I want to invite you to take
your Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 John, 1 John chapter
3. And today I want us to look at
verses 2 and 3, though I want to begin reading in verse 1 and
just remind you of what we looked at last Lord's Day. The title
of this message is Living for Another World. This is part 2. I want to begin reading in verse
1. This is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, all-sufficient, unchanging
Word. Beginning in verse 1, see how great a love the Father
has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and
such we are. For this reason, the world does
not know us. Because they did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared
as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears,
we will be made like Him because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope
fixed on Him purifies himself just as he is pure. It was the renowned pastor of
the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, who prayed to God, Oh
God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. By that, Edwards was praying,
God, allow me to live in this temporal world with eternal perspective. Allow me to see all of the events
that are unfolding around me. And allow me to see my ministry
and myself in light of eternity. Help me to keep my eye on the
world to come so that that vision will affect how I live my life
day by day. Now this is a prayer that each
and every one of us needs to pray, that God would stamp eternity
on our eyeballs because eternity is far closer than what any of
us have any imagination this morning. And for some here today,
this may be your last Lord's Day here upon the earth and eternity
is beckoning and calling for you very soon. But for each and
every one of us, Eternity is looming on the horizon and we
must see with an eternal perspective. Jonathan Edwards was converted
at age 17. He was called to be an interim
pastor in downtown New York at age 18 on Wall Street. And as he went as a very young
man, a believer only one year old in the Lord. He began writing
what has come to be known to us as His resolutions. He wrote
seventy resolutions that He would review on a regular basis, all
drawn from Scripture, that would be something of a moral compass
for His soul that would keep Him pointed in the right direction. He began those resolutions, the
first four, dealt with the glory of God, that he must live for
the glory of God and everything in his life must be subservient
to the glory of God. The rest of the resolutions,
in one way or another, became an expression of how he would
live for the glory of God. And one dominant theme that was
woven through those resolutions was his eye must be and remain
upon eternity. That as he lived his life, even
as a teenage young man at age 18, he must do so recognizing
the shortness of life, the suddenness of death, and the length of eternity. And Edwards in resolution number
19 wrote this and it became something of a touchstone and a cornerstone
for him. Resolved, never to do anything
which I should be afraid to do an hour before I hear the last
trumpet. It was as if he lived his life
straining his ear, waiting to hear the last trumpet. And it
had an effect upon his daily life, not to be caught up in
anything of which he would regret, were it to be the last hour before
the trumpet. And later in resolution number
50, Edwards wrote, resolved. I will act so as I should think
I shall judge what have been best and most prudent when I
come into the future world." In other words, Edwards, while
he was here in this world, wanted to see this life from the eternal
vantage point as though he is already in the future world,
to look back upon now how he is living, that he would invest
his life in such a way that when he comes to the end of his life,
there would be no regrets. that he would resist to be squeezed
into the mold of this world, that he would live a life that
would be distinctively lived in the pursuit of personal holiness. That's how Edward charted the
course of his life and it was by no coincidence that he became
what has been regarded to be the greatest pastor, preacher,
philosopher, author ever birthed on American soil. And he would
later write in the resolutions in Resolution 63 that he purposed
to be the most complete Christian living in his generation. Would
to God, I and you, you and I could live our Christian lives as though
we are straining to hear the last trumpet, ready for the Lord's
return and to live in such a way that when we step into the future
world, there would be no regrets. This is precisely what John is
recording and calling for from the early church. He is calling
the early believers and he is calling us, as this text is in
the canon of Scripture, to live in light of the world to come,
to lift up our head and not to be simply so focused upon the
things of this world, but to live in this world with an eye
upon eternity. And that is the focus that John
is making. And last time we looked at verse
1, just to very quickly review that for you, we noted two things
from verse 1, and if you were not here last week, I mentioned
this just for the completeness of our thought. We noted at the
beginning of verse 1, first of all, the marvel of the Father's
love. He says, see how great a love
the Father has bestowed on us. And we noted literally out of
the original Greek that this...how great a love is really a love
of another country, a love from another realm. We have been loved
by God and are loved by God with a love that is so transcendent
and so infinite and so pure and unconditional and holy that it
is like nothing this world has to offer. that this love from
God the Father to us has come down from realms of glory and
it is a love so perfect and so pure that John seeks to draw
the attention of the early believers, Don't miss this, pay attention.
You are so greatly loved by God the Father who has sent His Son
and sent the Spirit into this world that we might become the
people of God. And second, we noticed in verse
1, not only the marvel of the Father's love, but the mystery
of the believer's life. And this really is worth noting
because in the second half of verse 1, he says, for this reason
the world does not know us. Because it did not know Him.
The world does not understand what we're about. We have a different
set of values. We have a different set of priorities.
We're walking a different path. We're going in a different direction.
And to unsaved eyes, we are an enigma. We are a riddle to a
watching world and we should not be surprised by this because
the world did not know the Lord Jesus Christ as well. If they did not know Him, they
will not know us. And if they did not receive Him,
they will not receive us. And so that is what we noted
last week. And as we come now to verses
2 and 3, I want to build upon what we saw last week. So I want you to note now in
verse 2, the third main heading, the majesty of the sons appearing. It begins, verse 2, beloved,
which is a term of great endearment. It is a warm address of warm
affection. And we're not surprised that
John refers to all believers and to us as beloved because
in verse 1, he sees what a great love the Father has bestowed
upon us. And because we are now children
of God, it is our heart's affection to love what God loves and to
hate what God hates. And in that, we love who God
loves. And God has set His heart upon
His elect and He has had distinguishing affections and a special love
for those who are birthed into the kingdom of heaven. And so,
naturally, John addresses all believers and addresses us as
beloved because he has a great love for those whom the Father
loves. He then says, now we are children
of God. And this really reiterates what
he said in verse 1. He says that we should be called
children of God in verse 1. So he reinforces this and he
adds the word now. Now we are children of God. And
he is setting up the contrast that will now follow regarding
our future. Now we are children of God. And
the implication here is we're no longer a part of the world
system. We're no longer caught up in the kingdom of darkness
where we once lived. We're no longer children of the
devil, as John 8, 44 indicated. Now we are children of God. We
have been rescued out of the world system and called out of
darkness into light. We've been raised by grace from
the grave of spiritual death and sin and we now have new life
in Jesus Christ. This is who we are. This is what
we are. Now we are children of God. And
not everyone in the world is a child of God. It's only those
who have been birthed into the kingdom of heaven, those whom
the Spirit of God has sovereignly sired and conceived, saving faith
within them. And we've been adopted into the
family of God. So now we are children of God. But he turns his gaze to the
future. And he says in verse 2, and it
has not appeared as yet, what we will be. There is an uncertainty
about the specifics of our future. Now we know where we will be.
We will be in glory. The Lord Jesus is preparing a
place for us in the Father's house, and we know that we are
headed to that place where the sun shall not even be needed,
for the glory of God will illumine the new heavens and the new earth
forever and ever. We know where we're going, but
what will we be like? How old will we be in heaven?
Will we recognize one another in heaven? Charles Adams Spurgeon
said, we recognize one another here on the earth, will we be
bigger fools in heaven? Of course we'll know one another.
In fact, we could say, We will finally really know one another
in heaven and recognize one another. And what will we do? And what
will our body be like? And in 1 Corinthians 15, he gives
us a little profile of some of the aspects of what our body
will be like. But the mystery is, more specifically,
what will we be like? And what John says in this verse
is all that basically we need to know. You're going to be like
Jesus. And that should be enough for
us right now. We're going to be like the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we will become as much like
a saved sinner can be like the infinite eternal creator as can
possibly be. So he says now in verse 2, there
are three certainties that we need to know about our future.
He says in verse 2, we know. John says that we need to have
a rock-ribbed certainty about what he is about to say. Three
things. when He appears. The first thing is Jesus will
appear. He will appear in the sky. He
will come back from heaven for us, His chosen bride, in order
to take us back to the Father's house. John 14 verse 1, let not
your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places and if it
were not so, I would have told you. But I go to prepare a place
for you that where I am, there you may be also." So He is coming
back and He will appear in order that He might take us to heaven. Now, when Jesus appears, let
me give you just six words just to hang our thoughts on just
very quickly in staccato fashion. When Jesus appears, He will appear
suddenly. He says in Revelation 22 verse
7, behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me. to
give to every man according to his deeds." He doesn't even say,
I will be coming. He puts it in the present tense
and says, behold, I am coming as though He's already on the
way. That's how suddenly He will burst upon the scene in the air. James 5 and verse 8 says, the
judge is standing right at the door. In other words, it's as
if he has arisen from the throne and walked over to the door,
his hand is on the door and at any moment he will swing open
that door and descend from heaven. He will appear suddenly. He will appear second personally. He will not send someone else
for us. He Himself will come. And you
remember in Acts 1 and verse 11, at His ascension, the two
angels that accompanied Him in His ascension back to glory,
they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into the
heavens? This Jesus, this same Jesus who has been taken up from
you will return in like manner. He was taken personally up, He
will be brought back...He will descend personally, third bodily. He will not come as a ghost.
He will not come as a spirit. He will come in His glorified
body. 4 visibly. Colossians 3, 4 says He will
be revealed. And in 1 Peter 1 verse 7 speaks
of the revelation. The word revelation just simply
means an unveiling for public view. It would be like if there
was a statue that was commissioned to be made by a great artist
and there would be a canvas draped over the statue and then in an
official ceremony, there would be the unveiling of the statue
and the canvas would be removed and there immediately, suddenly
for everyone to see would be this beautiful statue. That's
the very word that Peter uses in 1 Peter 1 and verse 7 and
also in verse 13 that Jesus who now is veiled from our sight,
we love Him by faith but He's veiled from our sight. In that
day when He appears, He will appear visibly and fifth, dramatically. First Thessalonians 4 verse 13
is as dramatic as it gets. For the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, and a trumpet of God, and the voice
of the archangel." There will be a loud shout when Christ appears. It will be so dramatic. And then
6 powerfully. It says, the Lord Himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout and the trumpet of God and the
voice of the archangels and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Graves all around the globe will
suddenly swing open and those bodies of believers that lay
there in the grave, their soul and spirit already immediately
in the presence of God, there will be a great getting up morning
in that day. And powerfully, resurrections
will take place all around the globe. And then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and
therefore comfort one another with these words. and believers
all around will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and
then He will take us back to glory. That's the first thing
that will happen. He will appear. And then second,
we will see Him. When He appears, we will see
Him. Notice how verse 2 continues, it says, We know that when He
appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just
as He is. We need to get the order here
correct, the cause and the effect. The cause is we will see Him,
the effect is we will be made like Him. In other words, we
will see Him first and as we behold Him, we will be instantly
in the twinkling of an eye transformed into that very same image. So He will appear, number one. We will see Him, number two. And it says, we will see Him,
please note the qualifier afterwards, this is...this is exciting. We will see Him just as He is. We will not see the humble carpenter
who is veiled in the form of a bondservant. We will not see
the meek Messiah. We will not see the suffering
Savior. We will see Him just as He now
presently is, King of kings, Lord of lords, His head white
like snow, His eyes a flaming fire, His feet standing as in
burnished bronze, out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword,
His face shining like the sun. And when John saw this vision
of the glorified Christ on the island of Patmos, He fell as
a dead man, meaning He just went unconscious in the presence of
the glorified Christ. And so we will see Him in that
day. And when He came the first time,
the world saw Him as a lowly servant, but in that day we will
see Him as a lofty sovereign. In that day the world saw Him
in agony, but we will see Him in glory. In that day the world
saw Him bloodied and beaten, but we shall see Him ruling and
reigning when He appears in the sky." And then third, it says,
we shall be like Him. Number one, He will appear. Number two, we will see Him.
Number three, we shall be like Him. That's all the details we
really need. Now there are some other cross-references
and we can piece together something of a profile of how that would
be fleshed out, but big picture, we will be like the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now let's just think about this
bodily. We will...we will be transformed. And we, our body, this perishable
will put on imperishable and this corruptible will put on
incorruptible, Philippians 3 and verse 20 says, the Lord Jesus
Christ will transform the body. of our humble state into conformity
with the body of His glory. We will need this transformation
to be adapted to our new home in heaven. Have you ever wondered
and thought about, well, how could I praise the Lord forever
and ever? Wouldn't I grow weary? Wouldn't
I grow tired? Well the Bible says that we will
have this glorified body that will be endued with supernatural
strength and ability to carry out all the functions that would
be required of us in heaven. We will have glorified eyes to
look upon the Lord. We will have a glorified heart
with which to adore Him, an enlarged capacity to have greater and
greater affections than even what we have here. We will have
a glorified tongue with which to praise the Lord that will
far exceed whatever singing we could do here. We will have glorified
ears to hear the Lord speak to us. We will have glorified hands
to serve Him and to cast our crowns at His feet. We will have
glorified feet to run to Him and glorified knees to bow before
Him in humble praise. Even our bodies will be likened
unto His resurrected, glorified body. You remember in the upper
room after the resurrection, He just walked right through
the wall. He just appeared in their midst. You remember on
the road to Emmaus, He just suddenly was there and then suddenly was
gone. Think of how we will be able
to travel even in the new heavens and the new earth and to always
be able to come before His throne of grace. So we will have a glorified
body, but even more important than that, we will have a glorified
soul. Who we are on the inside, our
sin nature, our body of flesh. will be eradicated and will be
removed. In this world, it's like we're
driving the car of our spiritual life with the emergency brake
on. I mean, we just can't get there where we want to be. And
in Romans 7, Paul says, the things I do, I don't want to do, and
the things I don't want to do, I do. And all of that will be
removed. and our hearts and our souls
will just be freed up without any restraint of sin to love
God and to serve God and to adore the Lord Jesus Christ and for
us to have intimate fellowship one with another. All of this is just awaiting
us and it could be far sooner than any of us can imagine. And so John wants the church,
even in the first century, to be focused upon this. How much
more so now the church in the twenty-first century. I heard
once about a farmer that was asleep in bed with his wife and
there was a grandfather clock and at midnight the clock started
started sending its signal, one, two, three, and it gave twelve
rings. But it just kept going, thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen. And he woke up and said to his
wife, what time is it? And she said, I don't know, but
it's later than it's ever been before. I don't know what time, where
we are on God's calendar, but I promise you this, it's later
than it's ever been before. And we are nearer and closer
to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ than any generation that
has ever been alive on this earth, and there should be a heightened
sense of awareness on our part to be ready for the Lord's return
because He's coming and He's coming suddenly and there'll
be no time to prepare when He appears in the sky. We will just
immediately be caught up. And all this leads now finally
in verse 3. I want you to note the maturing
of the church's purity because what He says in verse 2 should
have an enormous motivation upon our spiritual lives. Theology
is radically practical. And truth has a transforming
power about it. Truth is sanctifying. And based
upon the doctrine that he taught us of the Lord's imminent return
in verse 2 and our glorification in verse 2, he now says in verse
3, that the impact upon this truth, of this truth upon our
lives should be extraordinary. So he says in verse 3, and everyone,
let's just stop right there. This everyone does not refer
to everyone in the world. There's a qualifier here. Everyone
who has this hope fixed on him, only believers have this hope
fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Bible speaks of
hope, it does not speak of wishful thinking as we often use the
word hope, you know, I hope my team wins tomorrow. No, in the
Bible, the word hope means a certain conviction. It means a confident
assurance of a settled fact that is immovable and irrevocable. This is what we have as believers. We have this fixed hope. Titus
2.14 calls it the blessed hope, that everyone who has this hope
fixed on Him. This word fixed is very strong. And this morning, you and I should
have our hope fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to
be riveted upon Jesus Christ. That's what Hebrews 12 verse
2 says, that we are to be looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter
of faith. Our hope is fixed on Him. And it says, everyone who has
his hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as he is pure. Now this word purifies clearly
implies that even as believers there are impurities in our lives. There are impurities in our attitudes,
impurities in our priorities, impurities in our motives, impurities
in our words, impurity in our actions, impurities in our reactions,
impurities mar our lives still on a daily basis. And John is
saying that this hope of Christ's return should cause us and motivate
us to purify ourselves just as He is pure. This is in the present
tense, meaning every moment of every day we need to be purifying
ourselves. It's in the active voice. We're
not passive in sanctification. It is our human responsibility
to take action in purifying ourselves. We are to flee immorality. We
are to buffet our body and make it our slaves. We are to hide
God's Word in our heart lest we sin against God. We are to
work out our salvation in fear and trembling. And we can only
do so as God the Holy Spirit is at work within us. Regeneration
is monergistic. Sanctification is synergistic. Monergism means that there is
only one active agent in the work. And in the new birth, it
is God and God alone who is at work, raising us from the grave
of sin. But in sanctification, it is
synergistic. And there are two active agents,
God and our lives. Now, we can do nothing apart
from the Lord. Jesus said in John 15, 5, apart
from me, you can do nothing. But it is our responsibility
by the enabling grace of the Lord...of the Holy Spirit to
purify ourselves. and to remove the impurities
from our lives through repentance and faith, and through obedience,
and through self-denial, and through cross-bearing, and through
being washed by the Word, and through worship, corporate and
individual, and through all of the means of grace. But it is incumbent upon us to
purify ourselves. Now the standard is set very
high. And I want you to see the standard for personal holiness
that God has set for your life. It's the last words of verse
3. We are to purify ourselves just
as He is pure. That's a pretty high standard. But this is nothing new, Jesus
said in Matthew 5 verse 48, you shall be perfect as My heavenly
Father is perfect. That sets the bar very high.
And God's not going to lower the bar of His expectations for
any of us, which means that we must rely upon the empowering
of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God. in us to raise us up. Of course, we'll never live perfectly,
not in this world, but nevertheless, this truth of the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ should have such a profound effect upon your
life and my life. that we purify ourselves. We purify our eyes, what we allow
our eyes to see. We purify our minds, what we
allow to come into our minds. We purify our ears, what we allow
to be spoken into our ears. We purify our feet, where we
go, we purify our hands, what we lay hold of, we purify our
tongue and our mouth, what we say with our words that come
from our mouth. The idea is from the top of our
head to the bottom of our feet, every inch and every ounce of
us needs to be purified in light of the soon return of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why He says in Romans
12 verse 1, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living
and holy sacrifice to God. So, as I close and as we come
to the Lord's table, what are the implications of this? Let
me just conclude by giving you a couple implications that are
applications for your life and my life. Number one is readiness. We need to be ready for the Lord's
return. One man has said, I'm keeping
my heart clean and my teeth brushed. I mean, we need to be ready to
go, to be with the Lord. We cannot be unprepared. We cannot
be entangled with the things of this world. We cannot be compromising
our witness or our stand. Readiness. Number two, rejoicing.
We should be rejoicing this morning because the Lord's not going
to leave us in this stinking world. The Lord is coming back
for us, and He is going to take us out of this very dark place. And the best is yet to come.
We have a glorious future. There's a mansion above, but
the greatest part is not streets of gold or gates of pearl. It
is who's there. The Lord Jesus Christ is there,
God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. Let us rejoice that we
don't have to stay here, but that we will be up there with
Him. And third reward, it is worth
it for you to keep serving the Lord. Though there may not appear
to you to be results, please know that the Lord Jesus is taking
impeccable records. And He knows every sacrifice
you're making. He knows your faithfulness. He
sees your shoulder to the plow. When no one else is looking and
when He comes back, He will reward His servants and you will stand
before Him. And He will review your ministry
and He will say, well done, good and faithful servant. And you
may feel overlooked now, you may feel unrecognized or unrewarded,
you need to be reminded and so do I that when the Lord comes
back, He will reward His faithful servants. And finally, repentance. Each and every one of us needs
to be lifetime repenters, repenting of sin in our lives, confessing
it to God. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. And as we come to the Lord's
table, this is a part of coming in a manner worthy of the Lord. that we come confessing our sins
and humbling ourselves before the Lord and repenting in our
heart and turning away from that which dishonors the Lord. There's not a one of us in this
building this morning who does not have sin of which to confess
and sin of which to repent. And so, as we come to the Lord's
table knowing that the trumpet will sound and the Lord will
descend and His coming could be at any moment. Let us keep
very short accounts with the Lord and let us name our sins
even as we come knowing we have full and free forgiveness with
the Lord. He says, come let us reason together,
says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be white as wool. Freely confess and He freely
forgives. May the Lord use the communion
table for His honor and His glory in our lives this day. Let us
pray. Father in heaven, thank You for
this time for us to worship, to be under the Word, now to
take communion together. Bless Your church here in Jesus'
name. Amen.