The meetings were good and the
messages Brother David and Brother Bruce brought were just outstanding. And they really fed me. I was
really blessed by them. But it's really, really good
to be back with you. Your grandmother said, tell you
hello. And so, let's go back to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter
2. I want to focus mainly on this
one verse, but then I want to get into the context and see
what he means here. He says in verse 29, if you know
that Christ is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of Him. Our subject is doing righteousness. What does John mean here when
he says, if you know that Christ is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. Now some say that doing righteousness
means he practices righteousness. Some of the translations have
even changed it to say that. He that practices righteousness. God's saints delight in the law
of God after the inward man. And we delight to do whatever
our Savior commands us to do. And His grace does bring forth
a new walk so that we're servants of righteousness and no longer
servants of sin. But in 1 John 3, John says the
believer does not commit sin. And he's talking about the same
thing as he's talking about his doing righteousness. He says,
the believer does not commit sin. Now, is there anybody here
who does not commit sin? Some say he means habitual sin. He does not practice sin. And
again, believers should endeavor to sin not. The Holy Spirit of
God makes us to hate what our Lord hates and we do not want
to sin. We hate sin. But all of those
things, practicing that which is right and trying not to sin
and putting forth a good appearance, all of that sons of the devil
can do. They can do those exact same
things. And John's declaring here what is a manifest difference
between the sons of God and the sons of the devil. So we have
to interpret Scripture in the context in which we find it. Now from chapter 2 verse 18,
some things we've already seen, all the way over to chapter 3
verse 24. John is dealing with the exact same subject the whole
way through. Don't let the chapter division
sidetrack you. He's not changed subject. He's
dealing with the same subject from chapter 2 verse 18 to chapter
3 verse 24. And the subject he's dealing
with is he's declaring the difference between those who are of God
and those who are of the devil. Now, John began by identifying
antichrists telling us what it means by committing sin. And this is what John's talking
about when he's talking about committing sin. Look back at
verse 18. Little children, it's the last
time as you've heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there
many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. They
went out from us. But they were not of us, for
if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest, that they were not all of us. Look at verse
22. Who is a liar, but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ? He's Antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. Now that's what John means when
he speaks of committing sin. This is the opposite of doing
righteousness. Committing sin is denying Christ,
abiding not in the truth of Christ, abiding not in Christ alone,
turning and bringing in man's own works, which is a total denial
of Christ, denial of God's grace. Committing sin is going out from
God's saints, forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, and that's
what's included in not loving brethren, is to forsake where
the gospel is preached in truth. So that's what he's talking about
when he's talking about committing sin. And then John identifies
Christ's people and what it is to do righteousness. He says
in verse 20, 1 John 2 verse 20, But you have an unction from
the Holy One, from Christ, and you know all things. I have not
written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Verse 24, the truth of the gospel of Christ.
Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the
beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning
shall abide in you, shall remain in you, you also shall abide
in the Son, you'll continue in the Son and in the Father. And
this is the promise that He's promised us, even eternal life.
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce
you. But the anointing which you have
received of Christ abideth in you. And you need not that any
man teach you. You have discernment to know
when you hear a lie. That's what He's saying. But
as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth,
and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in
him. And now, little children, abide
in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not
be ashamed before him at his coming." That's what John means
by doing righteousness. Abiding in Christ. Abiding in
the truth of Christ. Persevering in faith in Christ
until the end. Continuing with His people under
the preaching of the gospel. This is what he's talking about
by doing righteousness. And this involves a lot of things
that are going to be required in loving our brethren and seeing
to it that we have the gospel. Self-denial and a meek spirit
and all those things that are fruit of the Spirit are involved
in that. But that's what he means here is abiding in Christ. Continuing looking to Christ
only until the end. So, by committing sin, I want
you to get this. He's talking about denying Christ,
mixing works with Christ, which is a total denial of Christ,
a total denial of grace. He's talking about leaving the
gospel for a liar. He's talking about apostatizing
from the truth. That's what he's talking about.
In fact, if you go over and read chapter 3, where it says commit
sin, you put apostatize, it makes perfect sense. And when he says
doing righteousness, he's talking about abiding in the truth, abiding
in Christ, loving our brethren by continuing with them under
the gospel until the end. Now, we see what he means by
committing sin, we see what he means by doing righteousness,
doing the truth. Now let's read 1 John 3 verse
4, and he's still dealing with the same subject. Whosoever committeth
sin, whosoever abideth not in Christ, transgresseth also the
law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. Pay attention to that verse right
there because that will help us with our text. Now watch this
next verse will too. And you know that Christ was
manifested to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. Whosoever
abideth in Him sinneth not. And by that little statement
right there, he tells you what he means by not sinning. Abide in Christ. If you abide
in Christ, you sin not. That's what he's saying. He's
not saying those that abide in Christ do things not to sin. He's saying abiding in sin is
not sinning. That is what I mean by sinning
not, is abiding in Christ. Whosoever abideth in Christ sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth, not seen Him,
neither known Him. The man that can leave Christ,
leave, leave, resting in Christ alone, forsake the gospel, forsake
his breath, he hasn't seen Christ and he hasn't even known Christ.
Verse 7, little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth
righteousness, he that abides in Christ is righteous, even
as Christ is righteous. And he that commiteth sin, he
that denies Christ and forsakes the truth, is of the devil. For
the devil sinneth from the beginning. Now the next part will help us
with our text as well. 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 commit sin. He does not apostatize
because Christ's seed remaineth in him and he cannot forsake
Christ. He cannot cease believing on
Christ because he's born of God. In this the children of God are
manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness. That's what he said in our text.
Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother. That's the clear difference.
That's the only difference between a child of God and a child of
the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. But he that doeth righteousness,
according to our text, he's born of God. The man that will not
abide in Christ, that is not content with Christ alone, looking
to Christ's righteousness alone, he is not of God. Neither he
that loveth not his brother. That man doesn't love his brethren
either. He doesn't love Christ's people either. We're going to
see another time, John says, it says, the world knows you
not because it knew him not. And if you look down at verse
13, chapter 3 verse 13, he says, Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hates you. We know we've passed from death
to life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. When he talks about the world
not knowing you, he's talking about the world not loving you.
We love our brethren because we've been born of God. This
just goes right along with doing righteousness. Look here, he
says in verse 23, this is His commandment that we should believe
on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as
He gave His commandment. Now make the connection there.
Look back at verse 10. This is who the children of God
are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness, neither he that loveth not his brother. Neither doeth not righteousness
nor love his brother. Now look at verse 23. This is
His commandment. We should believe on the name
of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. Believing on Christ
is doing righteousness. You get that? That's doing righteousness. Believing on Christ is doing
righteousness. And we love our brother. That
just goes right with it. The two are inseparable. So in
verse 24, he basically says what our text says. He that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him. That's
how come you believe on Christ and love your brethren. It's
because Christ dwells, you dwell in Christ and Christ dwells in
you. And hereby we know that Christ abideth in us by the Spirit
which He hath given us. When he says doing righteousness,
John means believing on Christ in truth. He means persevering
in Christ to the end. And by committing sin, he means
just the opposite. Departing from Christ. Departing
from the truth. Departing from the gospel. Departing
from brethren. Alright, now. Let's go back and
read our text. 1 John 2.29. If you know that
Christ is righteous, You know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is born of Him. If you know Christ is righteous,
you know that everybody that believes on Christ and abides
in Christ and continues in Christ in truth and loves our brethren,
you know that person is born of Him. Now here is my question. How does knowing Christ is righteous
How does that assure us that everyone that believes on Christ
and continues abiding in Christ is born of Him? You get what
I'm asking? He says, if you know Christ is
righteous, then you know He that does righteousness is born of
Him. Well, how does knowing Christ is righteous make me to know
that that person that believes on Christ and continues in Christ
is born of Christ? How do I know that by knowing
Christ is righteous? It's because Christ only does
that which is righteous. So the sinner who abides in Christ
is made to do so because that's the righteous thing. And Christ
only does what is righteous. So if you know Christ is righteous,
you know that person who does righteousness, you know He's
born of Christ our righteousness and made to do what He does by
Christ our righteousness because Christ only does righteousness
and He only makes His people do what's right. Now first of
all, Christ took away the sins of His people so that in Him
is no sin whatsoever. He took away the sins of His
people so that in Him is no sin. So then, He will not allow His
people to continue in the sin of unbelief. Because that's not
righteous. The righteous thing is to bring
all whom He's made righteous to believe on Him. And if you
know He's righteous, then you know the reason that you're brought
to believe on Him, to do righteousness, is because you've been born of
Him. Because He's going to make you do what righteousness demands. Righteousness demands that everybody
he died for must be brought to faith in him. Let me show you
this, verse 4. 1 John 3 verse 4. Whosoever commiteth sin, whoever
leaves Christ, leaves the gospel, he transgresseth also the law,
for sin is the transgression of the law. If a man does not
abide in Christ, he does not continue believing on Christ,
he sins because he disobeys God. He disobeys God and he transgresses
the law by doing that. Because all the law is fulfilled
in Christ. Christ is the righteousness of
the law. To reject Christ is the same
as transgressing the whole law of God. Just like believing on
Christ is the same as fulfilling the righteousness of the law,
rejecting Christ is the same as transgressing the whole law. Because rejecting Him, you're
rejecting the direct commandment of God. God said, this is my
Son, hear ye Him. Christ answered and He said,
this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath
sent. Go to John chapter 3. You might
hold your place there. John 3.18. If a man doesn't believe on Christ,
and he doesn't abide in Christ, he's left in his sins, and he's
condemned. Look, John 3.18, He that believeth
on him is not condemned. This is Christ speaking. He that
believeth on me, Christ said, is not condemned. But he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he's not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. John started this epistle describing
Christ as light. That's how he started his gospel,
was describing Christ as light. He's the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. And the light shined in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. He's the light. And he says here, whosoever commits
sin, whoever does not believe on Christ and abide in Christ
and continue in Christ, he transgresses also the law because sin is the
transgression of the law. That's just what Christ said.
You don't believe on me, you're guilty of the whole law of God.
This is the condemnation. Light has come. And men love
darkness rather than light. They won't come to the light.
They hate the light. They don't want their deeds to
be reproved. They don't want their The very best self-righteous
deeds to be approved as wicked. They won't come to Christ alike.
But Christ came and put away the sin of His people. He purged
the sin of His people. So justice demands He even take
away our sin of unbelief. Remember when He said, I'm going
to send the Holy Spirit and they're going to convince you of sin?
Why? Because you believe not on Me.
And look here, verse 5, ìYou know that He was manifested to
take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth
in Him sinneth not.î By abiding in Christ, you have no sin. And by abiding in Him, you donít
commit that sin of unbelief. All sin is done away through
faith in Christ. Whosoever sinneth, whosoever
abides not in Christ, hath not seen Him, neither known Him.
Christ took away our sin. He made us righteous. Hebrews
1.3 says, When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down
at the right hand of God. And so now justice demands that
He must take away our sin of unbelief. He has to create us
anew, give us a new heart, bring us to cast our care on Him, because
that's the one way God said we can enter into His presence.
Made righteous by Christ's righteousness alone. And so He says there,
look at verse 6. We have to sort of flip this.
He says, Whosoever sinneth, whoever doesn't abide in Christ, he has
not seen Christ, neither known Him. Remember Christ was talking
to Nicodemus and He said, except you be born again, you can't
see the Kingdom of God. And John is telling us here,
if you know He is righteous, you know everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of Him. If you have been born of Him,
you are going to believe on Him because now you see Him. Now
you know Him. Now you rejoice in Him. And Christ
said, and I know them and they are going to follow Me. And no
man is going to pluck them out of My hand. So that's the first
thing. We know He's righteous. We know
He put away our sin and we know He's even going to come and put
away the sin of unbelief so that we believe on Him and we abide
in Him and we're going to continue in Him because we're born of
Him. Look at this second thing. Knowing Christ is righteous,
we know those who do righteousness are born of Him and are righteous
as He is righteous. He says in verse 7, little children,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous even as he is righteous. Go back to John 3. I'll show
you what doing righteousness is. Right here, John 3. Righteousness
and truth are synonymous. They're the same thing. And here's
what Christ said doing righteousness is. Verse 21, but he that doeth
truth, that's doing righteousness. What does he do? He comes to
the light. He comes to Christ. That His
deeds may be made manifest. That's what we're talking about.
Something that's openly manifest before everybody. He comes confessing,
openly manifest that all His deeds are worked in God. That all His deeds were worked
by Christ. God in Christ worked out all
the deeds He's trusting in. It's called doing righteousness
because when you believe on Christ, the doing of righteousness that
Christ did is imputed to you freely because all His people
were in Him and we really did everything Christ did. We did
all the righteousness of the law in Christ. And so believing
on Christ is called doing righteousness. One, it's what God commands.
Believe on my Son. Two, it's opposite of that sin
of unbelief. But three, it is the doing of
His righteousness has made our righteousness because we were
in Him. That's what we did. We did the whole law in Him.
So through faith, that righteousness is ours. Look at Romans chapter
9. Romans chapter 9. And look at verse 30. You know the Gentiles, it says
there, followed not after righteousness. They were not trying to do any
righteousness of themselves. And yet they attained to righteousness. They are doers of righteousness.
How did they do righteousness? The righteousness which is of
faith. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and they did the
whole law. because Christ did it, and we
did it in Christ. That's what faith is laying hold
of. We're saying, all His righteousness is the only righteousness I claim.
He is doing. He is doing. But Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness, they were trying to do righteousness
themselves. They didn't attain to it. Why?
Because they didn't believe on Christ. Look at Romans 10. And look down at verse 9. This
is what faith says. If thou shalt do righteousness,
if you'll do righteousness, if you'll confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man does righteousness. With the heart you believe unto
righteousness. That's doing righteousness. And
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That's doing
righteousness. And that man who's brought to
believe on Christ, he's righteous even as Christ is righteous. That's what the text says. 1
John 3. He's righteous. He that doeth righteousness,
believes on Christ, abides in Christ, continues to the end
in Christ, he's righteous even as Christ is righteous. Thirdly,
look at this. Knowing Christ is righteous.
We know that those who continue doing righteousness, who persevere
in faith in Christ, are born of Christ because Christ's incorruptible
seed makes us unable to do otherwise. If we know He's righteous, then
you know when Christ is formed in a sinner, that sinner can't
do anything but believe on Christ because being born of Christ,
you can't do otherwise because of the incorruptible seed. 1
John 3 verse 8, He that committeth sins of the devil, the man that
professed Christ and left the gospel and left Christ and can
apostatize from Christ, he's of the devil. The devil sinneth
from the beginning. But for this purpose the Son
of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the
devil for his people, in his people. That's why he came forth. Now look, whosoever is born of
God, does not commit sin. He never will cease believing
on Christ. He'll never stop loving his brethren. He can't. Look, for Christ's
seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin. Now that doesn't
mean you can't practice sin. You know that and I know that.
That doesn't mean you don't have sin in your thoughts. You know
that and I know that. It means you cannot stop believing
on Christ and you can't stop loving your brethren. Because
Christ's seed remains in him. Because he is born of God. Go over to 1 Peter. A couple
of pages over. 1 Peter chapter 1 and look at
verse 21. He's going to love his brethren
and he's going to love Christ and abide in Christ. Why? Here's
why. Right here. Verse 21. by Christ,
who by Christ do believe in God. You believe in God by Christ
that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory that your
faith and hope might be in God. That's what we're talking about.
A man born of Christ. A man born of Christ. What's
he going to do? His faith and hope is going to be in God. Seeing
you've purified your souls and obeying the truth through the
Spirit. You didn't just obey the truth
on your own, it was through the Holy Spirit. Gave you faith,
made you obey. That anointing that came from
Christ, the Holy Spirit. Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. It's not a fake hypocritical
love anymore. There's a real love in the heart
that God's made. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently? Here's how it all happened. Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You had to be born because all
flesh is grass and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower
falls away. But, because we're born of God,
the Word of the Lord endures forever. And so that new man
created is going to endure forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. The gospel of Christ comes in
power when Christ speaks and He implants that seed, He implants
that word within His child and a new man is created after the
image of God. Scripture says we put on the
new man which after God. How is God? What's His image?
And it says, after God, a new man is created with the same
image. After God, that new man is created in righteousness and
true holiness. He can't do anything but believe
on Christ and love his brethren. He can't do otherwise because
it wouldn't be righteous. He can't do it. He's born of
incorruptible seed. We're continually, Colossians
3 says, renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ that
created us. renewed in knowledge after the
image of Christ that created that new man. And so the result
is Christ's seed remaineth in us. That incorruptible seed remains
in us and we cannot sin, we cannot not believe on Christ, we cannot
not love our brethren because we are born of God. See back
at our text, if you know that Christ is righteous, you know
everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. He's born of
Him. Now, another time we're going
to go and we're going to look at, there's a lot more things
involved in loving our brethren. There's a lot of practical things
involved in loving your brethren. We're going to look at those
in more detail next time. I'm just wanting to kind of overview
this so you can see that this is what it is to do righteousness. is to believe on Christ. That's
it, primarily. The side note, the fruit that
comes with it is loving our brethren. But the main thing here is believing
on Christ. That's doing righteousness. And
the reason this incorruptible seed is so productive to produce
this faith that can only believe on Christ is because the Word
comes in power. Look down there at verse 23.
This is His commandment. that we should believe on the
name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave
us commandment. That's His commandment. Remember
the man with the withered hand? He couldn't do a thing. That
hand was shriveled up. He couldn't reach forth and do
anything. And Christ said, reach forth
your hand. And when He gave that command,
that man reached forth his hand. Because with the command comes
the power. And when Christ commands you,
believe on Him and love one another, you're going to believe on Him
and love one another. And He says, And this is how we know,
He that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in Him,
and hereby we know that He abides in us by the Spirit which He
has given us. Do you delight to know that Christ
is all your righteousness, all your holiness, that when He made
you free, you became free indeed. God is never again going to charge
you with any sin. You kept in Him. Now, are you
content with that? Are you content believing on
Him? Or do you feel like, well now, I really want to add something
to that. If you believe on Christ and you are content believing
on Him, today, tomorrow, all the way to the end, John is saying,
that's the fruit, that's the evidence of knowing you've been
born of Him. That's it. Faith in Christ. That's it. That's what differentiates
the child of God and the child of the devil. The child of God
believes Christ is all. And he's content with Christ.
The child of the devil may say he believes Christ is all, but
he always has a but. He wants to add something to
it. That's a child of the devil. If you mix works with grace,
it ceases to be grace altogether. If you mix works with Christ,
you become anti-Christ because that's denying the Son and he
that denies the Son denies the Father. What John is saying is
abide in Him. And the anointing you have that
teaches you all things and is truth and is no lie, even as
it teaches you to abide in Him, you shall abide in Him. And if
you know He is righteous, then you know everybody that abides
in Him is born of Him, has this unction. And that's how you know. Alright. Look back at verse 10.
He summed it up right there. In this the children of God are
manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. That's the sum of it right there.
Alright, we'll look at that in more detail next time.