First John, Chapter 3. 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. 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. Now there are verses in this
Bible that are so vast, that are so breathtaking, so full
of God, so full of glory, so full of mystery, so full of eternity,
that I feel utterly helpless before them. This is one of those
verses. I sit and look at it. I know
and appreciate some of what it contains, some of what it contains. But its riches are so great and
so vast that I feel utterly helpless before it. I want very much to
preach the riches of these verses. I want to unfold the treasures
that are in them. I want people to come to appreciate
what God has said, what God has promised. But I can't, because
I labor in the dust and in the mire. I walk in the pollution
of human nature. And these verses speak of glory. These verses speak of God. These
verses speak of the mysteries of God's eternal kingdom. In
our text here, the apostle seems to go from glory to glory. I
looked at this verse, and I prayed, Lord, open this verse to us,
to me. Let us see some of the riches.
Let us see some of the treasures. Let us come to appreciate what
thou hast said in these verses. The apostle goes from one glory
to another. He goes from one great truth
to a greater truth. It looks like that he's building
a vast pyramid of blessings. He lays one stone upon another
till he comes to the top stone, and there's the greatest glory.
Look at these statements. First of all, in verse 1, chapter
3, 1 John, "...behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us." Oh, behold the love of God. So rich, so pure, so
measureless, so strong, It shall forevermore endure even the saints'
and angels' song. I have drawn thee," he said,
with an everlasting love. Herein is love, not that we loved
him. He loved us and gave his Son
to be a sacrifice for our sins. God commended his love toward
us. Behold what manner of love. God
commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
and such sinners, such enemies, such ungodly sinners, that Christ
died for us. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 a
moment. Ephesians, the second chapter,
behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us. In
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 3, it says, among whom also we had
our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh. fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we were by nature,
by birth, by choice, by practice, by nature, children of wrath,
even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ By grace
you're saved. Love that chose us in a covenant
of mercy back before the world had a being. What manner of love? Love that included us even when
we were in league with Satan, seeking to rob God of His throne. What manner of love? Love that
included us, the allies of satanic powers. to rob God of His throne. Love that prayed even while we
drove nails in His hands and spit in His face and hung Him
on a tree. Love that prayed, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. What
manner of love! Love that yet hailed us when
we worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. Love that hailed
us when we walked according to the course of this world, fulfilling
the lust of our flesh and of our mind and of our pride. Love that held us and would not
let us go. What manner of love? Love that
called us again and again while we refused His grace and refused
His entreaty and refused His mercy. Love that kept on calling
until by the power of the Holy Spirit we were made willing,
love that would not let us go. What manner of love! Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on earth! And love
even now that keeps us in the safety of His mercy while we
strain to wander, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
the God I love. What manner of love? There's
the first stone. Isn't it marvelous? You see why
I sit and look at this verse? There's so much there. There's
a mind that can never fully, can never completely, by any
human mind, be exhausted. What manner of love? Do you understand
that kind of love? Can you comprehend that kind
of love? That we, look at it, behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we, on us,
that we should be called a son of God. Don prayed a moment ago,
we're sons of God. Abraham may in fear deny that
Sarah is his wife, but Abraham is a son of God. Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we, folks
like Abraham, even in the denial of truth, is still called a son
of God. Lot may in covetousness dwell
with the heathen of Sodom, while his righteous soul is vexed,
and crying out for the pure air of holiness, and yet Lot is a
son of God. Behold what manner of love that
we should be called sons of God. David in lust may plot the murder
of his best friend, of a faithful soldier who serves his kingdom
and exalts his own glory, but David is a son of God. Peter in fear may sit about the
fire of evil and deny by cursing and swearing that Jesus Christ
is his friend. I don't know him. I don't know
him. Behold what manner of love that
still lets a Simon Peter be called a son of God. Even in his fear
and in his covetousness and in his lust He's a son of God. John Mark may desert Paul and
quit the ministry. I won't go another step. I won't
sacrifice. I won't give. I won't preach. I've got my own life to live
and walk away from Paul. But John Mark is a son of God. Oh, behold, if you've got eyes
to see, Behold, if you've got ears to hear, behold, if you've
got a mind at all, if you're not so simple-minded, if you're
not so hail-and-gross, behold, what manner of love this is,
that the Father hath bestowed on us, that we of all people
should be called the sons of God. I'm not what I ought to
be, and I'm not what I want to be. And I'm not what I expect
to be. But there's one thing I know.
I am a son of God. Behold what manner of love. It
doesn't take love to love the lovely. It doesn't take any love
to love the responsive. It doesn't take any love to love
the gracious. But it takes love to love your
enemy. It takes love to love the unlovely. And it takes only the love of
God, for only God can love the ungodly. Behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed on us. Christ came to seek and
to save the unlovely. He came to heal the sick. He
came to clothe the naked. He came to find the lost. He
came to heal the sinners, that we should be called sons of God. Well, the third thing the Apostle
says, he goes on, he says, the world doesn't know us. The world
looks upon us as fools. The world looks upon us as filth. The world looks upon us as ignorant. The world doesn't know us, the
Apostle John says, because it didn't know him. The world doesn't
recognize us as sons of God, sons of God. Why, you're a fool,
you're a fanatic. Sons of God? Why, you're deceived
and deluded. The world doesn't acknowledge
us to be sons of God because it doesn't acknowledge our Lord.
He said in verse 13, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates
you. The world reckons you to be a
fool, and the world reckons you to be ignorant, and the world
hates and persecutes you," he said, because they hated and
persecuted him. They rejected and despised him. If you had loved my father, he
said, you would have loved me. But you hate me because you hate
my father. The servant's not greater than
his Lord. If they hate the Lord Jesus,
they'll hate you. If they reject his doctrine,
they'll reject your doctrine. If they call him a fool in league
with Satan, they'll call you a fool and bells above. The world
doesn't know us. We are a secret society. We are
a holy priesthood. We are an holy nation. We are
the sons of God. We know each other, and we recognize
God in each other. and we recognize the absence
of God in a false professor. But the Spirit of God knows the
Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God recognizes the Spirit
of God, and the Spirit of God acknowledges the Spirit of God.
And the reason the world doesn't know and acknowledge and recognize
you is because when He came into the world, the world knew Him
not. The world knew Him not. and nailed
him to a tree. Look at the next line. Beloved,
now, right now, beloved, right now, are we the sons of God. Not later, right now. Not at
the judgment, right now, sons of God. Not in eternity, right
now. Beloved, right now, We're sons
of God. We're sons of God now because
Jesus Christ has already become a man. We're sons of God right
now because our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ, has already
met this law. And in the flesh, tempted at
every point, as we are tempted yet without sin, Jesus Christ
our Lord has fulfilled and imputed unto us, accepted by the Heavenly
Father, a righteousness with which God can be pleased. And
right now, because of that, I'm a son of God. Right now. Because Christ has borne my sins
in His body on the tree. He took all my guilt and all
my filth and all my unrighteousness, and all my fear, and all my deceit,
and all my lust, and all my hatred, and all my evil in his body on
that tree, and died under the wrath of God, and satisfied the
justice of God. And because of that, right now,
the debt has been paid. I'm a son of God, right now. Right now, because the debt's
paid. Right now, because the blood is on the mercy seat of
glory. Right now, because my name is
on the breastplate of the great high priest. Right now, because
our names are written in His hand. Right now, because the
Holy Spirit has begotten in us repentance toward God and faith
in Jesus Christ. Right now, we're sons of God.
Right now, because by His mercy we have passed from death to
life. Right now. Beloved, right now. Not later, not at the judgment,
not at death, not in eternity, right now. Because the Lord loved
us and gave himself for us, right now we are the sons of God. Look at this next line. And it
doth not yet appear what we shall be. You cannot look at me and
get any idea at all of what I shall be. It doth not yet appear. It is not yet manifest. It is
not yet clear. It cannot yet be discerned what
I shall be. That's what it says. It doth
not... What now? I'm a son of God. I'm a son of
God, but it doth not yet appear. It is not clear what I shall
be. My body is weak. It doth not
yet appear the strength in which it shall someday be revealed.
My body is frail and full of corruption and marked by sin. My sight is dim, and my days
are numbered. And you cannot look at me, and
I cannot look at you, and tell what you shall be." It does not
yet appear. My mind is still weak and foolish. The wisdom of God is beyond my
grasp. The wisdom of God is beyond my
capacity. I stutter and I stammer and I
can't remember and I can't express even what I feel. I can't even
remember what I want to remember. I remember what I don't want
to remember. I know in part and preach in
part. It does not yet appear what I
shall be. My old man is older than my new
man, and the old man is very much alive, and he makes a fool
out of me. He wants, he desires, he causes
difficulty, he causes all the trouble he can cause. It does
not yet appear what I shall be. My affections are not fully weaned
from this world. I do not love God with all my
heart. with all my soul and with all
my mind. Do you? I do not love my neighbor
as myself. I do not have the capacity to
love God with all my heart, though it's commanded. I do not have
the capacity to love my neighbor as I love myself, though it's
commanded. It does not yet appear what I
shall be. There's no way under heaven that
you can get any inkling of what I shall be. And I cannot get
any inkling of what you shall be. It doesn't yet appear. It
looks so often like you're not what you're going to be. And
I'm not what I want to be. But watch the next line. It does
not yet appear what we shall be. I'm going to be perfect. I'm going to be holy. But it
doesn't appear yet. But I know this. Under God I
know this, but we know, but we know that when He shall appear,
and He shall. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will. I love
the shalls and the wills of God's Word. I will come again and receive
you unto myself. As our Lord Jesus ascended back
to the Father from the top of the Mount Olivet, the angels
of God appeared to the disciples, and they said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you into heaven, this same Jesus shall so come again
in like manner as ye have seen him go. And when he shall appear,
I don't know when he's coming. The fools say, where is the promise
of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they are. Where is the promise of his coming
in his word? Just as the promise of his first
coming was not fulfilled for four thousand years, he still
came. He came. Turn to 1 Corinthians
15, and he's coming back again. He said, I will return. He went
away, but not to stay. He's coming back again in 1 Corinthians
15, and when He shall appear, I'll be like Him. Oh, think of
it. Behold what manner of love the
heavenly Father Himself has bestowed on you and me, that we, fearful,
unbelieving, guilty, sinful, fickle, foolish, ungodly, that
we should be called sons of God. Beloved, right now we're sons
of God, not later, right now, by His grace, because the debt's
paid, because the righteousness is fulfilled. right now because
Jesus Christ at God's right hand is our mediator and pleads for
us and prays for us and stands for us. And we're accepted in
Him and seated in Him and loved in Him and redeemed in Him. Now we're sons of God and it
doesn't appear what we shall be. We get provoked with one
another and put out with one another and Sometimes we make
the mistake of saying, well, he's not a Christian, or he wouldn't
do that. She's not a Christian, or she wouldn't say that. They're
not a son of God, or they wouldn't act like that. It doesn't appear
what we shall be. But, oh, when he comes back,
I don't worship the law or worship the Lord. I don't worship morality
or worship the Lord. And I'm looking for him to come
back. He's coming back. And when he shall appear, Look
at verse 51 of 1 Corinthians 15. We're going to be like him.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We're
not all going to die. When Christ comes back, there's
going to be some folks living. There's going to be some in the
grave. There's going to be some living.
There's going to be a populated world in which our Lord comes.
He may come tonight. He may come tomorrow. He may
come in my lifetime. I don't know. I'm not saying.
I hope he does. If he doesn't, that's all right,
too. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed! I'm glad for that. Aren't you?
In a moment, in the batting of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet's going to sound.
It's going to sound. And the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we're going to be changed. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then, and only then, shall be brought to pass the saying that
is written, death is swallowed up in victory. I can't say that
now because I've got too much death in me. I've got sin and
death that dwells in me. But when this corruptible, when
this feeble and foolish and frail and weak and corruptible and
mortal body shall have put on incorruption and immortality,
When he shall appear, I'll be like him, then shall be brought
to pass the sin." Death is swallowed up in victory. O grave, I'll
turn around and say, where is your sting? O death, where is
your sting? O grave, where is your victory? You couldn't get victory over
my Lord, and you can't get victory over me. You couldn't get victory
over my Savior, and you can't get victory over me. I shall
be like him in form and loveliness, as perfect as Jesus Christ. I shall be like him in holiness
and righteousness as Adam in the Garden of Eden walked with
God. I shall be like him in love and
mercy. I shall be like him in knowledge
and wisdom. I shall be like him in eternal
existence when he shall appear. I'm going to be like him. I don't
act like him. Now I don't think like him. I
don't look like him. But when he shall appear, I'm
going to be like him. It does not yet appear what I
shall be, but when he shall appear, I'm going to be like him. Look
at this last line now. For we shall see him. We shall see him. as he is. We, yes, you and I. Job said,
I shall see the Lord. The worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh I'm going to see the Lord. I myself, not another,
I'm going to see the Lord. I, who cannot even behold his
created Son without going blind, with these eyes I'm going to
look on the Son of Heaven God said, no man can see God and
live. One of these days I'm going to
see God and live. And I'm going to see Him as He
is, just like He is. We shall see Him. We have His promise. We have
His word. We have His faithfulness. He
said, because I live, ye shall live. We shall see Him. I'm going to know Him by His
manhood and by His Godhead. Bright like a man, he sits. Eternal God, how bright he shines. There is one mediator, the man
Christ Jesus. I shall know him by his scars. Behold my hands and my feet,
and be not faithless, but believing. I shall know him by his love. No one ever loved me like that.
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place
for you, you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself."
I'm going to see Him. I'm going to see Him. I'm going
to look upon His face. I'm going to see Him. And this
is an interesting observation. John said we're going to see
Him as He is. As He is. We're not going to
see Him as He was. That's the reason if you come
into my home, I think I've got a religious home. I think I've
got a home in which Jesus Christ has preeminence. If you come
into my home, you won't see any pictures, any religious pictures
of Jesus Christ in the manger, because I'm not looking forward
to seeing him in a manger. You won't see any pictures of
him with the bloody sweat, kneeling by a rock in the Garden of Gethsemane,
because that's as he was, not as he is. You won't see any crucifixes,
you won't see any statues of Christ on a cross, because he's
not on a cross. He's not on a cross. That's as
he was, not as he is. I'm looking forward to seeing
him as he is. I want my eyes to behold him
as he is, not abased in humiliation, but exalted in glory. He's not
a lamb, he's a lion. He's not a servant, he's a king.
He's not a defeated man hanging on a cross under the guilt of
sin and the wrath of God. That head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. That hand that held the
mocking reed now holds the golden scepter of glory. Those sole
shoulders that were draped with robes of mockery are now encircled
with the stars of the universe. On his head are many crowns. It does not yet appear what I'm
going to be, but I do know this, when he comes back, I'm going
to be like him. Because for the first time, human
eyes are going to behold him as he is. No more the bloody
sweat, no more the bloody spear, the cross, the nails, no more,
for hell itself shakes at his name, and all the heavens adore. not despised and rejected, but
loved and adored and honored and glorified and exalted and
given a name above every name, not under the Father's displeasure,
but exalted above all. I'm going to see him as he is,
not as he was, not as the blind portrait painters have tried
to put him on canvas. But I'm going to see him as he
is. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon my Savior's brow, his head
with radiant, glorious crown, his lips with grace overflowed. And you who want to strain and
preach and try to get this world to feel sorry for Jesus, you
go right ahead. You who want to picture Him as
defeated and bewildered, you go right ahead. You who want
to picture the Lord Jesus Christ as frustrated and unable to fulfill
His will, unable to complete without man's assistance His
God-given task, you go right ahead. But I still say, majestic
sweetness sits enthroned upon my Savior's brow. His head with
radiant, glorious crown, His lips with grace overflowed. No
mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is He
than all the fair who fill the heavenly train. And to Him I
owe my life and breath and all the things I have, because already
by His grace He makes me triumph over death, and He saved me from
the grave. And I'm going to see him, by
God's grace, tomorrow, I'm going to see him. Next month, I don't
know, I'm going to see him. Next year, it won't be as long
as it has been, I'm going to see him. And when I see him,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall not all sleep,
but we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. This
corruptible is going to put on incorruption. And this mortal,
which doth not yet appear what it shall be, but when he shall
appear, this mortal is going to put on immortality, and then
is going to be brought to pass a saying, Death is swallowed
up in the victory of Christ. Not my victory, His. Not my glory, His. Not my act
of conquering, His. All the glory is going to be
His. But I'm going to share in it.
I'm going to share in it. Oh, what love! Our Father in
Heaven, let us have eyes that can see into these mysteries
and rejoice in them. Let us have eyes that can see
into the glory of Thy promises and Thy word and the victories
of Thy Son. and the will of our God that
has been accomplished through the sacrifice of Christ our Lord. Let us have eyes that can see
these mysteries and a heart that can rejoice in them, and affections
that can look forward with expectation to that great day, not with fear,
but with anticipation and with desire, that we can say with
Paul, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. For me to die is gain, for I'm
going to see Him as He is and be just like Him. Oh, what a
day! In Christ's name we pray. Amen.