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 gonna start a
series of messages that I'm going to preach from the book of 1
John in the New Testament. John wrote three epistles, three
letters, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. This one will be from 1 John,
and I'm gonna major on a verse in chapter two of 1 John, chapter
two, verse 29. And the title of this series
is The Doing of Righteousness. This is part one, and I'm just
going to preach through some of these verses. I want to show
you the context. I want you to study the scriptures.
That's what we're all about, studying the Bible. And so I
want to talk about this concept of the doing of righteousness. This is 1st John chapter 2 and
verse 29, if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles. And this
passage here, verse 29 says, if you know that He is righteous,
then you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of
him." Now what a verse that is. That's an amazing thing to say.
If you know that he is righteousness. First of all, who is the first
he there? If you know that he is righteous. Well John had already established
that back in chapter two when he spoke of Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the advocate of his people. In other words,
he stands as the surety and the representative and the substitute
to advocate for his people, to plead his merits for his people. And he says in 1 John chapter
2 and verse 1, he says, My little children, these things write
I unto you, that you sin not, and if any man sin, And now that
phrase there can be misleading in the sense that people take
it wrong. It's not just in case you sin, it's because you do
sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
The righteous one. And so back here in 1 John 2,
29 now. He says, if you know that He is righteous, that's
Christ. And Christ, as He is the fullness
of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in Him, in Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So if you
know that God is righteous and Christ is the God-man, And so
if you know that God is righteous, then you also, if you really
know this, now, understand that when it says, if you know these
things, it means you know the reality of it. And you know,
a lot of people may say, well, we know some things, but we just
don't know the essence of it, the reality of it. You say, well,
I know God is righteous. Well, if you really know that
God is righteous, John is writing here, he says, and he's writing
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, you know that everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of him. So if you know that he,
God, is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness. Now what is it to do righteousness?
If you do righteousness, That means you've been born again
by the Spirit, is born of Him, that's the new birth that it's
talking about. Remember Christ in John chapter
three, in verse three in speaking to Nicodemus, he said, you must
be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. And of
course he's talking there about spiritual sight. You know, the
Bible says that in order for a person to receive Christ, and
this is written in the book of John, chapter one, verses 12
and 13, for a person to receive Christ, you know, people talk
about receiving him as your Lord and Savior. Well, for a person
to truly, savingly do that, he must first be born again from
above, born of God. Because unless you're born again,
you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You can't see the reality
of Christ. You say, well, I'm a sinner.
Well, unless you're born again, you don't really understand the
reality and the depth of your sinfulness and your depravity
and your need of grace. God has to give spiritual eyes
to see these things. God has to give spiritual ears
to hear these things savingly a new heart the Bible calls it
a new spirit that means new life spiritual life you see we're
born by nature having fallen in Adam we are born because we
fell in Adam ruined by the fall as a result of that we are born
naturally but not naturally into spiritual death Spiritually dead. That's what the scripture says.
Now, what is spiritual death? Well, it's the absence of spiritual
life. We have physical life, we have
minds, we have affections, we have wills, we have a conscience,
but we don't have spiritual life. And so, how do we know if we
have spiritual life? How do we know we've been born
again by the Spirit? We do righteousness. Now I'm gonna tell you what doing
righteousness is. And then I'm gonna spend the
rest of this program and some other programs showing you, proving
that from the context of the Bible. That means everything.
Context is everything here. What's he talking about? Well,
doing righteousness. Now, doing righteousness here
in this context refers to a sinner saved by grace not by his works
now, but a sinner saved by grace, believing in and clinging to,
holding on to, the Lord Jesus Christ as his only righteousness
before God. That's what John is talking about.
It's a sinner who's been born again by the Spirit, who has
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has repented of his dead
works, thinking that anything but the obedience unto death,
the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, his
righteousness imputed, could save me or recommend me unto
God or justify me before God. He's repented of all that and
he clings to Christ. And by the grace and power of
God, he will not let go. That's what doing righteousness
is here. And that's the main evidence
of a sinner having been born again of God. How do I know I've
been born again? Well, the Bible gives us several
things. But the first and foremost is we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, repent of our dead works, our own supposed righteousness,
which we've come to find out is not righteousness at all.
and we cling to Him, we stay with Him, and we will not let
go, not because of our power or our goodness or our determination,
but because of the power of God. The reason a sinner who's been
born again will not let go of Christ is because God will not
let go of him. That's what Christ said in John
chapter 10, no one shall pluck them out of my Father's hand.
He's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. So the doing of righteousness, again now, refers to a sinner
saved by grace through the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. And
that sinner believing in and clinging to Christ as his only
righteousness before God. Now I'm gonna show, I'm gonna
back that up. with the scripture in the context
that John is speaking of here. But let me spend this program
just laying the foundation, which I've already started doing. First
of all, this concept of righteousness is something that so many people
are confused about today, even those who claim to be Christian.
You know, the concepts of sin and the concept of righteousness. are things that most people really
don't know the reality of according to the Bible. What is sin? Most people think of sin as immorality. And, of course, immorality is
sin. There's no argument there. Should
Christians be moral people? Obviously, yes. Everyone who
is a Christian who believes in Christ should follow Christ and
strive to follow Christ in their character, in their conduct,
in their attitude. The Bible says that we should
love God with all our heart, soul, mind, purpose. We should love our neighbor as
ourself. We should be responsible citizens.
All of that's true. There's no doubt about that.
The Bible is full of exhortations. for believers to be moral, moral
people, responsible people. All of that is true. So there's
no question about that. But what does the Bible teach
about sin? Well, in the Bible, sin, there's
many words that describe sin in the Bible. But the most common
word you find in the New Testament, for example, in verses like Romans
3 and verse 23, that you probably quoted, I quote all the time,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That word
there means to miss the mark. It means to fall short. It means
to not measure up. Another word for sin, iniquity,
doesn't equal out, it doesn't measure up. That's what it is. And so, sin is missing the mark. Well, what is the mark? Well,
he says in Romans 3, 23, it's the glory of God. Now, in the
Bible, what is the glory of God? The glory of God is His nature. The glory of God is His perfection. His holiness. And the only way
that we can see the reality of God's glory is by looking to,
resting in, believing in, clinging to Jesus Christ who is the glory
of God. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
6 tells us that the God who made light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God." Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. That is, in His person and in
His work. So if you want to find the glory
of God, look to Christ. The old Jewish writers used to
talk about the Shekinah glory. You might have heard that term,
the Shekinah, which had to do with the presence of God. Under
the old covenant, the Shekinah dwelt in the tabernacle and in
the temple where the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat were.
And what that was, that was the greatest revelation of God that
could be found on earth. And of course, all of that was
a picture and a type of salvation by God's grace through Christ.
The Mercy Seat, who is our mercy? If we're a Christian, who is
our Mercy Seat? Christ is. Christ is my mercy
seat. Well, where does the glory of
God reside today? It resides in the face of Jesus
Christ. In Christ, you see. So here's
my point. If you want to understand the
reality of sin, you have to look to Jesus Christ. His obedient
life. His death on the cross. And that's
the mark. And what it tells us is this,
that unless we measure up to Christ in every way in the perfection
of righteousness, which is Christ, we fall short, we miss the mark.
And in God's eyes, it's sin. Now what that tells us is this,
there's no way that any of us can be good enough, moral enough,
to measure up in ourselves, work our way up to righteousness. And that's where we come to the
concept of righteousness. How good do I have to be to be
saved? How good do I have to be to live
eternally with God? Well, what is righteousness?
Sin is missing the mark. Falling short of righteousness.
Somebody might say, well, I know I don't make it perfectly, but
I'm closer than some. Close is not good enough. You see, in order to be saved,
in order to live eternally with God, you must have a righteousness
that equals the demands of God's law and justice and that's what
righteousness is it is the perfection of God's law and justice and the only way that a sinner
can find such a perfection is to look to rest in cling to Jesus
Christ the Lord our righteousness the Bible says that Christ, this
is Romans 10 and verse 4, Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment,
the perfection, the completion of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Believe in Him. All who do not
believe in Him are going about trying to establish a righteousness
of their own. and in reality they're not doing
righteousness, they're sinning with a high hand. It's unbelief. How good must I be? I must be
as good as Christ. The Bible says in Acts 17 and
verse 31, that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
men in righteousness. He will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he has ordained in that he has given assurance
unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead. Do I measure
up in anything I think, say, and do to the perfection that
can only be found in Jesus Christ? And the answer is no. Well, that's
where the gospel comes in. The gospel is good news. I've
got good news for you. Here's the point. Here's the
problem. God is righteous and we're not. God cannot accept,
bless, receive, or have anything to do in blessing or fellowship
with anyone who is less than righteous. But here's the good
news. And among men there's none righteous,
no, not one, Romans chapter three and verse 10. So here's the good
news, the gospel. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God and the salvation to everyone that believeth. to the Jew first
and the Greek also. And here's verse 17, here's the
good news, folks. For therein, in that gospel,
in that good news, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just or the justified shall live
by faith. Doing righteousness is the justified,
those who have been declared not guilty, and who have been
declared righteous by God, not because of their works, but because
of His grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness
imputed to them, they're living by faith. They're living looking
to Christ. And that's what it's all about.
Jesus Christ, the Lord, my righteousness. Jeremiah called Him that twice.
The Lord, our righteousness. That's Jehovah Sid Canoe. That concept was laid down, you
see. Clinging to Christ, going to
Christ, believing in Christ as the Lord our righteousness. You
see, it's not my believing that makes me righteous, it's Christ. He's who I believe. So, when
you look at 1 John 2.29, Look at it again, if you know that
he is righteous, well I know that, do you know that? Christ
is righteous. And my friend, he's the only
one. He's the only one born into this world. God in human flesh,
Emmanuel, God with us, who can be called righteous based upon
his character and his conduct. Nobody else can be called that.
You may be a moral person, And I hope you are. And I hope I'm
a moral person. But I cannot say that my morality
is my righteousness before God. Christ is my righteousness. Righteousness
comes through Him by the grace of God. Romans 5, 21, that as
sin hath reign unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, it's not by us, it's
by Him. So that's the basic concept of
the whole Bible. That's what grace is all about.
You know, a lot of people claim salvation by grace, but they
don't know the reality and the truth of grace as it's written
in the Bible, revealed in the Bible. Grace to many is God helping
them to help themselves. Grace to many is God just making
salvation available if you want it. Well, here's the problem.
Nobody by nature wants it. God's way now. We want it our
way, but not God's way. And if we do want it God's way,
what does that tell us? We've been born again by the
Spirit. God's way is the way of righteousness by Christ as
the surety and substitute of His people. Second Corinthians
521 speaks of it. For God made him to be sin for
us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Christ had the debt, that's another
word for sin in the Bible, debt, because sin rings up a debt.
The debt of the sins of God's people, his elect, his church,
all who come to believe on him was imputed, charged, accounted
to Christ, and he died. He went under the wrath of his
father and died that death that we deserved and have earned.
And in exchange, we get his righteousness. We who believe get his righteousness
charged to us, imputed to us. And that's what righteousness
is. So John writes again in verse 29 of 1 John 10, if you know
that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is born of him. Now, if you're born of God, you
do righteousness, not by your efforts to obey. No, because
your efforts to obey still fall short of perfection. We sing
a hymn at our church. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Paul wrote about it in Romans
7, when he talked about his inability, even as a saved person, to keep
the law perfectly. We're to strive, believers are
to strive, to keep God's word. to follow Christ, to be like
Him in our character and conduct. But while we're on this earth,
in this physical flesh, we have a warfare with the flesh, the
sin within us, and it contaminates everything we do so that we cannot
yet, cannot yet call ourselves perfect, righteous in ourselves. We look to Christ. Our righteousness,
as one old writer said, resides in glory. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ, Jesus Christ the righteous. So doing righteousness is a born-again
person, a sinner saved by grace, not looking to himself to be
righteous, not looking to his works and efforts to make himself
righteous, but one looking to Christ, clinging to Christ, believing
in Christ for all righteousness. Now that's what the context of
1 John chapter 2 and in the coming message. We'll start in just
a minute, but in the coming messages that's what I want to show you.
But one of the things that you need to see about this passage
Look back up in verse 26 of 1 John 2. He says, these things have
I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. Seduction. Now what's he talking
about? He's talking about a religious
seduction. And what it is, and this has
happened in just about every generation of the true church,
whenever God's people are gathered together in the assembly of the
church or the churches. And I'm not talking about denominations
here because denominationalism is of the devil. But those who
gather together under the true gospel, it never fails that Satan
and his ministers seek to infiltrate stealthily into the body of Christ
and seduce people away from what Paul called, for example, in
2 Corinthians 11, the simplicity that is in Christ. That simplicity
is their single look, their single faith in Christ alone. He is my all and in all. My sins are forgiven because
I'm washed in the blood of Christ. My, I'm justified before God
because of His righteousness imputed. It's all Christ. He
is my life. And when false preachers try
to seduce you away from that, what are they trying to do? They're
trying to get you away from the gospel. And corrupt, and they're
deceived themselves. And that's who John is talking
about. Well, in 1 John, It seems that many who profess to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who claim to have faith in Him, who
claim to be saved by grace, were being drawn away by these false
preachers who seduced them away. What does that mean? Did they
lose their salvation? The answer is no. And that's
what we'll deal with next time. No, they didn't lose their salvation.
They just revealed what they were all along. They were false
professors who had never been born again. Because those who
do with righteousness, they're born of God. 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.