Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas
Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, October 25, 2026 1-2-3 John · Unit 3 · 1 John 2:1-6
► Watch this lesson on video (37:47)
Jesus Pleads Our Case — So We Walk the Way Jesus Walked
Sunday evening • I, II & III John, Unit 3 • 1 John 2:1-6 • Romans 8:34 • Isaiah 53:6 • Revelation 13:8 • John 14:15 • 1 Peter 2:21 • John 13:15
This is the lesson the way it was preached on Sunday evening - near word for word. The “uh”s and the starts-over are taken out; the sentences are left the way they were said. Bible verses are printed exactly as they read in the King James. Anything marked GOING DEEPER was NOT preached on Sunday evening - it is extra study for anyone who wants to dig further.
All right. Our text this evening is 1 John 2, verses 1 through 6. And if we have time, we’re also going to look at Romans chapter 8 and the Gospel of John 14. So those will be our three primary things we’ll look at: 1 John 2:1-6, Romans 8:34, and the Gospel of John 14, verse 15.
Does it really matter if I sin?
Now, previously we learned that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now, once again, to confess doesn’t mean to list all of our sins that we’ve committed. First of all, there’s no way we can do that, because we sin in ways that we don’t even realize. And secondly, that’s not what this is talking about at all. It’s talking about agreeing with God that we have sinned and that we are a sinner. Now, you compare that with, “I’m practically perfect. I’m this Pharisee, been in church half my life, and I may make a mistake every once in a while, but for the most part, I’m a good guy.” That ain’t confessing anything, and it is not agreeing with God that we are a sinner.
Well, if God’s going to always forgive us if we just admit our guilt, then does it really matter that I do sin? Because I mean, I’m going to get forgiven anyway. Well, John addresses this. 1 John 2, let’s look at verses 1 through 6. And we just asked, well, if I’m going to get forgiven anyway, what’s the big deal even if I do sin?
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” - 1 John 2:1a (KJV)
Not so you’re going to live perfect lives, but so that you can avoid some of the pitfalls that Satan puts out in front of you. That’s what he’s talking about here. Not so we’ll live perfectly, but so that we can see the traps ahead of time and avoid them.
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” - 1 John 2:1b (KJV)
We’re going to talk about that word advocate here in just a second.
“And he is the propitiation for our sins:” - 1 John 2:2a (KJV)
We never use that word. It means the satisfaction. Okay? Propitiation means satisfaction. Jesus has satisfied God regarding the payment for our sins. That’s what that means.
“. . . and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” - 1 John 2:2b-3 (KJV)
Okay, just a guard I want to throw up here. I suppose there is an application here to “we can know that we’re saved if” - but the main gist of this passage here is not so that we will know we’ve been saved. The point is we will know if we are in fellowship with the God that saved us. We are in fellowship with God if we guard and protect the things that are important to God. We’re not in fellowship with God if we guard and protect the things that are important to me, and we let the things that are important to God slide. Remember - bring glory to God by putting God where He rightfully belongs, instead of leaving Him out in the weather so we can take care of other things that are more important to us.
And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” - 1 John 2:4 (KJV)
He that saith, I know Him - I’m in good fellowship with Him - and keepeth not His commandments - what does God say about that? That man is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
“But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” - 1 John 2:5-6 (KJV)
And we’re going to talk about that word perfected here in just a second.
So there’s two things that we find here in this verse. First of all, John’s writing this so that we can avoid sin. Now, not live perfect lives, but to avoid certain traps that Satan puts out in front of us. And he says, now, if we fail to see those traps and get caught up in sin, we have an advocate.
We have an advocate
An advocate is somebody that’s on our side. So Jesus pleads our case. This is the one point to the sermon this evening: Jesus is there pleading our case. Okay? It’s a courtroom scene. That’s the idea here. God is judge. We are brought in as being guilty. And Jesus is our lawyer. He’s pleading our case.
JESUS PLEADS OUR CASE — SO WE WALK THE WAY JESUS WALKED.
Jesus pleads our case. So it stands to reason that we should walk the same way that Jesus walked.
Now, an advocate is a person who stands beside us, like in court, and speaks to the judge for us, just like a lawyer would. And this is not something that we have to wait to receive later. We currently, at the present time, have an advocate in heaven. Right now, Jesus is our go-between. This preacher’s guilt is right here. God is judge here. And Jesus keeps edging in between the judge and my guilt. The point is, Jesus is going to take the guilt so that I won’t have to.
So who is our advocate? We just answered that. It is, according to the scripture, Jesus Christ the righteous. He’s the only human - now you say, “Well, I thought He was God.” God-man. He was God in a human body. He was the only man who never sinned. And this is why God hears Jesus when Jesus pleads our case.
Now think about the lawyer who is the son of the judge in the courtroom. Now that’s the setup here. The judge knows the lawyer. The lawyer is his son. He trusts him. And it just so happens in this courtroom that this lawyer, which is the judge’s son - he’s just like Perry Mason. He’s never lost a single case.
Let’s look at Romans chapter 8, verse 34. Now Christ is at God’s right hand, pleading on our behalf. And now think about this, okay? You got the prosecuting attorney - however you want to visualize that - who’s arguing against our advocate. Who can outargue the man who died to pay our penalty for us? There’s no outarguing that type of testimony, if you will.
“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” - Romans 8:34 (KJV)
If Jesus has paid our sin debt, then there’s not anyone left to condemn us.
The payment that satisfied the judge
Now, 1 John 2 and verse 2 - we mentioned the word propitiation a moment ago. Propitiation is equal to the payment that satisfied God’s justice. I rob a bank. I get caught. I’m standing before the judge, and the law says that there is a sentence that must be paid for robbing a bank. Well, the lawyer steps in, and he gives the judge something that satisfies that sentence. The lawyer says, “Well, this preacher is a pretty good old bird. I’ll tell you what - I’ll go to prison for him. You set the preacher free, and I’ll take his prison sentence. I’ll go in his place.” That’s what this means. That’s what’s required to satisfy the judge’s justice.
The cross paid what our sin owed, and God is satisfied with Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. Now Isaiah described it this way. Isaiah 53 and verse 6 - this is in the neighborhood of 700 years before the cross ever happened. And this is what Isaiah saw. And this is the way he’s describing what it took to satisfy the judgment:
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” - Isaiah 53:6 (KJV)
And the Bible doesn’t say that we’re not guilty. The Bible is describing here how Jesus took our guilt on Him so that we could escape the penalty - so that we would not have to pay, even though we were guilty.
Now he says here that the payment is enough not only to pay the sin debt of this preacher, but the payment is enough for the whole world. And it is applied to our personal account when we receive Jesus by faith - accept Him in our heart as our personal Savior.
My busted knee
You know, when I was in the seventh grade, I busted my knee up trying to play football at school. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t fix my knee. I couldn’t pay the doctor to fix it. I couldn’t pay the hospital bill. Someone else had to take care of my injury. All right. Now the idea here is, I was like a 13-year-old kid. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t fix what I knew was wrong with me. Somebody else did everything for me.
Well, the tie-back to what we’re talking about here is, before I was ever even hurt - all right, before I ever went out on that practice field and got injured - the doctor had already been trained. The hospital had already been built. Sparks Hospital in Fort Smith had been there for years. Everything required for my complete and total recovery was already done.
Now, Revelation 13 and 8 - I’m just going to read part of this scripture. Does this sound familiar? Talking about Jesus as a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
“. . . the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” - Revelation 13:8 (KJV)
This preacher’s salvation was not an afterthought. It was something that was planned before the world was ever even spoken into existence.
Sin is a stain that we are not able to remove from our soul. Don’t matter how hard we scrub, we’re never going to get the stain of sin off of our soul. It requires a payment that we’re just not able to afford. It requires a sentence, or a punishment, that lasts forever. “Okay, preacher, I’m going to make you pay for your practice of sin.” You know how long I would spend paying for the sins that I’ve committed? And I’ve never robbed a bank. I’ve never killed anybody. I’ve never said too many dirty words. I mean, I’ve never done anything really that bad. But even so, I would be in prison forever and forever and forever and forever. And even at that, the price would never be paid.
You know, so we come to this realization - when the Holy Spirit convicts our hearts of sin, when we’re lost and we understand, we come to that realization that we’re lost and undone and we’re helpless - then we hear the gospel. The gospel is the good news. The good news that everything needed for our complete recovery has already been done.
Now, I was in the hospital for like a week. All right, it was a big deal. Three hundred and something stitches. Okay, it was messed up pretty bad. I didn’t have to wake up out of my anesthesia and guide the doctor and tell him what he needed to do and how to fix it and all that kind of stuff. People, we don’t need to tell God - advise God - how to save our souls. We don’t need to try to live and do right and help Him keep us saved. When I was under the anesthesia, I had no idea what was going on, and I had nothing to do with what the doctor did to fix my knee.
When we’re under conviction in regard to the salvation of our souls, the only part we play is - we decide to go to the doctor. We check into the hospital. All right? And we just let God take care of everything else. It would have been a little foolish for a 13-year-old kid to go into the hospital and start trying to dictate - well, this needs to be done, that needs to be done, you need to do it this way, you need to do it that way. Well, it’s equally as foolish when we’re under conviction and we go to God and try to start dictating to Him what’s best for our lives and how best to save our soul. It’s not the way it works.
How we know that we know Him
1 John 2:3. Now we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. This is not saying that we maintain our salvation if we keep the rules on this list of good behavior.
“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” - 1 John 2:3 (KJV)
Now the way to know that we really do know Him - it’s not a feeling. Feelings change. Feelings can be affected by emotions and everything else. But we know because of something we can see.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” - John 14:15 (KJV)
That’s not saying, “Now, preacher, if you love me, you’ll take a look at the Ten Commandments and you’ll keep all ten of them.” That’s not what that’s saying at all. He’s saying, “Preacher, if you really do love me, your behavior will reflect the pattern that we see in the life of Jesus” - you know, love, compassion, obedience, humility. “If you really do love me, you’ll guard the things that are important to me.” God says, “If you really do love me, you’ll watch over the things in your life that are important to me” - just like a watchman who sounds a warning when the enemy is seen.
To keep His commandments - it’s not talking at all about living a perfect life. It’s not talking at all about keeping a list of rules. Remember, we mentioned this morning that we give God glory by putting God in His rightful place. Well, this is talking about - if you really do love me, then you’ll take God out of the weather and you’ll put Him in a place of honor in your life. All right?
Specifically - “Well, there’s not much difference between this church and that church. After all, we’re all going to the same place, and it doesn’t matter as long as you’re sincere.” It does matter. Okay? It does matter. And to keep His commandments - what do you think that’s really talking about? Specifically, it’s talking about: if you love me, you will guard my commandments of New Testament worship. Now, that’s what it’s talking about. That’s not the way it’s taught most often, but that’s exactly what it’s talking about.
John 14 and 15 teaches us that love for Jesus shows up in the fact that we keep what He said. Now again, not follow this list of rules, but protect what was important to Jesus.
Now to know Him - again, I mentioned a moment ago, we could make the case in a lesson or two that this could be talking about our salvation. We could get there from here. But that’s not the only application to this scripture. I think the main idea here is that we can know that we’re in fellowship with Jesus after we have been saved. How? By recognizing that the same things that were important to Jesus are also important to us. If the things that were important to Jesus are not very important to us, we are not in fellowship with the God that saved our souls. All right? And we’re in serious need of repentance - changing direction.
Notice First John chapter 2 and verse 4. You know, the man who says that he knows God, but never intends to guard or obey the truth - that man is a liar. And he could be walking right beside Demas - he’s out of fellowship. Which brings up a good question: is the word of God the most important thing in our lives?
First John 2:4 - where’s it at? Oh, mercy, I’ve lost it. Well, I’ll just be. I said I was supposed to read it, and I wrote everything before it and everything after it. Let me see if I can find it here in my Bible. I’m a preacher - I should be able to find something in the Bible. You know, First John - there we go. First John chapter 2, verse 4:
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” - 1 John 2:4 (KJV)
Now, it’s not saying we can say that we know Him and keep not His commandments. It’s not saying we’re lost if we don’t keep those commandments. It’s saying that we’re claiming to have a fellowship that we do not have.
GOING DEEPER · VERSE 4 — WHO IS THE LIAR?
Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.
Keeping God’s commandments is not how we GET saved or STAY saved - it is how we SHOW whose child we are. Verse 4 is the claim the false teachers were making - religious, but not Christian - it is not talking about the child of God who stumbles. Verse 1 already took care of that one: “if any man sin, we have an advocate.” When a child of God stumbles, that doesn’t mean that he stops being saved - but it does mean he has stopped minding his heavenly Father. And Demas is the picture of a man out of fellowship:
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica;” - 2 Timothy 4:10a (KJV)
Two renters, one landlord
Think about this example. I thought this was a pretty good example. You got two renters. Let’s say they’re renting a duplex, and there’s one owner. Okay - Kenneth owns the duplex, and I’m renting one side and Paul Lee is renting the other.
Well, one of us as renters - we keep the place up. Not perfect, but Paul Lee calls when there’s a leak in the roof, and he pays his rent on time every month. But I’m the other renter, and I’m all the time bragging about how buddy-buddy me and Kenneth are. I rarely pay my rent on time. I never mow my yard.
Well, which one of us is really in fellowship with the landlord? Which one of us really knows what’s important to the landlord? Now again, I want to stress the fact here - Paul Lee and I are both renters. But one of us has a better fellowship with the landlord than the other, because one of us has a much better attitude than the other.
First John 2:5:
“But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.” - 1 John 2:5 (KJV)
And I want us to notice that word perfected. Hereby - or this is how - we know that we are in Him. In him verily, or truly, the love of God is perfected. Now what this is - this is God’s love doing exactly what that love has entered into our lives to do.
You see, Jesus pleads our case. So we really should walk the way that Jesus walked. We really should use Him as our example.
Is there a commandment - just think about the Ten Commandments, we’re familiar - is there one of the Ten Commandments that we’ve just given up on, and we don’t even try to keep that commandment anymore? What about God’s commandment to keep New Testament worship pure? Is there some teaching, some doctrine in the church that - well, what difference does it make? We’ve just kind of given up trying to guard and protect.
GOING DEEPER · “PERFECTED”
Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study. (I said from the pulpit I would come back to this word and could not put my hands on my notes.)
“In him verily is the love of God perfected.” That word perfected does not mean that the man who keeps God’s word has become a perfect man. It means that God’s love has reached its goal in his life - it is doing what that love came to do. God’s love did not come into our lives just to sit there. It came to change the direction we walk. And when we guard what is important to God, that’s the love of God getting the job done that it came to do.
Walk the way Jesus walked
Let’s look at verse 6. 1 John 2:6. If we say we abide in Him, then:
“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” - 1 John 2:6 (KJV)
Now if we live with Jesus - if we are in fellowship with Jesus - then we ought to live our life after the same pattern that Jesus lived His life. Not sinless, but in the same direction.
The word ought - now, the way we use it: “Well, I really ought to mow my yard.” Now, what does that mean? Well, I probably should, but it’s no big deal, because I’m probably not going to. All right. But the way it’s used here, the word ought is referring to something we owe. It’s like, he that saith he abideth in Him owes God - oh, how do I want to phrase this - well, he has a debt to pattern his life after the pattern that Jesus lived His life. If that makes any sense.
You see, now when I’m talking about our pattern of life - the pattern that we are supposed to follow if we live a Christian life is not following a list of rules. But the pattern that it’s referring to here is a Person. Now, what person do you suppose we should pattern our lives after?
Well, how did Jesus treat people, even when people didn’t treat Him very well? What kind of prayers do we find that Jesus prayed in the Bible? What kind of service did Jesus offer in the Bible? Was He always trying to do stuff for self? Was He trying to get a better job? Was He trying to build a bigger bank account? Was He trying to build a big fancy temple?
Well, so how did Jesus pattern His life? Well, He loved those who didn’t love Him in return. He had compassion for those that despitefully used Him. And He was literally willing to die on the cross for people that were openly hostile to Him. Well, now it’s not possible for us to follow that to the nth degree. But can you see that the life of a Christian is pointed in that direction? And that’s the idea here.
Specifically, 1 Peter 2:21:
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:” - 1 Peter 2:21 (KJV)
For even hereunto were ye called - now this is what you’re supposed to do. That’s the idea here. This is your mission. This is your responsibility. Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example - and what are we supposed to do with the example? - that we should follow His steps. Not that we should perform a list that Jesus performed, but so that the direction of our lives will be pointed in the same direction that Jesus’s life was pointed.
Good example here. You get a daddy that takes big old long steps, and his child is behind him trying to stretch out those little old legs and step in daddy’s footprints. Well, is he ever going to manage to do that? No. Okay. But one thing a child can do - he can go in the same direction that his daddy’s going, even if he’s not able to put his feet in the same footsteps that his daddy makes. That’s the idea here about patterning our life after Jesus. We’ll never be able to match His footsteps, but we can go in the same direction.
Oh, let’s see here. I was wanting to - “in him is the love of God perfected.” Well, I cannot find my notes on that word perfected. I’m going to take a stab at it, though. In him was the love of God perfected. What this means is that if we fail to realize that - well, I’m just not going to do - I’ll have to regroup and pull out my notes so I can do that scripture justice. Okay. I apologize for that. We’ll get to it at a later time. I thought I could pull it out of my mind palace, but I’m not going to be able to.
Okay. John 13:15:
“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” - John 13:15 (KJV)
What kind of an example do we live before those around us? You know, for those with kids, it’s pretty hard for mom and daddy to fool their own children. Children pretty much see the real deal. And that’s not to say that every child that grows up and lives a life less than what their parents would like for them to live, in regard to church attendance and spiritual health - that’s not saying at all that that child saw something at home that wasn’t straight.
My point is, it’s hard enough for any of us to stay on the straight and narrow. It’s kind of hard for this preacher, and I’m like pushing 70. When I was 13, 14, 15 years old, it was really hard. My point is, as parents, we’re in a unique position to be a positive example to our own children, or a negative example to our own children. Now, children pretty much make their own choices and do what they want to do. But the idea is, as a parent we should take full advantage of the opportunity that we have to be a good example, so that our children will never be able to use us as an excuse for not walking the straight and narrow.
GOING DEEPER · TWO MEN, THREE CHILDREN EACH
Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.
Let’s look at the lives of two different men. Each man had three children - both men were in church - both men said all the right things. The children in each family grew up and had children of their own. Now, it does not matter what you and I see in another man’s life. We are not our brother’s judge - but that rarely keeps us from passing judgment. What I want us to look at is the PATTERN that our families see in our lives. The eyes of our children see what is really there.
Man number one - his three children grow up in church, stay in church, and continue the family worship tradition. What kind of pattern do you suppose those children saw in their parents at home when no one else was watching?
Man number two - his three children grow up, but they rarely attend church. The family worship tradition does not continue with his children. What kind of pattern do you suppose those children saw at home when no one else was watching?
We will be able to fool most everyone in our lives - but we will NOT be able to fool our own children. They will know what type of person we really are, and they will pretty much copy the example they see in us. Now, this is not saying that every child who leaves the church had a bad example at home. Children make their own choices. But our example is the one thing that WE can control. It is hard enough to be a Christian - and the last thing we need to do is to give our children an EXCUSE not to be one.
As the musicians come forward
JESUS PLEADS OUR CASE — SO WE WALK THE WAY JESUS WALKED.
Jesus pleads our case. So we should walk the same way that Jesus walked. So I’ll leave you with this as our musicians come forward. We prepare for an invitational hymn this afternoon - or this evening.
Does our walk look like the walk - is our life, the direction of our life, patterned, or going in the same direction that Jesus’s life went in? You know, there were several occasions where Jesus said, “I came not to do my own will, but I came to do the will of my Father who sent me.” How often are we able to stand up and say, you know, I have not spent today going after my own will, but I have spent today pursuing the will of the God that saved my soul? How often are we able to actually say that?
Once again, you cannot say, “Well, this person made all these bad choices because they saw mistakes that I made.” That’s not the way it works. All right? But the other side of that coin - this person dedicated their life to God when they got out from under mom and daddy’s table at home, and I helped encourage that spiritual decision, because I never gave them an excuse not to dedicate their life to God. Now, if they choose not to, that’s not on us. I mean, everybody makes their own choice. But I guess what I’m trying to say is, we have an opportunity - these tough choices that our children are faced with - we have an opportunity to make it easier for them to make good ones. And we should take full advantage of it.
Please consider what you heard this evening as we stand and sing. Number 392.
No comments:
Post a Comment