who walk in the light, verse 7.
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Let's look at the first group, verse 6. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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Notice John's words. If we say we have fellowship with him.
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Yes, as we highlighted earlier, John's overall purpose is to encourage these believers in the area of assurance of salvation.
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But he has a secondary purpose, as we're seeing here, is he wants to attack false assurance.
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He says if we say we have fellowship with him and yet what? Walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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It's a professed faith versus a genuine faith. It's a said faith versus a real faith.
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Many times I talk to friends of mine and I'll ask them about one of our mutual friends of one of their friends.
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And in the conversation, I'll more than likely get around to the question, are they Christian?
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Are they saved? And the response I get, they profess to be. I said, I didn't ask you that.
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I didn't ask what they profess. I asked, are they saved? Similar story with my daughter.
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I think I might have shared the story, but it's apropos. And I just want to let you know that unlike Pastor Mike, I do not give a dollar for every time
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I mention their name. I'd be broke. But we were driving along one time and she had been discussing with my wife and myself about marriage.
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We had been to a couple of weddings and we talked to her about how it's important for somebody who is a follower of the
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Lord Jesus Christ to marry somebody else who is also a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. So on the way to breakfast one morning, she asked me this $10 ,000 question.
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How do you know? How do you know if the person is a Christian from a seven year old?
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And I'm like, let's just go to breakfast. No. I said, that's a great question, sweetie. We're driving along the road and I said, look at these trees.
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How do you know if eventually they're an apple tree or an orange tree? She said, by the fruit. Exactly.
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By the fruit of a person's life, you will know many people might profess may have say they have fellowship with him, but walk in darkness.
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And this is consistent throughout the epistle of first John. Notice in chapter two, if you will, with me the very next chapter, he attacks this said or profess faith as a false, false assurance.
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First John two, verse four, whoever says verbally, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar.
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And the truth is not in him. Verse nine of chapter two, whoever says verbally he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness.
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It's consistent with apostolic teaching throughout the New Testament. James said it. Well, what good is it?
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My brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?
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Rhetorical question with a loud answer. Absolutely not. These are ones who walk in the darkness, not with God who is in the light.
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Jesus described them to I'm sure when John's writing this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He must have been thinking of John three.
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We love John three, 16, right? For God so loved the world. We need to read a little further. John three, 19 and 20.
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Jesus said, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light.
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Why? Because their works were evil for everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come to the light.
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Less his work should be exposed. That's the function of light.
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It exposes the darkness. But in contrast to those who walk in darkness, there's verse seven.
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But if we walk in the light, who is the light? God is the light and he is in light.
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As he says here again, we have what fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
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Now, we have to understand many times we use terminology, even in our evangelical culture that has taken on a life meaning of its own.
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To the point where it's not what it meant originally in biblical times. So we'll say that somebody is a
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Christian and we'll ask the question, are they a Christian who walks in the light or the Christian who doesn't walk in the light?
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What? But that's how we talk in the Bible. Walking in the light means to be a
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Christian. How do I know that? I'll get my support from the Lord Jesus, as recorded by the
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Apostle John, John, chapter eight, verse 12. Jesus said, I am the light of the world.
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Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life to walk in.
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The light of God is to be, by definition, a Christian, one who is saved.
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This was the consistent testimony of the Apostle Paul, even Ephesians five, eight. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the
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Lord. Colossians 113, Paul again, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness.
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And what is the outcome? The results that John lists here in verse seven. What is the blessing of having fellowship?
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That is the first blessing, having fellowship with one another. Many people think to say that that one another means fellowship with other believers.
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But within the context, John is highlighting fellowship with the one who is like God. Notice in verse six, he said, if we say we have fellowship with whom?
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With Him. And he's saying the same thing here. Those who walk in the light have fellowship one with the other,
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God. That's what walking in the light is all about. And secondly, he says, the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us from all sin.
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Why talk about blood? It's not very user -friendly or seeker -sensitive, even in our day today.
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But as we know from the very beginning, that was God's plan. The Old Testament sacrificial system, where sacrifices had to be offered over and over again.
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And as we know from the book of Hebrews, His sacrifice was once for all time. Because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
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Personal penance does not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus.
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Religious affiliation does not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus. Baptism does not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus.
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Faithful church attendance does not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus.
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Being born into a Christian family doesn't cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus.
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Morality does not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus. Religious ordinances do not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus.
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And even evangelical performances do not cleanse you from your sins, but only the blood of Jesus.
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We sang it tonight, did we not? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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But this cleansing, John says, in the Greek, the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us continually from our sin.
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And we'll see why as the context develops. And it cleanses us from all sin. There is no sin that the blood of Jesus is not sufficient to cover.
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Amen for that. So abiding in the light is the first thing that we are to base our assurance on.
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Walking in the light. The second thing is awareness of our sin.
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Awareness of our sin. Verses 8 through 10. Those who are walking in the darkness, unbelievers, are not aware of their sin.
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The verses I read to you earlier that talk about a said faith, a professed faith, John is highlighting that God has done the miraculous work of salvation that is to be evidenced in a person's life in obedience, in love for the brethren.
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But it doesn't mean that we as believers are not still sinners. He says here in verse 8,
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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He says it again in verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, what happens? We make
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God a liar and his word is not in us. That's characteristic of those who walk in the darkness.
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They're self -deceived. The truth is not in them. The word is not in them because they think they're not sinners.
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But verse 9, if we believers confess our sins, He, God, the one who is light, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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That's one of the very first verses I was taught to learn, to memorize, to commit to memory as a young Christian.
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The Greek word for confess is very simple. To say the same word is to say what
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God calls sin, sin. To agree with God. Oh no, God, that wasn't really sin.
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Well, if God says it, it is. It's to come in agreement with God because we are aware of our sin.
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And what is the promise here? If we do that, God is two things.
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He is faithful and just. That's who He is. And what will He do? He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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You see, the true believer characteristically confesses sin because we are aware of our sin.
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Notice those two attributes that John highlights, how they directly relate to what
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God does. God is faithful to do what? To forgive our sins.
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He is just, it's the same word as righteous, vikios, to do what? To cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Only the one who is righteous can cleanse us from unrighteousness. And He is faithful to forgive.
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He is trustworthy. But why are we aware of our sin? Why is assurance based upon our awareness?
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Because we walk in the light. It's a cause and effect relationship. We walk in the light of God's holiness.
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And as we do that, His light exposes and makes us aware of our sin.
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And the result of our awareness is nothing else but confession of our sin.
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I had an interesting encounter which I kind of briefly alluded to this morning during Sunday school on my job yesterday.
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I had a little down time which was amazing and I think it was by God's providence so I can preach the gospel to this man.
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And there's a fellow who came in to do some sampling of some of his natural products and I've met him before and he's a man who loves to joke.
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And you probably know people who when you talk to them about seriously the way they don't want to think about what you said to them is to just bring up another joke.
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But that's okay. You use that joke and turn it against them to talk about the gospel. And he had a crude joke about being a grown up Catholic about a guy who goes into the confessional.
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So after he finished his joke, I said, that's interesting. I'm preaching about confession tomorrow.
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I said, do you know what it says in the Bible? That if we say we have no sin, we make
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God to be a liar and we are deceiving ourselves. He listened.
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I said to him, do you know there's only one solution to that sin problem? I said, do you know what it is?
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He shook his head. No, I said, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who is the
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Savior from sin. And you need to turn to him in faith. Conversation continued, went back to his jokes.
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And he says to me, you know, if you ask people today, who is the one person you would love to sit down and have a cup of coffee with?
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Most people would say, Jesus, I think that's kind of cool. He said, so to make it less user friendly for him,
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I said, the first time Jesus came as a Savior, but he's coming again as a judge.
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And I'll tell you the end of the story in a sec. Awareness of our sin. Believers are not aware of their sin.
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That's why John Owen said, a man then may have a deep sense of sin all his days, walk under the sense of it continually, abhor himself for his ingratitude, unbelief and rebellion against God without any impeachment of his assurance.
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End quote. It boosts our assurance when we are aware of our sin and live in confession of it as we walk in the light.
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Third and lastly, our assurance should be based upon our advocate. When we sin, our advocate, when we sin, and that's chapter two, verses one and two.
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My little children, he begins. It's a diminutive.
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My little children. He mentions it 11 times in this brief epistle, because when
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John's writing this, he's an aged man. He's writing as an aged pastor, as a spiritual father to them.
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And he says, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. That verb is in the heiress tense, which is significant because it means
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John is not talking about a habit of sinning. He's talking about uncharacteristic acts of sin.
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So in other words, you could render it. I am writing these things to you so that you may commit no act of sin.
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This is not referring to a habit of sinning, but rather an uncharacteristic act of sin. And that is consistent with the apostle
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John's writing throughout this epistle. If you turn briefly to chapter three, he highlights this again.
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John chapter three, verse six. He says, no one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
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No one who keeps on sinning have either seen him or known him. Verse eight, whoever makes a what a practice of sinning is of the devil.
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For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
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In verse nine, the very next verse, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning.
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Whereas here in our chapter two, he's talking about uncharacteristically an act of sin because it's consistent with what he said in chapter three.
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No one who was born of God makes a practice of sinning. But then in verse one of chapter two here, the second part, he says, but if anyone does sin, what?
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We have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ. We have an advocate with the father,
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Jesus Christ. An advocate is a legal advisor, one who pleads on our behalf as our representative.
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It's the same turn that John, the apostle, heard Jesus say in the upper room in John 13 through 17, when
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Jesus talked about the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, right? Paraclete, paracleto, to call alongside somebody.
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Jesus Christ is our advocate, is alongside us, defending us when we sin.
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Listen, brethren, when Satan, your archenemy, the accuser of the brethren comes and accuses you, you have the advocate,
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Jesus Christ. Martin Luther said, quote, the righteousness of Christ stands on our side for God's righteousness is in Jesus Christ.
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Ours. It's ours. But John tells us why he's the only advocate.
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He gives us two reasons. First of all, because Jesus Christ, he says in verse one, is the righteous. He alone is righteous.
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He is eternally righteous. As we know, he is the eternal son of God, eternally righteous. And he manifested that righteousness in the incarnation when he lived here a perfect, sinless life in obedience to the law of God, that which we could not do.
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But not only that. Secondly, he is our advocate because verse two here, he, Christ, is the propitiation for our sins.
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He's a propitiation for our sins. That term is actually only mentioned three times in the
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Greek New Testament. Right here. Secondly, it's mentioned in 1st John, 4, 10. So he uses it twice.
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And the apostle Paul happens to mention it once in Romans 3, verse 25, when actually he's developing his doctrine of justification.
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But propitiation is an important soteriological doctrine. It means simply this, that the atoning work of Christ, his death on the cross, satisfied the demands of God's holiness and justice.
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Question, what were those demands? The demands were that because God is holy, sin was a direct offense against him, and so it had to be punished.
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His wrath had to be poured out. But because Christ's death bore his wrath, God the
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Father was satisfied. Propitiation. And that is why he's our advocate.
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Back to my friend at work. I said to him, Jesus came as a savior the first time.
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The second time he's coming as a judge. Because I said, you know why? Because God would not be
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God if he turned a blind eye to sin. And he will judge sin and he will pour out his wrath.
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And what you must do is repent and turn to Jesus Christ as your only Lord and savior.
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Without saying the word, I was basically talking to him about propitiation. He's a propitiation for our sins.
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And he continues, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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There it is. I switched. I'm going back to my Dallas days. The sins of the whole world.
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In other words, propitiation John is talking about. That's why Jesus, we said, is our advocate when we sin.
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Remember the flow of thought here in this text. So how could Jesus be my advocate because he's my propitiation?
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If he's died for the sins of the whole world, then he's everyone's advocate. Calvin put it this way.
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I pass by the fanatics who under this pretense extend salvation to all the reprobate.
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And therefore to Satan himself. Such a monstrous thing deserves no refutation.
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End quote. It all boils down to God's eternal decree and the sovereignty of God.
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Because here in writing to believers about assurance of salvation. I write these things so that you will not sin.
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But when you do sin, we have one advocate, Jesus Christ. And why is he our advocate? Because he's the propitiation for our sins.
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And for the sins of all believers of the whole world of all the elect. If there was the sins of the entire world, believing and unbelieving, then
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God's sovereign plan is somehow frustrated. Oh, plan B. He would not be
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God. But I believe R .C. Sproul puts it better than me. In his book,
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Grace Unknown, he says this. When we speak of the sufficiency of the atonement, however, we must ask the question.
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Is it sufficient satisfaction of divine justice? If it is sufficient to satisfy the demands of God's justice, then no one needs to worry about future punishment.
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If God accepts payment of one person's moral debt from another, will he then exact payment of the same debt later by the person himself?
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The answer is obviously no. This means that if Christ really objectively satisfied the demands of God's justice for everyone, then everyone will be saved.
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End quote. Just become a universalist. You have no advocate in that case.
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John wrote to encourage believers in assurance of salvation, that they may know that they have eternal life.
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And he also wrote to attack false assurance, a professed faith that wasn't genuine.
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Are you assured tonight of your salvation? Do you know not think or hope?
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Do you know that you have eternal life? Is your assurance of false assurance? What is your assurance based upon?
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John, in the initial writing of this epistle, said that our assurance should be based upon three things.
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Abiding in the light. Awareness of our sin. And our advocate, Jesus Christ, when we sin.
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And that is why he closes his epistle in 1 John with these words. 1 John 5 .20
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And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding.
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So that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true. In his
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Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God in eternal life.
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Let's pray. Father, what a joy it is to open the scriptures together.
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And we thank you for even this small epistle by the pen of the disciple whom
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Jesus loved, the Apostle John. And as a spiritual father, as an aged pastor, he's writing to these believers to encourage them.
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And I thank you for the encouragement and exhortation we received tonight from these brief words.
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About knowing that we have eternal life. That we know not based on something we've done or a past spiritual experience because we prayed a certain prayer.
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Or did some kind of religious ceremony. But it's because of three things. Because it's based upon abiding in the light.
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Because of the awareness of our sin. And because we have Jesus Christ as our advocate when we sin.