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Bill Parker

The Doing of Righteousness - 6

1 John 2:29
Bill Parker December, 10 2017 Video & Audio
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Bill Parker
Bill Parker December, 10 2017
1 John 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

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Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. Now today I'm going to conclude
a six-part series entitled The Doing of Righteousness. The Doing of Righteousness, this
is part six. And as I've said in each one,
I hope that you have been able to follow along as we've gone
through this series. In 1 John chapter two, that's
the scripture that verse 29 is the base scripture that I'm using. I've been going through the verses
that surround that to show the context of what that phrase means,
the doing of righteousness. And if you haven't heard the
other messages, I urge you to order them from us. We offer
them on CD and DVD. And it's called The Doing of
Righteousness. It's six-part series. This is
part six. And I want you to look at 1 John
2.29, which is the base scripture that I've been using. showing
this, where John, the Apostle John, by inspiration of the Spirit,
wrote in 1 John 2, 29, if you know that he is righteous, you
know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
Now, the he there is Christ. Christ is right. If you knew,
Christ is God in human flesh. I spoke of that in just about
every program. That's who he is. If you know
that He is righteous, He is just, He is perfect, sinlessly perfect
and righteous, okay? Then you know that everyone who
doeth righteousness, whatever that is, is born of Him. Well, what is it to do righteousness?
Well, all through this series, I've defined doing righteousness
in this way. What John is referring to, and
I hope I've proven that in the context, and I'm gonna finish
that up in 1 John 3 today. What John is talking about is
a sinner saved by grace, believing in, trusting, and abiding in,
continuing in the Lord Jesus Christ as His only righteousness
before God. That's what doing righteousness
is. You see, doing righteousness does not refer to the actions,
the works, or the obedience of a believer. Because even now,
as a sinner saved by grace, my works are not righteous in the
sight of God on their own merit. Now, what I mean by that is this.
Righteousness is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. And
my best efforts to obey God, even as a saved person, are not
perfect. But Christ is perfect, and I
stand before God in Him. There's a verse over in 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 21 that seems to be so controversial among many
people today. But it says this, it says, for
He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him." Now what that's
talking about, that's the heart of the gospel right there. That's
the ground of reconciliation between God and sinners. That's
the message of the gospel. And what he's talking about is
God made Christ to be sin. How? God the Father imputed,
charged, accounted the debt of the sins of His people, His chosen
people, the elect, to Christ. Christ was made their surety. He became responsible to pay
their sin debt. And God made Him to be sin for
us. The us there are believers. That's how you, who are God's
elect? They are those who come to believe
the gospel. That's who they are, Jew and Gentile. Who has been
born again? You know, over in 1 John 2, 29,
it talks about those who are born again, born of God, born
of Him. Well, they are those who believe
the gospel of reconciliation. In that verse, God made him to
be sin, God imputed, charged, accounted, reckoned, the sins
of His people to Christ. Christ, who knew no sin? Christ
was not a sinner. He wasn't made a sinner. Sin
was not transferred to Him in any way. It was imputed to Him,
the debt of sin. Now, He did that to pay the debt. And how did He pay the debt?
By His suffering unto death. That's what happened. He had
to die. He suffered unto death, His obedience unto death. The
law says sin demands death. In order that we who are in Him,
we whom God chose, God justified, Christ died for, born again,
that we might be made the righteousness of God. And that righteousness
of God there is Christ's righteousness imputed, the righteousness of
God. And here's the two last words of that verse in 2 Corinthians
5, 21, in Him. And that's what it is to do righteousness.
It's to see yourself as forgiven of all your sins, not based on
anything except His blood, and justified before God, not guilty,
righteous before God, based on His righteousness imputed. And
so doing righteousness here is a sinner clinging to Christ,
abiding in Christ, as opposed to those who forsook Him and
revealed that they were never saved to begin with. Well now,
over in 1 John 3, look at verse 5. This is where I left off last
week. But here's what it says. First John three and verse five.
And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in
him is no sin. Now, what that's showing is that
Christ came to this world, made himself known as God in human
flesh. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. That's
who He is. You see, all for whom Christ
stood as surety and substituted Himself were God's elect who
had fallen in Adam into sin and death, into ruination, and who
had to be redeemed, bought back. The price had to be paid. That's
what Christ did to take away our sins. Now, not the sins of
everybody without exception. Let me tell you something. If
your sins are taken away, you're going to be saved. You're going
to live eternally. The only reason we die physically
is because that's a consequence of sin. And my friend, where
sin is charged to a person, at the end of life and at judgment,
they will perish, eternal death. But if Christ took away my sins
by dying for my sins on the cross, the Bible says here in 1 John
3, 5, in Him is no sin. There is no sin now to be charged
to God's people. The Bible says over in Hebrews
chapter 10, I believe it's around verse 18. It says, where remission
of these is, where forgiveness of sin is, there is no more offering
for sin. In verse 14 of that same chapter,
Hebrews 10, it says, for by one offering, he hath perfected,
completed, finished forever. them that are sanctified, those
whom God has set apart before the foundation of the world.
So as we stand in Him, now, how do I know I stand in Him? Well,
do I do righteousness or commit sin? In other words, have I forsaken
Christ, rejected Christ, or do I receive Him and believe in
Him, trust in Him and abide in Him? Perseverance, continuing
by the grace of God. I mentioned this last week how
the only way that a sinner, even a sinner saved by grace, can
persevere and abide and continue is by the preserving grace of
God in Christ. And the main means by which he
does that is the ever-abiding presence of the Holy Spirit within
who gives us new life, a new heart. So look at verse six. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Now, what does he mean? Those
who abide in Christ and knowing that in him is no sin, there's
no sin charged to their account. That's what he's talking about.
They will not leave Christ. Like those over in 1 John 2,19
who went out from us and revealed that they never were saved. He
says in verse six, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither
known him. Those who claim to believe, whom
you may have thought believed, those who you thought were saved,
but who then later on rejected Christ and turned against him,
it says here, They have not seen him. They never had seen him. Remember Christ said to Nicodemus,
you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.
My friend, if you ever see it by the power of the spirit, the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you'll never leave him.
But those who have a profession, an outward profession or an outward
reformation or a false conversion, that's what that is. They've
never seen him and they didn't know him. They never knew him.
They claim to have seen him. They claim that they know him.
They said, well, when I was 12, I gave my heart to Jesus, blah,
blah, blah. That's what they say. They never
knew him. That's what he's saying. And
look at verse seven. He says, little children, let
no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he, Christ, is righteous. Don't be deceived
by these things. I'll tell you what, there are
whole denominations today that claim to be Christian, who say
that a person can be saved and then lost, the Bible doesn't
say that. They take particular passages,
some like for example in Hebrews chapter 6 and Hebrews chapter
10, and they abuse them and take them out of their context. And
mainly what people go by there is not what the Bible says, but
what they see in their experience. Well, I know so-and-so was saved
because he couldn't have changed like that unless he... My friend,
false conversions and the works of the devil can bring about
some amazing changes in the life of people. Don't ever be deceived
about that. But one thing the devil cannot
imitate and counterfeit, is a true sinner saved by grace, believing,
resting in, continuing, abiding in Christ as the Lord, His righteousness. Now that's so. Now a lot of people
will argue with that because they say, well, that just gives
you leave to sin or excuse to sin. No, it doesn't. If you've
been born of God, you have a new heart. a new spirit, a new life,
you see, within. And that's the result, that's
the fruit of being righteous in Christ. So you know, he says,
don't let anybody say, he that doeth righteousness, he who abides
in Christ, looks to Christ for righteousness, rests in Christ
for righteousness, continues to plead Christ and his righteousness
imputed. as his only ground of salvation,
that person is really righteous. That's the way God sees it. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Now he may not look righteous
to you. You may see him do some things
he should not do. You may see him at moments when
he looks to you like what you think a Christian should look
like. But that's not the issue here. You see, the issue here
is not should believers be obedient, outwardly, inwardly, sincere. Yes, but that's not what John's
talking about here. That's spoken of in other passages
of Scripture. What he's simply saying here
is that the sinner saved by grace who abides in Christ, that person
is righteous. And how do you know that? How
do you know that? Well, because he goes to church,
or he got baptized, or he prays a lot. No. Should he go to church? Yes, where the gospel is preached.
Should he be baptized? Well, all who profess to believe
in Christ are to confess it in believer's baptism. Yes, but
that's not what makes him righteous. Should he pray? Yes. The Bible
says we should be people of prayer. Should he be moral? Yes. But
those things are not our righteousness before God. My testimony is this,
Christ died for me. Christ's blood is my forgiveness.
Christ's righteousness is my whole justification before God. And those who abide in that,
you're righteous even as Christ is righteous. How could I say
that I'm as righteous as Jesus Christ? The one who knew no sin,
who do no sin, who was separate from sinners. How could I say
that? It has nothing to do with my character and conduct as far
as the standard of righteousness goes. I can say it though because
He is my righteousness. God has imputed, charged, accounted
righteousness to me. And somebody said, well, that's
so complicated. No, it's not. Very simple. I always tell people,
look at it as they look at economics. A debt, for example. Let's say
you borrowed a bunch of money from a local bank. Let's say
you borrowed a million dollars and they floated you a million
dollars. All right, that's put on your
account. That million dollar debt is imputed
to you because you borrowed it. That million dollar debt is reckoned,
charged, accounted, imputed to you. But let's say after you
borrow the million, you squander it away and you find yourself
destitute and you don't have even one penny to pay that debt
and you're in trouble. You're in bondage, aren't you?
So what do you do? Well, let's say you decide to
go to the banker and beg for mercy. Now you know that won't
do any good, don't you? So you go to the banker and the
banker says, well, what is your name? And he said, you tell him
your name. And he said, well, let's see what's on the books
here. And he opens the book and there's your name. And he looks
up at you and he says, wait a minute, you don't owe a million dollars.
Somebody came and paid that debt in full. Could you imagine what
kind of relief you would have to hear that? You thought you
owed a million dollars. You didn't have even one penny
to pay it. Now false religion tells you
you have a few pennies to pay, but you don't, not in true religion,
not in the religion of God's grace, but you didn't have one
penny to pay it. And you find out from the banker,
the debt's paid. It's all gone. The books are
wiped clean. and you don't owe a dime, you don't owe a penny.
Well, you get up and start to leave, and the banker says, wait
a minute, there's more. More? What more could there be? He says, not only did that person
pay your debt, he put a million dollars into your account to
the good. It's written here in the books.
You have a million dollars charged to your account, imputed to you. Wow, what a blessing. Well, the
first thing you're gonna wanna know is who did that and where
can I find him so that I can go thank him and serve him? You see what I'm saying? That's
what Christ did for God's elect. He paid their debt in full. The
books are wiped clean. God will remember their sins
no more. That means he will not hold them accountable. He will
not bring them up again. and then they gave them his righteousness
that's imputed to them. That's what this is all about.
You see, that's the ground of salvation. Well, look at verse
eight of 1 John 3. Now listen to this. He says,
he that committeth sin is of the devil. Now those who reject
Christ, those who, even those who claim to believe in him and
then later left him, rejected him, turned against him, That's
of the devil. That's of the great accuser of
the brethren. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. Remember back in the garden when the devil appeared
in the form of a serpent to Eve and tempted her and then Adam
came and fell? And he was a liar from the beginning. You know, John 8, 44, it puts
it this way. He abode not in the truth. Wasn't that appropriate to what
we're studying here? John is talking about those who
abide in the truth, abide in Christ, as opposed to those who
do not abide in the truth, abide in Christ. And so the devil sinneth
from the beginning. And he says in verse eight, for
this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might
destroy the works of the devil. Well, the work of the devil was
to turn Adam against God. The work of Christ is to reconcile
sinners to God. On what ground? On the ground
of their believing? No. Does He bring them to believe? Yes, but that's not the ground.
It's on the ground of His righteousness charged to them. It's on the
ground of His blood shed for them. It's on the ground of the
payment of the debt that he paid a loan for them. That's what
doing righteousness is. So here, the devil turns men
against abiding in Christ. Christ turns his people to abiding
in him. And so that's how he destroys
the works of the devil. He took away sin and he gives
them life to abide in him. And so he says in verse nine,
whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Whosoever is
born of God will never turn against Christ, leave Christ, reject
Christ, and their sins cannot be charged to them. For his seed
remaineth. Now the seed there is the word
that's a lot of times used for children, offspring. Christ's
seed. Those sons of God who are born
of him remaineth in him, they abide in him, they stay with
him, they cannot leave him. Why? And he cannot sin, he cannot
leave Christ because he's born of God. If you're born of the
Holy Spirit, if you're truly saved by grace, born of the Holy
Spirit, born again, if you truly have been given a new heart and
new life, spiritual life, you cannot leave Christ. Now, if
you just have some religious experiences and outward reformations
and dreams and visions and all that, not only can you leave
him, you will eventually leave him. But the true children of
God, they do righteousness. They don't commit sin. They're
sinners saved by grace who abide in Christ, pleading his righteousness. And verse 10 says this, in this,
the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil.
Those who abide in Christ manifest themselves, make themselves known
as the true children of God. Those who turn against Christ
manifest themselves, make themselves known as the children of the
devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness, whosoever does not abide in Christ
is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. And then
he goes on to the love of the brethren. In other words, not
only will those who are born of God do righteousness in the
sense that they will abide in Christ, they will continue to
plead his righteousness as their only ground of salvation and
reconciliation with God and a right relationship with God. They'll
also love the brethren. That means they will be loyal
to those who are truly saved, the church, the sheep of God,
the people of God. They're in another family. And
he says in verse 11, he says, for this is the message that
you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Those who went out from them, they rejected the brethren. They
actually hated the brethren. But those who abide in Christ
and do righteousness, they love the brethren. And he uses Cain
and Abel as the example of this. Verse 12, not as Cain who was
of that wicked one, the devil, and slew his brother. And why
slew he him? Wherefore slew him? That means
why did Cain slay Abel? Because his own works were evil
and his brother's righteous. Now what, you know, somebody
said, well, see there it says Abel's works were righteous.
Well, okay, what was Abel's works? Go back to Genesis chapter four
and read about it. You know what Abel did? He came
before God seeking salvation, acceptance, blessing, to please
God by one thing, one grant, the blood of the lamb. And that
lamb was a picture. The blood of the lamb was a picture
of Christ. in His blood, His righteousness
alone. That's what Abel did. He's not
talking about Abel's obedience in the sense of his works, measuring
up, no. Abel was a sinner saved by grace. And that's what every true child
of God is. So when you go back and you look
at this passage, 1 John 2, 29, if you know that Christ is righteous,
you know this, that everyone who doeth righteousness, who
abides in Him, who continues in Him, is born of Him. You know, for a sinner to be
fully saved, basically there's two things that must happen. Number one, there's the legal
aspect of salvation. That sinner must be justified
before holy God. And the reason that's true is
because God is righteous and we're not. So how then can we
be made righteous? Only by the death of a surety,
a substitute, one whom God has appointed, one who is able to
do what needs to be done, and one who is willing to do that,
and that's Christ. God appointed him before the
foundation of the world and gave his elect to him. He became their
surety. Christ came into the world and
took into union with himself sinless humanity, God-man, and
died on that cross to suffer unto death to satisfy justice
and bring forth righteousness. And he was willing to do it.
He said, no man takes my life from me. I give it. I give it
willingly. The second thing that must happen
is because we fell in Adam and are born spiritually dead, we
must be born again. Christ's righteousness is the
ground of our justification and the source of new life in the
new birth. And once that happens, God keeps
His people unto the end. And they do righteousness by
pleading Christ, resting in Him, seeing Him as the end of the
law for their righteousness, which it is to everyone that
believeth. He is righteous. Hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today, and may the Lord be with you.
Bill Parker
About Bill Parker
Bill Parker grew up in Kentucky and first heard the Gospel under the preaching of Henry Mahan. He has been preaching the Gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ for over thirty years. After being the pastor of Eager Ave. Grace Church in Albany, Ga. for over 18 years, he accepted a call to preach at Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, KY. He was the pastor there for over 11 years and now has returned to pastor at Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, GA

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