The Sons of God

I'm going to be speaking to you
today from the book of First John. I would like very, very
much for you to find the Bible and follow me as I read about
three verses of Scripture. I'm going to speak on this subject.
Sons of God. Sons of God. First John, Chapter
3, and it says this, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." The sons of
God. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know this. When He shall appear, we shall
see Him as He is. and we shall be like him, and
he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as God
is pure." Now, let's look at these three verses almost word
for word, just for a little while together. Now, the first word
in our text is the word behold. Behold what manner of love, behold. Look, be aware. Here is an announcement
of the greatest importance. Behold, God says, behold. Many, many, many, many years
ago, the prophet Isaiah wrote this prophecy. He said, behold,
God himself will give you a sign. A virgin shall be with child. Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel, God with us."
What an announcement. Be aware, look, behold with amazement
what's going to happen. The Son of God is going to become
the Son of Man. And one day out there one evening
out on the Judean hillsides, a group of shepherds were tending
to their sheep. And suddenly There was with them
the angels of the Lord and a multitude of heavenly hosts. And they said,
Behold, behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David, Bethlehem, a Savior, who's none other than
Christ the God, the Lord. Behold, a baby is in a manger. You'll find a baby lying in a
manger. Behold, John the Baptist came
preaching. He was the last of the Old Testament
prophets. He came as the forerunner, the
ambassador of the Messiah, the Elijah that God had promised,
which God promised would come before that great day of the
Lord. And he preached to multitudes. Even kings went out to hear him.
admired John, went out to hear him. He was a powerful preacher
of the grace of God. And standing one day with two
of his disciples, he looked up and he said, Behold, behold,
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He saw
the Lord Jesus Christ and he said to these two men with him,
Look, be aware, Here's an amazing announcement. There, right there,
is Abel's Lamb. Here's the Passover Lamb of Egypt. Here's the rock Moses smoked.
Here's the serpent lifted up. Behold, the Lamb of God. Well,
my friend, one day, time will be no more. The covenant of grace
will be complete. The sheep will be gathered into
one foal, one shepherd. The church will be called out,
and the clouds are going to roll back, and the trump of God is
going to sound, and the voice from heaven will say, listen,
behold, behold, be aware. Look, an announcement of the
greatest importance. Behold, he cometh. He cometh, and every eye shall
see him. What a day. There have been some
great announcements preceded with this word, behold, behold. And here's another one here in
my text. The reason I'm saying all that is to say this, behold,
look, be aware. What an amazing discovery. What
an amazing announcement. What manner of love. Father hath
bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of God? Sons of God? I tell you, when God, when the
Son of God became a man, when the Son of God became the Son
of Man, it merits a behold, a behold, a double behold, an amazing behold,
a startling discovery. amazing announcement when the
Son of God becomes the Son of Man. But I tell you this, I tell
you this, when the Son of Adam, when a Son of Adam like you and
me, when a Son of Adam becomes a Son of God, it merits to behold. Behold the Lord Himself shall
give you a sign, a virgin shall be with child by the Holy Ghost
And thou shalt call his name Immanuel, God, with the God in
human flesh. And that same word is used here.
Behold, what manner of love God hath bestowed upon this flesh
that we should be called the sons of God. Son of man is a
son of God. It takes just a greater miracle
for you to become a son of God as it did for the son of God
to become the son of man. Hymn writer said, it took a miracle
to put the stars in space. It took a miracle to put the
moon in place. But when God saved my soul and
made me whole, it took a miracle of love, His love and His grace. Old John Newton. I don't know
how many of you are familiar with John Newton. He preached
a couple of hundred years ago over in England. John Newton
wrote some great hymns, preached some great messages. One of the
hymns which he wrote is Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that
saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. I was blind, but now I see. Most all of you are familiar
with that hymn. John Newton wrote that. But John Newton said one
time, by God's grace, when I stand in heaven, three things will
amaze me. Three things will amaze me. Number
one, I'll be amazed to see some people there I didn't expect
to see. And secondly, I'll be amazed to miss some people I
thought would be there. But thirdly, the most amazing,
marvelous thing of all will be to find John Newton, the old
slave trader, the old rebel in the presence of God. What a miracle.
What a miracle! Behold, listen, what manner of
love! Not many people know much about
this kind of love. Behold, what manner of love is
it that the Father hath bestowed upon us? Do you know what manner
of love it is? I tell you, people talk so flippantly
and carelessly about the love of God. The songwriter said,
O love of God, how rich, how pure, how measureless, how measureless,
how strong. It shall forevermore endure the
saints' and angels' songs. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made, and every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God above would drain that ocean dry. Now, could the scroll contain
the whole, those stretched from sky to sky? What manner of love? Do you know what manner of love
it is? I tell you, first of all, it's divine love. It's not human
love. It's not this flippant, careless, soon-gone human love. It's divine love. Herein is love. Not that we love God. He loved
us. It gave His Son to be the perpetuation
for our sins. This is divine love. Divine love. Not only divine love, but it's
everlasting love. What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon these wiggling maggots that we should be called
sons of God. What manner of love? It's everlasting
love. He said, I've drawn you, I've
loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn you. If God loves you today, he's
always loved you. I'm the Lord, I change not. Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The gifts and calling of God
are without change. It's an everlasting love. Having
loved his own, he loved them to the end. We're the ones who
change, not God. Because it's an unchanging love.
It's a divine love. It's an everlasting love. It's
an unchanging love. What manner of love? And it's
a love which is freely bestowed. He didn't sell it to us. He didn't
trade it to us. It's unmerited love. It's unearned
love. It's undeserved love. You see
what I'm saying? Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath literally bestowed upon us that we should be called
sons of God? Sons of God? Somebody said, well,
everybody's a son of God. That's not true. That's not true. All men and women are not sons
and daughters of God. No, Christ said they weren't.
John chapter 8 You ever read that exchange between Christ
and the religious Pharisees? He talked about, My father and
I are one. My father sent me. They said,
God is our father. We have one father, even God. And the Lord Jesus replied, If
God were your father, you would love me. I came from God. The fact that you don't love
me indicates that you are not God's children. He said you're
of your father the devil and his works you do. He was a liar
from the beginning and he's the father of liars. God's not your
father. All men are not sons of God.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
John's writing to believers. The general epistle of John to
the believers. And he says, God hath bestowed
this love upon us that we should be called the sons of God. How
are we sons of God? Well, you men and women listening
to me, do you have a son? Do you have a son? How is he
your son? Well, he was born to us. Exactly. Exactly. That son sitting there
with you by the television is your son. I'm not your son. That Son was born to you. And
that's what the Scripture says about us. To as many as received
Him, Christ, to them gave He the power to become sons of God. Even to them that believe on
His name, which were born, not of natural genealogy, not of
blood, not of human genealogy, not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but they were born of God. That's the
reason Christ said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, born
of God, born of the Spirit, born of the Word, born of God. How are we sons of God? We're
born sons of God. The new birth, the second birth,
born again. We're sons of God by adoption. God hath adopted us. It says
He has predestinated us to the adoption of children. by Jesus
Christ to himself. Any of you out there have any
adopted children? You say, yes, preacher, I've
got one right here with me. You chose that child. You adopted
that child. You gave that child your name.
That's your child. And that child is just as much
yours as that born son sitting beside you. And he's a part of
the family and he's an heir of yours. We're sons of God by birth, we're
sons of God by adoption, we're sons of God by His life, His
Spirit that's in us. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God are the sons of God. If any man hath not the Spirit
of God, he's none of His. He's not a son of God. If he
doesn't have the Spirit of God, he's not a son of God. As many
as are led by the Spirit of God, only they are sons of God. That's
Romans 8, 14. How are we sons of God? By birth,
by adoption, by His Spirit that lives within. As many as are
led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And if any man have
not the Spirit of God, he's not His. And then we're sons of God
by faith. Whosoever believeth, that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. That's how he believes. That's
why he believes. That's how he has the ability
to believe. He's born of God. God gave him eyes to see and
ears to hear and a heart to understand and faith to believe. Now read
carefully. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us of all people that we should
be called the sons of God. Therefore, therefore, you see
it there, the world doesn't know us because it didn't know Him. The world doesn't know us because
the world didn't know Him. The world knew Him not. When
our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, the Scripture says
He was in the world, He made the world, and the world didn't
know Him. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
They knew him as Mary's son. They said, Well, we know him.
He's Mary's son. They didn't know him as God's
son. Why didn't we know him the carpenter? They didn't know him
as the Messiah. We know him. He's the Nazarene.
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Wait a minute. He came
from heaven. He said, I am from above. You're
from beneath. He didn't come from Nazareth.
He came from the bosom of the Father. They called Him a wine-bibber
and a gluttonous man. They didn't know Him. Oh, they
acknowledged the miracles that He did and the good words that
He said, and they're fine for Him to heal their sick and do
all these things, but He couldn't be the God. They didn't know
Him. And also, the world doesn't know
you. If you're a son of God or a daughter
of God, born of God, The world knows you. Yeah, your family
and friends and co-workers and neighbors, they know you as old
Bill or Bob or John. They know you as Sally or Sadie
or whomever. They know you as brother or sister
or daughter or mother or somebody, but they don't know you as a
child of God. They don't see the grace of God in you and the
glory of God in you because it takes a son of God to know a
son of God. It takes a son of God, a daughter
of God, to know another child of God. And the world can look
right at you, right at you, and not know you. They didn't know
Him. Scripture said if they had known
who He was, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
But it is written, I have not seen, and ear hath not heard,
neither hath it entered the heart of men, the things God has prepared
for them that love Him." Oh, what love that we should
be called sons of God. Therefore, the world doesn't
know us. Don't expect them to because they didn't know Him.
And then it says in verse 2 there, Beloved... See, this is written
to believers. Here's your comfort. Now are
you a son of God? Not going to be. You are right
now. There is therefore now no condemnation. Right now, no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have right now peace with God. He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. See that? Beloved, now are we sons of God,
and it does not yet appear what we shall be." Everybody likes
to speculate about heaven, don't they, and what heaven's going
to be like, and what sort of body we're going to have, and
what language we'll speak, and how we'll live, and so forth.
We'll have to leave that to God's revelation. Paul, the apostle,
went to the third heaven, and this was his reply when he came
back. This was his observation. He said, I heard things. It's
impossible to utter. I have no way of expressing to
you what I heard in that kingdom, in the presence of God. So we'll
just have to wait. I'll tell you one thing, we can
look at our Lord's appearance to His disciples after He arose
from the grave in Luke 24 and we can tell a great deal about
what we shall be because it says, when He shall appear, we're going
to be like Him. We're going to be like Him. We're
going to be like Him in body, for He shall raise our vile bodies
and make them like unto His glorified body. That's Philippians 3.21.
We'll be like Him. It says we'll be like Him in
soul. He hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image
of His Son, the very image. Christ is the image of the Father,
the exact likeness. We're going to be conformed to
the image of Christ. in soul and body and mind. Now we see through a glass dimly,
but then face to face we'll know as we have been known. I struggle
so much wanting to know, don't you? To read the Word and to
know, oh, that I may know Christ and the power of His resurrection.
I may know His gospel. Someday I'm going to know like
I have been known. What a revelation that'll be.
For he said, It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but
we know this, when he shall appear, we're going to be like him, because
we're going to see him as he is. Now listen to me. Listen
to me carefully. Our minds keep trying to see
Christ as he was. This says we're going to see
him as he is. They keep putting these nativity
scenes up with these babies and madonnas and shepherds and all.
That's not like He is. That's like He was. He's a babe
no more. That's gone. They keep drawing
pictures of Christ out there sitting, holding a little sheep
or walking around with a halo or talking with the disciples.
That's not how He is. He was in the flesh, a man on
this earth. That is no more. They keep picturing
Him on the cross. You can't go into a Catholic
hospital without seeing a crucifix. That's not my Lord. He's not
on a cross. The hymn writer said, the head
that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. Why
don't you do away with all those things? No more the bloody spear, the
cross, the nails no more, for hell itself shakes at His name
and all the heavens adore. We're going to see Him as He
Do you hear me? Not as he was. He's enthroned. He's not on a cross. He's exalted. He's not in a tomb. He's at the
right hand of the majesty on high. He's the Lord. Quit feeling
sorry for the Son of God and feel sorry for yourselves. when he's carrying that cross
going to Calvary, the women followed lamenting and weeping and he
stopped and he turned and said, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves
and for your children. You don't weep over the remedy,
you weep over the disease. You don't weep over the dying
Savior, you weep over the cause of his coming down here and suffering,
us and our sins. We're just so warped in this
day. We're so twisted. We're so ceremonial. We're so idolatrous. We're worshiping
a bunch. Every church has got a bunch
of crosses around and pictures. And He is not that way. We're
going to see Him as He is. And the more you try to remind
people of what He was by pictures and crosses and crucifixes and
all of this sort of thing, the more you're going to hinder their
true worship of the living God and their true understanding
of the exalted Savior. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. You've got to see Him as He is. And I'll tell you, verse 3 says,
Every man that hath this hope in him, what hope? What hope? Somebody said, Well, the blessed
hope, His return. I'm telling you, the blessed
hope is what's going to happen to us when He does return. We're
going to be like Him. That's my hope, that I'll be
like Him. And he that have this hope that
he's going to be like Christ, he purifies himself even as God
is pure. There's a change. I read a poem one time, it goes
like this. It was battered and scarred and
the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his time to, worth his
while to waste much time on this old violin but he held it up
with a smile and he said, Good folk, who'll start the bidding
for me? Who'll bid for this old violin? One dollar, two dollars,
somebody make it three dollars. Going once, going twice, but
no. From the room far back, a gray-haired
man came forward, picked up the bow, tightening the loosened
strings. He played a melody as pure and
sweet as an angel sings. And then the auctioneer, in a
voice that was quiet and low, said, Now, what am I bid for
the old violin? And he held it up with a bow.
A thousand? Two thousand? Somebody make it
three. Going for three thousand. Going once, going twice, going
and gone, cried he. And the people cheered and some
of them cried. We don't understand. What changed
the worth of that old violin? And he said, the touch of the
master's hand. The touch of the master's hand.
And many a man with life out of tune and battered and scarred
by sin is auctioned off by a foolish crowd just like that old violin,
and the master comes. And the foolish crowd never can
quite understand the change that's wrought in a sinner's heart and
life and attitude and spirit by the touch of the master's
hand. He that hath this hope I'm going to see Him. He's going
to come back, and I'm going to see Him as He is, and I'm going
to be like Him. And he that hath this hope in
him purifieth himself, purifieth himself, even as God is pure. Sons of God. If you want this
tape, you write for it. Send two dollars. Here's the
address on the screen. We'll mail it to you. It's called
Sons of God. And there's another message on
the other side that I preached last week. And both messages
will be on the same tape. And until next week, may God
bless you, everyone.

The Sons of God

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The Sons of God

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