While you're finding your way
to 1 John chapter 2, let me just say that if you were out of the
loop and you came this morning looking to hear Brother Henry
Mahan, I share your disappointment. And if you missed that announcement
and you came looking to hear Brother Todd Nybred, I share
your disappointment about that as well. Let's read verse 29,
1 John chapter 2. If you know that He, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of Him. Let's pray. Sovereign Father, You know that
I have prepared to the best of my ability. We have prayed. And yet, Lord, we know that we
will have spent our time and poured out our prayers and sought
for no good end if you don't visit with us today. And I would
simply pray, Lord, that by your grace, you would make it so that
the Lord Jesus Christ would reveal himself so clearly and so directly
and so wonderfully in the hearts of all your people here today.
In the final analysis, it won't matter who did the preaching,
because Christ himself will have done the preaching. Therefore,
Lord, we pray, leaving ourselves in your gracious hands to accomplish
your work. Amen. If we know that Christ is righteous,
we will, as a result, have the knowledge of at least three things
that are presented in the context surrounding this verse. One is,
we'll be able to know or to recognize those who do not know that He
is righteous. Secondly, we will understand
by what means we were brought to know that He is righteous.
And finally, we'll be brought to know what it means to experience
this, this thing that He calls doing righteousness. Those are
the three things I'd like for us to look for in this passage
this morning, and I hope that it will be indeed a lesson that
will be meaningful to you. I believe it will do one of two
things. I believe that we'll all go away, either having been
validated in our walk as believers, or we will go away completely
confused, not understanding anything that I had to say. And that's
the way it is with the gospel all the time, isn't it? So may
I preach the gospel in that way today. John begins with that
if, now that same word if is translated sometimes when and
it really doesn't matter in this particular occasion because he's
recognizing that he's speaking to people who may not know. Not
everyone who claims to know that Christ is righteous, not everyone
who says they honor Christ and call him righteous, not everyone
really knows that he is righteous. There are a lot of people this
very morning who are preaching about Christ, who are preaching
about the righteousness of Christ, and yet they don't know that
he is righteous. Back up with me a few verses
in chapter 2, back to verse 18. This is the experience of John
that led him up to verse 29 to say, if you know, because they
had had some in their midst that apparently they thought knew,
who finally showed that they didn't know. Look in verse 18.
Little children, it is the last time, the last hour in human
history And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even
now, are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the
last time. Now verse 19 is a description
of some that he knew personally. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For
if they had been of us, by the way, that word is the same. in
the original, from and of. It comes from the same preposition,
but it's obviously used in two different sentences. He says
they went out from among us, but they were not from within
us. They weren't us. They weren't what we are. For
if they had been from within us, they would no doubt have
continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest
that they all, every last one of them were not. from within
us or of us. It's commonly agreed among commentators
that he's speaking of those who were guilty of following, leaving
the church and following the way of the Gnostics. I won't
go into a great description of that except simply to trace this
big picture. Their error finally boiled down
to one thing, and I'm bringing this out because it's true of
all of us. All of us are capable of falling into error, and when
we fall into error, this is what we do. We find some religious
tradition. We lay hold of even maybe some
gospel doctrine, or we find something peculiar or particular that we
say that that is the lens through which we'll view all of the things.
The Gnostics did that this way. They had this underlying everything
that they believed. They said this. All matter is
evil. Anything that's solid, anything
that's material is by its very nature evil. And they took that
as their foundation of everything they believed. That's why when
it came to Christ, they fell into this error. It's described
for us in, let's see, verse 22. Here's the essence of what they
had to say about Christ based on this belief that all matter
is evil. John says, who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus
is the Christ. Now, what does that mean to deny
that Jesus is the Christ? Well, first of all, it's a denial
of his deity. Look back in Matthew 22 for a
couple of verses. Matthew 22, verse 42. Or 41.
Let's begin. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? They say unto him, The son of
David. He saith unto them, How then does David in spirit call
him Lord? Saying, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then calls him Lord,
how is he his son? He's highlighting that impossibility
of coming to understand Christ for who he really is. Is he God? Obviously he was. David called
him Lord. He looked to God and he called and he said, the Lord
said to my Lord. He recognized that they were
the same, the same term for both. And therefore, he recognized
that he is God, though he was a man. He was the son of David,
came through the line of David. He was a man. That's the other
half that the Gnostics couldn't get right either. Look over in Luke chapter 2. Here the angels declare clearly
what it is to believe that Jesus is the Christ. Luke 2 and verse
10. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born, physical
birth, this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you, the Lord shall be found as a babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying in a manger. And the Gnostics could never
come to terms with that. God, absolutely God, entirely
God, just as much God as the Father or the Spirit, and yet
man, just as much man as any man who walked on this earth.
Sin excluded. And the reason they could never
get their minds around that was because they said, but all matter
is evil. So that means that there were two kinds of Gnostics. There
were some who said, but I just believe that he's God. But since
all matter is evil, that means that he could not have been a
man. He was so much God that he could present an apparition
of himself to people that looked just like a man, that acted just
like a man, and made people believe there was really a man there.
But there wasn't a man there, because all matter is evil, and
therefore he is God. The other half of the Gnostics
believed the other side. They said, well, I believe he
was a man. Therefore, he couldn't have been
God because all matters evil. If he was a man, he was a sinful
creature and God's not sinful. Oh, my. It's the same way today. There are modern day Gnostics.
Most people who are modern day Gnostics fall into this category,
they believe somehow that Christ could not guarantee the salvation
of his people. It's a denial of his deity. Anyone who comes up and says
that in the final analysis their view of the sacrifice of Christ
is that people who are in hell right now are souls for whom
Christ died are Gnostics because they do not know that He is righteous. The very righteousness of Christ
forbids such a conclusion. How could the righteous blood
of God be shed for a single soul, and that person be sent to hell
to suffer for his own sins. It's a denial of his deity. To
believe what most freewills are preaching this morning around
our city and around this world is a gnostic heresy. These are
knowing people. How did they arrive at that conclusion?
They arrived at that conclusion because they have an underlying
belief that is sacred to them, the doctrine of their own free
will. Free will must lead to such a conclusion because they
cling to that. They'll deny the righteousness
of Christ. They don't know that he's righteous.
They don't have a clue about his righteousness. If you know
that he is righteous, you know that there can't be a single
soul in hell for whom his blood was shed. There's the other kind
of Gnostics as well. There are those, some of whom
have gone out from us. Some of whom we could name their
names. Those who say that I believe that Christ is so much God. that
God could not have laid on him the sins of his people. It was
a judicial arrangement. Somehow or other, God called
him righteous, considered him righteous, said he was righteous,
said he was sin. God considered him as sin, but
he never was really sin. And yet Christ said that my sins,
my sins. Whose sins was he talking about?
He was talking about my sins, but he called them his. My sins
are more than the hairs of my head." Isaiah says it this way
in Isaiah 53, 6. He says, God has made to meet
in him all of our sins. Peter said it this way. He says,
Christ Jesus who himself bore our sins in his own body. Now the Gnostic says that can't
be. I had a man come and speak to me about that. I preached
a message similar to this at a point in the past and he came
and he sat down with me and he was famed to be in great disarray. And I asked him what was wrong
and he said, you have preached heresy that I've never heard
preached here before. What heresy did I preach? You
preach that the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for his people.
I said, no, that's what the Bible says. But that can't be. And I said, why cannot that be?
Because if you put sin on the Savior, you, how do you put it,
not compromise, you contaminate the sacrifice. I
said, no, you just don't understand. What you have is you have an
underlying doctrine that you have made more precious than
the scriptures. You have an underlying doctrine
by which you cannot get over that to understand what the Bible
really teaches about what happened on the cross. And if you can't
understand what happened on the cross, you'll never understand
what happens in salvation. For the sin that he became was
mine. And as we'll talk about in a
moment, the righteousness I became is all his. If you know then that he is righteous,
you can recognize those people who don't believe that he's really
righteous. It's not really hard at all. And I want you to notice
in this passage, as we read down through here, that John did not
do what most modern day preachers and teachers do. What do most
people do when there's a heresy that pops up? Well, they do this.
exhaustive analysis of what they're saying. You know, the quotes
and the counter quotes. They say this and we say that.
And they use this verse this way, but the Greek word says
this. And they go into this back and forth thing. Did you know
you can't win those kinds of arguments? But do you know why
you can't win those kinds of arguments? Because the knowledge
that Jesus Christ is righteous doesn't come that way. Let's
look at what John says about that. Verse 19, he just talked
about those that he knew personally. I'm sure these were people that
he knew. Knew their names. Grieved over them as they left
for this heresy. But look what he says to those
who were left. Now we've got to get together and we're going
to have to have a series on the cults. No, he didn't say that
at all. Verse 20, but you, as opposed
to them, you have an unction from the Holy One, Jesus Christ,
only one who was ever called the Holy One in the New Testament.
You have an anointing from Christ and look what he says, and you
know all things. Now let me, allow me to give
you this clarification on that you know all things. Things in
the original is in the masculine gender. That means it must be
talking about people and not things. In order to be translated
as things, it would have had to have been in the neuter gender,
and it's not that. What he's saying in this verse
is every bit as great. It's not that we know everything.
What he's saying is that you all know. We, everyone who has
this anointing from Christ, knows the truth. Now, where does truth
come from? I studied it for years. I learned at the feet of some
great preacher. If you know that Christ is righteous,
God taught you that Christ is righteous. And don't mistake
this thing about an anointing. Anointing is obviously something
that's external. Its literal definition is anything
that's poured or smeared on. But don't understand that to
mean that this work of God is just a superficial work that
he does on top of what's already there. Oh, no. By anointing,
we understand that this is a work that is in addition to what I
was born This is very critical to understanding the nature of
salvation. God doesn't come to you and I and say, now there's
a smart one. I can make use of that mind.
There's a tender one. I can make use of that heart.
Oh, there's one who is decisive. I can make use of that will.
He doesn't make use of anything that we were born with. God's
not saving this flesh. He doesn't work from scratch.
He makes it new. He does, this anointing is in
addition to what I was. He does his own work beside of
mine. It's in constant contact with
what I was born as. And yet in constant opposition
to it. Now this work of God is a new work. I don't learn by
using my mind. I've heard people make this statement.
We've addressed the gospel to the minds and hearts and wills
of men. I don't. Because I know their minds and
hearts and wills are dead. No, I address the gospel to dead
sinners, just like Christ called a dead Lazarus. And what did
he do? He came out. That doesn't make
sense. I know it doesn't make sense
to a dead mind, but it makes awfully good sense to a quickened
one. God will teach you. I believe
that, don't you? I believe God teaches His people. I believe
that that's the source, the true source of divine knowledge. is
that when Christ doesn't work within. Look in verse 21. And here was his treatment on
the cult of Gnosticism. He says, I have it written unto
you because you don't know the truth, because you can't tell
the difference between these Gnostics and what they say and
what we say. I'm not written unto you because you don't know
and I'm trying to teach you, but because you do know. I'm just
reminding you that no lie is of the truth. We don't preach
or teach to instruct. We preach and teach to confirm. God's people don't learn the
gospel every time we come. They're confirmed in the gospel
every time we come. That's why we come. It's not
that we forget it and have to be retaught every time. We just
need to be reconfirmed in it all the time. It's the food of
our soul. Let's read on down, verse 23. Whosoever denies the
Son, the same hath not the Father." Now we're entering into that
part where John speaks of the way in which we receive and what
the very nature of this thing is we receive in this anointing.
Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father. I want to focus on that one small
verb, hath. To have, to possess, somehow
or other. John is saying that somehow or
other, a sinner is made to actually possess the very God of gods,
the only true and living God in his very being. Let's read
on. He that acknowledges the Son
has the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you,
which you've heard from the beginning. If that which you've heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, You shall also continue
in the Son and in the Father. Is that not the complete joining
of both sides in the definition of union? I have God and He has
me. I'm in Him and He's in me. Turn with me to the Gospel of
John chapter 14. This is so wonderfully presented
here. This is the very essence. This is the very essence of knowledge.
I don't care if you've been in seminary. I don't care if you've
studied all the doctrines. I'm not particularly concerned
if you can use those long, nice Latin and Greek words and talk
in a continuous flow of theological language. If you don't know that
Christ is righteous, it's not because you didn't study. It's
because you're not one with God. You're not united with Him. Look
in 14 verse. Sixteen. I will pray the father. He should
give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because
it sees him not neither knows him, but I look at what he says,
but you know him. How do we know him? because he's
dwelling with you. He's somehow confounding his
own relationship with the disciples with the Spirit's relationship
with the disciples. He says you know who he is because he's dwelling
with you and he shall be in you. He's talking about a current
state and a future state. He's getting ready to leave this
world. He says right now you know who the Spirit is because
he's right here dwelling with you now and in a very short while
he will be in you. Look on down verse Verse 18,
he underscores the truth of that. I will not leave you comfortless.
I'm not going to leave you orphans. And you would expect that he
was talking about some about not being present in the Spirit's
presence, and he would say, I will not leave you orphans. I'm sending
him to you. I'm going to give you a new daddy. He says, I will
not leave you orphans. I'm coming to you. I always stand so amazed every
time I study a passage about the Holy Spirit, I wish I wish
with all my heart I had the selflessness of the Holy Spirit. Did you know
the entirety of his work in both Old and New Testaments points
to Christ? In the New Testament, everything
he does is for the glory of another. I wish I could live like that.
He says, I'll not leave you orphans. I'm coming to you. Yet just a
little while and the world sees me no more. I'll physically be
gone, but you will see me. And because I live, you shall
live also. And in that day, look at this
thing of union. At that day you shall know that
I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. Look on down verse 23. If any man love me, he will keep
my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
and make our boat with him. If you put those two verses together,
you cannot escape this conclusion. Anyone who knows that Christ
is righteous knows so. Because he is as much one with
the very nature of God as Christ is one with the Father. As the
Spirit is one with Christ. As Christ is one with the Spirit.
We share the same nature of God. Look at that in 2 Peter. Let's
just read it again. These are such marvelous things.
They show us that in this world in which we live, as Americans,
we're predisposed to not understand these things. We are, by our
very education, taught to not be able to enter into this kind
of truth, because we're in a scientific, empirical society. If it's not,
if it's not discernible, understandable or definable by the five, one
of the five senses, it's not real. And yet God does the work
in us and he bypasses all five and yet makes use of them just
as he needs to. Look in 2 Peter chapter one. Verse four, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises. that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature. A lot of people are saying a
lot of things about that these days, but I just believe the
Scriptures mean exactly what they say. The word partakers
comes from the word for fellowship. The essence of fellowship is
to share. It's to have in common. We have
a nature in common with God. It's His own. So much fun with
Christ, that what I've been made to be in Christ, I'm made to
be by the presence of His new nature in me. Now let's read
on down and we'll find that as we finish up. Verse 29, if you know, if you
know by this wonderful anointing, if you know by this union with
the Father and union with the Son, if you know that He is righteous,
You know that everyone that does righteousness is born of him.
That doing righteousness, righteousness is preceded in that verse by
a definite article. The, it literally reads, you
know that everyone who is doing the righteousness, that the is
used to refer back to the righteousness he's just spoken of. And he's
literally saying this. If you know that Christ is righteous,
you know that everyone who is doing that righteousness of Christ
has been born of him. The same righteousness that Christ
is, is the one that we do. Now what does it mean to do righteousness?
There again, we are predisposed to not understand terms like
that because of our cultural upbringing. We hear a word like
do and we think of activities and behaviors and Good works
and getting out there and doing things, and we need to get these
people stirred up to be active. Not so in the scriptures, not
so in the scriptures. This word doing encompasses the
entirety of our being. It has as much to do with what
we are as with what we do. Let me show you a few passages
about that. First of all, in John, chapter
four, verse thirty four. Here's the example of Christ
as he demonstrates forth what it means, how broad this word
do is in the scriptures. John 4, 34, the disciples have just come
to him and said, here, master, take something to eat. And he
says, I'm not hungry. And in verse 34, he explains,
Jesus saith unto them, my meat, my food. That upon which my soul
lives and what I've lived for is to do the will of my Father
who hath sent me, and to finish His work. He said, not just doing
things, but this is what consumes me, and it's what I consume. It's what I live. It's what my
entire life is about, inward and outward. Everything I am
and everything I do is for one thing. It's to do His will. Did
he not do that? You know yourself in Hebrews
chapter 11, quoting that passage out of Romans, or out of Psalm
40, where he says, Behold, I come to do thy will, O God. It was
everything that he was. Everything that he is, everything
he does is described in that word do. The same thing is true
for us. Look in Ephesians chapter 2,
or chapter 6. Ephesians 6 gives us good insight
into the way the Scriptures use this word doing. Verse 5. Service be obedient to them that
are your masters according to the flesh with fear and tremble
in singleness of your heart thinking only one thing not to just one
as unto Christ and he defines it in verse 6. Not with eye service,
don't just work when they're watching you as men pleasers,
but work as the servants of Christ. And here's how he talks about
that. Doing the will of God, which sounds external to us,
but then he turns it right back inward and says from the heart.
It's not, you know, in the final analysis, what we do in our society
is we've we've always got this preoccupation with cutting things
up. We like to dissect, break it down into its basic components.
I do it at work all the time. That's my job. You know, I'm
trying to define processes, what was first and second and third.
You know, really that works against us in a lot of ways. Because
all we ever do is what we are. Doing the will of God. It's literally
from the soul, from the very depths of your being. So to do
is not just outward activity, it's what you are. It's what
we live from deep down within us. Now let's go back to our
passage where he speaks about doing righteousness. Doing righteousness
is not just practicing certain works. It's about a life. It's about a life in union with
Christ, who has now made the very righteousness of God in
him, and that life that flows out of that. John summarizes
in this one little phrase of doing righteousness. In chapter
3, verse 1, this is what John is talking about when he says,
Behold what manner of love. Manner is kind. He said, Behold
the nature of the love of God. What is the nature of God's love
that He's bestowed upon us? That we should be called the
sons of God. And in the original, there are
two other words that follow that phrase. It's simply this, and
we are. Here's the nature of God's love,
that He would take a sinner like you, a sinner like this, and
that He would cause us to be so born of the very nature of
God that I am legitimately His child. You think back to what you learned
as a religionist and think back to what others tell you when
they talk about being made God's child. It's just a deal He strikes
up. God calls me His son. He calls
me His son because I am. I'm his son by birth. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that anyone who is doing this righteousness, who has made
this righteous creature and who lives this life in pursuit of
Christ is someone who is born from above. That's not what they
started out as. Brother Bob preached, taught about assurance, and I
think I share something about that statement that you made
about assurance in that I know this. I know what I was. And I sow something about what
I am, and it's a total opposite. I hate my former life. I go from
day to day loathing the very false message that I preached,
loathing the very life that I lived, hating myself for all that, and
hating back then what I love now. The very gospel that I rejoice
in, I despise. I was taught to debate it, argue
it, and defeat it. That's all I cared about the
gospel and now I love it. How is that? What made the difference? Well, I was taught by a good
man. Well, I'm thankful that I have a pastor who took me in
in such a condition. I dare say there were probably
several who would not have appreciated me coming to their church, coming
out of the foolishness that I was a part of. I had a pastor who
took me in, but that's not where I learned that. I learned that
by being born again. made a completely new creature
start from scratch. That's why God calls us a new
creature, a brand new creation. This is not a learned gospel.
This is a born gospel. Oh, my God, make that real to
you. Going on down, verse two, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God? We're this way right now. We
have the nature that we will have through all eternity. And
it does not yet appear what we shall be. Don't know exactly
what the form will take. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. We shall see him as he is, and
that's enough. Verse three, just knowing that surety that as surely
as I was born of him and have his nature, one day I will have
his physical form. Every man that has this hope
in himself. Hope in Christ. purifies himself,
even if he is pure. You know what that is? That's
doing righteousness. It's a person who sees all of
his righteousness as coming from Christ. All of his righteousness
is the nature that he shares with Christ. And when he sees
that, he has an endless pursuit of righteousness. Religion defines
a believer, their kind of believer, as being someone who is basically
a sinner but who is struggling, forcing himself to be righteous.
The Bible reveals a believer as someone who is righteous,
who would love to shed his sinfulness. The total opposite. Verse four, whosoever commits
sin transgresses also the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. By the way, that committed sin.
John does the same language there as he did with righteousness.
It's literally doing sin. What is doing sin? Let's back
up. It gives you a good insight into what doing righteousness
is. Look at Ephesians, Chapter 2. Ephesians, Chapter 2, verse 3. Here's a good picture
of what it means to do sin. among whom also we all had our
conversation, our behavior in times past, in the lusts of our
flesh, not just the actions, but the desires that they came
from, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and we were by nature the children of wrath. Doing sin is doing
what we were born to be. We did what we were. We were
doing sin. Let's finish up. Verse 5, And you know that he
was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that when God placed upon him in his body every one
of your sins, you know that it did not mar his divinity. He
didn't contaminate the righteousness of the sacrifice. He was full
well God enough to bear those sins to complete satisfaction
before God. He put them away. They were on
him, but they're gone now. You know that wonderful thought.
The very sins that I have yet to sin, the very sins that are
a continuous flow from my evil heart, they're brand new to me,
grievously new. Things that I don't, that I wish
not to do and yet they're already gone to him. He's already put
them away. In him is no sin. Therefore,
in verse six, whosoever abides in him, whosoever is one with
him in union is not doing sin. That's the literal translation.
He's not doing sin. He's not living out of a sinful
nature and doing the sinful things that it dictates. Whosoever sinneth
hasn't seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no
man deceive you. He who is doing righteousness,
not just doing acts of righteousness, not just making appearance of
righteousness, but he who is doing righteousness, who is righteous
and lives out that righteousness, is righteous how much? Even as he is righteous. I imagine it is even as he is
righteous because it's the same. We share a righteousness, share
a nature. Verse 8, he who commits sin,
literally he who is doing sin, is of the devil. For the devil
sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God does not do sin. That's what it literally
says. He is not doing sin. Why? Why is it that way? For his seed
remains in him, and he cannot sin. That's what Paul wrote about
in Galatians 5, 17, when he talks about the flesh lusting against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. No, I cannot be the righteous
person that I am, because my sin is ever present with me.
However, what is born of God does never sin. The real me never
sins. I'm going to finish with just
a few verses in Romans chapter 7. Paul speaks of this exact
same truth. And he says some wonderful things. Let's look in verse 15. Notice how Paul, Paul's not speaking
here like a schizophrenic. He's speaking of a man that's
in bondage, a righteous man in sinful flesh. Verse 15, for that
which I do, I allow not. Literally, he says, I know not. He says, what I'm doing, I don't
recognize, because what I would, that I do not. But what I hate,
that I do. That's not what I intended to do. That's not what my heart
says, but that's what I do. He says, I don't recognize that.
Verse 16, if then I do that which I would not, I consented to the
law that it's good. Now then, it's no more I. Now
look at this. This is not a cop-out. This is
a statement of a believer who is one with Christ and who is
doing the righteousness of Christ. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me. Now understand this about
this new nature. It's not a 50-50 split. We're
not schizophrenics. We're not people who have an
angel on one shoulder and a and a demon on the other. We are
people who have been born from above, and our nature is one
of righteousness. We love it. We would do only
that, would we not? We would live only that way.
And yet I live in the presence of my old nature, who would do
everything that it could at all times to keep me from doing righteousness.
I like the way Paul says, he says, there's no more I to do
it. God knows my heart. God knows my heart. He said it's
the sin that dwells in me. Look on down. For I know that
in me that is in my flesh, not in my new nature, but in what
I was born as, dwells no good thing. For to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For
the good that I would or I want to do, I don't do. But the evil
which I don't want to do is what I actually do. Now if I do what
I don't want to, it's no more I that do it, I like those verses. It's not the real me. It's not
that one that was born of God. No, it's not me. But yet it is
me. It's the sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law. And here's that law. Whenever
I would do good, which is always because I'm born from above,
always wanting to do good, something else is always going on as well.
Always wanting to do good, evil is ever present with me. Because
I find in my heart that I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. I seek righteousness. I love righteousness. I pursue
righteousness. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity. Not that the law has the upper
hand. Not that sin has the upper hand. But it always is able to
frustrate my efforts at perfect righteousness. I am not free
to be what I am by nature, by divine nature. I don't have that
ability. However, it does bring me into
the captivity of the law of sin, which is in my members, and I
am a wretched man. Paul asks who can deliver such
a being from the body of this death. He's not asking about
salvation there. He's saying I'm so tired of living
in this way. You get tired of being what you
are, what you were born as. I grow more and more weary the
older I get. I don't like this world. I don't like being what
I am. I hate what I am. I love what
Christ has made me. I desire it. I seek it. I would
be only that. I'm a wretched man. Paul's not
asking to be saved. He's asking to be delivered from
the presence of sin. Lord, I don't want to be this
way anymore. No wonder the scriptures death
is seen as a great blessing for a believer. It's my deliverance
from this flesh. It's the time when I'll finally
be able to be a righteous man only. Who can deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's
exactly what John said back there. We don't know what we will be.
that we know that we're children of God right now. We have his
nature. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh, the law of sin. Let me encourage you this morning
that if this