======================================================================== THE ADVOCATE AND THE ACCUSER by Zac Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the role of Jesus as our righteous advocate in heaven, contrasting earthly advocates who may compromise the truth. It highlights the importance of walking in the light, being honest with God about our thoughts and motives, and acknowledging our faults without justifying them. The sermon delves into the dynamics between the accuser (Satan) and the advocate (Jesus), illustrating instances from Zechariah 3 and John 8, urging believers to align with the advocate's ministry of making others glorious rather than accusing them. Duration: 22:46 Topics: "Jesus as Advocate", "Walking in the Light" Scripture References: 1 John 2:1, 1 John 1:7, Revelation 12:10, Zechariah 3:1, Hebrews 7:25, Isaiah 58:9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the role of Jesus as our righteous advocate in heaven, contrasting earthly advocates who may compromise the truth. It highlights the importance of walking in the light, being honest with God about our thoughts and motives, and acknowledging our faults without justifying them. The sermon delves into the dynamics between the accuser (Satan) and the advocate (Jesus), illustrating instances from Zechariah 3 and John 8, urging believers to align with the advocate's ministry of making others glorious rather than accusing them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ So I thought I would continue a little on what we heard at the beginning of the advocate and the accuser. We must remember that in heaven there is a advocate for us that's in the third heaven in the immediate presence of God and that's Jesus. He's called in 1 John and chapter 2 a righteous advocate. On earth there are many advocates or attorneys who would tell lies for us to defend us but Jesus would never do that. That's one thing I remember. He's not going to support me in something which is wrong because he's a righteous advocate. It's very clear. It says here that in 1 John 2 1, I'm writing these things to you that you should not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate Jesus Christ the righteous and he can righteously plead on our behalf because he died for us and his blood is always available to cleanse our sin. There's only one thing that he requires of us as a righteous advocate and that is what we see earlier if you ignore all these chapter divisions that we walk in the light 1 John 1 7 as he is in the light. So there must not be when in our conversation with Jesus there must not be any darkness. We must be absolutely honest with God about thoughts, motives. The moment we try to justify ourselves and say no no no it was not like that is because that the Lord is not going to defend us. He's a righteous advocate but if you walk in the light it doesn't matter what sin it is. Lord that was my fault that I was wrong and I'll tell you it's not easy to say that when there's misunderstanding between a husband and wife. You ask yourself whether it's easy to acknowledge that you were totally to blame there. You'd always like to attribute a little bit of blame to somebody else but that's not our business. The advocate deals with that. We have to acknowledge what we did wrong and we don't have to confess the sin of another. No. So Jesus is our advocate and the devil has been cast out of the third heaven when he sinned and he was cast down to the second heaven. There are three heavens the bible says. Paul was caught up to the third heaven he says in 2nd Corinthians 12. The first heaven is this universe that we see but between this universe that we see in the third heaven where paradise is where God dwells there is a second heaven where the devil is and he has no access to he doesn't come down to the earth yet till much later just before the end of time but from that second heaven he's also speaking to God and just like in the third heaven Jesus speaks on our behalf. In Revelation 12 we read that Satan accuses us before God in 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 10 day and night. He's a full-time worker 24 7. There is no full-time worker as full-time as he is and his only job before God is to accuse us. Now you know he can't tell lies to God. On earth people accuse others of something that never happened but the devil doesn't do that. He can't play the fool there because God knows everything. What he accuses is the truth what we actually did or something he doesn't he cannot read our thoughts but sometimes he can assess without knowing our thoughts the motive with which we did something and he's always trying to find some fault in us and it says here that people who were who did this wrong were able to overcome that accusation by the blood of the lamb that's what it says in verse 11 and by the word of their testimony to Satan this is not testimony in the church it's testimony to Satan saying you cannot accuse me because I have been honest I've been 100% honest about my sin and my failure with my advocate and my savior and so you cannot accuse me we must always be in that position that Satan has nothing to accuse us of. I believe it's God's will that we should always live like that. Paul once said in 1 Corinthians 4 I know nothing against myself I believe he lived like that and I believe that should be our goal at all times to say those words ourselves which Paul said in 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 and verse 4 I'm conscious of nothing against myself every moment of the day every day that should be my testimony I am conscious of nothing wrong in my life not that I never did anything wrong but I walked in the light and it was cleansed away immediately in the blood of Christ I didn't wait five minutes to confess it so I didn't even wait one minute as soon as he was aware that he did something wrong he went up to the advocate and walked in the light and that was it it was over dear brothers and sisters seek to live like this where every single moment of your life you should be able to say 1 Corinthians 4 for I'm conscious of nothing against myself but that does not mean he says that I'm perfect because the one who examines me is the Lord in other words there are a whole lot of other areas that I'm unconscious of what he's talking about is what I'm conscious of God never holds us responsible for what we are unconscious of and when we realize that in our own spiritual growth spiritual growth is basically part of the unconscious becoming conscious that's spiritual growth that means something I never knew in my life was unchristlike or some attitude suddenly I get light on it that is unchristlike and I should not have that attitude so I remember many years ago I've you probably heard me say this before how God gave me light on one area and he's been giving me light on many many areas through the years but I think of one particular I mentioned it for the benefit of those who never heard me say this before way back in the beginning in the early days of CFC we had a brother very fine brother who from his parents were not believers and he would come and we treated him like one of our children and he was with us all frequently seen often sleeping in our house after the meetings which are held in our house and we helped him in numerous ways and he did well and he got a job and he went away to another place and then we never heard from him and I wondered how is this possible we who have done so much for him in all the years he was with us then he doesn't even bother to drop us a line to tell us how things are going on I mean shouldn't he at least express his gratitude to us for what we had done for him and that's when the Lord showed me that it was I who was in error at that point and I said Lord what did I do wrong I mean we did everything possible for him and the Lord said that you're expecting gratitude from him was an unchristlike attitude it's all right for Jesus to expect us to give thanks to him you know he said the nine lepers were cleansed where are the nine he said only one has come back to give thanks the Lord has every right to expect gratitude from us and if we don't come back in gratitude he can question it but we don't have that right we are sinners saved by grace and I never want to forget that till the end of my life and the Lord said to me from the example of the you know in the final day it says the Lord gathers together all the nations and he will say to some I was sick and you visited me and I was hungry and you fed me you know that passage and they asked him Lord when was that and the Lord said in that you did it to the least of these my brothers you did it to me so the Lord thanked them for feeding him clothing him taking care of them because they cared for one of his brothers one of his children so what the Lord said to me was whatever you do for the least the word they use this the least of these my brethren what the Lord said to me then was what you do for the least of my brothers remember that you're not doing it to them you're doing it to me and if I did and if I was doing it to the Lord then it's the Lord who should thank me not that brother that's the light I got that day that when I did that to that brother I thought that I did it for him but the Lord said no in as much as you did it to the least of my these my brethren you did it to me then who should you expect thanks from from me the Lord said not from him so I learned that day never never to expect thanks from anybody for anything I did for them because it was done under the Lord and it's a very good thing to ask ourselves sometimes we may not say it but inwardly we can think why is that guy not grateful to me for all that I've done for him brother you did not do it for him or if you did it for him you were wrong you should have done it under the Lord everything we do for one another must be done as unto the Lord and if we really cleanse ourselves from we don't see this as a sin you know it's one of the areas where I said what what is unconscious becomes conscious so before that I was not sinning no I was not sinning when I was expecting him to thank me because it was not a conscious area but once I got light it became sin so now if I expect thanks from people it is a sin for me but it may not be a sin for you but probably it will be from today onwards because you heard the truth but until now it was not because it was unconscious it's a great relief to me to know the difference between this conscious and unconscious so the devil may try to accuse you about all other things we must live always free from accusation he overcomes that accusation by the blood of the lamb and that should be our attitude towards one another also in the story of the you see the example of this accuser and the advocate in two places in scripture I'll just mention it briefly one is in Zechariah chapter 3 but before I go there I said let me go to John chapter 8 where we have a clear example of someone who's committed something wrong seriously wrong a woman committing adultery completely wrong and the old testament law said that she must be stoned to death and the pharisees who wanted to catch Jesus they all they knew that Jesus was a very compassionate person especially towards sinners they had seen that for a long long time and they'd like to see what they do with what he do with the sinner let him let us ruin his reputation because we hold him to the law of Moses and he's always proclaiming that not a jot or the tittle from the law of Moses will be broken at the same time we know he's a compassionate person let's see how he deals with this situation they were trying to trap him and when they brought this woman to him they didn't realize that that command to stone women caught in adultery was given by Jesus himself he only gave it to Moses from heaven 1500 years earlier and he's the one who made that law it was a way it was the way in which the Lord taught the Jews to take adultery seriously and they didn't know that but he knew it Jesus knew it this is the law I gave Moses 1500 years ago and he said not a jot or a tittle from the law must be broken so how shall we do this here's the accuser operating through people you know the devil is an accuser let me say this in passing that the devil wants co-workers just like Jesus wants co-workers and if the devil is an accuser he wants help in that that you will help him to accuse some of his children say something negative about that person or look at that person closely and don't bother about the positive things ignore that but try and find if there's one little speck there that you can find to find fault in that person and join me in accusing him to somebody else and believers all over the world are holding hands with the devil saying this brother did this and that brother did that and the other thing and what they say is true for that matter the devil himself what he accuses people about to God is true but Jesus it says here he sat on the ground and he was scribbling on the ground he was just doodling there waiting for a word from the father that really challenges me that as he came as a man he had the limitations of man and he did not know what to say at that moment I thank God for that that he was like me that at times he don't know what to say and he didn't say anything and he waited he also had to wait that's why he had to pray sometimes and that's why when they said what do you say when John 8 5 he didn't say anything he waited and then got a word from the father tell them he was without sin cast the first stone and he said that and as you know they all went away but there was one person left there without sin and that was Jesus and Jesus said the one who's without sin let him throw the first stone but he wouldn't do it he was so free from the spirit of trying to condemn somebody or accuse somebody he came to earth God did not send his son to the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved and we must always remember that and that's the spirit that is with us now we go to Zachariah chapter 3 let me see a picture again of the just like we saw in John 8 the accuser and the advocate just like we saw in 1 John 2 and Revelation 12 accuser and the advocate here is the accuser and the advocate again Zachariah 3 we find Satan standing at the right hand of Joshua the high priest now that's a picture of you and me Joshua there and Satan is standing there to accuse him this is one of the few places in the Old Testament where Satan comes he comes in Genesis and then he comes again in Zachariah otherwise he's almost never found in the Old Testament except once it says that he prompted David to commit something wrong but he doesn't figure in the Old Testament God did not allow Satan to have such free access because he had not yet been defeated on the cross once he was defeated on the cross once Jesus came Satan was very active but here's one of those rare occasions where we come and see him coming up in scripture and he's right at the right he's an accuser there too and when he accused Joshua because his garments were dirty the Lord is the one who defended Satan Joshua didn't have to say anything there was an advocate there saying the Lord rebuked you Satan because I plucked this band from the burning it's a beautiful picture this is the thing picture you must have in your mind when Satan accuses you before God the Lord says no I plucked him as a brand from the fire and the Lord says remove the filthy garments and put new festal robes on him that is I'm going to take away that truth I'm clothing him with the righteousness of Christ the beautiful part here is Zachariah the young man saw this in verse 5 of Zachariah chapter 3 and he says Lord not just righteous garments but to put a clean turban on his head as well he joined hands with the advocate not with the accuser that's our calling I call this the ministry of making our brother glorious the ministry of making our sister glorious even though a few moments ago he was clothed with filthy garments even though there was weakness there it's a wonderful ministry to have Lord put a turban on his head also forgive him that and help him to come into a glorious ministry Lord I know he's got weaknesses but you've cleansed him you forgive him he's not a hypocrite so it's a wonderful thing to see these examples and we have to be very very careful the Bible says the devil accuses I told you he's a full-time worker accuses the saints day and night and we are told in Hebrews 7 25 that Jesus intercedes as an advocate day and night it's a 24-hour job going on in the heavenlies or we must we may not be aware of it but the Bible tells us that 24-hour accusation going on and 24-hour intercession going on like we saw in Zachariah we have the opportunity like Zachariah to join one of these two sides I'll tell you unfortunately most believers and many many I've heard of I admit they join the wrong side they join the accuser to find some fault in the other they're not seeking to make their brother glorious sometimes they are seeking to make their brother more dirty or their sister more dirty than she actually is we all have the poison in our flesh which came into Adam the very first thing he told God after he sinned was this woman it's a picture I have of Adam pointing his finger at his wife and saying this woman that's where accusation began so you see how quickly the poison of Satan came into Adam and we've all inherited it this person this woman sometimes it's your own wife you whenever you see that pointing finger that you point at your wife or your husband remember that's what Adam did and that's why he got thrown out of paradise and that's why you can get thrown out of paradise too and remember it is Satan who helps you to point that finger that's where very often our prayers are not heard we don't just say when a prayer is not heard that was not God's will that's a very pious thing to say sometimes it may be because God doesn't listen to your prayer in closing Isaiah 58 it says here and Isaiah 58 verse 9 answered prayer then you will call and the Lord will answer you you will cry and he will say here I am when you remove the last part the pointing of the finger you stop accusing people of imaginary or real faults and you call and the Lord will hear you may the Lord help us. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/K_Cjsq-SnJ4.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/the-advocate-and-the-accuser/ ========================================================================