All right, in our study of the book of 1 John together this year, we come this morning to chapter three, 1 John chapter three. When you found your place in God's word, please stand with me for the reading of our sermon text this morning. Let us pray. And now our Heavenly Father be pleased from heaven to speak to us by your spirit through this, your word. May the teaching of your servant, John, unto the churches of the first century teach us, Lord, the better to understand who we are and why and how we can and should be different as your people. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So our sermon text today is 1 John 3, verses one through three. Listen now to the word of God. 1 John 3, verse one. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. And 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 be. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Today I'm feeling especially grateful to be a Christian and to be here with you Christians on this Sunday morning. I say, especially having spent the week reading over and over again, thinking about these words in 1 John 3, 1 through 3. It makes me grateful to be a Christian. I'm grateful that I'm not one of the nuns. By the nuns, I'm not talking about Catholic women in funny hats. What I'm talking about is that on surveys and polls and sentences, sometimes there's a place to register your religious affiliation, and we've been told that more and more people who are checking the box marked nun. It's easy to see that that is indeed the case. There are more and more people who claim no religious affiliation at all. Those are the nones. And their numbers are growing in our society. What's it like to be them? I take this to mean that they have no religious conviction of any particular set of religious doctrines, no commitment to any religious body, to any religious devotion or religious discipline of life. And I take it to mean that they have no distinct idea of God in their heads, what he is, or if he is at all, no hope of a hereafter that they cherish in their hearts, And so no reason really to aspire for something like holiness. I think I pass some of these people on my way to church on Sunday morning. I see them come out of their houses and their work clothes. It's pretty clear that they're gonna be cutting their grass. To them, Sunday has no religious significance. Because nothing has a religious significance to the nuns. And to me that's very sad and pathetic. A very different thing it is for us on these same surveys, polls, for you and I to check the box marked Christian. Our affiliation is with the Christian religion. As members of the Christian church, our local body, Haynes Creek Church. As Christians, we are convinced of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are committed to the life, the cross-bearing life and devotion of Jesus' disciples. We do possess an idea of God, and it's a beautiful one. It's the idea of God that we see in the face of Jesus Christ, and we possess a vibrant hope of eternal life with him in heaven. And we do have a compelling reason to aspire to be pure as he is pure, even if we find ourselves in the midst of others who despise such things. What I'm saying, what I'm feeling, it is better to be us than to be them. Praise be to God that we believe what we believe and we are who we are. Though our numbers are perhaps declining and theirs on the rise, I am most grateful to be a Christian and not another nun. As I said, all of these reflections on the great difference between Christians and nones, my own gratitude of being one and not the other, was all inspired this week by the words of the Apostle John here in 1 John 3, 1 through 3, surely some of the most beautiful words that John ever penned. Now, John, of course, as we've said, writes here with Gnostics in mind, not with nuns, but his basic observation is important in either case, which is there is a difference between us and them, and it is a great difference, and it is and should be a clear difference. It's a difference in what we believe, And with that, a difference in the impact of that belief upon our lives while we live. We definitely check different boxes. Three points I want to look at in these three lines from John's first epistle, three points. The first is an exclamation point. The second is a point beyond which John can go no further. And the third is a point of practical application for all Christians, but none of the nuns. So first, John's exclamation point. He says in verse one, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. This is the only exclamation point in John's epistle. So you can think of it as the apex of the apostle's excitement as a Christian man. And the exciting thought that is expressed by John here is, I would point out, a religious one. A religious thought at which John arrived through the practice of the Christian religion. And it is a thought that John shares with everyone who is a Christian with him, including you and me. What is John thinking about in verse one? He's thinking about God. God, the creator of the heavens and the earth and all his majesty. He's thinking about God's love. Divine love, it surely must be the greatest love of all. And he's thinking about how God loves us. How God loves us, the Christian people. And he's thinking about God's gift of his love to us, which he has given us so freely and so willingly. And John is thinking about God's revelation of his great love for us so that we would know about it and live our lives in the enjoyment of that knowledge. And where does John see, where does he Behold this love as it's revealed. He says it is in God the Father calling us his own beloved children. Behold what manner of love kind of love, how great a love, can be translated all those ways. Behold what love the Father, that is God the Father, has bestowed on us, that is on us Christians, that we, of all people, should be called the children of God. Is there any more beautiful love than that? The love of a father for his children. Is there a more constant love than that? will go with you in your life through everything. Is there a more affectionate love, a love of the Father for His children? Has anybody, I don't know, maybe you've noticed Ben Thompson with his daughter Lucy lately? They seem to get a lot of attention. It's a beautiful sight. Well, God loves us like that, Christians. That's an incredible thought. God has bestowed this manner of love upon us, those of us who are here together in church this morning as Christians. That's how much he loves us in Christ. He wasn't obliged or compelled to do so, but freely and graciously he did and he does. That's the thought in John's mind that leads him to his exclamation point. And how do we know this? What makes us think so? It says, because we have heard God call us his children. First in the gospel of Jesus Christ, sometimes that's what we hear, as John himself wrote in John 1 1 12. As many as received Jesus as the Christ to them, he gave the right to become children of God. Have you received Jesus as the Christ? And to you, he gives the right to be his children, and calls you his children. So this is something that we've heard in Christianity, in the God of Christianity, in the gospel of God and his son. But then secondly, we also are reminded in scripture that there is a further inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that God, the Father, and the Son have sent to us from heaven. As Paul wrote in Romans 8, 16, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are what? Children of God. So this is not just something nice that we like to hear in the church, we hope is true. But it's something which God, by His Spirit, has assured us is true. So that we should live in that assurance. And know, I am a child of God. John notes here in verse one, a downside. He says, therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. So all those nuns, they're like outsiders looking in. They don't understand who we are. They don't understand what's going on here. They don't grasp what we have been given and what we now possess. So I assume they're as dumbfounded at us dressing up and driving to church on Sunday morning as we are to see them dressed down and getting ready to cut their grass. They don't really understand each other. But for our part, let us be excited. I was excited about our adoption in Christ this morning as the Apostle John was of his own in the first century. And I would point out that John is an old Christian. This is not a new thought to him. And yet, to think of it still thrills him, fills him with wonder, as only a religious thought can. When the God of the Bible wants to tell you how much he loves you, he points to Ben, Thompson, and Lucy, and he says like that. That's how I love you. And that should never cease to amaze us, and I think it never will. The second point we find here is a point beyond which John can go no further, verse two. He says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. So I hear John saying here that God has great plans for us as his children and he loves. And those plans concern not just where we will be in the future and what we will have and what we will do there, but also his plans for us include what we will be. And what we will be is something different from what we are now. Ourselves, shortly, and yet changed. This is a suggestion of what our theologians call our glorification. some point in the future when like butterflies emerging from their cocoons, we discover that we have been changed, gloriously transformed. We will have become lovely in a way in which we are not so lovely now. And this is part of God's love for us as his children. Because he loves us, Someday he will adorn us with a new loveliness. Now you say to me, tell me, tell me more about that, Pastor. Tell me more about my loveliness then, sorry. I can't, I've gone as far as I can go. John says, it hasn't yet been revealed to us what we shall be. We only know we shall be changed, we shall be different, and it will be in a good way. God knows what we will be then. This very moment, he sees perfectly what you and I will be then. But for our part, we just have to wait and see. We'll be surprised by it, I'm sure, when it happens. But even so, you notice that John stresses here. We are children of God now. We're children of God now. Glorified at some point in the future, but children of God now. So we're in this strange intermediate state of our Christian development. The already and the not yet. We're sort of like gangly teenagers. Becoming is awkward. We are sinners, confessing our sins as Christians, and we are saints, cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior. But however imperfectly we are, now what we will become, we would be missing something important about God's grace if we thought that our adoption was suspended until our glorification. It is not. We don't know what we will be then, But we do know who we are now. But the Lord has told them. In the gospel, by Spirit, we are God the Father's beloved children in Christ. That's who we are. And that's who we are right now. We've heard him say it. The Spirit assures us that he means it. And so we live in the believing wonder that this is true. Even as we check the box. that says Christian. And the third and final point we find here is the point of practical application for all Christians, but none of the nones. Picking up again in verse 2 through verse 3, John says, but we know that when He is revealed, that's Jesus, 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, if you look at those lines, when is Jesus revealed? What is John talking about? He's talking about the revelation of Jesus Christ at his second coming. That's what John referred to, you remember, a few verses earlier, verse 28 of chapter 2? He said, and now, little children, abide in Christ, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So what shall be revealed then? The second coming of Christ that was not revealed before. The answer in a word is his glory. the brilliance of his glory. At his first coming, Jesus appeared in his humility, full of grace and truth, a friend of sinners, but suffering, humiliation in their place. But when the same Jesus is revealed at his second coming, he shall appear in his exultation, armed with heavenly power as the King of kings and the Lord of lords who has come to judge the world. We know this because the Apostle Paul, among others, describes this revelation of Jesus Christ in 2 Thessalonians 1 7. And there Paul speaks of the day, quote, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God. I think here of the nuns. and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints. He was a sincere Christian and to be admired among all those who believe. So that's the glorious revelation of Jesus that John refers to there in verse 3. His glory is revealed at his second coming when he comes to judge the world. And so John teaches here that we, we Christians, who have believed in Jesus Christ in our lives and perhaps suffered with him and for his sake in this world in our lives, that we will not only, as he said already, have confidence and not be ashamed before Jesus at his coming, but that we ourselves on that day shall be made like him. We shall share in his glory. That's what it is to be glorified. And I want you to notice, in verse two, there's a little Greek word, hati, which is translated here as for, F-O-R. And that word suggests a cause and effect relationship. A cause and effect relationship. And that means that this verse, verse two, tells us not only when the transformation will take place, but how it will take place, the cause that will bring about this effect. And what John tells us here is that when Jesus comes in his glory, we finally see his glory as we've yet to see it, suddenly, by that very experience, we who are his will be glorified too. So maybe it's like when you're up early in the morning, the sun first comes up over the horizon, this golden light appears into your eyes, and at that same moment, you become bathed in that golden light. But that only happens on the surface. And what John is talking about is something that will happen through and through. To be sure, I am way in over my head right here. I don't even really know what I'm talking about. So don't ask me anymore about this. But there it is, you see it in verse two. Seeing his glory will make us glorious. Lovely as he is lovely in our eyes. That's what your religion teaches you, Christians. And if you believe that, then that makes you different. and it should make you different in a particular way. And that's verse three. There's the practical point. John says, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is purified. So everyone who has this particular hope, and that is not the none. By their own admission, they have no such hope. So John's not talking about them. But he is talking about you Christians, and he's talking about all of you. You have this hope. And everyone who has this hope of being glorified at the revelation of the glory of Jesus Christ on the last day does what? What does John say? Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, as he is pure. When? purifies himself when? And the answer is, not then, but now. So here's an analogy, which may or may not be helpful. But Roger Federer is perhaps the greatest tennis player ever. I was going to say Novak Djokovic, but he acted like a jerk this week. And so I said, Roger Federer. So let's say that Roger Federer, he wants to meet me. And so his agent calls me, says, Roger would like to meet you. Let's set up something for about a month. And by the way, he says, bring your tennis racket. so that you can hit some balls with Roger Federer. So what do you think I will be, what do you think I'll be doing for the next month? I'm gonna be at the tennis courts, right? Down at Pine Log Park. And I'm gonna be working on my ground strokes, getting ready to meet Roger Federer. Okay, now, why? Do I think I'm gonna beat Roger Federer in tennis? No, that's absurd. Do I think I'm gonna impress him with my ground strokes? Again, no. It would take me a lot longer than a month to entertain the hope of impressing Roger Federer with my backhand. So, why? Why practice? Because I don't wanna embarrass myself? Yes. But more importantly, I think, because I'm really excited about playing tennis with the greatest of all time. It's coming. What an opportunity. I can hardly think of anything else between now and then. This having been revealed to me, it just outshines everything else. And so quite naturally, let's get ready. How? By doing Now what I look forward to doing in a far more illustrious manner then. On that great day in one month when Roger Federer good-humoredly mops the floor with me, and then we take a selfie together. It's not about my tennis, but it is about tennis. And what we've all seen that tennis can be in someone who has inspired millions to get out there and give it a go. So I admit, it's not a perfect analogy, but I think you get my point. If God tells me, as he does, that I'm his child and that he loves me, and I'm looking forward to the day when I shall at last see his glory, as I've never seen it, in the face of Jesus Christ, the Son, then what am I gonna do now? to get ready. I answer with John, with the Spirit's help, I'm gonna start taking some admittedly awkward, amateurish steps toward that glory which is my Savior's glory and with which he shall glorify me. This I know, he is righteous and he is pure. And I am his and go to him. So let me try now to walk as he walked. The better to meet him and to rejoice with him when he comes. Notice, please. It is not derogatory to Jesus Christ and the grace of the gospel to speak of a Christian's purifying himself in this life. Rightly understood. The Apostle John does it right here. He says, everyone who has this hope does this. Purifies himself now as he is pure. And so we come to this point, the exclamation point, and we say, well, let's do it then. This is who we are. This is what is now before us. Let's get going. Where's the impurity? Where's the sin in my life? I can't take it all on at once, but give me a place to begin. What is there in me to repent of? What is there to take off, to leave behind as I put on Christ now that I, as a child of God, am on my way to meet him in glory? That's the spirit of the work of sanctification on the part of a Christian, which is different from any other religion in the world. Gnostics didn't do this in the first century. That's part of what John is dealing with here. We'll have more time to talk about that. And the nuns don't do it in our time. They're not out there trying to purify themselves as Jesus is pure. They lack the incentive. But nothing, I think John is teaching us here, should be more natural to us. as Christians and more perfectly aligned with our religious convictions than excitedly getting busy purifying ourselves as we know Jesus is coming. As we close, I certainly want to say as a matter of fact that nuns can become Christian. Those who check the one box one day We check a very different box another day. Unbelievers can become believers. People whom we now pass cutting their grass on Sunday morning can become people who go to church with us on Sunday morning. There was a time when I spent Sunday mornings, many of them recovering from a hangover. And now I'm a Christian pastor. So people change. Or better, God can change people. So as for the nuns, pity those people. They're pitiful. Pray for them, maybe not prayers. And perhaps you'd be encouraged to share the gospel with them. Maybe they've heard it, but maybe not. Or maybe what? They didn't have ears to hear before they could hear now. Maybe they would hear God calling them, them, to be his children in Christ. But whether they do or don't, as Christians, know yourselves to be different from the nones. There's a big difference in checking the none box and checking the Christian box. If they mean what they're saying by that, and we mean what we're saying by that. Christian, you are different. And don't be afraid of that. Don't hide that. Be grateful for that. as you can be in all the ways that you can and should be different in Christ. And that difference is represented by one word in scripture, and that is the word holiness. Holiness speaks to Christian character. Holiness speaks to Christian standards. Holiness speaks to Christian service. It is as the Apostle Paul says, again, getting to the motivation behind why we do what we do. Paul says, be imitators of God as dear children. That's it. Pursue personal holiness as a Christian, beloved of the Father, not begrudgingly, but with gratitude and excitement, knowing that we have seen this holiness in Christ, And soon we shall see Him in His glory too. Shall we pray?