WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 We read together from that section and first John the end of two into chapter three. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:16.760 And these twelve verses, they need three sermons because every single clause, every single word 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:20.679 really in this section is so rich, there's so much there. 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:25.280 But we're only going to do one today, not three, just one sermon this morning. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:30.960 And this is John writing this letter, first John, it's probably at the very end of John's life. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:36.079 He's probably the very last apostle living when he writes these words. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:41.640 And at the very beginning of the letter, he had said in the last days of the apostles, 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:48.000 the most important thing that you can know is that the meaning of life is to know God, 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:53.600 to have fellowship with the living God above all else, to have a relationship. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:59.439 And he said to us already that if you have that, if you know God, if you have fellowship with God, 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:09.040 that you can know joy in the midst of hardship, you can know hope when you face death, and we all will. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:14.879 And you can even have meaning today in the midst of such a fractured world. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:17.200 And that knowing God gives you all of those things. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:21.359 And the second big thing he's told us so far is that if you know God, 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:29.439 you can also have assurance that you know God, that you can actually know that you do indeed know God, 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:31.760 that you can be sure and confident in that. 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:35.359 And he's told us that in so many different ways that that's possible, 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:38.640 and that's really what this passage again is about. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:43.280 It's about knowing God and having assurance that you know God. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:48.159 And the big idea here is that he's telling us that if you do know God, 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:52.159 there ought to be transformation in your life. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:58.879 That if you have real fellowship with the living God, that that should create change, 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:02.399 moral change, ethical change in the way that you live your life. 00:02:02.399 --> 00:02:04.799 And he says that repeatedly over and over again. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:13.519 You can see it if you just look down at verse 29, he says that if you know, if you've been born again, 00:02:13.519 --> 00:02:17.359 if you're a child of God, then there should be righteousness. 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:21.280 He says if you know the God who is righteous, then you should manifest a life of righteousness. 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:26.880 And then if you see down in chapter 3, verse 9, he says that when we're born of God, 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:29.120 we no longer make a practice of sinning. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:35.760 And so John is telling us here that part of our assurance of knowing that we know God is 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:41.520 transformation in our lives, that the gospel brings transformation in the way we live. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:45.120 Now, he says it even more specifically than that. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:50.240 It's not just moral change, but the word that John wants to use to describe that is he says 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:53.599 there should be in our lives, quote, righteousness. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:03.120 And that word shows up either explicitly or implicitly 13 times in these 12 verses, righteousness. 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:08.640 And that means we've got to think carefully about what he means by righteousness. 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:16.239 And the reason or the way of understanding this, we've got to ask why should we be righteous 00:03:16.239 --> 00:03:17.359 and how can we be? 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:19.279 That's what he's getting at here. 00:03:19.279 --> 00:03:20.719 And so here's the three things we need to see. 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.519 First, we need to be righteous. 00:03:23.519 --> 00:03:28.239 We need to know what righteousness is first because we shall see him as he is. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:34.560 Secondly, because we will either stand or shrink when we see him. 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.479 And third, he tells us then how to get it, how to get righteousness. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:40.479 So let's look at those three things. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:45.520 First, he tells us about righteousness and he says we need to know righteousness because 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:47.599 we will see him as he is. 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:53.840 Now, you can see in chapter three verse two, this is one of the most famous moments in the 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:58.480 Bible where we're told that one day we will see God. 00:03:58.480 --> 00:04:04.000 You can see it in chapter three verse two, he says, beloved, we're children, we're 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.039 children now, but what we will be has not yet appeared. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.639 But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:15.039 We shall see him as he is. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:21.600 And you just scan your eyes back to verse 28, he says that one day when he appears. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:27.920 And so three different times in this passage, John uses the language that he is going to appear. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:34.319 And he's saying there, he's saying there that your life can only be understood properly and 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:41.040 rightly when you know that God is coming back down into this world and that you're going to see 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:50.319 him, that your life is only understood rightly when you believe, when you know that the one who 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:56.319 already has come into this world and appeared is going to come back to this world and appear 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:58.000 again a second time. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:03.599 And here he's talking about the appearance of the Son of God in history. 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:10.560 And the verb that he uses three times to appear is a verb that every other time in the New 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:17.439 Testament when it's used refers to physical sight, refers to actually seeing something in 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:18.159 the flesh. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:25.920 It's not talking here about some mystical idea of having a vision in your dreams, in your heart, 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:31.280 it's not talking about the imagination, it's not talking about something merely spiritual. 00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:37.360 He uses the verb for physical sight and he's making the claim that one day there will be 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:44.000 not just a spiritual vision, not just a vision with the eyes of faith, but a physical vision 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.200 of the living God when he comes again. 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.800 And the he there is talking about Jesus Christ. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:54.400 Jesus Christ has already come and he's coming again. 00:05:54.399 --> 00:06:01.759 Now look, the Christian claim, the Christian claim, it's incredibly significant. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:02.959 It's big. 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:10.799 It's to say that we believe that Jesus Christ in the future is truly coming in the flesh 00:06:10.799 --> 00:06:14.239 into this world to live here finally and forever. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:22.399 And that has to determine the way you understand your present day life. 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:28.399 And we all know this, that what you believe about the future actually radically changes 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:30.399 the way you live your life in the present. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:36.239 Imagine that you're a factory worker on an assembly line. 00:06:36.239 --> 00:06:42.399 I was looking at some pictures, sometimes you get caught in these deep internet rabbit holes 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:47.120 where you just keep clicking on Wikipedia links and you never know where you're going to end up. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:52.000 And I ended up this week down a deep rabbit hole of looking at the history of the world. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 The history of factory work from the 19th century forward somehow. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:57.199 I have no idea. 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:03.759 And I saw a picture of just after World War II in the UK, a major appliance company 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:05.680 and the way they had set their factory out. 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:10.319 And this major appliances company was building, were building, they were building washers and dryers. 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:16.399 And they had all these people on these factory lines where these washers and dryers would come by 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:21.360 and hundreds of people dedicated to doing nothing but putting little bolts on the bottom of these 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:23.360 washers and dryers before they were going to go to market. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.759 And the washers and dryers were on a conveyor belt at about knee level. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:32.480 And so that meant that the people all day long were bent over with their backs completely arched, 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:33.520 screwing these bolts on. 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:40.960 Now imagine that you're one of them and you get offered this job and the employer brings you in 00:07:40.960 --> 00:07:47.600 and says, we're going to pay you 20,000 pounds in 2022 for nine hours, five, six days a week, 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:52.240 you're going to be bent over, you're going to be screwing these little bolts on. And you know, 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:56.480 you do the work for a week and you're having to go to the chiropractor. 00:07:57.520 --> 00:08:03.200 Immediately, and you're in the break room and you're complaining like crazy and you're unionizing 00:08:03.200 --> 00:08:08.400 left and right, everybody hates it. But then the employer brings you in, the next person, 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:12.640 and he says, we're going to pay you 2 million pounds for this job. 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:18.639 And you know, your back is arched and bent over all day long and you're whistling. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:23.919 You know, you're singing a tune, you say, who needs a lower back? Lower backs. I don't need 00:08:23.919 --> 00:08:29.519 my lower back. It's 2 million pounds. I don't care. And look, it's a silly example. But the point 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:35.039 is what you believe you're going to get, your expectations of the future always determine 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:42.000 not only your actions, but your emotional life, your will, your desire, the whole of who you are 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:48.399 from top to bottom is often determined by what you believe about your future. And the Christian 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:54.480 claim is that the future is certain and that it is that Jesus Christ is going to enter into history 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:01.039 one more time in the flesh and that he's going to do it finally and forever. And that means that 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:05.200 for the Christian, this is the Christian claim, not just for the Christian, but for the whole world, 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:11.920 that actually the meaning of human history is only rightly interpreted and understood in a vision, 00:09:11.920 --> 00:09:18.720 a belief that you will see him again. Now, let me say one more thing about that. And that's not 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:26.160 only the fact of his second coming, but also the quality of that site. In 1 John 1 and 2, 00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:33.520 sorry, here in 1 John 3 in verse 2, John says, we shall see him, quote, as he is. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:38.240 And it refers to the quality of that site. He had told us in the beginning of 1 John 1, 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:45.279 1 John 1, I have seen him. I saw him. I looked at him. I heard him. I touched him. I gazed upon 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:51.759 him. And I think John here, when he says, we shall see him as he is, is thinking, I've already told 00:09:51.759 --> 00:10:00.399 you that I saw him as he was in the past. I saw him when he was living a life as a Jewish carpenter. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:07.120 I saw him in his what we call humiliated state. And remember, so many times in the Gospels, 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:15.120 nobody understood who he was. Nobody could see who he truly was. And the Bible talks about the 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:21.360 glory of God and the glory of Jesus Christ. And that word glory means his weightiness, 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:30.480 weightiness, that when you see him truly as he is, you're struck with his heaviness. The heaviness 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:36.480 of what it means that he is God become man, the weightiness of the reality of who he is, 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:42.159 only in certain moments did he unveil himself. The amount of transfiguration, all of a sudden, 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:49.200 a couple of guys get a glimpse of who he really is. And they're knocked back by his weightiness. 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:53.680 We see it momentarily after he's raised from the dead. But what John is saying here, 00:10:54.480 --> 00:11:01.759 John's saying, I'm an apostle, I saw him as he was. But that was not as he is. 00:11:03.280 --> 00:11:09.600 And one day you will see the living God, Jesus Christ, as he is. And that means you're going 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:19.759 to get a glimpse of true glory, of weightiness, of true meaning in itself. And I think what John 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:26.240 is trying to say to us there is that you need to expect that when you see him, every single desire 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:32.480 that you've ever had that has been left unfulfilled will be fulfilled. Every single longing that you've 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:40.080 ever had that you've hoped in, what you truly want from life, it's only then that you're going to get it. 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:44.960 Have you ever had this very human experience? If you're a human today, you've probably had 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:51.200 this very human experience. And that's, it's in moments where you really want a relationship, 00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:59.600 let's say, you really long for a relationship. And you get that relationship and it's good. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:03.519 But it's not everything you had thought it was going to be. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:08.960 That's what Heather says about me, not me about her, of course. But, 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:19.200 or you've really wanted the next step in your career and you get it. Maybe you've even reached 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:26.800 the pinnacle of your career. And it's good, but it's not great. And there's always this little 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:31.359 hole of disappointment, no matter what you achieve in life. And even the greatest achievers, 00:12:31.359 --> 00:12:35.919 that's why we pity celebrities. They feel the disappointment more than anybody. 00:12:37.439 --> 00:12:44.079 And you know, that's a great apologetic and argument for Christianity. Because it means that if 00:12:44.079 --> 00:12:51.519 there really is, there really is a hole that cannot be filled, no matter what you accomplish, 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:56.319 no matter the relationship that you achieve in life, there really is still always going to be 00:12:56.319 --> 00:13:03.519 this hole there, that you will always be disappointed. And that's precisely because you were made 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:12.079 for something. You were made to see the living God as he is and only seeing the living God as he is 00:13:12.079 --> 00:13:18.480 can ever truly fulfill your greatest desires and your deepest expectations and your greatest 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:28.720 longings. It's only this and this is coming. And oh, what it will be like. Oh, what it will be like 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:38.320 to have joy complete. Now, we will see him as he is. And then that leads us secondly to think about 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:45.440 this. What happens when you see him? What do you do with this? What will happen? And what do we do 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:51.520 with what will happen today? This is where righteousness comes in. And we're told here in verse 28, 00:13:51.520 --> 00:13:56.720 you can see it secondly, that there are two possibilities. Little children, John says, 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:03.360 he's writing to his friends and he says, when he appears, we may have confidence, abide in him, 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:11.600 so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame. So John says that 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:16.960 every single human being will see him as he is and that only one of two things can happen. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:24.159 And that's either you'll stand before him with all your joy or you'll shrink from him. And what is 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:30.080 John thinking about here? Well, this word that's being translated here as shrink from him is a word 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:35.840 that we see across the Bible in the Old Anno New Testament. It shows up, you'll remember famously 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:43.280 in Romans 1, when Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. It's the same word for shame. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:50.320 It's being translated here to shrink away in shame. But I think that John is thinking of something 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:56.960 more specific here. And he subtly references it at the end of this passage. But I think he's thinking 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:04.720 all the way back to the beginning in Genesis chapter 3. Because this word to shrink, to shrink and hide, 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:11.440 is the exact word that is used in Genesis 3 when it says that Adam and Eve were naked and 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:19.519 unashamed before God. And then naked and ashamed. It's the same exact word and it's being translated 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:25.279 here differently. Remember that Adam and Eve stood before God. What does it mean there to be naked? 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:32.560 It means to be truly as they really were. That God could see them. He saw everything about them. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:41.359 He knew them inside and out. And they stood before him in confidence, unashamed. And then 00:15:41.359 --> 00:15:46.879 just a moment later in Genesis 3, they now, he appears again and then they shrink, they hide. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:53.679 They get behind a bush and say, I can't let the Lord see me like this. And you see, that's John's 00:15:53.679 --> 00:16:01.519 twofold choice here. He says, you'll either stand naked and unashamed, exposed. Jesus will see you 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:07.759 for who you really are, but you'll be confident and joyous in him. Or you'll be like Adam and Eve 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:14.240 after and you'll shrink and be ashamed. And what stood for John, he says it here, this is what 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:20.399 stands in between. What stood in between Adam and Eve's nakedness, full of confidence, unashamed, 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:25.840 truly known and yet loved all the way to the bottom. And then hiding from the living God. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:32.480 What stood in between was John says lawlessness, lawlessness, lawlessness, that special word 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:39.920 in the New Testament, which means disorder and chaos and breaking things as they were meant to be 00:16:39.920 --> 00:16:45.680 in rebellion and everything that's wrong with the world. What stood between was their lawlessness, 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:51.440 their disorder. In other words, their unrighteousness. And so what he's saying here is that to stand 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:56.800 before the living God in confidence is to know righteousness and to shrink and hide is to be 00:16:56.800 --> 00:17:01.760 unrighteous, to be lawless. That that's the condition, that that's the difference. It's like 00:17:01.760 --> 00:17:09.920 when if you've ever had the experience of going to a black tie party in your black tie, your tuxedo, 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:15.519 your evening dress, you feel great, you feel confident, you feel beautiful. But if you show up 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:23.200 to the same party in a bathing suit and you're the only one, oh boy, do you feel naked and 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:29.599 ashamed and you hide and you shrink, it's exactly that sort of feeling. And here he says that the 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:35.359 difference is righteousness. Now he says something very precise and very important about this in 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:43.279 verse 29. He says that he says that if you know that he is righteous, God, that God is righteous, 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:50.399 you can be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. So listen, 00:17:50.399 --> 00:17:56.799 he's saying that the condition of standing before the living God in confidence and joy is to be 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:03.920 righteous and that to be righteous is to be quote, born of him. That that's the condition. That's 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:10.160 very important. Now look, many people today in Edinburgh in 2022 and maybe you're here, 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:15.840 you're going to look at this and say, are you really saying that some people are going to be 00:18:15.840 --> 00:18:23.680 ashamed, that it's possible to be ashamed before the living God because of lawlessness, because of 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:31.680 unrighteousness. And I heard it put so commonly this week, I was listening to a podcast of one 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:36.800 of my favorite comedians and the comedian in a throwaway line at the very end of the podcast 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:44.480 simply said, you know, I really think that most people are good. And what he was saying there was 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:48.960 what so many of us experience all the time. We know our neighbors, we know the people around us, 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:54.000 we know people that believe all sorts of different things than we believe. And we know them to be 00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:00.079 kind. We know them to be nice people, we know them to be generous sometimes, we know them to be 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:06.879 patient and sometimes even more patient than we are. And you say, you know, I think most people 00:19:06.879 --> 00:19:14.559 are generally good people. Now look, when the Bible talks about righteousness, it's talking about 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:21.839 something very different. It's not talking about being generally a nice person, being generally 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:27.759 known as a good person, a person who is a decent citizen and doesn't commit crime, and is kind to 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:33.680 their neighbors. It's talking about something very different than that. And Jesus unveils for us what 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:38.879 he means by this most acutely in the Sermon on the Mount. You know, you remember in the Sermon on 00:19:38.879 --> 00:19:44.079 the Mount, he says that when the Bible speaks of righteousness, it's talking about something more 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:50.640 than rule following and kindness. And the way he gets at it is he asks the people he's talking to, 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:56.720 you know, do you follow the rules? Maybe you do, maybe you're a pretty good person and you follow 00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:01.920 the rules and you're a decent citizen and you've never committed a crime and you've never harmed 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:07.039 anybody in a significant way. And you generally speak kindly to your neighbor and you're faithful 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:14.319 to your spouse and all sorts of things. This is what Jesus takes up. But then he says, in your heart, 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:23.759 in every single one of your deeds and all of your history, have you done that action in perfect 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:34.000 selfless love? You know, has your motivation in your actions been total love for the living God 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:39.920 and for the person next to you? Completely selflessness, complete selflessness. And he says, 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:47.599 only when you combine utterly pure motivation with perfect action can you then talk about 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:53.759 righteousness. That righteousness is to do everything in your life with the best of motivations. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:21:00.319 And I think no matter if you were the comedian I was listening to this week or maybe in your 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:04.639 heart you said, look, I do think most people are basically good or most of the time good. 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:11.759 That's one thing, but if you just for a second examine your own personal motivations 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:17.440 for why you do things, I think you can uncover very quickly that we are not righteous. 00:21:18.879 --> 00:21:23.839 You know, have you ever said a kind word to somebody but done it because you wanted to be, 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:27.039 you wanted them to give you a favor in return, you wanted them to flatter you? 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:35.359 We know that our motivations at rock bottom are manipulative. And look, even if you're not a 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:40.000 Christian today and you say, I'm not sure that I buy the Christian narrative that people aren't 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.759 basically good, that we're fundamentally lawless and unrighteous, I'm not sure if I buy that. 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:52.559 Can let me ask you this question. Can you at least admit this that you would love to live in a world 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:58.559 where the people that you lived with in your home, the people that you worked with, the people that 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:06.799 are your neighbors acted towards you with such perfect motivation that they never had any other 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:12.000 motive than love for you? Can you at least say that, that you want to live in a world 00:22:12.639 --> 00:22:17.440 where everybody around you acts towards you in a way that is perfectly loving without any 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:23.680 manipulation? Can you say that? Of course you can. And can you say that there's a gap there in the 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:31.359 reality of what we really, the world we really live in? Oh boy, get on Twitter. Yeah, we're not 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:37.439 righteous. We're lawless. We're unrighteous because our motivations aren't healthy. Everything we do 00:22:37.439 --> 00:22:44.319 comes with mixed modism. What John is saying here, what John is saying here is that when you realize 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:49.919 that, when you hear what he's saying, when you look at the sermon on the Mount, if you face the facts, 00:22:49.919 --> 00:22:58.799 the only thing that you can be led to say is, I need to be born again. My motivations are wrong. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:05.279 My motivations are lawless. I need the new birth. I need a supernatural gift. I need something 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:11.119 to come from outside of me. I need a righteousness that is not my own because I don't have it. 00:23:11.919 --> 00:23:16.879 If I'm going to see the living God, if I'm going to stand before him, I need righteousness that is 00:23:16.879 --> 00:23:25.279 alien to me. And in chapter 3, verse 1 to 3, and we can say this in 30 seconds, 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:33.359 John, all of a sudden, breaks out. He changes the subject. He's trying to talk about being 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:39.200 righteous before God and not giving you assurance. But then all of a sudden, he says in chapter 3, 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:45.839 verse 1, if you're reading from the ESV, it says, see, but it's not the word see. It's behold. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:53.519 All of a sudden, John breaks out and says, behold, what kind of love the Father has given to us. 00:23:53.519 --> 00:24:00.639 And you see what's happening in that moment? John realizes it. He realizes his own problem. He realizes 00:24:00.639 --> 00:24:06.960 as he's talking about righteousness, even as the great apostle that he doesn't have it. And so he 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:15.359 breaks out and says, behold, can you imagine the love that it takes to give to people that are lawless, 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:21.599 that reject the living God for the living God to come and say, I will make you my child. I will 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:26.480 make you righteous even when you're not. That's what John is doing here. He's saying, behold, what 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:32.480 kind of love has been given to us that we should be called children of God when we are not righteous? 00:24:33.919 --> 00:24:37.839 That if you're to stand before the living God and not shrink and be ashamed and hide away, you need 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:44.879 righteousness. What kind of love the Father has given to the world? Well, it's the love of the 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:53.520 gift of righteousness. All theology ends in one statement. Jesus loves me this I know. And that's 00:24:53.520 --> 00:24:58.000 exactly what John is saying here, that in the midst of our unrighteousness and our faulty 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:04.480 motivations for all of our deeds, Jesus loves me this I know that Jesus Christ, the one who came 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:12.240 the first time, the one that John saw as he was, he came and took my unrighteousness so that I might 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:19.519 know his, that at the cross he ate my wicked motivations so that when I stand before him one 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:27.359 day I might be named righteous. And John says, see what kind of love, now look, do you have that today? 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:35.440 Do you know that kind of love today? The love of the gift of righteousness that is not yours and 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:43.759 that you cannot have without him. And look, here's how you know, are you today, are you today in 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:50.960 any way in your heart saying, behold, look at the love of God? Are you saying, are you, are you 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:56.960 thinking about it and then doing what John does? And all of a sudden breaking out and rapturous 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:04.640 acclaim, behold, what love the Father has given to me that I should be named child of God, 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:10.480 even though I don't deserve it. And if there's any part of you today that's saying that, that 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:18.800 believes that, then John says of you, you are, that we are, that we are a child of God, you have it, 00:26:18.800 --> 00:26:24.480 you have the gift of righteousness, and you can be confident that you will not shrink, you will 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:32.560 stand and all of your desires will be fulfilled in him. Now thirdly and finally is the command. 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:41.440 The command says this, abide in him so that you can be confident. Now lastly, he gets to assurance 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:51.599 here and he's saying that only by the gift of righteousness of being born in him can you stand 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:54.399 before the living God. It's not about your righteousness, but then he comes and says, 00:26:54.399 --> 00:27:00.159 but you can know that you have it. You can look at your life and ask, are there signs 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:07.519 that I do stand confidently in Christ? And here's what he says, abide in him and you know that you 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:15.360 do. Now look, this needs a sermon, maybe two. We can't get into all that this means because John 00:27:15.360 --> 00:27:21.120 spells this out and in my notes, six different ways he tells us to abide in him, but I can only 00:27:21.120 --> 00:27:25.279 give you one, only one, that's all we can do right now because we're running out of time. 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:30.879 And here's what he says, here's his most clear way of saying what that looks like. He puts it 00:27:30.879 --> 00:27:39.680 positively in verse 29, verse 3 and verse 7 and he says that if God is righteous, if you're born of 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:45.279 him, there should be evidence in your life that you are living righteously. He says that in verse 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:51.839 29, verse 3, he says if you are hoping in him, then there is purification happening in your life, 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:59.359 that there's change happening. In verse 7, he says righteous action comes from being righteous 00:27:59.919 --> 00:28:07.039 in him as a gift. So three times at least he says the positive side of it, he says practice righteousness. 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:13.839 When you practice righteousness, meaning when you act in a way that your deeds are motivated by love, 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:20.240 true love, the love of Christ, then you can say there's real change in my life, that's practicing 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:26.240 righteousness. But then on the negative side, verse 6, verse 8, verse 9 and 10, verse 9 he says it 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:33.440 very dramatically, that those who have been born of God cannot continue to practice unrighteousness 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:42.160 or sin. Now, Jesus, John says here, a sign that you've been changed, that you've been born of God, 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:51.040 is that you practice righteousness, not sin. And let me clear the air, because some of you right 00:28:51.040 --> 00:28:58.960 now are thinking this. You're thinking verse 9, no one born of God practices sin any longer. 00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:07.279 And you say, you know, I've been with you, you're saying this in your mind, I've been with you 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:14.559 up till now. And I can say, I know that my motives are not righteous, I can say, I know I need to 00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:20.240 be born of God, I can reckon with that, I can say, I can even say behold what love, I can even say, 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:27.039 I want to see Jesus Christ face to face, I can say all that. But when you get to the part where John 00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:35.519 says anybody who's been born of God no longer sins, now I ask, am I a Christian? You know, I'm not, 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:39.200 I'm not there anymore. I've been with you for four steps of the way, but the fifth step, I'm not 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:46.000 there anymore. And goodness, he says, whoever keeps on sinning is a child of the devil, that's his 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:54.000 language. Oh boy, is there anybody who isn't? And I've not, I personally have not been a pastor for 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:00.720 very long, not too long, not relative to people like Derek, who's much older than me, much, much 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:07.120 older. I've not been a pastor for very long. But I do know this, that in the places I've 00:30:07.120 --> 00:30:11.759 pastored, I think it's the same, and all pastors would say this, and all of us know this, that 00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:20.079 people that are Christians, they come to a pastor and they say, look, here's the things I'm really 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:26.400 struggling with in my life. And here are the sins that I'm not able to overcome in my life, 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:32.160 and they keep grabbing me and haunting me. And I've heard some of you say, I thought that I would 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:37.840 have grown more by this point, and I thought there would be more change in my life by this point. 00:30:37.840 --> 00:30:44.960 And now John comes and says, if I am really born of God, then I shouldn't be practicing sin any 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:49.840 longer. And now I'm asking the question in my heart, is there a single Christian out there? 00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:59.519 Is there one? And let me say to you that though it sounds that way, this is what John means, 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:07.599 because you have to read it in context, and here's the context. Okay? Verse 2, he says, 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:16.079 only when you see him will you be truly as he is. Now remember that. He says that only when you 00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:22.559 actually see Jesus will you be fully righteous. So in the immediate context, he qualifies it and says, 00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:28.480 don't think you'll be fully righteous in this life. You won't be. He says it in verse 2, but then 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:33.839 in chapter 1 verse 8, he says, Christian, if you go around saying you're not a sinner, then you're a 00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:39.039 liar. He puts it in bold terms. And so John's already told us, don't go around saying you're not a 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:46.399 sinner. But then in verse 7, he says, do not be deceived. And that's when you know, as we close, 00:31:46.399 --> 00:31:51.359 and we'll close with this, that's when you know that what John is talking about here is actually 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:58.399 someone very specific in the local church, that there is someone, there's a group in his local 00:31:58.399 --> 00:32:06.399 church that are going around and living in such a way that denies the most simple commands of God 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:13.519 for how to live in this life. They're acting in total disobedience, and they're saying that it's 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:20.320 totally okay. So there's a group of people in the local church here in Ephesus that are living a life 00:32:20.320 --> 00:32:27.680 totally disobedient to God and saying this is okay. It's not even sin. It's fine. That's the 00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:32.480 circumstance here. And the reason he puts it in such strong language is he's coming and saying, 00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:39.200 don't be deceived by those people who are saying that you can say you're a Christian and live in 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:46.480 habitual utter sin, stuff that's so obviously opposed to the commands of God, and both of those 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:51.200 things be okay at the same time. That's what he's talking about. And so the commentators often put 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:57.519 it this way, when John says, do not make a practice of sinning, he's saying that the Christian does 00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:06.639 not make sin their normal habit, does not habitually sin and react indifferently to it and say, I'm 00:33:06.639 --> 00:33:12.240 okay with it. I've got grace. He's not talking about occasional struggle. He's not talking about 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:16.480 something you can't defeat. He's not talking about wrestling with personal sin in your life. He's 00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:22.720 saying, do you wrestle? Do you struggle with your sin? Are you fighting it? Then you know, 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:28.880 then you know that there's transformation happening. Or is there habitual sin in your life where you're 00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:36.240 literally, quote, making a practice of sin and you're indifferent to it? It's not striking you. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:41.600 You don't feel like it's wrong. Then he's saying, that's danger. That's a warning sign. That's danger 00:33:41.600 --> 00:33:48.319 territory. That's where you need to ask the question, am I born of him? Now, the last word is this, 00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:56.639 don't hear this. John's saying to you, me saying to you, well, John doesn't really mean you can't 00:33:56.639 --> 00:34:03.279 sin any longer. He really is saying, it's okay. You're a sinner. You're going to continue to sin. 00:34:04.240 --> 00:34:11.440 Well, let me say this. He is saying that, but don't settle for that. Don't settle in and say, well, 00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:18.000 John is saying occasional sin. Therefore, my occasional sin is fine because I've got grace. 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:22.639 And you do have grace, but don't hear him saying that. In other words, the message to the Christian 00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:30.480 today is don't settle for sin. Don't practice sin. And just let that command wash over you. 00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:35.840 Don't practice sin. Not because if you don't, you'll get righteousness. You can't do that. It's 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:42.880 only a gift. But because you have righteousness, don't practice sin any longer. Don't settle for 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:49.599 mud pies in the slum when you could have holiday at the beach. That's an obscure, that's obscure. 00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:55.920 But what he's saying here today is the day Christian for saying, I want to repent of the sins that 00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:00.960 I'm struggling with in my life, not because I can become righteous, but because he's made me righteous. 00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:11.119 How do you change? Chapter three, verse one and two, behold him, behold Jesus Christ, 00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:19.119 contemplate and long for the vision of God. Look at him and he will change you. Let's pray. Father, 00:35:19.759 --> 00:35:26.079 we ask now that you would help us to put away our sin. And I ask that you would show us 00:35:27.279 --> 00:35:32.400 the pathway to true righteousness, which is a gift. So today, would you work in our hearts, Lord, 00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:38.559 if there are some here that are wrestling with what it means to have the gift of God, righteousness, 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:43.920 would you show them, Lord, the beauty of the gospel, the good news that it's a gift? And for those who 00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:50.799 are Christians today and share in that gift, would you help them to see their sin and to repent of 00:35:50.799 --> 00:35:58.000 that sin and to long for holiness? The holiness without which we will not see the Lord of Lord. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:09.440 Give us holiness, we pray. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.