Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: Shabbat Shalom. We are going to please turn in our Bibles to the book of First John. First John Chapter 2 today. I would like to say that if you understand the epistles of John, of Yohanan, it will help you immensely to understand the position that you and I, as believers in Yeshua, have because of the work that Yeshua the Messiah have accomplished for us when he died on the tree.

So Yohanan, of course, is writing to the family, to the Mishpacha. And he wanted the family of God to understand the importance of the work of the Messiah for the family, for the people of God, and to understand our position and the ability to have fellowship with the living God when we follow Yeshua the Messiah.

So we are reading today in First John Chapter 2, the first 11 verses. And I'm reading. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, 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. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, 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.

Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

He that says he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother, is in darkness, and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I'm going to stop here in First John Chapter 2 verses 1 to 11. And this is the text for us for this ministry meeting. I trust that the Lord will help us to grasp this passage, and specifically, brothers and sisters, I would like to zero in a little bit on the first two verses of First John Chapter 2.

A reminder once again, we are studying the letter that Yohanan wrote to the Mishpacha, to the family. He doesn't write this to unbelievers. He's writing to every person that have entered into the family of God. He that has the Son has life. First John 5. He that has not the Son of God has not life.

So he's writing to the family of God, to the Mishpacha, and every believer that belong to Yeshua the Messiah is part of this family of God. But as he's writing to the family of God, he recognized the fact that just the same like in a normal family, father and mother, Abba and Imma and children, Yeladim, in a normal family sometimes, when we are not living in obedience, we somehow have friction in the family and there is no fellowship with one another when we are not in obedient to the Lord.

So in the spiritual life of the believer, many time it is the same thing. When a believer is not walking in fellowship with the Lord, he doesn't enjoy the things of God. He cannot pray, or she cannot pray. He cannot enjoy the place that he has in this family because he or she deviated from obedience and sin crept in and there is no joy when we are not in a right fellowship with our Father.

And so in this second chapter, Yohanan, that is John now, wanted to emphasize and help the children of God, the believers, to understand that we as believers have an advocate with the Father. And not only that we have an advocate with the Father now, we also have a need to live in obedience in order to have fellowship with our Father who is in heaven.

So this chapter is really devoted specifically, first of all, to the necessity for us to understand that we have an advocate with the Father. And so look how he began. First of all, in verses 1 and 2, Yeshua the Messiah is our advocate. And brothers and sisters, listen to me. If you understand verses 1 and 2 of First John, Chapter 2, it will help us all to appreciate what Yeshua is for us.

What Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach is for us. And I want to elaborate a little bit upon these two verses. And then Lord willing, we're going to move on to the next verses. Notice what he says first of all, in verses 1 and 2. He wanted the people of God to understand that they have an advocate. And I want you to listen to this.

He began in verse 1. He says, My little children. First of all, you notice the word my little children. He's writing to the believers. That word in the Greek, my little children, is Technion. And it's applied to really all believers. He doesn't talk about just a little child, just a believer, just became a believer today. But it's applied to all the believers.

Actually, it is better said, my dear sons or daughters. In Hebrew, we call it Banim. Not only Yeladim, little children, but Banim means just sons and daughters that belong to God. And he began by saying to them, my little children. As John is concerned, every believer, whether he is 10 years old or 90 years old, he is a dear child of God.

He accepted the Messiah. Maybe five years, 10 years, 20, 30, maybe he's with the Lord already, walking for 60, 70 years. We have some of our own brothers in our fellowship that are for many years walking with the Lord and accepted Yeshua the Messiah. But as far as God is concerned, they are sons and daughters of the Father.

They are children. Just like one of the Jewish sisters who became a believer just recently. She's just became a little child, born from above, a child of God. She as a newborn babe, and another who have been walking with the Lord for many years, they are both sons and daughters of the Father. And so he began, he's saying, my dear children, you belong to God.

I'm writing to you for one simple reason. I do not want you to sin. I want you to live a life that is pleasing to the Father. You notice he says in verse 1A, my little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. The reason that I'm writing this is because I want you to live a life of purity.

A life that is pleasing to the Father, a life that is honoring God here in this world. And that's applied to a little babe in Mashiach, babe in Christ, or to the one that are very old, have been many years walking with the Lord. This letter, this word of God was written for all believers in Yeshua the Messiah, because God had brought us to himself, and he does not want us anymore to live the way we used to live before we became the children of God.

And so he's saying to them in this verse, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. If you just turn to First John 3 verse 9, he says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. What does that mean? That the believer who belong to God does not commit on an ongoing basis living a life of sin.

We have also a new nature that cannot sin. And therefore, what he's really saying, if you became a believer in Yeshua, one that is born of God, he cannot live anymore the way he or she used to live before they became believers. And you notice this, what really happened to us. When we became believers in Yeshua, all of a sudden our appetite is no longer the same like it was in the past.

We no longer have these desires on an ongoing basis to do the wrong things and live in a world the way we used to before we became believers in Yeshua the Messiah. So what he's really saying, I'm writing to you this letter, this Iggeret, so you will not sin anymore, the way we used to live, to live before we became believers.

But notice this, and brothers and sisters, in the very same verse, he adds lest somebody might say, well, I've never sinned in my life anymore. I'm living a life that is just a life of perfection. He's saying to them, and if, notice this, and if any man sin, that means that there is, because we are still having this old nature in us, a possibility for a believer to sin.

And we do. We know that because we are not yet in glory, we are not in heaven. We are still here below. And we know, if we are honest with ourselves, that at time things coming into our mind, and into our thoughts, into our affection, into our ears, into our eyes, that we sin, and there's a time in our life that we fall, we fail, we dishonor the Lord, and we do sin.

And so he's saying, if sin came into your life and my life, then immediately, notice what he says, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, the righteous. Now, this is doctrine. In other words, he's saying, if we sin, we have an advocate. What is an advocate? An advocate is the Greek parakletos.

It's come from the simple word, a lawyer. If we sin, we have a lawyer with the Father. Now, listen to this, brothers and sisters. If you have any problem, any issue today with the world in which we live in, we usually going to a lawyer, and the lawyer's responsibility, he charge you a lot, right? The lawyer's responsibility is to come to your aid before the court and before the judge.

He's representing you in the court in order to aid you, to help you, to deal with the problem that you have. Now, this is exactly the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah today on behalf of his people. In fact, let me just mention that. When Yeshua was on the cross, some 2,000 years ago, on the tree, he's looked to the Father, and you remember he says, it is finished.

The work of redemption was done. God had been satisfied. The work of redemption had been accomplished once and for all by the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah on the tree, and his resurrection from among the dead. But you see, there is a work that he did not finish, and that he is doing every day on behalf of the people of God.

And that work is the work of the advocate, of the Paraclete, who is coming alongside the people of God to represent them before the Father. And this work, this ministry of Yeshua the Messiah, is an ongoing ministry that he still does it at this moment, even as we are sitting here in this meeting hall and listening to the word of God.

What is this work that Yeshua does today on your behalf and on mine? He's really like a lawyer, in Hebrew we call it Orech Din, or as the text is said, Melitz. He's the one that is standing before the Father, and he's representing everyone that belong to him to the Father. And you know what he's saying when we sin?

He says, Father, for these sins I have died. I have paid the price of the sin that this particular individual have committed. Now, notice this, here is very important when it come to doctrine. He says here, if any man sin, we have an advocate. But notice, it says with the Father. It doesn't say we have an advocate with God.

Why doesn't he use the word God here, but he used the word Father? You see, we are still the children of God, even when we sin as believers. In other words, our position of link of union never sever, even though we from time to time fail him here in this world. So can you imagine, beloved brothers and sisters, Yeshua, the Messiah, who had finished the work on the cross some 2,000 years ago.

After he died and he was buried and he rose from among the dead, God had placed him at his right hand, and now in heaven he is representing us as an advocate, as a lawyer, as a Paraclete. And his ministry is to come to our aid. And he's saying to the Father, every time we sin, and you know, to our own shame, many time things have crept into our own hearts, into our own life, and we fail the Lord.

And yet Yeshua would raise his hands and he will say to the Father, Father, for this sin I have died. He's aiding, he does the ministry of that Paraclete, aiding us in the presence of God in heaven. And you notice what it says here at the end of verse 1, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.

Who is this advocate? This advocate is Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous. You see, beloved brothers and sisters, if the Father will not forgive the sins of his children, then he will not be just towards his Son, who have been faithfully the just one, finished the work for us on the tree. And that's why the Father must forgive the sins of his own children on the basis of the finished work of Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous.

This is the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah today for us. Now, for a moment, let's go to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. I want to mention something there in connection with the word advocate. We find out that Yeshua is speaking to the disciples in the upper room before he went to the cross, to the tree. John 14 verse 16.

He says, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and he shall be in you. That word for comforter is the same word for advocate or Paraclete.

Now what Yeshua is saying here to the disciples, listen, I'm going now to go back to my Father. But when I go back to the Father, I'm going to send to you another Paraclete, another advocate, another one that going to come alongside you to aid you in your life. So, what we really learn here, and this is the Holy Spirit of God, Ruach HaKodesh, was given to us to be our Paraclete, our advocate, our lawyer, to help us, to aid us as we walk here in this world.

And he is actually doing the work of the Father in the life of the believer. That's the first advocate that we have. But we have another advocate, and that is another one who represent us, who coming alongside to represent us, but he's representing us in heaven. This is Yeshua the Messiah. He's the one that is saying to the Father.

He says, Father, listen, for the failure, for the sin of this particular child of yours, I have already paid the price. Forgiveness must be given to them because I have paid the price. I'm the righteous one who knew no sin, who did no sin, in whom there was no sin. And I was judged on behalf of this particular child.

And therefore, Father, these sins, I have already paid for them. Now, the different, beloved brothers and sisters, between this advocate, this lawyer, and the lawyer that we might take to hire for today's problems in this world. I'm talking about when we go to the world court. The different is simply this. The lawyer that we hire today will have to pay him a lot of money to do the service.

But the lawyer that we have in glory, the Messiah, we don't have to pay him. He paid for us. He washed our sins away. Secondly, the lawyer that we have to pay for money here in this world represent us between a judge here in this world. But Yeshua the Messiah is representing us before the king and the judge of the universe.

The one that is the judge of judges, the one who is the supreme court of the universe. He's representing us before the Father, and he's saying to the Father, Father, I have already paid for this. There is no longer a need for this price to be paid again because he've already finished the work for us on the tree.

And beloved brothers and sisters, there are many people who are walking around today, they are believers, they accepted Yeshua the Messiah, but they never have the assurance of salvation. And every time they fail, or they sin, they already think that they have lost their salvation, and now in order to regain their salvation, they have to do something.

And Yeshua is teaching us through the Apostle John, Yohanan here, that we are children of God, the moment we have accepted the Messiah as our Lord and Savior. And if any man sin, we do have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous, who paid for our sins on the cross, on the tree.

Now, another thing, to learn is to see another aspect of the ministry of Yeshua in heaven, and this is the aspect of his high priestly ministry in heaven. So for this, I want you to turn to Hebrews, chapter 4, in verse 14 to 16, it says, seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into heavens, Yeshua, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Chapter 7 now, verse 23.

This is the writer to the Hebrews. He continue and he says now, in connection with the high priestly ministry of Yeshua the Messiah, he says these words, and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, namely Yeshua, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Just pause with me here for a moment. Now you notice that John is speaking of the ministry of Yeshua as an advocate, but the writer to the Hebrews speak of the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah as a high priest. What is the difference between the ministry of Yeshua today as the advocate in the presence of God, or the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah today as a great high priest before God?

The difference is this. As an advocate, as a lawyer, he represent us before the Father. As a high priest, he represent us before God, though it is the same person. As an advocate, he is aiding us, and he is showing to the Father that the sins that we have committed have been paid for. But as a high priest, he's not sympathizing with our sins, but he sympathize with our weakness.

As an advocate, representing us before the Father, as a high priest, he represent us before God. And as representing us before God, he is not representing us sympathizing with our sins. No. Our sins had to be judged. That's why he paid for our sins. But as an advocate, he's representing us before the Father, the Abba, and he's saying for these sins, I have already received the judgment on behalf of this people.

And that's why notice again, Hebrews chapter 7, he says in verse 25, wherefore he's able to aid them and to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he's ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now he every day making intercession on behalf of the people of God. Again, go back to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 15, for we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sins.

Notice he used the word infirmities here. You notice in verse 15. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, not with the feeling of our sins, but with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows our weakness. He knows our shortcoming. He knows that we are inclined constantly to be tempted and tested by Satan.