How Our Joy Can Be Full - Part 6

Please plead my cause, I've sinned. Don't tell lies to the advocate saying, I haven't sinned. Don't blame your wife like Adam blamed his wife.

No, just say, Lord, it's my fault. Like the thief on the cross, Lord, it's my fault, I deserve it. The advocate will plead your cause.

He's a righteous advocate. He won't tell lies. Says here, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he has paid the price. He solved the sin problem for good. The whole world sins, he took care of.

So I can go to him and be cleansed. But if I don't confess it, I don't acknowledge my sin. I don't say that it was wrong.

I don't go to that person whom I wronged and say, I'm sorry, brother, that was wrong on my part. You don't do that. Then you're saying that I'm not sinned.

Then Jesus Christ, the righteous advocate cannot plead your cause. He'll plead the cause of any man who's honest about his sin and says, I'm to blame. So John is very balanced.

He doesn't just say, these things I write unto you that you don't sin, full stop. I mean, if he had said full stop after that, I said, what about somebody who sins? He's led by the Holy Spirit. He said, I realize sometimes you may fall, but when you fall, do this.

Immediately he said it right. So that's the first thing. He says, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin.

And he goes on to say in that connection, keep his commandments. Verse three, don't say verse four, I know God and you don't keep his commandments. Then you're a liar.

You know, there are two people whom John calls a liar. We saw already one in, earlier in the end of chapter four, he does not love his brother and says he loves God, he's a liar. Here's another liar.

The one who says, I know the Lord, but you don't keep his commandments. You're a liar. You know the number of liars there are among believers? Liars.

John says, I won't call you a believer. You're a liar. If you know the Lord, you'll keep his commandments.

Why? Why don't little children, why doesn't a little five-year-old or even a 10-year-old and sometimes even an 18-year-old not obey their parents? Why do they think, oh, they know better than their parents. They think they know their parents. No, I'm not going to do that, mom.

I'm not going to do that, dad. I know better. They don't know their parents.

They disobey their parents' advice because they don't know their parents. They think they know better than their parents. I mean, you start that even with a one-year-old.

You take a knife out of the hand of a one-year-old, the one-year-old will scream. He thinks, mommy is being so hard, taking away that knife from me. It's so shiny.

I like it so much. He, that little boy doesn't know that his mother loves him. And when mommy says, don't take that knife, don't go and stick your hand into that plug socket, he doesn't know.

His mommy is saying, for your good. And when we don't obey God's commandments, we are like that one-year-old who's saying, no, no, no, I can take care of myself. And we get into all kinds of problems because we don't know God.

If you knew God, you would know him as more loving than your mother and father, and more eager to protect you from all types of dangers that your parents protected you from. Aren't you thankful for your parents protected you from so many dangers when you were small by giving you certain rules? Why does a parent tell their teenage girl, I want you home by so-and-so time in the evening? You think that's so strict, I have to be home by such-and-such a time. It's for your protection.

Think of all the young girls who never listen to their parents and their condition today. Every command your parents give concerning these earthly things, even unconverted parents concerning earthly things, they have a lot of wisdom for their children. And I say those parents, unconverted parents, have wisdom concerning their children.

You think our Heavenly Father doesn't have wisdom concerning the things he commands me? When he commands me to forgive all those who have harmed me, it's because he wants me to sleep peacefully at night. Look at all those people who don't forgive others. Go and ask them what they think about when they are sleeping at night.

What will he do? What will I do? If he says this to me, and I'll tell him this, and if he replies like this, I'll tell him this. It's already 2.30 in the morning, I'm still thinking about how to deal with that fellow. You want to sleep like that? The Lord says, forgive him.

Every command he gives is for our good. Everything. When he says, turn your eyes away from lusting after women who are not your wife, it's for your good.

Why do you want to have dirty dreams at night when he tells you not to watch internet pornography? Why does he say that? It's for your good. Do you know you'll suffer with it for all your married life if you do it? Go and ask married people who watch pornography if they are free from those thoughts in their mind. 30 years after they watch it, they are still plagued.

God wants to protect you. Don't sin. Chapter 2 verse 15.

Don't love the world. Anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. And this, I like it in the message Bible.

It says, love for the world squeezes out love for your heavenly father. You know that's what happens? The more I love the world, the love for my heavenly father and for Jesus gets squeezed out. Love for the world occupies my heart.

Be careful about the movies you watch. I'm absolutely convinced that the movies that Christians watch these days around the world are leading to two things. One, they don't have time to read the Bible and they are ignorant of the Bible so all the deceivers can flourish.

How is it that so many Christians can watch these television preachers on television and not have discernment as to where they are leading them? Even though having watched them for years, they still are depressed. They still get angry. They still lose their temper.

They still get anxious and fearful.