TPW 85 How Deep the Father's Love for Us

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Welcome to the Protestant Witness. This is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Monroe Heights Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee.
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And one of the posts today, the sermon I preached this past Sunday morning, I was gonna press on in Luke chapter six.
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I've been going through the Gospel of Luke for a while, but I decided instead to preach on the love of God the
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Father for his children and calling them his children from 1 John chapter three, verses one through three.
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It's just one of those classic, wonderful passages of scripture that is a cause of tremendous encouragement and hope and comfort for all of God's people.
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The times in which we live and the church culture in which we live and the days of apostasy and a lack of discernment, a lack of courage, a lack of so many things, we need to be reminded of where we're going.
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We need to be reminded of the greatness of divine love and that God really loves his children who really do know him through Christ and who really love the one true gospel.
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There are so many today who evidently don't have a whole lot of love for the gospel and for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And there seem to be more and more who are willing to give some lip service to him.
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But at the end of the day, they're not willing to stand up and oppose that which is false, that which is a direct assault on the perfection of the work of Christ, that which is an assault on the gospel itself.
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And the New Testament, of course, in many, many, many places, and the Old Testament too in the prophets, warns us about this very kind of thing.
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That's why I did that sermon on the characteristics of false teachers because they never change. And they're among us today.
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And it's gonna be interesting to see what plays out in the next couple of years in the denomination that I'm in, the PCA. I have very, very serious concerns about this study committee that's been formed.
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But just like when the ReVoice conference happened, there were many people that were blasting away at it before it even happened.
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And I was not one of those because although the purpose of the organization sounded a bit ominous, supporting, encouraging, empowering
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LGBT and other gender and sexual minorities, I'm just kind of like, man, the terminology they're using is very problematic in and of itself.
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But I honestly, I actually prayed. I prayed that that would be a good conference and that it would be something
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I could recommend to people as a good biblical response to such things. And of course it was not.
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And it was extraordinarily disappointing. And I've preached on that because I want people to know that I'm not a supporter of that.
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And I want people to understand that I'm opposed to it. So that was one thing that happened.
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And then of course the whole John Piper issue, there really hasn't been a big deal in the PCA or in my circles.
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There weren't tons of John Piper fans. But calling that out for the simple false gospel that it is was something that I did.
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And I know my friends on the network here have done that too. And I'm very thankful for them and for their stance for the truth, for the gospel.
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Because there's only one gospel and there's only one way that people can be saved. And that is by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
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And that's the means of our being united to Christ and being justified before God.
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And that is the only foundation upon which a sinner can enter into heaven when they die. And with all the trouble and with all of the difficulties and all of the tears and the sleepless nights and the difficulties and the hardships and the stomach aches and the angst that we deal with because of listening to the blessed and precious name of Jesus being associated with filthy, abominable sinfulness and orientations, desires, things like that.
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And also hearing the blessed gospel, the very thing that we have our hope in for going to heaven for eternity.
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Hearing that denied and so few people will stand up to defend it. I just wanted to remind those that do know
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Christ and who love the gospel and are thankful for the gospel, just how great the father's love is for us.
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That is a love that extends from eternity past all the way into eternity future, world without end, all coming time.
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And it's a love that cannot be broken by any earthly trial. And in fact, our trials are very much designed by God to make us long to be with him in heavenly glory where there will be no troubles and there will be no false doctrines and there will be no denials of what is true.
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So I hope that you'll find this to be edifying and encouraging in the difficult and strange days in which we live.
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Let's pray now for God's blessing on our time in this work, please. Father, thank you for giving us the comforting and convicting and wonderful words of eternal life in the pages of Holy Scripture.
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These words indeed are a light and a lamp for us in the dark place.
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Lord, may we rejoice in this wonderful passage this morning. May it warm our hearts.
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May we receive its truth with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. We ask in Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
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Please take your Bibles and turn to 1 John chapter three. One more week detour from Luke and then we'll get back to Jesus' wonderful sermon on the mount, the abbreviated version of it in Luke, but I wanted to speak on these three wonderful verses to you all.
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1 John three verses one through three. This is God's word. See how great a love the
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Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are.
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For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet appeared as yet, but we will be.
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We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.
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And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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May God bless the reading of his word. The concept of eternity is stirring when it is meditated upon and truly considered by God's people.
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The Hebrew word that's translated eternity in the Old Testament is the word olam and I remember writing a flashcard for that one because it's a very common word.
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Its very first occurrence is very important for us to consider. After Adam sinned, the book of Genesis tells us then the
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Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
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There's that word olam, the very first time it's used in scripture. It means all coming time, everlasting, forever.
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The word is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament. One of the most encouraging and remarkable usages of it is the 26 times that it's used in Psalm 136 where every single line of that Psalm ends with for his mercy endures forever.
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If there is anything the true child of God is thankful for which endures forever, for all coming time, everlasting it would be
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God's mercy, his loving kindness, his covenant faithfulness, that Hebrew word chesed.
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It's one of the most difficult words to translate in the Old Testament because it is one of the richest. God's covenant faithfulness, his loving kindness, his mercy, his faithfulness to his promise is olam.
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It is forever. It is for all coming time. It is everlasting. It will have no end.
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God's love for his children also extends olam, forever.
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Except with that, it also extends forever in the other direction, into eternity past.
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It's an everlasting love. Olam, the Hebrew word for everlasting is used also in Jeremiah 31 .3.
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The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love.
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Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. When Adam rebelled by eating the forbidden fruit, he and Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden so that they would not be able to eat of the tree of life and live forever.
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Both of them were introduced by God into a world of cursed sorrows.
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All of us have experienced those very same curses for Adam's sin and also for our own disobedience to God.
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The great Augustine used a phrase that's very memorable to describe all of life.
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He said, all of life is a veil of tears. All of life is a veil of tears.
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John Calvin said this, our present condition is very short of the glow of God's children.
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For as to our body, we are dust and a shadow and death is always before our eyes.
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We are also subject to a thousand miseries and the soul is exposed to innumerable evils so that we find always a hell within us.
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The more necessary it is that all our thoughts should be withdrawn from the present view of things, less the miseries by which we are on every side surrounded and almost overwhelmed should shake our faith in that felicity which as yet lies ahead.
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We act very foolishly when we estimate what God has bestowed on us according to the present state of things, but that we ought with undoubting faith to hold to that which does not yet appear.
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End quote. In this passage before us here in 1 John, he bursts forth regarding the greatness of our heavenly father's love for us.
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Whatever sadness or misery or brokenness that we are caused by God's decree to know in the short days that we occupy this world before all is made right, we must not forget that the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord and the adoption that we have received into God's family is the greatest treasure we have and will ever know forever.
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How do we know God has loved us as individuals? How do we know that we are God's adopted and beloved children?
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Because we know the grief and sorrow of repentance over our sinful ways and our own sinful condition and because we have a saving trust and a saving interest and confidence in Christ alone.
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When you survey yourself and when you examine yourself, which I pray you do often, look carefully at your attitude towards your own sinfulness.
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What do you think of your sin? What do you think of yourself when you look in the mirror? Is it a source of revulsion and sorrow to you?
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Do you long to be rid of it altogether and for the rest of eternity? When you consider that one day
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Christ will summon you out of the grave to the judgment, where does your confidence rest in the face of judgment?
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Does your hope of passing that judgment and of being acquitted of all charges, does it rest upon Christ alone?
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These are the fruits of God's powerful and effectual calling upon his children. Remember the life characteristics that Jesus pronounced blessed and happy, his benediction upon those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and those who weep.
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The world would not see these things as blessings, we've talked about this a lot already, but the people of God know exactly why they are blessings.
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They know exactly why it is a blessed thing to be poor in spirit, why it's a blessed thing to mourn over your sin, to look at the world and weep, to look at yourself in the ways that you have failed others and weep.
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If we see ourselves and we see the world as it truly is, image bearers of God and a paradise both ruined by sin, we can't help facing the truth and being hit in the deepest part of our souls by that truth.
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Spiritual emptiness and poverty, that is where we live. Mourning is what we do, hunger to be more godly, to be more fervent in prayer, more zealous in our love for others and for the truth is a pain that we always feel.
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And often we simply weep. It's just too much to take in.
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The sadness is overwhelming, the impact of unbelief, falsehood and anti -truth worldviews and the sins of ourselves and others, it just brings tears to our eyes.
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We weep. One of the most tender and loving acts anyone ever does for someone else is wipe away their tears.
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When John gives us that blessed vision of the new heavens and the new earth, we're told that the holy city,
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Jerusalem, comes down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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Revelation 21 verse three says, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people.
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God himself will be with them and be their God and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away.
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That's why Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn now for they shall be comforted when heaven comes, when the new
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Jerusalem comes. The contrast that our Lord has taught us and the beatitudes that we've looked at in Luke chapter six is focused upon the way people are in this life.
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The poor now, those who are hungry now, who weep now, who are hated and ostracized and insulted and scorned will inherit the true riches, will have that longing for righteousness filled, will have their tears wiped away forever and will one day know the absolute and unhindered love of a perfect heavenly father and of their fellow man and this will last forever.
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Olam. It's difficult for us to fathom eternity, isn't it? When the short number of years that we've lived in this world, that's all we've ever known.
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But in our ever -changing and difficult world, we have the unchanging character of our creator and his
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God -breathed word, the Bible. We were saved in hope, Paul says in Romans eight, but hope that is seen is not hope at all for why would one hope for what he sees?
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You know what Paul's point is there? The best is yet to come. The best is always yet to come. Let's look at this wonderful passage before us on the glory of the love of the father for his children.
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Look at point number one there in your outline. There's an outline on the back of your bulletin. A unique kind of love for an unknown people.
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I've called it point number one. Verse one. See how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are.
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For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. And first John thus far leading up to chapter three, there are warnings about deception.
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There seems to be a lot of that in scripture. Warnings about deception. Don't be deceived by this. Don't be deceived by that. And then there's also these glorious promises.
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First John 2 .25. And this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life.
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Remember Adam and Eve were barred from entering back into the garden unless they should take of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
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Well, at the end of Revelation, the path of the tree of life is reopened to us and we will eat from the tree of life and live forever because Christ has earned that right for us.
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And so we have that promise, eternal life. And then John just bursts out in chapter three.
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He exclaims, behold, see, the Holy Spirit would have God's adopted children in the darkest days that they know to remember.
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Behold, see how great, what manner, what kind of love the
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Father has bestowed on us, what he has given to us. You see, it was
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God, the Father, who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
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Ephesians chapter one, verses three through six. Blessed be the God and Father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons.
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Isn't that a glorious thing to know? We were predestined by God. Our destiny was determined before God made the world that we would be adopted into God's family, that we would address him as our father forever once he adopted us.
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And why does he do this? According to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he has made us accepted in the beloved one, in Christ.
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The Father's choosing and his predestining before the foundation of the world is specifically said in that passage to be of us.
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The Father's love for those adopted children, it is particular and it is individual.
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It is an everlasting particular and individual love for chosen children.
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He loved us, those chosen to glorify his glorious grace and God's love, please hear me, it does not differ from one child to the next.
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It is identical to them all. From the covenant child that God sovereignly decrees because it pleases him to regenerate them while they're still in their mother's womb, like John the
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Baptist, and they never know a day of unbelief, they never know a day of rebellion in their life, and they walk with Jesus their whole life and they go on to glory when they die.
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From that person to the dying thief who was effectually called in the final minutes of his life,
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God's love for that one is identical to the covenant child regenerated in the womb. The covenant child who knows
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Christ all her days in this world before she goes to be with Christ in glory was loved with that great love in the same way that thief was as well.
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He too had been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. How great a love the father bestowed on him even though he wasn't adopted until those final minutes of his life.
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The repentant thief, loved, chosen, just like the covenant child, loved, chosen. Lest we have a problem with people being saved by the skin of their teeth at the very last moment, let us never forget, brothers and sisters, let us never forget in light of that and in light of the fact that there's a lot of trouble going on in the world and in the church today.
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Our God is absolutely sovereign in his decree of all that comes to pass.
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Let us also never forget that all belongs to God. Every atom in the universe is his and at his disposal for his glory.
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The troubles of the church are decreed by God for the church's sanctification and for God's glory.
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Remember Jesus told the parable of the laborers laboring in the vineyard. There were people that were upset.
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Hey, that guy only worked one hour. We've been working the whole day. Remember what Jesus says in that parable to the people that complained about someone being saved at the very last day and the last moments of their life and someone that's labored and had to deal with sorrows and hardship their whole life.
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You gotta love Jesus' statement of God's sovereignty. Listen to it, Matthew 20, 13. Friend, I am doing you no wrong.
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If you're ever tempted to think that's just not right the way God decreed this or that or the other thing, he's not doing anyone wrong.
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Fairness is the last thing you would ever want from God. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
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Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.
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That's the end of it. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what
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I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I'm good?
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The love the father has for every single one of his children, regardless of the path that he decreed about which he would bring them to Jesus Christ, be it the smooth path, being born into a wonderful home where they were loved and discipled their whole life, or a life of crime that ends nailed to a cross and you come to your senses in those final minutes, the love that the father has for all of his children is exactly the same because that love is simply an extension of his love for his son.
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We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. We are hidden in Christ once we are justified and adopted by faith alone.
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First John 3 .1 speaks of how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.
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We who have repented and know Christ as our savior are all equally God's children.
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No one is more or less a child of God. Forgiveness, justification, adoption, and heaven everlasting are the equal possessions of all of God's children.
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And thus we all exclaim with John, behold how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God.
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And you love that last phrase, and such we are. Why does he say that? Why is that added there?
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Because we're not just called children of God. We actually, in reality, truly are.
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Come what may in this life, be it better or worse. Whatever happens in the PCA, be it better or worse.
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Be it sad or happy, the poor, the mourning, hungry sinner who has a broken heart and a contrite spirit who puts their faith in Jesus Christ is still a child of God and is the object of the everlasting love of God.
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Notice the second sentence in verse one now. For this reason, because we're children of God, the world does not know us because it did not know him.
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It's often a grievous thing to bear the constant hatred, the insults, the ostracizing, the scorn of the world, persecution of the hand and persecution of the tongue will come to us for Jesus' sake because he's the only way of salvation for all mankind.
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And it will come to us, that persecution, that hatred will come for righteousness' sake as well. Being a child of God is the greatest blessing that a sinner can have, but it comes at a price in this world.
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The world, this passage says, this Holy Spirit tells us, the world will not know us.
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What that means is this. The unbelievers around us will not understand why we are the way we are.
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Why are you the way you are? They will not understand why you try to be godly, why their sin bothers you, why you try to be righteous.
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They will not know us in the sense that they will not be able to fathom why we do not go with our culture's moral collapse.
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Why do we not just go along with it all? Why don't we just get blown about by the winds of change?
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Why are we so anchored to the word of God? They will not understand why we don't join them in their pursuit of sin and pseudo -love and pseudo -tolerance.
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Our love for and our commitment to the Bible, this old and fixed and unchanging document, which for us has the words of eternal life, this precious book will stink in the unregenerate nostrils of the world that doesn't know us or understand us.
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Behold what manner of love. It's the greatest love. It's the greatest gift you could ever have to actually go from being an orphan, a child of Satan, to being an adopted child of God.
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But remember, for this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him.
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The world does not look at us as privileged children of God. Look at them. They're poor in spirit, mourning, sad, troubled, burdened.
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Who would want to live like that? You take that for yourself. The world does not see us as the privileged people that we are.
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The world does not know us. It does not understand us. And we will often find ourselves, as Jesus taught us, the objects of hate, the objects of exclusion, reviling, and scorn for the son of man's sake.
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It will be on account of our being God's children because of Christ's work on our behalf that the world will not know us.
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It will be because of the life of unrepentant sin that we leave behind. Because we turn away from what we once walked in, people won't understand us.
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They will not know us. It will be because of our views of what is righteous and the way we refuse to walk in darkness that will be the most bothersome to the world.
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The apostle Peter, he remembered the life that he came from. He remembered the life that he came from before he came to Christ.
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And he said this in 1 Peter 4, 3, for we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the
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Gentiles. We've had enough of sin already. We've had enough of sin already. When we walked in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries, in regard to these, they think it's strange that you don't run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.
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The world does not know us because we are children of God. It's a difficult road because of this.
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But behold the glorious gift of the love that God the Father gave to us by calling us his children.
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And such we are, actually, really, adopted children of God.
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We're not just called that. We are those things. We are those children. When we bow our heads in private or in public worship, and we address the almighty
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God, our confession describes him, the word of God describes him as terrible in his judgments, and yet he's not like that anymore to us.
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He is our father now. It's because we're adopted by him into his family. All of the sin, all of the justice, and his righteous wrath has been answered by our covenant surety.
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The blood of Christ has answered that on our behalf. And now no longer is he our wrathful judge.
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He is our loving father. Paul said in Romans 8, 17, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
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If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Behold what manner of love indeed it is that God has bestowed on us that we would be called the children of God.
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And such we are. Look at point number two, verse two. We will see him as he is.
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Verse two. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared as yet what we will be.
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There is a profound sense of wonder. There's a profound sense of wonder regarding the eternity that lies before us as children of God.
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How many questions do you have about it? If you have children, how many questions have you been asked about it?
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If you knew about it when you were a child, how many questions did you ask about it? I was asked just in the last month, will there be
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Chick -fil -A in heaven? Will the YMCA outdoor pool be in heaven? Will there be caramel
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M &Ms in heaven? Will our pets be in heaven? How old will we be in heaven? Dad, will your hair grow back in heaven?
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We all have many questions about it, don't we? We know a few things about it. I know a few precious things have been revealed to us about it.
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We know that we will be resurrected and that we'll be healed of all of our infirmities, all of our physical diseases, all the aches and pains and the degenerating organs, our ears and eyes and everything else.
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We will not feel pain there. We will experience total blessedness. We will not have any form of sadness, no disappointment, no anxiety, no loneliness.
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Scripture tells us that it will be a new heavens and a new worth in which righteousness will dwell.
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Jesus' resurrection body is a prototype of our own bodies and we know that he ate fish with his disciples.
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It's one of the most glorious passages in the whole Bible. The very last chapter of John's gospel, come have breakfast.
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Jesus just enjoying his resurrected embodiedness. Let's eat together. Let's hang out together.
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Let's talk. What a moment that must have been. Can you imagine? Those disciples remember that forever.
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Eating breakfast on the beach with the resurrected Lord. Now, what is the exact nature of this?
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However, we don't know. So much of what we will experience and find when we die and are then ushered into heavenly glory and the new creation, it's just not known.
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It hasn't been revealed to us in great detail. We long for it, we desire it, but experientially, all we can do is imagine it.
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Think about it. We can conceptualize not being sinful, but experientially, we don't know what that's like.
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Right now, however, you are a child of God. Now we are children of God, although it has not yet been revealed as yet what we will be.
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At this very moment, however, our status as children of God is exactly the same as it will be when we die and our souls depart to be with Christ.
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That status will be exactly the same then as it is right now. We will still be children of God when we're resurrected to life.
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And that's why there's no reason to fear it. You'll still be a child of God when you die in the intermediate state and when you're raised to life, still a child of God because right now you're a child of God.
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That wonderful legal status, it can never change, nor can it be diminished.
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Once a person is affectionately called by God into the family of God, that person's legal status is permanently changed from condemned by the law to justified before the law.
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They go from being a child of Satan and an orphan to being legally adopted into the family of God for the rest of eternity.
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Remember that great statement in the Psalms, when my father and mother are gone, then the Lord will take care of me.
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You see, we always will have a heavenly father. This is the glorious truth that God will never allow his children to forget.
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We pass through dark days and trials, but God holds onto us. We are still his children.
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His spirit still causes us to bow our heads in the darkest of days and say, Abba, father, father, help me.
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The ember will always glow. Other times it will burn bright, but it will never go out.
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You may believe at times that God has forsaken you, but even in your cries, you will acknowledge the ancient of days.
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Your heavenly father who has bestowed such a love upon you in Christ's cross as your God, you will still call him your
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God. When David was in his darkest of moments, he cried out, my God, my
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God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning?
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In the darkest moments, God will not allow us to forget that he is still our God. He is still our heavenly father.
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We will always know that that love has been bestowed upon us once and forever, even by the way we address him in our darkest days.
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Feeling the most abandoned, you'll still say, my God, my father.
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These words that David wrote in Psalm 22, those opening words, it's pretty amazing. They become, they become the words of Jesus nailed to the cross.
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And if you read through that Psalm slowly, it's almost like the inner thoughts and emotions and everything else, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
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They surround me like the strong bulls of Bashan. And then it speaks about what he has done will be proclaimed to a generation, not yet born, that he has done it.
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It's fitting that in Jesus' darkest moments, his words would echo the darkest moments of one of his beloved children,
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David. God the father predestined his children to be conformed to the image of Christ.
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And so it makes sense that if we're like Christ, we too will at times cry out, my God, my
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God, why have you forsaken me? Having those moments where we are left with no alternative, but to cry out in agony to our
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God is part of the process of being conformed to the image of Christ. Suffering makes us like Jesus.
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He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The students are not greater than their teacher.
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The hatred with which the world hated Christ will fall upon those who are like him and those who are his children.
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The day the Christian people and the Christian church stops receiving opposition, insults, and hatred from the world is the day that God's people have ceased to be holy.
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The world will not know or understand because we are
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God's children. They won't know us or understand us because we're God's children. And as God's children, we're not like the world, we are different from the world.
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We're called out of the world to be a peculiar people set apart by God's law word to proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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Just remember that because now we are children of God, no matter where we are in our walk and no matter what is going on in our lives and our families and our struggles with sin, nothing can change the adopted status that we have.
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So if we are in Psalm 22 right now today and crying out with David, with Jesus, my
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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Or if you're in a season of blessedness and peace and a season of great happiness with joy and you're saying with the apostle
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Paul, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep what
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I've committed to him against that day. I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. Whether you're there with David crying out that or with Paul in Romans eight saying that, the infinite anchor that will never move and is not able to move is
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God's character, his purposes and his everlasting love. That endures forever and the absolute certainty of his wonderful promises to us never changes.
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Can a heartbroken person still be a child of God who can know that they have everlasting life and everlasting heavenly bliss waiting for them?
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Absolutely. Can a person who just found out that they're healed of serious diseases and now have a clean bill of health, can they know that they're a child of God going to heaven forever?
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Yes, absolutely. We may be happy and rejoicing over the peace and the blessings we have or we may be reeling emotionally or physically because of terrible news, terrible trials, terrible feelings or terrible thoughts, terrible battles with our remaining sinfulness.
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None of this affects the greatness of the love that the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God and such we are.
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For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Knowing the love of God in Christ is the beating heart of every joyful praise that we lift up to our father and of every tear that we cry into his loving hands.
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When we are victorious over our besetting sins and God is filling our hearts with joy that yet another vice has been put to death in our lives, another sins been put behind us, the greatness of divine love remains constant and our status as God's children remains unchanging.
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When our hearts are raw and our futures in this world look grim and dark and all we see is pain and hardship and emptiness before us, the greatness of divine love remains and our status as God's children likewise remains.
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When we can no longer find light in the darkness and our hearts are too burdened even to talk to God at all and we feel that God's waves in his billows seem to be going over our heads and nothing makes sense and everything we thought we knew seems to be shrouded in doubt and pain, the greatness of divine love remains constant and our status as God's children remains unchanging.
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Look now at the second sentence of verse two. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.
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It has not yet been fully revealed what we will be and what that experience will be like but how satisfying and wonderful it is to know that when
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Christ who is our life appears, we will appear with him and be like him because we will see him just as he is.
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These vile bodies that we have that are slowly breaking and dying will one day be raised up in glory like the resurrection body of Jesus himself.
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We will be like him in holiness and in our physical wholeness but we will never be his equal.
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We'll be like him, yes, but not in his deity. We'll be like him in his holiness.
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He alone is divine and is the son of God by nature. We are the children of God not by nature, never by nature but only by adoption.
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But still behold what manner of love that is. Paul rejoiced in the same wonderful thing when he was contemplating future glory.
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He said in Philippians 3 .20, for our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the savior of the
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Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body.
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According to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Our citizenship is where?
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It's in heaven. It's in heaven. What 1 John 3 .2 means by because we will see him just as he is.
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What that's saying is that was a promise. Our eyes will really look at Jesus. You will see him.
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You'll look right at him. As Job said long ago when he was in the throes of agony when he was in the darkest place imaginable.
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Imagine a man who had so much blessing from God whose wife turns on him and walks away from him encourages him to curse
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God and die. Who loses 10 children in an accident whose wealth is shattered and gone.
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Whose closest friends accused him constantly you must have done something. You had to have done something.
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And all Job can think about is I know my redeemer lives whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold.
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And not another how my heart yearns within me. We will see Jesus as our friend but the wicked in that day, he'll see
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Jesus too. He will see Jesus too. But he will be filled with terror and dread in his holy presence.
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The wicked will take a knee before him and confess him to be the Lord of glory. And then they will be swept away into the wine press of God's wrath.
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But for the righteous, for those who were poor in this life who mourned in this life, who wept in this life who hungered to be righteous in this life all that they grasped by faith here, they will see.
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We will see it. There will be no more need for faith there. We will see it. They shall be comforted.
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They shall laugh. They shall not hunger because they'll be filled and they will never be hated or mistreated by anyone ever again.
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They will know the perfect bonds of love, fellowship communion and perfect acceptance with God and their fellow believers forever.
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The next verse speaks directly to the way of life lived by those who are loved in this way to be called God's children.
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Look at verse three, finally, final point this morning. Verse three, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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Notice the all -inclusive here. Everyone who has this hope fixed on him.
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There will never be just a special class of Christian children who have their hope fixed on Christ.
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All of them do. Everyone who has this hope fixed on him. Their hope is fixed on Christ being in heaven forever, living forever in the new heavens and the new earth as a forgiven, justified, acquitted and adopted child of our heavenly father.
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That is our hope. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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The true God -given desire for personal holiness will be found in the heart of every beloved child of God.
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The love of God towards us is what causes us to love him back. Always remember 1
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John 4, 19. Why do you love God? Why do you and I love him? Why do we love
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Jesus? Because he first loved us. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because, on account of him loving us first.
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And how deep and wide and glorious is that love? It is everlasting, it is infinite and eternal in both directions, from eternity past all the way into eternity future.
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World without end, it never stops. All coming time, Olam means. Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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God creates that desire for holiness. While those sinful desires and thoughts, they're still there and they will dog us, even as Christians and the struggle will be intense.
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Everyone who has this hope fixed on Christ purifies himself just as he is pure.
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The heart longing to be pure will never leave us because the Holy Spirit of God by whom all of God's children are sealed with the day of redemption, he will never leave us.
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We are called away from sin, darkness, error, idolatry and the sinful nature that we've inherited from Adam to a life of holiness and consecration to Christ.
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Now one may ask the question reading this verse, but isn't it God who purifies us? Isn't it
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God who does this for us? Why does this passage say that every child of God purifies himself?
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It's actually a reflexive pronoun, we purify ourselves. How can it be something that we do?
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Well, we're entirely passive in our regeneration and our justification. God alone regenerates the dead sinner, grants them faith in Christ and grants them repentance unto life.
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But sanctification is another matter. It is the work of God's grace, but we are called upon to roll up our sleeves and put up a fight.
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We are called upon to fight our remaining indwelling sin. We are called upon to put it to death.
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Romans 8, 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
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But if by the spirit, you see where that comes from? The Holy Spirit of God. If by the spirit's presence in you, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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Following almost exactly the same progression of thought that 1 John 3, 1 and 2 follows. Paul wrote these two wonderful verses in Colossians 3 verses four and five.
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When Christ who is our life appears, you also will appear with him in glory. That's God's promise to you if you're a child of God.
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When Jesus returns, when he comes back to the earth, you will be with him in glory.
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Therefore, in light of that gospel truth, put to death your members. You Christians, children of God, put to death your members which are on the earth.
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Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.
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I love how the Holy Spirit includes that catch all phrase there, evil desires. Anything you ever want, anything you ever want that's wrong is a sin for which you must repent and put to death.
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How do we put sin to death? How do we do it? How do we purify ourselves? We who have this hope fixed on Christ, how do we purify ourselves even as he is pure?
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Obedience to God's word. We stay on our knees in this life. We pray that God would create a hatred of sin where there is still as yet some degree of love for it.
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Why do we have these problems with these specific sins, these little groups of sins in our lives? Why do they keep coming back?
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Because we don't hate them as much as we should. We don't hate them as yet as much as we should.
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Pray. When you feel that affection welling up in your heart for whatever that sin is, Lord, help me.
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I don't hate it. I don't hate it as much as I should. Lord, create that fiery burning hatred for the sin.
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Create it in me. There's still some love for it. Make me hate it.
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We look at what we have in our rooms and our homes and our paths that we walk and drive on.
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If we see simple temptations that we can avoid, we avoid them. If we see things that are a source of stumbling for us that trigger evil thoughts or stir evil imaginations towards sin, we remove those things.
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God works through the word, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship, and our accompanying actions.
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Obedience. Sanctification is not something that we consider like this.
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Well, if God wants me to refrain from this sin, he'll do something to stop me or he'll take away this evil desire from me.
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I remember someone called into a reform radio program years ago and said, you know, with regard to my sanctification,
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I had a friend that told me I just need to let go and let God. What should I do? And the guy said, shoot your friend.
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You don't let go and let God. You roll your sleeves up. You take action. You be aggressive.
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Listen, God does want us to refrain from sin. And we must make use of the means he is faithful in providing us to do so.
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Will we ever purify ourselves perfectly pure? Not in this life, but purity is still our goal.
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It's still the target. It's still the target. Perfection is every
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Christian's goal this side of eternity. But I have a warning. It's no Christian's expectation either.
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Please remember, however, the love of God for his children is never, ever based on how personally holy you are.
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It's never based on that. His love for his children is a decision he made in eternity past before the foundation of the world in order to glorify his grace and his love.
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The true child of God, listen, the true child of God does not think God loves them because they're good or because they're trying to be better.
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The true child of God knows that God will make them good because he already loves them.
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God's amazing love for his children is prior to personal sanctification and holiness.
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God's love is never his reaction to our purification of ourselves. God's love for us is because we are in Christ.
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God's love for us is because of the perfect and all sufficient sacrifice of his son on our behalf.
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And because we are clothed legally, judicially in his perfect righteousness. So I wanna ask you a couple of questions.
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Do you see and feel in your heart your sinful brokenness? Do you mourn over your sin in yourself?
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Do you mourn over the sin in the world? Do you weep because of how dark your heart is and how dark the world is?
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Do you grieve over and hate your sin and wish to be rid of it all? And do you, as our last verse says here, have your hope fixed upon Christ?
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You know what that means to be fixed on Christ? It means that your hope rests on Christ alone and it will never shift away from him.
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Nothing will ever come alongside of him. Nothing will ever be added to him. If you're a Christian and a child of God, your hope is fixed there.
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It stays there. How you're doing day in, day out, how you're doing in your fight with sin, how you're doing in your devotions, how you're doing in your zeal for prayer and your zeal for the lost and in the brokenness over your sin, how poor of spirit you are, that does not have any bearing at all on God's love for you.
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None. None. God loves us because we're in Christ. And if that's where your hope is fixed, you need not doubt at all that God's fatherly love rests on you and it has rested upon you in his fatherly heart from eternity past and it will last into eternity future and will never end.
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Lord, all we can think of is just what this passage has said. Behold, see what manner of love, what kind of amazing love the father has bestowed on us from before he created anything that was part of time, space, matter, or energy, has bestowed on us that love that we would be predestined to adoption, that we would amid life's rains and winds and storms have a heavenly father whose love for us would be absolutely perfect, unshakable, and would never deviate or move.
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God, we thank you that that anchor, that blessed truth holds. In light of it, may we purify ourselves.
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May we truly set ourselves apart for you, knowing always however successful we are in putting sin to death and however successful we are in pursuing holiness, that our acceptance with you and that status as a child of God is not based on our sanctification.
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It's not based on how well we're doing day in, day out. It's based on what happened, the event that took place.
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2 ,000 years ago, when you sent forth your son, born of a woman made under the law, to redeem those under the law that we would receive the adoption as sons.
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May we never, ever doubt that that is exactly what his perfect redemption brings to pass for us.
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Behold, what manner of love the father has bestowed on us in Christ, that we would be called children of God and such we are.
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Amen. This is
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Pastor Patrick Hines of Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church, located at 108 Bridwell Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee.
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And you've been listening to the Protestant Witness Podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m.
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sharp, where we open the word of God together, sing his praises and rejoice in the gospel of our risen Lord. You can find us on the web at www .bridwellheightspca
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.org. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.