The Advocate

I am going to talk about the concept of the world. I believe that I should take an interest in the Savior's blood, Died he for me, her thoughts he spake, For me, for him, to death pursued. Amazing love! How can it be That now my God should die for me? Amazing love! How can it be That now my God should die for me? Is this love the immortal time Where kindness, love, is strange design? He came the first from seraph tribe To stand the death of love divine.

Tears burst beyond, let earth adore Let angels rise in choir and amore Tears burst beyond, let earth adore Let angels rise in choir and amore He left his mother's throne above For free soul is by right his praise Emptied his shell of all but love And prayed for Adam's helpless place Tears burst beyond, in death set free For all my God, he found a plea Tears burst beyond, in death set free For all my God, he found a plea Risen spirit lay, but now he's still And nature's night, by night infused A quickening ray, my hope the dungeons Flamed with light, my chains fell off My heart was free, I rose and fell And followed thee, my chains fell off My heart was free, I rose and fell And followed thee, my chains fell off And holy in me, I live in him We can thank and praise him that he approached us when we were still dead in our sins He sought after us and found us And not only did he forgive us, but he raised us up into the highest heavens And we're now seated with him in Christ Number 172 sings about that In a supplement, it'll be on the overheads You, oh Lord, fetch him mercy Because of your great love You, oh Lord, so loved us Even when we were dead in our sins You made us alive, together with Christ And raised us up, together with Christ And seated us, together with Christ And raised us up, together with Christ And seated us, together with Christ In Christ You, oh Lord, fetch him mercy Because of your great love You, oh Lord, so loved us Even when we were dead in our sins You made us alive, together with Christ And raised us up, together with Christ And seated us, together with Christ And raised us up, together with Christ And seated us, together with Christ Sing it again You, oh Lord, fetch him mercy Because of your great love You, oh Lord, so loved us Even when we were dead in our sins You made us alive, together with Christ And raised us up, together with Christ And seated us, together with Christ And raised us up, together with Christ And seated us, together with Christ And have your Bible open it The first letter of John And the first chapter And if you don't have a Bible and someone alongside you does Then I'm sure they'll share Because as is often said from this pulpit The thing that's important tonight Is not basically what I have to say What is of eternal value Is what is written in this word There is a measure of inspiration in preaching If God be gracious But the absolute expression of truth Is found not in the preacher's lips Or as a result of his thinking But it's found in this book That's why this book is so treasured This is why you should respect it Because here God speaks To every generation To you and to me, tonight So let's read out some of the most precious Precious verses that there are In the whole of scripture 1 John 1 verse 8 Through to verse 2 of the next chapter With me If we claim to be without sin We deceive ourselves And the truth is not in us If we confess our sins He is faithful and just And will forgive us our sins And purify us from all unrighteousness If we claim we have not sinned We make him out to be a liar And his word has no place in our lives My dear children I write this to you So that you will not sin But if anybody does sin We have one who speaks to the Father In our defense Jesus Christ the righteous one He is the atoning sacrifice For our sins And not only for ours But also for the sins of the whole world Father help us tonight As we look into this Splendid passage of scripture To understand it properly To make the right conclusions And may your word Have an effect upon our personalities now And our lifestyle henceforth For Jesus sake Amen It's necessary to be clear When you're making a request I was mentioning this over at Maybridge When having the privilege of preaching there Earlier today Abraham Lincoln was once asked by One of his staff Because another of his staff workers Had died This man came and said President Lincoln Do you mind if I have his place? And Lincoln said Well I don't Provided the undertaker doesn't You've got to be clear About what you're asking You have to be clear When you come to scripture And make your conclusions about What you feel God is Wanting to say to you You have to give time and attention to Verses of scripture So that your recollection Of what the bible is teaching Is really accurate I was visiting this last week And I was spending some time with Some of my dear friends in Koinonia Which is a Conglomeration of three houses That have all been linked together And looks after elderly folk In the eventide of their lives And I was putting the question to one of them What's your favorite passage of scripture? And she said Well I have got several But one that is particularly Precious to me Is the ninth verse of 1 John 1 So I said right I'll preach on that On Sunday night And that's the real cause of At least at the human level The stimulus Behind what I'm wanting to share Now interestingly the question Or rather the The piece of information given to me In terms of a favorite passage of scripture Was by an elderly lady I say it's interesting because this Whole epistle Came from the pen of a man Who was quite old John had gone through something Of a personality change He'd been one of the disciples of our Lord He and his brother Seemed to have had A fairly sharp fuse Or short fuse as far as Temper was concerned They were known as the sons of thunder And if that was a characteristic Of their father which they shared Then one thing that becomes apparent As you trace the life of John through its course As recorded in scripture Is that his personality changed And far from being a tempestuous man He becomes a very gentle man In fact in the gospels You read he's the one who seems to be Emotionally more close to Jesus Than any of the other Eleven disciples In the gospel that bears his name He doesn't actually Refer to himself apart from The terminology The disciple whom Jesus loved And when our Lord Is on the cross And he is going through the agony Of crucifixion He recognizes a responsibility To the woman who was Used by the father To bring him into the world I mean Mary And Jesus directs his attention Towards John And then probably by moving his head A little arrests the attention Of Mary And he says John behold Your mother Mother behold your son The confidence that Jesus Has in John is such that he Entrusts the care Of Mary to Him Now John lived Longer than any of the Other disciples I think That's a point which all Biblical scholars would agree to And when he pens This particular epistle he's An old man An avuncular man Somebody who seems to be Approachable I think that you can work that out from the Snippet in the first part Of the first verse of the second Chapter where Addressing his readership he says My dear children And you've got the idea Of this long haired Bearded man Bringing his children Inverted commas Not necessarily four or five year olds Maybe twenty year olds, thirty year olds Forty year olds And maybe John's as old as ninety And he's directing his advice Towards them And I want to tell you young people something Never park an older person Out of your mind As though they have no Further use at all You can learn such a lot from an old person Don't imagine that they've been Pushed out the graze at the end of their lives And they've got nothing to teach you I remember visiting one Similar home to Koinonia Here in Worthing and Meeting up with this decrepit lady Who looked so fragile that if I'd sneezed I'd have blown her over And then she told me how during the war She worked with MI5 And what she'd done behind the lines As far as The war effort Was concerned You can learn a lot From an old person Here's John John the man Who's gone through Something of a personality change John who's become softened But not soft In his reclining years And he dashes off a letter To the likes of you and me And he says My dear children Listen Listen Listen to what I've got to teach you And there are three specific things It seems to me within these verses That John highlights And one of the reasons Why I started off with that With that little comment from Abraham Lincoln Is because it's necessary for us To understand Especially what John means When he talks first of all About sin He refers to sin On several occasions In this Epistle And not only does he speak about Sin but he associates all Of us as being guilty Of sin If we claim to be without sin He says in the eighth verse We deceive ourselves There never has been a man born of a woman With the exception of Jesus Who was not tainted with Sin What is more John goes on to suggest That even having Come to Christ And confessed your sins once The case Will be that Like Peter You will let him down Again And alas perhaps Again And so he goes On to tell us that if Anyone even in that condition Having been saved Sins He can come, verse one Of chapter two To the Lord Jesus who will speak in Our defense So he Identifies us all with the problem Of sin. What is sin? Sin is missing the mark Sin Is not so much breaking God's law as God's law Breaking you There is, if you think it through technically Let me Approach this differently If you think it through logically It is impossible to break God's law The ten commandments Will still stand Whatever you do, you will not break the commandments What will happen Is that the commandments That you do not keep Will eventually Break you So Tony and Kathy Swanson This evening are flying off to Nairobi and then tomorrow God willing they will be on their way To Tanzania, to Mwanza Where there was this terrible Disaster some Days ago When a boat that was overloaded Capsized and several hundred people Including some of my friends The Africa Inland Church Were drowned Now Not only does Mwanza And that whole area around Lake Victoria Represent a tragedy because of that But by the end Of this decade which is only three years Or four years away One third of all men will die They will die prematurely Because AIDS Is such a ravaging Disease That is devouring so much Of the male population Particularly as well as the female Population of Africa And AIDS Is really caused by Men and women pitting themselves Against the law of God It's not that they break The law The Ten Commandments remains The basic laws of hygiene And sexuality Remain Whatever Archbishops may say Or do They remain And when you pit yourself against God's law You sin And you do not break his law That remains inviolable You hurt yourself And it's To that condition That the Apostle John The Uncle John in such A loving fashion Addresses his dear children And tells them Well fellows, well girls Recognize this that you Are sinners, we're all infected By this We've all injured ourselves But there is a solution And so from the one word Sin which Occurs on several occasions throughout This epistle John highlights Another word He speaks about The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ In the seventh verse If we walk in the light As he is in the light We have fellowship with one another And the blood of Jesus His son Purifies us From all sin Now One of the things that is basic To the Christian gospel that alas Has lost a degree of popularity In some pulpits today Is the vital Nature Of the death of Jesus and the shedding Of his blood You see, when our Lord was on earth He never was broken On the law of God because he always Ran parallel with it, he did what the Father wanted him to do So here he stands as a man Of 32 or so years of age In front of Pontius Pilate And the rest of his accusers And he says, is there anyone of you Who can find something looking to the secret Area of my life That will convince and convict Me of sin And not one Person was able to Bring an allegation That could be substantiated So when he died On the cross What happened was A violation of Justice At the Roman level And at the Jewish level But not at God's level You see It was an innocent man Who died And Blood poured from his body I don't Want to exaggerate Nor do I want to Engage in a Description of crucifixion In all its stark Barbarity But it really was the most painful Way that man had up to that point Invented to rob his fellow of life And blood poured down the body Of Jesus from his head With the thorns that were pressed Into a crown and pushed down On him To his hands which were Pierced And his feet And ultimately The spear that is put Through his side Blood Flowed The hymn writer bought, using the word Although in a very wonderful way Speaks of Calvary as she says See from his head His hands, his feet Sorrow and love Flow, mingle down, did e'er such love Or sorrow meet or thorns compose So rich a crown What is being Referred to? The blood that's flowing From the body of Jesus I met a man when I was in the States Some years ago and he told me Of an occurrence in Vietnam Amongst children One child had been Affected by shrapnel and had Lost an awful amount of blood And they'd gone to Another little boy who couldn't understand English But nonetheless They got across, the American Nursing service got across to him That his blood Could save the life of his Young friend And so he bravely came into a hospital And a transfusion Was set up Now, giving blood Really is not a painful Experience Apart from the initial Prick of the needle And as the Transfusion commenced The boy was Quite brave and then he started to cry And they couldn't understand Why And so the Americans eventually got A Vietnamese nurse who was Conversant not only with the Vietnamese language But also with English And they said Ask the lad why he's crying And the boy was crying because He said, I'm going to die They said, you're not Going to die But he said, I've offered to give my blood For this My friend Who has lost his And the lad God bless him Thought that he was going to have All the blood taken from His body In order that his friend Might live Now he'd agreed to that That was his Understanding of what Would happen in his simplistic Fashion when our lord Shed his blood On the cross of Calvary In effect it was A blood transfusion Set up And at the receiving end Will be Sinners Those like you and me Contaminated With sin The blood of Jesus, God's son Cleanses from sin, why? Well the Old Testament Will tell you in the book of Litviticus That the life is in the blood And that's a reasonable Medical statement, isn't it? Take away the blood Continually drain The body of blood And there will be no life But put blood back Into the body And there will be The preservation Of life Now what John is here saying Is that for those who have Confessed Jesus As their saviour Who have acknowledged Their sin The benefits of the Life of Christ, the shedding Of his blood Is transferred To your account And it will be true to say That the Biblical definition of a Christian Is the person, he, she Who has gone Through a blood Transfusion My dear children I write this to you So that you will not sin But if anyone does sin We have one who speaks to us To the Father in our defence Jesus Christ, the righteous one He is the atoning sacrifice For our sins You understand? The blood is shed For you For me Sheep can sometimes have quite a horrible life They're simple creatures In some ways They can be exposed to the extremes Of climate Thank God they don't have to go through The horrors of intensive farming Because you can't do that with sheep They can't cope with that sort of approach But out on the downs There on the pasture lands of New Zealand Or wherever Sheep are pastured They can be Victim to little mites And insects And the only way for the Kindly shepherd to help the sheep In these days Is to create a dip With an amount of Water and disinfectant and what have you And the sheep is Coaxed, the flock are coaxed Into the dip and they go through One by one And as a result of the dipping process They are disinfected And don't you see? That's how The Lord Jesus treats Our sin That's how the Lord Jesus treats Sinners who comes To him He disinfects us He causes us To be right with the Father Because he has paid the price Of our sin And he gives to us An ability to partake Of His nature So are you clear? Do you understand this? Sin? We're all involved He who says He hasn't sinned is a liar And makes God a liar Because God makes that declaration Those who've already Come to Christ and who have confessed Their misdoings Alas will be caught out again But there is a means Whereby even that sin Can be dealt with And it's all Part of the benefits Of the shed blood Of our Lord Jesus That brings about The cleansing The disinfecting And my third word A defense I mean that's what it says, doesn't it? In the first verse Of that second chapter We have one who When we sin Speaks to the Father In our defense It's an interesting word It's the Greek word And you find it in the In John's gospel When he's referring to the Holy Spirit And the word has A number of possibilities Of translation It's got the Idea of bringing comfort When Joseph Is taken away Into Egypt We read in the book of Genesis That his sons Jacob's sons Rise up and try to comfort him When however John uses this Term in the New Testament In this particular context It seems to me that He has in mind Another shade of meaning For parakletos is from two words Which means to call alongside And what He is saying here is That the sinner who is Contrite can Call alongside him The Lord Jesus Who will speak to The Father in his defense That is another way of Referring to Jesus as an advocate Or as a Lawyer In the book of Hebrews Comment is made on Several occasions of Jesus Being our intercessor Here is the Father Who is offended at what we have done Here are ourselves Who are responsible for Causing that offense And here is Jesus Who comes as a sort of Middle man In between us And a holy righteous Father And what does Jesus do? He speaks to The Father on our behalf Now look what John calls Jesus It's important He calls Jesus the Messiah He calls Jesus the righteous one He couldn't call himself the righteous one John Neither could he call you the righteous one For reasons I have already argued But when he refers to Jesus He knows that he is unsullied He is unstained He is absolutely righteous So The one who is our lawyer Is Jesus the Messiah Jesus The righteous one Jesus who makes the Atoning sacrifice For our sins Isn't that wonderful? You see how compact John's reasoning is And how appropriate it is for us to look into These verses prior to coming around The communion table Now says John The benefits of Jesus' death Do not just apply to our generation The generation of the First century The generation of the early church He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins And not only for ours But also for The sins of the whole world I'd love to have been In the congregation Of which John was the pastor It seems as though he pastored churches In Ephesus And from the knowledge that we have of John in the book of Revelation It seems as though sometimes He went around other Local churches You know there are preachers and preachers I'm told By way of an analogy that there are Fishermen and fishermen Some fishermen As they cast their line And catch the fish Will deal roughly With the poor struggling fish And as they land it They will tear its mouth Because of their crass Inefficiency As anglers The expert angler however Will land his fish Causing the minimum amount Of pain It was said of one preacher He loved his people To the state of goodness He loved The people To the state of goodness Don't you see it here with John This elderly man Who has such a love For his Congregations That he calls them with the intimate Terminology My dear children My little children Listen To me And as they listened To the loving pastor They found In his teaching That he was loving them Into goodness As they responded To what he has To say Here is our beloved Lord He loved people Into goodness A woman taken By callous crude men Propelled in front Of Jesus They tried to disgrace Her Jesus sent them packing And in his forgiveness He loved The woman Towards goodness He always Deals like that with the sinner The only strong Language that Jesus ever Uttered he directed towards Those who tried to stop Others from coming to him But he takes the broken He takes the bruised He takes the bleeding And he says come let's talk About it Uncover it before me And I will cover it before my father I acknowledge your sin See the blessings Of My blood And allow me To be your defense To stand On your behalf Before the father And to have you reconciled To him And you know that's the gospel That's the essentials of the gospel Which we commemorate As we come around the Lord's table It's the gospel which is at the heart of What this church Stands for It's this gospel which allows us to Sing hallelujah not as orphans Are we left In sorrow now Hallelujah he is near us Faith believes nor questions how Hallelujah Sing to Jesus Intercessor friend of sinners Earth's redeemer Plead for me Where the songs of all the sinless Sweep across The crystal sea Let's turn to that Hymn it's not the one on the board 207 In hymns of faith and let's sing this Through and Ruth can lead us on into One or other song After this as we prepare to come Around this table In which we acknowledge again the goodness of Jesus And ask him to be indeed Our defense before his father And as we bring to you bread and wine I want to Tell you this And warn you of this That we only offer these emblems To those who have confessed Jesus as their lord If you're not sure you're a Christian Then let the emblems go by But if you are Or if this evening You have confessed your sin and asked The blood of Jesus that the blood of Jesus may Cleanse you Then let this be your first communion And it will be a very special event I tell you So we prepare to come around The lord's table and take this Hymn as well as other songs To help us into this part of our Evening worship 207 in mission praise King forever With majesty And power We adore You We exalt You Worship We bring Our king Worship We bring To you our king Lord and father King forever Throned with majesty And power We adore You We exalt You Worship We bring Our offering Worship We bring To you our king Lord and father King forever Throned with majesty And power We adore You We exalt You Worship We bring Worship We bring To you our king Number 187 Let's start with the chorus All Unto Jesus All unto you Lord Holiness Unto Jesus Holiness Unto you Lord Repeat that please stand Holiness Unto Jesus Holiness Unto you Lord Holiness Unto Jesus Holiness Unto you Lord Unto you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .