A Big Word to Know: Propitiation (1 John 2:1-2)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.839 If you're able to remain standing, please do as we turn our attention to 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:09.630 God's word in First John. This is the text for our my sermon this 3 00:00:09.789 --> 00:00:22.820 morning. First John Chapter Two, verses one and two. Here the Elder 4 00:00:23.699 --> 00:00:33.380 Apostle John writes to us the inspiration of the spirit, that we might know 5 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:39.409 the will of God. So, first John Chapter two, write towards the 6 00:00:39.490 --> 00:00:47.649 ends of your bibles, but for the big book of revelation. First John 7 00:00:47.729 --> 00:00:51.399 Two, verse one. This is the word of God. Give your attention 8 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:57.880 to it. My little children, I am writing these things to you so 9 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:03.560 that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an 10 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.950 advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation 11 00:01:10.269 --> 00:01:15.030 for our sins, and not for ours only, but for also the sins 12 00:01:15.670 --> 00:01:30.260 of the whole world. Praise be to God. You may be seated the 13 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:36.170 Apostle John. He is often very subtle. That doesn't mean that what he 14 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:44.650 says is secret or hidden, but it it's layered, it's sophisticated, it's 15 00:01:44.890 --> 00:01:52.760 complex deep, but about the purpose of his writing, that the trajectory or 16 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:57.640 the aim that he has, the objective he has, he's extremely clear, 17 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:02.989 extremely to the point. He does this in his Gospel as well. Listen 18 00:02:04.069 --> 00:02:07.270 to what he says in Chapter Twenty of the Gospel of John. He says 19 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:09.830 this, is it? Right at the end of the chapter, almost the 20 00:02:09.870 --> 00:02:14.189 end of the book. He says, now, Jesus did many other signs 21 00:02:14.229 --> 00:02:17.900 in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but 22 00:02:19.219 --> 00:02:24.099 these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 23 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:30.330 son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 24 00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:36.969 Very clear that's the point of the gospel of John. That's why he 25 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:40.689 wrote it. He says a similar thing here, or as he expresses his 26 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:47.039 objective. John, what's your point? What's the message? What's the thing 27 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:51.319 you're trying to do and what you're saying? And he says it right here, 28 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.960 my little children, this tender for ways, my little children, I 29 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:02.909 am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. No Sin. 30 00:03:05.509 --> 00:03:12.150 That's what God wants. He wants us not to sin. This is 31 00:03:12.229 --> 00:03:16.139 such a clear thing, and yet we often mess it up and make it 32 00:03:16.419 --> 00:03:22.340 unclear, usually as a way to excuse our sin, as a way to 33 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:25.259 ignore it or not deal with it. But John says, I don't want 34 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:32.530 you to sin? Why not? Why should we not sin? Will? 35 00:03:32.569 --> 00:03:37.210 Sin, of course, is transgressing the law of God. It's not doing 36 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:40.129 or being the things that he calls us to do or, on the other 37 00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:46.960 side, doing or being those things he is forbidden. Why should we not 38 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:53.199 do that? Why should we follow God's will and not our own? Why 39 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:59.870 should we not sin? There are so many reasons, we ways we can 40 00:03:59.949 --> 00:04:03.710 answer this. One thing you might think of is the trouble it causes and 41 00:04:03.949 --> 00:04:10.219 has caused. Is there any sin any place that you can point to where 42 00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:14.379 you have said, yeah, I transgressed God's law there, and boy, 43 00:04:14.539 --> 00:04:17.579 that was a good idea. That was so good. You know, I 44 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:23.339 I think that God really had it wrong there. Of course not. Now 45 00:04:23.459 --> 00:04:26.810 we might pretend that, or we might ignore that, or we might say, 46 00:04:27.250 --> 00:04:30.610 well, nothing bad seems to have happened yet. And yet the foreboding 47 00:04:32.329 --> 00:04:36.610 sense in our hearts tells us that even if we can't perceive the trouble we 48 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:43.720 we know it's there. Sin has very practical problems that come with it. 49 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:47.560 It creates difficulties and challenges in our lives. It hurts our hearts, that 50 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:56.990 pricks our consciences, it twists us up it makes us nodded. David talks 51 00:04:57.029 --> 00:05:01.189 about the effective sin and his heart and his body. Even in the psalms 52 00:05:01.350 --> 00:05:12.860 he says his bones were wasting away. He talks about physically feeling ill because 53 00:05:12.899 --> 00:05:18.339 of sin. Think about the trouble that it causes other people. Sin Has 54 00:05:18.420 --> 00:05:28.410 the as a close and personal effects. When a man commits adultery, for 55 00:05:28.529 --> 00:05:33.610 example, he destroys his family the family of another. But I can also 56 00:05:33.610 --> 00:05:39.000 have big, public reaching effects. We think about the sins of of particular 57 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:46.399 companies that have hurt our economy and big and far reaching ways, the sins 58 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:50.990 of government, the sins of of various people, the sins of churches that 59 00:05:51.069 --> 00:05:59.149 have had far reaching and disastrous effects on our neighbors. John says, I 60 00:05:59.949 --> 00:06:04.019 don't want you to sin. We can also think about how the how sin 61 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:10.699 grieves the Holy Spirit who has sealed us for redemption now here. I'm talking 62 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:16.339 to Christians in particular. Our Sin Grieves the very spirit of God. Paul 63 00:06:16.459 --> 00:06:23.930 says. It covers up the witness of Christ in our lives. It puts 64 00:06:23.970 --> 00:06:32.240 a shadow over the light of the Gospel. It turns US away from the 65 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:40.000 face of God. It brings his discipline into our lives. It keeps us 66 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:45.079 from learning and growing in wisdom and knowledge. It deadens our hearts to the 67 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:50.470 things that are lovely, are true, are wonderful. More and more we're 68 00:06:50.470 --> 00:06:59.189 learning how sin has very physical effects, even rewiring our brains, changing the 69 00:06:59.269 --> 00:07:04.980 way that we, in a sense, physically think about things. It's nasty, 70 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:10.579 it's poisonous, it's deadening, and that's, we can say, all 71 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:15.459 true just of the Christian, for the unbeliever, for the one who's not 72 00:07:15.290 --> 00:07:19.649 been sealed for redemption in the Holy Spirit, the one who hasn't been saved 73 00:07:19.930 --> 00:07:27.810 by Christ, sin is even worse. Sin Piles up wrath for themselves. 74 00:07:27.970 --> 00:07:32.920 Sin Condemns them even further. Its adds, time after time after time, 75 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:45.069 more and more justification for God to condemn them. John says, my little 76 00:07:45.110 --> 00:07:48.470 children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 77 00:07:50.870 --> 00:07:59.699 We, of course, were made for lives without sin. God made us 78 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:03.779 as people that were righteous, that were holy. There was a time in 79 00:08:03.819 --> 00:08:09.620 the garden of Eden when we enjoyed life without sin and it was good life. 80 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:15.569 Think we can it's something that we sent still inside of us, that 81 00:08:15.689 --> 00:08:20.930 this is something that we were made for, something that we long for to 82 00:08:20.050 --> 00:08:28.399 be close to one another, one person to one another in intimacy and knowledge, 83 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.759 to be close to God. The Garden of Yeeden, we read that 84 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:39.600 he locked with them. He was there with him. His presence was never 85 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:45.230 frightening or scary. There was never a sense of foreboding judgment, but it 86 00:08:45.389 --> 00:08:50.629 was peace with God in a world that he had created. It was beautiful, 87 00:08:50.750 --> 00:08:56.500 it was wonderful, and sin took all of that and destroyed it. 88 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:03.299 It brought in death and condemnation, the wrath of God. It destroyed the 89 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:13.090 good world that God had made. It brought about humiliation, suffering and misery. 90 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:20.370 My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may 91 00:09:20.570 --> 00:09:28.519 not sin. I think it's good to note the great hopefulness there is in 92 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:37.440 what he's saying. There he's offering us a another possibility. He's saying that 93 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.830 there's something about the things that he is writing as an apostle of God, 94 00:09:41.990 --> 00:09:48.110 as one who is speaking the very words of God, that another effect might 95 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:56.019 be brought out in our lives instead of sinning, not sinning. I write 96 00:09:56.100 --> 00:10:03.860 these things to you so that you may not sin. Well, what kinds 97 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:07.129 of things has he been writing to us? Well, we've read some of 98 00:10:07.289 --> 00:10:11.169 them so far. Let me read a little bit from just the beginning of 99 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:16.490 the chapter. That which was from the beginning which we have heard you speaking 100 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:20.490 of Jesus, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked 101 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:26.039 upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, not 102 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:33.320 death. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify it 103 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:39.509 to to you and proclaimed to you eternal life. That was the thing that 104 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:45.789 Adam was promised. That was the thing that Adam lost and instead received as 105 00:10:45.990 --> 00:10:52.419 just condemnation for his sins eternal death. But John is saying, we are 106 00:10:52.419 --> 00:10:56.620 speaking to you about Jesus, who brings about something different. He does what 107 00:10:56.779 --> 00:11:01.740 Adam failed to do. He brings about eternal life, which was with the 108 00:11:01.019 --> 00:11:07.610 father and was made manifest to us. John goes on in verse three. 109 00:11:07.690 --> 00:11:11.929 That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so 110 00:11:11.090 --> 00:11:16.450 that you two may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with 111 00:11:16.570 --> 00:11:24.000 the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. Fellowship, closeness, intimacy, 112 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:31.559 connection, those things that we had in the beginning we now have again, 113 00:11:33.669 --> 00:11:39.710 except this time it's not a test. This time it can't be lost, 114 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:46.070 because we are not waiting for Adam to fulfill the promise or to fulfill 115 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:50.860 the Covenant so that we might receive eternal life. No, now we have 116 00:11:52.299 --> 00:12:00.299 been given eternal life because Christ has, past tense, fulfilled the requirements for 117 00:12:00.340 --> 00:12:09.769 us. There is something about this message that brings about in our lives not 118 00:12:11.129 --> 00:12:16.120 sinning. There's something about this message which begins to produce in our lives something 119 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:22.759 other than a constant driving down into hell and instead a lifting up, in 120 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:33.629 a sanctification, into the heavenly places where Christ is. This is the Gospel 121 00:12:33.669 --> 00:12:39.110 which, Paul says in Romans, is the power of God unto Salvation Or, 122 00:12:39.110 --> 00:12:46.659 as John says here, eternal life. So, beloved, as you 123 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:50.259 hear these things that you've already heard in the Goss or in the well, 124 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:52.779 in the gospel of John, but also here in this letter, and as 125 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:56.940 you hear the things that are coming and that we will continue to hear and 126 00:12:56.019 --> 00:13:01.090 to reflect on, as you hear the things that are pressed upon you in 127 00:13:01.169 --> 00:13:03.850 the gospel of God, as it comes to us in Jesus Christ, least, 128 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:13.000 believe it, hope in it, because they're in is your salvation that 129 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:22.639 you may not sin, both now in this life and perfectly in the life 130 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:30.470 to come. Now to this. In verse two, or I'm sorry, 131 00:13:30.509 --> 00:13:37.669 actually in the second half of verse one, John adds a qualification. Qualifications. 132 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:39.429 Not that right? But right not the right word. He takes nothing 133 00:13:39.509 --> 00:13:43.899 away from what he says, but he adds something. That's a better word. 134 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:48.899 He adds something, and here's what he says. But if anyone does 135 00:13:50.059 --> 00:13:56.009 sin, he says two things. One, we have an advocate with the 136 00:13:56.129 --> 00:14:00.769 father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and to this Jesus Christ the righteous is 137 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:07.210 the propitiation for our sins. We can summarize what he says in this way. 138 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:11.519 But if anyone does sin, we have Jesus who is two things, 139 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:18.240 one and advocate and to the propitiation of our sins. Now this is very 140 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:22.559 important, right, because if John Says I've given these things to you so 141 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:26.950 that you may not sin, and we all say, but John, I 142 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:31.669 do sin, what do I do? You? You've given these things so 143 00:14:31.750 --> 00:14:35.549 that I may not send and I believe that and I'm hoping for that and 144 00:14:35.629 --> 00:14:39.940 I'm looking forward to the day when I will not sin. But what about 145 00:14:41.059 --> 00:14:46.340 now? What about my sins? Now? What about the suffering in the 146 00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:52.649 consequences that I'm dealing with right now. Well, he says that's been taken 147 00:14:52.730 --> 00:14:58.289 care of. To the hope that we have is not only in the future, 148 00:15:00.169 --> 00:15:05.090 but here and now. God has given something to us, to you, 149 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:13.159 in the midst of your sinful life and my sinful life. His name 150 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:22.389 is Jesus. He's two things. First, he's an advocate. What's an 151 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:28.029 advocate? We could translate it other ways, intercessor or mediator, but I 152 00:15:28.110 --> 00:15:33.870 don't know if these words are any more common a way that help help us. 153 00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:43.379 You perhaps know what an advocate is. You've certainly experienced it. An 154 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:48.779 advocate kids, and advocate as someone that helps you when you're in trouble, 155 00:15:50.009 --> 00:15:54.090 when you're in a difficult situation and you need somebody to come along your side 156 00:15:54.090 --> 00:15:58.769 and help you out. That's what an advocate is. Now, sometimes the 157 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:03.769 situations we get in aren't our fault at all all and there's somebody else has 158 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:11.120 so, for example, some hospitals have advocates that you can go to when 159 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:15.120 you're not getting the care that you need. Let's say you're in your hospital 160 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:18.200 bed and you have a bad nurse for some reason. She comes in, 161 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:22.990 she's Cranky, she's not listening to you, she's not there to check your 162 00:16:22.029 --> 00:16:26.629 vitals or give you your meds, that you're getting worse and worse and worse. 163 00:16:27.309 --> 00:16:30.590 What do you do? Well, you can go get an advocate, 164 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:36.220 somebody to stand with you, to help you, to plead your case and 165 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:38.980 say, Hey, this person is sick and they're not getting the care that 166 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:45.139 they need. That's what an advocate does. It a helper. Or another 167 00:16:45.220 --> 00:16:49.450 situation, imagine you're at school and there's someone that's picking on you and teasing 168 00:16:49.570 --> 00:16:52.529 you and there's nothing that you seem to be able to do about it. 169 00:16:53.129 --> 00:16:59.529 They call you names, they embarrass you. What do you do? Well, 170 00:17:00.289 --> 00:17:03.119 you need an advocate. Maybe you could go to your mom or your 171 00:17:03.160 --> 00:17:07.519 dad and you're saying help me, or a teacher, help me, I 172 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:15.599 need you to be on my side, to fight for me, to serve 173 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:21.269 as a protector for me. That's what an advocate does and that's what Jesus 174 00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:27.349 Christ the righteous does. We have an advocate in Jesus. US. The 175 00:17:27.430 --> 00:17:33.819 thing that's different about our sinful situations and these two scenarios I've given is that 176 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:40.140 in the scenarios I've given we're innocent. You know you're you're in a hospital 177 00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:44.490 bed just suffering because of someone else's it's someone something, someone else is doing, 178 00:17:44.930 --> 00:17:47.609 or you're at school suffering at the hands of a bully, even though 179 00:17:47.650 --> 00:17:51.849 maybe you haven't done anything. But this says that Jesus Christ is an advocate 180 00:17:51.970 --> 00:17:59.640 for the bully, for the mean one, for the sinful one. Do 181 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:04.359 you note that? He says if we sin, we have an advocate. 182 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:11.160 That's quite a striking thing to say. What reason could pause a god possibly 183 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:18.309 have to advocate for us when we go against God and we do the mean 184 00:18:18.509 --> 00:18:22.109 things and the cruel things, when we don't protect the weak, when we 185 00:18:22.230 --> 00:18:33.140 are unkind, God says I will advocate, advocate for you. That's an 186 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:44.569 amazing thing. We read, though, how this happens. How is it 187 00:18:44.730 --> 00:18:51.130 that God can be an advocate for a sinful person like us? We have 188 00:18:51.289 --> 00:18:56.240 no reason to go before God and say I want you to justify me because 189 00:18:56.279 --> 00:19:02.599 we're sinners. But Jesus is not just an advocate. We we have an 190 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:08.039 explanation of how this can be in verse two. He is the propitiation of 191 00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:18.670 our sins. A propitiation is something that turns away wrath. It's something that 192 00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:27.940 removes it, it pushes it away. Now sometimes we like to try to 193 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:36.579 think of this in terms of pagan idolatry. Right, so there's this mean, 194 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:41.890 vengeful, capricious God who's just angry at everyone all the time. And 195 00:19:42.089 --> 00:19:48.089 so in in paganism what you do is you offer some sacrifice to this this 196 00:19:49.250 --> 00:19:53.519 evil God, and you offer this sacrifice and you say, well, here, 197 00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:59.279 accept this, turn your wrath away from me, because I'm giving you 198 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:03.200 this goat or my child or a lot of money or something like that, 199 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:10.190 and then the deity is appeased and says, okay, I won't be mad 200 00:20:10.269 --> 00:20:14.190 with you anymore. I like your money or I like your sacrifice or something 201 00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:21.029 like that. Now there's ways in which were tempted to correspond and this to 202 00:20:21.230 --> 00:20:23.779 God and what he has done, and there are some similarities. God is 203 00:20:23.859 --> 00:20:30.380 angry with us, that's true. God has is a wrathful towards us. 204 00:20:30.500 --> 00:20:37.289 That's also true. A sacrifice has been offered, that's also true, and 205 00:20:37.450 --> 00:20:41.529 that sacrifice is a propitiation. It turns away God's wrath, and that's also 206 00:20:41.690 --> 00:20:48.329 true. But there are while those these the sort of basic outline is similar, 207 00:20:48.490 --> 00:20:55.440 there are huge, huge differences. How is it that God's wrath is 208 00:20:55.480 --> 00:21:00.319 turned away. First, note that God is not a false God. God 209 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:06.710 is not arbitrary in the way that he acts. He's not capricious. God 210 00:21:07.390 --> 00:21:12.390 hates sin because sin ought to be hated. He's not just waking up cranky 211 00:21:12.589 --> 00:21:19.420 one day. He's doing the just thing. Just as you are rightfully angry 212 00:21:19.460 --> 00:21:29.619 when someone bullies your child, God is rightfully angry when people do mean things, 213 00:21:29.859 --> 00:21:34.650 cruel things, to his children, people that are made in his image. 214 00:21:37.609 --> 00:21:41.369 Just as you are upset when somebody lies to you and doesn't tell the 215 00:21:41.490 --> 00:21:45.410 truth, God is upset. Just as you are justified in righteous and being 216 00:21:45.490 --> 00:21:51.400 upset when somebody he takes your things or steals things from you, God is 217 00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:59.079 righteous when it's people sin against him. Indeed, he's much more righteous because 218 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.710 God has never sinned. God is perfectly holy. Let me ask you this 219 00:22:03.910 --> 00:22:08.430 way. Do you want to worship and serve a god who doesn't care about 220 00:22:08.589 --> 00:22:15.059 justice? Do you want to worship and serve a god who is vindictive and 221 00:22:15.539 --> 00:22:22.700 upholds bad things and doesn't care about good things? Or should you worship and 222 00:22:22.859 --> 00:22:30.170 serve a God who is perfect and Glorious and beautiful and truthful and holy in 223 00:22:30.410 --> 00:22:37.890 everything. That's the only God that deserves worship and it is the only God. 224 00:22:38.049 --> 00:22:45.640 God is not like the gods of our own making. He bearers know, 225 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:53.440 he's not similar to them in any way. He's not getting people because 226 00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:59.150 he happens to be upset or angry for some reason. No, he's prosecuting 227 00:22:59.430 --> 00:23:03.950 justice in a perfect and holy way. So when we stand before him and 228 00:23:04.109 --> 00:23:12.059 our sins are lying or lost, our idolatry are coveting and all the rest, 229 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:21.859 we stand there as guilty people who rightfully deserve to be condemned. And 230 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:26.650 God's justice, therefore, as John Stott puts it in his commentary, is 231 00:23:26.809 --> 00:23:38.009 settled controlled a holy antagonism to all evil. God is not just swinging a 232 00:23:38.130 --> 00:23:42.759 sword around because he's really, really angry. No, he looks at everything 233 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:53.599 perfectly, judges it perfectly and with justice. He has a holy antagonism to 234 00:23:53.799 --> 00:24:07.069 all that is evil. What about the sacrifice? Is the sacrifice some kind 235 00:24:07.150 --> 00:24:10.940 of thing that we offer up to God and we say here, take this, 236 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:17.259 maybe this will placate you for a little bit? No, who gave 237 00:24:17.539 --> 00:24:25.410 the propitiation? Who gave the sacrifice so that justice could be had, but 238 00:24:25.609 --> 00:24:32.450 also mercy, so that sins could be atoned for and cleansed so that the 239 00:24:32.529 --> 00:24:37.250 wrath of God could be turned away from us. Who gave that? Did 240 00:24:37.329 --> 00:24:41.119 you get it? Did you come up with some kind of wonderful sac of 241 00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:51.960 face that would turn away God's wrath? No, God gave it. You 242 00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:56.789 don't want to imagine when what John says here accord of angry, wrathful God 243 00:24:56.990 --> 00:25:00.750 that is vindictive and capricious and all of these things, who's just swinging a 244 00:25:00.789 --> 00:25:06.950 short around because he's angry, and then Jesus Christ and love sort of going 245 00:25:07.069 --> 00:25:11.019 to the father and saying, look, please, would you help them now? 246 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:17.619 That's not the situation, is one commentator put it. It's it's not 247 00:25:18.019 --> 00:25:27.210 love pleading with justice, it's justice pleading with love. Jesus comes as the 248 00:25:27.289 --> 00:25:36.440 one whom God has given, and Jesus is God himself. God takes on 249 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:44.200 himself his own wrath, God takes on himself his own justice, his own 250 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:52.950 righteous anger, holy antagonism, death itself, and he takes it for us. 251 00:25:55.430 --> 00:26:00.789 And by taking it on himself, he turns away his own wrath onto 252 00:26:00.869 --> 00:26:07.180 himself so that we can be forgiven of our sins. So Jesus Christ, 253 00:26:07.220 --> 00:26:15.180 who is advocate hating for us, pleads the Justice of God, he pleads 254 00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:25.890 to the love of God and he says father, forgive them, father and 255 00:26:26.089 --> 00:26:30.769 son, perfectly united together in this act of love, so that you may 256 00:26:32.049 --> 00:26:38.119 not sin and that when you do sin, you would have an advocate with 257 00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:48.269 the father. Not a fumbling act on our behalf, trying to please God, 258 00:26:49.309 --> 00:27:00.430 but God giving himself to us. John says in this letter, in 259 00:27:00.829 --> 00:27:07.779 chapter four, verse ten, this is Love, not that we have loved 260 00:27:07.859 --> 00:27:12.779 God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a tone, 261 00:27:12.859 --> 00:27:22.450 as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. John goes on to say that this 262 00:27:22.569 --> 00:27:29.329 propitiation for sins is not something that he alone enjoys, or even he in 263 00:27:29.490 --> 00:27:34.519 his immediate readers, but it's for everyone. Everyone who would believe on the 264 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:41.000 Lord Jesus US Christ will be saved. This is the freeeness of what God 265 00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:47.710 is offering to us. This is why we call it beloved amazing grace. 266 00:27:48.269 --> 00:27:55.029 How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, because God has come 267 00:27:55.109 --> 00:28:00.059 into the world, has turned away his wrath and constantly has at his side 268 00:28:00.380 --> 00:28:06.779 the father has at his side his own son, whom, together they have 269 00:28:06.940 --> 00:28:11.930 given to us a propitiation for our sins, a turning way of our wrath. 270 00:28:17.369 --> 00:28:25.690 However much your sin is God's propitiation, his wrath is being turned away. 271 00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:33.799 However much your sin is, Jesus's blood is cleansing it and making you 272 00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:47.390 holy. If your conscience pricks you, if you know yourself to be a 273 00:28:47.549 --> 00:28:52.990 sinner, then let this be great news to you, because here we are 274 00:28:53.109 --> 00:28:59.339 being told that we don't have to lie dead in our sins, that we 275 00:28:59.420 --> 00:29:07.259 don't have to be forever enslaved to our transgressions and our evil. But God 276 00:29:07.420 --> 00:29:15.130 has given us forgiveness, an advocate in the very son of God himself, 277 00:29:15.170 --> 00:29:22.569 Jesus Christ, the righteous. Where we are unrighteous, he is righteous and 278 00:29:22.890 --> 00:29:30.880 is pleading on our behalf. Jesus one day will not only be our advocate, 279 00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:34.640 but will also be our judge. And if he's the one who has 280 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:40.509 been pleading our case, do you think that will win? Do you think 281 00:29:40.589 --> 00:29:47.190 that you will stand before God and be Declared Righteous, if Jesus Christ himself 282 00:29:47.230 --> 00:29:51.670 has been declaring you righteous, if the blood of Jesus, the son of 283 00:29:51.789 --> 00:29:56.420 God himself, has cleansed you from sin, if he has been standing all 284 00:29:56.579 --> 00:30:00.700 this time turning away God's wrath. On the last day, you will not 285 00:30:00.900 --> 00:30:07.250 be judged again, but you will be vindicated and shown to be the glorious 286 00:30:07.809 --> 00:30:17.009 son or daughter of God that you already are and you will not sin ever 287 00:30:17.970 --> 00:30:22.839 again. That's our hope, and it's not just for the sins that we 288 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:27.480 commit, but it's for all the suffering in the misery that comes along with 289 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:33.279 that. Listen, I know that some of you are in times of your 290 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:42.990 lives a very intense suffering, difficult suffering. Maybe the pain is internal, 291 00:30:44.390 --> 00:30:52.619 mostly, may be sometimes it leaks out and soaks your pillow. How much 292 00:30:52.660 --> 00:30:59.579 of this suffering in our life is because of sin? All of it? 293 00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:07.730 Maybe not direct personal sin that causes a particular kind of suffering, but all 294 00:31:07.809 --> 00:31:12.289 the suffering in our life is because of the failure of Adam to obey the 295 00:31:12.450 --> 00:31:19.480 will of God and our failure to obey and in this I just want to 296 00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:26.480 conclude by saying that God, in answering this problem of sin, is answering 297 00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:33.029 not only this question of our standing before God, but also the quality of 298 00:31:33.109 --> 00:31:37.549 our standing before God. He's offering us not just a hope for the forgiveness 299 00:31:37.589 --> 00:31:42.190 of our sins, but also the removing of all the consequences of that, 300 00:31:42.710 --> 00:31:48.859 this misery and the suffering and the punishment and everything that comes both directly and 301 00:31:49.019 --> 00:31:55.380 indirectly from that. God is telling us to day is that he is providing 302 00:31:55.420 --> 00:32:04.450 us any eternal and everlasting hope in Jesus Christ, a way out, a 303 00:32:04.609 --> 00:32:13.569 guaranteed end. Sin cannot, if you are a Christian, cannot and will 304 00:32:13.690 --> 00:32:19.240 not have its full effect in your lives, because the loving God, the 305 00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:30.150 gracious God and the just God is your advocate. I think that this should 306 00:32:30.150 --> 00:32:36.750 change how we live our lives. If this is who we are and this 307 00:32:36.910 --> 00:32:39.789 is who God is, and if our hope is one day that all this 308 00:32:39.990 --> 00:32:45.460 will come to bear and in a glorified states and which we will no longer 309 00:32:45.539 --> 00:32:50.660 sin or suffer it's effects, will we be the kind of people that run 310 00:32:50.859 --> 00:32:58.609 towards sin, that look forward to sin, the plans in May it never 311 00:32:58.769 --> 00:33:02.529 be. Let us be a people that are wrapped up in the holiness of 312 00:33:02.609 --> 00:33:10.089 God, in his salvation and his advocacy and his continuing sanctification of us, 313 00:33:10.849 --> 00:33:17.720 and in the hope, the guaranteed promise of glorification. Trust in God. 314 00:33:19.720 --> 00:33:23.599 He is your advocate, he is your way out. Let's pray