We are delighted to have Brother Conrad Mbawe with us and asking special prayer for him. And not only this week as he's with us and going over to Glen Iris tonight, back with us on Monday and Tuesday with the eclectic meeting Monday morning with the pastors also. So we're putting him to work and but he has much to do this year. And I wanted him to come if you would, brother, if you'll come and I wanted to just interview him a little bit concerning the work to share with you all, as not everyone here will be able to come back on the other night. So first of all, tell us about the church. I know that you have, the church elders have given you a year to work with the university, right? But tell us about the founding of that church just in brief and how many years you've been with them. All right, I'm pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Kabwata being a residential area within the capital city. And the church planting work began in 1981. I at that time was a student studying engineering. and we were part of the team that used to go out to do outreach work. And then five years later, 1986, it became WIND as an independent church, began to look for a pastor. and the following year they called me in 1987. So I quit my job and then began pastoring there. The church has since grown quite a bit. We've got eight elders, about seven deacons, and a membership of about 400. So there's been some developments over time. Wonderful. And you're in the midst of church planting in Zambia as well. You've had numerous churches, right? Yes, I wish I would say that it was on initiative initially, but it wasn't. There were SOS calls that came from two parts of the country. that caused us to realize we needed to help out with church planting and consequently we began in the 1990s and then in due season it became part of the culture of the church to see opportunities for church plants, send out men as church planters and so on. And between that time and now we've planted roughly between 25 and 30 churches. All right, so African Christian University is the university. How long has that university been going up to this point? Where are you at with facilities right now? Yes, thank you very much. That's the heavy load on my shoulders at the moment. In the year 2008, a number of our churches together decided to start a liberal arts university that would have the scriptures, the Bible as the foundation for all the various courses, part of it being to raise a generation of biblically taught individual citizens that would consequently impact the nation and beyond because we were already doing something at a lower level, now we wanted to enter into the tertiary world. That was 2008, so we're talking about 11 years ago. It took another five to six years before we could open the doors. Part of it was the government in Zambia had changed its policies with respect to private universities. that come up with a new body and that body took forever to begin functioning. It must have taken easily three to four years. So we were waiting for that. But finally, about four years ago, we were the first, we were among 10 private universities that were licensed out of about 50 applications they had. And consequently, we began to function. Simply renting Initially two houses, we then added a third house, we've now added a fourth house. But clearly, we can't simply continue adding houses. And the higher education authority in Zambia has in fact made it very clear to us, they love what we're doing, because we don't just teach from a biblical worldview, we also have a a student work program, so students coming in begin to participate in the life of the university in every sense, depending on the level of studying that they have done. We also have students in small cohorts together with faculty, where there's life-on-life discipleship. and the parents of the children are singing praises because they can't believe what has happened to their kids within six months when they get back, and so on. And when the inspectors come to the university, what they are seeing in the lives of the students is not what they are seeing in other universities, so they like what's happening. However, they don't like the facilities, and they've made that abundantly clear to us. Thankfully, right now as I speak, a member of our church whose aging has sold his land, we're here to buy, but he's offered it to us as a first in line, but it's a lot of money. It's worse in the Zambian currency, but I'll give it to you in US dollars. It's about 90 acres, and he's selling it for 260,000. U.S. dollars. Because as a member, he's staggering the payments, so we think that the Lord might help us to purchase that. But also because we've begun a seminary There has been need to have a few more PhD holders by Zambian regulation. And consequently, our brother Vodibokam, who some of you might know, is with us helping that to happen. We've managed to have another Zambian from South Africa who did his PhD in South Africa to come and join us. But for about three years, we've been lacking in having the third PhD holder. So I have thrown myself in, and that's part of what you'd have mentioned, beginning this year. So I'm beginning this year. Well, I hope it won't last too long. But certainly beginning this year, I'm functioning more as a tent-making pastor. So during the week, I'm with the university, and then evenings and weekends, I'm back with the church. So part of it, I'm seeking to raise money. I've been asked to function as the director of advancement for the university. I was the... chancellor until the first week of this year when I resigned because by government regulation you cannot be chancellor and a member of the faculty at the same time. So I've had to resign there in order to become a senior lecturer and also at the same time to raise finances. So the good news, is that the seminary is starting this year, so I'm quite excited about that. The bad news is that we definitely have to raise quite a bit of money in order for us to have this land. It's beautiful, I've seen an aerial view of it, but we are looking to the Lord and to you brethren in the Lord to help us acquire that, thank you. All right, so the seminary starts. You have some students lined up for that. By the time I left, they were just advertising for it, but unlike America, the African Christian University is the only, is going to be, since we haven't yet opened the doors for seminary, it's going to be the only conservative evangelical university in the whole country. that offers masters upwards. So we're not expecting that we'll be struggling with students. I think the issue was to start. And so we anticipate that once word gets out, we will already have students queuing up. Of course, the issues also have to do with scholarships. Already, the undergraduates, we cut the fees by two-fifths, and the two-fifths section, we have to raise as scholarships. Otherwise, they might not be able to afford. Relative to your part of the world, it might sound cheap, because it's about $2,700 a year. But relative to where we are, that tends to knock out quite a number of people. So instead, we are putting it at $1,700 a year per student. So you need a third PhD, or are you going to be the third PhD? I've put myself on the altar. Sorry, are you working toward that or are you already a Ph.D.? I already have a Ph.D. You already have it, okay. For about the last five years. Okay. Yes. And then just tell us about the 425 campaign. Oh, yes. What we've tried to do to make it easier for individuals to participate in supporting the ongoing work of the university has been to start a campaign that, as you've heard, is called 425. Then in Zambia, we have another one that is called a 450 campaign. So a 425 campaign encourages individuals to subscribe $25 a month. And we're hoping that we can have at least 400 such individuals. and that should give us some regular amount that just helps to underwrite especially the administrative side of the university. We do have a website and it's basically www.scu-university.org. USA is one option, or Zambia is another. It still takes you to the same place. So www.acu, for African Christian University, dash usa.com. And when you get there, you can subscribe to a regular newsletter. It comes out monthly so that you might know what is happening there and the challenges that we have. And then also, if you are able to assist financially, again, the information for that is all there. Thank you. All right. Well, you've got your sword with you. Yes. I might not have the opportunity to go back. That's right. Well, we welcome you, brother. Love you in the Lord and glad to have you preach to us. Thank you. I was saying to the brethren where I was this morning during their Sunday school hour that I the sense of stress that I had last month is equivalent to the stress I went through 31 years ago when I became pastor for Capoeira Baptist Church. Having quit my job in the engineering world and then going to take up a few individuals who didn't have a building, didn't have a pastor's house, In fact, they couldn't even pay my whole salary at that point. My relatives were all thinking I was mad to quit my job in such circumstances. In fact, I thought I had malaria that whole month. but that wasn't to be. It's more or less the same, again, because what I've been doing for the last 31 plus years is essentially just preaching and seeing what God will do with his word. And now it's been very clear since February last year by December that God was calling me to then go into this new role without quitting the pastorate. And I remember thinking to myself that yes, I can see why I am feeling this way. It's that I'm going into the unknown once again. But thankfully, This time around, there's also the preaching of God's word alongside. So let's turn to it, because there, to borrow an African phrase, I'm like a monkey up a tree. I don't know whether you use that here. So let's turn to 1 John, and I will read verse five, chapter one, verse five to the end. 1 John. Chapter 1, verse 5 to the end. The Bible says, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Well brethren, as I was thinking in terms of what to come and share with you and indeed making it a matter of prayer, my mind took me back to this particular book partly because I've just finished an entire series of messages on 1 John. But not so much in terms of going back to messages that I have done before, but to think in terms of the overall scope of the entire epistle. As John himself says in chapter five and verse 13, 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. In other words, the very reason why John was writing this was to deal with the subject of assurance of salvation. better still, eternal assurance of salvation, that you may know that you have eternal life. He deals with a number of very obvious tests as you make your way through this epistle. And the very first one, which I want to deal with this evening, is a right understanding of the gospel. a right understanding of the gospel. If you miss what the true content is of the gospel message, it doesn't matter whether you've been with good behavior, going to church regularly, giving financially in the church, participating in prayer in the church, you still go to hell because salvation is tied up intimately to this doctrinal understanding of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus and how we are to respond to it. How does John deal with it? Well, across the epistle, every so often, he brings in the issues of who Jesus is and our understanding of him, who the Father is and our understanding of him. And indeed, here in our text, that's where he begins, having spoken about their knowledge of the Son, experientially, having lived with him, talked with him, related to him when he was on earth, and how all that has resulted in this great commission that they are now sharing with others. John now summarizes it this way in chapter 1 and verse 5. This is the message we've heard from him and we proclaim to you. And what is it? That God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. In other words, when we are thinking in terms of heaven and hell, salvation and so on, we must begin with God. What kind of being is he? Sadly, in most cases, we tend to begin with ourselves as human beings. We tend to think in terms of, okay, what can I do? What can I manage to do? Because why should God expect something impossible from me? And so on. We tend to want to begin with men and women and their capacity. John doesn't do that. He begins with who God is and he defines him as John often does by a parallel and the parallel in this case is light. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now, it doesn't define for us what this light is, but clearly it has to do with holiness, it has to do with integrity, it has to do with those aspects of morality and purity, moral purity, if we can find another way of putting it. And when he speaks about darkness, he's obviously speaking in terms of evil, wickedness, hypocrisy, impurity, moral impurity, and so on. And that's where he's beginning. We make a grave mistake if we end up with a view of the divine being bereft of holiness. That means we are assigning ourselves to perdition, to destruction, even before we consider anything else. God is holy. And even when people are thinking in terms of his spirit and sort of enjoying the spirit of God in our lives and so on, we must never lose sight of the fact that he's referred to as the Holy Spirit. Because holiness is such an integral part of God that you cannot think of him in any other way. Well, that's where John begins. And I want to repeat, that's where we should begin as well. When thinking about our relationship with the divine being, with the coming judgment, with where we will be in all eternity, we must begin with the kind of God who exists. Now, it is in the light of this that John goes into a number of conditional statements. If, if, if. He has quite a number of them beginning from verse six down to verse 10. In fact, we can dare say that even chapter two Verse 1 includes the very last one, at least in this series of if clauses. You'll notice verse 6, if we say we have fellowship with him. Verse 7, but if we walk in the light. Verse 8, if we say we have not sinned. Verse nine, if we confess our sins. Verse 10, if we say we have not sinned. What is John doing here? Having told us who this God is, his nature, he's now coming to us to say, are you connected to him correctly or are you connected to him wrongly? Now it's fairly easy for us to think about it in this way, that often in university you have your lecturer who teaches you and you often have someone else who is a kind of assistant to him who then marks your assignments. And often the lecturer provides what is called a key or the key, and the key is simply the answer sheet, which he provides to this young assistant who consequently will be looking at your answers, comparing to this, and if it is not tying in with what he has been given as the key, your answer is wrong. So all he's doing every time he sees your answer, he goes back to the key. Your answer, he goes back to the key. And if your answer is according to the key, he ticks. If your answer is not according to the key, he puts a cross against it. Well, that's what John is doing here. He's saying, this is the kind of God who is there. So here's the question I'm asking. Have you sinned? Are you guilty of sin? Now, you give an answer, he goes to the key. And the key is the God who is there. And if he's not tying in with the God who is there, cross. If he's tying in with the God who is there, he takes. That's all he's doing. And he's going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. But doing it in a way that is like John, he's not just repeating himself. He is like in a spiral always adding an extra to what he is saying. But you can't miss the fact that he begins with a wrong answer and then he gives a correct answer. And you notice that he does it twice over. Let's quickly see this in a very wonderful way. So he begins in verse six with a wrong answer. If we say we have fellowship with him, that is, who is light, while we walk in darkness, well, an ex, we lie and do not practice the truth. He comes to the correct answer. But if we walk in the light, again, compared to him, as he is in the light, We have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sin. Tick, got your answer correct. He comes to another answer and it's wrong. If we say we have no sin, again, remember who he is, he is light. His truth, his integrity, he sees all things. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. X. And then he gives the correct answer in the next one. If we confess our sins, who is he? What kind of being is he? He is faithful. He is just. to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Tick, got it right. And then he comes to the last, which is also wrong. If we say we have not sinned, we make him to be a liar. That's even worse. His light, his purity, he knows all things. His all integrity, and we are saying, no, no, no, he's not. We're now arguing with who he is in himself, who is truth of truth. And he says, his word is not in us. Now, thankfully, I hope you agree with me, that these chapters were added in afterwards, so we can add the last if. And the last if is a positive. Listen to this. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if there it is, anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So, I want to repeat. John is going right, oh sorry, wrong, right, Wrong, right, wrong, right, against the key. And the key is God himself, his nature, the kind of God who rules. And again, as I've said, it's not just repeating himself. There's some level of repetition, but you can't miss the fact that there's some level of movement as well. For instance, by the time you come to the end here, he's brought in the full gospel. He is the propitiation for our sins. not only ours but for that of the whole world. In other words, he is the one who has drank in God's wrath because of our sin so that that wrath may not sink us deeper than the grave into the flames of hell. What is this about before we even delve into it? It's what I've said. It's clearly about our understanding of the gospel, this good news of Jesus Christ. What is it? And the best way to show whether we have understood the gospel is to simply answer this question, have you sinned? Are you guilty of sin? And what will you do about that? Now, generally speaking, almost everyone, unless their eyes have been opened by the spirit of God, by his regenerating work, the attitude tends to be one of somehow playing around that question. and failing to face it head on. The tendency is to say, well, who hasn't sinned? Come on, everybody has, and I'm doing my best, and so on. Some kind of answers that skirt around the simple statement, if you've sinned, you're going to hell. You deserve to go to hell. Instead, there tends to be a lot of, a little bit of positive. I'm not that bad, at least compared to the other person. Look at me. And so, I want us to quickly go through this in order to examine ourselves to see whether we have genuinely come to embrace the gospel, embrace the good news of Jesus Christ, beginning with who God is. Remember, his moral purity. as clear as the sun in his noonday strength. That's who he is. To the question, have you sinned? The first answer tends to be a playing down of that reality. It's to say, well, you know, yes, I have some relationship with God. I pray every day. When I have my food, I give thanks and so on. But the reality tends to be the exact opposite, that there is an entertaining of sin in the soul. So John puts it this way, if we say we have fellowship with him, which is what every religious person wants to claim, but here is the Achilles heel, while we walk In other words, we actually haven't experienced salvation. We lie and do not practice the truth. Now, how do we lie? Just a few quick points there. First of all, it is by underplaying the seriousness of our sins, our individual sins. Always the bad people are those out there that make up the headline news. Hardly ever our own sin. And we easily downplay the fact that wrong thoughts and wrong desires are sin. We don't want to look at that. Or sometimes it is by offsetting bad actions with good ones. So okay, I may not be perfect, but I help the poor. I'm doing something. I may not be the best husband or wife, but I'm active at church. So you throw in religious acts as though to somehow make your conscience at ease about this reality. And sometimes it is by shifting the blame on other people or on circumstances. I grew up in a broken home. therefore I have a bad temper. So that is justified by the way I was brought up. We tend to somehow explain away the fact that we are in fact deserving of the punishment of God because we are sinners and we are living in sin. John here says, we are lying. We're not practicing the truth. We are not letting the truth search us as it is. So that's the first. And remember what I'm saying. When you are doing this, it means you have not understood the gospel yet. Somehow you think that God wants you to be a little clean and then he simply accepts you based on those ways in which you are explaining away your sin. And that's not what the gospel is about. Instead, the gospel is about coming just as you are. What's an all? And that's what he comes to now in verse seven. He says, but if we walk in the light, again, the light there not necessarily being absolutely pure, but it is the fact that we are coming before God as we really are. So it's not just moral purity that is described by this word light, it is also integrity. It is the clearness with which we come. It says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, notice this, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sin. Clearly the point that is being made there is the fact that you're not hiding who you are. You have come face to face with your own sin and you've brought it before God that he might deal with it. and also whatever issues that you are still remaining with and dealing with, you deal with them openly enough. You are not living a hypocritical life. It's amazing. I don't know about America, but in Zambia and having been a pastor this long, it's amazing. How many, and I use the example of men here, not because they're the only culprits, but how many men are violent with their wives at home and then are like angels at church on Sunday? And initially you don't know until the wife is absolutely fed up Perhaps the children are the ones who are outraged by what they are seeing, that this monster, even on Sunday itself at home, before they get into the car, becomes this sweet angel when they are now at church and he's coming out of the car and smiling at everybody. Good morning, isn't the Lord good? And so the kids are thinking the same person. They are outraged by it. But finally, the wife is fed up and she brings out everything and they say, no, it can't be. And she says, it's been like this for years. Why didn't this person own up much, much earlier to say, help me. I have this bad temper. I go into this terrible tantrums. I cause those who are near me to hate being near me. This person would have had fellowship, real fellowship with the saints. and would have experienced sanctifying effects of that fellowship over time. That's what those who know the grace of God in salvation do. They don't try to be hypocrites. They don't want you to think it's Angel Gabriel who has now come in the flesh. No. If you are vulnerable with them, they're also vulnerable enough with you. And consequently, you have real fellowship with one another in the Christian church. I want to repeat, it's those who know the gospel who are willing to do this. And consequently, as we have read here, the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sin because they are willing to keep going back to him again and again. They keep a well-beaten path to the cross, to Calvary. They keep short accounts with God. Lord, forgive me. I'm the sinner for whom you died. I started out this day really wanting to be the best child of God possible. I've come back at the end of this day in shame. I shouldn't have behaved that way at that point. Forgive me O Lord and the blood of Christ cleanses them from all sin. Well John returns to the negative. It says there, if we say we have no sin, verse eight now, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The emphasis there now is on self-deception. It is self-deception. So you're not just being a hypocrite to others, You're actually being a hypocrite. You're deceiving. I was about to say you're being a hypocrite yourself. That doesn't make sense. You're deceiving yourself. You can't cheat God. It's ridiculous. So when you are trying to pretend that to the question, have you sinned? You're trying to pretend that you haven't. Well, certainly not with God. God not only knows our actions, he knows our words, he knows our thoughts, he knows the intentions of our hearts. He knows not only what we should have done, which we haven't done, he also knows what we shouldn't have done, which we have done. And that's how comprehensive his knowledge of us is. Let me put it this way. He knows us better than we know ourselves. That's how serious it is. He knows us better than we know ourselves. So, because he is the purest of light, the best we can do for ourselves is to believe his word, the truth that he himself has spoken. And the truth that he himself has spoken is this, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In other words, to the question, have you sinned? There must be an unqualified yes. No need to say, but because of, no, no, no. An unqualified yes. I'm guilty, I deserve to go to Do you find that difficult? You see, anyone who has not really embraced the gospel finds that hard. To simply give an unqualified, yes, I am the sinner that deserves hell. It's always, Lord, I thank you. Although I'm a sinner, but I'm not like other men. adulterers, tax collectors, et cetera, murderers. Thank you that I'm not like them. As though to say, therefore, okay, I might not have the nearest place to your throne in eternity, but at least I should qualify to enter into heaven. Have you come to that point in your life where you can say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to your cross I cling. I'm naked. I come to thee for dress. I'm helpless. I look to you for grace. I'm foul. I'm dirty. I fly to the fountain, wash me, Savior, or I die. Have you come to that stage yet? Because if you haven't come to that stage as yet, you've not yet become a Christian. You haven't. Because it's those who come empty handed that God feels. Those who come saying, let's meet halfway, God says, I know too much about you. There is no halfway. You are dirty, you are vile, you are sinful, you are a wretch. You need a complete overhaul. You are dead. You actually need life from the beginning. That's John warning us about self-deception. Now let me say this. Self-deception is the worst. Because you think you are right. It's like a person who has a mental condition. If you've ever dealt with people like that, they need psychiatric treatment. They are convinced everybody else is acting abnormal. Everybody else is. And if you say to them, look, you need to go to the hospital, they even get very upset with you. That you should be thinking there's something wrong with them. So it's very difficult when it's the mind that is sick. It's easier when it's the muscles of the arms or legs or some part of the diaphragm that's gone wrong. You can handle that. But when it's here, that's hard. And that's the issues dealing with here. Self-deception. Where you are convinced that everybody else is wrong. Very convinced. that you are the one who's right. And even when people are quoting the truth to you, it's in the pages, you are arguing that their understanding is wrong. I mean, although it's very straightforward here, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Which part of all don't you understand? All have sinned. There is none righteous. No, not one. Which part of that don't you understand? Oh, well, you just have put in your meaning. Well, what other meaning can there be? Self-deception. And that's the reason why religious people can be the most difficult individuals to come to faith in Christ. Because they'll say to you, look, I was baptized. I've been going to church all my life. I've never been sleeping around. And so are you telling me all that is useless? I hate to say it, but yes, it is. Yes, it is. Everyone is a sinner in desperate need of salvation. Let's hurry on. There's another if. So we've gone from the negative to the positive to the negative. Now we've come to the positive again. Have you sinned? And now you are saying, yes I have, unqualified yes. Here's a statement, verse nine. If we confess our sins, so that's a yes, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I keep saying that John keeps adding something each time. Previously, he had said the blood of Jesus Christ's son cleanses us from all sins. Now, he's talking about the character of God with respect to justice, justice. He's faithful, he's just. Now, you'd think that the answer would be, if we confess our sins, he's merciful, he's gracious, he'll forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what you'd think he would say. But it's not thinking about God just being merciful there. It's thinking about God satisfying his own justice. That it's on that basis that in fact we are pardoned. It is that God entered into an agreement with his son, a covenant with him, by which our sins being transferred to his account, he has been punished for them. He'll come to tell us a little bit more about that in chapter two with propitiation. And then, consequently, he cannot punish two people for the same sin. So he's faithful to his covenant with his son. He's just in not punishing you and Christ for the same sin. Jesus has paid it all. It will not be required at your hands. That's what he's basically saying here. He forgives us of our sins and consequently cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Cleans, wipes the slate clean. Because he gives us the righteousness of his own son. Now friends, that's the gospel. That's the gospel. It's God who has dealt with the problem of our sin himself. He has satisfied his own holiness, his own justice. He has satisfied that through his son. I don't need to come to him and say, Lord, okay, yes, I'm a sinner, but you know, I've been trying hard to be a better person. So just finish off, help me to finish off now. I simply come to him confessing my sin, that's what it says. If we confess our sins, that I'm a sinner Lord. that all my righteous deeds are filthy rags before you. That's where they are. There's nothing I can do to even begin to merit your righteousness. Nothing. I'm a sinner. Again, I'm asking tonight whether In all honesty, you come that way before God. Without bringing in, you know, I've been brought up in a Christian family or in Christian America, whatever, without all those things, Lord, I've been a sinner from birth, from the time my mother conceived me. Save me. through the righteousness of your own son. Save me. Well, time is not with us. I just want to quickly deal with the last two because again, it's a negative and positive. So the second last one, verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar. His truth is not with us. The addition there now is making God out to be a liar. So you went from being a hypocrite, you went to a self-deceived person, and now you're pulling out your gun and shooting God. To justify yourself, you're willing to pull God from his throne. That only makes matters worse. We won't have time to open that up. But let's quickly wrap it up with chapter two, verse one and two, which is the acme, the apex of this good news, this appropriate, proper, biblical understanding of the good news. 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 for ours only but also for the sins of the world. I mentioned that word propitiation. In other words, he is the one who takes our liability upon himself and suffers the wrath of God so that God may be fully appeased. He is the one and consequently goes into God's very presence as the righteous son of God to speak to him on our behalf. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Any sinner should be able to say, thank God, thank God. That is not me trying to do something. No, God in his super abounding grace gives us the best in the universe, God himself, God the son, to come and take our place. to suffer our punishment, to take up our liability completely and he satisfies God's justice absolutely and goes into heaven like a lamb that was slain to speak to the Father on our behalf. You can rely on So the first test of our salvation is exactly that message. In other words, to the question, have you sinned? Are you able to say, yes, and I deserve to go to hell, but thank God, in his grace, he has given his own son to suffer the punishment for my sins completely. And in Him, and in Him alone, I trust. Are you able to do that? Absolutely. Unless the Lord by his grace, by his spirit works in you, we always think that's dangerous, that's dangerous. In this material, this cloth of righteousness, I need to squeeze in a thread of my own good works. Many years ago, as I was leaving university, and with that I must close, I saw a little cartoon strip, which had three or four little pictures, which perfectly illustrated this. In the first picture, there was a guy falling off a cliff, and in the second one, He's holding to an outcrop from the side of the cliff, and then there are two bubbles. The first one is his, and it's a call. It's saying, is there anyone up there to help me? The second bubble is showing somebody from up there saying, yes, I'm here. Let go of that outcrop or that branch, and I will help you. In the third and last picture, the same guy, still hanging on to that branch, and the little bubble, which is implying he's the one speaking, has the words, is there anyone else up there who can help me? In other words, I want help, but I won't let go of my helping myself. Now if that's you, you don't understand the gospel yet. The gospel says, trust me, I've done it all, let go. You have no strength, you don't even have a good enough record to begin negotiating with God, let go. of your self-righteousness. Let go of your hypocrisy. Come just as you are, a sinner in desperate need of a free salvation, paid for 100% by Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Thank you for this gospel, this good news. The good news that alone can save sinners. That says God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. that whoever believes in Him may not perish but instead have everlasting life. Lord, thank you that by the regenerating work of your Spirit our eyes can be opened and we can see this as the best news in the universe. Oh how we pray for any among us that may still be quarreling with this, still wanting in this cloth of grace to have a thread of good works. Oh Lord, that you might prevail on them. until they can come empty-handed to embrace the cross for dear life's sake. Bless this word to our hearts, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.