It's good to be back here with
you. I enjoy coming down here and preaching the Gospel. I told
someone last week, I said, when I preach here, I said, the people
just pull it out of me. And I like that. I like that. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. I'm going to
read the first three verses, and that will be our subject. When I hear the pages quit turning,
I'll read. It lets me know you're there. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us, and this ought to astound us, that
we should be called the sons of God, 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." Let us pray. which art in heaven, hallowed,
holy be thy name. Lord, enable me this morning
to rightly divide the word of truth. Enable me to preach the
gospel in the power of thy spirit. Make thy word to go forth in
power and feed thy flock. Thank You for Your many mercies,
Father. Everything we have, our Heavenly
Father has given to us, we know this. We look to Thee, Father,
for all things, all things temporal, all things spiritual. Thank You
most of all for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we are complete. Thank You. Bless us with your
presence. Grant us a spirit of worship.
Enable us this day to give unto thee the glory that's due unto
thy name. In Jesus Christ's name we pray
and ask this. And ask, Father, that you bless
Paul and Donny as they preach and all your other servants as
they preach this morning. In Christ's name we pray and
amen. My subject, the title of the
lesson this morning, is Behold, What Manner of Love. What kind of love, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed on us. When a child is born into
a royalty, I always think this, that child
does not know what he or she was just born into. They have
no comprehension. That little child has no comprehension
of what they were just born into. Royalty. Royalty. Power. Honor. Riches. And the list goes on.
How much more them that are born of God? How much more them that are born
of God? It says here that He has made
us kings and priests unto God. We are sons of God now. I'm not going to be a son of
God when I die. I'm a son of God now. Now. Often when I read this, now are
we the sons of God, one of my first thoughts is this, act like
it. That's one of my first thoughts,
act like it. Act like it, walk like it, talk
like it, dress like it. Now are we the sons of God. Verse
1, 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." It starts out with
this, behold, look at, study, meditate, ponder, and be amazed
at the manner of love that God the Father has bestowed on us
in Christ. that's not been bestowed on everyone. Not everyone. And note the manner
of His love here. It's free. It doesn't say anything
in that verse about me earning His love, purchasing His love. He says in Hosea 14, I will love
them freely. Freely. His love came to us freely. His love to us is sacrificial
love. His love to us is intense, intense
love. His love to us is sovereign.
God loved us because He willed to love us. Look over in Deuteronomy
chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. In Deuteronomy 7, look at verse
7 and 8. In verse 7, in Deuteronomy 7,
it says, "...the Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose
you because you were more in number than any people, for you
were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you."
That's it. That's it. But because the Lord
loved you and because He would keep the oath which He has sworn
unto your fathers, that the Lord brought you out with a mighty
hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the
hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Why did God love me? Because
He loved me. That's why. That's amazing. That's amazing love. We sing
amazing grace. We sing of amazing love. Amazing. And He has loved us everlastingly.
His love to us will never end. His love to His children has
no end. It has no end. There'll be no
end to it. It's an eternal love and nothing
can separate us. Nothing can separate us from
His love. It says in Romans 8, 5, Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall persecution, famine,
peril? Nothing! Nothing. There are things that can separate
our love from one another, and that's Satan. But nothing can
separate God's love, Christ's love, from His children. And
it never varies. It never varies. It's always
an intense, holy love. And it never, ever varies a degree. Not at all. One of the problems
with religion is that they see God's love as an emotion like
ours. It's not. God's love is His nature. It's His nature to love. Therefore, He's going to show
it. He's going to show His love. God is light, God is holy, and
God is love. And He's going to show it. He's
going to demonstrate it. And note who He bestows His love
on. Us. Not just anyone. Not just anyone. It's a special
love. It's God's love. And it's on,
listen, it's on us. Us who are sinners. Us who are transgressors. When
we show our love to someone, it's someone we find what? Attractive.
Don't we? We find attractive. We find someone
to be beneficial to us, but God's love was on us while we were
yet, it says, sinners. God's love was on us while we
yet hated Him and despised Him and rejected Him. That's when
God's love was on us. Talking about that ugly dog last
night. God's love was on us when we were just a bunch of ugly
dogs. Unlovely, unlike him, unattractive. He loved us. He loved us. And the very reason for his love
for us is only found in himself. He's the fountain. He's the fountain
of love. Apart from Him, you will never,
never know what genuine true love is. Apart from God, you
can't know it. You can have this, what we call
human love, fleshly emotions that we call love. But a genuine
God love, apart from Him, you can't know it. Apart from Christ,
you can't know it. And let us always be mindful
of His love to us in Christ. Someone said this. We should
always seek to stand in the rays of His love. That will prevent
many problems. It's amazing how many problems
that love prevents. It just prevents. All you have
to do is go to read 1 Corinthians 13. You'll have a definition
of love. Thanks no evil, always seeks you good. Isn't that something? That's
what love is. If anybody ever asks you what
is love, or to describe, well, first of all, God is love, but
you want to describe the definition of it, go read 1 Corinthians
13. There it is. The church at Ephesus, what was
her problem? She left her first love. And boy, did that create problems.
That will always create problems. And note the glory of that love,
that we should be called sons of God. One of the things that makes
preaching a heavy responsibility I am preaching to the sons and
daughters of God this morning, His children. God has put into
my hands to speak to the children this morning, my responsibility
and privilege to speak to God's children, to feed the flock. Peter, he said, do you love me?
He didn't say, if you love me, he said, do you love me? Feed
my lambs, feed my sheep. Don't get caught up fighting
false religion. You know, false religion will
be false all the way to the end. You'll never change it. Now,
God's going to save some of His sheep out of false religion.
So we don't get caught up fighting that. We feed the sheep. And
Christ is sheep food. He's the bread of heaven, is
He not? He's the manna from heaven. that we should be called sons
of God. Sons of God. This is the highest
honor anyone can have bestowed on them. You can take the poorest
person in this congregation, and that person is as rich as
the richest person in this congregation. Brethren, all things are yours
in Jesus Christ. And that means from the least
to the, what we would consider the least to the greatest. All
things are yours. We all have the same riches.
We all have the same glory. Sons of God. We have not yet got a hold of
that, I know. I know I haven't grasped it yet. Boy, it would clean up my attitude
if I ever got a hold of it. It would clean it up real fast
if I could just get a hold of it. The highest honor anyone
can have bestowed on them is to be called a son of God.
The world is not worthy, this world is not worthy to have such
royalty in its presence. Look over in Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11, let me figure a place here to start. Let me read in verse 36. This
is concerning God's children. And others had trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with
the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom
the world was not worthy. The world's not worthy of the
presence of the children of God. They wandered in the deserts
and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these
all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the
promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect. This is speaking
of our forefathers in the faith. The world's not worthy of such
royalty in its presence, not at all. We are more, now listen, We are
more than favored servants. We are more than favored servants.
We are sons. Remember in the Scripture, the
servant abides not in the house forever. The servant doesn't
abide forever. But the son does. The son abides
forever. And we've been called the sonship. We have been called to sonship. Therefore, he says, therefore
the world knoweth us not. It doesn't know, the world does
not understand you. They don't get it. They don't
get it. The world knoweth us not, and
here's why, because it knew him not. Christ said in one place,
if you had known me, You should have known my father. You should
have known my father. If they had known the father,
they would know his children, wouldn't they? They would know
his children if they knew the father. They don't know you because
they don't know him. One is never known apart from
the other. One is never known apart from
the other. When the world looks at God's sons and daughters,
they see a person in the flesh. They see a person with weakness. They see a person with pain. They see a person weeping and
crying. That's what they see. They see
a person with hardships like everyone else. And they cannot
believe This, you are a son of God with
all this pain and all this sorrow. The same thing happens to us
that happens to everyone else. And they look at us and they,
you know, they can't believe that. They can't believe you're
a son of God. They can't see it. They can't
believe that you would be in such a situation if you're a
son of God. Job's three friends look at him
and think, you must have done something wrong, you must be
wicked. No, that's God's Son. Lazarus laying at the rich man's
gate. Who would you have thought, naturally,
had God's favor? You would have thought that rich
man had God's favor, not that beggar laying at his gate. Now,
who would you rather be, knowing the end? Where's Lazarus at? Lazarus is at the feet of Christ. And that rich man that we know
would have lifted up his eyes in hell. Being in torment. You'd have never looked at Lazarus.
You'd have never envied Lazarus. Never would you have envied Lazarus
at all. You look at, that's a beggar? That's a son of God? Absolutely. Absolutely. When the world saw our Lord,
they saw a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. They saw
a poor man. That's what they saw, a poor
man. No place to lay his head. He's so poor. He had no place
to lay his head. This can't be the Son of God.
You expect us to believe that you are the Son of God? You know what they said? We know
you. You are the carpenter's son.
We know you're brothers and sisters. No, you don't. No, you don't. Being a son of God is a spiritual
being. It's a spiritual being. And the
world is spiritually dead. They can't see you. They can't
see the real you. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. And the world can't see that. We are His sons by adoption.
We are His sons by birth. We are His sons by election.
And being His sons, we are dear to Him. The apple of His eye. The apple of His eye. The Scripture
says God's love passes all understanding. We can't comprehend it. Not in
this life. Can't do it. We can believe it
and experience it. but to comprehend such love?
Now, verse 2, 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. We shall see Him as He is. We know what we are, don't we? We know what we are. We're sinners.
Sinners. We are aware of our often sins
and infirmities in this flesh, and we say with Paul, O wretched
man that I am. Can you say that? I tell you what, we'd have never
said that until God gave us life. We'd have made excuses. We would
have made excuses, said, well I, you know, I'm not perfect. No, we're sinner, sinful, to
the bone, to the bone. There's a song, the lyrics, part
of the lyrics is in it, I heard it years ago, bad to the bone. Bad to the bone, that's us naturally,
bad to the bone. We are often in infirmities in
this flesh. We are often in weakness. But
that does not annul the truth that right now, everyone that
believes God, right now, you are a son of God. You are son and daughters of
the King. Outwardly, We don't look like
it, do we? Outwardly, we don't look like
it. We don't often feel like it. Rarely do I ever feel like
it. Rarely. But our sonship, now
get this, our sonship is not established on looks and feelings.
It's not established on looks and feelings. It's established
on the eternal covenant of God The work of Christ and the work
of the Holy Spirit in us. That's where it's established.
God loved us. God chose us. Called us. God gave us to His Son. He redeemed
us. The Holy Spirit calls us. Heaven
regenerated. And in a little while, He's going
to come and get us. Boy, we ought to be looking for
that day. We ought to be looking for that day. Redeemed by Christ. Standing in Christ. Holy in Christ. Righteous in Christ. Looking for Him to come. You
know, my parents get along in years. My dad is 86. Mom is 84. And I was talking to my dad the
other day. And we were talking about the Gospel. And he was talking about his
failings and shortcomings. And he said to me, he said, I
hope I get it right before I die. And I looked at him and I said,
Dad, Jesus Christ got it right. I said, Jesus Christ got it right. Jesus Christ is my rightness,
my righteousness before God. I said, now you better lay hold
of that. I said, that's my hope. It's
not that I get it right. He got it right. Now get that. Take that home
with you. He is my rightness before God. When Christ walked on this earth,
in the flesh, He did not look like the Son of God. He did look
like the carpenter's son. He did look like it. If he walked
in this room, the way he walked on this earth 2,000 years ago,
and if you did not, if you just have
a natural eye, and God's done nothing in you, you'd not recognize
him apart from anybody else. You wouldn't do it. In fact, you'd think he's a beggar
if he walked in here the way he was then. He didn't look like the Son of
God. He looked like the carpenter's son. His deity was veiled in
his humanity. God was in Christ, but the world
knew him not. Knew him not. His power, someone
said, was veiled under sorrow and weakness. If you be the Son
of God, save thyself." Satan said, if you are the Son
of God, turn these stones into bread. His unsearchable riches were
hidden under poverty and shame. Our Lord can identify with every
one of His people, no matter what position in life, They're
half, they're old. He can identify with the lowest
to the highest. His power was veiled in His weakness. His unsearchable riches hidden
under poverty and shame. In verse 2 it says, It does not
yet appear what we shall be. This is not it. Aren't you glad? This is not it. What you see right here is what
sin has done to me. What you're going to see is what
God has done to me. What you and I are about to see
and experience. Those who have gone on before
us, think of what they've experienced. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. Charles Spurgeon said, I believe
it was Charles Spurgeon said, the reason being is that this
is not the place for our unveiling. This is not the place. Someone
said this, you would not unveil a masterpiece of art to the blind. You wouldn't do that. It would not be appreciated.
It wouldn't be appreciated. No one would appreciate the handiwork
of God in you if He revealed and manifested you as you really
are and whose you really are. Christ said, I'm not of this
world and neither are you. We are not of this world. We
need to think like that too. We belong to another kingdom
and we need to realize that. We need to realize that. Earth
is not the place for heavenly airs to be fully manifested. If so, you'd be hated even more. You would. You would. He was. He was. No one was ever hated as much
as him. You know, I tell you, if you
want to experience some of that, go over in the Middle East and just
start preaching the gospel. You want to find out what real
hatred is. And then secondly, this is not
the time or place to be manifested. Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 8,
it says this, to everything there is a season and a time. There's
a time to be born of God. There's a time to be taught of
God. There is a time to grow up in Christ. And there is a
time to be harvested. And when you are ripe... Now,
you know, we may think we're ripe right now, but God knows
when that fruit's ripe. You ever pluck a watermelon,
see if it sounds right? God knows when to harvest the
fruit. He knows when to take it home.
He knows. But we know, verse 2, but we
know that when He shall appear, His appearing is certain. I wish I could wake up every
morning looking for the Lord to come with the first thought
on my mind. I wish I'd do this, I don't.
But I wish every morning when I woke, when I woke, wake up,
that the first thought would be, is it today? Is it today? Could today be the day of my
manifesting? Could today be the day of my
unveiling, and I appear to be who I really am, Son of God? That day will come. It's certain. Jesus Christ is coming back.
That angel said, just as you've seen Him go away, He's going
to come again. He said, if I go away and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am,
there you may be also. We preach His return without
doubt. There is no doubt. He shall return
and receive us to Himself. And as surely as He went away,
He'll come again. And the world thinks we're crazy.
Well, if that's what they call crazy,
I'm crazy. Not to believe God is crazy.
That's crazy. He will not leave his purchased
possession alone. He will come and claim it for
himself. You can see it over in John 14. And we know this because God's
Word, His Word tells us so. And God cannot lie. Isn't that something? Isn't that
great? God cannot lie. When He speaks, it will absolutely
happen. He will appear suddenly. Someday
that's going to happen. Someday that's going to just
be sudden. And the world's going to be taken
by surprise. But you and I shouldn't be. We
should be looking, right? The watchful should be watching. We should be watching. He will appear suddenly and that
day will be a day of manifesting, of revealing, a revealing day. And all the hope of that glorious
day when we shall see Him whom we preach, whom we believe, whom
we follow. One day we're going to see Him.
And then we shall be like Him. We shall be like Him. Is this not salvation? To be made like Him. Isn't that
it? To be one again with God? To
be made like His Son? That's salvation. I'll be satisfied, David said,
when I wake. Not in glory. He didn't say in
glory, though he will. When I wake, with His likeness. His likeness. We will have a
body like His body, sinless, incorruptible, clothed with beauty,
power, righteous, His righteousness, perfect, mature, instructed and have the mind of Christ.
I'd like to give mine up. I'd like to give my mind up.
I want His mind. I want His mind. Can you imagine
what that mind is like? The wisdom, the knowledge, the
mind of Christ. and to be delivered from all
temptations." All of them, gone. All temptation, all trouble,
gone. Gone, gone, gone. We shall, and we'll listen in
verse two, and I'll wind this up. And we shall see Him as He
is. not as he was, a man of sorrows
acquainted with grief. He will not have a trace of sin
on him. It says in Hebrews 9, that when
he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation, he
will not appear the second time as one who has no place to lay
his head, We will not see Him with a crown
of thorns, but a crown of victory. There will be no reed in His
hand. In His hand will be omnipotent power. That's what will be in His hand. This time we will see Him coming
not as a weak man, but as one who has all power and great glory. And following Him will be 10,000
times 10,000 angels and saints. All be with Him. And He'll be
leading the crowd. The captain of our salvation. And when we see Him, we will
see Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords. And someone said the sight will
be ravishing. He will be altogether lovely. Altogether lovely. And the sight
will be transforming. We shall be like Him. And when we see Him, we'll see
Him as He is. God over all, blessed forever. God over all, blessed forever. And every man, and I'll wind
it up here, verse 3, every man that hath this hope in him of
being like Christ when we see him, purifieth himself, seeks
to live after Christ now, not someday, but now, even as he
is pure. In Christ, every believer in
this room, in this world, is absolutely pure. pure. We used to sing a song, oh what
a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon
His face, the one who saved me by His grace. Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
sons of God. Sons of God.