It is good to be with you tonight. If you will open up your copy of the scriptures in front of you to 1 John chapter two. Tonight we will be looking at verses one through six. That's on page 1,021 of the Pew Bible in front of you. And while you turn there, let us pray for our time. Father, we pray tonight that you would quiet our spirits and quiet our minds. Lord, that we might hear from your word. A man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that you give us, Father. So would you feed us tonight with your word. May we grow to love you more and to love each other more. In the name that we pray, amen. All right, so this is 1 John chapter two, verses one through six. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this, we may be sure that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. So tonight, I want to look at our passage in two parts. The first one is John's comfort, and then the second is John's challenge. So John's comfort will be in verses one to two, and we'll spend more time on that section. And then John's challenge is verses three to six. So look with me at verses 1 to 2 in John's comfort. So John starts off the passage with, my little children. It's only fitting that the youth pastor got the passage that's addressed to little children here. But John is addressing adults, which in our time and age feels a little bit demeaning to call adults little children. But John Stott, who's an old British pastor, helpfully described that this is an endearing way to communicate to his audience. That it shows John's affection, it shows John's authority, and also his age. that the Apostle John, what 2 John will identify him as the Elder John, is dearly communicating to his children in the faith. So this is an affectionate greeting. The NIV says, my dear children, which I think clearly communicates what he's going for. So that's where it starts. And then verses 1 and 2, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, if you grew up in church or if you've been in church for a long time, you know verses 1 and 2. They are incredibly comforting verses. There is rich theology in them. We love those. But it's really easy to skip over the first sentence in verse 1. I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. John's laying out his cards here. This is one of the purposes he's writing these books, this book, so that you may not sin. So this may be an incredibly basic observation, but God does not want us to sin. So use this verse to wake you up if that's you. If you have been apathetic about maybe a certain aspect of your life recently, if you have been justifying some sort of sin as if, oh, it's not a big deal, God probably doesn't really care that much about it. John's telling you right here that he does. His desire is that we would not sin. So use that to wake you up if that's where you are right now. Take heed, we seek to be faithful as Christians. We do whatever we can to be faithful. And then the comfort comes in that second half of verse one. But if you sin and when you sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. This is an amazing truth. That by the Holy Spirit, we give it everything we got in this life to be faithful, And not if, but when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father to run back to. That is an incredible truth that Christians get to hold on to. Jesus is advocating on high for us to the Father and judge. Now I wanna tease out the concept of an advocate for a minute. So the Greek word used here for advocate is parakleton, which is also used in John 14 to refer to the Holy Spirit. So in John 14, 16, Jesus says, and I will ask the father and he will give you another parakleton, translated helper there, to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth. So a key word in that passage is another. Jesus says the Father will give another helper, referring to the Spirit, implying that Jesus himself is the first helper. So we as Christians have a helper on high at the right hand of the Father, and we have a helper within, the Holy Spirit. So we have two helpers working for us right now at the moment. But in our passage here, Padakletan, which is helper in John, communicates and conveys more of the idea of an advocate. So what is an advocate? An advocate is someone that recommends or endorses or backs or supports you to another party. And in good advocate, having a good advocate can make all of the difference. So to use a personal example, there is a very real sense in which I am here as a pastor in this church and on staff at this church, because some of you advocated for me. So I used to be a Mercy intern here, which meant that I attended the 9 a.m. service, I did the 11 a.m. street ministry, which used to be out front during COVID, and then I came to the 1 p.m. service, which is now the 2 p.m. service. So I was not in the main spaces in our congregation. I was not in Sunday school and I was not in our 11 a.m. service. So when I applied for the youth job, I get in the interview, I think there was like four or five people on the committee. I think I had met one of them before. And they were like, who is this guy? He's been interning here, we have no idea who this is. So they were pretty skeptical of me as I was interviewing for this job. And I think by and large, how I got the job is some of you advocated for me to those committee members. Now, I don't know what you told them, you might be regretting it now, but you told them something that made them think, okay, he might be an okay hire at this church. And I'm incredibly grateful for that, because when someone advocates for you, there is always a potential risk, right? There's a sense in which you stick your neck out for them. Because if I do a bad job, It makes you look poorly, right? Because you were the one that advocated for me. It's a knock on your reputation. And so advocates always carry a sense of risk and cost. Now, what is John getting at here when he says that we have an advocate with the Father? He's saying that when we sin, when we disobey God, Jesus is our advocate. He is interceding for us, advocating to the Father, and in essence saying, don't punish them for their sins. Now there are two major ways in which Jesus' advocacy is drastically different than your advocacy for me. The basis and the cost of Jesus's advocacy are drastically different than what you guys did for me. So the basis, when Jesus advocates for us to the Father, he's not doing it based on who we are, on what we've done, or what we might do. When you advocated for me, you did it based on something that you saw in me, whether it was something that I did or maybe some potential that you saw in me. When Jesus advocates for us to the Father, it is not at all regarding anything in us or anything that we've done or could do. There is nothing in us that could remove God's wrath over us for our sins. We can do nothing to atone for our sins. On what basis, then, is Jesus advocating for us? He's advocating based on His own life and His own work. And the next verse in our passage makes it clear how Jesus is able to do that. So verse two says, he is the propitiation for our sins. Jesus Christ the righteous can advocate on the basis of his own life because of his righteousness and because he is the propitiation for our sins. So to propitiate, theological word means to appease, satisfy, or pacify something. And in this context, propitiation refers to appeasing the wrath of God. So because of sin, the wrath of God is against us. But Jesus, by propitiation as appeased, turned away God's wrath that is over us. And all those who are in Christ, who believe in Christ, are then covered and protected from God's wrath because of this propitiation. So Jesus advocates for us based on his own life and work, nothing based on what we have done. The second way that it's drastically different is the cost. So I know I mentioned before the potential cost of advocating. You're putting your reputation on the line at a minimum. So I thought it was interesting in this verse, when I was reading this verse, it doesn't say Jesus propitiated our sins. It doesn't use it as a verb. Because if you use it that way, it can convey that Jesus offered up some thing to God. He didn't offer up some thing to God. He offered up his very self. He is the propitiation for our sins. So the cost of his advocacy goes to a whole nother level. And I think a perfect picture of this, so in Maranatha right now, we're going through the book of Jonah. And in Jonah 1, so if you guys remember Jonah, Jonah has been called to go preach repentance to Nineveh. And what he does in response is he goes as far away from Nineveh as he can. Goes down to Joppa, gets on a ship, goes to Tarshish, in the complete opposite direction. And then God sends a storm chasing after Jonah. That because of Jonah's disobedience, the wrath of God, symbolized in a storm, is going after him. And now Jonah's on a boat with these pagan sailors, who are acting a lot more like Christians than Jonah is at that point in the story, and they try to save him. So they row really hard to get back to dry land, and the storm only gets worse. And so their last option is Jonah's gotta go overboard. And so they hurl Jonah overboard. And then the sea and the storm stills. There is complete peace and calm out at the sea. The sacrifice of Jonah propitiated the wrath of God in that storm. And so when we say that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, we say that Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus, stills the storm of God's wrath against all those who are in Him. And so we receive that peace and that stillness that those pagan sailors felt that day on the boat. And so Jesus' advocacy, every time we sin, in essence, He's saying to the Father, Forgive them. Remember my perfect life. Remember my righteousness. And remember the sacrifice that I made on the cross. And on that basis, forgive them. That's what Jesus is doing in his advocacy for us. He takes our blame and he gives us his righteousness. That is how we receive the forgiveness that's talked about at the end of 1 John 1. So every time we sin, Jesus is doing that. And that is an incredible comfort, right? For those in Christ, every past and present and future sin is covered by the blood of Jesus, by his once and for all work on the cross that he continually applies to us every time we sin. That means that we don't have to get to some spiritual standard or maintain some spiritual standard in order to be forgiven. because it's not in us. Our forgiveness is not based on anything that we do or might do. It's solely in Christ alone. And so we run to him when we sin. We don't try to clean ourselves up. There's nothing that we can do to atone for our sins. We run to our advocate when we sin and we receive forgiveness right then and there. And that's a beautiful thing and a beautiful comfort. And the second thing that means is that means when we sin, we don't sit in shame all day long. If you tend to wallow in shame and guilt for long periods of time after you sin, the chances are you're more focused on yourself than you are your Savior. And the chances are you are more focused on pleasing other people, maintaining something about your reputation, than you are pleasing God. And so after you sin, run to Jesus and receive that forgiveness. You will never be able to clean yourself. You will never be able to atone for the sins that we have committed against our holy God. But the great news is that we don't have to. Jesus already did on the cross. And so that is what he is doing for us right now as our advocate. And so in Him, we are fully and completely forgiven. And out of that forgiveness, we live anew in the freedom of the gospel, and we seek to obey Him out of what He has done for us. So the love of Jesus Christ is imminently displayed in His intercession. But lest anyone think the age-old heresy that because God is wrathful, that's who he is, that God the Father is wrathful and God the Son is loving, remember who sent Jesus. So the most famous verse in the whole Bible, God, God the Father, sent his one and only Son. So God the Father is the one that sends Jesus to be the propitiation. Yes, he is a God that has wrath, and thank goodness he does, because his justice is an amazing thing. But he is also a God of incredible and unfathomable love that he would send what is most precious to him so that we might be forgiven. And so God the Father's love is also imminently displayed in Jesus as our advocate. And everyone who believes in Christ is covered from God's wrath. Now I do want to mention the end of verse two. So did you notice I said everyone who believes in him will be saved, will be covered from God's wrath? But is that what is conveyed at the end of verse two? So the end of verse two says, he is the propitiation for our sins and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Does that mean that Jesus took on the wrath of God for the whole world and everyone will be saved? No, it doesn't. This passage is not teaching what is called universalism. Two things that you can look to to rebuke that stance would say that we know that Jesus did not atone for the sins of every single person in the world. First off, because of what the rest of scripture says. But secondly, experientially, we know that not everyone believes in Christ. And we know that you must have faith to be saved. And so we know that that's not what this verse is talking about, that's not what it's teaching. So what might it be teaching? The key to understanding it is defining our in that phrase. So for ours only, is the ours only referring to all Christians? And then is for the world, is that referring to all non-believers incorporating every human being on the earth? Doesn't have to be. World oftentimes in the New Testament doesn't refer to every single human being. So that's not the only plausible reason. Another interpretation could be our refers to Jewish Christians, and then the world would be the Gentile community. So you would kind of have a Jewish and Gentile distinction. Another interpretation you could have is John is writing to, if he is writing to a Jewish and Gentile audience, he could just be referring to the local community, and then the world is all of the other nations incorporated. Both of those latter interpretations kind of look at it from a nation level and not an individual level. And so the way that we would read is Christ is not the propitiation for every single human being in the world, but rather he is the propitiation for people within every single nation in the world. Which then makes sense why we are called as Christians to go and make disciples of every nation. Because within every nation, there are people that will come to faith. There are people that Christ is the propitiation for their sins. So this passage is not incompatible with what is called limited atonement, which teaches that Christ only atoned, he only died for the sins of the elect. If you have any questions on that one, we don't have more time to discuss it. Southwest Center City Small Group's going over it in a couple weeks on a Wednesday if you wanna come by. Or I'm sure Elder Paul Dugan would love to answer any questions you have after the service about limited atonement. Moving on to our second and shorter section, John's Challenge. So John's Challenge, the beginning of the passage is a great comfort. And then he jumps right into a challenge here in verse three. And by this, we know that we have come to know if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. If the comforting section is all about Jesus as our advocate, the challenging section is all about our association with the advocate. So the pressing question is, do you know him? Do you know this advocate? Because you have to know him. That makes all the difference. And I love how clear John is in this passage. How do I know? How do I know if I know him? By this we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments. Those who say they don't, they know him, but don't keep his commandments are lying and the truth is not in them. So in chapter one, John has said, if you don't confess that you have sins, the truth is not in you. And here in chapter two, he's saying, if you do not follow the commandments, the truth is also not in you. And so what John is saying here is that genuine Christians not only know what Christ has done for them, but they know also what Christ has done in them. They have experienced by the Spirit true conviction of sin and have seen true life change in their lives. They desire more and more to live like Jesus, and they actually see themselves take steps to get there. So the overwhelming lesson in verses three through six here is that a mark of a genuine Christian is their obedience. A mark that someone genuinely knows Jesus is if they follow his commandments. Not perfectly, but progressively. In a growing manner, they are more and more being conformed to the image of Christ. So that's John's challenge in the second half. Do we know him? Now as it happens here in verse four, Have you ever thought about why someone would say, like verse four, they know him, but not actually know him? You know, why would someone do that? Either be in or out. What is this type of person that would say that they know Jesus, but don't actually know him? I'm sure that there are a ton of reasons why someone might do that, but I'll focus on just one—the social benefit of saying that you believe in Jesus or the social benefit of attending a church. So historically in America, it could be really socially beneficial for you to say that you are a Christian or to go to a church. It could also be really financially and politically beneficial for you at times to be a part of a local church. Now in the South, historically, that took more of a Protestant flair. And in the North, it's had more of a Catholic flair, especially if you have Irish or Italian roots. But in both places, there were benefits, large benefits historically in America to say that you were a Christian or to attend church. And undoubtedly in those times, there were people that did that, but did not actually know him. They attended church for reasons other than desiring to worship God and desiring to genuinely know him. And John is saying to them that the truth is not in them, and they are liars. And because they don't really know Christ, their sins are not covered by Jesus' propitiation, and they are still under His wrath. Now for Christians today, whether you're in the North or the South, it's a little bit less socially advantageous to say that you're a Christian, or maybe even to go to church. I had a bunch of people looking at me funny when I was walking here this morning wearing a suit and everyone's doing the race down broad. So it gives us maybe less street cred than it used to. But there still is a major benefit when it comes to the topic of community. So the loneliness rates in America are sky high right now. Topic for another day, it could be argued that part of the reason they're so high is because of the decline in the church, church attendance specifically, but that's a separate story. But loneliness rates are sky high. And so one way that people might try to solve that need is through the church. So when I was living in D.C., D.C. is consistently rated the loneliest city in America. Year after year, it's almost always rated the loneliest city in America. So every now and then, I would meet someone that would come visit our church that were there because they were looking for friends. And on one hand, that's amazing that they chose the church to look for friends as opposed to so many of the other places that they could look for community, right? So on one hand, we were thrilled that they were coming. But on the other hand, if you are just in church for community, if you are just here because you are lonely and you want friends, John has some harsh things to say to you. He would say that the truth is not in you if you do not genuinely know God. And so we come to church primarily to know God and to worship Him. The community is an amazing benefit, but the community is worthless if we don't actually know Christ. And so John is giving a harsh challenge to people that might say that they know him or might go to church, but don't actually know him. You have to be associated with the advocate to be saved by him. You actually have to know him. And verses five and six add on, it's not just knowing him, it's being in him. It's abiding in him. And it is only those that are united to Him that will walk and keep His commandments. So to close, John's main purpose again in writing the passage was that we wouldn't sin. And follow me, if we're not sinning, that implies that we're following his commandments. So if we're not sinning, we are following his commandments. And if we're following his commandments, that implies that we truly know him, because only those that know him will follow his commandments. So the core principle here from John is do you know him? Because if you know him, you will follow his commandments, which means also that you won't sin, which was his original desire in verse one. And so the challenge for us tonight is to seek Jesus, to actually know him as our advocate on high who intercedes for us and is the propitiation for our sins. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the abundant blessings that you have given us in this life. Father, we thank you for the community that does exist in the church, and we pray that this community and our love for one another could be a witness to the world. But God, would community not be our sole end? Father, would our eyes be fixed on you? Lord, that as we go out this week, not if, but when we sin, would we flee to our advocate? who loves to intercede for us and loves to forgive us with the blood that He spilt for us on the cross. And so Father, we thank you for who you are and we pray that you would warm our hearts with the comfort that you have sent your son to die for us on the cross and raised him up again so that he might be our advocate until he returns or until we are ushered into glory. Father, we praise you for who you are. In your name that we pray, amen.