to 1 John chapter 3, and there verses 1 to 3 of 1 John chapter 3. And if you were here in the adult Sunday school, of course, you will have heard Pastor Bell refer to those verses. And when he mentioned them, I looked up and I thought, okay, he's going to preach my sermon now. So 1 John chapter 3, verses 1 to 3, please. And let me read them again to us. This is the Apostle John writing, and he says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall 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 just as he is pure. So I want us to consider this morning the children of God's love. The children of God's love. If you remember at Christmas, we looked at 1 John 4, verses 9 and 10, and there the apostle John told us something of the love of God. And he told us something of that love of God being manifested by descending of his only begotten son into this world of ours. So not only does God love us, but he has shown it. He has demonstrated it. He has sent his one and only son into this world to suffer and die in order to save us because he loves us. demonstration of his love. And here in 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 to 3, John is showing us something of the outworking of that love. This is what he's doing here in these three verses. How this love has made saintly children out of sinful rebels. He has turned sinful rebels, and he has made them saintly children. This is what we have here. And so I want us to consider that in terms of, one, a past bestowment. God has bestowed unto us. So a past bestowment by God, so it is a past fact. Secondly, I want us to consider a future hope. There is a hope. which is in the future. And then thirdly, we will consider the present work. The present work. So this is what we're going to look at very quickly in the time that we have as we consider these first three verses of 1 John chapter three. So past bestowment. Verse one, behold, what manner of love the 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. And as we heard at Christmas, as we heard this morning in the adult Sunday school, John is overwhelmed. The apostle John is just overwhelmed by the greatness, the wonder, the grandeur of God's amazing love. The God who is The God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who dwells in inapproachable light. He's just baffled. He's completely amazed. And remember how he puts it. Because in the original, what it gives, the picture it paints is this. When he says, behold what manner of love. Behind the words in the original is, can you really? see it. Can you really comprehend it? Can you fathom, can you take in this love? And what John is saying to us is, I cannot see it, I cannot really understand it. I have known it, I have experienced it, I have partaken of it, but I cannot fully grasp it. This is the picture that John is painting for us there. He says, behold, Look at the marvel of the wonder of the love of this God who is infinitely beyond us. The fact that this God who is light and in whom there is no darkness whatsoever. He says it in chapter one and verse five. This God, the fact that this God should make vile children of men to become the children of God, how can that be? How is that possible? But John is saying, I know it has happened to me, just as it has happened to many around me. But this is the love, this is the wonder that I'm talking about. The love of this almighty God. And we cannot fully rise to the jubilation, to the excitement that John is experiencing at the time of writing. We cannot fully rise to this, if you like, jubilant faith that the Apostle John shows here. We cannot rise to this joy that he's expressing here. We cannot rise and see something of the wonder that the Apostle John is talking about here. until we see something of the incomprehensible love of God. Until we grasp something of it, just a bit, for I've already said it is incomprehensible. It is beyond us. But we can grasp something of it, as John did. And it is when we do that, that we can rise to this jubilation, to this excitement, to this celebration that John has here as he expresses this wonderful, eternal love of God. And we can only see something of that love. We can only see it when we pass through, if you like, the gateway of the mediator's love into the Holy of Holies, of the love of God the Father himself. We need, for we can, more often than not, see something of God's love in Christ our Lord. But sometimes we are unable to see beyond that. We are unable to see that love in the bosom of God the Father. The one that sent his one and only son, Sometimes we are able to see something of the love of the Son of God who came, who lived here on earth, obeyed God's law perfectly, the law we failed to obey, but he did that on our behalf, and then he suffered and died in our place. Sometimes we can grasp something of that love. But no, there is the Holy of Holies, the love beyond all loves. the depths that the Apostle Paul describes, which is beyond our comprehension. And until we rise with John and go through the gateway of the love of the mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, and enter into that love that is at the bosom of the Father, we are unable to see and to comprehend and to rejoice and be taken up completely by the love that the Apostle John is talking about here. John says, this love the Father has bestowed, it is done. We are children of God by the bestowment of this love and the call of God's grace to partake of this love. We are partakers of it. And what John is insisting upon here is that we have been made children of God. It is done. When we believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know something of this love of God shed abroad into our hearts is done. We are children of God. We were looking at something like that in the adult Sunday school, having been justified We are redeemed. Having been redeemed, we are adopted by God the Father, and we become His children, heirs of God, joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. It is accomplished. He has done it. We need only to believe and trust in the Savior, our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are the children of God. We are God's own children and having been made children. This thing that is accomplished for all who truly believe in the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, we are given a privilege. The privilege of being called the children of God. We don't attain it. It is not to be attained, nor it is a gift. It is the gift of God the Father. It is the gift of his love. He loves, and so he gives. This is the gift of God's love to us undeserving sinner. As if that is not clear enough. As if that is not truly, that has not truly made the point. John adds, He asks in verse two, he says, beloved, now we are children of God. He seems to say, in case you haven't got my point, the fact that we are already, it's been done, Christ has finished it, it's done. He says, okay, let me put it positively for you so that you understand. He says, beloved, now we are the children of God. because of what has been done. We are God's children. God the Father has given us a dignity. He has given us a privilege, the intimacy, if you like, of being the children of God, being heirs of his. Again, as has been mentioned, joined heirs with our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when John says, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Called children of God here does not simply means that we should be named children of God, or that we should be identified as the children of God. It's not merely a nomenclature, if you like, an identity tag. No, that's not what it is at all. It's far, far beyond that. He's talking about an effectual and statement. Remember, effectual, that which accomplishes its purpose. It is an effectual and statement, if you like, of that legal status that we were talking about earlier in the adult Sunday school. We can bear God's name. He is our father. Yes, I am Reuben Dunlady because I am Dunlady's son. I am a Christian. because I am a child of God. So I bear the name of Christ because I am his brother, a child of the living God. And this is what we have here. Not only do we have this legal status, if you like, given and conferred upon us, no, the Apostle Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, 4, that we have become partakers of the divine nature. In the confession we saw this morning, that the Spirit of God has been shed into us. We are given the Spirit. We have the Spirit of God in us. and he is working out the nature of God in us, so that we are truly the children of God. And so Peter says we are partakers of the divine nature, and that we are. This is what has been done. This is a done fact, accomplished fact. Christ has done it, says the apostle John. It's been done. And because this has been done, because it is an established fact, at the end of verse one, the apostle John says, therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him. And John is saying here what our Lord Jesus Christ himself has told us. If they had loved me, says the Lord Jesus Christ, they will love you also. But they haven't. And why is that? John says it's because they did not know him. They couldn't know him. They didn't have his spirit. They could not know him. John says this is why we are, if you like, incomprehensible to the world. We are not known. We are not understood by the world. How do you call yourselves children of God, you mere mortals? I can see you. We deal with you. They don't understand. They cannot understand. And so John says, they cannot say they did not understand him. So they will not understand us. And because of that, they hate us. And they will hate us. And the Lord Jesus said, that's what will happen. If they had loved me, they will love you also. But because they hated me, they will hate you also. This is the reality. It has been done, it is established, it is accomplished. Secondly, future hope. Future hope. Verse two. The apostle continues, having said, beloved, now we are the children of God. He now says, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is. Apostle John is saying to us, and he is making it very clear to us, he says, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, as he will, he will come as surely as he came the first time, he will come again, not as a baby, but as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. and the judge of all the earth. That's how he'll come. And when he comes, says the apostle John, we will be completely conformed to the image of the father. We will be completely and totally conformed to the image of the father. Nothing less than that is the goal of the father. God has made us his children in order that he may conform us into his image. Nothing less than that will do. And this is what John is making clear to us. And of course, we do not sufficiently take in the reality of what John is saying. And of course. You can't blame me and I can't blame you for not fully getting to grasp with the reality of what is being said here. The magnitude, the magnificence of the Father's love in Christ Jesus towards undeserving sinners like us. We cannot fully understand it. And I do understand that. Because of our finite nature, our finite understanding, it's difficult to take in this infinite realities. that the infinite eternal God is revealing to us here through his servants. If this is the love that delivered up God's only begotten son, if this love is the love that delivered up God's only begotten son and brought us to enjoy the rights and privileges of becoming the children of the living God, This love, John seems to be saying to us, this love will not rest until its ultimate goal is attained. It will not rest, it will not give up. And the ultimate goal in view is full conformity to God's image. And so the apostle says, for we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. That is the ultimate goal. And that is what must happen when the son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ comes to take his own to be with him. The goal of the father's love is nothing less than full attainment of the divine obligation, which our Lord Jesus Christ himself gave in Matthew chapter five and there in verse 48. In Matthew chapter 5 and in verse 48, our Lord Jesus Christ, remember, speaking on what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, says, therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. That is the ultimate goal. That is the obligation that we have, given by our Lord Jesus Christ. And here, John, A good student of our Lord Jesus Christ says to us, that is God's ultimate aim, and that is what his love, the love that gave his only begotten son, that is what it is working out in us as believers. That we might attain ultimately the perfection that our Lord Jesus Christ talks about, and that is only found in the image of God. That is the goal. and God's love will not rest until that is accomplished in every true believer. It is the vision of the Father, whom no man has seen nor can see, but he will be known and adored in the splendor of his glory when the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, comes to take us to be with him forever and ever, because then we will be finally and ultimately fully conformed to God's image. That confirmation, of course, to the image of God requires a transformation, a transformation that will provide a character for us, a character that is necessary to make that blaze of glory, if you like, congenial to our persons. I've said it before and I keep reminding us. If we were to appear in the presence of the holiness of God, in our sinfulness, we will be consumed by the holiness of God. When the scripture says he is a consuming fire, it is the holiness of God that consumes. It cannot tolerate any sinfulness. He is of holier eyes than to behold any form of iniquity. And if we were to be presented to him in our sinfulness, we will be consumed instantly by his holiness. But there will be a transformation. Transformation in our nature and character on that day. So that our new natures will now be, if you like, amenable. Be able to accept and view and experience and enjoy something of the glory, the splendor of the glory of the true and the living God. This is what the apostle is talking about. This is, it's just mind blowing. It's difficult to fully comprehend, to get to the depths of what John is telling us here. It is hard for us to entertain such glorious hope. But it is our hope, the hope of every true believer. That is our hope. And can it truly be? Yes, it will be. It will be. So the Apostle John tells us, yes, it's not been revealed yet what we should be like, but when he appears, when he comes, we shall see him as he is and we shall be like him. And then we'll be able to stand before the glorious majesty of our God and our father and worship him in the beauty of holiness. You know why we come to the throne of grace and plead with God and worship God? Why we can, as we are here on earth, why we can? You know why we can? Of course, if you are a believer, you know why we can. It is because we have been covered with the righteousness of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we come, God does not see us in our sinful nature. He sees us wrapped up in the righteousness of his Son. our Lord Jesus Christ. And through the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, our praise, our worship, our thanksgiving, our petitions are then accepted before him. But apart from the Lord Jesus, apart from his righteousness, we dare not come anywhere near the throne of the Holy God with whom we have to deal. It is hard to conceive of being physically present in the presence of the Holy God and worshiping him. Especially when you think of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter six and his experience. There he sees angels with wings blocking their faces and their whole being. Why? Because of the glory and the splendor of God the Father. They cannot. They have to block it. And when you think of that, and how Isaiah fell down and said, woe is me. And when you think of that, how can this be? It will be because his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has done it for us. And in and through him will appear before his glory. Finally, present work, present work. So there is an accomplished fact, a past bestowment. But we also have a future hope. in the glorious presence of our God and our Father. But in between, in between that fact and the future, there is work to be done. There is a present work. The Apostle John says in verse three, and everyone, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is here. There is work to be done, brethren. There is an accomplished fact. There is a future we look to. But there is a present work. Work that we must do. The Apostle John says in verse three, as we have seen, we have seen the accomplished fact in being made, if you like, the children of God. We have also seen our ultimate hope of being conformed into the likeness of God himself. This is what will happen in the future. But now we have the work that must be done in between those two. And that work, he says, is self-purification. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. You see, our hope. That future hope that we have, if you like, supplies both the ground and the incentive that we need to work hard at our sanctification. The purification that the Apostle John is talking about here. And the pattern of our purification, he tells us, is God the Father himself. Because he says in verse three, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. How? Just as the Father is pure, just as he is pure. That's what we must aim at. You must be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy. We have to work hard at becoming holy. acceptable in the presence of God our Father. And our hope is sure. It is a sure hope. It is a certain hope because it is hope in God. It is hope in the immutable love of God. His love does not change as we have seen. His love is like his perfection, his attribute. They never change. They are as unchangeable as he is unchanging. They are as immutable as he is immutable. They never change. And so his love will accomplish that for which he has purposed it. He will accomplish it. So that the final issue is not in doubt whatsoever as far as the true believer is concerned. Our pilgrimage to perfection involves work, Work, he says. And the apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, in Philippians chapter 2, and there in verses 12 and 13, he says to the Philippians, work out your own salvation, he says, with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both will and to do for his good pleasure. But you have to work. Work hard. And work it out. But it is God. Ultimately, it is Him who wills it. It is Him who accomplishes it. So our working is not suspended because God works. And the fact that God works does not suspend our own working, if you like. God is working, but we must work. There is work for us to do. Our working receives its prompting, it receives its strength, it receives its encouragement, it receives its course from, if you like, the working of the Father in our lives. Because He works, we work. For it is by His grace and power alone that we are enabled to do the work. So we can do all things, but that is through Christ, because He is the one who strengthens us. And as he strengthens us, we work. We continue with the work of the purification. And when he says, here, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, that presupposes something, doesn't it? That presupposes defilement. It means we are impure, we are defiled. That's what it presupposes. And again, the Apostle Paul writing in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, and there in verse 1, he tells us. He says to the Corinthians, therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. There is cleansing work that needs to be done, and a lot of it, because there is filthiness. In us, there is defilement in us by nature. But as we are being conformed to God's image, let's work at it. And he says, it will be done. So quickly, let me finish then. As believers, as Christians, the Apostle John says in verse two, beloved, now we are children of God. And he says that, notwithstanding our sin, notwithstanding our frailty, notwithstanding our misery and our pitiable conditions. And the Lord knows all about that. But he has chosen to make such as us to be the children of God. As believers, let us cherish that thought. Let's just think about it, dwell upon it. If we do that, we will never cease to praise our God. We will never cease to thank our God. But as we cherish this thought, let us believe the fact. It's been done. It's true. It's real. It is a reality. Let's rejoice in this glorious relationship that the Father, out of His grace and love, has bestowed on us. Let us rejoice in it and then let us walk in it and act truly as the children of God. Let there be a difference. Let it be seen and known that we are truly the children of God and not the children of the devil. We are not the children of the world. We are the children of God. Remember, remember always that in trouble, in sickness, and even in death itself, God is our father. He has called us his children. Christ is our brother and heaven is our home. Don't ever forget that. Keep that in view every moment of your life. If the world hates you, remember it hated Christ. It hated him. Therefore, he says, the world does not know us because it did not know him. cannot understand us, it did not understand him. So I ask you, are your minds and hearts bent on being conformed into the image of your father, even our God, the God of our salvation? Are you sincerely working towards that? Or are you allowing the world to be a hindrance? your taste, your choices, the things that you watch, the friends that you keep, the associations that you have. Are you allowing them to be a hindrance? Or are you focusing on what the Lord says and doing His will? Now in this new year, 2020, keep looking to Him. Think of what He has done, allowed nothing to separate you from the love of Christ. Because Paul tells us nothing should be able to. Nothing should be able to. Remember, I said should be able to. Paul said nothing shall, but I'm saying should be able to because we do oftentimes allow a lot of things to be hindrances to our relationship with our Father. And we do that with our eyes open. And that is not tolerable in the sight of God. He will discipline us because He's a good Father, as we heard again this morning. We can do all these things, but God will discipline us in His own way and at His own time. But we must keep yearning. Let's yearn. Let's have this yearning desire. Let's have this expectation and hope that one day we shall be presented faultless before the throne of our Father's glory. And so let's keep looking to that. Let's mourn our sin. And let's do everything. Let's flee from them. Keep away from them, as scripture tells us. Keep away from defilement. Anything that seems to negate God the Father's love to us, His adopted children, anything that seems to negate our being perfected into His image, let's have nothing to do with them. Let's focus on Him and keep looking to Him. Do you know this amazing love? Everything we've been saying, does that have anything to do with you? Or are you outside of that? Have you tested? Have you known this love? Will you begin this new year, 2020, being assured of the fact that God loves you and that he is your father and that the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior and your brother? Or are you still outside of that? Please. Don't allow the evil one to cheat you in this new year, 2020. Look to Jesus. Call on him alone. Trust him. Become his true child. In obedience to his word, be baptized and added to his church, to his body. so that you will know that you are truly a child of the living God. And then you can say with John, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon me, even me.