We'll turn with me this morning once again to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3, read with me as I read verses 2 and 3. Having just expressed his astonishment concerning the great love that the Father has bestowed on us as His children, John continues saying this, Beloved, now we are children of God, And it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Now, before we discuss this passage in any great depth, there's something really special going on here that can be missed if we're not careful. I want you to notice how clearly and unapologetically John speaks of the deity of Christ in this passage. Thus far, the only mention of God has been a reference to God the Father. 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. And now in verses two and three, again referring to God, also uses the personal pronouns him and he. You notice that, right? Some of you are probably thinking, well, we have eyes. We can clearly see that, but look closely at what John says about God. He says, when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. Now, let me ask you this. Will we ever see God the Father? No. Why? Because we know, theologically, God the Father is incorporeal. He has no physical substance. He is spirit, as John says in John 4, 24, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Earlier in John 1.18, John noted that no one has seen God. That's a reference to the father. No one has seen God at any time. The only God who is at the father's side has made him known. And of course, we know that to be Jesus Christ. In John 6.46, Jesus told the Jews, no one has seen the father except the one who is from God. And in 1 John 4, 12, we're reminded again, no one has seen God at any time. So let me ask you this. If no one has seen God at any time, and this is because he is spirit again, how can God tell us that he will appear and we will see him when he does? How can John say that? And not only that, how can he say that we will be like him At this point, some of you might be saying, well, duh, I mean, he's talking about Jesus here. Is he? How do you know? So far, again, the only personal pronouns we see here are God, he, and him. And about God, he says, we will see him and we will be like him. How is that even possible? It's possible only because he's talking about Jesus Christ here. Jesus is God. And I'm actually amazed at how many people still insist that there are no clear passages in the scriptures where It's explicitly stated that Jesus is God. This passage is actually as clear as it gets. Now, some of your translations may have even translated one of those personal pronouns as Christ, just to kind of help you out. But that's not so in the original. In the original, it says he and him and God. And so again, what are we to conclude about that? We're to conclude that Jesus is very much God. Anyway, let's back up and take a little closer look at what John says here. First, he says, Beloved, now we are children of God. Stop there. Why would he say that? Why would he say, Beloved, now we are children of God? Well, most scholars believe that John's intention here is to comfort his readers with the reality of their positional standing in Christ. There were many in the early church who believed that sonship to God would be something that would be realized in the future. As a matter of fact, the Jewish mind could not wrap itself around this idea that one could be a son of the Most High God. In fact, they had a struggle realizing that one could even have a personal relationship with God because they thought him to be so distant, so much higher than humans that God would never deign to have a personal relationship with anyone, much less just garden variety people. And so many people believe that John's intention here was to comfort his readers with their understanding of their positional reality in Christ. In other words, as believers, we're not waiting to become sons of God. We already are his sons. We don't hope to be sons of God. We are the sons of God right now at this very moment. Some denominations teach that the only thing the professing believer is entitled to is the hope that they'll make it to heaven. Some of you come from those types of denominations where one can only hope that when we die, we won't be turned away at the judgment. But the truth is, and this is certainly substantiated by what John says to his readers here, the truth is we can know that our place in heaven has been secured. And one of the ways we can know that is to realize that positionally, we are now at this very moment, children of the most high God. There's also another clue. As to why John would say this, and it's in the immediately preceding verse, he says, the world does not know us because it did not know him. And as I pointed out last week, John is saying that the world doesn't recognize us as God's children, and that's certainly true. But John wants us to understand that that doesn't matter because we are his children. Whatever the world might say about you, whatever the world might say to you about your claims of sonship to God, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, we live in a world where if you claim to be saved and to know you're saved, you're looked at with suspicion because no one can really know. But again, John says, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter whether the world knows you or not. In fact, they're not going to know you because they don't know him. And given that they don't know him, they don't know the reality, the positional reality that you know. So bound up in that little phrase, and now we are sons of God. There's a lot of meaning there. A lot of poignancy there. A lot to find joy in, a lot to find comfort in, a lot to gain assurance from. But look what he goes on to say. Now this is not to say we've arrived, right? None of us is there yet completely. We are told by Christ himself in Luke 10 20, rejoice because your names are written in heaven. So that's about as secure as it gets right there. But none of us has arrived. There's still something that we're waiting for. As John goes on to say, it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. Yes, positionally, if you're a child of God this morning, you are as secure as you will ever be. But we're not there yet in terms of realizing the fullness of our salvation. Remember, I've said numerous times from this pulpit that salvation actually has three phases or three simultaneous operations. We live with the reality that we were saved, right? When we made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, at that point, we came to the realization that we were regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, transformed from death unto life. At that point, we were saved. You might even ask people, when were you saved? And they'll tell you, I was saved on such and such a day or during such and such a time. But that's only one aspect of our salvation. We must realize that not only were we saved at one point in time, which arguably you could go back to before the foundation of the world. So there might actually be four ways of looking at salvation. All of God's children, we're told, were elect from before the foundation of the world. Not only that, we were saved at some point in time. Not only that, we are being saved even now. And in addition to that, we will yet be saved in the ultimate sense. But right now in our current status, none of us has arrived and the best that we can do is see Jesus through a mirror dimly, Paul says. Remember what he says in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, or some of your translations might say a glass darkly. Same thing applies, right? Either we're looking at Christ through a glass that's smoky and smudged by sin, or we're looking at him through a mirror that kind of has the same sort of effect. We just don't see him as clearly as we will one day. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, Paul says, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. Paul says that we haven't arrived and what we are yet to be is unclear because the reflection that we see in the mirror of God's grace and in Christ himself is still tainted or obscured by sin in the flesh. Now look at 2 Corinthians 3.18. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul wants to clarify a bit of what he already said in first Corinthians. And so here's an example of this. He, he says in verse 18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the spirit. Now, you know what that's an allusion to, right? Paul is hearkening back to the days of Moses when Moses was forced to wear a veil over his face so that he would not look upon the Lord. Back then, to look upon the Lord, to look upon the Shekinah glory of God would have been a death sentence. Remember, Moses goes up on the mountain and he's told, turn your face away because you can't look upon me and live. The same thing was true for many. you know, who would surround the mountain. Remember, they were told, don't go near the mountain, don't touch the mountain, especially don't look up at the mountain, because the moment you do that, you will die. Why? Because they could not stand to be in the presence of the Shekinah glory of God. The same thing happened to the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. You'll recall he's on the road to Damascus, he gets knocked down to the ground and he's blinded immediately by the glory of God, the glory of Christ. But look at what Paul says again. Now we all with unveiled face are able to see him. The veil has been removed. Why? Because the enmity has been removed. At salvation, remember, we've not been freed from the presence of sin, but we have been freed from the penalty of sin and the power of sin. And having been thus freed from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, having been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, having this enmity that existed between us and God, the father removed. Now we can see him with unveiled face. You realize you have the ability to do something right now that Moses could have only dreamed up, but this is not as good as it gets either. We still see through a glass darkly or a mirror dimly. Even this ability to see him is not yet what it will be. Why? Because we are still being transformed into his image. Now I know this is going to be a stupid question. It's kind of a rhetorical question. It might not be. I've been surprised by lesser things, but how many of you ever looked into a mirror? Say the rest of your line again. We all have looked into a mirror and what do you see when you look in the mirror? You see your reflection. Now, how many of you have ever looked into one of those really expensive magnified lighted mirrors? We were at Bed Bath & Beyond not too many years ago and I remember walking up to this row of mirrors and they had them from lesser magnification all the way up to the highest magnification. I was like, I'm going for it, right? I went with the big dog at the end and I turned the light on and I looked into it. All my life I had been looking through a mirror dimly because what I saw staring back at me was horrific. You don't have to laugh that hard. But if you've ever done that, what do you see? You see every blackhead. Folks, I learned that I have hair on my nose. That's not okay. So here I am self-conscious. I walked out of there depressed. I'm like, Danny, you let me out of the house looking like this? I mean, you know, you have hairs all over the place. You've got blackheads, you've got blemishes and you've got scars. And it's because you're looking at yourself really as you are for the first time. That's what it's going to be like. The difference between your normal, you know, bathroom mirror and one of those super duper high octane mirrors is you're finally able to see things for how they really are. One day, even though right now we know we're children of God, we know that Christ is ours, we know that we are His. And yet we're still being transformed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another. But on that day, when this corruption shall put on incorruption, we will be able to see Him as we've never seen Him before. And it will be just What I saw in that mirror in Bed Bath and Beyond will pale in comparison to the revelation of Jesus Christ when we see him, not only see him for who he really is, but when we're made like him. Jesus actually prayed for us in this regard in John 17. Remember what he said in verse 24? He said, Father, I desire that they also, they who, those whom you have given me may be with me where I am. To what end? To see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. When I read that, I thought about Thomas, in the upper room refused to believe that the resurrected Christ was actually the same Christ that they had been hanging around with for the better part of three years of his earthly ministry. He would not believe, as a matter of fact, until he actually saw and was able to touch Christ and verify that it was him. And yet that pales in comparison because even then Thomas was not looking at the glorified, restored Christ. Yes, Christ was in his glorified body. Yes, but he still condescended to man to appear as a human, normal, fairly normal. I mean, how normal is it when somebody just appears in the room? Right? But I mean, he still had all the telltale signs. He wanted them to know one thing and one thing alone. And that was that he had defeated death in the grave. He had not yet ascended to the father. And this is why Jesus prays in John 17. I pray for one thing. I pray that they're able to see my glory. Remember, You might remember reading about the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation. And what do we read there with regard to the need or the lack thereof of the son? There's no need, why? Because his light will be sufficient. Folks, we have no way of comprehending what that means. to see him in his full-blown resurrected ascended glory is something that Jesus himself longs for because it will enable us to see him for the first time just like he really is. Now, let me ask you this. Do you long for that day? It's easy as believers to say, yep, I long for that day. Words are cheap, talk is cheap. What I want to know and what I want you to ask yourself and answer that question in your innermost being, I want to know, do you long for that day? Do you long to be united forever with the one who loved you and gave himself for you? Or is the prospect of Christ's return our seeing Him for who He truly is, is that placed on the back burner, so to speak. In other words, how often do you actually think about seeing the Lord Jesus Christ face to face? Does that consume your thoughts? Are you preoccupied with this desire to see Him as He is and to be like Him? And when you do think about that, what does that do to you? How does that make you feel? As I mentioned during our study of verse 28 of the previous chapter of this first letter from John, there are many, some perhaps who even profess Christ, who have become so enamored with this world that they'd just as soon, the Lord wait. I've actually heard people say this. Well, you know, yeah, I'm excited about the prospect of the Lord's return, but I, you know, he just, I just wish he would wait a little while. There's a lot of living I have yet to do. There's a lot of things that I've yet to experience. And others, again, with the best of intentions, insist that they're ready for the return of Christ, except they wish that he would do it after their children are saved, after their loved ones are secure in Christ. And again, that's a noble sentiment. But even that noble sentiment reflects a misplacement of priorities. Because when you actually say it out loud and you say, yes, I prefer the salvation of my children over and above the return of Christ. You see how silly that sounds? It's as if, well, you know, God, I know you have the time marked out and not even the Son of Man knew when that would be. I know that one day you will return, but you need to save my kids and my friends and my family before you do that. What are you doing at that point? You're actually usurping the authority and perfect will of God, or you're attempting to. Don't you think that God knows? Of course He does. who his children are and that they need to be redeemed before Christ comes back in judgment. Do you not think that he knows that already? Again, it's a noble sentiment, but don't let your noble sentiments replace or transcend the working out of the perfect will of God. Resign yourself to it. I've got news for you. If the Lord comes back in the next instant, I'm not going to take the time to second guess who was saved and who wasn't saved. It doesn't mean I don't love you. I do. It doesn't mean I don't love my grandkids. For example, you all know how much I love my grandkids, but should the Lord come back in the next moment? I will ascend to glory knowing that whatever he ordains is right. There are others who insist that they're ready for his return and even anxiously awaiting it, but they express serious doubts that it will happen during their lifetime. Many of you here this morning probably feel that way to a certain degree. I mean, after all, it's been 2,000 years nearly since the ascension of Christ and odds are he's not going to return before I die. I mean, it's just the way most of us are conditioned to view that whole subject. He could return, but again, odds are pretty much against his coming back before I die. But let me ask you this. What effect can those kinds of attitudes have on us as Christians? What effect can that attitude have on our daily performance? If you're convinced that he's not coming back before you die, even if it's not intentional, how will you likely live your life from that day forward? Well, I've got another personal anecdote that fits this exactly. I remember as a young teenager, My brother and I were left home while my mother and father went somewhere for a business trip. They were going to be gone a week. They were coming back Saturday afternoon. We were left in the house for a week at the ages of 13 and 15. You see where this is going, right? Along about day three, things started to get out of hand. there were unwashed dishes on every flat surface in the house. Yep, television, bookshelves, the floor, anywhere you could put something, it was there. Now add to that dirty laundry, yeah, peach pits, apple cores, Maybe even a corncob thrown in there somewhere, I don't know. The house was a wreck. And I remember telling my brother, I was the peacemaker in the family, I was the responsible one. Sorry, Chuck, but it's true. I was the responsible one and I kept telling him, Chuck, we need to clean this house up, because mom and dad are coming back on Saturday. We got three days, three whole days, we'll get it done. The next day, Chuck, we need to clean this house, and we need to do it now. We've got two whole days. Friday comes along. Chuck, we need to clean this hat. What do we hear? Car pulling up in the driveway. Mom and dad are back a day early. I can still see the look of betrayal, pain, scorn, and frustration on my mom's face when she walked in the door and saw that. What had happened there? Yes, we thought we had all the time in the world to make this right. because we had convinced ourselves that mom and dad would not be back until Saturday afternoon, we had it all planned out. If you live your life having convinced yourself that Christ will not return prior to your own death, chances are you will grow complacent in your service to him. It's a human condition. We cannot let that happen. I've told you before, I'll say it again. An old pastor once gave me the best advice I could ever receive. He told me, he said, always live your life as though Christ died yesterday, rose again today, and is coming back tomorrow. I've modified that. Live your life in such a way that Christ died yesterday, rose today and is coming back later today at a time when you don't know. Had we lived all week in anticipation of mom and dad's imminent return, things would not have gotten out of hand because we would have been ready the whole time. This is actually what John's saying in verse three of our text this morning. He says, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. I don't know of any greater incentive to clean godly living than the thought that Christ might return at any moment. The man who genuinely has this hope fixed on him purifies himself. The problem that so many have which is a huge obstacle in living lives that are consistently in honor of God. One of our biggest problems is that very often our hopes are on anything but Christ. Think about it. And I'm going to throw this question out there and I don't want you to give me the religious answer. I don't want you to give me the Christian answer. But if you were to be approached by someone on the street, and you were challenged with giving the response to this question, filling in the blank, what would your answer be? I hope blank. Anybody brave here? Yeah. That I get the next project awarded to me by my employer. They're absolutely. I hope that I get that next contract. What else? Anybody else want to be transparent? Yeah. I hope I get all the computers fixed at school so we're ready to go Monday morning. That's a big one. Yeah. It's a lot of faith there. Anybody else? Yeah. Hope I can finally move to my new office. I hope I get that job I applied for. I hope we get that mortgage that we applied for. I hope the Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year. Keep dreaming. I hope I make more money. I hope the pastor didn't see me drifting off during the message. Remember, I see all. It's only by God's grace that I don't call you out on it, right? You're gonna get an airsoft gun or maybe a paintball gun. No, I wouldn't do that to you. But how many of us, genuinely, how many of us would respond to that question by saying, I hope and pray that today is the day of Christ's return? The sad, solemn truth is none of us would answer that way. Why? Because our hope is not fixed on Him. And if our hope is not fixed on Him, then we're not being purified to the extent that we can be purified. We're not living in such a way as we can live to the honor and glory of God when our hope is fixed on so many other things. Fixing one's hope on Christ means to look down and reserve any and all hopes that we have on him and him alone. We look into the word. We find out everything that was promised to us. We look forward with great anticipation to that day when this corruption again shall put on in corruption, when this we're finally saved not only from the penalty of our sin and the power of our sin, but we're taken out of this place, wholly removed from the presence of sin. And if we do that, all of those other hopes will just fade away. Now again, I'm not saying that you need to be, as one smarter person said, so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. You can't walk around looking up with stars in your eyes all the time because there's work that needs to be done. There's evangelism that needs to take place. There are all kinds of things we need to be busy doing and caring for our families and loving our families and nurturing them in the grace and admonition of the Lord. Those things are all critically important. So don't check out from reality. But always at the forefront of your mind, you need to be thinking about the imminent return of Jesus Christ, because that alone will purify everything else you do in life. And if our hope is thus fixed on Him, we will be ready. We won't be ashamed when He does return for us in glory. Let me remind you of, again, of what Gil wrote concerning this very thing. He said this about those who live their lives in anticipation of Christ's imminent return, those whose hope is fixed on him. He said, they will not be put to shame by him. Nor will they be ashamed of their confidence, faith, hope, and expectation. Their hope will not make them ashamed, for they will now enjoy what they hoped for. And notwithstanding all their sins and infirmities, they will not be ashamed, for they will have on the wedding garment the righteousness of Christ, and will stand before the throne without fault, spot, or blemish. Nor will Christ be ashamed of them who have not been ashamed of Him in His words. but have confessed him and have been faithful unto death and have cleaved to him and his cause with full purpose of heart to the end. Are you ready? You know, I've not mentioned, we've been talking about the imminent return of Christ. I've not mentioned the imminent possibility of your death before this day is over. And so again, whether you believe Christ is coming before you die or not, I can tell you one thing. There are a lot of people who woke up this morning in anticipation of going to sleep tonight who will never make it to their bed. We could meet the Lord at any moment, just like that. And the question remains, are you ready? Are you ready? Is your hope truly fixed on Christ and Christ alone? If so, you'll be purified by that hope as He Himself is pure. Are you looking for a way to grow and mature in ways that you've never experienced to this point? Take your eyes off the world around you and fix your hope on Him. Well, that's easy. That's not easy. The world competes for our attention more and more every day, right? Get off Facebook and get in your Bible. Stop watching all the news about how horrible things are in this world and being aghast at just how bad things are becoming and realize, folks, you live in a world of lost people. This is how lost people act. Be the salt and light that you've been called to be in Christ. And let it begin with me. And you'll see the kind of change that you want to see. We don't have a problem of racism in this country. We have a problem of Christlessness. Now, I'm not saying that racism is not real. It is. It is. But Christ is able to transcend all of that. Again, take your eyes off the world, fix your hope on him, and you will be purified just as he is pure.