Children of God

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:04

Please remain standing for the reading of the word from 1st John in chapter 3

00:17

I'm going to read the first nine verses This is

00:23

God's holy and infallible word Behold what manner of love the

00:32

Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him

00:46

Beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be

00:55

But we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself

01:10

Just as he is pure whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and In him there is no sin

01:31

Whoever abides in him does not sin whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him

01:38

Little children let no one deceive you he who practices righteousness is righteous

01:45

Just as he is righteous He who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning for this

01:54

Purpose the Son of God was manifested That he might destroy the works of the devil

02:01

Whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin

02:09

Because he has been born of God May the

02:15

Lord bless our Consideration of his most excellent word. Please pray with me now.

02:24

Oh Lord The wonder and joy That we would be called children of God a

02:35

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would supply light and heat That we would be deeply moved and convinced again of the great love that you have for us as your people

02:50

We have a hope for today and for tomorrow and for all eternity we have been loved by you

02:58

God and we have this hope and this hope purifies us and enables us to walk as It's fitting for your people your children

03:09

We ask for your blessing now and the powerful working of your spirit and a ready obedience

03:17

To put this into practice. We ask this all in Jesus name Amen Please be seated

03:25

Today we will be considering verses 1 through 3 of chapter 3 of 1st

03:34

John we're continuing our Series in the first epistle of John the title is children of God as has already been mentioned

03:45

Five word thesis for you to organize the overall thoughts of this.

03:50

These are all really applications of being loved by God and being children of God is

03:56

The hope of God's children you should be filled with hope

04:02

And as I posted on the slack channel, the outline is the first point behold the love of God the second is we shall see him as he is and Third the hope that purifies this week

04:18

Again, like last week each verse has a point attached to it

04:23

The toughest and strongest among us

04:32

The most wise and discerning down to the least and the frailest the oldest the youngest

04:38

There is something deeply Rooted in man that he desires to love and to be loved.

04:49

I have rhinoceros skin Because I am loved by God and I've loved by my wife and my children

04:57

They have to love me because I'm their husband and father but that love

05:03

Propels me into my life. I am able to do a lot of things because I am loved by my wife and children

05:13

How much more so because I can say I'm loved by God Believer today

05:22

Whatever discouragement befalls you Whatever trouble there is

05:29

Whatever snares of temptation you have been drawn into today

05:35

Take heart Rejoice be glad you are the children of God What an amazing thing to consider

05:49

Loved by God The children adopted as sons of God The Holy One Father Son and Holy Spirit They have made you the people of God the object of his affection their affection

06:11

There is great hope For God's children, let's consider the verses we think about hermeneutics and the interpretation of Scripture There are a whole host of things that run through a pastor's mind.

06:29

There's the verbal plenary Inspiration of Scripture. We believe that the very words that God uses are inspired

06:38

We don't think just the ideas. We think he chose the words He crafted the language and the power of his spirit that we might more fully understand his revelation

06:52

And so it is today the word first word in my Bible says behold and This means to see but probably more deeply to see with the mind

07:09

To perceive with an inward Spiritual perception

07:14

I could say you are the children of God You say that's great.

07:19

We have to have a deeper peering into the reality That we have been loved by God That we have been called his children

07:32

We have to behold There's there's weightiness to that word

07:38

We don't merely see we don't merely think we perceive with an inward perception

07:45

There is an intimate knowledge of God that may be observed and perceived as what he has done for us

07:55

This of course affects us now and In the future.

08:01

So one of the first questions I have For you to ask the liturgies already supplied

08:07

Ample fodder for this. Are you beholding? This love that God has for us the manner of love that the

08:18

Father has bestowed This interesting the word what?

08:24

comes from literally from what country In reality and that of course, there's all kinds of idiom and things in language and and where does this love spring from?

08:38

Where does it come from? It comes from the heavenly country It comes from God in his own person the very essence and substance of theology proper.

08:50

God is love God has loved us in Christ Well, where does this love come from it comes from heaven and as we've seen a couple of times in recent months that the end of the day the ultimate

09:07

Causality of our salvation and Christ is found in this simply at the end of the day the last

09:14

Question the final analysis. Why does God save sinners? The last answer really almost has to be because He loves them.

09:29

Is there anything better than being loved? It's the epitome of human interaction to be loved to love someone

09:41

What kind of love is this? Where does this love come from? It comes from God himself.

09:48

This is the manner of love This is the quality of love from God in his own person and his perfection

09:54

His attributes he loves the people of God so much

10:00

That he would send his son that he would send the Spirit to apply the work of redemption.

10:06

This is The manner of love This is the sort of quality of the love that God has for us

10:17

This word agape as you know and love is central to John's conception of love in the letter

10:25

And it's our duty now We're being challenged There's an imperative element in this we have to now behold

10:35

You and I have to peer deeply into the things of God in our own experience the revelation of Jesus Christ the world and reality as it is and we must see and discern and appreciate and delight in this love of God requires the full engagement of mind and heart to behold the manner of love that has

11:03

God has for his children Now one counter argument that could be made and I think it's answered ultimately in our text is

11:13

I Don't really feel it today Things are hard God seems very far away

11:22

This requires great faith on our part we have to look through all of the difficulties all of the hardships all of the doubts and Still through all of it see and perceive the reality of God's love for us as people

11:44

Whatever you're feeling May not be speaking to the truth

11:51

If you're a Christian you are Loved of God and today whatever befalls you unburden yourself rejoice

12:00

Give thanks delight in the love that God has shown us

12:06

He's conferred it to us. He's laid it upon us. He's showered it on us in Christ And in the end we are in the exclamatory tense called

12:24

Children of God I told my daughter

12:33

Savannah after she had her first child And I said it to Jacob When he had his first child

12:43

I reckon I'll be saying it to Caleb within a week or so When he has his first child

12:50

You really begin to understand what love is when you are a father and a mother

12:57

I Know that I could never love my parents the way that my parents loved me.

13:10

I Love us the way that we love them. There's something about this paternity that this parenting the great love of God has been bestowed on us and Our human relationships just like marriage signifies our reunion with Christ I think our fatherhood and our motherhood gives us insight into what it means for God to love us

13:39

To call us his Children you'll remember that to be a father is to be one who imparts life

13:52

Even from the physical conception there is an impartation from the father and birth

14:01

Fathers are those who impart life now fathers. Not only do we supply biological things we

14:09

Supply spiritual things we inculcate our children in the life of Christ We're the importers of life.

14:20

It's our responsibility to shepherd and disciple and lead our families in this way

14:27

He also supplies and I think we often say maybe the

14:33

Holy Spirit gets a bum rap and the Trinity I think the father Is underserved in our understanding of the

14:41

Trinity The gift of eternal life through the second birth in the person of Jesus Christ regeneration being born again

14:51

This all happens because of the father's love He sends the son to accomplish this work.

14:59

He sends the spirit to seal us with the work of Christ's salvation

15:06

Literally the father is the nourisher the protector the upholder we need to apply that to our own fatherhood

15:13

We also need to think of it in terms of God's relationship to Christ So that's how we think of the

15:19

Trinity the father and the son But we also have to see now that that Christ's father is our father

15:29

He's the nourisher and protector. He has taken us and adopted us As sons

15:38

In the culture There's a mantra I've heard and I regret that I've not corrected it more

15:46

It says we are all God's children. Do you know that That cultural lie

15:58

Is not found in either the Old or New Testament We say that that mankind is created in the image of God the imago

16:10

Dei it's true but not everyone who breathes and has blood coursing through their veins and walks on this earth and breathes his air and Drinks his water and eats his food and and dwells on his dirt can say that God is their father

16:29

Only those whom he has loved And turned the hearts of to himself this idea of paternity

16:40

Reference to Christians First of those who through Christ have been exalted to an especially close and intimate relationship with God and maybe most importantly for us today and Who no longer dread him as the stern judge of sinners?

17:06

Revere him as their reconciled to and loving father

17:13

In John both in the gospel and his letters It seems to include the idea of the one who by the power of God's own spirit operative in the gospel has begotten them anew to a life of salvation and as is reflected in our text of holiness

17:38

God the Father is in that Intertenitarian relationship the father of Jesus Christ Our union is so deep and complex that we can say that the father of Jesus Christ The first person of the

17:54

Trinity is also the father of all of those who are united to Christ Oh people of God You have a righteous loving father

18:08

Who cares for you so deeply This shows us the depth of love that God has for his church

18:19

He gives birth to her He breathes life into her nostrils.

18:25

He nourishes her with his word and He gives us his son to feast upon He comforts and helps us with the

18:39

Holy Spirit It seems fitting that we now named

18:45

God's children would want to function properly as members of the divine royal family

18:54

That there be conformity to his will and his standards and most certainly to Christ likeness

19:00

Our life would be filled Or it should be with doxology with right doctrine and practice

19:08

With an aspiration for greater degrees of holiness

19:14

Oh people of God today Will you see with the mind? Will you perceive with that inward spiritual perception?

19:24

Will you have that intimate knowledge of God and will you consider? Will you live and act upon the truth that God has so loved you that he calls you his children second half of verse 1 says

19:45

Therefore the world Does not know us Because it did not know him.

19:54

I've been surprised. I don't know why but I've been surprised over the years By the indifference of the world to the

20:04

Christian message and to the church To me it makes sense because the unconverted man

20:14

Doesn't know what the love of God is He doesn't love holy things because he's not united to the

20:22

Holy One They we are speaking the most foreign of language when we talk to unbelievers about Christ and his benefits

20:33

They don't understand it. They don't understand what the fuss is. They see no need for it because their eyes have not been opened

20:41

Life has not been breathed into them. They don't understand and so when they see us they say well this helps them in their life somehow psychologically

20:51

The world doesn't have an intimate knowledge of us because We have been now known by God and reflexively we respond in a greater degree of knowing him

21:06

The Son of God the second person of the Trinity is Illustrated in first in John chapter 1 the the prologue to his gospel

21:14

He comes to the creation the Creator himself to save and rescue them to rescue

21:20

Israel from all of her trouble to bring salvation to them and to the nations and they think

21:27

This is Mary and Joseph's son Can anything good

21:34

Come out of Galilee Do any prophets come from from Nazareth?

21:45

So this explains and gives us some insight into the world in which we live

21:54

The world doesn't know us It doesn't recognize the benefits of God in us because they're largely spiritual.

22:02

They're not necessarily tangible The people of God have many sorrows

22:08

They're poor. They're afflicted there. They have many griefs in this life

22:13

They cannot discern us because they do not know Christ and we are so united to him that our identity is also obscured from their vision the idea of being called

22:31

The great nuances of the language I blew over this too quickly Being called a child of God the same language is used to Abraham it's used to Describe the relationship of Isaac and contradiction to Ishmael See Abraham has

22:59

Entered into a relationship with Hagar the endorsement of his wife and he's produced a son

23:06

Ishmael and this son Ishmael rightfully so receives the sign of the Covenant but back in Genesis 18 a promise was restated and and Sarah and Abraham are reminded that Isaac is the one and Whose posterity shall obtain the name and honor of God's descendants

23:37

Abraham Isaac Jacob Jesus the church

23:44

For in Isaac, it says your seed shall be called the child of promise is

23:54

Isaac and so are Every one of the people of God called children. They are the called ones and they're not merely

24:02

Identified as those who are the children of God Literally we could say children of God we should be called and We are

24:14

I want you to catch that We should be called the children of God. We designate people with labels

24:20

We should be called the children of God, but the language of the text is and we are

24:26

It's not just a designation. It's a reality. We are the children of God The world in opposition to God the cosmos

24:40

That ordered system of man and rebellion to God does not recognize us Doesn't know us

24:51

Later in this chapter in a couple weeks, we'll probably get to it says in 1st John 3 15 do not marvel

24:57

My brethren if the world hates you This should alleviate our frustration and discouragement

25:06

That we experience as Saints living in the midst of the wicked The wicked are wicked because they have not been loved by God And so it would be for us

25:22

Except the grace of God and Christ would come upon us. Let's look at verse 2 consider the second

25:35

Idea We're called to spiritually perceive a manner of love

25:41

That God has showered on us that we'd be called children of God It says and restates the idea beloved this term of endearment.

25:50

We are children of God and It has not yet been revealed What we shall be

25:58

But we know that when he is revealed We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is

26:07

I Don't know what the glories of heaven entail

26:15

But I know that what is required is that I put off this defiled flesh

26:22

Before I can enter in there this brings in the idea of Resurrection we have the position as children of God.

26:33

We are purified We are made as Holy Ones as the Saints But there is something yet to happen for us in order to see

26:41

God as he is To see God in the flesh to see with our own eyes in presence

26:48

God as he is We have to die We have to be resurrected so the reality of our station that the joys of heaven their

27:01

Citizenship the joint airship with Christ all of those realities are true for us

27:07

And we must by faith lay hold of them, but someday faith will be replaced by sight

27:15

Someday without sin in our glorified state. We will see God as he is

27:23

This should be a great cause of your hope. Are you fearing death as a Christian? Don't fear death you enter into glory a

27:33

Greater degree of Beholding the glory of God set free from the bondage of sin set free from all the infirmities not able to sin against him any longer

27:45

The future is bright for God's people It's not yet been revealed they'd roll the world would roll out the red carpet for us and bow down and Kiss our rings if they knew who we are would be who we are in Christ, but they didn't know

28:09

Christ But one day they will I love the idea it's part of my sin nature

28:16

I love the vindication of Christ in his honor. I Love that the wicked will be judged

28:24

Because they've rejected Christ. I know it's timbers on it goes on the side of not being proper

28:29

I want to see the world say but a part of me the rebellious wicked I want them to see the vindication of Christ in his honor

28:41

Someday every knee will bow every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

28:47

Lord so you and I living in a hard life Difficult things have to live in the already and the not yet, but the not yet is our reality

28:58

It is the truth about who we are In Christ We're going to be like him, what does that mean a resurrected body?

29:13

Eyes that can see oh What a day that will be for us what hope for a future the the

29:22

Christian has That he will see Christ as he is well

29:30

Universal revelation of Jesus Christ to the world is coming as we learned we don't know when that's coming

29:40

There will be judgment as we learned last week you and I are gonna be able to stand in the judgment and Enter into the eternal state in a place of honor and love

29:53

But not yet Someday when he is revealed we will be like him we will see him as it is well

30:06

This takes us to the last point The idea of hope if you are a child of God you

30:18

Behold the manner of love that the Father has showered on us you recognize with increasing clarity and understanding and depth of knowledge that you are a child of God you

30:31

Understand the world around you better you understand the world does not recognize you because it does not recognize our master

30:39

The Lord Jesus Christ, but there will be a day where they will they will recognize them in us

30:46

Christ's honor will be vindicated In verse 3 says and everyone who has this

30:55

Hope this hope is the expectation of good

31:03

In the Christian sense the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation

31:12

Which is nothing less than eternal blessed communion with God.

31:17

That's what waits for us We should be filled with hope the hope of God's children is they have been loved by God They are employed to inherit an inestimable

31:37

Fortune of blessings You have as God's people a certain and secure future

31:47

And you will be transformed to an greater and greater likeness Of Christ, so I have some very hard questions for you

31:58

This is sincere What are you whining about? What are you complaining about?

32:07

What are you discontent about? All these things are true stop whining stop complaining stop being discontent

32:19

Why are you grumbling in adversity? You are being sanctified and being made more and more like your

32:26

Savior Christ. Why do you grumble in adversity? Why are you riddled with angst and fear?

32:39

Things because you're not beholding You're not meditating upon what is true behold the love of God You're not only called children of God, it's not a fictitious name

32:59

You are the children of God and the reason for our hope of salvation and ultimate purification

33:09

Is Christ himself is pure We are the ones who are being cleansed from defilement

33:18

And this is primarily morally here in our text. That's the language of the original a moral

33:27

Purification you and I have been in a sense of decree declared to be pure By virtue of our faith in union with Christ the operation of the

33:38

Spirit, but but we're called to greater purification You and I need to morally cleanse ourselves from defilement as a response in Cooperation with the work of the

33:52

Spirit so we have responsibility in this There's a different word for pure than purifies referring to Christ you and I are in a process of purification a process of sanctification on the way to glorification

34:13

But Christ himself is pure He's free from every defect

34:23

You are united to the pure and holy one You have purity because you are united to the pure one you have love because the

34:35

Father has bestowed his love upon us This should be a great

34:42

Impetus and motivation to set aside all of the sin

34:48

To cleanse ourselves from every transgression and to walk in His righteousness a couple of words here of application that I'll conclude

35:03

Are you filled with?

35:11

thanksgiving and Rejoicing as you behold the love of God the lack of thanksgiving and rejoicing

35:25

Has to be because you've not with spiritual eyes and hearts

35:31

Discern the love of God for you Second and this is very important It's reflected in verse 2 and Punctuated in verse 3 does your manner of life reflect a grand

35:52

Transformation the world should hate us more than it does

35:59

Not Unnecessarily inciting them to wrath we should be so devoted to Christ so walking in righteousness.

36:06

We should be drawing greater fire From the world in fact the world's lack of hostility toward us

36:14

Reflects that maybe we're not as bold in this love as we ought to be does your manner of living reflect?

36:24

the transformation of union with Christ Loved by God being called a child does the world hate you and Finally is your life filled with hope is the hope that you have as a child of God Invigorating every aspect of your life is your life characterized by the great?

36:53

comprehensive shalom Do you have courage and boldness to stand before kings and speak the truth about Christ Are you bold enough to in every circumstance?

37:09

Maintain this singular allegiance to him. Are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness is it that the defining?

37:16

characteristic of your life The answer is no to these questions in part in any way then

37:25

We have things to pray about things to put into practice things to meditate upon But I remind you

37:38

What verse 1 says Behold what manner of love the

37:45

Father has bestowed on us in the exclamatory

37:53

That we should be called children of God Stop and reflect upon this for just a moment

38:05

Let's pray together. Oh Lord.

38:14

I thank you that you have called us to be your children help us with the aid of your spirit to see the height and depth and breadth of Love that you have for your people

38:37

And oh Lord, I pray that this would Transform the way we live because we're so secure in your love

38:49

Or help us to in light of these things discern the times and to understand the world's relationship to Christ in the church help us to faithfully preach

39:01

Christ That the enemies would be won and brought in Help us to boldly sing psalms of imprecation that the the wicked would be crushed

39:15

And in that crushing many would turn and repent And your justice upheld

39:21

Oh Lord Help us because of our identity in Christ and the Father the

39:26

Son and the Holy Spirit help us to understand What it means to be a child of God to be loved by God and to understand our relationship to a hostile world

39:36

And also we pray Oh Lord that you would fill us with hope And this sanctifying activity we find is because We are looking in hope to the pure one

39:50

Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? This spurs us on to love and good works and to radical obedience the mortification of sin all of it done in joy and thanksgiving and security as the children of God Help us in all this we pray in Jesus name