I want to continue our studies in the first epistle of John. First John, chapter one, tells us about the Lord Jesus come down to us. Some have misjudged the writings of John, I'm sure, in thinking that they're not as high truth as the writings of Paul. Well, anything about the Lord Jesus is high enough truth for me, and I think that we need to know about him come down to us as well as him taking us up to be with him. And so the book begins by telling us about him who was from the beginning. He takes us back to the beginning. He wants us to know what he and the other apostles knew about our Lord's coming down here for us. His coming down to reveal God to us. For we can't know God in any other way except through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that we might have fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with the Apostles, with the rest of the Lord's people. and that in having that fellowship with him our joy might be full. But in the second chapter, he gives us another view of the Lord Jesus. He tells us what the Lord Jesus is doing at the present time. He tells us about our advocate at the right hand of the Father. While in chapter three, In verse one, he tells us about the time when the Lord Jesus is going to come back again. He's going to appear again. You remember you have these three appearances brought together in the ninth chapter of Hebrews. In fact, they're often brought together. In the ninth of Hebrews, he once appeared to put away sin. He is now appearing in the presence of God for us. And unto us who look for him, he shall appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation. So the Lord Jesus is presented to us in these first three chapters in these three phases of his work for us. He did come to die for us. He is living to intercede for us. And so the eighth chapter of Romans says, Who shall condemn us? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also make an intercession for us. The Lord Jesus is there for us. And then he's coming back again. I believe he's coming a lot sooner than most of us are looking for him. I think he'd catch some of us flat-footed if he came this morning. I think he'd find a lot of us with unfinished business. But he's coming anyway. I think the hope of the Lord's coming was a lot brighter when I was a boy, when I was first saved. But I think he's coming is a lot nearer than it was when I was a boy, when I was first saved. It has to be. That's just a matter of the... of the calendar. I wish you'd think about that. But now let's look at the second chapter this morning. I want to think about the Lord Jesus interceding for His people. I've asked a number of people, and not all of them young Christians either, what do you think the Lord Jesus is doing right now? And you'd be surprised how many of them think that he's in the contracting business. He's up there busily getting mansions ready. Every time somebody gets saved, he starts, lays the foundation for another mansion. I don't know where that idea ever came from, but it's a wretched one. Well, doesn't the Bible say, I go to prepare a place for you? Doesn't it say there are many mansions up there? And don't the old songs say that we're sending on material, and don't they tell us stories about some old washerwoman that's got a much nicer mansion than the lady she works for, and she has to live in a little cottage down the bottom of the hill? Yeah, there's a lot of sentimental drivel in some of these old songs, too. Don't you forget that. There isn't anything in the Bible about you having a mansion. Stuart Hamlin thinks so, but the Bible doesn't teach it. You have no mansion just over the hilltop. Not a single stick of wood has been put into anything of that kind. When the Lord Jesus said, I go to prepare a place, singular, for you, plural, he meant I'm going to have all of you, my people, with me. There are many dwelling places. It's got to have some place to put all those angels together. He's got to have some place for a great many of the rest of the families of God. But this family of God has one place with himself, and he is not building mansions. But you say, isn't he up there to prepare a place? No, when he went to the cross and rose from the dead and went into the presence of God. According to the book of Hebrews, our forerunner for us entered within the veil the way was prepared. and the place was prepared. If it wasn't where in the world did he put those who died right away, and there were a lot of them. One died the same day he did in just a few hours afterward. The thief on the cross. The Lord had a place for him, all right, don't you think that he didn't. He had a place for it. He's got a place for us. Well, then what is he doing? Oh, he has a wonderful service to perform for his people now. The first verse of the second chapter of First John says, My dear children, my little children, these things right unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sinned, I don't think for a minute that sin is a necessity. I don't know anybody living without it, but I don't think for a minute that it's a necessity. And I don't think we ought to excuse it. I've heard a lot of people say, well, after all, we're still human. They can't help these things, much as to say we've got to have our budget include a certain amount of sin anyway. Might as well be this kind as another kind. If any man's sin, we have an advocate with a Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins. He has answered to God for our sins. He has met the holy claims of God in our place. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The Lord Jesus Christ then is our advocate. We don't use the word advocate in this country very much, but somebody told me that in England, I believe, at least in some part of the British Isles, an attorney is called an advocate, and the chief attorney, or we'd say the district attorney or the Attorney General is called the Lord Advocate. The Lord Jesus Christ is our representative at the right hand of God in the matters of sin. The Lord Jesus is there before God to plead the cause of His people. Now in this country, if you get into trouble, The lawyer says, you plead innocent, and I'll try to get you off with a light sentence. But the Lord says, you plead guilty, and I'll show that I have already taken your place. The Lord is our advocate when we sin. If any man sin, we have an advocate. Now to hear some people tell it, we'd have to read it like this. If any man sin, we lose our advocate. These folks who believe in losing their salvation whenever they sin against God must think that they've lost their advocate automatically. They've lost their Savior. They've lost everything when they sin. Well, that's when we need an advocate. And that's when we have one. There's another mistake made in connection with our advocate. I've heard people say, we must make use of our advocate. That isn't taught in the Word of God. Our advocate is doing for us long before we have any sense of need of him. Let me give you an instance. He said, Simon, Simon. Satan hath desired thee, that he may sift thee as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, even before he had seen, even before Peter had any sense of need at all. Why Peter was flying high. Why he pulled his chest up and said, Even if all these folks fail, I won't. And the Lord knew. And the Lord was already carrying on his advocacy about a sin which was yet in the future. I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. No, no, you don't have to make use of your advocate. Thank God he faithfully carries on his work in spite of our unfaithfulness and in spite of our failure. I wonder how much the Lord's been praying about you and me this last week. He's had a lot of things to pray about, in my case. There have been a lot of things he needed to tell his Father about me. Aren't you glad the Lord Jesus is there for you? Well, you say I don't know if I felt any particular need. For that, I thought he saved me and and headed me the right direction and gave me a shove toward heaven. And, of course, he's got a few things kind of help me out, but it's mostly up to me, isn't it? Well, just how long do you think you'd last without an advocate? Just how long do you think you would go on in fellowship with God without an advocate? Why think of the many sins of which we're not even conscious? We don't call them sins. But God does. The longer you're saved, and the more you go on for God, the more tender your conscience is going to be about sin. That's why old saints of God who've gone on for forty or fifty years, or longer, excuse me, or longer will tell us I'm painfully conscious of my sinful heart. And then if you could pry into their innermost conscience and thoughts and lies and say, well, now just what is it that's troubling you? You talk like you strangled your grandmother. You talk like you're a terrible fellow. What have you done? Oh, yesterday I was guilty of a proud look. proud look. Is that sin? Yes, don't you know that sin? I guess I don't even, I hadn't even thought about it. I probably had several proud looks myself yesterday. You mean that's what's worrying, that's why you say you're such a sinner? Boy, I wish I didn't have any more wrong with me than that. I'd be fine. What else is bothering you? I've had some foolish thoughts. Foolish thoughts. Is that wrong? Well, yes, the very thought of foolishness is sin. And that's what's bothering you? Well, yes, the longer you're on with God, the more tenure your conscience is going to be. There's no such thing as a little sin. There's no such thing as an insignificant sin. Sin is the uprising of an evil nature and an insult to God, whether that sin happens to be what you would call a little sin, or whether it happens to be what you would call a flagrant open sin. I know there's difference so far as the outward disgrace is concerned, but I'm talking now about what hinders our fellowship with God, what hinders us from going on well with Him. We have an advocate with the Father, and it's a mercy of God we have. Where would I be today apart from this? Now let me just go over this. You might know how this happens. Even before I have sinned, and of course, when I sin, the Lord Jesus is my advocate. He is pleading for me at the right hand of God. He shows His wounds as a reason why God can forgive me as His child and not judge me as a sinner and as a criminal. The Spirit of God, in sympathy with the Lord Jesus, deals with me about that sin. Many of the things that happen in your lives, you would never even be concerned about, except that the Spirit of God keeps needling you about that, keeps bringing it back to you. He keeps saying to you, you know that was a wrong thing. You know that you offended that Christian. You know that that that was a covetous thought. You're trying to get away from it, but here you've got to get this thing straightened, straightened out. You've got to get this thing settled. The Spirit of God in sympathy with the Lord deals with you about that. Then you in turn are led to do what you're told in the first chapter of first John to confess that sin. and judge yourself, for the two ought to go together. Self-judgment and the confession of sin, then, is a result of the Lord's advocacy for us and the Holy Spirit's convicting power in our hearts and lives. Then I confess that sin. What happens? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and the cleanses from all unrighteousness. The result is that I am happy again, back in touch with the Lord, and able to go on for Him. Now, how many times does that need to be repeated? How many times may it be repeated? I know a Christian who was out of touch with the Lord for quite a while. His reason was that he knew he had sinned against God, and he was doing nothing about it. And I said to him, well, why don't you just go to the Lord and confess it, and get it settled. He said, no, I haven't got the nerve to go back again. He said, I confessed that thing three times, and went right back and did the same thing over again, three different times. He said, there's no use. I haven't got the nerve, he said, to go back to the Lord and confess that thing again. So I turned and read to him what the Lord said to the disciples about forgiving one another. They said, Shall I forgive my brother seven times in one day? To a Jew, that was just about the acme of perfection. I suppose they expected him to say, No, that would be too much. But he said, I say unto you, seventy times seven. Now what's the subject? The subject is one particular offense in one particular day. He isn't talking about over a lifetime. He isn't talking about all of the different things you may do. He's talking about one particular offense in one particular day. And he says four hundred and ninety times would be about right. for you to forgive your brother for the same offense in the same day. Now, do you think the Lord is going to ask you to do something he won't do himself? And this fellow just burst into tears. He said, I had no idea the Lord was that good. I had no idea he was that willing to forgive. I didn't know I could come back. Why, he said, I was ashamed to come back the fourth time. And he said, four hundred and ninety times. Well, I said, I can assure you this, you'll never be back the four hundred and ninety times. You'll get so ashamed of yourself coming back about the fourth and fifth time in the same day, about the same offense, that the next time you're about to do it, you're not going to do it. Now, this is God's way of restoring this. And I don't know any shortcuts. I don't know any other way of getting back in touch with the Lord. I knew a man who was away from God. He had been out preaching the gospel and had started out too early, I think, too young, and the devil bowled him over. He fell into sin, had to be put away. He got so out of touch with the Lord. They told me that he just thought one day, well, there's nothing left anyway. Ten years I've been away from God and away from His people. And he walked into a saloon, and he ordered a glass of beer. And when the bartender set the glass of beer out in front of him, he said, I looked at that and I began to cry. I thought, what a miserable piece I am. Here I am in the saloon ordering a glass of beer. And he said, the bartender said, buddy, you've had too many already, and he took it back. He wouldn't let me have it. But I hadn't had any. He thought I was just crying in my beer. I walked out of there, and I thought, is there anything at all for me? Every Christian that had talked to me said, you've got to go back and get on the track where you got off. All the stupid things to tell anybody. Who knows where he got off the track? You don't get off the track like an engine jumps the track. When you get out of touch with the Lord, it's a series of little things that lead up to bigger things. It's a series of things. He didn't know where he got off the track. Don't ever tell anybody if you want to get back to the Lord. You've got to go back and get on the track where you got off. Somebody finally told this fellow, You know, God still is holding the door open. He's still holding the door open. He says, if we confess our sins. And he said, Jack, why don't you go back to the Lord and just tell him all about it? He said, I couldn't get away from that fellow quick enough to get to my own room and fall down on my knees and say, Lord, how have I been so stupid? That for ten years I've gone on like this when I could have gone to the any day and told the exact what I've done, I can't do anything about it. I have to plead my advocate at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. I'm not righteous, but he's my advocate. He got back to the Lord. The Lord blessed him and used him wonderfully. He was preaching the night I got saved. You know anything about the advocate? But now let's don't stop there. The intercessory work of the Lord Jesus is not alone advocacy. I'm not going to go into it this morning, but I want to say a few words about it before we stop. The book of Hebrews is concerned with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as a high priest. That is not the same as the advocacy of Christ. In the Old Testament, a high priest's work was to be a go-between. He could go to God for the people, and he could come to the people for God. The high priest could go to the Lord and plead the weaknesses, the infirmities of his people. The Lord Jesus is especially occupied with our infirmities. I want to read a verse to you in the book of Hebrews, and I'd ask you to go into this yourself. Be interested enough in this to find out what you can about the Lord Jesus as our High Priest. I've read a number of books on the Epistle of Hebrews. I enjoy studying it myself. I don't know exactly why, but I've never seen in any of these books the mention of the seven works of the High Priest in the Book of Hebrews, and yet they're very plainly here. Seven things which the High Priest does for us in the Book of Hebrews. First of all, in chapter two, verse seventeen, we read, wherefore in all things It behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. That's the first work of the high priest. When Aaron the high priest was consecrated, the first thing he did was to offer a sin offering. That was his first official act. And the first act of our Lord Jesus is the offering of himself to God. for us, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor or help them that are tempted. The Lord Jesus Christ offered himself without spot to God. He never needs to repeat that sacrifice, as the high priest in the Old Testament did. And whenever you think about the priesthood of Christ, please don't think about men who call themselves priests today. Go back to the Old Testament and think about the Jewish priest. Think about the Aaronic priesthood, not modern-day priesthood of any kind. The Lord Jesus then offered Himself to God for us. And he still represents us before God, not now offering sacrifices for sin. For the tenth of Hebrews repeatedly tells us that was done once and for all. The never-to-be-repeated sacrifice for sins which our Lord offered is once and for all. Enough. But. The high priest needed to represent his people in their weaknesses. They needed the help of God. They needed word from God. They needed strengthening messages from God in order that they might be kept from seeing. We say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You believe that? All right. The pound of cure is the advocacy of Christ. When you get into a mess, by all means go to God through the advocate. By all means, confess that sin and believe that the Lord Jesus is there as an advocate for you. Don't try to feel like it's so. Don't try to feel like you're forgiven. Don't try to feel like you're back in touch with the Lord. My boy hurt my feelings terribly one time. He said, when he was going to school in Emmaus, he said to me, Dad, I've just learned something wonderful about the Lord. He said, I always had the idea it was something like you. But I found out he's far better than that. He said, I used to think that whenever I did something wrong, that he'd be on the peck about it, and I'd better lay low for about three or four days. Not ask him for anything. Just kind of keep out of sight. But he said, I found out that the minute the thing is confessed, I'm back in touch with him, and everything's all right again. Well, I'm glad he learned that. I'm sorry he thought what he did about me. He probably had reason to. But you don't have that reason to feel that way about the Lord. But look, It isn't enough that you go back to God and get straightened out when you get into a mess. Why not prevent that mess? Is that possible? Of course it is. Let me give you an illustration. I want you to read this when you have time. Melchizedek was the priest of God in the Old Testament, and according to Hebrews, our Savior is not a priest after the order of Aaron, although many things about Aaron picture for us, the high priestly work of Christ. But he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek had no predecessor. He had no successor. Melchizedek was a man who had something to do for the people of God. I don't know much about him, but I know that one day he met Abraham. Abraham was about to be tempted. He was about to receive a strong temptation. You know, the devil knows your weaknesses a lot better than you do. He knows how to get at you. He knew Peter all right. He didn't try to get at Peter through money, but he knew he could get Peter through pride. Maybe he can't touch you at all through pride, but maybe he can get you through lust. Maybe he won't touch you through lust. But maybe he'll get you through just plain, common, ordinary laziness. The devil knows your weakness. And the devil knew Abraham's weakness. It was possessions. Sure he liked the stuff. He wouldn't have been collecting it if he hadn't. That's why men get rich, is because they like it. If they didn't like it, they wouldn't have it around. Abraham was so rich that he had three hundred and eighteen slaves in his house that he could fit up the soldiers, besides all the rest of them. He had a real retinue. He was a wealthy man. You know what the king of Sodom was like, because you know what Sodom itself was like. Sodom was a rotten place. Why own our statute books in our cities, we still have a sin which we call Sodomy. Every city has to prosecute constantly to hold down that wretched, abominable thing. You can imagine what the King of Sodom was like. And the King of Sodom had a proposition. Abraham had just recovered Lot, his nephew and his family and the rest of the people, and taken the spoil from the kings which were fighting against them. and now the king of Sodom is about to appear with a temptation. This temptation is going to be a strong one for Abraham because it's going to offer to Abraham riches far beyond what he already has. So Melchizedek meets him first. First, Melchizedek meets him. He gives him bread and wine. And bread and wine, you know, from the New Testament is a picture of the death of our Lord. Bread is the strengthener and wine is to cheer. These things fed Abraham. That's the first thing he did. Then the second thing Melchizedek did was to give Abraham a revelation of himself, of God. Through Melchizedek, God gave to Abraham a new revelation. What was it? He said, the possessor of heaven and earth. Abraham never knew that before. I don't know how much Abraham knew about God. I know that if you go through the book of Genesis, as we did recently in our citywide Bible class in Colorado Springs, I know that you'll find that Abraham got successive revelations of God through his various names. If you go through Genesis and mark all those, you'll see that it's wonderful how he learned a little more about God all the time. Up until this day, he didn't know that God was the possessor of heaven and earth. But Melchizedek, the high priest, told him that. So he went on down the road thinking, isn't it wonderful to have a God who owns everything? Isn't it wonderful to have a God who possesses everything in heaven and earth? My, that makes a man independent. Anything I need, I can go to God for. And then here comes this fellow, the King of Sodom. And in his smirk, he says to Abraham, I've got a proposition for you. I'll let you have all these riches here if you just give me these souls. What do you want to do with the people? What does any Sodomite want to do with people? And Abraham said to him, I've lifted up my hand to the possessor of heaven and earth. That I won't even take as much as a shoestring from you. I don't want anybody to say you made Abraham rich, and his temptation fell flat on its face. And Abraham went on his way, happy in the Lord, kept from sin because he met his high priest first. Oh, I would urge you to do this. Young people, make it your habit. Every day you live to meet your high priest before you meet temptations. You know some of your own weaknesses, and if you ask the Lord to show you, he'll show you more of them, too. For instance, You may have a bad temper. I have. It's wonderful to be able to meet the Lord in the morning and say, Lord, this is Tuesday. And you know what Tuesday is. Tuesday is a dinger in my life. I can't meet this. Lord, I don't dare to face Tuesday without these. I've got to see so-and-so. You know how he aggravates me. Just talk plainly to the Lord. Just tell Him, I've got a weakness, Lord. I don't dare to meet these people today. I'll flip my lid, sure, as the boys say. And the Lord will strengthen you. He'll feed you with a little of the bread and wine of heaven, and He'll give you some revelation of Himself. Maybe He'll say to you, God is the God of patience. Oh, I don't have to dig it up, huh? I don't have to inherit it from my folks. No, no. I can't inherit patience, except the patience of an ox and who wants that? Some people think their patience just because they haven't got enough fire in them to spark when anything does happen. They think that they have a, we'll have a wonderful disposition. That isn't patience at all. The patience of Christ is the patience that He wants to give us. Maybe that's the verse He'll give you, about the patience of Christ. And you can start out that day and you say, well, Lord, I haven't got any myself, but I'm going to draw on your supply today. And people can't make you mad if they try it. But, of course, the sad part of it is Wednesday you think you can make it all right because Wednesday's your day off. You say, well, now, Lord, I'll see you again on Thursday. I won't need you today. And so you don't meet your Lord. You're a high priest on Wednesday. And Wednesday the roof falls in on you because you forgot to meet your high priest before you met temptation. He's our intercessor. I pray God we may learn more and more to count on him.