Alright, turn with me if you
would to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Due to the snow that our Lord
sent, I was not able to preach any
of the messages that I had prepared for Sunday. And I felt like I would feel
led to bring one of them tonight. But I read a verse of scripture
Tuesday morning. And I was drawn into this verse. I have quoted this verse so many
times. We have read this verse so many
times. You know this verse. I couldn't
begin to imagine how many times. We've thought about or quoted
or read this verse. But I believe the Lord allowed
me to enter into the glory of what He's saying, more so of
it. We'll never exhaust the Scriptures
to the fullest. But I believe He let me see more
of the glory of what it's saying. Oftentimes, we quote or we read
a verse of Scripture as one thought and then we move on to the next
one. But sometimes the Lord opens our eyes to see some of the detail
in it. And I believe that's what happened
for me with 1 John 3 verse 1. Now I want to consider each line. Here's what we're about to do.
We're about to look at each statement in this verse. But let's begin
by reading the whole verse. It says. 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. Let's see if the Lord will allow
us to enter into each segment of that verse. All right, it
says. Behold. Behold. I love it when we truly
behold, you know the difference, you know the difference, how
sometimes we read the word and we see it with the eye. We hear
it with the ear, but sometimes God allows us to behold. Behold. Our Lord has given us
some glorious beholds in the scripture. He's written quite
a few beholds. Some wonderful, amazing beholds. Behold means perceive this. It means turn the eyes to this. While our eyes are on everything
under the sun, for one moment, turn your eyes to this. It means know this with understanding. We have some glorious beholds
in this scripture. Let's read a couple of them.
Turn with me if you would to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40 verse 6, the Lord God, the voice, said,
CRY. And He said, the messenger said,
WHAT SHALL I CRY? What do you want me to cry to
your people? And here's what it is, ALL FLESH
IS GRASS. and all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. Verse 9
says, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the
high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Behold your God. Perceive. Turn the eyes to your
God. Know with understanding the true
and living God. Not just this dead little G God
that everybody has made up in their minds. Everybody has a
God The cry of the messenger is,
turn your eyes to the true and living God. Behold your God. Behold God. When the truth comes
to a center, when the message comes, that's the cry. Behold
God. God. Verse 10 says, behold, the
Lord God will come. Now I love this. Do you notice
how it's capital L, lowercase O-R-D? That's Jesus Christ. Behold Jesus Christ God will
come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him. Behold,
His reward is with Him, and His work is before Him. Behold your God. That's what
the Gospel cries. Behold your God. Now turn with
me to John chapter 19. John 19, verse 5 says, Then came Jesus
forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate
said unto them, Behold the man. Behold the man. Pilate is talking about the same
person Isaiah was talking about. Behold your God. How? The messenger cries the
message. It goes out. Behold your God.
How? Where? Where do I turn? Where do I look? Behold the man. God manifest in the flesh. God manifest. God come down to bear the sins
of His people. Behold the man. Behold the man. God came down to bear the sins
of His people in the only way that it was possible. He became
the man. He became the man. The only man
who was worthy to put away sin. The only man who was able to
put away sin. And the reason is because he
himself was sinless. I cannot take your sin upon myself. I cannot do anything for you.
No mortal man can do anything for another man. He has his own
sin to deal with. I have sin in me and sin on me."
The Lord Jesus Christ was sinless. Therefore, he could take the
sin of another and lay it on himself, bear it before God. Behold how the one who knew no
sin willingly became it. submissively endured it to the
absolute fullest of its destruction. Sin brings absolute destruction
and to the fullest of its destruction. He suffered it to the complete
satisfaction. He fulfilled it in an absolute
victory. He has risen from it. Behold
how through His own death, He put away death forever. The death of His people, He put
it away forever. If we have been given to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the cry of the Word of God to us is, Behold
your God, behold the man. Behold the man. Who is that man? Who is the God man? Who is he? Look at the end of
verse 14 right here. It says, behold, your king. I was I was thinking about this.
Sometimes my mind. Wonders what that day is going
to be like. I just, I enter in, I, we all
do. We can't help it. We're longing
for and looking for that day. Can you imagine the moment that
we enter into the gates of glory? And the archangel of God points
and says, behold your king. There he sits. Approach his throne
with boldness. Behold the man, there he sits. Behold your God. There's another behold that I
love. I love this one so much. Don't turn, but in Matthew 8
verse 2, it says, and behold, there came a leper. Amazingly
enough, a leper walked straight up to the God-man, the King of
kings and Lord of lords. A desperate sinner in need came
to the only Savior of sinners." You know that's who this message
is to. It's not to those who don't need this message. It's
not to those who have conquered their sin. It's to sinners in
need of the Savior. All of that causes me to enter
more into our text. It all causes me to enter in
more to the behold that is written in our text. Go with me back
over there to 1 John chapter 3. Verse 1 says, Behold what manner
of love. There are different types of
love in this world. There are different degrees of
love in this world. Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
one would even dare to die. But God commended His love toward
us In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What manner means, this is what
the definition of what manner is, it means what type, it means
where and who, it means what quality. Behold where and who this love
came from. And behold the quality, behold
the quality of this love. Our Lord said, greater love hath
no man than this. There is no greater love on this
earth. No greater love has ever been
known. Turn with me if you would to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. Verse 3 says, The LORD hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. And everlasting love. Let's see
if we can get our hearts around this. There's no way we can get
our minds around this. No possible way. But let's see
if the Lord will let us understand something of this with the heart,
OK? There has never been a moment. Throughout all of eternity past. There has never been one moment
throughout all of never BEGINNING ETERNITY. NEVER BEGINNING ETERNITY. There's no beginning. There's
never been one moment that God the Father has not loved us in
Christ. Never been one moment that He
has not thought on us in Christ. In the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where all the love of God is found. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every soul that was placed in
Him for all eternity has been loved. Thought on, behold what
manner of love. His love is an eternal love. His love is a drawing love. He said at the end of verse 3,
Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." He said, because I've loved you
with an everlasting love, therefore I've drawn you. Every soul that He loves, He
draws. Every single one. And that gives
me such comfort for myself and every soul I preach to. Every
soul God loves, He draws. His love is a perfect love. His
love is a particular love. His love is an enduring love. Having loved His own, that's
His particular love, He loves His own. Having loved His own,
He loved them to the end. Doesn't that make your heart
jump? Here's the declaration. He will
never stop loving us if He put us in Christ. If we're in Christ,
He'll never stop loving us. Do you have any concept of how
rotten we are? Any concept of just how flat
ruined we really are? If He put us in Christ, He will
never stop loving us, for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Don't you love that story of
Mephibosheth? David swore to Jonathan. He said,
would you watch out for my house? He said, I swear to you. And they went and grabbed that
poor lame boy and brought him before the king, who was his
enemy. And he thought my life is over. And King David said, you put
that boy at my table. You feed him with my family,
he's one of mine. I love him for Jonathan's sake.
And that's what God the Father says to every soul in Christ.
I love him for Christ's sake. Having loved his own, he loved
him to the end. He'll never stop loving us. Behold
what manner of love. Behold what manner. Go back to
1 John 3. Verse 1 says, Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. That is our relationship
with God concerning all things. Anything that we talk about or
the Scripture declares to us concerning our relationship with
God, that's what it is. Everything that we have before
Him has been bestowed upon us. All of our righteousness in order
to be accepted, in order to stand in His presence and not be absolutely
slain on sight, we must have a perfect righteousness. And
all of our righteousness before Him, all of our obedience, all
of our goodness, all of our perfection was all bestowed on us. We didn't
earn it. It was all bestowed upon us by
Him. Who makes us to differ? What
do we have that we did not receive? Everything we have before God,
we received it. There's no room for boasting. There's no room to glory. Turn
back a few pages to James chapter 1. James 1 verse 17 says, Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Don't you love that? He will
not turn from it. Mercy is a gift. God chose to show mercy. Mercy
came from the heart and the mind and the will of God. Grace means
freely bestowed gift. That's what it means. Unearned. Unmerited. Grace is of God. It's all of God. Freely given. And that's exactly what He did
with His great love. Wherewith He loved us. For God
so loved, He gave. Verse 17 right here in James
1. It says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above
and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning of his own will. Begat he us. How did he do it? How does he
save his people? How are we born again with the
word of truth? that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creature. You know, concerning salvation,
this is the great question on every seeker's mind. Any person
who is at all interested in this thing of salvation, this is the
question every person asks. What must I do? That's the question. What truly is my role? They seek and search and go to
this and go to that. Just tell me what do I have to
do. All right? You just get down
to brass tacks, where the rubber meets the road, what do I have
to do? Here's the answer. Nothing. Nothing. In the eternal mind
and will of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit,
they purposed to do something. And they did it. And it's done. And now we're just being notified
of it. And their notification to us is going to draw us. We don't have a say in the matter.
It is going to draw us and we are going to come. We're not
begging men, come to Christ, come to Christ. We are going
to come. And they are going to put faith
in our hearts, causing us to believe in and on their Word
and their finished work. We are going to believe Christ
finished it. We are going to believe He is
able. We are going to believe He is
the Savior of sinners. And we will cry, Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation,
the bloody victim, the payment, the covering for our sins. That's love. Behold what manner
of love. All right, go with me back to
1 John 3. Verse 1 says, Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called. Behold what manner of love it
is that God would call us. Call sinners to Himself. He called His enemies to Himself. He drew us near, He spoke words
of peace to us. He could have and He should have
left us in our blindness. But He opened our eyes to see.
He could have and He should have left us in the damnation and
the ignorance of unbelief. But He opened our hearts to know
Him and believe Him. Believe every word that proceeds
out of His mouth. Behold what manner of love that
we should be called. Now I want to show you something
that I have just really enjoyed. I've really enjoyed this. I believe
this is truth and this is wonderful. Turn with me to Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 29 says, For whom
He did foreknow, the word means elect, whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Every soul
that He chose He predestinated for that soul to end up looking
and being just like Christ. That's the predetermined end. The predetermined result for
every sinner He chose. Verse 30 says, Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called
Them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Now this is what really got my
attention about that. Knowing that the gospel call
is a notification of what is already finished. Knowing that,
right? Knowing that. That could cause
us to think, Well that verse is just a little bit out of order. It would be more accurate and
maybe read more correctly if it read this way. Whom He did
predestinate, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also called. And whom He called, Then He also
glorified. But do you know that that verse
is not out of order? Here's the reason why. Romans
3 verse 28, Romans 5 verse 1, Galatians 2 verse 16, Galatians
3 verse 11, Galatians 3 verse 24, and James 2 verse 24. They all say that we are justified
by faith. They all say we're justified
by faith. That God-given call to believe
on Christ. Justified by faith in Him. Justified by faith in the fact
that He justified us. justified in crying, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by washing us. He washed us in His own blood.
He washed my sins in His own blood and He saved us. So that
verse is written in correct order. Whom He called, whom He opens
the eyes of and causes them to see Christ and believe them he
also justified." Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him
for righteousness. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. So let's behold what manner of
love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called. And not just called to Him as
a subject, but called sons of God. Behold what we've been called
to the sons of God. Now, don't turn back to the text,
but it says at the end, therefore, the world knoweth us not because
it knew him not meaning. We have been called to be of
him. Born of him, one with him, he
said in John 17, they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. He said, as the world treated
me, it will treat them also. Because they're of me, they're
one with me. In Christ, we are one with Him. In Christ, we have been adopted
into His family. In Christ, we are children of
the High and Holy Heavenly Father. We're the children of the Father.
And right here in Romans 8, if you look at verse 14, it says,
for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and
if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be
also glorified together. Everything He gets, we get. I say that so fearfully and just
so humbly and so reverently. Everything that He inherits,
we inherit. in him as a joint heir with him. Years ago, I love this story. I was a young boy when I. When I heard this, I guess I
wasn't that young. I don't know how old I was, but the reason
I say that is because. Brother Don Fortner's daughter
Faith got married. And she married a fellow named
Doug. And after they got married, Don
made a set of keys for Doug and handed them to him. And he said,
this is a key to my house. This is a key to my car. This
is a key to my garage. What's mine is yours. Doug said,
are you serious? He said, yeah, if you need something
in my garage, just go grab it. He said, anything I want. And
Don said, son, I gave you my daughter, you don't think I'd
give you a wrench? Look at verse 32 here in Romans
8, it says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with Him also
freely give us all things? After Him, what's all things? What are all things? Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. I'd rather be known by him, wouldn't
you? I care for this world. My prayer to God is that they
might be saved. But oh, that we might know him,
and he might know us. Let's all stand together.