Our Advocate and Propitiation | 1 John 2 | Pastor William Hixson

seven churches of Asia and the texts

that are surrounding chapters 2 and

three of the book of Revelation,

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

chapters 1 and chapters four and five

and six.

Uh needful to put that study in its

context. We have one more message in

that series that Lord willing and we'll

close it out. Uh we'll be looking at the

last chapter of Revelation, but today

I'm going to just focus on the Lord's

supper. I don't always do that.

Sometimes I just let it fit in with our

regular preaching series and try to work

that in. But sometimes I believe it's

important to just put aside everything

else and focus focus deliberately on the

cross of Calvary and what happened

there. But I call your attention to

first John chapter 2. First John chapter

1 John 2 · chapter mention 1 John 2 · chapter mention

2. Not the Gospel of John. These are the

epistles of John that are back near the

book of Revelation written by the same

individual

1 John

1 John 2:1–3

chapter 2 verse 1 to3. The reason they

call it first John is there's 1 John, 2

John and third John. There's three

epistles of John.

We are in 2 John 2.

Our target passage today is verse 1 and

two.

My little children,

remember John's 95 years old.

Everybody's children to him.

My little children.

These things write I to you that you sin

not.

But if any man sin, we have an advocate.

What King James teach says translates it

as an advocate

with the father Jesus Christ the

righteous.

And he that's our advocate.

He is the propitiation for our sins and

not for ours only but also for the sins

of the whole world.

That's our target passage for this

morning.

Father, help me to speak and each of us

to hear as we come to this very very

important section of God's word

in Jesus name.

Amen.

Now, as we come to this particular

subject

and it's a big subject, when you're

talking about Jesus Christ and when

you're talking about his death on the

cross, we're talking about salvation.

It's a very big subject with many things

included.

But I would like to begin by quoting

some prominent men in the past

Christians. One was not. The last one

was not.

And just statements that they made

that I think are profound

and statements that these men made that

will be helpful for us this morning.

The first was Bishop JC Riyle. He was an

Anglican bishop in Liverpool, England in

the 1800s.

He was of the low church. You know, the

Anglicans got the high church that's

more Catholic. The low church is

evangelical.

And Bishop JC Riyle

said this, "Till men and women are

brought to feel their sinfulness and

need,

no real good is ever done to their

souls.

Doctor can't help you if you think

you're well

and you won't admit you're sick."

It's a great statement. Till men and

women are brought to feel their

sinfulness and need, no real good is

ever done to their souls. Till a sinner

sees himself as God sees him, he will

continue careless and unmoved.

Now, that's a very accurate statement.

We know it.

We're quite a I think he died 1900 or

something like that. We're quite quite

removed from him, but things haven't

changed.

And that that statement is still true.

Second statement is from a Baptist. His

name was Charles Spurgeon. We quote him

a lot because he's very quotable.

And he also lived back in that time

period.

He said, "Carn men love the God that

they make, but not the God that made

them."

Carnal men love the God they make, but

not the God that made them.

Now, that's a very astute statement. And

we're not just talking about

non-Christian,

non-church people. Sometimes even church

people have a fantasy god in their mind

that they've made,

not the God of the Bible. They are not

submitting to what the Bible says about

God. They have a fantasy God in their

own mind.

And I' I've taught Bible classes before

where people have said things like this.

When you're talking about judgment or

some kind of unpleasant subject, they

say, "My God would never do that." Well,

then your God's not the God of the

Bible. I don't know who he is, but it's

you made him up.

And we can all make up gods in our

heads, right?

The only counter for that is what? The

counter for that is immersing ourself in

scriptures in learning to know the God

of the Bible as he is, not as we

fantasize he is.

And so,

uh, may God help us. So, Spurgeon

statements very important. And the these

two statements by these two men are very

important for our section on uh uh uh

first John.

Till men and women are brought to feel

their sinfulness and need. No real good

is ever done to their souls. Till a

sinner sees himself as God sees him, he

will continue careless and unmoved. And

spurred in statement, carnal men love

the God they make and not the God that

made them. This is a reality check

message.

It's a reality check message. Do we see

ourselves as we are? Do we see God as he

is?

Then George Whitfield who was one of the

founders of the Methodist Church, an

anglican

man before that, but a founder of the

Methodist church with George Wesley.

George

John Wesley, excuse me, not George

Wesley. I don't know. There was a George

Wesley, George Whitfield and John

Wesley.

He said a true faith in Jesus Christ

will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is

an active lively restless uh principle.

It fills the heart. So it cannot be easy

till it's done something for Jesus

Christ.

When you got true faith, you've got

to show it in some way. [snorts] You've

got to respond in thanksgiving

to God who did what he did for you at

the cross.

That's helpful as we come to

Thanksgiving in November, isn't it? A

true faith in Jesus Christ will not

suffer us to be idol. No, it is an

active, lively, restless principle. It

fills the heart. So it cannot be easy

till it's doing something for Jesus.

Got to respond in faith to be saved but

also in doing something to show my

appreciation, my thanksgiving, my love

for him. That's a great statement. Now

those three statements by JC Riyle,

Charles Spurgeon, and George Whitfield

are good. Now I'm going to quote a

non-Christian.

Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian.

Benjamin Franklin is at best a deist but

probably not that. He probably got a

little farther than that. But he was

best he was very good friends with

George Whitfield who was but there's no

evidence Benjamin Franklin was ever a

Christian.

But he said this never ruin an apology

with an excuse.

Think about that statement by a

non-Christian.

Never ruin an apology

with an excuse.

If you're apologizing, you don't make

excuses for yourself.

I'm sorry. I did that. I shouldn't have

said that. I shouldn't have done that. I

should have done that, but I didn't get

it done. Whatever the apology is,

that's good for marriage counseling.

That's good for interchurch

relationships with Christians. That's

good for us on the job. Never run ruin

an apology with an excuse. And that was

said by an unregenerate man.

We all tend

to make excuses.

We all tend to make excuses.

But that's not what we really need.

We need honesty. We need truthfulness.

And

uh may God help us to do that. So those

those are just things I just wanted to

throw out to get us ready for this

section. Now let's go back not 200 not

100 years to a thousand years to John

writing first John

and as we come back to him and we come

back to this particular section

it's very important for us to see it for

what it is.

What's that word propitiation

in verse two?

Don't raise your hand,

but if you don't have a clue what that

is, admit it to yourself.

What's propitiation?

Sounds something like perspiration.

Well, what's propitiation?

it it we read these words and we say I

got a vague idea what that is but I

really really don't have a solid grasp

of what that is.

I just don't know. I just really don't

know. Now, John was writing

2,000 years ago,

and the people he was writing to had a

very clear idea

of what that is.

They had clarity

where we don't have clarity.

And I'm not saying you have to have

total clarity on this particular word to

be saved. I'm simply saying it's going

to help you. I take four kinds of

antihistamines for my allergies.

One of them I can't pronounce. I've

tried to I tried to and tried to. I can

never pronounce it properly.

I don't even know what it does. I just

know it helps.

And that's probably okay where with

allergy medicine I can get away with

that, but it's not okay. in theology.

It's not okay in Bible study. We've got

to know the meaning of the words even if

we can't say that.

So, it's very important this doctrine of

propitiation.

I'm going to spend a lot of time talking

about

and hopefully it will help you to get

out of the vagueness of I have some

vague idea what it is or I have

absolutely no idea what it is and we

will clarity will help us a lot

and I'm going to start with the Lord

Jesus Christ and I'm going to move down

to different people who use this word or

some form of this

So turn with me to Luke 18.

Luke 18. Hold your place. We're coming

back to First John. We'll come back to

First John, but we're going to go to a

couple other places first. Luke 18, the

fourth gospel in the New Testament.

Luke 18.

Now,

our English translation doesn't help us

here.

too much.

Uh

it use a word it uses a word that's

approximate

but it doesn't help us too much here.

But when you read it in the the Greek

text it helps it you you get a little

clearer idea. I'm not saying the English

text is wrong. I'm just saying it's not

as helpful.

This is our Lord Jesus Christ and his

very famous exposure of legalism.

Have you ever met a legalist?

There's no pride like religious pride.

There's nothing that stinks worse than

religious pride.

There's nothing that's more offensive

than religious pride. People that are

proud and have the idea they're better

than other people. That is filthy rags.

That is, as Isaiah puts it, all our

righteousness is filthy rags. And it

certainly stinks. Well, Jesus had to

deal with people like that.

They were his critics. He could go

nowhere, but they were they were coming

around criticizing him and so forth.

So in Luke chapter 18 verse 9

Luke 18:9

speaking of Jesus he said now if you're

new of Bible study this is a great

section for you to get

and he that's Jesus spoke this parable

unto certain who trusted in themselves

they were righteous and despised others.

What's the problem with these people?

They think they're better than other

people. How many people imagine that

Christians think they're better than

other people? You think you're better

than other people? Well, I know there's

some churchgoers that think they're

better than other people. The Christians

know better than that.

Paul said of sinners, I'm chief. He

didn't think he was better than other

people. He thought all kinds of other

people were better than him.

So Jesus told this parable whose

religion actually made him worse than

better,

the Pharisees.

And he spoke this parable unto certain

who trusted in themselves that they were

righteous and despised others. So he's

aiming at that group.

Two men went up into the temple to pray.

The one a Pharisee and the other a tax

collector. Our

Lord's very bold here.

And the Pharisees stood and prayed with

himself. God, I thank thee I'm not as

other men, extortioners, unjust,

adulterers, and even like this tax

collector.

I suppose that prayer got to heaven, the

smell of it.

Certainly a stinky prayer, wasn't it?

He goes on, "I fast twice in the week."

Now, the Old Testament said you to Jews

should fast once a year.

This guy's stricter than God.

Pharisees prided themselves. God demands

one fast a year. We're [clears throat]

going to fast twice a

fast twice. There weren't too many fat

Pharisees. Guess

that was one good thing about them.

But they had a superiority complex

because of they they would take God's

law and then they tried to be stricter

than God. And whenever you see people

doing that, people do it today. Whenever

somebody's stricter than God in one

area, you know they're looser in God in

another area and they're trying to make

up for it by being stricter in some

other area. And that is that is a fool's

errand.

So don't get impressed.

People are so stricter than God. They're

stricter than the Bible. I fast twice in

the week. I give tithe of all I possess.

I don't just give my money. I give

tithes out of my garden. I tithe my

carrots. I tithe my, you know, my beans.

They did that kind of stuff.

Now, he's not lying. He He did fast

twice a week. He did give tithes of all

he possessed. That was phariseism. He

wasn't like those other men in the sense

he did the things they did. He was

worse,

but he didn't know it.

Now here comes the tax collector.

Tax collectors in the Jewish culture of

the first century were below

prostitutes,

below below murderers.

They were the people who made a lot of

money being disloyal to their own

country because the taxes they were

collecting were for Rome.

And so those were people who were were

money meant more to them than loyalty to

their country or to God.

And this guy had a bad reputation. Tax

collector. If you were a tax collector,

you could not give testimony in a court

of law in the first century. You were

considered so reprobate, so dishonest,

so so uh unreliable, you would not give

you weren't allowed to give testimony.

You were the scum.

And so anyway, the tax collector

standing a far off would not lift up as

much as his eyes to heaven, but smokeote

his breast, saying, "God, be propitiated

to me a sinner."

King James says, "Have mercy." That

mercy comes from the word propitiate.

This not all the words for mercy, but

the mercy seat and some other places in

the Bible. He's asking for God to be

propitiated to him.

Be propitiated to me a sinner.

Now, this was before the cross of

Calvary, not after the cross of Calvary.

So, none of us have to pray this exact

prayer because God has been come down

here and been to propitiation for our

sins, not for ours only, but all folks

for the sins of the whole world.

So Jesus is and then goes on and he says

verse 14, here's the surprise ending.

I tell you this man went down to his

house justified rather than the other.

Who's this man? The man who admitted his

sin.

What about the other man? He didn't

admit any sin. He thought he was better

than everybody else. He's just bragging.

thought he was praying.

If your me if your religion makes you a

braggger and your religion makes you

think you're better than other people,

you better change your religion.

And so Jesus said, "This man went down

to his house justified." That means

declared just or declared righteous.

That's what justified means. That the

judge declares you righteous or declares

you just rather than the other. For

everyone that exalts himself, that's the

first guy, shall be abased, and he that

humbles himself shall be exalted. It's a

very excellent parable. It's a very

important parable.

The first guy was bragging more than

praying. The second man saw his sin and

uh on and so forth. First guy saw sin in

other people, but not himself. And the

sad thing, he was like other men,

although he thought he wasn't. He was

very much like other men. He'd gone the

way of sa Cain.

What's the way of Cain? Book of Jude

uses that. They false teachers in the

New Testament. They gone the way of

Cain. Self-righteous.

Not content with the religion God has

revealed. Making up your own religion.

Hating others that don't go along with

your fantasies.

A murderer of his own brother.

And so according to the book of Jude,

all false all false Christianity, all

false religion, they've gone the way of

Cain.

Nothing new under the sun. Two kinds of

religions. The way religion of Abel,

which is a religion of revelation and

redemption by God, the religion of Cain,

which is a way of fantasy and legalism

and self-righteousness.

Now this is a fascinating text of

scripture. The Pharisee wanted praise

and congratulations.

The tax collector wanted propitiation

and consolation.

One man went home saved. The other man

went home just like he was stuck in his

own stinking self-righteousness.

Now according to the Lord Jesus Christ

in this parable

propitiation is available for the worst

sinners. That's what the tax collectors

were. They were the worst of the worst

in that culture.

So there is no person on this planet

that is out that is too sinful to be

saved if they repent of their sins and

come to Jesus Christ and trust him as

their savior. And our Lord Jesus Christ

is very clear on that. Propitiation is a

available to the worst of sinners. And

uh

by the way propitiation and

justification go together. this man went

down to his house justified

rather than the other.

So if you're if you're if you your sins

have been propitiated, you'll see it in

Romans 3, it goes with justification. It

all comes as a package.

Okay, so that's helpful. Thank you, Lord

Jesus. That's helpful. We've learned a

little bit about propitiation from our

Lord directly.

Uh, and hopefully we will, that's a

lesson we won't unlearn or forget.

Now, let's go back to Moses.

Let's go back to Moses.

Why would we go back to Moses?

Because Moses was the [clears throat]

man who gave the Ten Commandments. God

gave the Ten Commandments through Moses.

Moses is the man that gave the case law

which case law is just uh applications

of one of the ten commandments in a more

specified fashion. The same book of

Exodus that gives us the ten

commandments gives us case law and the

case law is specific examples of how

each of those ten commandments apply.

We can thank John Calvin for that

understanding that and many others uh in

the Old Testament those scholars as

well.

But let's think about this and let's go

back to Exodus chapter 30. Hold your

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

place in 1 John and go back to Exodus

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

chapter 30. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers, Deuteronomy. Exodus is the

second book in the Bible.

Now, right after God gave the ten

commandments, get the he gave the law

first,

but then he gave the instructions of how

to build a tabernacle.

And in that tabernacle

was the holy of holies and the holy

place. And in the holy of holies

was was what? The ark of the covenant.

And the ark of the covenant was a box.

And inside the ark mark there was

there's a round chains on the on the

side. You could carry it with poles

lifted up on your shoulders. But in the

ark of the covenant was what? What was

in the ark of the covenant? The ten

commandments.

Now there was other stuff in there.

Aaron's rod, the budded and and the mana

and other. But the ten commandments that

Moses brought down from Mount Si were

inside that box, the ark of the

covenant.

And what was on the top of it?

A beautiful gold lid.

And that lid had angels on both sides

looking

at not at each other, but looking at the

lid. Kind of a stool like golden lid.

It's called the mercy seat.

And the mercy seat was the place

where the high priest would go in. He

went to the holy of holies and then he

went in once a year. He went in to the

hol he went to the holy place and then

he went into the holy of holies and put

blood

sacrificial blood

on the mercy seat.

You go in there, sprinkle the blood,

walk out.

Now, there's one other thing I want you

to see before we read this section.

In the tabernacle and later in the

temple, the shikina glory

appeared.

The shikina glory

was a manifestation of God. God's

presence

wasn't a raincloud.

It was a manifestation of God.

a bright cloud that appeared in the Holy

of Holies

where God was manifesting himself to his

people.

And we could call it a glory cloud.

Now, after the Babylonian captivity,

right before that, right before

Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, the

glory cloud left

and the prophet Ezekiel saw it leave.

It left. It left the temple. It left. It

left for the mount of olives which is

higher than the temple. And then it

departed.

And that glory cloud was the

pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ

dwelling with his people before he was

born.

The Bible predicts the return of that

glory cloud.

The Bible predicts the return of Jesus

Christ.

But the point of this whole thing is

between a holy God

and a sinful people who broken the Ten

Commandments. Get the picture in your

head.

The Ten Commandments are in the box. The

nation has broken the Ten Commandments.

between a nation who's broken the Ten

Commandments and a holy God that's in

the is in the Holy of Holies is the

mercy seat. And on the mercy seat is

what? Blood.

And the blood says that the penalty for

sin has been paid.

And it's a great picture of the cross of

Jesus

before it happened

because animal sacrifices were, you've

heard me say, was the credit card where

God could dwell among a sinful people

based on the penalty that would be made

of Jesus later. So let's read Exodus

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

chapter 30.

Not the whole chapter, but just this

first part.

And thou

and thou shalt make an altar to burn

incense on it. Ofacia wood, you'll make

it. A cubit shall be the length thereof,

and a cubit the breadth thereof, four

square shall it be, two cubits shall be

the height thereof, and the horns

thereof shall be the same. You overlay

it with pure gold the top thereof and

the sides thereof. Round about the horns

thereof. And you'll make of the rim

about it of gold round about two golden

rings shall you make to to it under the

rim of it by the two corners thereof

upon the sides you'll make it. And

there'll be places for the staves which

to bear it. You'll make the staves of

acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

And you put it before the veil that is

by the ark of the testimony, before the

mercy seat, which is over the testimony.

It's over the testimony where I'll meet

with you. And Aaron shall burn sweet

incense every morning. And he dresses

the lamps, he'll burn incense on it. And

when Aaron lights the lamps of the

evening, he'll burn incense on it, the

perpetual incense of the Lord throughout

your generations. You'll make no strange

incense, neither upon the sacrifice or

the meal offering, neither shall you

pour drink offering. Aaron will make

atonement on the horns of it once in a

year with the blood of the sin offering

of the atonements. Once in a year shall

I make atonement upon it without your

generations. It is most holy to the

Lord.

The mercy seat is the place where

propitiation takes place so that mercy

can take place.

Amazing

picture

between a holy God and a broken law is

the blood of the sacrifice where the law

has been satisfied and death has taken

place because the penalty of all sin is

death.

The only way a holy God could fellowship

with sinful nation who broken and are

breaking his law is by the blood being

shed and applied on the mercy seat.

This is a marvelous thing

in the Old Testament.

And when the Jewish people in the Old

Testament or when the early church, most

of whom were Jews, heard the word

propitiation, they knew exactly what it

meant.

They had a reference

in their minds to help them understand

it. They knew what redeem meant. Agora,

the agora was the Greek word for

marketplace. And algoro means to redeem,

buy in the marketplace.

Ex agarzo, buy in the marketplace and

take it away. Take it away. They

understood those words because they had

a background for that vocabulary.

Now, so thank you, Moses. That's

helpful. Now, we understand by the

tabernacle and temple. Now we understand

by all of Jewish history what God was

picturing and promoting and prophesying

what was going to happen at the cross

because in first John Christ is our

propitiation

that's what's so precious

now so we thank the Lord for the Lord

Jesus and his parable and now we thank

uh Moses and we could go to other places

there turn with me to a third person,

the Apostle Paul. Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 3, verse 23.

Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23. We're back in the New

Romans 3:23

Testament.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans,

Romans chapter 3, verse 23. For all have

Romans 3:23

sinned and are coming short of the glory

of God. That's a present tense. No one's

no one ever gets sinless in this life.

Even Christians,

we sin less, but we never become

sinless.

And it says, "Being justified or

declared righteous freely by his grace

through the redemption that's in Christ

Jesus, whom he set forth to be a what?

A propitiation."

Oh, now we got the vocabulary.

Propitiation is a gift that takes away

wrath.

Through faith in his blood, declare his

righteousness for the remission of sins

that are passed through the forbearance

of God. This is the most technical

theological vocabulary in the New

Testament. It's right here in these

verses.

You know the vocabulary, you begin to

understand the section.

So, thank you, Apostle Paul. Thank you

for teaching that. And now we connect

justification, grace, redemption, and

propitiation all together. That's very

helpful.

Now, let's go back to John himself. 1

John 4, not 1 John 2 where we were, but

in the same book he mentions

propitiation a second time.

1 John chapter 4 and verse 10.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

1 John 4:10.

1 John 4:10

Here it is. Love,

not that we love God.

You want to learn love, you don't have

to look to people. You have to look to

God. Here in his love, not that we love

God. That he

but he that loved us and sent his son to

be the what?

Propitiation for our sin.

That's a that's astounding verse.

It was love that provided.

Now, I'm going to quote a fairly famous

contemporary pastor.

Uh certainly there are several areas

where I would disagree with him in major

way.

Reformed Baptist pastor, his name is

John Piper.

Some of the things he writes I don't

like. Some of the things he writes I do

like.

He's written a great book, Desiring God.

He's written great book on providence. I

haven't read that one yet.

But he wrote a devotional book on the

cross.

I'm not trying to promote Dr. Piper. I'm

simply trying to illustrate something

from this book he wrote.

It came out in year 2006.

50 reasons why Jesus came to die.

It's a nice little devotional using

Bible verses and a little two-page

statement for each one. Each of the 50.

Guess

what the first of the 50 was

dealing with propitiation.

And he calls this to absorb the wrath

of God.

And he quotes Galatians 3:13, "Christ

Galatians 3:13

redeemed us from the curse of the law,

becoming a curse for us, for it's

written, cursed is everyone who hangs on

a tree." He quotes Romans 3:25, "But God

Romans 3:25

put Christ forward as a propitiation by

his blood to be received by faith." And

he quotes 1 John 4:10. In this ear in

1 John 4:10

his love, not that we loved God, that he

loved us and sent his son to be

propitiation for our sins. This is what

he said. If God were not just,

there would be no demand for his son to

suffer and die.

And if God were not loving, there'd be

no willingness for the son to suffer and

die.

But God is both just and loving.

Therefore, his his love is willing to

meet the demands of his justice.

A little later he says, "Therefore sin's

not small because it's against a small

sovereign. The seriousness of the insult

rises with the dignity of the one

insulted. The creator of the universe is

infinitely worthy of respect and

admiration and loyalty. Therefore,

failure to love him is not trivial. It's

treason. It defames God and destroys

human happiness.

And so, he's putting propitiation into

context. And I thank him for it. This

communion Sunday, 2,000 years later,

from the cross,

we want to praise God for what he did

for us at the cross of God.

Propitiation is needed because God is

righteous.

Propitiation is provided

because God is love.

Leon Morris is a Greek scholar of the

20th century,

incredible on these Bible terminology

things. He's written several books on

it.

But he wrote an article in Evangelical

Dictionary of theology that I have

and this was his definition of

propitiation. Turning away of wrath by

an offer.

turning away of wrath by an offering. Do

you remember when uh Jacob's coming home

and remember how nasty he was to his

older brother

and his older brother had a temper

and Jacob fears he's going to be killed

and all his family. He knew all the bad

he did to him.

What'd he do?

He sent presents ahead.

So before Esau met him, he meets all

these presents, sheep and I don't know

what all he said. He sent a whole bunch

of animals.

So between an offended brother and Jacob

were all these presents.

And that's exactly what God has done.

between an offended law and a holy God

is Christ's propitiation that God

himself has provided.

Now, people don't like the idea of the

wrath of God, but if God listen, God's

righteous whether you like it or not,

and the idea of the wrath of God is

stubbornly rooted in the in the Old

Testament and the New Testament. It

appears 585 times

And so it's very important

and remember said God said the life is

in the blood and I've given it to you to

make atonement for the soul.

The Bible said it before science has

discovered it. Your blood takes the food

to your soul and takes the waste to your

soul. No, it doesn't do that. The blood

takes your your the food to the cells

and it takes the waste out of the cells.

And so the blood is very important and

it's a perfect symbol for God to use.

And the paradox of the Old Testament of

a holy God living with a sinful people

is repeated in the New Testament on a

greater scale. God provides himself the

way to remove his wrath.

Animal blood in the Old Testament,

Jesus's blood in the New Testament.

And God is angry

at those who reject him as creator and

rebelling against his law. And this

anger of the creator is in because of

the unthankfulness of the created.

But this is what God does.

God propitiates himself.

Propitiation is a gift. Takes away

wrath.

God pre propitiates himself.

So we can take all this information from

the Lord Jesus, from Moses, from Paul

and John, and here in his love, not that

we love God, but he loved us and sent

his son to be a propitiation for our

sins. We can take that and apply it to

ourselves. Holy angels do not need

propitiation because they've never

sinned. Fallen angels don't get it

because it's not provided for them.

It's only provided for humans. Hebrews

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 16-1 17.

And so what does God want of us? He

wants us to not pretend we're better

than we are.

He wants us to know we've failed. We've

sinned and admitted. Don't plead not

guilty when you're guilty.

Plead guilty and say, "I'm guilty. I'm

guilty of sin. I'm guilty, but Jesus

died for me and he paid for my sins.

And I'm trusting in that gift and I love

you because of it.

We are guilty but we have a good lawyer.

We have an advocate.

That's exactly what that term means.

There's a story. This happened in the

1960s.

It's very interesting story.

It happened down in Panama City Beach,

Florida.

There's a petty crim criminal

that uh was involved in this. He'd been

arrested, put in jail, got out, been

arrested for this, that drugs, breaking

and entering all kinds of stuff.

But in this time, a pool room got

robbed. cigarette machine, the candy

machine, the all just petty robbery,

maybe about $250 worth of stuff,

something. That was a lot of money in

those days. And this guy got charged

with it. He somebody saw him near there

and they said, "Well, it had to be him.

It's He does that all the time."

And so when he went to court, he asked

the court to provide an attorney for him

to represent him.

And the judge says, "No."

Why did he say no? Because at that time

in American history, at that time in

American history, you could have a

courtappointed attorney if you couldn't

afford one only if it was a capital

punishment crime.

They're going to hang you or electrocut

you. You could have a courtappointed

attorney at that time. petty theft or

other kinds of stuff. You they wouldn't

give you a quarter point attorney.

So what happened? That guy who wasn't

very educated uh and he certainly wasn't

had he got creamed. He tried to defend

himself. He didn't know what questions

to ask. He didn't know what procedures

to do. So he got arrested and thrown

into prison.

He got a fiveyear sentence. He spent two

of those five years studying law.

You know what he did? He took a five

pieces of paper and a pencil and

requested the Supreme Court

to

deal with this issue of a courtappointed

attorney and that it should be not just

for murder but for anything.

And surprisingly in 1961

the court the United States Supreme

Court granted that and provided an

attorney for him. Abe Bordis who was

such a good attorney he later was

promoted to the Supreme Court at the

time

and he won.

Now what was the what was going on

there?

The earlier trial, he was his own

attorney. He had no attorney. He had no

got he had no appointed attorney. The

second one, he had a very capable

attorney and the attorney got him off.

And that's an incredible case. It's a

it's it's an incredible situation

really.

Now, how does that apply to us?

1 John 2, if any man sin, we have an

advocate with the father, an attorney

provided by the father, Jesus Christ,

our righteous, uh, the righteous one. We

have a godappointed attorney, not just a

supreme courtappointed attorney. Now,

that man got off because the attorney

pleaded not guilty. He wasn't guilty.

You can't prove he was guilty and he

showed it in court.

But we're guilty.

We're not not guilty,

but our attorney has paid for our sin.

And as Wesley says, five bleeding

wounds. He's talking about the five

bleeding wounds of Christ, our attorney.

Don't let that sinner die.

Thank God for our God-appointed attorney

in the highest court ever. Not the

Supreme Court of the United States, but

the court of heaven.

Now, you know, Hollywood liked that so

much they made a movie out of it. Henry

Ford starred at that. Starred in that

movie as that guy.

We got something better in a movie.

We've got a situation where Jesus

Christ, we were guilty. We were not

guilty. We were not not guilty.

No, we were guilty. humanity.

All have sinned and come short of the

glory of God. That's what the Bible

says.

And so may God help us as we come to

this section of his word.

By the way, the apostle John includes

himself.

He says are

and all this is a correction of chapter

one where people are pretending they

haven't sinned. when they really have.

Don't say you haven't sinned. Don't say

if we say if we say if we say three

different scenarios where people

professing Christians are trying to get

out of the fact they're still sinners.

And then he comes down to this.

What a wonderful section of scripture.

Years I spent in vanity and pride,

carrying not my Lord was crucified,

knowing not it was for me he died

of count.

Why would you not want this Khorn

appointed at time? Why would you

continuing continue to deny your need

your your guilt when you know you're

guilty? You haven't loved God with all

your heart, all your soul, and all your

might. You haven't loved your neighbor

as yourself. You haven't. I haven't.

None of us have. Guilty as charged, but

we have Jesus. That's the good news.

That's the

How can we ever forget that he paid?

How can we ever live as if that didn't

happen?

I'm getting a little personal here

personal here at the end, but

I lived in the 60s. In the 1960s,

usually unless you were really rich,

your parents didn't pay for your

college. You want to go to college, you

had to pay for your home. I started

mowing grass when I'm 12 years old and

painting gutter spouts when I was 16,

pumping gas, doing other jobs, working

in restaurants, busting tables, being a

grill cook, everything I could do.

And at the end of my college career, I

spent a year at my dad's restaurant

earning the $2,000 for my $2,500

school loan.

My parents kicked in the last 500.

Can I ever forget that my parents did

that for me?

Why would I want to do that?

My grandparents let me live with them

for a year when I went to the OU branch

in Chilikothy before I came to this

campus. They've refused any money for

rent, food or board. Can't I can't

forget that.

Um the pastor that started this church

go from Chilikopathy for se six years or

seven I forget which it was at his own

expense.

never got any gas money even

to teach a Bible class every Thursday

night and then later to hold a church

service on Sunday morning

all at his own expense.

Can I forget that?

I hope you will forget it because

it's affected you.

I went I uh when I was a young pastor

here, I drove for 13 years up to

northern Ohio and we started a church up

there. 13 years of driving up and back

at my own expense except they started

paying me gas money.

And then when it was all over, they

bought me a used Mercury.

It'll be a used car.

That car's distri They had distributors

back then and it had a crack distributor

and that I'd always have to fiddle with

it to get it started. But

I don't forget the people that gave it

to me.

Never asked for it, never thought about

it, do I think they saw my cars had

something to be desired.

I have relatives on Linda's side and my

side that have taken us on vacations

that we could never afford.

Can I forget that?

Why would I? How could I forget that?

This church has paid me a monthly salary

for 49 years.

Do you think I can forget that?

What kind of person would I be to forget

that?

Um,

when I was a a very young pastor, we had

three kids and it's the only time my

credit card got out of control because

we had bills we had trouble paying. Some

old man not even knowing that. Some old

man not even knowing that put me in his

will.

$10,000.

That was a total surprise.

I didn't know that man had a dime.

Can I forget that?

That happened a long time ago.

Um, shall we remember those things?

Those kind of things where people gave

us their time, gave us their attention,

gave us their love, gave us their lives.

Time is worth more than money, right?

Somebody invested time in you.

Somebody invested time in me. Shall we

remember them and forget our savior,

forget our God, forget our coinappointed

attorney that knew it was going to cost

him his life to represent us before a

holy God? And he did.

Shall we ignore our sin and pretend

we're better than we are in light of

what he has done? What an insult.

What treachery.

May we remember Romans 6:23. The wages

Romans 6:23

of sin is death, but the gift of God is

eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord.

If you are not yet a Christian,

may God work in your life,

may God work in your life to show you

your need.

I didn't know I was that bad.

I haven't loved God with all my heart,

all my soul, and all my night. And I

haven't loved my neighbor as myself. But

that's the standard. I didn't know even

know the standard,

but now I do.

And Jesus is the only one who's ever

done that.

And he's willing to pay for my sins. And

he paid for them at the cross of God. As

John says, not for ours only, but also

for the sins of the whole world.

What a wonderful thing that is.

We all have to take advantage of that.

that only becomes ours if we repent and

believe, but is provided. If we don't

take it, shame on us.

So, as we come to the Lord's supper

today and we pass the bread, it

represents his body.

It's Passover bread. God said, "And

Passover blood is the cup." Remember,

God said at the Passover, "When I see

the blood, I'll pass over you." And

Jesus is our Passover lamb who died on

Passover day. No coincidence.

All the 365 days of the year he died on

Passover.

And the Lord's supper

replaces Passover.

Passover pictured the cross of Calvary.

and I see the blood of Passover.

Father, thank you for what we've looked

at today. anyone yet is not yet a

Christian or maybe they've thought

salvation was something they could earn

or simp because they were better than

other people or not as bad as other

people they got a free ticket

trying to represent themsel before God

instead of trusting in the one you

provided the court heavenly court of the

appointed attorney

Jesus Christ the righteous

Thank you Lord for your unspeakable

gift. Amen.