Thank you. Oh it's great to come again,
isn't it see all your ugly, your lovely faces.
Sorry to see what God's doing amongst you had had a week of
prayer. So I've caught up with all the
stuff in of the church. This is lovely.
I have survived Skip and Julie for the week.
As you know, there's a lot of prayer, that kind of thing
really, you know, and they won't change.
God can change them, but I don't.
It's quite interesting. I had this dream of Skip and
Julie and they're both 60 and I had this, he had the, you know,
I had this dream and the fairy godmother turned up and the
fairy godmother said, I'll give you 1 wish wish each.
So Julie thought, oh, I know I'll, I'll some tickets to go
round the world to world round the world cruise tickets.
And the the fairy went poof. And there were the tickets.
And then Skip thought, well, I'd like a wife 30 years younger
than me. And so the fairy godmother went
poof and Skip was 90. OK, OK, this this would be
interesting if I got it the right way up for a start.
All right, good. A short passage in one John 1,
which goes into chapter 2. OK, you don't need your Bible
because it's here for you. So this is one of Jesus's best
friends, John. He wrote the Gospel of John.
He wrote 3 letters in the Bible and this is the first letter he
wrote. And he says this, this is the
message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is
light and him him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship or friendship with him while we
walk in darkness, we lie and do not practise the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another and the blood of his of Jesus Son
cleanses us from all sin. Now that Greek word actually is,
is a past continuous, present continuous, which means he goes
on cleansing you from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar.
His word is not in US. My little children, I'm writing
these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world. And by this we know that we have
come to know Him if we keep His commandments.
Whoever says I know him but doesn't keep his commandments,
he's a liar. And the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps his word in him.
Truly the love of God is perfected.
By this. We may know that we are in Him.
Whoever says He abides in him ought to walk in the same way in
which he walked. OK, that's our reading.
You'll find that in chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.
Now why was John writing this letter?
He says in this passage that this is what he says.
My children, I'm writing these things so that you may not sin.
But hold on, John, I try to be good, but is God expecting me to
live a perfect life every moment of every day?
Well, obviously the answer is no because he's just said this.
He said if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
The truth isn't in US. See, God knows what you're like
and He still loves you for goodness sake.
I don't know why. Wow.
You see, He's not looking for us to perform for him.
He's looking to relate to him. Got that difference?
I'll say it again, He's not looking us to perform for Him,
but to relate to Him. We couldn't live a perfect life,
so Jesus did for us. Isn't that great?
And the good news is that he's made a way for us to be friends
with God, to relate to Him in spite of our sin.
And it's through the cross. It's where we are reconciled
back to God as we trust Jesus, put our faith in him.
We're justified. We're just as if I'd never
sinned. We're forgiven, we're cleansed.
Paul says it like this. Since we've been justified, made
right with God by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what you talked about
Karina talk about that peace, didn't you?
That comes from God's. It's not like the world gives
peace. Jesus I my peace isn't like the
world's peace. He wants God wants to enjoy an
honest, open relationship with you.
He wants to put up with me for eternity.
He wants to put up with you for eternity.
He wants to put up with skip for eternity.
I mean, that is grace. Such grace.
That is. It's so, it's so humbling.
Isn't it humbling. We should never be judgmental.
I can't understand a Christian or churches that are just
mental. I'm just so glad he loves me.
Why should he put up with me? Wow.
Now in the Bible he often talks about being his friend with
walking together. It's what's in this passage, you
know, there's something special about walking with a friend,
isn't there? I know as how I got chatting up
my wife rambling through Surrey woods with the youth group.
I thought, oh, she's a bit more right.
And you know, you start singing some Beatles songs and chatting
and so it's amazing what comes out when you're talking.
You begin to share your thoughts, your aspirations, your
joys, even your fears. My next door neighbour Liz is a
member of the Wellington Walkers.
Now I live in a place called Rockwell Green, which was part
of Wellington. It's near Taunton and she goes
to a group called the Wellington Walkers that meet each Friday.
Libby would say this. Thanks for helping me remember
where I'm going in life. I'm sure you've noticed I have a
tendency to get lost sometimes. You're very patient with me.
I hope I can show you the same love in return.
The walk is not always easy, but it's better with you, my friend.
That's what Libby said. This comes from Casey Mclean's
blog on on the website it's called Unveiling the story The
Teller Within, and she's got a whole collection of comments
from her walkers who find it does them good.
She's got this one says it allows for shared laughter,
support during tough times, and a chance to celebrate each
other's victories, big and small.
The act of walking fosters connection, both physically and
emotionally. It allows for shared laughter,
which I've just said already. Then he says this as we walk
together as friends on the path. I get a feeling that everything
is OK. I'm so happy to have your
friendship. It helps me let go of so many
fears when you're by my side. Another comment.
Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.
See, God loves to walk with his children through life.
The Bible is full of characters who walk with Jesus.
Sorry about the slide here, but he says Adam Leve.
They heard the sound of the little gob walking in the garden
right in the beginning. Adam Leve used to walk with the
Lord in the in the call of the evening.
Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.
I always used to laugh as a kid. He God so enjoyed his company.
He's although this I'm having you now.
Probably Jane's chatting to him at the moment.
He says no, Oh, walk with God, but the rest of the world
didn't. All those people, you can't even
see anything. Abraham, old Daniel, David, they
all walk with God. And then this, this promise, a
prophetic promise from God as we go through the Old Testament,
towards the end of the Old Testament, you'll find it in
Micah. He says, this God has told you,
O man, what is good? What does the law require of you
but to do justice, you know, be fair everywhere to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God.
Wonder wasn't it? And because Jesus himself said
to the disciples, come follow me, didn't say go to to kind of
college or office. He said, no, just walk with me.
You're going to learn from me as we walk and we we eat together
and sleep together, you know, have troubles together.
Wow. Now, of course we want to walk
with God, don't we? But if we want to walk with God,
we need to know where he walks and where does he walk.
Does it say, Well, if we say we have fellowship with him while
we walk in the darkness, well, that's not going to do much
good, is it? But he says if we walk in the
light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another. And the blood of Jesus's Son
goes on, goes on cleansing and cleansing us from all sin.
When he says walking in the light, you know what you're
saying. He wants you to be thoroughly
honest with Him. We want you to be open about
your failings, your fears, your worries.
If not, you're hiding by Adam and Eve in the garden.
When they sinned, they didn't walk with him.
They got in the bushes and hid. And God's saying, look, I want
fellowship with you, but you can only have fellowship with me if
you will walk in the light openly and honest.
And it is a fact, actually, when you become a Christian, that
immediate joy and wonder of being forgiven.
There's nothing like it, is there?
You know a piece like you've never known before.
But then as you begin to mature, you think, I don't think that
was very good. I'll swear in a bit too much.
Or it's quite interesting that you become a bit more aware or
more aware of your sinful, selfish nature.
Would you agree? Some of you've been Christian on
the road. Sometimes people think am IA
Christian at all. Well, of course you are
actually, it's evidence that the Holy Spirit's working in you to
try to make you like Jesus. The very awareness and sometimes
disappointment with ourselves, we feel ashamed sometimes, don't
we? But it's evidence that God is
wanting to make us like his Son. The Holy Spirit's in US.
See, God knows what you're like. He knows what you were like when
he called you. So what you're calling him for,
be totally honest. See, Jesus came to his own, it
says, and his own people didn't receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God who were born
not of blood or the will of the flesh or the will of a man, but
born of God. If you put your faith in Jesus
and received him, whatever state you're in, you become his child.
You have the right to be his child.
Wonderful, isn't it? Oh, and how he loves us, she if
you give your love to Jesus, he loves it.
Look at that middle one there. If anyone loves me, he'll keep
my word. My Father will love him.
We will come to him and make our home with him.
I've seen some really awful people and God said I'm making
my home in them and he starts to changing from inside out.
It's not I've got to start to perform.
I start to relate and many Christians, I'm losing the
relationship because I think they've got to perform to get
the relationship. You have the relationship.
Calm down the enemy. Your soul must be worth a lot
because the enemy wants it, but Jesus died for it.
Isn't that glorious? That's how much He loves you and
wants you and because he gave his blood for you.
So at the Last Supper he says these words in the same way.
After supper he took the cup saying this is the new covenant
in my blood, not on stone 10 commandments or on paper, the
comparison burn, but in my blood, wow, it's poured out for
you. Listen, if you're a Christian
today, you've given life to Jesus.
God is committed to you in an unbreakable covenant.
Have you got that? You've gone quiet on me.
It's an unbreakable covenant because it's in His blood.
He's taken you for better, for worse, for take it for me.
He's taken me for worse and worse.
Now actually take me worse and a bit better.
I have changed by His grace. See, He's faithful towards you.
You're committed to him. He's never going to let you go.
Jesus said whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
Yeah, but you don't know what I'm like.
No, I will never cast you out. Yeah, but I've not prayed.
I'll never cast you out. Yeah, but I've.
I've Sween. I've touched them Pornography.
I'll never cast you out. You're mine.
I take you as you are. But I change you not by you
performing, but by you relating to me being honest about those
things. Moses wanted to know about God
and he, he said, I want to know you more God.
And he knew a lot of powerful things about God, didn't he?
I said, can I see your glory? And God said, well, I if I show
you my glory, it will kill you. So I'll hide you in a rock, I'll
pass by, I'll let you see a glimpse of my back.
And then God said this, I'll tell you what I am like.
And he says this, this is God's. I am the Lord, the Lord, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgressions that should be
there, and sins, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
He then says that those who don't come to me don't want me.
I can't clear their sin away. They've not come and trusted in
my Son's blood. But can you see who he is?
He's not a judge, mental God who chooses to love.
He's a loving God who has to be provoked and then provoked again
before he has to judge. And we're so glad he does judge
evil, don't we? We don't like it when people do
things and get away with them. Epstein and others of others.
And in the cross, God satisfied both His justice of having to
put things right and His love. Wow.
God was so just and desirous to judge the sin and evil in men's
hearts that Jesus had to die for us in our place.
But he was so loving and desirous of our salvation that
Jesus was glad to die for us. We can also see some of his
character in this prophecy from Jeremiah, Israel, or he calls
them Ephraim. Sometimes that's the one of the
sons of Joseph. So see, sometimes Ephraim is the
same as Israel. And they kept turning away from
God, going out their idols, putting 2 fingers up to God
actually said we're not going to follow you.
And it went on and on and on. God said if you don't go that
you're, I can't bless you, I can't protect you.
That's why so many people muck up their lives.
The Old Testament is question. I can bless you, but if you
don't come my way, I can't bless you and therefore you come under
judgement and he's saying this is Ephraim or Israel.
Is it my is he my dear son? Is he my darling child?
This is God Almighty talking about this rebellious people for
as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him.
I will surely have mercy on him declared the Lord my heart, by
the way, that's that's God's like inner being.
It's like in the Old Testament would be the bowels.
My my insides are yearning. That means there's a roaring of
love and for the in the Old Testament, God loved his people.
They were special to him. And as he went away, he said,
and by the way, the word remember there doesn't mean he
forgets things. It's really, it's an expression
really of how he actually wants to, you know, he wants to
reaffirm his covenant. Of course, I won't forget you.
How can I forget you? I made a covenant with you.
It was in the 10 commandments and through sacrificial death.
Now, if it was like that with the Old Testament, what's it
like with us? You put our faith in Jesus.
Listen his, his heart towards you in your fullness and in your
mucking up and in your laziness and your sin at times, your
heart, his heart towards you is he yearns for you.
He loves you. He wants your friendship.
Yes, yours. He's not put off by those things
that you think are going to disqualify me.
He's full of love for you. He comes naturally to him.
He has to be provoked to be angry.
Love is natural to him. Mercy is natural to him.
He's long-suffering, not like us at all.
That's his nature. And he gets such bad press. 0
Give thanks to the Lord. Why?
For he is, yeah, steadfast love it go goes on and on on.
He's I got saved 8. He's he's put up with he's he's
not put up with me. He loves me for what, 70 I'm
7688 years. It goes on and on.
Oh no, go back to that one again.
That's another one there, isn't it?
No, it's not. What about this one?
Bless the Lord, O my soul, oh within me.
Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my.
By the way, notice, wait, pray God bless that what we were
singing. Praise the Lord.
Oh my, what we're doing, we're telling ourselves to praise him
because everything in the world, in even our education and those
voices you hear in the morning or at night are saying, oh, it's
hopeless. No, no, no soul, you praise the
Lord. And here, here the psalmist is
saying, come on, my soul. So come on.
Remember, don't forget all the things he's done.
He lists some there, didn't He forgives your iniquity, who's
your diseases, redeems your life from the pit.
So on. He remembers, He shows
compassion. Do you see this God that has a
bad press? Your God who loves you is
compassionate. He's good.
He's faithful. Yes.
And you think, oh, dear. Yeah, but yeah, but but.
And he's saying I want to walk with you.
I want you to be walking in the light with me.
I want you to be honest. When you muck up, tell me
straight away, oh Lord, that's That wasn't right.
It wasn't good. I'm sorry.
OK. You confess your sin.
I'm faithful and just. I forgive you.
But let's get on. We say we have fellowship with
him while we walk in the darkness.
We don't practise the truth. And what happens sometimes when
you fail in sin, you don't go to God, you hideaway and therefore
you don't change. You start to dwell in it.
You get condemned. He said when you muck up, come
straight to me. I'm not surprised I saw you
doing it. I even know why you did it.
Oh the relief and healing that there is being utterly open to
my father. Oh, taking off the masks, daring
to let his light surge me. Lord, this is what I'm like
without you. And yet you love me and you
forgive me. Not the you that you wish you
were, but the real you, the psalmist were not backward in
singing and saying how they felt.
They laid bare all their confusion, all their
disappointment, their fears, their joys as well.
Of course. And thanks, God will say to you
this morning, hey, I know what you're thinking.
I know why you're doing the things you're doing in the book
of Job. If you read Job, God, dear me,
he's having a wind and a moan, isn't he?
All the way through about 30 chapters.
So he's like, thank God, because he's lost his family, he's lost
his, his children, he's lost his livelihood and he's now covered
in boils. And I have some Christians
saying, oh, I don't feel very well.
What's God doing? Oh, for goodness sake?
And because he never knows why he's having those things.
We know because we read the first chapter and he's moaned.
God, what Godfather, what are you doing?
You know, and he's got these custom, sorry comforters.
Come mates and all they do is come out with Christian cliche.
Well, Jewish cliches. Do you know the kind of people
you go through a bad time, they throw a verse at you or they
they say thanks very much. You don't know what I'm feeling.
You know, all right. And at the end of the about
chapter 30 odd, suddenly Joe's been asking all these questions.
Suddenly God says, well, stop, I'm going to ask you a few
questions and he starts asking questions.
Were you there when I made this, when I did the other stars?
And Jonah's going and he repents because Job suddenly repents of
ever thinking he could know the mind of God.
You can't know the mind of God. He knows things about your life
and your future and those around you that you will never
understand. But he says, trust me as we walk
together. But at the end of Job, God says
this and he's angry with these comforters who tried to cheer
him up. And he said my anger burns
against you for you've not spoke of me.
What is right as my servant Job has now therefore offer a burnt
offering for yourselves and my servant Job shall pray for you
for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to
your folly. And you think, hold on, what
does God mean that Job what Job has said is right.
He's he's been chapter just expressing his confusion and his
pain. The reason is this that Job
never once stopped believing in God, never once turned away from
God. Actually, he bared his very soul
with God. He walked in the light with God
and he didn't know why, but he still said, even if you slay me,
I'll trust you. Wow, isn't that wonderful?
We walk in the light as he is in the light.
We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus
his Son cleanses us from all sin.
See, Christian life is 1 of every day.
Repentance, forgiveness, acceptance, victory.
Oh, I've mucked up. Oh, Lord, I confess that that's
all right. We agree.
That's wrong. I die for you.
I forgive you. I accept you.
My son, my daughter. Come on.
Let's go on in victory. Many of us kind of fell up
there. Oh, I can't look at God now.
I can't pray for anything as if our prayer was anything to do
with us. It's to do with Jesus blood and
his victory over sin for us. Dane Altman has written a very
good book called Gentlemen lowly and commenting on Jeremiah's
prophecy and I have God yearns for us.
He writes this. Whom do you perceive God to be
in your sin, in your suffering? In other words, when you're
you've been sinful or when you've been suffering, who do
you think God is? Not just on paper, but in the
kind of person you believe he is?
When hearing you pray, how does he feel about you?
His saving of us is not cool and calculating.
It's a matter of yearning. Not yearning for the Facebook
you. The you that you project to
everyone around you. Not the you that you wish you
were, but yearning for the real you.
The you underneath everything you present to others.
See, we're the cool, hard ones. He's open.
He's full of mercy. New every morning.
Every morning comes to you. You know, if you've sinned, get
it dealt with. Why wait until I feel a bit
better? I'll.
I'll say sorry now. Oh, you're not walking in light
with him. Of course.
We all fail and sin sometimes. Sadly.
We do it deliberately, don't we? Yes.
Come on, Be honest, sin. Sin is like leprosy of the soul
in a Christian. As Jesus was drawn not it wasn't
repulsed by a leper. He was drawn to the person in
that awful skin with love, compassion.
And so Jesus is drawn to us who are His, even when we fail and
fall with a spiritual disease while we're being changed, He is
drawn to us, not pushes away from us.
Yes, He hates the disease, but loves the one who is suffering
even more so as it affects the sufferer.
You know sin makes you ugly, doesn't it?
Selfishness. Sin makes you ugly, not nice to
live with. Actually.
Sin can go down sweet, but makes you sick.
Inside our sins, rather than putting off having fellowship
with us, move His inner being with compassion and mercy
towards us. And He wants to work in us to
help change things. He feels anger at the disease of
sin, like he did with leprosy. Some of it's self afflicted for
us of course. Yet always He's considering us
His dear children. Amen.
Even when you muck up and do the things you shouldn't do, You're
His dear children and he'll speak to you about it.
But he just wants you, love. He wants to walk in the light.
How we need our understanding of who is to be changed.
The truth is shockingly wonderful.
People say what is about you and I said it's about him.
I have a relationship with him all the time.
I say how I am, how I feel. And often he says, that's a bit
out of order, isn't it, son? Yeah, OK.
And I read the Scripture. I think, wow, I need to adjust.
But it's always with love. And this great verse, it's a
terrific verse, isn't it? 1 John one verse 9.
If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us,
cleanse us from one. It doesn't say if we go about
feeling sorry for our sin, if we really think, oh, that was
terrible what I did. Oh, I've got to feel remorse.
I've got to whip myself. I've got to say 5 almarys or
where he is. You know, it's ridiculous, isn't
it? He said, look, just confess it.
Just agree. Oh, we agreed.
That was out of order. Yeah, Father.
Oh, good. OK.
Now, what should we do about it? All right.
I'll put my trust in you, Lord. Yes.
I'm faithful. And I'm just, why am I just?
Jesus has paid for your sin already.
It's, it's wrong that you should suffer for your sin.
That's shocking, isn't it? Jesus has already suffered for
it. Therefore it will be unjust to
God to punish you if you're putting your faith in Christ.
Yes, Well, making sense. But our brains don't compute.
We think, oh, I've mucked up. Oh, how can I?
He's not like us. Thankfully, he's holy, separate.
If we confess our sins, say Lord.
Oh, and sooner we do it the better.
Because he wants to walk in the light, nothing hidden.
He's. He will not only forgive us,
notice, He will cleanse us, wash us clean for the rubbish.
You know, I love it when the dust.
I hate to live in Birmingham at the moment, wouldn't you?
They've had this dustbin strike, piling up.
Rubbish, rats everywhere. Terrible.
God Forgives and he cleanses, washes it away.
The tides come in and work. Wash all the detritus off the
beach and it's a nice beach for me to walk on with the Father.
And all I've done is admit, Lord, I need a change and you
die for me. Hallelujah.
Isn't it great? He will convict us when we go
wrong, not to punish us, but to bring us to repentance and to
reality and actually bring Him into a place where we can be a
blessing to others. He is faithful and just and will
forgive and cleanse us. John Newton, you know, the
writer of Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, you know, he was
a slave trader and then got saved.
He wrote this. He said our sins are many, but
His mercies are more. Our sins are greater, but His
righteousness is greater. We are weak, but He is power.
Then He says this. Most of our complaints are owing
to unbelief. And the remainder of a legal
spirit. What does Newton mean there?
The remainder of a legal spirit? One, I'm sure he means this,
that even after we're saved by grace and grace alone, born
again, filled with the Spirit, all of us tend to feel we're not
quite good enough to enjoy God's favour and blessings.
Still not quite got there yet. That's why Paul warns us all who
rely on works doing things are under a curse.
Lawishness he calls it, You know, the legal spirit being
legal religious, I call it being religious, trying to do things
to earn God's blessing. They need to be dealt with.
We still feel we have to earn His approval and His love.
We actually are saying that Jesus death was not enough to
secure our salvation. What an insult.
If you really knew what I was like.
Lord, I know what you like and I love you and I'll change you.
Only you are worthy. We sing of Jesus.
He was worthy for us. We couldn't keep the 10
commandments, He kept them for us.
Isn't that good news? You put your faith in Jesus.
He kept in 10 commandments for us.
Forget about your religious performance.
How many times have I read the Bible this week?
What's my prayer life? Have I give all that?
Forget about your performance. Now consider your heart
relationship because that's the whole difference.
That will change you. The religious performance won't
change you. It's very sad on Judgement Day,
Jesus is going to say some awful things.
Really. How about these ones talk about
Judgement day. We've all died.
We're on for the judgement seat of Christ on that day.
Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophecy in your name
and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works, many mighty
works in your name. And then I would declare to
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness. Now, when I read that when I was
younger, I thought to me, you, you never knew me.
You know everything God. You know everything God.
What he's saying is you've never shared everything about you with
me. You've not you've not been
humbled to ask for salvation. You've not been honest with
what? What state you really are, how
selfish you are. You know you.
You've hidden yourself from me like Adam and Eve.
How awful, don't you think? And some of these are religious.
Well, they're done. There's many religious people
who look at their religion and their works and think that's
going to do anything for them. It won't do a thing for them.
It's a finished work of Christ and the cross, isn't it?
How unfair it would be. You know, if I've been brought
up in a rough home, terrible time and I've been in gangs and
everything, I'd never have a chance to get to heaven compared
with someone who's brought in a very nice home and full of godly
stuff. No, it's irrelevant.
Many will say, didn't we do this?
Didn't we? They and say, but I never knew
you, you were just religious. If I didn't just I wanted to
know you. I want you to give your heart to
me, your life to me, your soul to me.
Has he got your heart and soul today?
Are you honest with him? If you're not, you're in
darkness, you know, walking in darkness.
And if you're a Christian, you're not coming into the light
where you need to be. I don't hide anything from God.
Do you? I'm wise if you do.
I never knew you. Wow.
Well, frightening. Have you shared your innermost
thoughts, dreams, concerns, feelings?
Have you given those with Jesus? He's not like us.
He always stands at the door and knocks and he waits for you to
open the door. He's doing that now and we might
not even know him. I've met some people who've come
to know the Lord Jesus. They've been in a meeting like
this, said I'm feeling something stirring in me.
God's calling me and I, I know he's knocking on the door of my
heart if I dare open it. He says, behold, I stand at the
door, knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and feast with you.
And I'll clean the place up with a Hoover and I'll open the
windows and draw the curtains back and make your mind clear
and I'll save you thoroughly if not.
If we're religious, someone said to help the gospel is to lose
the gospel. It's just trusting in Jesus.
And so he ends the reading here, but nearly there.
Well done. He says this, my little
children, we wrote, read this. I'm writing these things that
you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world.
Listen, Jesus is our advocate. When is he our advocate there?
Tell me when is he sorry when we mess up?
Look, he said, if anyone does sin, we have an advocate.
In other words, if you muck up, which you will this week, in
some ways, this today, you might even actually when you're in
that state, you have an advocate.
Wow, an advocate is good news. What is an advocate?
Well, an advocate is 1, like a lawyer in a court of law who
comes alongside you and presents your case to the judge.
Now our case is a strong one. If you look at the brochure,
what a case, what a case we've got.
Jesus has died for all my sins. Wow, I'm reconciled.
I've been ransomed by Him, paid for by his blood.
I've been justified. What a case we've got.
So his blood has been shed is such a strong case.
And what is wonderful is the Father, he's pleased to grant us
complete forgiveness. He's just waiting there for it.
Come on, son. Come on, bring the case.
They, they confess. They're putting their trust in.
You. See, when we sin and fail, we
instinctively, like Adam and Eve, try to hide, try to excuse
our failings. We we shift the blame elsewhere.
We try to be our own advocates. But John is saying you don't
need to try to justify your sins.
Stop excusing yourself. It was your bad temper or it was
your lust, whatever it was. Dane Alton again, he says.
What if we never needed to advocate for ourselves because
another had undertaken to do so? What if that advocate knew
exhaustively just how fallen we are and yet at the same time was
able to make a better defence for us than we ever could?
No blame shifting or excuses the way outs our self advocacies
tend to operate but perfectly just pointing to his all
sufficient sacrifice and his suffering on the cross.
In our place we will be free. Amen.
We need to be free to defend ourselves, give up making
excuses to say Lord this is what I am without you Lord He says I
know I knew what you like when I took you on, I love you, I yearn
for you. Come on let's get back into a
relationship. We will need to admit and
confess our need of a defence, but then leave the defence to
Jesus. Just put your trust in Jesus.
He'll make the case for you. He is the propitiation for our
sins and not for ours only, but for all the sins of the world.
It says propitiation is the turning away of the wrath of God
as the just judgement of our sin by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
on the cross. So if, if the judgement of God
which needs to come will come towards us, suddenly Jesus comes
in a way. Isn't that lovely?
I haven't got to suffer for my sins at all.
It's outrageous, isn't it? But you've got to get it.
It's so, it's so counter intuitive.
I've got hundreds of thousands of Christians who don't grasp
this. They can't live in the right
relationship with God, living in the light which makes you
joyful. What a saviour.
He's our advocate, he's our propitiation.
He will never leave us. Leave.
Despite all the reasons we give him to, He won't leave you.
You have plenty of reasons you think you could do so He refuses
to even think for a moment of turning away from you because
you're his. You who deserve to be pushed
away. No.
He holds you to himself. And when I fail and I come say,
oh Lord, I find his hug there. Yes, I want you to get this.
How do you spell? Open our eyes.
This is what he's like. He's good.
He's gracious, easy to please. I got it all wrong.
It takes sometimes a few years where people just suddenly say,
oh, you really? You really like that?
I'm never condemned. No, there's no condemnation
version in Christ Jesus. I convict you.
He's honest and true. You say that's no way to carry
on, Andy. I say, oh, OK, fine.
Sorry, Lord, You're right. OK.
Forgive. Yeah.
And sometimes go and apologise to Jane.
I can't apologise to Jane now she's with the Lord.
But there's sometimes a practical application.
So to finish as we're landing now, how do we walk in victory?
Paul says to Titus. The grace of God has appeared
that offers salvation to all people.
It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions
and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives.
In the present age, what's going to change your behaviour is the
grace of God. Walking with him because grace
means you don't deserve any of it.
But walking with him, being open with him, suddenly I don't want
to make a shipwreck of my life. I don't want to be a slave to
any habit. I want to be with you, CLO Lord
on. And if I've got the habit, I
want to walk with you as I I'm going towards this habit.
Lord, could you help me with this?
Yes. And the only way will be changed
is as we walk daily with Him in the light, being open and honest
with Him, receiving His grace, refusing to listen to our past
and the lies of legalism. Say no, no, no, no.
You love me in spite of my sin, in the midst of my sin.
You're my advocate. You're my loving father.
You're walking life with me. And life's pretty tough and
you're walking the road of life with me.
And when we hurt him, he refuses to act towards us in any other
way than that which is his nature.
Truthful, honest with us, firm in what is right and wrong, but
always kind, always ready to wrap us in his arms again.
Compassionate, faithful. Neither will remember him.
We're dust. So my last comment is this.
This is the God who invites us to walk with him.
He would say to you this morning, come walk with me,
let's fellowship together. Let me change you on the way.
Amen. Let's pray.
Lord, it blows our minds that you should want friendship with
us. You're the eternal God, the
pure, and yet you've made a way through Jesus where we can be
completely forgive him and could be loved by you, accepted by
you. And Lord, I thank you.
You love us in our fallenness, you love us in our failings.
And they're no, no reason for us to excuse who we are.
But Lord, that doesn't make us want to sin more.
The grace of God makes us want to change.
And I pray for my friends here. May they understand who you are
more and more and push away these lies that you, you find it
hard and you turn your nose up at us and so on.
Well, you don't do that at all. And if there's someone here
today who's never given their life to Jesus, never said I, I
think I need to respond this morning, please.
Would you in your heart now say, Jesus, you're knocking on the
door. In my heart, I can sense it.
I can feel it. It's a bit disturbing and I
don't want to miss this moment. I pray that you would now say
door. Jesus, I, I give you permission.
I, I dare to open the door. Come on in, come in, heal me,
forgive me, feast with me, walk with me for the rest of these
years. I've got Amen, Amen.