0162 - Do You Really
Know Who's Your Daddy?
You Do? Good,
Let's Break Bread!
1 John 3: 1-7
and Various Scripture
April 14, 2024
Quacco Baptist
Church
Savannah,
Georgia
Introduction –
If you will, follow along with me from 1 John 2:29; and 3: 1- 7
—
2:29
– If you know that He is righteous, you
know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. 3: 1-7 - See what love the Father
has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we
are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.
What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will
see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as
he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is
lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there
is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen
him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does
what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Verse
1 again: See what love the Father has
given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
Let’s
back up to verse 29 of chapter. 2 If you
know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is
born of Him.
Being born of Him,
John speaks in amazement about this manner of love that makes us children of
God. He wants us to behold it, God wants us to see His love for us and He is
not ashamed to show it to us.
Charles Spurgeon says of this love: “‘There,’ he says,
‘you poor people that love me you sick people, you unknown, obscure people,
without any talent, I have published it before heaven and earth, and made the
angels know it, that you are my children, and I am not ashamed of you. I glory
in the fact that I have taken you for my sons and daughters.’”
His love is soo great that it is He, who calls us His children. He lavishes His love on us; It’s all a onesided deal, from
Him to us, the believer.
God could’ave looked down on lost humanity, and merely
had pity on our plight, both in this life and in eternity. With a mere
pity, He might have set forth a plan of salvation where man could be saved from
hell. But God went far beyond that, to call us the children of God. (“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and
daughters, says the LORD Almighty,” 2 Corinthians 6:18).
· The Son calls
us God’s children (He is not ashamed to
call them brethren, Hebrews 2:11).
· The Spirit also does (The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16).
ii.It may seem like a totally “unnecessary” blessing what God
gives in the course of salvation, and a demonstration of His true and deep love
for us. We can picture someone helping or saving someone, but not going so far
as to make them a part of the family – but this is what God has done for us.
iii.We gain something in Jesus Christ far greater than Adam
ever possessed. We never once read of Adam being called one of the children of God in the sense John means here. He was never adopted as a son
of God in the way believers are. We err when we think of redemption as merely a
restoration of what was lost with Adam; we are granted more in Jesus than Adam
ever had.
iv. If we are truly children
of God, then it should show in our likeness to our Father and in our love
for our “siblings.”
V. What does it means to be the children of God, and that everyone is not a child of God in
the sense spoken of in this letter here.
God’s love is expressed to all in the giving of
Jesus for the sins of the world, we know that from John 3:16; God so loved the
world that He gave His only one-of-a-kind-Son, that whosoever believes in Him
will not perish but have eternal life; but, this doesn’t
make all of humanity the children
of God, as you hear many people and commentators on the radio who are sadly
ignorant of Scripture say.
John speaks of those who have received the love of Jesus in a life of fellowship and trust with Him;
But as many as received Him, to them He
gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His, (Jesus’)
name (Gospel John 1:12).
c. Therefore the world does not know us:
Because of our unique parentage we are strangers to this world (or should be).
i. This shows the
great danger of a Christianity that works, com[romises so hard to show the
world just how much like the world they can be; we can not be surprised or
offended to find out that the world does
not know us.
d. Because it did not know Him:
Ultimately, we should expect the world to treat us as it treated Him – rejecting
Jesus and crucifying Jesus. While it is true that Jesus loved sinners and they,
recognizing that love, flocked to Him, we must also remember that it was the
world that cried out crucify Him!
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