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. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And today's message
is the fourth in a series that I've been preaching, entitled,
The Doing of Righteousness. The Doing of Righteousness. And
that message has been based upon 1 John, the book of 1 John, chapter
2, and verse 29. 1 John 2, 29. And what I've done
in these past messages, and I'm going to continue through into
chapter 3 of 1 John today, I've been showing you what the doing
of righteousness is and proving that by the context of this passage. And if you'll look at 1 John
2 and verse 29, you'll see what I'm talking about. It's John
writes here, and understand it. John is writing by inspiration
of the Spirit. He says, if you know that he
is righteous, and that's referring to Christ, Jesus Christ the righteous,
John had already identified him as such in 1 John 2, verse 1,
as the advocate of his people, Christ the substitute, the surety
of his people, the righteousness of God in him. And that righteousness
is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. And so we don't
measure up in our works by that, but in Christ, believers do. And he says, if you know that
he is righteous, Christ, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of him. To do righteousness is to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't refer to the morality
of a believer. Now, believers are certainly
to be moral people. Don't get me wrong. That doesn't
deny the necessity of morality and good works in a believer
as the work of God, the product of God's grace. But righteousness
is perfect work, perfect satisfaction without any contamination of
sin. And that can only be found in
the Lord Jesus Christ. So the doing of righteousness,
like the doing of truth in John chapter three and verse 21, we
read that last week, is to believe in Christ to cling to Him continually
and rest in Him for all righteousness. That's what doing righteousness
is. It's continuing without fail because of God's grace. Now there
are people who have claimed to believe in Christ, claimed to
be Christian, and who have turned away from Him. They did not lose
their salvation. They were never saved to begin
with. John wrote that in 1 John 2, 18 and 19. But believers have
an unction from Christ, an anointing, and that anointing is the new
birth. So in other words, look at it
again, 1 John 2.29, if you know that Christ is righteous, you
know that everyone that doeth righteousness, everyone who believes
in Him, who trusts in Him, who clings to Him continually without
letting go, that's an evidence that they're born of Him, they're
born of God. They've been born again, they've
been given spiritual life from the dead. They've been given
a new heart, a new spirit, A new way of thinking. They've been
made new creatures in Christ, you see. And the evidence of
that is they do righteousness. They cling to Christ for righteousness. Romans 10, four. For Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Now John is writing to people who were in church or churches
and they had seen many people, or I don't know how many, but
they had seen people who they thought were brethren turn away
from Christ. And that confused them. And it
concerned them, and it would anybody. I've had people in my
lifetime that I went to church with where the gospel is preached
now, and who seemed to me to be saved, to be born again, but
then they totally left it. They're like Peter said, like
the dog that turned back to its vomit, like the pig that went
back to the stye. And so, well, what happened?
Well, a lot of people say, well, they lost their salvation. No,
they didn't lose their salvation. Listen, the only way you can
believe that a person can be saved and then lose it is if
you believe salvation by their works. You may tweak it, explain
it any way you want, but the Bible teaches that once a person
is born again, they will stay. saved by the grace of God. And
that's what John has been talking about here. And I dealt with
that mainly last week, but look at chapter three now of 1 John
3. And I don't know if I'll be able
to finish all this today in this series, the doing of righteousness,
but I want to start here because this continues on with the context. And I know that I don't want
to insult your intelligence, but you do know that in the original
text of the New Testament, There were no chapter divisions or
verse divisions. So this continues on with John's
thought. Don't get what my old pastor
used to call verse-itis. Taking a verse out and trying
to build something on it without the context. So here's what John
says. He says, now those who do with
righteousness are born of him. In other words, you're not gonna
believe in and continue in Christ unless you're born again by the
Spirit. The main evidence that you're born again by the Spirit
is that you believe in and continue in Christ, believing Him to be
the Lord your righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So look at verse
1 of chapter 3. He says, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Now, who are the children of
God, the sons of God? And ladies, that's speaking generically
there. That's just not talking about
men, it's talking about men and women who have been born again
by the Spirit, who doeth righteousness, that is, they believe in, they
cling to Christ, they cannot let go because He won't let us
go. You see, perseverance, continuing
in the faith, endurance, is not the product of my power, or my
goodness, or my righteousness. It's the product of God's power,
God's goodness, and Christ's righteousness. Because I am righteous
in Christ, based upon His righteousness imputed to me, charged to me,
accounted to me, God will not impute, charge, account the debt
of sin to me. Romans chapter 8 says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Because of the death of Christ
on the cross, his obedience unto death as my surety and substitute,
I'm counted by God to be righteous, not by my works, not by my perseverance,
but righteous in Christ. And if I've been born again by
the Spirit, the power of God's grace in the Spirit, I will cling
to Christ and I can never leave Him. Once saved, always saved. That's what it's about. That
doesn't give me an excuse to sin. I must fight sin. Why? Because of the ever-abiding presence
of the Holy Spirit and that unction that He has worked in me by His
power through the Word of God, begotten again by the Word of
truth. That's the product of the unconditional
love of God. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Sinners saved by grace. That's
what John's talking about here. That's an amazing thing. He deals
with that more in 1 John chapter four when he talks about the
love of God in Christ. You know, folks, and I know this
is offensive to people, But you know, people today who even call
themselves Christians, they really do not know God. Many of them
that is. They look at God's love as they
look at their own love. That's something that is just
a compassionate, benevolent being who's trying to save you if you
would let him, but he's just sad when you don't. That's not
the God of the Bible. And I don't want to offend you,
but I want to tell you the truth. Somebody told me one time, he
said, they couldn't believe in a God who hated anybody. Well,
my friend, now listen to me. You need to read the Bible. The
Bible says that God hated Esau. In the Psalms, it says God hates
the workers of iniquity. You say, well, I'm a worker of
iniquity. Well, you need to understand the context of that. That's talking
about unbelievers. That's talking about the non-elect.
God is a God of love. He's a God of grace. He's a God
of mercy. But listen to me now. Outside
of Christ, there is no love, grace, or mercy from God. The love of God is to His people
in Christ. You want to seek the love of
God? Seek Christ and His righteousness. The Bible talks about that in
a word that's called propitiation. That is the love of God. Herein
is love, 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave himself to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's not talking about everybody
without exception. That's talking about the sons
of God, the children of God, for whom Christ died. God's love
for them issues forth in their salvation. And so John says,
behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
That's amazing love, amazing grace. Now, somebody says, well,
God can't hate anybody. He's love. Listen, God's hatred
is not like your hatred. It's not like my hatred. When
you and I hate, it's sinful. But when God hates, it's justice. Justice, that's it. And when
God punishes the guilty in His hatred for them, it's justice. And when God saves His people
in love, there's also justice because Christ took their place
on the cross and suffered under the hatred of God, you might
say, the wrath of God, for the sins of His people charged to
Him, imputed to Him. So what manner of love? And he
says in verse one of 1 John 3, therefore the world knoweth us
not. Not, the world doesn't know what
a Christian is, not really. They look at somebody who's gone
through a moral reformation or joined a church and got baptized,
oh, that person's a Christian. No, the world doesn't know really
what a Christian is because it knew him not, it didn't know
Christ. Somebody said of that song, let
others see Jesus in you. Well, when Jesus was walking
there, they didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They looked upon him
as a blasphemer. They looked upon him as a heretic,
a malefactor. And that's typical of us all
by nature in our spiritual deadness. But verse two, listen to 1 John
3 and verse two. It says, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. A person who believes in, clings
to Christ for all righteousness is right now a full-fledged child
of God with all full rights and title of a child of the Father. And it's all based upon not what
we do for Him and it's not based upon our believing in Him. It's
evidenced by our believing in Him But it's not based upon our
believing in Him, it's based upon what Christ did for His
sheep. He laid down His life for the
sheep. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather is risen again, seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. What do we do as children of
God? We cling to Him. And it does not, right now I'm
a child of God. I have an inheritance that's
incorruptible based upon what Christ did in my place on the
cross. And it doesn't yet appear what
I shall be. What he's talking about there
is glory. The glorified body, the perfection that will come
to me in myself when I'm changed in the twinkling of an eye, when
I die. and go to be with the Lord and when I'm glorified together
with Him. I can't even imagine what that's
gonna be like. I know something about it because
the Bible teaches us some things, especially in 1 Corinthians 15,
but I can't really enter into the full experience of eternal
glory forever and ever and ever with God in Christ. So he says,
it does not yet appear what we shall be. Verse two, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We'll be perfectly
conformed to Christ. That's believers now, for we
shall see him as he is. In that day, I'll see Christ
with sinless eyes, with sinless mind, no thought of sin, no sorrow. You see, that's the thing about
him. The Bible does teach us. that when believers are glorified
with Him, when we die and go be with the Lord, and then later
on when we're glorified together, there'll be no sorrow, there'll
be no tears, there'll be no pain, there'll be no sickness. Why
is that? There'll be no sin. You see,
sorrow and pain and sickness and tears, they're all the result
of sin. And so, not that crying is always
a sinful thing. Christ wept, but his was a sinless
thing. But in us, it's sin. And sin will be, not only will
we be dead, to the condemning power of sin, which believers
are right now in Christ based on his righteousness imputed,
at that time, believers will be dead to the remaining presence
and influence and contamination of sin, will be perfect. We shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So what he's talking
about is doing righteousness, clinging to Christ unto the end.
And verse three, He says, and every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself even as Christ is pure. That's the
he there, Christ. If this is my hope, and that
hope there is the certain expectation of final glory based on the righteousness
of Christ imputed to me, evidenced by the new birth, the unction,
believing and clinging to Him, then I purify myself in this
sense as He is pure. In other words, I look to Christ
as my righteousness. I look to Christ as my holiness. I look to Christ as the one who
justified me by His grace through His blood. God will not charge
me with my sin. David said it in Psalm 32, he
said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin, not
iniquity. And Paul wrote about that in
Romans four, when he said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without works. And so I cling to Christ and
he is my purity. Verse four. 1st John 3, he says,
whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the law. That's what sin
is. It's the transgression of the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. In other words, unless you, you
know, the Bible says in Galatians 3 10th, cursed is every, about
everybody who's under the law trying to be saved and righteous
by their works. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
that. So in other words, to commit sin is to transgress the law,
sin is the transgression of the law, but look at verse five.
And you know that he, that Christ, was manifested, made known, came
into the world to take away our sins. All right? Take away the sins of his people,
God's elect, his church, and in him, in Christ, is no sin. Now what is he talking about?
He's talking about the work of Christ to put away the sins of
His people by His bloody death on the cross and the establishment
of righteousness whereby they are justified before God. When
Christ died on the cross, all for whom He died, He took away
their sins. They cannot be finally totally
condemned and perish. They must be saved. That's why
Christ said in John 6 37, all that the father giveth me shall
come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. And this is the will of him that sent me that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up
again at the last day. Now, why is that a sure thing?
It's because Christ took away, put away, purged the sins of
his people on that cross. The sins of God's elect, the
sins of his, who are they? All who are born again and come
to faith in Christ. Do you want that? Look to Christ
for righteousness. That's why they cannot be lost
forever. because Christ's righteousness
demands their forgiveness. their justification, they've
been justified, and that demands their life, spiritual life, new
birth, which includes faith. And he says, in him is no sin. Now, some translators, when they
come to that phrase in verse five, they say, well, that's
talking about Christ himself as God-man, that in him, there
was no sin, and that's true. In Christ, There is no sin. The Bible says that he was made
sin in 2 Corinthians 5 21. He who knew no sin. He was made
sin by the imputation of the sin debt of his people to his
account. But there was no contamination
of sin in him. There was no influence of sin
in him. There was absolutely no sin imparted,
infused, imbued, or transferred to him in that sense. He never
had a thought of sin, a motive of sin, a moment of sin. He became
guilty that is subject to God's condemning under the law based
on sin imputed, charged, accounted to him. He was numbered with the transgressors. He could call the sins of His
people His own only in the sense that their sins were imputed
to Him. But He was never made a sinner,
He never became a sinner, so in Him is no sin. And that's
true. That's what the Bible teaches
about Christ. He's the perfect God-man. When He was on that
cross suffering, He was not suffering for his own sins within himself. He was suffering for the sins
of his people that became his by imputation. And when he said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was all based
upon the sins of his sheep put to his account. And he died,
he suffered, bled and died. So all that's true. But now what
I believe that John is speaking of here when he says in him is
no sin, now look back at verse five. And this is all related
to the doing of righteousness now. He says, verse five, and
you know that he was manifested, Christ, to take away our sins,
and in him is no sin. What I believe he's saying there
is that as we who believe, we who doeth righteousness, we who
believe in him, we who have been born again by the Spirit, have
that unction, we who cling to Christ, As we stand in Him, there
is no sin. Outside of Christ, nothing but
sin. In Christ, no sin. Now that doesn't mean we're not
sinners, but it means this. God does not remember our iniquities. He will not charge them to us. He will not lay them to our account. He will not bring them up again. No sin, no guilt, no condemnation
in Christ. Now that's what I believe it's
talking about in the context. But it goes on to say, and the
reason is, look at verse six. Now look at it, here's the doing
of righteousness. Verse six, whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Now what does that mean? Whosoever
abideth in him sinneth." Does that mean that when you become
a believer, you don't sin anymore? Well, if that was the case, John
is contradicting himself because over in 1 John 1, he makes this
statement. Now listen to this, 1 John 1. He says in verse 8, if we, that's
believers, Those who are in fellowship with the Father and the Son say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. He says in verse nine, if we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We confess our sinfulness. Verse
10, if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and
his word is not in us. And he goes on to say, if we
sin, which really means since we sin, we have an advocate with
the Father. In other words, we always need
Christ. There's no way that I can be accepted with God, blessed
of God and enter heaven's glory, but by the blood of Jesus Christ,
by his righteousness imputed. So when you come to verses like
verse six over here in chapter three, whosoever abideth in him
sinneth not, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither none.
You've got to keep it in the context. What's he talking about? He's talking about a believer,
a true believer who continues in Christ, born again of the
Spirit, who stands in Christ And sin is not charged to him. He will not leave Christ. And
that's the sin that he's talking about. What is it to do righteousness? To do righteousness is to cling
to Christ and not let go. For all righteousness. Christ
is my righteousness. So what sin is he talking about?
He's talking about something specific. He's talking about
those who went out from the people of God, those who forsook Christ. And what he's saying there is
those who abide in Christ, doeth righteousness, they sin not. Not that they're not sinners
in themselves, but they will not leave Christ. They will not,
listen, in Christ there is no sin. All the transgression of
law, Christ kept the law for, he's the end of the lawful rights.
Now, whosoever sinneth, whosoever leaves Christ, they've never
seen him. He says, neither have they known
him. They never were saved. They were
all, they just simply revealed themselves, exposed themselves
to be what they always were, that is sinners who have no hope,
lost in their sins. I 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.