We have an ADVOCATE! | 1 John 2:1-2

All right, so we're in 1 John chapter two, and you guessed it, I have notes.

So prepare yourself, Aaron.

But before we dive into chapter two, what is the context?

What is something that we've been talking about all through chapter one?

Somebody have the Crickets app ready?

What's a key theme that we talked a lot about in chapter one?

We talked about fellowship.

What does that mean, Aaron?

Togetherness.

Togetherness, okay.

Let's expand on that a little bit.

So togetherness in what way?

In the word, in the faith, in the Holy Spirit.

Yes, so this togetherness is one with God, the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, but it's

also a togetherness amongst the saints, which we spend time in the word, in prayer, always in the

context of the Holy Spirit.

So fellowship's key.

What is a promise when we are in the fellowship of the Father, and the Son, and with the

saints?

What's a byproduct of that?

Joy.

Joy.

What verse is that, Delaney?

Verse four.

Hey, look at you go.

So look back in chapter one, verse four.

John says, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Now he's saying our because he's speaking on behalf of the saints.

How can we have joy in our life?

Yes, that's what he said, Aaron.

Fellowship with the saints.

Yeah, so when we're around other Christians, right, it's gonna build us up.

God's truth is gonna remind our hearts who God is, and that we have fellowship with him.

We walk in the light as he is in the light, right?

What else did we talk about in chapter one?

You can cheat and look at your Bibles.

For those of you that have your Bibles, and if you don't have your Bible, you're a heathen.

So, I'm talking about, never mind.

You know who you are.

So in verse five, we read that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

Someone help me out, what is that talking about?

Somebody new.

I might start calling people.

God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

Josiah?

God has no sin.

There's no darkness at all.

God is holy, holy, holy.

God is the truth.

God is perfection, right?

And so what does that tell us about ourselves?

If God is light, and there is no darkness in him, what about us?

We have darkness.

We do have darkness.

We do have a sin problem, which means to break God's laws, not keep his commandments, to disobey him,

and then as sinners, what do we earn for ourselves?

Bum, bum.

The wages of sin is death.

Yes, but the free gift of eternal life is in Christ Jesus, right?

So, we're talking about context.

What does context mean?

Somebody help me out.

That's an important word.

The surrounding, like the background of the story, and customs, and you understand?

Yeah, it's the surrounding verses, the surrounding content to inform us of whatever we're looking at.

So, con means with, text, the supporting text to help us understand, like you

said, the background.

Okay, so we talked a lot about, in chapter one, about how John is basically proclaiming

the gospel.

And so, what happens when we sin?

What can we do as Christians when we sin?

Do we just lose our salvation if we sin?

Okay, breaks our heart when we sin?

And then, what do we get to do since we're in fellowship with God when we sin, JD?

Get to repent.

Get to repent.

Look at verse nine, and I think this describes repentance.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness.

Now, do y 'all remember the really hard theological question we talked about where, well, what if all of,

since all my sins were forgiven, at Calvary, when I look to Jesus in faith, why do I need to keep asking for forgiveness of

my sins?

So, how can we reconcile both of those ideas?

So, the minute you earn your salvation, all of the sins, past, present, and future are cleared, although,

when you do sin, it puts a strain on the

relationship there.

Now, he said the word earn, and so we understand that we can't earn our salvation by our works,

but, and what you are getting at is we don't earn it.

Jesus Christ earned it.

He fulfilled the law perfectly, but when we're trusting on him, all of our sin gets forgiven, past, present, and

future, so there's no penalty, but we now are walking in relationship with Christ,

relationally.

So, we confess our sins, so our relationship is full, right?

When we begin to sin and when we're in Christ, that joy kind of fades away a little bit, that peace

kind of fades away, but we can always go to the Father and confess our sin, and then that joy and that peace gets

restored in that loving relationship.

So, look with me at chapter two.

Let's look at the opening six verses.

John says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.

By this, we may know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same manner in which he walked.

So, what are a few things that catch your eye in this passage, anybody?

So, something that sticks out to me is the word advocate in verse one.

Let's look at verse one together.

John says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the

righteous.

So, raise your hand.

Why do you think John keeps saying, my little children?

What's the significance of that?

Any takers out there?

Delaney's wheels are turning.

What do you think?

Maybe like their children and their faith.

Absolutely.

So, this is pointing to the fact that we're a family in Christ, right?

The body of Christ.

We're a spiritual family, and we all have mentors in the faith, or we should.

Does anybody have a mentor in the faith?

Who's someone that comes to mind, Avery?

Parents.

Your parents.

So, your physical parents also serve as spiritual parents, right, which is awesome.

That's where discipleship is going to take place.

Raise your hand.

Who's another mentor that you have that's not your parents?

Delaney?

Miss Brenda.

Miss Brenda, awesome.

Aaron?

Ray Comfort.

Ray Comfort.

So, it's good to have spiritual mentors, and a lot of times, our spiritual families, we may be

closer to them than our actual blood and biological families.

Why do you think that is?

Now, you may say that's not the case for me.

So, for me, why my bond with my church family goes so much deeper than blood is because

we can connect on a spiritual and eternal level, right?

There are people in my family that aren't saved, and I pray for them.

I pray for those opportunities to share the gospel, but even though we're related by blood, I'm

nowhere as close to them as I am right here, talking about eternal things, talking about the gospel,

things that matter, things that pertain to the truth.

And so, this is how John, we all agree that John wrote the Epistle of John, right?

He wrote many other books in the New Testament as well, but he sees himself as a

spiritual father to his audience, which are mainly Jewish converts to Christianity,

and he refers to them as my little children.

So, I'm really excited to get into this first topic.

He says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may

not sin.

So, raise your hand.

Someone help me out.

What is sin?

How would you describe that in your own words?

I love it.

Anything that goes against what God says.

And if you want, look real quick in 1 John 3, I believe it's verse four.

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness, okay?

So, this is exactly what she was talking about.

Anything that goes against what God says.

And it's not that we just mess up occasionally.

And overall, I'm a good person, but I just make mistakes.

No, every person has fallen short of the glory of God, his holiness, his perfection,

and we break his law, right?

We're law breakers.

And so, we talked about in chapter one, a benefit of 1 John is that our joy

may be complete, right?

John's writing these things that we may know we have eternal life.

This is to give assurance of our salvation to believers.

But another thing is to encourage us not to sin, okay?

And so, let me test y 'all out here a little bit.

What is something that leads to sin?

You're in a moment, and you can either choose to engage in something that may or may not lead to sin.

What is that called?

Delaney?

Temptation?

Temptation, exactly right.

How would you define temptation?

I actually was thinking about this earlier today, and I thought, that's kind of a hard question.

How would you define what temptation is?

Where's the crickets?

I'm just kidding.

What is temptation?

Okay, here's what I came up with.

Tell me if y 'all like it, or maybe you can add a little bit to it.

But it's a circumstance that entices you or lures you to sin.

Temptation itself is not sinful.

It's in a moment where your next choice may go down that path or not, right?

And so, in James chapter one, it talks about our flesh is easily enticed by so many

different things.

And if we give in to temptation, if we think on it, then the next step is sin.

And it's kind of like a pregnancy.

Eventually, it's going to give birth to death, that thing that we all deserve.

It's gonna happen.

It's appointed for all men to die once, and then we're gonna step into the judgment, right?

Because of our sin, we've earned that for ourselves.

But by God's grace, we're not judged, and we don't all die immediately, right?

And so, I wanna talk a little bit more about temptation.

And I wanna talk about some practical things in which we can war against temptation that leads to sin.

So, if you want, turn with me to 1 Corinthians, and keep your finger in 1 John chapter two, but turn with me to 1

Corinthians chapter 10, and do I have a volunteer that would

like to read verse 13?

1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.

Anybody out there?

Donnie?

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure

it.

Thank you, Donnie.

Has anybody ever heard, well, God won't give you more than you can handle.

Has anybody ever heard that?

Where's that at in the Bible?

It's actually not a Bible verse.

They're actually taking this verse out of context and twisting it.

It doesn't say that God won't give you more than you can handle.

In fact, God will oftentimes give you more than you can handle.

So, it breaks your soul, breaks your spirit to go back to him.

But notice, it doesn't say that God won't give you more than you can handle.

It says no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

Okay?

So, we're never gonna be tempted beyond what we can bear.

God will definitely give us circumstances in our life where we can't bear it, right?

That's why we have to go to him in prayer.

We go to his word and we invest time in fellowship with other saints.

Does that make sense?

There's a difference in saying, God won't give me circumstances that I can't handle.

That's gonna happen every day of your life.

You know what I mean?

But you're not going to be tempted beyond the point of saying, well, God, I had no way of escape.

You know what I mean?

So, raise your hand.

How do we basically get out of temptation?

The answer's gonna be very similar every time.

We're gonna be in those situations that's tempting to sin, and it could be a number of different things.

But what's the way of escape that Christ has provided for us?

Delaney said the Bible, right?

Anybody else wanna add to that?

So, I look with me back at the verse again.

So, God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but

with the temptation will also provide a way of escape that you may be able

to endure it.

I think prayer is a phenomenal way.

Jesus, the night before the crucifixion, he told the disciples, pray so you do not fall into temptation.

Remember what Jesus prayed in the Lord's Prayer?

Father, lead us not into temptation, right?

Providentially, don't let us get into situations where it may lead to sin.

So, prayer is very vital.

And prayer is us speaking to God.

That's just one side of the relationship, because God knows everything that we need, and yet he wants us to pray.

And so, Delaney was talking about the other aspect.

We go to God's word.

That's how God speaks to us.

Now, you may say, how can that happen?

This is just regular ink on a page.

Well, this is not just a regular book.

This is the word of God.

This is living and active.

This is God breathed.

If you wanna hear the voice of God, read your Bible out loud.

That's how you're gonna hear the voice of God.

You're not gonna go out into a field and say, God, just whisper in my ear.

It's not gonna happen, right?

We don't have prophets like that anymore.

God used to give visions, dreams, speak in those audible voices, but Hebrews tells us in these last days,

he's spoken to us through his son, who appointed the apostles to finish writing the scripture.

So, it's not just like, yeah, I know, I just gotta read my Bible.

No, go to the word of God to flee from temptation.

How's that gonna happen?

It's gonna give you truth.

That truth is gonna captivate your heart.

And in the moment of temptation, be captivated by the perfection of Christ.

Love him more than what any sin could supposedly have to offer.

Because guess what?

Sin is fleeting.

It may seem enticing for a moment, but it always promises more than it can actually give you.

Sin is destructive, right?

And so, that's how we're gonna get later into 1 John about God's commandments aren't burdensome for the Christian.

We delight in the things of God.

And so, those are key things, is prayer and spending time in the word.

You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 119, longest chapter in the whole Bible,

176 verses.

Maybe we'll do a study on that one time.

But phenomenal chapter.

And I want to read you a short passage where the psalmist, I believe it's King David, he says, how

can a young person keep his way pure?

Which means, how can I war against sin?

How can I do the things that are pleasing to God?

Listen to this.

How can a young man keep his way pure?

By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you.

Let me not wander from your commandment.

I have stored up your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.

Blessed are you, oh Lord, teach me your statutes.

With my lips I shall declare all the rules of your mouth, and in the way of your testimonies I delight

as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes and I will not forget your word.

So, can someone tell me David's heart in writing these verses?

How can a young person keep their way pure and fight against sin?

Somebody help me out as I take a drink of coffee.

Josiah?

Stay in the word.

Stay in the word, but isn't that boring?

No.

No, why not?

There's new things every single day that God opens.

Guess what, you will spend an entire lifetime not understanding the depth of God's truth, and

yet, many of God's word is so simple that a young child can understand it.

That's the paradoxical nature of scripture is you can study it your whole life and you're never gonna get it all figured

out, and yet, it's gonna speak to you directly, and it's not gonna be boring.

You're gonna find new things.

You're gonna find gems that are more precious truths, more precious than any type of

gold or silver, right?

And so, David here talks about meditating on God's law.

What does it mean to meditate, Evan?

Yeah, that's a fancy word.

Any thoughts?

Meditation, I think, about, oh.

Anybody else wanna chime in and help, Aaron?

It's to rest in his word.

So, rest in the word.

Think on it deeply.

All right, I'm gonna give you kind of a picture here.

We all know cows chew cud, right?

It's kinda gross because they'll swallow the cud and they'll go, ooh, and then bring it back up and chew on the cud again.

And so, the Hebrew word for meditate is to take something in and then to regurgitate it.

So, we take in the word of God and then we bring it back up in our minds, okay?

So, every time you hear the word meditate, think about the cow chewing the cud.

We take in God's word, but when we meditate it, we bring it back up.

And this is so important because how can I know what God wants me to do?

Meditate on his word.

If you're storing up God's word in your heart, you can talk with the Lord wherever you go.

Does that make sense?

Because you've hidden his word in your heart.

And so, I love those words like meditate, delight.

We delight in the things of God.

What's interesting with King David is guess how much of God's word he had.

Remember, we have 66 books with the Gospels, seeing who Jesus is, the fulfillment of

the Old Testament, and the Messiah.

King David had the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

Deuteronomy.

Guess what?

He mainly had the law, and yet he delighted in the law.

And I'm saying, just to have the law, that seems pretty heavy.

But if it's the word of God, then it's the sweetest thing that you could possibly take in, the

words of the living and true God.

And so, I'm just saying, it's a little convicting.

That's how he spoke of the law of God, and yet we have the Gospels.

We have the entirety of God's word.

And how often, now, hopefully, this is convicting a little bit, but how often do we actually spend in God's

word?

So, I'm gonna be honest.

Did y 'all read 1 John this week?

I see some head nods.

Yes, a few chapters.

Who didn't read their Bible at all from last week?

No one's gonna own up to that.

But hopefully, you're starting to enjoy going to the word of God.

I don't know if your experience is like mine, but I didn't like to read back in high school.

Not a very good reader, not a very good learner.

All I wanted to do was dunk on a basketball goal.

You know what I mean?

But I started being convicted about not being in the word.

And so, something that's helped me out so much over a number of years is having technology

to where I can actually have the Bible being read out loud.

I can take notes, I can go back and listen to it.

And so, to me, I just wanna get the word of God in my heart any way possible, okay?

So, turn back with me to 1 John, chapter two.

So, question.

When John says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin, what are

some practical things that we can do to help us not fall to temptation that leads us

to sin?

Ayla?

Spend more time with God.

I mean, that's really the answer.

And it sounds simple, but it's loving Christ, looking to him and his

beauty, going to his word, going to him in prayer, and loving Christ

more than whatever that circumstance is that's enticing to the flesh.

You know what I mean?

Now, let me ask you this.

What do we conclude about someone that says, I don't have any sin, I don't have any sin, troubles,

I don't have that struggle going on?

Life is good.

Aaron?

Well, I have to start out with the Ten Commandments, in my opinion.

Basically, go through the, are you a good person?

Yeah, that.

And the hard truth for someone to say they're a good person is, in reality,

they know that everyone on this earth is bad.

We've all done terrible things.

In our hearts, we all know that we break God's law, right?

Now, if someone were to say they have no sin, this is what John said back in chapter one,

verse eight, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is

not in us.

And so, ultimately, we're a liar if we say we have no sin.

And we all know it deep down, right?

And so, we were talking about earlier, those that are in Christ, walking in the light, when we do sin, we can go to

God in prayer and confess it.

When we confess that sin, what gets restored?

When we confess our sin?

Joy of your salvation.

Joy gets restored, peace, that fellowship, we're basking in his light, in his

love, and it builds us up, right, Aaron?

Didn't David write in a psalm, Lord, please restore the joy of my salvation?

There's a number, I can't remember that specifically, but Psalm 51 is a classic psalm of

David pouring his heart out in repentance.

And God did restore joy to him.

And David sinned in a big way, but he repented bigger, if that makes sense.

He sinned big, but he repented bigger.

Sins are many and mercy is more.

Yes, yes.

So, look with me back at verse one in chapter two.

I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does

sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

Does anybody know what the word advocate means?

Josiah?

A toner.

A toner, okay.

I like that because it's saying that there's another person in the picture, right?

Something else is going on on our behalf.

Gordon?

I've heard it described as like the middle man.

Ooh, the middle man?

Yeah, like he's not the negotiator, but you know, the person who goes.

A negotiator, someone that goes on your behalf.

That's literally the definition.

Someone that goes on your behalf to speak favorably of you.

So, advocate is like a defense attorney, okay?

Are we all familiar with courtroom?

Okay, about to paint another picture, okay?

Think Judge Judy style, okay?

So, you have a judge and then you have someone on trial.

You have a defense attorney and you have a prosecutor, okay?

And so, if Jesus Christ is our defense attorney, who

argues on our behalf, there's no one better to reason for us before the Father.

And who would be the accuser, the prosecuting attorney in this situation?

Does anybody wanna raise their hand and take a guess?

The devil.

The scripture actually refers to him as the accuser.

He accuses the saints.

What is he accusing us of?

You don't deserve salvation, right?

You sinned recently, right?

What business do you have going before the throne of God?

You're a sinner, right?

He's the accuser.

The story of Job, right?

Remember, Satan was roaming the earth to and fro and he goes before the throne room of God and

God says, what do you think, basically?

And he says, what do you think about my servant Job?

And he says, well, you have a hedge of protection around him and you've given him everything that he

wants.

That's why he's a blameless and upright person.

And so, do y 'all remember that story where God's like, fine.

You can take everything you want from him, but just don't take his life, right?

And so, that's a picture of Satan being the accuser.

He's the prosecuting attorney, okay?

Trying to bring up all of our sin, all of our guilt.

And who's our advocate?

Jesus, okay?

So, check this out.

Jesus comes to our defense.

He speaks favorably to us before God the Father.

He says, this person is mine.

He's been purchased with the blood, right?

And all of his sins have been cleansed, past, present, and future.

Jesus brings up all those truths on our behalf, right?

And so, who can truly bring a charge against the people of God?

Well, no one, not even ourselves.

If we're truly resting in Christ, then no one can take the salvation, the quinnonia, the fellowship that

we have with him.

And so, this word advocate, it's called paraclete.

So, para means helper.

He helps us.

He speaks favorably on our behalf.

And so, I want us to turn somewhere.

One of my favorite passages in all scripture is Romans chapter eight.

Phenomenal.

We're gonna see just how Jesus advocates, intercedes on our

behalf.

And then, I want us to talk about how Christians have another advocate interceding on

our behalf.

So, I'll be thinking about that as well.

Romans chapter eight, starting in verse 31.

So, what is the setting that I want us to think about when we're talking about Jesus being our advocate?

A courtroom, right?

Remember, the judge, defense attorney, us being put on trial, and then you have the accuser.

You have a prosecuting attorney, right?

And so, look how Paul argues here in Romans eight, starting in verse 31.

What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also

with him graciously give us all things?

Pay attention to this question.

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

Okay?

Now, that word charge means an accusation, right?

Well, so and so sinned.

I think about Satan, the great accuser.

Well, what about our own hearts?

If our own hearts condemn us, saying, oh man, I don't feel like I'm worthy of God's grace

and his goodness and his forgiveness, that would be a legal charge, right?

But listen to what Paul's saying.

Who can bring any charge against God's elect?

Think about God's chosen, all of those who put their trust in Jesus, okay?

Courtroom setting, and this is the charge.

So and so is being accused of their sin crime.

And he says, but it's God who justifies.

Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised and who is at the right hand

of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

So Jesus is the divine defense attorney on arguing on our behalf,

right?

He not only died for us, remember his substitutionary death, he died on our behalf.

Remember we talked about time travel?

If you're looking to Jesus and saving faith, then your sin goes back in time and gets put on the cross.

And then what do we get in exchange for our sin?

Someone help me out.

As I take a drink of this coffee.

Okay, we get eternal life, but we're talking about the process of why we get eternal life.

Our sin gets forgiven by putting our faith in Jesus.

Our sin goes back in time on the cross.

And then what do we get in exchange?

God's righteousness.

Righteousness, Christ's perfection, his complete obedience to the law.

And since Jesus is a perfect savior, that's why all of our sin gets covered, past, present, and future, because of how perfect

Christ is, right?

And so this is exactly Paul's argument.

He not only died for us, and who's the us that Paul's talking to?

Context.

Who can bring a charge against God's elect?

That's the us.

If you look at 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus.

It's talking about believers, right?

Remember, that's what 1 John 2 is talking about, my little children, those that are walking in the light, those that are trusting in

Jesus and him alone.

And so his point is, Christ died for us.

So we're gonna get into how he didn't specifically die for every single person, because that means all your sin would

be paid for.

That'd mean everyone's going to heaven, and we know that that's not true.

But he died for the elect.

He died for those that are in Christ, those that are convicted over their sin, and respond in repentance and

faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus died on our behalf.

Look at me back at verse 44.

And he makes an argument from the lesser to the greater, and he says, not only did Jesus die for us, but more

than that, who was raised.

What does that mean?

Someone help me out.

The resurrection.

So he died for Christians, and he was resurrected for Christians.

He didn't die and resurrect for people that reject him.

Now, we once rejected him, but there are people that are going to turn from loving their sin and

turn and looking to Christ, right?

That's who's in focus here.

So Jesus, who's our advocate, our defense attorney, and Paul's saying, who can bring a charge against the people of

God?

There's no charge against, doesn't matter what your flesh says, doesn't matter what Satan says, because God's

truth is the only thing that matters.

So he says, once again, he died for us, and more than that, who was raised, like Aaron said,

resurrected.

And here's a key thing.

Who is at the right hand of God the Father.

How did Jesus get there?

Someone help me.

He basically floated up and ascended, right?

Through the clouds.

Remember in Acts chapter one, he ascended on high and sat down at the right hand of the Father.

And then it says, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for

us.

So this is that language back in 1 John chapter two.

He's our advocate.

He is arguing on our behalf and saying, yeah, JD was a sinner, but

now he is justified.

All the penalty of his sin is totally dealt with at Calvary, right?

That's the type of advocacy that Jesus is doing on our behalf.

Those that are the elect, those that are trusting in him.

Isn't that beautiful?

Because when you do sin, and it's going to happen.

Remember how 1 John says that if we sin, he's basically saying when you do, right?

And if you say, well, I don't sin, well, you're not telling the truth.

You're a liar and you're deceiving.

You're deceiving, you're trying to deceive everybody.

We see it through that, but you're also deceiving yourself.

But when you sin, if you sin, then know that Jesus intercedes

on your behalf, right?

So earlier I said the word for advocate in the Greek is paraclete.

Who is another advocate and helper on the behalf of Christians?

Anybody want to take a guess?

Got God, the son, and then who is the third person of the Trinity?

Holy Spirit.

Look with me at verse 26 here in Romans chapter eight.

Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness for we did not know, because there'll be times

we don't know how we pray.

So Paul says, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself

intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

So sometimes have you ever tried to pray and you're just like, man, I just don't know how to pray for this situation, or maybe

I prayed something wrong theologically, right?

Guess what?

The Holy Spirit has your back, right?

When it says groanings too deep for utterances, it just means the deeper things that are hard for

us to describe, the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts.

And that gives me a lot of comfort.

I may not pray the best prayers that are precise and

sometimes I'm caught in a situation where someone says, hey, can you pray in my life that X, Y, and Z happens?

And I'm over here like, I don't know if that's the best thing for them, right?

But I'll pray for you.

It helps me have rest knowing that not only is Jesus Christ our advocate, our

helper speaking favorably between us and the Father, but he comes to my defense even in

spiritual warfare, right?

And the Holy Spirit has our back too.

In John chapters 14 through 16, Jesus says, I will send you another helper,

the comforter, the one that will guide you into all truth.

And he was talking about the Holy Spirit, okay?

And so in John chapter 10, I'm wanting you to see that the Trinity is all at work in our

salvation, okay?

In John chapter 10, very similar truth that we've been talking about.

Jesus says, no one will snatch you out of my hand.

And he also goes and says, no one will snatch you out of the Father's hand either, right, because Jesus, the Son, and

the Father are one in purpose, right?

And so I want you to see that there's a Trinitarian grip on our salvation.

If we are really resting in Christ, and only God knows if you're doing that, and yourself.

Only you know, and God knows if it's just kind of, we're going through the motions and showing up to church on Sundays

or Wednesdays.

But if we're really resting in Christ, loving the biblical Jesus, then there's nothing that can take that away.

That's why in 1 John chapter 5, 13, this is probably the climax verse of the

entire epistle.

Paul, or John, once again says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of

the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life, okay?

How do you know?

Well, I love Christ.

And he says, even when I sin, he's going to intercede on my behalf.

Not only Jesus, but who else?

The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, who's referred to as, Jesus says, I'll send you another helper,

another paraclete, there's another advocate.

And so that's a beautiful truth that I want us to just be reminded of.

And so, when we sin, we don't just say, well, that happened, and I'm just gonna

basically feel guilty about it.

No, we confess our sin, right?

We restore that quininea, that fellowship with God.

Any thoughts so far?

Man, I explained that so good.

There's no questions or comments.

I don't believe that for a second.

Bom, bom, the mic dropped, but we can't drop this mic because it's really expensive.

$500 worth of mic.

Very true.

Turn back to chapter two.

So we're wanting to tie all this together.

Chapter, look at chapter one, or two, verses one and two together.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins and not our sins only, but also for the

sins of the whole world.

All right, let's see what y 'all know.

That word propitiation is a really fancy word.

Anybody have any idea what that means?

It's kind of like a sacrifice.

Okay, you're actually onto something.

I wanna look at context.

I wanna look at another verse in 1 John that uses the word propitiation, and I think you're definitely onto something with sacrifice.

Look at 1 John chapter four, verse 10.

In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and

sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

So you see how he's definitely onto something?

Sacrifice is involved, right?

Because John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, right?

How did he send Jesus?

Well, he took on flesh.

He lived a perfect sinless life and suffered and died on the cross to be buried and then be

raised the third day.

So propitiation involves a sacrifice.

We're gonna get more into that.

Josiah?

He who knew not.

Yes, now that's super important too with propitiation.

So as Jesus was suffering and dying on the cross, he was becoming sin in the

sense that he was bearing the penalty of sin, right?

He is the sin bearer, okay?

So I wrote this down.

I think this is a very simple way of looking at the word propitiation.

It means to appease wrath and reconcile, okay?

So I want you to think about this.

The sacrifice of Jesus, number one, settled the wrath of God the Father.

Why is God wrathful?

Anybody help me out here.

Why is God wrathful?

Why is that an important attribute of who he is?

Aaron?

Because we chose sin and we deserve his wrath.

Because God is light, and in him there is no darkness of all.

Jeremiah, why is that important?

Well, God is holy.

That means he is perfect.

That means his justice is perfect.

So what's God's loving response to sin?

It's his wrath, right?

Now that's hard for us to grasp.

It's like, oh no, love makes me feel good, and it does.

I mean, we have loving relationships.

It makes us happy.

It gives us joy a lot of times.

But at the cross of Calvary, we see God who is love, his response to sin,.

And it's his wrath.

And you see God's wrath and love on full display at Calvary's cross.

I believe it's Romans 5, verse eight, that says basically God shows us or

demonstrates his love for us by sending his one and only son.

He died for us.

Josiah?

Why is God wrathful?

May whom two, the Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

What scripture was that?

May whom one, verse two.

I did not know that.

Everybody take note, I did not know that verse.

I just learned something then.

That was good.

God is jealous God.

Not in a petty way like humans are, right?

So -and -so goes through a breakup and now he's dating someone else and now we're jealous.

That's not the kind of jealousy that God has.

God is perfect.

He is the best thing.

So when somebody worships an idol, God is jealous.

God is jealous for his glory.

And so that's why we have to understand that God is not just love.

God is also holy.

He's just, he's wrathful against sin, but he's also long -suffering and he's kind, right?

So somebody help me out.

What does propitiation mean?

Testing those memory banks.

So the definition in the ESV, on the actual study guide at the bottom, you know?

It says propitiation here means a sacrifice that bears God's wrath and turns it to favor.

Oh, it's perfect.

Because the two phrases I'm wanting, because what I'm offering is the same thing.

That was more technical and I love it.

But it means to appease wrath and reconciliation, okay?

So like y 'all been talking about sacrifice, what Jesus accomplished satisfied the wrath

of God the Father and it provided a way of reconciliation, salvation,

right?

That's what propitiation means.

Mercy of God being poured out in Jesus Christ through his sacrifice, we can be made

right with God.

Josiah?

Matthew 9, 13, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the

righteous, but sinners.

What do you think that means?

He cares about, he cares about the one sheep, not the 99.

So when he says I desire mercy and not sacrifice, he is saying the deeper things of the

heart.

Mercy, right?

Love and kindness towards one another.

Big deal if you bring the right sacrifices and you obey the law to the letter if your heart wasn't in it,

right?

He's saying there I've come to call sinners to repentance and not the righteous, not the self -proclaimed

righteous Pharisees, those people that recognize that they are sinners.

Only then can you have propitiation, a sacrifice, atonement for your sin by looking to the

only one that can provide it, right?

So now I'm so glad that you read that.

So we're gonna wind down, but I wanna, trying to think of hard questions to trip y 'all up, but y 'all are a smart bunch.

Verse two, he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours

only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Okay, someone help me out.

Who is he talking about here when he says not for ours only, but also

for the sins of the world?

Does this mean that Jesus pays for the penalty of everyone's

sin who ever lived?

Kelly?

Okay, now you're definitely right.

It's just for the elect.

We know that because of Romans chapter eight earlier.

Who can bring a charge against God's elect?

No one can, right?

So you did really good.

It's the elect.

But doesn't that sound a little bit different than what John is saying here?

Because he says not for ours only.

Who is he referring to, ours?

Look at the context.

My little children.

He's talking about Christians, those who are walking in the light, right?

And so he's saying that he is the propitiation for our sins and not ours only,

but also for the sins of the whole world.

Anybody else want to help me try to understand what does he mean by the whole world?

Hmm, I'm running out of coffee, so that stinks.

God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the

world might be saved through him.

Now, was that verse 17?

Read 16 that we all know real quick.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have

everlasting life.

So John 3, 16, and 1 John 2, 2, make it sound like, isn't

everyone, like didn't Jesus die for every single person, the whole world?

Like that's what it kind of sounds like, John 3, 16, and then not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.

Well, this is where being equipped with the original languages can help us, because the world cosmos

in Greek could refer to many different things.

This mainly refers to the world of humanity, and so for a Jewish

audience, they divided the world up into two groups of people.

Does anybody know who they are?

You got the Jews and the Gentiles.

That's the whole world, and so John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, the world of humanity,

that he sent a savior, right?

And so that doesn't mean that God sent his son to die for the sins of every single

person.

It's just saying, no, he died for the Jews and the Gentiles, and so within those groups,

there are people, individuals that are trusting alone in Jesus, right?

And so we know that John is the author of 1, 2, 3 John in Revelation, and the Gospel of John,

and so he says this in chapter 11.

I think this is another way of saying the same truth that he said in 1 John 2, 2.

Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for

you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish, and he

said this not in his own accord, but he prophesied, being high priest that year, that Jesus would die for the nation,

and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who were

scattered abroad.

So the point is, John is talking to a Jewish audience, my little children.

This was primarily his mission field was Jews, and Jews coming to Jesus, and he's

saying Jesus did not only die for Jewish Christians, but he also died for the

Gentiles, those that are not Jews, that would one day embrace Christ.

And so he's basically just saying the whole world of Christians, those that are eventually going to follow Christ,

because propitiation involves sacrifice.

Propitiation means to satisfy the wrath of God, right, and to

reconcile us back to the Father.

So verse two is talking about the world of Christians, and like Callius said, Jesus is the

propitiation for God's elect.

Remember Paul said that this is a fantastic truth.

There is no one, not even Satan, not even in your flesh can bring a charge against God's

chosen people.