Everyday Church
How to Identify the Righteous
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Keefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friend. What's great to be back with you today on the Everyday Church podcast, and I hope you're having a great day in the Lord, and just praying for you as you go throughout the day. Hey, I wanna encourage you. We've been talking pretty regularly in our church about passionately serving Christ. I know I talked to you all about this the other day on the podcast, and so, hey, today, just a way that you can passionately serve Christ is to share the gospel with someone. Share the good news with someone. Let somebody know what it is that Christ has done for you. And a way you could do that, and in doing that, I should say, may open the door for you to get 'em to connect to this podcast and help them, again, growin' in Christ. That's what this is all about, is just gettin' people growin' together, but passionately serving Christ. As we passionately serve Him together, I think we're gonna see more people come into Christ. I just wanna encourage you to do that today, right? Just stop and tell somebody what the Lord's done for you. They're gonna think you're a little bit crazy. That's all right, you probably are, and so we'll be in encouragement to one another. So, last time we were together, we talked about the secret to doin' right, all right? And it's really not a secret at all. It's just the work of Jesus Christ in you and us yielding to that. So today, we're gonna pick up in verse seven, verse John chapter three, and really, it is just, it's the same thing, it's John kinda dopplin' down. On what he's already been sayin'. So, we kinda begin this chapter with everyone that has the hope of Christ purifyth Himself, that you can identify a believer, because through the work of the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, that individual's being purified, being cleansed, and we're seeking that out in our life. It's not something we can do, it is by God's grace, but it is something that we yield to, and we seek out, we desire and want to be cleansed. And so, we continued, last time, talking kind of about the identifiers, right, of a believer and a non-believer. A believer is someone who is going to practice sin. It's gonna be, I mean, practice righteousness. I'm sorry, let me get that right. There are some believers that practice sin, and that's a big problem, right? You can get into carnality. But we're talking about today, identifying believers and non-believers, so a believer can be identified as someone who practices righteousness, and then a lost person would be identified as someone who practices unrighteousness, or lawlessness is the way, one of the word when it talks about transgressing the law. So, as we pick up in verse seven, he says, "Little children, let no man deceive you." So look, he's already told him the things he's told him, he's doubling down, look, don't be deceived. It's really clear, it's kind of easy to detect. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. And again, a true believer will practice righteousness, right? And man's practices in righteousness are determined by his position in righteousness. And we can't state that too many times. If you can ever get that clear, man, it'll help you in your walk with the Lord. Think of it this way. In fact, because he says he gets here in a minute, in verse nine, I'll skip down there, "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin." Okay, so, so verse seven, again, identify the righteous man by his righteous works. Verse eight, identify the lost man by his sin nature and the works of sin that he commits. And here's how we go from unrighteousness to righteousness. Verse nine, "Whosoever is born of God." Whosoever is born of God. I sometimes, I wonder if we, some of our terminology that we use around people coming to Christ doesn't mess people up a little bit. We use terms like being saved, and it's true. I mean, that is one of the phrases. That's the way the Bible says it, "Whosoever called upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But I like the way John says it here, "Whosoever is born of God," right? Remember Jesus when he taught the Nicodemus and John records this in his gospel. He said that the only way you're gonna see God is to be born again. You must be born again, right? And Nicodemus had a hard time with that, right? He said, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he either enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" And Jesus, of course not. That which is born of the water and of the spirit. The water is the natural birth. The spirit is the spiritual birth, the second birth. So how does this take place? Well, John is trying to get them to understand, look, your works in righteousness are as natural to you because you're saved as me having blue eyes because I was born with blue eyes or me having brown hair because I was born with brown hair. When I was born, I remember 1977, I was born, and there was just my makeup was gonna guarantee me some things. I was gonna be, I'm gonna be short, I'm still short. Never hasn't changed yet, you know, but I'm short. Now, there's some things I can do to offset that, right? I can put some stools around my house, help me reach the top shelves and stuff like that. I found some shoes on TikTok the other day. They said that they give you like, make you three inches taller. And man, are you kidding me? I didn't even ask Tanya, I bought them things in a heartbeat, man. And so, and they really work too. So, but I'm short by nature, that's who I am. I don't have a choice in that, and I can't change that. I have, because our natural body is predisposed to maybe sicknesses, maybe some people are more likely to get cancer. I had bad eyesight since I was seven years old. You know, that's something I can't change. And so, we look at that in the natural state and it makes sense. Some people lose their hair early, you know, whatever it might be. Naturally, there's some things that are just gonna happen. That's the way it is with righteousness and unrighteousness. Listen, a man, when we're born, we're born into sin. But when we're born again, we're born into righteousness. Okay, that's the key. It's not that you're making a commit, it's not like you're signing a loan, now you gotta go make all the payments. It's not like you're saying, "Hey, I'm coming to Jesus, now I gotta do righteous." No, you come to Jesus and He gives you His righteousness. And I don't know, man, this was heavy on my heart even before I started recording this this morning. But, man, maybe you need to hear this. And maybe you have just been trying a lifetime of doing righteous and doing right. And you can't, you can't get it together. You're not gonna be able to. You're not gonna be able to. Just like I'm not gonna be able to make myself taller. Just like I'm not gonna be able to make myself have green eyes, you know, just like I'm not gonna be able to make myself have good eyesight, those things are not gonna happen. It's the same way it is with righteousness and unrighteousness. And so there's only one way, and that's the call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of righteousness is to believe on Him, to put your faith in Him, to say, "Lord, I can't do this. I need you, I need to be born again." Right? Maybe you look back and you prayed a prayer at one time and you said, "Lord, I, you know, I don't know." But I'm just saying I think a lot of times we just think salvation is this moment where I said, "Jesus saved me, and now I gotta go do right after that." And if that's your understanding of salvation, that's not a good understanding of salvation. Listen, it's His works in us. It's His works through us. It's what He provided for us on the cross. And it is not, it's not a works list any man should boast. We are His workmanship, created unto good work. So we always take those verses afterwards and we use that as a reason and now you need to go do everything right. Oh, it's His work in you doing righteousness. It's His work providing that fruit through you. He's divine, you're the branches. Every branch in me, that didn't mean bear fruit, He says, it bears fruit. And righteousness is that fruit. And so another way to think of it is this way. And maybe the biological thing don't work for you, but maybe think of it this way. So I have certain rights as an American citizen. I don't exercise those rights so I can be an American citizen. I have those rights because I'm an American citizen. I'm an American citizen first. When I was born in Barto, Florida, when I was born, I was born an American citizen. And man, upon birth, I have those rights. And so my whole life, I've been able to exercise those rights and those freedoms because I'm an American citizen. And you're a citizen of heaven. When you're born into the kingdom of God, you became a citizen of the kingdom of God. And so those rules that apply in the kingdom of God, they're not there. Those rules are not there so that you can stay a part of the kingdom of God. Are there rules that govern it 100%? The rules that we operate within the kingdom of God, 100%. We ought to love one another. John's gonna get back into that in a moment. Jesus said it, right? By this shall all men know that your mind is sighted was by the love that you have one for another. That's a rule that works within the kingdom of God. The fruits of the spirit working in us, love, joy, peace, those help us operate within the kingdom of God. But I'm not doing that in order to be a citizen of God's kingdom. I'm a citizen of God's kingdom, you could say, because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and birthing me into his family. Again, we're called the sons of God. And so that's just kind of a, he's gonna move on from this in verse 11. So next time we're together, he'll move on from this a little bit. But these verses one through 10 in this chapter, man, are just, they're so good in helping us understand that it really is you and I yielding. Is there a responsibility? 100%. I have a responsibility as an American citizen. I have a responsibility. I have a responsibility as a citizen of God's kingdom to walk with him and to be filled with the spirit, to yield to the spirit, to walk in the spirit, to walk my faith. Those are things that I have a responsibility to love one another, to be patient, to be kind. All those things are responsibilities that we have. But man, I tell you, when you can just set back and realize that, wait a minute, everything I need, everything that's required for me to operate within God's kingdom, it's been provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great, great thought as we go throughout the day today. And so I want to invite you just to share that good news with somebody, right? And man, perhaps today you're sitting there and you're like, man, I don't know, I don't know if this is my life. I don't know that maybe I'm trying to produce these good works and I need it. I just need to trust in the work of Christ. And maybe you're there today and you never trust that Christ is your Savior, friend, I want to tell you, he loves you, he wants you to call out to him, he wants you to put your faith in him, put your trust in him, he wants that, he desires that, and he's made it available to you, friend. And I encourage you today to do that. If you haven't done that, put your faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you and he'll accept that. Just call it on him, call it on the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Do that today and you won't regret it. Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer and pass this along to somebody, help somebody help, get it out there, let's work together in the kingdom of God. I don't think we do that enough but that's kind of the idea of everyday church. It just gets us out of the routine of just a Monday time to get a Sunday time together, I should say. Maybe go to church on Monday, I don't know. But whatever time you go to church, it gets us out of that routine that becomes a rut and gets us just to operate them together on a daily basis. So I want to encourage you to do that and let's just pray together. Ask the Lord to guide us and direct us as we go throughout the day. And if you need anything, please reach out to me. I want to be a help to you and encouragement to you and hey, check out our church website too. Ask2obaptist.com, that's a great place to go, get some help and you can find out how you can get linked up in next steps and find out the different things that you can do and ways you can serve and just be a part of God's wonderful work, amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for your mercies, for your goodness to us, for your love for us. Father, for your compassion that fell not. Father, great as thy faithfulness, O Lord. And we thank you for that. Father, for that one that may not know you as their savior. Today, God, today would they call upon you. Father, today Lord, would they accept the invitation of your grace? Father, I pray, be born again and a new life would begin. And Father, if that happens that they'd reach out, let us know how that we could help them and be an encouragement. We love you, praise you and thank you. In your name we pray, amen. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Everyday Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)