The Advocate

The Advocate

Edited Sermon for July 19, 2020

You can find the recorded message at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHCsaSZApuQ&amp  

You might remember the story of Job. In one fell swoop he lost his ten beloved children, and his fortune, and then his health as painful boils covered him from his head to his feet. Making matters much worse, his so-called ‘friends’ relentlessly accused him of all manner of sins – for which God was making him suffer so badly. 

What does the devil say to you, especially when you are chronically sick, or desperately lonely, or in unrelenting pain? As Job’s feckless counselors accused Job, does the devil or his human servants tell you: “You suffer because of your sins. God can’t be trusted to be kind to you. Besides, if you really were God’s son or daughter, you wouldn’t be in this terrible situation. You might as well stop praying. God has turned His back on you. Why waste your life following Him?”

Christian! Never forget Satan is a wicked, hateful, spiteful liar. Jesus calls him the father of lies, a murderer who has no truth in him. (John 8:44) Everything he tells you about God is either a brazen lie, or a nuanced lie designed to seduce you and me into tasting the forbidden fruit. But every lie from his lips, nuanced or not, is absolutely deadly.

That is why we need to hear the gospel every day because we forget it every day.

Back to Job: From the depths of his despair, Job cried out: “For [God] is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both.” Job 9:32-33

And a few chapters later: “My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God. Oh, that a man might plead with God as a man with his neighbor!”

(Job 16:20-21)

If it has been a while since you have read Job, read it again soon. Sense his pathos, his unspeakable anguish. He’d just lost his beloved children to sudden death; His wealth to sudden violence; His health to sudden excruciating boils – and his friends lost no time in blaming it all on his alleged sins.

No wonder Job yearned for a mediator, someone to stand between him and the holy God, someone who would take up his defense. 

Have you ever felt like that? Oh, if only I could find someone to mediate between me and God almighty!

Listen! What Job did not know – you and I CAN know. The holy, holy God HAS provided us a mediator, an umpire, an ADVOCATE, someone to stand beside us and take up our defense.

Who might that be? St. Paul tells us most clearly in his letter to Timothy: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men,  the man Christ Jesus,  who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6) 

A mediator. An umpire. A go-between. An advocate – someone to come along side and arbitrate between us and a holy God.

I meditated on that concept of the Advocate several years ago when I wondered what it might be like to be dead, and to stand before God’s judgment seat. And I envisioned this scene:

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I am dead.

I don’t know how I know it, but I am dead. And I stand before the Judgment Seat of God. The Accuser stands next to me, denouncing me and charging me with the many crimes I’ve committed during my life. Murder. Perversions. Treasons. Rebellions. The litany seems to never end. He cites all of them.  Every one. Each in chronological order.

I remember them as my Accuser holds aloft his dossier of dates and times and places. And with each accusation the memories of my once forgotten sins flood my mind. They overwhelm me. With crushing shame, I try to push them from my memory, but to no avail. I suddenly realize I am without hope. Nauseating, stomach-wrenching despair smothers me. Terror suffocates me.

But then, almost from nowhere, He appears – my advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He waits for the Accuser to finish, and then looks soberly at the Judge.

“These accusations are all true,” Jesus says. “But Father, I ransomed him with My blood. He entered the waters of baptism. He confessed his sins when we first met, and with each new offense he brought them in humble confession to the foot of My cross. And He has faithfully followed and served Me these many years. And, Father, You promised I would not lose any whom You have given Me.”

The Judge listens in silence. Then He looks at my Accuser. He looks at me. He looks at my Advocate. He raises His gavel, and I wait for what is about to come next.

“Guilty,” the Judge says with a solemnity I shall forever remember. “I declare you guilty on all counts.”

Panic – choking panic grips me. But then I hear Him add, “And I hereby pardon you of all counts for the sake of my son, Jesus.”

His gavel strikes the sound block with a crack that echoes throughout the chambers of heaven and of hell.

Dazed, I look at my Advocate. His eyes smile back. It is true. Gloriously, wondrously true. I am pardoned. Forgiven. Redeemed forever because of the blood of the Lamb.
         

Let me now go back through what I just shared with you and add the Scripture verses I alluded to in my imaginative courtroom scene, and which ought to give hope to every Christian hearing my voice:

I was dead, and I found myself before the Judgment Seat of God: And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. (Rev 20:12)

The Accuser stood next to me, denouncing me, and charging me with the many crimes I’ve committed during my life: And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Rev 12:10)

Then my Advocate appeared, my mediator, my umpire, Jesus Christ the Righteous: And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)

Jesus said to the Father, “These accusations are all true. But I ransomed him with My blood: And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. (Rev 5:9)  AND In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. (Ephesians 1:7)

My Mediator continued, “Richard confessed his sins when we first met, and with each new offense he brought them in humble confession to the foot of My cross”: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Again, my Advocate continued my defense: “He has faithfully followed and served Me these many years. And, Father, You promised I would not lose any whom You have given Me:” If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. (John 12:26) AND And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. (John 6:39)

And then the Judge said, “I hereby pardon you of all counts for the sake of my son, Jesus:” But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole . . . and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6) and There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Christian, listen! You HAVE an advocate with the Father. You will NEED that advocate because your sins would have put you on the wrong side of eternity when you eventually stood before the Sovereign, omnipotent and omniscient Judge.

Many of you know the lyrics to this familiar hymn: A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle.

To overcome the supernatural devil, we MUST use supernatural weapons – “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.  Ephesians 6:12-13

I didn’t cite the rest of that passage in Ephesians six, wherein the apostle Paul writes further of those spiritual weapons. I urge you to read that section for yourself. It is important you do so – and more important, that you apply and use those weapons.

But let me now, as I bring this message to a close, let me now address you who are not yet a child of God through your faith and trust and obedience to Jesus:

You CAN have an advocate with the Father. You will surely NEED that advocate because your sins will put you on the wrong side of eternity when you eventually stand before the Sovereign, omnipotent and omniscient Judge.

I hope that frightens you. I hope it frightens you to the point that you wake up. Your time in this life is short. It could be over before you go to bed tonight. I am 70 years old and it seems to me only a few months when I was 30, or even 20. It seems like only a few months.

The Holy and Righteous God does not want anyone to perish and spend eternity in that Lake of Fire. He wants no one to be in that place He prepared specifically for the devil and his demons.  But you will go there if you choose to reject God’s offer of forgiveness available only through the blood of Jesus, Jesus who died to pay the penalty for your sins.

“But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:7-10)

Let me close with this 19th century hymn. Please meditate on these

lyrics which are rooted in Scripture:

Would you be free from the burden of sin? There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood; Would you o’er evil a victory win? There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.  

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r In the blood of the Lamb;  There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow? There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood; Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow; There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

Job begged for an advocate, someone to bring him together with God. Jesus is my only advocate with the Father. I received Him on December 25, 1972 when I confessed to Him my sins and was later baptized into His family.

Is Jesus Christ YOUR advocate? If you have never done so, you can do so now – receive Him through confession and the waters of baptism. And you will be able to stand with confidence before the eternal and most holy Judge.