Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. The last several years has seen a bit of a falling away of churchgoers, hasn't it? The reasons are many, but, none the less, it's a real issue to pray about. The early church faced a similar issue.
some of the folks were leaving the fellowship and would turn around and preach another gospel and spread doubt among those who stayed. It's at this point where we get the passage that talks about walking in the light as he's in the light. Here's John with God Is Light, Part 4. If you have your Bibles, you can turn back to the book of 1 John.
Now this is really weird. I have read the book of 1 John so many times. You think my pages would be falling apart, but they are sticking together like I've never read before. And so I need to be very careful here not to rip my Bible because this is now my second Bible I've bought in the past seven months because the other Bible I bought was doing the same thing. And so one Sunday morning I got up to preach for you guys, and it was stuck, so I just went like that and ripped the whole page.
I don't know why this keeps happening. I need to figure this out. If you guys know why, just please tell me and I'll figure it out. Anyway. Uh the book of 1 John, uh we're coming back to 1 John chapter 1.
Verses five through chapter two, verse two, is what. We've been looking at we're gonna finish it today looking at chapter 2 verses 1 through 2 But let me introduce to you it like this so that you have some context Christians sin I don't know how that hits you this morning, but. Listen very carefully. Christians sin. And sometimes they sin quite bad.
This is what Paul clearly teaches us in. Romans chapter 7 that he says this humbling this humbling reality that Christian sin he teaches us this And the book of Romans, Romans chapter 7, verses 21 through 24. He says, and he laments the fact as a justified believer himself, who's an apostle. Right, who is writing inspired scripture for us? He himself laments the fact that in this life, even as a justified believer.
He says that none of us are fully delivered from this body of sin and the weaknesses. of the flesh. Because of this, daily sins spring forth from us, don't they? We know what that reality is like. These faults, these sins cleave even to the best works of believers, so that, as the Heidelberg Catechism says in question 1:10, it says, even our best works in this life are imperfect and defiled.
with sin. Christian sin. It's it's it's a reality. This is what we confess each week in Holy Communion before we receive communion. We sin in thought and word and deed.
Listen to what we confess. We'll confess it this morning. Acknowledge. That's confession. We confess, we acknowledge, and lament This is in the desert.
Our many sins and offenses which we have committed by thought, word, and deed. And so the fact is, as believers, we're not always so influenced and moved by the Holy Spirit and the grace of God in our life that we cannot depart in some particular instances from the guidance of divine grace. Right? And so we get we get led astray by the desires of the flesh, and we obey them and we sin. This is what Scripture demonstrates time and again.
Read the life of David. Grievous sin. Read the life of Peter. grievous sin. The scriptures demonstrate this fact over and over.
Read the life of Abraham. How does Paul describe both Abraham and David? In the book of Romans, Romans chapter 4, he describes them with one word, their whole life. He summarizes in one word. What is that word?
Ungodly. Christian sin. This is the point that John is making in our passage. In 1 John chapter 1, verse 5 through chapter 2, verse 2. He is talking about this reality of ongoing sin in the Christian's life.
So look at chapter 1, verse 5. In chapter 1, verse 5, he introduces his theme in his letter. Which is the topic in this section, which is the topic of sins, effects. on fellowship with God and fellowship with each other. Why is he doing this?
Because we've looked at this, we said that there were some members of these churches who claimed, professed to be Christians. But they ha left the fellowship. of the churches that John had overseen with the apostles. And what happened was when they left the fellowship, they had adopted a new belief, a new set of beliefs. They had now started to believe that humans, that they had no longer sinned.
They denied human sinfulness. And because of this, they deny Jesus' name. Jesus is propitiation for sins. They don't need that anymore. And these claims to sinlessness by those who departed from the churches created doubts.
Yeah. created doubts in the minds of those who remained in the fellowship of John's churches. And so John is writing this letter to those who are in his churches, who have not left his churches. And he's trying to give them assurance of faith and overcome their doubts because this is what had happened. Those who left claimed that they had received a special anointing of the Holy Spirit so that they said, we don't sin anymore.
We don't have to have Jesus as propitiation. We don't need his death for our sins anymore. And the people who stayed in John's churches were looking at their lives going. But we continue to sin.
So, who has the truth here? Is it those who've departed and come into this newfound truth that we haven't gotten and this new work of the Holy Spirit somehow that's so transformed them that they don't sin anymore, they don't need Jesus anymore? Or is John writing there? Are the apostles writing?
So, there was doubt. There was doubt, there was confusion. They had lost assurance of their salvation. And John writes to these people to assure them that they're in fellowship with God. And so in chapter 1, One, verses five through ten.
He refutes three false claims of fellowship with God made by those who had left the church. We've looked at these, we're not going to go back through them, but let me just show you in verses 6 and 7. They claimed to have fellowship with God, but they walked in darkness. They denied the apostolic gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. They left the fellowship.
They hated their brothers and sisters in the church. And John says, you can't claim to have fellowship with God and walk in darkness like that. He says, second, they claim to have fellowship with God, and therefore, because of that, they cease to sin. In verse 10, he says they claim to have fellowship with God, and because of this fellowship with God that they have, they said they haven't sinned. And so, in response to what these people who left the church.
Are claiming and now coming back into the church trying to convert those who were left in the church. John says, no, if you're walking in the light, you come to realize this reality. You, as a Christian, sin. John wants to make it clear to his spiritual children in the faith. That that listen that ongoing sin in the Christian's life is reality.
Look what he says in chapter 2, verse 1. He says, My little children. And so there it is. They have a spiritual father in the faith who has birthed these levers and planted these churches. He says to them, look, my little children.
And that address, by the way, is assurance. Because he doesn't saint like little apostates. Yeah. He says, My little children, these children that he had birthed in the faith are struggling with assurance and doubts. And so he's writing to comfort them and assure them.
And he says, look at this, my little children. Look, he says, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Listen carefully. John has just made it clear to them in chapter 1, verses 5 through 10, that believers sin.
Now watch what he's doing here. He says since Ongoing sin is is a reality in the Christian's life. But it's never acceptable. It's He says this reality. But listen to what he says.
It's never acceptable. Look at this, my little children. Comfort. Assurance. He says, look, I'm not sure.
I'm writing these things to you. What are these things? is chapter It's chapter 1, verses 5 through 10. He's referring them back to verses 5 through 10 of chapter 1. Those things that he just told them about the ongoing reality of sin in the Christian's life.
He says, these things that I'm teaching to you is for the purpose so that you may not sin. You see, John's addressing those in his congregation in this pastoral fashion, and he exhorts his children in the faith. Not Commit sin. Listen again, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. John says that the Arguments that he gives in chapter 1, verses 5 through 10, are sufficient to strengthen his reader's resistance to sinning.
John also wants, he acknowledges those who walk in the light continue to sin, but he doesn't want to be misunderstood. Listen carefully, I'm saying that the reality of ongoing sin in the believer's life is acceptable. He says to them, Ongoing sin in the believer's life is never Acceptable. Let me say that again, and I'm saying this to myself because I've had to study it this week, it's very convicting. Ongoing sin in the believer's life is never.
acceptable. Never. And in his sermon, Law, Death, Gospel, and Life, Ralph Erskine says this: He says, the sins The sins of believers deserve hell. And he says the intrinsic, the merit of sin is still the same for believers as unbelievers. He says, yea, I think that the sins of believers being against so much love and so many mercies, they deserve a thousand hells even more than an unbeliever.
John says, I want you to let this sink in. I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. It is never okay to sin, even for believers. It is not okay. John says that the purpose of proclaiming the gospel, look at chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.
Why do John and the Apostles proclaim the gospel? What is its purpose? He says it's to bring believers into fellowship with each other and with a triune God. And what does sin do to that fellowship? It really messes it up.
You see, on this point, listen carefully.
Some teach when believers sin, they can lose fellowship with God. That's not true. Because fellowship in 1 John is assemined for salvation. What what When you sin as a believer, you don't lose your salvation. Right?
Because if you did in thought, word, and deed, how many times per day would you be losing and gaining back your salvation? Yeah. It would be an endless loop. that never stops. It's important to note that believers are never out of fellowship with the Lord.
Because to be out of fellowship with the Lord is to lose your salvation, which cannot be done. John says the purpose of proclaiming this gospel is to bring us into fellowship with the Lord and with each other. What is John's point here? What is he concerned about for these believers? Listen carefully, this is it.
When believers sin, they don't lose sin. fellowship with Christ. They lose the sweetness of it. The sweetness of their fellowship. Let me just quickly summarize a couple of scriptures because we don't have time to look at them, but listen carefully.
When believers sin, they grieve the Holy Spirit. When believers sin, they interrupt the exercise of faith which produces good works. When believers sin, they grievously wound their consciences. When believers sin, Psalm 32, they can get physically sick. And when believers sin, they can for a time lose the sense of God's favor.
That they do have, but they can't sense it. When believers sin, they disrupt and hurt fellowship with fellow believers, and in some cases, do great damage to the body of Christ. It's exceedingly destructive. Sin is exceedingly destructive. Let me just give you a contemporary example of what we're seeing take place.
The the pastor at Hillshall. Not just the head pastor at Hillsong, but Many Hillsong pastors have have committed profoundly grievous sins. That has been exceedingly destructive to the fellowships of those churches. None of us take pleasure in that, and it's grievous to watch because of the damage that is done to a watching world when the church sins like that. Listen again to Ralph Erskine as he explains what happens to the believers' fellowship when they sin.
He says this, he says though. I will not send them to hell, right? You don't lose your salvation. You don't come back into condemnation. You don't receive judgment.
But listen, though I will not send them to hell, nor deprive them of heaven, no more than I will break my great oath to my eternal Son, yet, like a father, I will chastise them.
Now, chastisement for our sin, discipline for our sin, is not judgment. It is not condemnation, it is not wrath. We're going to come back to that in just a moment. But he says, I will correct them for their faults. I will squeeze them in the mortar of affliction and press out the corrupt juice of old Adam that is in them.
Yay, I will hide my face. I will deny them that communion and fellowship with me that sometimes they had and give them terror instead of comfort and bitterness instead of sweetness. That's the point. This sweet communion and fellowship. You see, that's what John's trying to get across.
He says, We preach this gospel to you to bring you into fellowship with each other, into fellowship with the triune God.
So go back to Eden, so Eden's restored and one day glorified, so that you can enjoy this. This purpose for why we proclaim the gospel, this purpose for why you were created to be a whole person enjoying. Fellowship with God and Fellowship with one another and having, he says, the joy of it, these things arise so that our joy might be made complete. You see, this is a happy, joyful thing. God hates sin.
Why? Because it hurts you. And as a gracious father, he's trying to tell you, write these things to you, my little children, so that you may not sin. Don't ever make the mistake of thinking that the gospel makes sinning acceptable or okay. John says that the gospel never makes ongoing sin for the believer acceptable.
Let John's exhortation sit. Sit in just for a moment this morning and feel the weight of this. Listen to what he says. I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Feel that.
We have to feel that. We have to feel crushed by that. We have to feel the weight and heaviness of that. Why? Because it destroys us.
And it destroys other people. In John chapter 2, verses 1 through 2, just like in chapter 1, verses 5 through 10, let me tell you what John's doing here in a pastoral fashion. He is weaving together both law and the gospel in a pastoral fashion to strengthen his readers' resistance to sinning. Notice how John does this. The seriousness of the secessionist last claim in chapter 1, verse 10.
They said, They've not sinned, they have just not sinned. This leads John to exhort his children in the faith to not sin. That's the law, that's an exhortation. But John says they can be assured that when they do sin, they can look to Jesus Christ. As their advocate with the Father to intercede for them.
That is the gospel. Listen carefully, assuring believers of Jesus' intercession is not being soft on sin. It's quite the opposite. Why? Because, as you're going to see in just a moment, it takes sin so seriously that the only remedy Is for the Father to send his Son, Jesus Christ the righteous, to become a propitiation for our sins.
That's very serious. Yet it's comfort and assurance and good news for us at the same time. And so here we see John teaching us the proper use of both the law and the gospel for helping believers live the Christian life. In a pastoral fashion, John is being faithful as their spiritual father in the faith to write to his little children, and he exhorts them, do not commit sin. That's God's law.
Listen to that. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Don't sin, do not commit sin. Yet, at the same time, in the same breath, in the same verses, he assures them that when they do sin. God has graciously provided Jesus as a propitiation for their sins.
Do you see how this works? You see, because if you don't feel the sting of the reality of your ongoing sin, you're not going to flee to Jesus. But when you feel and see this reality of ongoing sin in your life. And you say, God, I just sin all the time in thought, word, and deed. I acknowledge and lament my many sins and offenses.
You flee to Jesus for comfort in his intercession. John understands that Christians will sin. Chapter. 1 verses 5 through 10. You're going to sin as a Christian.
Just you're going to sin. But John says you have to understand this reality doesn't make it acceptable. But he says to comfort them, he says, when you do sin. He says, you stand in need of the provision that God has made in Christ when you sin. Look what he says.
But if anyone sins, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. In other words, there's no other place in the whole world to go. Except Jesus. He is the only place. He's the only person.
person where you can go to have remedy for your sin. This this this reality of our ongoing sin is a perpetual reason to humble ourselves before God. That's why, in our church, that's why we kneel in confession. You understand what we do with our bodies matters just as much as what we do with our souls in worship. And we humble ourselves before God in chapter 1, verse 9.
What do we do? We confess our sins, we do not conceal them. We don't make excuses for them. We don't try to whitewash it. The gospel enables us to have the confidence to just come clean and confess and.
Lord, this is what I've done. I'm guilty. Forgive me. I need Jesus, right? And so, what is John doing in these two verses?
What is he doing? Listen, he's assuring his readers by telling them this. Christ died for the sins of Christians too. That's what he's saying. I can tell you this: for the first 30 years of my Christian life, nobody ever taught me this little simple truth.
Christ died for the sins of Christians too. And so I went through my whole life up to age thirty. Thinking that every single time I sinned, I had to do acts of penance, which is just emotionally beat myself up to the point where God, after about a week or so, goes, Oh, wow, John's really, I mean, he's really serious about his repentance.
Now I'll forgive him. It's how many people live. They're thinking that if they just emotionally turned inward and just themselves and crucify themselves and beat themselves and flagellate themselves and practice ascetic Asceticism, rituals to themselves, and just live in their guilt and stew in it. And just punish themselves that after a period of time, God's going to look at that person and go, Oh, wow, you're really serious.
Now I forgive you. That's not how it works. Christ died for the sins of Christians too, John says. We can flee to refuge to Christ, who is our advocate in the presence of the Father. And so the gospel listens, not a license for sin.
He says the gospel is the remedy for our sin, and it is the motivating power to help us enjoy fellowship with God and fellowship with one another. And so John sets forth this situation in which believers yield to temptation and commit sin. And he says that the remedy for when we sin is most surprising and it's... profoundly comforting and assuring. He says, if anyone sins, listen to this comfort.
We have an advocate. With the other. Jesus Christ, the righteous. John emphasizes these two surprising and assuring roles that Jesus assumes for believers when they sin. Here's the first that Jesus assumes for us.
John says that Jesus, when we sin, Jesus, he says, is our advocate. I was just listening to something the other day talking about how a certain group of people in our country are being. uh denied legal representation. No, just let me ask you a question. If you are guilty, Do you want legal representation before the judge?
Do you want somebody who is skillful? to plead your case. before the judge not guilty. There's this one. Word advocate comes from the Greek word parakletos, paraclete, which means one who speaks in our defense.
John says, Jesus is our defense attorney. I have been to a courtroom before where I had to go with some friends whose son was guilty. of committing a grievous crime. And I was as innocent as the day goes. Yeah.
And when the judge walked in, my heart just started pounding. I'm like, what? Why am I anxious? I haven't done anything. My hands started sweating.
And I started, my hands were shaking. I'm like, what? You're having a nervous breakdown in the courtroom. What are you doing? Get a hold of yourself.
Then when the judge finished the sentencing, the judge asked the defendant, would you please rise? And this young man stood up. in the courtroom and that judge dropped The gavel. We all heard it. Guilty.
and read the sentence. That was one of the most sobering days I think I've ever experienced in my life. Because God's law came down and there was no mercy. There was nothing except. Guilty Here's your sentence.
Going to jail. It's very sobering. John says, Jesus is our defense attorney. We are guilty in thought, word, and deed a thousand times a day. Pericletos is sound only here in 1 John, and it's referred to four times in the Gospel of John.
In each of those four occurrences in the Gospel of John, it refers to the Holy Spirit. John 14, verse 16, Jesus prepared his followers for his departure by promising another parakletot, another parakletos, a defense attorney, whom Jesus says he will send to be with his disciples on earth when he ascends to the Father. John chapter 16, verses 7 through 11, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is sent to act as an advocate for Jesus. The Holy Spirit speaks in defense of Jesus for us. But here in 1 John 2 verse 1, John uses Pericletos to refer to Jesus in connection with his purpose in heaven.
Why did Jesus ascend to heaven? Why did a perfect human being ascend to heaven? John says, shares this good news that Jesus functions as our pericletos, speaking up on our behalf in the presence of his Father when we send. That's why he ascended. A perfect human in the presence of God on our behalf.
John says, Jesus is our advocate. He is our defense attorney with the Father. Jesus is our advocate who intercedes for us when we sin. John says, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He ascribes to Jesus this constant intercession.
He says that Jesus is the righteous. Why does he emphasize Jesus Christ the righteous? Because we're not righteous. We are the unrighteous. We have sinned.
Jesus hasn't sinned. 1 John 3, verse 5, in him there is no sin. Jesus is the one who has acted righteously. He has not sinned. And because of this, he stands in the presence of the Father to speak on behalf of those who have not acted righteously.
And so listen, the comfort and the good news, the assurance for Christians is that for Christians who sin, there is Jesus Christ, the perfect sinless one, who is our eternal and abiding advocate in the presence of his Father forevermore. Look at John chapter 1, just very quickly. Look at verses 1 through 4. Look what John says about Jesus who became incarnate in the flesh. He says, verse 2: This life was manifested, and we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life.
Look at this. You say it with me, which was what? With the Father. Jesus in his pre-incarnate state is God, the eternal Son. He has come from the presence of the Father.
He has forever existed in communion and fellowship in the presence of his Father. He has come from there to take upon himself human flesh and manifest God to us, John says. And we are proclaiming this gospel to you so that when he ascends back to the Father in the flesh as a human, there is a human in the presence of the Father now interceding for us. And so the question is: what is Jesus' defense on our behalf? What is he speaking to the Father on our behalf in the presence of his Father?
What is he speaking? John tells us in verse 2: John says, Jesus is not just our advocate, he says he's our propitiation. Look at verse 2. He himself is the propitiation for our sins. Jesus is our defense attorney, and what is his case?
What is his defense? It is his. Propitiation. before the Father. He offers himself.
He is the sacrificing priest in the temple. He is the defense attorney in the courtroom. He is for us.
So what is propitiation? First, let me tell you what it's not. It's not this pagan notion that Jesus is trying to soothe or soften the reluctance of an arbitrary offended deity. It's not propitiation. Look at 1 John very quickly.
Turn with me. 1 John 4, verse 10. Look what John says: that God the Father took the initiative in providing Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. And this is love. Not that we love God, we have not kept the great commandment.
And this is love, not that we love God, but that God the Father loved us, therefore sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. You see, the Father's provision of Christ's propitiatory sacrifice on the cross came as a result of the Father's love for us while we were sinners. I preached on this on Good Friday, and it never ceases to astound me. I want you to hear this. God the Father loved you in your sinful state.
Therefore, He sent His Son. to be a propitiation for you. This is remarkable, though, in his book, The Gospel. Real life, Jerry Bridges provides this exceedingly helpful explanation of propitiation. It's the best I've read.
And so I just want to share it with you. He says, What is propitiation? He says, I believe that A word that forcefully captures the essence of Jesus' work of propitiation is the word exhausted. Jesus exhausted the wrath of God. It was not merely deflected and prevented from reaching us.
It was exhausted. Jesus bore the full, unmitigated brunt of it. God's wrath against sin was unleashed in all its fury on his beloved Son. He held. Nothing.
Back. The prophet Isaiah foretold this when he wrote, Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Listen, we are made whole. Body and soul. Through Christ Sacrificial substitution and work on our behalf on the cross.
And he says, Notice the italicized word: stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, punishment, wounds. They describe the pouring out of God's wrath on his Son during those awful hours when Jesus hung on the cross. The cup of God's wrath was completely turned upside down. Christ exhausted the cup of God's wrath for all who trust in him. There is nothing more in the cup, it is empty.
Jesus is our propitiation. This is Jesus' defense on our behalf. John says that Jesus appears in heaven in the presence of his Father as our advocate in God's courtroom and offers his propitiation as our defense because he is the sacrificing priest in the temple. Jesus is our advocate. He is our priest.
He is our sacrifice. He's all of it. In all of that propitiating work on our behalf, John says, is because the Father loves us. Listen again. God the Father loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
There's a great love for you by the God who created you and who saved you.
So, as we reflect on this assuring good news this morning that Jesus. Speaks on our behalf in the presence of the Father, when we sin, I'm reminded of Thomas Cranmer's most famous composition in his words of the comp. words that we hear each week in the Book of Common Prayer. Thomas Kramner entitled them Holy Communion's Comfortable Words. 1 John 2, verses 1 through 2 is the fourth comfortable word that Thomas Kramner included in the Holy Communion's liturgy for the comfort and assurance of those who came to church.
Listen to Ash Noel as he explains Thomas Kramner's thinking. About why Kramner included 1 John 2, verses 1 through 2. He says, How can God be true both to his righteous nature and his enduring love for an unrighteous humanity? You see, that's the question. It's like, we're unrighteous.
And how could God the Father, 1 John 4, verse 10, Love us in that unrighteousness. Because God can't. Love that which is unrighteous. John says he sent his son to be the propitiation. 1 John 2, verses 1 through 2 concisely states the problem from heaven's point of view.
God's justice requires propitiation, which is the fulfilling of his determination to destroy sin because of all the hurt and harm it causes. Of course, Krittmer's Confession for Communion explicitly acknowledged the need for such propitiation, saying that the congregation has just confessed that they have sinned by thought, word, and deed against thy divine majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. That's why the only answer to misery. Was uh utter divine graciousness. God's taking humanity's sin upon himself so he could destroy sin on the cross without having to destroy humanity as well.
And then he says, what good news? As 1 John 2, verses 1 through 2 reminds us, because Christ has made the sacrifice which has removed, exhausted God's wrath from us. He is now our advocate. Jesus himself is the one who stands by our side. He is the one who answers for us when we are accused of being sinners, and may I add, rightly accused.
He says, Here is the heart. Of the revolution in the understanding of Jesus that the English reformers wanted to proclaim. Four believers. John teaches Jesus is not our judge. He is our defense attorney.
and our propitiation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we cannot even begin to even start to fathom. The depths of love that you have for us, and so we require the Holy Spirit to taste it.
So, I pray right now that you would, by your Holy Spirit, come upon every person in this room. And overwhelm their heart with your love for them and the sending of your Son. And grant comfort and assurance and confidence that Jesus. Is our advocate, and that he is our propitiation, and that he stands in your presence. interceding on our behalf now and forevermore, which is our only hope.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We humble ourselves before you now as we come to your table to confess our sins. And we receive with joyful and thankful hearts your forgiveness, your cleansing, your restoration, your adoption as sons.
So, comfort us now as we come to your table in just a few moments. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Please subscribe if you haven't already for all our new episodes.
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