We Are God’s Children Now
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
One Sunday a little boy looked up at his dad and asked,
“Daddy, how does God love us?”
His father answered,
“Son, God loves us with an unconditional love.”
The lad thought for a moment and then asked,
“Daddy, what kind of love is unconditional love?”
After a few minutes of silence his father answered,
“Do you remember the two boys who used to live next door to us and the cute little puppy they got last Christmas?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember how they used to tease it, throw sticks and even rocks at it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you also remember how the puppy would always greet them with a wagging tail and would try to lick their faces?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that puppy had an unconditional love for those two boys.
They certainly didn’t deserve his love for them because they were mean to him.
But, he loved them anyway.”
The father then made his point:
“God’s love for us is also unconditional.
Men threw rocks at his Son, Jesus, and hit Him with sticks.
They even killed Him.
But, Jesus loved them anyway.”
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So, please turn your Bibles to 1 John.
We will be conducting our study in Chapter 3 and focus on verses 1 through 3.
Our message this morning is called, “We Are God’s Children Now”
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Today we will be focusing on the unconditional love that the Father has for His Children...
And we will look deeper at what it means to be a Child of God.
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Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
1 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.
2 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.
3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Love of the Father
1) The Love of the Father
Verse 1(a): See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
We really can’t fully understand the love of the Father until we realize how little we contribute to our salvation...
The only thing you contribute to your salvation...
Is your sin that put you in the position to need saving.
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You are not a child of God today because of something you did to earn it.
You are not a child of God because you did something you special that made God choose you.
We are only children of God out of the love and mercy and grace of the Father.
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It was only after God had mercy on you first that you responded to His personal call.
I can’t stress this enough...
John, in his Gospel account makes this clear.
Look with me at John 1:12–13:
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
So, who is John talking about in this verse?
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He said “all who recieved Him” and “all who believed in his name.”
Well, that is every past, present, and future follower of Christ.
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And what does John say about us as believers?
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We were not born of blood or anything based on who our ancestors are.
We are not born of the will of the flesh or by our actions or decisions.
We are not born by the will of man...
So, it is not based on a decision by me or someone else deciding for me.
We are born of God’s will...
A will He had from before the foundation of the world.
As it says in Ephesians 1:4-5:
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
Who choose us, church?
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That right...
God choose us.
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When did God choose us?
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That’s right...
God choose us before the foundation of the world.
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What did God choose to be?
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That’s right...
He choose us to be holy and blameless in His sight.
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So, as this verse says...
He predestined us for adoption as the children of God...
That is He “pre”...
Meaning before we did anything good or bad...
Meaning before we even existed...
Meaning before He created anything...
And “destination” is our final location...
Meaning eternal life.
Meaning glorification.
Meaning forever with Him.
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He choose those who would join Him based on His purpose alone and His will alone.
So, to be a child of God is a showcase of God’s ultimate mercy on sinners who deserve Hellfire.
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John is not the only one to talk about this grace shown to the children of God.
We see this throughout the whole Bible.
For example, Paul says in Romans 8:29-30:
29 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.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Pay attention to the order here...
And see just how much God is involved in our salvation.
He truly is the Author of our salvation.
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From foreknowledge to glorification it is all about God’s will and purpose...
So, we have to be thankful that He had mercy on us and that we are the object of His affection.
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Paul also says in Romans 9:8 that:
8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
The children of the promise are the ones who are counted as God’s children.
So, it is not Abraham’s physical descendents that are saved.
It is Abraham's spiritual descendants that are saved.
It’s not have the same blood line as Abraham that connects us and also show us to be children of God.
It is the gift that was given to Abraham that was accredited to him.
What was that gift?
Look with me at Romans 4:3:
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Abraham had faith.
And that faith is ultimately a gift from God as it says in Ephesians 2:8:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
So, putting this all together...
The children of God...
Are adopted due to God’s grace shown to them...
Which is a free gift through faith.
As Galatians 3:26 sums it all up for us:
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
So, we see the love of the Father on the children of God because He our of His grace calls us into salvation...
And adopts while we lived in rebellion against Him.
He adopted us for no other reason but love.
A love we fail to be able to put into human words.
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However, as beautiful and awe inspiring this great and awesome love is...
The world does not understand it...
They don’t understand perfect love...
They don’t understand God at all...
They don’t understand the Son of God...
And that is why it should be no surprise that they don’t understand you and me either.
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This is where John takes us next in his epistle.
2) No Relationship With the World
2) No Relationship With the World
Verse 1(b): The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
The world hates Jesus...
That is not a matter of opinion...
I am not exaggerating...
It is undeniable truth...
And Jesus Himself said it in John 15:18-19:
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
I can’t stress this enough...
If you follow Jesus...
Then I can promise by the authority of Scripture that you will be hated...
As we just read...
You will be hated because the world first hated Jesus...
And continues to hate Jesus...
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Pastor and teacher John MacArthur puts it this way:
“The real aliens in the world are not extra-terrestrials but Christians.
Having been born again, given a new nature of heavenly origin, Christians display a nature and lifestyle like their Savior and heavenly Father; a nature totally foreign (other worldly) to the unsaved.
No wonder Scripture describes Christians as ‘aliens,’ ‘exiles,’ and ‘strangers’.
The Lord Jesus was unearthly in origin, and so are those born again.”
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The truth Jesus preached is the reason He was hung up on a cross to die...
Those who claimed to be religious...
And those who were atheists or pagans at the time of Jesus...
They all hated Jesus so much they executed Him in the most heartless way they could think of...
This is a seething and murderous hatred...
And there are people today who hate you and me in the same way...
If it was up to them...
They would line us up and end our lives...
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That is the price of not being of this world...
This is the price of following Jesus.
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As our Lord and Master said in John 17:14:
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ lose there life for the Lord everyday all around the world...
This may not be the case for America today...
But change is in the air...
The level of persecution in our country is increasing...
And even if we don’t experience physical death...
We as genuine believers all go through at least some level of persecution.
So, we are to be imitators of those who stand faithful in the face of great sufferings.
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Let us take to heart what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:14–15...
And remember the trail of blood left by those who put Christ above all during the early days of the Church.
Paul says:
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind
So, let us be more like Christ...
And less like the world...
No matter the cost.
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Now, let us take a look at the next verse in our passage that we are studying together.
3) We Shall Be Like Christ
3) We Shall Be Like Christ
Verse 2: 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.
The phrase “what we will be” and “we shall be like Him” needs to be explained first so we can understand this verse.
The note I came across this week from the ESV Study Bible sums it up nicely:
“‘What we will be’ means having glorified bodies that will never be sick or grow old or die, and being completely without sin.
No one like that has yet appeared on earth (except Christ Himself after His resurrection).
[The phrase] ‘we shall be like Him’ [means] in eternity, Christians will be morally without sin, intellectually without falsehood or error, physically without weakness or imperfections, and filled continually with the Holy Spirit.
But ‘like’ does not mean ‘identical to,’ and believers will never be omniscient or omnipotent as Christ is, since He is both man and God.”
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So, although we must endure sufferings...
We are encouraged to remember the fact that as Children of God...
We are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
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So, our suffering is not in vain...
We will be glorified in the end with Christ as it says in Romans 8:17-18:
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
I love how Paul says this at the end of the verse...
Our current suffering is not even worth comparing to the future eternity that we will have with Christ.
So, we should eagerly wait for Christs appearing...
Because this will signal when we will appear with Him in glory too.
Colossians 3:4 reiterates and confirms this amazing truth:
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
We find that Peter also talks about this wonderful reality.
Peter teaches that for those personally called by God...
The suffering they face in their life...
In the great scheme of things will only last a very short time in comparison to the time we spend in eternity...
And he teaches that God will restore us...
He teaches that God confirms us...
He teaches that God strengthens us...
And he teaches that God establishes us in the end.
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And all that truth is unpacked from 1 Peter 5:10 which reads:
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
As theologian Colin G. Kruse puts it regarding the phrase “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” from our main passage:
“That is, not seeing Him as He was in the days of His earthly ministry, nor seeing Him with the eyes of faith, but seeing Him as He now is in heavenly glory—and the sight of Him, the author says, will be enough to make us pure like Him.”
1 Corinthians 13:12 confirms this when it says:
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
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So, hold unto that future promise...
Hold unto that solid hope...
And be encouraged in the same way Paul encouraged his readers in 1 Thessalonians 2:12 when he said:
12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
Be encouraged to walk in a manner worthy of God...
Or like John will say in the next and final verse in our main passage...
We are to purify ourselves since Christ himself is pure.
4) We Must Be Pure Like Christ
4) We Must Be Pure Like Christ
Verse 3: And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
You can’t even see God without being pure in heart.
Jesus made that clear in Matthew 5:8 when He said:
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
So, how do we become pure in heart?
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I like how John Owen put it:
“Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
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So, we have to put to death a few things...
Like, we have to put to death sexual immorality...
We have to put to death impurity and wicked passion...
We have to put to death evil desires and covetousness and idolatry...
Or as the Word of God puts it in Colossians 3:5-6:
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
But hear is the dilemma...
We are not strong enough to kill sin on our own...
We are not strong enough to purify ourselves...
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We need God...
We need to cry our to Him so that He will equip us to kill the sin in our lives.
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Here is a simple and faithful verse to memorize and pray to God...
Meditate on this, Church...
Meditate on the honest cry of David to God after he committed some of the most wicked acts recorded in Scripture...
May Psalm 51:10 always be on your lips:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Make this plea to God, Beloved...
And preach this to yourself...
Over and over again.
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And remember the blood of Christ...
For it is Christ’s blood that truly purifies us.
Just take a look at Hebrews 9:14:
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
As this message comes to a close, I want to share this:
Many trees appear to be healthy when we see them in summer.
But, in the winter, after their leaves have all fallen off, we sometimes find that hidden underneath the lush green of the summer foliage was a parasitic plant called mistletoe, which had been slowly sucking away some of the tree’s vitality.
We as Christians sometimes have hidden sins, which—like the mistletoe—slowly suck away our spiritual vitality.
Although not always evident in times of outward spiritual health and fruitfulness, we must always examine ourselves for those small, often unseen, parasites of sinful habits that will sap our vitality.
And we must also remember that just because they are not apparent now does not mean that in another season of our life God will not reveal them for all to see.
We spoke earlier of King David...
Remember his sin was exposed by the Prophet Nathan...
But it is how David responded to being exposed that we should take to heart...
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David may have sinned greatly but when confronted he did not make excuses...
He instead begged God to purify him.
As our time together comes to an end I want to leave you with a look at the whole of Psalm 51:
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
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