, this morning, I'm preaching a message that we've titled God's Accusations and advocacy. And I'm hoping to provide an overview for us as to what, what's really going on in the Gospel of John and and really all of scripture when we have Moses accusing us before the Father, but Jesus as first John tells us being our advocate and actually telling us that he is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through him. both this job and role of accusation and this role of advocacy comes from God Himself. So why does he want us to feel accused in the first place and then why does he bring advocacy.
and before we get into the, the meat of the message, I just wanna share a little bit of my own personal story that I remember coming to know, the Lord as my savior at 14 years of age when I called upon Christ after seeing, hearing, Pastor Chuck Smith preach the gospel on KCOP Channel 13 in Orange County. And I went in and got on my knees and called upon him to save me from my sins. And when I called upon Christ to be my savior, there were two things that happened and two things that I knew. One is, I became very much assured that my sins had been forgiven and that I loved Jesus all of a sudden and that I wanted to serve him and I wanted to live for him.
That was just plain and obvious. But another reality hit me even on the first day that I called upon Christ, and that is I was still a sinner. And I still desired sin and I still struggled with sin and so, before I received Christ, there was a sense in which I was a happy sinner. but after I came to know the Lord, I now became a, a despairing sinner in some ways.
There were days in which I felt overjoyed at the Lord's love for me and, and even had such a desire to serve Him, and on other days I despaired and even at times began to question, well, could I really be a Christian if I'm continuing on. And, and having these kinds of struggles and I remember I just loved reading my Bible, my, the lady who led me to Christ, she gave me a King James Bible, the open Bible, and I just read it profusely all by myself in my room as a 14 year old and I remember coming along passages one of. My favorite Psalm, Psalm one blesses the man who walks not on the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night, and he's gonna be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that spring forth it's fruit in its season and whose leaf shall never wither wither and whatever he does shall prosper. I'm like, yes Lord, I wanna delight in your word and I do love your word and I, and I read his word a lot....
