1 John 2:29-3:24 Practical r..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. to 1 John 2, and we're going to continue, brethren, to speak of this new section that we have here from verse 29 all the way until the end of chapter 3, 25 verses. Okay, brothers and sisters, very good.

As I said, I'm inviting you to open up your Bibles to the first letter of the Apostle John. And we're going to continue to address this section that the Apostle has started in verse 29 of Chapter 2 that goes until the end of the book. But now we're focusing our attention on the 25 verses starting in verse 29 and finishing in Chapter 3. I have said to you that up to this point, the Apostle, by the guiding of the Holy Spirit, has been trying to show us the preeminence of Christ above all things. And from this point onwards, the same Apostle, by the Holy Spirit, will continue to do so, to exalt Christ, the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the supremacy of Christ above all things, but now in light.

of the truth that a genuine believer is also a child of God. And the thing that I want us to discuss and to meditate upon today is one of the characteristics of the genuine children of God, and that is righteousness. The true child of God, as I mentioned last week, will be one who is righteous, as the apostle mentioned it here multiple times. So I want us to read from verse 29 in chapter two all the way until the end of chapter three. And I want us to consider before the Lord and with much reverence, brother and sister and dear friend, practical righteousness.

What the Apostle has to say about practical righteousness, not a legal righteousness that we have in Christ, but rather practical righteousness, that in the terms of the Apostle John, he will many times call obeying the commandments of the Lord. Or in the language of Paul, especially in Ephesians and Corinthians and Romans, good works. I want us to consider from the Scriptures and I hope with the presence of the Spirit as we speak and as you receive the concept of the doctrine of practical righteousness. So brother and sister, let us come before this text and with much reverence, not with a hardened conscience and not with seared ears, but rather expecting that the Lord will speak to us just by reading His word. Let us come here and read together from 1 John 2, verse 29, all the way until the end of chapter 3, paying careful attention, not only to each one of the words, but also to what the apostle has to say about practical righteousness.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us read from verse 28 until the end of chapter 3. This is the word of the Lord. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

Behold, or see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him, Jesus. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know. that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself, as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared the first time in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him. And he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, that we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him? because his own deeds were evil, and his brothers righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know, love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before Him.

For whenever a heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God and God in Him. And by this, we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Amen. This is the reading of the word, my dear brother, my dear sister, my dear soul. It was my desire and it was my intention last week to show you from this portion of the Scriptures how the Spirit of God through John now emphasizes that genuine believers are going to be children of God, that someone who professes to being Christ is not only a person who has been justified, or not only a person who has been forgiven or a person who has been sanctified, but more than that, more ultimately than that, a genuine Christian is a person who is a child of God. And many times because of the repetitious or the repetition of that term to be a son or daughter of God, we do not see with the eyes of the heart the weight of that statement, that the person who is a genuine believer is not any longer a seed of Satan, that the person who is a genuine Christian is not any longer a child of wrath, that the person who is a genuine Christian is not any longer a child of disobedience by nature against the Lord. but that because of the mercy of Christ, the genuine Christian is a child of God.

And as verse 9 and 10 says, the seed of God abides in him and in her. The one who created the heavens and the earth with the power of his mouth has been pleased in visiting the heart and the soul of a wicked person and to take a boat inside of that person and sending his Holy Spirit to make that person a son and a daughter of the God of this universe. Glorious truth, that even though we have fathers and mothers, earthly speaking, that failed to us, that when we see them in their character, we see the sin and unrighteousness of our nature that we have if we are genuinely in Christ. the Heavenly Father who has promised us that He's not only going to forgive us, but He's going to have eternal communion with us. The adoption of our bodies, Romans chapter 8, that there is going to be a day in which the children of God, the sons and daughters of God, are going to be eternally united to the One who created all things, and it's going to be He Himself the one wiping the tears of the pain of sin, wiping the tears of the pain of unrighteousness that's within us, because he will come and dwell with his children.

Glorious truth that speaks of the transformational power of what it is to be a child of God. And the apostle has not only emphasized and presented to us in this passage of the Scripture, the reality that a genuine believer is a child of God, but has also given us tests and proofs and evidences of what it is to be a child of God. And the one that I want us to discuss today, my dear brother and sister, is practical righteousness. The apostle is very clear in this passage. The person who is a genuine Christian, the person who is a genuine son or daughter of God is a person who is going to practice righteousness.

Here, the Apostle is not speaking about the legal righteousness that we receive upon justification, as the Apostle Paul explains in Romans chapter five, when he says, Therefore, having been justified by faith or declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God. The Apostle here is not speaking about the legal righteousness that every genuine believer has, but rather the Apostle is speaking very clearly here about the practical righteousness. to the point that many of your translations will refer to it as doing righteousness. We're speaking about the type of righteousness that is the result of being righteous, as the apostle explains it there in verse 7. Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is... Brethren, you have it there in front of you. Whoever practices righteousness is... Righteous, the apostle is making a clear distinction between the condition of a person being forgiven and having received the righteousness of Christ. And what that naturally is, how naturally is manifested in the life of that person.

practicing righteousness. Why? Because if the one who begets is righteous, the one that is begotten is going to be righteous. In terms of James, this is the type of works that qualify the type of faith that we have. James says that if our faith is without works, our faith is Death, the works that are supposed to qualify the genuineness of our faith is a type of practical righteousness that Apostle John is referring in this passage here.

It's very important, my dear brother and sister, that we pay careful attention to the categorical statements that John will make about practical righteousness. First, pay attention to the extent of practical righteousness. Verse 29, the extent of practical righteousness. Verse 29 in chapter 2, it says, If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practice righteousness has been born of Him. Brethren, how many of the children of God practice righteousness, brethren?

All the children of God practice righteousness. Why? Because everything that we do when we are of the seat of the devil, everything that we do when we are in our sins, everything that we do when we are not in Christ, is unrighteous. There's no one good. There's no one who seeks after God.

There's no one good. Everything that we do is falling short of the glory of God. Hence the expectation is that when God comes and generally visits the soul of a person and that person becomes a child of God, then that person will be righteous because the one who begot her or him is also righteous. The extent of righteousness. That speaks already to our hearts and our consciences, because if there is any manifestation of continual and ongoing unrighteousness, brethren, this is not what the Scripture says about the extent of the practical righteousness of the genuine Christians and those who truly are in Christ.

But the apostle does not only present the extent of practical righteousness among Christians, he also presents the nature of it. If you pay careful attention there to verse 9, it says, No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. The reason why practical righteousness happens in all Christians is because that righteousness does not come from them. It is the righteousness of the life of God that now is taken abode in those who are genuine Christians. But my dear brother and sister, pay attention now here very carefully to one important truth, and that is that we as Christians can be deceived when it comes to this important doctrine.

Pay attention to verse 7 there. Verse 7 says, little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. The apostle sees the need of exhorting the brothers and sisters who received this letter to remind them and to tell them that they are not to let anyone to deceive them about the important truth that everyone who is begotten of the righteous is going to be necessarily righteous. Why would the apostle Remind them and take the time to write verse 7 in chapter 3 to remind the church not to allow anyone to deceive them about this important doctrine.

Well, my dear brother and sister, because we can be deceived about the important truth of practical righteousness. Our flesh can tempt us to take extremes when it comes about the fruits of our salvation. Our fallenness and unlimited understanding, and many times through the teaching of false teachers and through the teaching of false churches, Christians can be deceived when it comes to the understanding of righteousness, practical righteousness, as the Apostle addressed it. We can take the extreme, my dear brother and sister, that people can take and say simply, because I have been forgiven, because I have been justified, this is everything that counts. The Lord has already forgiven me.

I'm already in Christ. I already prayed a prayer. I have already made a commitment with the Lord Jesus Christ. I have already a testimony of salvation that I have published and made known among everyone. Everyone knows that I'm a Christian.

I attend church. The person can easily fall into this false message that comes from the heart and from the conscience that just because I am forgiven, that just because I'm justified, then I don't need to be concerned about practical righteousness. But in the same way, my dear brothers and sisters, many times, especially among us Reformed and Calvinists, we may make the mistake to have an unhealthy view of the sovereignty of the Lord. and say, the Lord is the one that has decreed everything. He is the one who has counted absolutely all things.

And hence my righteousness, hence my sanctifications, hence my obedience is in the hands of the Lord and there's nothing that I should do. While that is ultimately true according to the Scriptures, my dear brother and sister, do not forget what the Scripture says. Do not neglect not only the gathering of the coming together, but we are not to neglect our salvation. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and with trembling. It is He the one that wills and also that you do inside of us.

But we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. The Holy Scriptures and the testimony of the New Testament and what we have in front of us is that God is going to bring a completion in the work that He has started in us. And yet, The Scriptures calls us to live lives of righteousness, to set our eyes on Jesus Christ, and to follow the example of the Lord, and to follow what He has done and what He has said. Practical righteousness, my dear brother and my dear sister, very important for the life of the Christian, for two important reasons that the apostle has explained in his letter. First one, 1 John 2.

Practical righteousness is a qualifier of what it is to be a genuine Christian. Practical righteousness is a genuine qualifier of what it is to be a Christian. Pay attention to 1 John 2, verse 4. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Brother, sister, whoever does not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the Scriptures is a liar.

It does not matter that from the mouth comes and says, I know him. The one who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him or in her. The Apostle does not say, whoever keeps the rules of Christianity. The Apostle does not say, whoever keeps my personal preferences when it comes to Christianity.

The Apostle does not say, whoever keeps my precepts or my understanding of what a Christian should be. But the Apostle says, whoever does not keep his commandments, what the word of the Lord says, Not what I want to redefine a Christian to be, so that I appease my conscience by telling myself that I am obedient and I'm living according to the standard of Christianity. But rather, whoever does not keep the commandments of the Savior as they are outlined in His Revelation Scriptures, then that person is a liar. That person can do, that person can push, that person can speak, that person can preach, that person can pretend, that person can even deceit others into believing that he or she is a Christian. But if that person does not obey the commandments of the Savior, as they have been given in the scriptures and according to what is contained here, that person is a liar.

Practical righteousness, my dear brother and sister, is of vital importance for the life of the Christian because it's a genuine qualifier of salvation. But not only that, I don't know if you paid attention to it, but if you return to 1 John chapter 3, practical righteousness is of vital importance, brother and sister, And this I did not know before studying this passage and considering these important things, but I hope that you can see it with me. Practical righteousness is of vital importance because love to one another depends on our practical righteousness. Loving one another is contingent upon personal, practical righteousness. The love of the brethren that one will have with the other, that the Bible and the New Testament constantly calls us to, and which is going to be a qualifier of the genuineness of our disciple condition before the world, is contingent upon personal, practical righteousness.

And I think that this is the whole point that the apostle wants to make, especially in the second half of Chapter 3. Pay attention to how in verse 10, the apostle is going to tell us something very important. The confirmation of what I have just said now, that righteousness is the evidence of a genuine son of God. But then he adds to it, then love to the brethren. Pay attention with me, please.

In verse 10, it says, By this, it is evidence, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil? What is the evidence, Holy Scriptures? What is the evidence, Holy Spirit, of the genuineness of the children of God and the children of Satan? He continues and said, Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. Implicitly, of course, whoever practices righteousness is of God.

But then the apostle does not leave it there. He adds another category on top of righteousness. And he says, nor is there one who does not love his brother. Why would you do that, apostle? He's not doing righteousness also considering loving one another?

What would you make a distinction between being righteous and loving the brothers and sisters? Because the apostle has a point to make. And that is that loving the brother or loving our sisters depends or is contingent upon personal righteousness. And that is exemplified or explained here with the example of Cain. Pay attention to it.

And then in verse 11, the apostle is going to expand now that point of loving the brethren. For this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. You see there, brethren, I'm trying to explain to you how I usually work those things in my mind, but I hope that that doesn't confuse you. But see in verse 10, The one that is a child of God is the one that is righteous and is also the one who loves the brother and sister. And then in the mind of the apostle, let's explain what is to love the brothers and sisters.

In verse 11, it says, For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. The apostle now is going to explain what is loving one another as a manifestation of practical righteousness. How do I know that? Because of the example that is given. Pay attention to the example of Cain and Abel.

You remember Cain killed Abel, right? This is the example in verse 12. We should not be like Cain. The apostle is going to take a teaching of the New Testament based on something that happened in the Old Testament. He's not only quoting an example, he's in a teaching way explaining to us what we should be based on what happened in the Old Testament.

It says, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one. And what did he do? And murdered his brother. Now he's going to ask a very important question. And why did he murder him?

Why did he murder him? What was the reason why Cain hated his brother to the point of killing him and murdering him? What was the reason behind the sin that Cain committed? One will say, well, because he's a son of the devil. Or, well, just simply because he was filled with hatred.

But the apostle, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, instead of pointing to the condition that he is a son of the devil, and it would be right, he's going to point to the deeds of Cain. You see the answer to that question there? And why did he murder him? He says, because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous. In other words, the hatred that Cain had for Abel was rooted in the practical righteousness of the one and the practical unrighteousness of the other.

The evil deeds of Cain were the reason why he killed the righteous one who was of the Father, was the seed of God, who was righteous in nature. That's the enmity of the world. The practical righteousness of the sons of God is hated by the practical unrighteousness of the son of Satan. But brother and sister, I want you to pay careful attention here that is rooted in that example that the apostle is going to want to teach us that loving the brother and sister is contingent upon our practical righteousness. That is what he continues doing there.

Pay attention, because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of debt into life because we love the brothers. Loving the brethren in the way that is written here is the external manifestation that inwardly we are the children of God. And not only that, but that we are practicing righteousness.

The apostle sees the need of even going deeper into what he's teaching and by giving us a practical example of what it is to love the brethren in verse 16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Brother, sister, why is practical righteousness so important for the life of the church? Not only because it's a qualifier of genuine salvation in the individual, the one who says, I know him and does not obey his commandments is a liar, but it's also important, brother and sister, because loving one another is contingent upon practical righteousness. We are not going to be able to love one another and to lay down our lives for each other if we are living lives of sin.

If sin has already entered in our lives, if sin has already entered through our hearts, if our minds have already been taken captive by the things of this world, If Satan has already conquered our senses, our eyes, our ears, our attention, if we have already deviated our affections from the Savior to the things of this world, if we are secretly walking in darkness, when we say that we are walking in light, if we're doing all of these things that are practical and righteousness, the last thing that we are going to do, brethren, is to love our brothers and sisters, because the one that is in sin has chosen someone above everyone else, and that is themselves. The one that is in secret sin, or slave and bondage to sin, whatever practice that is, has already chosen someone about everyone else, including the Lord Himself, and that is Himself or Herself. How is a person who is in the practice of sin going to love anyone else? They cannot, not simply because of what the apostle says here in 1 John 3, but because the affections of a person had already been taken. And then when the person opens the eyes to see the righteousness of brothers and sisters, envy is the only thing that is produced inside of them.

Bitterness is the only thing that is produced inside of them. When a brother who is walking or a sister that is walking in this type of darkness opens his eyes or her eyes and sees the work of the Lord in another brother and sister, envy. naturally appearing in the heart. Not even in need of a mental process of coming to the conclusion that I want to have envy for this person, but rather just simply naturally springing up, if it's a word in English. Just following the curse of the passions that are inside of us.

Envy, bitterness, building walls of indifference towards our brothers and sisters as the example that the apostle gives here. Is someone in need? I don't see the need. Is someone in need of encouragement? I don't see the need.

Is the church in need of something? I don't see the need. Not because we're blind, but because our hearts have been hardened. Because now practical and righteousness has taken place in our lives. Why is practical righteousness so important, my dear brother and sister?

Because it's a genuine qualifier of genuine salvation. And also, brethren, because we're not going to be able to love one another. We are not going to be able to love one another if our hearts are not walking righteously before the Lord. We're going to be able to put up a very nice service and doing all of these things with the chairs organized and coming with the best clothes on Sundays, but our hearts are going to be seared and hardened because we have allowed sin to enter the doors of our consciences, our minds, of our hearts. And then simply we're going to be speaking in a powerless way with many, many words that explain of something that we have heard of, but we have never experienced.

words that simply explain the right doctrine and the right understanding of the text and the right understanding of who Christ is and what He has done, but hearts that have never experienced the power of the gospel in transforming us in such a way that we can be tokens of the things that we see here in the Scriptures. So, brother and sister, Practical righteousness is of vital importance for the life of the church. And let me give you a warning. Let me give you a warning. Many times, every time that we speak about obedience, every time that we speak about good works, every time that we speak about righteousness, sometimes our heart tempt us to take different positions about it.

One is of indifference, as I said before. Indifference about whatever you're going to be telling about obedience, good works, and righteousness, because I have been forgiven. The Lord already has forgiven me, and why would I care about righteousness? But the second one is the Lord will do eventually what He has planned to do. Why am I worried about my sanctification and my holiness?

Brothers and sisters, how we feel about sanctification tells us a lot of things about our spiritual condition. Pay attention to a very important point that the Apostle makes in 1 John chapter 5. 1 John, Chapter 5. How we feel emotionally, in our heart, in our souls, towards the obedience of the commandments of the Lord tells us a lot about where we are spiritually. Pay attention to what the Apostle says in 1 John, Chapter 5, Verse 2.

By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And then it comes, the emotional qualifier that is found in everyone's heart here. And His commandments are not burdensome. Are the commandments a burden?

or I wait, or any other word that you may have in English to explain of the same concept in your heart, are the things of the Lord, something that you are not filled with joy about, but rather that you're just simple like an animal that has been pushed to do and do and do. And eventually it takes one week, two weeks, one year, five years to 10 years just to get the animal to do a repetitious activity. And then they don't even know how they feel about it. Are the commandments of the Lord a burden to your conscience, to your mind, to your heart? Because the scripture is very clear that the commandments of the Lord are not burdensome.

But if you or I experience a burden when I present myself to the commandments of the Lord, the problem is not in the words of the Lord that has clearly spoken about it, but the problem is found inside of me. that I have made the yoke of the Lord that is light and that is easy. And I have made that yoke because of my fleshliness, a yoke that is difficult to carry, a yoke that is now not the delight of my soul. Because brother and sister, as the apostle Paul says in Romans, I think it's chapter 14, escapes my mind the chapter, but as the apostle says, I think it's in Romans chapter 13 or 14, that the kingdom of God is not about words. But the kingdom of God is about righteousness, joy and peace.

Because righteousness, practical righteousness comes together with that joy and peace. Oh, brother and sister, be very careful, be very, very, very careful that now obeying your Lord, the one that you say that you follow, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that you say that died upon the cross for you, that now hearing the voice of the Savior, It is a difficult task in the emotions that you're not moved by joy and peace to hear the voice of the Savior and do what He says that you are supposed to do. But rather now hearing the voice of the Savior, the commandments of the Savior and doing it. with a heart, with a conscience, with a spirit that is filled with burden, that is filled with things that you don't actually want to do, but you have to do because you have put yourself in a repetitious activity of things. And now you have taught yourself just to simply go through motions, simply go through repetitious activity.

Because brother and sister, how there's not going to be joy in serving the one who loved us and gave himself for us. How is there going to be anything that is toiled, that is difficult, that is burdensome? How is going to be our life so precious compared to the life of the Savior that was given to give us eternal life? How are going to be my comforts? How are going to be my preferences and the things that I want to hold and that I don't want to let go be so valuable compared to the gracious gift of the Lord in His Son Himself?

If anything of my life, if anything of my heart, it is more valuable so that I will prefer to have that instead of serving the Lord with joy. That has become an idol of which the same apostle warns us of in the last verse of this letter. My dear brother and sister, my goal, my desire, as I'm speaking to you and as I'm speaking to myself before the Lord, is that we will be encouraged to be righteous as our Lord Jesus Christ is righteous. That we will know that He is sufficient absolutely for everything that we need in this life. that the Lord Jesus Christ did not only die upon the cross, but is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us so that there will be a work that is completed in us.

And that work is not, oh, I don't want to follow this Lord. I just simply have to do this. I have to do this. But rather, brother, sister, that we will be filled with joy in serving our Lord, that our minds, our affections will be taken in such a way that obedience is not because of the commandment, but obedience is because of the Lord Himself, that obeying His commandments is just simply the way that we understand the rule, but it's just Lord. What have you said?

What have you done? What example have you given that I should follow? And that, brothers and sisters, only happens through the power of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person. Rules and systems that have to be followed just because of the system itself are what the rules in the flesh produce. And that could be good sometimes to make things happen and to make things run properly, but what it counts in Christianity is that which comes from the heart.

Galatians chapter 5, verse 6, please come with me very quickly. Galatians chapter 5, verse 6, we have mentioned this many times in the past. Galatians 5, verse 6. Galatians 5, verse 6. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision, referring to the law, nor uncircumcision, referring to those who do not have the law.

In other words, everyone. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. What is the only thing that counts in Christ Jesus? A faith that works, in other words, that obeys, that is practically righteous. A faith that is not death, like the faith of James 2, but a faith that is living, a faith that is alive.

How is that faith manifested? Through love. Loving the brethren is contingent upon a faith that works. We're not going to be able to fulfill the law of Christ. We're not going to be able to fulfill the requirements of a Savior, which is to love Him above everything.

And because of that love, love one another when we are walking in unrighteousness. When we are secretly giving ourselves to the things of this world. When we are secretly giving our thoughts and our minds to the things of this world. When brothers are given secretly to pornography. When brothers are given secretly to lust and to see women in a horrible way.

When sisters are given to gossip and to not love one another and not serve one another. When children, Christian children, are given to disobedience and not honoring their parents. When we're given to open our mouths and speak lofty things about theology and secretly we're powerless. We are hypocrites in the secret place. Oh brethren, church is not Sunday two hours or three.

Church is not a Bible study on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how the schedule works. Christianity is not about you simply carrying a Bible and just going from one place to another. Christianity is about Jesus Christ enthroned in your heart. Every single second of your life, every single moment of your breathing, every single moment of what you exist. This is what the Savior has come to rescue, your soul, the entirety of your being.

This is not a religious game like the Muslims will do, or the Catholics will do, or any other branch of false Christianity will do. This is about Jesus Christ. The creator of heaven and earth sent his son to this wicked world. Have you seen the world, the unrighteousness and the darkness of this world? This world deserves fire.

This world deserves hell. Every one of us, but the creator of heaven and earth sent his eternal begotten son, the precious son that is just becoming like one of us. humility and just becoming like one of our flesh, like we're our hands, just becoming like one of our nature was the humility of Christ to die upon the cross to rescue someone so that someone just might open their mouth to say that they are Christians, where they're secretly walking in darkness, when husbands are hating their wives secretly, when wives are secretly hating their husbands, when parents are tired of their children and they would prefer anything else instead of being parents. When single people are just giving themselves to sexual immorality and not following in the ways of the Lord? When the Lord Jesus Christ is not enthroned generally in our hearts of brethren?

Please, how are we going to love one another? How are we going to thrive in love? How are someone going to walk through these doors and say, look, the disciples of Christ. Eve, we do not give everything from inside, from here and from here, our hands to the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Oh, brothers and sisters, may the Lord give us the grace that is needed to live lives of practical righteousness, because this practical righteousness has an ultimate goal, and that goal is to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, to have His thoughts, to have His mind, to follow His example, to have His words written in our hearts that we may not sin against Him, to have the Lord Jesus Christ.

And brethren, let me tell you, the Scriptures speak very specifically about practical righteousness. I have gone everywhere, not the place where I wanted to go, but the Scriptures speak very specifically about practical righteousness. Pay attention, if you go quickly, please, to 1 Peter Chapter 3. Go to 1 Peter Chapter 3. The Scriptures speak very specifically about 1 Peter.

The Scriptures speak very specifically about practical righteousness. If you go to 1 Peter, chapter 3, and you could go to all the Psalms, the Scripture will tell you clearly what practical righteousness actually looks like. Because when we're speaking about obedience, brother and sister, and dear friend, when we're speaking about obedience, you have the extreme or the possibility of making two mistakes. One, to go too general in the way that people will just simply not understand what you are saying because it's just too general. What is practical righteousness, right?

Well, how is practical righteousness manifested? So you go too general in such a way that people simply will not know what to do, what to leave. On the other error that you can make is that you go so specific that now you become and your preaching becomes the standard of life for those who are hearing. And then how you balance and how you wait, how you find it. the middle point between those two things.

But the scriptures do speak in a very specific way about practical righteousness. Pay attention, for instance, to 1 Peter 3 in verse 10, actually quoting here the Old Testament. It says, for whoever desires to love, 1 Peter 3, verse 10, for whoever desires to love life and seek good dates, let him keep his tongue from evil. Speaking about the tongue. Very specific.

And his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and to good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. And then the conclusion is, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. Who is the righteous?

The one whose tongue has not turned to evil. The one that has turned from evil practices and is doing good. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. The Psalms and the Scriptures are very specific about what practical righteousness actually is. Now, it would be very difficult for me to take you through the entire Bible and to point you to every single aspect of the practical life of the Christian and how we are supposed to live practical righteousness that is practical.

But let me just tell you three important principles. or better, two principles and one of them will be more practical. The first one, brethren, if I have already lost you, if you're looking at me and then but your brain is somewhere else, if your ears perhaps are just somewhere else and that you're not paying attention to what I'm saying, please give me just five seconds and hear this. The center of all the matter is this. Christ Jesus is the Son of God, and He is to be exalted in every single aspect of our lives, from forgiveness, to sanctification, to adoption, to practical righteousness.

Christ is the one that provides absolutely everything that we need. Everything that we need for life and godliness is only found through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1. It is only in Him and at the feet of Christ that we are going to be empowered to practical righteousness. Now, having said that, let me now try to bring your attention to two or three important principles that will help us discern how we follow Christ and how we are practically righteous. Return with me, please, to 1 Peter chapter 3, and I want you to see from the text how the Apostle John presents practical righteousness.

I'm pretty sure that some of you would have seen this as you have been reading or studying, perhaps, the text. I'm pretty sure that you would have seen this. But brethren, the Apostle John is going to present practical righteousness in opposition to another practice. Did you pay attention to it? Which practice is the other practice that is outlined in 1st John chapter 3?

The practice of sinning, right? Verse 29, the apostle speaks about the practice of righteousness. Then in verse 4 of chapter 3, he says, everyone who makes a practice of sinning. Then the apostle will present the contrast very clear in verse 8, where he says, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for he has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning. The contrast that the Apostle has in mind is the practice of righteousness, of the sons of God, and the practice of sinning, which is the sons of the devil. It is from that general principle that I want us to consider what it is to be practically righteous. the apostle that has not taken something very specific, even though he has given the example of Cain and Abel, but he has taken a general principle, and that is that the person that is practically righteous will be a person that does not practice sin. So let us see what the scripture says about the practice of sin or what sin is.

We have a definition there in verse four, in which the apostle says that sin is a transgression of the law, right? That going against what the Lord said in His law, that is a sin. I want us to take it outside of 1 John to see a little bit deeper, brethren, what it is to be righteous or what is not to be given to a practice of sinning. Come with me, please, to James chapter 4. James chapter 4.

To be practically righteous is not to give oneself to a practice of sinning. Right, brethren? To be practically righteous is not to give oneself to a practice of sinning. Let us examine from the Scriptures what it is sin and how sin is manifested. James chapter 4.

I'm going to present to you three principles that I hope will help us consider these matters in a deeper way, and that we might be able to take something out of this by the grace of the Lord. May the Lord help us to be concise and clear. Brethren, James chapter 4, please go there to verse 17. You may remember we have spoken about this in the past here. James is comparing or speaking about those people who do not consider the temporality of their lives and dare to speak about tomorrow as if they were God, right?

there to speak about tomorrow as if they knew what tomorrow is going to bring, and they do not know that their life is a paper that disappears. These prideful men and women, there to take in their lips to speak about the future as if they were God. And then he concludes something in verse 17 that is going to give us a principle to understand what sinning or the practice of sinning is. Pay attention to verse 17, it says, So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. What is a practice of sin or sin to commit a sin, as some of your translations will say, instead of practice of sinning, committing sin or doing sin.

What is sin according to James chapter four, verse 17, that whoever knows what the right thing to do is and fails to do it for that person that is considered to be a sin. That means, generally speaking, if you already know that there's something good that you should be doing, you already know that you should be doing something that is good to do, that is the right thing to do, and you have passively chosen not to do that thing, even though you might not be engaging in something that is actively perceived as a sin, according to the scripture, that is considered to be a Sin, the person who knows the right thing to do and does not do it or fails to do it for that person is a sin. But I want you to consider two important things from this verse there. These are the first two principles so that we will understand what to be a righteous person practically is. The person who knows what the good thing is, it says literally there.

Or the person who knows what the right thing to do is. You see there in verse 17, so whoever knows the right thing to do. To be practically righteous requires that a person will know what the right thing to do is, right? How am I going to do something that I don't know? How am I going to do something that I consider to be wrong?

Also, James here is pointing to those who know what the right thing to do. And humans are unable to discern in and of themselves what the right thing to do is. It is only the Lord through the scriptures, the one that defines that which is good and that which is evil. The person who knows the right thing to do is the person whose mind has been illuminated through the information is contained in the scriptures. Morality for humans is not regulated with the preferences of the culture.

Morality for humans is not regulated by the things that we do as a country, but morality for humans is regulated by what the Lord says. The Lord is the one that defines the right thing to do, and it's the Lord the one that defines what the wrong thing to do is. It is the standard of the Lord, the one that defines evil from good, the one that distinguishes light from darkness, so that if a person wants to be practically righteous, then that person needs to know what the right thing to do is, right? That person needs to understand and comprehend what the right thing to do is. And the word that you have there, right or good, speaks of that practical righteousness that Christians are called to do.

How is then a person going to know the right thing to do? Through knowing the Savior through the scriptures. Brethren, please come quickly to 2 Timothy chapter 3, a verse that we have mentioned many times. 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy 3, please pay careful attention to this.

2 Timothy 3, verse 16, it says, you're there, right, brother? 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by God or given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching for reproof, for correction, for training in what, brethren? In righteousness. The Word of God is profitable for training, and pay attention to that word, training or practicing righteousness. How is a person going to know the right thing to do?

Am I going to look back to my 38 years of life and I'm going to see the example of my dad, the mistakes that he made and the things that he got right? Am I going to look back and see my mom and the things that she did right and the things that she did wrong? Am I going to look back to my life and I'm going to see the good experiences that I had and the bad experiences that I had? Am I going to look back and see all the people that I've met and the good things about these people that I've met and the bad things about these people that I've met? And then after this exercise of inspection of my previous life, I'm going to come to the conclusion that upon the evidence and the data that I have gathered in my journey through my past, these are the right things that humans should do, and these are the things that humans should not do.

Many of us live our lives like that way. Many psychologists in the world will just simply tell you and try to go into your inner being and try to find what you did when you were five years old, and try to see the problems that you had when you were a teenager and the difficulties that you had. And out of all of that, you can learn how you are supposed to live today. While it is true that the Lord is sovereign in all His providence of our life, the Lord and His word alone define that which is right. The Lord alone in His Word defines that which is good and that which is evil.

The Lord alone through His Word and through the Spirit of God defines how a person is supposed to live. The Lord alone with His teachings and with His wisdom is the only one that knows how we ought to live our lives, of course. We can look back to the things that we have done and have not done, but we need to understand them through the wisdom and the eyes of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. That which requires that the genuine Christian who wants to live in practical righteousness will not be in a relationship of separation with the book. How is anyone who wants to be a practical, righteous person?

How is anyone who wants to obey the commandments of the Lord, live their lives according to their preferences and their religious opinions, and not the text? How is a person going to live in this connection from the Bible, brethren? Many times we try to see outside of the local church and the Christian church and try to discern the problem of this world and the darkness and the blackness of this world. And we do not realize that inside of our hearts we are not salt and we are not light to this world. And that's why the world is the way that it is.

Because the church has lost its power, the taste, the power of light, that when good works come, illuminate the power of Christ among people. Because the word of the Lord is meant to be in our hearts, brothers and sisters. When was the last time that you had a difficult situation in your life and took the time and the moment to come to the scriptures on your knees and say, Lord, teach me. Speak to me about this situation. Guide me through the words of the Lord.

How am I supposed to speak? How am I supposed to act? How am I supposed to respond? How am I supposed to move? What is the next step that I need to take?

When was the last time that you were not so busy with work and education and these things and that? that upon an important matter of your life, desiring to act in a righteous way, you took the time to come genuinely before the Lord, asking Him to illuminate you through the Scriptures. Of course, brothers and sisters, we have one another, and we have the church and the local church that teaches us and guide us through the Scriptures. But brethren, brethren, brethren, I'm only 38 years of age, and I have been preaching only for approximately 6 or 7 years, and I'm very young, and I know that. But in these years that I have been doing this, many of the issues that we have as a church and many of the problems that you present in our conversations are already solved by the Scriptures.

are already addressed by the book, are already taught and explained in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while our job is very easy always to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, at the same time it becomes very difficult if you're not communing with the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not seeking the Lord Jesus Christ through his word, if you know more about how the world works rather than how the scriptures actually tells you to live. If you know more about any other matter more than your Savior, and I'm not telling you that you should quit everything in your life and give yourself to study the Scriptures alone. But brethren, that which rules the type of life that we have should be the Scriptures. How much you think that you are strong, it is reflected in how much you pray and how much you seek the Lord through the Scriptures.

Sometimes we say we're weak and we're feeble and we're needy in our prayers and many times our careless repetitious words in our lips. Because that day we didn't pray. That day we didn't read the scriptures. We have not meditated upon the scriptures for a very long time. But yet I want to live my life according to my own will and according to my own strength.

I have the answer. I have the experience. I have the way to solve this. How are we going to know the right thing to do? How are we going to know the right thing to do, brethren, through the Scriptures?

Second important thing that we saw there in James 4, verse 17. It is not only about knowing the right thing to do, but it's about doing it. You see, it is not about only knowing the right thing to do, but practical righteousness requires action. Practical righteousness requires that we do. Not that we just simply comprehend the doctrine in our mind and are able to give an answer in an abstract way whenever someone else has a question about a particular situation and I'm able to give them the answer, but practical righteousness, brother and sister, requires action.

For the person who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for that person is sin. And action, brethren, in our lives is a qualifier of our eternal condition. Come with me, please, to Ephesians, Chapter 2, very quickly. Ephesians, Chapter 2. Very quickly, please, brethren.

Ephesians, Chapter 2. Action, doing things, doing good works, doing, obeying the commandments of the Lord, is required for practical righteousness. We're not going to be righteous in the practical way just by understanding or saying or just thinking, oh, we should do that and don't do it. Oh, we should follow that path and we don't do it. Practical righteousness requires action.

And action, brethren, action, doing something today is the testimony of something that happened in eternity past. Ephesians chapter, I was going to say capitulo, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, brethren, it says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for what, brethren? For good works. Which, referring to the good works, who prepared them? God prepared them beforehand.

What did He prepare them for? That we should know them? Walk in them. Walk in them. Oh, brethren, how tempted we are to be hypocrites in our Christian life.

How easy it is, you know, for me, just even in the many things that I have said, levels of hypocrisy and levels of lacking, even in the things that I have just said before. Levels of lack, levels of absence, levels of, it is easy to say and it is easy to sweat and it's easy to present. But even in the things that I say, the levels of emptiness, How easy it is to be tempted for us and to be driven in that way, brethren, in which we know, we understand, we comprehend, yet we choose to be passive. Yet we choose to sleep. Yes, we choose to slumber.

Yes, we choose the comforts of sleeping in, the comforts of not being active in good works. We choose the passivity of the first world with everything is just so nice and tidy. We just choose just to appease our conscience with the difficulties of those who are struggling on the other side of the world by taking something out of the abundance of my dollars and just to send it there. Oh, brethren, action. action that Christ moves us by teaching us through the scriptures to know what the right thing to do is, then to do it.

to die for Christ and His brothers and sisters, to care for a world that is lost, to care for growing an understanding of the Scriptures, not for my sake, but also for the sake of my brothers and sisters, to do, not just simply just to repeat words that are empty, brethren, but a person who knows the right thing to do and does not do it. sin for them. It is a sin. And the one who engages in a practice of sinning is not of God, right? It's not of God, brethren.

The one who engages in a practice of righteousness is because they have been born of God, my dear brother and sister. We need to know what the right thing to do is, and we need to have action. And the most important thing, brethren, is our heart, of course. Come with me to Romans chapter 14. I don't know how long I've been speaking for, but let's come to Romans chapter 14.

Brethren, please, Romans chapter 14. Romans chapter 14. Brethren, please bear with me for like 7 to 8, 10 minutes. Please bear with me. This is the most important thing that I want to say now.

Bear with me, children. Pay attention to chapter 14. It is not only about knowing the right thing to do, brothers and sisters, not only about the right thing to do. It's not only also about action, but it's about the intention where that good work is begotten, where that good work of that practical righteousness is conceived, is started, where it comes from. And according to the Apostle Paul, the place where everything that we do should be originated or should come from is faith.

Pay attention to Romans chapter 14, verse 23. Now, but whoever has doubt is condemned if he eats. Speaking about what he has been speaking before, you know the context of Romans chapter 14, right? There were some brethren in the church that were observing the Sabbath, some brethren that were not observing the Sabbath. There were some people that were eating according to the dietary laws of Leviticus chapter 11.

Some people who were not eating according to those laws. So there were certain things that were going on there. The apostle says that everyone who does anything has to do it before the Lord. Now that the apostle does not concern about what is right, he does concern about what is right. He knows that the Sabbath was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he explains that very carefully in Colossians chapter two. He knows that the dietary requirements were also fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is explained by Peter and extensively in the New Testament. It's not that the apostle does not care about doing the right thing. What the apostle cares is about the intention that the person has in doing a particular thing.

Because we can be doing the right thing and then be or have been a heart that is not good soil to do that particular thing. And even though that thing is good in the eyes of people and even in our eyes, that thing will be sinful to us simply because it's not proceeding from the certainty that we're doing it before the Lord. So he says in verse 23 of chapter 14, But whoever has doubting is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. So in other words, if you're eating, if you're observing the laws of Leviticus chapter 11, but you're not convinced of it, like about it, or whatever preposition you use, you're not convinced of it, you're not certain about that particular thing, and just you're doing it because you see and you observe and you want to be like the others, and there's no faith in you that is actually moving you to do it before the Lord, then it's sin. Pay attention to what it says.

For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Whatever does not come from the certainty and the assurance that I'm doing it before the Lord, which the apostle explains in verse 5 and 6 that you can read later on because we are now going for very long. The apostle explains that this certainty, as he calls it, should be fully convinced in his own mind. This is not having any doubt, but having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that is certain and assured that this which I do, I do it for my Lord.

I do it before the Lord. That is the faith, that is the intention that the Lord actually cares about. Of course, the Scriptures are concerned that we will grow in understanding of how we are to do things. But brethren, it is not about the external thing that is done, but it's about their heart that is producing the thing that is supposed to be done. The Lord wants us that in our heart will be given entirely to Him so that the outcome of our deeds, our words, and everything that we experience will be for the glory of our Father.

Let me just show you simply an example of something very important that happens in the New Testament that will illustrate something like this. Come, please, with me to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4. And I will finish with this. 2 Corinthians 4.

doing practical righteousness or doing the thing that is right, brethren. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. It is. I have forgotten the passage. 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians chapter 1. Brethren, pay attention to me and then we read this very quickly and go through the Scriptures. Doing the right thing is going to be testified within us by the Holy Spirit in our conscience. Doing that which is righteous, doing the works of God, is going to be confirmed as righteous and is going to be confirmed as something that should be done through our conscience and in the Holy Spirit. Actually, come quickly to Romans chapter nine first to illustrate that.

Romans chapter nine. Doing the right thing in our conscience is going to be testified by the Holy Spirit inside of us, Confirming that according to the scriptures, Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Pay attention to what the Apostle says about his own conscience. It says, the Apostle Paul, I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

In other words, I'm not lying. I'm not telling something that is false. I am not lying, He says. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. The apostle has the freedom of his conscience that what he is saying and what he's doing is right, because his conscience bears witness, but not bears witness in an absurd way.

His conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit. Because the right thing to do is defined by what the Spirit of God tells us in the Word of God. And the only way that the Christian can do the right thing is by knowing what the will of the Lord is, and it's the same Spirit, the one that will testify to our conscience to let us know and to confirm to us that we are up to acting righteously before the Lord. This is the experience of the Apostle now coming back to 2 Corinthians 1. Let us go quickly through the experience of the conscience that is clean in the Apostle Paul as he does that which is righteous.

2 Corinthians 1, please, brethren. Speaking of his ministry, 2 Corinthians 1, please pay attention to this in verse 12. For our boast is this." This is Paul speaking of the ministry of the brothers. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely sought towards you.

What was the boast of the apostles and of the others? That their conscience were clear. Their conscience were clear that they had done the thing that they were supposed to do. That they had behaved in a righteous way. That they had done that which the Lord requires.

That there was nothing in their conscience that was accusing them. that there was not something in their conscience that was telling them, you should have done, you should have gone, you should have spoken, you should have done those things. Oh, you should, you should have not done that. Or you should have not said that. The conscience of the apostle through the Spirit was now liberating him in such a way that his boast was that he was blameless before the Lord.

Quickly come to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, because this apostle will speak extensively about this freedom of his conscience in the things that he does. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse 1, this is how one should regards us. Are you there, brethren?

Just trying to rush a little bit so that I can show you these verses. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. You there, brethren? 1 Corinthians chapter 4. This is how one should regards us as the servants of Christ, speaking of Apollos and speaking of Paul, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found faithful. It is required of Apollos, it is required of Paul that they should be found faithful. How is one going to be at peace with a conscience saying, Lord, I am being faithful in my service to cornerstone reform Baptist Church? How is one going to come to that point in which one say, I'm faithful in the things that I do for the church? Pay attention to verse 3.

But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself. Why? Verse 4, for I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

The conscience of the apostle Paul was free and liberated from any guilt. The ways of the apostle in mind and indeed had been laid by the words of the Lord in such a way that he knew that he was acting righteously. And at the same time, he knew that it was not that situation what made him feel free, but it was the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the one who liberated and he gave him that freedom. The Apostle is so clear about that experience of the conscience that testifies if we are being righteous or not, that he is going to give a commandment to Timothy about precisely that. It comes quickly to 1 Timothy 1.

1 Timothy 1, please. See how the Apostle Paul is so convinced about this experience that the Christians are going to have, that he's even going to give an example and instruction to Timothy about it. Pay attention to me, please, about this, and we will finish. 1 Timothy 1. Paul is going to ask Timothy to remain at Ephesus so that he will Help the church.

There were some people that were teaching false doctrine in in Ephesus, Ephesus, and the apostle is going to instruct Timothy to remain there to fix the things that were going on there in the context of the church. Now, pay attention to this in verse four. The aim of our charge, this charge is that Timothy will remain at Ephesus correcting the things that were wrong, charge that he speaks about in verse 18 again. But he says in verse 5, the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Pay attention to that.

The reason why I'm giving you this instruction, Timothy, the reason why I'm giving you this commandment that you will remain at Ephesus and that you will do all of these things, the reason or the intention of this commandment is that it will follow, it will go into love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. These three things, and I have consumed my time already, but having a pure heart, having a good conscience and having a sincere faith, brethren, are the qualifiers, are the experiences of the inner man that shows us that we are doing the right thing. A pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith that many times the Scriptures will speak about it as a good conscience is that which gives us testimony. The Spirit of God gives us testimony inside of us that we are walking according to the precepts of the Lord, and that is what gives us boldness to approach the Lord. Many people deviate from having a good conscience.

Many people, many times their spirit is convicting them of sin, convicting them of passivity, convicting them of the things that they are doing that they should not be doing. And many times people allow simply, simply just time to pass and pass, and their seers, and their consciences are seers, and their hearts are hardened. And the example that we're given in the scriptures of that is that false teachers who allow their conscience to be seared in such a way that they ended up falling from the faith. This is the example of 1 Timothy 1, pay attention to verse 18 of the same chapter that we have in there. This charge I entrust to you, 1 Timothy 1, verse 18.

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good fare. How? Holding faith in a good conscience. How are you going to do all the things that you have to do, Timothy? You have to do it by holding faith in a good conscience.

Now pay attention to what he says about a good conscience as he follows. By rejecting this, a good conscience, some had made shipwreck of their faith. among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Some people have rejected a good, clear conscience. Their conscience has been seared.

Their hearts have been hardened. The convicting power of the Holy Spirit has been forgotten. The light of the scriptures coming upon them to tell them, you should, you should not, you should speak, you should not speak, you should follow the ways of the Lord, has been put in such a way that many of them have made shipwreck of their faith, brethren. That they have forgotten, they have deviated from a good conscience. Because is the Spirit of God the one that bears witness without a spirit, not only that we're children of God, but also that we're doing things before the Lord, brethren.

And what a terrifying thing it is for us to know and to understand the right thing to do. And then just to be so passive and so move on things of this world that we are not active in hearing the voice of the Lord in active obedience. how difficult it is, brethren, and how fearful it is for us to fall in a stage of our Christian lives in which we are moved more by the things of this world and the affections that are within us than the words of the Lord that tells us the things that we ought to do and the things that we are not to do. How fearful it is, brothers and sisters, that we try to purify ourselves through the works of the law, through the works of our own flesh, and not knowing that it's only the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that is able to purify our conscience. Let me finish with Hebrews chapter 9.

Please come with me to Hebrews chapter 9, and let me finish with this. Hebrews chapter 9. Pay attention to this. How is our conscience going to be free? from religious activities that we tell ourselves that we ought to do to be good Christians?

How is our conscience going to be free from things that we ought to do, and then we do them in the pleasures to appease our conscience? How are we going to be free and have the freedom to know that we ought to follow the voice of the Lord alone and the Spirit of God leading us in the righteous thing that we are supposed to do? How are we going to actually be moved to be practically righteous in the way that the Lord wants us to do? How are we going to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and not the example of religion alone? By following the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pay attention to this in Hebrews 9, verse 11. But when Christ appeared, let us read from verse 8. By this the Holy Spirit indicates the way into the holy places is not yet open, as long as the first section is still standing, speaking of the Old Testament, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, the arrangement of the Old Testament, that is the law, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of Reformation.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." Now he's going to compare the old with Christ. "...for if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of the heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh..." Pay attention to verse 13.

"...how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offer himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? How much more will not the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, liberate us from the self-imposed duty of doing just to call myself righteous, but liberate us from that duty of the flesh to take us into the liberty of living righteously for our Savior. Only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that has the power to give us freedom in our conscience to do the things that we ought to do. And brother and sister, There is much power in a conscience that has been cleaned.

There is much power in a conscience that now, because of the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, has the ability to approach the Lord in a way that is free and without any type of restrictions. Quickly come to Hebrew chapter 10 and let me show you that in one verse. Hebrews 10, verse 22, remember the commandment that Paul gives to Timothy of a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith. Those three things that speak of the very inner man and the way that we do righteousness. It says in chapter 10, verse 19, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart.

in full assurance of faith." Brethren, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. How? With our heart sprinkled clean. In other words, with pure hearts from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Since we have one who has already fulfilled the righteousness, since we have one Savior who has already accomplished what is required of us, since we have one who has fulfilled the requirement of God Himself, now we can have the certainty that by the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only we have access to the presence of God Himself, but it's only through His blood and in Christ Jesus that we are empowered for practical righteousness. The conscience of the Christian can only be liberated at the feet and at the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why to be a righteous person, my dear brother and sister, is not one that is perfect and that never sins, but rather to be a righteous, practically speaking, person is the one that lives a life of righteousness before the Lord. And when that person sins, When that person has made a mistake and committed a sin, that person is illuminated by the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that tells that person, if you confess your sins, He is just and faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all your unrighteousness. Because practical righteousness, my dear brother and sister, is not found in the strength of the Christian him or herself, but is rather found in the dependence that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ and the acknowledgement that what He has done is sufficient for absolutely all things.

And it's in Christ Himself and in His presence and in His completed work that we find the encouragement and the power that is needed Not only to do that which is righteous, but to know that He is the fountain that cleanses us from all unrighteousness. It says that if we confess our sins, He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's just because when we confess our sins, He will do the right thing. And what is the right thing? The right thing is to forgive us.

Why? He is to forgive us the right thing to do, not because of our confession or not because of our repenting of our sin, but because He has already paid for the sins of His people. And then He's the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. So He will always forgive those people that come confessing their sins, repenting truly before the Lord. And He's not only just, but He's also faithful that every time that the Christian with a conscience that is not clear comes before Him and confesses the sins that they have committed, either of commission or omission, He will always be there to cleanse them from their unrighteousness and to forgive their sins.

And in that place, my dear brother and sister, the conscience of the Christian is empowered to continue to advance in practical righteousness. If you are a person now that is secretly walking in unrighteousness, if your mind, your eyes have been taken by the things of this world and have been tempted just to abide in darkness and in things that should not be, the Lord Jesus Christ says, come to me. All who are weary and heavy laden now will give you rest. Come to me and confess your sins, that I am just and faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If there's lack of love in our hearts towards the brothers and sisters, The place where we ought to be is not to create a plan on how am I going to love the brethren?

What am I going to do to manifest my love towards them? But we need to come to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Brethren, if we have failed in not doing what we are supposed to do, or if we have failed not to do the things out of faith, the place to come is the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Brethren, It is only in Jesus Christ that our consciences are going to be free in a biblical way. Why are we going to find ourselves defining ways of life in which we put ourselves just to appease our consciences in a fleshly way, living lives of lack of power and not having the freedom of victory over sin?

Only the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled that which is required so that through His blood, our consciences will be cleansed from dead works and we'll be ready and equipped to serve the living God that sent His only begotten Son to love us and to give His life for us. Brethren, my only intention with the many repetitious and very long words that I have spoken to you is this, that brethren, we will be careful to be righteous before the Lord. brother, sister, dear friend, children, whoever is in Christ, that you will be very careful with your mind, that you will be very careful with your heart, that you will be very careful with your eyes, that you will be very careful with your hands, that you will be very careful with the things that you think and the things that you're given to. The Lord is meant to be the Lord of our hearts. The Lord is meant to be the Lord of our whole being, that we should be very careful with the temptations of this world and the temptations that are inside of us.

There's more agreement in our flesh with the things of the world than in our flesh with the things of the Lord. Our flesh is in enmity with the things of Christ. Brethren, forget everything that I've said, as perhaps many of you will do. But brethren, that this will be in your mind, that we ought to be very careful when it comes to practical righteousness, that we are to be very careful to do works that have been prepared before, and that we will walk in them, that Christ Jesus will be enthroned in the things that we say and think and see, that we will not be tempted to live lives of just simply repetitious activity. Kids, children, That you will not be contempt just by sitting there and appeasing the conscience of your parents just by being here, but rather that we will decide to live our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brethren, a clear conscience by the Lord is powerful. It opens your eyes in the morning and you are joyful. Not with the burden of a commandment that I don't want to do, that I have to do. Not with a Bible that I have to read so that I will tick the box in my plan and read in it every day so that I will not fall behind. Not with the prayers that I have to pray through a list of names that I have written in a piece of paper that my mind and my heart forgets so that I need to write it there.

But rather, brothers and sisters, that the mind and the love of Christ is so powerful in you that we open our eyes and that we love our Savior more. that we're taken by the affections of the Savior more, that we want to speak to Him not because of duty, but because we love Him, that we want to love one another not because we have to do it, but rather because the Spirit of Christ is moving in us generally. That's the only way that we're going to be counted all when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience, and let patience have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. It is only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, may the Lord give us the grace that is needed to set the eyes of our hearts in Christ alone, not in religion and systems, but in His Word, and that we will decide genuinely to follow Him and not to follow ourselves.

Amen.