Now, let's open our Bibles to
the book of 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3, and I want to
read from two verses that, two or
three verses that I've already preached on, but just as by way
of an introduction. Look at verse 19 of 1 John 3.
It says, that we are of the truth and
shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn
us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. And then
he says, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we
confidence toward God. And I preached a whole message
on those verses. I'm not gonna preach it again. Basically what
he's saying there is that which gives a believer A sinner saved
by grace, a confidence of salvation, an assurance of salvation. No
matter how we feel in our hearts, in our conscience. And you know,
even true believers, we have wrestlings within our conscience.
Uh, sometimes we, we go off on a tangent so far and we wonder,
are we really saved at all? And then sometimes we have peace
of conscience. We're a fickle people that way,
aren't we? That's why we're glad, you know,
when Malachi, the prophet, when he was prophesying of Christ,
one of the things he used, he said, talking about God, he said,
I am the Lord God, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. We change. And the only reason
that we, we were talking about this, the only reason we abide
in Christ is because of God's immutable faithfulness to preserve
us in Christ. But what John is saying here
is as we struggle through the warfare of the flesh and the
spirit, as we deal with our own hearts, our own consciences,
as we deal with each other, and I'm here to inform you, you know,
we don't always act right. We don't always have the right
attitude, do we? We struggle through there. Sometimes
our heart, our conscience may condemn us. But here's what he's saying,
God's greater than our hearts. And how does God communicate
that greatness to us? Through his word, his word, his
word. What does God say? I know what
I say sometimes and it ain't right. But I know what God says. He
says, listen, he says, therefore, if any man, any person be in
Christ, he's a new creation. He says,
there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ to them who are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but after the spirit.
And what is it to walk after? It's walk, looking to Christ,
clinging to Christ, abiding in Christ by the power of God. And
that's what the issue there is in those verses. The conscience
is cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And if anything, let
me tell you this, if anything else can cleanse your conscience,
that's bad. Do you know that? I stand before
God righteous, not in myself, but in Christ. That's what soothes
the guilty conscience. I'm washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness. That is my testimony. That is
my confession. That is my profession. I'm a
sinner, and if God right now were to give me what I've earned
and what I deserved, it would be eternal damnation. That's
condemning, isn't it? So what soothes my conscience?
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. Christ
is my advocate. Somebody asked me one time, so
how do you know that for sure? I'll tell you how I know for
sure. I don't have any place else to go. Now if you've got anyone else
to look to or any place else to go, then you shouldn't be
sure. That's presumption. Somebody
said, well, I know that I'm saved because I was baptized. If that
soothes your guilty conscience, then you're in trouble. My friend,
you can get baptized in every river on this earth, and it will
not wash away your sins. We sing in him, what can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's what I know. Is that what you know? I don't
have any place else to go. One old brother up in Ashland,
before he died, he was talking to somebody. They asked him,
how do you know you're not lost? He said, because I know the way.
You're not lost if you know the way. Well, what is the way? Well,
it's the way of baptism. No. It's the way of church membership.
No. It's the way of morality. No. Should you be moral? Yes. But that's not the way. The way
is Christ. I am the way. I am the truth.
I am the life. Nobody cometh unto the Father
but by me. You know what he said? It's the
way of his righteousness imputed. And I've got no other way. How
about you? You see, that's what the Holy Spirit does when he
brings a sinner to Christ. He brings that sinner to the
end of his rope, to the end of himself. There's no hope in me. There's no hope in you. There's
only hope in Christ. That's how I know. The only thing
that'll soothe my guilty conscience is knowing what Christ did on
that cross as my surety, paying my debt, making me righteous
before God in Him. Nothing else will do it. All
right, so here he comes to verse 22 here. And he says, and whatsoever we
ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments. Now
the title of this message is keeping his commandments. And
we're going to talk about that. That's why brother Jim was talking
about Psalm 119 there, keeping his word, keeping his statutes,
keeping his commandments. And he basically said back there,
he said, those, those verses you gave me to read, he said,
you've got some splaying to do. I don't think I'll do it. No,
I'm just kidding. Well, you've got to see these things in a
gospel context, don't you? And we'll look at that in a minute.
He said, whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep
his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his
sight. Now you've got to ask yourself
a very practical question. What do most people think of
when they think of keeping his commandments? They go to the
Ten Commandments. I'll talk about that in just
a moment, and we'll go back to Psalm 119 on that. Well, okay. Do you, if that's what you're
thinking, do you keep the Ten Commandments? No. And if that's what this means,
then you can pretty much exclude yourself, is that right? So let's
just make that clear from the beginning. But I'll tell you
what, this old preacher up here, I gotta exclude myself on that
basis too, how about, yeah? Okay, he says, you do those things
that are pleasing in his sight. Now, let's ask another question.
We're here to worship God this morning, aren't we? We're here
to praise him, we're here to brag on Christ, We're here to
unite with brethren in the faith and fellowship, to express our
love and loyalty to one another. John's been talking about that.
We love the brethren. Is that pleasing in God's sight?
And the answer is yes for a believer. But how is it pleasing? When
I entered those doors back there, you entered those doors and you
sat down, you opened your Bible, is everything you think, say,
and do, is it pleasing to God? Well, no. What would you feel like if we
could just put a big bubble above your head and flash the last
thought you had? Could you say that's pleasing
in God's eye? Maybe some of you could, I don't know. But why
is our worship? Now most people when they go
to this verse, verse 22, whatsoever we ask we receive, they go to
prayer. Now that's not specifically what
John's talking about here, but prayer can certainly be included.
Because we do go to God in prayer and we ask God for things in
prayer. And we always pray, the underlying
confidence of prayer, as far as getting what we ask, is thy
will be done. Thy will be done. But most interpret
this as prayer to God, and again, we do ask for things when we
pray, but the context shows that what John is talking about here
is the things that pertain to salvation and a right relationship
with God and our assurance, our confidence before God. You see
that? And how is that? How am I accepted
with God? How is my worship, my prayers,
my obedience accepted with God? Well, turn to 1 Peter. Back just
a few pages. 1 Peter chapter 2. Verse 1. Now he's talking to Those who profess
to be Christians. Those who profess to be believers. And listen to what he says in
verse 1, 1 Peter 2. Wherefore laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies, all evil speakings. Who's he talking to? Why would
he have to tell Christians to lay aside malice? You know what
malice is, don't you? It's hatred. I had a preacher
tell me one time, he said, there's no room for hatred in a Christian's
heart. I said, well, Peter was just speaking to the air then,
wasn't he? Guile, you know what guile is? It's dishonesty. Let's just be honest, hypocrisy,
that's playing an act, like an actor. In other words, acting
like you're something you're not. Envies. You know what envy is, you want
something somebody else has. Evil speakings. But he says,
lay all that aside. Now see, we're sinners saved
by grace if we're saved at all. And this is a battlefield here.
Every one of these things is a battlefield in our hearts.
Warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And he says in verse
two, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
that you may grow thereby, So in other words, the only way
we're gonna fight this battle is the milk of the word of God.
We're not equipped to fight this battle ourselves, on our own,
of our own volition, by our own wisdom and not, we must go to
God. And that's what John is talking
about, when your heart condemns you. In other words, if I have
a malicious spirit towards any of you, I ought to fight that,
I ought to be ashamed of that. But not in such a way as to condemn
me, In such a way because of the love of God in Christ and
his free forgiveness through the blood of Christ will make
me ashamed that I dishonor him. And that's what brings that godly
sorrow that Paul spoke up and that's repentance. He says, verse
three, now here's the key. If so be you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. It's all because God is gracious. That's it. I have no other claim
or right for God's favor, God's blessing, God's salvation, but
his grace, which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse four, to whom coming as
unto a living stone. You see, there's Christ. That
living stone is Christ. Disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. Christ is precious. I know who
I am. I don't want any guile or hypocrisy. I realize what I am. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. And then he says, verse five,
you also as lively or living stones are built up a spiritual
house and holy priesthood. That is that priesthood means
that we have free access to God on what basis? The blood of Jesus
Christ, the righteousness of Christ imputed. And that's what
holy means set apart. That's what sets us apart. To
offer up spiritual sacrifices Now the spiritual sacrifices
has to do with the worship, the praise, the prayer, the obedience
of God's children. And look at the last line in
verse 5. Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That's how they're
accepted. That's how, if you're a believer,
If you're justified before God, if you have a right relationship
with God, if you have free access to God in prayer and worship
and praise, if your obedience is accepted with God, there's
only one reason. Jesus Christ crucified and raised
from the dead. His blood, His righteousness
imputed. You see that? Now go back to
1 John 3. And so what John is saying here
in verse 22, and again, it does give us confidence in prayer,
but in every other way, having full assurance that God will
accept us and bless us based solely upon the imputed righteousness
of Christ, whatsoever we ask according to his will in the
name of Christ and for his sake we'll receive. It doesn't mean we're going to
get everything we ask for and everything we want. It does mean that we
will get everything we ask for in the way of salvation, in the way of a right relationship
with God, in the way of confidence and assurance and peace. God,
give me peace. Grant me peace. Where's peace
to be found? in Jesus Christ, the Prince of
Peace, who made peace by the blood of the cross and whose
righteousness reconciles God unto me and me unto God. That's it. That's it. And he says, because
we keep his commandments. The because here is not telling
us that we get it based upon what we do. Look at it, and he
said, do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Look at
verse 23, and this is his commandment. Now, okay, we keep his command. Is he talking about the 10 commandments
here? No. Look at it, verse 23, and this
is his commandment. You can sum it all up in one
commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. There
it is. believing in the name. What is
his name? It's that which identifies him
and distinguishes him as the Lord of glory. He is God manifest
in the flesh. God with us. What did he do? He accomplished redemption on
the cross and brought forth an everlasting righteousness of
infinite value whereby God could be just to justify ungodly centers
like us. John has had a lot to say about
keeping his commandments. Back over in 1 John 2, he talked
about the intercessory work of Christ. What does that mean? That means Christ standing before
God in behalf of His people. When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He's the propitiation. What is a propitiation? That's
a satisfaction of justice. and he did it for our sins. And
not for ours only, not just for those who are in this group,
not just for the Jewish believers, but for the whole world. That's
God's elect over the whole world. And so in verse three of 1 John
2, he says, hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his
commandments. Was that the 10 commandments?
Well, if that's the case, it disqualifies all of us. What
about the Ten Commandments? You know, there's a lot of hick-hack
over the Ten Commandments. People say, well, we want to
post the Ten Commandments on the courthouse steps. One old
preacher said, you might as well just put one word up there. What
word would you put? Anybody know? Condemned. Because that's what that law
does. Are we under the Ten Commandments?
When I listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you,
no. Now hold on before you go off
and tell everybody Brother Parker believes you can break the Ten
Commandments. The Ten Commandments, you know
when the Ten Commandments were given? On Mount Sinai. 1,500 years approximately before
the death of Christ. Now before that, there was about
what, 2,500 years of recorded history in the Old Testament.
The Ten Commandments started out, the Lord our God is one
God. Thou shalt worship no other God.
Now let me tell you, before Mount Sinai, before the Ten Commandments,
was it okay to worship other gods the first 2,500 years? No. They did do it, but it was wrong,
it was sin, it was just as much sin before the Ten Commandments
as it was during the 1,500 years that Israel was under the Ten
Commandments. He said, thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Now, before the Ten
Commandments for 2,500 years, was it okay then to take the
Lord's name in vain? No, it was just as wrong. You
can go on and on, thou shalt not commit adultery. Was it okay
to commit adultery the 2,500 years before? No. So why was the Ten Commandments
given? Well, it was given as a moral code to the nation Israel
for 1,500 years under the law of Moses because they were a
rebellious people, unbelievers, to keep them in check. There
were moral precepts given in the Ten Commandments that had
always and still is the law of God. The Ten Commandments, the
old covenant has been abolished. It's no longer in effect. But
now is it okay for us to go out and kill people now? No. It's
always been wrong. But the Ten Commandments was
given as a code mainly to do one thing. to show the people
of Israel that they were sinners and deserve condemnation. It was never given as a way of
salvation. It was given as a way of existence
because they didn't want anarchy. God kept them in check. But the word of God And even
the law of God concerning the salvation of a sinner has always
been salvation by God's grace through the blood and the righteousness
of Christ. In fact, Paul even says in Galatians
chapter 3 and 4 that that law, the Ten Commandments and all
the law, was a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ. And whenever they took that law
and made it a self-righteous system of legalism as per a way
of salvation, they were breaking the law. Did you know that? Somebody says, think about it
this way. A Jewish fellow told a friend
of mine this. He had a little bracelet that had the Ten Commandments
on it. And he showed my friend that
bracelet and he said, right there's my salvation. Do you know the
moment he said that, he broke every law? Because God never
gave that as a way of salvation. The way of salvation has always
been and always be God's free, sovereign grace based on the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Old Testament, New Testament. Go back to Psalm 119 there. The psalmist here, you know,
everybody jokes about how long Psalm 119 is. Psalm 119 itself
is not that long. It's in different stanzas according
to the old ancient Hebrew alphabet. So the first one here called
Aleph, which is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, that's
the first psalm in Psalm 119. And then Beth, which is the second
letter, that's the second psalm. So look at what he says in verse
one, blessed are the undefiled in the way. What is it to be
undefiled in the way? It's to be a sinner saved by
the grace of God in Christ. Somebody said, well it doesn't
say that there. Oh yes it does, because that's what the whole
Old Testament is about. Do you know the truth of what
I'm telling you this means was established back in the first
or the third chapter of Genesis after the fall, Abel and Cain. How do you approach God? Like
Abel or like Cain? Like Abel, a sinner coming begging
for mercy through the blood of the lamb. Cain came what? Based on his works. What's the
way then? It's the way of Christ. The way
of grace, the way of mercy, the way of the blood, the way of
the cross. We sing a hymn, the way of the cross leads home.
That's just as true for the psalmist here as it was for Abel and for
us today. How can I, a sinner, be undefiled? Only as I stand before God in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only as I look
to Him and rest in Him for all my salvation and my forgiveness.
who walk in the law of the Lord. Now remember what I said about
the guy who pointed to his bracelet? He said, my salvation is keeping
the Ten Commandments. He broke every law. So what is
it to walk in the law of the Lord? It's to walk in Christ,
looking to Christ who is the blessed law keeper. The only
one who ever kept the law of God perfectly was the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul wrote in Romans 3, by faith
we establish the law. What does that mean? By looking
to Christ as the Lord our righteousness, we establish the law. I have
a perfect standing before God based on the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ charged to me. He took my sins and drank
damnation dry, propitiation. He satisfied God's justice against
me. The wrath of God that I earned
and deserved was totally, totally worked out on Christ in His obedience
unto death. And I have His righteousness. He goes on, blessed are they
that keep his testimonies. Well, God's testimonies are what
he says. What'd he say? What'd he say
to Adam? Your fig leaf apron will not
cover your sin. Your works will not cover your
sin. There's only one way, and that's through the seed of woman,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and based upon his blood and righteousness.
That's his testimony. And even the Ten Commandments
spoke of that. You cannot be saved by your law keeping. By
deeds of law shall no flesh be justified, be righteous, be forgiven,
be made right with God by deeds of the law in God's sight. Who seek Him with the whole heart.
You haven't begun to seek God with a whole heart until you
come to Him as a sinner begging for mercy through the blood of
the Lamb. Ain't that right? Three, they
also do no iniquity, they walk in His ways. You know what iniquity
is? It doesn't balance out, it's
inequitable. If I'm trying to be saved with
God, to be righteous before God, by my works, you know how the
scales are gonna tip? And that's me. Iniquity, even my best efforts
to keep the law. iniquity. But if I plead the
righteousness of Christ, the scales balance out with God's
requirement, God's justice, God's holiness, you see. And that's
what he means. Those who walk in his way, the
way of the cross, the way of Christ, the way of grace, they
do know iniquity. My iniquities have been taken
away by Christ. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. He doesn't charge. I'm still
a sinner. I still don't balance out and measure up in myself,
in my character, in my conduct, but in Christ, equal. Because of His works, His death,
His righteousness, His blood, equal. We won't read the whole psalm
here, but that's what it's talking about. His statutes, His law,
His way. Back over in 1 John 3. Believing on his name and loving
the brethren, being loyal to each other in this message, sticking
together, are evidences of salvation. In verse 24 he says, and he that
keepeth his commandments, what are his commandments? The gospel,
to believe on the name of the son and to love the brethren.
That's an evidence they dwell in Christ. We dwell in him. He's
our representative. He's our surety. He's our substitute. He's our redeemer. He's our advocate. And he dwells in us. How does
he dwell in us, he and him? He dwells in us by his spirit
and by his word. That's the product of the new
birth, regeneration and conversion. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the spirit. which He had given us. You see
that? That's why we keep His commandments. Believing in Him
and sticking with the brethren. It doesn't mean we always act
right towards the brethren. It doesn't mean we're always
perfect in our dealings with the brethren. But I'll tell you
what it does mean. It means that we're together
in this gospel way of salvation. His commandments to believe on
the Son. to believe in Christ and rest
in Him for all salvation.