1 John 3, John begins to give
us six arguments for the believer to live a holy life. I don't
know that we'll get to all six of them. I'm going to resist
what my natural personality is to make sure I cover every point
that I'm supposed to in the allotted time. We're not going to rush
through God's Word. We may not get to all six this morning,
but we'll see how far we get. But the first argument that John
gives us is actually in verse 29 of chapter two. He says, if you know that He
is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of Him. Now, we know that God is perfectly righteous. And if
we're born of Him, we have His nature, a new nature that's the
nature of God. We've become His children. And
children is human nature. It's an invariable fact of life.
Try as you may to not imitate your parents. Children imitate
their parents. It just seems like they can't
help it, for good or bad. What a child sees, maybe it's
nurture and nature both. They've got their parents' nature
and what they see their parents do, it's what they imitate. That's the way it is for a child
of God. Every child of God. has a strong desire that comes
from that nature that's in them to imitate our Heavenly Father,
to be holy as he's holy. That's the first argument John
gives for a believer to live a holy life. Now in chapter 3,
verse 1, he gives us the second argument. He 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. Now, the second argument John
gives for a believer to live a holy life is the love that
God has bestowed upon us. And he begins talking about this
love, he says, Behold, take notice of the love that God has to us. Take notice of it with awe and
wonder, with astonishment and amazement that God Almighty has
bestowed His love upon sinners like you and me. We should never
be found guilty of taking the amazing out of God's grace. We should never be found guilty
of being amazed at God's dealings with us that stem from His love
to us. Look over in 2 Samuel chapter
7. This is the attitude that David
came before the Lord with. And this ought to be our attitude.
2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 18. Then went King David in, and he sat
before the Lord. And he said, Who am I? Who am
I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that thou
hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing
in thy sight, O Lord God. But thou hast spoken also of
thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the
manner of man, O Lord God? Would a man do this? Is this
man's love? Is this the way a man would deal? And what could David
say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant. For thy word's sake, according
to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things to
make thy servant know them. Wherefore, thou art great, O
Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God
beside thee, according to all that we have seen and all that
we have heard with our ears. Who am I that God would love
me? Who am I that God would deal
so graciously and mercifully to me? Behold, John says, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. What manner
of love is it? that the Father hath bestowed
upon us. I thought of ten things this
week. There's a whole lot more, but I thought of ten. First,
what manner of love is it that the Father hath bestowed upon
us? It's a sovereign, electing love. Jacob have I loved, and
Esau have I hated. It's electing love. Second, what
manner of love? It's an undeserved love. Have I loved? I loved that cheat,
that supplanter, that no good scoundrel. I loved him. It's an undeserved love. God
loved us when we were unlovable, polluted with sin. That's when
God loved us. Look first at Romans chapter
5. Romans 5 verse 7. Now let's look at verse 6. This is an undeserved love. The
love of God is an undeserved love. Ephesians 2, verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you're saved. When did He love us? When we're
dead in sins. It's an undeserved love. What
manner of love is it that the Father hath bestowed upon us?
It's a condescending love. Try to imagine how far down God
had to come to love us. Try to imagine how far below
God that we are. Could you love a maggot? How
far below you is a maggot? God came further than that to
love you and me. It's a condescending love. Fourth,
it's an infinite love. Again, in Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter 3. It's an infinite love. Ephesians 3 verse 11. I'm sorry, verse 17. That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye be rooted and grounded
in love. may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." It's an infinite
love, and we've experienced the love of God because He's bestowed
it upon us. It's an infinite love that passes
our comprehension. We can't know it. We can't know
the length of it, the breadth of it, or the depth of it. It's
an infinite love, but we've experienced it because He's bestowed it upon
us. Sixth, God's love is an immutable
love. It's an unchangeable love. It
never changes. It never wavers. It never moves
even a degree. It's always perfect. Fifth or sixth, it's an eternal
love. Everlasting love. I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. It's an eternal love. Seventh,
it's a love that acts. Any true love will always act,
will always show itself on the person that it loves. It was
love that moved God to redeem a people. It was love that moved
Him to send His Son. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. And whosoever believeth in Him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Now why did He send His
Son? He loved His people. That's why love acts. If you're
there in 1 John, look over at page chapter 4, verse 9. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. This love acts. Now look over in Ezekiel chapter
16. This is a wonderful picture. When God's love acts, What does
this love that God has bestowed upon us do for us, do for the
objects of His love? In Ezekiel 16, verse 2, the Son
of Man caused Jerusalem to know her abominations. And thus saith
the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is
of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother was a Hittite. As for thy nativity and the day
thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed
in water to supple thee, for thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee." There
is nothing about you that would make anybody pity you. You're
so ugly and dead and sinful. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. For thou wast cast
out into the open field to the loathing of thy person and the
day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, When
thou wast in thine blood, when thou wast ugly, wretched in thy
blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments.
Thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas
thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold, there that word is again, behold, thy
time was a time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness, yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Then washed I thee with water,
yea, I freely washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
and shod thee with paddler's skin, and I girded thee about
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments. I put bracelets upon thy hands,
and a chain on thy neck. I put a jewel on thy forehead,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine
head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver. Thy raiment
was of fine linen and silk embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour
and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding and thou didst prosper
into a kingdom, and thou now went forth among the heathen
for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness which I
had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." Why did he put his
comeliness and his beauty upon us? Because, behold, when I passed
by thee, thy time was a time of love. He passed by because
of that eternal, immutable, unchanging, electing love. what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Eighth, what manner
of love is it? It's free. Free. You can't buy it. You can't earn
it. You can't merit it. You can't deserve it. It's free. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. Yea, come, buy and eat. Come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. It's free. Ninth, I know this about God's
love. The manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon
us, it's in His Son. The Father loves the Son and
hath given all things in His hand. The Father loves the Son
and He loves everyone He has put in the Son. His love is in
His Son. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. This is the love of God. who
is love. Human words just can't explain
it, can they? This is the love of God who is love. This is the manner of love that
God has bestowed upon us. And it's so great, this love
of God is so great, that He's called His people the sons of
God. Joint heirs with Christ. Now,
none of us was born that way the first time. By nature, we're
children of wrath even as others. We're not born heirs of God.
The first time, we're born heirs of sin, heirs of guilt, heirs
of wrath. By birth, by practice, and by
choice, we are children of iniquity, corruption. We're rebels against
God. Not a son, but a rebel, an enemy. But God calls those things that
are not as though they were. Now, He doesn't just call them
that. He actually makes them what they're
not. The Lord doesn't just call us
sons. He makes us His sons. He gives
us the nature of sons. If that isn't love, like the
songwriter says, the ocean is dry. Because you know what it
took to make sinners like you and me sons of God? It took the
death of His only begotten Son. It took the death of the Son
of His love to die in our place as our substitute in order to
make us His sons. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. He did such a great work of mercy
and grace and redemption for maggots. A couple of weeks ago,
we've got pigeons roost around our neighborhood. About this
time of year, I don't know why it is, Somebody in the neighborhood
gets tired of shooting them with BB guns. And there was a dead
one laying out in our yard. And I saw it when I came home
from work one evening. I thought, oh yeah, I'll get that bird.
And I forgot. And the next day, oh, I've got to get that bird.
I went out and got it. It was a garbage bag. And I picked
it up, and there was a pile of maggots underneath it. It was
horrible. I got the hose. I sprayed them
all out of the yard. Now, I didn't even want those
things in the yard. It was awful. And I thought, that's mean. That's the way God looks at me. Would you take one of those maggots
and change its nature? Give it your nature? And take
it to live in your house? Even if you could, would you
do that? Would you do it? If it took the
death of one of your children to do it? No, sir. Absolutely
not. Thank God he's not like me. That's
the love wherewith he loved a maggot like me, that I'd be called a
son of God. Behold, with awe and wonder and
amazement, the love of God that he's bestowed upon his people.
It's unspeakable. And I'll tell you this, nothing
will motivate a son more than the love of the Father. Love
won't motivate a rebel, but it will motivate a son. It will
motivate the son that you love. Love is a strong motivating force. A man will go die for the love
of his country. A husband will willingly die
defending his family because he loves them. It's a strong
motivating force. will sacrifice and work hard
and just give of themselves sacrificially for their children that they
love. Now, you just won't do that for
anybody, but you will for somebody that you love. Well, how much
more true is that of a child of God? Knowing that the Father
loves you will motivate you to live as holy a life as you can,
to live a life that's pleasing to Him, because of that manner
of love that He's bestowed upon you. Therefore, John says, because
we've been made sons of God, the world does not know us, doesn't
understand us, can't understand what in this world it is about
you. Well, why not? Why can't they understand you?
Because you've got the nature of Christ. And they didn't know
Him either. That's why. If the princes of
this world knew who He was, they wouldn't have killed Him. They
didn't know Him, and they don't know you because you've got His
nature. Now, when you look at us with
the natural eye, you can't really tell we're children of God. You
don't go around with a halo shine on the back of your head. You
look just like everybody else, don't you? Flesh lay on the outside. That's what they said about our
Lord, too. Isn't it Jesus who we know, whose Father and Mother
we know? You've got the same infirmities that everybody else
has, the same weaknesses, the same sicknesses. Fleshly speaking,
there's no difference. But there is a difference. It's
not fleshly difference, it's a spiritual difference. Therefore,
the world can't know you. Just like the world didn't know
God's Son because they didn't know God, they don't know you
because they don't know Him. That's why the world doesn't
know us. 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, for we shall see him as
he is. One of the things I love about
John's writings, John must have been a tender,
loving man because frequently he uses language like beloved. This is who I'm talking to. Beloved, those who are loved
of God and those who are beloved of Me. For there's brethren,
there's love. Beloved, what a term of endearment
we have for each other. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Right now, at this very second,
we are sons and daughters of God Almighty. Right now. We've
been adopted into His family. We've been born into His family
by the new birth, born into the family of God. And a great change
has taken place. Your old friends and companions
notice a change. There's a difference in the things
that you like to do, the things that you will do, the way you
walk, the way you talk, your conversation, your conduct. But
when they just look at you, they'll tell you, You don't look like
a son of God to me. You look like the same guy I
used to know. On the outside, you're the same.
Like I said, there's no halo going behind your head. Suddenly,
you look the same. But a great change is taking
place. On the outside, you're still looking an awful lot like
the son of Adam to me. But inwardly, there's a new man. Something's changed. It's a great
change. Like the rock song says, you
ain't seen nothing yet. I like that song. You ain't seen
nothing yet. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but
we know what we'll be when he appears because we'll see him
as he is, we'll be made like him. Look over Philippians chapter
three. Philippians three verse 20. Paul here is writing to the same
people, to the beloved, to the brethren. Our conversation, our
citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according
to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things
unto Himself. Now are we the sons of God. Now
you can't tell by looking at us right now what we're going
to be. You ain't seen nothing yet. When you look at us now,
you see a fleshly body. You're sons and daughters of
God. You've been born of God, but you still live in this fleshly,
what Paul called a vile body. But when Christ shall appear,
all that's going to change. We're going to have a body fashioned
like unto His glorious body. A glorious spiritual body. Not
a body of flesh anymore. It'll be flesh, but it's a different
kind of flesh. Look over in 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 49. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." How incorruptible! They weren't buried that way,
were they? They were buried in corruption, but they're going
to be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. This mortal is going to change.
This flesh is going to change when He appears. Now, we know
all the sin of God's elect is paid for, don't we? It's been
paid for and put under the blood of Christ. I'll tell you, you
watch me very long, it doesn't appear that way, does it? There's
still a lot of sin. There's way too much sin. We
still have Adam's dead, sinful nature in us. But when Christ
shall appear, Not only is that sin going to be paid for, the
power of it, the presence of it is going to be put away forever. That old nature is going to be
gone forever and we'll be free from sin and free from evil.
Right now, are we the sons of God? Seated in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, aren't we? Your friends look at you and
say, it doesn't look like you're seated in heavenly places. No,
you look like you're still a man walking around here on earth
just like everybody else. We're seated in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. But when He shall appear, we'll
be seated with Him in reality. Now, we live in the poverty of
this flesh. What an awful place to live,
this flesh. But when Christ shall appear,
we'll appear with Him in holiness, in a body, a richness of holiness,
just like Him. Right now, are we the sons of
God? And we have joy unspeakable in
Christ. You can't explain it to somebody
who doesn't know what it is. We understand. We speak the same
language. But somebody who doesn't know
Him, you can't explain that joy. We have joy unspeakable. But
in this flesh, we're still poor and needy, aren't we? We have
lots of sorrow, tears, troubles, because we live in a body of
sin. But when Christ shall appear, There'll be no more of that.
That'll be done away with. No more tears. No more sorrow.
No more sickness. No more pain. It'll be gone when
He appears. Nothing but joy and peace. Right
now, are we the sons of God? And as sons and daughters, we
see. When we're born again, we've
been given eyes that see. We see by faith, don't we? We
see. But it's through a glass darkly,
dimly. But when Christ shall appear,
faith will be done away. And we'll not see by faith anymore.
We'll not see through that glass darkly anymore. We'll not see
things, well, I kind of see what he's saying there. We'll see
face to face. We cannot imagine how glorious
that will be. to be made just like the Lord
Jesus Christ. Gill called it soul ravishing. I like that. Soul ravishing. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. We can't understand how wonderful
that will be. Dale Simpson said one time, it
helped me a lot there, we're standing at Cecil wrote his graveside. And we're talking about what
Cecil sees now, what body he's in now. And Dale said, we can't
understand it. We can't even begin to scratch
the surface of how glorious that is. He said it's a good thing
that we don't. Because if we did, he pointed
to a bridge, he said, we'd all be lined up on that bridge or
jump off. And that's true. It does not yet appear it shall
be, but I'm telling you what, you ain't seen nothing yet. About
Monday, I told Janet six verses in this last night, so I'll never
make it past the second one. I didn't, but that's all right,
isn't it? Oh, that's good food. So we'll
pick up there next week and we'll finish as we go.