We're going to be looking again
at verses 1 through 3 of 1 John. I'm going to just touch on what
we started last week, 1 John chapter 3. I want to let you
know that we will be taking a break next Thursday and Friday because
of the holidays, as we always do. So you can look forward to
that reprieve and that rest next Friday. We will return to subsequent
Thursday and Friday. of the week following the 28th
and the 29th. We always, every year, around
December, first week of December, second week of December, shut
down the studies for the month, give everybody an opportunity
for recuperation, dealing with family issues and things of that
nature. And then we come back the first
week after the new year. So you'll get that announcement,
not next week, but the week after that, so that you guys can get
ready for the new year. When we opened up 1 John 3 last
week, we contemplated what John told us we must do, and that
is to regard the kind of love that God bestows upon His people. That's what verse 1 is saying
in 1 John 3. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. We spent a lengthy period of
time recognizing, as your outline would say, the nature and the
character and the species, the quality of the love of God. I
often talk to you at Grace about being careful not to be superficial
about God or the things of God. There's nothing that God does
for us or to us or in us that is superficial. There's nothing
about God's kind intentions, his purpose of redemption, the
grace that God shows us that is ever trite or shallow, or
something with which we can lightly esteem, among which is the term
the love of God. The love of God, like the term
grace, is so shallowly comprehended today. But the term the love
of God really is such a profound concept that an honest believer,
a real genuine believer would have to shy away in a sense of
shame for the inadequacy of our understanding of what God's love
really means. We would have to be honest that
the love of God is really truly incomprehensible. We would have
to be honest that the love of God is not only incomprehensible,
that is that we cannot really penetrate into the depths of
that love to adequately explain it. But we would also have to
be honest that the love of God perplexes us. And when we use
the term perplexed, what we mean is when we try to rationalize
what God has done by his love, and what God has done by his
love to us, we ought to naturally be perplexed. Now, perplexity
is when you try to reconcile concepts and notions that don't
seem to fit. That's when you're perplexed.
Now, if you're not a person that's ever perplexed, either you are
a genius or you are a buffoon. Either you are a genius and you
never find yourself dealing with conundrums or quandaries or difficulties. are you are such an idiot and
imbecile that you don't realize when you run into them. Most
of us fit somewhere in between. And what I mean by that is the
life humbles you and it ought to. And it ought to bring you
to a place where you ought to know that you don't know what
you ought to be knowing. And that what you thought you
knew, you didn't know as well as you should. And when a person
increases in knowledge, just experiential knowledge of life,
he should or she should, they should increase in humility.
As the proverb says, preacher put it in the book of Ecclesiastes,
when knowledge increase, sorrows increase. When wisdom increases,
grief and anguish increases because the more I learn, the more I
know I need to learn more. The more I learn, the more I
know how woefully inadequate my knowledge really is. Now,
I'm just simply saying that to say this, overcome the temptation
to be trite and simple about the love of God. Don't use the
word the love of God as an advertisement like everybody else in the world
does. Everybody thinks they know the love of God. Everybody thinks
they're under the auspices and blessings of the love of God,
but that really cannot be true. And as we began to look at in
1 John chapter 3 last week, that God had an aim for which He was
pleased to love us. Look at verse 1 again. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. That's
John's exhortation to you and I to enter into the inquiry as
to the depths, the character, the quality, and the nature of
God's love. Enter into this with me now.
Think it through. work on this, analyze this, understand
it, develop your own, your own biblical comprehension of the
love of God and let it blow you away that we should be called
what? The sons of God. So what we learned
last week is that in God's infinite grace and in his amazing love,
he has chosen to qualify men and women to be sons and daughters
of God. So when you think about the love
of God, think about the love of God having this aim and objective,
and that is to call and name people sons and daughters of
God. Now, if you understand the implications
of these two, you realize the level and depth and extent to
which God had to go. To make you a child of God, you
guys understand what I'm saying, that by nature, you're not a
child of God. You may not have known that,
but by nature, you're a child of hell. By nature, you're a
sinner under the wrath of God. By nature, you're an enemy of
God. By nature, you stand in opposition to God. You and I,
by nature, are objects of God's wrath. Do you know that? Do you
know that you are a sinner? That's one of the things that
a true child of God really comes to understand. See, now you begin
to understand what I mean by the perplexity of God calling
me a son of God. I can keep hell burning all by
myself. nice and hot, just me alone. And then God would call me a
son of God. So now those are those are irreconcilable concepts
in my brain. God has to resolve that conundrum
for me. He has to help me understand
how it can be that a holy God could call a simple person like
me a son of God. Ah, this proposition begins to
offend people. Because the reality is, is that
God had to do something enormous in order to bridge the gap between
his nature and mine, for him to be able to tell the world
legitimately that Jesse Gistan is his son. Now, when the world
looks at me and thinks about me from the moment of my conception,
even to this very hour, and they analyze and assess my life, if
they were honest, they cannot see how I could be called a son
of God. They would be in a conundrum,
too. They would be in a perplexity, too. How can you call him a son
of God? He seems to be just like me,
a hell bound sinner bent in his own ways by nature. How can you
call anybody a son of God? See, what I'm trying to do is
help you understand that the aim of the concept of God's love
is to legitimately qualify people to be sons and daughters of God.
And what God had to do in order for that to occur, it put me
in a place by which I was legitimately qualified in his eyes to be adopted. That's why the top of our outline
has a love that adopts. You see that? A love that adopts. Anybody ever been adopted here?
Any adopted children here? I know lots of folks that are
adopted. Anybody ever adopted any children? What a love it
is for an individual to adopt a stranger, a child that is not
ontologically or genetically yours. The kind of love that
is required for a person to love a stranger is a very unusual
love. When we talk about the love of
God to a human being, what we are talking about is the love
of God to adopt a stranger. Am I making some sense? That's
a different kind of love. It's the kind of love that on
the part of the stranger destroys any grounds of boasting. You
know how in our churches, folks love to boast about being a child
of God. Like somehow they were born children
of God, like somehow that every every gene in their body reeks
with the nature of God, like somehow they think God's thoughts
after him incessantly, like somehow they have a right to claim and
boast that they are a child of God. If you are indeed a child
of God, God did some amazing things to make you that way.
While we would if you want to put an adjective in front of
love, you know what the word is? Amazing. Amazing. That's the word you put in front
of love. When you think about what God did to make you legitimately
qualified to be his son or daughter, then see the language in the
text is important. I want you to, I want you to
see how important this is in the first line of verse one of
chapter three, the manner of love in which the father bestowed
upon us was in order that you see that little word that that's
what we call a purpose clause. It was in order that, He would,
that we would be called the sons of God. Now who's calling us
sons of God? God is. God gets the right to
do that. God gets the right to declare
them sons of God. God gets the right to boast in
ownership. God gets the right to say, that's
my boy. That's my girl. This is why God
did what he did in order to be able to do that. I want you to
stay with me now. because what we learned last Friday is this,
a relationship with the true and the living God on the grounds
of God exercising his amazing love to qualify you for that
position, that status, a relationship with the true and the living
God by which you can be legitimately called a child of God. And anybody
in the world has the right to test you on that. Everyone in the world has the
right to challenge you on that assumption. You call yourself
a child of God. Let me test you. Everybody has
that right. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Because to call yourself a child of God is huge. not only by virtue
of the position that you are taking, but by virtue of the
assumption of right to claim almighty God as your father. For you to do that, you are making
some huge assumptions of which everyone has a right to test
you. They have a right to determine whether or not that's true. If
there's anybody in the world that's going to be tested as
to the authenticity of their sonship, it's the people of God.
See, really, this is where John is going in the test. Remember,
the book of First John is about a test as to the authenticity
of our claim to be children of God, our claim to have fellowship
with God. If you call yourself a child
of God, be ready to be tested as to whether or not that's true.
But I want to say this for God to have done all he did in order
to qualify you to be a child of God was not about you. It was about him. What God did
in taking hell bound centers like us to make us sons and daughters
of God is not about you about. It's about him. The goal for
God is for him to be able to boast in what he did to make
you. a child of God. Are you guys
hearing with me? Hearing what I'm saying? And see, this is
where the analogy of adoption comes in at so critically in
the scriptures. I shared this with you last week
in the closing of our study and contemplation on this part. In
the Roman Empire, when a person was abandoned as a child, these
were orphans. They were often put in orphanages. And if they were fortunate, someone
would come along and adopt them. And the adoption process took
place in two stages. The first stage was the litigation
that the individual who was intended on adopting the child had to
go through a long process, arduous process of qualifying to adopt
a child and then purchasing the child. That child, upon qualification
and purchase, was the child of the person that adopted, the
son, the daughter of the person that adopted them. That was the
first stage. And then there was a time between
the legal transaction by which the child was adopted and the
financial requirements upon which the child was purchased in the
adoption and the time when the child would actually be publicly
acknowledged as having been adopted. There was a span between the
legal process of adoption and the public manifestation of the
adoption. Are you guys following me so
far? There was a gap there was a there was a bridge of time
between What the person who set his love on that child did to
qualify to purchase that child to name him? after his own last
name and the time when that child would be publicly exposed as
being Adopted into that family and according to Roman law when
a child was adopted into a family that child became equal to In
all rights with those who were home born who were born of that
family. Am I making some sense? So what we're doing in our outline
as john is working us through these passages of scripture He
wants the child of god who understands the grace of redemption and the
price that christ paid to make you a son of god He wants you
to understand that there's a two-part process here The first part is
the legal transaction by which god in jesus christ redeemed
you in order to purchase you Having the crown rights by which
you could say to the world. That's my child That's the first
part and then that celebratory time when god will bring you
up out of the obscurity Of that process and publicly make you
to be known by all that you are his child There's a two-part
process here Am I making some sense? And you and I are in between
that process if we've been born again. And what John wants us
to understand is you've got to understand how this process works
so that you don't get in trouble. Are you with me so far? In other
words, what John is saying, if you follow the language is this
two part process will settle you down with the fact that you
know who you are in Christ, even though nobody else does. Did
you get that? even though nobody else does.
Listen to the language, we're getting ready to work it through.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world
does not, what? Know us. The word therefore is
what we call a connecting clause. It's also a conclusive clause.
A conclusive clause is a conjunction that ties a previous proposition
with the subsequent proposition using the subsequent proposition
as the result of the previous proposition. Because I am a son
of God, watch this, the world does not know me. Now, that's
an interesting line of thought that John is raising, but it's
critical for you. Let's say you are a child of
God. Let's say you are a person that has been adopted in the
beloved. Let's say you have come to experience the sonship of
Jesus Christ. The area in which you and I have
come to experience sonship is in the area of the scriptures,
in the area of the experience of grace that the scriptures
call the spirit. You and I experience the spirit
of sonship right now. Does that make some sense? The
spirit of sonship. What manner of love has God bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the
world does not know us. Therefore, the world does not
know us. Why does it not know us? Because our sonship at this
present time is in the spirit. Are you with me so far? The concept
of adoption that runs through the scriptures, there are three
major texts. The one is in Romans 8, the other is in Ephesians
1, the third is in Galatians 4. I want you to read those with
me again so that you can understand this concept. In Romans chapter
8, notice what it says. The concept of adoption. Now,
again, the word adoption is not being used directly in the 1
John chapter 3 text, but it may be assumed by you and I that
you and I are adopted, that there is no way by which you and I
can enter into a real relationship with God apart from an adoption
process. So we read over in verse 12 through. Let me just start at verse 14
and go to verse 15. And I think I'll do verse 16
as well, because this will help you understand the importance
of this sphere in this dimension of sonship constituting the realm
of the Spirit. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the what? So there is an evidence of what
it means to be a son or daughter of God. Sons of God is what we
call the positional sense. It's not a gender. It's our status
before God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of what? The spirit of adoption. The spirit
of adoption. by which we what cry of a father. So now if you're careful, you
know what you would be doing? You would be noting the attributes
or evidences that constitutes sonship as they are laid out
right here. If you're careful, you would
note that the evidence that constitutes sonship in our text, uh, affirm
two things. One is being led by the spirit.
That's one. The second one is a inner cry
to God as father. The first is being led by the
spirit. That's what the text is. As many as are led by the
spirit, these are the what? Sons of God. Secondly, if I am
a son of God, there is an inner cry in my soul to God as father. You guys got that? So you can
examine within yourself whether or not there is a dynamic of
grace that has given you the comfort You can examine yourself
whether or not there's a dynamic of grace that is giving you the
comfort to be able to call God your father. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? When you're outside of Christ
and you're outside of an experience of grace, you have no conscious
confidence to call God your father. When you're outside of grace,
you don't have any grounds upon which to call God your father.
You can call on God in the general sense, You can ask the great
God to help you. You can say, oh, God, have mercy
on me. Everybody around the world does.
But that's a radical difference than the internal compulsion
that is rooted in a relationship by which the spirit of God has
given me access to God as my father. That's a total difference
for a man or woman to have the freedom. This is part of the
liberty that comes with being a child of God. The freedom to
call God father is an evidence of the rebirth. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? For a man or woman to have the internal, I'm
not talking about just vocalizing or religious expressions. I'm
talking about the internal capacity, the freedom of access into the
presence of God, not as just the great Jehovah that runs the
universe, but as my father is a work of the spirit of God,
which is a consequence of Christ's death on Calvary. Having purchased
the spirit to give to you by which the spirit bears record
with your spirit, that you are a son of God and thus you have
access. Do you hear what I'm saying to
God? It was said years ago that Abraham
Lincoln in love with his boys had a special door to the oval
office through which his son could enter anytime he wanted
to. and talk to his father, no matter what his father was doing.
Here he is, the president of the United States, sitting in
the Oval Office with all of his administration, working through
things like the Civil War. And his son could just come in
anytime and say, hey, daddy, I need a lollipop. Why? Because he had access. And this is what we're talking
about when we're talking about sonship. So in our text in Romans
chapter eight, there are just two things that are calling upon
us to examine as to the authenticity of our claim to be a child of
God. Do you walk in the spirit? We
won't develop that today. Secondly, is there a natural,
compelling, impelling in your soul to call God daddy? Mine
does. When you get born again, this
is the gift that you receive. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
When you properly taught what happened when God reconciled
you to himself through Jesus Christ Christ and gave you the
liberty to call him father. Listen to the language. You've
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received
the spirit of adoption whereby you cry Abba father. You know
what's so beautiful about the latter part of verse 15 what
Paul is describing in verse 15 was literally demonstrated by
the son of God himself. Do you recall when the son of
God himself in a time of great difficulty called on God, crying
what Abba father? Do you remember that? The beauty
and comfort of our text is that what John is painting in first
John chapter three is a portfolio of the true son of God and all
other sons of God as a consequence of him. The beauty of 1 John
3 is that when we unpack what John says are the evidences of
sonship, all he's doing is showing us what it means to be in Jesus
Christ. Are you guys with me so far?
As he was in the world, so are we. Did Christ follow his father? Yes. Did Christ cry, Abba Father? Yes, he did. So the Spirit of
God given to everyone who truly believes on him does exactly
the same thing Because God makes us sons and daughters of God
by virtue of Christ's death on Calvary notice the language in
verse 16 The spirit itself bears record with our spirit that we
are the what? The spirit itself bears record
with our spirit that we are the children of God if children then
heirs of God join heirs with Christ And here is another caveat
that's gonna move us back to our text. If so be that we what?
Suffer with him that we may also what? Be glorified together.
Go back to our text. Remember that thought. In fact,
sorry, stop at Ephesians chapter one on your way there. Ephesians
chapter one, we're gonna look at Ephesians and Galatians. Just
these three verses underscoring the adoption concept. So when
you think about adoption, as you will read it in the New Testament,
it's a two-part Category stop at Galatians chapter 4 before
we get to Ephesians Galatians chapter 4 I want you to hear
this when you think about adoption of sons understand these two
things one is it's a two-part process The first part is unseen
It's a mystery the other part is a public manifestation Of
which no one will be able to deny when it ultimately occurs
Adoption is a two-part process that first deals with your soul,
and then ultimately will deal with your body. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? Adoption is the redemption of
our soul. The spirit of adoption is the
redemption of our soul by which we are brought into relationship
with God through Jesus Christ. The latter adoption process will
be the redemption of your body. As Romans chapter eight, the
whole world is groaning and travailing together until now, until the
manifestations of the sons of God. to wit the redemption of
our bodies. There's a day coming when the
body will be redeemed and glorified at such an extent that the world
will know what they cannot know now. Are you with me so far? What they cannot know now. And
I want you to stay with that, because that's what John is teaching
for you and I to comprehend and understand as to why it is that
even though I'm a child of God presently in the world that I'm
in, I'm experiencing trouble. You would, you would think if
you are the child of the King, all your problems would be solved.
What John is trying to help you do is to continue to affirm your
calling without falling prey to faulty assumptions. Like God,
I'm your child. Why am I going through all this
hell? Can I get a witness now watch
this? Well, cause that's what my children do. They go through
hell. I know that just blew your fuse.
I know it just blew your fuse. I don't know. I don't just watch
it. Watch how it goes. Galatians
chapter four. Are you there? This is the apostle Paul speaking
about the concept of sonship and adoption to I'm going to
start at verse four and go through verse six and you'll see it.
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his
son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive. Here it is. Are you got you got
it? The adoption of what? That's right. So the adoption
of sons came by virtue of the incarnation and suffering of
Christ, didn't it? Adoption is not God's caveat, our free predilection
to save us and call us sons. Adoption is the work of God in
Christ by his atoning death, by which he qualifies us through
that death to now become sons of God because he imparts to
us the spirit of God. One of the things that he won
in terms of his crown rights at Calvary, verse six, and because
you are Sons God has sent for the spirit of his son into your
hearts doing what crying Abba father you got it so I want to
make sure you get that because Here's the thing The concept
that you and I are contemplating right now is really union with
God in the person of Christ The concept that you and I are contemplating
right now is union with God in the person of Christ. Let me
see if I can drive this home vividly. You and I can read about
Jesus and we can observe in the scriptures how he acted and how
he interacted with his father. We can see that. We can see when
we observe in the scriptures, as we're going to get into in
a moment here, how the world reacted to Christ and how Christ
reacted to the world. We can see that, can't we? The
beauty of the incarnation is that God is now made visible
to us in the person of Christ by which we marvel at how he
dealt with issues. What John is telling us is this,
that how Christ dealt with issues is how we are to deal with issues
because the spirit of Christ is in us. If we will be but informed
as to what God accomplished in Christ, when he gave us the spirit,
we will be able to see that as he was in the world, so are we. But now, if you accept that proposition
as a glorious prospect, that I'm in Christ and as I am in
Christ, Christ is in God, God's in me, I'm God's son. That's
a glorious prospect, but it comes with issues. Are you willing
to accept that? So that's where we're getting
ready to go. It comes with issues. I want to make sure when we take
this week off, I want you to be able to think about this.
I want you to be able to think about the issues that come with
being a child of God. That's what I want you to think
about. Because I don't want you to find yourself on the opposite
side of God's love and mercy, trying to make God do something
for you that he didn't even do for his own darling son. while
he was on this earth. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is very important. And so in Galatians four, it
says. What God did when Christ accomplished our eternal redemption
was to cause us to be to receive the spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry of a father, wherefore you are no more slaves but sons
and of sons and heirs of God through Christ. There it is again.
Paul is using that language. Go to Ephesians chapter one.
We're going to do it one more time and go back. In Ephesians
chapter one, this is the way Paul puts it, starting with the
mind of God in eternity before the world began. He talked about
how blessed God is. In verse three, blessed be the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed who? If you can circle that and write
the word me, you're halfway home, but you better own it. Don't
just talk like it. Everybody love to say the law
is blessing me. You better own that because God's
blessings are not our blessings. I know we think they are, but
God's blessings are not our blessing. Let me show you how the, the
blessings unfold right here in this context. Blessed be the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have what blessed
us with all what kind of blessings, spiritual blessings. Where are
they in heavily places in Christ Jesus? Well, That kind of changes
the category and identity of the blessings that you often
hear commonly spoken of in church. Isn't that right? Commonly spoken
of in church are earthly blessings of a carnal and material nature.
And the text here says that they are heavenly blessings in a spiritual
dimension that are actually in the sphere of the person of Christ.
So now watch this. I want to help you now. You got
a problem. because even though you legitimately can claim the
us factor and you need to be able to do that if you want in
on the blessings, the blessings are in heaven and they are in
Christ. But now you're down here on the
earth. How are you going to get those blessings? See what I'm
getting at? It's very important for you to
understand this concept. It's two words. That are really the mystery to
what it means to be saved. The first is a preposition and
the preposition is I in. And the next one is a pronoun.
H, I am. In him. In him. If the blessings are in heaven.
If the blessings are in Christ, if I'm going to get those blessings
that are in heaven, that are in Christ. I've got to be in
him. You guys got that? I've got to
be in him. If I'm in him, then I'm also
in heavenly places, seated at the right hand of God, according
to Ephesians 2, which means those blessings that are in that realm
are accessible to me because of my position. Are you guys
following me? See, as John is talking to us
about sonship, he's really telling us, be careful to understand
what we call the simplicity of the gospel. him all the promises
of God are yes and amen in him are you guys hearing what I'm
saying this is a critical reality but if I am in him there are
a number of ramifications that follow being in him everywhere
you go in the scriptures and you read what it means to be
in him to be in him is a great privilege that comes with also
many many responsibilities So here's what he says again. We're
getting ready to go back to our text and move into the next few lines
of thought. I just want you to stay with me now. He says. That we the us have all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has
chosen us, do you see it where in him? Do you see it? God has
already made it that I am able to access those spiritual and
heavenly blessings because he chose me in Christ. Isn't that glorious? Before the foundation of the
world. Now here's the aim for which God has given me all those
blessings. It's not that I might live large and bling, but that I should be holy and
without blame before him in love. You know what that last part
just said? This is what it said in order that God might be legitimately
capable Qualified right when he says I am a son of God Did
you get that That I might be holy without blame before him
in love means that when God calls me a son of God No one can make
God a liar see when God gives us a spiritual heavenly blessings.
It's in order to qualify us to be what God has called us to
be. So that when God says, that's my son, that's my daughter. No
one can say, no, she's not. God will say, yes, she is. They
might say, no, she's not. Look at the way she acts. And God will say, you're missing
the point. Are you hearing me? That's why I'm taking my time,
because you're going to have two weeks to think this through. So Paul says here. that the spiritual blessings
which are in heavenly places in Christ are secured for the
us factor because he chose us in him before the world began.
And the objective of choosing us in Christ to give us those
blessings is in order that we would be holy and without blame
before him in a love relationship with God. God should be able,
God should be able to look upon the person that he calls a son
or daughter of God in love. He should be able to look upon
you in a loving predisposition because you are everything that
God Required of you to be for you to be a son and daughter.
Am I making some sense? See that ought to blow you away That ought
to just right now that ought to frazzle synapses and that
ought to get you again coiling in a sense of of a humble shame
because you can't begin in your own self to identify those qualities
or characteristics in yourself that would constitute that kind
of fellowship with God. Am I making some sense? On what
grounds can I empirically discern why God should love me? God's
holy, God's righteous. He never has thought an evil
thought and God cannot stand iniquity. He cannot stand transgression
and sin. It's abhorrent to God. And in
my nature, that's all I am. Everything that God cannot stand
is what I am by nature. How can God love me? There's
only two words in him. Did you get that? Let's keep
it simple now. Let's keep it simple because
the gospel is for simple people. It's not for the brilliant. It's
for simpletons. So God, God is making claims
in the scriptures that causes us to wrestle. Right? They cause us to wrestle. And
the only way you can embrace those claims is by faith. It's by faith. And that, too,
is a gift of God. Are you with me so far? I would
love to make it simpler than that, but I'm sorry I can't.
Watch this. He has blessed us with our spiritual
blessings in heavenly places according as he has chosen us
in him before the world began in order that we would be holy
without blame before him in love. God had to meet all the conditions
by which he can say, that's my son. Because if I'm God's son,
I'm like God. You know what that means? Holy.
You know what that mean? Blameless. You know what that
means? I am holy. That is intrinsically. I possess
all of the qualities of perfection without blame. That means integrity
wise. I have never, ever once violated
any of God's laws. Now, that's a myth. Empirically. Experientially. But it's a fact. On God's part
of the equation, because of my substitute, my surety, my savior,
my go-between, my redeemer, the one who traded places with me.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So that when God looks at me,
he sees Christ and he can say to me, you're righteous and you're
holy, you're without spot, you're without blemish, you're perfect. In fact, Jesse, you are lovely. Because he's looking at himself.
in the person of his son who has decided to stand in my place
and cover all my transgression and make me the object of God's
love because of his sacrificial endowment and bestowment and
granting and giving of what we learned last week that God did
in order to make me his son. Are you guys following me so
far? This is very important. This is the this is the nectar
of redemptive truth. If you don't know. Verse five,
having predestinated us. Do you see the phrase predestinated?
You know what that means? That means God, before the world
began, drew up a plan, a purpose, a scheme in order to accomplish
the goal of calling me a son or daughter of God. Through the
adoption process again, do you see it? having predestinated
us unto the what? Adoption of children. Isn't that
right? Can you see now why I had to
insert the concept of adoption in front of the term sonship?
Because we can get the crazy notion that sonship is merely
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man and Jesus
ain't got nothing to do with this. And that would be the greatest
heresy in the world. Am I making some sense? When
Adam and Eve fell into sin and rebellion against God, we all
fell with them. Do you believe that? Well, I
don't like that. Well, that's too bad. It's so.
Just like you carry the DNA of your mom and your daddy and all
of the negative attributes that come with that. You know how
mom and daddy pops up in you from time to time? Remember you
swore you weren't gonna be like your daddy. Now you just like
him. You remember you swore you're gonna be mean and cantankerous
like your mama and you just like it. And the older you get, the
more they seem to pop up in you. You fight to kill it. But the
more you try to kill it, the more it rises up. This is called
the federal headship principle. As in Adam, all die. So in Christ,
all shall be made what? It's profound, isn't it? It's
profound. It's profound. So the hope of
the believer is two words in him. What God did was to adopt
us And here's the instrumental and efficient and central means
by which he adopted us. He adopted us by Jesus Christ. Do you see that? That's the vehicle
by which the adoption process took place. Isn't that what the
text says? Right. And now watch the goal. Here's
the goal. Jesus Christ is the vehicle. He's the instrumental
means he's the efficient cause. But the goal is that he might
adopt me to himself. Do you see that? Isn't that what
the text says? He adopted us through Christ to himself, through
Christ to himself, which in some profoundly incomprehensible way,
God wants me for all eternity to stand before him face to face. Do you see that? Do you see that? Do you see what's taking place
here? And now we can read Romans chapter 8 or Hebrews chapter
2, which clearly says that it behooved him in all points to
be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a faithful high
priest to us, that God might call many sons to glory. So the one son said yes to the
father by which a process was engaged Of which many men and
women who didn't qualify naturally to become sons and daughters
of God can stand before God Stand before God in theology. We call
it Coram Deo Stand before God in theology. We call it Coram
Deo Coram Deo is really a privilege For two categories of people.
Are you ready? holy angels And God himself The only people,
the only entities that can stand before God for all eternity are
holy angels. Remember, Gabriel, I am the angel
that stands in the presence of God. And then the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ stands
face to face with God. At all times, this is what we
call in the marriage marital concept position, number one,
number one. Now, this is wild. This is why
because every other creature and every other entity in the
universe may have a favorable relationship with God positionally
But we have the closest relationship with God Where God has fixed
it that he can look at me and I can look at him face to face
Are you hearing me for all eternity? the profundity of the the profundity
of this is amazing because what it does is is once again places
me inside a Jesus Christ So I can play with this concept for a
moment are you with me in the beginning was the Word and the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us Now the same was in
the beginning with God and he was God Do you guys see that? He was with God face to face
profile to profile The son looking at the father, the father looking
at the son, the son being the perfect image of the father,
the exact representation of the father, the son being the emanation
of the father, the son being a duplication of the father,
the son being a revelation of the father. In fact, nobody can
see the father apart from the son. Am I making some sense?
The sun being an exact representation of the invisible God being the
glory and the fullness and effulgence of a God who can't be comprehended.
That's what invisibility means. When a thing is invisible, it
can't be seen. It can't be sensed. It can't
be understood, comprehended or known or perceived. When God
is invisible, we can't know him, but we can know him through his
son. For the sun is the revelation of the invisible God. Now this
is crazy because if I'm in the sun, I have that same privilege. That's what the text is saying.
That he might make me holy and without blame before him in love. Now, if you struggle with this,
go to Proverbs 8 in your own time. Jesus said it throughout
the gospel. Father, I know you love me always. You always hear me cause I always
do those things which please you. Can any of you say that? Don't get yourself in trouble
now. So this is absolutely profound
because even when Jesus was here on the earth, he was still in
heaven beholding the face of his father. Is that true? Beholden
faith. See, he never lost his position.
Even though he assumed the human nature, he was still infinite
God everywhere present. And the positions of the God
here were always the same. They never broke rank. I want
you to know that. You know how husbands and wife break rank
all the time. We break rank, don't we? We might get into position
five and stay there for years, you know, right? But the father
and the son always agree. They always behold each other. That's probably chapter eight.
I was with him when he made everything. I was by him as one that grew
up with him in the manifestation and unfolding of the whole of
the universe. In fact, he made the universe through me and I
was daily his delight. This is profound. The son was
the delight of the father above everything that he made. This
gives us an insight into the love of the father to the son.
Does it? Does it give us a little insight
into the love of the father to the son now watch this let this
blow you away The scripture says it more than once the same love
that the father has toward the son He has towards us So that
should have knocked you over your seat right there that's
crazy Are you hearing me? that's crazy and the love of
that the Father hath towards me and I have taught the Father
will be in you also. That's John 14. It's crazy. This is why the believer has
to slow down and stop eating the wood, hay and stubble of
the promises of this life and drink deep from the well of grace
and get a hold of the infinite, enormous, tremendous promises
of God for him in Christ and stop living like beggars. Around
realities that are ours in Christ, that would change our attitude
on so many levels. Are you following me? One can
draw out if you want to the implications, and I'll let you do that. The
implications are glorious. If I'm a son of God, if I'm a
child of God, then all the promises of God are yes and amen to me
through Jesus Christ, is that right? All the promises of God,
right? Not some, all. which are huge,
huge with regards to God resourcing me, giving me, taking care of
me, handling me in that reciprocal relationship between me and him.
Got it? I, however, need to understand
what's in the inheritance, right? I really do. And to the degree
that I'm ignorant of those things, I will be poverty stricken in
my soul and lose out on the blessing. Am I making some sense? So this
is why John says stay right there in 1 John chapter 3. Go to 1
John chapter 3. I want to look at two more things
before we shut it down. This is why John says now stay
right there. Drink deeply of the endowment. Drink deeply of
God's bestowment. Don't run from the implications
of what God has done for you in Christ. For God to say I love
you is not for God to just go through some kind of emotional
ecstatic expression. God's not emotional. Do you know
how we get emotional? I love you. That don't mean much,
does it? On our part. What does saying
to somebody I love you do? It might give him a little heebie-jeebies
as a thrills and frills, you know, but it don't do much, does
it? To say I love you doesn't mean
that in most times, in most cases, now watch this. This is why I
want you to be careful about talking about the love of God.
To say I love you on a human level, nine times out of 10,
We don't back up that proposition. Am I telling the truth? To say
I love you nine times out of 10 results in us lying. Because love is a verb. And we treat it in such paltry terms
as if it's just a, you know, a calling card, an expression.
The only thing worse than the notion that we can kind of just
say it flippantly, I love you, is that people buy it. They accept
it. They're worse than we are. Like somehow they get some intrinsic
value out of saying, I love you. Oh, we're starving for love when
we're like that. Ain't that right? We're starving for love when
somebody can just simply say, I love you and you feel good.
Nothing changed in your life. Nothing, nothing changed in the
relationship. They didn't stop hating on you.
Stopped doing you wrong. I love you. I'm telling you the truth. I'm just, I'm just telling you,
I have to do it. Got to do it. Oh, I love you beating you down
still. I love you. Leaving you left in the cold.
I love you. Not beating your knees. I love you. Don't mean
nothing. I've said a years ago, I said
a years ago, I just, when a person tells me they love me more than
twice, I stepped back because I know it's a setup.
Did you get that? I know it's a setup. That's just
been my experience. Jesse, man, I love you, man.
I love you. I love you. Hold it. Hold on. Hold on. What you
want from a brother? What you want? It's just because
here, let me put it like this. Save your I love you's for real important moments. I'll share this one with you
before I go to the next point. You won't find God having said
in the first person anywhere in the scriptures, I love you. Are you hearing me? You won't
find God just kissing people saying, I love you all through
the scriptures. He doesn't do that. He doesn't play with our
emotions like that. He doesn't play with our feelings like that.
He doesn't seek to manipulate us like that. God holds a greater
degree of appreciation for the concept of love than for love
to be a mere spouted terminology. I've told you this before. Whenever
God uses the phraseology love, it is almost always in the past
tense. I have loved you. You know what
that does? It forces me to consider how
he loved me. Because love is an action word.
Do you hear what I just said? I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with cords of a man
have I drawn you to myself. I have loved you. Therefore,
I gave people for you and nations for your sake. I have loved you.
Therefore, I gave my son a propitiation for your sins. So when God says
he loves us, he tells us to go look at the evidence. That's why we don't need to be
playing with this love thing like folks do Love is an action word
the verb means something. All right the next the next line
I want you to think about is in the latter part of verse 1
and that is When he says that we should be called the sons
of God therefore he bestowed this upon us his love Therefore
the world does not know us. Do you guys see that? Therefore,
the world does not know us and he's getting ready to once again
tie what it means to experience sonship. He's getting ready to
tie the sonship factor between us and him on an experience that
is of the world or in the world. And I want you to see this. This
is important. OK, so now we have just basked
for almost an hour. Definitely almost an hour on
the concept of the love of God once more and I I trust that
it blesses your soul But here's what God wants you to understand
that relationship that God has established with you in Christ,
which is so profound Requires you to understand that you are
now set up To be misunderstood by the world Did you get that That relationship
with which God has uniquely and particularly established between
you and him, and he hasn't done this for the world. He's only
done this for his people. Requires that you realize that
you've been set up to be misunderstood by the world. Are you with me
so far? See, this is what I meant earlier,
that if you are under the assumption that because you are a child
of God, everything should go well with you and people should
like you. you're under a faulty assumption. And what what John
would have you to understand is reconcile God's claim for
you with a world ready that does not own God. Are you following
me? It'll be as simple as this. They
will not know you in that word. No, we're going to investigate
for a few minutes because they didn't know him. Isn't that what
the text says? Therefore the world does not
know us because it knew him not. So on the one hand, God solved
a huge problem for us in making us his sons and daughters through
Jesus Christ. If you believe the gospel, if you've been born
of God, if you have the spirit of adoption by which you cry
out the father, but at present it creates a problem because
the world doesn't know him. And therefore the world doesn't
know us. And what God is telling you, like any good father would
say to his children. And when you go out that door,
bury my name. I want you to understand what
you're going to go through. Got it. I want you to know that when
you say that you are a child of God, what kind of heat you're
going to take for the father in this world. Got it. Because that's what he means
by they didn't know him. There are several ways in which I would
like to advance that thought. In your outline, evidence of
alienation of the world. Once we have established our
position and power of sonship, as many as received him to them,
gave you the authority to become the sons and daughters of God.
Once we establish the subject, what we also have to acknowledge
is evidence The evidence is alienation of the world. How do I know that
I am truly a son of God? Are you ready? Because once I
start interacting with the world, operating out of biblical principles,
walking in a biblically informed mind, making choices and decisions
that are predicated upon biblical truth, my convictions now being
formed by the spirit of God, I'm going to stand in opposition
to a world that hates God. once I start operating out of
my sonship characteristics. by which my mind is renewed and
I think God's thoughts after him being transformed and renewed
in my mind so that I know what the good and perfect will of
God is. As I start operating out of biblical
convictions and start making choices that are consistent with
biblical truth and therefore start articulating what I believe
the world is according to God's word, I am going to find myself
in a hostile scenario with people who don't know God. Do I have
to explain that in another way? Did y'all get that? See, the
moment that I start actually functioning as a child of God
in my terminology, in my choices, in my convictions, I'm going
to run up against people who don't know God, who don't believe
God, who don't understand God, who don't embrace God, in fact,
are hostile towards God, and they will necessarily be hostile
towards me. To be a son of God in this world,
a daughter of God in this world is to be in this world just like
Christ was in this world. Do you know how he was in this
world? John chapter one. Says he was in the world. The world was made by him. And
the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. You know what that means? They
rejected him. He would talk to the world, but the world wouldn't
understand him. He would say to the world, why
do you not understand me? It's because my words not in
you. If you if you had my word in you, you would understand
who I am. You'd understand where I came from. But because my word
is not in you, you don't understand me. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? So now if I'm in Christ, I am
a child of God. I possess the spirit of adoption.
My mind is being renewed, transformed. My convictions are being formed
by the word of God. My choices are going to be regulated
by biblical truth. I'm going to be making decisions
that are going to correspond with the will of God. And when
people ask me, how come I do what I do? The battle's on. Because I am in a hostile world,
contrary to God. Pastor, while you're saying that,
that's one of the evidences I've been born of God. John chapter
14 puts it like this. If you were of the world, the
world would love you. But you are no longer in the
world. And as I was in the world and the world hated me, know
that it will hate you, too, because the principle works like this.
The servant cannot be greater than the master. Am I making
some sense? Now this is very important for
you to know because you and I have to be able to interpret the sanctification
process that we go through. We'll be getting to that when
we come back to second week, but the latter part of first
John after we get past verse three. And John gets to talking
about righteousness and unrighteousness and transgression and sin and
brother hating you to the point of where they want to kill you
is where the distinguishing factors come in that constitute the reality
of our sonship or not. In other words, if I am truly
a son, I'm going to be walking in a certain way. That's going
to set me up to be opposed by this world, even to the point
death that's the logical outcome of the text by which we can discover
whether or not we are children of God now what we are talking
about at this point is not a triumphalism doctrine that says because I'm
a child of God I can stay to this mountain be thou removed
and cast into the midst of the sea every weapon formed against you
shall not prosper You know, all of that stuff they talk about
still struggling to pay my bills. All these highfalutin promises,
folk, may you still can't pay your bills. People be tripping, don't they
be tripping? God is God is able to make all
grace abound for those who believe. But the course of the believer
is a course of humility, and it's a course of purification.
I'm going to just share the text, which I'm going to open the floor
for questions. We're going to close. I want to take my time and come back
because we got to just take our time. Work through this. This
stuff is just too good to just run through. Just too good. So I'm going to read verse two,
having also stated the latter part of verse three, clause number
four in verse three. First John 3 therefore the world knows 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 see verse 2 verse 2
Explains why the latter part of verse 1 occurs The latter
part of verse 1 says the world does not know us and Because
even though we are sons of God it doth not yet appear that way
You guys see that I Didn't say that's not a reality It didn't
say that. No, you're not really sons of
God. It simply says you don't appear to be what you are You
guys got that and what that does is it actually it actually creates
more of a problem than But now watch this. Watch this. You go around telling people
you're a son of God, right? And they still see your jacked
up self. They go, nah, nah. He ain't no son of God. She ain't
no son of God. You? No, you're not a son of
God. Ain't nothing in you that evidences the son of God. And they've got it half right,
don't they? They've got it half right. See,
this is where it gets a little bit more intensified because
they've got it half right. Do you understand how difficult
it is to try to get somebody to believe you are something
that they cannot see? Do you do yet? I'm trying to
help you and see they may even spend a few weeks or months with
you Trying to walk with you till they could see it, but they just
keep looking and say I just can't see it All I see is the old person
that I always knew popping up all the time. You know, I just
can't see it. I see religion but but even unsaved
people can get past religion after a couple of weeks going
through your church and figuring out, you know, how to, you know,
hoop and holler and go through the phraseology. Then they get
to see that old nature still there. You know, that, that old,
that old Virginia, that old Jesse, they go, Oh, there he is. And
they struggle with you because they don't, they don't understand
the process. Got it. And that struggle is designed
to keep you from boasting and your sonship. Did you get that? Cause we have a tendency in the
religion to open our mouth wide and act like somehow we are untouchable when
nothing could be further from the truth. So operating out of the first
part of our sonship status that is in the spirit requires the
kind of humility that says I'm in a world that's hostile to
God. The Bible says the natural man
does not receive the things of the spirit For they are spiritually
discerned so that they are foolishness to him The Bible says the carnal
mind is enmity against God It can never ever ever receive the
things of God because it's a hostile enemy toward those things The
Bible says the flesh lusts against the spirit so that the two are
never in harmony. Isn't that what the Bible says,
Galatians? Which means if I'm a spiritual creature and they
are a carnal creature, we're going to be at odds naturally.
Do you guys get that? Those principles are designed
to help you understand the necessity of embracing the conflict because
you can't avoid the conflict. Let's say, let me entertain you
just for a few more minutes on this so I can show you. I just
see all these clouds up over your head with question marks.
I want to kind of dissolve the question. Let's say you are a
child of God and you do the best you can to establish the outward
circumstances, your environment, to control your environment.
We'd love to all control our environment where the people
within our sphere are people that we like. I mean, let's just
say the best case scenario is you got a great job where you
cool with everybody, you know, you know, your parameters, your
boundaries and limitations, they do too. The problem is, This
set of principles that I'm talking about with regards to conflict
is closer than platonic relationships that constitute the constituency
of working with people outside your home. We're talking about
conflict in the home. We're talking about conflicts
between brothers and sisters, husband and wives, children and
parents, parents and children. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
In other words, you just can't avoid the conflict. You have
to embrace the conflict and let the conflict do what the conflict
is designed to do. You can't establish, you can't
set the, the, the conditions in such a way that you, you can
avoid the conflict because the conflict is not only in your
spouse or your child or your brother or your sister or your
mom or your daddy or your son or your daughter, the conflict,
is in you too, if you're honest. Am I making some sense? And it's
designed to affirm your sonship. Did you get that? It's designed
to affirm your sonship and to help you now make your journey
in a way that glorifies God and purifies you. So listen to what it says. We're
going to come back here next time, beloved. Now, are we the
sons of God? And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. But we shall see him as he is
going to talk about that two weeks from now. Verse three,
here it is. Here's the aim and objective
for which God leaves us in this state that we're in. And every
man that have this what hope. Hope. And every man that has this hope.
Not reality. Hope. Got it? Not reality. Not tangible reality. Not empirical, evidential reality. Not the apprehension of the promise. Only the hope of the promise.
You guys got that? See the doctrine of hope comes
in there to the equation now and all I'm gonna say about hope
is this When God plants hoping you All he's doing is giving
you a promise Of something that has not been realized yet You
got it Hope is a promise not realized And when a man or woman
is walking in hope and living in hope functioning and hope
they are anticipating the reality of the thing that has not yet
come you guys know your Bible right if a man has obtained that
for which he hoped for why doth he yet hope for it but when God saved me he made
me born again according to first Peter 1 3 & 4 unto a living hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which means
this, a large portion of our salvation is in the hope realm,
not in the reality realm, not in the tangible evidential realm,
in the hope realm, which means we are people of hope. Got that? People of hope. And if people
don't have hope, they can't get with us. Because hopeless people
don't have any aspirations for future things. Did you get that? See, so when God saved us, he
made us born again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. When Christ rose, I rose in him.
But the hope is one day that all that the resurrection implies
will be realized in my life. But it's not so today. So today
I am a believer by faith. I am a son of God by faith. I
walk by faith not by sight I live in hope of the glory of God and
if people can't get with that we're gonna be fighting See because when they when Jesus
came they couldn't get with it Good day. It's just we read the
book and we look at this man. We go can't get it Now, if they
couldn't get it with him, how are they going to get it with
you? And you and I, like all together, collectively, all of
us, we're so far below the standard of Christ that there's no comparison. And if they didn't see Christ
in Christ, they ain't going to see Christ in you either, as
much as you want people to see Christ in you. But now watch
this, the believer in Christ can see Christ in you. That's right. So don't think
you can get away with anything. Your job is to make your call
in an election. Sure. Because those that are begotten
of God know those that are begotten of God. This is how we can discern
between that which is true and that which is error. This is
what keeps us out of the realm of false religion and false professions
and saying something that we're not. The true believer can affirm
and identify an authentic believer because it takes one to know
one. Any questions before I shut it down? All right, let's stand
and pray. Let's stand and pray. Father,
thank you for your time. Thank you for your word. Thank you
for the saints. We will take a week off. Bless us on Thursday,
every one of us with the opportunity to just render thanks to you
for all of the goodness with which you have been so good to
us, all of the benefits that you have shown to our souls,
all of the graces and gifts that you have given to us in life.
Help us to be humble enough to sit around and to thank you for
your provision, for a roof over our head, food in our bellies,
a sound mind, and a hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord,
grant us grace. to worship you. Worship you,
Lord, as you ought to be worshiped. As we go our way tonight, give
us traveling mercies.