Address—Dn. Spence
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We're I'd like you to turn to the second book in your Bible.
The Book of Exodus, chapter 17.
This afternoon we're going to talk about an old theme that I've heard quite a bit as I've grown up.
And yet it is a theme that is ever important and essential to our Christian pathway.
We're going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ as our great High Priest.
And as our advocate.
And since this is a meeting for young people, we're going to try to bring it down on their level so that they can also understand it and get a hold of it so that it might be a great encouragement to them too.
Exodus 17 and verse 8.
Then came Amalek.
And fought with Israel and referendum. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out, men.
And go out fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek and Moses Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat there on.
And Aaron and her stayed up his hands, and the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomforted Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under the sun.
And Moses build an elder and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi.
For he said, because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
If we had read the book of Joshua, we would find that the children of Israel had been delivered greatly from the most powerful nation on the face of the earth in that day, the nation of Egypt.
Where they had been slaves for 400 years and they came out from that ******* and they went through the Red Sea.
And they look back and they saw their enemies that were dead on the seashore.
They had been delivered and they saw it sang a song of deliverance, and now they're out in the wilderness and they had difficulty finding food and God sent the manna. They had difficulty finding water, And Moses struck the rock. The rock gushed out with water. And now it we find in this chapter that.
They come to this place where they begin to shine and tempt the Lord.
And it is at this time what they are saying in verse 7 into verse 7 is is the Lord among us or not?
I wonder if you've ever heard a question like that today. You know, sometimes when we get into difficulties and trials and problems, people question whether the Lord is among us. Well, you might say that this is an indication, at least that the Lord is among them, because there was a battle going on.
And this battle began here in the wilderness, and it was.
Greatly emphasized, it was greatly brought to bear upon them as the children of Amalek began now to fight with them. It's bad enough to be out in the wilderness when you don't have any food and when you don't have water and you don't have a road map, that's bad enough. But if you can imagine now the the these people from Amalek coming against them and they don't have any weapons, or at least they they weren't a people that were armed.
And so their only resource is God.
Their only resource now. It's always interesting to me that God could have won this victory if he wanted to just by sending a lightning bolt down and destroying them.
But he did not do that. Instead, he chose a very interesting means here. Here is Moses and Aaron and her, and they go up to the top of this mountain or this hill. And they looked down there on the valley on the next day. And there are the children of Israel doing battle against the children of Amalek. And this battle is ceasing back and forth. And Moses is up there on the hill. And I have no doubt in my mind that he's praying. And as he's praying, I.
00:05:28
I understand that he from these verses that he lifts up his hand and he's praying for those people.
Down there, his own brethren who are fighting this tremendously great battle.
And after a while his arm gets tired, so he brings it down, and he's resting for a while. And as he does so, he notices that the battle is now going against the children of Israel. So he raises his hand again in intercession for them. And now he notices that the line is moving against the children of Amalek, and he holds his hand as long as he can. And finally it gets so tired that he cannot hold it any longer.
And so Aaron and her come, And they took a stone. They put it under him. And each one of those men stand on each side of Moses, and they hold his hands up. Now notice the plural there. Both of his hands are now held up. They notice the effect of the hands being held up in intercession. And so it's like they're saying, let's hold both of them up, let's hold both of them up to win this battle for our brethren.
The children of Israel down there in the valley.
Well, today we're going to talk about the uplifted hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're going to talk about his duties as our great High Priest and we're going to look at that in a very practical way. And we're then we're going to talk about the advocacy of the Lord Jesus, how he has become, how he becomes our advocate and when he becomes our advocate. And as we look at this, this, these duties of the Lord Jesus there in the glory the this afternoon, you are going to understand how that those hands are uplifted.
On your behalf, I'm sure that many of you, in fact most of you here this afternoon, have received Christ as your Savior. I always worry in a in a group like this that there are those who have made a profession and yet are not real and are just floating along with the crowd. It's always difficult for me to see how anyone could sit through a gospel meeting like we had last night.
With the message preached so clear and so simply, how anyone could just get up and walk away from that?
And yet, I know that it's possible that we're going to be talking to those of you this afternoon who have received Christ as your Savior and who have been sheltered.
From judgment with the precious blood of Christ, who in a sense have gone through the Red Sea, which is Christ's death for us, and have been delivered from the powerful ******* of sin, and of Satan, the God of this world.
We're going to be talking to you because God has not left you alone in the wilderness.
He has a person there at his right hand who is interceding for you.
In those two ways.
Now let's turn over to the New Testament and we will look at the book of Hebrews.
And we'll look at a couple of verses in Chapter 9.
Chapter 9 and verse 11.
But Christ being come, and high priest of good things, to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having made eternal redemption for us.
Verse 24.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands.
Which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God.
For us.
00:10:01
Now let's turn back to Chapter 4.
And verse 14.
Hebrews 4 and verse 14.
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens.
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an 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 under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Now we've seen in these verses a contrast between that which was in the Old Testament.
Where men could see the Tabernacle, they could see the sacrifice.
They could see the great, They could see the high priest who would take the blood of that animal, and he would pass on through the courtyard and into the Holy Holy, the holiest of all, and there he would disappear. And oftentimes when people saw that, they would wonder and they would worry. They would be concerned as to whether God would accept that man with that basin of blood.
Or not. And so there was probably prayer that went up for him when he got on the inside. He would take that blood and he would sprinkle it on an altar there.
That was plated with gold. It had two cherry bombs looking down on it and then after the sprinkling of blood, he would leave.
When Jesus came, Jesus was a man from heaven.
He was not a man from this earth, and so everything that he did was associated with the Heavenlies.
And Jesus, when he died, when he died on the cross in type, did that same thing. And as we we see in verse 14, we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. I think that the thought is really through the heavens. That is, he laid down his life here on the earth, He went back to heaven, He passed through those heavens right into the presence of God Himself.
And there he is, there this afternoon. Jesus, the Son of God. God, we see this. He us, our great High Priest, has passed into the heavens. He's passed into the presence of God. And what is He doing there? He has already accomplished eternal redemption for us. He has already laid down his life. He has already.
Made that sacrifice that God has accepted.
Forever. And what is he doing now? Well, he's there as our great High Priest.
We have notice this is a double negative. We do not have 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 or sent apart.
What kind of a person do we have as our great high priest? What kind of a person is this in the glory with one, with that hand uplifted, making intercession for us as our great high priest? He is a person who has come down here into this world as a man, and he has walked through the scene as a man, and he has experienced many of the things that you and I have experienced. It says that he was.
Tempted in all points, like as we are.
Yet sin apart, Now it's interesting to see the Lord Jesus as he grows up and he's called into.
That public service, one of the first things that happens to him is that he is tempted or he is tempted by the enemy. He goes out into the wilderness, and there in the wilderness he fasts 40 days. And during this time he's going through much prayer and speaking with God. And it is during this time that the devil comes to him and tempts him.
Now I have never fasted for 40 days, but I have read about people who have done this.
And they say that once you get through fasting for a lengthy period of time that there is sudden ravenous hunger that will oftentimes come back once the body is through that fasting period.
00:15:11
Now the devil knows who he is dealing with. He knows that he is dealing with the Son of God. So he does not tempt him in the same way that he would tempt you and I.
But he comes to him, realizing that he's probably hungry. And so he comes to him and he says, see these stones command that these stones be made bread. Command that they be made bread if you're really the Son of God. And the Lord Jesus very simply says to him, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
So the devil takes him up into.
A pinnacle of the temple. And he says to him, if you're really the Son of God, cast yourself down, because you've got a promise there in the Book of the Psalms that the angels are going to take care of you. God's given his angels charge over you, lest should you should dash your foot against the stone. And the Lord Jesus says, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And so the devil takes him up into a high mountain, and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And he says, I'll give you all of these if you will fall down and worship me. And the Lord Jesus says to him, Get the hand, Satan, for thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Now from this is what I sometimes call a model of temptation. If you ever want to find out how to get through temptation, look at what the Lord Jesus did here. He was tempted or he was tested. And all three categories the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And there was absolutely no response within him.
You know, when we are tempted, we suffer from a response. The Lord Jesus suffered from an abhorrence to sin. My son Danny has a dog, and this dog's name is Sam.
Sam is a Rottweiler, if some of you are familiar with that breed. We were driving down the freeway on the way into Bloomington the other day and there was a sign, a little bumper sticker on the back of a.
A car, it said. The keys to my car are on my seat beside my Rottweiler, and I was pointing that out to Danny. It's a very, very good watchdog. Very big.
And in fact, the other day Jean called and said that ran out in the street and car ran into it at a fairly high rate of speed. And we don't know which had the most damage, the car or the dog. But this, this dog is a dog that likes garbage.
And so the garbage can outside of the door we have.
We have a lid on the garbage can because if we didn't, the dog would get into the garbage can he loves or she loves garbage.
If my wife got up some particular morning and she found me out in the garbage digging through it and she'd say, honey, what are you doing out in the garbage? Say, well, I was a little hungry for breakfast this morning. She would say, honey, that's not you don't need to be digging in the garbage. I have never dug in the garbage looking for food.
I know that there are people who have some of the homeless people of Los Angeles.
I've never done that. I have no desire to dig in the garbage. Well, the Lord Jesus was that way. He had no response in him at all to the garbage of sin that he found strewn in his pathway. And when the devil came and tempted him in all three of these categories, there was absolutely no response in him. And as he was tested in each one of these areas, he gave us a model.
A model by which we also can have the victory over temptation in our lives.
He responded to each one of those areas with a verse from the word of God.
And everyone of those verses is from the book of Deuteronomy. Now I wonder if you and I as young people had to give 3 verses out from the book of Deuteronomy whether we would be able to do it. The Lord Jesus took one book, and with one book could you say he uses three different verses or three stones to completely obliterate the power of the enemy?
00:20:23
He uses the book of Deuteronomy because it is it is a record of Israel's failure.
While they were out there in the wilderness, and it brought them onto the ground of grace that that book, it describes God's grace as they failed in the wilderness.
Well, the Lord Jesus is a person who has been here, he's been in this scene.
He's been through the tests and he's there in the glory on your behalf.
And he is someone who is sympathetic not to sin, but to the weakness that is within each one of you. He's sympathetic to that. We have a high priest, Let's read it in the positive, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He's touched. I know that you beloved young people this afternoon sometimes are afraid to go talk to someone.
About a problem that you are having because you're afraid that they wouldn't be sympathetic to you in that problem.
Some of us are that way. Sometimes when parents come and they say, you know, I'm having a real problem with my.
A young person, I say, well, how old is he? And they'll tell me how old he is or she is. And I say, what were you like at that age? It's always important for parents to remember what you were like. And sometimes they'll say, oh, I I was much worse than they were. Well, here we have in the glory a person who never sinned and yet a person who is sympathetic to the weakness that is within us.
And he is there on our behalf, making intercession for us, praying for us. He's there for us this afternoon.
He has been through this life. He was a perfect child. He was a perfect young person. And yet he had imperfect parents. Some of you, all of you here this afternoon, have imperfect parents, and probably some of you have some complaints about your parents and their imperfections. The Lord Jesus had imperfect parents. They did not always make the right decisions in life. They did not always do things the right way. He understands what it's like.
To have imperfect parents, he understands what it's like to be tempted by the enemy.
He understands what it's like to be hungry. He understands what it's like to be thirsty. He understands what it's like to be in pain.
He's been through the cross. He understands what it's like to go through the intense suffering. He's been through the darkness. He understands what it's like to have people along the pathway who turn away from you.
Who scowl at you, who make nasty remarks. He understands what it's like to experience peer pressure in the pathway. He understands what it's like.
Closest friends turn aside and turn away from you to leave you alone.
At the hour of greatest need, that's the kind of high priest that we have.
Right there this afternoon, with hand uplifted in the glory on your behalf. And he wants you. He wants you to understand that he's there for you and that he is sympathetic to you and your weakness, your need. Now, some of you have just started back to school, and for some of you this year, you're going to be introduced to things for the very first time. You're going to experience strong pressure from people.
To join up with what's going on, you're going to have invitations to go.
To places you're going that you know you should not go to, you're going to have temptation to use the language of the world.
You're going to have strong pressure to conform out there to all of the things that are going on in the world.
And this afternoon I want to introduce you to the greatest resource.
Of power and of blessing that I know of and that is an intercessory person at God's right hand.
00:25:07
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Your and my great High Priest.
I want you to understand a little bit of the mechanism of sin and how it happens.
If we would just turn over to the next book in our Bible, the book of James.
And we're going to read a little bit about the mechanism of temptation.
And how it occurs?
James One and verse 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.
For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Notice the reward that is mentioned, the crown of life. Because you are going to have to go through death itself. You are going to have to see yourself as dead with Christ. You are going to have to take that place as being nailed to the cross with Christ. You're going to have to take that place in death with him if you're going to get power over temptation and he says.
On the other side of that, I have a great reward. It is the crown of life.
Notice verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth thee any man. In other words, the temptation is not coming from God. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.
And sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death do not err.
My beloved brethren.
I think that God wants us to understand how things happen. And here we see the process of temptation that eventually ends up in death. We see how it happens. It is likened to the process of birth, in which there is a cell on the inside and a cell from the outside that is introduced, and both of those cells have a strong attraction toward each other.
And when there is a mating and when that cell from the outside is brought onto the inside and there is a mating that occurs.
When that happens, there is something called conception.
And that conception results in a life. It is a it is a conception of life that God has created, that God values. And that's why that is why what is going on in this world to end life at that point is murdered. Life has occurred at that point, but eventually there is a multiplication of cells until those cells are formed into a little body.
And that body, when it becomes a certain size, then is now born into this world as a person.
Well, the Holy Spirit is using that analogy, and he's saying that there's an analogy that occurs on the inside. We have a cell that is called lust. We have an old nature that is susceptible, and that lust has strong problems with lust. When we've been born again, we have a new nature that cannot lust, but we also have an old nature and that old nature.
Has when he is in control, causes us to lust and so.
If you if you were to ask me how this happens, here's here's my opinion. I believe that the devil.
Watches us closely. Or those servants of the devil called demons, and he finds out what our weaknesses are. Some have a weakness toward, let's say, maybe toward alcohol. Some may have a weakness toward immorality. Some may have a weakness toward pride climbing things in this world. And so, So the devil knows what the weakness is. He knows what the problem is on the inside.
And so down the pathway he sets a trap called temptation. And when I am walking down the pathway and there is that temp that corresponds to a lust in my heart.
And I stop and I pause for a moment, for I must confess that there is a response within.
00:30:03
If I bring that temptation inside and I allow it to mate with that lust within, there is a multiplication that eventually results in an outward act called sin gives birth to a sin. And when this course now, when this sin becomes a course in my life, when there are a number of births to outward acts of sin in this direction.
Then it results in a course that God calls death.
Course that God calls death, that is, God is going to have to judge my life.
He's going to have to bring judgment and it may result in actual death.
But it is down that pathway called death.
Now I want to talk a little bit about Christ's intercession for us here as we walk along through pathway the the pathway of life as you start back to school on Tuesday morning and there is a very special temptation that is placed there.
In the pathway. What is it that now will bring the intercession of Christ as our great High Priest into play? Let's turn back.
To Hebrews chapter 4 and we will find the answer.
Verse 16 Let us therefore come boldly before unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Yes, there is the temptation. I feel the weakness. I know that unless something happens, I am going to fall into that sin. I'm going to bring it within my mind, within my thoughts, within my soul.
And so I make a decision. I make the decision to look up in my heart.
Into the glory. And there is my great High Priest who's been praying for me.
And he's saying come boldly under the throne.
Don't come quietly in fear and meekness and trembling. Become boldly.
Just look up and say Lord Jesus.
I need help. I need help. I'm so weak I cannot resist that temptation that is there.
And what will happen when we come to this place called the Throne of Grace?
It is a place of power. It is a place of acceptance.
It is a place of supply. It is a place that finds its basis in the cross.
And I come to that place, and he pours out upon my soul his mighty intercession. He gives me the strength to walk on by that temptation. See that that's what happens. Come boldly into the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This year if the Lord leaves us Here, 1989.
Is going to be a year of temptation. It's going to be a year of trial and test for many of you young people. Last year in 1988 and the beginning of 1989, there were young people that fell by the wayside. Why did they fall? Because they made the decision not to look up to that uplifted hand, that wounded hand.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ as our mighty intercessor, They made that decision to allow that temptation to come within and to give birth to an outward act to start them down a course that was going to end up in disaster. And that's why they're not here this afternoon.
And I just want to encourage you this afternoon to make it.
A purpose of heart, as you go back to your school, you go back to your place of work, to every day begin the day looking up to your great high priest. There in the glory he will pour out a supply that will help you through the day. And when that temptation comes and you find it sitting there right in front of you, not not to allow it to come within.
But with all of your heart, just simply to look up and say, Lord Jesus, I need help, I need your mighty intercession on my behalf right now, here in this pathway.
00:35:14
Now I want to talk a little bit about the other hand that is uplifted on your behalf and that is the hand of advocacy and we'll find that over in first John, Chapter 2.
First John, chapter 2 and verse one.
My little children, he's addressing the whole family, these things right? I unto you that ye sin not, And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the let's leave out the italicized words, but also for.
The whole world.
Now we're going to focus in a little bit on that word advocate, because it is the other side of the work that is going on for us. Notice that the apostle John says, I write unto you, little children, I plead with you, don't sin. Oh, I plead with you the same, my beloved brethren here this afternoon, my younger brother.
Don't, Sam.
Don't go into sin because it is a painful.
It is a painful experience in the end. Yes, there are pleasures. Yes, there's momentary enjoyment. Yes, there is. But it is a pathway that will end you up and end me up under the judgment of God. But notice it says, On the other hand, if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now I I enjoy looking up some of the verse, some of the words.
In my Bible, in a Greek dictionary, and sometimes it gives me a little bit of insight into what the word actually means. And if I can remember from my last study of this verse, an advocate was something like a lawyer.
Like a defense lawyer, I hope that none of you have ever had to get a defense lawyer. But if you have, you know the security that it gives you to be able to turn over all of these things into the hands of someone who knows the case, who knows the courts, who knows the law, who may know the judge, and you can turn this over into his hands.
And allow him to take over for you. It is the word Advocate is a lawyer.
But it is a defense lawyer. It is a defense lawyer. It's not a prosecution lawyer. It's a defense lawyer.
So it also has the thought of a comforter. So it's very difficult to to interpret that back into one word because it has all of those thoughts, a defense lawyer who is a comforter, someone that you would could go to and they would comfort you in the problem or processes that you're going through.
Now, before we go further in this verse, I want you to turn over to Revelation Chapter 12.
And we'll get a little bit of insight into the Court of Heaven.
And we'll call it that, the court up in heaven.
Revelation Chapter 12.
And verse 7. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil. And Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice.
Saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength.
And the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. Now I want you to notice this.
It's a name of the devil, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.
00:40:01
Which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto death.
Now here we have a little look into the future. A little not a little. A great struggle that is going on in the heavenlies, and it's about the middle of the tribulation period of seven years. And God has sent Michael and his archangels to cast Satan out of heaven.
To confine him and his his demons to this earth.
And we can understand from these verses that the devil has access.
To God's presence he has access to the heavenlies, and he is called in these verses the accuser of the brethren.
Now I I have trouble putting this into thought unless I give you a little scene or scenario that I think often takes place. Here is Dan Spence, and he's walking through life and there is a temptation out there in the pathway, and it's at a moment of weakness. And I make the decision not to look up to Christ as my great High Priest. And so I I.
I take the temptation within and it results in a sin.
In my life it results in a sin.
Well.
Immediately or somewhere thereafter, the devil walks into the presence of God and he says, Now, have you noticed that Dan Spence, your servant down there on the earth, your servant so-called, has just committed a sin? How can he be your servant and do a sin like that?
Probably names the sin.
You know, I don't know how many of you parents have ever been through this, but you know the feeling a little bit of when when your children go next door and they soap the windows at someone's house and you know when the neighbor comes over and says.
Your son soaked my window. You know that feeling? The feeling? It's a desperate feeling inside. It's a hurt feeling. It's a a wounded feeling. Well, here's the devil in the presence of God.
And he's pointing out that.
Dan Spence has sinned down there on the earth. He's been unfaithful to the God of heaven. That's when the Advocate comes along. That's when the defense lawyer steps out and he steps in with his defense and he says, yes, I recognize that was a sin, but I want to point you as we had in in First John.
Chapter 2.
We might just turn back to that first John, Chapter 2, but I have, I want to point you to the atoning sacrifice. I want to point you to the propitiation that was made at Calvary's Cross. I want you to know that that sin that he just committed has been fully atoned for. It has been fully covered. It has been fully propitiated. You know, if you were to look at at my hands here this afternoon from a very close standpoint.
You would notice that my hands are have some scars on them. I got this hand caught in a plow and almost cut my thumb off one day. And I put this, this hand through a window when I was after one of my brethren, one of my brothers. And I've got a a scar on that hand. I've got scars all over my hands. You know, if I held my hands out to you, you would notice they were full of defects.
But if I took a handkerchief, a clean one, and put it over the top, you would only see the white of that handkerchief. That is what it is. Atonement is. Atonement is when when our our defects are covered and our defects our sins were covered in the death and the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he moves in as a defense lawyer and says, Satan, that sin has been covered.
In my blood it has been a tone for it has been paid for.
00:45:03
And furthermore, here is the record of heaven, and here under Dan Spence's name.
There is nothing on the record. His record is clean. That's what Ron was talking about last night, Justified.
Sid Osborne out out at Lassen this year, was telling about the Rolls Royce and someone who bought one and paid whatever it was 500,000 and he was driving it over on the continent of Europe and the car conked out on him. And so they had to send someone clear over from England to fix that car and they fixed it. And so he was able to drive it again and it worked quite well and he wrote the Rolls Royce company and he said.
I am so thankful that when my car failed, when my car failed, he sent someone to help me.
And they wrote him back a record. And they say, and they said we have no record of any Rolls Royce ever failing.
You see, because that's the kind of record I have in the glory. The devil moves in, and he says, here's the failure and the Lord Jesus opens up the books and he says they're all washed away. There's no record of failure here in the glory. He's my defense lawyer in the court of heaven. And in Revelation 12, it's just like God gets so sick and tired of hearing about all of the faults of the brethren that he tells Michael go get rid of him. I don't want to hear the accusations of the brethren anymore.
He is cast down. And what is the power by which Satan by which Michael does this?
This great act, he does it by the power of God and by the blood of Christ, and by the word of their testimony. So the devil finds his defeat in the cross, and that's why he says he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. That is, the world can come and they can have their sins blotted out there at the cross also.
Now we notice back in one John One and verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is his work as an advocate, as a defense lawyer, not only includes our defense in the presence of God, but it includes a plan by which we can be restored. We can be restored to God.
You know, I have been in court a number of times, sometimes for other people, sometimes for myself. And I have sometimes noticed that the defense lawyer and the judge will get together in a side room and they'll have a little meeting. And I believe that sometimes, could we say in picture language that happens where Jesus is our advocate, could you say interceding for us there? We'll get together in God's presence and say and say, I have a plan.
For the restoration of Dan Spence, and that plan will involve something.
That will cause me to come to 1St John, chapter one and verse 9.
To the point whereby I will confess that sin, and when I come to that point then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, that sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now I find this and I'm I'm going to share this with you young people here this afternoon, because I know from talking to many of you that this is a problem, that the devil nut only gets his victory.
When he we fall into the temptation and sin, but he gets his victory in the fact that we do not believe first John one verse nine. I have talked to so many of you and I've been through it myself through the experience of falling into sin and then going through a two week or longer period of depression because I dishonored the one who died for me at Calvary.
I know that's a problem, and I believe that it's a problem because we do not believe the simple language of First John 19. If we confess our sins, not if we ask for forgiveness, but if we confess them, he is faithful and just.
Why? Because he is paid for those sins. You'll notice that Calvary not only was there a shedding of blood, but there was a shedding of water.
00:50:01
And that's what we have in First John 19A cleansing power. The basis for that cleansing is in the in the shedding of the blood and water of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're at Calvary, so he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us. But you say, what if I fall into the sin the next day?
Apply first John 19 and I fall into sin the next week. Apply first John 19. You can be restored instantaneously. Yes, it may be true, if this keeps happening over and over, that God may have to deal with you in judgment. He may have to send some punishment into your life to help correct the problem. But the result of first John 19 of constantly confessing that sin is a confessing.
Or is a is a cleansing power from that sin in our lives. Here we have the two aspects of the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus that is going on right now on our behalf. Our great High priest with hand outstretched wounded hand that has been to the cross to keep us out of the ditch and that other hand outstretched in the glory wounded hand.
Outstretched as our advocate to get us out of the ditch once we fall. Going to give you a little illustration just to help you understand this in closing.
A number of years ago, my daughter, who was then 12 years of age, decided that she would want to respond to an invitation from someone who lived in Toronto, her uncle, to come up there for a couple of weeks. So we decided we'd prayed about it, decided this would be OK, and the particular day we were going to take her to the airport, we had arranged the tickets and called the airlines.
And we found that everything was set for her to come, and Uncle Art was going to come down from the Hammer Bay Area where he had a cabin to Toronto and pick her up. And it was all all set in place and everything that morning when I got up was going bad. Went to work, things were not going well. Left work, things were not going well. Picked up, my family, took them to the airport, got out to the airport. Big long line, 15 minutes to go.
And she's supposed to be on the plane in 15 minutes. That was about 1:00.
And the ticket agent says. But where is her birth certificate? Birth certificate? I said, what do you mean birth certificate? She says. Well, you can't get into Canada without a birth certificate. When did they start this? About two weeks ago. Why didn't you tell me? Well, I'm sorry, but she can't go on that plane. Well, I'm sorry, but she is going on that plane. I won't. I won't put it in quite the language that I did.
That day and finally we came to this point where I realized that she was not going.
On that plane there was number way that I could contact Uncle Art until I'm don't come. No telephone. I did not know his, I did not know anyone elses number. He would come all the way to Toronto about a 5 hour trip and back and not find Tammy there so.
I said to the lady, well, I'm going home to get it.
And she said, how far is that home? A little smile on her face. I said, it's 45 minutes one way. I'll be back in an hour and a half. She said. There's no way that you're going to make it. That plane is going to leave in 15 minutes. Now, as we go through this, I'm going to tell you here, I failed to look up to the Lord Jesus as my great High priest because had I done so, I would have been able to say that that Lady, ma'am, I have a God. I have a God who's able to hold that plane on the runway until I get back.
So excuse me while I go home and pick up the birth certificate. But I didn't say that. And I said to my wife, I said, honey, you keep the kids there on that seat and I'll be back in about an hour and a half. And she saw that look in my eye, that she knew there was no turning me back. So I went out, got in my car, ran into a wall of traffic.
And so I decided to pray. And so I said, Lord.
You're going to have to help me do this, otherwise I will never make it.
In the Lord it was like this, he said. What did you say to that Lady? And I said it wasn't very nice, was it? And he said, no, it wasn't. You were not a good testimony.
00:55:07
And I said I'm sorry. And you know, the traffic cleared up and I went home and I got the birth certificate and I I was driving back and it was about 2:00. The plane was had was due to leave at 1:15. It was 2:00. And I came to realize how really unintelligent this move was. So I said to myself, I'm going to go and I'm going to apologize to my wife and my family for making them sit through this. This was really not a good move.
And here I failed to realize that.
I have a great high priest there in the glory, and that morning we had read about Joshua and how he commanded the sun and the moon to stand still.
And they stood still until the battle was over. And I said, Lord, I know that if you could command, if you could stop the sun in the middle of the heavens, that you could stop that DC-10 on the runway. And I drove into the Los Angeles International Airport, head down, ready to make this confession, and suddenly my wife comes running out of American Airlines. And if any of you know Gene, you will know, you can always tell which way things are going.
And her face vibrant, she snatches that out of my hand and she was gone. I jumped out of my car. I looked. All I could see was there was my daughter and my wife just going for all they were worth, things flying and behind them. I picked up a hat, her only hat, And when I finally got up there, they closed the door and Tammy was on.
The Lord held that on the runway his mighty intercession.
And you know, I was standing there with this hat in my hands and I was, what are we going to do with this? And we decided to pray. And along came a stewardess and we said, could you give this hat to that girl on the plane? She's sitting in first class. They put her on 1St class. Could you give this hat to that little blonde haired girl in first class? And she said, sure. And you know, it was a tremendous lesson to me that the intercession of the Lord Jesus as our great high priest.
Not only can make a DC-10 sit on the runway for two hours longer than they were supposed to, but can even get a hat onto the plane so she can have something to cover her head during the meetings. I want to encourage you young people to exercise your option during this coming year of accessing the tremendous intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ as your great High Priest. And if you fail?
To remember that he's there as your defense lawyer on your behalf and that he will help you get out of the ditch that you are in. Let's pray.