Let us turn together in the word of God to the gospel of John. John chapter 3 and we want to read beginning at verse 1. John chapter 3 and we begin our reading at verse 1. Let us hear the word of God. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it which is. and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit." Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Then we turn to 1 John and we want to read from the end of chapter 2 into chapter 3. 1 John chapter 2 and we are reading from verse And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning For God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Amen. We want to turn this morning to 1 John chapter 2, the section that we read and we want to consider it together through to verse 10. An objective that congregations have is to be a family and we often speak about the church family and rightly so. But let us ask The question at the outset, where do we get that idea from? Is it due to the increasingly dysfunctional nature of the biological family? And so the thought is, family is something people long for. Strong, warm, loving relationships where we are open, honest, committed, and caring one towards the other. Well, if that were the ground upon which we view the church as a family, that would make it worthwhile and commendable in itself. Or perhaps should we be thinking the church as a family because the church membership should be made up of people of all ages, from the newborn baby to the senior citizen in their nineties. That too would be a good reason to think of the church as a family. However, the ultimate reason why we not only aspire but labour to be a family as the church is because in scripture God declares Himself to be the Father of all who believe in Christ His Son. And at the same time, he declares all those who believe in Christ are his children. And then as his children, we are brothers and sisters together in Christ. And so we want to turn this morning and look at this section and first John chapter two from verse 28 to chapter three, verse 10. where John writes to the congregation in Ephesus and he speaks to them about being children of God. Children of God. And so that's our theme this morning. And then this evening we'll come back to 1 John and we'll meet the church family from 1 John. But this morning we're thinking about children of God. And we have three things that we want to see from this section. We want to see, first of all, becoming children of God. Then we want to see, secondly, being children of God. And then thirdly, we want to think about recognizing the children of God. First of all, then, becoming the children of God. Notice, first of all, John's repeated use of the phrase, children of God, which is not to be mixed up with his other phrase, little children, which began our reading or where we began our reading today. Little children is Jones way of speaking pastorally, speaking lovingly and tenderly to the congregation at Ephesus. The way in which parents would do with their children when there's something that concerns them and something about which they want to reassure them. And that's very much the thrust of John's letter. It's about bringing comfort and reassurance to a church which has actually been troubled recently. A church where there's been a division and some have left the congregation and followed a man called Serinthus. who has actually been an early heretic, a man who presented himself as if he were a believer, but with time it became clear that he and others who followed him were not believers and they left the congregation and that left, of course, a mark on the congregation. And John writes now to reassure them, because perhaps some of them were asking, can I be sure that I am a child of God? Perhaps I am deceived, perhaps I am mistaken in what I think about myself. And so John writes then on this theme to reassure them. And he writes first of all about becoming the children of God. Not little children, but children of God is John describing the church members. He says, this is what you are. This is what the Lord says you are. You are my children. Let's notice where he says it. Chapter three, verse one, that we shall be called children of God. And then at the end of the verse, it says, and so we are children of God is understood. Then verse two, of chapter 3, now we are children of God. Then chapter 3 verse 10, in this the children of God are manifested, or are known, or are recognized. So, John is setting out his theme here, children of God. And then John reminds them in this chapter or this section how this came about. They must never forget they are children of God by the grace of God, not through their own efforts, not through their own goodness, boys and girls, not through their attachment to church and church activities. No, they became God's children by the process of birth. They have a second birthday, boys and girls. Not a physical birth from a mum and a dad, but now a spiritual birth that is wrought by God. purpose by the Father and the basis of this was achieved by Jesus and the cross and now it's being applied to their lives by the Holy Spirit. Notice the language John uses. Chapter 2 verse 29, having been born of God. Chapter 3 verse 9, Again, it literally is, having been born of God, twice in that verse. And then in chapter, he also says, everyone who has been born of God. So, if we put the two statements together, children of God, born of God, we've got a total of seven times that this language is used and these actually act as brackets around this section of John's letter. And everything in between he is saying to the children of God, those who are born of God. Now, we need to ask for a moment, pause for a moment and say what does this phrase mean, to be born of God. That's why we read Boys and Girls from John chapter 3. Because you remember that man Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night? He was a very religious man, he was a very upright man, the kind of man that any congregation would have said, well, we want this man in our membership. Jesus was able to see into Nicodemus's heart, and he was able to put his finger on the fact that though Nicodemus was religious, he had not yet had his second birthday. He didn't yet know Jesus. He hadn't been born from above. The Holy Spirit hadn't taken the word of God, which showed him that he was a sinner. the word of God that showed him that Jesus is the only Savior and so brought him to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance of a sin and faith in Jesus as the only Savior. John puts it like this in chapter 3 verse 5, born of the water and the spirit, born of the word and the spirit working together in our hearts to make us children of God. How wonderful it is boys and girls and men and women that salvation does not depend upon me or you. What you do What I do, the family we were born into, the way we were brought up, know it is utterly and absolutely dependent upon God. What God has done for us in Christ his son. And I love to illustrate it always this way. How is a child born into this world? Does a child bring itself to birth? will now ask any mother, any grandmother in our midst this morning, and they will tell you they brought the child into this world. And when the child was born, what did the child do? Gave a cry. And if you didn't hear a child cry immediately it's born, then the nurses were concerned if something was wrong. And it's exactly the same men and women and boys and girls with spiritual birth. We do not bring ourselves to Christ. We do not bring ourselves to be children of God. Rather, it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to birth and then we cry out with the confession of our sin. and with a faith in Christ as the only Savior from our sin. So John says to us then, he tells us how to be born again. But why does John emphasize this? What's important about this? Well, it's important in Ephesus because of this man, Serinthes, and the group that has gone out from the congregation. This man claimed to have a superior knowledge. He went around saying, forget about the apostles, forget about the fact that they saw Jesus, they heard Jesus, they lived with him, they touched him. I have a far greater experience. In my mind, God has spoken to me and he's given me a superior knowledge to the apostles. And John says, the way to become a child of God is not through some special superior knowledge that comes to us as individuals or a claim to super special knowledge. Becoming a child of God has nothing to do with that. Becoming a child of God involves being born from above, born of God. born a second time. And he says, it's nothing short of a miracle. It's nothing short of a miracle. And he says, and it's like God, it involves God raising the dead and sin to life in Jesus Christ. And he's saying to this little congregation in Ephesus, Don't be overawed by the claims of Serentis. I've had special knowledge. I've had a special experience. He says, rather be overawed by what God has done for you in Christ and sending him forth from heaven as a man born of Mary to live a life without sin, to die for sin, to return to heaven, to send His Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who brings us and opens our minds and hearts and wills to receive Christ. And so John says in chapter 3 verse 1, Behold, he says, here's what you've got to focus on. What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that he should call us children of God. That through his Son Christ, through the work of his Spirit in us, God says, you are my children. It's not about some extraordinary or super spiritual knowledge or information that has come, becoming the children of God. Brethren, let us rejoice today in the love that God has had for us and the love that God continues to have for us every day. Even though I sin and I fall short of His glory every single day. He loves you, He loves me, He loves His people with a love that will not let us go. What manner of love the Father has shown us. And the Father showed that publicly. not privately, to some individual sitting away on their own. And brethren, we should always be suspect of someone who says, I've had this experience, away on my own, and they're telling us we need to have something that they have. God reveals what he wants you and me and us to have in the pages of the book that you have on your lap, on your hand today. Be sure of that and stand on that and you will not be, as John says, deceived. He says to the congregation at one point, little children do not be deceived. That's becoming the children of God. Let's think then secondly about being the children of God. So why does John spend his time emphasizing this? Well he wants in the second place to remind them what is the distinguishing mark of the child of God? What is the distinguishing mark of the child of God? What is it that we now have that we didn't have beforehand? To become a child of God introduces a man, a woman, a boy or girl to a radical change in their whole way of life. The way we think, the way we speak, the things we love, the things we do, the places we go, how we treat others. To become a child of God John is going to show us is to receive the righteousness of God. That's the distinguishing mark. That's the new thing that we have that we didn't have beforehand. The righteousness of God. And so that we then pursue righteousness or we live righteously. That's why we sang Psalm one because there it's describing the believer there. It's describing actually Jesus as the man who was fully and completely blessed of God. And that is what God is going to do in us. He is going to make us and He is making us like Jesus and one day that work will be complete. speaks then about this righteousness which we have received. Let's look at the verses and see how John demonstrates this in the chapter here. Look at how he connects being born of God with righteousness. Chapter 2 verse 29. You know that everyone practicing righteousness has been born of God. See what he's saying? If I've been born of God's Spirit, then the direction of my life, the direction of travel of my life is in a path that is righteous, a path that pleases God, a path that is framed by His word, a path that we could say is summarized in the Ten Commandments and then expanded in the rest of Scripture. Notice how also in chapter 3 verse 7 he emphasizes righteousness. The one or everyone practicing righteousness is righteous. Now why is righteousness important? Why is it important? Why is righteousness given to us? Why is righteousness how we are to live our lives? Well John tells us here by other statements when he reminds us that God himself is righteous. Chapter 2 verse 29, Whenever then we know God is righteous. Referring to God there in verse 29, the Father. Then look at chapter three, verse seven. Even as Christ and the word himself is in there. To emphasize it, even as Christ himself is righteous. And then look at chapter three, verse nine. Whoever has been born of God, his seed remains in him. That's the Holy Spirit. and he cannot sin because he's been born of God. He's stating it negatively there, but he's saying righteous because the Holy Spirit is righteous. So do you see how John connects this together? He says, the God of whom we are born and into whose family are born father, son, Holy Spirit is righteous. Therefore, it follows that in salvation we receive righteousness because that's what we didn't have. We had sin and only sin. And then having received that righteousness, that is how I will now live my life. So John emphasizes that. And he actually shows it and demonstrates it also just in a sentence or two from the life of Jesus. Look at what he says in verse 20, chapter 3, sorry verse 5 and in verse 8. He speaks about Christ appearing once to do what? to take away sin and to establish righteousness, to provide righteousness. And then he looks forward to Christ coming again in chapter 2 verse 28, chapter 3 verse 2. And what does he say? He says, what we will be, we do not know, but we know that when he appears, we will be like him for we will see him as he is. we will see him as righteous. And if we're to see him as righteous, we have to be righteous. So John, when he comes to talk about being the children of God, he says, little congregation Ephesus, here is the distinguishing mark of the person who knows God. They will be righteous. because they've received righteousness from God, who himself is righteous. And they will produce the fruit of righteousness in their lives. And so John is saying to us today, brethren, when we are born of God, righteousness is the new norm for us. It's the new norm for us. Something radical has happened in us. And I think this has huge implications for how we approach our daily lives. And so I want to make a number of applications before we move on to our final point. To be born of God does not mean I am a sinner, who is trying to live righteously and now and again I might achieve it. And I reckon there's a lot of Christians who think about being a Christian from that perspective. I'm still a sinner, and of course we don't dispute that, but I'm a sinner who's trying to live righteously and now and again I will achieve it. But scripture actually calls us to think of ourselves the very opposite way round. I am born of God. I have now been given a righteousness and I will live out that righteousness day by day, but not perfectly. I will sin also. Let me try and illustrate it this way. The born again man or woman has their heart re-seeded. As a gardener ploughs and re-seeds their lawn, our hearts have been re-seeded with righteousness. Sin, which is the seed of the unregenerate heart, has been broken up, its penalty or debt has been settled for us once and for all. It's dominion has been broken in us once and for all. It will never produce a harvest again. Like weeds in your re-seeded lawn. Gary mentioned the dandelion, that first ray of sun in spring and you see them popping up over the place in the lawn. And sin like that will pop up and seek to establish its presence again and spread its influence but it can't and it won't because righteousness will outgrow it. So I want to suggest this to you. Tomorrow morning when you get up Whatever lies ahead in the day, I want you to say to yourself, I am a righteous man, I am a righteous woman in Jesus Christ, and I will live righteously today. That's the way we should approach our lives from day to day. Knowing that we'll not do it perfectly, but that is who we are. That's who we are called to be. That's who Jesus is making us. And that brings us then to our second application, which is verse 28, where we see the words, abide in Him. Abide in Christ. Now, little children, abide in Him. And then it goes on to speak about His coming and about Him being righteous and us being righteous. And you see that's the other side of it. How do you and I live righteously tomorrow? It's as we abide in Christ. Abide in Christ. That's why the Lord's Day is so important in our lives. Because it's the day when we get fed from God's word by those whom God has called and who have been trained and set aside. And that supplements, indeed, it is much superior, it should be much superior to our own daily Bible reading in terms of nurturing our soul. That is how like a farmer with his re-seeded field or the gardener with a re-seeded lawn. We nurture righteousness in our hearts. We feed upon the word of God. It is our standard. We are marked by prayer. We delight in the fellowship that is in the church. All of these things keep down the weeds, the sins. which lie, the seed of which lie deep in the soil of our hearts, and given an opportunity, they would strike up again. So, that's our second application. We have another application. By abiding in Christ, we are ready for his coming. By living righteously and abiding in Christ, we are ready for his coming. We have no need, John says, to be ashamed if Christ were to come at this very moment. Indeed, like a host expecting a visitor, you are fully prepared for the moment he returns. And so John talks about that we may have boldness. And he has something to say about boldness four times in this letter because boldness is the result. It doesn't mean being cheeky boys and girls. It means having courage, having courage and strength. And we receive that as we live righteously and abide in Christ. And then we've one final application. And it is that you and I must put sin to death. Being children of God means we must put sin to death. Like the same way as a good gardener, which I've got to confess I'm not, but a good gardener as soon as they see the dandelion showing its beautiful yellow flower, they'll get out. they'll get out and they'll dig the dandelion out before it can become deeply rooted down into the ground and the root goes way, way down into the dandelion, before it comes to the stage, boys and girls, where it's all a little fluff and you love to pull it off and you love to go. Have you ever done that? Well, that's spreading the dandelion seed. And boys and girls, we've got to make sure, and men and women, we've got to make sure when the seeds of sin sprout up in our lives, We're not doing things to spread it further in our lives, but rather we're digging it out. Where do we see that? Well, we see it in verse three. Look at what John writes. And everyone who has this hope in Christ purifies himself, makes himself, pursues holiness, deals with sin, just as he himself, Christ himself is pure. And so we see then what it means to be the children of God. It's to say, I am a righteous man, woman, boy, girl. I will live righteously abiding in Christ and dealing with sin in my life so that it does not spread and destroy my faith or damage my faith. That brings us then thirdly this morning to recognizing the children of God. And so we're back to the question now of Why does John emphasize first of all becoming the children of God, how that happens or has happened? Why does he emphasize then being the children of God and put so much emphasis on righteousness as the new way of life for the believer? Some people look at this passage and it is very easy to get confused. And to think that if we're born again, we can live a life without any more occurrence of sin. That's not what John is saying. John is not teaching that you or I can live a sinless life as the children of God. Rather, John is dealing with the heresy and the legacy or the the trail of destruction that is left behind in the church as it is blown through the church through this man Serinthus. You see Serinthus claimed to be born of God. He claimed to know Christ. He claimed to have the Holy Spirit on the basis of this sacred knowledge that God had given him. But here's the problem, and this is what John is saying. Serinthes and his followers, despite their claim to know God, have no concern for righteousness. They have no concern for righteousness. Their lives have not changed outwardly, morally, how they speak, how they act, sin is still the norm in their lives. They don't have the new norm of righteousness. And their conduct is not any different from others in Ephesus who make no claim to know God. And so John says, make no mistake about it. When a person is born of God, when a person has become the child of God, there is a decisive, visible break with their former way of life. Blasphemy, lying, anger, drunkenness, vulgarity, sexual lusts, backbiting, laziness, indulgence, and a thousand more sins will no longer be their desire and will no longer define them and dominate their lives. Truth, integrity, righteousness, love, faithfulness, contentment, peace, joy, kindness, goodness, love, all of those things that are marks on the outworking of the Christian life, the fruit of faith. They will be the standard for their lives. So John, he's not teaching these believers saying you can lead some of these lives. He's saying no. He says Serinthus and his team and his followers, they're evidently not the Lord's people. Because as the ESV puts it helpfully, they're not practicing righteousness. They're not pursuing righteousness. They have no heart for righteousness. And so brethren, there's two applications that I want to make as we close this morning. First of all, you can be confident about your salvation in Christ. as your heart and mind and will are devoted to righteousness. If you're a man, a woman, a young person, boy or girl who says, Lord, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. And my purpose every day is to live like Jesus. Then John says, be confident, not cocky, Be confident about your own salvation in Christ. And don't allow others to throw you off the right path. And then the second thing, don't allow them to throw you off by their spurious and false claims. Don't be unsettled by those who claim to have had some experience away on their own and they're never involved in the church of Jesus Christ, a gospel church. You can comfortably and safely dismiss them. But then secondly, Be discerning. Be discerning. Hence John's words of verse 7 and 8. Let no one deceive you. And the picture there is of sheep being led astray from the truth. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. He who sins, he who practices sin, and that's the standard of their life, is still of the devil. So be discerning. We're not to take people at merely face value. We're not to necessarily or automatically believe that everyone who names the name of Jesus is indeed a child of his. We know who the children of God are, not by the impressive claims they make, not by the speech they make, but by the life they live, by the righteous life they lead. As Jesus himself put it, by their fruit you shall know them. Children of God. What a wonderful section of John's letter this is. What manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. If there's anyone here this morning who's not a child of God, then we point you to God in Christ. We urge you to start reading the scriptures, to allow that word to shape your thoughts, your heart, and to cry out to God, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Amen. Well, let's bow our heads. Let's remain seated as we pray. Father, we do thank you for this wonderful, wonderful section of this letter of John. Thank you that we from history are able to discern the background to this letter. And we thank you that it gives us an understanding of the letter that otherwise we would not have. Thank you that John wrote as the apostle of love, wanting to reassure the congregation in Ephesus. After Cyrinthus and those who were with him could not stand any longer, the teaching that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man makes us righteous and at the moment of our salvation, and we are to live increasingly righteous lives for him, dying to sin until the moment either we die or he comes again. So Lord, help us, the way in which we look at our lives, help us to remember that wonderful standing that we have in Jesus Christ, where new creations, old things have passed away, and so help us to live out our faith with fear and with trembling. Lord, bless this congregation, we do pray you, and build your people up, and give us, O Lord, discernment and wisdom in an age when there is much that could lead us astray in the church and in the world. For Jesus' sake, amen.