Will you turn with me to 1 John
chapter 3 and we are going to read
verses 1 to 3 this morning as the
basis of our meditation.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not because it
knew him not.
Beloved now are we the sons of God
and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be but we know that when he
shall appear we shall be like him for
we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in
him purifieth himself even as he is pure.
For the benefit of visitors may I say
that we are continuing our studies in the
first epistle of John and we have just
concluded the first round of tests that John
applies to those who are professing to be
Christian but who probably are not.
John is particularly concerned with those who have
turned out to be heretical, who have left
the fellowship, who have abandoned the Christian church
and its membership and who have organized a
kind of counter movement not all that far
away it would appear.
John insists that you may recognize a Christian.
You may test a man's profession of faith.
There are three tests that he has already
applied once each.
There is the test of obedience, then there
is the test of love of other Christian
people and then there is the test of
belief.
A genuine Christian says John will always be
known in this way.
He will obey the will and the word
of God.
Oh he may fall occasionally but his goal
is and his general habit of life is
one of obedience.
He will also love the Christian fellowship.
He may find it difficult to get on
with some people from time to time but
because he is a forgiven man, because he
is a child of God he will forgive
and he will get as only a child
of God can do.
And then this a genuine Christian will always
believe that Jesus is the son of God
and everything that is consistent with that.
Here then are the three tests.
Now John has applied them once and he's
going to apply them again and then again
but there's a difference.
To those of you who are studying this
epistle very carefully you will notice that in
applying the test the first time, John's base
as it were, the base from which he
worked was this.
He made a major statement in chapter one
verse five saying this.
This is the message.
God is light and in him is no
darkness at all.
Now he says if you say that you
have fellowship with God who is light you
yourself will be a person who walks in
the light and walking in the light of
God's nature and of God's will means this.
It means obedience to his word, it means
love for his people, it means faith in
his son.
Now when we come to the section that
really began with verse 28 in chapter two
and goes on to verse 10 of chapter
four which deals with the second round of
applying the same test, John starts off from
a slightly different base.
It's related but some people say that he's
moving higher in the scale of importance.
I'm not sure about that.
But this is how he starts now.
This is the base.
It is this.
God is righteous and if you are a
child of a God who is righteous you
will act righteously.
You'll do the right thing.
The right thing in relation to God is
to obey him.
The right thing in relation to God's people
is to love them.
The right thing in relation to God's son
is to trust him.
Now this morning we are concerned only with
that base.
The presupposition which is this, that we are
the children of God and therefore fundamentally this
morning I'm looking only at the first two
though we have read the first three verses
in 1 John chapter 3.
Come then with me and let's look and
see what is involved here basically which should
make us righteous.
Righteous in the sense that we do what
is right in relation to God, in relation
to his people and in relation to his
son.
Now if we were doing the whole three
verses there are three main thoughts here.
I'll give them to you but the last
we shall have to leave over and we'll
take up the thread again.
Three main thoughts woven together here are these.
The love of the Father and our present
identity.
That's the first.
Behold says John, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God.
The love of the Father and our present
identity.
The second is this, the appearing of the
Son and our ultimate glory.
Beloved he says now are we the sons
of God and it does not yet appear
what we shall be but we know that
when he appears we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is.
The love of the Father and our present
identity.
The appearing of the Son and our ultimate
glory and then thirdly and you see this
is the base, this is working it out,
this is applying it.
The child nature and the child's hope and
our consequent beauty and every man that hath
this hope in him purifies himself even as
he is pure.
If I'm a child of God says John,
this is the application in principle.
If I'm a child of God, born of
him and I have the hope of being
transformed to his glory then I just sit
down and do nothing, not on your life.
If I have all this he says then
I purify myself and the passage going from
verse four to verse ten expounds what that
means in the first place and on to
the tenth verse of chapter four it continues
the same theme.
Now then let's look at the first two
of these three main thoughts that are woven
into our text.
The love of the Father and our present
identity.
I hope you can all say with John
this morning, say it from the heart.
I hope there is no one here who
is outside of this this morning.
See says John what love the Father has
given us that we should be called the
children of God and so we are.
I'm quoting now from the revised standard version.
Look first of all at the unique quality
of God's love.
God stresses that.
The King James Version rendering serves to bring
out John's continued amazement as he contemplates love
for sinners.
I rather like that.
Behold he says and you know it's the
word of a discoverer.
You're looking for something, you're on a treasure
hunt and one person says to the here
it is, behold here it is.
Now John has known the love of God
in Christ for over 60 years.
He's an old man.
But the thrill of it, the wonder of
it, the marvels of it, the mystery of
it, the length and breadth and depth and
height of it never ceases to move him.
And when he thinks about it, he's been
talking about other things.
But when he thinks about this, he says
here it is again.
And the old man's excited.
You see, he's living in it.
The only people who don't get excited about
the love of God are the people that
don't live in it.
Behold he says what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us that we should
be called the children of God.
Now the Greek word translated what manner is
the key here.
Originally it meant of what country.
You may wonder how this fits in here.
Behold love of what country is it that
we should be called the sons of God.
Now what John is saying you see is
this.
He is wanting to impress upon his readers
that the love that has constituted us the
sons of God so that we can be
called his children is not the kind or
quality of love that is produced by any
single nation.
It is not a kind of love that
has been generated or produced or expressed by
any people others.
It doesn't come from any man or any
group of men or any nation of men.
This love is not to be generated among
men in the first place.
It can only come into the human heart
if it is imported from a realm beyond
men.
Behold what manner of love, love of what
country.
It's from outside.
It didn't originate with man.
It has originated beyond man.
It's the love of God himself.
The apostle Paul puts it very beautifully when
he says in Romans 5.8 God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we
were yet sinners, while we were yet sinners,
lost, guilty, condemned, vile, wretched, alienated
from God, his enemies.
God gave his son to die for us.
That Christ died for us then.
That's the love of God.
God commends his love towards us on that
score that when we were in that condition
Christ his son, Christ his anointed one died
for us.
Not just came to teach us.
He didn't simply come and talk to us.
That would be wonderful.
He came and died for us.
The unique quality of the love of God,
you don't find anything like this love anywhere
on earth unless God has produced it in
the hearts of men.
The unique quality of the love of God,
the unique benefits of the love of God,
it is expressed here, says John, very especially
in that we should be called the children
of God and so we are.
Now can I stress the three statements that
are involved there.
A children of God.
What does it mean to be a child
of God?
Now if you're studying the New Testament as
you ought to, you will know that there
are two main words used in the New
Testament for this.
Two main words.
There are others but two main ones.
And it's very important for an understanding of
the whole biblical doctrine and teaching to know
the meaning of the two.
Speaking generally, not exclusively, but speaking generally, the
Apostle Paul uses one and again speaking generally,
the Apostle John uses another.
And they compliment one another.
Now because the Apostle Paul speaks so much
about the doctrine of adoption, the term that
he uses for becoming a child of God,
children of God, is a term which refers
to the objective status that is involved in
adoption.
When a child is adopted, it really becomes
a member of the family.
And when Paul speaks of a child, the
word for child means especially or has special
reference to that status of the child.
He's received in, he's one of us from
now on.
He really is a member of the family.
He has the child status.
Now when the Apostle John, and I'm speaking
generally, when the Apostle John refers to us
being children of God, he uses a different
word and the emphasis is different.
The emphasis now is not so much upon
the objective status, but upon the subjective capacity
to be a child of God.
That we have the child nature, that we
have the mind of a child of God,
and the disposition of a child of God,
and the will of a child of God,
and the concerns of a child of God.
And that's what we have here.
Oh, we should behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called not just His adopted children,
but children who have His own nature.
Children who can live the life of the
family.
Children who can be like our Father by
His grace.
Now these two terms, of course, have to
be brought together.
Adoption is a very beautiful thing.
I never cease to wonder at it.
I'm sure you don't.
And the child belonging, you don't know quite
to whom, is received with open arms into
a family.
And a couple say to this little mite,
now from now on you belong to us.
And they put their arms around it and
they offer their love to it and they
say, we mean to nurse you and to
bring you up your hours.
God does that.
And I hope every one of us knows
what it is today to be clasped within
the arms of God from having been children
of Satan and of wrath, being brought within
the family and the household of God and
made His.
But now God does something else that no
adopting parents can do in this world.
God is God.
When God adopts a child, He breathes His
own spirit into him.
He imparts His own nature to the child
that's coming into the family.
So that every incoming child is capable by
the new birth, by the spirit that is
given him or her, to live the life
of the home.
There are no misfits in God's home.
No one will be cast out of the
New Jerusalem because not that defileth shall ever
enter in.
God endows His children with His own nature.
Oh, says John, I can't think of it
without getting excited.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us that we should be called
the children of God in this rich sense.
We've been redeemed out from bondage and tyranny
and death.
We've been invited into the family and installed
as such and given the objective status.
And we have the Father's spirit in our
hearts, that we should be called the sons
of God.
The question is, by whom?
Who calls us sons of God?
I've never asked myself this question until comparatively
recent times.
But what is John referring to?
You see, the world never calls a Christian
a child of God.
Have you noticed that?
Whatever the man of the world called you
and called me, they'll never refer to us
as children of God.
That's a very elevated title.
They may call you Christians.
Perhaps they'll call you Presbyterians or Baptists or
what have you.
But very rarely, if ever, will the man
of the world call a Christian a child
of God.
No, no, no.
They don't know God and they don't know
anything about this kind of status that is
given to us.
Who then calls us children of God?
That we should be called the children of
God.
By whom?
I believe there's only one ultimate answer to
that.
That is this, by God Himself.
By God Himself.
You remember what happens, according to the Apostle
Paul, when we become Christian?
Galatians 4, God sends forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father.
The Spirit of Sonship in us enables us
to cry to God, Father, Father.
Now, I believe that what John is referring
to is the response of the Father to
the child cry that the Spirit generates in
us.
When we cry, Father, out of the experience
of the new birth and of redemption, He
says to us, My child.
You know that?
I think that this is what the Apostle
Paul is referring to in Romans 8, 15
and 16 when he says, When we cry,
Abba, Father, it is the Spirit Himself bearing
witness with our spirits that we are the
children of God.
My child.
That we should be called by God His
children.
And then, says John, you don't have this
in the King James Version, by the way,
as some of you will have noticed.
But there are words that are included in
the Revised Standard Version and later translations.
And so we are.
Now, the reason why they're introduced into these
later translations is that since the King James
Version was brought into existence, we have new
manuscripts which are older.
They go back beyond the manuscripts that were
available when the King James Version was brought
into existence.
And in the oldest manuscripts to extent today,
we have these words, And so we are.
And I would thank God for the archaeological
spade if it were only for these three
words, four words.
And so we are.
This is no vain title for a Christian.
That we should be called the sons of
God.
You say, well, there isn't much to that,
is there, Ralph?
We are called the children of God by
God because we are the children of God.
The world may not recognize us, says John.
Well, as a matter of fact, he says,
the world didn't even recognize God incarnate in
His Son.
So don't be surprised, he says, if the
world doesn't recognize you.
The world will never recognize you unless the
Holy Spirit reveals you to the world.
And then the world ceases to be the
world.
The world as such will never recognize you
as a child of God.
The world didn't recognize Him.
But the fact remains, and so we are.
Take a good look at this imponderably wonderful
love, says John.
Behold it.
Men and women, come with me this morning.
I trust in a spirit of worship.
Sit where you are and look away from
this congregation.
And see the God of grace with the
imagination of your soul.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us.
That we, that you, that I, should be
called His children.
And so we are.
The old New England Puritan John Cotton, you
know.
Old Puritans had some quint sayings.
And he says here, there's a quote, here's
a quote from him.
The apostle, he says, desireth to correct our
squint.
Now you good doctors, I don't know what
you make of this, but he says, generally
speaking, we Christians squint.
We don't see things clearly and we don't
see things straight ahead of us.
What the apostle wants to do is to
get us to look straight into His wonderful
face.
See the grace of God without a squint.
And I suggest to you, if you and
I do nothing else today than this, it
will serve us in good stead in days
that are to come.
Behold, behold what manner of love it is
that God has bestowed upon us.
That we should be called His children.
And so we are.
The love of God and our present identity.
Now the second main thread here.
The appearing of God's Son and our ultimate
glory as the children of God.
Beloved, we are God's children now.
It does not yet appear what we shall
be.
But we know that when He appears, we
shall be like Him.
For we shall see Him as He is.
Having reiterated the certified assurance of our present
status as God's children, John now proceeds to
speak of our future destiny in terms of
what we do not know and of what
we do.
There's an intermingling here, says John, of certainty
and uncertainty.
Now first of all, there's a measure of
uncertainty about the Christian's future.
It does not yet appear what we shall
be.
Mark, he doesn't say it does not yet
appear who we shall be.
We're the sons of God now.
And because we're the sons of God already,
we shall always be the sons of God.
Neither does John say that there is any
doubt as to where we shall be.
Jesus said, I will come and receive you
to be with myself.
There's no question about that.
But there is a doubt here.
It doesn't yet appear as just what we
shall be.
Now what's he getting at?
Well, there's the same kind of mystery about
the Christian's future as there is between the
present and the future of a flower in
the bud and its ultimate development into full
bloom.
We've had some lovely flowers given us in
the home this last week, many of them
in the bud.
They're very beautiful in the bud.
If you try and imagine what the full
bloom is going to be like, you just
can't do it because every flower is different.
It's the same and yet different.
You cannot foretell anything that will develop as
the bud becomes the flower in full bloom.
Nor can you foresee and foretell what a
true child of God will eventually become when
the flower of grace has come to full
bloom.
The ultimate reality will far surpass our most
mature guesses, even though such guesses are based
on what we really know.
Who of us can imagine what we shall
be by the grace of God, the grace
already manifested in making us His children?
But there's an abiding certainty, says John.
There is one certainty and this gives birth
to many other certainties.
But here it is, we know this, he
says, that when He appears, not if He
appears, we know that He's going to appear.
When He appears, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is.
Now, there are three related thoughts here to
which I want to refer.
And I'll give them in the logical order.
First of all, He shall appear.
There's no doubt it's all about this, says
John.
This is one of the certainties, He shall
appear, He will appear.
This describes the point of reference upon which
everything else in the statement hinges.
John anticipates a day when there will be
a great unveiling, that is one of the
big New Testament words about the future as
it relates to Jesus Christ, the apocalypse.
There's a mighty apocalyptic moment coming when the
curtain of blue that has hidden the face
of the ascended Lord for nearly 2,000
years, that curtain of blue will be torn
aside and He shall be revealed.
But then, says John, and this is the
word that he uses here, He shall be
manifested.
We shall see Him as He is, and
every eye shall see Him.
And they also which pierced Him.
And the saints will dance at His glory,
and sinners will cringe before Him.
He shall appear.
My friend, today in our evangelistic endeavors, we
ask, what will you do with Jesus Christ?
Then the question will be, what will He
do with me, with you?
When He comes in His unrivaled glory and
is manifested.
The second main statement here is this, we
shall see Him as He is.
We shall see Him.
Now, this presupposes much for many of us.
We shall have died and we shall have
been buried, and this presupposes the resurrection.
The trumpet shall sound and the dead in
Christ shall be raised incorruptible.
But we shall see Him, says John, as
He is.
And yet the emphasis here in this statement
does not fall upon the fact that we
shall see Him, but rather upon the fact
that we shall see Him as He is.
As He is.
Now, there's a subtlety there.
When Jesus Christ returns, we shall not see
Him as He was, but we shall see
Him as He is.
The view that we shall have of Him
is not of the carpenter's son in poverty,
lonely, despised and forsaken.
The view that we shall have of Him
is not as astounder or cursed upon a
tree.
No, no.
The view that we shall have of Him
is of Him as He is now, not
as He was then.
Now, Jesus Christ as He was, was glorious.
You know, I want to sing this morning.
You forgive me.
I won't.
It's all right.
But I want to say hallelujah.
Jesus Christ as He was, was glorious, my
good people, says John, the very writer of
this epistle, and we beheld His glory, the
glorious of the only begotten of the Father,
as if all the glory of the Godhead
was canalized into one child, not shared with
anyone else, the glorious of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full
of truth.
We saw that, he says.
Says Peter, we can't forget that we were
with Him on the holy mountain.
We saw His excellency, His majesty.
As for a moment, the veil of flesh
was torn away, as it were, and the
glory of His inner being shone out through
the flesh.
We can't forget that.
He was glorious in the days of His
flesh, glorious in His teaching, glorious in His
example, glorious in His life, glorious in His
suffering, glorious in His resurrection.
But, my friend, all that pales into insignificance
alongside of the glory that is His now.
Praise incorruptible, set at the Father's right hand,
crowned with glory and honor and dominion, above
every name that is named in this world
and the world to come, the King of
glory and of grace.
We shall see Him, says John, as He
is, not as He was.
As He is, as He is, in His
regal majesty and excellent deity.
Thou art coming, O my Savior.
Thou art coming, O my King, in Thy
beauty all resplendent.
Well, may we rejoice and sing.
Now, the last thought.
Have you got them?
He shall appear.
We shall see Him as He is.
We shall be like Him because that's the
cause of it.
We shall be like Him because we shall
see Him as He is.
O imponderable glory, like Him.
Yes, and still more wonderful, we shall be
like Him, not as He was, but as
He is.
You take that in.
Now, fundamentally, this is a spiritual resemblance whereby
the work of grace that has begun to
blossom in our hearts by Christ's indwelling shall
come to full bloom.
That's the image we used earlier on, and
I'll use it now again.
You see, what happens when a man becomes
a Christian is this.
There's a new fruit that is brought forth
in his heart.
It's the fruit of faith and repentance, and
the fruits of the Spirit, a new life,
the life of God in the soul of
a man, and he's born again.
But now, that fruit, that flower, if we
may so speak of it, will one day
come to full bloom.
And just as certain flowers only open fully
to the sun in all the fullness of
its glory, so will the fruit of the
Spirit, the flower of the Spirit in our
hearts, only mature and come to full bloom
when we see Him in His glory.
As He is.
It's no wonder that the saints of God
sing.
Now, insofar as faith sees Him there now,
and faith sees the unseen.
Paul says that, 2 Corinthians 4.
We look not, he says, at the things
which are seen, but at the things which
are unseen.
Faith sees Him there now.
This is the difference between a man of
the world and the Christian.
The Christian, with the eye of faith, sees
Jesus crowned.
We do not yet see everything under His
feet, but we see Jesus crowned, says the
writer to the Hebrews.
We see Him crowned with the eye of
faith.
Now, insofar as we do, there's a great
change going on in our hearts today.
Where faith is real, listen to Paul.
We all, he says, with unveiled faces, beholding
the glory of the Lord, this is by
faith, of course, are being changed into His
likeness from one degree of glory to another.
It's going on now, says Paul.
As you concentrate upon the Christ of the
Scriptures and the Christ of the throne, the
Christ who is Lord of lords and King
of kings, as your eyes are taken away
from the trivialities of earth and you center
upon the centralities of heaven, which is Christ
the Lamb slain, risen again, there's a change
going on inside.
We are being changed, says Paul.
From one degree of glory to another, it's
going on, this metamorphosis of the Spirit.
Men are being changed from what they were,
and they're becoming more like Him.
He says it again in Romans 8.
This is the thrust of Romans 8.
All things are working together, not will work
together, nor have worked together.
They have and they will, but they do
so now, says Paul, that we should be
conformed to His image.
Now, that process that is already proceeding, if
we have faith that looks to Him now
and sees Him there now, that process will
culminate one day.
The process of our present progressive sanctification will
culminate in the crisis of our eventual glorification.
But now there's something more to add to
that.
Not only will the soul be thus glorified,
as it again bears the image of its
Creator, but the flower of our glorified spirits
will indwell our equally glorified bodies.
I find this, I can't take it in.
It's too much, it's too big, it's too
large.
We, says Paul, write into the Philippians, await
the Lord Jesus Christ who will change our
lowly body to be like His glorious body
by the power which enables Him even to
subdue all things to Himself.
So then, there will be the complete transformation
of the soul within and of the body
without.
There will be the glory embossed upon the
soul within and the new body.
We shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is.
You know how I feel trying to think
of the caterpillar as caterpillar, trying to imagine
poor caterpillar, what it will be like when
it emerges from the chrysalis and becomes a
butterfly and flies freely with hues of glory
and magnificence that as a caterpillar it's never
seen yet.
In the new world, poor caterpillar, what can
it foresee?
As what John says, it does not yet
appear what we shall be.
It's too big, he says, it's too great.
I cannot say what it's going to be
like because it's beyond me.
There are certainties that we know about.
But oh, he says, one thing is enough.
When we shall see Him, we shall be
like unto Him, for we shall see Him
as He is.
Which, crystallized in the popular words of a
hymn means this, when by His grace I
shall look at His face, that will be
glory, be glory for me.
The love of the Father and our present
identity, the appearance of the Son and our
future glory, and I'm through, save only to
say this.
Now, because we are children of God now
and have the nature that corresponds to that
status, and because of the dignity that awaits
us, there are certain practical consequences.
He that has this hope in him goes
about purifying himself.
How?
Acting righteously in every respect.
Godward, obeying Him.
In relation to the saints, loving them.
In relation to the truth, believing it.
Men and women, we cannot say that we
are the children of God and live as
we please.
If you've got the nature of God this
morning because you're born again of His Spirit,
man, woman of God, I tell you, you've
got to be bound to God.
Oh, may His Spirit win us over afresh
and enable us to see the line of
duty that awaits us.
Just because we are what we are and
who we are, and because we are the
heirs of so great salvation.
No, no, the corollary is not sit down
and do nothing.
Rather, as Paul puts it to the Philippians,
work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling because God is at work within you.
Because of what God is doing and has
done, you become co-workers with God and
finish the work, exercising your child nature and
your child will until the day when He
appears.
May God bless you.
May this week see us about our Father's
business.
You sure you know what God wants for
you this week?
Be about it like a child of God.
Let us pray.
Oh, Heavenly Father, we are oftentimes speechless before
Thee as Thou knowest.
But never more so than when we contemplate
the kind of subject that is ours in
Thy Word today.
Teach us what it means and apply it
to each of us for no two of
us are quite the same and neither are
our circumstances exactly the same.
Oh, Lord, by the Spirit perfect in us
what concerns Thyself today and lead us on.
And may we grow in grace and in
the knowledge of the Savior until that day
when we shall see Him.
As He is.
Amen.