Sunday Livestream | 1 John 2:1-2 | Jesus Christ Our Advocate

God is just. He is a righteous judge. As such, the just and right thing for God to do is to punish sin, and punish sin, he will. And sin is going to be punished in one of two ways. Either we guilty sinners will be punished for our sin in eternal hell where the wrath of God will be poured out on us forever, or we guilty sinners can turn to Christ who took the punishment for our sin on that cross. The wrath of God must be satisfied. [00:55:52] (37 seconds)  #DivineJustice

God cannot clear the guilty. Sin must be punished. His wrath must be satisfied. Now, hear the good news. Guilty sinners can who turn from their sins and turn in faith to trusting in Jesus for their salvation. Everything John has taught us in this letter so far becomes true of them. Chapter one, they have fellowship with God. Chapter one, they're cleansed from all their sins. They're forgiven of their sins. Chapter two, they have an advocate who is the propitiation for our sins. So when a person turns to Jesus for salvation, the punishment for their sin is satisfied through Christ who died and rose again. [00:57:11] (45 seconds)  #GraceThroughChrist

I'm gonna still sin, you're gonna still sin. What we need to remember is if anyone sins, and we will. We have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who's the propitiation for our sins. He's removed the punishment. We are cleansed. We are forgiven. We have fellowship with God through Jesus. When I used to watch Matlock with my mother even though there was some suspense to the show, I knew when the show began that Matlock was going to walk into that courtroom and secure a not guilty verdict for his client. Christians, when we sin, John's like, we have an advocate who's with the father, who's with us, who always gets a not guilty verdict for us. [01:00:02] (38 seconds)  #JesusOurAdvocate

While I do not encourage you to rejoice in this truth, I urge you to remember it. We as Christians still do sometimes sin. You need to remember this because I've found that sometimes when we sin, some Christians will begin to struggle with doubt about their salvation because they see the presence of sin in their lives. Remember John wrote so that we would have certainty. If you're one who struggles with uncertainty about your salvation because you sometimes sin, remember what John has taught us, the mark of a true Christian is not that we never sin, it's what we do when we sin. [00:50:52] (39 seconds)  #AssuranceNotPerfection

So when John says that Christ is the propitiation for our sins, what he means is Christ died on the cross for our sins, on that cross, God poured out his wrath on his son, not for his son's sins because Jesus was sinless, but for our sins. Jesus took the punishment due us, and he satisfied the demands of God's justice on the cross. The next time you sing that song in Christ alone, may these words sound loudly, On that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. [00:56:30] (41 seconds)  #WrathSatisfied

And, sometime we Christians look at our lives and when we see sin we begin to wonder, man, am I truly saved? Some will see the sin in their life and they'll be like, surely that can't be true. John says, if anyone sins, talking about Christians, we have an advocate who is with the father. He's the propitiation for our sins. He's secured a not guilty verdict for us, a verdict that will stand till the end. He guarantees that when we sin, our sin will not separate us from fellowship with God. So if you struggle with doubt because you see some some sin sometimes in your life, remember this truth. Jesus is your advocate. [01:05:55] (44 seconds)  #AdvocateForBelievers

So when we sin as Christians, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for our sins. I don't know about you, but I need that constant reminder because I have a tendency to sometimes sin. We've all sinned and fallen short of his glory. We all owe the punishment for sin. Remember, Jesus has removed the punishment. Christians rejoice as you remember this. What about you? Has the punishment for sin been removed from you or does the wrath of God remain? [01:02:33] (39 seconds)  #PunishmentRemoved

And John reminds us we still do sometimes sin, but we have an advocate who's taken the punishment for our sins, an advocate who is our propitiation. Later in this letter we will read verses that we hear a lot, God is love. I think sometimes we treat God as he sees pieces and portions of this, but he's love in its totality, but we also need to understand that our God is just and our God's justice demands that sin be punished. [00:54:51] (35 seconds)  #GodIsJustAndLoving