Christians Do Whats Right

Well, you— if you haven't already, please make your way in your Bible to 1 John 2. And yes, that song you just sang will be in our passage today, and it might be interesting to you to hear what I have to say about it. I hope it's interesting to hear everything I have to say, but this text requires me to reiterate something you might be sick of hearing. I've said it a lot already, and not only in general as in preaching and teaching, but specifically in the book of 1 John because John is— what I've said already multiple times is the book of 1 John is about, or the theme of it is about whether or not you're a real Christian or the Christianity you believe is real Christianity, true Christianity. So John is delineating between people who say they're Christian and people who actually are Christian. And it's possible for that to be true, that you can say you are and not be one, right? So there's multiple passages with that sort of theme, that sort of operating mindset, which is there are real Christians and there are not real Christians. And like I've said it before a million times, there are saints and there are ain'ts, right?

So in this text, we have another example where it could be mistaken if you don't understand the basic teaching of the relationship between Christians and the law, that this is one of those texts that can turn into potential legalism or the thought that you can only be right with God if you obey the law. So I need to say the thing I said a while back, a few weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago. I need to say the same thing again. So if this sounds repetitive, I'm just going to— maybe I'll say it to you this way. I promise you it needs to be repeated. I would not waste your time by just merely being repetitive. I am repetitive by nature, but this is not just me saying the same thing over and over again. I'm telling you that Christians need to be reminded over and over and over again what I'm about to say, which is that commandment keeping and the law is something very different for Christians than it is to non-Christians or unbelievers. As much as we think we have it in our pocket, as much as we think we understand it, I feel like over— I've talked to people who have been Christian for decades who still need to hear it. And they understood it at one point, but then they need to hear it again.

So I don't mind being repetitive. Hey, you know what? I see those things set up right there that tell me we need to be reminded of simple things over and over again. So make sure we're clear. If you're in this room right now and you don't understand what I'm about to tell you, buckle up and try to understand it. If you are an unbeliever, and by that I mean somebody who does not believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. I don't mean that he is somebody important or anything else. I don't mean that you believe he exists. I mean a believer is somebody who has trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They knew that they did not have any righteousness of their own. They knew that they had offended a holy God. They knew that they were lawbreakers. And so what they did instead of saying, "Well, I will start being a lawkeeper," they said, "Jesus died for me because I couldn't keep the law, so please cover me in the blood of Christ. Cover me in the righteousness of Christ." "Fill me with the Spirit and save me from my sin." That is a Christian, okay?

An unbeliever is somebody who has not done that, somebody who has not been saved. They have not trusted Christ. They are under the wrath of God. They have disobeyed God's law. He is not happy with them. He is angry at their sin, and they are under the judgment of God. There is no hope for that person except to become a Christian, okay? So there's believers who who have trusted Christ, who have put their faith in him. They have said, Jesus' death is for me. Please, God, apply his righteousness to me and take my sin on him and forgive me of all my sin. That's a free gift of God by grace. You cannot earn that. There's no behavior that can get that. There's no morals that can get that. It's free. It has to be a gift so that you don't take any credit for it. If it's a gift, God gets all the credit for it.

On the other side, the unbeliever is somebody that doesn't have that. They have never trusted Christ. They are not right with God. They are still in their sin. Now, I say all that to you because now comes the law. Here's the law of God, the commandments of God. Yes, it's encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, the written moral law of God, but it's all the moral laws of God I'm talking about, all commandments, not just not to kill and the other ones. So there's the law of God. For the unbeliever, that law is an indictment from the judge of heaven and earth that you're guilty. You have broken every law. You're guilty. You're a liar. You're a thief. You've blasphemed God. You're an adulterer. Now, you might not like that, but yes, that's what the Bible says about you. Okay? So if you're not a believer, you haven't had your sins forgiven, you are still in your sins. And those sins are that you broke God's law. Everybody with me?

So that's the unbeliever and the law. But for the believer, the law is a very different thing. The law is the law that you love. It's the law of liberty. I've been set free from my sin, and now the law is just what I know I am supposed to do to make to make God happy. It's not something I have to do to be right with God. It's something I get to do because I am right with God. Okay? That's it. There's two kinds of people. There are people who are under the wrath of God and the law is condemning them, and there are people who are under the grace of God and the law is their happy joy to obey because it makes God smile.

So we're clear, this text is going to say exactly what I just said, but John's going to say it better. He's going to make it really clear. But we need to remember this. We are not moralists. We are not behavioralists. We are not Pharisees. We do not believe that being righteous makes you right with God. We believe that the blood of Christ makes you right with God. But what John is going to tell us here in this text today, again, is that somebody who is made right with God, who has been bought and paid for and is now a son of God, does what's right. Look at the title of the sermon. I almost never say that. I almost never say, "Look at the title of my sermon." But please look at the title of my sermon. Christians Do What's Right. And I could put right in parentheses next to it, no one else does. Got it? Unbelievers do not do what's right. By the way, even if an unbeliever does a thing that is a commandment, that isn't right. It's right that they do it, but it does not give them any points with God. Their righteousness is filthy rags.

So I want to make sure we're clear because we'll get going in a text like this. I don't want you to cheat and look ahead, but if you did right now, you might think, "Uh-oh, I'm in trouble." You might think, "Wait a second, those texts almost sound to me like I'm in trouble if I don't only ever obey God." And the reason they sound like they're saying that is because they are. But you'll see that you're a Christian if you are, and you can do what's right. You don't— it's Christ that makes a Christian. Works prove that you're a Christian.

So with that same introduction I've given to other sermons from the book of 1 John, let's get rolling in our text as we pray and start our time together. Father, it's so clear, we say it over and over again, that we can only be right with you because of your grace. But Father, for some reason, we humans, either it's because we want to take credit for our own actions, or we think we're so bad that you can't save us and we're too bad in our behavior. We just put so much confidence and worth in our works and we forget that to be right with you, you have to save us. And also, Father, we sometimes think that we're saved so we don't have to do anything right. Oh, John clearly spells it out here. Would you help us learn the lessons from John today that we would walk in righteousness because you have made us yours? Sons and daughters, in Jesus' name, amen.

We pick up at verse 28, but before I look at verse 28, look at the last part of verse 27 because it folds in, runs into verse 28. He's talking about the anointing that we get. Yeah, I emphasized last time that Christ is the anointed one, the Messiah, but we also in a special sense are anointed by God to understand the truths of God and to understand that we're set free from our sin. And then he says, "As the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie." and just as it is taught to you, then he says, you will abide in him. That's the last thing said in verse 17. Just as you've been taught, you'll abide in him. You will remain in him. You will abide in the Lord. Now abide is the Greek word meno. The idea is what— meno is a weird thing because we don't usually think of remaining as an active thing that we're doing. Like if I say wait here and I leave, all of us in modern Western English think, well, that means I'm going to sit here and do nothing. But waiting is an actual active thing, whether you believe it or not, right? It doesn't feel active because you're not moving. Remaining is an active thing. Like when you live in your humble abode, are you always doing nothing at your house? No, you live there. So living is the thing. It's an action. So abiding seems like not a lot is happening because there isn't any motion and buildings being built, right? But abiding is an active verb usually. And in this case, The first part is said in verse 27, it's something that's just a fact. You will abide in Him. Fact. If you're His and you understand the anointing and you've been chosen and you understand things and you see the truth and it's not a lie and you understand it, you live in Jesus. You abide in Him. But now it turns into a commandment in verse 28. Look, "And now, little children, abide in Him."

So John doing the little children thing again. I don't need to rehash that, but that's essentially a term of endearment. It's not immature people necessarily. It's not young people necessarily. It's a spiritual father talking to his spiritual children. So there could be very mature theological people that are little children. It doesn't have to do with them being ignorant or anything. It's just that John is being their spiritual dad. That's the idea. And he's saying, "Abide in him." So both are true. If you've been chosen by God and you understand the truth, you do and will abide in Jesus. You'll live in him. You'll remain in him. But now he's saying in commandment form, "Abide in him." In other words, do what you are. Right? Do what you be. I know that's not good grammar, but you are a Christian now. Act like it by abiding in him. And then verse 28 tells you something really important about that. There's a purpose clause. Look at the second half of verse 28: that when he appears, we might have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

So John is saying that you cannot be ashamed, and you and I need to recognize that means it's possible to be ashamed at his coming. If John is telling us that abiding in Him, little children, you must abide in Him, abide in Him, commandment, thou shalt abide in Him. You must abide in Him or you will be ashamed at His coming. I emphasize that because I think a lot of people think that the man upstairs or my friend Jesus and all that, He just, He can't wait to see me. No, He's expecting you to be obedient when He sees you. He's expecting you to abide in Him when He sees you. It is a measurable thing to abide in Him. It's not just a feeling. That you abide in him. And he's gonna tell us in a moment what that looks like with righteousness and other things.

So let me say it. It is possible to be embarrassed when Jesus comes back. It is possible. And it is also possible not to. And we need to be clear, especially as a Bible-believing church, that the thing that makes us unashamed has nothing to do with our emotions. Jesus isn't going to be wonderful when we come back because I feel like he's gonna give me a big hug. No, you have to abide in him to have the confidence. You have to remain with him. You have to obey the commandment to be in Christ and to act like you're in Christ. He's not just coming to give you a high five. And the only people who shouldn't be ashamed are people who are abiding in him and walking in righteousness. There's a lot of people who are excited at his coming, but they shouldn't be. Remember the people who say, "Lord, Lord, we did many wonderful things in your name." People had a lot of confidence. But they were not abiding in Him.

So out of the gate, little children, abide in Christ. Find your home. Be sphered in Christ. Be sphered in Him. Be protected in Him. Be in the bubble of Christ, right? So that you will have confidence when He comes. It's supposed to be an exciting thought that Jesus is coming back. Are you excited about Jesus coming back or not? Are you thinking, oh no, if He comes back, then I don't get to post on social media anymore. Oh, if he comes back, then I don't get to celebrate Christmas. You mean the Christ of Christmas? You would rather have the holiday than the man? He's coming back, and the people who love him are pumped about it. They love the idea. I'm gonna see him again one day, and I'm abiding in him, and I'm following him, I'm serving him. Bring it, to use the modern language. Yes, come, Lord Jesus, quickly, right? They're not thinking that something will be lost if Jesus comes back. They're not ashamed or embarrassed because they're obedient. Lord, you know I'm trying. You know I love you. You know I'm falling over and over again, but I get back up and I look at you again and again. You know I'm trying to lead my family in the Lord. You know I'm trying to grow in my sanctification. So people who are abiding in Christ and close to him and near him are very excited that he's coming back. And there are also people that shouldn't be.

We'll get to that in a moment. Look at verse 29. Now I'm connecting verse 29 and chapter 3, verse 1. If you didn't know, the New Testament wasn't originally written with verses. It wasn't divided up in chapters and verses. And I actually think, it's my personal opinion, this is a flow of thought, that what he says in verse 29 of chapter 2 actually flows into chapter 1 of verse 3. So that's why I'm connecting them because there's father-children language in both, right? So contextually, look at it with me, verse 29, "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him." So I guess I can just ask you first, is— God righteous, and do you know it? Right? That's the first thing he's saying to the little children. If you know he's righteous, then you also have to know that anybody that practices righteousness is clearly, and the important word is, born of him.

Now, I wasn't going to do this. I might keep you an extra few minutes today. Don't hold that against me, okay? I wasn't going to get too caught up in the regeneration doctrine, but I feel like I'm compelled to, to just to take a quick moment. There are people who believe that to be born again It's something that happens after you believe in Jesus. So do me a favor, everybody. Imagine with me, if you will, that this line right here is, is a point in time, a moment in time, okay? At some point, it's somebody's now right here, okay? There are people who believe that you are an unbeliever, unbeliever, unbeliever, unbeliever, unbeliever, unbeliever. Then you believe in Jesus, you ask him to save you, Yes, Jesus, into your heart, or whatever language you want to use. And then after that moment, you are now born again. But correct doctrine is not that. Correct doctrine is you're an unbeliever, you're an unbeliever, you're an unbeliever, you're an unbeliever. He makes you born again and gives you new eyes and new birth. Then you see the kingdom, you see your sinfulness, you see your need for salvation, and then you get saved.

So those are the two fundamental differences. If you want to know, Calvinists believe the last one I just told you, that we believe that being born again happens then immediately, sequentially, I mean, simultaneously. They're logically in different order, but they're chronologically in the same moment. That the moment you are wakened, awakened, and quickened, to use the New Testament language, you're born again. Then you get saved. I want to tell you that because that is a pretty important doctrine to get right. And the reason it's important to get right isn't just so that you can be a Calvinist. I don't care if you're a Calvinist. I care that you understand that to be born again is not your choice, but it's God's choice. That's the important part. That's the important part because you cannot make yourself born once, let alone twice. You didn't choose your first birth, and you can't choose your second birth. This is just logical. Okay? So you don't have to believe that. You don't have to agree with me. But the reason I'm saying is because I think it very much— I don't know— amplifies the meaning of this text.

So again with me, "If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness—" Do you see that? That they practice righteousness. Why do they practice righteousness? Is it to be born of him? Or is it because they are born of him? Do you see what I'm saying? That logic now comes into play here. That if you're born by God, that's why you're practicing righteousness. If He makes you new, then you're new. It's not you're making yourself new by righteousness that makes you new.

Now, continuing on, we just sang this, didn't we? Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. John brings up the world again. He's already told us not to love the world, right? Now he's saying that the world doesn't love us. So we need to be really careful if we're trying really hard to love the world because John's just telling us it doesn't know us. It doesn't care about us. It doesn't love us. Like Paul says that, like he says that about the Judaizers. They're trying to gain all these followers and they don't even care about you. He's telling the Galatians they're trying to court you. They're trying to get you to follow them. They don't even care what happens to you. They don't want anything to do with you. That's the way the world is for you. The world is trying to get you to follow it. I always say that to the younger people. The world wants you to follow it. Follow us, follow us, follow us. And it actually doesn't care anything about you. It just cares about having a lot of followers, right? So watch out for that.

But with that out of the way, what does it say? It says the Father has bestowed love on us. It didn't say we gained love. It didn't say we earned love. It didn't say we're righteous and then he says, oh, now that you're righteous, I will love you. No, it says he gave us love because we were born of him. Those things are related to each other. Or he— we were born of him because he loved us. Either way, it's his doing. That's the emphasis. So how can we sinners, people who have defied God and His law, ever be considered righteous? Did you notice it says the love was bestowed on us? It wasn't earned by us. Did you see it? So it's over and over again emphasizing that the birth part of it, the change part of it, the thing that takes you out of darkness into light, that's all done by Him. But he's emphasizing it. He's saying, behold, notice, the amount of love he's given on us, so much so that we're called children of God. And that's essentially what John's arguing here. There are children of God, and they care about his coming, and they want to abide in him.

So Christians, over and over again, the real thing over and over again is evidence and obvious that you really, really love the Lord, and you know that he really, really, really loves you. So it's pretty basic stuff. It's not really high-level theology. And I know we sing the song, "Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us." He just said, though, flowing out of the previous thought, that whoever practices righteousness understands that he's righteous, right? You know that he's righteous and you're born of him. You know, there isn't an opposite song, right? How would it go? Behold who practice righteousness, if they don't, they're not of him, or something like that. We don't sing that song, right? We don't ever sing the opposites. We have a song about him loving us, but what if we don't love him or him be sure that he loves us. We might find out— there isn't a song about being a child of the devil. Maybe we should be making some hymns so that we can warn people that they can be children of the devil. We'll talk about that in a moment.

So he's given us love. This is all things and stuff that God is doing. The world doesn't know us. We're not supposed to love the world. That's already been said. We're supposed to separate from the world. We're supposed to abide in him, not abide in the world. And now we're seeing He's done everything for us. He's loved us. He's given us rebirth. We're His children now. So children act like children. And to prove that, look what comes next, verse 2 in chapter 3. "Beloved, now we are children of God." That's a statement of fact. We're not becoming children of God. We won't eventually be children of God. We are currently children of God. "And it is not yet," now at this time, at the time of writing, John is saying to his audience, the little children, "It has not yet been revealed what we shall be." 'But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'

That text always has always been tough for me because the grammar is weird in English. It sounds like seeing Him as He is makes us like Him if you look at it grammatically in English. But obviously we know that we are already children of God and we don't yet understand the full meaning of that, the full concept of that. But when we see Him, we're going to know. And why are we going to know? You want to know why you're going to know that he is the Son of God and that he has indeed bestowed love on us and he has indeed made us children of God? Because when you see him, you're going to see him as he is, unveiled, not hindered by sin anymore. The eyes that can't see him, right? With unveiled glory, Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians. At some point, all of the veil, all of the blurriness, all of the obstruction of us being in Adam, even though we're now in Christ, we still have this old sin hanging around, right? All the cloudiness of being on earth in the fallen world. At some point, we're going to see him, Jesus, as he is. Now, when you say that, that doesn't mean a baby in a manger. That doesn't mean a victim on a cross. It means in his exalted glory. We're going to see him. And the only way that we can survive seeing a glorified God is if we're like him. That's the only thing that's going to protect us from being burnt up. So behold what a manner of love, how much love, what kind of love, how big is the love that would make us be able to stand face to face with the Almighty and instead of being burned up or fall over like a dead person or running away like Peter and saying, "Get away from me, Lord," we're going to look him right in the eye and say, "Hello, Jesus. I love you." And he's going to look you right in the eye, me right in the eye, and say, "Johnny, I love you. You tried to argue with me all those years, but I loved you."

Beloved, he says, beloved, my fellow Christians, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, the one who I love, my little children, but the one who God loves, his little children, beloved, we are children of God. I'm going to go Pentecostal right now. Somebody right now say amen to that. We are children of God. It doesn't say we will be. It doesn't say we have to fight to be. It doesn't say we can ever stop being. You are children of God. No question. Zero doubt. Settled by God. He did it. He bestowed love on you. He gave you new birth. You're now His. No shame at His coming. Bring it. Please, I want to see the Lord Jesus. Even in my weakness, I still want to see Him. Even in my weakness, I want Him to come back soon.

What does the author of Hebrews say? "We see Jesus." Ah! I didn't used to think like that, by the way. The person talking to you right now had to grow into that thinking. 'Cause growing up as a Christian and having my background and feeling like garbage my whole life and being told, you know, Mother's Day's coming, I always tell the story that I was told on Mother's Day that I was a waste. So when you are raised like that and you don't understand affirmation and love and that your value as a created being and then your value as a recreated being, and then God says to me, "I love you." That is a revolutionary thought to me. I didn't expect love. I'm not the person that says, "Of course He loves me. Look at me." I've never been that guy. So over the years, the thought that He loves me is amazing. And now the thought that I'm going to see Him, and instead of trembling and thinking, "No, I can't see Him. I can't survive in His sight. I can't look at Him. How can I look at Him? I'll burn up." I'm finally growing up a little bit. It only took me 50-something years. 30 years of being a Christian to say, I want to see him. I don't care if I'm weak anymore. I don't care if I'm broken. I need to see him. I want him to look at me and say, I had you the whole time. It's beautiful. I love it. And I hope you love it too.

And let me go ahead and say it. If you don't love it, there's something wrong. If you don't love it, if you don't love the idea that Jesus Christ could look at you and love you There's something wrong. If that doesn't— I'll say the old redneck way. If that doesn't fire you up, your wood is wet. Please. There's something going on in your heart if that doesn't do something. And I don't mean feelings like your emotions are the most important. I'm not a Mormon telling you to have a burning in the bosom. I mean, if it doesn't matter to you when other things do matter to you, like if the value system you have sees that idea that Jesus might love you, the Father might give you His love, that Jesus appearing is not only not going to bring shame, but you are excited at His coming. If there's not some sort of motivation in you, whatever that looks like, then that might mean you're numb or not saved. It might mean that you've become jaded or desensitized. And I would ask you to yield to the Lord, maybe even ask the Spirit of God to rekindle the fire if you used to have it.

Now, children of God, you're a child of God, and we all said amen to that. So maybe you dug a hole and I accidentally tricked you because you said amen to being a child of God. I say amen to being a child of God. Look at verse 3. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. I don't need to go too deep on that because after everything I've said about God doing everything, you know that I'm not right now saying you do something. Okay? This is essentially John's version of be holy as he is holy. Right? That's in Leviticus. It's reiterated with Peter. And this is essentially John's version of that because the word here for purify is the word to holify. It's just we don't use that word in English, right? If the Bible says, "Be holy," how would you phrase that you did that? Well, you would say, "I holified." But there's just no— you know what's funny is that sounds like a weird word, but for some reason we're okay with "holy day," like holiday. We're okay with that word. But when PJ says "holify," he sounds like a dork. But purify is to holify. That's what it means. It's literally the word to become holy or to set yourself apart.

Now, in this case, the idea is ceremonial. This first idea of, "And everyone who has this hope purifies himself," it really does mean to ceremonially, morally, that idea. It doesn't mean to gain morality, but it does mean you morally commit yourself to God's moral holiness. The idea is that you recognize that if I am going to believe what I said, that I'm a child of God, that he's coming again, and that he's bestowed love on me, if all that's true, and I know I'm a child of God, and I know I'm going to see him one day, I am going to separate myself from the world that doesn't know me or love me. That's the idea, is I'm going to, instead of being a profane person, a common person, a worldly person, instead of trying to fit in down here in the dirt and the muck and the mundane and the non-sanctified, the non-ritual, the non-holy, the non— right? The good holy things of God. Instead of that, I'm going to separate myself to God's things. So God loved me, He made me His child, now I know it, now I'm excited that He's coming, and I'm going to be doing the right thing with my life and separate myself morally, purely, even ceremonially. I'm going to do God's things. I'm going to be active in God's work, and I'm going to be doing His— I'm going to be practicing Christianity when He gets here. That's the idea. And Christianity and all that that entails, the true religion, helping widows, serving the body of Christ, loving the brethren, all the things that God tells us, doing good to the household of faith. All those things that God tells us to do as Christians.

John is saying anybody that knows that separates himself to that work because they want to be caught doing his things when he gets here. They don't want to be surprised. They don't want to be doing something and say, "Oh, Lord, you're here? Oops, I'm sorry, I was busy doing this. I should have been doing your things." You want to be caught doing his things when he comes back.

Now verse 4, "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Now look at verse 6. Whoever abides in him— uh-oh, uh-oh— does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Now I'm not going to undig this hole. I want us to be in the hole, and it's going to get deeper in verse 9. 'Whoever commits sin commits lawlessness.' Why? Why are those two things equated? Because sin, by definition, is breaking God's law. Remember, the unbeliever only has the lawbreaker's relationship to sin. He is an antinomian. He is lawless. And one way to translate that idea is iniquity. That word iniquity means you are against the law. You are not with the law. You are against the law. So I want to make sure we're clear. Sin is not a feeling. Sin isn't making mistakes. Sin isn't only really bad things like murder and other things. Sin is any violation of God's moral law in thought, word, or deed at any level. That's why Jesus does what he does when he says, you know, I know you think murder is only physical, but even hating your brother is murder. Jesus wants to make sure we're clear that it is not only the visible or the big or the bad examples, the worst examples of bad things that make sin. Sin is any violation. It's why the opposite of this true is called the Great Commandments.

So if sin is any violation to any degree of God's moral law in thought, word, or deed, then what is righteousness? What is the greatest commandment? What is commandment keeping? What's the opposite? Loving the Lord your God with everything you are in mind, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Do you see it? So commandment breaking is sin. Commandment keeping is love. It's loving the Lord. If you love him, you keep his commandments. And this text is saying some people break them and some people don't. And you say, "Wait a second, where am I?" And then I say, "You tell me. Where are you?" Are you a commandment breaker or a commandment keeper? Are you feeling some pressure right now? Are you thinking, "Wait a second, I know for sure I still sin. In fact, we gotta go to communion here in a bit. Is it okay to go to communion if we're in sin? Well, hopefully I'll dig us out of the hole in a little bit."

Here is the thing that John needs to address. It's in verse 7 and the verses to follow. So whoever practices sin It's obviously breaking commandments and lawless. And we know that Jesus came to take away our sins. He died so that we could be forgiven of that, right? That's why He came. Verse 5, He came to take away our sins. That's why abiding in Him means we won't abide in sin anymore. We won't love the world or the things of the world. And we don't want to sin. In fact, the text says we don't sin. Verse 7, "Little children, let no one deceive you." Now, John is saying that because people can be deceived on this front. Right? He wouldn't say, "Let no one deceive you," if deception wasn't a danger. He's saying it because it's a danger. "Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous." Now, you don't— note it carefully, please. Keep your thinking cap on. It doesn't say, "He who practices righteousness becomes righteous." They are righteous. That's how you know, because they practice righteousness, right? "Just as He is righteous." He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

John couldn't make it more clear, and evangelicalism couldn't make it more muddy. There, there's people all over the map on this, that the second you say you have to practice righteousness to consider yourself a Christian, people immediately interpret that to mean, "We believe you have to practice righteousness to be a Christian and become a Christian," which is not what we say. We say what John says. It says, "Let no one deceive you." Don't be deceived. Don't follow the lie. It is a lie if you don't understand that whoever practices righteousness is righteous. If you think something other than that, you're a liar, like the devil, right? He's a liar. "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning." Right? Sinner's sin. It's really simple. Sinner's sin.

Now the question is, I'm asking you right now, don't answer, okay? I'm gonna— this is a trick question. I always try to give the trick question warning. Do not answer. Do not answer. But I am gonna ask you, are you a sinner? Don't answer! 'Cause you're gonna wanna say yes to that. But you might find out today that's not the right answer, to say that you're a sinner. Maybe, but don't say you are yet. Because what if you found out you're not supposed to say that? What if you found out that saying that goes against something that's promised by Scripture? And you say, "Well, but the only alternative is to say that I'm perfectly righteous." No, but I am saying it says you have to say you're righteous, because John just said that. I'm not making that up. I'm not a Methodist or a Wesleyan that thinks that we can become perfectly righteous in our life. I'm not saying that. I don't believe in sinless perfectionism. So what is being said here? Well, I already said it. Leviticus and Peter both say, "Be holy as he is holy." John has already said that. He who believes this, or is committed to that, purifies himself just as he is pure. So we're holy as he is holy. And now John is saying, "Be righteous." Why? Because he's righteous. That's what he's saying. He's saying it so clearly. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. So if I said that in a command form, be righteous as he's righteous. Be holy as he's holy.

Those aren't the same, by the way. Being holy and being righteous are not identical. They're not synonyms. Holiness is moral purity. Holiness is without any corruption. Righteousness means you do the right things. You act out the righteous law of God, like not killing someone, like not hating someone, like not stealing. Those are righteous acts. Holiness means that morally, religiously, ceremonially, righteously in the sense of righteous morality, you're right before God. So they're not identical. They're not the same thing, but they're related. Christianity has us being righteous. When was the last time you heard a Christian song about Christians being righteous? Can you think of any? Can you think of any Christian— no, I don't mean here at church because hopefully our hymns are better. But I mean, like, when was the last time you sang a melody that says, "I need to be righteous. I need to do righteousness. I need to do the right thing." That's not the message out there in modern evangelicalism. Even the word holy isn't used correctly in most modern songs. The word holy just means special in modern music. It doesn't mean perfect and pure and having no corruption, no faults, no impurities. So I want to challenge you that maybe there's something going on here, that if the overall— is milieu a word that I'm allowed to use? Am I cool enough to use the word milieu? I won't use it. Just stuff. I'll use stuff. Maybe I'll just— I'll be more what I am, a normal guy.

The normal understanding in Christianity is since we are unable to be perfect and only Jesus is perfect, that saying we should pursue perfection might be violating Christ's perfection. So that's the helpful, healthy way of thinking of those things. But what has happened over the decades of that thinking is now we get to the point of saying, even remotely mentioning any sort of perfection might make someone feel bad. And because you can't do it, the thing we need to do quickly is immediately, right away, don't spend any time talking about how we are impure, unholy, unrighteous. Don't talk about that at all. Get quickly to the idea that everybody is sinful, everybody makes mistakes, and there's forgiveness ready to be given all the time so that we so amplify forgiveness that we might not even understand how much of it we need. So then now that we don't understand how big our need is for forgiveness, the forgiveness itself has now shrunk down to this simple little answer to our simple little problem of every once in a while we make some mistakes and God gives us some help. So that Christianity and the real thing that happens, the fact that we are completely sinful, depraved, unrighteous in every way, impure in every way, have nothing good to offer God, has been shrunk so much. And do you know what that does? When you have a small sin problem, you only need a small Savior. But we have a big Savior, and the reason we have a big Savior is because we have a big problem, that we are very unrighteous. So somebody needs to write some songs about unrighteousness. I'll put that on you. Don't put that on me just because I'm the musician. Somebody needs to write songs that say, "Whoever sins is of the devil." Somebody needs to get it in our collective consciousness as Christians that to sin and to have a life of sin means we are like the devil, not like the Son of God. Instead of saying, "Well, it's okay that we sin because we have forgiveness." instead of making a license for sin, instead of making sin acceptable, instead of saying, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace." This text is not saying you're just a sinner saved by grace. It's saying if you sin, you're of the devil. That's what it's saying. That's what John is saying. And it says if you practice righteousness, then you know you're of him who is righteous, who gave you rebirth, who loved you and bestowed his love on you. Then you can be confident at his coming. Then you know you're like him. So there should be no confidence in you that you are like him, expecting his coming, abiding in him, if there's no righteousness in your life.

Now here's the part where everybody thinks, "There he goes, he's doing it. John, he's doing it. He's doing the Pharisee thing. He's saying we have to be righteous or else." I am saying that. I am saying you have to be righteous or else. Because if you're not righteous, you're of the devil. But I am not saying you have to be righteous to be made right. I'm not saying that. I'm saying your unrighteousness proves you have not been made right. You shouldn't have confidence that you're in the Lord if you don't care about His coming, if you don't abide in Him, if you don't have righteousness, if you sin freely with a clear conscience. You shouldn't have any confidence that you're right with the Lord if you don't care that the Lord died and gave Himself to take away your sin. If you can think of a crucified Savior who's dying for sinners and that doesn't move you to at least desire righteousness, You're broken and lost. I have no shame in telling you that, 'cause I don't wanna give you false confidence. I don't want you leaving here thinking you're all right with God because you feel good. I would much rather tell you, "If you sin, you're of the devil." And there's good news, 'cause you don't have to be of the devil. You can be born of God. You can receive the love of God. You can be a child of God. And if he calls you, you can come.

No one ever says they're friends of the devil. No one ever says that, except the idiots who don't understand that he's real. But nobody who actually understands the devil and the reality of hell and the reality of the violation of God's law, nobody ever says, "I'm actually an ally of the devil." Very few people get saved and then find out that, you know, they were in the lap of the devil, under the sway of the devil, or like Paul says in Ephesians that they were walking after the course of the prince of the power of the age, like they were following him. Very few people It takes a good long time for a Christian to understand when they look back, "Hey, man, I was a friend of the devil back there. I didn't know I was doing his bidding. I didn't know I was on his team. I didn't know I was team Satan." But we have to be told that. And once we do, I think you, Christian in the room, say, "I don't want to be of the devil. I don't want to have any associations with him." That's why we get to verse 9, and verse 9 becomes either the worst news for you or the best news for you. And I hope by the time you leave here today, verse 9 is good news.

So let's read it together, 'cause it says what it says. Oh, before I get to it, I'm gonna get the funny part out of the way, 'cause I don't want the funny part to come after I read it. The ESV does this very wrong. As much as I pick on you ESV people and try to show that my translation isn't getting it right and yours is, in this case, the ESV does very much the NIV thing. The English Standard Version paraphrases this text. It does not translate it. It gets it wrong. 'Cause it puts the negative in the wrong spot. So just let me say that out of the way. The New King James gets it right. And there's only one correction I could make, but then it doesn't sound right in English. So I'll make the correction in a moment, but I want to tell you, my ESV friends, neener neener. The New King James gets this one right.

Verse 9, "Whoever has been born of God does not sin." for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. I'll read it again. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his— God's seed remains in him, and he cannot sin. Because he has been born of God. And you're saying, well, PJ, I need your help because it sounds to me when I read that text, if I just read it at face value in a good translation, it sounds to me like Christians don't sin. But Pastor Jonny, I'm a Christian and I know I sin. This is the part where I wish I would just have a closing prayer and dismiss and just let you go stew in that all day. You say, "Well, that's mean, PJ." No, it isn't. It is not mean for me to want you to stew in that. It is mean for me to help any Christian ever be comfortable making excuses for sin. That would be mean of me. That would be very unloving of me to allow any Christian to be comfortable thinking that all I am is a sinner saved by grace. That is not what you are. If anyone is in Christ, what are they? A new creation. If I ask you, "Are you a sinner?" I think the correct answer is, "I'm not sure how to answer if I am a sinner, but I am sure that my answer is better if I say I am a son." or daughter. That is the better answer.

I always use the example of fishing, and then Doug gets thrown under the bus because he likes to fish. This time I'm going to use my old man. My old man used to have a saying, and I loved it so much because it fits so many things. I've used it countless times in countless discussions. My dad would say, "Anyone can paint. Not everyone's a painter." I could go around the room, I mean poor Walter's at home, he's hurting. I could say anyone can try to do electrical work. Not everyone's an electrician. There's like tons of fires and dead people to prove it. Anyone can work on planes. Not everyone's a plane mechanic. You all with me? You're all following me, right?

Now I'm gonna ask you, do you Do you sin? And I know everything in you, the honest part of you, is saying, "Yes, of course I sin." "PJ, are you expecting me right now to say I don't sin?" Yes, because the text tells me to expect that of you. Here's the difference. I hope that what I tell you right now is revolutionary and you never forget it. I've said it dozens of times. I say it every time I do discipleship, every time. What is your relationship to fishing if you only fish on occasion? What is your relationship to painting if you only paint on occasion? So let's say you have painted your bathroom. Are you a painter? You all understand the answer to that. Everybody gets it. I don't have to explain that to anyone. Maybe the little kids, maybe they understand that. But if I say to you— house paint, by the way, not art paint— if I say to you, you've painted your bathroom, so now that I understand that you painted your bathroom, are you a painter? Everybody in this room knows that when I say a painter, that means somebody who has dedicated their life and makes their living and practices and regularly and adequately and efficiently and as an expert does painting. They know that if I am not that, I don't get the designation painter. That is your now relationship to sin.

You now are related to sin like you are the person who paints their bathroom that isn't a painter. And you might say, "But no, I know how sinful I am. I am way more in touch with sin than that guy that paints his bathroom is with painting a bathroom." No, you're not. You've been taken out of darkness. You've been taken out of the world. You've been taken out of sin and you've been put in Christ. You are now a child of God. You are no longer a slave of sin. You do not ever, ever go back to Egypt, ever. You can never not be a child of God again if he took you out of Adam and put you in Christ. You are identified by Christ. You are a Christian. And it is wrong to say otherwise. And maybe the reason we keep saying otherwise is we want to hold on to that sin. Because if I say it enough that I am only a sinner, only a sinner, I'm only a sinner, I'm only a sinner, then we will love the sin. But what if we say, I have been given the right to be called a son or daughter of God? What if we say, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on me, that right now I am not a child of Satan, I'm not a child of the world, I'm not a slave of Satan, I'm a child of God. That is not proud. That is not arrogant. That is not you saying you're perfect. That is not you saying you'll never sin again. But you can now say, "I sin on occasion, but I live for the Lord." There's nothing wrong with that. That is not Pentecostal. That is not prosperity. It's true. And maybe if we start talking like sons and daughters, we'll stop acting like sinners and people of the devil. Maybe we need to fall in love with the idea of being a son or daughter of God. Instead of saying, "Oh, I really struggle with sin," you would say, "No, I really love the Lord! Why would I ever toy with sin? I'm not of the devil. I hate this stupid world. I hate the things it tries to tempt me. I hate anything that it does that my Savior had to die for. I don't like that my Savior had to die for that. I love my Savior." So this really hurts me when I hear people act like the only thing they can ever do is sin, like they're still slaves of sin. You're not slaves of sin. You're not. If you're a Christian, you're no longer a slave of sin. Believe the gospel. Believe what God can actually do in the gospel. He can actually save people from their sin. And that doesn't just mean after they die. That means now in their life, they can practice righteousness. They can purify themselves. They can live in a way where they abide in Christ and can put off the old man with his lusts. And instead of saying, "I'm only a sinner. That's all I am. Everybody makes mistakes." Saying, I'm a son of God, and yes, I've fallen, and yes, I hurt myself, but man, he keeps loving me. He keeps loving me, and he keeps picking me up, and he's never going to be done with me, and he'll never ever stop being my Father.

And we can get down, can't we? You know how many times I've counseled men, especially with lust and other things? You know how many times I've seen people hopeless and think, I'm not even a Christian. To summarize, we have verse 10. "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest." It's made plain. It's made obvious. "Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother." That last phrase leads us into verse 11. We're not going to today because the next part is about loving your brother. So it's sort of a transition passage. Verse 10 transitions into 11 and all. Pick up there next time. But for now, I would ask really, really simply, plainly— nobody's looking, nobody knows your heart right now. I'm not gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes like they usually do in invitations, but I am asking from the bottom of my heart to the bottom of yours. Nobody's looking, nobody knows your heart. You know your heart. Do you love the Son? Do you want to practice righteousness? Is the thought of holiness, instead of a burden that's taking something away from you, a beautiful reality? If I could be holy, I would. I've asked people that in counseling a lot of times, and usually there's tears associated with it. Look at me in the eye. Do you want to please the Lord? Do you want to make him smile? Is that— is there something in you right now, like if all things were being equal and there was no burdens on you right now and you could do what God wanted and make make him smile, or you would rather go and live for the devil. Which is true? Which of those defines you? Does the devil's wiles, the devil's temptations, the things he's offering, is it so attractive to you that pleasing God is not on your radar, it's not something you care about? Well, it is obvious. It's made manifest. It's plainly seen. You're displayed. It's on display. If you do righteousness, it proves you love righteousness. And it's also true that if you don't, you're not of the Lord.

Now, I'm not talking about an occasional trip trying to go on vacation in Egypt and going back to the old way. I'm talking about your overall direction. To use J. Vernon McGee's language, it's not "perfection," it's "direction." When you fall, And then you get up. Which direction are you facing? Are you headed toward the Lord? Is that what you want? And you might think, man, I keep having trouble getting that direction. I keep having trouble staying on that path. The narrow path is very hard for me. But, but if I could, if I could overcome, if I could overcome my temptation, if I could overcome my distraction, if I could overcome my apathy, if I could overcome those things, if If this crazy old man holding on to me and trying to hold me down, if I could, and I could break through, and I could run toward the Lord, and I could be excited at his coming, that's what I want. There's still hope for you. There's still hope for you. But if you don't care about that, I only have one word. It's the R word, repent. Repent and believe the gospel, because you're not saved if you don't care about that. Don't have any confidence that because you were raised in church or prayed a sinner's prayer when you were 12 years old. Have no confidence in that, or baptized or whatever. Every true believer does righteousness because he loves it. Because his Father that gave him love and made him a child did that for him. And he struggles and he'll bump his head and he'll fall. He might fall 100 times. But he always gets up facing that direction. I'm still heading your way, Lord.

I've told you all this story so many times. I don't mind telling it to you that I— I have always felt small. I've always been looking at my feet. There's actually music— I don't know if you know this— called shoegaze music. Have you ever heard of that genre of music? It's literally called that because it's kind of droney music and the people who play it, you know. I'm a shoegazer, not with the music, but in real life. I look down. I don't want to look up. I'm that person that I'm afraid to look up because I know God's up there and he's bright and he's holy and he's perfect and I'm not. But every time, every time I look up, There he is, right next to me. He's not back there, he's not up there. Every time I look up, he's right next to me. It's as though he's saying, did you think I was ever gonna give up on you, you dork? That's what I would say. You think I'm gonna wash my hands of you? I promised you I would never leave you or forsake you. I promised you that. You think I'm gonna break my promise just because you're down in the mouth? Because you're weak? You think I'm gonna give up on you?

So the idea that I always look up and my King is next to me. This is why I want to see him again. I'm so sick of that dirty, yucky feeling that I don't want to see him. I'm like, okay, Lord, you know, you know I'm vulnerable, I'm naked, I got nothing. But the Lord knows when I'm by myself, the Lord knows when no one's looking, that I love him and I want to see him. I want him glorified. I love righteousness even when I fail at it. So I'm asking you, I'm not telling you to be like me, I'm telling you look at the text. Look at the text. John says, whoever sins, makes a habit of sin, a lifestyle of sin, a practice of sin, who lives in sin is of the devil. Don't be of the devil. Be a son or daughter. And if you're not sure about that, get sure about that. Don't wait and hope that one day you'll figure it out. Don't wait till later. Make a commitment now. I don't know if you know, but his coming is closer now than it's ever been. He'll be here, maybe soon. Be ready. Be ready. Open those arms. Lord, come and get us. You'll do it just right.

Father, thank you for clear passages. They're hard. They're hard because they tell us that when we're in sin, there's a problem. Oh, but they also tell us, Father, there's a solution. We're going into communion now. What a perfect opportunity. To look at the solution, to see Jesus, to— with our sanctified imagination and the desires of our heart being for righteousness and purity, that we would take communion now and think of it in just the right way, that we are people, even with our weaknesses, who are trying to follow you because you have given us a new heart. Help us love righteousness. Help us glorify your Son, even now as we take communion. In Jesus' name, amen.