Let's go back to 1 John 2 there. If you watch the television program,
you know that I'm doing a series of messages there that is from
this passage on TV. It's called The Doing of Righteousness,
and here it's just doing righteousness. It's the same thing. The reason that I decided to
preach them in the congregation here as well as on television
is, as you well know, in the past several years, the gospel
doctrine of Christ's righteousness imputed has come under so much
fire from people that we just wouldn't dream would attack the
gospel or confuse it or deny it. And I feel like it's something
that we just really need to be so grounded in as it applies
to scripture. I know we're grounded in the
truth of it, that God saves sinners by his grace through a righteousness
that Christ himself and by himself worked out on the cross, his
obedience unto death as our surety and our substitute. and that
we stand before God in his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to
us. And that's our assurance of salvation,
that God charged our sins to him and he paid that debt and
his righteousness to us. But then you come to scriptures
like this, like 1 John 2, 29, which says, if you know that
he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is born of him. And that term doeth righteousness,
what does that mean? Now, if you've listened to the
sermons on TV, you're gonna hear a lot of the same things, but
I'm gonna go into more depth here, because I've got a little
more time, and so I want you to see how this applies to scripture.
And people look at passages like it, doeth righteousness, what
is that referring to? Well, somebody said, well, that's
a believer's obedience. Well, the thing about it is,
you have to understand what righteousness is. And righteousness, you know,
the term righteousness can also be translated justice. And so
if you do justice, now we know that people can act in a just
manner in the affairs of men and all of that. But righteousness
can only be measured in the Bible concerning salvation and a right
relationship with God as it is measured and as it pertains to
Christ. And that's how this verse starts
out. If you know that he is righteous, the he there is Christ. And I
want to show you that. Now, if you know that he is righteous,
then you know this also. That anyone who does righteousness
is born of him. That's the new birth. In other
words, there's the new birth and the evidence of it is a sinner
who does righteousness. Well, what is that? Well, you
have to keep things in their context here. That's the main
thing. You can't just jerk a phrase
out of its context and make some application of it. Some people
say, well, doing righteousness is a believer's morality. Well,
let me ask you this question. If you measure righteousness
by Jesus Christ, can I call my morality or my obedience righteous? And the answer is no, because
it has to be as righteous as Christ. That's the man, he's
the measure. And I quote Acts 17 31 so often
that God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained in
that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath
raised him from the dead. So if I pray to God for me to
call that prayer an act of righteousness, he would have to be perfect.
We talked about this morning in our Bible study, how does
God accept our prayers? He accepts them on the basis
of the intercessory work of Christ, washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness. Now in this passage here, in
this verse, you have two things that are stated. Number one,
you have the ground of salvation. Christ is our righteousness. And then number two, you have
the fruit of his righteousness, which is the new birth, evidence
by doing righteousness. Now let's look first at number
one, the ground of salvation, Christ is our righteousness.
Verse 29 says, if you know that he is righteous. Now that's referring
more to more than just simply Christ has a righteous nature
in himself. We know that Christ is God manifest
among us. Christ is the God-man. He had
no sin. He knew no sin. There was no
sin that ever contaminated Him or tainted Him in any way. When
the Bible says He was made sin, that is strictly by the imputation,
the accounting, the reckoning of sin to His account. Our debt
of sin was laid to His charge. No more, no less. So he is righteous,
but what John is talking about is found over in 1 John 2 and
verse 1. Look over there. Turn the page.
When he says, if you know that he is righteous, what he's actually
saying, if you know that Christ is our righteousness, that his
righteousness has been imputed to us, and that is our only ground
of salvation, then you know. Now let me prove that to you.
Look at verse 1. My little children, These things write I unto you
that you sin not. And it says, and if any man sin,
a better translation would be, and since we sin. We have an
advocate with the Father, someone who stands as a mediator, an
intercessor, a substitute, a representative, a surety, and who is he? Jesus Christ the righteous. Now in what capacity is he calling
Jesus Christ the righteous? In other words, it's not just
that he is perfect in himself, which he is. He is, there's no
doubt about that. But look at verse two, and he
is the propitiation for our sin. That propitiation there, what
is that? That's satisfaction to God's justice through a substitute. That's the removal of God's wrath
from us. And who did that? Jesus Christ,
the substitute, the surety of God's people by his death on
the cross. We fell in Adam, we were born
dead in sin. We're sinners and sin demands
death. Christ was set up before the foundation of the world to
be our surety. And being our surety, he obligated
himself to come into this world and take into union with himself
a perfect sinless humanity, walk this earth in obedience to the
law unto death. He had to die. to satisfy justice. And he says, and not for ours
only, but for the sins of the whole world. The whole world
there's not talking about everybody without exception. Listen, if
Christ was the propitiation for everybody without exception,
then no one would be lost. No one would be eternally damned. But he's talking about that God
has a chosen people all over this world, Jew and Gentile.
And it says in verse three, and hereby do we know that we know
him, And if we keep his commandments, his commandments to believe on
Christ and to walk in his ways, evidences that we know him. All
right. And we know him as our propitiation,
our sin bearing sacrifice, who brought satisfaction to God's
law and justice. We know him as the Lord, our
righteousness. And so back over in verse 29
of chapter two, if you know, That knowing there is the knowledge
of faith, God-given faith. It's acknowledging that Christ
is your hope, your salvation, your wisdom, your righteousness,
your sanctification, your redemption, He's your all in all. And He
says if you know that He is righteous, look over at chapter 3 and look
at verse 4. Now this is all within the context
1st John 2 and 1st John 3, but look at verse 4 of 1st John 3,
he says, whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the law
for sin is the transgression of the law. That's what sin is.
Sin is coming short of the standard of perfection in the law, coming
short of righteousness. Now committing sin here, look
at verse 5, and you know that he, that is Christ, was manifested. He was made known. What does
that mean? He's God manifested in the flesh. You know that Christ was manifested
to do what? To take away our sins. Now how
did he take them away? It's by his obedience unto death
as our surety and substitute. And then it says, and in him
is no sin. Now, a lot of commentators will
say, well, that's saying that in Christ himself, there's no
sin. And again, that's true. But I don't believe that's what
this is saying. What this is saying is this, as we stand before
God in Christ, no sin is charged to our account. Who shall 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 and
is seated at the right hand of the Father ever living to make
what? Intercession for us. And what is his intercessory
work based on? His propitiation. He's our advocate. pleading the merits of his blood,
pleading his righteousness as our hope, as our salvation. So as we stand in him, there's
no sin accounted to us. So look at verse six. He says,
whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Now, does that mean that
if I'm in Christ, I'm no longer a sinner in myself? Well, no,
that's not what John's talking about. In fact, John said over
in 1 John chapter 1, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. In
other words, as a believer, as a sinner saved by grace, if I
were to tell you that I have no sin within me, I would be
a deceived person and I'd be lying to you. That's not true. Sin still contaminates everything
I do and think and say. In every way. That's why I'm
constantly in need of Christ. His blood to cleanse me from
all my sin, past, present, and future. His righteousness to
recommend me unto God and to justify me. So when he says,
whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Well, what is he talking
about? Well, look on, he says, whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Now that's, here's what he's
saying. A true child of God. does righteousness. An unbeliever commits sin. What's he talking about? Well,
the context bears it out. Now think about this, the ground
of salvation, if you know that he's righteous, Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Jeremiah twice called him the Lord our righteousness. Now that's
settled. All right, here's the second
thing. The fruit of his righteousness, back here in 1 John 2 29. If
you know that he's righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of him. Doing righteousness. What in
the world is he talking about? Look over at chapter three and
verse six. Again. Look at what it says. Now here's your key. And we're
gonna see this in 1 John 2 also. Whosoever abideth in him. What does the word abide mean?
It means to continue. It means to persevere. It means
you stay with Christ. That's what it means. You don't
quit. Perseverance of the saints. Have you heard that doctrine?
Yes, you have. That's one of the five points of gospel doctrine. Talks about the total depravity
of man. Man has no righteousness. Man
cannot work righteousness. Man doesn't want righteousness
God's way and will not choose God. You know, up in Ashland,
Kentucky, I saw a sign out in front of a church, a religious
organization. And it said, God gives every
man, every person a choice. All right? And me and Dave were
talking about that, and I said, well, it's kind of like this.
Here's the choice. You take a wolf, you set him
down in a plush, green pasture, and then you get some sheep and
you put in that pasture. And when the wolf gets hungry,
you say, now, wolf, you've got a choice. You can either eat
the sheep or you can eat the green grass. That's his choice. Now, which do you think the wolf
will choose? He'll choose what wolves by nature
choose. He's gonna eat a sheep. You put
man down in this environment and say you can choose that which
is sin for, that which glorifies God. What's man gonna choose?
He's gonna choose what man by nature will choose. Sin. And that's it. So the Bible teaches
we're sinners. and left ourselves, we will not
choose God. And then we talk about unconditional
election. God chose a people from before
the foundation of the world in Christ. People don't like that,
but that's what the Bible teaches. We talk about limited or particular
redemption. The propitiatory work of Christ
was for his people and ensures their salvation. He did not make
us savable. He did not just merely make the
possibility of salvation available if we would do our part. If that's
the case, we're all doomed. His righteousness demands the
justification and sanctification of His people, even faith and
repentance. Well, we talk about irresistible
grace. Well, the Holy Spirit comes in
power, sovereign power. gives us new life, a new heart,
new mind, new affections, new will, new conscience. Ears to
hear, eyes to see, the new birth. And he convinces us, he convicts
us of sin and of righteousness and judgment. What you were talking
about Sunday, convicts of sin and of righteousness and judgment. There's no other way. And then
it says that all whom God chose and for whom Christ died and
whom the Holy Spirit convicts, what are they gonna do? They're
gonna abide in Christ. They're gonna continue. Their
profession of faith in Christ is not a false profession. It's
not a temporary profession. Oh, they'll struggle. They'll
fight and fuss, they'll doubt. But you see, there's two things.
Number one, Christ will not let them go. And another thing is
because of the work of the Holy Spirit in them, they will not
totally forsake Christ. They will abide in Him. That's
what John's talking about. The committing sin that he's
talking about here is a false professor who at one point in
time claimed to believe in Christ, but who left it. who rejects
Christ. They did not persevere. They
did not continue. They did not abide. Now, let
me show you that. Look at 1 John 2 and verse 18.
He says here, little children. Well, look at verse 17. You know,
when he tells them to love not the world, verse 17, he says,
and the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever. I can tell you right now about
myself and about you. If God the Holy Spirit has done
that work in your heart, that work in your life, that new birth,
and brought you to Christ in God-given faith and God-given
repentance, you will abide forever. That's right. Now, how can I
say something? That's what the Word of God says.
God says that. If you leave it and reject Christ
totally, look at verse 18. Little children, it is the last
time, and as you have heard, that antichrist shall come. Even
now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the
last time. Look at verse 19. They went out from us. What does that mean? They didn't
abide forever. But they were not of us. They didn't lose their
salvation, as some would teach. They never had it. They had an
outward profession, a false profession. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. That is in the truth
of the gospel. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now, isn't that
clear? that those who at one point in
time have a profession of even the truth, but then who go back
to a lie, go back to false religion, or just go back to the world
in whatever way they go back, they were never saved to begin
with. They didn't abide. But look at verse 20. He says,
but ye have an unction. Now that word unction is anointing. and it's talking about the anointing
of the Holy Spirit who abides within God's people and gives
them a new heart. He says that unction is from
the Holy One. Where did that unction come from? It came from
Christ. See, just as sin kept us in spiritual death for a time,
Christ's righteousness brings life. Romans 8, 10. It says the
body is dead because of sin, But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. And who is our righteousness?
Christ is. Why do you think He died to put
away our sin? He was buried and He arose again
the third day. Why? Because he put away sin.
He paid the debt in full. He satisfied justice. He brought
forth everlasting righteousness which demanded that he come out
of that grave because of his people. He justified us. We stand
before God not guilty. This old sinner up here stands
before God not guilty. Stand before God righteous. And
I know you can't see it because I don't see it in myself. It's
not there. It's in my Savior. And it's imputed
to me. That's the ground of my salvation.
And from what he accomplished in his death, burial, and resurrection,
he gives his people life. We have an unction from the Holy
One. He says in verse 20, you know all things. Now that doesn't
mean we know everything. We're learning all the time,
aren't we? It means we know all things pertaining to a right
relationship with God in Christ. I know what I am. Do you know
what you are? Well, I can tell you about all
of us. We're in the same boat. We're sinners in need of salvation
by grace. One of you may be a Nicodemus.
You may have risen high in religious circles. You may be, as the old
preacher up in West Virginia said, as clean as a hound's tooth. You may be moral. You may be
a fine, upstanding citizen. Another of you may be like the
woman at the well, a notorious sinner, somebody that everybody
looks down on. One of you may be like the Pharisee
who said, I thank God I'm not like other men. And others of
you might be like the publican. But I'm going to tell you what's
common to all of us. We have no righteousness in ourselves
to recommend us unto God. We cannot work righteousness
by our best efforts to keep the law. And if God leaves us to
ourselves, we won't submit to Christ and His righteousness.
We're sinners in need of grace, isn't that right? You can't look
at me and say, well, preacher, you might need grace, but you
don't need it as much as I do. You don't know me. We all need it equally. And if
we're in Christ, we all stand before God equally righteous
in Him, in Him. There's not one of us in here
who has anything to recommend us unto God or to gain God's
favor or blessings, but that which comes to us through Christ,
whom we know is righteous. I know he's righteous. And what
he said, if you know that he, I know he's right. I know I'm
not in myself, but I know he is. And he is my righteousness
because God charged you to me. So that's what we know. The verse
21 of chapter 2, look at this. He says, I've not written unto
you because you know not the truth, but because you know it
and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar? But he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ, he is antichrist that denieth the
father and the son. If you deny that Jesus is the
Christ, this one who is the righteousness of his people, now, then you
deny the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son
hath the Father. You see, it all goes together.
A sinner who says, well, I believe in God, but I just don't believe
in this imputed righteousness thing. My friend, you don't know
God. You don't know God. So look at verse 24. Let that
therefore abide in you. which you have heard from the
beginning. Stay with it, that's what he's saying. If that which
you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, if it remains
in you, and let me tell you something, if you've been born of the Spirit
and the Spirit has indelibly written that truth on your heart
and your mind, your affections, your will, it'll remain in you.
You also shall continue in the sun. How do you know if it remains
in you? Do you continue in the sun or are you looking elsewhere
for salvation? Where are you looking for him?
What is your hope? What is your boast? In whom or what do you glory?
Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, have confidence, save
in what? The cross, the finished work
of Christ. And nothing else means anything
to me as far as my right relationship with God. We talked about it
in the Bible study this morning. Shouldn't we be people who are
charitable? Yes, but that doesn't gain me
any favors with God. Shouldn't we pray? Yes, but that
doesn't make things right between me and God. Shouldn't we be people
of self-denial? Yes, but that's not my righteousness
before God, it's Christ. That's what Paul called the simplicity
that's in Christ. It's all single, folks. It's
wrapped up in one single person who did one single work for by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
We're worshiping this morning. How do you worship God? We're
coming boldly to the throne of grace because we have a great
high priest. Don't you even have to pray when
you worship? Lord, keep my mind on the message. Keep my mind
from wandering. You struggle with that? You'd
be amazed for me to tell you that while I'm up here preaching
to you, I can get a wandering mind too. Just pray that I don't
express it. That's us, isn't it? We're just
pitiful, pitiful creatures, aren't we? And you know what it tells
us too? That the only reason we will
continue and abide in Christ is because of God's preserving
grace, isn't that right? If he didn't keep us, you know
why you won't leave Christ if you're a true child of God? Because
he won't let you go. He said, in my Father's hand.
No one can pluck him out of my Father's hand. Why is it? Because the Father won't let
us go. Now, Our preservation is by means
of our perseverance, and that's by the grace of God, isn't it?
He continually shows us what we are by nature and what we
would do if he'd let us go. One of the old gospel writers
said, if he'd let me go for one minute, I'd sink into hell. And
that's the way it is. Well, look at verse 24 again.
Let that therefore abide in you, which you've heard from the beginning.
What did they heard from the beginning? The gospel. If that
which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you,
you shall continue in the son and in the father. And this is
the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life, not temporary
life. Now I want you to notice in verse
26, He says, these things have I written unto you concerning
them that seduce you. Now, what seduction is he talking
about? Well, he's talking about the
same kind of seduction that the Apostle Paul was talking about
over in 2 Corinthians 11. You remember, he talked about
those false preachers false believers who had come in and tried to
seduce them away from looking to resting in Christ alone for
righteousness. Now turn to 2 Corinthians 11.
I want to show you something here. 2 Corinthians 11. Paul writes in verse two, for
I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. Second Corinthians
11, two. For I've espoused you to one
husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,
a spiritual virginity. What that means is your loyalty
and your love in this matter of salvation and a right relationship
with God is to Christ alone. Just like you wives, your love
and loyalty is to be to your husband alone. You husbands,
your love and your loyalty is to be to your wives alone. You're
not to share that with any other woman or man. And that's what he's saying.
You don't share your love and loyalty in this matter of salvation
now. And a right relationship with
God. To any other person, any other Savior, but Christ. he
says in verse three, but I fear this by any means as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. That singleness that's
in him. You know what that tells me too?
I cannot get up here, it's impossible for me to get up here and preach
Christ and his righteousness too much. That's an impossibility. Somebody says, you're a single-minded
person. Thank God. Thank God I am. Because I have
my mind and my heart singly upon our Savior and what He accomplished
on Calvary to save me from my sins. But he says in verse 4
of 2 Corinthians, if he that cometh preaches another Jesus,
that's the Greek word for another of a different kind. Or if you
receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another
gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with, and
what that should, that hymn is in italics, it should be me,
bear with me. But jump over to verse 13 of
2 Corinthians 11. Look at what the issue is here.
Verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ." Now that word transforming, the tense of the verb, it indicates
a change. They change. It's like changing
here and then changing back again. It's a temporary thing. So they
claim to be apostles of Christ in verse 14, and no marvel for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it is of no great thing if his ministers also be transformed
as ministers of righteousness. Now I heard a preacher preach
on this one time and he said, they're ministers of man's righteousness. I disagree. I believe they change
and preach Christ's righteousness for a while. You see, a false
apostle doesn't have to change to preach man's righteousness.
That just comes natural. But he makes a change. And he
preaches it for a while, but he cannot stay with it. He has
to change back. He's a transformer. And you know
why he can't stay with it? because his heart's not there.
He's not being convicted of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
And it goes on to say, whose end shall be according to their
works. You know one thing I know about
us who believe, we don't want our end to be according to our
works, do we? We want to stand in Christ. We'll
go back to 1 John 2 and let me conclude this, What is doing
righteousness? Doing righteousness is a sinner
saved by grace, believing in and abiding in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what it is. That's how
we do righteousness. And I'm gonna show you more of
that next week as we go through the context here. Those who abide
in Christ, they're doing righteousness not by their morality, even though
they ought to be moral people, that's no question. They're doing
righteousness not by acts of obedience that they do, even
though they should be obedient people. They're doing righteousness
by abiding in Christ who is our righteousness. That's what it
is. believing in him, continuing
in him, not letting go, hanging on, as one old preacher said,
hanging on to Christ for dear life. And that's what it is.