I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. I'm really just going to deal with two verses this morning. But they're verses that include a gospel truth that is essential for true God-given faith in Christ and true repentance.

Now, let me say at the outset, faith and repentance are not conditions that you and I have to meet or fill of our own selves. but they are essential for salvation as the fruit and effect of having been justified by the grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

If salvation were conditioned on us believing and repenting, the Bible teaches that there'd be no salvation for us because Christ said, That in order to believe, in order to see the truth and believe it, you must be born again. And that's a work of God. It's not a work of man. It's not by blood. It's not by the works or the will of the flesh. It's by God.

So when we speak of faith, we're speaking of a gift from God. We quote Ephesians chapter 2. verses eight and nine quite often which says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast

and you see so often in today's religion what people do is they make faith a work by claiming that What Christ did on the cross is absolutely nothing unless you kick it into gear or add your faith to it. And that's not the truth. The Bible says, having been justified, we have peace with God by faith.

And what that means, what is it to be justified? To be justified And the word just, justified, is equal to the word righteous and righteousness. And when you see in verse 28 of this passage that we're going to in 1 John 2, we now little children in him that we know, as he says, and now little children, abide in him, abide in Christ.

Persevere, keep your eyes focused on Christ. for your salvation, for your assurance. And he says that when he shall appear, we may have confidence. And I like that, I want confidence. And be not ashamed before him at his coming.

You know, the Bible says those who stand before God at judgment without Christ, without being washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness, they shall be ashamed. But he says here, abiding in him, That means a continual look of faith in Christ.

We talked about that last week with this unction back in verse 20. You have an unction. An unction is an anointing from the Spirit of God that keeps His people focused on Him and not themselves. If your focus is on yourself, you'll see failure. And I'm not insulting you. If I focus on myself, I'll see failure. But if I focus on Christ, I see victory. I see completeness.

And so he says, if you abide in him, and that's evidence, that when he shall appear, when he comes a second time, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. And here's the ground of it, verse 29. If you know that He is righteous, Christ is righteous. You see that? Now think about that.

Now I can say I'm righteous but not the same way that Christ is righteous. Christ is righteous because of His very pure and perfect nature, His pure and perfect work, He never sinned. He had no sin, he knew no sin, he was contaminated with no sin. He ate supper with publicans and harlots, but he didn't contract their sin at all. He is righteous.

So you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness, that's a strange phrase, doeth righteousness, that's the title of the message. Doing righteousness is born of him. So to be justified means to be forgiven of all of my sins on a just and righteous ground. And the only just and righteous ground there is that God can forgive sin is the blood of Jesus Christ.

The perfect Lamb of God who died, shed his blood without spot, without blemish. The sinless lamb. You remember when they were preparing a lamb for the atonement, for the Passover, they had to watch that lamb to make sure there was no blemish on that lamb. It had to be spotless. That's a type of Christ, the righteous.

You see, a sinner cannot die for another sinner and satisfy the justice of God. So the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all, that is, all of his sheep. And what does that mean, laid it upon him? Charged it to his account. And that's what we call imputed sin. Sin imputed to Christ, charged to Christ.

He didn't commit any sin, but he bore the sins of his people, his sheep, God's elect, to Calvary upon the tree, cursed for us. based upon our sin debt. You know, one of the main words for sin in the New Testament is the word debt. We're sinners and without a substitute, without a surety, without a mediator, without a redeemer, we would owe a debt to God's justice for our sins, a debt that we have nothing to pay for.

We're broke. We can't pay for it. But Christ took our sins upon himself and gave himself for our sins, shedding his blood to satisfy the justice of God. Somebody told me one time, he said, you preach a bloodthirsty God. I said, no, I preach a just God. And the penalty has got to fit the crime. And what does the Bible tell you about the crime? Sin and the wages of sin. What are the wages of sin? Death. The soul that sinneth must surely die.

Well, Christ, He wasn't a sinner. But God the Father, in His sovereign wisdom and power and grace, chose His Son before the foundation of the world to be the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of His people. And His Son, the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, willingly assumed that position, took that position because of His love for the Father and for the people to whom the Father gave Him.

That's why He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And He's called Jesus Christ the righteous. And that's what we needed. And that's what John's talking about all through this passage.

But here in verse 20, 29, he says, he says, if you know that he is righteous, Christ, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. Now, what is it to do righteousness? I was reading one of the old commentators that I have a lot of confidence in who in his commentary, wrote a whole commentary from Genesis to Revelation, and I've read most of it. Here's what he said about that, doing righteousness.

Not merely works of righteousness, especially in order to justify him before God. In other words, it's not a sinner trying to establish his own righteousness by his works. What does the Bible say about that? Turn to Romans chapter nine with me. And in these verses, the Apostle Paul sums up the whole problem with man's works-oriented religion. And he especially goes to the Jews here who rejected Christ because Paul himself was a Jew.

And he says in Romans chapter nine, and look at verse 31, talking about Israel, Romans 9 31. He says, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, the law of God, which sets forth the standard of righteousness, which is perfection. And he says, hath not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore, or why? Why didn't they attain? They followed after the law of righteousness, but they didn't make it. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.

Now what is it to seek righteousness by faith? It's to seek it and find it in Christ. That's righteousness by faith. Seeking it not in myself, not by my works, or I won't find it, I won't make it. I'll fall short. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Christ is the glory of God. And it says they stumbled at that stumbling stone. The stumbling stone is a reference to the Old Testament prophets who portrayed Christ as a stumbling stone.

Look at verse 33. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now look at chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Paul's saying that they're lost. Why? Because they're seeking righteousness by their works. He said in verse two, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, they're religious, but not according to knowledge.

They're ignorant of something. What are they ignorant of? Verse three, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, what God requires for sinners like us to be saved and accepted and enter heaven's glory. They're ignorant of that. They think that if they do their best to keep the law that that's good enough, that'll make them righteous. It didn't. And so they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

So I ask myself, have I submitted myself to the righteousness of God? Well, what is that? Verse four, for Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment, the perfection, the finishing for righteousness to everyone that believe it. There it is. So what is this doing righteousness? Well, as this commentator said, he's not talking about works of righteousness as if he's talking about human morality and dedication, because man at his best state is altogether vanity.

I've often said, yes, we should try to be moral, dedicated, Loving charitable all of those things, but the best we can do in any of those areas will not equal the perfection of righteousness That can only be found in the person and work of Christ You take a person who's doing their best to keep the Ten Commandments as they see him and At their best, the scripture says, man at his best states altogether vanity.

So what I'm telling you is this, when you come to this passage and you see that doeth righteousness, it's not just trying to be a good human being. It's more than that. It's not just human morality and sincerity and dedication. Now those things are not bad in and of themselves, but when you aim that at making yourself acceptable to God and righteous before God, to establish a right relationship with God, the Bible actually calls them evil because they deny the glory of God in Christ. They deny Christ.

This is why Christ in the Sermon on the Mountain in Matthew 5.20, He said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. So this concept of righteousness has to be identified by God's Word. And what is it? It's the perfection of the law that God requires but that we don't have and cannot obtain. There's none righteous, no, not one. We were talking about that, Romans 10. That's talking about all of us by nature and based upon our works, Romans 3.10.

So the question of questions. You can read it throughout the Scripture. One of the places you can read it is in the book of Job. It's twice. How shall a man... Now what is he talking about? He's talking about a sinful man, which we all are. sinful men and women, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How shall a sinful man be just, righteous before God? How is that possible? And the scripture answers it. It's by God's grace, which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, and don't forget these words, Romans 521, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

I'm telling you that I stand before God righteous, not in my own works, not because I walked an hour and shook a preacher's hand, not because I jumped into the Baptistry, not because I'm trying to do well. I'm righteous before God. in Jesus Christ, my surety, who paid my debt. My sins were charged to him. He paid my debt and he gave me in return a perfect righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice.

Now turn to Romans chapter four. And the apostle Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to put it in perspective for the unbelieving Jews who rejected Jesus of Nazareth. I'm telling you, if you reject Jesus of Nazareth as your Savior, the one and only Savior, the one mediator between God and man, you're rejecting the only way of righteousness, the only way of forgiveness, the only way of fellowship with God. The only way of acceptance with God. The only way of eternal life in glory.

And Paul goes back to Abraham here in Romans chapter four. Because the Jews depended, one of the things they rejected Christ for and opted for was their physical connection with Abraham. And I've told you all this before. The unbelieving Jews had basically three things that they boasted in as making them right with God, righteous in God's sight.

Number one was their physical heritage with Abraham. We be Abraham's seed, they would say. Christ in John chapter eight said, well, let me let you in on something, fellas. That'll do you absolutely no good. Just because you're born of Abraham's seed physically, it won't help you a bit when you stand before God.

The second thing they depended upon was their circumcision. And that was the entering of the covenant. And Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision availeth anything. Your physical circumcision of the males, that means nothing. In fact, he said in Galatians 5, if you be circumcised for that reason, thinking that it makes you accepted with God and righteous with God, Christ will profit you nothing!

And the third thing they boasted in was they kept the Law of Moses. Well, they didn't, but they claimed to. And they had their ways of dodging around it. Christ told him, he said, Moses will be your judge. And he told him, Moses wrote of me. Moses didn't seek righteousness. Moses, who represented the law, didn't seek righteousness by the law. He sought it in Christ. And that's the way every true believer does.

But look at Romans 4. Paul, in verse one, he says, what shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? What did Abraham find based upon his works? Well, he says in verse two, for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory. Boast, but not before God. Now, if you're seeking righteousness by your works, you may have a reason to brag about that before men. know why? Because men can't see your heart. But God, before God, you can forget it. That is certain doom.

And he says in verse three, what saith the scripture? What does God say? Abraham believed God and it was counted. That's the word imputed, that means charged to his account unto him for righteousness. to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death." If salvation or its blessings is something you work for and get then it's not grace, it's works. You earned it but you can't earn anything from God and he says in verse five, but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith counted for righteousness." Now that doesn't mean that his believing is replace righteousness, it means his faith. What was Abraham's faith? Well, Christ described it in John chapter 8. He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.

Abraham's faith was faith in Christ and so he says, But to him, verse five, to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith, which is faith in Christ, is counted for righteousness, even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Every believing sinner who's been born again by the Spirit stands before God righteous, not by his works, not by his believing, but by the works, the merit of Christ, imputed, charged, accounted to him.

Now I said all that to say this, go back to our text, 1st John 2 28. In order to understand this, you're going to have to understand what righteousness really is. Righteousness is a total, complete gift of God's grace that comes to us, His people, by Jesus Christ alone, God imputing, charging, accounting it to us as He accounted our sins to Christ and He took them to the cross and died for those sins. He drank damnation dry. He died for his people. He died for his sheep.

So what is doing righteousness? Look at it again, verse 28 of 1 John 2. And now, little children, abide in him. There's your key. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and don't take your eyes off of him. Maybe you can put it that way. Abide in him. Remember John, He's talking to people who had experienced those who called themselves believers and then left. They did not abide in Christ. They apostatized. And of course, John says over in 1 John 2, 18 and 19, they never were obvious. They never were saved.

Let me tell you this right now, and I'm just being honest with you. Any religion that calls themselves Christian, who believes that a person can be saved and then lost is not true Christian, is not the gospel. It falls prey to those errors of human religion, which always makes salvation conditioned on us in some way, to some degree, at some time, and always measures righteousness on a sliding scale.

You see, if we're in Christ, If we're in fellowship with the Father and the Son, John's already dealt with that. We are all equally righteous in God's sight because that righteousness doesn't come from us, it came from Christ and he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So abide in him. If the Spirit of God has done a work in you, the work of new birth, regeneration, conversion, giving you a new heart, a new life, a new mind. You have an unction, verse 20, from the Holy One and you cannot leave it. You won't want to leave it, but you cannot leave it. so He says abide in Him. Verse 24, let that therefore abide in you which you've heard from the beginning. What did we hear in the beginning if we're saved? We heard of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. We heard of His merits, His blood shed for all of our sins, His righteousness for our justification. he says in verse 27, but the anointing which you have received which is the work of the Spirit which cannot be reversed abideth in you and you need not any man teach you and now little children, verse 28, abide in him.

Continue. I mentioned last week I think about Peter, you remember when The disciples were in that ship out on the Sea of Galilee, and the storm came up. And they looked in the distance, and they saw Christ coming toward the boat, walking on the water. Remember what Peter did? He jumped out of the boat and walked on the water, looking unto Jesus. And then he took his eyes off Christ and looked at his surroundings. And what happened? He began to sink. And what did he do? Lord, save me! And of course, Christ did.

Keep your eyes on Christ. Hebrews chapter 12, run the race of grace. Now that's what doing righteousness is, it's running the race of grace. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That commentator I was telling you about, it says here, He said, for such in one is so far from being, those who look elsewhere, take their eyes off Christ, they're so far from being born again, he's manifestly in a state of nature and opposition and enmity with God, he's not subject to it. He does not submit to the righteousness of God, which is Christ, in the glory of his person and the beauty and success of his finished work, but he intends such in one who with the heart believes unto righteousness, Looking to Christ, abiding in Christ, following Him, not to earn your salvation, but as a completed work.

The Bible says, in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. Rest in Him for justification. Christ who performs the righteousness that we need. in order to be accepted with God. If you know, and here's the basis of verse 29, if you know that He is righteous, now that's settled. You know, there are people today preaching that Christ was made a sinner before He went to the cross. Well, they don't know that He is righteous. But we do. He wasn't made to be a sinner. He died for sinners. The sins of His people who are sinners was charged to Him. And He remained the Holy One of Israel, the spotless Lamb of God.

So if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness, that abides in Him, looks to Him, rests in Him. That's what He's talking about. That's what doing righteousness is. It's not any merit in my performances. or in my works. It's looking to and resting in Christ for all righteousness, for all forgiveness, for all glory, salvation. Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. You cannot do righteousness, you cannot abide in Him unless you're born again of the Spirit. You have that unction from the Holy One. That's the issue here. And he goes on to talk about that.

The Bible says that those who abide in Christ, that they cannot be charged with their sins because Christ was charged with them. It says that in Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And so all who follow Christ and rest in Him are justified by His righteousness imputed to them, and they do righteousness when they believe in Him and rest in Him and follow Him. That's what it is. It doesn't mean that my works as a believer come up to the standard of perfection. Nothing I ever do is perfect. Nothing you ever do is perfect. But everything Christ did was and is perfect. You see the difference?

When we pray. The Bible says that those prayers are accepted of God through Jesus Christ, our great high priest. But how many times have you prayed that you get sidetracked praying? You ever done that? I have too. I start praying for other people and then I finally end up praying for myself. Thinking about things, something enters my mind or I hear something, it distracts me. That disqualifies me as working or doing righteousness by my works.

You know, in our church, we have a media ministry on the internet. It's called Reign of Grace Media Ministries. And I got that title from Romans 521. where it says that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, that's sovereign grace, that's controlling grace, grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And that's why I call it the reign of grace, because we recognize that if God were to ever judge any of us based upon our best, we'd be condemned.

But the Bible says in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And what is the mainstay of walking according to the flesh? You know what it is? It's human religion trying to work itself into God's favor and blessings. That's walking after the flesh. Read about it in Philippians chapter 3. Paul described his time working after the flesh when he said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised the eighth day, is touching the law, a Pharisee. Those were things that he thought made him righteous in God's sight, but they won't. That's flesh.

You remember the parable of the Pharisee and the publican? A lot of people forget that the first three words out of the Pharisee's mouth was, I thank God, or God, I thank thee. That I'm not like other men. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of everything that I have. I'm just so religious, so moral. Christ said that man went down to his house unjustified, because none of what he said will make him righteous. But what did the publican say? He beat upon his breast and said, Lord, be merciful. Literally be propitious towards me, the sinner. I need a mercy seat. That's what that publican was saying. I need Christ.

And you remember the false preachers in Matthew 7 verse 21. He said, and Christ said, not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he that does the will of my father. And the will of his father was to believe on the son who he sent. And they said, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful works? Only to hear him say, depart from me you that work iniquity. I never knew you. Now the things they were doing the natural man would not call iniquity but God does because none of those things equal the perfection of righteousness that God requires and that we need and that can only be found in the person and work of Christ. You see that? That's it.

And that's why the Apostle Paul, when he was on the Damascus Road on his way to arrest believers and have them tried and killed, when God stopped him and opened his eyes, sent him to that man to preach the gospel to him, and he was brought by the Spirit to see the Lord Jesus Christ as his righteousness, and count all of those things that before he thought made him righteous as being nothing. Dung, he called it. I do count them but dung that I may be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ.

See, even our salvation is not based upon our faithfulness. God makes us faithful by His Spirit, but our salvation is not based on that. Our salvation is based upon Christ's faithfulness to do the work, to keep the law, to satisfy the justice of God.

So if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. And to do righteousness is to settle that matter with God, between you and God, by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ and abide in Him.

Keep yourselves focused on Christ. Lord, keep us from the evil one. You know, that's Satan's main goal is to get your eyes off of Christ and onto yourself and to others.

My friend, the Holy Spirit will point you only to Jesus Christ the righteous for your whole salvation and no one else. That's the simplicity, the singularity that is in Christ for his people.