I John, 2:1-2
Josiah Matthews · Nov 13, 2005
1 John, No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262336557916

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright. Well, let's dig in. And what I wanted to do first, I did this last minute. It's something I was thinking about and just never included it in the presentation until this morning. You see the authors of Romans, who's Paul and John, doing something similar here when they're talking about sin in two of their letters. And Paul says, at the end of Romans 5, he says, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? May never be. No. And then John... I didn't do what I wanted to do. John, in verses 8, 9, and 10, and then in verses 1 and 2, he's talking about sin as well.

And he says, if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And so, you wonder if the reader started to go, OK, well I can sin, and if I can't help it, I can sin.

So John does the same thing that Paul did, and I meant to highlight this in blue text. He says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. So both authors clarify when they talk about sin. So I thought that was a neat parallel. OK, so today we are going to look at verses 1 and 2. My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. So this is what we'll get into. Let me say something as well.

I like to throw a lot of details up on the screen, because when we study God's Word, most of our time is spent in observation. We have to observe and observe and observe and observe, and then we can interpret and apply. So I throw up a lot of my observations on the screen, And I won't go over all of them, and if they don't interest you, just ignore them or save them for later study. Just to tell you why I put them up there. Because one, you can check out what I'm saying, and then also you can use some of my same observations for your own study. So that's why I put them in, I include them. But I won't mention them all today.

So little children. It's just simply a term of endearment, a little child, and of course John's using it figuratively, and it's only used figuratively in the New Testament. And Vine says this, it's a term of affection by a teacher to his disciples under circumstances requiring a tender appeal. Jesus used it and John used it, and here's where Jesus used it in John 13, 33. He says, little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going you cannot come, but you will follow later. So, he's talking about his death to his disciples, and so he calls them his little children, and of course John was there.

So, next, I'm writing these things to you. I'm writing, we've seen this verb before, to write. And John, of course, is just referring to the letter. These things, John says, I'm writing these things. My question is, down at the bottom, obviously he's referring to the truths of his letter, but which truths? Is he referring to the whole book, or is he referring to certain verses that he's written in chapter 1?

We'll answer that in a little bit. Okay, we've seen this before. Hina is so that, in order that, or to the end that. So John says, I'm writing these things to you so that. And here's our train wreck slide. This next bullet I completely botched about a month ago. So I'll just try this one again.

Hina plus a subjunctive verb comprises roughly one-third of all 1,858 subjunctive verbs in the New Testament. So, technical detail, but hang on to it if it's helpful. So, is Hina plus a subjunctive verb, and you may not sin, is a subjunctive verb, is very common. And Hina with a subjunctive answers the question, why?

So, why is John writing these things? in order that his readers would not sin. And it's similar to what John said in verse 4 of chapter 1. These things I write, same Greek words, a very similar construction, so that our joy may be complete, in verse 4. But here it's, so that you may not sin. So, you may not sin. Hamartano, we've seen this before.

John uses it 10 times in 1 John and 4 times in the Gospel. It's only found 43 times in the New Testament, the verb to sin, so John uses it over 25% of the time. So he has a lot to say about sinning. And then, sin here is in the Aorist tense, and if you remember the chart that Roger handed out, Aorist provides a snapshot or a summary view of an action.

So, in other words, John isn't saying, I'm writing these things so that you may not continue to sin. What John's saying is, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Like, even once. So, John has in mind... Hang on here. A life of continual sin for the Christian doesn't even enter John's mind at this point. He'll address that in chapter 3. He's writing these things so that Christians would not commit a single act of sin. So, John's saying a life of sin, or sin, isn't normal. And he doesn't even take into consideration continuous sin. I'm not saying a believer can't continuously sin, but that's not what John's talking about here.

Alright, back to the question. To which truths of 1 John does these things refer? And what do you guys think? I wanted to ask you. He's saying he's writing these things to them so that they may not sin. The reputation of heresy in 6 through 10? Okay. I think so. I think so. I think, specifically, John's referring to verses 6-10 where he was talking about sin. But at the same time, here are a few things that John's presented thus far, including verses 6-10, but not exclusively.

He's talked, the first couple of verses, about Jesus Christ, His person, His life on earth and Jesus' teaching, provided some incentive to not sin. He's also then, of course, talked about fellowship with the Father, the Son, and with other believers as we walk in the light. And that's certainly a reason to not sin, remain in fellowship with the Lord and with other believers. And then also, he talked about sin. He said, do not deny the fact of the indwelling sin nature. He taught that we can confess sin when necessary to regain fellowship. And then in verse 10, he basically says, don't profess perfection. You still have a sin nature.

But specifically, John most likely has this section in mind here. But at the same time, I think he also has in mind the entire book. All right. Now, if anyone sins, if is just a conditional particle which makes reference to time and to experience, introducing something future, but not determining before the event whether it is certain to take place. So if anyone sins, it's used 21 times in John.

And we have a third class conditional sentence here. So, Roger's gone over this already, but we'll look at it briefly again. A third class conditional sentence presents the condition as uncertain of fulfillment, but still likely. So, it's not guaranteed, but it's likely that it will happen. We'll put the whole sentence together here in a minute.

If anyone sins, anyone is just an indefinite pronoun, so anybody, if anybody sins, including John himself, he's saying, sins is the same verb. And again, the heiress tense provides a snapshot or a summary of the sinful action. And the Christian's life isn't normal, but abnormal and extraordinary. This is John's view of sin, by the way. John's view of sin is that in the Christian's life, sin isn't normal. It's abnormal and extraordinary.

But the Lord has provided for us if we do sin. If anyone commits a sin, and it is not certain that they will sin, but it is still likely, being only a choice away. It's just a matter of you trusting your sin nature versus the Lord Jesus. It's that simple. If we commit a sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So that's what he's saying there. And we have is echo, to have or to possess, and we've seen this verb before already. And notice that it's present tense, now and continuing. We have, right now and continuing, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.

Alright, and I updated our keyword list Doug had asked that we put the transliterated words on there, so at the end of your notes, there's a transliterated keywords page, so you can stick that in your folder. It should be at the end of your notes. At the end of your notes, it's a full page.

Yeah. It's in the middle. All right. Yeah. And middle details. Okay. So we have right now I'm continuing an advocate. So an advocate is parakletos, and it means one who pleads with another's case, one who pleads another's case with one, an intercessor. Literally, it's just one that's called alongside to help. But in this context, it has to do with pleading the case of another.

And so Christ is right now an advocate, but before we look in detail at Christ's role as an advocate, I wanted just to review all of Christ's present heavenly ministries. And this is from Lewis Perry Shaffer, so there's different lists compiled. So Christ's present ministry in heaven right now would include The exercise of universal authority, so he's in charge basically, and I put verses there. Matthew 28 says, all authority has been given unto me.

He is head over all things to the church. and this would include him giving life to the church. He's whom the church depends upon, so it would include his relationship to the church. He also is the giver of gifts to the church. He gives individually spiritual gifts to each believer, and then also he gives the church, it's the local church itself, gifts. and they would be the elders and evangelists and teachers, things like that. Christ is also an intercessor. He prays for believers. And then here today we're looking at Christ as the advocate. Christ is also a builder.

And John 14, he says he's going to prepare a place for us. So that's going on. Unless he's done. I don't know. Christ is waiting for the Millennial Kingdom as well. So right now he's at the Father's right hand, and he's anticipating the thousand year reign. He's ready to come. And so he's waiting for that to happen as well.

So again, you could probably add to this, I think he's also waiting for the father to tell him to go get his bride to church. So that's also going on, but I didn't add that to Schaeffer's list. It felt kind of awkward adding to Schaeffer's list. No, I'm just kidding.

Okay, so back to this word, the advocate. In rabbinical literature, the writings of the rabbis, the Jewish rabbis, The word could indicate one who offers legal aid or one who intercedes on behalf of someone else. The word undoubtedly signified an advocate or counsel for the defense in a legal context. So here Christ is our advocate when we sin. So that's the context of the word parakletas here. Now this word is used only five times in the entire New Testament, and all five are by the Apostle John. He uses the word parakletos four times in reference to the Holy Spirit in his Gospel, and then one time in 1 John to Jesus Christ. And it seems that when he's referring to the Holy Spirit, he's using the word in a little different meaning.

Okay, so what is the Advocate doing, Jesus Christ? This is for you to answer. What is the Advocate doing? What are your thoughts? He must have a prosecutor out there someplace. Right on. So there's a reason he's defending. We'll look at that in a minute. Yeah, great. So the advocate is defending the sinning believer, the believer who's out of fellowship. And how? How is He defending the sinning believer? By His blood?

Right on. So, Christ, once for all, personal blood sacrifice, has forever satisfied the Father in relation to our sins. And so, Christ isn't continually presenting His blood to the Father, right? Because that happened at one time. But He's always referring to His sacrifice. And of course, Christ's sacrifice is more than enough for all sins, for the whole world, for all time. So yeah, that is what He would be referring to.

And then, what is the result of Christ's advocacy? Kind of goofy questions. Does the accuser ever win? I think a couple things are going on. Not guilty? No. Right on. And here's a couple things I think are going on. The sinner wins, yeah. And I think a couple things here. One is that the Aaron Christian, the Christian who's out of fellowship, he continues to be eternally secure in Christ. We're forever secure in Christ.

And also, he is able to conditionally fellowship with God again as he confesses his sins, because 1 John 1.9 told us that was necessary.

But yeah, the Lord Jesus is our advocate with the Father when we're out of fellowship. And if we sin, He's before the Father, referring to His blood that we've trusted in when we got saved. Okay, and our advocate is with the Father. And Colossians 3, 1 tells us that Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. And there's other passages in the New Testament that teach that as well.

Weaves says this, our advocate is always in fellowship with the Father in order that if the saint loses fellowship with him through cherished or unconfessed sin, he might plead our cause on the basis of his precious blood and bring us back into fellowship again. Oh man. So who else is before God day and night in heaven? Satan. And this is what Ben was talking about.

And Revelation 12.10 says, at the end there, So, we know that's going on. That for whatever reason, Satan has access to God's throne, and he's there accusing you and me. But, the Lord Jesus is right there too. So, we don't have anything to worry about. You're too young to remember the devil made me do it.

There's somewhat a picture in Job of that. Yeah, that's right. God dialogues with Job. Yeah, that's right. And this is ahead in the prophetic scheme. So he's not thrown down yet, but he will be one day. So presently he's still doing this accusing before God day and night. But yeah, it's interesting in Job that Satan's dialoguing with God about Job.

So if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Righteous is actually an adjective here, dikaios, righteous or just. It's used six times in 1 John. And righteousness is an attribute of God, of course. And I listed some verses that you could look up.

And I make a comment, isn't it nice to know that even though the accuser is evil and a liar, the judge and advocate are righteous. both the judge and the advocate are righteous. Because I don't know, if you're like me, you have to work in the world and you have to interact with evil people. And they lie, and if they're over you, if you work with them and they're over you or under you, they're going to try, if they don't like you, they're going to try to get you in trouble and they're going to say things to your boss. I mean, all kinds of crazy things go on. Well, here we have an accuser who is, by his very nature, a liar. the father of lies, but we don't have anything to worry about.

Because the judge and the advocate, they're not going to make a bad decision. They're always going to be righteous. So, it's nice to know. Also, I think it's significant that Jesus Christ here is righteous. Remember in the Old Testament, they had to take a lamb without blemish and they would sacrifice that lamb without blemish. So here we're talking about sins and Christ referring to His own blood. I think it's also good to remember that.

It says in verse 2, "...and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins." a personal pronoun, and this is a bit of detail here, but it's in the predicate position in the nominative, and so it's saying that he himself, so it's intensifying himself, so he himself is the propitiation for our sin. And one more thing, Our verb is, is Amy, and by the way, it's the word that's used the most in the book of John. But look at this, it's present tense.

So, He Himself is, right now and continuing, the propitiation for our sins. And so now, what is propitiation? And by implication, He never ceases to be the propitiation for our sins. And in a word, propitiation is satisfaction. And propitiation now, hilasmas, is satisfaction or the means of appeasing God's wrath.

It's used only twice in the entire New Testament as a noun. And both are in 1 John. Then as a verb, to propitiate, to satisfy. It's used twice, Luke and in Hebrews. And then there's also a similar word, a similar noun that's related to the verb that's used twice in the New Testament as well. Here's a quote by Leitner that I think helps.

Propitiation presupposes the wrath and displeasure of God. So we're talking about God's wrath because Does God care for sin? No, God hates sin. So, propitiation presupposes the wrath and displeasure of God, and the purpose of propitiation is the removal of this displeasure. Very simply stated, the doctrine of propitiation means that Christ propitiated the wrath of God, or satisfied the wrath of God, and rendered God propitious to His people. So, God possesses wrath against sin, and because of His holiness, He would judge all sin.

I listed some verses here at the bottom that show where God has wrath against sin. Let me make a comment. that the pagan gods, the false gods, demons probably, they had wrath too, right? And the people that worshipped the false gods would try to appease their gods and try to protect themselves from the wrath of the gods.

But remember, their gods were evil, and that's not what we're talking about here. And also, one more thing I wanted to say there. Oh, their gods didn't love. Their gods didn't love them. The pagan gods had no love. It wasn't even in their writings. When the pagans wrote about their gods, true love didn't come into the equation.

So their gods had wrath, and our God has wrath. Scriptures teach that God has wrath against sin. But the difference is that their God doesn't have love. Our God has love for us. And so he still has to carry out his wrath because he's righteous, but yet because he loves us, he's going to provide that substitute, Jesus Christ.

So, for the unbeliever, They themselves will receive God's wrath at the Great White Throne Judgment because Christ's sacrifice is not applied to their sin, because they didn't trust Him. We'll look more at this, so I'm getting ahead of myself just a little bit. But yes, Christ's sacrifice was enough for their sin, enough for the sins of the whole world. He died for the whole world. But if they don't believe Him, then His sacrifice isn't applied to their sin, and they're still under judgment. Okay, and now we'll just look at a couple verses here.

Ezekiel 21, 17, Jehovah is telling Ezekiel what to say, the prophet. I will also clap my hands together, and I will appease my wrath, I, the Lord, have spoken." So here, I wanted to throw this one in because it's mentioning that God has wrath and He'll appease His wrath. Although in this context, He's talking about His wrath towards Judah because of their unfaithfulness and sin, and His wrath was appeased by the Babylonians. God brought the Babylonians in. They took out the southern kingdom in 586 BC.

Another one in relation to unbelievers is John 3.36.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son or believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. So the wrath of God is still on the unbeliever. Another one, Romans 2, 5 and 6. Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, and this is the part of Romans where he's talking to unbelievers, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds. Now, but for the believer, Christ received God's wrath at the cross and they will never be judged or condemned for our sins because Christ's sacrifice is applied to our sins. And here's a few verses, Romans 8, 5, 8 and 9.

But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." So because we have been declared righteous or justified by His blood, like Brad alluded to, it was His blood, we will not receive God's wrath at the Great White Throne of Judgment.

Now, I've had a few passages on here from Hebrews, and last week I was going to ask you to read the entire book of Hebrews. But you're probably glad I forgot to do that, because it's a little long. But Hebrews has a lot to say about our subject this morning. And here's a few examples.

2.17, Jesus had to be made like his brethren in all things, like us, is who he's talking about there. He had to be made like us in all things. so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, to make satisfaction for the sins of the people. Hebrews 9, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands like the Jewish tabernacle was made with hands, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, one time for all time, having obtained eternal redemption." They just get longer as we go here.

Hebrews 9.24-28, For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself. Now, look at that, now to appear in the presence of God for us. And I believe, even though we don't have the word advocate shown up there, this is the same idea. So He appears now in the presence of God for us, nor was it that He would offer Himself often.

So Christ isn't continually offering His blood to the Father. Okay, here's some more blood. He's sinned again, but it was once for all. And then the verse goes on here, As the Jewish high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own, otherwise Jesus would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.

But now, once at the end of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes the judgment, so Christ also, Having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him. There's more. Hebrews 10 says, Every priest stands daily, ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but he, Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time. So again, the author just keeps hammering.

Christ offered himself as a sacrifice once, and his sacrifice is good for all time. After this, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. And this is talking about the millennial kingdom. Verse 14, for by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

So the author of Hebrews is referring back to the Old Testament a bit, and even 1 John, I'm sorry, John here in 1 John, when he uses the word Hilasmas, Hilasmas, he's referring back, propitiation, he's referring back to the Old Testament as well, because the Jewish high priest would enter the Holy of Holies one time every year and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, and the mercy seat is our word, a variation of our word Hilasmas. So he would sprinkle this blood on the Ark of the Covenant. And here's a copy, a model of the Ark of the Covenant. And the mercy seat is the lid, basically. So this is where the high priest would splatter the blood from the sacrifice once a year. As a result of the high priest sprinkling the blood on the top of the Ark, remember God has wrath against sin, right? But because He saw the blood, He would withhold His wrath. It's still there, but He's just withholding it. He's withholding His wrath for another year. He would overlook the sins of the people for another year. And then at the cross, God unleashed His wrath against Jesus, who had become sin on the cross for us. And now, for all who trust in His sacrifice, God's wrath has been satisfied forever.

Okay, and not for ours only, not for our sins only, but also for those of the whole world. And Jesus is the satisfaction also for the sins of the whole world. And, of course, there's teaching that says that Jesus only died for the elect. He didn't die for everybody. And so, then you have to explain away verses that teach that Jesus died for the whole world. So, this clearly says He died for the sins of the whole world. Question is, is this teaching that Christ's personal sacrifice is applied to unbelievers, or that Christ's personal sacrifice is available to all unbelievers?

And this text in 1 John 2 doesn't really say. So we have to look at other verses to determine the answer, to find the answer. But from other scriptures, By correlation, it's clear that Christ's sacrifice is only applied to those who trust Him. We're only going to look at two passages. This is one of them. Look at this. Look where faith shows up in this passage.

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. being witnessed by the Law and Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. So here we have God's righteousness being given, same thing as justification, but it's through faith, it's for all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith." So it's our word again, propitiation or satisfaction, but it's through faith. So it's not applied to those who don't have faith, it's applied to those who are trusting the Lord, or who have trusted the Lord. He goes on, "...this was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed.

And that's what we were talking about. In the Old Testament with the Jews, God would just keep passing over the sin. He was ready to judge the sin, but He would pass over the sin. And you're aware that Yom Kippur was the Jewish Day of Atonement. Well, Kippur, K-P-R, the three consonants there, Kippur, in the Greek Septuagint, Our propitiation word is used for that kapur, so we're talking about the exact same thing, and it's a covering.

So, in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So, all throughout the passage, but faith keeps coming into it. We're justified by faith. His propitiation is for those who have believed. So, that's important to note.

Romans 3.28, For we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.

And then Philippians 3.9, Paul says, "...so that I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ." The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Various aspects of salvation we see are by faith.

Propitiation is included. Forgiveness of sins would be included. Justification is included. Redemption is included. They're different words. They all have different meanings, but yet they're all related. They all relate to our salvation. And they're by faith. And again, why do I even say that? Because we have to address this phrase, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So, what was he saying there? Is he saying that everybody is saved or everyone's sins are forgiven?

In summary, satisfaction for sins is available to all. and it's more than sufficient for all sins, and it's our job to offer it to all people, but only those who believe have the sacrifice applied to their sins. Vincent says this, if men do not experience the benefit of propitiation, the fault is not in the effectiveness of the propitiation, it's their fault. So, in other words, it's there, it's available, it's enough, it's more than enough, the sacrifice is more than enough, but if you don't experience the benefits of it, it's your fault.

So, a couple extra things at the back of your notes, you have the transliterated key words and that just means that They take the Greek letters, the Greek funny looking font, and they just put it into an English font. And then also, there's a paper by Verne that he put out last year.

It's called Propitiation and the Forgiveness of Sins. So it relates to what we're talking about this morning. So that's there. Alright, well that's all I had. Did you guys have anything to add? There's one thing that I think is cool. The message that we bring to unbelievers is that their sins have been paid for. That's a powerful message. Because a lot of times Christians, sometimes unknowingly will get sins kind of in the mix there.

And they're not in the mix. It's only Christ is the only requirement. If not their sins are not the issues, their sins have been satisfied. They need to trust Christ. So it takes the focus off of, well, I'm not good enough, or I'm too bad, or whatever, and it focuses on Christ, what we do with Christ. So I mean, I think that's a freedom that in presenting the gospel, the good news that we have is that their sins are no longer the issue. Christ is taking care of their sins. He's paid for their sins. God is satisfied with his sacrifice. The issue is, it's the Son, Jesus Christ.

Yeah, we've got a good message. Good message for the unbeliever. Alright, let's pray. Dear Lord, thanks for letting us study. We do thank you so much for saving us. We pray that you would give us opportunities, continue to give us opportunities to share your truth with unbelievers. Thanks also for Christ's advocacy for us at Your right hand when we do sin. And I pray that we would all walk with You, walk in fellowship with You, walk in the light by Your grace, and that we would glorify You. In Jesus' name, Amen.