Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. We've been considering, last
time I stayed pretty close on this topic, subject, truth. of doing righteousness. And I really, I'd like to deal
with verses chapter 7 through verse 10 is what I'm going to
actually go through, but just to kind of bring us back to where
we are. When you hear that term in the
last verse, 29 of chapter 1, if you know that He's righteous. You know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of Him. And that just, just that, those
two words right there. A believer hears that and he
thinks, oh I, I don't know about me. Doeth
righteousness. Does that mean, though, he that
doeth righteousness? I think it was probably explained
to me as well as any verse I've ever heard. Abraham believed
God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. He believed God. Not in, as I've heard many say,
he didn't say he believed in God. Devils believe in God, they
believe God, but they don't believe Him. They don't believe Him.
He that doeth righteousness, now listen, if you by faith believe,
you trust, you cast yourself upon the mercy of Christ for
all of your righteousness. You believe that He, the Son
of the Living God. Again, I admit, there's so much
that we believe that we can't understand. But that the Son
of God, who is God, and here's what's said of the Son, the Mediator
that came into this world, the One made flesh, We read the scriptures
where he prayed unto his father. Here he was praying as a man,
as a man, the God-man. And he prayed unto his father,
and he to whom he prayed, he is equal. He's equal. The scripture says, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead. bodily, in that person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the man, bound up. Whenever the scripture sets
forth, he that doeth righteousness, he that believeth that Christ
is everything that God is, he's everything that God demands,
for righteousness, and He's everything to His people. They believe Him. That is said to be doing righteousness. He that doeth righteousness is
born of Him. Then He reminds us again of the
source. Now, you believe that. Now here's
something that we need to be reminded of. We believe it. But our belief is something that
again was granted. Verse 1, chapter 3, Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should
be called the sons of God. That we should be called God's
sons. continue to believe because we
have the power to. He's got to give us right now. You remember what I told you
about yesterday's air? Yesterday I took a breath and
man it was great. But I got to have another breath
right now. And yesterday's faith is gone. Faith cometh by hearing. Without the hearing
of the Word, there's no faith. Faith cometh by His Word. So
that blessing be called the sons of God. And with that blessing
also, remember, comes the frown of the world. John, I'll read
this to you. John 15 verse 19. If you were
of the world, The world would love his own,
but because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out
of the world, therefore the world hateth you. When scripture declares
that men will be hated of the world for Christ's sake, why
do they hate him? Because God chose you to salvation.
Just remember that. Why am I despised? Why do people hate what I believe? Why? chose to show mercy to you. Amazingly, the world hates those
that God eternally loved. That's just the makeup of carnal
man. They hate the Scriptures, they
hate the God of the Bible, and they hate the Gospel. They don't
know. They don't know. God's people. They don't know
God. They don't perceive. They do not perceive or understand
why you believe what you believe. They don't understand or perceive
that Almighty God would show mercy and compassion to whosoever
He would. They just don't know it. They can't perceive, can't understand
it. Verse 2, chapter 3, 1 John, Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. It does not appear, but we shall be. But we know that
when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We'll see him as
he is. I was thinking about that. Gary was bringing that up about
Fannie Crosby. Blind. Was she blind from birth, Gary?
That's what I understood. OK. When he said that a while
ago, I thought, the first person she'll ever look at, the first one she'll ever see,
is the Lord. And you think, what a blessing. I think of all the mess that
I've looked at. And I think, to know and to see Him. Now we're the sons of God. It
doesn't appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall
appear. And we'll be like Him and see Him as He is. The world doesn't recognize us
to be the sons of God. The world doesn't. You think
about all the people that you that believe know and work with
and have association with. You think these people that don't
know the Lord, you think they look at you and recognize and
see you as sons of God? That's what it says. The world doesn't recognize,
though we know that our present condition is so far short of
what we shall be. We know this from His faithful
word of promise. When He comes in glory and we
behold Him, we're going to be changed into His glorious image
because we're going to see His face. Scripture says His name,
Revelation 22, 4, will be written on our foreheads, in our mind. There's so much that we have
to look forward to. We do see through a glass door.
Then He reveals the action of a new heart. Verse 3, Every man
that hath this hope, hope of seeing Him, hope of being with
Him, being like Him, purifies himself even as he is pure. Purifies himself. Now let me
tell you what you can't do. You cannot actually purify yourself. So what does that scripture mean?
Tell me again what it means. I know it says, He that hath
this hope purifieth himself. 1 Peter 1.22 1 Peter 1.22 declares
this truth. Seeing ye have purified your
souls, in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love
the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart
fervently. Loving the brethren is not what
purified your heart. Almighty God purified your heart,
granting you a new heart, faith to believe, and the evidence
of him purifying our hearts is that we now have a love one for
another. That's the evidence of it. And
when we do love the brethren, I love being here with you. I
look forward to being here with you, with my family. And the evidence of a purified
heart, purified by God, through the washing of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, a granting of faith, and the evidence of
it is love for the brethren. And when the brethren are loved,
because we love them, you know, I can show up here. I can show
up. I can be here. I can get my Bible.
I can open it. John, okay, John. I know where
John is. Oh, John, right there. John,
I can do that. I can show up here. But I can't
make myself love you. I cannot. That is something that
Almighty God's got to give me. Because love for the brethren
is the evidence of a heart made pure. And when we love one another,
it says we purify ourself. Purify ourselves through unfeigned
love of the brethren. So purifying of the heart is
an act of divine grace, mercy by the application of the blood
of Christ. But we purify ourselves, we do
it righteousness as we believe God, we believe what God has
done for us. and has imparted faith within
us. And we love one another because
we believe the same God that has saved us by grace. And that
scripture says we purify our hearts when we do that. Same
as when the Lord told the woman with the issue of blood, thy
faith hath made thee whole. Where'd she get it? He gave it
to her and accounted it to her. Thy faith. But Lord, You gave
me this faith. I know. I gave it to You. And now He's given us something.
He's given us a love for Him and for one another because we
are His body and we love one another. Therefore, the scripture
declares we purify every man that hath this hope. purifies
himself. 1 John 3, 14, we know that we
pass from death unto life because we love the brethren. I want
to be where the brethren are. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. I like to be with those that
I love, those that are the Lord's. So he, the scripture says that
he is the One who has purified us and we purify ourselves, even
as He is pure. So, look in verse 4. Whosoever
committeth sin doesn't believe God. Don't let
yourself be fooled into thinking that we are without sin. We do. He that sinneth says he doesn't
sin. makes God a liar. Whoso committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. The scripture declares that we
believe God, kept faithful to God, kept apart
from apostatizing. He that stays He that stayed,
he that committed sin transgresses the law, sins transgression.
You know that he was manifested, verse five, that take away our
sins. We're transgressors, no doubt
about it, committers of sin. But Christ appeared to loose
us, his sheep from the bondage and the penalty of it. He bore
our sins in his own body, Calvary, put them away, paid the debt
in him, in him. Not merely in Him personally,
in Him right, there is no sin. But being found in Him is no
sin. Whosoever abideth in Him, verse
6, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
Him, neither known Him. Whosoever is found to not apostatize. Remember last time when I started
back in chapter 1, Verse 19, they went out from us because
they weren't of us. John never gets off of that when
he's talking about they went out because they weren't of us.
He that sinneth not. He that doesn't apostatize. He
that doesn't leave. He that doesn't continue to believe
God. Not that we don't commit sins,
we do. But we are continually recognizing,
I can't leave. I'm like Peter. Where am I going
to go? He that sinneth not, he that
sinneth not by not leaving. I am a sinner saved by grace. Whosoever, verse 4, commit his
sin, he that doesn't believe the Lord, he that has no heart
for the gospel, he's a transgressor of the law. But you know, He
was manifest to take away our sins, verse 5. Whosoever abideth
in Him doesn't leave. He doesn't leave. Sinneth not. Whosoever leaves, whoever apostatizes,
hath not seen Him, never knew Him. They went out from us because
they weren't of us. If they'd have been of us, they'd
have stayed. Somebody says, well, you're just trying to make sure
that nobody, you're going to scare people into staying. No, I tell
you what, I couldn't scare you into staying. If you don't want
to leave, here's what will happen. You'll say, well, you know what,
he's just saying that because that's just what they believe
here at Katy. No, I'm saying that because this
is what God said. He that abideth in him doesn't leave. Now, little children, let no
man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. Little children, don't let anybody
fool you. Don't let anybody deceive you.
Satan works upon the children of God by deception. That's why
he tries to deceive them. John says, don't let anybody
deceive you. Don't let any mouthpiece of Satan,
don't let a false preacher fool you. There are many false prophets,
don't let anybody. But here's the truth. He that
doeth righteousness, he that believes God. I want to just
use it in terms that you can understand and I can too. He
that believes God doeth righteousness. is righteous. He that believes
God is robed in the righteousness of Christ. He that believes God
has had his sin put away. He's righteous. He's righteous
in Christ and he's righteous even as the Lord is righteous. To the unbeliever, to the unbeliever,
that child of the devil, they're left to themselves, to the manifestation
of their carnal heart to continue in an unchecked manner to not
believe God. They don't believe Him. But he
that doeth righteousness and believes God, they follow. They're righteous, not in themselves,
but in Christ. They believe the Lord. And whenever
Satan comes with his fiery darts to attempt to deceive them, to
oppose them, to confuse them. When Satan comes and tries to
cause them to not believe God, hath God said? Hath God said? And acts upon them with temptations
to resist the God that they love. When they're tempted not to believe
God, and that flesh, Somebody said, how do you know when it's
the flesh and when it's the devil? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But I can tell
you, I read scriptures like this. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. And I think, I want to do that. I want to do that. And I've heard
people say, if you cast all your care on Him and you keep being
concerned about it, then you really hadn't cast your care
on Him. Okay. I'm guilty. Okay. Okay. I want to. Is there a believer
in here that doesn't want to cast all their care upon the
Lord? I want to do that. But when I'm tempted and I don't
know if it's my flesh, I don't know if it's the fiery darts
of Satan, the world, I don't know, I don't know. But I do
know this. When I experience that temptation,
wherever Pat is coming from, I can tell you what it causes
me to do. Immediately when I see that battle
raised up, there's a struggle in me now. And I cry out, Lord, help me. Lord, don't leave me to myself. Lord, I'm like Peter that was
sinking when he saw the wind, saw the boisterous waves, and
he began to sink. And he was just walking on the
water, and he cried out. He said, Lord, save me. And he that did righteousness, right there, he believed God. And the Lord grabbed him. That's
doing righteousness. Seeing the frailty of this flesh,
realizing, Lord, I need you. I'm in a battle. I'm in a fight.
I feel it, and I feel the temptation. And I stumble. Proverbs 24, 16,
a just man falleth seven times. And the scripture says he rises
up again. Why? Because the Lord didn't leave
him to himself. And when he falls, and he'd know
he falls, he cries out unto the Lord. I'm going to read you a
scripture here of a man that did righteousness. This is doing
righteousness right here. Psalm 51, 1-4. Have mercy upon
me, O God. According to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sins ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.
Somebody will say, well I tell you, doing righteousness, I thought
what that meant is I never do anything wrong. I never do anything
right. I need Him. The believer loves
Christ. who is the light of the God,
and he hates darkness, and he sees it in himself, and he recoils
at the very thought of dishonoring the Lord, and he cleaves to the
only hope of His glory. He does righteousness. He cries
out for mercy, Lord, You're the only one that can help me. Peter, lovest thou me more than
these? Lord, you know I love you. I know I hadn't shown it. And you know that. But Lord,
you know that I love you. You know you do. A man that loves
his wife, he's faithful to his wife. He's not faithful because
he's afraid of losing half his money. He's faithful because
he loves his wife. And he that doeth righteousness
is righteous, because he knows what he is in himself, and he
loves the Lord of his only hope. In fact, 1 John 3.8, he that
committeth sin, he that doesn't believe God, is of the devil. For the devil
sinneth. He didn't believe God from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. He that doesn't believe
the Lord, that has no heart, he's that's separated from God
and doesn't care, doesn't possess the faith of God's elect to be
honest with the Lord concerning himself. It's he that committeth sins
of the devil. The devil sinned from the beginning. And this is the reason that Christ
came to this world, to save sinners. You know, I just, I need, I need
to just hear something that just meets me where I am. Just be
honest with me. Don't try to puff me up because
I know just enough about myself. This is the reason not only He
put away our sins to deliver us from the curse, but to deliver
us from the power and dominion of sin and Satan, stronghold. And to deliver us from the love
of rebellion against Him. Verse 9 and 10 in closing, whosoever
is born of God, Now being found in Christ, being
found in Christ, now this is an amazing thing. There's a new man in there that
believes God. He believes God. There's a new
man that is born of God and does not commit sin. And I've told
you before, I just, if somebody would say, well tell
me, Tell me something your new man did today. I can't see it,
Neil. I can't see it. Even my belief
in the Lord is so frail and so weak. But thanks being to God,
it's not what I see. It's what God says is so. And
I think, Lord, You're going to have to give me faith to believe
this. I believe it. Lord, help me.
Help me. I believe it. Whosoever is born
of God does not commit sin. Whosoever is born of God believes
Him. Believes Him. Does not commit
sin. For His seed remaineth in Him.
He cannot sin. I cannot. This is what the scripture
says. I cannot, if I'm born of God,
I cannot not believe Him. He'd given me a new heart that's
going to believe Him. Am I going to struggle? You better
believe I struggle. You that know Him, you know what
I'm talking about. But he that is born of God cannot not believe
God. I can't do it. I got a heart
that He's put here and He's given me faith to believe and faith
beholds the glory of God and believes Him. God's given me
that and I'm so thankful Because if He didn't give me faith, I
can tell you this. I know just enough about me to
tell you this. In myself, I don't believe Him.
I got an old man that can't believe Him. But I got a new man that
can't do anything but believe Him. Who serves born of God does
not commit sin. because his seed remaineth. He
cannot sin because he's born of God. In this, the children
of God are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness. Whosoever doesn't believe God is not of God. If you're born
of God, you're going to believe it. God giving you a new heart,
you gonna believe it. Neither is he that loveth not
his brother. Almighty God has given his people
a new heart. And the evidence of that new
heart is that they believe God. I believe what he says. Believing
what he says is doing righteousness. Whosoever sinneth not, whosoever
continues to believe the Lord is born of God. Whosoever committeth sin, whosoever
doesn't believe the Lord. Again, there's nobody in here
that doesn't sin. But in the midst of a believer's
life, seeing in himself there dwells no good thing, he still
believes God. He still believes God's put away
his guilt. He still believes he's saved
by grace. He still believes that Almighty
God put away that debt, cast it as far as the east is from...
He believes God. He's born of God. And God will
keep it. And that's the only hope he's
got. May the Lord bless this word in our heart, for Christ's
sake.