Let's turn to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. We'll read the chapter and then into chapter 2. Just a couple of verses there. And so let's hear the word of God. 1 John chapter 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the life was manifested, that we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen, and have declared unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things write I on to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only. but also for the sins of the whole world. We'll conclude at the end of the verse 2. Let's briefly pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord, I cry to Thee for the infilling now of Thy Spirit that I may preach as God would have me to preach. We thought about those words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians there on Wednesday night. Lord, how I desire for the church to pray that a door of utterance would be opened, that we would speak forth the mystery of Christ. Lord, has that subject matter rightly deserved in a manner that was fitting? Lord, give us such a tongue today. Help me, I cry to thee. Bless all who sit now before the word. Keep us awake, Lord. Keep us alert, we cry to thee. May we be ready to hear what the Lord would have to say. We offer prayer in and through the Savior's holy name. Amen. How can I, a mortal finite being living on this terrestrial ball, get to know the finite or the infinite eternal unchangeable God who cannot be seen with the physical eye? This is maybe a question that you grapple with as a young person, or as an older person, or even as a child. How can I come to know God, a God who cannot be seen with the physical eye? I believe that that is a legitimate question that deserves a credible answer. I put it to you this afternoon that we can come to a knowledge of God through one of the following ways. We can become acquainted with God as we come to know Him in creation. We look around us and we behold the work of God. The heavens declare the glory of the Lord. His firmament showeth forth His handiwork. In that creation, we come to see God's power. We come to see a God of wisdom. We come to see a God of order. We come to see and behold a God of design. We also come to know God by inspiration. Not by personal inspiration, but by recorded inspiration. Aspects of God's character, His dealings with men and women are recorded for us in the Holy Ghost-inspired Scriptures of Truth. The inspired Word of God reveals to us who God is and what God is like. We also come to a knowledge of God not only by creation, not by inspiration, but by incarnation. Incarnation. The fullest revelation of God is given to us in the person of Jesus Christ. God manifests in the flesh, Paul writes. He writes in Colossians 2 verse 9 concerning Jesus Christ, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And thus what we see concerning Christ is true of God the Father and of God the Holy Spirit. There is a fourth way in which we can come to a knowledge of God, and that is through designation. We come to know God through the names and through the titles that are designated to Him in Holy Scripture. And really that's what we've been attempting to do over the last number of months as we have continued in this series on the names and the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been attempting to acquaint ourselves better with the second person of the Holy Trinity. Over the last number of months we have come to behold him as the man of sorrows. We have considered him as the son of God and the son of man. We thought about him on Resurrection Sunday as the resurrection and the life. We thought about him as the son of David, the son of Mary, the son of Abraham, the son of the highest. We considered him with the titles Lord, Jesus, and Christ. This afternoon we come to consider him through another title that is attributed to him, designated to him, a title that is given to the Lord Jesus Christ only once in the entire record of Holy Scripture. You'll find that title in the opening verse of 1 John and the chapter 2. My little children, John writes, these things write I on to you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so today we want to consider that title Advocate. Jesus the Advocate is the title for today's message. Now, before we come to the meat, the substance of today's message, it would be beneficial for us to take just a few moments and for us to consider and to explain what the Bible means when it uses this term, advocate. It's maybe not a term that you would be acquainted with, maybe it is, but it would do to refresh our minds of what John is writing about here. Now, the word that John uses is the Greek word parakalitos, parakalitos. It's a word that appears five times in the Greek New Testament, but this is the only time that it is translated, advocate. On the other four occasions, it is translated with the English word, comforter, and it is with respect to God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, he uses this Greek term, parakeletos, in John chapter 14, verse 16. John 14, verse 26. John 15, 26 and John 16 and the verse number 7. As a word, it describes one who stands by to help or to render aid, especially in a court of law. It can be used and it means, and it describes one who is summoned to the side of another to help to comfort, to encourage, to counsel, or to intercede for, depending on the particular need at that occasion. The word is often used in Greek literature to denote an advocate in court. That is one who is called to another's aid. One who stands to defend a person. We would say a defense lawyer. And thus, the word that we're considering today, this word advocate, it is a legal term. A legal term. We are to consider this in terms of law. When we read the word advocate, we are to picture then in our minds a court of law. The day of trial has come. The judge is seated on the judgment seat. The criminal stands trembling in the dock as the accuser puts to them the crimes that they are charged with. And yet within that same courtroom with a judge and one who accuses the one in the dock, in that same courtroom there stands an advocate. someone who has learned in all of the rules of the court and someone who is skilled in all of the clauses of the law in order to offer a defense for the one who is standing charged with crimes. Such is the blessed role of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He defends His children. He is an advocate for His own in heaven's high court above. He appears in the presence of God now for us, presenting before the Father His blood, His sacrifice, His righteousness, in order that we might be acquitted. Such is the scene. When we think of this term, advocate, we find ourselves in a court of law. Having considered then what this term advocate is, one who is called alongside, one who defends, one who answers the charges on behalf of another, with that in mind, I want us to consider in the first place our need for an advocate, our need. for an advocate. There are two compelling reasons why we need an advocate. There are two compelling reasons why you need an advocate. In the first place, we need the services of heaven's advocate because we sin. We sin. Notice what our text says. And if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now sinners sin. It is in their nature to do that. We are born into this world with a sin nature. We are born Depraved, we are born corrupted by sin. David would say that he was born in sin. He was shaping in iniquity and such is the case of all of Adam's posterity. All men are born in sin. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death is passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so sinning is something that comes so naturally to the sinner. But the Christian sins too. The Christian sins too. This is what John is explaining already in this epistle, in the opening chapter. He's speaking to the children of God. He's speaking to those who have handled the word of life. The life of God is now manifested in them. These are now believers that John is writing to, people who have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. But he says, if we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, so there must be sins to confess. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, our sins. John's incorporating himself in that phrase, our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, God a liar, and his word is not in us. Christian sin. You sin. I sin. If it wasn't for the restraining grace and the restraining hand of God upon our lives, we would commit the most grievous and most heinous sins imaginable. The old nature at times rises in us The base passions and the lusts at times become inflamed. The old man is at times revived, and it causes us to commit sins that we as God's people should not commit. Let me be clear on the matter. It is not that the Christian might sin. It is that the Christian does sin. However, the habit of the believer sinning is infrequent, unlike the perpetual sinning off the ungodly. This fact is seen in the term or the phrase or the tense that is used by John with regard to this word sin. It's the aorist tense. He speaks here, if any man sin, this really points to the fact that this act of sinning, it's infrequent, it's a rare incident for the believer, but it's an incident nonetheless. There are times when we feel the Lord as his people. times when we sin, things that we shouldn't do that we have done, things that we shouldn't have said and thought that we do and think and progress in. There are things that we do, and yet it is not the constant practice of the believer to sin. Really, the structure of this statement here, if any man sin, it really conveys the very strong possibility of sin actually taking place and being committed by the Christian. The expression could be read in this way, if any man sins and it will happen, you will sin. If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father. Maybe you thought, when you became a Christian, that you would live a life without any sin. In the moment that you trusted Christ, you thought that you would live a perfectly sinless life. But maybe now, having been a Christian, maybe for a number of months, maybe for a number of years now, that you have come to realize that that is not your experience. You have not lived a sinlessly perfect life. Those times of failure, those times of sin in your Christian life are a reminder to you and a reminder to myself that every day and every hour and every moment of the day, we need the Lord to help us to overcome the world and its sinful temptations. The truth is that the child of God can sin even after coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people, from time to time, they feel the Lord, they sin, and therefore, in those circumstances, they need the assistance of a suitable advocate. Maybe today you sit in this house despairing, despairing with regard to how far you've drifted from the Lord. How deep into sin you've fallen, how cold you've become in your own walk with the Lord as a believer. Listen, God knew full well that we would lapse into sin, that God's people would sin, and therefore he provided for us an advocate. All I can encourage you today is to look to him. Confess your sin to him. know the restoring of the fellowship that you once had with the Lord. You've got an advocate in heaven. If any man sin, there's an advocate in glory for you, an advocate. Let me say this, whilst there is the possibility that we can sin as Christians, we must never, never allow that truth to be used to excuse our sin. or to give us license to sin. There is the possibility that we may sin today, tomorrow, this week, But we must not say, well, this is simply who I am, this is what I am, and therefore I can use this statement, I can use this truth to give me license to continue on in sin, because that is simply not the case. The desire, the longing of every genuine Christian is that we sin not. My little children, these things write on to you, that ye sin not. That's the goal. That's the intention. But if you do sin, here's the comfort. There's an advocate in glory, and he's Jesus Christ the righteous. This is what will help you in your Christian life when you feel the Lord, when you sin, when you succumb to temptation, and when the devil will be standing there to accuse you of the crimes that you have done, you can look away to your advocate, the one who died for your sins and by his sacrifice has put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself. If any man sinned, maybe you sinned this week, Maybe, definitely, we all did, but there in glory there is an advocate and he pleads on our behalf. The second reason why we need an advocate is not because we have, or not because we sin, that's the first reason, but the second reason why we need an advocate is because we have an accusing adversary. we've got an accusing adversary. You see, Satan not only tempts the godly to sin, but having succeeded in those attempts at times, he takes great delight to run into the presence of God and to accuse us before God, laying to their charge the heinousness of their offenses. pleading against them the law that they have broken and the light against which they have committed sin. John writes in Revelation chapter 12 and the verse 10, these words, and I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. accuser. The devil is called the accuser of the brethren. One who brings really accusation against the child of God, accuses the Christian of their failures and their faults and their sins and their transgressions. The adversary of the saints is quite happy to slander and to defame the Christian before God. Albert Barnes, he wrote perhaps the most skillful thing that Satan does. The thing by which he most contributes to diminish the influence of the church is in causing accusations to be brought against the people of God. With such an adversary, we need an advocate. The adversary calls for an advocate. And that advocate is Jesus Christ, the righteous. He pleads their case against the prosecutor. Harry Ironside, he spoke about the work of the advocate. And when he did so, he said the following, you cannot defend yourself But when you go to your advocate, he defends you and pleads your case against your adversary. When you sin, the devil appoints himself the prosecuting lawyer in the high court of heaven. The devil goes right into the presence of God and says, this is one of your Christians. Listen to what he's saying now. See what he's doing now. He is there to accuse. But the blessed Lord is there too. He shows his wounds and he spreads his hands and says to the father, I took all of that into account when I died on Calvary's tree. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful that Jesus Christ took all that into account when he died for me, when he died for you on Calvary's tree? The presence of an accusing adversary calls for the help and the assistance of an advocate because we cannot We cannot exercise a ministry of advocacy on our behalf. What have we to plead? We have nothing to plead, but He is everything to plead. Our Lord and Savior to whom we are united to, child of God. This need for an advocate. I need an advocate. You need an advocate. Why do I need an advocate? Here's the point. You need an advocate because you sin. And because you've got an adversary, an accusing adversary, whose charges need to be answered, so then who is the Christian's advocate? Well, we have talked about it. The identity of our advocate, it's really given to us in the words of our text. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Each word in that statement, Jesus Christ the righteous, shows to us the suitableness of the Son of God to be the advocate for his people. Our advocate with the Father is Jesus. Jesus. It speaks to me about his humanity. This is one who being God became man and dwelt among men. Our catechism says that he endured all the miseries of this life. He was tempted of the devil in the wilderness, tempted to sin, yet did never succumb to such temptation. Yet he knows what it is to be tempted to sin. Hebrews 2 verse 8, for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Knowing that I as a fallen human being needed an advocate, the second person of the Godhead voluntarily became a man. Becoming a man. He injured all the miseries of this life, tempted to sin just as I was, and yet triumphant over all temptations, and thus He knows what sore temptations mean. He understands what trials mean. He appreciates what afflictions mean, because He too was a man. You see, our Advocate in heaven is one with us. He's one with us. He's truly man. Truly God, but truly man, He's at one with us, an advocate who knows our struggles in this world. And thus He can enter into our experience. Though He did not succumb to sin's temptation, He can sympathize with us who are tempted to sin. And thus, as He stands as our advocate before the throne of God, He understands. He understands. Jesus Christ, or Jesus, is the sympathetic advocate of his people, one invested with authority and skill and wisdom to carry out the role of advocate on behalf of the child of God. And so my advocate is Jesus, but he's also Christ, Jesus Christ. He's the anointed advocate. He's the appointed advocate. He's the Messiah, the one divinely commissioned by God the Father to perform all that the trusting sinner requires. The title, Christ, it speaks of the Son of God's authority to plead for us. This is the Christ who pleads for me. The Christ of God. This is my prophet, this is my priest, this is my king who pleads for me before the throne of God. This is the one who is qualified to plead my case before God the Father, for he is God the Father's appointed one, he is God's anointed one. You've come to this meeting today having maybe failed the Lord, and Satan maybe has been tormenting you, accusing you of your sin, Let me encourage you to turn your ear to heaven today and listen to the Christ, the appointed advocate, who with words of tenderness and with words of persuasion is standing to plead for you in heaven's high court. In the year 1863, the Northern Irish hymn writer, Charley Lees Bancroft, wrote perhaps one of her best known hymns. She entitled that hymn, The Advocate. We find it in her hymn book. We do not read those words in the hymn, but this was the thrust of the hymn that she wrote, and she entitled it, The Advocate. And this is how the hymn goes, before the throne of God above. I have a strong, a perfect plea. a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me off the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin. Because the sin of the Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the just is satisfied to look on him and in turn pardon me. It's known as, before the throne of God above. Christ, he is the advocate. I, and notice this phrase, the righteous. This is the qualifying term, Jesus Christ, the righteous. It can be translated, the innocent, the holy, the just. This is the character of the one who pleads before God or before the throne of God in heaven for us. This advocate, he's a holy advocate. He's a righteous advocate. He is a just advocate. He is an innocent advocate. How can he plead for me? Me, who is guilty? How can he plead for me? He can do so because he is righteous and he pleads his righteousness on my behalf. Matthew Henry, he wrote, the clients are guilty. Their innocence and legal righteousness cannot be pleaded. It is the advocate's own righteousness that he must plead for the criminals. And this is what he does. He pleads his own righteousness. Righteousness that has been given to me. by faith I have received his righteousness and on the grounds of that righteousness he enters a plea that demands my acquittal. Demands it. Believer, this is our only hope. This is our only plea whenever we sin. The blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ the righteous. Harry Ironside again, he said, I realize my unrighteousness when I fall into sin and could hardly easily give up in despair, but I have an advocate in the presence of the Father who gives me a perfect representation. God sees me in him. I do not plead my case on the basis of my own righteousness. but on the absolute righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so I can plead with power. I can plead effectively because Christ died for the very sin that is now troubling me." Christian, when you sin, look to your righteous advocate. Hand over the case to him. and allow him to plead all of the merits of his righteousness on your behalf. And so we have Jesus Christ. There's the identity of my advocate. Finally, I want you to think about the conduct of Christ, our advocate. I focus on the words in our text. We have, we have an advocate with the Father. There's no doubt that at times we're guilty. But what does our advocate do when he knows about our guilt? Well, I want you to notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't walk out on us when we sin. He doesn't abandon us when we sin. He doesn't hand us over to our adversary whenever we sin, but rather he's there for us. Our sins do not deprive us of our advocate, but rather than discerning us, our heavenly advocate, he stands up to defend us. When the Christian sins, they do not forfeit Their advocate, the text does not say, if any man sin, we lose our advocate. The text doesn't say, if any man sin, we forfeit our advocate. Rather, our text says, if any man sins, we have an advocate. We have an advocate. And Satan brings some accusation against us, pointing to God what we have done. The Lord Jesus Christ, he stands and he points to his finished work, his propitiation. That's what it goes on to say, and he is the propitiation for our sins. The propitiation is the sacrifice that turns away divine wrath. Christ is our propitiation, he is our mercy seat and through him and by him we have access to God and he pleads all of his work all of the value of it and all of the victory of it and all of the virtue of his atoning work on the cross. And he says, yes, he is guilty. Yes, his crimes do stand against him. Yes, that believer has sinned, but I died for his sin when I died for him upon the cross. Our advocate does not excuse our sin. He does not overlook our sin, He doesn't turn a blind eye to our sin, He doesn't defend our sin, He doesn't plead that we're not guilty in sin, but rather He pleads, He advocates for us on the basis of His propitiatory sacrifice, His blood, His righteousness that calls and sees to our acquittal. Yes, this sinning Christian has sinned. Yes, they have broken the holy law, but I, the righteous advocate, have kept the law on their behalf, and I have secured for them a perfect righteousness which they are now clothed in." Christ pleads His own perfect righteousness when we sin. That's His conduct. That's what He does. And through His advocacy, When we confess our sin, our fellowship and communion with God is restored. You see, whenever we sin, our communion with God is affected. Get that into your mind. When you sin, your communion with God is affected. And well, you know it. You go on to pray and you can't pray. There's unconfessed sin. Your communion with God is affected. But listen, your union with God is not affected. You're still in union with him, and you need to go to him and ask him to enter the plea. Be to me an advocate. The law condemns me. My sin condemns me. I and my adversary condemns me. But dear God, the person of your dear son be my advocate before the father's face when christ advocates for us the fruit of that advocacy is that our fellowship and communion with god is restored praise god for that praise god for that are you here today as one who's failed the lord a believer is there a lapse in your christian life You slip back into the old way of living that you once led before you became a Christian. Have you come under condemnation to God's house today? You feel so guilty what you did and what you watched and what you listened to and how you've conducted yourself over the last week and you're under the condemnation and the accusation of the devil. Under his accusation, thank God, we're not under condemnation and under the devil's accusation. Brother, sister, if you have, then look to Christ, your heavenly advocate. He'll plead. His propitiatory sacrifice is the grounds of your acquittal, your cleansing, your forgiveness. Live no longer under Satan's accusations. Live no longer in despair, but rejoice in Christ, your advocate, who silences the accusation of the devil against the child of God. Paul asks the question, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who brings accusation? Who can do it? For it is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth. It is Christ that died, yea rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Christian in heaven, before God's throne, we have an able and acceptable and an affectionate advocate in Jesus Christ the righteous. Let us then, whenever we sin, let's run to Him. Let's confess our sins, looking to His sacrifice, trusting in His advocacy on our behalf to see to the cleansing and the forgiveness of our sins. For those gathered out of Christ today, let me remind you that you have no advocate, no one to plead your case, What are you going to do when you find yourself at the judgment bar of God to give an account of your life of sin and you have no one there to plead for you? May that solemn thought so trouble you. I do not know this advocate. I do not know this advocate. May such a solemn thought so troubled you that you find no rest and no peace until you come and put your faith exclusively in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If any man sin, what do we do? Do we despair? Are we thrown away? Are we cast off? No. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Oh, may this day we find in our Savior all that he is to his believing people. And if we find ourselves in defeat and despair, may God lift us up. Look to your advocate. Seek his assistance and his services. May he plead for you before the Father. Confess your sin, repent, and turn again to him and walk again in fellowship with your God and your Savior and your King. May God bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow in prayer briefly. Our gracious, loving Father, we commit now the preaching of the word to Thee. We recognize, Lord, that there are many times when we come to God's house and we review a week that has passed, we find that we feel Thee so often. And yet we rejoice in our advocate before the Father. We thank the Lord when we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And he does that on the grounds of his sacrifice. Lord, we pray that as we, Lord, remember thee. And as we consider thee around the table, Lord, that our hearts will continually be thrilled as we consider who Jesus Christ is. He is the Christian's advocate with the Father. He is the righteous one. Oh, and enter the plea for us today, thine own righteousness, thine own work, thine own blood. Oh God, forgive us of our sins. May we walk in newness of life and in fellowship and communion with our Savior. We pray this in Jesus.