The Gospel According to Righteousnesses | 1 John 2:1

All right, we sing, those are some good hymns that we sang today.

They're actually very relevant to what I'm going to be preaching about. As you can see, the title of today's sermon is,

Our Sin -Bearing Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous, based on 1

John 2, verse 1. Go ahead and open up your

Bibles to the letter of 1 John 2. Now, this is a very dense passage that we're dealing with here, so I'm going to focus this sermon primarily on the first verse because there's so much to unpack there.

The last time I preached on 1 John, we concluded the chapter 1 and ended on what the proper response should be when we actually commit sin, as opposed to thinking we sin when we fail to satisfy the unreasonable demands of legalists who guilt -trip the flock of God into always doing more than they actually should.

The proper response to actual sin is to repent, confess your sins, your specific sins, plural, as John instructs us, to seek forgiveness, to forgive, reconcile, and mortify your sin and your flesh.

As 1 John 1 .9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We here, referring to us, believers. It is good and necessary for us to confess our sins to God daily in our prayers and against those we've sinned against.

Remember also the Lord's Prayer in the Fifth Petition to forgive us our debts, our sins, as we forgive our debtors.

And also the Westminster Larger Catechism's definition of prayer in question 178.

What is prayer? Prayer is an offering up of our desires and to God in the name of Christ, by the help of His Spirit, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.

To that, I would just add, in accordance with His Word, praying according to God's Word. Confession of sin is a vital ingredient to our daily prayers.

And also remember not to let imbalanced preachers ensnare you with legalistic burdens and a false sense of guilt that is not grounded in the

Word of God. This brings us now to Chapter 2 of 1

John's letter. So let's go ahead and open up there and this will be our main text today.

I'm going to read the first six verses and then focus on the first verse. Starting in verse 1.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says

I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Amen. So I'm reading the ESV by the way for the most part.

And now to focus on the first verse in 1st

John chapter 2 verse 1, which says my little children.

I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. So that you may not sin.

We need to stop right there before we even finish the verse. We need to reflect on this a little bit more.

It's really amazing how much God speak to us in such a simple yet profound statement.

I write these things to you so that you may not sin. Ask yourself this.

Is it one of your life's goals to not sin? Is your aim in life to not sin?

How important is it for you to avoid sin in your life? To not commit sin.

To be free from the snares and temptations of sin. What price are you willing to pay to avoid sin?

What cost are you willing to sacrifice to not sin? In the series that I preached on church discipline,

I also highlighted this. Do you recognize and take the exceeding sinfulness of sin seriously and its destructive effects?

Romans 7 13 in the Amplified Version says, Did that which is good, the law, then become death to me?

Certainly not. But sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, was producing death in me by using this good thing as a weapon.

So that through the commandment, sin would become exceedingly sinful. 1

Corinthians 5 6 through 8 likewise says, Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

That one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I want us to get a good grasp of what the Bible tells us about sin and how we should approach it, how we should deal with it.

And this has been one of the main subjects of 1 John's letter, John's first letter. Jesus himself gives a fearful warning of sin and its consequences.

If you turn with me now to Matthew 5 29, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 verse 29.

In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 verse 29, our

Lord says, If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body should be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Ask yourself again, do you take the sin in your life this seriously?

Remember, however, that Jesus frequently used figures of speech whenever he taught.

In this case, he used hyperbole or exaggeration and does so frequently in what is often referred to as the hard sayings of Jesus.

This being one of them. These hard sayings are frequently tortured and abused by superficial, imbalanced teachings like the

Lordship Salvation of John MacArthur, Paul Washer, and so on. They'll often say things like, you need to be radical.

You need to be hardcore and do more extreme things for God. But Jesus does not mean that you should literally tear your eye out or cut your hand off.

What he means is that you should take sin seriously, for your life depends on it.

That is literally true. And take drastic measures to purge it from your life if necessary.

For example, if you struggle with pornography, stay away from the

Internet. It's kind of like in the movie Fireproof. It's a little corny, but where the husband in that movie struggles with porn and one day gets convicted enough to bash his computer to pieces with a baseball bat.

That's one example of how we should abstain and flee from sin.

Another good example from the Bible is of how we should flee from sin is in the same way that Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife.

When he tried to commit adultery, she tried to commit adultery with him in Genesis 39.

The Apostle John, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, uses a term of endearment, my little children, because he loves and cares for God's people so much that he wrote this letter for the express purpose that you may not sin.

And not just of this letter, but sin is a central focus of practically the entire

Bible. So if you find yourself in a church that doesn't talk about sin, you're in the wrong place.

The Scriptures have a great deal to say about sin. Later on,

John even further admonishes us that 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.

He cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. But 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.

That's 1 John 3, verses 8 -10. So again, what does your life say about you?

What does your life reveal about where you stand? Does your life show you to be a child of God or a child of the devil?

Those are the only two options. One or the other. So now it's time for another very important public service announcement.

I don't want you to be confused because I'm preaching this hard against sin and equally hard against Lordship Salvation.

Lordship Salvation makes the fatal mistake of twisting Jesus' words into obligating everyone to be radical, to sell all you have, to do full -time ministry because of their faulty hermeneutic that results in overgeneralizing many of Jesus' hard sayings when they were only meant for a particular audience or they were hyperbole and so on.

That is not what the Bible commands. And I encourage you to listen to the

Lordship Salvation classes I did a few years ago for more information on that. But the reason that I'm preaching hard against sin is because the

Bible emphatically and repeatedly commands us to not sin.

And this is exactly what 1 John is telling us all throughout the letter.

This also does not mean that it's okay to sin every now and then or on occasion as long as it doesn't become a pattern.

Do not be deceived. That is not what this means.

It does mean, according to the whole counsel of God, that we should always strive to avoid sin, take drastic measures if necessary, put to death our earthly members by denying our flesh, our bodies, and to repent of and confess our sins daily.

This is the goal and this is the determination that we all must have as a church with respect to sin.

This is very important. And I'd like us to turn now to Hebrews 3 verse 12.

Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12.

God says, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living

God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Amen. That is how serious sin is and that is how seriously we must take it.

Now, let's continue with the verse in 1 John chapter 2 verse 1.

Having said that, back in 1

John chapter 2 verse 1, we read,

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. A hearty amen to that.

Praise God for that. Even though we as redeemed saints still sin every day and fall short, not because we licentiously disregard

God's commands, for if you did, you would likely not be a Christian at all.

But because of our fallen, unredeemed bodies, because of our flesh, we nevertheless have a divine, human advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is gracious and merciful, for if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

According to 1 John 1 .9. To that we should all say, Hallelujah, what a

Savior. Amen. Now, the word advocate here is parakleton in the

Greek. It also means lawyer or defense attorney. No other

New Testament writer uses it but John in his Gospel when referring to the

Holy Spirit, such as John 14 .16 -17. If you turn with me there to John 14 .16

-17. In the

Gospel of John 14 .16 -17.

Our Lord says, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper, or advocate, or counselor.

The King James here uses the word comforter. Parakleton. To be with you forever, even the

Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows

Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. So the

Holy Spirit is our other advocate. Jesus Christ being our first advocate.

Parakleton is also where we get the word pericle. Pericle. Which according to the

Lexham Bible Dictionary, 1 John 2 .1 labels

Jesus Himself as a pericle. Describing Him as a mediator, who pleads with His Father on behalf of His followers in light of His atoning work.

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as another, alos, another of the same kind of pericle in John 14 .16.

This suggests that He is Jesus' personal substitute and representative. He is distinguished from Jesus, but functions much the same in His absence.

Like Jesus, the pericle would reveal and interpret truth, while convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

It's common to refer to the Holy Spirit as our pericle. But we must understand that Jesus is also our pericle.

And what a glorious reality this is. That Jesus is our righteous advocate.

Our pericle before the Father by faith alone, apart from works. And yet this amazing doctrine is constantly under assault today.

By the destructive heresies of final justification or final salvation.

John Piper, for example, wreaks havoc when he says, Before we enter the final state of glory with our resurrection bodies on the new earth, we will stand before Christ as judge.

The deeds of this life will be the public criteria of judgment in the resurrection, because our works are the evidence of the reality of our faith.

Piper's words completely undermine the Apostle John's words.

God's words. Because Christ is now our righteous advocate and is therefore no longer our judge.

He is our defense attorney, not our judge.

The Bible does teach, however, that everyone, including believers, shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

That's Romans 14, 12. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are well known to God.

That's 2 Corinthians 5, verses 10 -11. But because believers are already justified, already regenerated and adopted by God, and will be resurrected and glorified by Christ upon his return, they will not face

God, face Christ as judges, but as loving father on the one hand and gracious advocate on the other.

Not to see if they're worthy of heaven, because they already had gained heaven and eternal life the moment they believed.

John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his unique Son, that those believing in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

But this is to be rewarded for their good works, which will be revealed by fire in 1

Corinthians 3, verses 11 -15. If we turn there now, in 1

Corinthians 3, verses 11 -15. This is very important to rightly divide the word of God, because so many today butcher this teaching into a false gospel.

In 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 -15. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is

Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on his foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear.

For the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

This passage is one that the Roman Catholic Church uses to justify the doctrine of purgatory, which has nothing to do with the concept of a future punishment or purging of our sins that we couldn't satisfy in this life through penance and the sacraments of the

Catholic Church. That is not what this is about. First of all,

Jesus settled it all on the cross where he said, It is finished.

Amen? Bear in mind though that this passage in Corinthians refers primarily to God's workers in particular, not to all believers in general.

If you read the whole thing in context, you'll see that. But specifically to the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers of the church.

Those who are God's workers, whereas the church is God's building,

God's field. So don't be deceived by false teachers who fail to heed the scriptures and the historic expressions of sound doctrine.

We should therefore wholeheartedly embrace the sound words of the Belgian Confession in condemning any and all teaching that subverts the finished work of Christ as enormous blasphemy.

The Confession asserts, We believe that for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery, the

Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ with all his merits and makes him its own, and no longer looks for anything else apart from him.

For it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is not in Christ, or if all is in him, then he who has

Christ by faith has his salvation entirely. Therefore, to say that Christ is not enough, but that something else is needed as well, is a most enormous blasphemy against God.

For it then would follow that Jesus Christ is only half a Savior. And therefore we justly say with Paul that we are justified by faith alone, or by faith apart from works of the law.

Amen. Now, I want us to go back to 1

John 2 verse 1, back to our original text, and take a closer look at the powerful phrase at the end of that verse.

In 1 John 2 verse 1, we see,

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an

Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Jesus Christ the

Righteous. A very profound, a very deep, simple, yet extremely, extraordinarily profound statement.

Jesus Christ the Righteous. Ask yourself this.

Can you apply this adjective to yourself? Can you apply the word righteous to yourselves?

The Bible, I've recently been digging deeper into the subject of righteousness and its relation to justification.

The Bible describes different kinds of righteousnesses with respect to God and man, which in turn summarize the entire story of the

Bible and reveal the gospel to us. I want you to join me on this journey.

I got some of this from the Concise Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. We're going to take a look at a number of these righteousnesses, six in particular.

Number one is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is the sole, ultimate, perfect standard of what is right and wrong.

God is the Supreme Judge and Lawgiver and Righteous One.

And whatever He does is good and right because He does it, not because He submits to a moral standard outside of Himself.

He alone is righteous. Deuteronomy 32 .4 says,

The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice, are righteous.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is

He. If you recall the passage in the

Gospel of Mark and in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus has a conversation with the rich young ruler.

And the rich young ruler tells Jesus, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says in Mark 10 .18, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. So if you had any doubts about whether you were righteous or not,

Jesus said, you are not. We'll see there's a lot more to say about that shortly.

God alone is righteous. Amen. The original, so number two, the original righteousness of our first parents before they fell, before they sinned in the garden,

Adam and Eve. Ecclesiastes 7 .29

says, See, this alone I found that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

So man was made upright, but he fell. He sinned and lost what in historic, the historic doctrine of the church is referred to as original righteousness.

Note something very important about this kind of righteousness. Original righteousness does not include perfect obedience to the law.

It only includes blamelessness with respect to sin. It means that Adam and Eve were righteousness in the sense that they did not sin prior to eating the forbidden fruit, but they were not perfectly obedient to the law.

In order to do that, they had to pass that trial, that test in the garden and they failed.

So that's original righteousness. Now, the third kind of righteousness is the false or self -righteousness of radically depraved sinners and legalists who think that they can earn a right standing with God by their own good works, by their own works, their good works, quote unquote.

Let's go ahead and turn to Isaiah 64, verse 6. This is important to see with our eyes,

I think. Isaiah 64, verse 6. Also a very good verse for evangelism.

When confronting sinners like the rich young ruler who think they have kept the law from their youth up, who think they are righteous by their own works.

Isaiah 64, verse 6 says, But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.

We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

That is why we are not righteous. That is, it is impossible for a natural born sinner in Adam to be righteous.

Also, Romans 3. If we turn to Romans 3, chapter 3, verse 10.

Another very important passage. This should effectively eliminate any shred of self -righteousness that you hope to have.

Romans 3, starting in verse 10. As it is written,

There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless.

There is none who does good, not even one. So, to put it mildly, you do not want to answer

God with that kind of righteousness on Judgment Day. You are going to need a more perfect righteousness than that.

Amen? That brings us to our fourth righteousness.

The righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is what 1

John is talking about. Jesus Christ, the righteous. His righteousness is a category all on its own.

It is also known as His active and passive obedience. Because Christ was born under the law.

Under the curse of the law. And in addition to maintaining perfect sinlessness,

He alone obeyed the law perfectly. He alone satisfied all its legal demands.

He alone fulfilled the covenant of works that Adam broke and failed miserably.

He alone became the spotless, sin and wrath bearing

Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Amen?

Hebrews 4 .15 says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

That is Jesus Christ, our ultimate high priest. Matthew 5 .17

-18 says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly

I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass away from the law until all is accomplished.

1 Peter 2 .22 -24 says,

He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed. And a nice verse to capstone this amazing righteousness is

Romans 5 .19. Go ahead and turn with me there to Paul's letter to the

Romans in chapter 5 .19. This is a powerful, very powerful verse.

Romans 5 .19 says,

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

These are the covenantal mediators, Adam and Christ.

Adam of the former, Christ of the latter. Adam was the head of the first covenant that failed because they disobeyed

God and brought the entire posterity of the human race under guilt and condemnation.

Like Romans 5 .12 says, guilt and condemnation. But Jesus Christ's righteousness,

His active and passive obedience, earned His perfect righteousness.

He earned it on our behalf. Now, which brings us to the fifth kind of righteousness known as imputed righteousness.

Imputed righteousness applies to believers alone, whereby as sinners they are legally declared righteous or justified through repentance and faith alone.

Repentance. A change of mind. A change of conviction and faith to understand, to understand and to assent, to agree with the

Gospel. The very righteousness that we are talking about here. All of this is done apart from works because God imputes both their sin on Christ and His righteousness on them.

It's called double imputation. Such as in 2 Corinthians where it says that He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So, to impute means in this case, to legally reckon or charge to your account.

To legally reckon or charge to your account. To your legal status before God.

Romans 4 verses 3 -8 If we turn there, turn with me there to Romans 4 verses 3 -8.

We will see what this righteousness is about. In Romans 4 verses 3

For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, credited, imputed.

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted, not credited as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts or credits or reckons or imputes righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the

Lord will not count his sin. Can you guess why

God will not count your sin if you believe in Christ? Because Christ bore your sin on that cross, on that tree, if you believe and trust in Him alone.

That's the only way. That is the only way you can call yourself righteous.

The only way you can call yourself righteous is through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone.

Now, this is the kind of righteousness that we need.

It is the only perfect righteousness that man has ever produced. Ever in the history of man or anyone in the future.

No one else is capable of what Jesus Christ, the person and work of Jesus Christ, did and which can only be received by faith alone in Him.

I like what the Westminster Lodger Catechism says in this question 72.

What is justifying faith? Justifying faith is a saving grace wrought in the heart of a sinner by the

Spirit and Word of God whereby He, being convinced of His sin and misery and of the disability in Himself and all other creatures to recover

Him out of His lost condition, His condemned estate in other words, not only ascends to the truth, agrees to the truth of the promise of the

Gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and His righteousness alone.

Therein held forth for pardon of sin for pardon of sin and for the accepting and accounting, imputing of His person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.

Amen. So, this brings us now to our final righteousness.

I just realized I could have added another one. This other righteousness is the renewed righteousness.

It's called renewed righteousness which also applies exclusively to believers.

Another term more popularly known that it's known by is sanctification.

This is renewed righteousness because having been declared righteous in Christ through faith alone, the believer now grows in the likeness of Christ being renewed and conformed to the image of God and becomes actively righteous in moral character and in obedience to God's law.

That is, both becomes and continues to be and grows in sanctification.

Romans 8, 3 -4 says, For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do.

By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the

Spirit. This is why Jesus had to come. No one else could do what

Jesus did. He had to come. He had to live a perfect life. And He had to die a vicarious, propitiatory sacrifice to bear the wrath of God that we deserve for being unrighteous, wicked sinners.

In Adam. Now, Romans 8, 29 -30 very powerful passage as well.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified.

And those whom He justified, He also glorified. Amen? This is a nice fitting end because I just realized

I could have listed a 7th righteousness and that's a righteousness of glorification.

Because when Christ comes back, the first thing He's going to do is give us all who believe in His Gospel will be immediately glorified and receive perfect glorified bodies and be perfectly righteous.

All on account of Christ, His work, and His death. Imputed to our account by faith alone.

So this fascinating journey is really the meta -narrative of the

Bible. It is the story of the entire Bible. It is the Gospel according to righteousnesses.

I thought that was pretty clever. It also amazes me how

John encapsulates the major themes of the Bible in just one verse.

The one verse that we read. 1 John 2, verse 1. My little children,

I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Here we see

God, man, sin, righteousness, and our mediator, our advocate, our paraclete,

Jesus Christ the righteous. Jesus Christ, the only righteous advocate.

Solus Christus. Christ alone. Amen? And there's a lot of good hymns.

We sang some good hymns that I could have read from today. But I had another one here that very nicely encapsulates

Jesus Christ, our righteous advocate. Arise, my soul, arise.

Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears.

Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above for me to intercede.

His all -redeeming love, His precious blood to plead. His blood atoned for every race and sprinkles now the throne of grace.

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the presence of His Son.

His Spirit answers to the blood and tells me I am born of God.

To God I am reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear. He owns me for His child.

I can no longer fear. With confidence I now draw nigh. And Father, Abba, Father, cry.

And all God's people gave a hearty amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.