In Romans chapter 3, verse 10,
Paul said, there is none righteous. No, not one. That's a sweeping statement.
There is none that understands. There is none that seeketh after
God. Not one person has ever sought
the Lord first. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. Now, how am I to understand what
John means when he says in verse 29, if you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness. is born of him. And then he says in verse seven
of the next chapter, little children, let no man deceive you. He that
doeth righteousness is righteous. Even as he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is righteous. I've entitled this message, The
Doing of Righteousness. There's somebody that's doing
righteousness in there. He that doeth righteousness, he's born
of God. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. And let me say right off the
bat that this passage can only be understood in the light of
the two natures that are in the believer. There's no other way
to understand this. You have a nature that you were
born with. It's called Adam's nature, the
sinful nature. And when you were born from above,
you were given a new nature, a holy nature, a righteous nature. Now, I realize this has been
debated for centuries. This has been an object of debate.
People have heard people talk about a believer having two natures
and they make fun of it. How can that be? How can one
man have two separate natures? That's a dichotomy. That doesn't
seem right. Well, let me say this first,
the Bible teaches it. So what else do we need? Whether
anybody agrees with it or not, the Bible teaches it. Galatians
chapter 5 verse 17 says, the flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit lusts against the flesh. And these two, these
two, not this one, these two. How
many different ways are there to take that? Are contrary one
to the other so that you cannot you lack the ability to do what
you would. Listen to this in Romans 7, verses
22 and 23, Paul says, for I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. And you know I delight in the
Ten Commandments, don't you? To put nothing before God. To
never create some kind of idolatrous image that's false regarding
God. To always reverence his name. To always rest. To honor my parents
in all authority. To never kill anyone. To never
kill their character. To never say anything bad about
anybody. To never hate anybody. to never commit sexual sin, to
always tell the truth, do not steal, do not covet. Beautiful, isn't it? I delight
in the law of God after the end of man. I do. Verse 23, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, that mind that delights
in the law of God after the inward man, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Now, that's what
the Bible teaches. The two different natures. The
one given at birth, where I inherited Adam's sinful nature. You ever
wondered why you don't have to teach your children to lie and
be selfish and to be vindictive? I heard somebody say just this
week the reason babies are so weak is because they'd kill you
if they weren't. And you know, there might be
some truth to that. You know it? We have a sinful nature. You
can see that mostly in yourself. A sinful nature that's nothing
but sin. And a believer has a holy nature,
what Paul called the inner man, the new man, the new creation,
that which was not there at his first birth, but God put it there
in his second birth. And the Bible teaches this. So
when people say, well, how could that be? Well, because God's
word says it. That's enough for me. That's enough for me. I don't need anything else. These
two are contrary one to the other. Well, how many? Okay. But secondly, if you have two
natures, you know it. Don't you? You recognize a nature
that loves God. You recognize a nature that delights
in the law of God after the inward man. You recognize a nature that
loves holiness. And you recognize a nature in
you that is nothing but evil. that brings you into captivity
to the law of sin which is in your members. I don't have to
convince any believer of that. You know it's so. And if someone
doesn't recognize this, it's because they only have one nature.
That's the only reason. They only have one nature. And if you have one nature, of
course it's impossible to understand having two natures. Like a blind
man, unable to understand the difference between blue and green
and red and yellow. He can't see. He lacks the ability. If you only have one nature,
of course you can't understand this thing of two natures. I
understand that. But if you have two natures,
you know you have them, don't you? Verse 29 of 1 John chapter 2. Let's begin right here. If you
know that he is righteous. Now hold on for just a moment.
If you know that he is righteous. Did you know that most people
are completely ignorant of that fact? As a matter of fact, every
unbeliever has no understanding of his righteousness. If you
believe in salvation by works, salvation in some way dependent
upon you in any way to any degree, all you prove by that is you're
completely ignorant of his righteousness. If you really knew he was righteous,
you would know salvation by works in any form is completely impossible
for you. You can't measure up to his righteousness.
You can't measure up to his demands, and you know that. You know even
the act of free will. You don't even have that. You
know that. You know you're captive to sin. You know that you can't
make yourself better. You know you can't make yourself
more holy. You cringe at the thought of gaining a higher reward
in heaven at the end because of your works because you know
deep down if anybody doesn't deserve it, you don't. You know
that. So if you believe, if I believe
in salvation by works in any way, all I've proved by that
is I have no understanding of His righteousness. If the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, His perfect obedience before the holy law of God, If
the righteousness of Jesus Christ is not your only righteousness,
your personal righteousness, you are completely ignorant of
the righteousness of God. Because if you had any understanding
of the righteousness of God, you would know that the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness you possess. And it's the only
one you want. If somebody believes that Jesus
Christ paid for everybody's sins. But some of those people's sins
that he paid for, they might wind up in hell anyway because
they don't do what it takes to make what he did work for them.
All they prove by that is they don't really believe God's righteous.
You mean to say that Christ can pay the debt and then I'm going
to have to pay it over again? Well, that's a denial of the righteousness
of God. Do you see how very few people
understand that he is righteous? Listen to this, please. It seems
like I've got more light on this in the last few weeks, to me
anyway, and it's been helpful to me. And I'm probably going
to be saying it some more in the weeks to come. You know the
way I get. I get on something and I stay on it for a while.
Well, I'm probably going to stay on this for a while. Lynn says, don't
do that. But I'm going to do it anyway. Lynn, you can forgive
me for it. If you believe that Christ was the innocent
being punished in the guilty's place. If you believe Christ
was the innocent being punished, that the guilty might go free.
Now let me stop there and explain what I'm talking about. Christ
never sinned. Christ never sinned, but when
my sin became his sin, it became his sin. So that he was guilty
of that sin. And when he was dying, it's hard
to say this, but it's so. When he was dying, he was dying,
not for Todd's sins, but his own sins. And only that is just. Matt, if I'm punished, for your
sins. Is there anything just about
that? Nothing. Nothing. My sins so truly became
his sin that he was being punished for his sin. That is what righteousness
is. God is absolutely righteous. And not many people have any
understanding or belief at all that God is really righteous
or they wouldn't believe the things they do. If you know that
he is righteous, now I know this, if you know that he is righteous, the only righteousness you have
is Jesus Christ. Amen. That's the only righteousness
you have. And if you have anything other
than that, if you have anything other than Christ alone, you
don't understand the righteousness of God. But if you know that he is righteous,
look what he says next. If you know that he is righteous, and before we go on, what is
meant by being righteous? What is this word righteousness?
How would God's word define that word? Righteous or righteousness? Righteousness is sinlessness. That's the best definition of
righteousness there is. Righteousness is sinlessness. If you're righteous, that means
you're sinless. Psalm 11 5, the righteous Lord
loveth righteousness. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Deuteronomy 32, 4. He is the
rock. His work is perfect. All his
ways are judgment, a God of truth. And without iniquity, just and
right is he. Now, when you're talking about
righteousness, you say, well, that can only describe God. Yes. Absolutely. That's why David
said in Psalm 71 verse 16, I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine. What's the next word? Only. His righteousness, his sinlessness
is the only righteousness there is. And if you and I are righteous
people, it will be because his righteousness has been imputed
to us. Now before I go on, what does
imputation mean? Now this is one of the benefits
I got from being around Clay this week. He gave me this definition
and I thought this is the best definition I've ever heard. Imputation
is imputing to a man what he has been made by a prior act. Imputation is imputing to a man
what he has been made by a prior act. Now that's really simple.
If you're sinful, I don't just up and arbitrarily say, you're
not sinful anymore. I'm going to be righteousness
to you. Didn't work that way. God doesn't work that way. If
you're righteous, God doesn't just say, well, I'm going to
impute sin to you even though you're righteous. No imputation is imputing
to a man what he has been made by a prior act When God imputes
righteousness to me, it's because I was made righteous. And he
says, you're righteous. He counts me righteous. He imputes
me righteous. He doesn't just arbitrarily do
it. He makes me righteous and then imputes righteousness to
me. You know, when sin was imputed to Christ, for one thing, the
Bible never says that. It says he was made sin. He was
made sin. and God imputed sin to him because
that's what was there. He was made that by a prior act. Now that helps me in understanding
this thing of imputation. It's not just You're not sinful
anymore. I'm going to count you as righteous.
No, it doesn't work that way at all. Your sin is paid for.
There's nothing to impute sin. If you're righteous, it's because
you're perfect in God's sight as well as you're sinless. It's
because you don't have any sin to have imputed to you because
Christ bore it and put it away. That's how a sinner is made righteous. That's the glory of the gospel.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 4. Verse 6, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness. without work, saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. And if the Lord doesn't impute
sin to you, you know why? There's no sin to impute to you.
That's why He doesn't impute it. There's nothing there to
impute. Christ put it away by that prior act. Now, the doing
of righteousness is impossible for the natural man who has not
been born of God. It's just impossible. There is
none righteous, no, not one. The natural man cannot do righteousness
any more than he can create the universe. Look in 1 John 3, once
again, verse 9. You see, this doing of righteousness
has something to do with this. 1 John 3, verse 9. Whosoever is born of God, and
everybody's born of God. This is talking about those people
who've been born again, born from above. birthed from above. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Somebody says, well, that means
he doesn't practice sin. Or sin is not the tenor of his life.
How do you fit in that? How do you fit in that? Well,
sin's not the tenor of my life. Oh, oh, really? Nobody believes
that. I don't practice sin. Well, you just practiced it when
you said that. That is just what does he say? Whosoever is born
of God does not commit sin. He doesn't commit it at all for. His seed. Remaineth in him the
seed of God that which was born of God and he what's that next
word? Cannot. He lacks the ability
to sin. Can God sin? No. Nor can that which is born of
God. He cannot sin. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Turn to 1 Peter, you're there
in 1 John, turn to 1 Peter, chapter three for a moment. Peter is telling the wives how
to subject themselves to her husband and he says, but let
it be in verse four, but let this be in the hidden man of
the heart. That's that new man. He's called
the hidden man. I like that, don't you? The hidden
man. I can't see him, never have seen him. Never have seen him. Well, he was wholly there. No,
he's hidden. I can't, I can't see him. You
see, you always have a mixture of evil and the new man. Those same two natures are dwelling
in that same man. So he's hidden. He's the hidden
man of the heart in which is, look at this, not corruptible. not even subject to corruption. Even the ornament of a meek and
a quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1 John 5 verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that's begotten of God keepeth himself.
and the wicked one toucheth him not. Paul said, I delight in the law
of God after the inner man, the hidden man, the inner man, the
new man, the new creature that does not sin. And when you do
sin, You can say with Paul, and this is not an excuse for sin
in any way. This is not saying sin is okay.
It's just the old nature. There's nothing you can do about
it. Know these things I write unto you that you sin not. Every
one of us ought to make this as our objective to never sin
ever again. But when you do, Paul said, it
was not I, it was him. That's what he's saying. It wasn't
me. It was him. The sin that remaineth in me. The sin that dwelleth in me.
It's the new man, the holy nature that does not sin. Somebody says, but I see so much
sin. It's the new man who sees it. You wouldn't see that if
you didn't have a new man. It's the new man that sees and
owns the sins of the old man. Now, the gospel of God is about
how the righteous God can make a sinner righteous. Now, how do you do that? Make
a sinner righteous? How can a sinner be righteous?
Well, that publican gives us some idea of the reality of it.
When he cried, God be merciful to me, the sinner, that's all
he said about himself. God be merciful to me, the sinner. The worst man to ever live. That's how he felt about himself. And what did the Lord say about
this man? He said, I say unto you that this man went down to
his house justified. Justified means absolutely righteous,
sinless, without guilt, altogether made righteous, rather than the
other. So we see it happens. Turn with
me for a moment to 2 Peter. Verse 6, and turning the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow,
making them an example unto those that afterwards should live ungodly,
and delivered just Lot. That word just is the same word
as righteous. He delivered righteous Lot. Now, wait a minute. Lot,
righteous? I can show you where he was a
very worldly man and pitched his tent towards Sodom. I can
tell you where he lingered in Sodom when God told him to get
out and would have stayed there if the angels didn't yank him
out of the hand. I could show you all kinds of other evil things
about Lot. And if we didn't have this New
Testament account, I dare say every one of us would say that
Lot was not saved. That would be our estimation
of Lot. But look at God's estimation
of Lot. He delivered just Lot, righteous
Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous
man. Dwelling among them and seeing
and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds. Now this is God's testimony of
Lot. He called him a just man, a righteous man with a righteous
soul. You see, this thing of righteousness,
being imputed is not merely some legal declaration, but it's not
so in our experience. It's not that. I think of Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 4. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than gain by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. Not that the righteousness of
Christ was imputed to him but that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts. The blood of the Lamb made him
righteous and he being dead yet speaketh. So this thing of having
righteousness is not just a legal term where we have a legal forensic
righteousness before God, but really we're still sinful. Well,
we are still sinful. There's no doubt about that.
The old man is still sinful, but the new man is holy and righteous. It's a righteous soul. A righteous soul. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
6. Verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil nonstop. continually. Now, the big question
is, does that include Noah? Does that include Noah? Absolutely, that includes Noah.
That includes me and you too. That's what God sees apart from
Christ when he sees into our heart. Verse eight, but Noah
found grace. in the eyes of the Lord. That's
the difference. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Verse nine, these are the generations
of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations. And Noah walked with God. Look
in chapter seven, verse one. And the Lord said unto Noah,
come down all thy house into the ark for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation. Now, what exactly does that look
like? It looks like this. Holy and
unblameable and unapprovable in God's sight. That's what it looks like. Holy,
Colossians 1.22, holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. Now, what does this thing of
doing righteousness look like? If you know that he is righteousness,
everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. But no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. Now, what is this? Does this
doing of righteousness look like? Well. You read the Bible. And you get up earlier to have
a time of devotion. You read the Bible. and you pray
and you seek to pray longer and longer, maybe the first week,
15 minutes, and the second week, 16, add a minute each week, till
finally you get up to two hours a day. That'd be a good thing,
wouldn't it? What does this thing of righteousness
look like? Well, seeking to suppress sin,
trying to keep from sinning. and doing what is right. That
is the doing of righteousness, witnessing and seeking to maintain
a good testimony. That's the doing of righteousness.
Make sure everybody can see Christ in you and show, is that the
doing of righteousness? There's a problem with that. A lost man can do all that and
quite often does. The doing of righteousness, first
of all, you have to be righteous to do righteousness, don't you?
Just like you have to be holy. You have to be righteous to do
righteousness. The doing of righteousness is
anything done by the new nature. That's the doing of righteousness.
anything done by the new nature. It really is that simple. That
new nature can't do anything but righteousness, can it? The
old man can't do anything but sin. The new man can't do anything
but righteousness. This is the righteous soul of
Lot being vexed by the filthy conversation of the wicked. Now,
somebody says, I can't see. I can't see this righteous nature
in me. Well, if you could see it, it
would be false. Now let me repeat that. If you
could see it, it'd be false. Remember when the Lord commended
those people on judgment day and said, I was hungry and you
gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was sick and you came and visited me in prison and
so on. When did we do these things? We're completely unaware of it.
We didn't know. And I think what that represents
more than anything else is the preaching of the gospel. You
know, when you preach the gospel, you feed the hungry, you visit
the sick, don't you? You do all those things that
are mentioned in the preaching. You identify with the message
of the gospel. We're here identifying with this message. We're feeding
the hungry. It's not talking about building hospitals and
soup kitchens. All those things are good, fine,
I'm glad, you know, but there's a spiritual application to this.
And if you think you've done good, you missed it altogether. They were unaware of doing these
things. Now, when you're born of God,
that means you're poor. This is the new man that is righteous,
poor. mourns over sin. It's meek before
God. It hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. It's merciful. It's pure in heart. It's a peacemaker, persecuted
for righteousness' sake. This doing of righteousness has
something to do with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
against such there is no law. And let me tell you something
about this doing of righteous. If you're a righteous man, that
means you don't need law. I love that scripture in 1 Timothy 1.8
where it says, knowing that the law is good if a man use it lawfully,
knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient. for the ungodly, for sinners,
for profane, on down the line. If you need law, all that means
is you're nothing but flesh. This new man, this righteous
man does not need law. I love that. It's the result
of being born of God. Now in closing, I want us to
look at a few scriptures about this thing of being born of God.
Turn to John chapter one. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness, and like I said,
the doing of righteousness, I'm not gonna give you a list of
things to do, this is the actions of the new nature. That's the
doing of righteousness, it's the actions of the new, you know
when you're poor in spirit, that's the doing of righteousness. When
you mourn over your sin, that's the doing of righteousness. When
you're meek before God, meek before his providence, and you
say whatever he does is right, that's the doing of righteousness.
When you hunger and thirst for a righteousness you can't produce,
that's the doing of righteousness. That's the actions of the new
nature. That's what the doing of righteousness is. Well, I
read the Bible, I pray, I witness, I try to do this, and I stop.
No, that's not the doing of righteousness. I'm sorry. Doing a righteousness
is the actions of the new nature. Now in John chapter one, I'm
going to read several scriptures without making much comment on
them. Verse 12, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them which believe on his name, which were born. They were
birthed, this is a supernatural thing, birthed by the Spirit
of God, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. Look at John chapter three. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said, Verily
I say unto you, except a man be born again, born from above,
he can't see the kingdom of God. I can talk about the things of
God and you can't see it or understand it unless you're born of God.
It's just going to be a foreign language to you. You have no
idea what I'm talking about. Verse four, Nicodemus saith unto him,
how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he can't enter into the kingdom of God. You can't
enter unless you're born again. Verse six. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again.
It's a sovereign work of God. The wind blows where it wills.
You hear the sound thereof. You can't tell whence it cometh
and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the spirit. Turn to Galatians chapter four. Verse 23. Verse 22, for it's written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by bondmaid, the other by free
woman, but he who was of the bondwoman was born after the
flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Now we have these
two men, Ishmael and Isaac, one was born after the flesh, it
wasn't anything supernatural. The other was born of the Spirit,
born by the promise. Sarah had already gone through
menopause. This was a miraculous birth. This is the work of God. Look in verse 29 of the same
chapter. But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now. It was that way then, it's that
way now. Those who are born after the
flesh will never love or recognize those who are born of the Spirit.
It's kind of like where John said, beloved now we're the sons
of God, and therefore the world knows us not. I want people to
see Christ in me. That's crazy, they can't do it.
There's no way they could do it. They don't recognize it. They didn't recognize him, the
world knew him not, and the world's not gonna know me or you either.
That's just the way it is. Look in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 23, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And here's that word
of God, all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower
thereof falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Look in 1 John 3, verse 9, I've already read this. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin. He lacks the ability to sin because
he's born of God. 1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. Everybody that loves God, everybody
that loves his people, they're born of God and known of God. Look in 1 John 5 verse 1. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Now, before you go and read it,
do you believe he's the Christ? Do you believe he's God's word,
God's prophet, the very word of God brought to us? Do you
believe that he's God's priest, that God has provided, who must
be successful if he brings you to himself? If he brings you to God, you're
brought to God. Do you believe that? Do you believe
he's God's king, ruling and reigning, controlling everything, and you
need him as his king to cause you to believe and to repent?
Do you believe he's the Christ? And look what it says next. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Take that for what it says. Rejoice
in that. Believe that. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth
him that begat loveth him also that is forgotten of him. Look
in verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe he's the eternal
son of God. That's the victory that overcomes
the world. That is the result of being born of God. These things are impossible to
the flesh. Verse 18 of chapter 5, we know
that whatsoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that's begotten
of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not. What is the evidence you're kept
by God? You keep yourself. That's the evidence. If you keep
yourself, the only reason you keep yourself is because you're
kept of God. And if you're kept of God, you'll dead sure keep
yourself. You will. That's the way it always
is. Now, if you know that he is righteous,
you know that? You believe God is righteous,
that Christ is righteous? Absolutely. If you know that
he is righteous, you know everyone that do with righteousness. That's
the actions of a righteous nature, the new nature, the holy nature
that does not commit sin. That's love to God, that's love
to his people. Everyone that doeth righteousness, there's
one reason that they do righteousness. They're born of him. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would take
these words and bless them to our understanding, to our hearts,
cause them to be used to cause us to cleave to Christ all the
more. Lord, we know you're righteous.
And Lord, because we know your righteousness, we look to no
other righteousness than the righteousness of your son. And
Lord, we ask that by your grace, by that new man
in us, there might be truly the doing of righteousness. I bless
this message for the Lord's sake, in his name we pray, amen.